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...

The theme for this year's Filipino ReaderCon is "Readers Turned Writers," so I think it makes sense to ask this question for one of the Filipino Fridays , doesn't it? If you want to join Filipino Fridays, head on over to the Filipino ReaderCon site and take part in the fun. This week's complete prompt goes... As a reader, have you ever thought about writing a book? What kind of books/stories do you want to write? Or are you now a published author, and what compelled you to go fulfil this dream? How was your journey from reader to writer? How did you go about getting your book out there? I believe I'm more of a reader than a writer. When I say that, I mean that I've never had the inclination to write a story. I was never one of those kids who kept a notebook of stories or submitted stuff to the literary section of the school journal. Nope. I liked to read. So, no. I don't think I'm cut out to become a creative writer, because I'v...

Brushing off the cobwebs on my blog to join in the yearly Filipino Friday series of posts, which signal the run-up to the Filipino ReaderCon . The Filipino ReaderCon will be held on Nov. 14 this year, on a Friday, a departure from our usual Saturday schedule. But, there will be book discussions held on Nov. 15, Saturday, in conjunction with the November Komikon . The other difference this year is that the ReaderCon will be part of the Philippine International Literary Festival (PILF), organized by the National Book Development Board . The PILF is going to be on Nov. 12-14 at the Bayanihan Center, Mandaluyong, and the ReaderCon is going to be the third day of the LitFest. So, we've become official, baby. Let's see how things turn out this year so that we can find out if we're going to do the same thing next year. Anyway, back to Filipino Fridays! I'm two days late, as you can see, but one does what one can.:) The prompt this week is the followi...

So, here's the presentation I showed during my section in National Book Development Board's Limbag Kapihan for writers. In it are the results for the Filipino Reading Habits Survey I conducted last Feb. One caveat I will emphasize: this is an informal survey, and I am no statistician. I am, however, a very curious individual, and I like facts and statistics. Hence, the survey. The rest of the caveats you'll find in the presentation. The first few slides are mostly pictures of the different activities Filipino readers are up to, at least those within my zone of awareness. And I think while I was showing these, my main message was: Can we please stop saying that Filipinos aren't readers? Please. Look at the pics. Look at the sites. Look at the stats. I mean, sure, our readership isn't like the readership in other countries, but I would say it's a stretch to say Filipinos don't read or don't read a lot. Anyway, I'll let the presentation sp...

Happy Birthday, Coffeespoons. ( img src ) It's been five years to the day since I started this blog. Though I've progressively gotten worse at maintaining it (only 10 posts last year!), I'm keeping the blog. Coffeespoons was born at a time I rediscovered my love for reading. I was starting to become bored with my job, which counterintuitively didn't leave me with a lot of time for reading (I was a high school English teacher), I was taking up my masters in Anglo-Am lit, and I joined online book groups and an online/offline book club . In other words, I filled whatever emptiness there was with books. So it only seemed logical to start a book blog. There is less emptiness in my life now, mainly because my work never bores me. Exhausts me, yes. Challenges me, leaves me reeling, but at least I'm not bored. Hence, the infrequent posts.  But through Coffeespoons and the many other things that came before and after it in my reading life and advocacy, I ...

Official Poster - 3rd Filipino ReaderCon, created by Trizha Ko ( img src ) It's been a little over a month after the 3rd Filipino ReaderCon , and friend and book blogger, Ron Lim , who also happens to write for Manila Bulletin, has just come out with an article entitled "Readers Unite." His intent was to feature the Filipino ReaderCon and the past three years of its existence. It's a lovely article, and I urge you to check it out . Ron sent me interview questions which I answered in my usual long-winded fashion. Owing to the exigencies of space, word count, and unity, I suppose, everything I said can't be included in the article, so this being my blog, I figured I'd just make the responses public.  The FilReaderCon is an event that happened because of the desire and work of so many people, so though the germ of the idea started from a few, it never would've happened had not all the writers, book bloggers, and book club members rallied to sup...

( img src ) Earlier today, I was thinking of all the things I've been planning to do. It started with me wondering why I'm not a full-time mom, because I occasionally find myself wishing that I were. Of course, aside from the fact that I have to earn a living, I also enjoy my job tremendously. So, the desire to be a full-time mom is really a function of time. I would love to have enough time to do all the activities I'd like to do with my kids and do my job well. But it's not as if my family and my job are the only things I want to do. I'm not even talking about bucket list things here, although I do hope to spend a few weeks in each major European city one day. I'm talking about simple, doable things like my hobbies (reading) and my advocacies (reading) which I haven't gotten around to because there are only so many hours in a day. There are all those books I've been wanting to read. Books in my physical TBR, books in my Kindle's TBR, books...

Maybe because I was thinking of Christmas? And maybe because, for the first time in ever , I only bought Filipino-published books. For the uninitiate, the MIBF stands for the Manila International Book Fair , the country's biggest and most prominent book fair. Unlike other book fairs around the globe, the MIBF is really more of consumers' market, with hordes of readers descending upon the happily waiting publishers and distributors, setting out to find the long sought for book or the cheapest bargain. And, lately, hoping to catch a favorite author during one of the book launches or author-signing events during the MIBF. The show runs for 5 days. It started on a Weds., Sept. 12 and will run till Sept. 16. My first visit was on a Friday, where I bought these four books for my kids: Three are from Hiyas Publishing (OMF Lit) and one from Adarna House, Inc. The Great Duck and Crocodile Race by Robert Magnuson - which I love. Love the art, love the text, love the messag...

I have one hour to catch up on last week's Filipino Friday before the linky disappears, so here goes... This week's prompt: School of Reading. We all started reading somewhere, and more often than not, we were influenced by someone. Who got you into reading? Your parents? A friend? A librarian? One teacher who always lends out his/her books? How helpful was your school in helping your reading habit / fueling your book addiction? Who got me into reading? My mom. Read to me every night when I was 3 to 5 years old. At least, every night she was at home from the hospital. So, reading time was also bonding time with my mom. And then my brother, who also took over reading to me when mom was on duty at the hospital. Dad was never a big reader, but that's ok 'cause he's big with the 'rithmetic. Was my school helpful in fueling my book addiction? That depends on which school we're talking about. To be fair, my book addiction grew with every school I we...

It's Filipino ReaderCon time again. And that means the return of ReaderCon Filipino Fridays ! Once more, the great and varied Filipino reading community is preparing to come together for the ReaderCon. In preparation for that, we have the Filipino Friday meme where a few of us can get to know each other. Which is the topic for this year's first ReaderCon Filipino Friday . Introductions . As with every start of a weekly meme, we need to know a bit about you! Talk about your top 3-5 (or more!) favorite books of all time, the genres you read and would never read, the books that surprised you this year. You can also talk about how you became a reader and why you love it so much! And finally, if you were in the ReaderCon last year, talk about your experience too! If you weren’t there, but you’re planning to go this year, then what do you expect for the upcoming ReaderCon? All right, then... Favorite books: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - all-time favorite, ...

One of the badges from last year's ReaderCon ...would you support it? Last year, we held the first Filipino Readers' Conference or ReaderCon , entitled "Filipino Readers Make it Social." Back then, what we wanted to do was spread awareness about the vibrant reading communities of the country. We had two panels: one on book clubs and another on book blogging. We held it in a small room, good for 70 people, during the Manila International Book Fair. Surprisingly, the room was filled, the panelists enthusiastic, and the crowd friendly and participative. Generally, people said the event was a success, with a few comments that there could have been more time for socializing. I tend to agree. And so before that first ReaderCon ended, I, with bravado, said that there would be another one next year, because I felt we had barely scratched the surface of what we can do as a reading community, for the reading community. This is next year. I am still intent on making Read...

Libreria last day party. (photo courtesy of Rhett ) Libreria. Where we ate, danced, slept, wrote, scavenged, hobnobbed with writers, spilled drinks, raised hell, got drunk, and oh yes, read, for a year and a half, closed its doors last Saturday. The closing of indie bookstores isn't as alarming in this country, but the closing of this particular indie bookstore is. Because it was our haven, refuge, our treehouse, our clubhouse. And I don't just mean for my book club . It was home, too, to the Filipino Book Bloggers . It was a place we could go to geek out about books and feel like we belonged. So though it was around only for a little while, it has inspired a loyalty in us. Owner and proprietor, Triccie, finally decided to close shop because her work necessitated that she be in a different province for several days in the week and because the bookstore stopped earning money. And I keep thinking that I wish I had enough money to keep the place as it is--a venue for book...