Coffeespoons

What happens when a geek gets his heart broken? I guess that depends on who the geek is and what geekery he claims. When it's Carljoe Javier , however, he writes a book. And uses a title that will make every Trekkie snap his head up and pay attention-- The Kobayashi Maru of Love . A little disclaimer--Carljoe was a classmate in one grad course. We sat through a class on Shakespeare's Tragedies where, to this day, I still sit in awe of a test that required me to name the play from which obscure Shakespearean lines were taken. And man, as one who loves Shakespeare, read all but 1 of his plays, and taught several of them for several years, I tell ya, they were OBSCURE. Incidentally, Tarie , energetic Asian YA and children's lit blogger, was also our classmate there. But I digress. So far, I have revealed that I am a Star Trek geek and a Shakespeare geek. Who says the two can't go hand in hand? Anybody who's seen Wrath of Khan will know that. So, it stands to r...

courtesy of Kenneth Yu at Philippine Genre Stories Overdramatic title, I know. But when Tarie said, "We're making plans for world domination." in response to my question, "Hey, what have you guys been talking about?" I understood and supported it completely. This little exchange happened at the first ever Filipino Book Bloggers ' meet-up. The meet-up happened at Shangri-la EDSA Mall last Saturday. Present were Chachic of Chachic's Book Nook , Aldrin of  The Polysyllabic Spree ,  Tina of One More Page , Tarie of Asia in the Heart, World in the Mind , Jason of Taking a Break , Rezel of The Seeker , Aaron of Guy Gone Geek , Ace of Ace of Books , Ariel of I Am PinoyPeterPan , Gege of I Flip Pages , Michelle of ArtSeblis , and yours truly. We were also joined by online booksellers, Jasper of Avalon.ph and Celina of Celina's Books and Mags . Completing the group were two publishers: Paolo Chikiamco of Rocket Kapre , joined by his lovely wife Sh...

This review of Clockwork Angel comes at an opportune time. Exactly one year ago, we fled our home which was submerged in floods 10 feet high, brought about by the onslaught of the typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana). The possessions I needed most were placed in a plastic bag and put inside my knapsack. In that bag were my wallet, my cellphone, a change of clothes, and Cassandra Clare's City of Glass , Book 3 in the Mortal Instruments Trilogy . I wrote about that experience and what I thought about being a mortal instrument  nearly a year ago. In that post, I said that rebuilding is a great adventure and life can not be overshadowed. Cassandra Clare herself was kind enough to read it and comment. So, here I am, one year after the flood, reaffirming what I said. We have rebuilt and we are still here. Moreover, I am here again, with another of Cassandra Clare's books, Clockwork Angel . I didn't set out to make it a tradition, but it is a cool coincidence that, around the same time la...

Living in a tropical country, I never thought that snow could be so riveting. (Heck, living in a tropical country, I'm hardly riveted by the sun either. I do like the beaches, though. Anyway...) Peter Hoeg's Smilla's Sense of Snow was in my To Be Read shelf for almost two years, and I am proud to say it has finally graduated to the Read-shelf. Yay! (cue graduation music). I started it several times and, more owing to my shortened attention span than the writing, have put it down in favor of the shiniest new bestseller Lately, though, in the throes of Stieg Larsson withdrawal, I began looking for more mystery novels from authors of Scandinavian persuasion. And so I pick up this book once more. And finished it in my own sweet time. And find it slower than Larsson, but infinitely more intelligent. Smilla Jaspersen, a Greenlander in Denmark, lives in a tenement for second-class citizens. She has no friends, except for a six-year-old boy, Isaiah, another Greenlander...

Been three months since I made a Book Tidbit post. This particular one excites me, though, not just because it's been so long, but because these tidbits are all from the local (Philippine) book scene. Seems like lots of things are going on locally these days (or maybe I'm just paying more attention?) In any case, here are the tidbits: The first ever Filipino Book Bloggers  meet-up is happening this Saturday, September 25 . Yep, since Chachic put up the site where Filipino book bloggers meet each other (aside from our own blogs, that is), seems natural that the next step is for us bloggers see each other face-to-face. Anyway, in case you're a Filipino book blogger or just a book lover, you're welcome to join. It's just an informal gathering, but who knows--it may lead to bigger things. Last Sept. 6, Carljoe Javier , launched his independently published book, the Kobayashi Maru of Love . Which I was interested in for two reasons: first, he was my classmate i...

I have a question for you all, since I'm contemplating on monetizing my blog. Why? Well, for the obvious reason--the money would be nice. I mean, I know it can take forever to earn anything decent through a blog like this, but at least there's a little money earned. On the other hand, I really like the idea that this blog has no money attached to it. Makes it seem purer and more free. So anyway, to help me decide, I wanted to know if finding ads in a blog bothers you.  Actually, to be honest, I did want to ask this question, but I also really wanted to play with Answer Garden .:) Discovered this in one of the educational websites I subscribe to. I may not teach anymore, but I'm always on the lookout for web 2.0 tools that I can recommend to former colleagues or teacher trainees. And so, because I can't experiment with these tools on an actual class now, permit me to experiment on you, dear reader. Just type your answer to the question on the box provided ...

So, this year, I was actually considering skipping the Manila International Book Fair . See, I have this periodical recovery program--by that, I mean recovery from buying books more than I read them. I've been down to purchasing two books a month and had recently gotten rid of 70 from my shelves. Oh, yeah, that was the other reason I was thinking of not going--lack of shelf space. But, I'd already planned on getting Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story and Cassie Clare's Clockwork Angel for this September, and since the books are on sale at the book fair, I figured I'd just get it from there. So on a Thursday afternoon, I went with my little brood to MIBF to get those books. And here they are, plus a hardcover of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski, which I got for P100 (roughly $2.50). Actually, I didn't get Clockwork Angel from the book fair, as the stall where it was sold had run out of them. I got it at full price still in an...

If you liked the book and don't want to read a rant, then don't read this post . If you're curious or are aching to share your rants about Mockingjay , too, then by all means, go ahead. You, however, have been warned. Oh, one other thing--this review has spoilers. Just so you know... I am a fan of Suzanne Collins, based on the strength of Hunger Games and Catching Fire . My review of Hunger Games says as much. And though I liked the first book better, Catching Fire was a pretty decent sequel that actually upped the stakes of the first book. So it's no surprise that I, along with millions of other fans, was counting the days till the third book came out. I did the fan thing--pre-ordered it from our local bookstore, NBS , because if you did, you got a free t-shirt to go along with it. Then, when Blooey invited me to be one of the panelists for the book discussion at the Mockingjay Launch Party, of course I said yes! After all, I owe the good people of Scholasti...

This is slightly late in my part of the world, given it's already Saturday morning here. But, hey, it's still Friday night in other parts. So, this is the last post for this year's Book Blogger Appreciation Week . And this is what the committee is asking us to write about: We want to hear all about your FUTURE treasures.  We’ve been visiting each other and getting to know each other better…now is your chance to share what you enjoyed about BBAW and also what your blogging goals are for the next year! Since I started blogging, I've periodically joined blogging events like this for one reason: I like being part of the community. I don't think I would've stayed in book blogging (or kept coming back) if it weren't for the warm community of book bloggers who continually support each other, even amidst a difference of opinions. Books are great; books are wonderful. But not having someone to talk to about books makes me feel a little bit lonely, so I love the...

It's the fourth day of Book Blogger Appreciation Week , and today is all about forgotten treasures. Here's the prompt: Sure we’ve all read about Freedom and Mockingjay but we likely have a book we wish would get more attention by book bloggers, whether it’s a forgotten classic or under marketed contemporary fiction.  This is your chance to tell the community why they should consider reading this book! Now, I'm not sure if the books from this series are really forgotten, considering that the last one was just released this year. But I do think it deserves more marketing, since it is an awesome, awesome series. I'm talking about Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking series . The first book is The Knife of Never Letting Go ; second one's The Ask and the Answer ; and the third is Monsters of Men , which I just reviewed a few months ago. I won't go into much detail in this post of why this series deserves to be read. You can just read my review of Monsters of Men ...

Over the years, there's been a lot of talk about the Future of the Book. But depending on who talks about it,  "the future of the book" actually takes on different meanings. For instance, when publishers talk about it, what they really mean is "the future of publishing." Last Monday and Tuesday, I was fortunate enough to attend   The Future of the Book conference , organized by the  National Book Development Board , the  Book Development Association of the Philippines , the  Filipinas Heritage Library , and  Vibal Foundation . The seminar was held to help publishers deal with all of the challenges to publishing these days, brought about by new technologies and new modes of reading. Of course, I speak about the perennial and almost trite question: Do ebooks spell the end of books? I made it a point to be there, as a writer and editor for one of the publishing houses, but more importantly, as a reader, consumer, and book enthusiast. The semina...

It's the midpoint of Book Blogger Appreciation Week , and, for each day of the week, there's a suggested post. Well, today's post is about Unexpected Treasures. And here's the prompt: Book bloggers can be some of the most influential people around!  Today we invite you to share with us a book or genre you tried due to the influence of another blogger.  What made you cave in to try something new and what was the experience like? And now my answer...before last year, I was purely a fiction reader. In fact, I could probably count the number of non-fiction books that I read for leisure in one hand. No, wait. I can count it using one finger. Yep, I didn't like nonfiction because, really, where's the fun in real life? When I began blogging, though, I saw bloggers who'd review nonfiction books, specifically some Bill Bryson books.    I can't even remember which blogs I saw Bill Bryson from, but I do remember the reviews saying that he was hilarious an...