Last Book for February

7. A Model World, Michael Chabon. Booksale bin, php110. This is the 2nd book by Chabon na nabasa ko this year and ever in my life, actually. This collection has 2 parts: A Model World and The Lost World. This latter half follows Nathan Shapiro from the time he was ten years old and realized that something was wrong with his parents' marriage to the time that he was sixteen and had just fallen in with a new crowd of boys that worried his parents to no end.

All in all, the book presents to us a variety of characters caught on the verge of something really painful. But I think his other book, yung Werewolves in Their Youth, was able to give them more poignancy than this one. But this is still a good read.

Kapos pa ako ng isang libro to round out the required number of books up to this point. Pero happy din ako dahil nakahabol pa ako ng isang libro para sa Pebrero. Considering that I started reading only in the 3rd or 4th week of January, di na rin masama.

Kanina I saw this book called The Effects of Living Backwards and I even reserved it. Pero ngayon nagdadalawang isip na ako kung kukunin ko pa ba siya. Di gaano kagandahan ang mga reviews. They all say the same thing--na magaling yung author sa paggamit ng lenggwahe niya, but that it could sometimes get to the point na overly done siya at nagiging annoying na rin. Oh well. I have until Thursday to decide. Saka may mga nakalinya na rin naman akong ibang libro in case di yun ang babasahin ko.

Zaturnnah y Garcia

5. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Julia Alvarez. Booksale bin, php35. I got this like 3 years ago, but I only reached page 35 and then gave up. I've been reading like hell hoping to find inspiration (and structure!) for my (hopefully not) doomed novel-writing class. Somebody suggested that this might help me with the writing. The surprising thing is that when I picked it up, I couldn't stop reading. Interesting structure: each "chapter" is actually a self-contained story.

6. Ang Kagila-gilalas na Pakikipagsapalaran ni ZsaZsa Zaturnnah, Carlo Vergara. Php200, barter (tickets for comic book, not bad). Deconstructed superhero myth, pop culture, lots of it, very gay, I like. We watched ze musikal and it was fun! I heard the soundtrack is also available (transmorphication execute!) but a bit pricey for php350. But if you're really into it, try to squeeze into any of the remaining performances although I hear they're all sold out.

First books of the year

I'll try listing down my fifty films. I just finished "Ocean's Twelve" and maybe I'll start with that. Well, that and "Nanny McPhee". Oh, and also "Hellboy," watched it just before Ocean.

My first books are a lively bunch.

(1) After the Quake by Haruki Murakami - Four stories and I think I see why he is such a DECL favorite. The traces of Carver and Kafka are unmistakable. I will probably read more of his work.

(2) Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman - This piece seems to me like it's trying to do with time what Calvino's Invisible Cities did with space. So the same advice to readers of the Cities: do not read it at one go.

(3) Real Stuff by Dennis Eichhorn and various artists - Since I insist on annotating with intertexts, this work's much like Harvey Pekkar's American Splendor (still with me by the way, Jess!). It's less introspective and packs more sex and violence. Naturally, one go.

(4) The Killing Joke by Alan Moore, Brian Bollard, and Mark Higgins - The best Joker story ever put to paper. The best Joker story ever put to paper. The best Joker story ever put to paper.

(5) The Poems New and Collected by Wislawa Szymborska - Now this one's on a league all her own. None of my previous poetry reading prepared me for her voice. It's so open, the socratic "I don't know" but with no trace of condescension! Odd and refreshing especially for a poet. If any one of you can call to mind a poet that can pull off something like this, tell me. Someday, I want to write with such a spirit. I'll fail miserably. I'll know it's okay. She's Czeslaw Milosz's student. Also a Nobel Laureate.

What do I have in the bag? More Kafka (is there an end of him? High school and he's still with me!) and Pessoa. This ought to be interesting.

Channeling Helen Fielding

2. Bergdorf Blondes, Plum Sykes. Booksale, php120. My foray into chicklit territory after I gave up on the Summit Books a long time ago. Every time "Brazilian" is mentioned, I am reminded of Tita Tamadita. It's like Bridget Jones, only it's American and with Seth Cohen instead of Hugh Grant.

3. Eleonor Rigby, Douglas Coupland. Nice paperback, borrowed. I could have understood it more if I knew the Beatles song. As it is, it's like Bridget Jones, only she's Canadian and a lot like Alanis Morissette but overweight and ends up with a really good looking Scandinavian guy who masquerades as a dentist but might turn out to be a porn star.

4. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Reread, Booksale, php16 eons ago. Very slim volume, maybe 10 chapters. Complete with slapping scenes, new identities, everyone is rich or is friends with rich people, roadkills. Very much like a Pinoy soap opera than Bridget Jones.