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.

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.

Day 17 – The virtue of the 2nd person POV

Day 17 – Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellas, novelettes, etc.)

Self-Help by Lorrie Moore

Why yes, we’re still doing this meme. I first encountered Lorrie Moore’s story “How to Become a Writer” in college while reading through a book about writing. I can’t remember the kind of advice that book actually gave me but using this example makes me eternally grateful for it. The second person POV is largely considered a deadly choice for many fiction writers but the conceit used by Moore to carry the story simply blew me away.

Self-Help focuses on largely female protagonists who are floundering about in their relationships. A couple of stories deal with familial strain, while one standout story talks about an extramarital affair through the lens of the other woman. There’s a lot of humor in Moore’s narrative voice, but almost all of them are tinged with a kind of inescapable tragedy, like it’s simply a requisite for someone living a life. I haven’t encountered any of her other books yet, but this one has become almost iconic for me.

Honorable mentions: The Kite of Stars by Dean Francis Alfar and The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.

Day 16 – Favorite poetry

Day 16 – Favorite poem or collection of poetry

Forgive my overzealous quoting, but I simply couldn’t limit myself to naming just one poem. Truth be told, reading an entire poetry collection is something I should do much more these days. But I do consume individual poems quite a lot and here are just five of the many that have resonated with me through the years. I don’t actually own Richard Siken’s Crush, but that is something I intend to rectify very soon.

It calls the heart, this music, to a place
more intimate than home, than self, that face
aging in the hall mirror. This is not
music to age by — no sprightly gavotte
or orderly pavane, counting each beat,
confining motion to the pointed feet

– Rachmaninoff on the Mass Pike,
Rhina P. Espaillat

Had you entered that afternoon
you would have thought you saw a man
planting something in a boy’s palm,
a silver tear, a tiny flame.

– The Gift,
Li-Young Lee

Now you know: this is the place
where water insists on being ice,
where wind insists on breathlessness,
where the will of the cold is so strong
that even the stone’s desire for heat
is driven into the eye of night.

– The Last Poem About the Snow Queen,
Sandra M. Gilbert

Tila ako si Bidasari –
Patay sa araw, buhay sa gabi:
Naghihintay kay Sultan Mogindra
Na sa buhay ko’y ikaw;
Naghihintay ng maalat na halik
Na isisiil mo sa dagat na dibdib
Upang ibangon ako
Sa masasamyong panaginip.

– Tila Ako si Bidasari,
Ruth Elynia Mabanglo

Here is a map with your name for a capital,
here is an arrow to prove a point: we laugh
and it pits the world against us, we laugh,
and we’ve got nothing left to lose, and our hearts
turn red, and the river rises like a barn on fire.

– Saying Your Names,
Richard Siken

Day 15 – Your comfort book

Day 15 – Your “comfort” book

Maria Isabel Garcia’s Science Solitaire: Essays on Science, Nature, and Becoming Human

This is a collection of columns Maria Isabel Garcia has written for The Philippine Star over the years. Here’s a more recent example. Despite my declaration that I never reread books, this one is perfect for a reader looking to dip into short bursts of reflection about the wonders and possibilities of science. I’ve come to appreciate science writing more after reading this book a couple of years ago. In fact, part of my reading list right now is Mary Roach’s Stiff and Oliver Sacks’sThe Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat.

Maria Isabel Garcia is also a wonderful and fascinating woman, something I found out for myself after meeting her for a Read or Die event. For a writer who is a scientist by profession, her prose has a lightness to it that renders the discussion of intellectual pursuits (she routinely talks about quantum physics and–dun dun dun–MATH) more engaging. I can trace a straight line from my current fascination with Radiolab to the little sparks of curiosity lit up in my head by this book.

An aside: Holy crap, why is this book priced at 30 dollars on Amazon? D:

Day 14 – Favorite foppish wizard

Day 14 – Favorite character in a book

Jonathan Strange from Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

I have already written about some of my favorite characters in my previous meme entries (Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey, Chabon’s Sam Klayman, Frances Hardinge’s Mosca Mye). Jonathan Strange and his quest to save the woman he loves is the driving force behind Susanna Clarke’s sprawling doorstopper of a debut novel.

In the book, I loved the anecdotes of Strange gallivanting around Europe trying to help the English forces defeat Napoleon. He is made of both genius and madness, a man who managed to show up Lord Byron. Just when you have him pegged as a dandy seduced by the prospect of magic but who is ultimately not taking it seriously, a personal tragedy adds layers to his character.

Day 13 – Childhood favorite

Day 13 – Favorite childhood book OR current favorite YA book (or both!)

Roald Dahl’s Matilda

I should by myself a copy of this book now that I’m older. I first read this in the school library, and essentially became entranced by the way Roald Dahl’s paints a vivid picture of childhood. There’s a mixture of baldfaced credibility in the stories, despite being totally implausible.

As someone who constantly escape into books, I really love the way Matilda’s inner life was depicted, how she sought refuge in books because of an unhappy family life. I also loved how Dahl didn’t shy away from showing the awful things that kids usually experience at a young age, like the fear of bullying and the general certainty that the rest of the world is constantly hiding things from you because of your age.

That does it, I’m buying myself a special edition of Roald Dahl books soonish.

Day 12 – On not re-reading books

This is obviously not my bookshelf. It's much too neat.

Day 12 – A book or series of books you’ve read more than five times

It has come to my attention that I’m not like most people when it comes to rereading books. Truth is, I don’t. I can probably strain to think of ten books I’ve read twice, and not much more. Embarrassingly enough, the one book I reread over and over again is Nora Roberts’s Hidden Riches. This book is somehow hardwired into my neurons as the ultimate comfort read. In fact, the back cover has pretty much been obliterated from my copy.

Why don’t I reread books? I really don’t know. Part of it stems from by general lack of concentration these days. I’ve also found the certain books I found thrilling on the first read don’t lend themselves well when read again. I’m also a pretty slow reader, and the idea that there are millions of books left in the universe unread by me just makes me feel all anxious. Wonder if this is a sign of bibliomania.

Day 11 – A book that disappointed you

Day 11 – A book that disappointed you

Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body

I admit, I may have expected too much from the novel, knowing that it is Jeanette Winterson’s fictionalized account of her affair with the late literary agent Pat Kavanagh while still married to novelist Julian Barnes. And while there are instances of luminous prose (the part where the protagonist meditates on the meaning of the lover’s anatomy is particularly beautiful) I found the novel self-indulgent and stale over all. There’s a great degree of self-satisfied inaction, like the narrator somehow find romance in the idea of a pining lover.

Okay, I’ll be honest. I really just wanted more details about one of the big scandals that rocked the London literary establishment. Heh.

Day 10 – Unexpected Loves

Day 10 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving

Melissa Bank’s Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing

NPR’s Monkey See blogger Linda Holmes has done a series of funny and insightful articles about what people call “chick lit” and how the label tends to reduce writing by women into a very narrow, undeserved box. I entirely agree with her assessment. As someone who likes to read romance novels occasionally, I get a little defensive about people who look down on “women’s writing.” And this book is part of the reason why.

The first time I read it, I had the same preconceptions on what the story ought to be: A novel about a literary agent in Manhattan trying and failing to find love, peppered with witticisms and ultra-hip whining, drinking of cosmopolitans, et cetera. I actually became a little annoyed when I found out that Girl’s Guide is actually not a full novel so much as a collection of loosely connected narratives. The stories takes us through the lives of these urbane individuals who weren’t immune to heartbreak, cancer, and professional ennui, despite their perfect haircuts and their perfect vacations. But I ended up reading this book again over the years, and I found that I take away something new from it every time. The very last story is my favorite one, and makes reading the whole book actually worth it. It makes a gentle mockery of people looking at self-help books to get them the love of their lives, while at the same time acknowledging the in these modern times, a girl just really wants someone who can help her with the answers.