Coffeespoons

I read 88 books this year. That's 38 more than my personal target for Goodreads' 2014 Reading Challenge. I wanted to under-promise so I could over-deliver. Thankfully, I did. I usually sneak in one more book around Dec. 30 or 31st, but I'm not going for it this year. It's been a year full of pressure, so I'm not inclined to add a contrived pressure on the last day of 2014. Above is the screencap of all the books I read this year, care of my Goodreads Reading Challenge . A pretty nifty feature, if you ask me, especially for the data conscious types. If you'd like to see what I've read this year, head on over to the page . Speaking of data-conscious types, I am, just a little bit. When I discovered the Ultimate Reading Spreadsheet , I promptly downloaded it. It was a bit of a chore, though, to type in all the data for every book I read, which leads me to the other nifty thing about Goodreads: you can export all your bookshelf data as a csv file, which...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

Some of the books I read this year And in the photo finish of photo finishes, here's my year in reading, 2012 edition. At the beginning of the year, I jokingly said in one of our book club threads that I'm targeting to read 10 books this year. I didn't want to pressure myself to reach a certain number of books read at the expense of relishing reading or choosing books that I actually want to read. That happened when I used to set my reading target to 100 books for the year. Now, according to my Shelfari bookshelf , I read a total of 55 books this year, give or take. I say "give or take" because I really wasn't sure how to count the comic book issues and graphic novels. Also, there are a few indie comics and books that I haven't been able to add to my bookshelf. In any case, I'm happy to say I exceeded the 10 book goal.:-P So, the books I read in 2012: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt Miss Pereg...

If I were a guy, this would be my wet dream. ( img src ) I believe there is such a thing as too many books. In my youth, I never thought so. I wanted to own a library as huge as Belle's in Beauty and the Beast. I thought a library like that was better than love. But it's not love that convinced me otherwise about books. It was a lingering sense of guilt (thank you, Catholic education) and two floods. The first flood happened 3 years ago. I wrote about it here . And though my books were all saved, I thought that it was about time I trimmed down my library. So I had shelves made that were 4 1/2 feet off the floor, and I challenged myself to own only enough books that would fit in them. Of course, that didn't happen. Once again, books claimed their dominion over my work desk, my dresser, on top of my bedroom drawer, and even the bedroom floor. Then, a few weeks ago, another flood. It came into our house again and though it didn't reach as high as it did 3 year...

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, ...

I plan to chill, just like her. ( img src ) This year in reading, I'll... relinquish my little semblance of control and be entirely honest with myself. Ergo, I opt not to formally join any reading challenge this year. let my reading develop organically, while trying to read more of the following: African women writers Filipino literature (for fun, not just for work. Though work is fun.) Graphic novels try to limit my book buying to P1000 (around $23) per month. try blog more regularly? (I don't think I can commit to anything beyond that question mark, especially with my current schedule. I know people say it's all a matter of scheduling, but I seem to have a medical condition that prevents me from keeping to any concrete schedule. In an ideal world, I woud like to blog at least 3x a week. But I can only promise to try.) participate in or organize more read-alongs, either with fellow book club members or fellow bloggers.  definitely have a Ulysses read-al...

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...

I don't intend to rehash a tired debate; I only mean to look at what formats I've been reading books this year and what this means. I got my Kindle last week of March and of the 20 books I've read since then, 7 have been Kindle ebooks. I think I'd be reading more of my Kindle books if not for that goal that I set for myself at the beginning of the year--that of cutting down my 2010 TBR to around half. However, what's more telling, I think, is how many books I've actually bought from brick-and-mortar bookstores since I got my Kindle. Ok, granted I also have that other challenge not to buy more than 12 print or e-books this year until I halve the TBR, I notice that I hardly show any interest when I pass by a bookstore anymore. Shocking, I know. Like other bibliophiles, I couldn't resist going inside a bookstore whenever I passed by one. And I couldn't resist buying at least one book whenever I entered one. Or if I didn't, I went through this...

A Woman Reading by Claude Monet ( img src ) Yup, better late than never. My last pos t 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 Fford e (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 Balanc...