Charlotte’s Web

I was suddenly reminded of this lovely children’s book while perusing my shelves on authors beginning with “W”. Pete, a friend here  on  WordPress has just ended his posts on alphabetical listings of books and authors.

Charlotte’s Web.

I was not really that familiar with the story until my kids were growing up and we stacked on children’s books to read every night before they went to sleep.

One is never too old to appreciate a good book.

E.B. White is the same author of the more familiar  Stuart Little  novel  which was adapted into a movie not too long ago. Charlotte’s Web is a story of Wilbur, a little pig and Charlotte,  a spider. It is a story of friendship, life, love and death. It’s full of lessons that we could all learn from.

There are several inspiring quotes from Charlotte’s Web, words of wisdom from a child’s book of fairy tales.

“Why did you do all this for me?’ he asked. ‘I don’t deserve it. I’ve never done anything for you.’ ‘You have been my friend,’ replied Charlotte. ‘That in itself is a tremendous thing.”

“I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what’s a life, anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die. A spider’s life can’t help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone’s life can stand a little of that.”

“And then, just as Wilbur was settling down for his morning nap, he heard again the thin voice that had addressed him the night before.
“Salutations!” said the voice.
Wilbur jumped to his feet. “Salu-what?” he cried.
“Salutations!” repeated the voice.
“What are they, and where are you?” screamed Wilbur. “Please, please, tell me where you are. And what are salutations?”
“Salutations are greetings,” said the voice. “When I say ‘salutations,’ it’s just my fancy way of saying hello or good morning.”

“It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.”

This is just as good as another children’s book, The Velveteen Rabbit which my kids and I love.

 

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Finally…..Bow

Last night, I received this precious badge from Goodreads together with this lovely message:

“Congrats!
You have read 150 books of your goal of 150!”

Almost nine months and I am done. It was nice to discover new authors whose  books were just as lovely as those I have read before. It was nice to discover new places.  It was just lovely to add more books on my shelves and on my tab.  I was even on a quandary what book to read last but I finally settled on Palladian.  I was reminded of the book Jane Eyre at the outset.  Palladian was first published in 1946, more than ten years before I was born.  Much as there are negative reviews on the book, the positive ones far outweigh them. Such poetic prose,  a string of words that warms the heart.  Summaries and various reviews are posted on Goodreads,  that is, if you have time to visit the site.

Hoping I could find more lovely books to read, reread those books that inspired me over the years, discover more memoirs, poems and fiction in the process.

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Two Films In A Row

For so long a time, I haven’t watched any movie – not on cinemas, television nor on YouTube. Last night though  was a bit different. I watched two movie adaptations successively. Not long ago, I read the lovely book Tuesdays With Morrie.  That was long before I underwent surgery back in 2009.  I gifted my two doctors with copies of the book after I left the hospital. They saw me reading it in bed while recuperating and my oncologist even commented that he wanted to read it but he had no time.  I made a short review about it here somewhere but I forgot what blog post title I made of it. Last night was a lucky one though because I found a television film  adaptation of the book. I love Jack Lemmon as Morrie Schwartz in the film and so with Hank Azaria as Mitch Albom. Have you heard  of “Lou Gehrig’s disease”? It was also called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.  This was the premise of the story, Morrie suffering from ALS and Mitch was his student. Back in the year 2000, the television series won for Jack Lemmon Best  Performance by a Male Actor In A Television Movie,  Hank Azaria as Outstanding Supporting Actor.

I sometimes catch Richard Paul Evans’ tv movies too.  Most of his television films are featured there.  Sometimes, I am not even familiar with the actors but they always turn out well. The Mistletoe Promise was one of the books I read more than three years ago.  I remember those quotes I wrote  on this particular blog post.. Watched it in full complete with the son’s headset which made it all the more lovely. I saw more adaptations there but I am reserving them for some other days. I am trying to finish my book challenge hopefully this month.

Two films in a row….happiness 🙂

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Book Lovers Day

Honestly, I didn’t know there is such a thing as this. a special day celebrated for book lovers. All these years I was not aware of it until a friend on Facebook forwarded this lovely  photo from Chicken Soup for the Soul. It was celebrated yesterday. Today, in our country, it’s already August 10.

How nice to celebrate a special day for books and readers alike. I love this photo. it shows the beauty of having books around with maybe a hot cup of coffee or tea on a rainy day.

Cicero surely was thinking of me  🙂  when he said these words.  Garden and books, two things I both love.  How I wish I really have a small room for a library but all I have are several shelves for our accumulated books over the years. My daughter is a book nerd, she used to buy series of publications when she was here. I remember a complete set of the Harry Potter series, all hardbound copies which she reserved  at National Book Store when they were out in the market. I remember watching the movie adaptations with my kids.  Remember  Hunger Games, a trilogy of young adult dystopian novels written by the novelist Suzanne Collins? She also has hard-bound copies of  Stephanie Meyer’s books  Twilight. I haven’t read them, I am not fond of vampire stories and werewolves.

By the way, I am done with 145 books for my Goodreads’ 2017 Reading Challenge.  Five more books to go,  yahoo 🙂 I lately finished another memoir by Frances Mayes, author of the lovely book Under the Tuscan Sun . Under Magnolia is all about her coming of age, her growing up years in  Fitzgerald, Georgia. I love the photos inside the book.  It made me think of how she looked like when she was younger.

Though it’s late, I want to wish you all Happy Book Lovers Day.

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Just Books

It’s a cloudy day for a Monday morning and it’s still dark outside. I hope I’ll be able to finish trimming our carabao grass this afternoon if it doesn’t rain.

I’ve browsed lately and read Lucy Torres’ articles  in the national daily Philippine Star.  She is a congresswoman from Ormoc City  in the south and a celebrity in her own right. She has a byline  almost every  Sunday and I read it online. I have read her  writings for a number of years  now and I like how she shares her life with her actor husband Richard Gomez and their only child Juliana. Time and again I’ll blog about her. I’ve found her old posts and she recommended a certain author by the name of Ruth  Reichl.  Ruth is an author on various books on food.  Lucy recommended  three of Ruth’s best-selling memoirs on food entitled  Tender at the Bone, Comfort Me With Apples and Garlic and Sapphires.  I read the summaries at Goodreads and all the three books have four stars each.  I wish I could find copies on my next foray at Booksale. I love memoirs.  I am presently reading another memoir of Francis Mayes called Under Magnolia. If you remember she is also the author of that lovely book Under The Tuscan Sun which was adapted into a film that I watched twice on tv.  I have several books on my  “currently reading list”. When I start one and couldn’t get into the story all that much, I look for another…haha!

Don’t you just love being curled under white sheets with a hot cup of coffee or tea while reading?  Don’t you just love finding titles and discovering new authors? Ah, the beauty of being a senior citizen, some wonderful days just spent reading and enjoying every minute.

What book is on your night table? Are you fond of reading too?

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Hello August

Trite  at it may sound, I am  greeting you again with this old familiar greeting, “hello August, welcome”.

I really can’t believe July is gone and August is here again. Happy new month everyone. I used to blog about month endings and beginnings but for so long now, I haven’t done it. Sometimes I forget when I am busy.

Apart from some friends  who visited me early in July and  the monthly visit from my daughter’s family, July has been a little too uneventful. The quiet days spent in the garden, moments of reflection and the endless tasks of  everyday things at home that make life a little comfortable. I had a lot of time to read though, some from e-books that I have on my tab and older copies of books I bought a few years ago.  My Goodreads book challenge for 2017  is almost done. From the 150 books I committed myself to read this year, I have finished reading  a total of  139 books, a mix of memoirs, fiction, psychology and YA books. I have found several classic books in between like The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Zafon,  Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco  and The Godfather by Mario Puzo to name  a few. I also discovered several authors, new ones who are really good at their craft. Nadia Hashimi comes close to one of my fave authors Khaled Hosseini when it comes to Asian literature.  They wrote about life in Afghanistan and I was mesmerized by  their words. Imagine life in a war-torn country with all the problems it entails.

My garden is doing just fine but maybe in a week’s time, I have to trim the carabao grass again. They have grown in the last two weeks since I did the trimming. I am thinking of replanting some bulbs while the sun is shining.

Hello  August, be kind!

 

 

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Learning The Value Of Reading

Yesterday was another lovely day spent with the kids.  I am  always happy when they come and spend the day with us.  Nate has grown taller than a month ago. Sometimes he talks rapidly and you have to catch up and understand.  The excitement to share is there of course.  He always points to his toys when they are around. He has  a bag full of blocks and assorted toys here and  he always plays with them when he is around.

We enjoyed some moments reading his favorite books although he doesn’t know how to read yet but he has learned to memorize and recognize  his alphabet and numbers.

I took some shots on my tab while he was busy with his books.

Books and more books…..

 

Shall we start with this Nonna?

I hope when he grows up, he would appreciate more books. We had a great time  picking kalamansi together for them to bring home.  He was so excited seeing the big ones high up.  We told him to take a bath afterwards and he asked, “Are we going home after my bath? I don’t want to go home. I like to stay with Nonna.” We all laughed. He always equates taking his afternoon bath in going home soon.  He even asked his mom how may more sleeps till he goes to school again.

Family togetherness, it makes the day complete.

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