Reading something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue
Hi everyone!
Please bear with me for the moment as I’m currently fixing the layout for the blog. My old theme got corrupted and so I’m using a temporary theme while I find a new one.
I’m also buried under a ton of work at the moment, but I’ve got some posts lined up already; I just have to work the layout first before I post anything new.
XXXOOO,
Sumthinblue
I spent most of last week in Davao City, toting along my review copy of Miguel Syjuco’s Ilustrado, winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize and the Palanca Award. It’s a metafictional novel that pieces together the life of Filipino writer-in-exile Crispin Salvador as his student, Miguel weaves together fragments of Salvador’s body of work, personal interviews, blog entries, newspaper clippings, and many other sources as he investigates his teacher’s mysterious death.
I spent most of my spare time engrossed in the novel — at the airport, on flights, and before hitting the sack at the hotel room — and I was looking forward to coming back to Manila to attend the press conference and launch at National Book Store.
The review will have to wait; I just finished the novel and I’m reviewing it for Manila Bulletin, so here’s a recap of the launch, the first release of Ilustrado anywhere in the world!
As you well know, I’ve introduced a steady supply of graphic novels in my reading diet for the past few months and I’ve been enjoying the regular break from straight text. But because I still haven’t acquired the taste for graphic novels involving multiple volumes (except for Fables, which I’m planning on collecting via the annual deluxe editions), spandex-clad characters or ka-pow effects, I’ve been seeking out one-volume graphic novels to add to my growing collection.
I came across Re-gifters on BookMooch, looked it up and saw that it’s gotten good reviews, and had to have it shipped to my mom in California (because the moocher only sends to the US) and then waited for her to come home before I could get my hands on it. It turned out to be worth all the trouble!
A few months back I spotted a bunch of bookmarks at my favorite bargain bookstore, and practically bought out the stock. It also gave me a hankering to start collecting bookmarks, so now I’ve got a small collection going. (Ironically, I just keep them in a fancy box and don’t actually use them as bookmarks because I know I’ll end up losing them!)
A couple of weeks ago, to my delight, the bargain bookstore had a fresh batch of Antioch bookmarks (the tasseled ones!) on hand, so I got a whole new bunch of them!
Here they are:
A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of joining a media tour at the exhibit “Pen, Paper and Bookmaking: The Life of Carlos Quirino” at the Yuchengco Museum.
Carlos Quirino, National Artist for Historical Literature, is a writer, scholar, sportsman, and bibliophile who made invaluable contributions to the study of Philippine history.
2010 marks Quirino’s birth centennial, and in celebration of this auspicious event, three erstwhile out of print Carlos Quirino books are lined up for release by the Vibal Foundation: Philippine Cartography, Old Manila, and Filipinos at War.
First out is the third edition Philippine Cartography, a landmark history of Philippine maps and their cartographers, considered as Quirino’s magnum opus. First published in 1959, the book traces the evolution of the Philippine map, from a speck in the Pacific Ocean to its current iconography.