I must admit, there was quite a slack in my blogging lately. I got so engrossed reading and visiting some bookstores in search of something on my wish list which is getting quite long. Though I haven’t been successful in my quest, I was able to buy some treasures which I am excited to read pretty soon. I am almost done with The Red Pyramid, and will start on The Hunger Games next (I hope). Don’t ask me why there was this sudden shift of reading genre. Some of my friends who know I am into serious read would probably laugh that I now enjoy reading books for teens, and kids for that matter. Well, more than the entertainment values that I get from these, I feel like I am learning a new language. 
I’ve never been a fan of Greek or Egyptian mythologies, they bore me no end but when I started a few pages of The Lightning Thief and saw my daughter’s collections of the Vampire diaries, Blue Blood series, Cirque Du Freak and a lot of books from authors I never heard before, I was a little intrigued. Christopher Pike, yes, read a book or two several years ago, but there are now three thick books on Thirst. L. J. Smith, Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl, Melissa Marr, and a Filipino-American author named Melissa dela Cruz – haven’t heard of them until now.
Back when everyone was into reading the Twilight series, I was never tempted to read one although my daughter has a complete set of it. How she raved about every book of Meyer, even to the point of asking NBS to reserve copies for her. Out of curiosity, hubby and I watched the movie version of Eclipse (a month ago I think, I can’t remember now), which they say is the best of the three series shown, so far. But I was nodding my head off in the middle of the movie and my daughter chided me by saying that I always fall asleep while watching the big screen, so I told her it’s not my cup of tea. I must tell you that I enjoyed reading Harry Potter and watched every movie version of those books. This sudden penchant for heroic-demigod-magical powers is altogether different though, I am learning Egyptology and little by little those quite unfamiliar names which I only used to see on crossword puzzles suddenly come to life. Amazing!
And before you think that I’ve completely abandoned reading other books, you’ re wrong. I’ve found and purchased a lot of books too, all additions to my growing TBR list. Time and again, I would buy memoirs, I wonder why they fascinate me no end. Frank McCourt’s Ti’s and Angela’s Ashes are favorites although I need to replace my previous copies because I wasn’t able to save them during the flood last year. Had I been well enough to set aside the paperbacks, I would have done it but I was not allowed to sort the dirty piles because at that time I was in the middle of my chemotherapy sessions.
I recently bought The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls at a twenty percent discount at NBS. I like the description on the cover which reads, “The Glass Castle is the kind of story that keeps you awake long after the rest of the house has fallen asleep”. It is a memoir of resilience and redemption and a look into a dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant family where love still reigns despite the odds and all the peculiarities involved. I am saving it for another rainy day. I think it’s my fourth or fifth buy of The Prophet , the first three I got for some friends as gifts and my copy now is the smallest and the cheapest I could find. Kahlil Gibran, the author of The Prophet is a Lebanese-American poet and philosopher and the book has been translated into more than 20 languages. Back in college, I devoured almost every copy of his books even to the point of keeping a separate notebook of all the best quotations I could find.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte – a complete and unabridged copy. Come to think of it, I have forgotten the story of orphan Jane and the famous Mr. Rochester because the last time I’ve read this book, I was still in high school. I never had the chance to reacquaint myself with the book until now. I bought Ilustrado two months ago, got a good review from Blooey, one of my friends at Flip Flipping Pages. The Filipino author Miguel Syjuco, is a winner of the 2008 Man Asia Literary Prize. I have yet to discover how he writes because the book is still in its original plastic cover.
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson – bought a copy at P625.00 at Bestsellers. I’ve started reading this about a month ago but it’s not the kind of book that you would want to finish in one seating. It’s a true account of mountaineer Greg Mortenson who drifted into a mountain village of Karakoram after a failed attempt to climb K2. He was touched by the kindness shown by the inhabitants there and promised to return and build a school for the children. 
It is the astonishing , uplifting story of real-life Indiana Jones and his remarkable humanitarian campaign in the Taliban backyard. Just a quote from the book, “here in Pakistan, we drink three cups of tea to do business; the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join our family and for our family we are prepared to do anything – even die”. (Haji Ali, Korphe Village Chief, Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan). Eversince I’ve read Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, I was fascinated by how the people live in these Islamic countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan. I even saw a book entitled Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, another memoir,but that would be on another trip to NBS. And who told you I am addicted to memoirs? I just did!
Life is not all memoirs though because in between reading these, I also managed to buy more books at less than a hundred pesos – Anne Tyler’s Breathing Lessons, Andrew Greeley’s Irish Linen. Greeley is a Catholic priest and priests do write love stories. I’ve read several of his books in the past and I found Cardinal Sins the most controversial. It’s about life in the Vatican written in fiction. Nissa bought me some chick lit books and a couple of hardbound James Patterson.
And to end this book blog which wonderfully reached a word count of 1101, let me quote Isaac Barrow on how he views books:
“He that loveth a book will never want for a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter”
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Dreams And Escapes 
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