Bedside Reading (Picture Book Roundup #7)

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I’ve been missing in action this week because I’ve just gone through an AH1N1 scare. Well, it didn’t turn out to be AH1N1 but I can’t say fortunately — I’m on the last legs of a very nasty bout of upper respiratory tract infection that has kept me in bed for days.

I haven’t been able to read much in this time, as I had fever for four days, and after that my mom gave me this vitamin that makes me fall asleep in three seconds flat and then makes me eat like a hungry bear. And she’s afraid I’ll strain my eyes if I read too much or use the computer (hence I am sneaking this in while she is off at the drugstore).

Picture books were a great comfort to me when I was sick as a kid, and guess what – it still works! I read The Travels of Babar by Jean de Brunhoff; Frankenstein Makes A Sandwich by Adam Rex; and Mr. Peabody’s Apples by Madonna, illus. by Loren Long (books #102-104 of 2009).

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The Adobo Book

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The Flippers with The Adobo Book author Nancy Reyes Lumen (center)

I must admit that I am one of the few people who are not fond of the Filipino dish adobo. I do eat it, but I don’t really enjoy it, and I think I know why — it’s one of the most recyclable dishes in Filipino cuisine because it keeps so well, and I am a person whose taste buds have a very short attention span. I don’t like repeating viands in subsequent meals, and when there’s adobo at home it does tend to be appear frequently on the table for so many days. Adobo was also a mainstay in our family excursions – whether it’s a day at the beach, or the times  we rode a Superferry (16 hours) to Bacolod or Iloilo when I was young). It was also standard baon (lunchbox) fare, and I specifically remember that I had a packed lunch of adobo during all the college entrance exams I took.

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Comfort Food

In a few hours, Flips Flipping Pages will be discussing books around the theme of Filipino food.

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I’ve been looking forward to this book discussion, because I think among the Flippers’ core group  we’ve already proven our foodie status ages ago! A lot of the memorable foodie experiences I’ve had in recent time are with my Flipper friends: a weekend spent snacking in Tagaytay; Mike’s hummus; our British tea party; devilishly delish dinner at Wicked Kitchen; lunch at Casa Rap; Japanese buffet at Islandhopper’s farm; the humongous Al’s Rice; a French baker’s bread, and breakfast at Yogurt House in Sagada; and French dinner buffet at Log Cabin, also in Sagada. Practically every single monthly book discussion — or just about any time we’re all together — turns into a food trip.

For this discussion, I chose to read Anvil Publishing’s Comfort Food, edited by Erlinda Enriquez Panilio, which, incidentally, also happens to be book #100 of 2009! Comfort Food is a compilation of essays by notable Filipino writers and society figures. I actually got this back in 2006 for P40 from the Anvil bargain bin at the Manila International Book Fair, and I got as far as around two essays but I was only able to finish it for the book discussion.
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Of weird wills and dangerously witty quotes

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The trivia freak in me  always finds it hard to resist novelty books, because I get my fix of perfectly useless information, and enjoy some eye candy at the same time.

Last year, as I was browsing through the bargain bins (as usual), I discovered Michelle Lovric, who’s created over a hundred illustrated novelty books! I actually recognized the author because I like novels set in Venice, and I have her novel, The Remedy, in my TBR. I bought her book, Weird Wills, for P45, and decided to search for more of her books on BookMooch, which has yielded another: Deadlier than the Male, which I mooched from abroad. Both are beautiful hardbound books that showcase Regency and Victorian etchings like the ones in the oracle I reviewed last April.

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Time for some chick lit

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I’ve been stressed out for some weeks now, and was in desperate need of a fluffy pick-me-up this weekend, so I bumped up Meg Cabot’s Princess On the Brink (Princess Diaries 8) from my TBR heap (book #97 for 2009) — more than two years after I read the 7th book.

The Princess Diaries is Meg Cabot’s bestselling chick lit series about HRH Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo (a.k.a Mia Thermopolis), Princess of Genovia (fondly referred to by her best friend Lilly Moscovitz as POG). As the series title implies, the books read like journal entries chronicling the ups and downs of the life of a teenage girl who also happens to be a princess.

I actually saw the Disney film adaptation years before I read any of the books, and I actually started with Meg Cabot’s All American Girl before I read The Princess Diaries.

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