An hour or two inside a book store

Last weekend I found myself going to National Book Store Superbranch, the one beside Gateway Mall, in Cubao. I was curious about the second hand books on sale at the top most floor of the bookstore. I mentioned this a few entries back and noted that there was huge deluge of books and other stuff from WHSmith that had found its way to NBS Superbranch, at half the price. There might be some "new" books and other things on sale. Also I was interested in seeing how the old superbranch has been faring since the new bookstores, Fully Booked and A Different Book Store, opened.



Being the end of May it was no surprise that the 1st floor of NBS was taken over by school supplies and families preparing for the incoming school season were busy buying notebooks and plastic covers.There were more people on the 1st floor than the rest of the floors combined. Well NBS earns its money from school and office supplies than books it would seem. Anyway on my way up noticed the usual denizens of the book section browsers and the habitual installment readers. Also present was NBS praetorian guard reminding the patrons, who were reading and sitting down, that they were not allowed to read the books. I guess the great come down to NBS and read experiment was deemed a failure, the reigning powers discontinued the policy. But how will you buy a book if you cannot even browse the pages? Granted there may be individuals who will habitually mooch-read but that is why you have display copies. A far cry from A Different Book Store where they virtually rip the plastic cover off the books and invite you to peruse the book.

At last I found myself on the previously owned book section of the superbranch and the whole floor was filled up with books formerly from WH Smith and other book stores. The CDs were gone what was left was rows and rows of books, one could fill up three bookstores with the books on that floor. A lot of Terry Prachet Books, A couple of Star Wars book, A Series of Unfortunate Events, cook books and several hardbound books priced at half their original price. The Star Wars and other sci-fi stuff paperbacks were at least cheaper by atleast 100 pesos.

After walking and looking over the books for an hour I decided to buy three books.

The Assassin's Cloak: An Anthology of the World Greatest Diarists. Edited by Irene and Alan Taylor.Canongate Book.Edinburgh, Scotland. UK. 2000.

The first time I saw the book was in a bookstore near Liverpool Station in the UK. Needless to say I failed to buy it and instead I purchased a dictionary of euphemisms and a trump card set of the Simpsons. I thought I would never be able to buy this thick but light book. The book is divided into 12 chapters for each month of the year and entries are arranged according to the day they were written. It is like reading one big diary or a blog. Famous and infamous diarists are featured in this anthology.

Radio Times Guide to Science Fiction Films, TV, & Radio. Edited by Kilmney-Fane Saunders. 2001. UK

The book lists down nearly all Science Fiction films, radio shows and television programs before 2000. The list is comprehensive and includes: ratings, format availability, microreviews, photos, trivia, cast, director, short write-ups on select SF luminaries, and a SF quiz that spans the ages. A good reference for people who appreciate SF films, tv shows, and radio programs.

Learn Chinese: Ten Minutes A Day - A complete learning kit

This selection shows my frustration with learning a new language. I have always been fascinated by other languages and have always been a frustrated learner. How was Rizal able to cope with it? According to the history books he learned more than nine languages. I guess one day with perseverance.

All books were priced at 300 to 350 pesos each. A good buy considering all would have cost four times as much in regular book stores.

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An open bag

Last Saturday, I had an empty bag in front of me. This empty bag stared at me with its zipper open and a gapping mouth seemed to beckon me to put something in it. Nature does not like a vacuum and my mind race for things to put inside.

Then lightning struck. I mean of course cerebral lightning. And from experience cerebral lightning for me is as common as true lightning in a sunny day. An idea began to form in my head and take life. The idea said why notfill the bag with books that you would take with you.

"Imagine going on a long trip and these bag would carry all the books you would need" the idea said to me.

So I did it. After an hour or two I had filled up the bag with books or reading materials I would take with me on my imagined journey.

What were the books?

Animal Farm by George Orwell
The New Testament
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
Farmer Giles of Ham by JRR Tolkien
Screwtape's Letters by CS Lewis
An Anthology of the best Filipino Short Stories
Treasure Island by Daniel Defoe
Father Brown Mysteries by GK Chesterton
A Question of Heroes by Nick Joaquin
Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe
Tales of Mystery and Terror by Edgar Allan Poe
OED Dictionary
A Blank Book
Two books on Kokology
Lessons of History by Ariel and Will Durant
Sandman: Fables & Reflections by Neil Gaiman
Death at Death's Door by Jill Thompson
The Once and Future King by TH White
and a cook book

Like friends, one's choice in books is an indirect description of oneself.

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Book: Mga Kinamihasnang Salitang Tagalog

Ignacio, Rosendo. MGA KINAMIHASNANG SALITANG TAGALOG (Tagalog Idioms - Modismos Tagalos. 2nd Pagkalimbag. Philippines. 1963.

I bought this book a year ago at the this shop in Mega Mall that sells old books. Not quite sure but the name of place seems to be Old Manila. But you will not miss the shop it is located on the topmost floor beside an antique shop that sells swords and other antiques, I cannot remember its name too, but said bookshop is near the escalator.

The book is a slim hardbound volume, around four by five inches. It was written by a Tagalog and Spanish language teacher Iganacio Rosendo during the 1960s. Mr has a couple of consonants at the end of his name so he must be learned man. According to the booklet, small eh, Rosendo is a Spanish and Tagalog teaher in the vernacular "Guro sa mga wikang Kastila at Tagalog".

Do you not wonder why we call the Spanish language here Kastila not Espanol or the Spaniards as Kastila and not Espanol? Maybe its because most of Spaniards who went here were Castillians?, ie from Castille, Spain.I wonder why? Come to think of most of us refer to white foreigners as Kano even if they are Eastern Europeans or Englishmen.

Rosendo, I like that name it sounds so Philippines 1950s and I mean no offense it is a nice solid Filipino/Spanish name, lists down and translates into Tagalog, Spanish and English the different Tagalog idioms used in the 1960s. It is an interesting list and plus side is you get its equivalent word or description in English and Spanish.

Here are some of the entries that can be found in the booklet. Please note that the words are arranged according to the following scheme, Tagalog idioms - Tagalog description - English - Spanish:

Bals wals - Walang saysay - worthless - no vale nada

Basang puwit - Babaing paiba-iba ang kinakasama - a woman who changes lover continually - mujer que cambia de querido

Mukhang balubad - pangit - ugly - feo

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Book reviews on the web and other links

Here are some sites I visit often and you might find useful. When it comes to the written word there are two types of websites I visit. The first type contains or features book reviews and the second type contains electronic or digital format classic literature in the public domain, ie free literature, you just have to download them.

Now why take time to visit a book review site. Book review sites and book reviews are important to bibliophiles because it gives us an assessment of the book without giving away the story. This saves the reader time and money in selecting a potential book to read.

However, it must be noted that not all reviews are good reviews, some may be disguised as advertising tools. Things to look out for in a book review are the following:

Who is the author? What is his speciality and reputation? Is he writing for a credible organisation.

And on the review itself. Is it a non-biased review? Does the critic or reviewer cite or quite passages to prove his point? Or is he just writing down his opinion without presenting evidence to back his claims against and or for the book. Reviewing is just not writing your opinion it is proving your opinion is valid or worthy of consideration.

Equally interesting for us is that the Internet makes available, for free, literature that has entered the public domain, nearly copyright free except for commercial purposes. This means work that have entered the public domain can be copied and distributed non-commercially. And this saves us money because no we just have to download or copy the work.

Here are the sites I visit often:

Book Reviews:

FT.com: Financial Times website

FT.com aside from being the on-line version the FT, Financial Times - the premiere UK-based financial and business newspaper, also carries news feed from several daily newspapers from aroud the world. Each weekend the paper comes out with the weekend section and in that section one can find several insightful book reviews. Unfortunately, you have to sign up and pay in order to access this feature.

The good news is if you are or your company is a subscriber to the Financial Times newspaper you can access this site, subscription to the newspaper comes bundled with the subscription to the site.

The New York Times Book Page

All you have to do here is to sign up for the service and you are ready to go. Contains a large database of reviews. Reviews are grouped by genre, author's name and several categories. And aided by a powereful search you can easily get to the book review you want. I took me less than two minutes to get the review of Yann Martel's "Life with Pi".

SF Site

For readers of Science Fiction this is the site where you can find book reviews od SF books, articles and interviews of your favourite writers.

Free literature
Project Guttenberg

Project Gutenberg produces and makes available for downloads free electronic books (eBooks or etexts) on the Internet. According to their website the collection is made up of more than 15,000 ebooks, all produced by volunteers. The literary works in this collection are already in the public domain in the United States and as such can be freely downloaded and read, and redistributed for non-commercial use.

This site is useful if you are looking for those hard-to-find books. I was able to download Frank Stockton's fairy tales from this site.

There are several other sites that provide credible reviews and free downloads. And I will feature them next time.

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News: Neil Gaiman coming this way!

Neil Gaiman, critically acclaimed writer of the Sandman comic book series and author of the novel American Gods and other titles, will be visiting the Philippines this July. Gaiman will be here from July 9 to 11. For more information check Neil Gaiman's journal at neilgaiman.com, the information can be found in the May 4 entry.

A BOOK ABOUT BOOKS, WRITERS, BOOK PUBLISHERS AND READERS

Hamilton, John Maxwell. Casanova Was a Book Lover and Other Naked Truths and Provocative Curiosities about the Writing, Selling, and Reading of Books. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Pr., 2000. 351p. $24.95, alk. paper (ISBN 0-8071-2554-7). LC 99-059582

Last Christmas, I went to National Book Store Super branch in Cubao and they had on sale ,I think they still have, several books and CDs from the UK. These were brand new books selling for around half its price. A cursory glance at a few of the books would seem to indicate that they were from the stock of financially troubled airport and train station-based book store WH Smith. Maybe NBS got these from Hong Kong.

Now the value of these books and CDs of course will vary from person to person. There were several children books and CDs. Differently covered Lemony Snickett and Harry Potter books. The cover of a book would differ from time to time depending where it was released. A publisher sometimes would also come up with two versions of the same book, case in point Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – they came up with a children’s version, which was cheery red or orange, and the adult version, which had a more somber color. When this was released here someone actually claimed on Bidshot that this was the adult version implying that it contained passages for mature viewing. Caveat emptor! Buyer beware!

Another interesting find in this sale was the amount of audio books and radio plays on sale. For me the radio-plays were a real bargain, but I digress.

One of the books I was able to buy was a book written by journalist and radio commentator John Maxwell Hamilton entitled, “Cassanova was a Book Lover and Other Naked Truths and Provocative Curiosities about the Writing, Selling and Reading of Books”.

Hamilton enchants us with an irreverent look at all the facets of the book from A to Z. His irreverent and factual narrative spares no one – the writer, the publisher, the patron, the critic, the reader and even the library.

"Dear friend I believe, contrary to the fashion among our contemporaries, that one can have a very lofty idea of literature and at the same time have a good-natured laugh at it." - Marcel Proust

The writer used this quote in the book and it would seem that he truly believes in the message. Hamilton rephrases this quote in the title of his introduction that he describes as “An Introduction to the Proper Study of Mankind” and continues with “In which it is shown that the best way to study books, reading, and people is no to take them seriously”.

In my case, Hamilton is preaching to the converted.

The chapter titles of the book foreshadow the wit and style he employed in discussing history and issues affecting the book industry. Below is a list of said chapters:

T ROGER CLAYPOOL'S FISH STORE
THE ART OF MARKETING
ARTLESS THANK-YOUS
A GUIDE TO GOOD BOOK BEHAVIOUR
INGLORIOUS EMPLOYMENT
LITERARY LUCK
BEST STOLEN BOOKS
DEAR MR POLITICIAN PLEASE DONT WRITE
THE UNIVERSAL LIBRARY

In T Roger Claypool’s Fish Store, Hamilton debunks the stereotypical image of the writer as a laid back and earning his living just by writing. He cites that writing has been a second career for most successful authors. William Shakespeare earned not from his work but from his earnings as an actor, shares in the theatre and real estate. Chaucer worked as an ambassador and not a writer. Milton depended on his father, tutoring of children and working as a propagandist for Oliver Cromwell to make ends meet.

All in all, Hamilton’s work read as an articulate and engaging story telling rather than a sleep-inducing lecture. Bibliophiles, writers, publishers, and readers will find this book informative and interesting.

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READING HABITS

In Japan there is tale about a monk and a gifted swordsman. The monk seeking to educate the swordsman tricked and imprisoned him in a library for several years. During his imprisonment the swordsman, due to boredom, was forced to read all the books. And when the time came for the swordsman’s release he hugged and thanked the monk saying that he had learn a lot during his incarceration. The swordsman’s name was Miyomoto Mushashi the legendary swordsman of Japan.

So how do you read?

Do you require total silence in the surroundings before you begin reading a book? On the other hand, do you need music in order to put you in the mood? Do you read differently a comic book from a novel of Tolstoy? Alternatively, does reading style differ when you read about the red masque of death and the Green Terror, a South American fish also called Aquidens rivulatus.

One of my first jobs in the information industry was that of an abstractor, one who makes abstracts. Now normally when we say abstract we mean the adjective means complicated, for example the painting of the descent is an example of abstract art. The abstract that I used to make as an abstractor refers to the noun, which means a summary of an article or study indicating the content and/or voice of the original. The reader uses an abstract to evaluate the content of an article.

Abstracts are an integral part of any research paper. This is because by reading an abstract the reader can already know nearly all the important information of the study.

Abstracts are also of great use to the largest depositories of articles. There are companies out there that collect and collate articles. These enormous numbers of articles are deposited in a huge database for storage and retrieval. Now these articles are indexed or tagged with descriptors. A search in the database uses these descriptors to collect these articles. The reader is left with an option to select the article he needs. An abstract shortens the selection time a reader has do when processing the article since he need not read the whole text only the abstract. In some cases the information in the abstract is all that is needed, the reader needs not go ay further.

As an abstractor, there two primary skills needed. First, the abstractor must have the ability to write grammatically correct, clear, and concise abstracts. Second, as important, or even more important than the first is the ability to comprehend the article. How can you write the abstract if you do not understand the article? If you do not understand the article, your article will be rubbish.

The way I read an article, as an abstractor is radically different from the way I read a book for pleasure or without time constraints. Reading in preparation for writing an abstract is a task of necessity; if you do not produce an abstract you will not get paid. When reading articles for abstracts the writer has to keep himself in focus, scan the article and identify the main points – in other words deconstruct the article quickly. Fortunately, abstractors relied on the five wise men used by Rudyard Kipling – who, what, when, where and why. Identifying the five Ws of the article, the abstractor could write down a good abstract. Unfortunately, not all articles were malleable to the five Ws; there were times when a complicated expository piece (an essay) or a highly specialized study needed to be abstracted. In such cases, there was no choice but to read the piece and identify the main points. I remember a time when I had to write an abstract for a study on the validity of a geometric formula, mathematical research maybe slim page wise but in terms of complicated content they do pack a wallop. Over time, all abstractors develop techniques to speed up the process of writing. Most abstractors had an arsenal of templates for news reports, essays, product releases, book reviews for all sort of articles.

Reading for abstracting is reading out of necessity, systematic and fast no time to enjoy and digest what one reads. Effective reading but without pleasure of discovery or the joy of self-epiphany.

The second way I read a book is to digest it, taking my time to enjoy the passages. And this type of reading I do not limit to fictional works but to a whole gamut of reading materials that has piqued my interest. The book I might be reading may be about fish keeping, the history of book publishing, “The Hobbit” by JRR Tolkien or Edgar Allan Poe’s short story with the unassuming title of “A Cask of Amontillado” as long as it keeps me interested I read it at leisurely pace. There are of course books, like cook books and atlases, that are not for leisurely read, however, from time to time you will discover some unassuming books or works that can be a treasure trove for one’s interest.

There is a pleasure one can only find in digesting the words of written work. While gobbling is effective in certain instances true enjoyment of a reading a written work is to mentally savor each bit.

So what are your reading habits?