Serendipity in Reading

What fun it is when your current reading evokes the book you last finished, and somehow by serendipity creates a domino effect. The Year of Ice evokes Maurice in the way the character splendidly but also sadly describes how happiness in such forbidden love can only be found in sleep–a dream from which ones doesn’t [...]

Obligation to a Book

“Life is too short to read bad books.” I’d always heard that, but I still read books through until the end no matter how bad they were because I had this sense of obligation. Do you read everything all the way through or do you feel life really is too short to read bad books?
I [...]

Last Call for Reading: Help Me Decide

Have you fulfilled (if any) your reading goals this year? As the days of 2009 are numbered, and that the holiday seasons imply considerable disruption to reading routine, do you have an immediate list of books that you’d like to finish before year-end? Willful abstinence from joining reading challenge affords a flexibility to peruse books [...]

Social Reading

How much of your reading do you share with others (outside of blogging?) Do you belong to a book or library club? Do you trade books with friends? Do you tell others what you’re reading?
Reading used to be a private enterprise because my attachment to books and tireless perusal were such bewilderment to friends. Books [...]

Taking Notes

Do you take notes while reading – either for your reviews or for yourself? How/where do you make these notes (on the page, post-its, scrap paper, notebooks etc)?

I take my reading notes very seriously because it is the act of conversing and interacting with the authors and their words. Notes are testimony to my personal [...]

Belated Report on Read-a-thon

Everyone must be recovering from the 24-hour read-a-thon as the blogsphere is awfully quiet. Yesterday morning at 5, the aroma of the pot of dark-roast coffee kicked off my read-a-thon. I finished the second half of Fixer Chao, a brilliant debut by Han Ong, and wrote a review of it. That was an encouraging beginning [...]

Apple Tablet Could Be It

When various e-readers (Sony Reader, Kindle, Amazon Kindle DX), rolled out into the market and converted habit of thousands of readers, I had my reservation about the gadgets. While electronic and paper form could co-exist because both have limitations and can complement one another, I am not ready to part with the habit of turning [...]

For My Eyes Only: Book Lust

Last week we talked about keeping a wishlist. Why not pull out that list and show us some of the books you’ve been eyeing off?
Last week I commented on my wishlist being a private for-my-eyes only shopping list. I would be burning in book lust if I have to wait for people to give [...]

Trip Down Memory Lane

Tomorrow marks the end of the third quarter of 2009. What’s happened to summer? Summer has been awesome and fun, filling with memories so fond and special. Reading wise, it hasn’t been a prolific year. The 56 books read so far this year doesn’t measure up to the tally last year. Instead of highlighting my [...]

Europa Editions

I have only spotted these elegant quality paperbacks at the bookstores. These Europa Editions titles only exist in a remote corner of my consciousness until I started reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. My first impression of the series, based on marketing image, is its striking resemblance to the classics New York [...]