PORTABLE MAGIC
‘Book Haul’ by Cecil Robin Singalaoa, watercolor on cotton rag paper, 2020, 4×6 inches
Text and photos by Elizabeth Lolarga
Videos by Jennifer Patricia Cariño
When Padmapani Perez and sister Feliz ventured to open Mt. Cloud Bookshop at the century-old Vallejo Hotel in Baguio City in August 2010, a ghost month, they were met by many naysayers, even among their friends. Their reaction was: “A bookshop in Baguio?” Then they’d shake their heads and express doubt that it would fly.
Padma, as she is known in Baguio, admitted, “We weren’t really very business-minded. When we started, we had no five-year projections. We were learning by doing, so we made expensive mistakes like not managing the inventory well. There were similar mistakes in managing expenses, the overhead versus sales.”
On the third year, the Perez sisters had a moment of reckoning: If the bookshop didn’t sustain itself, it would have to close. On that same year, they broke even.
Padma said, “Happily, we made it this far. If we didn’t have the support of the clientele, the readers and the community, we wouldn’t have made it.”
A standout feature of Mt. Cloud is its deliberate focus on Philippine literature and history or Filipiniana. Padma said, “We always wanted to focus on ourselves and our neighbors. The ambition is to really have a Southeast Asian collection.”
Being part of the local and national culturati, the sisters were able to use their network to source Filipiniana and display these in different sections, instead of just lumping the books under, yes, Filipiniana.
Poetry section
‘Potluck’ or culinary book section
The shop gets appreciation from people who see such a collection displayed in sections such as “Kiss My Poet” for poetry; “Ilokano” for books in this northern language; “Lessons Not Learned” for post-EDSA Revolt books and others on the Marcos dictatorship; “Imagined Worlds” for fiction; “Lap Books” for preschool children; and a shelf on Jose Rizal referred to by his complete name—Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda.
Padma added, “We’ve come to be known for our Cordillera collection. We’re happy to see more Cordillera-based writers and publishers publishing independently. They come here, and they’re always welcome here.”
Asked if being an indie store makes Mt. Cloud more expensive, she answered, “Buyers don’t complain about our prices. Some people have this perception we’re more expensive. I say, books are expensive unfortunately, period. We stick to the retail price as much as possible and just add on a little for the shipping costs. We actually don’t overprice our books. We struggle, barely making it through the years.”
Still, the shop persists. Padma said, “What keeps us going is the knowledge that the bookshop uplifts Philippine literature and independent publishers. We matter! The existence of such a bookshop matters.”
She finds fulfillment in the delight people show and express when they visit the shop. The sisters and the staff have been on the forefront of bringing over authors to interact with readers. The roster of authors that has visited Baguio to hold author talks includes Ninotchka Rosca, Ambeth Ocampo, Patricia Evangelista, Ericson Acosta, Mannix Abrera, among a long list.
The Ericson author talk was memorable in that not only did the activist poet read from his book, he also played the guitar and sang songs. As for Mannix, Padma said, “We have to be prepared to go on until late at night because the queue of autograph seekers is so long.”
Bookmarks by Faith Erasmo
The shop is also unique for its book subscription, the idea of Feliz, to get recipients updated on new or favorite titles. There is also a Sundry Collection focusing on stationery (notebooks, cards and postcards, bookmarks, stickers, washi tapes) made by artists and artisans from Baguio, Manila and La Union. Carried, too, are a few artworks (affordable prints and watercolors) consigned by Fara Manuel-Nolasco, Faith Erasmo, Allie Garcia, Jojo Lubrica, even a collective of women artists from Manila.
Padma said, “The bookshop is here for the long term. We want to stick around unlike in the past when we were just getting by every five years.”
To prove this, Mt. Cloud is branching out into independent publishing timed for its 15th year. Padma made a call for submissions to its first publication: an anthology about readers and reading.
She said this collection “affords an imaginative and expansive view of the reader, the act of reading and the ecologies of reading. We’re looking for pieces that will smash gatekeeper conceits about being educated, cultured or literate and what is literature and what will sell; pieces that will bring our readers to the foreground and tell us their stories.”
The mechanics are: maximum of 2,000 words; deadline on Dec. 16, 2024; submission via Google forms; and Filipino, English and indigenous languages of the Cordillera. Follow Mt. Cloud on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/mtcloud) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mtcloud/) for announcements.
A visitor from Taiwan reads his poem in English and Mandarin at the Third Monday from the Sun open-mic reading
During the standing-room-only Third Monday from the Sun open-mic reading, Padma closed by saying empathically, “There is no one Filipino reader, but Filipinos DO read.”
