Coffeespoons

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...

I didn't finish House of Mirth in time for our book discussion last Saturday. When I stepped into the venue, I had only read up to 72% of my ebook. So I was thinking of keeping quiet as I hadn't finished the book (though I did know the ending), but then I'm not the kind who keeps quiet in any kind of discussion. It was interesting that many people from the club identified Lily Bart as a gambler. I didn't see that at all. I mean, sure, she had gambling debts. But you don't really see her engage in gambling in the novel. Being the romantic kind, I pegged her as a rebel. The poor girl seemed to want to get away from the kind of life she was weaned into. Though at the same time, she knows that she'll always value money and beauty highly. Nevertheless, though she had a great number of opportunities to finally marry someone to secure her future, she never saw any plan through. And though she could've fought dirty like many of the people in her set, she never ...

Gillian Anderson as Lily Bart. I did not know about this. ( img src ) So I'm cramming my reading of The House of Mirth. In time for my book club 's discussion this Saturday. I'm at 10% so far in my ebook. And so far, I'm thinking this girl Lily Bart is sassy and perhaps an early version of the gals in Sex and the City. With the City but minus the sex. Unless I'm proven wrong, that is. On the work front, I'm pretty proud of the two webinars we held a couple of weeks ago. The first one was on the basics of ebook publishing . That was me. But the second one was more of the technical stuff in making ebooks . Our three production experts did that. Proud of the webinars because, well, I used to be a teacher. So I'm into educating and stuff. And because I think we had fun. So, hooray, am no longer a webinar virgin! Speaking of which, if any of you guys want to try webinars (both holding and attending them), I highly recommend the guys from Mayer Virtual C...