Coffeespoons

Quantity-wise, 2013 wasn't an awesome reading year for me. Read the least number of books in the five years that I've been counting the books I read per year. It was a measly 34 . Still, at the beginning of the year , I did think of reading less. Or more accurately, not to pressure myself to read a lot for the sake of reading a lot, what with the increasing demands of work and family and, oh, life. And though I did sign up for a challenge at the beginning of the year, somewhere towards the middle, I figured I'd just read what I wanted to read. I think not having a lot of time does that to you. So though quantity-wise, it wasn't a great year, I'm kind of happy with what I've read this year. Mainly because each minute spent reading was a hard-fought minute. Hard-fought. I carried books around for days without reading them, on the off-chance that I could get a free and relaxed minute to actually read. I spent more time in our bathroom than I had right to, jus...

Filipino Friday is an online meme which started in the Filipino Book Bloggers  website, but is now used as an online activity in preparation for the Filipino ReaderCon . This is the prompt for this week's Filipino Friday: Hello, Reader! Let’s get to know you, and more importantly, what kind of reader are you? Laura E. Kelly released an infographic about Reader species — under what Domain/Class/Family/Genus/Species do you fall under? Give examples, and feel free to talk about why you belong to that species. Who knows, you may find readers in your own genus. ;) From Laura E. Kelly I've never liked being labeled, even though I may be the easiest person to label. I recall seeing this infographic before. I went through it and found too many cross-overs that seem to be addressed by the over-all term "cross bred reader mutt." I frankly think most readers are mutts. But in the interests of finding something within the species, I'm going to go with th...

Books I plan to give away during National Children's Book Day July 16, apart from being the birthday of two of the loves of my life, is also National Children's Book Day (NCBD) here in the Philippines. The NCBD is an initiative of the Philippine Board of Books for Young People (PBBY - my, this post is turning out to have too many acronyms, isn't it?),  which is headed by fantastic librarian blogger  Zarah Gagatiga . Tomorrow's highlight is the awarding of the Salangga Prize for a children's book writer, and the Alcala Prize for an illustrator. And though the NCBD is just a day, the PBBY has been encouraging people to do something for it since a few weeks ago. They've also been doing capsule interviews of some children's book authors and illustrators, care of blogger Xi Zuq , who's also suggested ways of celebrating NCBD. I'd like to celebrate the NCBD myself by doing something I've always wanted to do. So, this is what I posted on my ...

Why I liked Crashed (Junior Bender #1)... because Nancy Pearl included it among her "under the radar" reads for this summer , and I do like trying books not many people have read. Then again, this isn't really a reason why I liked the book. More like a reason why I'm inclined to like it, so... because the plot's tight and moves along quickly, and the writing's smooth and witty. because of who Junior Bender is--a crook (with a heart of gold, of course) who does detective work for other crooks. And in addition to being a career criminal, he's a career reader. Sold.  I highlighted a few sections. Read and see if you don't like him, or at least, how he spends is off-work days. “It’s true. Like it or not, I’m a professional burglar.” “You mean, like full-time?” She stretched the words out derisively. “Well, you see, that’s one of the nice things about being a burglar. You only work a couple of times a month.” “What do you do the rest ...

Because I've avoided John Green for a long time... since everybody seems to be talking about him... and the thing with authors or books that everyone's talking about... is that sometimes you want to avoid them... after all, if a LOT of people like them... that means they appeal to the masses... which means that it appeals to a pedestrian taste... but you don't want to be associated with anything pedestrian... because you're different, damn it, and you're smart... you think... smarter than the hoi polloi... so you avoid the book/author... until you can't because... you're actually curious... and you end up buying the book... but at the back of your mind, you think, "There must be something wrong with this book... and I'm going to find it. And call it out for everyone to see... or agree with a really smart detractor... because we smart folk need to stick together... and ...

Five new adult-ish titles Because everyone needs a little popcorn/potato chip lit once in a while. They might not be the healthiest alternative, but they're damn good in your mouth and on the way down. And sometimes, popcorn's just what you need. Case in point: before I started reading the top bestsellers on Amazon, I had not read a book for an entire month. I blame work. Loaded with it. The first book I had read after a month was J. Lynn's Wait For You . Not something I'd usually pick up, but I had two good reasons: 1) I know that New Adult is a trend in publishing, especially self-publishing, right now, so I figure I should sample at least one book; and 2) I just really needed a fast-paced, easy, and potentially exciting read. Because even though my days and nights are filled with work, family, or Candy Crush, not being able to finish a book in that long is like not being able to buy crack for a crack addict. It's nice when you can merge work and bin...

Before leaving work today, I spent some time looking at Amazon's current bestsellers on the Kindle store . This was prompted by this article that my boss posted on Facebook. Ever since I started working in trade publishing and ebook selling a year and a half ago, it's become difficult for me to separate what I do for fun (reading) from what I do for a living (publishing and selling books). And so when I read books now, even if I just want to lose myself in the story (which I sometimes accomplish if it's a writer I love or trust), I often find my mind drifting to things like, "I wonder what went into the acquisition decision." or "Man, this sucks, but they had a good marketing plan for this." or "I wonder what the publishing history of this book is." and so on. This also works vice-versa: my reading is increasingly influenced by my job. And not in the sense that I read marketing and psychology books (which I do, actually), but in ...

One of the videos in Fully Booked's What's My Story? campaign. I gush about John Williams' Stoner .:) In the country I live in, there are two major bookstore chains. One has been around for more than 50 years, devotes a large part of its business to selling school and office supplies, and definitely has wider penetration. The other is less than 20 years old, has a more diverse selection of titles, but caters to clientele with larger disposable incomes. I'd say both do their part in pushing a reading culture in my country. Whereas one has ventured into publishing popular local titles and selling a lot of other titles for cheap, the other provides its customers titles not usually found in the other store and actively engages its reading community. Now, I'm very big on engaging the reading community. As a reader, I like to watch what companies in the book industry do to engage their readers. As a heavy user of social media, I also like to watch these compani...

I think part of the growth of a reader is to start trying out books or genres which one doesn't usually read. The trial might result in a long-term love affair with the genre, temporary preference, mild tolerance, or outright rejection. Even if it's the last case, one can at least say, "I don't like ." and know whereof one speaks. Enter the Flips Flipping Pages (FFP) 2013 Diversity Reading Challenge . As I mentioned, we resurrected the challenge this year with new categories. Three years, after all, is enough time for new book trends to gain prominence. And given the changes in technology, I believe it's high time for us to explore the new ways that content is packaged. This Diversity Challenge is open to members of our book club, Flips Flipping Pages , an online/offline book club for Filipinos all over the world. If you're interested, you can head on over to Shelfari to join the club, with the click of a button. If you don't want to o...

The Princess and the Goblin , McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales , My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me , Kikomachine #1 , Hark! A Vagrant , Building Stories See these books (not my messy desk behind them)? I dipped into these lovelies last year, but I never got to finish them. For a few of them, such as My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me , McSweeney's Mammoth Book of Thrilling Tales , and Hark! A Vagrant , I did more than dip; I was halfway in. Was reading each of those a little at a time, until I was either distracted by work or by other books. A big part of this year's reading plan, then, is to ensure that I finish these books. Based on what I've read, these are all books worth my time. Besides, I'd like to get them off my messy desk. What else constitutes my reading plan this year? Well, because I purposely did not join any reading challenges last year, explicitly stated or otherwise, I'm going to swing the opposite ...