Coffeespoons

The Chaos Walking trilogy, of which Monsters of Men is the third book, is the best contemporary young adult series I've ever read. Ever. By contemporary YA, I mean anything published in the last 50-odd years, because I still have some loyalty to dear old Aslan and his crew. However, of all the YA I've read published in the last 54 years, the Chaos Walking trilogy is, far and away, the best of the lot. Better than Harry Potter? Yes. Better than The Dark Materials? Yes. Better than the Twilight series? God, yes! Better than Hunger Game s? Yes. Yes. Yes. (And I say this as one who really loves The Hunger Games .) And, Gaiman, I love you, but this beats your YA books, too. What makes this series so great? Three simple things: Relevant themes, fantastic storytelling, and outstanding writing. Monsters of Men is the last book in Chaos Walking . The first book, The Knife of Never Letting Go ,  made it to last year's list of my 10 best reads . The second boo...

I am a proud Pinoy and, as such, I want to dedicate a part of my blog to my fellow Filipino book bloggers. So, this post will hereafter be included in the menu bar on top.  And, for as long as I discover other Pinoy Book Bloggers, I will add to this list. There's a great variety in these blogs, by the way. Some are new, some are newish, Some blog about YA, some blog about highly intellectual, literary reads. Some use blogspot, some use wordpress. But all of us, I'd like to believe, have this in common: We are Filipino, and we are proud to blog about books. (Updated as of June 20, 2011) a book diary Ace of Books Amaterasu Reads Artseblis Reads  Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind Because We're Curious Blackplume Blurbology Bookable Reads book-aklat-libro bookish mind Book Lady's Bookshelf Book Rhapsody Book Report Bookmarked! Books and Musings Brush Up On Your Reading Chachic's Book Nook Clandestine Sa...

I have a new toy! Note the tag cloud above, which was generated from the words most often used in this blog. Yep, that's courtesy of my new toy, Wordle . Of course, Wordle isn't really a book tidbit. But hey, it does fun stuff with the printed word, so I deem it deserves a mention. In a previous post , I lamented other people's lament that Filipinos don't read. My position is that we do, though most of the reading is not what some people  would call high-brow. Then again, as a teacher, I've also often heard the complaint that youngsters nowadays don't read. Again, my position is, they do. They text a lot, they read online a lot, etc. However, this article at the Telegraph gives a good perspective on this issue. The main point? People read, but have become unused to good and difficult reading. Neil Gaiman throws his two cents in on the apparent dichotomy between literary fiction and "genre" fiction. This Guardian blog post examines his introductio...

Yes, I am. Still reading? Still moderately. In my last post, which was almost five months ago, I mentioned I had started a new job and, consequently, I haven't been reading as much. More startlingly, I haven't really been feeling guilty about not reading. At least, not about leisure reading. Then again, the line between leisure reading and reading for work has become blurred with my recent employment. What can I say?-- I really enjoy reading education-related books. So, though I've only read a few books for leisure, most of my day is spent reading, if not editing. And geek me finds it fun.:) Geek me also realizes that, though I fill my days with things I'm truly not bored about,  I will still need a creative outlet that is just mine alone. So, back to blogging I is. (Yeah, that True Blood lingo really is catching.) Besides, it's the middle of the year. In the grand tradition of mid-year performance reviews, I shall post my progress towards my 2010 readin...