Reading something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue
National Children’s Book Day is fast approaching!
Every year, the Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY) spearheads the celebration of National Children’s Book Day on the 3rd Tuesday of July to commemorate the publication of Jose Rizal’s “The Monkey and the Turtle” on Trubner’s Oriental Record in London.
This year’s celebration is entitled, “Umuulan ng Libro,” because while it’s been raining all over the metro, it’ll rain books on National Children’s Book Day.
It’s time once again for the Filipino Reader Conference, slated on November 14-15 at the Bayanihan Center, Mandaluyong City.
The Filipino Reader Conference is an annual event in support of the Filipino reader, designed to help them discover reading communities they can join, reading materials they would be interested in, and fellow book lovers they can make friends with.
This year’s theme is Readers Turned Writers, zeroing in on the phenomenon of readers who transitioned from consumer to creator, and the steps they took to write and publish their first books.
(UPDATED) November is the Philippine Book Development Month, and this year, it’s marked by a series of literary events, including “Text in the City,” the Philippine International Literary Festival, set from Nov. 11-15 at different institutions around the city: UST (Nov.11), DLSU (Nov.12), ADMU (Nov.13), UP (Nov.14), and POPtastik Pinoy! at the Ayala Museum (Nov.15); the Komikon 2013 on Nov. 16; the National Book Store Warehouse Sale, and the 3rd Filipino Reader Conference on Nov. 9 Dec. 7 at the Ateneo Rizal Library, and
It’s been an incredibly busy summer for me, but I’d been setting aside a day for the NBDB Little Lit Fest ever since it was announced, because it’s been a while since I’ve touched base with friends in the industry.
I couldn’t attend both days, and the Day 2 sessions were better geared towards me, so I headed over to Museo Pambata last Friday and made it in time for the first session!
Life has been a whirlwind since I got back from the AFCC, as preparations for the 2nd Filipino ReaderCon (Filipino ReaderCon) were in full swing. It was all hands on deck for members of the Filipino Book Bloggers group, and it has been great to see volunteers from different book clubs banding together to make this happen.
Last year, the ReaderCon was a half-day event that coincided with the Manila International Book Fair, and this year, we’ve gotten bigger. United We Read: The 2nd Filipino ReaderCon is happening tomorrow, August 18, 2012 (Saturday), 8:00am to 6:00pm at the Filipinas Heritage Library. Registration fee is Php150, and you can pre-register for the event here. This event is held in partnership with Filipinas Heritage Library (FHL) and National Book Development Board (NBDB), and sponsored by Scholastic, Lampara Books, McDonald’s, Flipreads, Anvil Publishing, Hachette Philippines, Amici Philippines, OMF Literature and Adarna House.
So I’ve been on the committee for the 1st Filipino Readers’ Choice Awards (with Tarie and Tina) and while it was a tremendous undertaking, we were overwhelmed by the response we received. Reading through the nominations, tallying up over 2500 votes, and watching the judges deliberate over the finalists has been an amazing experience. We’re finally awarding the Readers’ Choice Awards tomorrow at the ReaderCon, and we’ve definitely learned a lot to make the awards bigger and better next year.
