Bram Stoker’s Dracula

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I’ve been meaning to read the classic Dracula ever since I read (and reread) The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. With all the vampire fiction that’s been coming out recently, I realized I really abhor the glamorized vampire and prefer the good, old-fashioned Dracula, and so I grabbed the chance when I spotted the Viking Studio illustrated edition featuring comic book artist Jae Lee at last year’s Cut-Price Sale at National Bookstore, for about P200, along with a copy of Jane Eyre from the same line, also P200.

I knew I read Dracula when I was in 6th grade but it must have been abridged, or maybe I covered my eyes over the scary parts (Rich Hall has a sniglet for it — “snargle” — to lessen the visual impact of a horror movie [in this case, a book] by filtering it through one’s fingers) because I don’t remember much of it.

Anyway, I had to read Dracula because I need to read the book “Mina” by Marie Kiraly, a Dracula spin-off assigned to me by another Flipper for the Flips Flipping Pages Diversity Challenge this year. I also have some more Dracula-themed books in my TBR that I’d like to read so I figured I needed to read the original for comparison.

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Catching Fire (and the HG fever continues!)

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I know this is way overdue, as I finished Catching Fire three weeks ago. But the book fair, the two storms (and the great flood) that hit the country, my trip to Singapore (more on that on a future post!), and rearranging the house (ugh, reshelving my books, and still resuscitating those that went under during the flood) have kept me pretty busy and this is the first weekend I’ve had to myself in a long time.

If you’ve just discovered my blog, well, I read Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games (Scholastic Press) about a month back, and to my surprise, it slaked that craving I had for a really good read, and about time too, as I’d spent more than half of the year looking for a book to wow me.

Several days later, I got ahold of the I had newly-released sequel, Catching Fire, and finished it just before I had the thrill of watching the Hunger Games Live Action Role Play (LARP) at the Manila International Book Fair, organized by Scholastic and National Bookstore with the New Worlds Alliance.

(Spoiler free!)

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On book blogging

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A couple of weeks ago, I was surprised to find out I was a finalist to this year’s Philippine Blog Awards, an annual event in the Philippine blogging community that honors outstanding Filipino blogs and bloggers.

I knew I’d been nominated, but I never thought I’d make it as a finalist in the culture and arts category, as it’s only been ten months since I started book blogging, and hundreds of other blogs were nominated for the various blog categories nationwide.

Due to the nature of my work, I frequently encounter top bloggers  who have carved out their names in their own niches, in the blogosphere, and even in mainstream media. I’ve always admired their devotion to developing new content for their blogs, and wished I had half as much dedication in me, although I never thought about actively blogging until this year.

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Surviving the deluge

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Finally I’m back blogging. Pardon the lull out here, I actually started this entry last weekend, but I’ve been out of the country for the past week and upon our return I was floored at the chaos left by the floods to actually finish this entry.

My Filipino readers need not ask what I’m referring to, I’m sure we were all affected by typhoon  Ondoy (international name Ketsana) in some way.  To my readers outside the country, you’ve probably heard in the world news that there’s been a bad patch of natural calamities in this part of the world (including the tsunami in Samoa and the earthquake in Indonesia, which was felt all the way to Singapore and nearby areas).

Here’s my story:

Saturday started out innocently — it had rained a fair amount the night before and was still raining when my cousin Dianne came to pick me up for the perfume making workshop we had scheduled as a pre-discussion activity for the Flips Flipping Pages’ September book discussion, which I was supposed to moderate.

Dianne and I went over to Jupiter St., to the company conducting our workshop to reschedule our reservation, as the roads were getting flooded and Flippers from all over the metro were reporting their status. We met Flipper Andrea who was already there, and just decided to have breakfast at a nearby Starbucks.

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Bookish weekend ahead

A great weekend is coming up, with two major events for book lovers.

First up, of course, is the Flips Flipping Pages September book discussion on Patrick Suskind’s Perfume, which I’m moderating.

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We’d love to have you join us, whether you’re already a Flipper or not!

Meanwhile, another bookish event is happening over at Powerbooks Megamall…

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