A Not So Lousy Sunday. // July 26, 2010

While I am a firm believer in the age-old adage, “There’s something about Sunday night that makes you want to kill yourself,”¹ this Sunday night was pretty good. First, even though I had no money, I got some books from the Powerbooks sale:

“Perfect From Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life” by John Sellers (I have no idea what this is about.)
“The Collected Works of T.S. Spivet” by Reif Larsen (Mikka lent me her copy and I needed to have my own.)

“Akimbo and the Elephants” by Andrew McCall Smith
“The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Díaz
I peeked inside the second book and it is… pretty much amazing. I’m excited.

We also went to Nona Garcia’s house. Pretty sure I’m not allowed to post photos of the works (for the upcoming exhibit this week; troop down over to West Gallery, y’all), so here are nondescript photos of things around her house, and exhibit-y things up-close. Oh, and of her cute (but snobby) little dog, Jacob.

Also, got this on Friday, from the Meiday gig/Hato send-off over at The Collective.

Also, today, my sister and I got a session of IPL Hair Removal done. But there are obviously no photos of that. Unless you want to see my kili-kili… in which case, I will probably not show you, anyway.

———
¹ OK, not age-old… more like, from 1994, as articulated by Angela Chase. (back to top)

 

Fantastic Books and Where to Find Them. // July 23, 2010

… LOL not really. But this post is about a fantastic book, so the title half-counts! So, I’m sure that y’all have books that you love so frakking much, but come by so infrequently, that whenever you see them, you buy it and think of a wayward soul to give it to. A friend of mine buys Franny Billingsley’s “The Folk Keeper,” and he gave me a copy a few years ago. (It’s a gorgeous children’s book, really.)

While I do have a lot of books that I feel this way towards, I’ve only done it twice, and both times, I bought the same book. It’s not “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” because, while that is My Favorite Book In The Entire World, it’s not that hard to come by. Also, for some reason, it is expensive. But anyway. The book I am talking about is John Green’s “Looking For Alaska.”

“Looking For Alaska” kind of shot up to Internet popularity, when this particular quote invaded Tumblrverse. I was floored, and I wanted to read it immediately, but couldn’t find it anywhere. I found Green’s “An Abundance of Katherines” and “Paper Towns,” no problem, but I spent an inordinate amount of time looking for “Looking for Alaska.”¹ Finally, however, out of the kindness of his heart, Armando who is a Tumblr friend from the UK, sent me a copy of “Alaska” and okay, finally, I understood what the fuss is all about. It’s overposted, and has somewhat reached a “Perks”-esque² notoriety, but I get it.

Anyway. I gave the book away on this site, when I first found a copy here in Manila. (Still haven’t figured out what to get the runner-ups, oops.) And I found another copy of the book two weeks and sent it to Raymond. He got it earlier this week and has been reading it and is reportedly liking it so far.

Because it had a dinky, girly cover, I made a sort of book sleeve that I held back from posting until the book got to him. I’m posting pictures because I worked hard on it, damn it. Behold, my masterpiece!:

Looking like a serious craft project with a cutting board. It wasn’t. I just needed to cut stuff.

Close-up of the lettering! Kinda badly rendered, but at least it is not pink.

The back!

The quote on the back goes: “I’m not going to be one of those people who sits around talking about what they’re gonna do. I’m just going to do it.” And, you know, it’s a promise I intend to keep.

Anyway, I just wanted to ask if you had any books (or anything, really—albums, films, what-have-you) that you love so much, you’re willing to shell out a few bucks or spend some time to let someone know about them? Would love to hear about them, if you please.

———
¹ See what I did there? (back)
² Where haven’t you heard, “And I swear, in that moment, we were infinite”? Stephen Chbosky’s book, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” is really, honestly beautiful, so it’s kind of sad how this quote has turned into a little joke. I still love it, though. (back)

 

YOU ARE A WINRAR. // May 3, 2010

Hey guys!

Here’s the list of winners for this give-away. Sorry it was a little late; some things came up so I wasn’t able to post it on time.

Anyway, the answers I picked were the ones I found funny, poignant or mysterious enough without being too melodramatic or personal. Two of them, I also picked, because I felt they told a story. Without further ado:

Runner-up Winners:
• Martin — (It pays to be Whedonesque!)
• Evee
• Ching
• Baddie
• Pineapple

Winner: Dani

Congratulations!

I don’t have a picture of what to give the runner-up winners, but I have some things in mind. (If you don’t want it, well, tough.) To the winners, wait for an e-mail from me! I’ll send them in the morning, because I have to take care of a couple of things, but yay, congratulations!

To those who participated: thank you so much. It makes me glad that you people are still interested in reading! If it helps, John Green books are located in the young adult sections of bookstores. It’s actually on sale now, in Amazon. At $3.69, that’s a frakking steal.

 

 

follow me on Twitter