My Booksale Love Affair

FACT: I love books. I love the feel of paper. I love the smell of books. I love places filled with books. 

(c) http://www.theparisienexpat.com

That being said, I love Booksale and one of them is the nearest outlet from my office, the one in Cityland Condominum Tower 2 in front of RCBC Plaza.

(c) http://www.booksale.com.ph

I go there whenever I’m stressed or down.  My boyfriend knows very well how my eyes literally light up like a Christmas tree whenever I go inside that place. I don’t usually like waiting but if my boyfriend tells me to wait for him there and  he’ll buy me one in return, no questions asked, I’ll wait for him like a good girlfriend would. Hehehe!

        (c) ArdentArrianne.Blogspot.com

I love my brand-new books no less, but hoarding second-hand ones is way easier, as they’re twice cheaper. The picture above: a copy of Anne of Green Gables at 120 Php and a cool pumpkin orange jotter pad for only 39 Php. 

   (c) ArdentArrianne.Blogspot.com
 I found this in a copy of The Kite Runner. It says on the back that the baby’s name is Courtney. Using your baby’s picture as a bookmark? So adorkable. :)

Also, there are surprising finds in pre-loved books: library cards, doodles, petals, dried flowers, vintage bookmarks, to cute baby pictures.  

(c) The Guardian

(c) The Guardian

Read more about it in Wayne Gooderham’s The Secret Contents of Second Hand Books article.

I would like to believe that it’s my own little way of being eco-friendly? If no one’s going to buy it, where is it going to go? It’s sort of like giving a home to homeless books. Hahaha. :)

You can visit Booksale's website to find the nearest shop near your area. There's also a little second-hand bookstore at the second level of RCBC Plaza near Krispy Kreme and 7 Eleven called Books for Less. 

Veronika Decides to DieVeronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho

Veronika Decides to Die
Author: Paulo Coelho
Bought or Borrowed? Bought
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Nothing in this world happens by chance."

 



 

After my whirlwind romance with The Alchemist, this is my second love affair with another novel from the famous Brazilian born writer Paolo Coelho. The title literally says it all about the story. It's about a young Slovenian girl named Veronika, who at a very young age decides to take the pill and plan her own suicide. She didn't do this out of desperation to escape from a hard and difficult life for she had a family, a job and a number of lovers too. She decides to take her own life for the following reasons, and I quote this from the book:

"The first reason: Everything in her life was the same and once her youth was gone, it would be downhill all the way, with old age beginning to leave irreversible marks, the onset of illness, the departure of friends. She would gain nothing by continuing to live. Indeed the likelihood of suffering would only increase.

"Be like the fountain that overflows, not like the cistern that merely contains."

The second reason was more philosophical: Veronika read the newspapers, watched TV, and she was aware of what was going on in the world. Everything was wrong, and she had no way of putting things right - that gave her a sense of complete powerlessness."

She thought she had everything going as planned, as smooth and simple death in her room inside the convent overlooking the statue of the great Slovenian poet, Preseren, but she was wrong for the next time she opened her eyes, she was already inside a mental facility called "Villette".

Everyone is indeed crazy, but the craziest are the ones who doesn't know they're crazy; they just keep repeating what others tell them to.

Inside Villette she met a lot of people both sane and insane that taught her a lot. Little did she know that she has been greatly affecting the life of the resident patients of Villette too, especially Zedka, who has clinical depression, Mari, who suffers from panic attacks and Eduard, the schizophrenic , and with whom Veronika falls in love eventually. Each patient finds himself waking up from a long induced sleep and desiring to return and fight the life and the world they have given up in the past.

You have passed through the two hardest tests on the spiritual road: the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what you encounter.

This book was absolutely thought provoking to the point that I almost see myself in the shoes of the characters already. It's that good until now, I think I take Dr. Igor's theories on Vitreol , the bacteria that causes bitterness which is the root of all insanity to humans, to be scientific and true. I love the ending how Veronika and Eduard ran away to seize the last remaining hours of her life. It has affected me the way The Alchemist has. It left me enlightened from the feelings that I have been having lately like the idea of life as a never ending routine every day. This book is a must read, highly recommended for discerning readers.

Be crazy! But learn how to be crazy without being the center of attention. Be brave enough to live different.

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Interworld

Interworld by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I started reading this book inside the bus on my way to work and on my way home, seated on my regular spot near the window that captures the view of the tree-lined expressway I journey every day.

Interworld is a light and easy read that resurrected the giddy and imaginative child inside me. It was not boring like other sci-fi books I dread reading. It was in every way very effective in killing my boredom from long hours of commute and I also loved how the story was narrated in a very "I know what you're thinking, don't ask me" tone.

I was utterly amazed at how they managed to combine the distinct writing personalities of Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves in this wonderful collaboration. I was still able to recognize the touch of both authors, in a complementing way that doesn't upstage one or the other. Good decision of not letting on the tube though, for it will only be slaughtered by tube executives who only have advertising and profit in mind.

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MORTAL LOVE

By Elizabeth Hand

Paperback, 384 pages
Published June 28th 2005 by Harper Paperbacks (first published 2004)
ISBN 0060755342 (ISBN13: 9780060755348)

 

Within her is the world. A time there was when Venoraxia was lost to us with all our hope. A girl seen as an elder flower. You make her owls when she wants to be flowers.

This marvelous read is from one of National Bookstore's crazy sale last April of this year. The book was marked down more than  ten times its original price, imagine from 585Php or 13.60USD to only 50Php or 1.62USD. I must admit that this played  a major factor why I bought it too.

As a Fine Arts major, I was easily captivated with its cover of  a woman in a Renaissance inspired oil paint effect. Set on a magnificently romantic Victorian era, is an interesting love affair of a young and struggling painter and his muse.

It won my interest in and I enjoyed the way Elizabeth Hand narrated and depicted the paints, the art materials and the process of painting in an incredibly  "matter of fact "tone. Through this, it was almost effortless to imagine how each scene should seem to be. It was a unquestionably a page turner as the characters of the period painter Radborne Comstock and the modern day writer, Daniel Rowlands was unbelievably exciting.

I was both intrigued and mystified how Evienne Upstone was to Larkin Meade, and Radborne Comstock was to Daniel Rowlands connected despite  more than a hundred years of time difference. I easily fell in love with the book and with the ways the narrative was as well as details.

Unfortunately, that ended all too soon as I figured I was down to its last thirty pages and I still don't understand most parts of it. The plot became so complicated that it was impossible to end it in a matter of few pages.  Actually, the plot created a plot out of the plot of another plot. I knew I wasn't going to like how it's going to end and I was right. Larkin ended up with Comstock's manic depressive descendant and for whatsoever reason it began an abrupt reroute on a portal of something. This is where I totally got lost.

The desire for something hopeless, for what is already gone, for what can never be yours. 

The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing

by Melissa Bank
Mass Market Paperback, 274 pages
Published March 29th 2005 by Penguin (Non-Classics) (first published 1999)
ISBN0143035479 (ISBN13: 9780143035473)

You can feel that he wants to own you,-not like an object but like a good dream he wants to keep on having.

One of my best girlfriends in the office suggested I read this book. Honestly, I was hesitant to so at first since that pal was fresh from a break up I thought this book was a stereotypical "how to" on moving on, and I knew I didn't need that stuff at the moment. But then, she told me it wasn't and somehow, I trusted that friend's judgment.

I must say that Melissa Bank did a wonderful job on this book. It was light and easy read without compromising the substance and the wits of the story. I'm sure a lot of women would recognize themselves as the typical Jane in the book who underwent and felt the different stages of love and relationships.

The book teaches us the irrefutable fact of life that whether we like it or not, we will get hurt and we can't do anything about it for it's something inevitable. Jane in the story, in fear of ruining a budding romance, tightened up and followed a pathetic guide on dating. Thus resulting to her sounding like a snooty high school girl that almost drove the man of his dreams away.

It simply tells us how women encounter trial and errors with men and life, which sometimes end up with a chaotic turn of events. These disastrous situations  that most of us dread a lot makes us a stronger and wiser person each time. It notes that we can't always go by the book when it comes to living and loving since it's never always the same problem that requires the same equation.

"You try to plan your life but that's not how it works."

Kafka on the Shore

Author: Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel (Translator)
Bought or Borrowed? Gift from a friend
Book Info: Paperback, 467 pages
Published January 3rd 2006 by Vintage(first published 2002)
ISBN 1400079276
Original title 海辺のカフカ Umibe no Kafuka
Literary Awards: World Fantasy Award for Best Novel (2006), PEN Translation Prize (2006)

"Time weighs down on you like an old ambiguous dream. You keep moving trying to slip through it  but  even if you go to the ends of the earth, you won't be able to escape it. Still, you have to go there-to the edge of the world. There's nothing you can do unless you get there."

Main Characters:

• Kafka Tamura


• Miss Saeki


• Sakura


• Oshima


• Kafka's Father


• Mr. Nakata

Plot:

Kafka on the Shore consists of two different yet cohesive stories that are alternately narrated from each chapter. Primarily, it’s an engaging story about a teenager Kafka Tamura, who decides to run away from home to escape a horrible oedipal prophecy made by his own father.

Armed with a few good things he deems useful – add the ever reliable Crow inside him to that – Kafka begins his quest as the toughest fifteen-year-old on Earth in search for his estranged mother and sister. In his greatest efforts to break free from the appalling curse, he travels a great distance away from Tokyo all the way to the province of Takamatsu, only to meet people that will most likely help him get into fulfilling it himself.  His path tangles along those of several interesting people who added more spice and life to his wanderlust adventure.

He meets Sakura, a girl he meets on the night bus to Takamatsu, whom he's physically attracted to, and who's old enough to be his long-lost sister.

He finds refuge in a private library run by Oshima, who was neither a he nor a she, peculiar, and yet strangely kind to Kafka all the time. The place is headed by Miss Saeki, a gracefully middle-aged woman, trapped in her own past. She develops a May-December love affair with Kafka, while Kafka falls in love with the ghost of her youth.

On the other hand, the narrative crosses over to the story of Mr. Nakata, an old man with an out-of-this- world ability to hold conversations with animals, cats in particular. This harmless simpleton who earns a living looking for lost kitties begins the journey of his life without a single clue after his grotesque encounter with Johnnie Walker. This “no read, no write” gramps finds himself alone in an unfamiliar territory away from home for the first time. He timely receives all the help he can get from random strangers he meets and ends up with the happy-go-lucky truck driver Hoshino who has grown fond of him in a short span of time.

****************************************************************

My Review:

This is my first take on the work of the renowned Japanese author, Haruki Murakami. Most of his works were greatly recommended to me by my friends and I must say I cannot blame them for doing so.

Kafka on the Shore is undeniably a page-turner. All at once, I felt like I was fifteen myself. All of a sudden, I was Kafka Tamura, a teenager filled with all the kinds of angst and confusion against himself and the world he lives in. He was as clueless as he can be in escaping the trappings of what his fate had to offer.

Unfortunately, I think the part of Mr. Nakata was a bit dragging and boring. Plus, I didn't quite get much of the stone and its connection between Kafka's oedipal fate, Mr. Nakata, and everything else. To be honest, I was skim reading on this part already. Even after to read it twice, I still don’t get it. I guess, it must be some reference to his previous novels or maybe it was just me, being all lazy and slow that time.

"In everybody’s life there’s a point of no return. And in a very few cases, a point where you can’t go forward anymore. And when we reach that point, all we can do is quietly accept the fact. That’s how we survive."

What I did understand, however, is that the story is almost a debate between what is real and what goes inside your head. I learned a mouthful of “quotable quotes” about life after finishing it. Although a little painful to read, I’d say Haruki Murakami novels are still a must-try.

"It's all a question of imagination. Our responsibility begins with the power to imagine."

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The Lovely Bones

Author:  Alice Sebold
Bought or Borrowed? Borrowed from a Friend
Book Info: Paperback, 328 pages
Published September 1st 2006 by Little Brown and Co. (first published July 3rd 2002)
ISBN 0316166685 (ISBN13: 9780316166683)

"These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections – sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at a great cost, but often magnificent – that happened after I was gone." - Susie Salmon

Main Characters:

• Susie Salmon


• George Harvey


• Lindsey Salmon


• Ray Singh


• Samuel and Hal Heckler


• Len Fenerman

Plot:

Alice Sebold's debut novel revolves around the life and death of Susie Salmon who was mercilessly raped and killed at age fourteen by her psychotic neighbor George Harvey.  After the gruesome event that ended Susie's promising life on Earth, her soul continued to live  or so it seems in heaven. Well, it's not yet the real heaven though, but somewhere "in between" where souls do their stop over's and experience blissful moments in their own idea of heaven.  It's a place where nothing is beyond grasp, except life.

Eventually Franny, her intake counselor in heaven shows her a way to still watch over the now twisted lives of her family and the people she care about the most. This includes Ray Singh, Susie's almost but not quite boyfriend and first kiss back in school. A guy who she still aches to kiss once more.

Susie watches helplessly as her dad breaks into million little pieces each day while trying to pretend survive for her other siblings, Lindsey and Buckey. Both of which, although badly hurting continues to get by each day with the help of new friends Samuel and Hal Heckler.

She achingly endures seeing her mom who's inability to cope up with her child's death decides to plunge into a fleeting affair with Len Fenerman who was then the detective assigned to her daughter's case. With all of these things happening Susie isn't ready to let go, not just yet...

My Review:

The greatest mistake before leafing through the pages of this book was reading the reviews online. Most reviews gave brutal tirades that started on the author's use of absolutely confusing metaphors like:

“The tears came like a small relentless army approaching the front lines of her eyes. She asked for coffee and toast in a restaurant and buttered it with her tears.” and ended on the conclusion of the latter's incapability to even write a book.

Although I do agree that I was quite irked with some play on words that were used, I must say that I was very much affected with the story. This, I think matters more than being very clinical with the technicalities in writing

Reading The Lovely Bones was indeed a very heart-felt experience. I felt my heart pound when Mr. Harvey began talking to Susie in the creepiest manner, when Lindsey broke into the his house and when I thought Samuel and Lindsey won't make it home after graduation. Also, I felt like being on the verge of tears and can just imagine Susie still hearing her mom in the background calling her for dinner and even saying something about Buckley's new drawing posted on the fridge, when the unspeakable was happening to her.

In the book, when Ruth made a connection with Susie it just happened in a snap. Susie had an opportunity to be with her childhood love Ray, not because she planned it, but she was just given "the chance" to be with him again. Not that it was a requirement just so she can move on and crossover to the "real heaven".

I was relieved that the story was not delivered in a way that she'd have to dwell on hunting down Mr. Harvey, because that would have felt quite a burden to read. She was focusing more on the people she loves rather than her violator. People must understand that for a typical fourteen-year-old, life is just that simple, I guess.

The conclusion of the story was not epic at all, but was not bad either like what I have expected based on the reviews. The fact that the Salmon family moved on and started putting the broken pieces together by themselves, without needing the help of Susie's apparition or soulful intervention makes it very realistic. The book made us see how a family will be torn to pieces after a sudden tragedy and how they go through certain stages of denial, rage, and finally, acceptance.

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