Reading something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue
Miscellany
Paper book covers
Aug 24th
In an attempt not to stray into any Mockingjay spoilers online, I’m composing this post to distract me, and to keep me from opening a certain file that is, erm, burning a hole in my hard drive, so to speak… I can’t wait to get my copy of Mockingjay tomorrow, but in the meantime, here’s something I discovered over the weekend: paper book covers!
There was a sale at a one-price Japanese store and my sibs and I wanted to go because we were expecting to take home a huge haul. The sale turned out to be bitterly disappointing, but I hated going all the way out there for nothing! There were a bunch of sorry looking bargain bins which contained weird odds and ends — miniature bundt tins, plastic flowers, fleecy headbands, and other remnants — and I was halfheartedly rooting in one of the bins when I found some packs of paper book covers for only P25 (about $0.50) each, so I went from bin to bin and came up with four packs.
1st Scholastic Clearance Sale!
Aug 23rd
Here’s an announcement from Scholastic, one I know my bookish friends have been eagerly awaiting:
Reading time!
Aug 6th
I’m not a terribly vain person, but there is a reason I like going to the salon — I get some reading done! The, erm, “beautification” is an added bonus.
This year has kept me pretty busy that I’ve rarely had time to read for very long, and I have to consciously jump at all opportunities for reading, including, to the amusement of my officemates, that snippet of time after the afternoon bell has rung, and I’m waiting for the rest of them to shut down their terminals and pack up their stuff.
Anyway, last weekend, I threw some books into a totebag and headed to the salon for a hair rebond. I get my hair rebonded once a year, because it saves a lot of time fussing about hair all year round and drastically reduces the frequency of bad hair days (especially in the humidity!).
From one book lover to another
Jul 29th
‘
Here’s a story that made my day.
A few months back, I had blogged about a bunch of bookmarks I found at a bargain bookstore. Among those I featured was a beautiful bookmark featuring some unicorns prancing in the night sky. It was the only one in the tray of bookmarks that wasn’t based on an actual book, and it was smaller than the rest,but I’ve always loved unicorns and I liked the softness of the painting featured in the bookmark.
Bookish Blackout!
Jul 16th
On Tuesday night, I was pounding out a blog entry when my mom told me to go to bed because there was a storm brewing (typhoon Basyang). I was actually packing up my stuff already; the chilly wind was blowing into the living room and I was getting goosebumps. Of course, because I’m now paranoid, I had to check that I had no books at flood level before heading upstairs.
I’d no sooner climbed into bed when the power went out, and the wind started howling something awful, rattling the window panes and galvanized iron roofs from nearby. Our dog Macky started whimpering from the stairs so I grabbed my flashlight to take him up to the room. Our cat Missy was already burrowing into my mom’s blankets for warmth (she hates being cold).
I fell into a fitful sleep, worrying about falling trees and flying rooftops, and woke up to the sound of my brother telling my mom the upstairs bathroom was a mess — the window was open and the ceiling was detached, hanging by the wiring of the lamp in the center. I got out of bed and there was sludge all over the toiletries!
Still no power by then so I marched off to the bathroom downstairs to get ready for work. There were a few inches of floodwater in the street so I had to tiptoe across the sidewalk!
Geek Fight!
Jul 1st
Geek Fighting is Manila’s latest sport. What’s a book geek to do? 
(First published in Manila Bulletin, Students and Campuses Section)
The trivia culture has invaded Manila!
Pub quizzes, the quaint British tradition of publicly matching wits and exchanging useless information over drinks and bar chow, have been a great addition to the social scene around the city. On any given week, you’re bound to find one or two trivia showdowns in bars around the metro, and for geeks such as myself, the glory of being the geekiest of them all proves to be difficult to resist.
I’d heard about Geek Fight for some time now, and I’d always intended to join, as I’ve never been known to back down from any geeky challenge. So when I chanced upon the Facebook page calling for an all-Pinoy Geek Fight Friday of last week, I was determined to give it a good try.
On Friday night, the ragtag team I assembled met up at the Quantum Café in Makati for what (save for two of the members) was our first foray into Geek Fight: me, my cousin Dianne, our book club friends Czar and Marie (a writer and a geodetic engineer), my office’s finance officer Ate Chi, my lawyer friend Ryan (also a political science teacher), my long-time friend Joseph (who works in advertising), and his pal Norman (a banker).
Bookish Stamps
Jun 29th
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.
Making its way to Suzanne Collins…
Jun 27th
… 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!
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