Literary Blog Hop: March 8-11 – Reading Style, etc.

Today is my birthday so I guess this is as good a time as any to try something new and participate in the Literary Blog Hop over at The Blue Bookcase. I’ve been following this particular Blog Hop for a while now and I’ve always been fascinated by how much individual responses reveal about the bloggers. This week’s question is:

How do you find time to read, what’s your reading style and where do you think reading literature should rank in society’s priorities?

When it comes to finding the time to read, I’m afraid I can’t be a good role model for other people. I have a job that forces me to look at words and correct other people’s writing for eight hours (or more) so there can be days when picking up a book at the end of the day is the last thing I want. Those little timesinks called TV and the Internet also tend to have a very powerful effect on my attention span. However, I do try to read at least 10 pages a day, which I can usually accomplish while riding the bus or sitting down in fast food as I wait out the rush hour so I can then ride a bus. Thank God for weekends, because I can catch up on my reading then.

In general, I don’t take down notes or highlight favorite passages when I’m reading books. I’ve always been fascinated by other people’s marginalia and I’ve tried in college to develop that kind of habit but it never really took. Pausing to take down notes, I found, often breaks the rhythm of my reading. When I read The Name of the Rose, however, I found that I couldn’t go forward without taking down the names and book titles that the characters would rattle off. I still have bits of paper stuck inside my copy of that book that are riddled with incomprehensible Latin titles.

Reading List for 2012: Doorstoppers

I still have a ton of book reviews to write and post! .-.

In an attempt to improve my stamina when it comes to reading long novels, I’ve decided to focus on reading one doorstopper every month. That doesn’t mean I won’t be reading other books but sufficed to say, these twelve are my focus. To make this project more interesting I will also try to write journal-like commentary every 100 pages or so. I was inspired by what Angus of Book Rhapsody is doing when he reads large tomes. It’ll be interesting to note the difference in writing reactions as they happen versus my usual modus, which is to procrastinateruminate on a book after it is finished and encapsulating my thoughts in 500 or so words. The list is mostly set since I own most of these, but they are not listed in chronological order.

1. Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel (653 pages) – Diary entries: 1st, 2nd, 3rd
2. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie (647 pages) – Diary entries: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th
3. The Pillars of Earth, Ken Follett (976 pages – Not purchased yet)
4. The Tree of Smoke, Denis Johnson (613 pages)
5. The Tale of Genji, Murasaki Shikibu (1182 pages)
6. The War at the End of the World, Mario Vargas Llosa (750 pages)
7. The Mandarins, Simone de Beauvoir (736 pages)
8. Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes (1072 pages)
9. Life Mask, Emma Donoghue (650 pages)
10. The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky (974 pages)
11. Drood by Dan Simmons (771 pages)
12. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (613 pages – haven’t purchased yet)

I’ll be typing up my thoughts on Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall either tonight or tomorrow.

Getting back on the saddle

After a couple of months of post-new employment convalescence I figured I should stop puttering around Tumblr and actually write something for a change. I have a horrific backlog of books to write about, at which I’ll be chipping away like and artist carving a statue with a spoon. Right now I’m reading Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh and having all sorts of ~feelings~ about it.

One of the reasons I want to get back to blogging, however, is my desire to take stock of what I’ve been reading the past year in an attempt to make sense of my tastes and how it must’ve changed since I started blogging. I’ll also be attempting a little project in 2012, despite my obvious inability to keep up with my reading challenges. *coughAtoZChallengecough*

And speaking of things that have been occupying my time, I’d like to promote the Philippine Go Association‘s 1st GBC Open Tournament on December 10:

A little off-topic, perhaps, but I’ll be reading The Master of Go by Yasunari Kawabata in an attempt to bring it full circle.

A Reader in the Philippines – ReaderCon Week 3

The First Filipino Reader Conference is closer than ever. Thanks to the Manila International Book Fair and other sponsors for their valuable support. This is the 3rd week of the special Filipino Fridays meme. Which I of course screw up and turn into Filipino Sundays!

Week 3 Question:
How hard or easy is it to be a book lover in the Philippines? What are some of your frustrations as a Filipino reader? And what are the positive aspects of being a reader in the Philippines?

The short answer is: I can’t complain. For Pinoys who love books, there are more venues now than ever before in terms of buying, discovering, and discussing books. I’ve always have friends who are avid readers but lately I’ve also been exploring the more social aspects of being a reader in the Philippines, such as participating in the Filipino Goodreads Group and Filipino Book Bloggers. Even in that short time, I’ve had my horizons broadened. Having the opportunity to talk passionately–and even bitchily–about books is priceless.

Your Reader’s Story – ReaderCon Week 2

Very late in answering this meme, but what the hey.

How did you become a reader? What factors influenced you to take it up as a hobby? For instance, was it your mom who read to you every night? Or was it a high school friend who started lending you books? Or maybe it was a really inspiring teacher whom you wanted to emulate. Whatever it was, we hope you tell us all the story of how you became a leisure reader and what it is about reading that you enjoy so much.

I seriously think that the existence of our school libraries in Colegio de Sta. Rosa, Makati was the one catalyst for my love of books. Not simply the opportunity to borrow books, but the place itself. For one, the Elementary library at my school was air-conditioned back when the classrooms weren’t, so I had extra incentive to stay there. There was also the idea that you can hide yourself in a small nook during recess and lunch time, where silence is highly enforced and you only have the company of characters in books with you.

ReaderCon Filipino Fridays – Week 1

Mark the date, everyone!

I’m going to write more about the 1st Filipino ReaderCon at this year’s Manila International Book Fair in the upcoming days but today is the kick-off of the Filipino Fridays Meme running up to the event. If you can attend the event, PLEASE DO SO. It’ll be good thing to show the publishing and bookselling industry how much of a formidable force Pinoy readers have become.

August 12 – Introduction. Tell us everything that we need to know about you as a Filipino reader. You can talk about the genres that you read, your favorite authors, your comfort reads and your best books of 2011. You can also include links of where other readers can find you online: blog, Twitter, Goodreads, Shelfari, etc.

I’ve only set up this specific blog late last year but I’ve been around, so to speak. Writing about books is something I’ve done for more than half of my life–sometimes professionally, but for the most part, it’s simply a passion. When I’m not working of playing Go, I obsess about my reading progress at Goodreads, where a delightful group of Filipino readers have become a new and exciting aspect of my reading life.

Housekeeping

This is kind of embarrassing. I fell off the face of the blogging world without really intending to and I can’t even blame my lack of free time. Most of my writing recently have been for work but I’ve also discovered the wonders of Twitter. I admit to giving in to the temptation of expressing myself exclusively through 140-character spurts. I’m also hopelessly behind in my writeups–eight books’ worth of backlog–but I’m determined to catch up.

Speaking of writing, please read my PGS Crime Issue Review, published by The Philippine Online Chronicles a couple of weeks ago. A short excerpt:

None of the stories in the PGS Crime Issue are whodunits in the true sense of the word. They are, however, why- and how-dunnits, with a couple of stories morphing into revenge tales redressing sins of the past.

Justice takes on a very fluid quality in Philippine crime, where the trick isn’t finding who the culprit is, but making sure he does pay. Even the arrival of the police does not signal the end of a criminal ordeal–they often turn out to be a different, more dangerous complication.

I’ve finished 18 books so far this year which, according to Goodreads, means I’m six books behind if I still wish to read 50 books in 2011. Cry. Still, that’s already six books more than I’ve read the whole of last year so I can’t really complain.

Want Books: A Visit from the Goon Squad

Something for Chachic’s Want Books? meme:

I wanted to read Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad even before she won the National Book Critic’s Award (and was subsequently upstaged by Jonathan Franzen). The thing that intrigued me about it is the unusual structure. I haven’t read many novels-as-linked-stories and the reviews are glowing from what I’ve read. I haven’t seen any copies of it around bookstores however, but I haven’t been looking that hard. I’m also holding out on buying it because I have Egan’s earlier book, Look At Me, which so far remains unread.

So yes, I want but can’t have Goon Squad because I’m too slow a reader.

In other news, literary March Madness has also reached children’s books. Aside from the The Morning News’ Tournament of Books, I am now also following School Library Journal’s Battle of the Kids’ Books. Again, I haven’t read any of the books mentioned here except Barry Deutsch’s Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, a charming graphic novel that was originally published online. I do love me some well-intentioned competition though, especially ones that lead to fascinating discussions of books.

State of the Reading Address

I’m more or less a book behind in my personal resolution to finish one book a week this year. I’ve finished four so far and I can try to chock up that one book to the fact that I’m reading Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. But to be honest, I’m also only 120 pages into that book. I found that I can only bring myself to read chunks of twenty pages or so at a time before having to devote myself into a completely different story. Right now, it’s Andrea Camilleri’s The Shape of Water.

My reading stamina is not the same as it was three or four years ago, sadly. Add the fact that creating reviews for every finished book causes me to pause and evaluate my own feelings about them. Still, I’m determined to read fifty books this year. (Technically I plan to read 52 books, but I’m trying to give myself some leeway. :p) On the bright side, I’ve finally managed to set up my GoodReads account. My list is still horribly incomplete but I plan on working on it little by little. Add me, if you’re so inclined!

In other news, I’ve been coveting the latest iterations of the Nook and the Kindle, all the while trying to justify buying one for my birthday. The prospect is looking more and more attractive, every time I read of blog posts by people who are reading War in Peace without the burden of carrying the doorstopper.

What books are you reading right now?

And for your weekly dose of pretty, check out these wonderful images via The Rumpus: Book art you’ll admire. Or make you contemplate in horror about all the destroyed books. Whichever.

Monday Bullet Points – The Pretty Pictures Edition

♛ The illustration above is of Ray Bradbury, my favorite writer (probably) of all-time, done for his 90th birthday. Illustrator Lou Romano has made a fascinating blog post detailing his drawing process. It’s especially cool how he drew Bradbury as the Illustrated Man, echoing one of his most famous characters.

♛ If you haven’t read High Chair’s 13th Issue, stop what you’re doing and read a poem or essay right now. In my opinion, they’re among the Filipino writers pushing our literature to a more challenging place.

♛ The Guardian’s book blog my reliable go-to site for literary news and their second installment of ten rules for writing fiction is particularly lovely.

♛ As an unqualified fan of Emily Carroll‘s work, I am especially thrilled to find out about her work with Picture Book Report. It’s a collective of illustrators who render scenes from different books using delightfully unique drawing styles. I’m particularly charmed by John Martz’s drawings for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

♛ Its name alone would qualify this blog as the best in the world, but Hey Oscar Wilde! It’s Clobberin’ Time! also hosts awesome portraits of various writers and literary characters.

♛ I’m a bitter-ender kind of a gal when it comes to reading books and it always rankles me when I give up on a novel in the middle. Sonya Chung’s It’s Not You, It’s Me: Breaking Up With Books is a small measure of comfort, knowing that I’m not alone with my book abandonment issues.

More mysteries than you can shake a stick at

First of all, I want to say hello to the good folks who wandered to this blog via Filipino Book Bloggers. Having a ready-made directory of book blogs by Filipinos warms my small, bibliophilic heart.

When it comes to reading challenges, I think the word I’m looking for is “masochism.” Aside from the A to Z Challenge I’ve already talked about, I’ve also signed up for two mystery-centric challenges. The first one is the Cruisin’ thru the Cozies Reading Challenge over at Socrates’ Book Reviews. Wikipedia characterizes cozies as “a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence are downplayed or treated humourously.” I have long professed a fondness for Dorothy Sayers and I think this is a great opportunity to branch out on the subgenre.

I have chosen the Level 2 of the challenge, so that means I need to finish 7-12 cozies, I’ll be updating this this tentative list as I progress:

A to Z Reading Challenge Masterlist (2011)

I admit to liking challenges and memes to an unhealthy degree. But this one is going to help me bump up my reading this year, so it’s all good! The A to Z Challenge‘s rules are simple: read one book for every letter of the alphabet, either by Title or Author. I chose authors and have been pretty good at keeping up with my reading this January. I’m in the middle of reading Michael Lewis’s Moneyball and the beginning chapters of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. Optimistically, I predict finishing Les Mis in March.

Anyway, I’ll be making short reviews for the books I’ve read like a good girl. Here’s to finishing my thoughts on the Arturo Perez-Reverte book before the start of the weekday.