Sunday, May 24, 2009

the books, los libros, mga aklat


if there's something i consider one of my vices in this imperfect existence, it has been and always be books.

i don't know what it is in bookstores that it is sooo unusual [read: close to never] that i walk away without a book in tow. usually, ones in the bargain bins. hahaha. cheapskate me!

i have always had a serious, torrid, love hate, orgasmic affair with paper- and hard-bound that i can withstand being inside the bookshop for hours on end without looking at my watch, without thinking about the persons i have to meet up later or even if there is still a bus on my way home [when i was still in manila]. for the latter, good thing here in KL, Borders is just like 10 minutes away. another good reason to browse [and eventually, buy...if i have the money :)]

i never even consider it a splurge if i have in my arms, around 5 to 8 books for my read. i always reason that it does not go to waste at all. it is an investment, hahaha...my mom goes bonkers whenever i do that, saying i am building a library. which i think i am. at one point, way back grade school days, i even have borrower's card for my stacks. having the borrower sign up.

i do go as far as scrimping on transport/movies/concerts/dvds etc if needed be. i tend to think of scrimping on my other vice, FOOD, but nah! realistically, do you think i can forego food? hahaha...maybe not dine out, that far, but not altogether go hungry for books. i know a lot of peeps scrimping on food for fashion, but not me. i cannot live on bread alone. neither with water only. ghad!

in reference to my subject line, i just bought books yesterday night at Tropicana Mall's Borders. my original intention was to browse through the travel guides as i have plans this june to go Phuket with CVG peeps. instead, i had 3 books bought! one was a solve-the-mystery books from the creator of Encyclopedia Brown. know what, these books sustained me in Notre Dame a lot. it was like Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys with questions in the end as to who did it. and the good thing was, you solve it. think, i got my being OC for details there. i always go back and forth flipping the prosaic leaves for clues and whatnots until i agree with the author. hahaha.

in the interest of maximizing the breadth of my intellectual journey, i bought a MATH book. hahaha...i was never that good in math. except for algebra which i found so delectable. especially the one using matrices, proving, reduction to simplest terms...what i bought was not a textbook type. that's sooo not me. it was like a guidebook across math, in its basest form and its applications. very interesting. i came across all the terms that i have forgotten already. and i think it's fun to learn it once more since i will not have a quiz after nor a graded recitation. it will purely be for fun now.

the last one i have bought is a book by Nobel Laureate, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez. one of my sooo favorite an author. i have read his One Hundred Years of Solitude way back freshman high, and was i in love. the tapestry of magic realism held its spell on me until i discovered isabel allende too. haay. how time flew really. now it's Love in the Time of Cholera. i have just started straddling the first 2 pages and i put it down already. hahaha. not of disinterest of course. more on, i wanted to spend time with the book in the most convenient time. not pressed for errands etc. it's what i call lovemaking with prose. you set the mood, tuck yourself comfortably and start the read. that way, all nuances and trembles are captured, nourished, frolicked, savored, and lulled into one's being.

i guess teddy locsin jr said it sooo truthfully. when you hold a book and you don't end up finishing it, you are just not ready for it at that time. attempt once more after a period of months, even years if need be, then you will know why it didn't happen the first time.

i can go on and on exploiting this desire for the bound pages of letters and sentences and paragraphs but it is a disservice to the readers. for a book is not merely for sharing, from another speaker. it should be your personal experience with it. that is the wonder of book reading. to each his own. each of us will have our own truths with it. our own realizations. our own dawnings of consciousness.

it was never the intention of most good writers to provide life's solutions in between those pages, but it is to bring to another world, maybe not our own but desirably, a better one from what we may be thinking we are on. better in the sense that, our life after all deserves its own edition, its own publication worth writing, worth knowing.


P.S.
i would have wanted to start all my paragraphs with letter i. didn't succeed with the paragraph for Garcia-Marquez. to do such is to reduce his significance to caprice. which i won't.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

same old



this is quite a popular expression in Manila where i came from. pertaining to "the more things change, the more they stay the same."

am sooo glad to have talked with theny at last. ghad, did i miss this girl friend of mine sooo much. we've been partners in venturing into a lot of things. be it watching friggin' indie films in robinson's galleria, or food search into whatever cuisine we fancy at the moment, or just plainly walking across baywalk near Manila bay, not for the famous sunset but for the infamous strip before sunrise. hahaha. and never did i walk it out sans my dell laptop in tow. hahaha...

glad too that plans for our june thailand trip is underway. thanks to slacker. and as i was relating with arjhaie, mau was busy asking me questions where i was the one fiddling with air asia website, googling, finding accommodations. me pointing the railways and bus trips, mau computing and finding odds and evens on what made better sense...hahaha

mau that was both fun and instructive to say the least. that was team work! ahahaha...

i guess, i go back to what i put in the subject, same old. the more we change, the people we prioritize, we give importance back to, the persons we love so dearly. are the ones who have been there all throughout. who have been there when all there was to us was none

i love you all...

Sunday, May 17, 2009

going 7 months

nah, it's not about relationship. i do wish though.

my stay in kuala lumpur, working for telekom malaysia is reaching halfway through this year. quite expectedly, there were numerous ruminations about it being a good or bad decision. of it being worthwhile to leave my comfort zone. of bidding goodbye to my family especially lingling, my lil sister for the 3rd time [i left for manila a week back for a business trip]...

all these have regurgitated in my mind endlessly.
but i guess, proof of it is that i still feel i can do more.

do more in the sense that despite the helplessness sometimes, it's all gonna go back to me.
it will always be dependent on me on how things will turn out and how long i will last.

definitely, God willing, i will finish my contract in 2 years.
cheers to me getting back my blog. cheers to all the things that help me get by. cheers to my business plans. cheers to all the people who constantly believe and love me...

cheers to all things happening my way.
despite being love less. hahahaha...