Julius Chancer

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A couple of years ago, I discovered Julius Chancer completely by chance at the Manila International Book Fair at a publisher’s rep booth, and being a Tintin fan, I was instantly attracted to the cover art. Upon closer inspection, I saw it was an omnibus of “The Rainbow Orchid” adventure, and I knew I wouldn’t find it in the bookstores — I felt it was too good to pass up. I inquired about the book and they told me it wasn’t for sale, and I wheedled and wheedled until they finally agreed to sell it to me (It wasn’t cheap. Haha). I’d been meaning to read it, but with all the moving around my books have been doing in the past couple of years, it got lost in the stacks and only resurfaced as I was packing some books for storage after last year’s monsoon.

Written and illustrated by Garen Ewing and published by Egmont (incidentally, also the publisher of Tintin), The Complete Rainbow Orchid won the Young People’s Comic Award at the 2013 British Comic Awards.

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Return to Riverdale

I spent the last few days in bed, laid down with a nasty throat infection, and on top of the cocktail of meds I was taking, my mom (who thinks I am wasting away) gave me this vitamin that made me alternate between falling asleep and chowing down like I hadn’t eaten in a week. Suffice it to say I did not get much reading done — other than this: The Best of Archie Comics, because Archie comics have been a sick day staple since I was a kid.

 I had not picked up a new Archie in ages (I have a bunch of raggedy ones, read many many times! And it was the last day of the cut-price sale!) and I was hit by a sudden bout of nostalgia.

Archie comics were a huge part of my childhood. They were all the rage in school, and whenever anyone had a new Archie comic, it would get passed on from girl to girl, right under our teachers’ noses.

In 90’s grade school, comics weren’t exactly approved reading material for Catholic schoolgirls, and possession of one can earn you either a disapproving stare, or worse, confiscation of the comics you saved your weekly allowance (then alternating on Sweet Valley Twins, BOP magazine and MAD magazine) for.

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Kitchen Princess

When I went over the books I read in 2010, I realized I only read one manga volume all year (and not a very good one at that). So at the start of the year, I decided to get my manga fix early on — I finished reading nine volumes of Kitchen Princess in January!

I discovered Kitchen Princess (manga by Natsumi Ando, story by Miyuki Kobayashi) a couple of years ago after I got the first volume on Bookmooch. Initially I just wanted to try it out, but I enjoyed it so much I wanted to read the rest of the series.

I couldn’t find the other volumes on BookMooch or the local bookstores, but well, an e-reader opens up a whole lot of possibilities.

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Tintin times three

 

(Sorry for the delayed post — had no electricity for over 24 hours due to that last storm!)

This weekend was my first free weekend in a long, long while, and it was spent vegging out, bargain book hunting, and watching more episodes of The Big Bang Theory (as well as Bounty Hunter and I Hate Valentine’s Day). I wasn’t in the mood for heavy-duty reading, but I did manage to squeeze in the three Tintin comics I bought (20% off!) during Free Comic Book Day: The Seven Crystal Balls, Land of Black Gold, and Tintin and the Picaros.

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Bookish Stamps

A couple of weeks ago, I went on an Old Manila Heritage Tour sponsored by the Pilipinas Stamp Collectors’ Club, a tour that covered the Metropolitan Theatre, the Arroceros Forest Park, Liwasang Bonifacio, and the Manila Post Office. It was not as organized as I would have liked, but then again it was a free tour, so I shouldn’t be complaining.

At the end of the tour, there was a stamp collecting seminar and by then my book club friends had decided they’d had enough geekiness for one day. I was tired, too, but I couldn’t resist staying. I’ve never had any formal instruction in collecting stamps and I’ve got two albums bursting full of them, some from my childhood collection and some accumulated after two years of BookMooching.

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