In My Mailbox (23): Birthday Mailbox, Part 2

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Happy 26th!

So today I turn 26. Last night I had a karaoke party with some of my friends and it was a bit crazy, and we all welcomed my birthday together with songs, drinks and stayed up until 3am talking about scifi things. Or they talked about scifi while I waited for the alcohol buzz to pass with coffee and cake.

Anyway, as expected, there would be a part 2 of my birthday mailbox. Some of my book club friends were there last night and of course, they got me books. :)

Birthday books!

  • What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones from Kai — to those who don’t know, Kai of Amaterasu Reads and I work together. It was kind of funny how she sneaked this book away from me when we were together almost all afternoon. I saw her carry it but I pretended not to see it. :P
  • Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson from Aaron – trust Aaron to give me my first Brandon Sanderson book. I read the first page of this and it reminded me of the feeling of reading a Kristin Cashore or an MWT book. Hmmm exciting.
  • The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt by Caroline Preston from KD – KD is our book club moderator, and I told him to give me a more mature book since I did turn a year older. He got me this lovely scrapbook like book. I have no idea what its about but it looks lovely. :)

There’s also this one book behind The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt that the photo didn’t quite get clearly. It’s a book about this local artist, Christian Bautista. Now, I’m not exactly a fan and I don’t know why I got this, but hey, a gift is a gift. LOL.

I got home at 3am, like I said and woke up at 9, and then headed to mass and lunch with my brother and sister-in-law. Awesome lunch, and lots of food, and then finally went home in the afternoon because I was just tired. Then I got home and there was a package waiting for me in my room!

Colorful package for me out of its courier plastic

And inside:

Yay tiny post-its!

Tiny post-its for noting pages and quotes in books so I won’t have to dog-ear anymore! :) Thanks so much, Monique!

So now, I am home and I am quite happy to be not out on my birthday. I guess I’m just exhausted from the past week, and I’m really just looking forward to spending the night at home with my family and reading. Must be signs of aging, not wanting to party all weekend. Before you know it, I’ll be needing walkers for seniors! But I hope not. Haha. Maybe next year my birthday gift to myself is to finally take that reading vacation/staycation I’ve been wanting for so long.

Happy 26th birthday to me. :)

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In My Mailbox (22): Birthday Mailbox, Part 1

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I haven’t done an In My Mailbox post in ages, even if I’ve been sort of steadily getting books ever since my last post. Oops. I guess I was just lazy. I meant to do an IMM post for my Christmas loot but laziness got to me, and truth be told, I’m just not in the mood to post about it anymore. You’ll just see some of the books I got then in my reviews soon, when I get to read some of them. :)

But let’s try again. March is my favorite month because it’s my birthday month! I thought I’d turn over a new leaf as far as posting IMMs are concerned, so instead of a one-time big-time post, I thought I’d post in increments (assuming I get more before this month ends :D)!

So here we go — my first birthday mailbox post! :) I got some really cool stuff recently, and some of them were things I was totally not expecting! First, my favorite artist, Dave Barnes, released Stories to Tell, his newest album, the other day. :D Cue Squee here!

Stories to Tell

Stories to Tell by Dave Barnes on my iPod <3

I had it pre-ordered on iTunes, and when I got the email that it’s ready for download, I turned on my phone’s data and used it to download the album on my iPod immediately! I’ve been listening to it since I got it and as usual, Mr. Barnes delivers. ♥

Second. I got home yesterday and saw an unopened pink courier package on the kitchen counter. Since it was still unopened, I was pretty sure it was mine. Inside:

Hm, mystery package!

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In My Mailbox (21): Sales and Komikon

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In My Mailbox is a weekly book meme hosted by Kristi from The Story Siren, where bloggers post about what books received that week, be it via  mailbox, library or store. I wasn’t expecting to write an In My Mailbox post this week, but three things happened:

And so, I ended up with these:

  1. The Song of the Quarkbest by Jasper Fforde (Fully Booked) – Aaron told me last week that this book was already available in Fully Booked, just on the same day I wrote a Want Books post about it. I had a copy transferred while making a personal deal with myself to catch up to quota before it arrived. And I just that. I cannot wait to read this. :D
  2. Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis (Fully Booked) – I borrowed a copy of this book from my friend RE early this year and I loved it. He told me that if I see a copy of this, I should grab it immediately. I saw one and grabbed one. :) I can reread this book anytime I want now, yay!
  3. Filipino Heroes League Book 1: Sticks and Stones by Paolo Fabregas(Komikon) – I already bought a copy of this months before which I lent to my brother and is currently missing. Anyway, yesterday I got to meet the author, Paolo Fabregas, at Komikon, so I bought another copy so he could sign it. And he remembered my review, too, so yay!

    My FHL copy signed by the author :)

  4. High Society by Paolo Chikiamco and Hannah Buena (Komikon) – Of course I had to get a copy of this, after reviewing it just recently. :) Dibs on a pretty special colored cover because of that review too. Thanks Pao! I had it signed by him, but not by Hannah because we don’t know how she looks like and so we weren’t able t “stalk” her during Komikon. :( Maybe next time, then. :)

    Signed High Society

  5. Tabi Po by Mervin Malonzo (Komikon) – We were hanging by the Flipside booth talking to Honey when she plugged this comic to us. It was the black and white version, and it seems pretty scary given the illustrations shown in the colored version in the iPad. Eep. Still, it looks interesting (and it was only P30, so why not buy, right?) If you’re more of a colored comic person, you can buy a copy from Flipreads.com :) I hope to read and review this sometime soon.

    Signed!

And being a Trese fan, I cannot pass up something like this:

Signed glossy Trese poster in plastic case :)

It’s so pretty. :) Actually, we call it a placemat because it kinda looks like one. But this is going on my wall, once I’ve organized my room. Gotta love the detail in this one. :)

And there goes my week. Before I reward myself with anything else, I must get to 50,000 words on my NaNoWriMo novel first. Onward!

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In My Mailbox (20): Where did all these books come from?

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This is me catching up on a couple of weeks of In My Mailbox posts again. It’s always more fun to post when you have more books to post about, right? :) Plus, I was out of town last weekend and I was just too exhausted to take photos and come up with an IMM post. Anyway, so many books in the past weeks — even I am surprised at my stash. Look:

Wee~

So, what did we get in the past few weeks?


I attended the launch of the fourth (and much-awaited!) Trese graphic novel at Robinsons Bestsellers two weeks ago. I’m not really a graphic novel person, but I loved Trese and I’ve been waiting for the fourth book ever since I finished all three a few months ago. :) The event was a success if you were to judge only with the number of people who attended (dress code was black, apparently :P). I do think it was an overall success because not only was it a full-house event, but also we got our books signed. :)

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In My Mailbox (19): Weak-willed

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So this week was a little crazy as far as I was concerned. Monday to Tuesday had us cowering in the midst of Typhoon Nesat, the strongest typhoon we’ve had this year. Wednesday to Saturday had me running on 12 hours of sleep all in all, with shift adjustments and reunion dinners and friend’s weddings…no wonder I feel so tired until now.

But anyway, there shouldn’t have been any reason to make an In My Mailbox post today, but then I realized that I was kind of a weakling when it comes to new and well-reviewed books by several friends and trusted bloggers. So, when I had the chance to visit Fully Booked this week to look for a wedding gift for my friend, I chanced upon this:

Daugther of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor...and a new bag behind it. :D

It was a lone hardcover copy in the branch near my office. And I’ve been curious about his book after all the glowing reviews around me. I debated for about five minutes before finally picking it up, and walking straight to the cashier and making my purchase.

*hangs head* I know, I am weak. But…I just couldn’t leave without it!

Okay, I don’t regret it at all. :P I scanned the first page and I almost didn’t want to put it down…but I promised myself I’ll start reading this once I finish reading my first Required Reading book for October. I hope I find it as good as everyone else did. :)

P.S. The new bag behind the book was a purchase from Paris that only got to me last Friday. Hello new bag. :)

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