Photo: Early morning bookworms

The early morning bookworms. February 2012. Ermita, Manila

Sometimes, early in the morning, I purposely wander over to this roadside book vendor (a.k.a. "Alika-Book" to see if there were new titles that I would like. They're pretty cheap, and once or twice, I find a title that I can't seem to let go of, and then I buy it.

One morning, I chanced upon these two ladies who were also avid readers...and we launched into an impromptu book discussion, which was totally great. Instant learning from the street, I'd say.

:-)

The lady in the middle has a son who was also a doctor, and she liked the fact that I was interested in photography...and that my life wasn't solely revolving around medicine. :-)

 I bought a book at that time, too. Always a good memory attached to a buy whenever I get one.

Now these are nice surprises in the mornings. 

much love, 

S.

Eureka (or “Why I Love Book Sale”)

There is this thing I do when I’m feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders…

After a long day at work (and when things don’t seem to going my way), I have a favorite pastime…

I lay down all my bags and work stuff on the floor…shake my hair out from the tight ponytail, put on my dorky glasses,  put on the most comfortable clothes and go to this little nook in the mall called “Book Sale”.

For an escapist in a urban landscape, I find it meaningfully relaxing to lose myself in the piles and stacks of books. It is a rummage of sorts, a free-for-all hunt for that elusive second-hand volume which you can’t otherwise get for less than 200 pesos if it’s new.

I’m a sucker for sales… especially for books. I’m a self-professed cheapskate who has never had a lot of books of my own growing up (unless of course they were text books.).

Whatever I learned, I learned on my own… I never had a teacher, a guide, no one to recommend to me the next Pulitzer prize read that would inculcate the values of the masters… And I suppose, not a lot of people who could talk to me about the finer points of reading the classics, such as Dostoevsky or Nabokov.

(My older cousin, a voracious reader himself, was, but he once told me that I was as fickle as they come, and that I had never stuck to one interest, so that turned me off.)

I would fancy myself a connoisseur, because I had read a little of everything, from encyclopedias, to comic books, to the illustrated books over the years,  to graphic novels, and now, just recently, to the classics and poetry. I’d love to someday just be able to have the time to sit down and read through a book without having to worry about work tomorrow.  I just plain love reading…

Growing up, I didn’t have much money to buy books… they weren’t high on the priority list of wants.

So, I rented… =) 

When I was in grade school, I had a classmate, Ellezer, who rented out his paperbacks and Archie comic books, for 3 pesos each. This shouldn’t have been a problem now, but then I do remember that in 3rd grade, I only had a meager allowance of 20 pesos a day.  I could still remember him, E., thin and fair, with spiky hair, a slight overbite, and a a mole that took up most of his little chin, (in an adorable childlike fashion, of course). He also had long fingernails, with thin fingers, which I remember really well because I remembered how his hands looked like when he asked for the "fee". He’d bring a number of books to school and rent them out to us during recess, and then we’d read them during the day. My seatmate Michael and I were regular customers. So was Antoine (he has a ton of books now.). 

We’d read them in our desks while the teacher was giving a lecture.  I almost got in trouble with this, but I couldn’t help it, because in third grade, it seems, every book is a page turner.  

One day, while we were in English class, I was reading this beautifully thick picture book about the Ancient past (which Jyanne pronounced as “An-See-Yehnt” then), my teacher caught me, and asked me a question,

“Ok, Sonia, tell us, what happened next in the story?”

The class was talking about a story in the textbook about the Legend of how the Hundred Islands came to be, and she was going around class, asking us questions about the story.

Looking up from the book I had [discreetly] read at the side, half hidden in my schoolbag, I answered, “Well, Ma’am, they became envious of each other, and started arguing.”

Satisfied, I suppose, she left me alone, and called another of my classmates. I had already read the all the stories in my third grade textbook weeks before, of course. I had moved on to other books. Sadly, I didn’t get to finish the book as English was the last class of the day, and the owner of the book took it home with her.

----

I don’t know why I’m writing about memories from when I was a kid. I’m not even middle-aged yet. *grin*

----

Anyway, I buy a book when I feel worn out, or sad, or just plain tired, usually. Its always a pleasure to burrow into the book shelves, and lose my self in the titles in the stacks. It’s a shot of dopamine right there.

(As of that moment, the whole, wide, crazy world had dropped away, and I was lost in the mellifluous harmony of beautiful words in my mind.)

I bought myself a bookshelf supposedly for my textbooks for residency…well, I ended up with books from Alvin Toffler to Tennessee Williams to even…Dacre Stoker (right, Bram’s grandson.haha).

A book is a drug, and I’m a junkie...

----

When I was younger, I was really into someone who read a lot of books…  And you know how I have the tendency to try to do things for a boy if I really liked him (i.e. practice writing in Chinese, learn how to cook)? Well, I tried that…I tried to read books he had already read… so he’d be impressed, and maybe, well, like me too (haha).

It ended badly. It was fun at first, but then it seemed like a chore after a while. It was almost like a race, a competition…it even felt like…studying. *grin*

So I don’t do that anymore….well, maybe I’d read some of the books on his list, but I wouldn’t want that to be the end-all and be-all. The joys of reading is not meant to be of any pursuit of a goal, except of course, that of pleasure.

So help me.

Maybe, just maybe, I wouldn’t have to do any catching up. Maybe someone out there might like the books I like too. Maybe he’d go giddy at reading Christopher Marlowe, or drool over the majesty of Neil Gaiman’s work…or, quiver with pleasure at reading Rilke, swoon at the or blush when he reads Shakespearean sonnets… *sigh*

I’m hopeless.

(haha.)

--------

Speaking of books..and sales… here’s a line from my latest acquisition, a novel by Julith Jedamus, The Book of Lies :

“You may think that the sheaf of paper you hold in your hands is a book. It is not.  You may presume that the fine black lines that fill its pages describe a world that exists, but you are mistaken. Do not be deceived. What you are about to read is as empty as a locust shell, and as immaterial as smoke.

It is a house of lies.”

(Antaray… )

-----

So anyway, I bought that. And now, I’m going to read it…

Seeya.

Love,

S.

Pardon Me, I'm a charm-school drop-out. :-p (March 17,2012. Leila's party.)

Free reading

My best friend Ivy was in town for the weekend for a work-related thing. :-)

I've known her since I was 13, a veritable "sister from another mother."

Earlier tonight, we were eating our Starbucks stuff and drinking coffee at the dining table of my condo. After tasting a bit of the strawberry whipped cream from my waffle, she went, "Phan, this is so not high school anymore."

And we had a good laugh. Starbucks was never a consideration for snacks back in high school...

(We've come a long way, Vivz.;-) )

Oh, and if I might add, the National Bookstore floor is a nice place to hang out in. Especially at the photography books section. I found this cool book on Digital Photography...and tips on Portraits. I wanted to buy it but I suspected I could read it in one sitting, so I...did. :-)

Oh, and Ivy took this picture, when i told her about the trick of the 45 degree angled lighting. She applied it immediately. And yes, I like portrait photography, people being my favorite subjects. 

Anyway, speaking of cameras, if you want a "bridge", I would definitely suggest a Canon G12. It's pretty cool. Tried one out this morning.  Sweet. 

:-)

Love, 

S.

To be in love

Prayer Candles. Quiapo, Manila. August 2,2011. (Photo by: S.)

 

 To Be In Love (By Gwendolyn Brooks)

To be in love 
Is to touch with a lighter hand. 
In yourself you stretch, you are well. 
You look at things 
Through his eyes. 
A cardinal is red. 
A sky is blue. 
Suddenly you know he knows too. 
He is not there but 
You know you are tasting together 
The winter, or a light spring weather. 
His hand to take your hand is overmuch. 
Too much to bear. 
You cannot look in his eyes 
Because your pulse must not say 
What must not be said. 
When he 
Shuts a door- 
Is not there_ 
Your arms are water. 
And you are free 
With a ghastly freedom. 
You are the beautiful half 
Of a golden hurt. 
You remember and covet his mouth 
To touch, to whisper on. 
Oh when to declare 
Is certain Death! 
Oh when to apprize 
Is to mesmerize, 
To see fall down, the Column of Gold, 
Into the commonest ash.

----------------------------------------------- 

Loreen and I were at the mall earlier, and I chanced upon this poetry in a book that I bought in the Book Sale earlier. Pulitzer prize-winning Gwendolyn Brooks' work is a find for me today.

There's someone who wrote an analysis of this poem. i'm too sleepy to write my own as of now, so please, click on this link. 

"...You are the beautiful half of a golden hurt" as a line...is simply, gold. 

I love this poem.

 Me, being a book junkie. (I absolutely love smelling the stuff.)

Oh, and they sold this Kubler-Ross classic for only 45 pesos. yum.

Anyway, I'm sleepy.

Good night.

Love, 

S. 

 

“Tender is the night”

…is the F. Scott Fitzgerald book I found at the National Bookstore sale pile earlier tonight when I was getting  supplies.

It only sold for Php 20.00. This has got to be the cheapest book purchase I’ve made yet…not counting the time that I bought a compendium of essays for, get this, 5 pesos.—honestly, I don’t know how they price books these days.

Granted, it was a hardbound copy, but ever since I’ve read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, I’ve been an admirer. This work of his, although not a commercial success, is a particularly memorable one, as it is loosely based on the life of the author and his wife, when she was diagnosed with a mental illness. I can’t help but be drawn, because it is a topic particularly close to my heart.

On top of that, I finally found myself a copy of “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest” as well when I was out looking for blank CD’s. I don’t pride myself on being easily drawn by these cheap little modes of entertainment, but this is kind of a good thing too. I remember my father telling me about this Jack Nicholson film when I was a kid, and I think I even made him tell it to me and my brother as a bedtime story.  

Anyhoo, someone I know has both read the book and seen the movie, and claims that as a psychiatry resident, I should have already been able to see it, which makes this a lucky find (it was 25% it’s original price, can you believe that?)

Oh, and last…another find, a non-fiction book, with a Sybil type of theme, although this one has a different flavor. I’ll tell you one thing that’s for sure, though, I won’t be reading this at night, when I’m alone in the house. I scare easily. lol.

Speaking of Sybil, guess what…my supervisor (i,.e. the consultant who sees to my training), in one of our conversations told me that her brother-in-law was the actual lawyer who was mentioned in the book.

Pretty cool, huh? Talk about six degrees of separation…

I’m happy with the finds, though, and I spent less than 300 pesos for the whole shebang. (I’m currently watching the Jack Nicholson (my, he was a dish when he was younger, even the “evil eyebrows” are still pretty cool) movie, and will be reading the F. Scott Fitzgerald book in between work periods.

Good night!

Love,

S.

The Med School Library...

...is my new haunt. I just found out that one can "totally dorkify" by just flashing one's Hospital Work ID at the guard on-duty.

i'm in absolute medical heaven.

The Haunt

You could say my favorite haunt was a book shop.

 Here's one of my favorites, although I come here mainly to browse, because the stuff they have is so...expensive. Or as my lola would say, "so dear".

 It's owned by a little old lady, probably in her seventies, who asked me for a list of books that I was looking for (actually, they were for someone else) and my phone number...and promptly forgot about it.

I still love visiting it though.

Someday, I'll buy me my own F. Sionil Jose volume. Just you wait. :-)

Love,

S.

"On the street where I live..."

 

(Lifted from the song from My Fair Lady...Perry Como's version... Trina and I found Mr. Bookman selling books on the sidewalk again. :-))

"I have often walked down this street before.
But the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before.
All at once am I several stories high,
Knowing I'm on the street where you live.

Are there lilac trees in the heart of town?
Can you hear a lark in any other part of town?
[ Find more Lyrics on http://mp3lyrics.org/DcVg ]
Does enchantment pour out of every door?
No, it's just on the street where you live.

And, oh the towering feeling,
Just to know somehow you are near.
The overpowering feeling,
That any second you may suddenly appear.

People stop and stare, they don't bother me.
For there's nowhere else on earth that I would rather be,
Let the time go by, I won't care,
If I can be here on the street where you live."

from Five Quarters of an Orange

 "Any woman can be beautiful in the eyes of a man who loves her." 


Copied off Chamie's blog. I liked it.


I like the feeling it evokes.


And likewise, for me. 


Have a nice day, and God Bless. :-)

Staircase

I took this snapshot a few minutes earlier... can you guess what this might be?

A: The stairs up the foot of Mount Talinis

B: The footpath up Okoy Bridge

C: Abstract art with emphasis on emotional yellows and browns

D: None of the above.

E: Bootleg books/review material for August.. halp! :-p

hehe. A real no-brainer Q there for you, but feel free to give a guess anyway. :-p