Heroes vs. Villains


Earlier this year, I blogged about The Action Heroine’s Handbook, a handy guide for wannabe kick-ass chicks, which details instructions on a variety of useful action heroine skills, such as winning a catfight, drinking someone under the table, choking a man with your bare thighs.

Months later, I received its companion volume, The Action Hero’s Handbook, that I requested from BookMooch, followed, quite aptly, by a copy of The Villain’s Guide to Better Living.
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Geek Fight!

Geek Fighting is Manila’s latest sport. What’s a book geek to do? :D

(First published in Manila Bulletin, Students and Campuses Section)

The trivia culture has invaded Manila!

Pub quizzes, the quaint British tradition of publicly matching wits and exchanging useless information over drinks and bar chow, have been a great addition to the social scene around the city. On any given week, you’re bound to find one or two trivia showdowns in bars around the metro, and for geeks such as myself, the glory of being the geekiest of them all proves to be difficult to resist.

I’d heard about Geek Fight for some time now, and I’d always intended to join, as I’ve never been known to back down from any geeky challenge. So when I chanced upon the Facebook page calling for an all-Pinoy Geek Fight Friday of last week, I was determined to give it a good try.

On Friday night, the ragtag team I assembled met up at the Quantum Café in Makati for what (save for two of the members) was our first foray into Geek Fight: me, my cousin Dianne, our book club friends Czar and Marie (a writer and a geodetic engineer), my office’s finance officer Ate Chi, my lawyer friend Ryan (also a political science teacher), my long-time friend Joseph (who works in advertising), and his pal Norman (a banker).

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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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BookMoochers Pilipinas Summer Mixer

Last night was the much awaited summer mixer for BookMoochers Pilipinas, the local group for members of book trading site BookMooch. It was one of the muggiest days in this infernally hot summer, but even the heat couldn’t stop us from heading over to Triccie’s house for our get-together.

Present last night were me, Triccie, Patti, Gege, Czar, Marie, Cecille, Shy, Paolo, Patrick, and JoelG. We haven’t gotten together as a group since last November, and since a lot of members were celebrating their birthdays in April and May (Triccie, Marie, Czar, Cecille, and Fran) we decided a summer party was in order!

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Flash Reviews: Book Trivia

(I’m back! Sorry for the lack of new entries last week — was on a business trip up north, and there simply wasn’t time to blog. Here’s an entry I’ve wanted to do for a long time now, and will (hopefully) resume regular blogging this week.)

If you’re joining a book trivia contest (like I did), or if you’re a sucker for trivia (like I am), or you simply love books (like I do), trivia books about books are great for cramming in some literary trivia and finding more good books to read.

In the couple of weeks leading up to the Ultimate Book Geek finals, I managed to pore through a bunch of literary trivia books, and they were a big help in the contest. Here’s a quick run down of the books I read, in capsule reviews, as they’re just too many to review individually!

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