Woofy Bloggy Birthday!

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Happy bloggy doggie birthday! :D

Happy bloggy doggie birthday!

This book blog is four today, yay!

Four years ago, I decided to open this book blog because I wanted to write about books. And now, it’s still alive (although sometimes, barely), and well, look at that. :)

For the four years I’ve been blogging, I read a total of 422 books, not counting the rereads. I haven’t reviewed every single book I read in the past four years, but I have written a lot about books, even branching out to some more bookish writing for other websites. While my book blog isn’t really related to my book club life, I’d like to think that it was my blog that led me to find the book club I belong to now. And more than that, I also have other bookish blogging friends who are not necessarily in the same club, but we still talk books because it’s fun.

What a fun bookish life this is, yes? :)

I don’t really have much to say, and I don’t even really have plans, except that I just wanted to have a post for today because. :)

I remember on my blog’s first anniversary, I held a big giveaway. It’s been a long time since I had one, yeah? (Plus, I got inspired by my friend Angus’ giveaway for his blog’s birthday. Why not have one too? :D) Okay, so how about this: leave a comment, recommend a book (because that’s how I pick my books nowadays), and then I’ll send a bookish little snail mail package to one winner. I don’t know what the package will contain just yet, but I promise it’s book-related. :) Contest ends on January 17, 2014, 11:59pm.

All good? Alright. Here, have a cupcake:

cupcakes

Woofy birthday, I Like it Dog-Eared! :3

Posted in: Squee! \ Tagged: , ,

Terrific Three

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True to form, I almost forgot what today’s date meant.

And then, I saw blog birthdays from other friends‘ blogs, I thought: Wait. My blog’s birthday is also on January. I checked the calendar and then gasp, there!

Happy third birthday, One More Page!

Image from we heart it

Image from we heart it

Three years blogging about books. Imagine that. I’m quite proud and amazed that I lasted this long, even if I kind of had a slump by late 2012. I am not going to say that I’m surprised that I’m still blogging about books because the surprise is long gone, and I really don’t think I’ll stop anytime soon. So, to celebrate my blog’s third birthday, I have three blogging confessions.

Continue Reading →

Posted in: Squee! \ Tagged: ,

Happy second birthday, blog!

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Oh look it’s January 9. Can you guess what happened on this day two years ago?

Yep, I started this blog. So, yay, Happy second birthday, One More Page!

Color me surprised once again, that my book blog is still thriving. It’s even more active compared to my personal blog, which by default should have been more active given my propensity to talk. But I guess it’s a sign of growing up, too, because instead of talking about myself, I talk about something I’m passionate about: books. And words.

A little story. Sometime before 2011 ended, my friends and I were talking about our plans for the coming year and I mentioned something about my life plan involving books and words. I don’t know if I will eventually quit my job and write full time (although that sounds lovely) or if I’ll switch careers and get a job related to books and writing even if it’s so far away from my course. I don’t know anything. But one thing I know: I see myself working with words and books in the future. I’m pretty sure that’s my life plan. Moving towards that is another question (and another post, for the personal blog).

But anyway, I think I wouldn’t have really figured that out if I wasn’t reading so much and blogging about the books I read. So in a way, this blog is sort of living out that dream, or moving towards that life plan. Now I don’t want to pressure myself with all that life plan talk and any pressure would make me not want to do this anymore. I’m still determined not to let things get to me, and to still have fun with this. :)

And thank you. To the 170ish subscribers, to everyone who take the time to visit (even the spam bots) before they check out dakine backpacks at RockyMountainTrail.com, and everyone who has left a comment or sent me email through this blog. Thanks for reading through some of the drivel the things I write. Thanks for making this twice as fun. :)

So again: happy birthday blog! I hope you’d have many, many more years to come. :)

Posted in: Squee! \ Tagged: ,

The Best of This is a Crazy Planets

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The Best of This is a Crazy Planets by Lourd de VeyraThe Best of This is a Crazy Planets by Lourd Ernest H. De Veyra
Publisher: Summit Books
Number of pages:  116
My copy: paperback, review copy from publisher

Lourd Ernest Hanopol de Veyra is many things at once: front man of the band Radioactive Sago Project, TV personality, poet, award-winning writer, blogger, and now, author. His two-year-old blog This is a Crazy Planets has gained a large following on SPOT.ph, and his best works are now compiled in a book of the same title.

With Lourd’s various entries on everyday life’s absurdities, This is a Crazy Planets mirrors Filipino pop culture in a way that is both humorous and endearing.

* * *

I’ve only heard about Lourd De Veyra through friends, because most of my friends are big fans of him. I’ve seen him every now and then on his TV5 segment, Word of the Lourd, and I have read some of his articles in his Spot.ph blog. But I was never really one who followed his stuff regularly. I wasn’t really 100% excited to attend his book launch when I was invited, except that I can’t really say no to a free, local book. Unfortunately, the launch happened on the night that tropical storm Falcon made an ocean of Manila.

I was glad when the publisher still sent me a book for review because despite my being a not-so-much-of-a-fan, I was curious about the book. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw how nice the book looked. Okay, it wasn’t just nice, it was quite beautiful for a local publication. My fellow bloggers and I often complain about the print quality of the local books here, but The Best of This is a Crazy Planets is far superior than the others. The paper quality is nice, the cover design is pretty and illustrations/artwork were there for every article. I am delighted to see that it was affordable for its quality, too – P195 (less than 4 USD) is a pretty good price to pay for a book that looks this pretty.

That price is even more justified once you read what’s inside. Like I said, I’ve only read a few of Lourd’s articles online, so I was pretty new to his writing. Lourd De Veyra offers a funny, oftentimes sarcastic but very real commentaries on Philippine current events, people, culture and even showbiz. I found myself giggling and having to hold it back whenever I’m reading this in a public place. Some of them, I can’t really relate to, some of them, I agree with, some of them, I just find really, really funny. Underneath its wit and sarcasm, Lourd’s articles show a lot of truth in the current state of our country. It’s not always pretty, and sometimes I feel bad when I realize that it is the ugly truth about the Philippines. But even so, Lourd never ever showed a hint of not liking his home country despite this truth (at least, that’s the impression on me). It’s like he writes it all out, shrugs and then says, “This is a crazy planet.” Or planets.

Why buy this book when you can read it online? Well, if you’re not enticed by the beautiful quality of this book and its relatively cheap price, think of it this way: you can read his articles even without Internet, even if you’re in the remotest areas in this crazy planet we live in. And I think that’s pretty much worth it, right?

The Best of This is a Crazy Planets is now available for Php195 in local bookstores nationwide.

Rating: [rating=4]

Other reviews:
taking a break

Posted in: Reviews \ Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,

Happy birthday, One More Page! :)

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Happy birthday blog! (image from weheartit.com)

Happy birthday blog!

Who would have thought that starting a book blog on a whim last year would last…well, for a year? :)

I’ve attempted to start niche blogs in the past, but they weren’t the type of blogs that people who don’t know me would be interested in reading. The reason why people started “niche” blogs back then was to earn money, but I never felt that I had enough patience and interest (and money!) to maintain a blog that talks about gadgets or tech or whatnot. So I’ve made a lot of blogs that eventually fizzed out: a Pinoy Big Brother blog (it’s my guilty pleasure), a Script Frenzy blog (that only lasted for a week), two NaNoWriMo blogs, and if there was anything else, I couldn’t remember. The only other living “niche” blogs I have are Wordplay (the 365 fiction blog that kind of failed miserably) and this very disgustingly emo romance and whatnot blog. I have always considered opening a book blog, but I felt that the reviews I write were too attached to my personal blog so I never made the move. And besides, if I removed the book reviews from my personal blog…then what would I blog about?

Kidding. Okay, half kidding.

But starting a book blog was one of my good decisions last year, and I think it’s come a long way. I know I’m just one in a thousand book blogs out there, but I’d also like to believe that this humble blog has made waves, even if they are just small ones. :) It’s too far to tell if I would still be doing this in the next five years, but I am pretty sure I will keep on reading and writing about books for the next year. And maybe the next. And the next. You get the idea. :P

Happy birthday, One More Page! To everyone who have been supportive of this from the start, to everyone who’s left comments and followed, to the 100+ Feedburner subscribers, to my inspirations and role models in the blogging world, and to all the friends that I have met online and in real life, I have two words:

THANK YOU! :)

It would not have been a great book blogging year without you guys. <3

Before I forget, though: today is the last day of the Anniversary Giveaway! A comment on any entry from December 24 to January 9 (today!) is all you need to be entered in the contest, where you can win some of my favorite books in 2010!  It’s a little thank you to everyone, and a way of giving back to the wonderful book blogging community. This is open to everyone (at least wherever Book Depository ships). I’ll be picking the winners within the week! :)

Posted in: Giveaway, Squee! \ Tagged: , ,