Filipino Friday #4: Let's talk about Diverse books

Do you think we have enough diversity in the books that we read? Are our choices enough to satisfy our different tastes? Are our writers able to present the variety of people, culture, lifestyle, interests and so on? How diverse are your reading interests, and are you able to find enough books to satisfy your reading needs? Do you think we need more diverse books?

 Among the topics in this year's Filipino Friday, this one on diverse books struck me the most. One, I had a difficult time answering the questions. Two, I really don't want to answer the questions. Not yet. And three, despite reasons one and two, my answer to the last question, do you think we need more diverse books, is a resounding YES.

We live in an archipelago. We have seventeen regions and a hundred more languages. The diversity in every province put together in one map is as tasty, sweet, colorful, and varied as halo halo. Yet, what I have been reading either comes from abroad or from Manila. Pitiful.

So I am leaving this topic here. Four unanswered questions that I will be bringing to my sleep. I don't know if I will get answers when I wake up. These four questions echo to me as a librarian. Because, really, if we have an effective, efficient and functional library system in the Philippines, I would be able to answer these tough questions.

Yet, I hope.

Perhaps.

Perhaps.

Perhaps.

These four questions I'm putting on the parking lot would inspire me to search for answers soon enough.

Filipino Fridays 2014 #3: Fanfiction

 Filipino Friday #3 is all about Fanfiction.

Fanfiction is pretty popular, no doubt about it, but it has been received with mixed feelings by many authors and writers. Some don’t mind it, and even welcome readers who give their own spin on their work. Some writers don’t like it at all, to the point that they contact fanfiction authors to take their work down. Others use it as a jump-off point for their own writing. 

How about you? What is your take on fanfiction? Do you read fanfiction, and if you do, what kind of fanfiction do you read? Do you write fanfiction, and why? Or are you against fanfiction? Enlighten us.

I used to read fanfiction. I stopped, because life has been too busy. I read fanfiction at the height of Twilight's popularity and during the Harry Potter phenomenon. I don't write fanfiction though, and I don't see myself writing one in the future. But I have an open view on fanfiction.

I don't see anything wrong about fanfiction. To me it is the reader's response to a book or a literature he/she loves and/or hate. I consider it a new genre, in fact, that readers and writers can further talk about and discuss. Fanfiction is proof of the powerful relationship between reader, writer and text encountered. Readers need a venue to extend the reading experience. Writing about it is one of the many ways which readers use to extend this experience.

Writers are readers too. Readers can be writers. So, even published writers can create their own fanfiction and their readers can read them on this platform. Fanfiction equalizes the reading experience. I don't see anything wrong with that. But, plagiarized work is something else.

Filipino Friday 2014 #2: Have You Ever Wanted to Write a Book?

Catching up on some blog posts. I'm beginning with Filipino Friday #2 that was scheduled last October 24, 2014.

• As a reader, have you ever thought about writing a book? What kind of books/stories do you want to write? Or are you now a published author, and what compelled you to go fulfil this dream? How was your journey from reader to writer? How did you go about getting your book out there?

My desire to write my own books began in high school. I read S.E. Hinton and Judy Blume and dreamed of putting into words my own stories, getting published and seeing my name after the "by" line. It didn't happen until 2011 when a book I co-authored with Dianne de Las Casas was published, Tales of the 7,000 Isles: Filipino Folk Stories, by ABC CLIO in the US. It is not a novel for young adult, but a collection of folk tales. The proposal for the book project came in 2009 after my traumatic experience with Ondoy The book and my experience of writing this along side Dianne de Las Casas is a given grace. I am forever grateful.

By 2013 and 2014, I have published two illustrated storybooks under Lampara Books: Tale of Two Dreams with Bernadette Solina Wolf, My Daddy, My One and Only with Jomike Tejido and Dear Nanay with Liza Flores. Last September, Lampara Books launched my first series for early readers, Start Right Reading Series, Kindergarten Level. Again, I collaborated with Bernadette Wolf on the illustrations and design of the series.

My journey from reader to writer is a long one. I think the journey will never end. Readers will forever read. Writers will always write. The reading and writing connection continues. I have to thank my friends in KUTING (Kwentista ng mga Tsikiting) for accompanying me in the journey.  Other than my writer friends, I remember with fondness the critiquing sessions I spent with the LitCritters, a group of working writers led by Dean Francis Alfar. Writing may be an isolated act, but it should be a social and cultural endeavor as well.

I suppose it is the same with reading. When we talk about the books we read, we develop a deeper understanding of the reading experience.

Filipino Friday: Surprise, Reader!

This is already a tradition. If there's a Filipino ReaderCon, expect a Filipino Friday a month before the conference begins.

Surprise, Reader! Hello, it’s the first week of Filipino Fridays 2014! Whether it’s your first time to participate or not, tell us a bit about yourself. More specifically, tell us about your favorite book discoveries for this year. Any author you have started reading this year that you can’t get enough of? A book you didn’t think you’d like, but you ended up liking/loving? Any book series that you just have to get your hands on? Have you discovered anything new from Filipino authors this year?

 So, here goes.

My 2014 reading year can be described in one word: ROMANCE. Thanks to Tarie Sabido for introducing me to Rainbow Rowell. After reading Eleanor and Park, I read Fangirl, Attachments and Landline.

Another joyful reading discovery is Sophie Divry's The Library of Unrequited Love. The librarian narrator is sarcastic, snotty and very French. I read a book by a Malaysian author this year as well. Tan Kwan Eng's The Garden of Evening Mist is sentimental but honest. I love the language and the dreamy narration of the main character. When it comes to the brutal parts (setting is World War 2 in the Asia Pacific), the author's elegant handling of language cushioned me to safer landings. Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking is a memoir I thought I wouldn't like. But her way of making meaning about death afforded me a mirroring of my own relationship with my husband and my perception of life in general. It is one of those books that will grow on you as you read along.

This year I got hooked on reading more ebooks too. I have a slew of erotic romance novels saved in my Kindle reader. Cora Seton, JA Huss and Melanie Shawn are but a few of my favorite reads. As for Filipiniana titles, I loved Shine by Candy Gourlay; thrilled over Edgar Samar's Janus Silang although I stopped somewhere in chapter 4 to give in to my kids' demands that they read it first; and right now, I am falling in love with Nick Joaquin all over again. Gotita De Dragon, an anthology of his short stories, is my kind of magic realism.

Until next Filipino Friday!