Year: 2009

Four months’ worth of Bathroom Reading

At the first BookMoochers Pilipinas party last Halloween, I couldn’t resist mooching this book from Triccie: Uncle John’s Giant 10th Anniversary Bathroom Reader, because I am such a sucker for useless bits of information.
It took me four months to finish this massive compendium of trivia, not necessarily in the bathroom, and mostly in bed before reading. That makes it Book #38 for 2009, rounding off February with 21 books, as opposed to January’s 17. I need to read around 20 books a month for the next ten months if I want to reach my goal for the year.

Like other Bathroom Readers, the Giant 10th Anniversary volume I have is a fount of useless but interesting trivia about anything and everything under the sun.

For instance, did you know that:

  • “love” is the most used word in a film title, while “Paris” is the 2nd?
  • the “blue moon” from “once in a blue moon” pertains to a full moon that occurs twice in one month, occuring approximately once in every 32 months?
  • Joseph Stalin was so afraid of farting in public, that he kept a set of glasses and a water pitcher on his desk so he could clink them together to mask the sound of his fart.
  • the officials of the Leaning Tower of Pisa get an average of two letters a week with suggestions on how to keep it upright? The weirdest suggestions include building an identical tower to lean against the firstcDon one; building a huge statue of a man who looks like he’s holding the tower up; tying helium balloons to the roof; and anchoring the top of the tower to a hillside several miles away with a steel cable.
  • in the microwave, food cooks better in a round container than in a square one?
  • for every cockroach you see in your house, there are not just 10 that you can’t see — the ratio is actually closer to 1000:1? (*yuck!*)
  • Carolyn Keene is not a real person? (Ahh, the subject of many FFP discussions — there are three pages devoted to this topic in the book)
  • The ratio of adult bookstores to McDonald’s outlets in the US is 3:1?
  • The yo-yo, a prehistoric Filipino weapon, was introduced to the US by a Filipino named Pedro Flores? Donald Duncan partnered with Flores in the Flores Yo-yo Corporation, bought him out for $25,000 and renamed it as the Duncan Yo-yo Company, which created the biggest yo-yo craze in history in the 1960s?
You just never know when these little factoids will come in handy, hehe… (Riiight, I’m imagining being held at gunpoint and being quizzed on the history of the fortune cookie)

I recently saw a stack of Bathroom Readers at Fully Booked, at around P700-900 each, and I was glad I was able to mooch this one. Will be hunting down other volumes at Book Sale and BookMooch :)

***

My copy: trade paperback, mooched from Triccie

My rating: 5/5 stars

An exercise in self-control


“The well-known food of Provence is summer food — the melons and peaches and asparagus, the courgettes and aubergines, the peppers and tomatoes, the aioli and bouillabaisse and monumental salads of olives and anchovies and tuna and hardboiled eggs and sliced, earthy potatoes on beds of multicolored lettuce glistening with oil, the fresh goat’s cheeses…

It had never occurred to us that there was a winter menu, totally different but equally delicious. The cold-weather cuisine of Provence is peasant food. It is made to stick to your ribs, keep you warm, and send you off to bed with a full belly…

It was a meal that we shall never forget; more accurately, it was several meals that we shall never forget, because it went beyond the gastronomic frontiers of anything we had ever experienced, both in quantity and length. It started with homemade pizza — not one, but three: anchovy, mushroom, and cheese, and it was obligatory to have a slice of each. Plates were then wiped with pieces torn from the two-foot loaves in the middle of the table, and the next course came out. There were pates of rabbit, boar, and thrush. There were saucissons spotted with peppercorns. There were tiny sweet onions marinated in a fresh tomato sauce. Plates were wiped once more and duck was brought in… We had entire breasts, entire legs, covered in dark, savory gravy and surrounded by wild mushrooms.

We sat back, thankful that we had been able to finish, and watched with something close to panic as plates were wiped yet again, and a huge, steaming casserole was placed on the table. This was the specialty of Madame our hostess — a rabbit civet of the richest, deepest brown — and our feeble requests for small portions were smilingly ignored. We ate it. We ate the green salad with knuckles of bread fried in garlic and olive oil, we ate the plump round crottins of goat’s cheese, we ate the almond and cream gateau that the daughter of the house had prepared. That night, we ate for England.”

When you read about food being described like that, you’ll be sorely tempted to eat the pages off the book!

The passage is from Book #37 for 2009: A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle, who is one of the best food and travel writers I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. It’s also my book 6 in the Diversity Challenge (memoir).

This book wittily chronicles adventures in the French countryside as Peter Mayle and his wife move into a 200-year old stone farmhouse and live as the locals do, and it takes you right there with them.

The chapters are divided into months of the year, and each chapter regales you with engaging stories of settling into life in Provence: getting to know their neighbors, their first winter, renovating the house, farming, truffle-hunting, Provencal real estate, mailbox burglary, local markets, cycling, entertaining guests, ritual kissing, goat racing, and other comic anecdotes.

The highlight of the book is easily the cuisine: whether they’re in their own kitchen, out in the garden, at the neighbor’s house, in a cafe packed with tourists, or at a little-known haunt several hours’ drive away, the food is always glorious, glorious food described so vividly you can almost taste it.

The Mayles’ farmhouse (from www.petermayle.com)

If only I could pack my bags and move in with them, I’d do it in a heartbeat!

Googling the book, I found out on IMDB that it was adapted into a BBC series… Now that would be interesting to watch. I still have several Peter Mayle books in my TBR — I think I’ve got A Good Year, Toujours Provence, Anything Considered, A Dog’s Life and Hotel Pastis in there; I look forward to reading those this year.

***
My copy: trade paperback, mooched locally

My rating: 5/5 stars

The One with the Dramatic Reading

Book #36 for 2009
Love you Forever by Robert Munsch

Friends fans will remember an episode (Season 10- TOW Emma’s cake) where Joey does a dramatic reading of a famous children’s book as a present for Emma’s birthday.

Scroll forward to around 7 min:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDynkzIE1tw]

Joey is reading Love You Forever, a timeless story about a mother’s love for her child, and how the child grows up to pass on this love to his own child.

I finally have a copy because it turns out I got one as an exchange gift from the INK Christmas party (thanks Nic!) and I squealed in delight when I found out. I’ve been wanting a copy of this book ever since the Friends episode, and I’m glad I didn’t have to buy it at full price.

Haha, now I can’t seem to be able to read it without the Joey accent!

***
my copy: paperback, from exchange gift

my rating: 5/5 stars

Feline Holocaust


Book #35 of 2009
The Last Black Cat by Eugene Trivizas

Historically, black cats have always been associated with witchcraft and superstition — a black cat crossing your path is often seen as a sign of bad luck.
Eugene Trivizas (known as the J.K. Rowling of Greece, like Cornelia Funke is tagged to be the J.K. Rowling of German — I don’t know why they keep comparing authors like that) builds on this widespread belief in his young adult novel, The Last Black Cat.
Originally written in Greek (transl. by Sandy Zervas), The Last Black Cat is a fast-paced mystery adventure concerning the intermittent disappearance of black cats on a Greek island. A sinister organization called The Guardians of Good Luck has infiltrated the government and brainwashed the people to blame all misery on black cats, inciting them to wipe all the black cats out of existence.
One by one the black cats disappear, until the protagonist, an unnamed black cat, must thwart the organization’s evil plans and evade the angry mobs because he is the only black cat left, and he refuses to go out without putting up a good fight.
The book tackles a theme similar to Zizou Corder’s Lionboy series: the discrimination against a certain type of cat. It was only after I finished the book that I realized I was reading another Holocaust book (*groan* I think I’ve just about filled my Holocaust quota for the year), with black cats as the victims. Filled with lots of cheeky cat puns (excellent for cat lovers), the book clearly drives its point an unconventional but critical manner, often graphic — not suitable for young children for violent content.
Trivizas seems to have really thought his metaphor through, as it draws parallels that hit the issues spot-on, but intelligently blends it into the text so that it is still an enjoyable read.

I loved the last passage in the book, which sums up the story’s sentiment quite well:

Everything is so tranquil, so peaceful…

How can all this have happened? I wonder and try to convince myself that never, ever will something like this happen again.

Deep down in my heart, though, I know that here, on our island, like anywhere else, cats forget, people forget, and it won’t take much for the madness to begin all over again…

The book design also deserves special mention; the lino-cut stamps of black cats throughout the book were the perfect touch to the chapter headings, echoing the graphic theme of the story and the stark emotions of the narrator.

***
my copy: trade paperback, mooched from the UK

my rating: 4/5 stars

Lovin’ my Thumbthing!

I wandered into Powerbooks while waiting to be seated at Saisaki for lunch last Sunday and discovered a nifty new gadget that’ll help me reach my target of over 234 books this year: the Thumbthing.
As soon as I saw it on the counter, I just knew I had to have it — it’s perfect for people like me, who attempt to read at practically any given opportunity, regardless of logistics (hehehe, MRT, bathtub, the loo, in bed, jeep, trike, while cooking, while watching tv, while eating, etc…). My sister was like, what, P150, for that little thing?!? But I ignored her, because I considered it a good investment.

The dynamics are hard to explain, so I’m borrowing a diagram from the ThumbThing website to explain:

And here it is in action:


It’s been four days and I’m thoroughly enjoying this little thingamajig, which makes juggling a book so much easier for me, especially when I’m multi-tasking. The ergonomic design allows you to hold a book open with one hand, freeing your other hand to attend to other things. It doesn’t break the spine of the book (yay!), and it doesn’t obscure the text either, because the wings fit neatly in between the lines.

You can also use it as a bookmark, although strictly for leaving books on flat surfaces — it’ll probably get dislodged when you stow it inside a bag.

I’ve tried it on different books, and it works perfectly on everything from mass market paperbacks to standard hardcover novels. Doesn’t work on magazines and coffeetable books, but I think that’s asking for too much. Also doesn’t turn the pages for you, but then again, a page-turning device is also asking for too much.

It comes in a variety of sizes (mine’s a small and it fits perfectly) and colors (I wanted a pink or blue but they didn’t have it in my size so I had to get purple) too. My tiny complaint — I wish they had thought of adding a little hole to thread a handstrap or an id strap through for people like me who tend to lose (knock on wood) or misplace little things like this. Oh, and I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m foreseeing a juggling act reading in the dark with my Lumos booklight on.

Hmm, maybe I should stock up — I could try reading two books at a time, one in each hand!

(Clarification: not a sponsored post, despite my rave review :D)

Rating: 5/5 stars!