Coffeespoons

I have one hour to catch up on last week's Filipino Friday before the linky disappears, so here goes... This week's prompt: School of Reading. We all started reading somewhere, and more often than not, we were influenced by someone. Who got you into reading? Your parents? A friend? A librarian? One teacher who always lends out his/her books? How helpful was your school in helping your reading habit / fueling your book addiction? Who got me into reading? My mom. Read to me every night when I was 3 to 5 years old. At least, every night she was at home from the hospital. So, reading time was also bonding time with my mom. And then my brother, who also took over reading to me when mom was on duty at the hospital. Dad was never a big reader, but that's ok 'cause he's big with the 'rithmetic. Was my school helpful in fueling my book addiction? That depends on which school we're talking about. To be fair, my book addiction grew with every school I we...

It's Filipino ReaderCon time again. And that means the return of ReaderCon Filipino Fridays ! Once more, the great and varied Filipino reading community is preparing to come together for the ReaderCon. In preparation for that, we have the Filipino Friday meme where a few of us can get to know each other. Which is the topic for this year's first ReaderCon Filipino Friday . Introductions . As with every start of a weekly meme, we need to know a bit about you! Talk about your top 3-5 (or more!) favorite books of all time, the genres you read and would never read, the books that surprised you this year. You can also talk about how you became a reader and why you love it so much! And finally, if you were in the ReaderCon last year, talk about your experience too! If you weren’t there, but you’re planning to go this year, then what do you expect for the upcoming ReaderCon? All right, then... Favorite books: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - all-time favorite, ...

One of the badges from last year's ReaderCon ...would you support it? Last year, we held the first Filipino Readers' Conference or ReaderCon , entitled "Filipino Readers Make it Social." Back then, what we wanted to do was spread awareness about the vibrant reading communities of the country. We had two panels: one on book clubs and another on book blogging. We held it in a small room, good for 70 people, during the Manila International Book Fair. Surprisingly, the room was filled, the panelists enthusiastic, and the crowd friendly and participative. Generally, people said the event was a success, with a few comments that there could have been more time for socializing. I tend to agree. And so before that first ReaderCon ended, I, with bravado, said that there would be another one next year, because I felt we had barely scratched the surface of what we can do as a reading community, for the reading community. This is next year. I am still intent on making Read...

This was my reading life in 2011... On reading goals and challenges: I'd like to think I started out well. I aimed to go through at least half of my 2010 TBR .  I joined the TBR Dare , which lasted for me until the end of February. I also aimed not to buy more than 12 books in the whole year, unless I had already finished my TBR goal. Sadly, by March, that 12-book buying goal was compromised by one thing--the Kindle. My sister had given me one as a gift , and there went my goal. To be fair, I held out until the middle of the year. To date, though, I do not know how many additional TBR books I've acquired. I can count how many print books I've added, but cannot and do not want to count how many ebooks I have on my TBR. As for my other goals, well, I barely remember them and I suppose I lost interest in them along the way. Figured that, as long as I'm reading and trying to vary it, I'm ok. In any case, here's my total reading progress for the year . On...

It's 11 hours to the ReaderCon. I'm awake because I'm cramming for the event, and what better time to cram when everyone is asleep? Since I didn't make it on a Friday again, I promised that I'd at least post this before the ReaderCon. So I'm abiding by my promise. The last ReaderCon Filipino Friday topic is What do you hope will happen in the ReaderCon? What are you expecting from the event? I will try to answer this as best as 2AM and my sleep-deprived brain will let me. I hope it'll start on time, that's for sure. I hope all the little details fall into place. I hope the food's good and sufficient. I hope it'll be a success. But let me veer away from speaking as a volunteer and organizer. What I hope for the ReaderCon is what I've always hoped: that more and more people will realize that reading is something many Filipinos engage in and are passionate about. As a corollary, readers will find other readers or will give birth ...

This is me trying to make up for the past 2 Filipino Fridays I missed plus answering this week's current Filipino Friday.:) Bear with me if this turns out into a long-ish post; it's a three-in-one. Prompt for Week 2:  How did you become a reader? What influenced you to take up reading as a hobby?...What is it about reading that you enjoy so much? I blame my mother, as I suppose most of us do. The story I fondly tell is of my mother taking me to Greenhills when I was three and, as we got down from the car, she was excitedly telling me that she would buy me a book. How do I know I was three? Because my mom says that's how old I was when I started reading. Anyway, my mom was gabbing away about buying me that book, and I distinctly remember thinking, "What's a book?" I had no idea what it was, but basing solely on my mother's excitement, I figured it'd be a good thing. And so she bought me two books, Little Red Riding Hood and...

Better late than never. Filipino Friday is a meme that originated within the Filipino Book Bloggers site and is being  borrowed by the ReaderCon site in order to encourage participation among Filipino readers everywhere. The ReaderCon Filipino Friday will run for the 5 Fridays leading up to the big event on Sept. 14. This week's topic is an introduction. Here's the prompt from the site: Tell us what kind of reader you are. What are your favorite genres and books? Who are your favorite authors? Do you have a comfort read? And what's the best book you've read this year so far? You can also include links of where other readers can find you online. I like to think I'm an eclectic reader. Though I had favorite genres at certain points in my life (bestsellers in early high school, sf&f in late high school to college, classics in later college years, YA when I started working) I think I've gotten to a point where I'm willing to sample an...

Yes! Yes, it is. Yes, we're finally going to do it. Filipino Readers Make it Social! The First Filipino ReaderCon is finally going to happen on Sept. 14, from 1-6 PM at SMX Mall of Asia. We are going to be one of the special events during the Manila International Book Fair , which actually starts on that day. About 19 months ago, I declared what I believed about Filipino readers . Then, nearly a year ago, in a post about the local Future of the Book conference , I mentioned how some local publishers didn't seem to be aware of the level of activity of the reading public. But the germ of the ReaderCon idea finally took form during the first Manila International Literary Festival last year, when Tarie and I were imagining what our ideal conference would be, since we felt that literary festivals and book conferences could do with more reader involvement. And that was when we said that we should have a readers' convention. The time seems ripe for it, after ...