Required Reading: September

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Ahoy there, look, it’s September!

Some of my book club friends received a very perky text message this morning about the fact that it’s September, and it’s almost Christmas ((Yep, we Filipinos start counting down to Christmas this early)) and because it’s the start of one of our biggest buddy reads ever today as well. September to remember? :)

I’m just really happy that we’re onto a new month because August was kind of…interesting. Some things are a bit too personal to divulge, but in terms of reading, August has been one of those slump-y months. I read, but I was terribly slow, and I hardly made a dent with my TBR because I ended up getting more new books and reading them instead of reading the ones I already have. It’s a vicious cycle, I tell you. But first, recap of my August Required Reading list (none of which I have written reviews for yet, eep!):

  • Lumayo Ka Nga Sa Akin by Bob Ong (1/5) – Ugh. I shouldn’t have expected much, really.
  • Paper Cuts by Pam Pastor (2/5) – I read this and Bob Ong’s book in one weekend. Aaron had to ask me if I was torturing myself on purpose. Not that it’s bad, but it’s not my kind of book after all. More details when I sit down and review it.
  • Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal (3-4/5) – Haven’t decided on the final rating. Rating it 3 seems so low because this is like THE novel that spurred the revolution against Spain in Filipino history so my Filipino heart feels that I should rate this higher. But as a reader…it’s not really that amazing.

Interestingly, I think I read so many books by Filipino authors this month too! I’d like to think it’s because of the really awesome 2nd Filipino ReaderCon that drove me to get more local books. :) I still have several local books on my TBR shelf that I am pretty sure I’ll be able to read this year, and I’m quite excited about it. Maybe I’ll finally reach that 20 Filipino books goal!

My review backlog is still a backlog — let me work on that. :P

Now let’s move on to September!

Required Reading: September

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Required Reading: August

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You know I still owe the blog several a ton of reviews and posts? Ah, what is busy? I don’t think I am in a blogging slump, but I’ve been terribly busy with other real life stuff, and yes, sometimes I’m just too lazy to open my blog and write a review. For that, I apologize.

On another note, July reading was actually quite good, even if I was still terribly slow. I don’t think I’ll ever get out of the 4-book backlog for my Goodreads challenge, but right now, I don’t really care. Perhaps later? But anyway, I managed to finish my July books with a few days to spare!

  • Blackout by Mira Grant (5/5)
  • The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (4/5)
  • Honey, Baby, Sweetheart by Deb Caletti (4/5 — bordering to 5. I love this book :D)
  • When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (4/5)

I like that most of my books were highly rated, which means I really enjoyed them all last month! :)

Required Reading: August

Now we go to August! It feels kind of weird writing this post in English because of the theme I picked for the month. August is our country’s language month, orBuwan ng Wika, and this is normally the time in the year where we are encouraged to speak in Filipino to celebrate our language. Oh, I speak in Filipino when conversing with friends, but for other forms of communication, I always switch to English because of the nature of my work.

So writing this post in English feels weird now because my theme for this month’s list are Filipino books. It’s not books written in Filipino (although there is one), but books written by Filipino authors. Love your own, right?

Yep, that’s a caricature of me behind the books. :)

  • Lumayo Ka Nga Sa Akin by Bob Ong. He’s one of the funny, local authors that has a huge following, and I have pretty much read almost everything he wrote. This is his latest, and I received this last Christmas and I am finally, finally going to read it. I figure it’s going to be light reading?
  • Paper Cuts by Pam Pastor. I got this in 2011, and it’s a collection of articles written by the author. Should be another light read, and I chose this on purpose because of the last book on my list.
  • Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal. I added this on my Required Reading post in June last year, and I abandoned it halfway because I found it too wordy. This was a required reading in high school, but since we only read the summarized version, I wanted to read the whole version. And then like I said, I stopped reading it last year. Now our book club has chosen this as book of the month and I have no choice but to finally read it. Challenge accepted.

I’m not sure if I will read only Filipino books this month (that’s an interesting idea!), but I will try. Again, love your own, right? It’s just timely because we’ll also be having the 2nd Filipino ReaderCon: United We Read on August 18, and it’s a celebration of/for Filipino readers, so maybe reading all things Filipino will make me feel more festive.

If you’re looking for a Filipino reading challenge for this month, you can also drop by Kikay Reader’s blog and join her challenge.

What are you reading this August? Share in the comments section! :)

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