Category Archives: Booked

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Booked

168 days till Harry Potter 7

I want to write a longer entry but my eyes are refusing to cooperate so I’ll just post about this, which I intended to post earlier today but didn’t because I had to fix all the test scripts for today’s UAT.

Anyway.

Deathly Hallows Release Date Announced

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be published on Saturday 21st July 2007 at 00:01 BST in the UK and at 00:01 in the USA. It will also be released at 00:01 BST on Saturday 21st July in other English speaking countries around the world.

[News from The Leaky Cauldron]

Now, to be completely honest, I don’t really buy Harry Potter books when they just came out. Starting with Book 5, I always happen to stumble upon an online copy/softcopy version of the book so I don’t buy the hardcover release, but still get to read it the same time everyone else does. I know, I know, that’s bad. But I’m just a student then! I couldn’t exactly afford the hardcover book and try to get in line for that early in the morning just to get a copy. I like Harry Potter, but I don’t like it that much.

But now that I’m working, I’m wondering if I should join in the Harry Potter mania fun and reserve a copy of the book early (even if I don’t really like owning hardbound books because they take up too much space) and join all the other Harry Potter fans in lining up at Powerbooks or Fully Booked or wherever the new book is going to be released first and be one of the first ones to get a copy. Somehow I think that sentence did not make sense somewhere. Hmm.

For a change, you know? Instead of letting myself get an online copy, I’ll go the legal and right way and get myself a copy of the book. That’s right, yes? And it’s the last time this is going to happen; I should let myself experience the entire I-must-get-that-new-Harry-Potter-book-first thing before it finally disappears.

Hmmm. Why not? And I’m out of book ban ((book ban – a self-imposed condition after buying 10 books during my last MV Doulos trip. Besides not having any money, I realized I need to at least tackle some of the books I bought there (as well as the books my dad brought home last Christmas and some books from the Book Fair last September that I haven’t even cracked open yet) before buying anything new. The self-imposed book ban is to last until June. Why June? OMF Bookstore goes on sale on June. :P)) by that time.

Anyone who would want to join me? We could line up together and wait for the book this coming July. And it’s a Saturday, so no work to get in the way. :P

Okay, bed time! I need to motivate myself to go to the gym tomorrow before meeting with Tuesday at lunch. Then GMT for Singles for Christ and home to work on this new site my friends and I are starting. Ahhh, yes, Saturday! How I love you! ♥ Good night world! :)

Booked

What a Girl Wants (Kristin Billerbeck)

Rating: [rate 4.0]
What A Girl Wants by Kristin BillerbeckEver felt like the last item left on the clearance rack?

As a successful patent attorney, Ashley Stockingdale has all the makings of a perfect catch — the looks, the brains, even a convertible. ut at 31, she’s beginning to wonder if she’s been passed over for good.

Deciding to adopt a new attitude, Ashley suddenly becomes the romantic interest of three men within a matter of days. While her heart enjoys turning the tables on the dating game, the rest of her previously predictable world is being turned upside down. Is it more than Ashley can handle? Or is it exactly what she wants?”

Ever since I read Dreaming in Black and White, I’ve always wanted to read more Christian chicklit. I’ve heard a lot of good reviews for this book, and so when Marvs headed over to the US, I jumped on the chance to get this book from him. :D

What’s fun about What a Girl Wants is the main character, Ashley. Ashely is a devout Christian, and I know that whenever anyone hears that, they already expect her to be holier-than-thou, one who doesn’t care about the world or dressing right or whatnot. But Ashley is none like that — in fact, she may be not how you expect a Christian to be. I don’t mean that in a bad way, of course. Ashley is just as prayerful and just as nice as what you would expect of her, but she can also be quite vain, quite fashion conscious and can still have enough bitterness and envy going on with her — which just makes her more human, more easy to relate to.

Storywise, the novel is a fun read. It can seem a bit exaggerated at how things turned out the way it was for Ashley, and you’d find yourself siding with her at how unfair life became for her. As with her dating life, one of the guys who dates her seem to be the perfect one, with all his manners and good looks, although at the end, she chooses someone she had been noticing before. It felt a bit anticlimatic for me since I like the other guy already. But then, that’s why there’s a sequel. ;)

Anyway, the novel is fun: a lot like Shopaholic, but a bit less shallow. :D And because it talks about singlehood and finding the perfect guy, it becomes an even more appropriate read for singletons like me. ;)

Booked

Flabbergasted (Ray Blackston)

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Flabbergasted by Ray Blackston Rating: [rate 5]

Jay Jarvis just moved East.
His dating life’s gone south.
What else is a guy to do but go fishing?

Flabbergasted is a story of a twenty-something year old stockbroker who just moved to Greenville, South Carolina. Jay is not a serious Christian; in fact, he calls his religion “workaholic”, and it wasn’t until his real estate agent told him that in Greenville, the in thing are churches, not bars. So Jay drives to the North Hills Presbyterian Church, fully intending to meet females but he didn’t expect Ecuador missionary Allie Kyle to catch his eye. In order to get to know Allie, he volunteers to help out in their singles beach trip. There he meets his new best friend Steve, righteous-man-with-big-words Stanley, married surfer dude Ransom, The Numericals, Allie’s lime-green loving best friend Darcy (and her lime green Sherbet) and of course, Allie. Jay’s landing into the church feels so casual, and yet, “God had him at the collar” and was leading him into places he never would have imagined he would be.

Flabbergasted is a lad lit, a sub-genre of chick lit for men, where a twenty-something semi-successful man is the narrator. Reviews of this book are mixed; some of them really like this while some don’t. I fall in the former.

The novel, true to its nature, is very light and funny. The dialogues kept me laughing and giggling to myself while reading it and the characters are indeed so wacky but at the same time so real. I like how clean it is, with hardly any mention of sex or male enhancement or anything in that nature. The story is real enough in the sense that some people join religious groups to scope out some chicks or some boys, and while it’s not right, the novel shows that even with these kinds of intentions, God makes use of them to get us closer to Him.

Writing wise, some parts of the story are kind of hard to connect with each other, especially when the story suddenly turns into another part of Jay’s life. Some chapters are kind of skippable too, but they make up the story quite nicely. I think we will all see ourselves in Jay Jarvis as he eventually sees himself and what God wants for him. The ending is a bit obvious, but Jay’s realizations wraps it up really good.

It’s a good book, perfect for some light afternoon reading. :D

“…I really just wanted to stay tight — tight to the south of God, right there in his shadow. Because outside of God’s shadow, I was just a gaudy plastic float filled with stubborn air, drifting off like a blind Jonah in search of Plan B, manipulating circumstances and wondering why I kept waking up in my very own Tarshish. But in God’s shadow I had been dazzled by the detour, amazed at the fraternity, and flabbergasted by the depth that comes from simplicity, from serving in a village that was shabby, green, and pulsing with life.”
– Jay Jarvis, p. 326

Booked, Dear Diary, Say Cheese!, Updates

Of new layouts, meetings and books

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Okay, I finally got this layout up. It’s been sitting in my hard drive for too long, and it feels so good to be able to see something fresh in this domain. Now I can stop worrying about this. :D But if you find anything that looks out of whack, please do tell me. :D

Edit 011507, 6:06pm: The layout is centered on IE and the menu bar is quite spacey, plus there are some unaligned images within the content. On Opera it looks pretty much the same with Firefox…so I suggest you guys use Opera or Firefox! But don’t worry, I’ll fix this in IE. :D

MV Doulos, taken from my Camera phoneMy arms hurt. It feels the same way as when I lifted hollow blocks during this community service we had for FORMDEV back in college. And that was me lifting about fifty to seventy hollow blocks for the entire day. This was just because of lifting three bags of books from our MV Doulos trip yesterday.

Jomar, Chris, Happy and I were four happy bookworms who headed over to the MV Doulos book fair yesterday. When we got there, there was already a lot of people, and the bookshop was packed. It reminded me of some sort of an SM Megamall or Sta. Lucia East midnight madness sale. The place was hot, and you can barely move because you have to always adjust your book basket so as you won’t hit people as you walk. The words “Excuse me” will be a big requirement. ;)

BUT, even if it is hot and there are a lot of people…it was amazing. :) So many books, so many rare titles and really cheap prices! Books are priced by units, and the conversion is 1 unit = P1, so 100 units is P100. There were two “book areas”: the main book shop, where most of the titles are. Genres range from Christian Living and Inspiration (the biggest selection), Bibles, children’s books, atlas and references, cook books, art books and game books. There’s also a small section on CDs (mostly Contemporary Christian and some classics), tapes and little souvenirs such as pens and keychains which are available at the counter.

And then there’s this other area, which looks like a book sale since you have to look through the big carts to find a book you might like. There are also CDs and mugs available…but that’s not the best part. The books there are priced P50/novel! And they’re good condition novels too. The CDs are priced P50 for three CDs! Bargain, eh? The titles are quite old though, but if you’re a real book lover, you’d certainly get a couple or so of books there. I got seven. :P Haha.

Behold my MV Doulos stash:

MV Doulos CDsCDs (top to bottom in the picture):

  1. Rise (Building 429). B429‘s second album, which is one of my favorites. :) It costs P500, which is pretty normal, but because it’s not available in the country, I just have to buy this. :D There’s a slight damage on the CD case, but the contents are still in good condition.
  2. Warren Barfield (Warren Barfield). Mr. Barfield’s (swoon!) first album, which made us fall in love with him in the first place. :D One of my favorites, and this is a really rare gem. :)
  3. Say-So (Say-so). This is what I call “leap of faith”. Jomar showed me this CD and told me it was old alternative Christian music, and because I need three CDs to make it P50, I decided to get this since I’m an alternative kind of girl. I still have to listen to this. :D
  4. Sunny Day (John Cox). I know only of one John Cox song, Sanctuary, but because I know this artist, and this particular CD is cheap, I grabbed it. :D I’ve heard only the first few tracks but so far it sounds promising. :)
  5. Subscribe to the Vibe (Abundant). As most of you know, I’m not a party/club/bar person. I don’t really like dance/trance music because I can’t see its point. Happy urged me to buy this CD. I wondered how this CD would last with me, but when I played it last night, I actually liked it. :) That’s something new. :P I like what’s written inside the sleeve:

    Abundant is a collective of people committed to providing safe spaces and places of cultural expression. The inspiration for this project has been to combine the 90’s sound of the underground dancefloor with the inspirational gospel voice of praise to God, who makes all things possible for those who believe.

    Great stuff. :D

MV Doulos BooksAnd the books:

  1. Girl Time: A Celebration of Chick Flicks, Bad Hair Days & and Good Friends (Laura Jensen Walker). I wasn’t supposed to get this, but Happy pointed it, so I immediately dropped the other book and grabbed this. :D I love Laura Jensen Walker, and I’m halfway through the book already and I’m loving it. :) To my girl friends, we should do some stuff here soon!
  2. The Day I Was Crucified: As Told by Jesus Christ (Gene Edwards). I saw this once in a website, and I was curious, but I couldn’t find it here. I found it at Doulos, and for P150 only. :D I grabbed it, and I’m planning to read this by the Holy Week, since it’s about Christ’s passion. I think this is going to be a major tear-jerker.
  3. The Martyr’s Song (Ted Dekker). P100, hardcover and a free CD! I don’t usually buy hardcover, but this one is a thin one, and Happy told me this is a great book. :) Looking forward to reading this. :D
  4. Patience (Lori Copeland). A lighthearted romance, as said in the back of the book. This is one of my first Lori Copeland books, and it seems like a historical fiction too, and I hope it’s not boring. :)
  5. June (Lori Copeland). Same as above. :D
  6. Atonement Child (Francine Rivers). I’ve seen this for P400 at OMF, and it’s only P50 at Doulos! Haha. From the reviews it seems good. :D
  7. Last Sin Eater (Francine Rivers). Same as above. :)
  8. Scarlet Thread (Francine Rivers). And again, same as above. :)
  9. Leota’s Garden (Francine Rivers). Ditto.
  10. And the Shofar Blew (Francine Rivers). The summary of this book reminds me of The Visitation by Frank Peretti, sans the supernatural part. Tuesday already read this and she said it’s good, so there. :)

Now you see why my arms hurt. I had to lug that around, plus my SVP package (free Didache, Gabay, Companion and Sabbath — anyone want?)…although I’d have to thank the boys for carrying my packages half the time. ;) After eating lunch at Gary’s, Chris and I tagged along with Jomar for the Blogger Parteeh ’07 steering committee meeting (more details in another post about the parteeh next time. And yes, it’s spelled like that). I met some of the “famous” people in the blogosphere (haha, link baiting galore here): Migz, Juned, Rico, Sasha, Carlo and Mr. Abe himself (I have been lurking around his blog for so long already! haha). Fun discussions, and I look forward to seeing them again. Around 5:30, we parted ways and went home.

Now I have no idea where to place all these books. My bookshelves are full, and now all these new books are sitting on my sofa bed, waiting to be covered with plastic and placed somewhere. Again: I need a bookshelf. But I don’t have a place to put it here in my room. :-s

My arm still hurts, and the day is almost ending so tomorrow’s back to work. I hope these muscle pains subside tomorrow because it’s gym time in the morning tomorrow with my brother.

And this post is too long already. I should get out of my room and watch TV with my mom. She promised me a pedicure today, yahoo! :) Off I go. :D

Booked

MV Doulos is in town!

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I’ve always loved riding in ships ever since I rode one on my way to my first YFC International Leader’s Conference in Bacolod in summer of 2000. I love how ships are designed, and how you can go around while traveling, to meet new people and to feel the gentle rocking motion while you sleep. :)

I haven’t been on one since I went to Cebu the year after I went to Bacolod, but that’s going to change now because MV Doulos is in town! :)

MV Doulos is the largest floating bookshop (my eyes light up at the thought!) and the oldest ocean-going passenger ship in the world is docked in Manila from January 5 to 22, 2007. According to the website:

Gute Bücher für Alle e.V. (Good Books for All)

Doulos was purchased in 1977 by Gute Bücher für Alle e.V. (Good Books for All), a private, non-profit, charitable organisation registered in Germany.

Over 18 million visitors have been welcomed on board for tours, programmes and visits to the floating book fair. With stops in over 500 ports of call, this unique ship has visited more than 100 countries in including Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and many island nations.

Doulos is recognised in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s oldest active ocean-going passenger ship.

As I’ve read from the Manila Metroblog, there are over 6,000 titles available (and I read somewhere that there is about half a million books inside!) at very affordable prices. Book subjects range from science, medicine, management, Christian literature, hobby, textbooks, cook books and even a small section of Tagalog books! Say this with me, book lovers: HEAVEEEEEEN!

The ship is docked at the South Harbor pier, open 10:00am to 10:00pm on Tuesdays to Saturdays and 2:00pm to 10:00pm on Sundays and Mondays. Entrance fee is P10 only, and children under 16 are free, as long as they are accompanied by a parent or a guardian.

What are you waiting for? :) Let’s go there! My friends and I are planning to go there next Saturday, so if you are planning to go there on that day too, drop me a line so maybe we can see each other there! :D

For more information, please contact Hyeok Seon Kwon at 092-7361960.

Okay, and now since we’re talking about books, and I practically got my fill of books since my dad arrived…care to recommend some for me? I like pawing through fiction, chicklit and some suspense, specifically, but I won’t mind fantasy, as long as it’s not a series/trilogy/whatever because I tend to buy the complete set if it’s like that. :)

Thanks!

Booked, Dear Diary

Happy Holidays

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Okay, that’s it. No new layout for the season; I’ll have one in the New Year. So forgive me for having a black layout for Christmas…I still have the Christmas spirit, really. :D

Ooookay, so maybe I’ll make a new one before the year ends…but it won’t be Christmas themed anymore. Still. :P

Everyone’s relaxed here in the office, even if there’s still work. And it’s fun because it feels like being in school during vacation. I kinda wish I wore jeans because everyone else seemed to be wearing it. Oh well. We have a party later at Parañaque and it’s early time off too. Thank God for one of our managers agreeing to let me ride with them on the way home later. :D

Of course, I should make the most out of this, because come January, it’ll be work, work, work again. :P

My dad arrived last night, and we went straight to Duty Free. What’s really cool is that since we’re not studying anymore, we have more room for the things we couldn’t buy back when our parents still had to pay our tuition fee. Well, that’s how we understood it, that is. :P My Duty Free stash last night was a yellow collared top (perfect for work), The Body Shop Lip and Cheek Stain (an improved version of the Lip and Cheek Tint), The Body Shop Lip Shine and Revlon ColorStay pressed powder. Oh so kikay! I don’t think that’s going to be the end of the kikay mode for me. Let’s see. :P

Anyway, when we got home, I got the most awaited things! My books from Amazon.com! :) Yahoo! That’s 6 books all in all, thanks to my dad who ordered them for me. :) I was so excited last night that I couldn’t help but put nametags on it already, even if I should’ve slept because we still have to go to Simbang Gabi. The Amazon.com book stash includes:

Six good good good books! :D Composed of Women’s Fiction, five chicklit, one romance. Gotta love love love this! :) Haha. I’ve also got three more books from the bi-annual OMF sale:

Whee. :) I have one more book I want to get, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice, which isn’t available at OMF but at other bookstores. :D I swear, 2006 is my book year. I think this is the year where I got to buy the most books — and most of them out of my own money! :D Such a generous year, eh?

Anyway, it’s 12:00 already, which means it’s lunch time, but I still feel full after the two Krispy Kreme doughnuts I had which Ms. Rox brought during our meeting earlier. This is such a fun day, really. And it’s only Thursday! :)

A more serious and insightful entry sometime this weekend, promise. :D On forgiveness, self-pity and other things I could think of during the weekend. :D Have a great day everyone!

Booked

Savannah from Savannah (Denise Hildreth)

Rating: [rate 3.5]

Savannah from Savannah by Denise HildrethI’m coming home to prove something..to my city, my mother, and myself.It is a place known to most as Savannah. It is a place known to me as home. I wish I could tell you it was my love for this city that precipitated my return. But I did not return out of a mere longing for home. I returned because I have something to prove to home. I am Savannah…from Savannah.

Savannah from Savannah is the first part of the trilogy of Savannah Phillips, a twenty-four year old woman who has been named by her mother after their beloved Georgia town, Savannah. Savannah had just finished graduate school when she learns two things: 1) her favorite newspaper writer back home passed away and 2) her novel was chosen by a New York publishing house and it will be considered for publishing and she should go to their awards night. After a bit of squealing and all, she notices that the letter has her mother’s name. She puts two and two together and realized that her mother Victoria (Vicky) pulled some strings to get her there. She decided to go home and apply at the newspaper to continue the legacy of her favorite writer and to show her mom just who she is and that she doesn’t need any help — especially her’s — to reach her dreams.

Or does she? Savannah goes back home ready to prove things to her mother, but it turns out she has a lot more to find out not only about her mother but also about herself. (What a cheesy way to put it. :p)

Continue reading Savannah from Savannah (Denise Hildreth) →

Booked

Blink (Ted Dekker)

Rating: [rate 4]

Blink by Ted DekkerThe future changes in the BLINK of an eye…or does it?

Seth Borders isn’t your average graduate student. For starters, he has one of the world’s highest IQs. Now he’s suddenly struck by an incredible power–the ability to see multiple potential futures.

Still reeling from this inexplicable gift, Seth stumbles upon a beautiful woman named Miriam. Unknown to Seth, Miriam is a Saudi Arabian princess who has fled her veiled existence to escape a forced marriage of unimaginable consequences. Cultures collide as they’re thrown together and forced to run from an unstoppable force determined to kidnap or kill Miriam.

Seth’s mysterious ability helps them avoid capture once, then twice. But with no sleep, a fugitive princess by his side, hit men a heartbeat away, and a massive manhunt steadily closing in, evasion becomes impossible. – From Westbow Press website

This is my second Dekker book, and because of the good experience I’ve had with Thr3e, I expected a lot from this one too. The blurb from Westbow Press explained the basic plot of the story already, so let’s get to the review.

The thing I really like about Dekker is that his characters come out like real people. Thr3e‘s characters (Kevin, Sam, Slater, Jennifer) makes me wonder if they somehow exist out there (then again, that existence is kind of weird…haha, you’d have to read the novel to get what I mean :p). Blink is no different, and I’ve grown to love Seth Border for the past 36 hours or so since I started reading it, I kind of wish he’s a real person. But then again, that may be the inner girl speaking in me — Seth seemed like the perfect gentleman, even amidst his intellect and unique gift. One particular scene that proved this was when he and Miriam booked into a hotel: he knew he had some sort of feelings for her, but he reserved two rooms so as not to take advantage of her. Then again, this is Christian fiction.

Continue reading Blink (Ted Dekker) →

Booked

The Well of Lost Plots (Jasper Fforde)

Rating: [rate 5]

The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde“Anything is possible in the BookWorld. The only barriers are those of the human imagination.”
– Miss Havisham

Protecting the world’s greatest literature — not to mention keeping up with Miss Havisham — is tiring work for an expectant mother. And Thursday can definitely use a respite. So what better hideaway than inside the unread and unreadable Caversham Heights, a cliche-ridden pulp mystery in the hidden depths of the Well of Lost Plots, where all unpublished books reside? But peace and quiet remain elusive for Thursday, who soon discovers that the Well itself is a veritable linguistic free-for-all, where grammasites run rampant, plot devices are hawked on the black market, and lousy books — like Caversham Heights — are scrapped for salvage. To top it off, a murderer is stalking Jurisfiction personnel and nobody is safe — least of all Thursday.

This is the third novel in the Thursday Next novels, which tells of Thursday’s first adventures in the BookWorld while she “rests” from the real world. She resides in Caversham Heights as a part of the Character Exchange Program, lives in a houseboat with two Generics ibb and obb (eventually named Lola and Randolph), her pet dodo Pickwick who is warming her egg and her 108-year old Granny Next. She is apprenticed under Miss Havisham and meets lots of books characters including Trafford Bradshaw, Vern Deane, the Bellman, the Cat formerly known as Cheshire, detective partners Perkins and Snell and the only other Outlander (meaning a real person), Harris Tweed. As well as trying to learn her way around the Book World and playing her role as DS Mary, partner of DCI Jack Spratt in a totally unreadable novel in danger of being scrapped, she also has to battle Aornis Hades’ mindworm which threatens to erase all her memory of her eradicated husband, Landen Parke-Laine.

Continue reading The Well of Lost Plots (Jasper Fforde) →

Booked

Lost in a Good Book (Jasper Fforde)

Rating: [rate 4]

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper FfordeHer adventures as a renowned Special Operative in literary detection have left Thursday Next yearning for a rest. But when the love of her life is eradicated by the corrupt multinational Goliath Corporation, Thursday must bite the bullet and moonlight as a Prose Resource Operative in the secret world of Jurisfiction, the police force inside books. There she is apprenticed to Miss Havisham, the famous man-hater from Dickens’ Great Expectations, who teaches her to book-jump like a pro. If she retrieves a supposedly vanquished enemy from the pages of Poe’s “The Raven,” she thinks Goliath might return her lost love, Landen. But her latest mission is endlessly complicated. Not only are there side trips to the works of Kafka and Austen, and even Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Flopsy Bunnies, Thursday finds herself a target of a series of potentially lethal coincidences, the authenticator of a newly discovered play by the Bard himself, and the only one who can prevent an unidentifiable pink sludge from engulfing all life on Earth.

Well, that summary surely said enough. Lost in a Good Book is the sequel to The Eyre Affair, which picks up just about two weeks from the last novel. The book is just as fun to read as the last one, with all the new characters coming in especially the ones from fiction.

Continue reading Lost in a Good Book (Jasper Fforde) →