Live. Breathe.

I always get questions about what books I read or what I suggest is a good read. Since books are always something that pops on my ask box, I think it’s about time that I give you a glimpse of my lovely collection. 

Please don’t judge me based on the books you see here. HAHA! My collection actually downsized since I donated the kiddie novels that I used to read. Anyone familiar with The Babysitters Club? What about Sweet Valley? Yeah, those were the books I began reading. Now my collection consists of all sort of stuff!

This is gonna be long so be ready! :)

I fix my books according to genre, author or how I feel about them.

Philippine literature:

I acquired these during high school. I particularly love “Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag”. It’s basically about what wealth can do to someone and how one’s actions may affect other people.

ABNKKBSNPLA Ko?! is one of the works of the the famed Bob Ong. When spelled out with vowels, “Aba Nakakabasa Na Pala Ko?!” which means something like, “Alas I can read?”. It’s hard to translate into English because some of the words like pala and aba or how it’s read doesn’t have any equivalent English translation.

Tough Love and No Boyfriend Since Birth are light chic reads. I’m sure women in their 20s can relate to the books. 

Since we’ve begun discussing chic reads, here are a few of Romantic novels in my shelves.

These are what I call Random reads. I don’t really know which pile to put them. 

Chronicle of a Death Foretold is somewhat confusing in the beginning but the plot is really good. It’s really a good piece of literature with the characters interconnected and the twists of events unfolding before your eyes.

Now for the Classics.

Now some of you may have read some of the questions I’ve been asked about books. One of my favorites would be The Count of Monte Cristo. Exquisitely done.  Beautiful plot to the point I can taste the bitterness of revenge and sweetness of failure.

I’m also into the whole action packed books for young adults. Well I’m not sure if Stieg Larsson is for young adults but you get the idea. 

I’m also a mystery-crime novel fanatic. I can feel the adrenaline in the action and the mind squeezing puzzles. You never know what’s gonna happen next.

I’ll have to pick A Place of Execution, Red Dragon and The House of Silk in this pile. I probably read Val McDermid’s twice and saw Red Dragon on film. McDermid’s is a crime novel that’s packed with details that’s gonna test you and your thinking; Red Dragon, I was extremely fascinated with the psychology of the Hannibal Lecter; and for The House of Silk, what you expect of a Sherlock Holmes novel.

Now let’s move to my special loves. The dark novels.

I’m not sure why I read the Twilight Saga, but I guess out of curiosity and fad, I did. By size it beats my other vampire novels, but substance, it can’t even compete. I will eternally love Anne Rice.

I can’t reiterate enough how I’m in love with Anne Rice. Her works are just too vivid and my gohd the logic and reason. At times, during the process of reading I find myself in a state of realization of the things that I myself have questioned and are still questioning. Often times, I can’t help but agree and laugh at myself at how late I’ve seen what was being pointed out. I can’t say what the things are inside these pages. I suggest you grab a copy of any of her books and drown yourselves in it. 

I’ve got a few more in the other shelf but I’d have to do a separate post on it. Maybe tomorrow since I finish early. Hihi.

I apologize for some of the photos. My room’s lighting’s not that nice and most of my books are covered in plastic that’s why it reflects light too much. 

Wait for Part 2 tomorrow! :D

What do you see nurses? ……What do you see?
What are you thinking .. . when you’re looking at me?
A cranky old man, … …not very wise,
Uncertain of habit .… … . .. with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles his food .. . … . . and makes no reply.
When you say in a loud voice . .’I do wish you’d try!’
Who seems not to notice …the things that you do.
And forever is losing … …… A sock or shoe?
Who, resisting or not … … lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding … .The long day to fill?
Is that what you’re thinking?. .Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse .you’re not looking at me.
I’ll tell you who I am … . .. As I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, .… . as I eat at your will.
I’m a small child of Ten . .with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters .… .. . who love one another
A young boy of Sixteen … .. with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now …… a lover he’ll meet.
A groom soon at Twenty … ..my heart gives a leap.
Remembering, the vows .. .. .that I promised to keep.
At Twenty-Five, now … . .I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide … And a secure happy home.
A man of Thirty . .… . . My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other …. With ties that should last.
At Forty, my young sons .. .have grown and are gone,
But my woman is beside me . . to see I don’t mourn.
At Fifty, once more, .. …Babies play ‘round my knee,
Again, we know children … . My loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me … . My wife is now dead.
I look at the future … … . I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing .… young of their own.
And I think of the years … And the love that I’ve known.
I’m now an old man … … .. and nature is cruel.
It’s jest to make old age … … . look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles .. .. . grace and vigour, depart.
There is now a stone … where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass . A young man still dwells,
And now and again … . . my battered heart swells
I remember the joys … . .. . I remember the pain.
And I’m loving and living … … . life over again.
I think of the years, all too few …. gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact … that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people .… . .… open and see.
Not a cranky old man .
Look closer … . see .. .…. …. . ME!

(Source: facebook.com)

Date a girl who reads.

Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes, who has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads.

You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she has found the book she wants. You see that weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a secondhand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow and worn. She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry and in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by God, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.
She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who read understand that all things must come to end, but that you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype. You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.

-Rosemarie Urquico, 2011