Protect-a-Book

I love book-related miscellany, so my friends and family are constantly on the lookout for bookish odds and ends for me. One day my siblings were out shopping and found me this nifty item from a clearance sale at Living Well (by Gourdo’s): Protect-a-Book, for only P35 (less than $1) each. I nearly forgot about it as I had buried the two packs underneath my bookfair loot, but I was clearing away some stuff tonight and tore into them with glee.

You ought to know (if you don’t already know) that I can’t read a “naked” book; I always compulsively cover a book in plastic before I can read it because I’m paranoid about spills and dents and that sort of thing. I also don’t dog-ear pages, so I’m forever running out of bookmarks as I tend to leave themĀ  (or receipts, or tickets, or clothing labels, or anything that can fit flat) inside books. This compulsion makes this book thingy perfect for me: Protect-a-Book is a slip-on, clear plastic book cover that’s actually three products in one: book protector, bookmark, and magnifier.

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Click, Clack, Moo


I’ve been looking for a copy of the Caldecott Honor book Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type (by Doris Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin) for my picture book collection for a couple of years now. It’s been elusive, and I was beginning to think I would have to get it full price so I didn’t count on finding this wonderful Click, Clack, Moo: A Book and Playset for only P85 at my favorite bargain book haunt.

Housed in a red barn is a board book of Click, Clack Moo, which tells the hilarious story of disgruntled cows who learn to use a typewriter to express their grievances in a series of notes addressed to Farmer Brown.

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Mockingjay Giveaway Winner!

Thanks to all those who joined the Mockingjay giveaway. I’m sure you’re all eager to find out who the lucky winner is, and I’ve finally (figuratively) drawn the name out of the hat!

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Back to the Underland

Last month, I blogged about how much I loved Suzanne CollinsUnderland Chronicles after I read the first three books right before Mockingjay was released. I must confess the series took me by surprise; way before I discovered the Hunger Games series, I’d been seeing the Underland Chronicles in the bookstores and never really thought of picking them up. Then I managed to forage two books out of the bargain bins, and when I finally decided to read them, I found them utterly engrossing!

I read straight on from books 1-3: Gregor the Overlander, Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane, and Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods. I had trouble finding copies of the next books in the series, Gregor and the Marks of Secret and Gregor and the Code of the Claw so I momentarily had to stop reading the series, but some wonderful friends at Scholastic (yay, thanks Ms. Joyce and Ms. Roselle!) gifted me with books 4 and 5, and as soon as the craziness of the past couple of weeks subsided, I happily dug into the remainder of the Underland Chronicles.

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The weird wonders of the wanderer’s world

At the height of stress, I often choose trivia books over novels, because I’m not in the proper frame of mind to concentrate on plot, and I really can’t afford to read more than a few snippets at a time. Last week was pure madness (in my world), but one book got me through it: The Traveller’s Companion.

Whenever I could find time to just sit down and catch my breath, I’d open it and read a page or two, and it was quite a relaxing exercise, and by the end of the week, I had finished the book!

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