Filipino bookworms ranked no 3

Everyday I read a couple of articles from the websites of Philippine newspapers and media outfits. To get the facts out in this country you really have to read two or accounts of the event from the different media entities. Today as I was perusing the Philippine Inquirer I came across an article a few rows below the PGMA-related articles. Alcuin Papa reported that a survey conducted by the global market research organization NOP World .

The following link will take you to INQ7.net :
Filipinos No. 3 among world's bookworms
http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=41791

The NOP World Culture Score index was a survey of taken from December 2004 to February 2005 and the study involved 30,000 consumers above the age of 13 from 30 countries.

On a weekly basis, Filipinos spend an average of 7.6 hours reading books, newspapers and magazine. Beating the Americans, who came in 23rd with 5.7 hours, and the British ,who spent 5.3 hours and were ranked 26th. The Japanese spent 4.1 hours and the Koreans who spent 3.1 hours. Indian bookworms came out on top with 10.7 hours while the Chinese came in second with eight hours.

NOP analysts explained that self-help and inspirational reading may explain India's high figures.

In the same survey, Filipinos came in second as the top tv watchers in the world. According to the survey, Filipinos on weekly basis spend on the average 21 hours watching the telly. Our neighbors the Thais spend at least 22.4 hours a week in front of the boob tube.

And the Taiwanese spend the most time after work surfing the Internet. They spend at least 12.6 hours each day in front of the computer. We on the other hand, again according to the survey spend on the average 9.8 hours, the article was not clear whether this figure is a daily or weekly average.

So Filipinos also came in as top TV watchers. This is sort of paradoxical since it was suggested that time spent on reading meant fewer hours in front of the TV set and listening to the radio. So how do you reconcile this? Interesting findings.

It would also have been interesting to find out what was the predominant reading material or reading material of choice: books, newspapers, magazines or others.

In our old class in Philippine publishing it was revealed that missalette was the most read and published periodical. This was of course a few years ago. Things might have change by now.

Bookstore: Datelines

Inside the u-shaped shoe district of Cubao, also known as Shoe Expo, lies a bookstore. Chanced upon the bookstore last week when I was walking home with a friend. Now Shoe Expo has seen better days. I used to remember buying shoes from the Otto stores there. There are still shoe stores there but I do not know if they are making money. Some of the stores, those located in the horizontal part of the u are gone.


Shoe Expo

In its place is Bellini's Italian Restaurant. An authentic Italian restaurant that serves, according to its patrons, one of the best osso buco in Metro Manila. Me I like the pasta and the place is not very pricey. It has its own home-grown charm. Bellinis has been there for years and I did not really notice the two other stores till I passed by last week.


Bellinis

The store immediately next to Bellini's is a funky pop art antique shop called Vinatge Pop. Old chairs from the sixties. Old SLR cameras that are probably alien to most people using digital cameras. I also spoted old projectors, along with other assorted memorabilia and keepsakes from the past. Interesting shop if you the cash. Although I wonder if one probably cleaned out the old bodega in the house one might find older things than those in the shop.


Vintage Pop

Next to the pop-antique shop is the bookshop named Dateline. The shop seems to have a lot of hard to find art, socio-political and speculative fiction books. Plus some hard to find Filipiniana. A lot of Che Guevarra books and some comics. Today, I passed by it again to check their collection. Unfortunately it was closed, my fault actually I passed the area around noon and you know what they "Only Mad Dogs and Englishmen come out in the midday sun" and I am not an Englishman. Still will visit again this week just to check it out.


Datelines

Come to think of it there are a lot bookstores in Cubao today. Let me enumerate:

National Bookstore: The Super Branch, Farmers Plaza Branch and the Ali Mall Branch
Fully Booked at Gateway
A Different Bookstore at Shopwise
Book Sale at Shopwise, Ali Mall and the old Rustan
The Book section at Shopwise
Lex or something bookstore
St Paul at Gateway
Tanging Yaman Bookstore
Humor Post
Goodwill Bookstore at Gateway
Datelines

Fifteen in total, not including the magazine stores.

A book that leads to other books

I bought this book a few weeks ago after watching a a critically acclaimed but in reality a wretched movie. At first I thought it was a bit steep for its price but after browsing a couple of pages and its table of contents I became convinced it was a good buy.

Its hard to put down this pocket book. The knowledge contained in this book will keep you entertained for hours. And after that you might be able to pass yourself as a literary buff. Aside from the basics as to what makes a piece of fiction cult fiction the books discusses several aspects of cult fictiondom. There is a a chapter on the authors of cult fiction - interesting information about them what were their favourite books, what writers influenced them, who they influenced, their quirks and a lot of other trivial information. Then there is a chapter on graphic novels, because as they wrote "cult works are more than just words". And then the book had a chapter on books that achieved cult status even it their authors did not. A chapter was also written for non-fiction books that attained cult status. I could go on and on.

My only frustration with the book is its size or lack of it. Books like this should be a bit bigger and with more chapters. Also maybe it would have been better had it been hardbound. Then thats just me talking.

Title: The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction
Authors: Michaela Bushell, Helen Rodiss Paul Simpson

To buy or not to buy

I really should stop buying books. It is a financial drain. So what are the solutions aside from borrowing and downloading e-books. Be finicky. Now I know that finecky is a negative term that means giving to much attention to detail. Maybe the better term would be to adopt a demanding or thorough or meticulous framework in purchasing a book. In other set-up a criteria ,standards or measures, where you can decide if the book is to be purchased or not.

If I were to list down my personal criteria in book selection it would be something like this:

Content, I should like the book's content. It should reflect my genuine interest. So my taste would go for certain fiction (fantasy, science fiction, mystery, horror , comics and marchen) and non- fiction (history, aquarium keeping, essays, dictionaries, library-information science tomes, cookbooks and trivia).

Authority, The author's reputation. Is he a good writer? A credible source? Is his reputation good? Judging this requires some reading of the author's work, reading reviews and articles about the authors and insights from friends, family and people you trust. Also you can check the book jacket you will always find something written about the writer, as well as the story for that matter, complete with a photo of said writer posed in his element, there is a wide array of poses a writer can adopt from the standard holding the pipe or smiling or even frowning. Like it or not starting out with the classics is not a bad start - some of my favourite books were required reading during my pre-diet soda years.

Timeliness, this is important for technical and scientific books. Always look at the copyright. It might be a bargain but the information might be outdated. Unless of course you are looking for old books and old information - let's say how to prepare a Mann Hann meal.

Physical quality of the book. Paperbacks although cheap are not designed to last long. The newsprint used will oxidise and turn yellow. And will eventually crumble. Books printed in acid-free paper and that are hard bound lasts longer. Pricey but they do last longer. The most perfect examples of these books are the Bible, present day comic books (Graphic Novels) and most aquarium books. Comic books and the Bible you can understand. Devotees and collectors prize these books. However, aquarium books seemed to have been done that way because of necessity. I have had aquarium books whose pages seem to be laminated in mylar and are virtually water proof. Well considering that most aquarists read the book near or about water this must have been a consideration.

Price, Is the book priced correctly? Is it on sale? Just check the book cover and you will always find the suggested price. This also gives you an idea of the cost and mark-up of the book seller.

Availability of the book. If the book has four or five copies in the store you can probably afford to wait and evaluate the purchase. If it is rare will you be willing to buy it? Rare here is fluid term because unless the book is a protobook or an inculabula its not really rare is it. Books today are published in volumes. So you can probably afford to wait for a better deal. Waiting and haveing the patience of Job in book buying is tricky and more or less depends on your disposition. I have friends who almost fainted when they got to the bookshop to buy their much coveted book only to find someone browsing the book, possibly mulling whether to buy it or not. You can always borrow just make sure you return the book so you can borrow again.

I used this criteria from time to time in order to control my desire to read other books. Sometimes it works sometimes it does not.

Most of the time the over-riding factor seems to be content and price. It also helps that I perused the introduction of the book and the short bio of the author or authors all located inside and outside the book. Worthwhile to check the introduction and glance at the table of contents of the book before deciding to purchase.

Its your money and ultimately your book.

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May favourite CS Lewis book: The Screwtape Letters

Have you ever thought about the first book you read?
As a child I remember those Katzenjammer comics bought from a second hand store in Bangkal or the Lady Bird books about the three billy goat gruff or even the book my grandfather gave me.

A few days ago I discovered the first CS Lewis book I read. The first time I read this book was when I borrowed it from the British Council. At that time the British Council's library was located in New Manila. And it was just a jeepney ride from our house.

Going to a library in order to read and borrow books is a better alternative than buying, especially if you do not have the financial resources to buy books one likes to own. Another plus factor was that the library had a powerful and fully functional air-conditioner. A plus item in any building in the tropics in our time.

In this library I discovered the works of CS Lewis, Frank Herbert, Agatha Christie and a host of other writers. Most of the books they had were hardbound, the big books. These were the books that would be selling for over a thousand pesos today. No all were available for borrowing. Some were reserve books, meaning the library user can browse the book but cannot take it out. I used to came back again and again to browse the Tolkien bestiary or Father Christmas Letters.

And here in that library I read my first book from CS Lewis, however, it was not the Narnia books or the Silent Planet Science Fiction trilogy. My first book was a compilation of letters written by a Devil to his nephew-devil about how to turn a man to sin. The title of the compilation is "The Screwtape Letters". It is Lewis at his cynical and satyrical best.

A few years after a friend of mine gave me a copy of the book for my birthday. And this was the book I rediscovered. It occupies a special niche in my collection of books, sitting alonside my favourite books from Tolkien, Joaquin, Lovecraft and others.

As I type in the last words to this post I glance at the book and thumbing and opening its pages I discover the price of the book. It was bought for 59 pesos. Despite its condition and my predilection today for hardbound books I still like my worn out book of letters written by Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood.

And I close with this quotation on page five:

"The devil. . . the prowde spirite. . . cannot endured to be mocked." - Thomas Moore

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