Is hoping to post some new stuff soon...

After 3 months of really heavy schoolwork, I think I'll be able to sneak some overdue blogging in the coming weeks since our 1st grading period's about to end, giving way to a brief break from a killer workload :P

Posts may include a Booker, an NBA, and maybe some books with really cool covers I got!

The Man Booker Prize

Since my blog features books which are award-winning and recognized, I decided that it would be good to feature awards from time to time. So I decided to start with one of the largest book awards, The Man Booker Prize.

The Man Booker prize, or more commonly known as "The Booker" is an award given to original full-length fiction novels written in the English language (which means, no translations). They are awarded to authors living in a country which is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations (all countries which were former British colonies, or Britain itself). This also means that the United States isn't included, so does the Philippines. It is chosen by a panel consisting of big names in the literary world (publishers, writers, book critics, literature professors). Publishers submit their candidates and suggest other books to be part of the reading list, a panel member may also suggest a book not on the list. It is a very tiring process as they have lots of books to read, with this year reaching a record number of 132 books!

The Booker is one of the most prestigious book awards, comparable to that of Cannes or the Oscars for film. Just being part of the longlist is a big deal, so getting shortlisted, and ultimately, winning, would rocket the author to literary stardom. A few of the literary stars which have either won or were shortlisted for the booker are Salman Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, Zadie Smith, J. M. Coetze, Ian McEwan, Arundhati Roy, and many more. The shortlists create quite a huge buzz, which signals the start of "Booker Shortlist Marathons," and certain predicitons on who would win. They are also huge since most books which are shortlisted have also been nominated, or have already won other awards. Below is a short video featuring the nominees of the 2001 Booker Prize. This Shortlist created quite a stir especially since all of them have other nominations and wins connected with them. A lot of people were surprised how The True History of the Kelly Gang, won over The Dark Room which won the LA Times award of that year. What made the win even more of a controversy and surprise is its triumph over Atonement, considered one of the great works of the new millennium, which have already been shortlisted for several awards (Whitbread, JT-Black) and continued on to win the following year's NBCC and LA Times.

The awards started in 1968 and has had a huge following since then. The first winner was P.H. Newby's Something to Answer For. The latest winner, 2008, was Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger. For me, The Booker is quite a dependable award when you're looking for a great read, though from time to time, it misses the mark. With Booker winners, you only get extremes, its either its really good or really bad, depending on your taste. Below is another video (now longer) on the history of the Booker Prize, surprisingly it is quite under-viewed based on the hits it got on Youtube but it's really fun, lively, and informative.

Here are some highlights of the video:

• Yann Martel (The Life of Pi) gets overly ecstatic upon winning his much-deserved prize. Wow, we can really see here how big of a deal it is to get one. He seems so happy... :D
• Penelope Fitzgerald (Offshore) talks about squandering her 10,000 pounds. That's a lot of money, I didn't know that a writer can earn that much.
• Arundhati Roy talks about how her novel is inspired by the things she sees on the street. It's very touching, we feel how much heart she put into writing The God of Small Things.
• DBC Pierre (Vernon God Little), real name Peter Finlay, a former drug-addict with a made-up pen name accepts the award. I didn't know Booker winners can be this wild.
• Allan Hollinghurst (The Line of Beauty) creates a stir after his novel, which features a homosexual protagonist and focusing on the issue of AIDS, wins the Booker.
• Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children wins the award as being the best Booker winner for both its 25th and 40th anniversary.
• Now my favorite, John Walsh, a writer (not a Booker winner) gives his concept of a classic Booker shortlist, together with winners I think fits the description the closest:

"There's always...

1. a book on India (White Tiger?)
2. a tremulous introspection by a lady in her 50s (Blind Assassin?)
3. a long historical novel (Midnight's Children?)
4. an eccentric one, which isn't really quite a novel (I have no idea what this means... - maybe the "non-fiction novels" like Schindler's Ark)

There have been several versions of the Man Booker Prize which gives the chance to other countries. One is the Russian Booker prize started in 1992. Another is the Man Asia Prize started just recently, 2007, and where our very own Miguel Syjuco won last year for his novel, Ilustrado (does anyone know where to get this, if ever it has been published? I've been looking for it for so long).

All in all, the Man Booker prize is a celebration of the world's great literature, even giving chances to the young authors, which aims to give recognition and bring attention to the seemingly fading world of books.

Since I have only recently started on reading full-length novels, I decided to read the more recent ones and other great winners (White Tiger, Inheritance of Loss, The Gathering, Life of Pi, The Blind Assassin, The God of Small Things, The English Patient, Midnight's Children). Any other Booker Prize winners you guys would like to suggest?

Here is this year's (2009) Booker Calendar:

• July 26: Booker "Dozen" (Longlist)
• September 9: Booker Shortlist
• October 14: Booker Winner

Here is their official website: Man Booker Prize

The Life of Pi - Yann Martel

Title: The Life of Pi

Author: Yann Martel

Year Published: 2001

Awards/Recognitions: 2002 Man Booker Prize, 2001 Governor General's Finalist, 2003 Boeke Prize (South Africa)

After reviewing a Man Booker Prize winner which I personally think is not worthy of the award, I will be reviewing one which more than deserves it, even lacking the recognition its worth. The Life of Pi is one phenomenal book by Canadian author Yann Martel.

The book talks about a young Indian boy named Piscine "Pi" Patel who gets lost at the Pacific Ocean while his family was emigrating from India. He was able to save himself from the shipwreck and climb into a boat, there was only one problem: he was joined by a menagerie of animals including a humongous Bengal Tiger. The entire book basically tells how Pi manages to survive the ocean with only a limited supply of food and a huge tiger as a "roommate." The story is narrated by Pi himself while he was being interviewed by the authorities regarding the shipwreck; this was difficult for Pi especially since he has to convince his interrogators that he spent a few hundred days in a boat together with a vicious animal, and survive.

Martel is able to narrate Pi's amazing story with great detail and an engrossing narrative. He keeps the pace quite fast without losing the content. He talks a lot about religion, including an enlightening overview of the world's major religions in the novel's first few chapters. Yann Martel also gives out some basic and practical survival tips that can become useful once lost in sea. He was able to write a book which mixes adventure, philosophy, and spirituality.

What makes this book exceptional are its mind-blowing final chapters. This ending is actually one of the main reasons I became interested in reading fiction novels when I encountered it a few years ago. It is one which will make you think and persuade you to read the book again even though you've just finished it. I have yet to encounter any other ending which matches up to this one. So what exactly does this ending contain? Well let's just say that it turns the whole story around.

"The Life of Pi" easily makes its place into one of my all-time favorite books, considering its one of the first full-length novels I've read. It's a bit disappointing however that the book is only capable of winning a few major awards like the Booker since the author is Canadian and most major prizes (Pulitzer, NBA, NBCC, Whitbread) is limited only to American and British authors. I was also surprised how this book failed to make it to a major book list called the Time 100 Best English-language novels, even though its more deserving than most of the ones that made it.

"The Life of Pi" is a fresh, amazing, and though-provoking book. I highly highly recommend this book.

Rating: 10/10

Favorite Passages:

"If you take two steps toward God, God runs toward you"

"Life on a lifeboat isn't much of a life. It is like an end game in chess, a game with few pieces. The elements couldn't be more simple, nor the stakes higher."

Edition: Mariner Books Paperback

Length: A bit over 400 pages.

Time Read: 3 Days

The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

Title: The White Tiger

Author: Aravind Adiga

Year Published: 2008

Awards/Recognitions : 2008 Booker Prize Winner

I bought this book right after it was announced the winner of last year's Man Booker Prize expecting a good read, but I was a bit disappointed.

"The White Tiger" is a novel composed of letters from Balram Halwai, nicknamed the white tiger, to the Premier of China, narrating his rise from rags to riches. This story isn't your regular rags to riches story with overwhelming amounts of luck wonderful people who help in achieving each other's dreams, and the perfect soulmate but one which includes heinous crimes. Balram narrates how he had to make his way to the top while contrasting the extreme poverty of the town he grew up in to the extreme wealth of the people whom he later worked for in New Delhi. This book is all about extremes, looking at opposite sides of the picture with vivid imagery. Though in doing this, we fail to see India as a whole, we fail to see its good side and its good people.

Adiga then makes up for his biased views with writing with metaphors and personifications in a grand scale. He was able to utilize these figures of speech to bring the reader to a world of filth, anger, lust, and greed. One example is when he made the whole city of New Delhi speak to Balram and persuade him to commit his crime, giving the reader a chill of foreboding that one gets when walking at dark streets.

If there was one thing I remember from reading this book is how much I hated the main character, Balram. At first, you will be on his side, knowing about the difficulties he suffered as an impoverished child but as the story progresses your sympathy then plummets to a zero up to the point where you get to loathe him. His pride and self-centeredness overflows from the book. Even if there are times where he tries to justify his actions, it doesn't really work unlike that of Nabokov's Humbert.

"The White Tiger" is one of the less known Booker prize winners, winning no other prizes and garnering no other, if not a few, recognitions. This is probably due to its overly simple plot using an overly used setting without really bringing something new to the table, it probably just won because of some great literary techniques thrown in. The novel is easily overshadowed by other Booker Prize winners which used India as its focus or setting such as Desai's The Inheritance of Loss, Roy's The God of Small Things, and Rushdie's Midnight's Children.

The novel is basically "Slumdog Millionaire" minus the game show, Latika, and all of the kind-heartedness, then add in theft, prostitution, and murder. I do not really recommend this book, but if you want to read something new and is comfortable with a simple plot and all the grime of India's extremes, then go ahead.

Rating: 5/10

Favorite Passage: "The story of a poor man's life is written on his body, in a sharp pen (The White Tiger)"

Edition: Atlantic Books Paperback

Length: A little over 300 pages.

Time Read: 1 Day

Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

Title: Lolita

Author: Vladimir Nabokov

Year Published: 1955

Awards/Recognitions: Time's 100 Best English Language Novels

Being one of the most controversial books of the past century, Lolita created quite a huge stir especially in its portrayal of pedophilia between a handsome widow named Humbert Humbert and a 12-year old American girl named Dolores Haze, who was then given the nickname "Lolita". With such a huge buzz, that only meant one thing, and that is, I have to read it hoping that my 16-year old mind is mature enough to handle it.

The novel starts out with a pseudo-introduction by a certain John Ray, Jr., Ph.D., saying that Humbert's case would be a great example when studying psychology. This is very true for we see how Humbert started out from having a destroyed marriage, to fantasizing about little girls, and his outright denial of destroying Dolores' life even if he detests and mocks psychiatry throughout the novel. The book then moves on to Humbert Humbert's hypnotic narration of his life, a very interesting and messed-up life.

He talks about his life in Europe, his childhood, his failed marriage, and how he sits innocently on a park bench while watching preteen girls he calls "nymphets" play around him. He then talks about how he moves to America and finally becomes a boarder of a certain Charlotte Haze from where he meets the wonderful and later on pitiful Dolores. From there, he proceeds to his whirlwind conquest to obtain her and all of the "things" he did after that.

The plot isn't very complex and the pace slows down upon reaching Part Two, but this is one of the books which you don't really read to be blown away by the story, but the book which you read for the beauty of its writing. Vladmir Nabokov writes his prose so superbly that you can't resist but get caught up in Humbert's story and even get you to side with him in his conquest for Lolita. He is able to use the language to favor his side of the story and make it look as if he didn't do anything and that it was Dolores who was to blame for his actions. It is written so well that at times, one gets to believe him and sympathize with him despite the grim nature of his actions. It is also amazing how Nabokov manages to write seemingly explicit scenes very artfully and as the Introduction states, without using any foul four-letter word that people tend to throw around these days.

"Lolita" is a wonderful novel of so-called love and madness discussing a very sensitive and controversial topic. I highly recommend this book.

Rating: 9/10

Favorite Passage: "Unless it can be proven to me—to me as I am now, today, with my heart and my beard, and my putrefaction—that, in the infinite run it does not matter a jot that a North American girl child named Dolores Haze had been deprived of her childhood by a maniac, unless this can be proven (and if it can, life is a joke) I see nothing for the treatment of my misery but the melancholy and very local palliative of articulate art."

Edition: Vintage 50th Anniversary Edition (warning: if you are not versed with the French language, then do not get this edition for it doesn't have translations to the small French passages)

Length: A little over 300 pages, just right.

Time Read: 3 days

Bookmark Making During Free Time

Since it's difficult to find a good bookmark which I actually like to be used on my books, I decided to just make my own using Photoshop. It measures 6 inches x 1.5 inches, big enough to fit a regular paperback book.

I decided to use the cover arts of my favorite books with this bookmark. I placed my initials on the front part of the bookmark so that no one else can use it :D

The back part features a quote I saw from the widget I attached to this blog. It's not really your usual book quote, but I like it because it reminds people that even though how much you love books, it's the practical stuff that's always more important.

These are the books from which the covers came from (in order of appearance):

Catch-22

Atlas Shrugged

Lolita

The Great Gatsby

A Clockwork Orange

One Hundred Years of Solitude

To Kill a Mockingbird

Lord of the Flies

The Life of Pi

Midnight's Children

What do you think?

Never Let Me Go - Ishiguro

Title: Never Let Me Go

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Year Published: 2005

Awards/Recognitions: 2006 Booker Shortlist, 2006 Arthur C. Clarke Shortlist, 2005 Black-Fiction Shortlist, 2005 National Book Critics Circle Shortlist, Time's 100 Best English-language Novels, Time Best Fiction Novel of 2005

This is what I'm talking about... Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go is one great book. It's somewhat a cross between A Separate Peace and the movie, The Island. When I was researching about this book, it is often categorized as Science Fiction, but it barely is, since most science fiction novels tend to concentrate more on the "science" rather than the "fiction". Most sci-fi writers elaborate on how it all works thus forgetting about the story. But in Never Let Me Go, that doesn't happen. 

Never Let Me Go follows the story of three friends, Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth, "people" genetically created for the sole purpose of being able to provide organs to those real people in need. We follow them through their time at Hailsham, an oddly elite, and almost perfect boarding school, up to the time when they would have to take care of ailing donors, and eventually to the point when they would be the ones to donate. We also get to see how the love they felt for each other developed, complicated, and ended. Finally, we get to see how their main purpose as donors affected who they are as human beings. The book tackles such issues as individuality, education, unrequited love, and inevitably, a little bit of cloning. Though as I said, Ishiguro doesn't really tackle much on this issue but on realistic issues that we can easily relate to, ones we actually encounter.

It seemed like Ishiguro got it all right. The description was amazing as the setting of an English boarding school was established pretty well, and even with the other settings such as the countryside, the towns, the nursing homes, etc., the description was very vivid. Set in an alternate reality from the 1980s to the late 90s where cancer was considered curable (just read it to find out how), Ishiguro's description of this world is very convincing.

The story line is also masterfully done, with no blank spots and filled with instances of awe. This would be one of the books which you will surely find hard to put down, especially since the plot is paced quite fast. 

What I love the most about the novel would be its characters. There's the quiet and principled Kathy, the main character, who tries to keep things together and find out more about the truth, about their role in the world. Then there's the kind, athletic, faithful, and somewhat dumb :| Tommy, whom you would feel much sympathy for. And finally, my personal favorite, Ruth. She's a wonderful "friend" whom at some moments you will be loving and rooting for and some moments wherein you just want to rip her off the page. Her speeches (especially the ones where she embarrasses the other characters) and actions are amazingly written, together with her occasional falls from grace. You would feel sympathy for her, then hate her; you would love her, then loathe her. She's that classmate of yours who's your best friend when there's only you and her, or with some close friends, but suddenly becomes a stranger and an enemy whenever there are other people (especially with authority) around. I LOVE the way she is written, it's amazing.

Though of course, nothing is perfect. Kazuo Ishiguro could have elaborated better at least a little bit more on the donation process, which leaves  the readers confused about what really happens to the students. Also, he overlooked several possibilities such as escape,  revolution, ... and stitches.

Despite the very few disappointments, this is one amazing book, a science fiction love story which isn't like Michael Crichton but not exactly like Judith McNaught, it's something different. I highly recommend reading this book.

P.S. : I really wish the movie they're making would give justice to this novel, I was somewhat excited when I heard that Keira Knightley would be playing Ruth, I hope she portrays the character well.

Rating: 9/10

Favorite Passage: "There are things I am more interested in than the clone thing. How are they trying to find their place in the world and make sense of their lives? To what extent can they transcend their fate? As time starts to run out, what are the things that really matter?"

Edition: Vintage Knopf Trade Paperback

Length: A little over 300 pages.

Time Read: 1 Day (it's gripping!)

Beloved - Morrison

Title: Beloved

Author: Toni Morrison

Year Published: 1987

Awards/Recognitions: 1987 Pulitzer Fiction Award, 1987 National Book Award Finalist, 1987 National Book Critics Circle Finalist, Time's 100 Best English-language Novels, New York Times Best Work of American Fiction of the Past 25 Years, Nobel Prize for Literature for Toni Morrison

Beloved revolves around Sethe, a black slave in America during the early 1900s who killed one of her children, only given the name Beloved, to spare her of the hardships of slavery. She then deals with the baby's ghost years after the "murder" together with her lover, Paul D, and her daughter, Denver, whom she unsuccessfully tried to kill together with Beloved. The story then gets complicated as a young woman, the same age as Sethe's dead baby if she were alive, suddenly comes in to their lives introducing herself as Beloved.

I had high hopes for this book, with New York Times naming it THE best story of the last 25 years. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed... Mainly because I don't thinkwhat was great was the story itself, but how it was told, especially in conveying the characters' emotions.

For me, it lacks the element which makes it hard for the reader to put the book down, that page-turning factor. It doesn't give you something to look forward to, more so a plot to follow. If ever there are some "page-turning" moments throughout the book they only spanned a few pages for me. But what I think the book lacks the most would have to be the description of the setting. A book is supposed to take you to a different world, introduce you to a different culture and environment, and I don't think I found much of that in the book.

However, the book is redeemed by Toni Morrison's ability to convey the characters' feeling and thought in chilling detail and intimacy. She was able to put into words what most writers only dreamed of writing with regard to the complexities of human emotion. Aside from describing the emotion of the characters, the book also constantly tries to evoke an emotional response from the reader. For me, the part where I was affected the most (if not the only time) would have to be the masterpiece of the last chapter. Since emotions were properly conveyed, the reader would then be pushed into having sympathy for the slaves, giving a new understanding of the hardships they faced.

Beloved tackles many different  things mainly the evil that is slavery and how it affects everyone it comes in contact with. The book also teaches us that in order to move forward, one must face the ghosts of the past, though Morrison decides to tell this message in a more outright manner, with Sethe dealing with the ghost of her dead baby. 

This novel lacks narrative and description of the setting but redeems this with the intensity of emotion described and conveyed.

If you are not easily moved and not into the depths of human emotion, like in my case, then don't hesitate to pass with this book. But if you aren't, then this would be one great read.

Rating: 5/10

Favorite Passage: "And it grew. It spread until it invaded the whites who had made it. Touched them every one. Changed and altered them. Made them bloody, silly, worse than even they wanted to be, so scared were they of the jungle they had made."

- (Paul D on how slavery also affects the white people, making them "worse than even they wanted to be")

Edition: Vintage Classics (Vintage Morrison)

Length: A little over 300 pages, supposed to be a short read, but it took me longer.

Time Read: 1 Week

Midnight's Children - Rushdie

Title: Midnight's Children

Author: Salman Rushdie

Year Published: 1981

Awards/Recognitions: 1981 Man Booker Prize, 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Booker of Bookers (25th Anniversary), Best of the Booker(40th Anniversary), Time's 100 Best English-language Novels

As I've said earlier, I only buy/read books which I have already researched, and Midnight's Children is one of the books that I haveencountered which seemed superfluous to my expectations. Not only did it win the Man Booker Prize, but it also claimed the recognition of being the best of the receipients not only from the 25 years of its conception, but also in its40 years! Aside from that, it made its way into Time's list of 100 Best English-language Novels since 1923 (my favorite list, since it seems very credible, though I do think that some novels shouldn't be there, and that they overlooked quite a number of other novels such as Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged).

Midnight's Children is told through the voice of Saleem Sinai, an Indian born at the exact same time as India's independence, thus making him the country's twin. Thus, as we follow Saleem's story, we can see its paralellism with India's own, while at the same time giving us a crash course on the country's modern history. The parallelism is masterfully done making it flow smoothly and not in a way where you'd think that it's forced or pilit. We follow him, not beginning with his birth, but beginning with his grandparents' unusual love story, then to the story of his parents, which then leads up to his birth. He starts way back since he believes that you are shaped by things that have influenced you, including your family's history; and true enough, by knowing the stories of Saleem's family, we get to know him better. Though later on in the book, we'd get to know that the story of this family should be irrelevant to him, but since I don't want to drop any spoilers, just read it, to see how that happened and how it all turns out ;D We then follow him through his charmed childhood, troubled adolescence, and to his time in the war. Rushdie's way of going back to history to be able to look at the bigger picture makes a lot of critics say that if Colombia's epic cultural book is Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Germany has Grass' The Tin Drum, then India's would have to be Midnight's  Children. (what would be the Philippines' big book?)

 This novel contains a lot of magic almost all surrounding that midnight of India's indpendence. The title refers to the the 1001 children born during the first hour of independence (12 - 1 AM), they're not special only because some of them have been chained to a fate similar to that of their countries, but also because they have magical powers. Yes, superpowers. The powers vary depending on the proximity of the time of birth to midnight. For example, the two people born at the extract stroke of midnight have the strongest powers: Saleem with telepathy (reading/communicating with people's minds), and Shiva with the powers of war and destruction. Then there's Parvati, an essential character in the novel, who was born a few seconds after midnight, who possesess the ability to master witchcraft, which includes spells and healing. Finally, those who were born at the late minutes of the hour were gifted, or maybe cursed with mere abnormailities such as an elephant's nose, and the like. At first it would seem like it has become Heroes, or DC, or Marvel, but as the story progresses we could see how Rushdie doesn't focus much on the powers themselves, but on the characters, and how they handle their lives with this. The novel doesn't revolve around these League of Extraordinary Children and their powers, but it revolves around something greater, something better. I know that this is something you wouldn't really expect from a book with this much critical acclaim (since most of the time, critics like serious books), but it actually works to the advantage of the novel. If you decide to read the book because of this element in the story, then that would be good, though keep in mind that you would have to go deeper than this to see the real beauty of the book.

Another good thing about this book is that it gives a wider picture of India ranging from the murky waters of the rivers of India's slums, the cleanliness and luxury of Methwold's Estate (India's version of Long Island), the harsh conditions of India's forgotten war, and even a brief overview of Pakistan (not Palestine, a mistake I made in Visual Bookshelf :|). It is unlike many Indian novels I have read, with Aravind Adiga's White Tiger focusing only on India's extremes: the richest of the rich, to the poorest of the poor, and Kiran Desai's Inheritance of Loss showing only the life in the province.

Rushdie's masterful narrative is nothing short of compelling, tackling universal isues such as the power of history and memory, patriotism, creation and destruction, and many more. Midnight's Children is an instant classic which I'm sure we'll be seeing much of in the future.

I highly recommend, if not require you to read this book, the setting is fully established, the characters are very well-written, the story is fast-paced and entertaining, and it makes you think.

Rating: 10/10

Favorite Passage: "The things that matter most in our lives happen in our absence."

Edition: Random House Trade Paperback 25th Anniversary (the big one, not pocket-sized)

Length: A little over 500 pages, just all right.

Time Read: 2 Days, while in the province

What's up with me and books?

All right, to make this easier, I'll put it in a question-and answer format.

1. Who are you? - They say that  in the internet, you do not reveal personal stuff like your full name, where you live, your credit card numbers, etc... So that leaves me with a vague introduction: I am currently a  high school senior who likes books, movies, and music, but let's focus on the books part.
2. What are your hobbies? - As I've mentioned, I like reading, watching movies and television, listening to music, playing tennis, hanging out with my family and friends, surfing the internet, doing social work (yes), and basking in the beauty of nature :)
3. Why a blog, and why a book blog? - I've had several accounts on major social sites where I am supposed to blog, like Multiply and Facebook, though I've never really blogged using those sites for the reason that I'm not really a public person, I'm not the guy who writes a 1000-word blog almost everyday detailing experiences which are not really relevant to most people. In fact I don't really like reading, more so writing blogs like those. I do not want people to think that they already know me, more so my friend, just by reading the things I post. I believe that socializing should be done on a personal scale where you go out there to really meet and talk to a person before you can say that he/she is your friend or acquaintance. So why blog anyway? Well it's a book blog, it's not as if I'll be posting my diary here, though I might put up some entries about me or my experiences :D . I created a book blog so that I'd get to know more people who read and like books, whether someone who already loves books and gets to encounter this, or, hopefully, someone I'd be able to influence into loving books. I also made Bear Bookends so that I could voice out my opinions and insights about books better, since Visual Bookshelf in Facebook (which I am currently using) doesn't get to satisfy this much.
4. Why do you read books? - I read books first and foremost because I know that in reading books, I educate myself about literature, the arts, and the world around us. It also helps me develop certain skills such as sharpening my comprehension and getting to read critically, skills which would help me in school, getting to a good college, and consequently, later on in life. I also read books because I love it. Reading brings me to different places and different worlds; it makes me meet different characters and lets me know their stories. I am sure there are more reasons why I read and love reading, probably I haven't realized them yet.
5. What books do you read? - If there's one thing that I know about the books I read: it would be that I only read books which have either won prestigious awards or received good reviews. Why? I do not have all the time in the world to read since I have many other duties and responsibilities such as family, friends, prayer, and school, so I don't want to risk wasting my time on a book which has a higher probability of not being enjoyable than those which are acclaimed. I only buy and read boks which I have already researched about; I do not enter a bookstore and grab whatever catches my eye. Anyway, I'm more into contemporary fiction (20th/21st century), but I also like the classics, and a little bit of non-fiction/biography.
6. Are you a fast reader? - I don't consider myself a fast reader, I average about 40 - 80 pages/hour depending on the book. How long do I finish? Well it all depends on the book, is it short or long, boring or interesting, are the scenes exciting or slow paced (it also depends on the scene, for example, exciting scenes such as climaxes are easier to read since the reading pace accelerates, but in slow scenes such as ones conveying ideas or philosophies, then the reading gets slower to be able to take it all in)? Availability is also a factor, since like I mentioned above, I have other responsibilities. For example, during school time, I only have very little time to read since I need to concentrate on my studying, during breaks it also depends, when I'm in the city, there are a lot of distractions so I don't get to read much. That is one reason why I like out-of-town vacations, excursions, or long travel times so much, since it gives me a lot of time to relax and read my books without the distractions. It really all depends, there are books which I can read in a day, while there are some that can take me months.
7. Why Bear Bookends? - I keep books in my room, in two tidy white shelves, and at the ends of each row is a small golden bear statue. Since there are two shelves, there are two bears, which are actually activity awards I got from school :) . And since I don't know any interesting blog name, I just decided that those cute little bears would do.

This is my first REAL post, hope to be putting up another one soon. Thank you.

A Try on Book Blogging

Since the Facebook Visual Shelf and Shelfari don't seem enough for me. I'm taking a try on book blogging! :D