I'm one of the people who prefer to read her books in their actual form rather than buy their online counterparts. I enjoy going to the book store, reading the synopses at the back of the books written by authors whom I look up to, inspecting the cover designs, and finally settling with a book or two (or sometimes, the entire collection) which I'll instantly snick my nose into the moment I arrive home. It sounds simple but the process of selecting a book entails at least 30 minutes (except when I'm already hellbent in buying a certain title) as I believe, or would want to believe rather, that I'm a picky reader - not exactly a snob as I can practically read anything as long as the plot is interesting. Again, notice that 'interesting' is dictated by my moods. After all, just like everyone else, I read because it's the easiest form of escape. Temporary it may be, but it's in those few hours of immersing into the literary world that I see sense of what my next step would be. Normally, I read two different novels simultaneously. I categorize based on the number of pages, not on whether I think the author is an easy-read or his/her works are esoteric. Although to be fair, there are instances where I give certain authors a try because only a handful of readers actually read and digest their ideas appreciatively. As what Haruki Murakami (I've read his Norwegian Wood and 1Q84) said,
Currently, I'm reading Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Murakami's Kafka on the Shore. I'm reading the former because I enjoyed Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, with all its freaky ghost family, underground syndicate, and its awesome name for the protagonist - Nobody - while I decided to make the latter my 3rd Murakami novel because any story that alludes to Kafka interests me. 'Kafkaesque' has been one of the terms I sporadically dropped in my essays in my Great Works class in college.
Romper: Topshop | Blazer: H&M | Necklace: Aldo | Shoes: BCBG
I've been sidetracked from what I initially intended this post to be about. What the authors write in their dedications, that is. This page has always been the first thing I look for in every book that I take home with me. Sometimes I laugh because of the funny anecdote; in other times I swoon over the sweet nothings. Here are a few of the notable dedications:
"Aina, I love you, will you marry me?" - Peter Leeson's The Invisible Hook: the Hidden Economics of Pirates
"To Beatrice: darling, dearest, dead."
"For Beatrice: my love for you shall live forever. You, however, will not."
"For Beatrice: dead women tell no tales. Sad men write them down."
- Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
"To all my enemies, I will destroy you." - Frankie Boyle's My Shit Life So Far
"NO
THANKS
TO
Farrar & Rinehart
Simon & Schuster
Coward-McCann
Limited Editions
Harcourt, Brace
Random House
Equinox Press
Smith & Haas
Viking Press
Knopf
Dutton
Harper's
Scribner's
Covici-Friede"
- E.E. Cummings' No Thanks
"Dedicated to the strongest person I know: me" - Babe Walker's Psychos: A White Girl Problems
"Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. By order of the author." - Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
"To my continuity girl" Mark Haddon's A Spot of Bother
This is what I wore when I attended my second cousin Ysabella's dedication. She's in the country for her baptism but a week later, she and her parents went back to Australia. Should everything be in order, perhaps I'd see her again this coming September. Anyway. I figured there'll be plenty of kids aside from the event having been held during summer so I wore bright colors. Around 8PM, I hurriedly changed my blazer into a black cardigan and my heels into flats to follow to my friend Jeanne dela Rosa's birthday celebration.
with my 2nd cousin Sofia
these crazy people!
What I lack in the number of posts, hopefully I get to make up for it through my lengthy ones :)