In 1942, Socorro Ramos and her husband, Jose, opened a small bookstall in an old section of downtown Manila. "Who opens a bookstore during a war?" asked Mitch Albom in a Detroit Free Press profile of the 90-year-old bookseller whose "fierce dedication to the book business is reflective of an attitude in the Philippines that writers so appreciate: a deep love of stories and words. The literacy rate here is over 95%, despite roughly a quarter of the population living below the poverty line."
After their street was nearly destroyed by fire in 1945, they opened another bookstall, Albom wrote. Three years later, a typhoon destroyed that structure and all the merchandise, so they rebuilt once again and "threw all their time and money into a new building, She called it the National Book Store because, she says, 'I saw the name on the cash register, "National," and I thought, 'That is nice.' "
The National Book Store is now the largest book and stationery chain in the Philippines and Ramos "still runs the show, coming into the office every day," Albom wrote.
"She still signs all the checks," said her grandson Miguel, who is the company's marketing director. "She still makes the big decisions. And if she wants something, it doesn't matter what anyone says--not the board, not anybody--she gets it."
