Book Reviews – Page 61

The Magic of Maps

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.

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Flash Reviews: Book Trivia

(I’m back! Sorry for the lack of new entries last week — was on a business trip up north, and there simply wasn’t time to blog. Here’s an entry I’ve wanted to do for a long time now, and will (hopefully) resume regular blogging this week.)

If you’re joining a book trivia contest (like I did), or if you’re a sucker for trivia (like I am), or you simply love books (like I do), trivia books about books are great for cramming in some literary trivia and finding more good books to read.

In the couple of weeks leading up to the Ultimate Book Geek finals, I managed to pore through a bunch of literary trivia books, and they were a big help in the contest. Here’s a quick run down of the books I read, in capsule reviews, as they’re just too many to review individually!

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FFP sound trips to High Fidelity

After I missed last month’s Flips Flipping Pages (my book club) book discussion (The Shadow of the Wind, one of my favorite books!) because it coincided with the Ultimate Book Geek finals, I was glad I was able to attend this month’s book discussion: Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, as moderated by Mike, Ronald and Shani.

Holed up in an Irish pub, we had some music related games. We were divided into two teams (morbidly named Team RIP and Team Condolence), and for the first game, Mike produced a list of songs and read them aloud while we attempted to identify the songs’ album, artist, and year released. I was in Team Condolence and we got creamed by Team RIP! Then we had an Anti Music Snob Name that Tune contest, where we managed (with Ronald’s help!) to squeak by with a one point win over Team RIP.

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Shamanka!

Rum-pa-pum-pa-pum-pum! Rum-pa-pum-pa-pum-pum! The drumming sound was driving me crazy. Maybe it was a combination of the heat and the fact that I’d been walking frantically for the past half hour, but the faint drumming I’d heard as soon as I stepped into the used bookstore complex was getting louder by the minute.

I rounded the corner and found a bookshop I hadn’t noticed before, small and cluttered, with a labyrinthine arrangement of tall shelves. The Hindu storekeeper beckoned with a smile, so I ventured inside. Instantly, the drumming escalated into a frenetic rhythm: Pum-ba-da-bum-ba-da-pum-ba-da-ba-da-bum! Heart pounding, I backed into a shelf, causing a stack of books to fall on the floor in front of me. On top of the pile was book covered in snakeskin, with a strange word emblazoned on the cover: Shamanka.

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The Girl from the Chartreuse

I was poking around at an 80% off sale at one of my favorite book stores when I came across a book that caught my eye: The Girl from the Chartreuse by Pierre Peju. I’d never heard of it before, but I thought it would look pretty on my bookshelf (yes, I judge a book by its cover!) so I decided to add it to my purchases.

The Girl from the Chartreuse (Fr. “La Petite Chartreuse,” translated into English by Ina Rilke) is a French novella that won the prestigious Prix du Livre Inter in 2003, and was made into a French film in 2005.

It starts off ominously: “Five in the afternoon. It will be exactly five in the afternoon under the bitter cold November rain when the van of the bookseller Vollard (Etienne) spurting down the avenue collides head-on with a little girl who runs smack into his path.”

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