Come late May or early June, students usually flock to National Bookstore for their endless supply of notebooks, pencil cases, expandable envelopes, packs of paper, backpacks, and correction tape--all of them brand new. The sheer diversity of school supplies being sold here makes it such an ideal place to visit before the start of the school year, especially if you find yourself lacking materials for a project and you can only make one stop to find what you need. Even though National Bookstore's products may be less fancy than other stores, I still end up here because I can buy everything in one go. Desk organizers, post-it notes, folders, Moleskine journals, pens, highlighters, scissors, glue, and heck, even a portable safe! If it's writing or organizer-related, National Bookstore probably has it.
Shangri-La's National Bookstore used to have a kids section where you could sit down on the carpet and do nothing but read. I know this because I once spent an entire afternoon there after my mom left me to do some errand and forgot to pick me up. I remember reading Shiloh to pass the time.
It's gone now, though. Walking through their aisles earlier today, I definitely think that the bookstore looks smaller. It's clear that National Bookstore tends to prioritize their supplies these days instead of their books, so there's no reading area anymore and you're pretty much expected to buy a book and go. Still, for what it's worth, National Bookstore stays true to its name by providing a variety of materials in one space. read more