Author: Sumthinblue

The Prince of Mist

Finally, I have a new review to post!

Since last February, I’ve been counting the days until I could get my hands on a copy of Carlos Ruiz Zaf0n’s young adult novel The Prince of Mist. I got a copy as soon as it hit the bookstores — the first week of May, I think, and read it the very same night. I’ve been meaning to review it for some time now, but work has piled up (again) and I haven’t had the luxury of time for blogging.

Anyway, if you don’t know Carlos Ruiz Zafon, he fast became one of my favorite authors after reading The Shadow of The Wind, the bestselling novel that catapulted him into fame, and earned him the post of Spain’s most widely read contemporary author after Miguel de Cervantes — and Cervantes has had a good five centuries to build up his readership.

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BookMoochers Pilipinas Summer Mixer

Last night was the much awaited summer mixer for BookMoochers Pilipinas, the local group for members of book trading site BookMooch. It was one of the muggiest days in this infernally hot summer, but even the heat couldn’t stop us from heading over to Triccie’s house for our get-together.

Present last night were me, Triccie, Patti, Gege, Czar, Marie, Cecille, Shy, Paolo, Patrick, and JoelG. We haven’t gotten together as a group since last November, and since a lot of members were celebrating their birthdays in April and May (Triccie, Marie, Czar, Cecille, and Fran) we decided a summer party was in order!

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Free Comic Book Day

Saturday was Free Comic Book Day at Fully Booked, and I couldn’t resist going. I meant to go last year but  it coincided with one of my book club meetings so I really wanted to make it this year, not so much for the free comic book but for the 20% discount on comics and graphic novels at the store.

I planned to go early but I woke up late and there was some commotion in the house because the results were in for the April 2010 Licensure Exam for Teachers and we learned my brother Enzo passed (way to go, bro!) and is now a professional teacher. Then I had to drop by the hospital on the other side of town to visit a friend.

It was 5:30 by the time I got to the store on Bonifacio High Street, and I figured they’d have run out of free comic books by then, but there were still some short stacks at the giveaway table and I quickly got in line for a free copy. Although I’ve gradually assimilated graphic novels as regular reading in recent time, I’m still not really into the whole spandex superhero thing and the only choices on the table were either Iron Man or Green Hornet, so after an eenie-meenie-miney-mo I settled on Iron Man and got my hand stamped at the booth.

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Edward Gorey

Edward Gorey is one of my favorite writer-illustrators. I love his lyrical and wickedly macabre stories — like a twisted Edward Lear or Lewis Carroll) and his equally macabre pen and ink illustrations!

I’ve blogged about acouple books of his in the past — Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (illustrations) and The Curious Sofa (story and illustrations), and I’ve got a couple more to show you in this post: The Iron Tonic and the pop-up book The Dwindling Party, both rummaged in bargain bins in two separate occasions, at P20 (US$0.5) and P95 (around US$2) respectively.

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Art in Fiction (Flips Flipping Pages May Book Discussion)

Last Saturday, the Flippers met up again for our monthly book discussion, this time moderated by Raissa and Joel on the theme of “Art in Fiction.”

It’s a theme I personally love — ever since I read Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring around five years ago, I was hooked on this subgenre, and I still read one every so often.

Our afternoon was packed for this discussion, we had a drawing session, a discussion, and a museum tour!

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