Beware of Books With Blank Pages

When my father visited the new Fully Booked branch in the Ayala Mall the other day, he bought a book. It was a collection of essays titled The Philippines Under Japan: Occupation Policy and Reaction edited by Ikebata Setsuko and Ricardo Trota Jose and published by the Ateneo de Manila University Press. The book would serve as an important reference for a book on the history of Naga City, Cebu that my father is presently writing.

Arriving home, my father tore the new book’s plastic wrapping and immediately began reading, marking passages with a highlighter. The book offers an account of the Japanese occupation during the Second World War from the Japanese perspective. To my father’s surprise, the text ended on page 36. Flipping the following pages, he also found that pages 37, 40, 41, 44, 45, 48, and 49 are blank!

Of course, we returned the defective book on the same day to have it replaced. The lesson is to always check a book’s pages before buying. Tear the plastic if it’s wrapped in one. ■