The other day, I was updating my journal, transferring some quotes and one-liner words that I have accumulated in my thought box when I saw this printed list of books that I have culled from my account at shelfari.com, the first virtual library that I have painstakingly updated when I started using social media (think Friendster and Multiply) several years ago. I could no longer access my account there since I have already forgotten my password. When most of our books were destroyed by typhoon Ondoy last September 2009 I haven’t visited the site as much as I wanted because it pains me to see the titles of those volumes and book titles. It makes my heart bleed just seeing that all those lovely books that I have collected over the years are now gone. The Shelfari site was where I met book nerds not just here in the Philippines but from some other countries too. From there a friend created a book club which is still active until now though I haven’t attended the monthly sessions for a number of years. When I got sick, I stopped joining the group in their book discussions but I follow a number of those who have separate book blogs both at WordPress and at Blogger.
I now keep tract of the books that I’ve read and the books that I want to read via Goodreads. My wish list back then was quite long but I have found several books through the years of searching for those copies either at National Bookstore or at Booksale. There is nothing like finding one particular book in your list when you least expect it. Here is my updated wish list for 2016. It would be nice if I could find even half of the remaining ones that I haven’t read yet.
- Ada by Vladimir Nabokov
- The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
- A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway
- Caught In The Quiet by Rod McKuen
- Happy All The Time by Laurie Colwin
- Hello From Heaven: A New Field of Research-After-Death communication by Bill Guggeinheim
- I Am David by Anne Holm
- If Not Now, When? (Penguin Twentieth-Century classics) by Primo Levi
- In Search Of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
- In The Dark Before Dawn: New Selected Poems of Thomas Merton by Thomas Merton
- Looking For A Friend – Rod McKuen
- Love’s Been Good To Me – Rod McKuen
- One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
- Rites Of Passage by William Golding
- Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Christmas Box Miracle: My Spiritual Journey of Destiny, Healing and Hope by Richard Paul Evans
- The Devil In The Flesh by Raymond Radiguet, Alan Sheridan
- The Graduate by Charles Webb
- The Heart Of A Woman by Maya Angelou
- Honorary Consul by Graham Greene
- The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
- The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton
- The Trial by Franz Kafka
- Too Many Midnights by Rod McKuen
- Traveling Light by Max Lucado
- Watch For The Wind by Rod McKuen
- West Wind by Mary Oliver
- Witness To Hope: A Biography of Pope John Paul II
- Your Name is Renee: Ruth Kapp Hartz’s Story As A Hidden Child in Occupied France by Stacey Cretzmeyer.
And last but not the least is P. Anciers’ Libertine’s Destiny. I read this when I was in college and the only copy of UST’s Main Library was never in the shelf. Back then, when somebody returned the book, there was always someone who wanted to borrow it. The story started in Germany during WWII. If I were to rate it now, I’ll give it five stars. There is a discussion group on Goodreads about this book and some have sourced different libraries in the US to no avail.
What about you, do you have a favorite book that you want to reread and makes you smile just remembering it?
A book is a dream that you hold in your hand.–Neil Gaiman
Dreams And Escapes 