Coffeespoons

Yeah, gonna smack you down, bitch. ( img src ) During one of the sessions in last year's Manila International Literary Festival, I remember someone saying that it makes sense for an author like Neil Gaiman to be on Twitter, but not really for literary authors. And a lot of the audience were nodding their heads. Aside from my usual annoyance at the delineation once more of "literary" and "genre" authors, I also thought, "These people probably aren't on Twitter much, or else they'd know a 'literary' author such as Margaret Atwood is very active on Twitter, and her fans are loving her for it." And just to prove some more how wrong that statement about literary authors on Twitter was, I bring you Salman Rushdie 's very involved engagement with Tweeps in the #literarysmackdowns  hashtag. I am seriously impressed that Rushdie is taking all this time and effort to interact with people he does not know from Adam. Whether it's...

I've been pimping Surgeons Do Not Cry by Ting Tiongco for a while now for two reasons. The lesser of these reasons is that our company co-published the ebook edition . So that's my "full disclosure" statement. But the bigger reason is that I read the book and was utterly both charmed and blown away by it. Ting Tiongco was a med student at the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Medicine, the country's premiere med school, in the early 1970s. He interned at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), a government hospital and the lab hospital of UP. PGH caters to the poorest of the poor, which is saying a lot in a third-world country. Moreover, the 1970s was a historic time in Metro Manila--the era of the declaration of martial law and student demonstrations against a dictatorial regime. So, Tiongco's book is a memoir of his experiences pre- and during med school during those tumultuous times.  But it is absolutely not a political book. I say ...

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...

img src For posterity's sake, I'd like to post here what used to be my Blogger profile write-up: I've learned that in my life there are only a few things I need to keep constant: my love for my family and my love for reading. The rest can come and go as they please. Now if you look at my current profile there on the right, you'll realize what has changed. What is constant: I am a reader, I am a mother. Things that have changed: I used to be an educator in the classroom; now I'm an occasional educator when I do teacher training. I used to work in educational publishing, which did not impede at all into my book blogging activities. Now, I work in a digital publishing company that publishes and co-publishes trade books and some academic content. So, yes, I know this will affect this blog somewhat.  But for the kind of work I am going to do, I'm willing to take that chance.  And what is the kind of work I am going to...

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 ...