Author: Sumthinblue

The End of the Affair (FFP November Book Discussion)


Last Saturday was the Flips Flipping Pages November book discussion featuring Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair.

Earlier in the day, a bunch of us met up at the University of Santo Tomas to view the Lumina Pandit exhibit (more about that in a separate post!), which took us through the history of books in the Philippines. We then proceeded to the Gayuma restaurant in UP Village for the discussion to be moderated by Fredda.

I must confess that I wasn’t able to finish the book before the day of the discussion (gasp!). I’d borrowed my boss’ copy of the book (it was hard to find in the local bookstores) but I thought it would be an easy read so I kept putting it off until it was too late. That morning I tried my best to finish the novel, but I didn’t want to be late for the exhibit tour so I read in the cab, but by the time we had lunch after the tour, I still had one third of the novel to go. And then for some strange reason, on our way to the discussion, Gege’s car overheated and we had to take it to a roadside garage, and so I ended up finishing the novel right there!

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Counting down to Christmas


I first read about advent calendars in Jostein Gaarder’s book The Christmas Mystery. In that novel, a boy named Joachim finds an advent calendar, and a bit of the story unfolds every day he opens a new window.

I remember I had to google what an advent calendar actually was, because they aren’t as popular here as they are in Europe. An advent calendar is a countdown to Christmas, usually a cardboard calendar with windows. As each day inches closer to Christmas (beginning December 1), each window opens to reveal a little surprise, such as a picture, a part of a story, a small gift, or a piece of chocolate.

I write about this because I found out my friend Iya (you may recognize her as she frequently comments here!) has some advent calendars at her store, Tie Me Up Buttercup! at Greenbelt 5 (and they have a Christmas kiosk at Greenbelt 3, too). I think they’re the only store here in the Philippines that sells advent calendars!

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Q & A with Vikas Swarup

I was glad to have caught the Vikas Swarup book signing last week at National Book Store Glorietta 5, even though I had to sit through an hour of horrible traffic just to get there.

I saw Slumdog Millionaire when it was released and I enjoyed it, but I hadn’t gotten the chance to read the novel Q & A, on which the movie was based. But I enjoy meeting authors and talking to them, so I really wanted to interview Mr, Swarup. I was worried because he was scheduled for dinner over at the neighboring city, so I was glad he obliged when I ambushed him for an interview over cocktails (ooh, samosas and kebabs, and it was almost as if I could hear Jai Ho! in the background)!

Read on for an exclusive Q & A with Vikas Swarup!

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Constant Vigilance!

In the spirit of Harry Potter and my ongoing giveaway, I’d like to get this story off my chest, because I’ve been bothered by this for a couple of days now.

I hit major panic mode the other day when I was tagged in a Facebook photo (yup, the one at the top of this post) to bid on a signed copy of a deluxe edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I must confess that all rationality fled and fangirl mode kicked in — the starting bid was only P700 and the highest bid so far was P850. I plunked down a P900 bid without a clue of the bid mechanics or the details of the item I was bidding for.

The guy (not a friend, but I was tagged by a common friend) was apparently moving out of his apartment and getting rid of some books. I thought, great, a guy who doesn’t know how much a signed Harry Potter book goes for.

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Insert coin: it’s Pac-Man!

I’ve really been enjoying my 18-month Moleskine planner. I used to run through planners sporadically, but in the past months I’ve been using my planner to map out my blogging schedule (more than anything else, but there’s also work, and my reading list, and book club activities), and it’s really been a big help in reaching my blogging targets.

I’ve been sprucing it up to make my work week more interesting so it’s quite an explosion of color these days. I even have special pens for the planner — Dong-A playon color pens, with a pen tip and marker tip at either end, because the ink is the perfect consistency for Moleskine paper (no blots!).

The doodles have been overtaking my planner, and I thought it was about time I had another Moleskine just for doodling!

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