Quarantine or not, there’s always a good reason to immerse yourself in a book. For Alora Sasam, books can also double as travel souvenirs, and her favorite to collect is “The Little Prince” that she has in different languages including Welsh, Japanese, and Tagalog, as well as in the local dialect Chavacano.

“Dati, kapag nagta-travel ka, usually ang kino-collect mo magnets or mugs. Tapos nung naadik na ako sa libro, sabi ko, ‘why not libro?’” After searching online, she found out “The Little Prince” is the third most translated book in the world, with The Bible and Harry Potter on the first and second spots.

Alora’s collection has grown to a total of 18 that includes a version from Paris, Croatia, Spain, Vietnam, and as mentioned earlier, from Japan and Wales, as well as Tagalog and Chavacano copies. Some items are bought online and sometimes she’d ask traveling friends to get one for her.

Alora, who runs an online bookshop, influenced some of her Kapamilya artist friends to develop a good reading habit and they usually get their paperbacks from her store.

You’ve probably stumbled upon Kathryn Bernardo and Ria Atayde’s Instagram posts wherein they ugly-cried to Colleen Hoover’s “It Ends With Us,” which Alora already finished back in 2016. “Masakit siya pero ang gandang pag-usapan kasi maraming nakaka-relate doon sa book na ‘yun… Nagbabasa sila gabi tapos biglang magvi-video call na umiiyak. At least naman matanggal sila sa social media,” she said.

The My Papa Pi star is flipping through four different books at the moment– a devotional that she reads every morning, a self-help book, a fiction, and mystery. She seems into ‘triggering’ yet romantic reads as she finishes up “The Kite Runner” by Khalen Hosseini.

The bookworm also shared an important tip to those who want to kick off their book-reading habit, “’Pag first time mo, piliin mo muna ‘yung topic na gusto mo. Kunwari, plantito ka, eh ‘di magbasa ka about plants. ‘Yung iba naman gusto nila inspirational, ‘yung iba devotional. So, hanap ka muna ng topic na gusto mo.”

Check out Alora’s book collection in this video from Kapamilya Chat!