Well, I can’t entirely say that I hadn’t foreseen this would happen but I still didn’t expect that months would go by without any updates at all here. Well, that’s life — unpredictable.

No new reviews yet but I’m gonna use this post to write about the new books I’ve acquired since the year began.

11 books! I guess that for a casual reader that’s a big number already. But for most avid bookworms, I’m sure that’s nothing.

“The Lovely Bones” and “A Sense of the World” were the first two I purchased this year. I’ve already written a glowing review for the latter. The former now sits in the “Unfinished Books” shelf.

I picked up “Twisted 8 1/2″ during the days I was applying for a new job. I needed a short, fun read for the long idle times and Jessica Zafra’s columns were perfect for this. I already finished this one but the review has been stuck in the draft phase for weeks now. It will probably be stuck there forever.

I bought “An Island From Home” on impulse. It looked like a good juvenile read at the time. Now? Not anymore.

After being so inspired by “A Sense of the World”, I bought “The Blue Bear” because it looked like it’s in the same vein as The Blind Traveler’s story. I have yet to find out if I was right.

Carl Sagan’s “Contact” has always been one of those books I’ve wanted to read. I’m just waiting for that moment to come when I’d feel like I’m ready to tackle some sci-fi. Same thing with the “Tom Sawyer” book. There’s a right book for each moment of one’s life.

Roger von Oech’s “A Whack on the Side of the Head” is a popular book that teaches you how to be more creative. There’s a nice story behind my experience in getting this book but the bottom line is, I got it through a really good deal. The stuff I learn from this book easily make this my best bargain purchase yet!

Percy Jackson book 4 “The Battle of the Labyrinth” is an obvious purchase. I’ve been reading it for almost a month now! I think I’m a bit weirded out now by the story after having seen its movie adaptation. *sigh*

“Sabbath” is a Catholic book with a year’s worth of daily scripture meditation. At my new job, we’re restricted with regards to what websites we can visit. I used to read my daily spiritual reflection fix thru email (c/o KerygmaFamily’s free newsletter). Now I need to have that available offline. This book is one solution for that. And it’s priced so low, they might as well have given it away for free!

If you counted the books in the first picture of this post, you might have noticed only 10 books were shown there. Well, that’s because the 11th book was late for the pictorial. Haha!

I bought this one March 31st, just before the 2-day Lenten holiday. I’ve been wanting to read this unusual book ever since I’ve heard of it last year. “Come Be My Light” is an epistolary book narrating the correspondences of Mother Teresa that were kept hidden from the public due to their “dark” nature.

I thought it would make for a good read during the Holy Week but I wasn’t feeling hopeful I’d get it in time because all the bookstores I’ve went to for the past two months didn’t have it in stock.

Less than an hour left before the malls close, I decided to leave work early and take my chance in the St. Pauls branch at Ali Mall Cubao. It was my first time there. I only knew about it after my friend and I passed by the store a week ago. And I guess it was God’s will for me to get the book because they have it in stock with just one copy left!

Out of these 11 books, I’ve only finished two. I’m currently reading 3 of them plus “Sabbath” which I don’t think counts because it’s a yearlong read. I have no idea when I’ll begin reading the others because I’m trying out something different this time. I don’t track anymore how many books I read in a week or a month. As long as I still read at least 4 days in a week, that’s good enough. It’s less pressuring on my part and I also end up enjoying the books more. Because of this, I’ll probably review only those books which I feel I want to write about.

I have no clue when I’ll be posting again here and I sure don’t want to make any more empty promises. But I’m about 90% sure already that the next update will be for a book review. Subscribe to my mailing list (at the bottom) or follow me on Twitter if you want to be notified as soon as I update. That’s all for now and happy reading! ^_^

You know that quote: “You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.” Well that is exactly what I feel right now.

A Sense of the World by Jason Roberts (My secondhand trade paperback copy)

James Holman was known simply as “The Blind Traveler” in his time. A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History’s Greatest Traveler is technically the first book about him. If not for the efforts of the author, Jason Roberts, the modern world would have never known his inspiring story. A story of the admirable determination of a blind man who dreamed of circumnavigating the world while traversing its most uncharted territories.

I had to smile each time Fernando Po (in Africa) was mentioned in the book. =)

James Holman wasn’t born blind. His blindness is actually one great mystery in the book. Holman also didn’t belong in the upper class society. But his extreme frugality and convivial character were some of his biggest advantages over the conventional traveler. Unlike others, he didn’t publicize his wandering aspirations before setting out to his expeditions. He had to keep his plans in secret lest his friends and acquaintances react negatively, although well-intentioned. Therefore, most of his travels were only realized through chance circumstances. And this was just all well for The Blind Traveler because he preferred traveling alone.

I love the whole book but the part that struck me most was the first two-thirds of it. As with most biographies, the last few chapters tend to get quite depressing. Some of the most interesting aspects of the book are:

• How Holman, a young man with bold ambitions, had come to accept blindness as a gift. Indeed, he took it as a favorable handicap that has proven its merits when it came to dealing with the women of his time.
• Holman’s poetry. The Blind Traveler had a knack of using poems to express or rather mask his emotions in writing.
• All the historical, nautical and medical facts scattered throughout the book. Surprisingly, I wasn’t bored at all reading about seafaring vessels and their history. Maybe it’s because I have a seaman for a father.

Holman tells us that the blind have an unapparent advantage over the sighted when it comes to getting the attention of the opposite sex. The veritable romantic air of the time (something our modern age unfortunately lacks) couldn’t be more obvious in Holman’s writings.

The beauties of the beautiful
Are veiled before the blind,
Not so the graces and the bloom
That blossom in the mind.
The beauties of the finest form
Are sentenced to decay;
Not so the beauties of the mind,
They never fade away.

The prevailing challenge to Holman were his literary critics. That’s because The Blind Traveler was not only a sailor but also a writer. I’ll let you wonder how he wrote.

James Holman - 1825 Portrait

During the 19th century, blindness carried a heavy stigma. People didn’t have the right medical knowledge yet so it was widely believed that impairments like blindness was a punishment from God. Thus, the skepticism towards Holman’s credibility as a traveler became the ever-present conflict in the story.

The biographer chose to use little to no dialogue at all in the book and I’m glad he did.

… employing literary license, such as inventing small details or dialogue to liven up a scene, seemed patently out of the question. Holman was already an improbable enough figure. I didn’t want to introduce any doubts as to the authenticity of things in the reader’s mind.

~ Jason Roberts (Author)

A Sense of the World is first and foremost a biography but it’s also, in large part, a travel novel. However, it’s not filled with colorful and vivid descriptions of scenic places. Or, at least not in the ways we are used to. Instead, the book offers a unique look at how a blind man perceives the world as only he can “see” it. You might think that it’s simply how you’ll sense and describe the world with your eyes closed but that’s not it. Reading Holman’s descriptions felt like he was showing me how to use a new sensory organ I never knew I had.

The thing I loved most about Holman is how cleverly he worked towards his dream. He did everything behind the scenes. Reading about Holman’s stoic patience and sheer determination inspired me to reflect on my life again. What do I really want to achieve? How much am I willing to sacrifice for my dreams? Holman’s life was a stark reminder for me to be strong-willed and have a less diffident attitude.

We owe the author our thanks for the unthinkable amount of work he had done just to save this remarkable man from utter obscurity. And I could not have wished for a better writer. Jason Roberts weaves all the little bits and pieces left of Holman’s story in such an engaging prose you’d really feel for The Blind Traveler. I even found myself pining for the simple life in Holman’s time.

Thanks to Mr. Roberts, we now know that there was once a man who saw our world more than any sighted explorer has ever had. Indeed, without even using his eyes. He used all his other senses more expeditiously than anyone which enabled him to experience the truest sense of our world.

* Read this book if you like history, travel or poetry. No, actually even if you don’t like any of those, read this book still. I never even heard of this book before seeing it at the bargain store. Now I’m dying to get it in hardcover! As you can sense (hehe!), I adore this book to no end so it’s only fitting I give it the following score.

To learn more about the Blind Traveler and his era, please visit:
www.jasonroberts.net/holman – read the book’s introduction here!

Read other reviews at Amazon.com then purchase your copy of “A Sense of the World”

When I was a small kid, I saw a TV commercial that showed a man reading a book by simply leafing through its pages. I didn’t want to believe it then because I thought it couldn’t be possible. Turns out, he’s actually the world’s fastest reader. Later, I heard of people who claimed to read pages in just seconds! The ever curious me naturally resolved to learn more about this cool thing they called “speed reading”.

In 1999, I bought the book Super Reading Secrets by Howard Stephen Berg – acclaimed as the world’s fastest speed reader. Wait, is there even a slow speed reader?

My worn out copy of Super Reading Secrets

I thought I had already lost my copy of this book. But just a few weeks ago, I found it shelved together with my old and dusty grade school books. After 10 years, I’m now rediscovering the techniques I once dreamed of mastering so I could brag about it in elementary school.

I was really excited to learn the tricks described in this book. But at the back of my mind, I was repeatedly asking myself if I really wanted this. I was thinking that speed reading is something you cautiously unlock much like the third eye. I thought once I learned speed reading then I could never go back to reading normally again. Well of course, I later realized that my worries were unfounded and well… farfetched. Hey! How should I know? I was barely an adolescent back then.

Surprisingly, the book is not all gimmick. It actually has some well-grounded recommendations designed to improve not just reading speed but also comprehension skills. The topics are constructed like a self-learning program with several hands-on exercises you can practice to gauge yourself. It’s readers belonging in the academe who will benefit most from the techniques here.

Ironically, I never finished reading this speed reading book. I think the program does work if you have the time and determination to earnestly follow it. However, I don’t think I will ever want to learn true speed reading again.

There are two reasons why I no longer like the idea of speed reading. Speed reading in the sense that you read faster than your usual reading speed.

• First, I don’t think that we can ever speed read without sacrificing comprehension and retention. What’s the use of getting to the end of a book if you don’t fully understand the ideas presented in it or only remember half of it?
• The second reason is obvious for readers of novels or fiction. Speed reading sucks out all the joy in reading for fun. We may be able to read fast but I don’t think our minds can keep up with it to do… uh… “speed imagining”.

Speed reading isn’t all that bad though. Ideally, our reading pace should depend on the type of material we are reading. If you’re studying for an exam or writing a critique, you should read the source material at just the right speed where you can gain maximum comprehension so you don’t miss important facts.

Our understanding and interest in the subject matter also plays a big factor in our reading speed. I can read tech-related books fast but I don’t expect to be able to do the same with Shakespearean novels. Speed reading is most appropriate for those materials which we read just for the information like newspapers and magazines, as well as for those things that we’re simply reading again.

Howard Berg’s book has gotten mixed reviews but I’m seriously going through his tips again. With my less-than-average reading speed, I could definitely use a reading improvement program. Just don’t expect me to read like him.

It’s one thing to read a hundred pages in just a few minutes but to be able to analyze and deduce new ideas and well thought out insights from it – now that’s the kind of skill everyone should be aiming to have.

Spend hours in front of the TV. Play Facebook games all day. Watch all the viral YouTube videos everyone’s been laughing about. Have no problems walking inside a bookstore, completely oblivious to the great books on display. Or be just a normal guy with normal likes (sports, FHM)  and dislikes (soap operas, Twilight).

Would life be easier for me, then? Maybe. I’ll probably spend more time with other people and less time alone by myself. I would not be going to bookstores unless I need to buy a pen. Surely, I would not be using the computer at this hour because I’ll be outdoors more often with more friends too. But then, that wouldn’t be the real me anymore. As much as I love dance music, I also love the quite peace of the night. And it would be really sad to miss out on great stories like Harry Potter, The Little Prince and A Sense of the World. Most likely, I wouldn’t even be able to write an article like this. I pretty much owe my vocabulary skills to the books I’ve read. So yeah, I think I would be less intelligent too.

So no, I’m taking back my wishes. (Haven’t rubbed the lamp yet.)

Here really are my 3 wishes for the genie:

1. I wish there was more time for reading. A Time Turner would be really nice to have.
2. I wish I had the money to buy all the books I want to read. Then I can also buy all the hardback, limited, anniversary, special and boxed editions of my favorite series. I’ll be able to share more books too!
3. I wish more people would read. Then books will be talked about in public just as much as movies and celebrities. And as a bonus, I think the world will be a better place too.

Sorry if this seems to be just me ranting. I just felt I needed to write this out because I’m experiencing yet another one of those moments when I’m just disappointed of who I am as a person. Being too different especially for a guy really has a lot of social and psychological disadvantages, in my opinion. I just need to remind myself (again) that I should thank God for He gave me the gift of love for reading.

If you can think of other positive things one can get for reading a lot, especially for guys, please share it below. God knows I need all the encouragement I can get right now.

Checkout a book from the library and (assuming that the library is old or doesn’t have a computerized system yet) it will have a card attached to the back cover revealing to you all the people that previously borrowed it. Imagine your delight when you see the name of an old friend listed there! Contrary to popular belief, reading is not a solitary pursuit. And traditional books can actually connect people in much deeper ways than its much-touted electronic counterpart.

In most used books, there are scribbles in the margins of the pages telling us the thoughts of the previous reader. Yes, some of these may not even be related to the book’s content but, nonetheless, are still a joy to read. Then there are the book signing events and all the hoopla surrounding first editions. Oftentimes, it’s the little things like this which make a paper book worth even more than its original value.

Each book printed on paper is effectively a piece of literary history. Once a paper book is read, it becomes its own unique edition of the original. Thus, going through a library or a used books store is not merely a matter of browsing through stuff made of paper. You’re actually in a room filled with a portion of human history! The seemingly trivial act of finding a book is an experience in itself that cannot be replicated by ebookstores. You are like an archaelogist digging through caves (read: bookcases) hoping to find something that will provide you enlightenment or inspiration.

Ebooks, on the other hand, are nothing more than just bits and bytes saved on magnetic discs. They are all made of the same stuff making them rather difficult to alter for you to leave a lasting mark on them. Ebooks simply don’t offer the same kind of archival attribute paper books have. And there’s absolutely no way for you to personalize an ebook.

Paper books may have been made using dead trees, but the memory, provenance or history collected in their existence are not dead.

Can your ebooks do this or give you these kind of experiences?

—

This is yet another piece against the ongoing trend of disillusioned folks thinking that the paper book industry is going the way of the dodo due to the advent of ebooks and e-readers. I say, paper books are here to stay! We might have electronic gadgets capable of reading ebooks but I firmly believe that a dedicated gadget for reading won’t be the future. Heck, even Steve Jobs thinks so.

Percy Jackson - The Titan's Curse (My Paperback Copy)

I was barely 10 pages into Titan’s Curse when I decided that I loved the book. I thought it was funnier and more hilarious than the previous two but little did I know, this was gonna be my least favorite of the Percy Jackson series (so far).

Just like Sea of Monsters, Titan’s Curse also gives brief recaps of the events from the prior books which is really helpful for someone like me who reads a single book over the span of several weeks.

In this third part of the series, Percy’s goat friend Grover finds two new powerful half-bloods/demigods. Naturally, Percy and his friends are tasked to get them to the safety of Camp Half-Blood before the monsters capture them. Team Half-Blood does get new members but it also loses some along the way, including one of the original trio and here lies my biggest problem with this book.

Many new characters are introduced here. The hunters of Artemis were successful in getting into my nerves (poor Percy) while Apollo is one heck of an odd but fun character. We finally get to know all the Olympian gods and instead of a trio we now get 5 main adventurers.

Riordan took a risk by deviating from the original format of centering the adventures around the Percy-Annabeth-Grover trio and the book really suffered from it. I missed the original trio. There was just too many new characters here for the main events. There are deaths but I hardly cared about them. The new characters just weren’t developed enough.

Indeed, Titan’s Curse is the funniest of the three Percy Jackson books I’ve read so far. I like how in supposedly serious discussions, some characters still manage to squeeze in some joke or funny line. The dance in the beginning is also one of my favorite parts here. Subtle hints of romance are preferable, thank you. I’m fast becoming a Percy+Annabeth shipper.

Aside from those few points, I didn’t find much to like in this book to mark it as a favorite. I didn’t like how dreams were used too much here. Another dream?! Seriously, it’s getting old, repetitive and thus uncreative. And then there’s the titular curse a.k.a. prophecy.

The prophecy thing was poorly executed. It felt forced and didn’t really sound like a compelling prophecy. I hate how things have to be explained that this event was this part of the prophecy instead of making the reader decipher it. The characters themselves didn’t even seem like they were particularly concerned about the prophecy. The only times the prophecy was mentioned was when they needed to justify why this or that thing happened.

I don’t know if it’s just because I hate the idea of prophecies in novels but the one here in Titan’s Curse was just lame. It felt as if the author first came up with the idea of thinking up some cryptic prophecy then decided that the adventures will revolve around that. That would have been fine but the problem is the prophecy itself which is boring and unconvincing.

And lastly, I hated how Percy almost always has the solution. It’s like he just magically comes up with an idea at the last second. I never got the impression in the previous books that Percy was that bright of a kid. The book tricks you into thinking that all hope is lost then suddenly Percy does something extraordinary so all is well, at least for a while. This happens way too many times in this book that I couldn’t help but roll my eyes after the nth time! Many of the conflicts and resolutions simply felt too contrived.

Granted that the first two books also didn’t exactly have complex plots, at least it felt like things made more sense in them. I had more “huh?” and “wtf” moments while reading this third installment. Titan’s Curse just feels like a mishmash of action-packed adventures having the sole purpose of proving a prophecy.

UK edition cover looks disturbingly similar to the 3rd book of another series... Buckbeak?!

The Titan’s Curse started really well in the first few pages but quickly turns into something very different towards the middle. Fortunately, it ends quite nicely just like the previous two books with a yet another surprising twist. This is the only thing that redeemed this book for me not to deem it a complete disappointment.

I really enjoyed reading books 1 and 2 and I simply didn’t expect to get slightly disappointed by part 3. I can only hope that the last two books are better than this.

Read other reviews and purchase The Titan’s Curse at Amazon.com

A Wrinkle in Time - Yearling edition

A Wrinkle in Time is a book written by Madeleine L’Engle, first published in 1962! It’s a classic children’s novel that has won several awards since. The story revolves around an earthly family discovering otherworldly (but fascinating) beings and an alien society that is in some ways just as weird as the one described in “The Giver” — another excellent young adult book. Wrinkle, in many ways, is a moral criticism of modern society and scientific study, thinly disguised as a science fantasy novel.

My copy of A Wrinkle in Time is my first ever purchase at BookSale! Got it for only 20 pesos!

Wrinkle illustrates several characters with the usual features found in other books similar to it, such as the desire of young characters to be different just to be accepted or simply finding one’s individuality. Most of these concepts will probably go over the head of younger readers but that’s precisely why it’s also a great book for the child at heart.

As a Catholic, I caught many of the hints subtly suggesting a spiritual context. But the book also introduces some interesting (although probably blasphemous) anecdotes on the world’s most popular religious figures like Jesus and Buddha. I appreciate the book’s interest on the non-physical but I would suggest to the conservative folks who’ll read this to just keep in mind that it’s fiction and to lighten up a bit.

The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men…

– Mrs. Who

If I’d have to pick one aspect of this book which I love the most, it is the character Charles Wallace Murry. I’m not gonna spoil you on what his character is like but I will say that I really enjoyed reading him as much as I did reading that quirky boy of Mark Haddon’s “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”. It’s just a pity that we “lose” Charles Wallace about halfway through the novel. Honestly, I don’t know what it is about eccentric characters which draw me to them. Maybe I am abnormal after all. *chews nails*

Wrinkle... and my copy of The Curious Incident...

The primary conflict unravels when the Murry family makes a huge and ideology-shattering scientific discovery. It is very disconcerting to learn how science often takes things for granted, all for the sake of furthering our knowledge. You might be familiar of the Large Hadron Collider or LHC. It’s a new invention that smashes atoms to prove the existence of Higgs boson or the God particle. The geek in me is excited for the new stuff we might discover but I also think it’s a very dangerous undertaking since we’re literally treading on uncharted territory with these experiments. Who knows? They might even slice through a tesseract and let into our world some spectres! Oops, wrong book.

Wrinkle also hit me with the reality that in astronomical terms, the human race is a very, very primitive civilization. The science we know right now could easily be turned right on its head. In physics today, there’s popular talk about hidden and multiple dimensions. We can comprehend 3D and 4D since those are simply space and time, respectively. But once you go higher from 5th to the believed limit of an 11th dimension, we can’t seem to wrap our heads around that possibility at all.

Just proves how little we know…

– Mr. Murry

Some people may find the book’s ending to be unimaginative, even clichéd. But maybe that’s the whole point. Isn’t it that the simplest of the solutions is almost always the best one? And after everything is truly accounted for, isn’t it true that what really matters in the end are the things we often take for granted in our everyday life?

Wrinkle reminded me again that temporal things are largely insignificant in the grand scheme of things. In fact, the most significant discovery the human race can achieve right now is not a proof of the existence of another universe but to learn the secret of how to stop ourselves from killing each other.

A Wrinkle in Time - First edition cover

A Wrinkle in Time - Latest edition cover

Read this book if you want a unique look at how things might be if alien life did exist and there was a quick way to travel from our world to theirs. How will you react if it was your family who discovers this new reality? If you’d like to see how a dysfunctional family will deal with it, read this book.

A Wrinkle in Time is the first book of the Time Quartet series by Madeleine L’Engle, which chronicles the lives of the Murry family. Of course, I hope to read the rest of the series someday as I’m still quite intrigued by the Charles Wallace character. I wonder how he’ll grow up and mature if he’s already like THIS at such a young age!

Purchase a copy of “A Wrinkle in Time” at Amazon.com

Visit the official site of “A Wrinkle in Time” author Madeleine L’Engle

Anyway, the title of this post basically means that The Bookish Pinoy is not going anywhere anymore. Yay! Now my book blogging friends can rest easy knowing that they won’t have to go to their admin panels just to change their link to this site. Hehe.

You’re probably thinking… “Make up your mind! You switch moods like a little girl!” Well I’m really sorry. For a moment, merging the two blogs seemed like a good idea. But while I was finishing up on the new blog’s design, I realized how silly it was for me to be moving Bookish. So no more of that. I promise. Really. ^_^;

And what happened to the book reviews? Well they’re still in the backburner. Just kidding. No, I’ll be posting them next week along with another article I came up with over my long unannounced hiatus. I just felt I needed to write something here (again) to let people know I haven’t given up this thing yet. And yes, this will be my last post here announcing of things to come because I know how futile these things can be. So, I’ll see you next week!

P.S. You can now submit your email address at the very bottom of this page so you can also be notified of new posts here thru email. It’s free, don’t worry.

P.S.#2
Just in case you’re wondering what I’ll do with the new blog design, it will be used only in my personal blog. That’s the one which will move to a new address not this one. =)

Regarding Ondoy, thankfully we weren’t affected much by it. We only lost power for a few hours but that’s it. I spent most of the day tweeting, plurking and facebooking news about the storm. Hearing about people who got stuck in their houses because of the rising flood was one of the most harrowing experiences I’ve ever had this year. I didn’t feel like writing much again after that so I decided to go on a blogging hiatus for a while and just take my time with my new blog’s design. Also, I felt I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on personal matters if I still visit everyday the 20 or so blogs I frequent. I figured it wouldn’t be fair if I commented only on a handful of blogs while ignoring the rest so I decided to abandon blog reading for a while. I reckon I have a lot of catching up to do once I do return for good but honestly, I’m really looking forward to reading blogs again. I do have a nasty habit of starting something and not finishing it and I want to change that attitude so I really have to finish the new blog. I’m almost done with it and I should have everything back up on a new website address before the end of the week. The Bookish Pinoy will still be there so it’s still this same content with the same name but with a new look. You’ll see the reviews I was promising to publish here once the new blog is up.

Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for reading and (hopefully) for understanding. Need to get back to working on a**l***s (the new blog’s name). ^_^

(Photo credits)

It’s only this year that I started to be really serious about my love for reading and writing that’s why this book blog is still fairly young. It’s also only recently that I learned more about all the stuff book lovers engage themselves into like book clubs, local book release events, book blogs, book mooching and book fairs. I still can’t believe how I was able to miss these stuff before when I have been buying books voraciously for quite a few years now and I’m certainly no stranger to the Internet either. But I’ve been trying to play catch up with the reading social and my first step was this blog. Then I thought attending a book-related event like MIBF would be a pretty good second step.

The first time I heard of MIBF was through a comment made here by Mel (thanks!) in my blog. I remember being so excited to learn that we had this kind of event here in the Philippines. I tried to get more information about it and the answer came in the form of a blog post by Blooey. I prepared myself in the days leading up to the event. I’ve been to the SMX Convention once before and to see that huge hall occupied by shelves of books and book lovers was something I knew I didn’t want to miss. I even thought of attending every day since I don’t really have a job right now which means I have more time. But all those plans were all for naught. The night before the first day of the fair, I was already feeling sick. I had hoped I would get better by Saturday to at least attend the last day but I didn’t. I was still having huge fits of coughing by Sunday. Grimly, I accepted the fact that I just couldn’t go.

It’s really depressing that I wasn’t able to go this year. I was initially mad at myself for getting sick at possibly the worst time ever but eventually I realized that it was just okay. (I believe He has better plans for me.) If you want to read about other book bloggers’ experience at the fair, some of my blogger friends made updates on their respective blogs.

Blooey published three great posts (so far) and you should really read them all to get a feel of what the event was like.

Mel posted about his finds here. He seems into reading Japanese novels right now.

Judie seems to be going in a blogging hiatus right now but she did mention in an article her finds at the fair here.

If you also blogged about your MIBF experience this year, please share it in the comments. I’d love to read more! ^_^

Note to self: Live healthier next year so I don’t miss the 31st Manila International Book Fair.

—

During my absence here, I’ve been writing draft reviews of the books I’ve read recently. Expect to see here at least one new book review before the week ends. Two if I turn out luckier and healthier this week.

I think this is the same one I saw in Peter’s blog, just a closer shot! (Source)

I don’t like the iPhone but this looks really neat. (Source)

Aww!!! She’s learning to read Puss in Boots. (Source)

I want my own personal library to be like this too! (Source)

The British Library London. Ah… More library heaven here.

Would love to take a picture of me ON that book… (Source)

It’s a tower of books. Looks more like the inside of a tornado to me! (Source)

A sound advice but I can’t help but break this rule. (Source)

Sorry, but this was just too cute not to post here! (Source)