Author: Sumthinblue

Reading in the Time of Elections

It’s been a crazy week: Monday marked the much-awaited national elections here in the Philippines. This isn’t the first time for me to vote; I’ve already voted at one national election and one senatorial election, but this is the first time the country is using automated elections and there was much anxiety about the new technology.

The family walked to the voting center just before 9am. We checked our names in the master list, where I sighed with relief at finding my name listed because I couldn’t find it on the site — it turns out they misspelled my middle name. We proceeded to our clustered precinct to find that the line was snaking down the hallway, packed with other voters.

Continue reading “Reading in the Time of Elections”

Pocket-size!

I love little books, and I’ve got a growing collection of them on various different subjects — they’re just so much fun to read, they often feature great art or photos, and they’re easy to stuff into odd nooks and crannies in my bookshelves!

Here are a bunch of  pocket-sized reads I finished recently: Fountain Pens by Alex Fortis and Antonio Vannucchi, Bad Cat by Jim Edgar, and Treasures of Disney Animation Art.

Continue reading “Pocket-size!”

Of Vampires and Werewolves


It’s a well-known fact that I harbor no love for the Twilight saga. To put it succinctly, among a host of other reasons, I am not a fan of the teen paranormal romance genre in general, I find Stephenie Meyer’s writing abhorrent, I prefer vampires who don’t sparkle (and  pasty-faced Rob Pattinson doesn’t do anything for me, either, not that I would spend good money on any of the movies), and I consider Bella Swan one of the worst characters I’ve ever read in print (Twi-hards, please don’t spam me with hate messages!).

That said, I didn’t have high hopes for the Twilight graphic novel, which my boss lent me to review.  I was curious for two reasons: local bookstores are having price wars to drive the sales of the books (there are even billboards for the book!); and I wanted to see how it was adapted visually, given its base material.

I also had a chance to review Maggie Stiefwater’s Shiver, which, despite my apprehensions, turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

Continue reading “Of Vampires and Werewolves”

Green Reading

We’ve all bought recyclable bags, turned off our lights for global energy-saving ceremonies, replaced our appliances with newer energy-saving models, and favored organic produce and cosmetics over conventional mass-produced items. There’s a whole load of buzzwords to go with the “green movement”: energy efficiency, sustainable development, carbon footprint, climate change, and all that jazz, but very few people actually understand what ecology is.

Get a Grip on Ecology by David Burnie is a handy compendium of green knowledge that explores ecology — the fascinating study of the network of relationships between living things and the environment, printed on recycled paper in green and black ink. I actually spotted it at a bargain bookstore, thought it looked interesting, then cheapo me thought it was too expensive and wishlisted it on BookMooch instead. A copy soon came up and was sent to me a few weeks later.

Continue reading “Green Reading”

Chunkster Challenge

I’ve been meaning to join the Chunkster Reading Challenge ever since my book blogger friend Jo blogged about it, and because I’ve just started a real chunkster of a book (Roberto Bolaño’s 2666, in case you’re wondering), I’ve decided to formally join the challenge.

I’m an escapist reader by nature so I like thick, meaty reads, which is perfect for joining  the Chunkster Reading Challenge, a challenge for “readers who like their books fat and chunky.” The challenge defines a chunkster as “450 pages or more of ADULT literature (fiction or nonfiction).”

Continue reading “Chunkster Challenge”