Year: 2010

Book Belt

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Hagrid sends Harry a peculiar birthday gift: the Monster Book of Monsters, a textbook that attempts to bite anyone who tries to open it. Harry binds it with a belt, and the other students keep it shut with Spellotape. This Harry Potter moment came to mind when I spotted a new book thingamajig at a Daiso store in Singapore: the book belt.

It’s actually a glorified piece of patterned garter sewn together with a felt band, and I bought it primarily because I’m a sucker for all sorts of book paraphernalia (as you well know), and I only got to try it recently. For 2 SGD (standard Daiso price), you get a pack of two book bands (I gave one to my FFP seezter Ajie) that can fit both mass market paperbacks and trade paperbacks.

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The Blood Stone


I spotted Jamila Gavin’s The Blood Stone in a bargain bin some months back; the squarish shape of the book caught my eye. Then I read the back of the book and I was even more intrigued — it promised “a dazzling whirlwind of a journey, over seas and across the desert, into the very heart of danger,” and the clincher — it starts out in Venice, one of my all-time favorite settings for a novel (yes, I judge the book by the setting)! At P40 (less than $1), I couldn’t pass.

I went on a daytrip out of town for work, and the first book I grabbed off the shelf happened to be this one, and I ended up finishing the novel even before I made it back to the city.

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Beatrice and Virgil


Life of Pi by Yann Martel will always be a memorable book for me, after we read it for the first Flips Flipping Pages book discussion in 2008. I was really sad when my brothe r borrowed my copy of the book and it ended up getting eaten by termites at his college dorm, but I got a surprise from bookish friend Triccie who gave me a deluxe illustrated edition for my birthday last year.

I enjoyed Life of Pi for its rhetoric on perception and Martel’s intelligent humor, which came unexpected for me — I wouldn’t have picked it up if not for my book club’s discussion. I also enjoyed Tomislav Torjanac’s vibrant illustrations.

I got to review Martel’s new novel Beatrice and Virgil recently, and found that I really enjoy Martel’s writing. Read on for my review, first published on Manila Bulletin.

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Guilty Pleasures

I have a confession to make: books are not my only vice.

Novelty candy, slurpees, microwavpe popcorn, best and worst dressed lists, foodie reality shows, Merrie Melodies, Disney Channel, rom-com movies, ABBA, Madonna, pop-art shirts — the list goes on and on.

This is why I was instantly drawn to this delightful book: The Encyclopedia of Guilty Pleasures: 1001 Things You Hate to Love by Sam Stall, Lou Harry, and Julia Spalding, sent by a kind moocher from abroad.

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Disney + Robert Sabuda

I got a new book for my growing pop-up collection — I just couldn’t resist a mashup of two guilty pleasures: Disney and Robert Sabuda (and you can see I couldn’t resist the Happy Meal either; that’s my talking Gingy figure guarding the book!).

It’s a pop-up alphabet book featuring stylized Disney characters and Robert Sabuda’s fabulous paper engineering.  But enough said — I will let the photos do the talking.

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