Category: News

A peek into my Moleskine Passions Book Journal

And I’m baaaack!

Pardon the blogging hiatus — I’ve been out of town frequently for the past month, not to mention the overhaul I had to do (still not finished!) on the back end of this blog. The new theme takes some getting used to, but it’s growing on me, and I’m too exhausted from trying out several dozen themes and coming up with zilch. I still have to tweak my widgets, but I’m settling on this look for now because it’s eaten up a lot of time I could have spent blogging.

So anyway, I promised to let you peek into my Moleskine Passions book journal when I got it back from Fully Booked after they reproduced it for the Moleskine Passions “Share the Loves of Your Life” exhibit, and tadah, they gladly obliged (thanks Ms. Aimee!).

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Robotars! (Earth Day 2010)

Robotars: robotic tarsiers that were designed to destroy, but lived to love.

The first Robotars designer toy custom show is now open at the Art Asia Gallery, 4/F, SM Megamall until May 15, 2010!

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Miguel Syjuco launches ‘Ilustrado’

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!

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Reading in the Dark

I’m one of those people who like reading in the dark — there’s just something so much fun about curling up in bed and sending yourself off to la-la land with your bedtime reading. And then there are the real flashlight-worthy books: the books you read that scare you silly or excite you almost to the point of apoplexy but you’re but unable to put down because they’re so fantastically good that you end up taking the book under the safety of your blanket and reading with your flashlight on.

When I was younger, I was forbidden to stay up late reading (because given a choice I wouldn’t sleep) so I smuggled  a penlight under the blankets. Now that I’m older, my mom can’t do anything about it (although she grumbles from time to time), so I’ve got all sorts of book lights on hand — a Lumos Lightwedge (waaah, currently out of commission, unless I can find a way to dislodge the battery that’s stuck to the terminal of the narrow battery chute — suggestions, anyone?), an LED mini-lamp, a clip-on lamp, and a squeeze-powered LED flashlight — so I can read all I want, even when the lights are out.

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Guest Blog: Welski meets Gaiman

Neil Gaiman was over here last week, to the delight of his legion of fans from all over the metro. While I enjoyed The Graveyard Book immensely, I must say I have yet to acquire the taste for his other works.  I’m not a big Gaiman fan so I’ve decided to leave the blogging to one real Gaiman fangirl — Welski, a book club friend from FFP, guest blogging from Bookerella the Enchanted.

I’m actually envious of her fan girl experience. I wish I was a Gaiman fan — he’s over here quite a lot, and there have been a lot of opportunities for fan encounters. I’ve never had a favorite writer (or illustrator for that matter) of mine visit the country for a tour.

Read on for the highlights of Welski’s story (copyediting and comments in blue mine).

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