Halloween Roundup!

Halloween’s coming up, so I’ve been pulling down the scary reads from my TBR shelves. I’ve been alternating novels and picture books since the month started (and Pillars of the Earth in between!), and I’m having a lot of fun scaring myself with these Superhero costumes.

Here’s a (mostly) picture book roundup, with the following books: Faust, The Dark Goodbye, The Diary of Victor Frankenstein, Les Fantomes a la Cave, The Book that Eats People, The Wolves in the Walls, Kate Culhane: A Ghost Story, Eccentric Epitaphs, and The Canterville Ghost, books #139-147 for 2010.

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Pillars of the Earth: Flips Flipping Pages October book discussion

I was dragging my feet about reading this month’s selection, Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth (henceforth to be referred to as POTE), primarily because I didn’t expect to like it. I first mooched a copy of the book when Patti, one of my BookMoochers Pilipinas friends proclaimed it as her all-time favorite book and my curiosity was piqued, but I had the book languishing in my TBR for over a year until I lost my first copy in last year’s flood. I got a replacement a several months later, but I have to admit that if it wasn’t assigned for the book discussion, I wouldn’t have picked it up.

I’m not one to shy away from chunksters, but given the length of the book (973 pages), I started POTE one week before the discussion, figuring I’d have to read around 200 pages a day. I read the first chapter late Thursday night, and finished a few more chapters on Friday night.

On Saturday, I read the book after breakfast and on to the afternoon. I had planned to go to a friend’s bookshop opening that night, but it rained heavily and I got stuck at home because the street was flooded, and all my plans went awry. I figured I might as well make a dent in the novel (I was waiting for the street to clear out, but it didn’t until late that night), and I was reading and reading, and before I knew it, I had finished 900 pages — right up to the end of the book!

I hope you’ll indulge the lengthy post; it’s possible this book may be my best book for 2010 and I want to share the experience with you. Don’t worry, no spoilers!
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A Treasure in “Trash”

My last blog entry was about meeting British author Andy Mulligan at the launch of “Trash.” I got my book signed too (yay, another signed book!), and ended up reading “Trash” in one sitting the following night!

Meeting Andy Mulligan

I am so glad it stopped raining last Tuesday, because I got to attend the launch of “Trash” by Andy Mulligan at National Book Store Glorietta 5. I came from work so by the time I got there, a bevy of eager fans were already queued up to get their books signed so I was able to browse through the book while waiting for my turn.

Less than an hour later, I got to meet Andy Mulligan himself, and we were able to chat a bit about his latest novel “Trash,” a young adult novel loosely based on the Philippines, an adventure story featuring three dumpsite boys.

Check out what he has to say about the book!

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Teen Read Week!


My teen years were filled with many hours of reading.  I spent almost all my afternoons at the library — an after-school habit that started in grade school —  up until closing time! I was one of the few girls who managed to fill up multiple borrowers’ cards in a school year, and I trawled the shelves on a daily basis that I would know when a new book was added to the collection!

I write about this because this week is Teen Read Week, another initiative by the American Library Association (ALA) that encourages teens to read — “because it’s free, fun, and can be done anywhere!”

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