quirk books – Bookmarked!

Tahereh Mafi + Ransom Riggs in Manila!

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I was scheduled to interview Tahereh Mafi (author of “Shatter Me,” “Unravel Me”) last Saturday prior to her bloggers’ forum at Powerbooks, and was delighted to find Ransom Riggs (author of “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”), who had flown in with her, had come along to check out her events as well. When I asked if I could interview him with Tahereh, Ransom graciously agreed, so I had a lovely hour chatting with these two YA authors!

Doing a joint interview was a great idea, not just because of the limited time before the start of the bloggers’ forum, but also because Tahereh and Ransom are friends, so they were very candid the whole time! From their books to their writing, down to what they’ve experienced of the Philippines so far, we certainly had a lot to talk about, and it was an amazing experience.

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A two-sided love story

As my book club friends would know, I judge books by the cover. I’ll buy a book that pops out on a shelf and catches my eye, if only for that reason.

Such was the case with Theodora Goss’ The Thorn and the Flower, a one of a kind accordion-fold binding in a vintage-y floral scratchboard slipcase. It was a chance find — I have never seen a novel in accordion (or concertina) style before (normally picture books, hand-crafted books, and sketchbooks) , and all I could think of was how good this book would look on my bookshelf!

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Another trivia roundup

I run through trivia books like other girls run through, say, a tube of lipstick.

At any given time, in between the novels I read, I thumb through five to eight trivia books simultaneously and all over the house — in bed, in the bathroom, in the den, in the kitchen. As I’ve said before, they make great palate cleansers, especially when I’ve been reading text-heavy narratives, plus they contain snippets that can be read and digested easily, not to mention the convenience of being able to stop at any point of the book and pick it up days or weeks later and just keep on reading. The trivia junkie that I am, these useless bits of information do come in handy from time to time during the weekly quiz nights and the monthly geek fights that I attend.

I finish a batch of trivia books several times in a year, hence the trivia book roundups. Here’s the last bunch from last year, which includes Say Chic; The Bathroom Trivia Book; Be Safe!; Cocktail Party Cheat Sheets; Kiss and Tell; A Year in High Heels; From Altoids to Zima; The TV Guide Book of Lists; The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Fun FAQs. These are books 189-198 for 2010, which means I only owe you 6 more book reviews in my 2010 backlog. Hopefully I have the remaining six up by next week so I can move on to my January reads (12 and counting) as well as a surprise in the works for this month (patience!).

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Guilty Pleasures

I have a confession to make: books are not my only vice.

Novelty candy, slurpees, microwavpe popcorn, best and worst dressed lists, foodie reality shows, Merrie Melodies, Disney Channel, rom-com movies, ABBA, Madonna, pop-art shirts — the list goes on and on.

This is why I was instantly drawn to this delightful book: The Encyclopedia of Guilty Pleasures: 1001 Things You Hate to Love by Sam Stall, Lou Harry, and Julia Spalding, sent by a kind moocher from abroad.

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