Gap

i love love books and places!

It is a day after Christmas and 5 more days before the beginning of another new year. In between these two holidays, I have a considerable amount of free time in my hands, something that I am not used to having. So I use this very much appreciated and welcomed free time bonding with the entire family (I only get to spend quality time with them at this time of the year), de-cluttering my computer's bookmarked pages and enjoying the fabulous benefits of simply being at home. Also, I've been daydreaming about my gap year escape and what I would be doing once I have finally mustered the courage and decent resources to just LET GO. Below is my shortlist. :)

1. Live like a local in Luang Prabang

I read about the place just last night. The night market enthralled me. Plus, it being hailed as the "France" of Asia sealed the deal. :)

via Come Fly With Me

2. Take care of elephants in Chiang Mai

They accept volunteers at Elephant Nature Park, a rescue and rehabilitation center for these 

adorable gentle giants.

via Charlotte Lumia Photography

3. Read/Write/Feel/Just be in at least one of these magnificent places to read books

Check this site out for the longer list of every bookworm's Disneyland. I've picked out a few 

which I consider either feasibly beautiful or just plain beautiful. 

The Hearst Castle Library

California, USA

Old Market Library

Min Buri, Bangkok

Taipei Public Library

Taiwan

Shakespeare and Company

Paris, France

last four images via Life Hack

Now I am plotting the how to's and next steps to make these all come true.

Conspire with me Universe!

Amen.

independence day

i love love Fully Booked!

Fully Booked for me is like Mango Store with 50% sale (or more) to a shopaholic. Or like a 2-hour full body massage in The Spa to a stressed out executive. Or Toy Kingdom to a toddler. Or Divisoria to my kuripot tita. :)

Last Independence Day, out of sheer curiosity, Alan and I headed to the Fully Booked of all Fully Booked's in BGC to attend a creativity workshop sponsored by the British Council. We were at the venue early (because I do not like getting late - except in the office, haha!) so we had free time to look around. Oh! Oh! Books everywhere. Many times, I feel tempted to give in to the lure of Kindle and the convenience it promises but for a conservative, old soul, lola like me, the printed page does not have a replacement. 

Book Canvass by Mike Stilkey

I brought home Wild by Cheryl Strayed because anything about travel, getting lost and then finding oneself is my kind of literature - haha! If I had extra cash I would have bought David Sedaris' latest collection of essays. Last year was my David Sedaris episode - I read his books in several consecutive weeks with no authors in between to the point of satiation. I like prose and essays and real life chronicles.

We're in mid-June of 2013.

The start of rainy days in the tropics.

The rain makes a good book company.

Happy Reading!! :)

Sexy Brains

i love love books!

...and since love is intensified when shared, I am so happy that my friends are just as crazy with reading as I am! :) A long time ago, Bes initiated for our barkada to start a book club and the first ever book for discussion was Love in Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The date was set, the venue was set - for some reason, it never pushed through. And honestly, I never got through the table of contents of the book, with all due respect to the great Mister Marquez. Then careers happened. School happened. Each of us had our own "thing" to do, interests to dedicate our time to and completely forgot about the book club. But what is meant to happen will happen, so on the second week of April 2013, we had our first official meet up. 

designed by Alan David

Looking for Alaska

via goodreads

Semi Spoilers

Words and Statements I love from Looking for Alaska

1. I go to seek a Great Perhaps – Francois Rabelais

2. Culinary Orgasm. Deep Friend Burrito. The Bufriedo.

3. High School.

4. You’ve got a lifetime to mull over the Buddhist understanding of interconnectedness …but while you were looking out the window, you missed the chance to explore the equally interesting Buddhist belief in being present for every facet of your daily life…Be present in this class. And then, when it’s over, be present out there. Page 50

5. Smoking Hole.

6. Maxx. Subverting the Patriarchal Paradigm.

7. Labyrinth.

8. Thomas Edison’s last words were: “It is very beautiful over there.” I don’t know where there is, but I believe it’s somewhere, and I hope it is beautiful. page 221

9. For she had embodied the Great Perhaps – she had proved to me that it was worth t to leave behind my minor life for grander maybes…

10. Alaska

Speaking with the Angel

via google

Speaking with the Angel 

edited by Nick Hornby

Six Reasons why I Love Love the Book

(‘love’ written twice was intentional)

One: Nick Hornby. I have loved him since About A Boy, loved him more in How to be Good, even more in A Long Way Down. Then this book.

Two: Anthology. It is a collection of 12 stories in one book. It is schizo-inducing to jump from one character to the next, one story to the next, totally unrelated people, places and events – a wonderful ride of being a prime minister in midlife crisis in one chapter, a mime artist lost in passion to his craft in another chapter, a grandson who stole his deceased grandmother’s false teeth, a chef who prepares the last meals (literally) of prisoners in death row, a dog in a race.

 Three: It is written in first person narratives. I am partial to this kind of writing.

Four:  English expressions. Bloody. Bloke. Bollocks. Filthy. Shag. Snooze. Bugger.

Five: Colin Firth. I know him only as the actor. Bridget Jones. Love Actually. Pride and Prejudice. I did not know he can write a story. This bloke bloody writes as grand as he bloody acts.

Six: The proceeds from sale of the book will be for the benefit of children with autism. Nick Hornby’s inspiration is his own son with special needs, Danny.

Mark It More!

And then, there were TEN!

Some time ago, I have written about my super six friends who rival Backstreet Boys as the ultimate reason for my somersaulting heart, click here to review, and after gazillion months and years, finally my used to be Super Six is now the Perfect Ten! A milestone indeed, haha!

I am crazy about bookmarks and I have been collecting them since a friend gave me two of them for my birthday last year, then another jet-setting friend always comes home from a trip with a bookmark for me in tow and then Alan started making specialized bookmarks for me - so what do I have to do now? Start my bookmark empire -  and now I have TEN!!! Ten special bookmarks kept in my topmost secret vault in a bank somewhere in Switzerland and not even James Bond can crack the code, no, never ever!!!

Here are the four additional lovelies modeled by no less than Frances Mayes' A Year in the World. Yes, I have not graduated from my travel literature phase, and I do not think I ever will until the planet earth run out of countries or of culture or of beautiful stories of the same theme but told in different perspective by every unique soul in the entire planet. =)


One: The 50 Books to Read Before You Die bookmark.

I bought this myself from Fully Booked just last night and it's a little stressful to know that I have only read two out of the fifty books in the list although I have one on deck, On the Road by Jack Kerouac. On the Road is a tiring book to read, not tiring in the sense that it is boring and you can not wait for it to end but tiring because when I read I really put myself in the characters and the pages just come alive (I'm corny, I know, but that's just the way I am). The characters are constantly on the move, hitchhiking, traveling, partying, encountering, experiencing - I was exhausted by the time I reached the 5th chapter. I'll pick it up again before the year ends. Kerouac's energy is contagious. And then I am in search of a copy of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. By the way, the two books which I have read already are 1984 and Memoirs of a Geisha. And just so you know, I do not have any intention of reading all books on the list. Haha!



Two: Save the Date bookmark

I got this for free at the Secret Fresh Gallery in Ronac Art Center. I think it is clever to make an invitation out of bookmarks. It's an announcement of the Art Fair Philippines event in February next year. I am definitely saving the date.



Three: Mister & Miss Korea bookmark

Everything made in Korea is simply divine. This is Miss Charisse's pasalubong from Korea for me. I have bookmarks now from three of the world's most beautiful countries: China, Dubai and now Korea. I am pretty sure that in my future travels (Lord, help me make this happen), bookmark hunting will be among my many agenda.



Four: The Mushroom bookmark

...also called the happy happy joy joy bookmark - I didn't know mushrooms can be that happy, look at him smile! This one is from Alan and it came with a book, Dr. Seuss' Guess How Lucky You Are.


I am an advocate of the written and literally printed word - Kindle is an awesome invention but nothing beats the real thing. Plus Kindle robs you of the beautiful opportunity to own and use pretty bookmarks.

Read. It's good for our health. =)

Sunday Sermon

Got this for Php2.50 at Papemelroti.
words of wisdom from pareng Leon J. Suenens

Robin Lim

Baguio, 2010.

Her stories were simple, and at that time, were not really the type of stories which interest me: natural birthing, midwifery and care for mothers and babies. I have no idea who she was but I stayed to listen because, one, it was my first time to attend a book launch (Butterfly People) and second, she talked about Indonesia and travels and uprooting of oneself from ones comforts and staying in an otherwise foreign community out of service and out of love.

One November afternoon in Baguio, I found myself in Upper Session Road to give in to my curiosity about this charming little bookshop in Casa Vallejo, Mt. Cloud Bookshop. I came for the book store. Nothing more. Nothing less. Little did I know that I will be meeting the future CNN Hero of the Year.

with Robin Lim at Mt. Cloud Bookshop, Baguio City, November 2010

Paperback

When the year started, I committed to reading one book per month and surprise, surprise, I am still on track!!

Books read since January 2012:

1) The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

2) The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

3) The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner

4) When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

5) Naked by David Sedaris

6) The Crazy Planets by Lourd De Veyra

Six books read and we're still on the 5th month of the year...oh happiness!!=) I started to really LOVE reading this year. I started picking up books to keep my sanity - I need something to keep my mind off work and what started as a tool to fulfill a need turned out to be one true love. I love the feeling of getting lost in the pages of my current reads. I love how books paint images and project scenes in my thoughts. I love the way they transform my mind into a colorful stage. I love how they make me "FEEL" smart and then I love how they make me actually smart - a little. haha!=) I love how books are among the few things which keep me still and how reading (leisure reading) makes me so FOCUSED. I am rarely focused. 

And there are so much more on deck to read - I keep on buying books, more than what I can accommodate with my very scarce free time - but I can't help it. And I think you will agree that among the many things that one can get addicted to - books are (probably) the safest and most recommended. 

I am currently in the "travel literature" phase so I bought one book each by Pico Iyer, Frances Mayes, the legendary Jack Kerouac, a collection of essays by Lonely Planet contributors and many more. Last Sunday, I dropped by Fully Booked in Gateway and they have this entire shelf of books dedicated to "food literature" and I can see myself diving into that anytime now. Maybe tomorrow. No, maybe tonight!

My Beautiful Homework: Books waiting to be read!!

...and anything book-related is just as wonderful!

The Kansas Library. How cool is its design??

via tumblr

PRETTY BOOKMARKS. Drool-worthy.=)

vintage comic bookmarks via etsy

paper doll bookmarks via etsy

Happy Reading!!=)

Mark It

Pretty little things which make me happy.

Some women get their hair and nails done. For others, spa does the trick or shoe and bag-shopping. My stress-buster, my refuge from corporate monstrosity, my you-calm-and-slow-me-down place, is Fully Booked or maybe any bookstore anywhere – I just tend to gravitate to Fully Booked because it is nearer my work place. And they have a nice playlist. Two Tuesdays ago, they were playing Backstreet Boys songs. A bookstore and Backstreet Boys are perfect substitutes for Disneyland. At least for a 25-year old. Life is beautiful. =)

So I think we have established some facts about me.

Backstreet Boys rocks my world.

Book stores calm me.

I love reading books – a habit which I have strongly committed to starting this year only.

And naturally, things which excite me other than books are book-related – thus my teeny-weeny bookmark collection. I own six of them! Yes, SIX!!!! I am a bookmark magnate! I am starting a bookmark empire! I am a bookmark-illionaire! Move over you, uhm, whoever you are who own the most bookmarks, make way for your match!!

Here are the first super six bookmarks I am raving about (haha!!) modeled by David Sedaris' book, Naked:

DON’T WORRY + MUKHANG-CANE BOOKMARKS

These are Eva’s gifts for my first birthday spent in that real estate company in MOA. She thought the bookmark read “Don’t Work” (because people at my workplace think I work so hard – har! Har!).

L BOOKMARK

It is a gift originally intended for my cousin Lean. He gave it to me because he is too macho to own things with flowers on it. Until now, I have yet to assign a meaning to this bookmark’s “L”-ness. Love. Learn. Lust. Legs. London. ‘Langya. (haha!)

THE BOOKMARK FROM CHINA

I received this from Miss Charisse, my architect-colleague, when she got back from her China trip. Envious!! It is a paper bookmark with Chinese-inscription on it which meaning I don’t know, and I don’t think I will ever know. Sabi niya, “naalala kita nung nakita ko 'to dun”. Aaaww!!

DR. SEUSS BOOKMARKS

I have two of them!! Lorax and “I Can Read With My Eyes Shut”. These were especially made for me by Alan and just the thought of having somebody actually do things, NOT BUY, for me – it makes me feel extremely special! Plus, once upon a time, I nurtured an addiction to all-things Dr. Seuss. =)

GIFTS FROM THE ARABIA

I was low on pocket money in Dubai but I have to buy them – a book rug reminiscent of Aladdin’s magic carpet and a “metallic” bookmark for peace (I got one for my good friend Mei – for love).

Now, you know what to give for my birthday. ;p

Cue

Bookmarks: Pretty little things that make me giddy.

I am starting a bookmark collection! How geeky! I hope to share some of the pretty ones I own and the story behind each one. Bookmarks can be found anywhere and they may not be that "challenging" to collect thus they do not really make for an ideal collection. BUT I have set a standard to preserve their novelty. My only requirement to qualify a bookmark as my "collectible item" is that...yes, it has to have a story. I am sentimental that way.=)

For now, I'm drooling over these pretty things I found in the net.=)

both photos from the fancy

The Reader

There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul! 

-Emily Dickinson 

When I visit malls, I have a very short and simple list of agenda:

1) Pay Bills

2) Withdraw/Deposit from/to my savings account

3) Visit a Bookstore (National Bookstore, Powerbooks, Fully Booked, Best Seller) and actually purchase a book

Agenda number 3 is the only agenda I get to do frequently. And as a twin endeavor to my Project 12 Stories, I am also into the project of reading at least one book a month. Again take note of the qualifier: AT LEAST.

Last December, I made non-stop visits to the Christmas Bazaar in UP where several stalls sold second-hand books still in mint condition. Some of the titles I bought are: Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder, About a Boy by Nick Hornby, Stern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert and Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. What topped my 2011 Christmas wishlist is a book on Children's lit, Eloise: The Ultimate Edition by Kay Thomson. I have yet to read all of them but just the thought of having these books on deck, ready to make me close-to-Einstein-and-Plato smart make me feel...smart, already smart even without going through their pages just yet.

Current Reads!!!

In January, because it is the month of resolutions, I read The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. In February, because it is the month of love, I read The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, thinking it is a light read on love but instead I got treated with history, philosophy, life and love. Currently, I am reading When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris. I am thinking of reading more of his books. 

No, I won't be doing book reviews because I do not know how to and I simply do not want to. I keep a list of books that I read so I'll know which ones/type really capture my interest. 

Next in my reading list are the following:

1) Oh, The Places You will go by Dr. Seuss

2) The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner

3) Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

4) The Lady and The monk by Pico Iyer

5) A Year in Tibet by Sun Shuyun

6) How to be Good by Nick Hornby

And the list will get longer.

When I get to build my own house, I hope to have a library and inspired by Fully Booked flooring which tiles are designed with excerpts from Machiavelli's The Prince (so cool di ba?), I will design mine with that one book which moved me. I have yet to find it but for now Eat, Pray, Love still tops my list.

GEEKFEST #2!

Sometimes I forget that my favorite color is green, or is it brown?

Sometimes I forget that my favorite actress is Cameron Diaz, or is it Julia Roberts?

Sometimes I forget that my favorite outfit is the eternal UP College look, jeans and shirt, or is it uhm, jeans and shirt (and heels!)?

But what I will never forget?

My favorite book: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

I have read it many times in the MRT, in a coffee shop, in Mc Donald's - everytime I am in need of an inspiration and there is no one readily to give me that, I browse the book - and I think it will be my life's bible. I will never tire of it!

                                          My favorite movie? STARDUST. No one is too old for a fairy tale!!

                                          Yay! I love sharing my loves version #2!=D

GEEKFEST

My Current Addictions:

1) THE DIARY OF A WIMPY KID

My high school brother and grade school sister got me hooked. I was supposed to watch the movie this afternoon but I'm putting it off until the weekend because I'm the only one on leave today and the rest of the world has gone back to their post Holy Week routine. See, I'll forever be a kid at heart. I don't think this will ever replace Pugad Baboy and Archie, but still, I super love its humor. Very simple yet very entertaining. =D

Madali lang talaga ako pasayahin. Mga babaw hirit's, ayos na!=D

2) ROAM MAGAZINE, SIDE TRIP MAG

I don't dream of becoming a gypsy for nothing. If I could just run away from it all.=p These are must reads for some popular tourist spots and more so, the road less traveled.

3) EAT, PRAY, LOVE

My favorite book of all time. I have a 'for me' only copy, and a copy which I lend to others so they'll see how so beautiful this book is. One day, I'll just pack my bags and go wherever my feet will take me. Inspiring! They're making a movie out of it, I sure hope they'd do justice.

I love sharing my loves. Yay!