A very delayed update

-
A Woman Reading by Claude Monet (img src)

Yup, better late than never.

My last post mentions how busy I've been, hence my apologies for this. I'm still hoping to review some of these books, so here's a list of what I finished last February
  • The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (Feb. 2) - heavy and beautiful.
  • Once by Morris Gleitzman (Feb. 3) - shocking and disappointing
  • The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde (Feb. 5) - classic Fforde, but for kids
  • Blue Angel, White Shadow by Charlson Ong (Feb. 8) - I enjoyed it, I did.
  • One Day by David Nicholls (Feb. 14) - I actually expected more from this.
  • Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller (Feb. 19) - Charming, charming memoir of an African childhood.
  • From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg (Feb. 22) - a re-read, because I was trying to recall the movie.

And what books I acquired last February:
  • A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
  • Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally

I changed my 12-books-bought limit to 12-books-acquired, hence am including these two books even if I did not buy them. I got them from Aldrin during his big book giveaway. I asked for them, so I think I should include them in the 12 book limit, don't you? Anyway, makes sense to me since my goal is to cease acquiring books indiscriminately until I pare down my TBR.

So that makes a total of 15 books read by the end of Feb, and 4 books acquired. A list of all those books is here, in case you're interested. 

Oh, and I've accomplished the TBR Dare. My commitment expired end of Feb, but I'm still good with the dare at this point. Who knows, might make it all the way to April.

This celebrating little victories feels kind of nice, doesn't it? Especially since I've been so remiss in other things...:)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Know what I did shortly after I left the office this afternoon? I spent a couple of hours in a coffee shop re-reading From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler! Not on my Kindle, mind, but on a real book I bought recently (my old copy is in our home in the province). I and some friends are going on a museum tour this weekend, so I thought I'd revisit Konigsburg's classic. Haven't seen any of the movie adaptations, though.

And yet again I must give you my congratulations, this time for finishing more books than I could manage to finish in a month, especially in a month with just 28 days. Haha. I hope you find A Fine Balance and Schindler's List to your liking. :)
March 22, 2011 at 11:53 PM
Stepford Mum said…
Yay! Congrats on finishing your TBR dare! I was unofficially giving myself til Easter, but preferred not to set a date, instead setting a number of TBR books to be read - 50. I'm making headway, slowly.
March 28, 2011 at 12:31 PM
fantaghiro23 said…
@Aldrin - The movie adaptation I saw was charming. At least, it was charming when I saw it. And I have a feeling I will like A Fine Balance. I hope to like Schindler's List, but it has to live up to the movie, which is my favorite.

@Iya - Thanks! I finally broke towards this end of March. Couldn't help it with the ebooks.:)
March 31, 2011 at 11:20 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Soledad's Sister by Jose Dalisay, Jr.

-
Image
Soledad's Sister  by Jose "Butch" Dalisay is the first Philippine novel to be shortlisted for the distinguished Man Asian Literary Prize  in 2007. I remember reading about the Man Asian at that time and finding out about Dalisay's shortlisted novel. And I recall thinking, "Well, that sounds about right." After all, Butch Dalisay is one of the country's premier writers.This much is evident when you read Soledad's Sister . Way back in college, I was fortunate enough to have Butch Dalisay as one of my professors. The class was an undergrad course on Survey of American Literature, and I remember every single story and poem we took up to this day. I also remember him reading to us one of his essays during class. He had his Mac open on his desk and was reading his essay from the screen. Back then, I was thinking, "This should be boring. But it isn't." And I realized it wasn't boring because I was entranced by his words. The summary...
Read more

Filipino authors with internationally-published books

-
Image
Some of the books from Filipino authors published by intl. publishers. Clockwise from top left: Age of Blight by Kristine Ong Muslim; The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco; The Courageous Princess Vol. 1 by Rod Espinosa; Learning To Fall by Mina Esguerra, Smaller And Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan; The Last Time I'll Write About You by Dawn Lanuza. It seems an exciting time for Filipino authors. A Filipina YA author was at the Brooklyn Book Festival and other festivals, some Filipino authors just wrapped up panels during the Fil-Am International Book Festival in San Francisco , a few other Fil-Am authors are coming out with new books from a major publisher in the next few months ( literary fiction , young adult , and middle grade ), and another classic author was recently published by Penguin Classics. Not to mention that a few Filipino authors have been pitching at #dvpit and have already found agents . And I'm pretty sure I'm barely scratching the surface her...
Read more

The El Bimbo Variations by Adam David

-
Image
When reading a poetry collection, one of the last things you expect to do is laugh out loud. But, if you were to read Adam David's new edition of The El Bimbo Variations , that is exactly what you'd be doing. My advice: try not to read it in public, unless you're okay with people looking at you weird because your shoulders are suddenly shaking in laughter or you have a snap-happy grin on your face. I first read The El Bimbo Variations back when it was still in pdf format. Four years ago, the poet Adam David gave a talk to one of our high school junior classes during a yearly activity where we expose students to real-life writers. In preparation, he sent us  a copy of his El Bimbo Variations , and told me that we could distribute it to the students so that they'd know his work. We photocopied them for the classes assigned to Adam and, on the day of the talk, I went in and listened to his session where he got riled up about big publishers and their limited repertoire...
Read more