Category Archives: Events

On Dead Stars and Romantic Afternoons

3 Replies

I had a draft of this post from last night early this morning, before my shift ended, but I decided to chuck it all because that was my end-of-night-shift self talking and that self is usually more talkative than my usual self (imagine that). Let’s start over.

I wasn’t supposed to moderate a discussion for this year, but being one of the head moderators/administrators, I was ready to pick a vacant month to moderate in case no one steps up. It came a little early, after a friend made a deal with me and told me she’ll handle our other activity if someone else moderates for this month. It just so happened that the previous days, I was chatting with another friend about several activities that we can do for the group, and I realized that maybe if I moderate again, I will be able to make those activities happen.

So when 2013 rolled around, I was actually already planning my discussion. It didn’t even matter what book won, because I was going for an easy read — an easy and romantic read, because my discussion was during February. I was all about embracing the inner romantic of course! :D

The “book” that won was actually a short story, Dead Stars by Paz Marquez-Benitez. My original book of choice was Fourteen Love Stories but I could’t find a copy of it anywhere. So I decided to just stick with that story, and it won, mostly because of familiarity as this was one of the stories discussed in Literature class for most of us.
f2f14b

We had the face to face discussion last Sunday. I honestly felt more prepared for this discussion than my first one, probably because I have been preparing for this for so long. Heh. Plus the fact that I had several sick days in February, and I ended up having a lot of time on my hands despite my busy schedule. I had several activities planned, and while I was very excited, I was also kind of wary. Will it fly? Will people like it? Or will they think it’s too corny/cheesy? Am I just doing everything for my own fulfillment?

Discussion time :D

Discussion time :D (Photo c/o Reev)

Continue reading →

A Very Bookish TFG Year

18 Replies

Last Saturday, our book club had our last face to face book discussion for 2012, as well as our Christmas party. It was another awesome event, and really, I never expected anything less because weekends with my book club friends were always the highlight of my month. I’ve always meant to post about every meet-up like this, but I never got to, obviously (save for one post on my personal blog). I figure the year-end is always a good way to make a recap, so here we go. :)

tfg logo

 

Oh but wait – look we have a new logo! Thanks to Angus for bugging his friend to make one for us. :) Isn’t it purty? :D

A little background: our book club started out as an online book club that discusses books online but meets offline. When I joined, we didn’t have any book discussions offline, because our meet-ups weren’t always too many. We had about 3 big meet-ups every year from 2010, and then during those meet-ups we just talk books and gave away books and stayed together till everyone needs to go home. Late in 2011, someone came up with the idea to have a 100 Favorite Books List, which birthed the idea of finally having face to face book discussions.

I honestly wasn’t sure if it would fly. In fact, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to go to the first one because I was a bit busy then, and I was going through some personal stuff. But because I was made a moderator by late 2011, I felt that I was obligated to join them for that, even if it was my real first time to join a discussion. But again, we weren’t really sure if we could sustain the momentum, because a monthly meeting almost felt too much, especially coming from the meeting every quarter (not counting the smaller random meet-ups we have). I didn’t want it to die down, but I wasn’t really expecting it to really, really grow into a big event every month, you know?

But boy, was I surprised. :-)

Continue reading →

United We Read

11 Replies

Like I mentioned in one of my previous posts, one of the many reasons why I haven’t been blogging lately is because I’ve been busy using my creative juices over at the Filipino ReaderCon website. This year, I decided to step up and have a bigger role in the conference just because it’s about something I feel passionate about. I became the head of the Online Promotions team, which wasn’t really different from what I did last year, save for a few more responsibilities.

So most of my responsibilities happened before the event: managing the website, helping out with the Filipino Readers’ Choice Awards, twitter, Facebook. It wasn’t that stressful, but it did zap me of some writing juices hence the silence in this blog. And that other blog.

But anyway. Last Saturday was D-day, and man, what a day it was. I love being a part of events, really, and events about books and reading really just takes the cake. Since my main responsibility for the day was to live tweet and to update Facebook every now and then, I was pretty relaxed. Especially since I had a very capable online promotions team who were ready to do the live tweeting for the different panels. :)

Online Promotions! Yay! (Photo from Ella)

So the morning sessions went by smoothly and Internet was running perfectly and tweets were coming in with the hashtag #filreadercon. I was tweeting, too, from my phone, and it was quite a tiring thing, but it gave me some time to listen to the panels. I just love the energy of the people, both online and offline.

And then, my good friend Celina tweeted this:

And then I double checked on my Tweetdeck:

Continue reading →

United We Read: The 2nd Filipino ReaderCon

1 Reply

One of the reasons I haven’t been blogging much lately is because I was kind of busy ever since July rolled around. You know how sometimes, your love for something just extends out and makes you do things that you never thought you’d be doing? Oh, and it’s not in a bad way, of course. I just find it amazing that my love for books gave me an opportunity to be a part of things like these.

Anyway, this weekend is a big weekend for Filipino readers! It’s time for the 2nd Filipino ReaderCon!

United We Read: The 2nd Filipino ReaderCon
August 18, 2012, 8:00am to 6:00pm
Filipinas Heritage Library

I realized that I didn’t have a proper blog entry for the ReaderCon last year except for this In My Mailbox post, which kind of makes me sad because I had fun at the event last year and I should have documented it. Nevertheless, this year’s event is bound to be bigger because it’s a whole day event, and we have more things in store for everyone! Like panels about Reading Everywhere, Book Blogging Ethics, Publisher’s Perspective on Readers, School Reading Programs, and Authors As Readers. There will also be Book Discussions in the afternoon, where our book club is doing a replay of our February book discussion, The Little Prince. And then the winners of the Filipino Readers’ Choice Awards will be announced too! :)

Since I’m in charge of online promotions, I’ll be busy live tweeting the event with my team, so be sure to follow the @PinoyReaderCon twitter, and/or like the Filipino ReaderCon 2012 Facebook Page since we’ll be posting some updates there, too. :)

United We Read: The 2nd Filipino ReaderCon will be on August 18, 2012 (Saturday), 8:00am to 6:00pm at the Filipinas Heritage Library. Registration fee is Php150, and you can pre-register for the event here. This event is held in partnership with Filipinas Heritage Library (FHL) and National Book Development Board (NBDB), and sponsored by Scholastic, Lampara Books, McDonald’s, Flipreads, Anvil Publishing, Hachette Philippines, Amici Philippines, OMF Literature and Adarna House.

If you’re attending the event, make sure you say hi! :) See you!

Kwentillion Young Adult Readers Carnival

Leave a reply

Ah, so many bookish events in such a short span of time, are you excited?

If you’ve been following Kwentillion on Facebook, you would’ve read about this already, but in case you’re not, then read on! Presenting the 1st Kwentillion Young Adult Readers’ Carnival!

Kwentillion Young Adult Readers' Carnival

The event will be on July 21, 1-5pm at Bestsellers Robinsons Galleria. This is your chance to meet fellow YA literature fans in Manila, plus also meet Kwentillion contributors and other authors. :) If you have your copy of the magazine, you can have them signed there, or if you don’t have them yet, you can get yours (you should!) at the event.

There are other fun events, too, like the Author Cage Match, where teams will convince the audience that their chosen author is the best, and panel discussions with Kwentillion contributors and Philippine YA authors. Here are the panelists who will be at the event:

For the Kwentillion Panel:

For the Philippine Young Adult Creators Panel:

There will also be previews of current YA books on the shelves of National and why we think you should get them, as well as previews of the upcoming releases. If that’s not enough, there will be a YA Books Only Sale inside the store, and participants will receive a discount coupon as soon as they register which is valid for a one-time purchase inside the store.

For more information and updates, you can visit Rocket Kapre and Kwentillion’s Facebook page. YA fans in the Philippines, this is a must-go-to event! It’s really unfortunate that I’m out of town on the same weekend (without Atrix 4Gs), but I’m sure this will be a fun event. Is it too early to wish for a part 2? :)

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...