Last year's books

Quick blurts about books I read last year, following BnC's post:

Punks, Poets, Poseurs. Nun ko pa binabasa yan sa National nung unang lumabas kaya lang wala akong pambili. Finally, nung day na na-suspend ang classes dahil may bagyo and I was one of the dimwits who actually went to school early, I bought the book dun sa mini-book sale sa FC. For only P70! Aliw lang siya basahin. Makes me wish na sana i-compile din ng Pulp yung ibang musician profiles nila.

Elvis Rising: Stories on the King. Hindi ito tungkol kay FPJ, pero it might as well be. Elvis Presley sa mga Kano and how he stood for the myth of the American Dream, ganun din si FPJ para sa masang Pinoy. Pero overall, chaka siya as a collection. I liked the first story I read na sinulat ni T. Coraghesan Boyle. Pero yung iba, parang paulit-ulit na. Napansin ko lang nagkakaisa yung portrayal na ang mga Elvis fans ay white trash at jologs. May isa pa nga na may retarded na anak tapos nanghostage pa sa Graceland. Pinaka-chaka yung story nung isa pa man din sa mga editors. Cliché kung cliché pero anong magagawa natin. Kaya lang siya interesting para sa akin because of the parallelism between the two men who affected a lot of people: Elvis is the poor boy who made good and grew up to be King of Rock and Roll. Si FPJ naman naging Da King ng Pinoy movies. Sinimulan ko itong basahin way before the death of FPJ. Makes you wonder if beneath it all, pareho lang din ang ambisyon ng mga poor white trash at ng masang Pinoy.

Dogs and Demons. Alex Kerr. After nung first chapter na tungkol sa pagpatay ng mga Hapon sa nature nila, and why third world people equate progress with concrete and plastics, medyo bumagal na ang interest ko sa libro. It’s still a good read though because it really slices everything about the Japanese culture. But you have to be in a specific frame of mind to appreciate it. I liked Lost Japan better.

Unfinished: Memories of a Catholic Girlhood. I started reading it kasi it was mentioned in AHWOSG as a model for the memoir (cited along with Mary Karr’s The Liar’s Club). So far nandun pa rin ako sa part na 10 years old pa lang yung girl. Long way to go.

Wealth within your reach: Pera mo, palaguin mo! Written by that Colayco guy. Am more than half done. Some of the chapters don’t seem to captivate me. But then again, this is about making money and making more money out of what you have. Plus I only read this book when I’m bored in POwerbooks so it might take a while to finish it.

Fantasy Productions at Geopolitics of the Visible. Read some of the essays pero since jargon heavy siya, I keep on putting it down pag masakit na ulo ko. Baka i-abandona ko na pag nainis ako.

Abandoned: My Life in Heavy Metal ni Steve Almond. I’ve read some of his stories sa Nerve. But unfortunately, di ako na-hook sa stories niya.

They Whisper. Robert Olen Butler. Read 2 chapters tapos suko na ako. I keep thinking na lecheng mga Kano yan may fetish sa Asians. Orientalism, my foot!

There were other books but won’t talk about them pag wala gaanong redeeming value. Makes me think that maybe I should choose more wisely kung anong libro mga babasahin ko. I still hate that Sam Shepard play na wala namang gaanong nangyayari. And I got stuck with it kasi yun lang ang dala kong libro nung pumunta kaming Baguio. It was between that and DareDevil. Nung nainis ako I actually opted for Ben Affleck trying to pass for blind. At least yun maaksyon.

Yun lang.

Hahabol-habol

BnC, kaya ganun yung list kasi medyo naguluhan rin ako sa mga na-mention mo. So alin ang books to DVD na di kasama sa listahan? High Fidelity? About a Boy? Basta Nick Horn(b)y? Hehehe.

May perfect excuse ako kung bakit di natin natapos: Kasi February na tayo nagsimula ng challenge. Eh sayang kaya yung isang buwan na lead time na we could read faster and eventually more books. Pero keri lang din. At least we really read books kahit na walang challenge.

Pero tama ka, dapat modify natin rules ng konti to suit ourselves. Suggestion ko dapat di lang list of books ang post, pati reactions to the books. Nakaka-overwhelm kasi pag puro lista lang tapos ang haba. React naman konti para malaman namin kung enjoy ba yung book, pa-intellectual ba siya, at kung may pleasure ba talaga yung text.

Question din: Dapat ba may variety ang books na babasahin? Like 10 books sa nonfiction/sociology/history tapos 10 books poetry/drama or something para kunyari well rounded people tayo? O basta kebs na kahit anong genre basta nagbabasa?

As for the travel thingie, yes, try natin. Medyo loser year for travel ako this year dahil wala akong summer getaway. Pero nag-Thailand naman ako so baka puwede na yun. One trip to an Asian country in 2005? Any takers?

Yun lang po muna. Maligo sa bagong taon at maligayang pagbabasa sa inyo! :)

Sabi sa Time 2004 ang year of the blog. ang galing! wala lang.

Pahabol

Medyo nalito syempre ako sa iyong chart, xkg at pati mga dvds na books to film ay sinama mo sa listahan ko. Man, aminado namang loser ako dahil wala akong inatupag kundi makipag-ym when I could be reading a book. tingnan mo si dennis, never natin nahuli sa ym, siya lang ang nanalo. Pahabol ko lang hindi kasi nakasama sa listahan mo ang The Elephant Man na isa sa mga paborito kong nabasa ngayong taon at hindi ko na mention na nabasa ko rin ang The Earth, My Butt, and Other Round Things ni Carolyn Mackler. Tungkol sa mga angas ng isang teenager na babaeng mataba. Maganda yung kwento at kumpara sa mga canonical na libro nila Robert Comier at Judy Blume, sa simula pa lang ng kwento ay raging hormones na agad ang bida and actually gets some piece of the action kahit na mataba siya. Marami siyang angas sa buhay maliban sa kanyang weight problem --nanay niya ay teenage psychologist pero hindi siya maintindihan (reminds me of yung super favorite kong short story for YA), at may date rape. Gusto ko rin yung libro kasi hardbound siya at nabili ko sa booksale. Kaya ko binili in the first place ay dahil na mention ni Eugene Evasco ito sa kanyang mga binabasa.

syempre uulitin natin ito. simula uli tayo ng January 1. daya naman si dennis. dapat lahat ng binasa niya may annotations e at kahit papaano konting reactions. hanap tayo ng paraan para madaling ma-monitor ang ating 50 book list. sino pa ba ang jo-join? Nathan? Jol? Arlyn? Any takers?

Gawa rin tayo ng bagong challenge? how about the ten out of manila trips or something to encourage more traveling for us this coming year?

ps. o yan, medyo naintindihan ko na yung chart ni xkg. for the record, i finished around 21 books hindi kasama ung mga books to film dvds. hindi ko na rin ico-count yung mga pinabasa sa aming children's books sa cw 298 class ko kay heidi kasi hindi ko rin maalala yung pinagdadampot ko. unfinished kasi ang never ending story at summerland. ulitin natin uli ito ha. excited na ako!!! gumagawa na nga ako ng aking to finish at to read list for 2005.

Team Angas 50 Books Countdown

Hey guys, since last day of 2004 na bukas, I would like to post an update para sa ating 50 Books Challenge.

Well, mukhang si Tekstong Bopis lang ang natapos ang required number of books na way ahead of deadline. His #50 is "A Nation Aborted" by Floro Quibuyen. At, heto get this, July pa niya pinost yun. Grabe na ito.

Si BnC naman, paki-check na lang kung tama, but she made the halfway mark. Her last known additions were all the Carla Pacis books, High Fidelity, and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 2.

As for me, I reviewed the list and found out that I'm 9 books short. My #41 is Elvis Rising: Stories on the King. Kahit na magmadali pa ako, di na ako makakahabol pa. Unless puwede nating i-count ang reams and reams of student papers I read this year, wah!

Do you think okay na ang ating effort? Which books are your favorite? Ako yung In Cold Blood, Lost Japan, Elvis Rising, The Beach, Last Order sa Penguin, Choke, Up the Down Staircase, The Kiss (na napaka-disturbing) saka Eats Shoots and Leaves. Least favorite ko yung lecheng Sam Shepard play na may 2 copies pa mandin ako.

Basta ang pinaka-intellectually stimulating list ay yung kay Dennis. Parang di kaya ng powers ko yung mga binabasa niya, pero snaps to him kasi super aga niya kasi natapos. I'm sure since July baka naka-another 50 books na ulit siya. If so, that's enough na to cover BnC and my deficits di ba? Puwede ba yun? Hehehe.

Anyway, send ko sa inyo yung list via e-mail or do you want to post the list here for everyone to see? Are we doing this again next year para tuloy ang challenge?

Faculty Follies Redux

Ang masasabi ko lang, it was very tiring but somehow fun if you're into masochism and standing around in the dark for hours. BnC was surprised that Mechajol's Mr. Reeves impressions were dead on. O wala nang hihingi ng refund ha. If we knew na puwede pala ang dance dance sa Follies, we would never have bothered with a full script. Oh well.

Btw, welcome back kay tamadita, after disappearing for weeks dahil tinamaan ng German measles at chronic asthma kaya hindi niya na-enjoy ang mga no class days.

Mama Er

If you missed the Faculty Follies, then you missed seeing your favorite CL professor dancing like there was no tomorrow, your favorite Fil 20 professor tapdancing while wearing a pseudo-Krystala outfit and the chair of the EL dept cross-dressed as Valentina. I'm telling you these were not pretty sights.

Post-christmas get together

The Diva caught me online last week and was wondering if the team will get together for the holidays. knowing how people here need to be bokoed one month ahead, i told him post-christmas na lang. I'm looking at the 2005 calendar and the first friday is January 7. For government workers like tamadita, dennis and xkg, that also means pay day. So, block off that friday. I'm carving for chicken sisig right now so i have an idea where we can have our next block get together. Really now, we have to think of a cool name for dennis so we can't keep calling him by his real name while everyone else have nicknames.

The future gives pain sense

Got the book in Booksale for P25. Was trapped in traffic and finished the whole play. was very easy to read and would love to see it produced. I've never seen the movie either. The elephant man or John Merrick had a cameo appearance in Alan Moore's From Hell.

Newly read books

In the Shadow of No Towers, Art Spiegelman. Finished this book last Thursday afternoon, just before typhoon Yoyong hit. It was the calm before the storm. Everyone was trying to go home. The sky was dark gray and portentous, but hey quite a number of people stopped by POwerbooks Live and browsed. Art Spiegelman, known for Maus, tries to make sense of what has happened to him and his world post 9/11.

There was also a bit of comic book history, starting with the war for supremacy between the Hearst and Pulitzer headed papers at the turn of the last century. Spiegelman asserts that the reaction to 9/11 was more or less the same as it was early 20th century. There were also precursors of what would happen to the Lower Manhattan area: towers and building felled by huge kids playing hide-and-seek with a bearded guy. Anything different or strange was looked upon with suspicion and deep-seated hate.

In Cold Blood. Truman Capote is my current favorite author, said to be one of the starters of New Journalism and what we now know as Creative Nonfiction. It all started with a piece of news about the puzzling massacre of the Herb Clutter family in far out Kansas in November 1959. More of my reactions to the book here.

American Splendor, written by Harvey Pekar, art by R. Crumb et al. Found my copy in a Booksale bin for Php350, which Astrid insists is a good buy. American Splendor is concerned with “the life and times of Harvey Pekar.” The book reminds me of Richard LInklater’s films, which is mostly people talking. But Linklater’s characters are still somehow loveable even after they’ve mentally jacked off about the meaning of life for three hours and you’ve fallen asleep, but oh dear god, Ethan Hawke is still nice to look at. Pekar as depicted in the novel is someone you’d probably not emphatize with in a movie. He’s got a crappy government job. He’s a self-publishing and yet frustrated author. He’s insecure, perpetually jealous, buys 50 cent shoes, and thinks the world owes him something grand. There’s really not much happening. But at the same time, a lot of things are going on.

There’s still a bunch of books I’m reading but have not yet finished. Am halfway done with this fiction anthology about Elvis. A fun read, pero naiwan ko kasi sa bag sa Dungeon and I miss it sorely. Also thumbing through Siglo, a Japan book, and an essay collection about Pinoy rock. So far, walang as gripping as In Cold Blood. I bumped into a friend recently, and she’s urging me to read—guess what?—the freaking Da Vinci Code. I must be the only person left on the planet not to have read it. Mostly, I read my assortment of books so I could avoid reading my CL 350 required reading stuff. While I must say the history of capitalism and its consequences are interesting and would definitely get you railing against those damn colonising bastards, I doubt it if that’s really what you’d want to read when it’s cold and you’re lazy, or if you just want to pass some time on the train to school. Pass me the Elvis anthology, dammit.

Panawagan: Baka meron sa inyong may Truman Capote stuff aside from In Cold Blood. Would want to read those. Saka baka may James Ellroy kayo dyan na hindi L.A. Confidential. Perhaps the Black Dahlia o kaya My Dark Places. Pahiram naman po.