And Books…Still

I have been gardening the past two afternoons. I should be finishing the last corner but the ground is too wet since there was a heavy rain last night so here I am again…reading.

I have told you before that I have a virtual library at Goodreads. It’s where I update the books I read, currently reading and wish list books that I like to read in the future.

At the moment, I have these books under the heading ‘currently reading’.

The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton. He was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mistic and a poet. He was ordained to the Catholic priesthood back in 1949. I love his other books No Man Is An Island and Thoughts in Solitude but for some strange reason, I could not finish The Seven Storey Mountain not because it was poorly written but the fine prints hurt my eyes. The book is his autobiography. I wish I could find an e-book of this so I can adjust the format. I started it in April 2019 but stopped eventually. It was a gift from a friend.

Ten Poems To Open Your Heart by Roger Housden. A friend gifted me this book last December 2022 and he taught me how to go about slow reading, analizing every word and reading them slowly. I finished five poems including one by Mary Oliver and wrote about them in my journal but I think slow reading is really not for me.

Peaches for Father Francis by Joanna Harris. Started it last August 16, 2023. Set in France and a sequel to the Oscar-nominated Chocolat starring Johnny Depp. I’ll give it a go once again in a few months probably.

The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger. I have only read one book of his a long time ago entitled Ordinary Grace. I am presently reading this now. Small town life in Minnesota. This describes in depth how the scars from WWII still affect its people. It speaks of the hardship of life in small farming communities. Loving it.

Book Lovers by Emily Henry. I know she is a good writer but after a few pages, I gave up. It will take sometime before I continue reading it. There are more interesting ones in my TBR list.

Happy Place by Emily Henry. I am not really into reading romance but I got curious why it won the Goodchoice Award in the Romance category for 2023 in Goodreads. I am in the middle of alternating it with The River We Remember.

Here are some book quotes that you might like:

– some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again. – Louisa May Alcott

– to learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark. – Victor Hugo

– books are the place, and the train,and the road. they are the destination and the journey. – Anna Quindlen

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The Last Three

I  am still in the middle of reading How Green Was My Valley,  a  1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn  and I have the last three books lined up to complete my challenge. One of these days I will look for that 1941 movie adaptation in YouTube,.

Well, I’ll be including reading classics this time – children’s classics to boot. The three are all famous stories  in the Winnie-The-Pooh series, The House At Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young and Now  We Are Six.  I read the first book a long, long time ago and these last three complete the four-volume set. They are short, just more than 500 pages in all.

I always find such treasures every year that I join the challenge. A mixture of memoirs, historical fiction, inspirational books, poems  and yes I always try to include classics even if they are for children. There are of course a couple of love stories in between. I’ll probably read Perfume by Patrick Suskind next after I finish How Green Was My Valley.  The former is a horror fiction and magic realism in eighteenth century   France.  This has already been discussed in our book club before, but it’s been several years since I attended a book discussion.

What books are you reading at the moment?

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The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

Ah, when you think  of books, you also think of the many  possibilities that you’ll meet a new author, be inspired by his/her words then you enjoy reading.  It’s my first time to read a Lisa See book  and  really, it’s so hard to put it down.

More than the very short  plot in the story, I was caught by the lovely cover of the book and the title itself. 

I searched for Lisa See’s website and I found this. It is a short summary of the wonderful story.  A look into Chinese history, family relationships, traditions, tea and life in rural China. A beautifully woven plot.  I am still in the middle of reading it but I can hardly put it down. I’ll surely rate it five when I’m done reading.

“Maybe our lives are like gigantic jigsaw puzzles. You find the right piece and suddenly the whole picture has meaning.” 

 

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My Last 2017 Read.

This would probably be my last post for 2017. And you guess it right. It is about books.

Last January, I joined Goodreads’ 2017 Reading Challenge and I committed to read 150 books till the end of this year which is today. I finished the challenge though sometime last October and went on to continue reading. It was an eclectic mix of reading genre – from YA books to fiction, memoirs, classics, Psychology and a couple of self-help books.  Goodreads has this to say:

Congrats!

You have read 207 books of your goal of 150!  207/150 (138%) 

I found lots of new authors  too.  Discovering their works  is such a thrill and reading them are so inspiring.  A few days ago, I  found a new author  named Julie Cantrell.  Julie Cantrell is an award-winning New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, teacher, and speaker. She is into fiction, contemporary and spirituality. Her first book which I was lucky to find was Into The Free. It was set  in  depression-era Mississippi in the middle of the 1930’s.  It is a beautiful story of survival, family relationships and redemption. The book was full of  inspiring Biblical quotes.  There is book number two entitled When Mountains Move.  It is just as good if not better than the first book. I am still in the middle of it. Maybe it would be a continuation  to my reading list come 2018. I intend to join the 2018 challenge in a few days. Maybe I would lessen my goal and concentrate more on classic books that I haven’t  read yet if I can find them at a lower price in bookstores.

I can’t give up reading. There will always be a room in my life for it.

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On Reading

One thing I like about Facebook is their daily app called On This Day where you can go back and see what you wrote a few years back, a summary of shoutout you did through the years.  I wrote the  following paragraphs exactly four years ago on my wall. I wonder if I lifted them  from  some earlier posts I did here. I know it is easier if there is a previous review of the book you want to read or it was given a rating of five stars like they do on Goodreads but I guess you can always explore a book and sometimes you certainly find nice surprises.

Sometimes I wonder if people read a particular book because they love and like the author or they find positive reviews about it or simply because the book is just there, handy for one to enjoy.

I am not deterred by negative reviews they give to a particular book or been influenced by the five-star rating on the side, I’d rather want to discover it on my own. Sometimes, you’ll be surprised, you actually love the story of one which others say is not worth that much.

And I love this quote from Roald Dahl: “So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install, A lovely bookshelf on the wall.”

It’s funny, I even capitalized that word  “please”.  I am on the last leg of my reading challenge of 100 books this year (88% done) and I realized that one should not be afraid to try reading new authors, not just those you’re familiar with or are well-known.  Sometimes, the very first books they publish are the best ones. And yes, I have to be honest here, sometimes the book cover does it  🙂

What are you reading now? I am done with some books on baking and those fiction books that have baking recipes in between the pages.

 

 

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The Challenge Of Reading

I can’t believe April is almost gone.  The lazy bug caught me again and blogging has taken a backseat for a while. Gone are the times when the day is not complete without writing a few words and posting them here.  I feel comfortable now blogging once or twice a week but I still read posts/updates from friends every day.

You won’t believe this, I’ve become so obsessed with books lately that sometimes I laugh at myself how  I’m gonna read these books  that I have collected all these years and some  e-books that I have on my phone. Hugging a book close and the comfort of turning the pages, loving the scent and smell of the printed pages. Yesterday, I took note of the recommendations of Goodreads based on similar subjects that I have read before. Historical fiction, memoirs and contemporary books still top the list. There was even a time that I visited the list of the 1000 books you have to read before you die but I narrowed it down to the top 500 but not necessarily followed it to the letter. If that is not a book obsession, I don’t know what is.  They call it bibliomania 🙂 I haven’t gone that far yet…no….not yet.  I have a long list which I wrote in my notebook about new authors and new books that I want to read. I am trying to discover Asian authors and so far Khaled Husseini is the best although I found more names who are quite new in the field of writing.

I remember reading On Writing by Stephen King a few years ago, a book borrowed by Nissa from their Stress Management Office then found a brand new hardbound copy later  (still with the dust jacket on) in one of my trips to Booksale. Imagine the joy of finally owning a copy.  He said and I quote “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” “Reading in bed can be heaven, assuming you can get just the right amount of light on the page and aren’t prone to spilling your coffee or cognac on the sheets. ” That’s another line from Stephen King’s book and I laughed out loud when I read it before because it happened to me not just once but several times. At least it was just a glass of water and not a hot cup of coffee 🙂

When I encounter people who say that they are not fond of reading, I try to compose my facial expression not to frown and say “you are missing  a lot”.

P.S. Goodreads says I have read 28 books (56%) out of the 50 books that I challenged myself to finish this year. Maybe, I could add 10 more, what do you think?

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The Joys Of Summer

Back to the grind. Ah,  I mean back to blogging! It’s been a while.

I got so engrossed finding new books and new authors for Goodreads’ 2015 reading challenge. I’ve finished  twenty-three books out of the fifty that I promised myself to read this year. YA books, Chick Lit, classics, fairy tales, you name it, it’s a random list of them all.  My last read would be the memoirs of course, save the best for last 🙂 Back when I worked as a student librarian at the Humanities Section of the UST Library, I encountered so many classic books but I didn’t have the chance to read them except for a few titles like Gone With The Wind, Crime and Punishment, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn and of course some of the  books of the Bronte sisters. Balancing a full load in my Economics course and a six-hour job at the library was quite hard and I missed the chance to read all those classics.  When I started working, my reading genre changed a lot. I found new authors, more books to read and collect. Anna Karenina and Doctor Zhivago remained on my wish list though over the years. Yesterday, I found a copy of the latter and just started reading it a few hours ago. A fellow blogger and a friend at Facebook sent me the link to Lara’s Theme, the soundtrack of the movie adaptation of Doctor Zhivago.  What a lovely idea, I got more inspired. It’s a long read…perfect for the summer days ahead.

This morning, our ISP was changed from SmartBro to HomeBro. HomeBro is owned by the largest telecommunications company here in our country, PLDT. Since SmartBro is now under PLDT we have to switch to  the new one. HomeBro Ultera includes a built-in wi-fi router so we have to set aside our old router. I quizzed the three installers who took care of the installation and they said that this is definitely faster than the old one. We’ll see. I don’t download much, it’s more of internet search and blogging.

I wonder who is more excited, the mommy or the baby. Nissa has enrolled Nate to summer  school and today is his first day in class. She wants Nate  to learn to interact with other kids. I think it is a 12-session class at one hour and a half every other day. Kids nowadays are so smart. Last night he said, “I’m going to school Nonna”. Pretty excited too, I guess.

Are you shy Nate?

What am I doing here? haha…

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Why I Wake Early

Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who made the morning
and spread it over the fields…

Watch, now, how I start the day
 in happiness, in kindness.

– Mary Oliver

 

I am sure one of my favorite authors,, Mary Oliver would not mind if I borrow the title of her poem. I often blog about her and how I enjoy reading her writings, simply worded and yet they have deep meanings that touch the heart and the soul.

The sun is up and I could feel its warmth on my face although at the moment it is playing hide and seek with the clouds. We are still experiencing southwest monsoon and there is another storm coming but at least we could enjoy the weekend without worrying about flash flood and heavy downpour.

Yesterday, I finally finished cleaning our bookshelves, sorting books  and arranging them according to authors. The books  Nissa, Josef and I  have collected over the years  are all placed on the higher shelves  along with the lovely ones (craft books, Calvin and Hobbes comic books which my son collects, mythology and some non-fiction).  Every time I do some dusting here, I always read a few titles and remember the times my kids and I bought them. Some are gifts from close friends who know of our penchant for reading. I can’t  resist  re-reading  the boxed set of Nick Bantock’s The Griffin & Sabine Trilogy. Years ago ( I don’t remember now), my sister-in-law sent me this set as a birthday gift and it is one of the treasures that I have in my book collection.  The three books are actually my introduction to an epistolary novel, work of fiction written through letters but what makes it so lovely to read is that, the letters are  actually written on real stationeries with attached envelopes to boot.  It makes me smile reading these lovely letters again.  The Griffin and Sabine story is an extraordinary tale of love, beauty and art.

Believe me when I say that I again found duplicate copies of some books from authors that I collect. It’s a good thing they are just mass-produced paperbacks. For a while, I enjoyed reading e-books, but there is nothing like holding a good book in your hands, lovingly turning the pages and exploring  another world in another time.

Do you love reading? Do you also collect certain authors in your bookshelf?

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Today’s Quote

I like this quote and it’s so true. I could lose myself in a really good book and I sometimes forget the hours and minutes spent in a corner while reading a favorite author or discovering a new one.

Thanks Barbara Taylor Bradford for this lovely quote. Someday, I will read A Woman of Substance again. I just love the Emma Harte saga.

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And The Mountains Echoed

All my life, I have lived like an aquarium fish in the safety of a glass tank, behind a barrier as impenetrable as it has been transparent.  I have been free to observe the glimmering world on the other side, to picture myself in it, if I like. But I have always been hemmed in, by the hard unyielding confines of the existence that Baba has constructed for me, at first knowingly, when I was young, and now guilelessly, now that he is fading day-to-day. I think I have grown  accustomed  to the glass and am terrified that when it breaks, when I am alone, I will spill out in to the wide open unknown and flop around, helpless, lost, gasping for breath.

Siblings, parenthood, friendship – words  and topics that make up a good and brilliant story. I won’t attempt to make a review here that would probably spoil your fun in reading the book. This was recently released last May 21 so maybe some of you haven’t got hold of a copy yet.  I read his first two books, The Kite Runner which was released in 2003 and was  adapted into film later and A Thousand Splendid Suns  which was made available to the public in 2007. If you love Amir in The Kite Runner and cried with Mariam and Laila in A Thousand Splendid Suns, you would surely appreciate  Pari and Abdullah  in this new tale  “revolving around brothers and sisters, and the ways in which they love, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for each other.”

I wrote a review of his second book  A Thousand Splendid Suns back in 2007 and posted it here  two years later when I was organizing my blogs at Multiply. I was quite excited when I read about his third book  not knowing what to expect since my views of him as a writer  were colored by his first two novels but here is a good review I found after finishing the last page without spoiling your fun of discovering what makes it a five-star in my list of lovely reads.  There is that feeling  when you reach the last few pages and you don’t want it to end  – you feel the intensity, the emotions playing in your mind and you want to know more about the characters who have endeared themselves to you in the first few pages.

My best read so far this 2013.

 

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