Bookstore visits and choosing books

Today was the first time I bought books again ever since Easter. I didn’t get to post about it here, but I fasted from book stores and buying books all through out Lent. That was the longest time I didn’t get in a bookstore, and believe me, when Easter Sunday came, I couldn’t wait to go in Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street.

However, I was surprised when I went out of Fully Booked without a single book. Maybe it was because I didn’t have any money yet (payday isn’t until next week!), or maybe it’s just because…there’s nothing to buy. Or nothing to buy immediately. I visited Fully Booked in Eastwood last week too, but there wasn’t anything too interesting, either.

Today, I visited Powerbooks in Megamall again and finally went out with some purchases. It’s not that I should buy something really, but it’s just weird that I didn’t have anything in mind even after not visiting and browsing books for the longest time, you know? Anyway, I found a lot of new books I wanted in Powerbooks, and came out with two purchases, all within my book allowance for the month.

Now here’s my question: how do you choose which books to get for yourself? I saw a lot of books I liked and were curous about, but I wasn’t sure if they were good, so I didn’t get any of them until I get some reviews. Right now I’m relying only on reviews and such, but sometimes some of the books aren’t reviewed. I’m kind of wary about impulse buys now, so I try to avoid getting books on impulse.

So how do you choose which books to get? Do you rely on reviews, too? Do you just check the blurbs at the back? Friend recommendations? Random leaps of faith?

Slow Reading

Hello world, missed me?

It’s pretty quiet here because for the first time since January, I haven’t finished reading anything this week. Of course, it was my birthday week too, which made me twice as busy as I normally am with all the parties and celebrations and such. I’m currently reading two books — an actual book and an ebook, but I’m still quite slow with it.

Normally, I’m a fast reader. I finish books like I eat them — a book that a friend normally reads a week, I can read it in two to three days. Sometimes I read books faster than I actually understand term life insurance rates. I do get to finish the story quickly, but sometimes I tend to miss out on some details and words in the book (no wonder my vocabulary sucks sometimes).

But there were and are certain books that I read slowly, for different reasons. I could be busy, it could be a classic book, or I could be trying to savor reading the book. I read Fire slowly, because I wanted to savor it. I read Persuasion slowly because it was kind of hard getting into the language. Right now I’m reading Shades of Grey slowly, because I feel like if I don’t, I’ll miss a lot of the little details in the book that makes it unique.

So…forgive me for the lack of entries here. I don’t have book stash posts too, for a whole different reason, which I think I should have blogged about here earlier. Maybe tomorrow.

I should get back to reading now.

Oh, and do you have a question? Ask me anything here!

BTT: Images, Images.

I’m sorry for not posting here for the past few days, been terribly busy with other things, like my 30 days challenge in my personal blog, and work and well…work. I’ve still been reading, though, but going through Shades of Grey really slowly.

Yeah, work.

So anyway, I have a couple of reviews lined up, but before that, let’s do a Booking Through Thursday! :)

How do you feel about illustrations in your books? Graphs? Photos? Sketches?

I’m starting to get into some graphic novels, although honestly, it has too much of a comic-book feeling that I don’t feel it’s a real book. But I don’t really mind illustrations in a book. I used to like seeing illustrations in Sweet Valley Kids (haha, I know), and I thought the illustrations in Jasper Fforde’s books are fun to look at. Another book that has funky illustrations is Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz, with the rabbit and the astronaut and all. I can’t remember what exactly, because I lost my copy of that book.

So…it’s pretty so-so for me. It doesn’t really change my views on what I read, but I agree that it breaks the monotony of just seeing text. :)

I want to be Anne Elliot

Persuasion by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Number of pages: 271
My copy: Bantam Classics edition

Eight years ago Anne Elliot bowed to pressure from her family and made the decision not to marry the man she loved, Captain Wentworth. Now, circumstances have conspired to bring him back into her social circle and Anne finds her old feelings for him reignited. However, when they meet again Wentworth behaves as if they are strangers and seems more interested in her friend Louisa. In this, her final novel, Jane Austen tells the story of a love that endures the tests of time and society with humour, insight and tenderness.

* * *

Oh dear, where should I start with this novel?

I’ve heard a lot about Persuasion from my Austen friends, but I never really thought of picking it up until one day that I found myself without a book in the mall while waiting for my brother. My first Austen read was Pride and Prejudice, and I was planning to read Sense and Sensibility next, because…well, it seemed like the next logical choice, right?

But everyone I know seemed to really love Persuasion so that won while I was looking for the next book to read.

Suffice to say it waited on my shelf before I actually got to read it. At least it didn’t wait for 2 years as P&P did, but if I didn’t force myself to read this, I don’t think I would have finished it at all.

And you know what, I’m glad I did. :)

A little background on why I had to force myself to read this book.

I’m not a fan of classics. I made a resolution last 2006 to read 10 classic books in a year but only got to one (To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee). The next year I didn’t read any and last year…I got to one, too. It’s weird because when I was a kid, I remember reading A Little Princess and The Secret Garden and Anne of Green Gables without even complaining of their old language. But now, I’d pick another book over a classic book any day.

While I was planning one of my NaNoWriMo novels, I read a lot of references to classics that I couldn’t relate to because I didn’t read them. Then I read Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series and I felt left out because I don’t know most of the characters he mentioned in the series. I realized that if I want to be a writer, and if I want to be really well-read, I’ve got to pick up some classics and read them. I mean, they have got to be good — they wouldn’t be classics if they weren’t, right?

Now I’m still learning to appreciate classics. They are still not my first pick among the books I have, but I’m giving myself a dose every now and then. It takes a while for me to get through the language, and if I stop reading for a couple of days I’m bound to get lost, but it’s a learning process I suppose. It’s a challenge, and well, I like this challenge, so yeah.

Oh, and classic books can be downloaded as ebooks for free, so that is definitely a perk. :P

Back to Persuasion.

It took me a while to really get into this book. I admit the first few pages kind of made my head hurt, because I couldn’t get into the language. But once Anne Elliot finally showed herself in the book, I started getting comfortable and I actually started liking it. A lot.

I think the thing that really struck me here was Anne Elliot herself. I loved Elizabeth Bennet in P&P, but I realized how much I loved Anne more in this novel. Elizabeth was a feisty and strong-headed woman, someone who you’d want to have as a friend. Anne was someone who I want to be. She’s emotionally mature, with the way she deals with her family and her emotions especially with Captain Wentworth. She knows when to speak up and when to let it be. She keeps her appointments despite what other people say, and she has her mind and heart in the right place. It was sad that she’s such a social outcast in her family, but I think that gave her the character that made her so lovable. I bet she doesn’t even need to take some adult acne treatment, and if she needed to, she would have taken it with much grace.

Who wouldn’t want to be her, seriously?

Continue Reading →

BTT: Unknown Favorites

This week’s Booking Through Thursday question is interesting, and a bit hard — at least for me:

Who’s your favorite author that other people are NOT reading? The one you want to evangelize for, the one you would run popularity campaigns for? The author that, so far as you’re concerned, everyone should be reading–but that nobody seems to have heard of. You know, not JK Rowling, not Jane Austen, not Hemingway–everybody’s heard of them. The author that you think should be that famous and can’t understand why they’re not…

Okay this is just kind of hard. I feel like most of my favorite authors are known authors, but maybe it’s because I’ve been reading them for so long and I found some people who also love the books that I love to read, so it feels like a lot of people read it. Did that make sense?

But I think it would be awesome if more people read:

  • Frank Peretti – author of This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness to name a few, and one of the best Christian fiction that I’ve ever read. I’d like to think his books are not only for the Christian people, because it’s really awesome. :)
  • Camy Tang – I only discovered her about two years ago, and her chick lit books remain a favorite on my shelf. I always recommend her to friends who are looking for good, quality (and clean) chick lit, and she’s a really nice person, too. :)
  • Tosca Lee – I was blown away by her book, Demon, and even if I haven’t finished Havah, yet, I know from the first few pages of it that it’s also a beautiful book. I can’t wait for her third novel that comes out in 2011 — the story of Judas Iscariot. Don’t you think that’s just yummy?

I think that’s it. More people should read their books, really. It would make the world a better place (and maybe I’m not kidding there hahaha).

On another note, not really related to BTT. Earlier today we dropped by at Fully Booked during afternoon break just for kicks, and I got caught in a book splurge again. *headdesk* I was only intending to look for Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth to make sure it’s still there, waiting for me to buy it next Friday. (It’s not.) What I found instead, was Shelley Adina‘s final book in the It’s All About Us series, The Chic Shall Inherit the Earth. And there’s only one copy left.

Ugh. I hate it that I could have bought Carrie Ryan’s book last Friday, only I didn’t because I wasn’t in the mood to buy a hardcover book. I wanted to buy it last Sunday, but I didn’t because I was waiting for the sale in Eastwood. AND NOW…it’s gone. :(

Alas. Maybe the paperback is meant for me.

But I’m happy to find Shelley Adina’s book because that meant my collection is complete. My wallet isn’t so happy, though, and this means I may have to bring lunch to work for a week to compensate. :P But I can’t wait to see what happens to the protagonist and the antagonist, and if she and the guy from the first book will finally get together. I was planning to read it after Persuasion, but alas, it cannot wait. So sorry, Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth, you’d have to wait a bit. This won’t be long. :P