Coffeespoons

If there's one thing I haven't missed in all these years of maintaining (or not) this blog, it's the annual best read post. And here it is! This year, too, I opted to summarize my reading year via a deck, which you can check out on Slideshare or here, if you're so inclined. To see all books I read this year, head on over to my Goodreads 2015 shelf. Honey's 2015 Year in Reading from Honey de Peralta As I mention in a Facebook post, I would love to do a more in depth reading habit analysis on a much bigger data set, so if you know of anyone who needs help with something like that, let me know. Anyway, on to my Ten Best Reads of 2015... The Neapolitan Serie s by Elena Ferrante - Ok, this is cheating because this is actually four books. But I promise you, they are a force of nature. It is basically the story of the friendship of two women, set in mid-20th century in Naples. But the women and the characterization...beyond words. If you are a woman...

Yesterday, I gave an overview of my reading year in 2014 (with charts!). It was mostly data, so here's the part where I talk about actual books that I loved this year: my yearly ten best reads. Been doing this since I started the blog in 2009, and if you're interested in finding out what books made it to my list each year, feel free to check out my best reads of the year label. Anyway, on to my most enjoyable reads of the year. "Enjoyable" is how I qualify my best reads, given that the term "best read" is such a subjective matter and highly susceptible to mental, psychological, and emotional status at the time of reading. So, if the book leaves me with a glow during and after reading, or made me say internally (occasionally externally, too), "Holy shit, this is awesome." then that usually makes it to my best reads list. And without further ado, in the order in which I read them during the year... Locke & Key (the entire series) ...

Quantity-wise, 2013 wasn't an awesome reading year for me. Read the least number of books in the five years that I've been counting the books I read per year. It was a measly 34 . Still, at the beginning of the year , I did think of reading less. Or more accurately, not to pressure myself to read a lot for the sake of reading a lot, what with the increasing demands of work and family and, oh, life. And though I did sign up for a challenge at the beginning of the year, somewhere towards the middle, I figured I'd just read what I wanted to read. I think not having a lot of time does that to you. So though quantity-wise, it wasn't a great year, I'm kind of happy with what I've read this year. Mainly because each minute spent reading was a hard-fought minute. Hard-fought. I carried books around for days without reading them, on the off-chance that I could get a free and relaxed minute to actually read. I spent more time in our bathroom than I had right to, jus...

Forty-five minutes before the clock strikes 12 here, and 2013 steps in. So, I've enough time to finally post my ten favorite reads from 2012. I actually read a lot of good books this year , but it's been a custom on this blog to post 10 of my favorite books for the year. My main criteria for choosing these books: I ponder on them until now and still have warm feelings when I see them. The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson - I found this story of a family of performance artists hilarious and moving, especially with the kids having to deal with their crazy parents. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides - I loved Middlesex, but this one, my God. It is beautiful. The language, the characters, the description of the house and community. House of Mirth by Edith Wharton - I still feel bad about Lily Bart. She was a rebel, but things just didn't work out her way. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot - This is the book that made me want to read mor...

Top Row L-R: Smaller and Smaller Circles , It's a Mens World , The El Bimbo Variations Bottom Row L-R: Texticles , Joaquinesquerie , sample of Pop Stories for Groovy Kids cover This is a post I've been promising to write for a few months now. So, it's a day after my birthday--new year, new life and all that jazz-- and I'm finally getting off my bum to finish it. Let's call this the year that I do the things I've been planning to do for a long time. Caveat # 1: This list is based only on the books I've read and really loved. Unfortunately, I haven't read as many Filipino books as I'd like. Caveat # 2: I suppose some of you know I work with a publishing company. And so, though I do love many of the books we published, I've decided on not including them in this list for now. Would like to reserve them for another post (if I do finally get around to that). So, these books are not published by us. Caveat # 3: Though I may know the writer...

Of the 69 books I read last year, these were the most memorable. They're ordered according to when I read them. The El Bimbo Variations by Adam David  - Adam's a valued co-worker, but before he was a co-worker, I'd already read and loved this poetry collection of his. A year after reading it, I still count it as one of the most memorable books I read last 2011. Its humor, wit, and intelligence haven't faded with time for me. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill - At a time I was looking for satisfying ghost stories after reading a few disappointments, I came across this one. Sadly, I haven't gotten around to watching the movie version with little Danny Radcliffe, but if you're looking for a slow-burn scary read, I highly recommend this. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - This book has been in my TBR for a while, and I picked it up because, well, I don't really know. I think I was looking for a lyrical Oprah book. This one gladly fit the bi...

In six hours or so, 2010 will end for me. It's been a year of many great and grand changes in my life, and for that, I am truly grateful. And although I didn't even read half of the books that I did last year (I only made it to 41 books this year), I am grateful, too, that I did not meet a book this year that I didn't like. 2010 was a year of slow but beautiful reading. Unfortunately, this was also a year of lazy blogging. So, though I can rave about all 10 of these books, I do need to catch up with reviews for most of them. Especially the ones I read in the last two months of the year. Anyway, without further ado, here they are, in the order in which I read them: 1) Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel 2) The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell 3) Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness 4) Watership Down by Richard Adams 5) The Passage by Justin Cronin 6) Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart 7) A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes 8) The Woman in White b...

There are a couple of things I feel I need to do, book-wise, before I can finally lay 2009 to rest. This is one of them. I gave a reckoning of my year already, and greeted everyone for the new year, but I've yet to post my best reads for 2009. Unfortunately, I'm not as imaginative as some of the other book bloggers who had fantastic categories for their "Best of" lists. Instead, I'm just going to go with the classic top 10, something which I also had to do for the 50-Book Challenge Shelfari group . By the way, don't go to the Top 10 Reads of 2009 thread in that group if you're already worried about your growing TBR; reading different people's lists will only worsen the TBR situation. You have been warned.;-P Anyway, of the 100 books I read in 2009, these are my top 10 reads. I had to work hard to whittle it down to 10, but, for good or for ill, here they are, in the order in which I read them: Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood Housekeeping by Maril...

image from ijm.nl I do not ask family members to give me books for Christmas anymore. Not for the past couple of years. In fact, I tell them that they can give me anything BUT a book. I have a simple reason for this: though I often scrimp on many things I might need and want, I hardly ever scrimp on books. So, I tell my family to go ahead and buy me that kitchen gadget I've always wanted but won't spend money for because I probably spent too much on books already. (Besides, it's also kind of embarrassing to ask my family to buy books for me when they know and can very well see how many books I have yet left unread.) So, my family buys me the other stuff I want, while I just go on buying myself books. Case in point--I promised myself I wouldn't buy any more books until the New Year, Christmas being a very expensive season for me. However, I dropped by the Fully Booked mothership earlier and saw Jasper Fforde's new book, Shades of Grey , which I've been waiting f...

Though not in my original reading plan , I thought of keeping tabs on my progress on this list, too. This is the original list taken from the BBC Big Read website , by the way, not the one that's become a meme. Books in bold are those I've read. Books with hyperlinks are ones with reviews. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë Catch-22, Joseph Heller Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame Great Expectations, Charles Dickens Little Women, Louisa May Alcott ...

Keeping track of my progress through Time's 100 Best Novels since 1923. This safely rules out Ulysses. (thank God.) Books in bold are those I've read. Books with links are those with reviews. The Adventures of Augie March - Saul Bellow All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren American Pastoral - Philip Roth An American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser Animal Farm - George Orwell Appointment in Samarra - John O'Hara Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret - Judy Blume The Assistant - Bernard Malamud At Swim-Two-Birds - Flann O'Brien Atonement - Ian McEwan Beloved - Toni Morrison The Berlin Stories - Christopher Isherwood The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh The Bridge of San Luis Rey - Thornton Wilder Call It Sleep - Henry Roth Catch-22 - Joseph Heller The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger...

Keeping track of my Complete Booker project... The books in bold are the ones I've already read. The ones hyperlinked are those I've read since I started this blog. See here for a list of Booker Prize winners and shortlisted books till 2007. 2008 - The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga 2007 - The Gathering by Anne Enright 2006 - The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai 2005 - The Sea by John Banville 2004 - The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst 2003 - Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre 2002 - Life of Pi by Yann Martel 2001 - True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey 2000 - The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood 1999 - Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee 1998 - Amsterdam: A Novel by Ian McEwan 1997 - The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy 1996 - Last Orders by Graham Swift 1995 - The Ghost Road by Pat Barker 1994 - How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman 1993 - Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle 1992 - The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje 1992 - Sacred Hunger by Bar...

Legend: Books I've read - bold Books with a review - linked 2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz 2007 - The Road (McCarthy) 2006 - March (Brooks) 2005 - Gilead (Robinson) 2004 - The Known World (Jones) 2003 - Middlesex (Eugenides) 2002 - Empire Falls (Russo) 2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Chabon) 2000 - Interpreter of Maladies (Lahiri) 1999 - The Hours (Cunningham) 1998 - American Pastoral (Roth) 1997 - Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer (Millhauser) 1996 - Independence Day (Ford) 1995 - The Stone Diaries (Shields) 1994 - The Shipping News (Proulx) 1993 - A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain (Butler) 1992 - A Thousand Acres (Smiley) 1991 - Rabbit at Rest (Updike) 1990 - The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (Hijuelos) 1989 - Breathing Lessons (Tyler) 1988 - Beloved (Morrison) 1987 - A Summons to Memphis (Taylor) 1986 - Lonesome Dove (McMurtry) 1985 - Foreign Affairs (Lurie) 1984 - Ironweed (Kennedy) 1983 - The Color Purple (Wal...