What eats, shoots & leaves?

To find out the answer to that very nerdy joke, you have to read Eats, Shoots & Leaves, which I've read piecemeal, by the chapter, at the Powerbooks in Greenbelt. I know, I know, such shame not to buy it. But it's 700+ and I can't splurge right now since I got more books than I can read. Pero it's very, very interesting. Did you know that Aldus Manutius the Elder invented the italics typeface? And that his grandson Manutius the Younger declared that "the main object of punctuation was the clarification of syntax."

O di ba? I'd like to give this as required reading sana for my students, but I'm poor. Next time na lang. I'll drown them with panda jokes na muna.

More books I've read:



Lost Japan by Alex Kerr. It's about this American writer who has lived in Japan for like 30 years and has seen how things have changed. Ganda ng analysis in terms of culture and sociology. I especially like the part where he describes Iya Valley, which is one of the Three Hidden Places (or something like that) in Japan. It's basically a rural place and they have to deal with depopulation, which is something that the Pinoy countryside can surely relate to. So it came to a point that there were more abandoned houses and the marrying age guys couldn't get brides. Because who would want to marry a poor farmer right? So they started to search for other nationalities who would be willing to marry them, uproot and relocate themselves to the countryside. And guess who they managed to convince? Yep, Pinays. It's something I would like to look more into.

This book was just loaned to me by a friend, who's set to go to Japan and work as this writer's assistant. O di ba? I also have Mr. Kerr's other book, Dogs and Demons. But I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. But if you're into Asian Studies or something, this is a very interesting read.

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainier Ma Rilke

I found this book in a Diplomat store in SM City Baguio of all places. (Digression: Uuuy, I like SM Baguio a lot. I never liked SM's layouts. Ayala malls are much much better designed. But this one veers away from the usual shoebox design, and I really like their huge verandahs. I know I'm supposed to protest about the pine trees they cut down, but oh well.) For some reason, when I was reading it, it occured to me that this is something that tekstong bopis would read. But hey I read it, and it has that quote used in Kissing Jessica Stein: "For it is not simply because of mere sluggishness alone that human relationships repeat themselves from case to case in such unspeakably monotonous and unfrefreshed ways; there is also a certain shyness for new, unforeseeable experiences generally, because one doesn't feel up to them. But only for the one who is on the lookout for everything, who excludes nothing not even the most enigmatic, will the relationship to another become something alive and speak to the whole potential of one's existence." Yun lang. Maybe if Dennis read it, he would have appreciated it more.

Carrie by Stephen King. A classic. Ginaya na yata ng lahat ng teen at horror movies pati na rin ng mga tv shows sa Pinas. In a weird twisted take of it, imagine Angelika dela Cruz showered with red gulaman. O di ba?

Yun lang po muna. Di ko na solo ang computer room eh.