living by the book

2010-01-23T17:43:00.001+08:00

Latest on my tango life ;-)
http://ping.fm/gpa6w

2009-10-23T10:18:00.001+08:00

what will this day be like, i wonder. what will my future be, i wonder ;-)

2009-08-18T00:45:00.001+08:00

happy tuesday to all, and to all a goodnight [or a good morn?] ;-)

2009-08-17T12:49:00.001+08:00

Monday. Still praying for inspiration.

2009-08-14T21:45:00.001+08:00

Cleaning out my shelves again, in preparation for digging into writing the next coffeetable book

2009-08-09T12:28:00.001+08:00

multi-tasking on a sunday: bookmooch, facebook, twitter and researching for my next book project. life is good!

2009-08-07T18:49:00.001+08:00

friday night at home, yay!!!

2009-08-03T10:47:00.001+08:00

xfm is a great road trip companion. Love the monday mix

2009-08-03T10:38:00.001+08:00

George Benson's Gonna Love You More sets the groove for the day... Nice and warm and easy

2009-08-03T10:33:00.001+08:00

so far, so good. Normal traffic flow. Aurora Blvd nice and easy

2009-07-29T10:12:00.001+08:00

Just another traffic wednesday

2009-07-28T15:15:00.001+08:00

quick massage does wonders for a terrible back and headache... thank God for helping hands.

2009-07-25T12:04:00.001+08:00

Cataloguing my books using cuecat, and trying hard to let go of some ;-)

2009-07-24T23:29:00.001+08:00

kettle chips spicy thai flavor waiting for my midnight indulgence... weekends are for me!!!

An Invitation to Bookmooch

2009-01-15T21:54:00.010+08:00

Been mentioning Bookmooch endlessly in most of my posts here, so I thought I would share with you how we whet up the appetites for mooching in this part of the bookmooch world. Hopefully, this will mean one, two or more new bookmoochers in the Philippines or the rest of the world.

The whole concept of Bookmooch is giving books you have and finding books you want. For bookworms, this is a great way to 'let go' of our fondest treasures because you are assured that your book is going to a new 'home', and just being dumped in a cold dark place [exaggeration for emphasis]. While the normal transaction is 1 book for 1 point if a local mooch or 3 points for international mooches, the more creative bookmoochers have devised promos and contests to spice up our mooching life. This is also a great way to make more friends and interact with fellow bookworms on a more personal basis.

In the Philippines this has meant that we have had mooching parties timed on special occasions. The first was our Halloween party, then a quick early Christmas get-together in November and the latest was our New Year bash which had the highest attendance of 30+ folks.

The event is fun-filled with lots of food and goodies, mooching sessions, book swaps, the signature bookmooch jeopardy game and in the last party we even had a book auction to raise funds for our favorite Philippine bookmooch charity, the Quezon City Public Library. Click on the links to see what bookmooch parties are all about in the Philippines.

So this time around, I have decided to start the new year by cleaning out my inventory through a promo. I am offering highly wishlisted books and bestsellers as a free giveaway for a corresponding number of mooches. Hopefully a great way to move my inventory and share great books for practically free. Some of the premium titles I am offering used to be on my bedside table [Thanks for the pix, Blooey!], but will eventually find their way to a new home.

Take a look at these offerings, and maybe you too can sign up...

2009 CLEAN-OUT PROMO

Have 60 books left in my inventory, and would like to clean out. Following Blooey’s format, offering wishlisted titles, bestsellers and smaller size coffeetable books for the corresponding number of mooches as indicated. Plus free libreria bookmarks and scented highlighters, while supply lasts.

Mooch now!

Mooch 3 books and get 1 of the following:
1. Every Book Its Reader, Nicholas A. Basbanes, trade paperback, NBS Booksak
2. A History of Warfare, John Keegan, paperback, brand new
3. Great Novels of Jane Austen, paperback
4. The Portable MBA, hard cover
5. Boutique a 60s cultural phenomenon, Marnie Fogg, paperback

Mooch 4 books and get 1 of the following:
1. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak, hard cover
2. Lost, Gregory Maguire, trade paperback
3. Widdershins, Charles de Lint, trade paperback, like new
4. The Medici Conspiracy, Peter Watson, hard cover
5. Off The Cuff, Carson Kressley, hard cover

Mooch 5 books and get 1 of the following
1. The Historian, Elizabeth Kostovo, hard cover
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini, trade paperback, brand new
3. The Decoration of Houses, Edith Wharton, paperback, brand new
4. The Greeks & Greek Love, James Davidson, hard cover, brand new
5. Something Rotten, Jasper Fforde, hard cover, brand new

My Living Challenge

2009-01-04T21:32:00.007+08:00

Just realized I am all set for the year with my many reading challenges, and the more important living challenge is as of yet undefined. While I made a simple promise to share the blessings in every way, every day, there are little things that will make the sharing even more fun.

One, I will see my floors and my tabletops again, there are way too many books and things in my house and in my shelves and in my closets. Letting go and sharing the blessings.

Two, I will learn new things: to make me more mobile, to have a more versatile menu, to go out of my comfort zone.

Three, I will be healthier. Whether I like it or not, the gym beckons, and perhaps the dance floor could be a more fun option.

Four, I will travel, oh yes. Greece in May, and New York again in the fall, who knows.

Five, I will always be thankful and I will always remember. Best friends never forget.

Guess you could say this is how I feel right now...
There are places i'll remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends i still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life i've loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When i think of love as something new
Though i know i'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know i'll often stop and think about them
In my life i love you more

2009 Reading Challenges

2009-01-03T00:46:00.002+08:00

When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window.

In 2008, even as a reluctant unspoken good-bye was finally said, a torrent of hellos came rushing up to me in the form of the books that found their way into my home in the latter part of the year. One love lost, and a lost love found. Fair trade, I would say.

And the torrent has taken over with much cooperation from me. Among the finished reads in the last two months were Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, the first two books of The 39 Clues, John Dunning's Booked to Die, Seth Godin's Tribes, Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book [my first Gaiman read!], Leonard Elmore's 10 Rules of Writing, and Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. All magical works that reminded me why I opened a bookstore and why I love books so much.

So in 2009, to channel the continuing torrent of books, I have chosen to participate in reading challenges. These are well-defined reading tasks with specific quantitative or qualitative targets, sometimes focusing on genre or authors or a mix, depending on the creator of the challenge.

My chosen challenges are

- The Year of Readers
- The Rescue Challenge
- 1% Well-Read Challenge
- 50-Book Challenge on Library Thing
- The Olympic Challenge: London 2012

Will be blogging more about these challenges as the reading progresses. Found my way back home to me by getting lost in the world of books.

A Year of New Eyes and Quiet Industry

2009-01-01T22:40:00.004+08:00

That is how I see this new year. A chance to enjoy my renewed reading energy and map out the how and the where and the why of what lies ahead.

The journey over the last few years has been larger than life, lit up by lights too bright to see what is real and true. Last year, the lights dimmed and things got back to normal, so wonderfully simple, down-to-earth and all-real. What a blessing to finally be comfortable in my own skin, blissfully surrounded by family, friends and a world of books. And to have lived and loved with everything you've got.

So this year, the task is to stick to the real and the true. To find one's way and to continue to make a life worthy of the gift of life itself.

This year I promise but one thing: to share the blessings in every way I can.

Taking on the reading challenge

2009-01-01T03:12:00.005+08:00

It's 3:10 in the morning of January 1, 2009. And I finished reading The Purpose of Christmas by Rick Warren. What a great way to start this exciting year.

I have been pretty quiet over the holidays, took the time to settle down and breathe, take stock and be happy about this life I am living with gusto.

So to start the year right, I have also signed up for The Year of Readers, which raises funds for reading charities around the world. For every book I finish reading, I pledge P100, roughly US$2.00, to help a selected charity which I still have to work out.

My reading challenge journey is recorded at Shelfari. But I will be posting longer "reviews" here.

How nice to be able to help out while doing one of my most favorite things in the world --- getting lost in a book.

Organizing the books...Part 2

2008-11-16T20:09:00.004+08:00

In response to a discussion thread in Flips Flipping Pages, another group for Filipino bookworms, I wrote this reply on suggestions on organizing one's bookshelf. As I typed out my response, I realized that part of the pleasure in my bookworm's life is the befuddlement that comes from not knowing which book to read next, even with a pile of on-going reads on the bedside table, as well as the surprise that still comes from opening any book I lay my hands on.

The printed page never fails to captivate me, even at this crazy advanced age of being comfortable in my own skin. And I am so glad that I can still feel this giddy and happy over the simplest and purest of pleasures that is reading a book.

This is my take on how to organize my books...

The books in my library of a house are grouped by genre by room, or at least that is the intention.

The hallway-long floor-to-ceiling shelf of 24 cubbyholes tries to contain the books loosely according to genre: writing references, harvard classics, non-fiction, history, fiction, blair & robertson, biography, Tolkien, coffeetable books [bottom shelves].

The den contains fiction I have read, health & wellness, travel, some Filipiniana. The guest room shelf has half of the pop-up books, inspirational, fairy books, left-over inventory from the bookstore which I kept for myself.

The living room-reading room shelves house most of the coffeetable books on art, history and travel, plus the other half of the pop-up books, the rest of the biographies, and the non-fiction ones that deal on security and terrorism. The chests in the reading room take the load of the Filipiniana coffeetable books and the interior design and crafts books.

My TBRs are scattered all over the house, such a pleasure to pick up a book and read anywhere you want ;-)

I have tried to learn the Dewey system, and implemented my understanding of it for the library of a friend. But for myself, I have used shelfari [only partial, mostly my favorites] and library thing [ the ones I have received from bookmooch] to catalog what I have.

I started an excel file of my books last month, which covered four cubbyholes in the hallway shelf including fiction, history, non-fiction and biography, but am just having too much fun cleaning out the shelves and sorting through the titles to go at the list every day. I guess you can see I having too much fun doing this read and collect and sort and catalogue thing.

In closing, I guess I am a hybrid of the O.C. [wanting everything organized by alphabetical order according to the accepted and very complicated library inventory system] and the spontaneous, as in stuff my books in available spaces and enjoy the surpises that you find whenever you try to locate a book.

I have obsessed about getting my library organized and catalogued but in the same breath, have just kept adding titles which has made it difficult to get going and complete the dream of a usable library database that tells me which title of which author is in what shelf.

While this situation seems utterly self-defeating, in fact, it has a rhyme and reason I understand fully well [and I am sure fellow book addicts will know what I mean]. I cannot imagine stopping the book buying addiction just to make sure all the titles are entered into excel and finally put in their proper place. Where would the pleasure in life be then, no newly bought books to open and read, and no disorganized trove of books to fuss over? I think I will stick to my current organizational pattern or, should I say frenzy: obsess about organizing while continuing to scour the bookstores for more treasures to add.

Thanks for listening. I enjoyed defining my state of book addiction and organization.

I think I will post this on my blog, as is.

[So I have posted, with some tweaks and additions along the way. I am sure the best friend will have the last word on this. Again.]

Booklovers all in the family

2008-10-19T23:49:00.006+08:00

Sunday is family time, and it is usually a sumptuous lunch [prepared by my mom, of course] by request, gobbled down in 15 minutes or less, [although it took us 20 minutes to clean out the Filipino fare today], and 2 hours of catching up over coffee, dessert and lots of chocolates. [Picture shows mom and I, gobbling down breakfast in London]

As the older ones --- I chose not to say adults because sometimes our children are more adult than we are --- were discussing the latest juicy developments on the national and international scene, the young ones were alternating between fighting over who gets to play Cooking Mama on the wii or running around chasing after imaginary creatures in the zen garden or just nagging the older ones for chocolate or some other sweet treat.

What made today something worth writing about were the book-related moments that are still making me smile.

The after-meal treat for the young ones was the SPOOKY HOUSE OF HORROR Pop-up Book that I had prep

ared to share with them. We unravelled the four-sector structure with much fanfare and lots of oohs and aahs from the kids... both the old ones and the young ones.

After that, my favorite niece, Bea and I explored the book PIRATES, which she got to take home, and which her Kuya Rafa said he would take care of... as he thumbed through the pages right before going home. Bea enjoys pop-up books as much as I do, and she gets to add to her collection every special occasion that comes along. She actually was the one who instigated the book moments today when she insisted, yes, insisted on seeing my pop-up books again.

Another Kuya, Luigi my sister's eldest, got to take home the SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES collection that was just sitting in the shelf in the guest room, waiting for its new owner. Luigi has always been a bookworm right after my own heart, and when I saw him holding Book 2, I said I had the rest. To which he promptly gifted me with a huge smile, which led to a quick run up to the second floor to grab the books off the shelf. I did say that was his combined birthday and Christmas gift. 5 brand new books, still wrapped in plastic... He said ok with that smile again, knowing there would be another gift in December, probably Book 6?

The love of books runs in the family, as we all grew up seeing our parents read, and in turn, our kids, from my 19-year old Gabrielle to the youngest nephew Diego, are growing up surrounded by books and readers.

It warms this booklover's heart to know that the treasures that cram my home of a library have willing and waiting heirs as early as now.

A Weekend of Book Sorting... heaven for a bookworm

2008-10-19T21:37:00.004+08:00

So I spent the weekend sorting out the shelves in the hallway, while waiting for the TV repairman and the DSL technician and the phone extension guy and the router geeks to fix up the little thingies that make my bookworm's haven also a techie paradise.

While sorting out the titles into the proper categories, I re-discovered some buried treasures, that had disappeared behind the second layer of 99-peso books that flooded into the house last September. The best friend hasn't seen the hallway in recent weeks, thank goodness ;-)

And I realized that with the present bulging condition of my shelves, there was actually no room for more books. Every possible space has books in abundance, living room, den, landing, guest room, hallway, bedroom... No more room for books?!!! NOT POSSIBLE, NOT ACCEPTABLE AT ALL.

Whether I liked it or not, the sorting had to include choosing books to be given away. OR ELSE...

Out of the 24 alcoves in the hallway shelves, I was able to sort through 4 of them, a good good start. AND, I finally started a proper inventory spreadsheet. As of last night, there were 64 books encoded, still a looooooong way to go. Aside of course from the online inventories on Shelfari and Library Thing, 300+ books listed on each.

Finished Saturday off by cleaning out part of the linen/towel closet. And woke up to a happy hot Sunday with the nagging feeling that I had to pick out more titles to put up for mooching on bookmooch. Finally got around to doing that tonight, with a partial list that I am posting here to alert fellow moochers of what is coming up.

- Teach Your Team to Fish, Laurie Beth Jones, PB, unopened, still in plastic

- Too Soon to Say Goodbye, Art Buchwald, HC, a good read

- This Year I Will..., M.J. Ryan, HC

- Illuminata A Return to Prayer, Marianne Williamson, PB, scuffs and age marks on edges

- SunShines, Michael Lutin, TPB

- The Don't Sweat the Small Stuff Workbook, PB

- The Sion Revelation, Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, old copy, brown marks on edges

- A Haiku Garden, HC, left-over inventory, wrapped in plastic, great gift [reserved]

- Haiku Landscapes, HC, left-over inventory, wrapped in plastic, great gift [reserved]

- Haiku People, HC, left-over inventory, wrapped in plastic, great gift [reserved]

- Baby Gifts, HC, left-over inventory, wrapped in plastic, great gift

- Done Deal, Michael Benoliel, HC

- Benny and Babe, Eoin Colfer, PB, unopened, still wrapped in plastic

- The Masada Scroll, Paul Block & Robert Vaughan, PB, just finished reading, new, interesting if you like historical fiction

- The Right Attitude to Rain, Alexander McCall Smith, HC, ex-library book

That's it for now... still trying to gather more courage to decide what else to send out for adoption to another bookworm home...

More deals coming up for bookmoochers :-)

In search of the P99 books

2008-09-20T20:56:00.014+08:00

It's September and it's bargain book sale season in the Philippines with the month-long National Book Store cut-price sale which has been going on for as long as I remember being a bookworm.

Since the start of the sale, I have been to 10 or is that 11 or 12 branches so far: Katipunan Avenue, Trinoma, Quezon Boulevard, Mall of Asia, Avenida, Shang Mall, Podium, Megamall, Greenhills, Eastwood, Greenbelt, Galleria, in the last two or so weeks. And I topped this off by stopping at the Bestsellers store in Galleria after my NBS Galleria raid. It's been a bookstore a day or even 2 a day, after work or as a weekend treat. Great way to keep your mind off the things that you don't want to dwell on, like the looming book deadline and other even bigger things.

What is all the frenzy about... well for bookworms, the scent of a sale is enough to get us going. Books at discounted and even low low prices- that is heaven! I must confess I do like brand new books, the ones that smell freshly minted and so crisp and clean. And I am very partial to hard covers and big books, that's why the library

cum house I live in is full.

But after this dizzying dive into bargain sales I have discovered that I can get more for my money and still have the same hard cover stash, but in greater numbers.

So back to the narrative of what I did in every NBS branch I visited. I started by just sorting through, thinking I would find a good read or two. But when I dug into the P99 bin in the NBS Katipunan branch I was hooked. I think I took home 3 bags of books, my excuse was that it was mostly for adding to my BOOKMOOCH inventory, mostly hard covers that were selling at 99 pesos each. Hardcovers go for at least P1,000+ [$21-$23] when they get to the Philippines!!! And here I was all these years paying full price for books that would get to the P99 bin in a year or even less.

So that first night that I got home I sorted through the books, such a pleasure to open the plastic bags and go through the books one at a time. [I miss my bookstore owner days, especially when the books I ordered arrived. It was my special activity, only I could open the boxes. And sort and tag and mark and wrap :-) Those were the days when I had Libreria.]

After sorting, I realized I didn't have many of the titles [fiction mostly] in my library so I decided to go back and start visiting other branches. On my visit to a third or fourth branch, I encountered a fellow bookmoocher, JoelG, who pointed the way to the p99 bin and spent time talking about our purchases. He also told me about some other titles he had found in other branches. The rest of the bookmooching Filipino addicts shared their own finds online on our Shelfari and Ning discussion groups, and that further fueled the fire.

Among the many treasures I found were The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad, Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, What is the What by Dave Eggers, Divisadero by Michael Ondatje, The Thirteenth Tale, Three Cups of Tea, The Abstinence Teacher, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, Alexander McCall Smith's The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and other titles, Suite Francaise, and even a Raymond Feist title. At bargain, bargain, bargain prices... in hard cover or at least trade paperback, in great condition.

But finding them wasn't that easy. I sorted, I dug, I kneeled, I dug, I re-arranged and I dug, I table-hopped and I dug, and I went round and back, and I dug again. I kid you not, yesterday in the Greenhills branch I practically fixed the display tables while I was digging. Guess my bookstore owner caring for books will never go away, pity the books all piled and bothered...

The saga is about to end, as the sale reaches its end-stage. While there are 11 more days before the sale ends, most of the branches have little to show and to sell anymore. The last two days were disappointing, like waiting for Christmas and waking to find you skipped a day or a season. For those who want to catch the tail-end, try the Bestsellers store at the top level of Galleria or the Katipunan Avenue branch, they still have a whole table full of P99 books. Sadly, the other branches that I have been to have less than a tabletop to offer... and the good titles are all gone.

But the good news is that the bargain gets better, 20% off on the P99 books in Katipunan Avenue. Good enough reason to try and catch the P99 books while you still can...

I am sure the best friend will have a chuckle and a frown and a word or two to say... I hear you already.

August 21. Twenty-five years ago...

2008-08-21T20:54:00.010+08:00

This day twenty-five years ago, I was attending the first meeting of the 1983-1984 University Student Council of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, sitting as the College Representative of the College of Mass Communication.

The meeting was being chaired by Leandro "Lean" Alejandro, activist and a personal idol. Many of the others present were known to me from the previous three years I had spent on campus, mainly in my alternative life as part-time activist. The younger ones would help me see life on the Council through different eyes. Some of them have gone on to prominence or notoriety in this day and age. I know most everyone was changed by that day and that time... Bong, Roel, Thor, Loudette...

The atmosphere was somber, quiet, not because it was the first meeting, as there is always a familiarity between UP students even if it is the first time you are meeting each other. It was because that day Ninoy Aquino was coming home after a long exile and rumors were rife that something was going to happen.

Less than half an hour into the meeting, something did happen. Somebody opened the door to the meeting hall in Vinzon's and shouted "patay na si Ninoy".

The quiet turned into frenzied action, each one suddenly

speaking, letting out the emotions not only of the moment but of so many years of observed repression and manifest disparity in the way things were supposed to be and the way things really were.

The meeting turned into an organizational huddle for the rallies that started immediately after. Vigils, putting up wall news around campus, preparing statements, rushing to the printer to have the publication done overnight, getting home just to comply with parental expectations and rushing out early the next day, rallies, yellow shirts, rallies, mass actions, agitation, expression, hope for change, doing something about the way we felt, and what we saw...

Twenty-five years ago today, a man gave up his life, by his own choice, knowing as he did that coming home would mean at least jailtime once more, or worse... Twenty-five years ago, a man strode down the plane and led the way to finding freedom again. Twenty-five years ago, I learned about putting heart and soul into what you believed in, and never letting go.

Twenty-five years ago, that was me, young and clear-eyed and strong. How so today? Older, clear-eyed, stronger. Would I do it all over again. Yes, of course, everything all over again. If I were twenty-five years younger.

Organizing the books...

2008-08-10T16:31:00.009+08:00

Over the last few days, I have been able to take my cousins' donated books out of 2 medium-sized cartons and transferred them to plastic boxes. Still reluctant to mix them with my own books as these are for the library I still dream of opening up in the next year or so.

I have reclaimed the living room reading room area on the first floor. It looks like a house again, not a stockroom for books. But there are still piles and piles of books around.

The dogs are actually waiting to run around the house again. But not just yet. Still have one or two piles of books that they could play around with and that would not be good for them or for the books.

P.S. I indulged myself last Monday and got a new phone. Not yet the dream phone but close enough. I am trying out the Samsung i780, my excuse was I wanted a phone that could help me blog even while I was mobile.

So far so good. It is light, easy to use, and the touchscreen function does not take over the ease of use of the unit, unlike the iPhone that I tried out and gave up on after a week. Comes with age? Maybe so. But my daughter gave up on her iPhone too, or the iPhone gave up on her. She is now using a Nokia E71. I must say that is a good-looking phone. And it has a keyboard too. So far, she says it is working fine.

P.P.S. Had dinner at Friday's in SM Mall of Asia last Friday, wanted to indulge during the 888 hullabaloo. The greeting was typically Friday's, boisterous, welcoming, big and loud. Arah, our server, was up to the challenge of 3 nitpicky customers. Unfortunately, the food was not up to our expectations.

We tried two new dishes, Dragon-something chicken and a Tortilla-crusted fish [yes, the names were forgettable because the taste was blah]. We had to ask Arah to just wrap them up, even before we got half-way through it. Their Friday's Shrimp was the saving grace, the fries were yummy, I had too much!!!

Too bad the dishes we tried fell short of the photos and the sell and the gung-ho attitude of their staff. While I appreciate the service, the food leaves much to be desired.

I should remember to take photos next time. The next adventure is on Monday, at Fely J's in Greenbelt 5. Will definitely take photos.

Growing up and growing with books

2008-08-06T19:09:00.028+08:00

This is one shelf in my hallway bookcase, one in a 6-row, 4-column floor-to-ceiling bookcase. It is full, and there are more books waiting to find their place in this bookcase or any of the others in the living/reading room, the den, the guest room or my bedroom.

I thought my problem of not enough shelf space was an uncommon one, a reflection of what some have called my addiction or a creeping malady... lo and behold, I am not alone.

Found these articles that echo how I feel about books and why I keep so many around me.. One in the L.A. Times written by Carol Mithers, puts together the whys and hows of several bookworms' collections. Another one called My Father's Secret Bookcase tells of growing up in a book-loving family living in a bookswamped home.

Brings back my childhood days when the bookshelves ran from one end of the living room to the other, given that there were actually two living rooms in that Fordham St, White Plains house.

I discovered Pogo which lay at the bottom of the left-most shelf, nearest the corridor that led to the bedrooms. Since I preferred my company to playing with my rambunctious cousins, I progressed from Pogo to a book about a travelling bookshop to Inside Africa, which was at the topmost shelf on the right-most case in the other side of the living room.

Four decades after, I find out from google that Inside Africa was published in 1955 and is now one of the rare books. I found a cover photo and it is just as I remembered.

Been on a book binge ever since my shelf-climbing days. And climb I did, since one had to literally go up those shelfs to access the books. No folding ladders in the 70s yet, and since I would usually sneak out to the books during naptime, there was no one around to help me get those books. I think climbing those shelves using hand and foot, was the most strenuous physical activity I ever had. I would and I did climb anything to get to the books.

From rummaging through the eclectic library of my mother, gathered during her days in New York, both as a graduate student and an employee at the Philippine Consulate at the ripe age of 9 or 10, I started reading more books for my age group, and devoured Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey Twins and the Hardy Boys.

Then in the 6th grade, somebody gave me

a slim paperback written by Anne Mather and my Mills & Boon phase began. Romance after romance after romance became my constant companion. From there I moved on to Sidney Sheldon, Valley of the Dolls and even The Harrad Experiment.

One summer, I was introduced to Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I was touched by the quest and the insights of JLS. Perhaps because I too was searching for myself then.

Why do I remember these titles and authors from thirty years ago? Because they were my friends and my confidantes and my companions in the journey through teenhood and high school and college...

In college, I discovered J.R.R. Tolkien. Or I was jolted into realizing I had not read The Lord of the Rings, an unforgiveable, unimaginable oversight which was pointed out by no less than our USC Chairman Lean Alejandro at that time. I bowed my head in shame and asked a fellow journalism classmate about Tolkien. Same violent, incredulous reaction: YOU HAVE NOT READ LORD OF THE RINGS? I got a dog-eared copy the next day from my classmate, and did not put the book down until I finished it 48 hour after. I never much liked fantasy before that, aside from the Snow White and Cinderella fairy tales. But that book swept me off my feet, it was grand, it was human, it was provocative. You can imagine my delight when the films were finally made. Before the Peter Jackson opus, there was only half-a-tale on film, animated at that. My fascination with fantasy continues to this day, with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time as the most enjoyable series after The Lord of the Rings.

Somewhere after Tolkien, I met Ayn Rand and her Objectivist Philosophy. I loved the way she wove her characters, especially in We, the Living and Atlas Shrugged. In my 20s, reading her was like continuing my protest actions in college. A totally different view of being and living in those days. I read most of her novels, and started collecting her books. Even had a hard-bound copy of Atlas Shrugged which someone borrowed and never returned. I think it was at that point that I decided I would be more selfish about my books, especially the hard-cover expensive ones that I like to collect.

Even during my college days, I continued to raid my mom's shelves. She had progressed to T. Lobsang Rampa, Edgar Cayce and Kahlil Gibran. I read them and loved Kahlil Gibran the most.

Over and over again, through the years, I would meet so many authors and plunge into new worlds and exciting lives. Up to my early 30s, reading was my foremost activity outside of work. Like I kept saying then, give me a good book over a boring date anytime. And I had proven myself right once or twice, the once or twice that I agreed to go out on a blind date. Enough said. Yes, I was a bookworm then, I am still a bookworm now, I will always be a bookworm...

The list goes on... Louisa May Alcott, Antoine de St Exupery, Anton Chekhov, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn's A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Dante, D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover, John Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman, Leon Uris, Robert Ludlum, Dan Brown, The Last Cato, Labyrinth, Janet Dailey, Barbara Cartland, Andrew Greeley, John Twelve Hawks...

The reading never stops, the hoarding goes on, the dilemma about where to put the books stays the same, day in and day out. Growing up and growing...now that one my bestfriend would have a lot to say about. What a life in books I have. Thank God.

New mooches

2008-08-06T16:19:00.024+08:00

Came home from the post office today with a stash of 10 packages from bookmoochers around the world. Let me share the treasures that came in the mail today.

It's like Christmas at the stroke of midnight when you gather round the Christmas tree to open your presents. And since I know that my presents are all books this time, I am even more excited. Each package is wrapped so well, with the book enclosed in newspaper, plastic, bubble wrap and enough tape to criss-cross the world several times over.

Hearsay: Strange Tales from the Middle Kingdom, by Barbara Ann Porte. Mooched from Autumn Frymark in Waco, Texas, USA. Hardcover with dust jacket.

Have Your Cake and Eat It Too. Illustrated by Mary Engelbreit. I collect all things Mary Engelbreit and bookmooch is helping me grow my collection. Mooched from Carrie Ansell in Washington, D.C., USA. A heartwarming gift book.

Voyage to Atlantis, by James W Mavor. Another topic of much interest to me. Mooched from Delia in Australia.

Since I have started blogging, there is more excitement with the arrival of the mooches because now I get to share what I have received online. And even though I have one sure reader for every blog entry I make [that's what best friends are for, among other things], I hope that people who find their way here will get into the mooching habit too.

Back to the mooch loot. The next package has two books from Sorchah in Illinois, USA. It's In the Bag: The Complete Guide to Lightweight Travel, by Barbara DesChamps. Yes, I do need to learn how not to bring my entire closet when travelling around Europe. And Au Revoir Parisienne, by Elmer Williams. I do love Paris, wish I could live there even for just a little while.

The next two hardcover books came from Laurie B in Peabody, MA, USA. Anne Geddes' Until Now. I love her innovation in capturing the wonders of children. King Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory, part of the Great Illustrated Classic series.

It's A Girl Thing, by Jan King from SpongeBob Fishpants in Seattle, WA, USA. Heard the line "It's a guy thing" a year ago, and when I saw this title I just had to find out what it meant for us girls. This book was one of the 5 packages in a flat rate mailing envelope. The nice thing about this form of packaging is that some Bookmooch members let you fill up this envelope so you can mooch more than one or two, sometimes even up to four books and they send in one envelope.

Eight books so far and four more packages to open, in between text messages and phone calls. My best friend will have a comment in the morning after reading this post. Definitely a comment.

Another package of two books from Suzi in California, USA. The Da Vinci Legacy by Lewis Perdue, a paperback. I enjoy the mix of mystery and history. Many of these types that do entertain and inform.

The Treasure of Montsegur by Sophy Burnham, another papaerback. Both of these books come with a yellow Bookcrossing sticker, check the link to find out how a book can cross the world just by being left on a bench or a cafe.

Four books from Alina in MI, USA. Mikhail S. Gorbachev An Intimate Biography, by the Editors of Time Magazine. Burnt Toast and Other Philosophies of Life by Teri Hatcher. Goldie A Lotus Grows in the Mud, by Goldie Hawn with Wendy Holden. Three more titles to add to the biography shelf.

And Quick & Easy Recipes ENTREES Food Writers' Favorites, edited by Barbara Gibbs Ostmann and Jane Barker.

The last envelope had two books too, from Kristina in Belton, MO, USA. Two storybooks. The Bremen Town Musicians and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, retold by Constance Hieatt.

Sixteen books to add to the library. Still haven't figured out how to make everything fit. Will try to move them books around again. Even have a few more books to add to "my to be mooched inventory".

The overflow is contained, until the next notice from the Post Office arrives.

easy Sunday... new albums from old favorites

2008-08-03T20:20:00.021+08:00

Found new albums from iconic bands of my growing up years and brought them home to add to the music shelf... but before that we had family time at Power Plant Mall.

Lunch was at Sumosam in Rockwell with my parents, my daughter and my sister's family. Food was yummy [you already knew that] but the service still left something to be desired. But my parents loved the feel and style of the place, so good enough for a Sunday treat for the family. The house tea, Lipton Fruit Berry, was quite good. It was already a riot what with my sister's two boys, Luigi and Diego, imagine what it would have been like with my brother's brood, especially the twins.

After lunch, we decided to walk around before having dessert just to let the feast settle down some more. We ended up on the third floor, at Coffeebean and Tea Leaf. Ordered tea plus a slice each of their Guiltless Chocolate Cake and the Mango Mousse. The Guiltless Chocolate Cake lives up to its name, and is a must must try. One thing my dad couldn't get over was that they didn't have toothpicks. Guess eating cakes and pastries is pretty easy on the teeth?

Before I joined them at the coffeeshop, I took a sidetrip to O Music to get my copy of the Mamma Mia soundtrack. I just had to get this one, as I thoroughly enjoyed the movie which we watched a week before. I was amazed at Meryl Streep's vocal talent, add that on top of her multi-awarded, awe-inspiring portrayals on-screen; but what I had the best laugh everytime Pierce Brosnan started singing opera-style. Think James Bond belting romantic arias. Now you get the reason why we laughed out loud everytime Pierce Brosnan opened his mouth in song. If you want to relax, be entertained and enjoy yourself with an easy, feel-good movie, you must must must watch Mamma Mia, in the theater.

Greece is beautiful!!! Check out Skopelos, the island where they shot the movie, paradise!!! Makes me even more determined to get to that dream destination next year. But first have to get fit enough to climb those hills and trek those pathways.

Back to O Music and the Mama Mia soundtrack which I found very quickly, along with the new albums of Chicago, Eagle, Carly Simon and Journey, featuring Filipino rocker Arnel Pineda. Yes, I am a child of the 70s and the 80s, my ipod is filled with all the top hits of the disco era... how about yours?

Arnel Pineda sounds good, I like his voice, and it was great that they re-recorded the old hits like Separate Ways and Open Arms. I read somewhere that the Journey fans were divided on the issue of his acceptability as a member of Journey, since he was not an American. But listening to the new album, that to me is a non-issue. He sounds good with Journey. or is it that Journey sounds like new with Arnel.

Carly Simon's cool voice is always a treat, soothing on the soul. The albums of Chicago and Eagles have already been copied to the imac and will soon find their way to the ipod touch. Still have to choose which songs I like more than the others.

Was about to indulge in the Samsung i780 but will wait a little while, still thinking if I want to wait for the Samsung Omnia which they claim rivals or beats the iPhone , coming out end-August. What I would like is that the next phone I get will make it easier for me to blog even when I am mobile.

It was raining the whole day, and it is pouring right now. It was an easy Sunday as Sundays should be. And the music made it even better.

The books that pop (up)

2008-08-02T11:24:00.015+08:00

There are colorful, animated books on my shelves that are not quite like the rest. Less words, not more than 24 pages, and illustrations that leap at you. These are pop-up books, mostly about the fairytales and classic stories of our childhood.

And while their stories may be from more carefree days, the animation and the visual telling are definitely not for kids only.

I discovered these one-of-a-kind treasures long ago, but started collecting them with zeal during my stint as a bookstore owner.

While going through the publishers' catalogs, I would see these intriguing offers, the first one of which I remember was the one about dinosaurs.

Check out how Robert Sabuda's beautiful Castle looks in real life. The book comes up and at you, pulling you into the magical world of medieval times.

Another interesting pop-up author or paper engineer as he calls himself is Mark Hiner. His Medieaval Nativity is amazing to look at.

Found a simple and easy-to-do tutorial on how to make a pop-up book from Library Thinkquest/Write on Reader. Something you can do with the kids or just for your own pleasure.

Just an update, got another pop-up book today from Powerbooks at the Shangrila Mall, titled THE CASTAWAY PIRATES. So the collection grows one book more...

So many questions...

2008-07-31T18:06:00.003+08:00

It rained real hard today, brought out the brown waters and the rainy gear. Felt like a downpour in ordinary time, the much-delayed rainy season trying to assert its reign, none too succesfully it seems. The rains stopped sometime during my return trip from the flooded Aurora Blvd-Araneta Ave junction in Sta Mesa to the drizzling quiet of the QC Central Post Office. Yap, I mailed out the 23 books, to the Netherlands, the US, Canada and Ireland, and of course to my fellow bookmoochers in the metropolis.

It rained on my day, despite what was supposed to be quite a special get-together. Sometimes you just never figure out why two people who are so into each other just can't let each other be, just be, not to have to try so hard to be anybody. To just be and be accepted as is.

And then there is the question on how hard it is to do a good job... or is that because the standards differ and the commitment to excellence even more variable.

On to the question of choices, happiness or righteousness. single blissfulness or two-getherness with friction and combustion. Compromise or independence...

So many questions today... the answers are not as many, and even harder to accept.

Mooching for books, a treasure and a pleasure

2008-07-30T23:29:00.002+08:00

Today I took another trip to indulge the book addiction and retrieved 11 packages from the Central Post Office in Quezon City, from the USA, Lithuania, New Zealand and Singapore.

Thanks to my weekly visits to retrieve packages, the kind lady who releases packages just let me take them home without the required opening to check on the contents. Well, my face is already a regular fixture for them so no hassle.

On the way to work, I proceeded to open each one, slowly so as not ruin any portion of the precious contents. The first one was from Lithuania, two slim tomes wrapped in plastic, both old books written by H.G. Wells. Mooched these from Dovile, a fellow booklover.

Then I opened the one from Singapore, a book about Atlantis, from George. The next one was an old paperback on Stonehenge from Michele in Texas. There was even a beautifully packed coffeetable book on Ancient American Treasures from Glenda in California.

All in all, a total of 16 books received through the Bookmooch network. I read about it from an article in the Manila Bulletin in March, more than four months ago. The concept was interesting: for those with books sitting on the shelves, here was a chance to find a new home for them. The concept appealed to me because although parting with any book is excruciating, the idea of giving the book to someone who wanted it and would take care of it allowed me to consider giving my books away. Especially since there was the prospect of receiving books in return.

So I signed up, ready to send out my books. First had to choose what to give away, believe me, that was not easy. Then listed it in the inventory, receiving 1/10th of a point. With each book I was adding, I was building up points. Enough to use to request for the books I had seen in the inventories of other Bookmooch members.

The point system gives you more points for sending internationally, and also takes away more points for mooching books from abroad. The main expense to a moocher is the cost of sending the book to the requesting party, and with postage also comes packaging. Then again, depending on how much of an obsessive-compulsive bookworm you are, the packaging pretty much varies.

The first book I received was Me & Mr Darcy, from Aspa in Greece, in less than a month since I signed up and mooched a book. The first book I sent out was to Nina in the United Kingdom, a book about getting hitched. She got this 18 days after she requested the book from me, quite fast as I sent it Priority Mail, not knowing there were less costly options for sending out the books.

Four months after, I have received 71 books, and am awaiting 72 more. On the giving side, I have sent out 83 books which have found their way to their new owners, with 48 books still in transit. My pending outbox for books tonight has 23 waiting to be mailed.

Every time I see a notice from the Post Office, my heart flutters from the excitement of adding another book to the bulging shelves. Every time I wrap the requested books in plastic and print out the mailing labels, I realize how small the world has become, what with strangers albeit fellow booklovers sharing their most precious of treasures.

I have been asked by my best friend if it is worth the drain on the budget, the price of mailing out a book starts at P48 and goes up depending on the weight and the destination. And I reply, of course, where else would I be able to find old books, rare titles and not pay too dearly to own them. And how else would I be able to add on to my pop-up books collection without going back to New York and its many many bookstores. [Lucky for me, the best friend likes books too, and indulges me while gently reminding me about bigger responsibilities and the long-term situation.]

Mooching through Bookmooch is a wonderful way to grow my library and meet new people who happen to share the same love for books. Even better, mooching through Bookmooch has meant finding treasures galore, not only in the books but also in the booklovers who make mooching such a pleasure.

Give it a try... but be ready to moderate the greed, and the addiction.

Swap books at BookMooch.com

Bookworm heaven in the south...

2008-07-29T19:42:00.004+08:00

Today I found bookworm heaven... some bumps along the way, but definitely happiness when I got there.

We took the long way, exiting at Sucat to get to Bicutan, and got lost on the main roads by sheer lack of initiative to ask where the right way was, but finding the warehouse of BOOKSALE, the biggest secondhand booksource in the Philippines was worth the trip.

Getting the invitation to visit and enter the sanctuary was mostly luck... I had heard stories about the warehouse earlier from among my fellow bookworms on Bookmooch and Shelfari. The kind of stories that make every booklover swoon in bookheaven ecstacy. Just imagine being in the stockroom of the biggest source of secondhand books of these 7,100 islands. Surrounded by books of all sizes, shapes, colors, topics and nationalities. Ready to be opened, waiting to be taken home, lying there, ripe for the taking.

Well, as fate would have it, I found a way to make this dream come true. Just yesterday as I took a quick trip to their V-mall branch to take a look around and hopefully spot more rare book bargains, I stumbled on one of their supervisors visiting the store. I asked about their rare books and you can imagine how the conversation progressed to the "warehouse".

The rumors are true... there is a minimum amount to be spent. one needs permission to get in. and yes, it is bookworm heaven...

Once there, despite the overzealous guard who wanted me to leave my bag in the guardhouse [come again? leave my bag, containing my phone, my keys, my purse, my life, with you?], I finally made my way into the warehouse, thanks to Lisa, the friendly and assertive supervisor who I met yesterday.

Grey walls, unpainted. Rooms closed off with door signs indicating the category or type of books within "softbound" etc. Clerks and gofers sorting, moving stocks, unpacking boxes and boxes of books.

I ended up in the operations hub as it were, the place where their top lady veteran supervises the opening of boxes, the sorting and overall movement of the books from warehouse to store.

Oh what haven, this large enough, air-conditioned room with piles and piles of boxes on one side and floor-to-ceiling steel shelves on three walls. Oh what happiness to spot two whole walls of coffeetable books. So off to work I go... one pile after another, choosing and moving books to make way for the rest... organized madness, organized obsessive book addiction.

More than 200 people make their operation run with steady efficiency and move them books all over the Philippines. I asked if I could apply for a job as apprentice to Dolly, and they just laughed. I said they could pay me with books... that's all I need.

I chose to be a good girl today and limited myself only to the coffeetable books shelves, and, as affirmed by my best friend, to come back another day for the rest of the goodies. But the temptation did not stop, as I waited for them to list my choices after they took their lunch break, they let me open some more books full of big, beautiful coffeetable books. They sure know how to sell and sell...

The session was over in 2 hours, with some precious finds already brought home and tucked into already bulging shelves. I did leave a list of the subjects that I would come back for, especially the pop-up books and the old books on history and rare ones on art and travel. And I know they will make sure that I come back for more... one half-explored room and the rest of the bookworm heaven await me.

Abangan ang susunod na kabanata...