Blogsights!

Me-anne Jimenez-Salvador writes her insights on the Web 2.0 Technology seminar-workshop I conducted at De La Salle University , Dasmarinas, Cavite last November 26, 2010.

It seems that blogging is enjoyable thing to do. But my question is, do I have time on earth to do this thing?  

First, I don’t have access on the site except today because we have workshop and we need to familiarize ourselves with the different blogs by librarians and hopefully be inspired by it. Second, as a unit head, I do need to ensure that our unit – the Readers’ Services is running well because we are the front liners of the library plus I have monthly exhibit to conceptualize and implement plus I have bi-monthly library newsletter to write. Besides, we have so many paper works to do in preparation for PAASCU and other accreditation.  

Third, after office, I have Espasyo Siningdikato, a not-for-profit  community-based artists initiative to take care of. As President, I have to lead the group and think of creative ideas which we could organize and implement and to look for other organizations and agencies to link-up with. 

Fourth, I am the current director for membership and awards of PAEA. There I am expected to raise more members and encourage them to be active in the group. Also, they asked me to think of awards that we could give to our members to honor, motivate and encourage them to excel more on their profession as art educator. 

And lastly, I also need to fulfill my passion to create and produce artworks for the upcoming exhibits of Grupo Ocho, another art group of mine. This is a pool of artists based in Cavite and we exist to hold group art show in Tagaytay and other nearby towns, our way of propagating Cavite art.

With all of these activities, when could I find time to do blogging and where could I do this? I think  I am the one who can best answer this question and what I better way of answering this but to read and reflect on the passage in theEcclesiastes 3:1-15, A Time for Everything.

I will posting more insights by participants, especially on blogging since this activity is a good example of Web 2.0 technology.

Scholastic Christmas Book Sale

I'm dropping by the Scholastic Christmas Book Sale for delightfully discounted books. Books make great gifts this Christmas and this sale is perfect!

I hope to meet Enoy Ferriol at Scholastic Warehouse as well for the Sambat Trust - Scholastic matching book grant initiative we've started at Wawa Elementary School. We're targeting two thousand five hundred books and we've stocked up a thousand and five. A thousand more to go!


The Scholastic Book Sale started last December 1, 2010 and will end on December 10, 2010.

National Book Week Workshops 2010

Reading Is a RIGHT

Book Week and Library and Information Services Month came to pass.

I reflect on the workshops and talks I conducted the past month and realized a few things:  among the many services librarians do, it matters that we make it possible for information to be available to all; and that, whatever format of information we provide our clients, they engage and READ the content and the medium in which it was delivered.

I'm re-posting Neni Sta. Romana-Cruz's article in the Inquirer last 26 November 2010. I have taken this from the PBBY blog. She mentions in her article Minadanao Librarian who has began literacy projects in Mindanao through effective library services. The article once again reminds us of the crucial role we play in national development.

Must we buy books we want to read?

Commentary

by Neni Sta. Romana Cruz

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:46:00 11/26/2010
Inquirer. net Filed Under: Education
 

“Life happened because I turned the pages.” —Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading (1996)

BAY AREA, San Francisco—If I cannot restrain myself from talking about public libraries in a developed country—the one (and only) principal reason I envy the life here—it is really to highlight how literacy and access to books ought to be a basic right that each and every citizen enjoys.

No, I do not have the illusion that American society is not confronted with a declining literacy rate and a fading interest in books. But its citizens are constantly reading more than we do. They read while waiting for the train or a concert, on train rides, even in the course of a morning walk—all of them keeping a book or even a Kindle on hand so that no time is ever wasted. I’d crane my neck, curious to know what they are reading. Most of them carry copies from their public library, as the library name was prominently stamped on the books. (Yes, many others are busy with their mobile phones.)

How could this habit have been acquired if these readers were not immersed in their early years in schools and an effective public library system? No wonder American comic strip characters make a big fuss about acquiring a library card. A library card is indeed a proud badge to own.

Marvin Atienza, a Chevron executive in Concord, recounts that in his school library in Cavite, he would salivate before the locked bookcase of the complete set of brown and gold gilded Encyclopedia Britannica volumes, something he could not yet be allowed to borrow because he was just in grade school.

Fortunately, today’s enlightened teachers know that when the inclination is there, prescribed learning dates should be thrown out the window. Seize the teaching moment as it comes few and far between.

Bless Marvin’s curiosity for not being doused. He went on to become the very first student in his grade school to become a scholar at the Philippine Science High School where he thrived in being constantly challenged. Today in the book paradise that is the US, he is a public library regular and takes pride in having a library card.

Fellow reading advocate RayVi Sunico continues to remind of this contradiction: we, a country whose economy has yet to boost the quality of life and purchasing power, are the very country that has to purchase books that we need. Little wonder that between the more basic needs and books, books are easily dismissed as luxuries.

RayVi’s tireless refrain on the paradox: “A good public library system means reading is not dependent on purchasing power. This is why I point out that the richer the country, the less money people have to spend on buying books.”

Let me not be perceived as merely raving and ranting about the absence and the dismal state of existing public libraries in the country. To date, no one has challenged my lamentations, but I continue to patiently wait, as only reactions in unison with my views have come in.

And there seems to be a glimmer of hope. I stumbled on what appears to be positive news from Mindanao: In 2009 the Davao City Public Library headed by Nora Fe Alajar had been selected by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts as the most outstanding public library in the country. The library in downtown Davao promotes reading among the children in 14 villages through its mobile libraries. Other libraries in the short list were those in Dagupan, Angeles, Zamboanga, Bacolod and Talisay.

There is a blog anonymously run by “Mindanao Librarian, Region XII, Philippines.” I’m impressed that she does not bother to identify herself except to say, “I am passionate about public and school libraries being socially-inclusive learning spaces. I am also a staunch advocate of reader development, particularly for the traditionally marginalized Mindanaoans. I have great faith in the power of information to transform individuals and communities. I dream of the day when Mindanaoan children will be better able to navigate and compete in a world driven more and more by new information challenges.” Shouldn’t that be every librarian’s credo?

What’s even more heartwarming is that she actually enjoys reading—and lists Jessica Zafra’s “Twisted” series among her favorites—and keeps abreast with what’s current, what’s popular and what might appeal to reluctant readers. For how can a love of reading (a truly tired phrase today) be passed on if the librarian does not have it herself? The Mindanao Librarian needs to be lauded and publicly acknowledged.

National Book Week carries this incredibly ponderous theme, “Pandaigdigang Pakikipag-ugnayan sa Pamamagitan ng mga Aklat at Impormasyong Teknolohiya at Komunikasyon.” Could we not do as well with something catchy and memorable as these popular slogans, “Hooked on Books,” “Get Caught Reading,” or “Any Day, Any Time, Any Book,” in Filipino?

Preserving the Role of Books

Posting this "old" PowerPoint from the 2nd Library Link Conference of the Filipinas Heritage in line with my talk at St. Paul College Pasig last week.

Preserving the Role of Books

View more presentations from eruannie.

I won! I won! I won!

Not in the grand lotto.

But in the Harry Potter Giveaway contest at Sumthinblue's. 

Who Copied Who

In light of the DOT hullabaloo, here are two videos made from the same mould.

The Lost Generation



The Future of Publishing



Note: PenguinUK made a citation and notated the source of idea and inspiration from The Lost Generation.

Picture! Picture!

Earning a License

Sixteen years ago, I took the exams for librarians that would earn me a license.

If my memory serves me right, Dean Igor Cabbab was my exams-mate. He was seated a few chairs in front of me. I was seated in front of Abigail Capitin. I did not know them then. Yet, I remember both their faces. They were very confident. Years after, in some librarian event or the other, I was able to pick up their names and match it with my memory of their bright faces.

What I remember well was the way I was squirming in my seat those two days of the exam. Unlike Dean Cabbab and Ms. Capitin, I was a bundle of nerves. I was so unsure of passing the board exam. As luck would have it, I passed a few steps above the passing mark. Mahal talaga ako ni Lord.

Passing the librarians' board exam meant everything to me. I took it as God's way of telling me to be a librarian. Back then, I was teaching in preschool.

As a young professional and licensed librarian, ang yabang ko. A few years of actual practice made me realize how complicated this issue of librarians earning a license was. Human factor so they say, it is not perfect. At present, it remains so. What with many non-licensed librarians practicing the profession equal to their licensed counterparts. Sigh.

My simple message to those who passed the librarians' board exam: the moral and ethical obligations to obtaining and having a license is a personal responsibility. Use it well.

Congratulations to you!

Harry Potter Moments

I just joined a Harry Potter contest over at Bookmarked. Blooey Singson, the blog's owner, is  a huge Harry Potter fan so she's celebrating and giving away prizes in time for the movie. Though she says she won't watch it. But, if you're a Potterite like me, head on to her blog and see that many of us are up to no good! Kidding.

Here are my Harry Potter Memories.

HP Moment #1 - It was 2001 when I was at the height of my Potter obsession. I was pregnant with our youngest when I finished reading HP 4. In between 2001-2002, I bought Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages to while away the time waiting for Book 5. That school year, I was moderator of the Book Club. I had fifteen grade 5-6 boys combined. Not all of them were readers. They could read, but they're very selective at what to read. Thick chapter books with very few illustrations are a no-no.

Nonetheless, I urged them to read any of the HP series in preparation for Battle of the Books. They did and some even went as far as researching online. I had prepared my own set of activities to monitor their reading speed and space. On Battle of the Books day, we had FUN! As a wrap up activity, I had a write-the-author activity.

Yep. We dared write to JK Rowling!

I placed all of their letters in one big envelope and included mine as cover letter. I mailed it by snail to Scholastic New York. This was around Nov. or early Dec. of 2001.

On February 2002, Scholastic sent us sixteen letters and photos with JK Rowling's autograph!

I know it came from the publicist, or some marketing-PR person in Scholastic New York, but the important thing is, they answered back! My boys and I were on cloud nine. A good number of them became HP fans to this day.

HP Moment #2 - On the day HP 7 was released, I bought my copy at the Scholastic warehouse in Pasig City. I bought two copies actually - one for me and one for my friend, Mona Dy. It was my payback to her for something I owed. She claimed to have no memory at all on the debt.

HP Moment #3 - In the summer of 2008, my son has turned twelve and by the time school started in June, he has finished reading HP 3 - my favorite book in the series.

Looking back at the years when I was crazy over Harry made me realize that my HP moments extend beyond acquiring the books. It made me share reading magic to my students, my friend and my son. It made JK Rowling real to me as her publisher sent a letter recognizing our love for her writing and the books she created. There is love and wonder during those years that spanned age differences and geographic location. Books can do that. And if it is not magic, tell me what is?

Top Ten Librarian Board Exam Passers (2010)

The successful examinees who garnered the top 10 places in the Librarian Licensure Examination November 2010 are:

1 ANGELINE MAY ISLA ODILAO UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-DILIMAN 87.80
2 ALDIANE JOY BASALE AMBIT HOLY CROSS OF DAVAO COLLEGE 87.05
3 NICOLO LORENZO TAPANG CERVANTES UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-DILIMAN 86.30
4 MARY JANE CORTEZ MORANDARTE UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-DILIMAN 86.25
5 IMELDA ROJAS BRAZAL ATENEO DE NAGA 85.75
6 BIANCA REI TAMAYO BAYLAS UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-DILIMAN 85.60
7 JOHANNA JAYNE SEE TACUS PHILIPPINE NORMAL UNIVERSITY-MANILA 85.50
8 IVY HONEYLOU GO CACHO UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-DILIMAN 85.30
9 KRISTI MA FEVIE VILLAPANDO MACASAET UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS 85.10
10 KELVIN BERNARDO SAMSON UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-DILIMAN 84.75

Source: http://www.boardexamresultsph.com/top-10-november-2010-librarian

A Lament on Our Public Library System

Neni Sta. Roman-Cruz, writes about her public library experience and laments the state of Philippine public library system in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Here's an excerpt --

I do feel deprived that no public library in the country has made a difference in my life, again stressing the fact that the world of books is not within everyone’s reach. If we go by official statistics, there are thousands of public libraries—I fervently hope they are touching the lives of readers, as I only know of the more progressive ones in Quezon City and Davao City. And I would be so happy to be proven wrong in my thinking, in my information, in what I am gladly willing to concede as irresponsible and rash observations. Let them be deemed false and misleading, please.

I have to admit that there are libraries in Metro Manila which have been so hospitable to research and learning—the Lopez Memorial Museum and Library in Pasig with the peerless Mercy Servida; the Rizal Library on the Ateneo campus in Loyola; and the Filipiniana section of the National Library. But where to go when one wants to read for the sheer delight of it? Sadly in Manila, it has been the bookstores where one has to make a purchase.

 Her article, National Book Week: Celebration or Lamentation, was posted on November 13, 2010 in the commentary page of the Inquirer.

The Reading Librarian: Ann Grace Bansig

Librarians Read Series: Ann Grace Bansig is currently at Flanders, Belguim for a study grant. She was formerly a school librarian at the De La Salle Zobel School.
 
I am a late bloomer reader. But I will just share books that I enjoyed most during the first two years in college and a little during high school. When I discovered the richness of the Main Library, I started borrowing books that are not so related with the academics but gave joyful and great experiences for me as a reader. So here goes my list:

1. Roald Dahl’s books – I really enjoyed the wit and extraordinary humor of this guy. Even though his books are a bit eccentric and psychotic most of the times, I will still recommend his books. In a research I read for my master’s degree, I’ve found out why his books are a bit controversial in terms of the circumstances happened to the characters he created. According to him, bad guys should be punished! Read his books and you’ll see! =)

2. Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series – I think most us read if not the complete series, then some of the books which stars these famous young detectives back in college or earlier. What I love about Joe and Frank is that they are really good in reading the clues, same with Nancy. I even read the book where both the Hardy boys and Nancy Drew worked together in solving mysteries. They are very youthful, romantic sometimes and wholesome in content, no doubt about it! Through time, the versions of their book evolved too as they are now in famous graphic novels.

3. Da Vinci Code – I read this book long before it became so famous! I remembered that it kept me awake one night to finish it because there is a long queue for this by word of mouth from a friend who read it before me. I never regretted the hours I spent just to finish this!

4. Bridge to Terabithia – I’d say this one is sad at the end but the friendship it showed is one of a kind. This book made me shed tears because of the ending. It has a movie adaptation too and I’m happy to say that I was not too disappointed with the film version.

5. Star girl – This is book is about a girl named Susan Caraway, but she uses “Star girl” as a name. Star girl is full of eccentricities and is a non-conformist. She does things that are way beyond the norms. She sings “Happy birthday” to every kid in school even if she does not know them personally. She attends funeral of other people. She cheers the enemy of the school in basketball and leaves coins in the street. What's good about this book, is that it tells us to be true to ourselves. We don’t have to be anything that we are not for fear of rejection.

6. Harry potter series – I met Harry Potter in college through a friend that reads a lot.  She lent me the book one weekend, and starting that time, I became a Hogwarts’ student wannabe. JK Rowling surely knew how to win a reader because until now Harry Potter holds a place in my heart. Though the film versions are a disappointment, I still watch it with my friends because it became a “Harry Potter tradition”.

7. Gone with the wind – Wow, I have a classic on my list! I love this book though a bit thick and long! I persevered to finish it because I want to know the ending of Scarlett O’Hara. Set during the Revolution, women can surely learn something from the wicked ways of lovely Madam O’Hara as she did her best to survive war, famine and love.

8. B1 Gang Series – I don’t know if others were familiar with this series. I think this is the Philippine version of Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries. The gang is composed of four high school teenagers namely: Gino, Kiko, Boging and Jo. They solve mysteries and myths as they travel around the country. I remembered we used them for some book reports. I do hope that they continue publishing these books because they promote Filipino values, heritage and friendship. Plus they can also compete with the influx of foreign books. If we can patronize foreign books, we can also do so with Philippine materials. =)

Books I read in my post-teen age that I want to recommend.
1. Spiderwick Chronicles
2. Percy Jackson series
3. Hunger games trilogy
4. Princess Diaries series
5. The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel
6. Books by Eva Ibbotson
7. Inkheart series
8. Series of Unfortunate Events – good for building vocabulary words
9. Newbery Award winning books
10. Filipiniana books published by Adarna, Tahanan and Lampara

The Reading Librarian: Darrel Manuel Marco

Librarians Read Series:  Darrel Manuel O. Marco is the Lower Grades Readers' Services Librarian at De La Salle Zobel School, Ayala Alabang, Muntinlupa City

I used to love these books. Some of them were suggested by my friends, some are of sentimental values, while some are just pieces to satisfy my curiosity.

1. The Little Prince -- I really got curious about this book not because of the title but because of the author, I really didn't know how to pronounce his last name! That's why I tried to read the book, and then I realized that, oh!, I'm nearly done and I enjoyed the story. Fantastic. Profound. Antoine de Saint-Exupery really had me going not just because of his last name but because of his captivating way in writing the story.

2. The Da Vinci Code -- yes, I am still young and I was like 18 when I read this phenomenal book. Shocking. Intriguing. Revealing. If you don't have a strong foundation on your belief (and some ounces of sweat for researching), you might as well be convinced, that somehow, these revelations might have really happened or might have truth in them. I give three cheers for Dan Brown for creating this fictional book which stirred the confidence of the "Christian" world.

3. The Five People You Meet in Heaven -- This was the first book I bought from my first attendance in the Manila International Book Fair (2005). Very inspirational. Once my mom was shocked when she saw me reading this book because of the title. She thought that it was all about deaths, killings, and the likes. But then, the young reader I was, I eventually convinced her to try reading it, and she told me that she cried after reading it.

4. Tuesdays with Morrie -- Yet another inspirational book by Mitch Albom. As my college classmates and I were having some small chats on the book that we were reading that time, some of them highly suggested that I should give this one a shot. Nevertheless, I loved this book. Read this for four times and it never failed to make me pour buckets. I guess this is also one of my inspirations why I love being a teacher-librarian.

5. Pride and Prejudice -- My college bestfriend, Ella, loves the classics. So, I thought, what's with them and what makes you hooked with them? They're boring and too dragging. She lent me one of her books, I tried Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and I was proved otherwise. I loved the Bennet sisters ever since. Then came the movie with Kiera Knightly and the rest is history. Now, I am trying to read the new edition, "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies".

6. Ang Alamat ng Gubat -- Got curious because my high school classmates were all passing it around. Thought it was just some graphic novel book by Bob Ong, where a naughty crab was the main protagonist. But I was wrong, it was totally a book of social relevance once you tried reading between the lines. Since then, I read all the other books written by Bob Ong.

7. Love Story/ Oliver's Story -- My former housemate, Nomer, is a fan of Erich Segal books. Those were the "hell week" times that I asked him if he could give me some diversions from my acads and he suggested that I read books by Erich Segal. I picked the thinnest book, Love Story, among his collections. And Viola! I was hooked. The story is not your typical love story and what makes it more fun is the wit of the characters, Jenny and Oliver. Then, of course, I was also hooked with the sequel, Oliver's Story. This made me realize that love after all is not just all about love.

8. Acts of Faith -- The Trinoma Mall in Quezon City was still newly established then, and the Powerbooks store there was the place where I munched this book. Everytime I'd go to that store, I would really look for this particular title and continue reading it until I'm finally done. I finished this book for about five times of visiting the store within one week. This is another book by Erich Segal where love dared to transcend even the extremes of the opposites.

9. Catcher in the Rye/ To Kill a Mockingbird -- In my freshman year, I was assigned to do a report on censorship in the library. While researching for my topic, I stumbled upon these two titles which were deemed censored. So the curious cat in me wondered why. Nomer, once again, lent me his Catcher while another friend of mine, Gel, let me borrow To Kill in exchange of my Da Vinci. Both books were profoundly written. I guess that's why they're censored. Hehe. Kidding aside, Catcher has some tinge of racism in it while To Kill has aspects of violence which I guess are not suitable for the target market, Juveniles.

10. Harry Potter series -- One word: FANTASTIC! I hate that it is being compared to the Twilight series. HP is legenday. The plot thickens along the way. The struggles become harder and tougher but in the end, our victor would still emerge, of course, victorious! It's children's literature for the whole family. Now, I am re-reading the whole series and I really want more!

May I also suggest some of the books that I love to read even though I'm not a teenager anymore? Here are some:
1. Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins -- never thought I'd love this series. I want more!
2. Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan -- who wouldn't want to be a demi-god/goddess?
3. Geronimo Stilton series by Geronimo Stilton -- Yeah, blame it on my babies! They love the series and I got infected. The humor is infectious and the lessons as well as guide in good writing is incomparable
4. His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman -- The first movie, Golden Compass might not have given it a good justification but the series is really good.
5. Lord of the Rings trilogy -- I started reading it when I was 20, not a teenager anymore. :P Epic saga. Very nice.
6. Books by Eric Carle -- yeah, I'm going back to my childhood years
7. Books by Dr. Seuss
8. The Polar Express -- Can't help but cry everytime I read this. Very touching.
9. Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull -- fairies, nyphs, satyrs and every magical creatures
10. Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi

I also hope that we read more Filipiniana books and enrich our Filipiniana literature by contributing more creative Filipino stories. Such creative books are:
1. Tuwing Sabado
2. Asan na ang sundo ko
3. Ang pambihirang buhok ni Raquel
4. Half and Half
5. Tight times
6. The Yellow Paperclip and It's Bright Purple Spots
7. Bruhahaha - bruhihihi
8. Filemon Mamon
9. Barumbadong Bus
10. Bisikleta ni Monmon
11. Pilandok series

I hope that as you read this article, you are now considering to try to read at least one of the titles. Or any titles for all I care, just so as long as you keep reading, you love learning and you never stop sharing what you've learned to the world. Start with one page at a time, and soon you'll find out that there really is no harm in reading.

What Does a Librarian Make?

For the first time, a Filipino author remembers with fondness a librarian who was influential, in part, for shaping her world to the wonder of words. Candy Gourlay writes about Ms. Evelyn Diaz, her grade school librarian in relation to her being nominated a Carnegie Medal.

Head on to Candy Gourlay's blog, read her post on her favorite librarian and win a prize along the way.

The Reading Librarian: Igor Cabbab

Librarians Read Series: Dean Igor Cabbab of the UP School of Library and Information Science. 

Please note that he made the list before his formal appointment as dean of the UP SLIS. Either way, congrats to the new post and more power to UP SLIS!

Oh, I wasn't much of a book reader way back then. I remember reading the following:

1. The Prophet by Khalil Gibran (library book, I really don't know why I picked up that book O_o;;)

2. Encyclopedia Brown, The Hardy Boys Series and The Nancy Drew Series (borrowed from cousins)

3. Complete Works of Shakespeare (around the house, my parents)

4. Mythology, Edith Hamilton and Age of Fable, Thomas Bulfinch (around the house, my parents)

5. Le Morte d' Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory (around the house, my parents, yeah, Dragonball Z even before Son Goku! Knight gets stronger during the day, weaker at sunset, three days of fighting nonstop. ^_^)

6. The komiks section of Liwayway (every week when I visit my aunt, Agua Bendita anyone?)

7. A ton of Komiks!!! (while tending my lola's store, hospital overnights, long bus rides... Wakasan, Funny Komiks, etc.)

8. DC comics 12-issue arc "Crisis on Infinite Earths" (loaned from my hs pals, hey, multiple universes and a seemingly invulnerable superhero like Supergirl dying f***s up one's childhood like no other)

9. TinTin and Asterix the Gaul comics (library books)

10. Elizabeth Barrett Browning poems: Sonnets from the Portuguese (around the house)

Oh, and a ton of Sweet Valley High and Sweet Dreams(?) paperbacks my sister leaves in the toilet for reading (ei, they're there, need to read something ^_^;;)

Come to think of it, this probably explains a lot why I am what I am today.

The Reading Librarian: Von Totanes

Librarians Read Series: Von Totanes,  PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, licensed librarian in the Philippines and hibernating blogger in cyberspace.
 
Here are the ten that I kept reading over and over again in high school and beyond:

Adventures in the Screen Trade - William Goldman
Airport - Arthur Hailey
The Bourne Identity - Robert Ludlum
The Day of the Jackal - Frederick Forsyth
Doctors - Erich Segal
Evergreen - Belva Plain
The Firm - John Grisham
The Godfather - Mario Puzo
If Tomorrow Comes - Sidney Sheldon
Kane and Abel - Jeffrey Archer

I was 13 in 1986, when my dad told me that I needed to move up from the Hardy boys and handed me the Bourne Identity. He initially had to force me to read one chapter every week, but eventually I had to plead that he let me finish the book. From then on, I just kept reading what I thought of as grown-up books!

Perhaps the ones that need the most explanation are the lone non-fiction book--adventures--and the one by a woman. Adventures was one of the few new books at the library. I didn't really have any idea what it was about, but it looked interesting, so I borrowed it. And ended up getting hooked on a book that I later learned was THE classic book on screenwriting with the oft-repeated "no one knows anything," in reference to Hollywood.

I never saw the Evergreen miniseries, but I did see a few minutes on TV once and thought maybe I should read the book. After reading so many action-packed bestsellers, you'd think it was really not my style and give up. But back then I thought I HAD to finish every book I began, and eventually fell in love with its very slow pace, and ended up going back to it (i bought my own copy) every now and then. I tried reading a few of her other books, but I don't think i ever finished--and certainly didn't REread--any of them.

The Reading Librarian: Fe Angela Verzosa

Librarians Read Series: Madame Fe Angela Verzosa and her books read as a teenager. 

It took me quite long to make this list (4 hours?), because I had hundreds of favorites during my teen years, when my early life was half-spent in reading good books by great minds. Because you defined the period from 13-18, I had to eliminate the first 3 formative years when I was still in High School and reading a lot of Nancy Drew mysteries plus the required literature readings from my English and Lit subjects, and concentrated on the latter 3 years of my teenhood to come up with this list. My favorite books, in the order of how they affected my adolescent thinking are:

• Platero y Yo by Juan Ramon Jimenez . I fell in love with the book and the author, a Spanish poet, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956. This book was given on my 16th birthday by a bosom friend, with whom I had a passionate relationship later in life. From then on, I decided if ever I would write poetry, it would be in the style of Juan Ramon, a prose poem.

• The Little Prince (or Le Petit Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a French aviator, who wrote the novella in 1943. I was so moved by the lines - "One sees clearly only with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes." – that for years, it was my favorite motto. My favorite chapter was 21: when the prince meets and tames a fox, who explains to the prince that his rose is unique and special, because she is the one whom he loves. ("It is the time you have lost for your rose that makes your rose so important.")

• The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm, is a book written by psychologist and social philosopher, another gift from my first boy friend. I still have the book published in 1956 by Harper & Row and treasures it to this day. This bestseller is a favorite companion to another book he wrote Escape from Freedom, where he postulated 8 basic needs: Relatedness (relationships with others, care, respect, knowledge), Transcendence (creativity, developing a loving and interesting life), Rootedness (feeling of belonging), Sense of Identity (seeing ourselves as a unique person and part of a social group), Frame of orientation (understanding the world and our place in it.), Excitation and Stimulation (actively striving for a goal rather than simply responding), Unity (a sense of oneness between one person and the "natural and human world outside"), and Effectiveness (the need to feel accomplished).

• Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, is an inspirational book that I continue to read over and over again, especially during times of soul-searching and agonizing need for peace and solitude. Anne Morrow Lindbergh (known as the first American woman to have a pilot’s license) was an admirable woman, and her stoic character was sharpened by many tragedies in her life.

• The Grass Harp by Truman Capote, a story of youth and loneliness, was among the great books I read in my teens. After reading this novel, I went on to read "Other Voices, Other Rooms,” and into more Capote works, and decided Truman Capote deserves to be among the literary giants in American literature.

• The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, her first of many novels, about eccentric characters, portraits of the rejected, forgotten, mistreated and oppressed. Needless to mention, after this, I devoured the rest - Reflections in a Golden Eye, The Member of the Wedding, and the novella The Ballad of the Sad Café.

• Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence. I first read the expurgated version, not knowing I was missing some chapters, and after reading it from our school library, discovered that an unexpurgated version was available (from a friend’s library possession), and read it over and over again, graduating to more of his novels, Sons and Lovers and Women in Love.

• Jude the Obscure by Tomas Hardy, another English novelist and poet, who had a profound influence on my literary taste. I was first introduced to Hardy’s novels after reading The Return of the Native (a required reading), and after reading Far from the Madding Crowd , The Mayor of Casterbridge, and Tess of the d'Urbervilles, I decided the best was Jude the Obscure. I will never forget his precocious child, Little Father Time.

• Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn and Black Spring by Henry Miller, a revolutionary and controversial writer, whose first of this trilogy was banned in the US for almost 25 years, until the US Supreme Court declared it to be a work of literature and not pornography.

• The Alexandria Quartet (Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, and Clea) by another English novelist, Lawrence Durrell, which fascinated me because of its exotic setting in the city of Alexandria. I read the tetralogy in hurried succession, after watching the epic movie, Lawrence of Arabia.

Librarians Read Series: The Reading Librarian

From November 8-12, 2010, the blog will feature one librarian per day and their list of books read as a teen. Yes, it's a spill over of Teen Read Week 2010!

This is what I got for having invited readers to join in the Teen Read Week list mania. No regrets! The more the merrier!

The five Filipino librarians who replied to my call for participation in this blog's Teen Read Week list mania is a very small percentage of the big group of  Filipino librarians out there who read. I've often met people from outside the profession who complain that librarians do not READ. Shame it is to hear and know about this. A librarian who does not read should re-examine his or her career path. Librarians MUST be models of the reading habit especially in the community of learners that they belong to. It is not a requirement to read every book there is in the vast collection of the library or online resources but, it is essential that the librarian is a READER.

Now I imagine teaching LIS (Library and Information Science) in college. If I were, I would ask the college applicant these two questions: Do you read? What have you read recently?


If you are a college freshman and is considering taking LIS as a major course (and brave enough to reply to this post), hit the comment button and share your reading list!

Happy reading!

What's Your Bookprint?

I have five bookprints at You Are What You Read.

What's yours?

Storytelling Past, Present...and Counting!

Book Talks and Literacy Initiatives

The Reading Association of the Philippines' Asian Literacy Conference is on its second day of consummation. The program contained a mix of local and international teachers, practitioners, professionals and scholars in the field of education, reading instruction and library science. It has, if my memory serves me right, five to six break out sessions of paper presentations, panel discussions and poster sessions. There are also literacy categories for every paper presented, posters displayed and discussion panels.

Here's a photo of my friend, Kinchay Villafranca, who had two sessions on reading and IT instruction in the middle years. As for myself, I had a panel discussion on the literacy initiatives of the PBBY -- The Salanga and Alcala Prizes; Wan Dey Isang Araw; Salaysayan; the National Children's Book Day and the 1st National Children's Book Day.

Yesterday, I was at the National Library of the Philippines for a lecture on Reading and how it shapes the mind. It was organized by the Book Talk Society of the Philippines. It's president is Prof. Mike Cobaria who was my former professor at the Philippine Normal University.

I had the opportunity to book talk four of the books who made it to the Best Reads 2010 - 1st NCBA. I could tell that it was at that time when the participants were engaged all the more. Another highlight of the day was the inclusion of Sambat Trust's grass roots school library development project in Tanauan, Batangas. At the end of my lecture, donated books were turned over to Pathways to Higher Education for the high school libraries they help develop.

There are more library and literacy activities slated for the month of November. I'll be blogging about those I will attend and conduct. So stick around for more news on the literacy and literary scene in Manila!

CDR King's e-Reader

I just need to blog this -- a cheap e-reader for only Php 4,000 (rounded off)! Read more about it in Arnold Zafra's blog.

Now this does not mean I will run to the nearest CDR King outlet. The cheapskate that I am! I'll write Santa Claus a letter!

Folks Talk on Pinoy Folk Tales

One of the many rewards I got from writing the manuscript of Tales From the 7,000 Isles: Filipino Folk Stories was that, I had the opportunity to discuss with my writer friends the influences, inspirations and status of Philippine folk lore today. This proves that writing, though a solitary act, should never be done in isolation. The whole process involves a lot of reading, speaking and articulating and yes, listening to peers and experts in the discipline.

Augie River and Dr. Luis Gatmaitan were perfect for such discussions. The former provided me with references and leads while the later gave me tips to the many possibilities of retelling a well loved tale. Paolo Chikiamco lent his passionate opinion on Filipino Folk stories via the interview questions I sent his way a few weeks back. His blog, Rocket Kapre has a treasure trove of resources for the folk tale enthusiast.

Read on Paolo's thoughts and insights on Philippine folk lore --

a. What made you compile a blog link/site on Filipino folk tales other than an obvious interest on the genre?

When I set up the website for Rocket Kapre Books, I didn't want it to serve only as a bulletin board for announcements pertaining to our books and authors. I also wanted it to be a place that fosters the creation of Filipino works of speculative fiction, wherever these works are eventually published. I figured one way to do this would be by sharing some of the resources I've found in my own research, and I chose to do this first with Philippine mythology and folklore because there didn't seem to be a lot of online resources dealing with these topics, and because our heritage is such a fertile source of inspiration. Speculative fiction authors in other countries have been kept their old tales alive by re-imagining them and re-incorporating elements into new, modern stories, and I'd love to see more Filipino authors do the same (in the footsteps of people such as Arnold Arre and Budjette Tan).

Researching pre-hispanic Filipino traditions can be a daunting and time-consuming task because of the vast diversity of the cultures and people lived in these islands, and a relative scarcity of research materials, especially if you don't live near a library. The Myth List and Philippine Pantheons pages are my way of providing a starting point for writers who want to incorporate elements of our myths in their tales.


b. What Western and Eastern influences are predominantly found in our folk tales? Name at least five.

I'm not sure if we can really speak of a Western influence in our earliest folk tales, since most of the foreigners who visited our shores before the Spanish arrived were from Asia. Some writers believe that a few of the more popular creatures of folk lore were created because of or as a reaction to the Spanish--"Kapre" is said to come from the Arabic word "Kaffir" and could have been used to demonize the West, while the Manananggal could have come from an attempt by Spanish missionaries to demonize female shamans who were their competition in the spiritual realm.

Easterners, being our neighbors, exercised a more direct influence, but you'd need an expert (rather than just an enthusiast like myself) to quantify them. Some of our people, such as the Sama Dilaut, may have come to our islands from other countries and carried their own store of folklore which mixed with those who were here before them. Certain local myths also seem to be of a type that can be found in some form in many other Eastern cultures -- such as the many myths dealing with a man who, through deceit, marries a Star in human form. The introduction of Islam to the south of the archipelago also influenced folklore there heavily, and we received Islam primarily from our Southeast Asian neighbors.


c. What is the prevailing folk tale motif have you observed present in the folk tales you've read so far?

Again, it's hard for me to generalize given that I've been trying to read up on the folklore of our people from all over the islands, and there can be great differences in the tales of the north as opposed to the south, or the myths of the people who live in the mountains as opposed to those who live in the lowlands. Each culture will have their own particular concerns, and that will greatly affect the motifs present in their folklore. Herminia Meñez Coben points out, for instance, that "the attainment of immortality without having to experience death" is central to the Bukidnon, and that's something you can see from their tale of the Ascension to Heaven via the Salimbal, the heavenly ship.


d. As a writer and collector of folk tales, what is the greatest challenge you've encountered yet? Where do you attribute this challenge?


As a collector, the greatest challenge is finding material that not only gives a narration of the old stories, but also gives a proper context, one that explains what the myth as a whole or elements of that myth meant for the people and culture from which it originated. If I'm reading an epic, say, where the hero turns into a particular kind of animal, it's very helpful to know whether that animal has a particular cultural significance. The old tales were always more than just literal narrations of events - like the universe itself in the eyes of many cultures, the old stories had layers, and if one simply reads a retelling of the story, without any context, that depth can be lost.

As a writer, the greatest challenge for me is trying to embrace these old myths and legends as a part of my Filipino heritage, without wrongful appropriation. These are my stories and yet, at the same time, they are not, because many of the stories which are considered Filipino folklore emerge from communities which pre-existed the idea of a Philippine nation, or even a Filipino race, communities which still exist today in a sort of grey area where they are struggling to maintain their unique cultural identities.


e. What folk tale personify the Filipino?


I think many of our countrymen are die-hard romantics, so I think that the stories that best embody the Filipino spirit are those that deal with true love, particularly those that involve a pair trying to overcome nigh-insurmountable obstacles in order to consummate their affections. One example is the myth of the Ibanag which explains why there is a high tide whenever the moon is full. It involves the daughter of the sun god, the son of the sea go, and the violation of the laws of the immortals. It could easily serve as the basis for the modern form of narrative that so engrosses the nation - the Fantaserye.

Blog Discoveries

Delighted to discover the blogs of The Busy Librarian and I am Demigod Librarian.

Click the links and find out for yourself why it is such a delight to read them!

Neil Gaiman: Libraries Are the Future

November is here.

I am inundated with workshops and talks on storytelling, bibliotherapy, books, reading, why libraries and the printed word are still important in this day and age, and blogging. Not that I'm complaining, but it's another busy month.

So, for the first post of November, being Library and Information Services month, here's a link on Neil Gaiman's acceptance speech on winning the 2010 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway award. His book, The Graveyard Book, was conferred winner as well.

He drums up the importance of libraries in his speech. In the end, he shares his sentiments at the closure of many libraries worldwide due to budget cuts.

Books and Storytelling in a Conference on Virtual Library Spaces

Attending the first day of the 4th Rizal Library International Conference last 21 October was an opportunity that allowed me to touch base with friends, college batch mates and colleagues in the profession. Here I am with Peachy Limpin who flew in from Australia a day before the conference began. She presented a paper on Technical Services with a focus on Resource Description and Access (RDA). Her full paper can be viewed and downloaded from the conference's website. Papers and presentations of other speakers may also be accessed there.



I was also given the chance to present the 1st National Children's Book Awards by the PBBY and the National Book Development Board. A poster session was provided for me as well. Thank you so much to Dir. Lou David and her team of librarians who made this possible. Four hundred participants are now aware of this milestone in Philippine Children's Literature.



During the fellowship night, Jay Menes and I performed three stories using a beatbox. Shout out to our dear friend, Dianne de Las Casas for inspiring us to experiment on performance and participative telling techniques.



Here's looking towards more opportunities to tell Filipino folk stories in the oral tradition!

Teen Read Week Round Up

And so the carnival of Teen Read Week (TRW) 2010 comes to a close. It was fun doing the list mania but I'll cook up something for next year's TRW. For now, here are thoughts and inferences I've drawn up from the blog activity. Feel free to add yours if you have one or several.

* Edith Hamilton and books on mythology are a big hit among teen readers.

* There were a few Filipiniana Young Adult books in the list of the ten readers who participated. Majority are foreign books. We, people in the book and publishing industry, should do something about this. I'm sending an email to a local publisher right after writing this entry.

* There are a reader's rite of passage books -- books that a reader in one particular age group read through -- Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Sweet Dreams, Sweet Valley, Mills & Boon, tons of comic and graphic novels. It only goes to shoe that books written and produced for young people must address their developmental needs. This does not mean though that adult books are forbidden for them to read. Reading is developmental and interest based. There is a necessity to recognize this reality.

* The reading young adult is a curious monster to tame.

* The choice of reading materials reflects the reader's personality. Haha!

I wish to thank all who sent their list - Rayvi Sunico, Mike Rivera, Carlo Go, Paolo Chikiamco, Blooey Singson, Liwa Malbed, Maricel Montero, Kenneth Yu, Candy Gourlay and Anthony Mariano. For those who did the list in their blogs like fantaghiro23 many thanks as well for others have followed suit and responded in earnest via comments. The PBBY board joined in the fun too! Click this and see our fave books when we were teens.

Off to November now which is Library and Information Services month. I'll be resurrecting the Author of the Month; will feature five librarians and their reading list from their teenage years (yes, we can't get enough of books and reading!); post a few library related topics; and will share some workshop highlights and library projects.

Anthony Mariano: Books I Read When I was a Teenager

Anthony Mariano, founder of Sambat Trust, a UK based charity dedicated to help build libraries and assist Tanauan schools in developing literacy sent his list of books read as a teen. Anthony is based in Japan teaching English but his heart and memory fleets from London to Tanauan, Batangas -- places where he grew roots and wings!

Wow! Looking at my list, I must have been a morose teen.

Here they are:

1. Adrian Mole books- Sue Townsend

2.Animal Farm- George Orwell.

3. Lord Of the Flies- William Golding

4. Catcher in the Rye- J.D.Salinger

5. An Evil Cradling- Brian Keenan

6. To Kill A Mocking Bird- Harper Lee

7. 1984- George Orwell

8. Early Bill Bryson travel books.

9. Grapes of Wrath/ Of Mice and Men- John Steinbeck.

10.Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood.

Candy Gourlay: Books I Read When I was a Teenager

Candy Gourlay, journalist and author shares her list of books she read as a teenager. Candy's debut novel, Tall Story, is a smash hit in Manila and in London. The book will soon come out in the US and I expect that Fil-American teens particularly will love it!

Candy blogs and her website is fantastic! You can read her whereabouts there and watch trailers of her book, Tall Story. If I am not mistaken, Candy is currently writing her second novel for young adults.

Below is Candy's top ten reads!

This is very revealing of one's age but here you go:

1. Prince and the Pauper by Samuel Clemens - how many times did I read this? and it was always brilliant!

2. Rich Man Poor Man by Irwin Shaw - here's where I figured out what sex was about and I remember being so appalled. I read it because of the mini series starring Nick Nolte.

3. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - my role model was Jo March - read the entire series and decided I would become a novelist who lived in a house filled with little boys (I kind of fulfilled that wish).

4. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - read this because of the movie and loved it even though the language was very difficult.

5. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - read this because of a Ladybird book I read about it.

6. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand - I thought I was so cool reading this. Now I totally disagree with the philosophy.

7. The Quiet American by Graham Greene - loved Graham Greene but now I would be hard pressed to recall the stories.

8. The Water Method Man by John Irving - this was so funny and so adult for innocent me.

9. The World According to Garp by John Irving - I loved this book but only in my maturity realized that it was an anti-feminist tract!

10. Nora Aunor and Other Profiles by Nick Joaquin - this made me want to become a journalist and write similar profiles.

Hey this list made me realize that teen reads are not necessarily confined to kids' books.

And yeah, ten is a very small number.

Maricel Montero: Books I Read When I was a Teenager

Executive Director of Museo Pambata, Maricel Montero, shares her list and recommends books that teens should read!

Now you got me into remembering my teenage years and the books I read . Okay aside from the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins, Mallory Towers, Mills and Boon and Barbara Cartland books and lots of Almanacs, hahaha!

I will never forget the following titles: Not in their order
Thimble Summer by by Elizabeth Enright (First book I really enjoyed reading, because I am a small town farm girl : )
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
The Gift of Acabar by Og Mandino
The Little Prince by Antoine Saint-Exupery
The Dune by Frank Herbert
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M Auel
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Drifters by James Michener
Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck

Books I read from our personal library at home --

Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Call of the Wild by Jack London
(We had a set of the Reader’s Digest collection of classics with themes e.g. Animals and I enjoyed reading them : )
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Chariots of the Gods by Erick Von Daniken and other UFO books
The encyclopedia ( I love searching the different countries and remembering their capitals and imagining how it looked like. I also enjoyed looking at different breeds of dogs : )
Greek Mythology by Edith Hamilton (of course!)

Recommended reading for young adults ( not in order)
Senior’s Ball by Rene Villanueva
Tall Story by Candy Gourlay
Barefoot in Fire by Barbara Ann Gamboa – Lewis
Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson
Island of the Blue Dolphin by Scott O’ Dell
And of course, a smattering of the classics.

Kenneth Yu: Books I Read When I was a Teenager

Kenneth Yu, writer, editor and publisher of The Philippine Genre Stories sends his list of books read as a teenager. I've featured Kyu in this blog before and he happens to be the third Xaverian to join the Teen Read Week list mania!

Kyu is one voracious reader. He could not contain his reading choices to only ten. He has twenty! He blogs at Philippine Genre Stories.

My list, in no particular order:

1. D'Aulaire's and Edith Hamilton's Greek Myths, and D'Aulaire's Norse myths
2. The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien
3. The Prydain Chronicles by Alexander
4. The Narnian Chronicles by Lewis
5. The Earthsea Tales by Le Guin
6. Agatha Christie mysteries
7. The Time Quintet by L'Engle (actually, there were only the first three when I was between 13 and 18)
8. Stephen King horror tales of this era (Carrie, Night Shift, Christine, Salem's Lot, The Stand, Pet Sematary, Cujo, The Shining)
9. Edgar Allan Poe's stories
10. Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes
11. Roald Dahl's books (The Charlies books, Fantastic Mr. Fox, James and the Giant Peach, Danny, Champion of the World, etc.)
12. H.P. Lovecraft's The Lurking Fear and Other Stories
13. Various short stories by Asimov, Dick, Clarke
14. The short stories of Hemingway and Faulkner
15. Doyle's Holmes stories
16. Howard's Conan stories
17. Watership Down by Adams
18. Dune by Herbert
19. Tolstoy's short stories
20. Chekhov's short stories

Liwliwa Malabed: Books I Read When I was a Teenager

Liwliwa Malabed shares her reading list. Liwa is a friend from KUTING (Kwentista ng mga Tsikiting), the premiere organization of children's book writers in the Philippines. She is currently its Vice President. Busy with KUTING work, as the organization os scouting for new members and inking writing projects left and write, Liwa does freelance writing for TV, magazines and the likes.

1.The Hobbit - Tolkien
2. The Thief of Always/Imajica- Barker
3. Walk Two Moons- Creech
4. Hope for the flowers-Paulus
5. Calvin and Hobbes-Watterson
6. Wasted-Alanguilan
7. Kitchen-Yoshimoto
8. Dance dance dance- Murakami
9. Of Love and Other Demons- Márquez
10. Alchemist-Coelho
and of course, pugad baboy, agatha christie and sweet valley (haha)

Most are books my brother (Jong) lent me. Everytime my kuya comes home to Ilocos, he would bring me a book or two. Just so i'll stop reading Sweet Valley.

Blooey Singson: Books I Read When I was a Teenager

Blooey Singson is a writer, public relations executive, newspaper contributor, and freelance illustrator. She is a member of Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan (Ang I.N.K.) and an administrator of the Filipino book club Flips Flipping Pages. Blooey is a book lover who reads over two hundred books a year, and a compulsive book shopper who cannot get through the week without adding a book (or ten) to her collection, which ran out of shelf space a long time ago. She reviews books and blogs about her book adventures on her website, http://sumthinblue.com.


TOP TEN BOOKS I READ WHEN I WAS A TEENAGER

1) The Harry Potter series (Books 1-5) by J.K. Rowling- I discovered Harry Potter when I was 14 years old, and the rest of my teenage years were spent reading the series, making it a huge part of my adolescence. I feel like I grew up with Harry and his friends.

2) The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin - I've read many more mystery novels after reading this book, but The Westing Game remains to be one of the most brilliantly plotted mysteries I have ever had the pleasure of reading

3) The 21 Balloons by William Pene du Bois - I discovered this book back in the 4th grade, but it remained one of the most read books in my library up to my teens. It was the first travel book I ever read, and it has always made me wonder how it would feel to just drift aimlessly on a hot air balloon.

4) Skin and Other Stories by Roald Dahl- I've been reading Roald Dahl since I was young, but when a college friend lent me this collection of short stories, I discovered a whole new level of appreciation for Roald Dahl. Today, I love his adult works more than his children's books.

5 - 6)Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume and Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech- These two novels deal with coping with the grief of a loved one. I lost my dad at age 11, and it took years for me to get over it, but these books really helped a lot.

7) The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery - This book will always remind me of my 4th year literature class, when forty-four of us girls in blue and white uniforms sat enthralled as our teacher read us passages from the book. We were tamed for life.

8) Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal- I enjoyed this high school requirement immensely, even when we read the full length Tagalog novels and we had to consult the Filipino dictionary with every sentence!

9) P.S. I Love You by Barbara Conklin- They weren't selling Sweet Dreams in the bookstores anymore when we were in high school, but a classmate photocopied her older sister's battered copy of this book and it was passed around in class, drawing collective sighs from thirteen year old schoolgirls.

10) Love Story by Erich Segal - Along with P.S. I Love You, this was another one of those books I read in high school, during that phase when all we ever wanted to read were books about undying love that made us gush and sigh, and cry and wish that someday we'd be able to experience the things we read about!

Paolo Chikiamco: Books I Read When I was a Teen

Paolo Chikiamco, Palanca awardee, speculative fiction advocate, blogger and Pinoy folklore enthusiast sent his list of books read as a teen. He is the second Xaverian to join in the Teen Read Week carnival of this blog :-)

Paolo blogs at Rocket Kapre.

I made an earlier post on my old blog about books I treasured early in my life as a reader, and it seems fitting to continue now, for Teen Read Week 2010, with books from my teen-age years. These aren't young adult books for the most part: for one thing, that genre didn't really exists aside from the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys/Sweet Valley juggernauts; and for another, I was already reading "adult" level genre fiction before I hit puberty. Given that these were some of my most productive years as a reader, it'll be hard to create a list of ten, but I'll give it a shot.

JEDI DAWN (Star Wars Game Books) by Paul Cockburn: Simply reading stories was never enough for me - I wanted to be a part of those worlds, to enter them. Before I discovered that I could sit down and write my own adventures, and before video games reached the point where the world and the story were as important as the gameplay, choose your own adventure books were the closest I could get to that--and this book was the best one I ever read. In 1993, I went to England as part of a summer exchange program, and I fear I might have left a bad impression with the foster family I was staying with, because after a visit to a London bookstore I had absolutely no interest in socializing with them. This book is one of the reasons why that was the case.

ASSASSIN'S APPRENTICE (and the Farseer Trilogy) by Robin Hobb: I'm sure that the Farseer trilogy wasn't my first exposure to the first person POV, but it's the first one I remember, and it certainly set the bar for all those that came after. Hobb was the first author I ever read who really, really didn't shy away from having terrible things happen to her characters, and the fact that Fitzchivalry Farseer was--and still is, for me--one of the most grounded and sympathetic characters in fantasy fiction made his trials all the more heart wrenching.

NEVER DEAL WITH A DRAGON (and other Shadowrun novels) by Robert N. Charrette: In retrospect, the fact that I used to buy tabletop roleplaying game modules and construct adventures solely for myself to enjoy seems a bit pathetic. I was an only child whose few friends just weren't interested in "playing pretend"--but really, I didn't mind, not when making those stories was such a joyful process. Shadowrun was my first exposure to genre-bending and cyberpunk and the novels were always fun in and of themselves, and useful as resources for my own stories.

GOD TALES by Nil Guillemette: I'm not sure which one of these books I first read, but I know that after I finished the first book, I went back to the St. Paul store and bought all the other available volumes (only a few were available at the time--now of course there are more than thirty). Even in my youth I was never comfortable with the harshness, rigidity, and simple inconsistency of certain Catholic teachings. These books presented in their stories --many of them with speculative elements--a morality that I understood, one where the focus was on love and reasonableness and not punishment. I still remember vividly one story which had Mother Mary defending a sinner in a makeshift legal trial, and successfully proving that all it took was one selfless act in a lifetime to shield a soul from the fires of hell. The early books in this series played a huge part in my ethical development.

THE EYE OF THE WORLD (and the Wheel of Time) by Robert Jordan: This was the series that defined epic fantasy for me and a generation of readers. The series lost me toward the middle, and with no end in sight I stopped reading… but when the able Brandon Sanderson brings Robert Jordan's saga to a close, I'll read it straight through from beginning to end.

NOBODY'S SON by Sean Stewart: Most of the books I gravitated to were parts of a series, as opposed to stand alone novels, mostly because those were the books that dominated the shelves in those days, so Nobody's Son was a bit of a strange choice for me and the bookstores both. I never regretted my decision though. This book was the first to show me how to put a twist on an older story in order to make it new -- or maybe it's just that by this point I'd read enough to realize when tropes were being subverted, as in this case where the novel starts from the point which, in most other stories, would be the end of the tale.

THE MAGIC OF RECLUCE (and other Recluce books) by L.E. Modesitt Jr: Modesitt's writing was like nothing I'd ever seen before, with a rigor and consistency I admire to this day. The level of thought he put into his magic system made it seem real to me, and the level of detail he put in his description of everyday jobs (in the first book, wood carving; in a later book, forging/engineering) made them seem magical.

LEGEND by David Gemmell: Gemmell's books were comfort food for me, my equivalent of (high quality) Hollywood blockbusters, packed to overflowing with action and thrills and heroism. Legend was my very first "siege warfare" fantasy story, and also my first "old warrior comes out of retirement" story, and it's still the standard against which all similar tales are measured.

A PLAGUE OF ANGELS by Sherri S. Tepper: I'm a bit of a sap, so it's not strange for me to finish a book a bit teary eyed, but no other book has made me weep like a candy lover at the dentist. In a strange way, I've always felt that it was this book--more than any homily or teacher--that taught me the meaning and value of sacrifice and the cross.

THE MYTHOLOGY CLASS by Arnold Arre: The fact that I own the original four issue version of Arre's first graphic novel is a point of pride for me -- my proof that I was there when the komiks industry began to evolve into a new form. It was the first work of fiction I’d ever read to include -- to celebrate -- elements of Philippine folklore and myth, and no doubt because of that, it's the first book by a Filipino that I ever fell in love with. Much of my interest in local myth and legend can be traced back to this particular "class" -- and I've been learning ever since.

Honorable Mentions:

* The Lone Wolf series (gamebooks and novelizations)

* Wizard's First Rule (and the Sword of Truth books)

* Ender's Game (and the Ender Quartet)

* The Dragonbone Chair (and the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series)

* The Elenium and the Tamuli

* Sandman

Carlo Go: Books I Read When I was a Teen

This list is from Carlo Go, a senior at UP Diliman taking up Business Economics. He is the School of Economics Representative to the USC - University Student Council.

Carlo is a former student.

I just realized that I'm not a teenager anymore. HAHAHAHA!!

1. Book Thief by Markus Zuzak
2. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
3. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
4. Atonement by Ian Mc Ewan
5. The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
6. Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
7. The Alexandria Link by Steve Berry
8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
9. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
10. The Odyssey by Homer

I read most of these books during the latter part of my teenage years. Most of the books that I love devouring would be Man Booker winners. These books helped me get through my college life and my somewhat insane personal life. I couldn't imagine my college life without these books. :)

Mike Rvera: Books I Read When I Was a Teenager

Mike Rivera, writer and food blogger, recollects memories of the books she read as a teen and why!

1. Agatha Christie books- particularly preferred the stories featuring Hercule Poirot.

2. Futureshock by Alvin Toffler- was very hard to read. I was just a High School senior. it was just fascinating to read about how someone envisioned the future. I got myself another copy recently and still amazed how many of Alvin Toffler's theories played out true 20 years after reading it.

3. Jean Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear and Valley of Horses- was amazed how one could tell a story of a time before language was invented.

4. A Past Revisited and Continuing Past by Renato Constantino- was required reading in 4th year social studies but it left me amazed that history could be so anti-colonist. It felt subversive to read it even post EDSA Revolution. I eventually took to reading it on my own time.

5. Isaac Asimov's Foundation series- discovered this summer after graduating from High School.

6. 1984 by George Orwell

7. The Exorcist- Scared the shit out of me but I read it twice!

8. Tom Clancy Novels- I would read them after my father finished reading his copy.

9. Sweet Valley High- Was through with Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys and I thought the Bobsey Twins were lame.

10. Mills & Boon- This was my high school equivalent of erotica.

Ramon Sunico: Books I Read When I Was a Teenager

And so, the carnival begins! Ramon Sunico, publisher, writer, poet and PBBY Treasurer enumerated fifteen plus two books he enjoyed reading as a teenager.

I was a Marvel Comics fan too-- my letter was published in Submariner 5.

Grade 7
The Oz series (Baum and then Thompson)
(favorites Rinkitink in Oz, The Emerald City of Oz)
The Hardy Boys series
Tom Swift series


High School
Drawing the Head and Hands by Andrew Loomis
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Little Prince by Antoine de St Exupery
The Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkien
The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien
A Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
Personae (poems) by Ezra Pound
Villa's Poems 55
Dune Trilogy by Frank Herbert
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
Turning On by Rasa Gustaitis
The Chronicles of Narnia by C S Lewis

Journey to the East by Herman Hesse
and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

Zarah Gagatiga: Books I Read When I Was a Teenager

Teen Read Week begins and here's the blog's little activity to celebrate the event. From October 17 to 23, guest bloggers will be featured in the blog and their top ten readings when they were teenagers. It will definitely date us. Age and time aside, books will definitely mark a generation. Just like music, books have their beat!

Here goes!

1. S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders - discovered this one from a school mate. I loved the theme on isolation and belonging that I asked my mom to check her library for books written by the author. She was successful! She borrowed That Was Then, This Is Now, Rumble Fish and Tex.

2. Richard Peck's Close Enough To Touch - a love story about a guy coping with his girlfriend's death. Like S.E. Hinton, I searched for books by Richard Peck and enjoyed The Unfinished Portrait of Jessica and one book he wrote that deals with teen suicide. Geez, I forgot the title. Just recently, I finished Peck's Here Lies the Librarian. Fabulous!

3.Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time - my first foray into sci-fi! After L'Engle, I read Bradburry and Asimov.

4. Judy Blume's Tiger Eyes - another crisis coping themed book. Sigh. Now you have an idea how morose I was as a teen!

5. Katherin Patterson's Jacob Have I Loved - I liked this better than Bridge to Terabithia. What attracted me to the book was its cover. A girl holding a seashell. How sentimental! But the book blew my mind as I read the journey of the characters to self discovery. In the end, they grew up fine. At that point in my young adult life, I was so anxious of the future. The book gave me hope.

6. Harlequin and Mills and Boon Roamnces - Yes. I read them.

7. Sweet Dreams and Sweet Valley High - a teenage reader's rite of passage.

8. Erich Segal's Love Story - again, I read this novel because my classmates in high school were talking about it. So I borrowed the book from a classmate who found the copy in her aunt's old book shelf. We girls were so in love with Oliver. And by the end of the school year, we felt so confident like Jennifer, we could take on college smack in the face! Loved Segal's writing too!

9. Some required reading in college freshman that I will always remember - Paz Marquez-Benitez's Dead Stars; Lord of the Flies by William Golding; Oedipus Rex; Villa's Footnote to Youth; poems by Emily Dickenson; Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.

10. Laro sa Baga as serialized in Liwayway magzine.

Watch out for more bloggers sweetening the pot of the blog's Young Adult reading and literacy carnival. Happy reading!

Books With Beat: Teen Read Week 2010

Books rock! I'll be coming up with a list of books I read as a teenager. I will also invite guest bloggers to participate in the celebration. I hope that this would fuel more teens reading as the adults who surround them are readers too!



Happy reading!

Rizal and Ambeth Ocampo

Next year, Rizal is going to be one hundred and fifty years old. In the past three weeks, I've been to three places where Rizal's memory and history is preserved. It's not unlikely that he'll be in the book I am completing. What is a collection of Filipino folk tales with out the mention or the inclusion of Jose Rizal?

Today, I was with Yumi Pitargue for an unguided tour of Manila - the Cathedral, San Agustin Church, Luneta and of course, Fort Santiago. I could not help but ask her who taught her Rizal in college. Her answer -- AMBETH OCAMPO. She said his name with a twinkle in her eyes.



This made me ask further what she thinks of his lessons and classes on Rizal. She replied, "He's like a stand up comic!" Her reply made me think. It only goes to show how creative and imaginative a teacher Ambeth Ocampo is. I sat in several of his lectures on Rizal and Philippine History and yes, like Yumi, I was engaged.

Funny how a former colleague who has chaired the Social Studies department in my former school raised an eyebrow when I told her that a common friend has attended Ambeth Ocampo's lectures. I was intrigued by her reaction since she's a member of the National Historical Institute. In her opinion, Ambeth Ocampo fictionalizes history so much that facts are obscured from history. Oh well. I've heard this one before.

I enjoyed my history classes since grade school till college and yes, I aced the subject. I had teachers, like my former colleague, who gave a big deal on dates and facts but for me, history is the construction of meaning. To be able to do this, one needs the skill of imagination; of reading beyond the lines. And I discovered this on my own despite the traditional instruction I got from my history teachers. Beyond dates and facts, history is a clump of STORIES - real or not, who cares? The traditionalists, maybe. But, fact or fiction, it is essential to derive meaning from these stories.

This is what Ambeth Ocampo does, to me, at least. That's how I see it. He goes beyond facts and trivia, dates and time lines and challenges you, the student, the reader of his articles and the listeners of his lectures to IMAGINE history. Is that wrong? I say that it is a creative way to make meaning from the past.

When I told Yumi of the many critics her former Rizal professor has on his methods, she simply said, "But I remember more of Rizal through his teachings. It was fun."

I know, Yumi. I know.

To Rizal who was a teacher too; to Prof. Ambeth Ocampo; and to all the teachers who've made boring classes come alive, belated Happy Teacher's Day!

Book Launch: Top Ten Travels

Scott Lee Chua, a former student, will be launching his books about places he's been to. Congrats Scott!

Dear Librarian: Library Staff Supervisory Program

This month's letter sender is Rose Marie Y. Quilantang, a school librarian from Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu. She wanted to know more about a supervisory program for the library. Below is her email in verbatim --

Hi Maam gud day! Hope you're doing fine.

I'm a librarian and is confused on how to make a supervisory program. Can I ask help from you? or any sample or guide. Please help me. Am working in one of the private school here in Lapu-Lapu City Cebu.

God bless you always and thank you in advance.

Respectfully yours,

Rose Marie Y. Quilantang

This is a very interesting topic that would help many library managers out there. I have invited a guest blogger to lend advise to Rose Marie. I will give my two cents worth as well. Keep visiting for our responses!

The Spirit of PaperTigers Project

Seek and you shall find. Ask and it shall be given.



Many thanks to Pacific Rim Voices and the The Spirit of PaperTigers project for these books. Recipient of the donations is the Wawa Elementary School Library.

Picture! Picture!