Author: Sumthinblue

Book lovers: Mark your calendars! (Special events at the MIBF)

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Five more days to go until the 30th Manila International Book Fair (MIBF), the biggest and longest-running book fair in the Philippines!

Set on Sept. 16-20, at the SMX Convention Center, Seashell Drive, Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City, the 30th MIBF once again unites local and foreign publishers, wholesalers, retailers, book lovers and collectors, librarians, authors, publishers’ representatives, and every major player in the publishing industry in its continuing efforts to promote books and reading.

I’ve been marking off the special events I want to attend. I love how there’s always something for every sort of reader at the MIBF. Check out the special events schedule beyond the cut — those in bold are the events I’m interested in, although I probably won’t be able to attend all of them.

I’m also breaking out the recyclable bags for the MIBF (last year I busted two with the sheer number of books  I carted out!), although I think it’s really time I brought a wheelie bag with me this year so I won’t hurt my back like last year (hehehe).

Will probably be covering events throughout the five days of the book fair, so if you’re out there on any of the days, just holler so we can talk books!

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A Hopeless Romantic

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I haven’t read a nice chick lit novel in a while, and I missed just kicking back and curling up with a light, fluffy read so I decided to be a little adventurous a couple weeks ago and grabbed this fairly thick book off my TBR.

I’d never heard of the title or author before, but I got Harriet Evans’ A Hopeless Romantic (book #138 for 2009) on BookMooch because I had to mooch an additional book to help defray shipping costs. I picked this book because it was rated high on Amazon and the cover art caught my eye.

It’s funny, because when I started reading this book, and it came at a time when one of the active threads in my book club (Flips Flipping Pages) was an ongoing discussion on when to stop reading when a book doesn’t catch your attention.

Some people give it a hundred pages; some people chuck a book when they don’t like it, and some, like me, finish a book when they’ve started it, whether they like the book or not. Call me compulsive, or masochistic even, but if I deign to start a book I have to finish it. Maybe put it away for a while if it really doesn’t catch my interest, but I feel like it’s disrespectful to give up on a book, especially if I’m going to pass judgment on it.

With this book, I plod through the first one hundred pages, and surprisingly (even I didn’t think it was possible), the author was able to turn the story around, and I ended up loving the book.

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Reading in the 21st century

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Reading never goes out of style, even in the age of technology.

In the August 1894 issue of Scribner’s magazine, an article by Octave Uzanne, predicted “The End of Books,” proposing that in the 20th century, the printed page will be replaced by “storyographs,” patented cylinders containing recordings of books, and writers replaced by “Narrators”  that read stories aloud for the recordings. Uzanne imagines today’s libraries transformed into “phonographotecks” or “phonostereoteks,” repositories for the “storyographs.” He also imagined portable players that he called “pocket phono-opera-graphs.”

While Uzanne’s predictions almost accurately cover audiobooks, ebooks, mp3 players, and personal ebook readers, he was wrong on one count: the introduction of these technologies did not herald the end of books, but rather gives the 21st century person new ways to enjoy the printed page, enhancing the reading experience for the page-turner.

mibfThe Manila International Book Fair lists the top reading technologies, proving just how relevant reading still is in the 21st century.

As the Manila International Book Fair, the paramount event of the Philippine book industry, marks its 30th anniversary this year on Sept 16-20 at the SMX Convention Center, it once again welcomes book lovers to celebrate it celebrates the written word in all its forms.

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Adventures in the Amazon

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Eva Ibbotson is one of my favorite authors, and I’ve read most of her books, but the two books in this review, A Company of Swans and A Journey to the River Sea (books #136-137 for 2009) are unique, both set largely in the heart of the Amazon.

I’ve always been a fan of Ibbotson’s idyllic pastoral scenery and tree-hugging characters, and I was eager to find out how she would take on a more exotic environment such as the Amazon. I took A Company of Swans with me on the trip to Cebu, while Journey to the River Sea was one of the books that kept me company during my hospital stay (reading wasn’t easy, even after the fever passed, as my left hand got swollen after so many bottles of IV and they had to transfer the IV to my right).

Despite the exotic change of scenery, I was not disappointed with Ibbotson’s forays into the Amazon, as she manages to paint a magical setting that enhances her work’s trademark charm.

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39 Clues hits the halfway mark with “The Black Circle”

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Nearly a year after its launch, Scholastic’s groundbreaking action adventure series, The 39 Clues, reaches the halfway mark with the fifth installment of the ten book-series, The Black Circle (book#135 for 2009), by Patrick Carman.

The interactive multi-media series has been making its way to eager young readers around the world. Aside from the simultaneous release of the hardcover and audio editions in various parts of the word, Scholastic reports that the series has been licensed for publication in 17 foreign languages, including Japanese, Italian, German, Chinese, French, Greek, and Hebrew.

The adventure series recently made its debut in Scandinavia with the first three books released in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, and followed by the release of the first three books in Japan. Additional international editions are set for release in 2010.

At the heart of the series is the Cahill family, a powerful family that has produced the movers and shakers in world history. When the last remaining Cahill matriarch, Grace, passes away, she leaves 11-year old Dan and his  14-year old sister Amy a strange bequest: the choice between a million dollars for each of them, or the first clue in the quest for the Cahill family legacy, and a reward beyond measure.

Choosing the path of adventure, Dan and Amy go off on the adventure of a lifetime to beat the rest of the Cahills to the source of their family’s power, getting in touch with the lives of other prominent Cahills along the way:  Benjamin Franklin in The Maze of Bones, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in One False Note, Toyotomi Hideyoshi in The Sword Thief, and Howard Carter in Beyond the Grave.
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