Month: June 2010

Picture Book Roundup: letters, numbers, and apostrophes


I’ve missed doing picture book roundups, and I don’t think I’ve done a proper one yet this year so here’s a bunch of picture books I’ve enjoyed recently: Stephen T. Johnson’s Alphabet City, its companion book City By Numbers, and The Girl’s Like Spaghetti (Why, you can’t manage without apostrophes!) by Lynne Truss (illustrated by Bonnie Timmons).

The books were shamelessly scavenged, as usual — I’d been wanting a copy of Alphabet City for a long time and finally got it via BookMooch, and shortly after found a copy of City By Numbers for a very cheap P40 (less than $1) at a bargain bookstore. Then a few weeks back, I found Girl’s Like Spaghetti for P35! Wonderful additions to my ragtag picture book collection, none of which I buy brand new or full-priced, tee hee hee.

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Bookish Stamps

A couple of weeks ago, I went on an Old Manila Heritage Tour sponsored by the Pilipinas Stamp Collectors’ Club, a tour that covered the Metropolitan Theatre, the Arroceros Forest Park, Liwasang Bonifacio, and the Manila Post Office. It was not as organized as I would have liked, but then again it was a free tour, so I shouldn’t be complaining.

At the end of the tour, there was a stamp collecting seminar and by then my book club friends had decided they’d had enough geekiness for one day. I was tired, too, but I couldn’t resist staying. I’ve never had any formal instruction in collecting stamps and I’ve got two albums bursting full of them, some from my childhood collection and some accumulated after two years of BookMooching.

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Private

I’ve never read any James Patterson books, but I see them everywhere, from the bargain bookstores to the promotional displays of latest releases. I’m not so much into genre writers, but in the past couple of years I’ve learned to try all sorts of reading material, even those I don’t normally read, just to keep it interesting.

I got a promotional reading copy of James Patterson’s Private, and I felt I was due for a break after reading the mind-boggling Left Hand of Darkness for the June book discussion, so I immediately latched on to a light read.

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Making its way to Suzanne Collins…

… is a little gift from our book club, Flips Flipping Pages!

It’s a framed photo of our Hunger Games book discussion a couple of months ago, and a small flag of the Philippines, a little something to show Suzanne Collins that she has fans in the Philippines! :)

Thank you, Scholastic Philippines for giving us the opportunity to send our greetings to Suzanne Collins!

A Full Deck


Here’s another thing my cousin Dianne brought back for me from her trip to New York: A pack of “Great Writers” playing cards! The front looks like a regular deck, but the design on the back features a caricature of famous writers.

Before reading on, can you try guessing who is who?

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