As promised, here is the full account of the Book Geek experience, published Feb. 27, 2010, Manila Bulletin Students and Campuses section:

I am the Ultimate Book Geek
by Blooey Singson

I eat, live, and breathe books – ask those who know me and they can tell you as much.

I read over 200 books a year, maintain a blog devoted solely to books and reading, add half a dozen books to my collection every week, trade books with readers from all over the world, discuss books on both online forums and face-to-face book club meetings, and storm bookstore sales and warehouses with equally bookish friends.

So when I saw the announcement for the Book Geek contest on the Fully Booked website, I knew I just had to join. Little did I know that there were bigger things in store for me many months later.

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The best things that I’ve received in my inbox this week is a newsletter from Carlos Ruiz Zafon, stating that his first ever novel, the novel that launched his writing career, will be available (in English) in May!

Lo and behold: The Prince of Mist!

US (left) and UK (right) covers

Hmm, Amazon US says on May 4th (that’s Little, Brown) but Amazon UK (Orion) will release theirs on May 27th (this was also the date on the newsletter, as Zafon is UK based for the moment). The UK edition is so much prettier than the US edition though…

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Remember when I won Book Geek of the Month last year?  Well, today they gathered all the monthly finalists once again for one final showdown: The Fully Booked Ultimate Book Geek Challenge!

I had to miss this month’s book discussion (and The Shadow of the Wind is a favorite of mine, too!) but it turned out to be very well worth it — I ended up taking home the title of Ultimate Book Geek.

I won’t spill the details just yet — am writing an article about it for the Saturday issue of Manila Bulletin (Students and Campuses), so the story will have to wait until then

2010 is shaping up to be another awesome year of books!

Ultimate Book Geek -- receiving my certificate and the whopping grand prize from Fully Booked's events manager Ms. Aimee Diego

Because I’ve just gotten through my 2009 backlog, I realize the end-of-the year summary is in order.  I’ve been blogging for over a year now, and I can’t believe how fast it’s gone! Blogging been an awesome experience (and I was a finalist for the Philippine Blog Awards, too!) that led to new friends and new discoveries, and I’m sure this year will be even more fun.

Here’s 2009, in figures… and photos!

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After a very hectic January, we finally pushed through with the Flips Flipping Pages new year tradition: the Best and Worst discussion. Due to conflicting schedules, we had to push it down to the first week of February, but we had a grand time nonetheless, going over our best and worst reads for 2009 at the mezzanine level of National Bestsellers (thank you NBS!)  in Robinson’s Galleria.

This is the second year we’ve done this sort of discussion — it’s basically a show and tell of our best and worst reads for the past year, starting off the year light before plunging into the subsequent book discussions of the year. And we’ve got a bunch of great discussions lined up, too — The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon this Feb. 20; High Fidelity by Nick Hornby in March; The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins in April; an artsy book in May; The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin in June; comics and graphic novels in July; and some more interesting discussions lined up for the rest of the year.

What made it to the Flippers’ best and worst? Find out after the cut!

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