The 2010 Reading List

As I mentioned a few entries back, I'd already started building my reading list for the coming year. Thanks to more impulse buys and friends who know me well enough to give me books as Christmas gifts, the list has grown considerably. So here goes:

1. About a Boy by Nick Hornby

2. Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin

3. The Other Side of the Story by Marian Keyes

4. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

5. The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory

6.The Birth Order Book by Dr. Kevin Leman

7. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

8. Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner

9. The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory

10. Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult

11. The Diary by Eileen Goudge

12. Old School Ties by Kate Harrison

Add to that Pride and Prejudice, five books from TIME's All-Time Top 100 Books list, and three books from my Gabriel Garcia Marquez collection, I have a total of 21 books to read as part of my 101 Things to Do in 1,001 Days project. That's completely achievable! And until I've gotten through these twelve books, a book-buying ban is in place. I hope I can stick to it. :)

101 Things to Do in 1,001 Days

I've been wanting to come up with this list for so long, and with the new year just around the corner, I figured this is the perfect time to get to it. I am now officially joining the Day Zero Project of doing 101 Things in 1,001 Days. Here are the guidelines as posted in the website:

The Challenge:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on your part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple challenges such as New Year's resolutions or a 'Bucket List'. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips, study semesters, or outdoor activities.

Without further ado, here's my list. Bold-italics means I've completed the entry.

START DATE: 01 January 2010

END DATE: 28 September 2012

READING AND WRITING

1. Write one journal entry every day for two weeks. (0/14)

2. Write one blog entry per week for one month. (0/4)

3. Finish my reading list. (3/12)

4. Write a short story.

5. Write a poem.

6. Read "Pride and Prejudice" then watch the movie again.

7. Read five books I already own on TIME's All-Time Top 100 Books list

- Animal Farm

- Catcher in the Rye

- The French Lieutenant's Woman

- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

- To Kill a Mockingbird

8. Read three books from my Gabriel Garcia Marquez collection. (0/3)

9. No buying books until I've completed my reading list.

10. Come up with five books I would recommend to anyone. (0/5)

MOVIES

11. Finish watching my VCD and DVD movie collection.

12. Watch the whole series of "30 Rock".

13. Watch "Terms of Endearment", Academy Award winner for Best Picture on the year I was born.

14. Watch five Academy Award winners for Best Picture:

- Casablanca

- Gone With the Wind

- Kramer vs. Kramer

- Amadeus

- Rain Man

PHOTOGRAPHY

15. Own and maximize the features of an SLR camera

16. Learn something new from the Digital Photography School once a week for six months. (0/24)

17. Have photos from travels printed and organized in an album per trip.

18. Join Project 365.

19. Take more pictures of family and friends.

ARTS

20. Re-learn how to play "Tarantella" on the piano.

21. Learn a popular song on the piano.

22. Be able to play three pieces from memory. (0/3)

23. Learn more Photoshop tricks.

TRAVEL

24. Visit three new places in the Philippines. (0/3)

25. Go on at least one trip abroad.

26. Go on a beach trip.

27. Explore a city I've never been to.

FOOD AND HEALTH

28. Eat in a new restaurant once a month.

29. Eat vegetables once a week for a month. (0/4)

30. Sleep before midnight every night for a week. (0/7)

31. Enroll in a gym and work out for a minimum of three months.

32. Try eating kare-kare.

33. Learn to make five different fruit shakes. (0/5)

34. Finish my jug of water everyday.

35. Have some cotton candy on a random day.

36. Learn how to swim.

37. Cut down on sweets.

FASHION AND BEAUTY

38. Buy ten dresses. (0/10)

39. Update my wardrobe.

40. Grow my hair to ponytail length before getting a drastic cut.

41. Wear my hair differently once a month.

42. Learn how to put on eye makeup.

ORGANIZATION

43. Clean up my office email.

44. Clean up my personal email.

45. Do a general cleanup of my room quarterly.

46. Do a general cleanup of my office space monthly.

INTERNET

47. Get all dishes on Restaurant City up to Level 10.

48. Use the computer for only two hours a day during the weekend, twice a month for a year. (0/24)

49. Go for an entire day without Facebook once a month for six months. (0/6)

50. Submit a secret to Post Secret.

51. Greet all my Facebook friends a happy birthday-- even the ones I don't know.

WORK-RELATED

52. Get to work by 9:00 A.M. everyday for one week. (0/5)

53. Update my resume.

54. Get promoted.

55. Get a raise.

FINANCES

56. Get my bank account to 100K by the end of this list.

57. Save all spare change for 1,001 days.

58. Make a budget and stick to it.

59. After computing for my expenses budget, withdraw everything and deposit into my savings account.

DRIVING

60. Be able to drive the big cars.

61. Take a different route to work once a week.

62. Take a different route home once a week.

63. Conquer my fear of driving in Makati by driving around on a Sunday for no reason.

FAMILY TIME

64. Get home in time for dinner twice a week for one month. (0/8)

65. Treat siblings out to lunch/dinner, just the three of us.

66. Have a sleepover with my cousins.

67. File a leave on my parents' birthdays. (0/2)

68. Go on five random weekday mall trips with my mom. (0/5)

69. Bring home pasalubong for my family on a random day. (0/3)

70. Have a Scrabble night with the family.

MELBERT

71. Go on an arcade date.

72. Watch DVDs together for an entire afternoon.

73. File a leave that coincides with his day-off and go on an unplanned, spontaneous date.

74. Go on a videoke date.

75. Go on a fancy dinner date.

76. Go on a trip together.

FRIENDS

77. Catch up with an old friend over dinner or coffee.

78. Make a personalized gift for friends this Christmas.

79. Have a videoke night with the girls.

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS

80. Give 12 "saw this and thought of you" gifts to people who are not Melbert. (0/12)

81. Treat an officemate to lunch for no reason.

82. Buy fries and a drink at a drive-thru and give to a street kid on the way home. If not, to the neighborhood guard.

83. Leave a very generous tip at a restaurant.

84. Send a "just thought of you and hope you're well" text to ten people. (0/10)

ME-TIME

85. Take a birthday leave. (0/3)

86. Have a massage monthly for a year. (0/12)

87. Pray every morning and every night.

88. Write down something I'm thankful for everyday.

89. File a leave just to stay home three times. (0/3)

90. Go to Ateneo on a Sunday for some quiet time. (0/3)

91. Take an afternoon nap during weekends twice a month.

THE FUTURE

92. Decide if I want to take graduate studies or not.

93. Have a list of things I would like in my future wedding.

94. Have a list of random things about my future.

MISCELLANEOUS

95. Write an entry for each day in my Starbucks 2010 planner.

96. Watch a concert.

97. Finish a coloring book.

98. Vote wisely in the 2010 national elections.

99. Get braces removed.

100. Join the lotto.

101. Get a henna tattoo, just because I've never tried it.

looking forward to 2010

It's strange, but I can't quite feel the Christmas spirit. More than anything, I'm really looking forward to the new year.

It hasn't been a great year. So many tragedies, so many people died, and life has had so many unexpected twists and turns that I'd just gone along with. Everything just rushed by, and I feel like I've been on auto-pilot mode for so long, just trying to make it through it all.

Now that the new year and the new decade is looming, I've found myself pausing to think. When was the last time I consciously took the time out of my day to sit, write in my journal, and offer some sort of prayer? When was the last time I slowed down enough to soak my feet and relax a little? When was the last time I came home not feeling dead tired and had enough energy to really watch a good movie or a good show?

This is the year that all my aches and pains came out-- as I write this, I have a major backache that won't go away. It's the year I got diagnosed with GERD, aka the acid reflux thing that took away my coffee and booze. There are very few good things (like the Bangkok trip, my room renovation, and adventures with my love) that really stand out this year. Everything else is... eh. *shrug*

This year, I lost my routines. No regular sleeping and waking hours. No planners and time to even sit and plan the day. No order to the papers stuffed in my in tray. In 2010, I want to be able to wake up everyday at a certain hour, be at work by a certain time, and leave work at a certain time too. I want to simplify my life: get rid of the papers that I don't really need, bring less things in my bag, delete more emails.

So I think that more than anything, 2010 is the time to get out of my auto-pilot mode and start really living. And living at a pace that isn't frazzled or stressed or frenetic. I want to have enough time and energy to be with the people I love. I want to take better care of myself-- soak my feet when I come home, watch a good movie or read a good book, and okay, maybe even hit the gym so that my aches and pains will be of the good kind (still subject to negotiation, haha).

2010 is the year to live slowly and simply. It's the year to be present. It's the year I will start to actively live my life.

back to square one, or thereabouts

Tonight I touched the black and white keys again, after what feels like forever. I started with Moon River, which has always been my warm-up piece of sorts. It's really simple, and my parents like the song. Technically, it was okay, but it lacked heart because I was anything but sure of myself.

I followed it up with Memory, and it was downhill from there. I no longer sight-read as quickly as I used to, fumbled over the bridge, and couldn't even muster a solid ending. I stood up then, killing any dream I had of tackling Gone tonight.

It's the main reason I haven't played in a very long time. I know that I'm nowhere as good as I used to be once upon a time, and the thought of sitting on the bench, struggling again does things to my ego. It dawned upon me that this may be what it feels like to lose a limb or something: the frustration over not being able to do something you used to do very well, the feeling of being back at square one. Well, not exactly, as square one would mean I had forgotten everything, but still. I miss doing runs. I miss memorizing pieces and playing them from memory. I miss how good I used to be.

It will take practice to get that back. More than that, it will take a lot to swallow the bitter pill and accept that it's no longer an easy ride, that I will need to work hard to get back in shape. The question is, do I want it badly enough?

verbal diarrhea

The minute I posted the words "Writing has become equated to work," I realized that I didn't want it to be true. So here I am, forcing myself to come up with a blog entry that is all about randomness, nothing deep, nothing profound. Literally, verbal diarrhea (cue yucky mental image).

-=-=-=-

It's been almost two weeks since my love and I last saw each other. Things haven't been back to normal since Ondoy: 1) landline's busted, so we haven't had a decent phone conversation in ages; 2) I have no Internet at home, so we can't even chat; 3) his shift is still until 9:30PM, so we can only go out on Friday nights. It's hard. It almost feels like we're in a long distance relationship. But what's amazing is that even if it's hard, even if we're almost just textmates, we're hanging in there. We're finding ways to cope and be happy. Because we are happy.

But dammit we're going out on Friday, and I won't take no for an answer! So there.

-=-=-=-

I didn't get to register for the 2010 elections. I tried though, three times. But I also struck out three times. It's a long story, but it made me think that maybe my reasons for this last-minute decision to vote weren't the best of reasons. I just don't want a former president convicted of plunder to stand a chance. Whether he was pardoned or not, it doesn't seem to matter as the current justice system allows people who are in jail to run anyway. Here's what I don't get: these people are supposed to be lawmakers, and they're in jail precisely because they broke the law. It's tough to be a law-abiding citizen when you have these kinds of lawmakers as your role models-- they're either in jail or using Congress as a stage for grandstanding, a platform for promoting their own interests, anything but a chance to make laws for the better of our country.

And even if you say that that's precisely the reason why people should register and vote --to make sure that good, honorable people are elected into office-- I'm sad to say that I'm too cynical to believe that idealism and good intentions can still make a difference. Good people just get eaten alive by the system. I have no faith in government anymore. Oh, I believe that there are still a lot of good and honorable people in this country, and I think that they're all finding their own ways to help., ways that don't involve joining government ranks.

So who's left running the government if all the good people are in the private sector? Idiots. That's why I never wanted to vote and get involved in politics.

-=-=-=-

I have one book to go on my reading list (Bridget Jones: the Edge of Reason, which I really need to bring home from the office), but already I've started building a new reading list. I've even crossed off some titles already, heehee!

1. About a Boy by Nick Hornby

I bought this during Ondoy with the intention of reading it in a coffee shop. That didn't happen because hanging out with friends was more fun. I'm done with this one, whee!

2. Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin

The only missing book in my Emily Giffin collection, which I decided to complete. This is what I was reading before I got sidetracked by Grey's Anatomy.

3. The Other Side of the Story by Marian Keyes

An impulse buy, it seems like a very interesting read. I saw it in Powerbooks Megamall, walked away from it, hoped to see it in Fully Booked Promenade, and felt incredibly sad when I didn't. My love took one look at my face and said, "Let's go to Megamall and get your book." This is why I love him. <3

4. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Proof that I cannot resist the words "sale" and "promo". I was in Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street when I saw that Fully Booked discount card holders were entitled to a 10% discount for credit card purchases of this book. I have a card! I get the discount! Sold.

5. The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory

The latest purchase. I was in Fully Booked Eastwood Mall (it looks like I've been doing the rounds of all Fully Booked branches!) when I saw this on the shelf. I've been seeing the mass market paperback version everywhere, but the trade paperback version has been elusive. Of course, because my copy of The Other Boleyn Girl is trade paperback, it wouldn't look good on the bookshelf if I got a mass market paperback version of the other Philippa Gregory books. So when I saw this last piece, trade paperback version sitting on the shelf, I held on to it and never let go.

I can't promise I won't buy any more books, but I can at least promise to find more time to read. :D

-=-=-=-

Okay, I think that's enough for now. Whew. Have a happy Wednesday!

Oh, Ondoy!

I realized how fortunate I am that my last entry was about moving into my new room. Days after that entry was written, Typhoon Ondoy happened-- if I hadn't moved when I did, all of my things would've been flooded downstairs.

Yes, for the first time in our lives, our house was flooded. In fact, it was the first time for all the houses here in our village, I would think. More than the flood, however, I think it was extra nerve-wracking that we weren't all home when it happened. I ended up on an extended sleepover with my friends in Holiday Inn --what was supposed to be an overnight thing turned into a 4D-3N stay, as if we'd gone out of town-- while my dad was stranded with our driver at the mall after doing his groceries. He ended up staying there overnight, sleeping in the car, as the flood waters rose beyond neck-deep in Marcos Highway.

I was lucky, I guess, but I couldn't enjoy the luxury of being in a hotel as I thought of my dad, who wasn't feeling very well and had to endure an overnight stay in the car. I worried about my love and his family, after his last text was about going up on the roof of their bungalow. I had images of his entire family, including his nine-year-old brother, up on the roof in the rain. (Thankfully, they were fine, but I only found out two days later.) I worried about my mom, sister, and brother, who were at home with no electricity, flood waters rising in our first floor and trapping them on the second floor. Compound that with the images I was seeing on television and my own experience of driving through the flood and listening to the water under the car's engine, praying that the car wouldn't stall and I could get back to Holiday Inn in one piece, you could say that it was the most stressful few days ever.

Ondoy has come and gone, and new storms are on their way. We may have cleaned up our house, we may have been fortunate that the damage was not as great compared to others who really lost everything, but things have changed. The slightest hint of rain stirs up a panic in my heart as I do a mental inventory of where the rest of my family is. I haven't figured out a flood-free way to get home from my office, and that really bugs me. I worry about my ability to accurately gauge how deep flood waters really are, and what I would do if my car stalled in the middle and I was all alone.

This post is late, it's been almost a month since Ondoy happened, but sad to say the trauma remains. I don't think anyone will ever look at rain the same way again. At least, not for a very long time.

Living Space

After a month of living in our den, I have finally moved back into my room. *applause*

I enjoyed my stay in the den. While there wasn't any wifi and I'd have to stay in our sala just to go online, I had the luxury of having a TV in the room, staying up to watch CSI and the other telenovelas before finally falling asleep.

But it was meant to be a temporary arrangement, as my excitement over planning my room renovation and seeing it to the finish was mounting. I designed my new storage spaces. I looked for color schemes on Real Home Ideas: The Color Book and headed to Handyman for paint swatches. I thought of which things would go into my new storage spaces and which ones I'd have to let go of. And everyday, I asked my mom what the workers had finished, and what was left to be done.

Over the long weekend, I finally got busy with moving in to my room. I arranged my books on the shelves, sifted through the knickknacks that would find their own shelf space, oversaw the delivery of my new chair, moved clothes into my closet. By Monday evening, the last few items my room needed were finally in place, and I could say I had fully moved in.

Here's how my room looked since 1997:

It's not a great photo of my room, as you can't see the seater and the full length of the L-shaped desk. But the seater and my desk both turned into a dumpsite for all my things. While the seater and desk were added when I hit college, this is basically how the room has been since I was first year high school and it has seen me through so many experiences and heartaches (how emo!).

And here it is today:

This is the area where the seater and the desk used to be. My only request for my room was to buy a comfy chair where I could do all my reading. I'm tired of reading in bed or sitting down on the bed and leaning against the wall, so that's the only thing I really wanted for my room. Thanks to Real Living's recommendation, I discovered Mandaue Foam (along Ortigas Extension) and bought my chocolate brown recliner from them. I designed my desk to fit the bay window, and it's a design my mom wants to copy for their own desk. I love how the white and chocolate brown look against the orange wall.

The accent wall for my room is a nice, bright shade of blue. The cabinets right above my bed house my books, and my picture frames and little figurines have their own shelves as well. I like how my bed sort of has its own niche against the cabinets-- when I lie down and the lamp by my chair is on, the light doesn't get into my eyes. And of course, I love the blue wall!

See how the white cabinets break up the orange and blue walls? This is the main reason why I decided on bold and bright colors for my room, because I knew that all the white storage units would somehow soften the look. The long cabinet is a closet for added storage, and the ladder propped up against it is not only functional (as I'll need it to reach into the higher shelves) but decorative as well.

See how the blue and orange look so good together? Hanging on the orange wall is a cross-stitch I made back in seventh grade. It's a Precious Moments pattern of a boy sitting on a stool, mending the broken heart that a girl holds up for him. By some happy coincidence, the matting is blue with a touch of pink, and its wooden frame matches the frame of the mirror.

This is the component I've had since 1998, I remember that we were new to our house when I received this as a Christmas gift. It's still alive, although the tape deck no longer works and the CD tray gets stuck sometimes. I use it today to listen to the radio and to amplify the sounds on my laptop, whether I'm watching CSI or listening to my favorite playlists. It's especially helpful when the rain is pounding against my window and my laptop's volume can only go so high. The component has its own place now, above the shoe cabinet and below the cabinet that houses all of my kikay stuff.

And finally, I have my photos hanging on my walls. It's funny because I never intended to have them in frames with matting; I was only looking for the normal kinds that I could hang on the wall. Unfortunately, most 8x10 photo frames were designed for desk display and not wall display. Thank goodness a kind saleslady suggested that I buy those frames that already come with a picture, and just replace the picture with my own. The result is photos that look like they were professionally done, and I couldn't be prouder to have my own work hanging in my room.

Now that my room is finished, I can't wait to come home everyday and make the most out of my personal space. I want to sit in my recliner and read more. I want to light scented candles and relax in my room. I want to do more than crash on my bed and sleep. Because this is a room that, with it's vibrant colors, is meant to be lived in, not merely slept in.

Spotlight: "The Pact: A Love Story"

For once, I am speechless.

I started reading The Pact: A Love Story by Jodi Picoult last Saturday, and I had trouble putting it down since then. I literally had to force myself to stop reading. But this time, I can't summarize the novel or even give my own thoughts about it. All I can truly say is it was a page-turner that truly kept me hooked and wanting to know what would happen next. It kept me at the edge of my seat up to the very end, and there was no way to predict how things would end.

Jodi Picoult is truly a gifted writer, as this is the second time that she has kept me hooked on her novel. Granted, this is only the second book I've read --the first being My Sister's Keeper-- but I think that she has a way of really unravelling the story as you read, and this is something that may hold true in all her novels. At the turn of every page, you always feel like you're discovering something new, that this new bit of information is important, that all things will only find resolution in the end. She also has a gift of putting to words such complex emotions, making the reader feel how conflicted her characters truly are.

In short, The Pact: A Love Story was one of the few books that really kept me entranced all the way to the end. I'd recommend it, but only to people who don't believe that all things end with a Happily Ever After. That's not how real life is, and Jodi Picoult tries to keep it as real as it can get.

Three books to go: Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Prizes, and Good In Bed. I wonder which one I should read over the long weekend. I can't wait!

Spotlight: "Getting Rid of Matthew"

I should have blogged about this right after reading it. Now that I'm so into Jodi Picoult's The Pact, I'm having trouble remembering what this book was about. Hehe.

Getting Rid of Matthew was actually a risky buy, if you think about it. I got attracted to the title, intrigued by the story, and obsessed with finding a copy of it in every Fully Booked branch I visited. Seeing a lone copy on the shelf made me believe that it was mine for the taking. But really, it could've been a bad investment-- like any other thing in life, it could've gone either way.

But as I read on about Helen The Mistress, Sophie the Wife, and Matthew the Cheater, I found myself drawn in by the story. Helen has been with Matthew for four years and --although she has been begging him for years to leave his wife-- is slowly realizing that there is life outside of Matthew, that she does have a chance to really make something of her life this late in the game. But just when she decides that she doesn't want Matthew anymore, he finally tells his wife Sophie everything, breaks up his family, and decides to move in with Helen. The rest of the novel focuses on how Helen intends to get rid of Matthew.

What I found most interesting about this novel wasn't how she planned to get rid of Matthew, but the friendship she forged with Sophie under false pretenses. I loved the twist that Helen actually seeks out Sophie and they truly hit it off, even if Sophie has no idea who Helen really is. It makes me wonder how much messier life would be if mistresses actually went out to befriend the clueless wives. The complications of this friendship provided the novel with a lot of heart.

Of course, I won't give away the ending, but suffice to say that I enjoyed this book and wanted to go back to a couple of passages before moving on to my next book. The fact that I still remember the names of the protagonists also says something about how much I liked this book.

I'm down to four books, and I'm already two-thirds into The Pact. More on that when I'm done with it. Ciao for now!

Spotlight: "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves"

First, I have to take something off my book list. You may call it cheating, but there is some logic to this: I am removing Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life. It's ironic that I can't finish reading a book that is all about getting things done. So... let's just strike it off the list so that I can pick it up whenever I feel like it, shall we?

Now that that's out of the way, I'd like to pay homage to the nerd in me by celebrating the fact that I have finished reading Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss.

As the title suggests, the book is all about punctuation marks. The very title is derived from a joke about punctuation:

A panda walked into a cafe. He ordered a sandwich, ate it, then pulled out a gun and shot the waiter. 'Why?' groaned the injured man. The panda shrugged, tossed him a badly punctuated wildlife manual and walked out. And sure enough, when the waiter consulted the book, he found an explanation. 'Panda,' ran the entry for his assailant. 'Large black and white mammal native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.'

I found myself giggling at the joke, and knew that I was the right market for this book. Add to that the first paragraph that read:

Either this will ring bells for you, or it won't. A printed banner has appeared on the concourse of a petrol station near to where I live. "Come inside," it says, "for CD's, VIDEO's, DVD's, and BOOK's."

If this satanic sprinkling of redundant apostrophes causes no little gasp of horror or quickening of the pulse, you should probably put down this book at once.

Of course, I didn't put it down; I went and bought it. Truss is able to talk about the proper use of punctuation marks while educating the reader on the origins of such marks, all in a very light and humorous tone. It's not an instruction book, that's for sure, but it does make you think twice about how you punctuate your sentences.

It's also interesting to note the nuances between British English and American English. One point of contention is the placement of the comma (or period, whichever is applicable) when it comes to quotes, such as the example Truss presents:

BRITISH: Sophia asked Lord Fellamar if he was "out of his senses".

AMERICAN: Sophia asked Lord Fellamar if he was "out of his senses."

It was here that I discovered that, as I subscribe to the first option, I punctuate in a British manner (at least, in this instance). But I spell using American English, preferring "color" to "colour" and "glamor" to "glamour" (although the latter does look pretty glamorous). She also points out that what Americans call "parentheses", the Brits call "brackets", and what the Americans call "brackets", they call "square brackets". Confusing much? The book can probably get confusing if you're an American or you prefer using American English, as Truss is herself a Brit.

All in all, it was a very enlightening read that every writer --or grammar stickler-- should indulge in. I will probably find myself rereading some chapters at leisure, especially the one on the semicolon and the colon.

My book list now stands at:

The 2009 Reading List
1. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
2. The Smart One and the Pretty One by Claire LaZebnik
3. Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin
4. A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern
5. If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern
6. Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
7. Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Getting Things Done by David Allen --stricken off the list
8. The Amber Room by Steve Berry
9. Doctors by Erich Segal
10. Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
11. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
12. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding
13. Prizes by Erich Segal
14. Live a Little by Kim Green
15. Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
16. Raising the Peaceable Kingdom by Jeffrey Maoussaieff Mason
17. Baby Proof by Emily Giffin
18. Something Blue by Emily Giffin
19. The Pact: A Love Story by Jodi Picoult
20. Getting Rid of Matthew by Jane Fallon
21. Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner --New entry!

Yes, yes, I know that that's a new entry right there, but I've always been curious about this author. Upon seeing that Powerbooks was on sale, I succumbed and finally bought one of her books. But since I removed a book off the list, we're still at 20! And now, I have five books to go before I can say I'm done. As long as I don't add to it anymore (let's cross our hearts and hope to die), looks like I can finish this list before Christmas!

The best part is, it's a non-working holiday tomorrow and I get to recuperate in bed! With a good book, perhaps? We'll see! :)

Back from Bangkok

I tried to write an entry to talk about my recently-concluded trip to Bangkok, but I wasn't happy with what I was writing. I hit the delete button, but here I am again, attempting to talk about it. 

Even now, I keep typing one word and hitting backspace, unsure of where to even begin. Do I start by talking about how we started planning this trip in January, and all of a sudden, I've gone on the trip and come home? Do I tell you all about the plans we made and which ones didn't materialize (like the trip to the library and dinner at Baiyoke Sky Deck)? Do I share the realization that Ayutthaya is not a park but an entire province, and how we kissed our dreams of biking around the area goodbye (and besides, by "rent a bike" they meant a motorbike, not a bicycle)? Do I talk about realizing that I'm not a hardcore shopper after all? 

Maybe, where words will not suffice, pictures will.

Wat Pho: Reclining Buddha

Four Pagodas

Dinner at Cabbages and Condoms, a restaurant owned by a government official popularly known as "Mr. Condom" because of his campaigns on safe sex and HIV-AIDS awareness.

One of the many, beautiful ruins in Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand

More pictures on my Facebook account (for friends only, sorry). This may be my only trip for 2009, but it was definitely a blast!

Where will the Universe take me next? I can't wait to find out.

August is love!

For the past three years (i.e. ever since I started working here), I've come to think of August as a slow month. After all, we hardly have any events this month, and I think of it as the time to recover from the crazy FHM party in July and the time to build up for the hell month that is September.

But this year, there are so many things to be excited about this August!

First, I finished reading Something Blue by Emily Giffin. A lot of time has passed since I read Something Borrowed, but I remember being incredibly annoyed with Darcy, the self-centered "beauty is everything" PR maven who is now the protagonist of this sequel. At the start of the novel, she was still as annoying as I remembered, but I decided to give her a chance to redeem herself.

What's amazing about this book is Darcy's transformation is very subtle yet real, and you find yourself having a change of heart about her as well. Emily Giffin is brilliant, and I ended up thoroughly enjoying Something Blue. Now I want to read the first book again just so that I can form my opinion on which one I like better!

Second, I'm very excited because I'll be going to Bangkok with a very good friend of mine! I first visited Bangkok with my family in 2001, but I hardly remember anything about that visit. I've always maintained that it's very different to travel with your family because you end up just going wherever you're told. So this Bangkok trip with my friend will be like seeing Bangkok for the very first time.

It's been so much fun planning our itinerary and researching on all the sights we want to see in Bangkok. While we briefly considered taking a two-hour trip out of Bangkok going to Pattaya, we instead decided to take the one-hour trip to Ayutthaya, the former capital of Thailand (in photo). The Ayutthaya Historical Park is now just a bunch of ruins, but history buffs that we are, we're excited about biking around the area for the greater part of our day. Of course, we're also excited about shopping in Bangkok, but more than that, we're looking forward to the Temple Tour, going to the night markets, trying the restos that friends and colleagues have recommended, and even hitting the library! Yes, because we love books so much, we can't resist a side trip to the Neilson Hays Library for the sake of checking it out and relaxing in the library's cafe. We'll be gone for four days, and it's gonna be so much fun! I can feel it!

Third, because I'll be gone for four days, my parents decided that it's the best time to have my room renovated. My room has stayed the same since we first moved to our house in 1997-- the only thing that changed was adding a custom-made seater and desk set when I was in college, but my wallpapers still reflected the choices of a fourteen year old. I've always looked wistfully at the "grown-up rooms" featured in Real Living, and daydreamed about renovating my own room, but never really thought that it would happen.

But now that it's finally happening, my mom and I spent Sunday measuring my room and drawing the new storage spaces. I downloaded a program that generates color combinations for websites, but of course I'm using it to come up with the best color combination for my room. Everything has been finalized (yes, even my choice of color) and I hope that I'll be around when they paint my room so that I can see if it's exactly what I had in mind.

Once they finish everything in my room, I'm excited to look for some new furnishing. My one insistence was there be space for a nice, comfy armchair where I can do all my reading (because I'm finally heeding the warning that reading in bed is bad for your eyesight), so we worked around that. I want to have a nice floor lamp by the chair so that I have ample lighting for my reading, and I want to have a new wall clock. I'm also considering selecting some of my best photographs and either coming up with a collage or having them printed so I can frame them individually in small frames. It's so much fun to plan a room makeover, and I'm so excited to have a room that finally reflects that a 26-year-old woman lives in it.

Last, even if we don't celebrate anniversaries, August was a significant month three years ago, when my love finally worked up the nerve to tell me how he felt about me. Fast forward to the present, and we're still silly as if we'd just gotten together yesterday. For the first time, I have faith that we truly will make it all the way, and we'll continue growing together in love. ♥ ♥ ♥

August 09 is one for the books, and I love it! ♥ ♥ ♥

Spotlight: "Raising the Peaceable Kingdom" and "Baby Proof"

In my quest to become a reader and not a mere book hoarder, I decided to try harder to cross some books off my list. As of last weekend, I have successfully crossed off two: one has been my constant companion to the dentist, and I was determined to finish the last few chapters to get it done and over with. The other was one that I decided to read on a whim. So the list is moving along, and I am proud to say that I have succeeded in not adding to it any further (new discovery: leaving the credit card at home really works!), and that I have avoided any serious browsing in the bookstores.

So, what two books did I cross off my list?

It took me a while to finish reading this book. As I mentioned before, the premise really intrigued me: can a puppy, kitten, two chickens, two rats, and a rabbit peacefully coexist in one home? From the very beginning, I knew it was an experiment. What I didn't count on was the book sounding like a report of the experiment.

In fairness, the author was very personal about it. He shared anecdotes on how he would discover more about the behavior of the animals-- an afternoon on the beach reveals that chickens like to stretch out in the sand, the rats like nesting in his wife's bosom and become most hyper at night, the kitten and the rabbit can become best friends over time. But these anecdotes were also interspersed with his findings and hypotheses, which didn't make for very interesting reading.

I found myself reading until the end just to see what would happen to the animals, if and when his experiment reaches its end. When I was done, I found myself just shrugging and saying, "So he did it. Good for him. On to the next book!"

Which, after much thought, I decided would be Baby Proof by Emily Giffin. I had only read Something Borrowed and am delaying reading its sequel Something Blue, mainly because I'm trying to be fair to my books by reading the ones I had acquired first. I also tried to pose a challenge to myself this weekend: to try reading this book in just one sitting.

It had been a while since I read a book from cover to cover in one sitting, and I just wanted to see how long it would take me. After all, I used to do it all the time (which, of course, led to growing up with glasses, getting laser eye surgery, and wearing glasses again with a more tolerable grade-- but that's another story entirely). So last Saturday afternoon, I decided to forego all plans of watching CSI and instead settled in to read Giffin's third novel.

I realized from the very beginning of the book that I would have trouble liking it. After all, I disagree with the protagonist's stand of not wanting to have children-- even if I do understand that there are women who are not inclined to become mothers, I would like to have children one day. And since reading requires a certain amount of putting yourself in the protagonist's shoes, I had a bit of difficulty doing just that-- most especially when she lets go of the man she loves because he wants to have a baby and she doesn't.

In the end, it was a so-so read for me, which surprisingly makes me even more excited to read the rest of her novels, as I believe that this is just a glitch in Giffin's otherwise brilliant writing. And, despite my misgivings, the book was able to captivate me enough to read it for 4 1/2 hours straight, without breaks. So I may have disagreed with the plot, but it kept me hooked enough to still want to know how it all ends. That, to me, is a sign of good writing and makes me crave for even more.

I've heard that her latest novel Love the One You're With is also really good. I took a look at the summary when I came across it once in the neighborhood bookstore, and in direct contrast to Baby Proof, I think I could relate to this plot too much! Well, just because running into my exes is always a What-If scenario that runs through my head, and my telenovela imagination tends to blow everything out of proportion. I'm scared that Love the One You're With will hit too close to home, but then again, when have I ever been afraid of a book??

Now that my reading list has hit 20 books, I think it's time for a recap:

The 2009 Reading List
1. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
2. The Smart One and the Pretty One by Claire LaZebnik
3. Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin --I boycotted this one.
4. A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern
5. If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern
6. Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
7. Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Getting Things Done by David Allen
8. The Amber Room by Steve Berry
9. Doctors by Erich Segal
10. Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
11. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
12. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding
13. Prizes by Erich Segal
14. Live a Little by Kim Green
15. Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
16. Raising the Peaceable Kingdom by Jeffrey Maoussaieff Mason
17. Baby Proof by Emily Giffin
18. Something Blue by Emily Giffin
19. The Pact: A Love Story by Jodi Picoult
20. Getting Rid of Matthew by Jane Fallon

13 out of 20 is not bad at all! Whee! :D

Here lies the irony

Upon reviewing my old blog (the one filled with all the post-college emo-laden entries), I realized that a spark had died. That spark that could make me get up in the middle of the night to sleepily pen a poem, or lose myself in thought as while writing another short story. It has been ages since I felt that spark, the one that made me sure that, indeed, I was meant to wield a pen and be a writer.

I don't know if that spark really just dies out once you begin to write for a living. As you find yourself creating charts to keep track of what needs to be written and by when, you wonder how you factor in being hit by inspiration. Is it something you can even schedule? Being a writer by profession has forced me to be able to just write, whether I feel like it or not.

Many say that real writers don't wait for inspiration; they just write, period. While I agree, I worry that writing for a living has caused me to come up with coping mechanisms that my idealistic fresh-out-of-college self would disagree with. Reading an article, copying the quotes I'd like to use, then stringing them together into a coherent piece was not the way I envisioned my writing to be. I always took pride in coming up with something out of nothing, in having a blank sheet as my canvas, pinning thoughts unto paper as fast as my hands would permit. I never wanted to have a template for my writing, but upon discovering that --without conscious effort-- I could write press releases that fit exactly one page, I realized that a template is exactly what I have hardwired into my system.

Maybe the existence of such a template has made it difficult for me to spontaneously come up with a blog entry that's coherent and substantial. After churning out press release after press release, there's hardly any time to stop and think about something that really matters to me enough to write about it. Trying to sit in front of my blog to write about my thoughts is an exercise in futility-- anything that comes out of me feels forced, and I am forced to just delete everything and forego writing an entry. How ironic, to be a writer who cannot even write about things that truly mean something to me, things that I actually care about.

Yet, such is life. This is the profession I chose, and this is the talent I was gifted with. Template or no template, I was meant to write. So all I can do today is hope that the spark returns someday, to remind me what it feels like to fall in love with writing all over again.

Oops, I did it again

I should really be banned from entering bookstores, especially Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street.

A recent side trip there had me walking out of the store with not one, but two new books. That brings my current reading list up to twenty. A fellow book hoarder lover likes to justify, "Twenty is a very nice, rounded number. Just like thirty and forty!" I'll stop at twenty, thankyouverymuch.

So what were the books I just had to buy?

After reading My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, I got curious about her other books and decided to do my research. Of all the stories, I found this one the most intriguing. The Pact is the love story between two teenagers whose families have been friends since they were born. What happens when the parents find the girl dead and the boy holding the gun that killed her?

A colleague pointed out that Jodi Picoult loves to talk about moral dilemmas. It makes me think that all her stories are built on "the boat-is-sinking/house-is-burning, you can only save either your parent-or-spouse/spouse-or-child. Who would you save?" Or something like that. Anyway, add the intriguing premise to the fact that this book was so hard to find. And when I finally saw it in Fully Booked, it was in a trade paperback version with nice paper, the ones with jagged edges that look like they've been cut by hand. I wasn't about to let it go.

I came across this book on one of my previous trips to Fully Booked, when I go through the aisles from A to Z. I thought it would be an entertaining read as the premise is that Matthew has been her lover for years, but now that he's leaving his wife for her, she realizes that she doesn't want him anymore. So as the title suggests, how does she get rid of him?

Also read up on Amazon reviews and it's supposed to be a fun read. Why did I buy it? Well, first, because it was the last copy on the shelf, and I've been keeping an eye out for it for months. Second, because I realized that majority of what's left in my book list is pretty heavy stuff, so I may need something to balance that out. I know, I know, excuses excuses.

So now my reading list is up to twenty. I'm currently reading Raising the Peaceable Kingdom, but I haven't gotten far because I've been watching CSI more often, playing Restaurant City on Facebook every night, and trying to catch up on precious sleep. Here's hoping I finish all twenty books before the year ends! (Hey, I'm just being realistic here!)

Spotlight: "The Other Boleyn Girl" and "Live A Little"

I should never have put off reading this book. That it's so thick has always discouraged me from getting started, but once I jumped over that hurdle, I found myself completely engrossed in it. It is so much better, so much richer than the movie (though Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johanssen were both really hot).

This novel was so good, it made me research on Henry VIII and his wives, and just how much of the novel was factual. As it turns out, everything is based on facts-- the only points that are fiction are the thoughts, intentions, motivations of the characters. But Anne Boleyn really did have a sister named Mary who was a mistress of the King and bore him two childern. The affair with Anne really did prompt Henry to seek an annulment from his marriage to Katherine of Aragon. And so on, and so forth.

The best thing is, I researched on the rest of Philippa Gregory's novels, and it turns out that a couple more revolve around the same time period: The Constant Princess is about Katherine of Aragon and how she ended up marrying Henry VIII (so it's actually the prequel to The Other Boleyn Girl in a chronological sense); The Boleyn Inheritance takes place immediately after The Other Boleyn Girl and talks about the rest of Henry VIII's wives; The Queen's Fool seems to be the transition novel before the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and The Virgin's Lover is during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. So even if these novels all stand alone and have separate plots, reading it in order would probably feel like reading an entire saga on English history. Now if only they weren't so long.

I was excited to start reading this novel, and in the beginning, I was amused by her humor. Then it started getting tiresome. Then I couldn't wait for it to end.

It's actually a little difficult to explain what I didn't like about it. While I liked the premise, I felt that everything was becoming too unbelievable. Becoming a breast cancer advocate overnight, thanks to guesting on her sister's talk show (apparently, the sister is like Tyra). The sudden reawakening of her artistic side because she is commissioned to make a series of sculptures using casts of actual breast cancer survivors. By this time, it kinda became more about a mid-life crisis than about her not really having cancer and not knowing how to come clean about it. Add to that too many pop culture references --the daughter wanting to be emancipated because she thinks she's Lindsay Lohan, the image of a pregnant Britney Spears as a deterent for unwanted pregnancy, a breast cancer survivor named "Imelda, like the dictator... and I could imagine her with a closet filled with Manolos"-- and the one phrase that popped into my head was, "This novel is trying too hard."

Too bad, the premise was intriguing, but the execution was nothing great. What a waste of promise.

The good thing is, I'm officially 11 out of 18 on my reading list now! Woohoo!

on books and DVDs

As I mentioned before, I love anything that tells a story. That means that as much as I hoard love books, I also love DVDs. Last year, I was hooked on F.R.I.E.N.D.S., which I appreciated so much more now that I'm in my twenties. Then I watched Sex and the City, The Apprentice season 3, Pushing Daisies season 1, Top Design season 1, and How I Met Your Mother seasons 1-4 (and this is the only series that I'm downloading!). Now, I'm hooked on this:

After much consultation with other fanatics, I finally decided on getting the boxed set of CSI Las Vegas seasons 1 to 7. I just finished watching the first season and I'm currently three episodes into the second, already I'm showing signs of being addicted. For one, I go to bed at night with the feeling that maybe someone is just outside my door, or that I will suddenly see the curtains blowing to reveal an open window big enough to fit a human-- until I remember that my windows are not that big and I don't even have curtains in my room. So I sleep a little easier after that realization. I also caught myself looking at my cellphone and, upon seeing my fingerprints, thinking, "Wow, this cellphone is loaded with prints. Let's hope one of them is our killer's." Then I realize that it's my phone and there is no killer. I just love how they solve crimes, how they connect the dots to lead them to unlikely suspects, how sometimes they discover that the killer is someone who was right under their nose. I have yet to really compare to CSI Miami and CSI New York (my brother thinks Miami is too action-loaded, while a friend thinks the crimes in New York are too similar), but I think that after this, I will buy CSI New York just for Gary Sinise, who I think rocks.

As I go on CSI marathons, I have somehow found the time to finally get started on the one book that I've really put off reading-- The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory (how strange that Amazon doesn't have a synopsis of this book). I bought the book primarily to compare it to the movie, but I've been putting off reading it because it's too thick. I got intimidated. But after finishing my last book, I realized that to finish my reading list, I would have to get to this book sooner or later. So I decided to make it sooner. I've been reading this book steadily, which means I've been bringing it with me to the dentist and leaving it in the car so I can read while waiting for parking. But hey, at least I'm making some progress with it!

I cheated. Just when I said I wouldn't buy any books, I went out and bought this one. In my defense, I had seen copies of Something Blue by Emily Giffin, but it wasn't in this particular edition, so I didn't buy it. My thinking is that sequels should be bought in the same editions. Apparently, this particular edition was hard to find. So when I saw three copies in Fully Booked High Street, I didn't think twice about buying it. Of course, this goes on the bottom of my list, and I will have to resist the temptation of finding out what happens to Darcy now that she's pregnant and all alone. My reading list is now 9 out of 18, which means I'm exactly halfway down the list. Once I finish reading The Other Boleyn Girl, that will make it 10 out of 18, and I can't wait!

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Spotlight: "Doctors" and "If You Could See Me Now"

Midway through April and already I've crossed off two books on my reading list. Here's where it stands now:

The 2009 Reading List
1. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
2. The Smart One and the Pretty One by Claire LaZebnik
3. Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin --I boycotted this one.
4. A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern
5. If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern
6. Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
7. Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Getting Things Done by David Allen
8. The Amber Room by Steve Berry
9. Doctors by Erich Segal
10. Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
11. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
12. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding
13. Prizes by Erich Segal
14. Live a Little by Kim Green
15. Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
16. Raising the Peaceable Kingdom by Jeffrey Maoussaieff Mason
17. Baby Proof by Emily Giffin

In between my Holy Week Cleanup Project, I read this novel by Erich Segal. As I mentioned before, I had read this when I was very young, maybe more than ten years ago. Reading it again, I now have newfound respect for anyone who is entering medical school. I knew it was difficult, but reading about the journey of two childhood friends from the first day of medical school all the way to becoming doctors of their own chosen fields was really enlightening.

What I liked about this is that the novel begins by introducing us to Barney and Laura, the protagonists. It establishes the bond that they have in childhood, a bond that remains all through medical school and beyond. But midway through the novel, when they actually begin going to med school, we are introduced to their classmates and their respective back stories. This makes the story even richer as these people weave in and out of Barney and Laura's lives, making all the stories intertwine. More than just the story of Barney and Laura, then, Doctors is really about their batch in Harvard Medical School, at a time when women and black doctors were not generally accepted in their field, when a cure of polio had yet to be discovered, and new medical advancements slowly unravel as time passes and the novel goes along. It was a very informative and engaging read.

As a Christmas gift, my boss gave me a copy of If You Could See Me Now, her all-time favorite Cecelia Ahern novel. Having read the summary at the back cover, I wasn't very intrigued by the premise. But after taking this book with me to the dentist yesterday, I just couldn't put it down.

Without getting into details (it's a bit difficult to summarize this book), it really taught me about friendship. How sometimes, people just really come into your life to fulfill a purpose --like to make you learn something about yourself-- and once they have achieved that, they have to move on and make a mark in other people's lives. I used to think of this as abandonment, as people never staying too long in life, but now I realize that it just means it's time to meet new friends who will teach you something new about yourself.

If you would be so lucky to find people who will stay forever, that means you should be open to growing together, always learning new things about each other, and learning new things about yourself whenever you are with that person. If not, well, the world is so full of people you can learn a thing or two from, as long as you keep yourself open to the opportunities that life has to offer.

While I read A Place Called Here first and it had an intriguing premise, I thought If You Could See Me Now really captivated me. It was so engaging and reachable-- the fantasy element was so woven in to real life, unlike in A Place Called Here where it was a tad too out there. It looks like If You Could See Me Now is my favorite Ahern book too.

So now I've hit 9 out of 17! Halfway down the list now! I would really, really want to start reading The Other Boleyn Girl, but it's so thick I think it'll take me forever to finish. Who knows though, maybe all I need is to just get started. Do I reserve the right to put it down if it proves to be a boring read? Let's see!

Have a great Sunday!

taking a minute on a Holy Thursday

Strangely, the shower is where I get all my best ideas and epiphanies.

Today, I realized that I love anything that tells a story. I love to read (hence the 17-book reading list), I love to watch movies (there is a DVDs-to-watch list that must be written down in the next few days), and I love hearing stories about other people's lives (yes, I'm a sucker for gossip).

But more than that, I realized that I also love to tell stories (about other people, myself, or random things I hear about) and I love to invent stories (anyone who knows me well knows that I like starting sentences with "What if". Oh, and have I ever told you where the pizza place called "Shakeys" got its name? *wink*).

Maybe that's the same reason why I enjoy working in this industry. Being a publicist is sort of like trying to come up with a story: what story can this magazine tell through a press release, a television segment, or a radio talk show? I cannot imagine applying the same metaphor to a corporate environment, so maybe that's why I can't imagine being anywhere else but here.

And life, to me, is one big story. People come and go, chapters begin and end. Friendships sometimes end with one chapter, only to be rekindled again many chapters later. There can only be more unforeseen twists in the plot, more characters introduced, but ultimately, I have faith that this story called Life will have a happy ending.

Okay, talk about random! My minute is up, so ciao!

hitting 7 out of 17

Here's my reading list as it currently stands:

The 2009 Reading List
1. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
2. The Smart One and the Pretty One by Claire LaZebnik
3. Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin --I boycotted this one.
4. A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern
5. If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern
6. Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
7. Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Getting Things Done by David Allen
8. The Amber Room by Steve Berry
9. Doctors by Erich Segal
10. Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
11. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
12. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding
13. Prizes by Erich Segal
14. Live a Little by Kim Green
15. Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
16. Raising the Peaceable Kingdom by Jeffrey Maoussaieff Mason
17. Baby Proof by Emily Giffin

The latest book I've crossed off the list is The Amber Room by Steve Berry. When Dan Brown came out with The Da Vinci Code (which I also enjoyed), so many other authors began to write with a similar theme. But Steve Berry was different. He may have come around the same time everyone was going crazy over the Jesus-and-Mary Magdalene love angle, but he chose to focus his attention on other historical mysteries: the third secret of Fatima, the story behind the Romanovs and Princess Anastacia, and here, the amber room.

It took me a while to finish this book, which is probably a sign that it didn't have me hooked from the beginning. For one, it doesn't explain the conflict straight away. I had the sense that the novel assumed I had some knowledge of Germans and Soviets, why they fought in World War 2, and what happened between them post-war. I have no idea why Czechoslovakia split up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, but that's what I learned from the book-- apparently they had some rift. I think that to have a real appreciation of the book, you have to first understand why this Amber Room is so important to them. Yes, I can imagine that an entire room filled with panels of amber, making it seem like it's glittering in gold, could be very precious, but there was a more cultural and historical reason why they were all after it, and I couldn't quite grasp what it was. The explanations came somewhere in the middle, but by then I'd already been so lost. You know when you're walking through the forest, you know you're lost but you think, "Well, I'll just keep walking then, even if I don't know where I'm going," and then someone throws you a map, but you can't even begin to make sense of it because you don't know where you are in the first place? That's how I felt.

There also wasn't enough character development for the protagonists. The summary in the back cover says "a divorced couple race through Europe with trained killers swiftly behind". Well, I know more about the trained killers than I do about the couple. It wasn't a really bad book, but maybe I'm just cutting Steve Berry some slack because this was his debut novel, after all. So, I finally crossed this off my list with the conclusion that it was just a so-so read.

Next on my list is Doctors by Erich Segal. I had read this book years ago, maybe when I was still in grade school, because my older cousins had a copy lying around. All I remember is that it was one of those books I couldn't put down (along with Danielle Steel's Wings, but I don't remember what that was about either), and any book that kept me up till the wee hours of the morning must be something worth re-reading. I may also gain a new appreciation for it now that I'm much older. 

I started reading the preface, and I can't wait to dive into it this Holy Week.

So far, I've been successful in my pact not to add to my Reading List. The only addition was a birthday gift from my boss, and at least it was just one book. I'm making good progress with this list, so yay! :)

belated musings on turning 26

I realized this morning that I hadn't blogged about turning 26 yet, and the month of March is coming to an end. It made me think of how I spent my 25th year, and sadly I was drawing up blanks. I couldn't think of any personal milestones that set this year apart, and all I could think about was a rundown of work-related events that happened in the year.

Add to that today's quote in my Don't Sweat the Small Stuff calendar: 

"When someone asks you how you are, don't emphasize how busy you are. You're an interesting person with many other qualities besides busyness."

For the most part of 2008,  I think I have been guilty of responding to the question "How are you?" with either, "Stressed out..." or "Tired...", both statements punctuated with a heavy sigh. Somehow, work became a massive force that sucked out all my energy, leaving life to just happen within the smallest cracks and crevices. The rest of my life became little moments that got me through each day with my sanity intact.

I was prepared to accept that Year 25 just came and went, almost as though it never existed, when I realized that there was an underlying theme to the year after all: CHANGE.

Year 25 was a year of transitions, of saying goodbye to people I'd known for a while, and hello to people who would make a mark in my life. In 2008 alone, I've had to say...

... goodbye to the two girls in my team whose unique brands of craziness I will always remember and look back to with a big smile. 

... hello to the boss we had waited a year for, and found that she was not only a great mentor, but also a great friend and fellow book hoarder lover.

... hello to one girl who I found soooo incredibly loud and maybe even boisterous, but whose stories and antics I missed once she was gone.

... hello and goodbye to someone whom I first considered a mentor, and ended up considering a good friend.

... hello to one girl who was mysterious and quiet, yet opened up so much towards the end that I've found myself wondering how she's doing now that she's no longer with our team. 

... hello to one girl who is just so bright and bubbly, her optimism and enthusiasm is infectious. She brings such a positive energy to the team, and I feel good to have her around.

... goodbye to one girl who has so much potential, I'm glad that she's finally where she's meant to be.

In terms of work, this was when my area of responsibilities changed and mutated until an entirely new system was implemented. I finally began to explore taking on writing racket, and realized after three years that it could be done after all.

It was the year I "formalized" (in quotes because we didn't exactly formalize it in the "Will you be my girlfriend?" way and we don't celebrate any particular date) my relationship with the most caring, loving, patient, understanding, funny, strong, and trustworthy man I know-- aside from my dad, of course. And I've never been happier to be called a "girlfriend" again.

And finally, it was the year I noticed little changes within me, maybe brought upon by age. It may not be obvious as I continue to attack everything at break-neck speed, but I've slowed down: I think before I speak, I've learned when to hold my tongue, I take deep breaths and let petty concerns go, I let people finish telling a joke even if I've heard it before (and I still laugh as if hearing it for the first time), I resist the temptation to slam things around when I'm angry, I try to listen harder, I ask more questions, I try to smile more often. Yes, I may still have road rage and my occasional outbursts, but for the most part, I think I've mellowed.

Now, I'm on Year 26. Who knows what this year will bring? The only thing I hope for is that I continue to grow in love-- love my family, friends, and boyfriend, love my job, love myself, love life.

Here's to a great year ahead!

right on the money

Your view on yourself:

You are down-to-earth and people like you because you are so straightforward. You are an efficient problem solver because you will listen to both sides of an argument before making a decision that usually appeals to both parties.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:

You like serious, smart and determined people. You don't judge a book by its cover, so good-looking people aren't necessarily your style. This makes you an attractive person in many people's eyes.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:

You prefer to get to know a person very well before deciding whether you will commit to the relationship.

The seriousness of your love:

Your have very sensible tactics when approaching the opposite sex. In many ways people find your straightforwardness attractive, so you will find yourself with plenty of dates.

Your views on education

Education is less important than the real world out there, away from the classroom. Deep inside you want to start working, earning money and living on your own.

The right job for you:

You have many goals and want to achieve as much as you can. The jobs you enjoy are those that let you burn off your considerable excess energy.

How do you view success:

You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous.

What are you most afraid of:

You are afraid of having no one to rely on in times of trouble. You don't ever want to be unable to take care of yourself. Independence is important to you.

Who is your true self:

You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.

http://www.quizbox.com/personality/test82.aspx

for once, i rooted for the cheaters

And this is the book that made me do it.

Anticipating a long wait at my dentist's office, I brought along Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin. I figured getting absorbed in chick lit would be better than falling asleep in public, as I had done the last time. It was just supposed to be a way for me to pass the time, and I didn't really intend on spending the rest of my Saturday night reading.

But that's exactly what I did. After waiting for an hour and a half, I was so drawn in by this book that I couldn't put it down. I stayed up until 12:30pm, reading it until the very end. Even after reading, I found myself still thinking about it.

What does this have to do with cheaters, you ask? Well, the protagonist is goody-two-shoes Rachel, who has always played second fiddle to her best friend Darcy. Okay, fine, maybe I identify with Rachel because we're both rule players and seek approval from almost everybody, but I really hated Darcy-- selfish, "It's always about me" Darcy, who always screwed over Rachel and always made her feel bad. She stole Rachel's first love. She lied about her SAT scores just so she could be ten points higher than Rachel. She made Rachel believe that she had gotten into Notre Dame --Rachel's dream college-- when Rachel didn't. She led a glamorous life while Rachel was stuck hating her job. And most importantly, she got the guy that Rachel always thought was out of her league: Dex, who Rachel met in law school. After convincing herself that he wouldn't go for a girl like her, she promptly introduced him to Darcy. The pair is engaged, and Rachel is set to be the maid of honor in their wedding.

I hate Darcy so much that when a drunken Rachel and Dex sleep together on the night of her thirtieth birthday, I find myself hoping that Rachel gets her chance to screw over Darcy. That this time, she comes out on top, even if she is the maid of honor screwing her best friend's fiance. I hate cheaters because I always wonder about the girlfriend who is clueless about all these things happening behind her back. But here, I cannot bring myself to sympathize with Darcy as the clueless girlfriend. For me, it serves her right for being a terrible friend to Rachel.

Of course, this isn't an open and shut case. Dex loves Darcy. Rachel loves Darcy and values their 20-year friendship. Will they realize that Darcy is too important for them both to lose, or is what they have much more precious than they think? For chick lit critics, this isn't as brainless as one would think. I truly enjoyed this book from cover to cover, and find myself wanting to reread it on a lazy afternoon.

And a quick mention on the latest additions to my reading list:

I mentioned this book a long time ago on my Plurk, and I can't even remember how I found out about it. All I know is I was intrigued by the anecdote that gives birth to the title. The subtitle "The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" has caused friends to say, "This book is so you!" I kept it at the back of my mind, yet found myself always returning to the English Reference section of the bookstore in our neighborhood mall, checking to see if the lone copy had disappeared.

Finding an open copy in another bookstore sealed its fate for me. The introduction spoke to me by giving an example of a badly-punctuated poster, followed by the statement, "If this didn't bother you, put down this book right now." I wanted to raise my hand and say, "Me, me, it bothered ME!!!" I put it back down, couldn't stop thinking about it for days, and finally put the lone copy out of its misery by buying it from said bookstore.

To be fair to the other books that made it to my Reading List first, I have not gone past the first chapter, which I read while having dinner alone immediately after buying it. Hey, I needed to pass the time!

I admit: this was an impulse buy. But in my defense, when you pick up a book with a boring title like Raising the Peaceable Kingdom, you don't expect it to be about an interesting experiment: what happens when you put a baby chick, a puppy, a kitten, a baby rabbit, and a baby rat all together? Do they end up hating each other, or do they live together peacefully even if they're completely different species?

I found myself reading the first chapter while standing next to the Sale Books bin, and I realized that I really wanted to find out the results of this experiment. Wouldn't the puppy and kitten be at each other's throats immediately? After all, the idiom "fighting like cats and dogs" had to come from somewhere. Wouldn't the kitten eat the rat, just like Tom always chases after Jerry (then again, I think Jerry is a mouse, not a rat, but still)? And the kitten might eat the baby chick, just as Sylvester always lusts after Tweety Bird. I couldn't resist not knowing, so it's a good thing that it would only cost me P65 to find out.

And so my current reading list reads:

The 2009 Reading List

1. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
2. The Smart One and the Pretty One by Claire LaZebnik
3. Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin --I boycotted this one.
4. A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern
5. If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern
6. Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
7. Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Getting Things Done by David Allen
8. The Amber Room by Steve Berry
9. Doctors by Erich Segal
10. Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
11. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
12. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding
13. Prizes by Erich Segal

14. Live a Little by Kim Green

15. Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss

16. Raising the Peaceable Kingdom by Jeffrey Maoussaieff Mason

Hey, 5 out of 16 books, that's not so bad! It means I'm one-third down my reading list, as long as I don't add to it! Maybe I'll read Like Water for Chocolate next.

Happy Sunday, everyone!