“just when did you start collecting pugad baboy?!”

batccai (read: bat-chay) asked me, half-surprised and half-amused, through YM yesterday.

“the first time i read one of its issues a long time ago, i’ve been wanting to collect it. it’s one way of preserving my sanity. it makes me laugh, amidst crises” i answered.

“but you only have one copy!,?” she blurted, teasing me like july did.

“i got two now!” i said defensively. “i will have more if you’ll give me some issues of it! hahaha!”

it’s not that only PB keeps me sane. it’s reading that keeps me sane. it seems a growing passion for me. thus, during the christmas and new year breaks, i indulged myself in books, to at least free myself from the pressures of family and work.

thanks to Kuya Thads for letting me borrow his:

BAKIT BALIKTAD MAGBASA NG LIBRO ANG MGA PILIPINO? by Bob Ong; and

NO ONE WRITES TO THE COLONEL by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

i still have to finish

THE AUTUMN OF THE PATRIARCH also by Marquez; and

THE DHARMA BUMS by Jack Keouac

i promised that i won’t limit myself to reading novels. next time, i will buy (or borrow) books that would practically help me, like PREGNANCY AFTER A LOSS by Carol Cirulli Lanham.

***fyi: ccai ccai is one of my close buddies and my partner-in-crime way back in college. we used to delve ukay-ukay along san pedro street, ate skewered grilled banana outside our campus, bantered with classmates in between classes, and played volleyball and kickball during intramurals, among others. she is now in dubai, in search for greener pasture. she’s presently working in the logistics department of the al youssuf company.

Two weeks ago my dear friend, July, called up and was bantering about my one and only copy of Pugad Baboy compared to her a dozen (if my memory doesn’t betray me).

I told her that I was only beginning to collect and asked her, instead, to give me her collection as a Christmas gift.

I hope she reads this. Hehehe (i-pressure bah ang amiga?!)

—–

Julz, naa na koy PB 15 ug 19. I brought the latter yesterday, har har! Na pressure pud ko sa imung binuang…hayuf! Ihatag na sa ako imung collection kay mag Singapore bitaw mo!

De Quiros has a new book!

oh, I would love to have one — with his signature!

hope he’ll come to Davao for a book-signing…I would certainly be there…

it’s official! i finally decided to start collecting the pugad baboy (pb) series, yesterday.  wo hoh!
for lack of budget, i bought only one, which means, i have to save money for the remaining 18 pb series.  aargh!

the available copies left in the bookstore are books 15 to 17 out of the total 19 series.  i chose kinse ( i dunno why).

pb, is one of the reasons why i read inquirer (others are de quiros’ there’s the rub, young blood and inq editorial, in no particular order).  why i love it?  Pol Medina’s comic strips show the political, cultural and economic conditions of our country — with wit and humor; they are not pretentious and more importantly, they don’t show cowardice from the powers-that-be.

—–

ATTENTION:  kung kinsa man ang naay PB copies dinha ug labi na kadtong walay plano mangolekta, dili gyud ko maulaw nga mangayo sa inyo, hehehe…andam kaayo kong mudawat…

photo inset: PB’s 10th aniv special.  wala koy nakitang kinse, mao kani na lang usa.

I was not tagged, yet, to know how’d I score, I answered this. I also made an additional*** instruction, “wink wink” J

Instructions:
Look at the list of books below.
*Bold the ones you’ve read
*Italicize the ones you want to read
*Leave the ones that you aren’t interested in alone 

And:****since some of the books below were made into motion pictures, underline the ones you’ve seen…

1.The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)

2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)

3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)

5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)

6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)

7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)

8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)

9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)

10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)

11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)

12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)

13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)

14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)

15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)

16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)

17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)

18. The Stand (Stephen King)

19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)

20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)

21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)

22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)

23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)

24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)

25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)

26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)

27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)

28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)

29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)

30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)

31. Dune (Frank Herbert)

32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)

33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)

34. 1984 (Orwell)

35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)

36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)

37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)

38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)

39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)

40.The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)

41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)

42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)

43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)

44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)

45. Bible

46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)

47.The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)

48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)

49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)

50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)

51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)

52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)

53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)

54. Great Expectations (Dickens)

55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)

56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)

57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)

58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)

59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)

60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)

61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

62.The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)

63. War and Peace (Tolsoy)

64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)

65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)

66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)

68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)

69. Les Miserables (Hugo)

70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)

72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)

73. Shogun (James Clavell)

74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)

75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)

76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay) (Oooh I love Kay)

77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)

78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)

79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)

80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)

81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)

82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)

83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)

84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)

85. Emma (Jane Austen)

86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)

87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)

88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)

89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)

90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)

91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)

92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)

93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)

94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)

95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)

96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)

97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)

98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)

99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)

100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

My score:

8/100 books read

19 screen adaptations seen

Reading books has not been one of my interests, for as long as I can remember. I have considered it as the most boring activity in the world, especially when I can opt with playing volleyball, listening to music or simply hanging out with my friends.

I can still remember that way back in college, I was compelled to read a novel because our teacher would test how good we are in English and how well we can comprehend her subject, by asking us some questions regarding our chosen books.

She would rate us then, and that would be our final grade.

afraid of flunking the subject, I borrowed a book from my good friend Mayla (a Sidney Sheldon fan) and forced myself to read and, of course, understand so I can answer my teacher’s questions.

Good thing, I fell in love with the story of the book, The Windmills of Gods. And thereafter, I realized that reading is not boring, after all. Also, Mr. Sheldon has become one of my favorite authors.

Lately, my interest in books has intensified. Not only because Mi Amore has influenced me, also because, it made me realized that by doing so it can expand one’s vocabulary — only one of the benefits you can get.

If before I get satisfied with borrowing only from my booklover friends (like Dash and Caloi), I see to it that I buy my own, especially on bargains! Books are really expensive sometimes, you know.

I also asked Mi Amore to buy books for me in CDO, where a certain bookshop sells at cheaper prices.

So far, I’ve read the novels by dan brown, nicholas sparks, nicholas evans, gabriel garcia marquez, william golding, fannie flagg, hunter thompson, alice walker, pat conroy and laura esquivel, among others.

How bout you?