UK Bound

A Book Safari: No I am not on my way to the United Kingdom to buy books.

The First Bookstore

Last Saturday, on the way to the mall I came across a second hand store along the old Aurora Arcade.

The two story building is situated along Aurora Boulevard near Mercury Drugstore. Fortunately, the store was not on the Aurora side of the building; subjected to the toxic fumes of the jeepneys. It was in front of what used to be the old Queen's grocery store, which is gone now and in its place is big hole filled up with water. Every Sunday RC boat hobbyists race around this green pond. This pond or what I like to call the Cubao Pool is a thriving micro-aquatic ecosystem with fish and green algae.

Right in front of the Cubao pool is a series of shops that sell second hand goods - shoes, clothes, appliances, toys, bicycles and books. There were around two to three rows of books of all kind - hardbounds, tradepaperbacks, mass print and books with other fancy names. Curios I casually browsed the collection. There were a couple of encyclopedias, novels, cookbooks, magazines, bestsellers of yesteryears, comics, and others. I guess there were a number of books in the shop to satisfy most readers. I spotted a collection of culinary magazines, quite useful to epicures. After a few minutes in shop I left. In the end I bought two hard bound books , an English grammar book from Boston and a book that contained the unabridged version of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula. A brand new grammar and style book would probably cost me a around three to seven hundred pesos. Dracula and Frankenstein book would cost each around three hundred seventy five pesos for the soft bound edition. These books I got from the second hand store cost me a total of one hundred seventy five pesos. The frugal bookworm in me was to mildly put it overjoyed.

The second bookshop

I learned about this book shop while watching one of those early morning programs on television. The one you watch as you prepare to leave the house. Another second bookstore and another bookstore run by journalists. This should be interesting I said to myself.

Some information about the bookstore:

Bound Bookshop

The best collection of new and read books

Bestsellers: Contemporary/Literary Fiction:Politics/History/Current Events n Food: Children's Books: Art/Design: Photography: Humor: Travel: Biographies/Memoirs:Music:Business:Sexuality: Erotica:Gender Issues: Self-Help/Inspirational: Media/Communications: Entertainment:Health

105-A Scout Castor Street, Laging Handa, Quezon City, Philippines
Telephone: 4117768
Email(?): info@boundbooks.net
URL: wwww.boundbooks.net

The book shop is way much cleaner than the Ukay-Ukay-bookstore (second hand shop) in Cubao. First, it was air-conditioned. Second, it was far more cosy. Third, the books were more neatly arranged.

I left the bookstore whistling and full of happy thoughts.

There were three things that I like about this bookstore. One, the atmosphere (as I mentioned in the second paragraph preceding this one) was cosy. It is not as big as National Book Store or Fully Booked but it was inviting. The shop had a homey feel to it; entering the store was like entering a smal library. Two, they were selling not only new books but also second hand books. So the discriminating and frugal side of the bibliophile was easily satiated by the shop. Three, the shop had books that you cannot easily obtained.

Aside from those three reason the shop is probably one of the few bookshops in Manila or in the Philippine that has clearly marked erotica section. Although, their collection seemed to have been depleted - a pity.

On the other hand I did find a good copy of the Decameron. Hardbound and printed on good paper. This book will last a lifetime and more. The book cost ,e me around a hundred pesos. Not bad for a hardbound copy of the Decameron.

This shop is located near Tomas Morato and Roces avenue: given the traffic it would be best to go ther during a weekend afternoon.

Reading Chinese detective stories

This weekend I finally finished reading the last Judge Dee detective story I was able to get my hands on. Several weeks ago I was at the Cubao branch of a Different Bookstore; As usual I was checking their collection before proceeding home. If you want to save money do not enter any kind of store just go home. I was fairly confident that I would just be killing time looking at their titles. However, just as I was about to leave I came across a table full of books that had a big red sale beside it. Curious, I looked at the books confident that I would not find anything that would rouse my interest. A couple of Umberto Eco's book , hmm...I said to myself I have read the Name of the Rose and his other works - no rush. Then my eyes scanned down to four books that were designed with several Chinese motifs and flourishes. All were written by one author, the Dutch Diplomat Robert Van Gulik. All were mystery stories.

It had been a long time since I read a mystery novel. Ever since I read Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story The Blue Carbuncle I was entertained by the mystery. In general there are books that you read for knowledge and then there are books you read for pleasure. And if one was lucky you would come across a book that would do both. For me, I like reading a tale where a mystery has to be solved a whodunit. I started with my mother's collection of Sherlock Holmes stories: Holmes with Watson solving a mystery for the King of Bohemia, finding the Blue Carbuncle, and many others. Then there Agatha Christies' Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and the dimunitive Ms Marple; GK Chesterton's Father Brown and Edgar Allan Poe's Dupin. There were of course others stories from Roald Dahl involving a leg of lamb and death. Umberto Eco's book The Name of the Rose is a mystery novel about a series of murder in an abbey during the time religious conflageration and his detective, Brother William of Baskerville, who was supposedly based on the English Franciscan Friar and logician William of Ockham who is responsible for the principle Occams or Ockham's razor - which in plain English states given two predictive theories, choose the simplest.

Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Father Brown and their surrogates have all found their way into cinema. As for Brother William, his role was essayed Sean Connery in the movie adaptation of the Name of the Rose.

What is it with mystery stories? Why are they so addictive? Maybe because I would like to see how the detective solves the story. Or it could be the tension between the criminal and the detective, who would outwit the other. Solution and resolution that could be it.

What is a story but a tale of how a person got from point a to point b.

The Judge Dee stories are a fresh take on the mystery story. In the first place the Chinese mystery stories are different in form from the Western mystery story. First, the main protagonist is a Judge or a Magistrate. In Imperial China the government depended heavily on magistrates; they governed every aspect of life in the city and the surrounding area for 50 miles. The magistrates collected the taxes, managed the civil records, resolved disputes and solved cases. If a crime was committed in a society they were responsible for solving, failure to solve the case would affect their advancement in the hierarchy of power. Second, a Chinese mystery story often involves the Judge solving two or three cases in one story, a judge would often be investigating more than one crime case at a time and it is not unsual that the investigation may take some time. The twists and turns in the story makes it exciting. Third, the Chinese mystery story is faithful to the prevailing judicial process in Imperial China, which allowed the limited use of torture (to be administered in public) in order to gain a confession. This was important because it was vital to get a confession from the criminal, you could not impose a sentence if the criminal confessed to the crime. Of course, torture alone was not enough and it was limited - because if a witness died under torture, it would be the judge and the tribunal who would be stripped of power and be the recipient of the same punishment. As such the judge had to out-think the suspect and the criminal in order to get to the truth. Fourth, the story always ended with the punishment of the guilty part.

Judge Dee is the main protagonist of the story and he is aided in his adventures by four assistanst. One is his old and most trusted servant Hoong Liang, whom Dee appointed as Sergeant of the Tribunal. When a judge starts his career he has to appoint four assistants who are permanently attached to him. The other members of the tribunal change when he goes to a new assignment every three years but the four remain with him. Most of the time these were people the judge trusted and it would not be uncommon for them to have checkered pasts. The remaining three assistants of Dee were Ma Joong, Chiao Tai and Tao Gan. The first two were former highway men (euphemistically called Brothers of the Greenwood) and the last Tao Gan was a reformed con-man and criminal. Judge Dee and his assistants through investigation, subterfuge, martial and criminal skills attempt to solve the crimes that were committed in the district.

The tales are quite interesting often involving murder, plots against the Imperial throne, smuggling and intrigue. Van Gulik interwoves each piece of the story that it keeps you interested till the resolution of each case. What is more intriguing is that Van Gulik based most of the mysteries on actual court cases he had discovered during his study of the Chinese mystery stories and perusals of ancient records. The hero of his story is a real life Judge and renowned statesman, Dee Jen- Djieh or Ti Jien-Chieh from the Tang Dynasty, who was able survive political intrigue, escape from jail and convinced the power Empress Wu to appoint the rightful heir to the throne. Van Gulik used Judge Dee and embellished his characters with traits from other figures from China, like Pao Kung or Judge Pao.

Aside from the mystery and characters from Ancient China, Van Gulik makes each story exciting because it details the activities and events of China during that time. The life in a walled city is look at, the beliefs and customs of the people are discussed, even the food served in restaurants are described fully and other things that happen in that time time is written down. And Van Gulikdoes this with an unbiased eye; giving a balanced fictional treatment of life during the Tang dynasty. This may be due to the fact that Van Gulik extensively studied Chinese culture durng his days in the Dutch diplomatic service in China and Japan; He also wanted to depart from the stereotypical Chinese characters seen in Western literature at that time. He was writing of a Chinese society before the introduction of opium.

This books are a reprint of the original books by Van Gulik. A quick check over at Amazon.com showed that he actually wrote more and this indicates a good commercial run for the book.

After reading the first book, I ended up buying the last three. Fortunately, the books were on sale - A Different Bookstore was selling them for half their actual price.

If you want a fresh compelling mystery story with cultural insights into Chinese culture look for these books.

Author: Robert Van Gulik (1910-1967)

Books:
A Judge Dee Detective Story: The Chinese Gold Murders
A Judge Dee Detective Story: The Chinese Lake Murders
A Judge Dee Detective Story: The Chinese Bell Murders
A Judge Dee Detective Story: The Chinese Nail Murders

Book Curses and Anathemas

When I was starting blogging one of the topics that caught my interest were book curses. The use of book curses, threat of excommunication and anathema were used extensively during the Middle Ages as a way of controlling book theft, the other method was to chain the book to the table or to the shelf.

CURSE, EXCOMMUNICATION & ANATHEMA

A brief definition of the terms may be needed to fully understand the design and intent of each curse. A curse is an appeal or prayer for harm to come to a person or a thing. An excommunication is the exclusion of an individual from a community. And anathema is a person or thing denounced, cursed and excommunicated. Generally, a curse involves bodily or physical harm while both excommunication and anathema involves religious and social seperation from the community. What is involved in a curse is the physical well-being, while the excommunication and anathema will deal not only with the physical, but also the spiritual and social aspect of a person or a thing. An excommunication can be lifted by absolution or forgiveness, while the anathema is almost permenant, it nearly cannot be lifted.

Most of the curses can be found in the articles written by Mike Cox and Sandra Anderson's article entitled,"Bibliomania and the Medieval Book Curse". And most of the curses and anathemas they cited can be found in Marc Drogin's book "Anathema!: Medieval Scribes and the History of Book Curses.". The book was published in 1983 and is said to be out-of-print, but a quick check at Amazon.com showed that you can still get some copies if you want to.

Interesting if you can put this in one's library or on one's book plate.

I. CURSES

The first curse comes from Assyrian King Assurbanipal:

The palace of Ashur-bani-pal, king of hosts, king of Assyria, who putteth his trust in the gods Ashur and Belit . . . I have transcribed upon tablets the noble products of the work of the scribe which none of the kings who had gone before me had learned, together with the wisdom of Naub insofar as it existeth {in writing}. I have arranged them in classes, I have revised them and I have placed them in my palace, that I, even I, the ruler who knoweth the light of Ashur, the king of the gods, may read them. Whosoever shall carry off this tablet, or shall inscribe his name on it, side by side with mine own, may Ashur and Belit overthrow him in wrath and anger, and may they destroy his name and posterity in the land (Drogin,1983)

Whoever steals this book
Will hang on a gallows in Paris,
And, if he isn't hung, he'll drown.
And, if he doesn't drown, he'll roast.
And, if he doesn't roast, a worse end will befall him(Drogin,1983)

Drogin(1983) from a 16th century missal in France:

Should anyone by craft of any device whatever abstract this book from this place may his soul suffer, in retribution for what he has done, and may his name be erased from the book of the living and not recorded among the Blessed

A Medievel book curse allegedly from the monastery of San Pedro in Barcelona. Not only for the book thief but for the delinquent borrower.

For him that stealeth, or borroweth and returneth not, this book from its owner, let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him. Let him be struck with palsy, and all his members blasted. Let him languish in pain crying out for mercy, & let there be no surcease to his agony till he sing in dissolution. Let bookworms gnaw his entrails [. . .] when at last he goeth to his final punishment, let the flames of Hell consume him forever.(Basbanes,1995)

II. ALMOST AN EXCOMUNICATION

Should anyone by craft of any device whatever abstract this book from this place may his soul suffer, in retribution for what he has done, and may his name be erased from the book of the living and not recorded among the Blessed(Drogin,1983)

III. EXCOMMUNICATION

This comes from 13th century England -

This is the book of St. James of Wigmore. If anyone take it away or maliciously destroys this notice in taking it away from the above-mentioned place, may he be tied by the change of greater excommunication. Amen. So it be. So it be. So it be.(Drogin,1983)

IV. ANATHEMA

If anyone steal it, let him be anathema!
Whoever finds fault with it, let him be accursed.
Amen.(Drogin,1983)

or

May the sword of anathema slay
If anyone steals this book away(Drogin,1983)

V. SOMETHING EXTRA:

This is probably not a curse but might be useful for people who will be reading your book.

Quisquis quem tetigerit
Sit illi lota manus.(Drogin,1983)

Translation

Please wash your hands
Before touching this book.(Drogin,1983)

VI. REFERENCES:

Anderson, Sandra.Bibliomania and the Medieval Book Curse. Written for the LIS 586 - History of the Book course at the University of Alberta. (Posted to the web in March 2003 as part of a capping exercise for the completion of my Master of Library and Information Studies degree.)
http://www.slis.ualberta.ca/cap03/sandra/index.html

Basbanes, Nicholas A. A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books. New York: Henry Holt & Co, 1995

Cox, Mike. "Books often included poetic warnings, curses to alert borrowers".Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.Copyright 1997.
http://lubbockonline.com/news/102697/073-3765.htm

Drogin, Marc. Anathema! Totowa, NJ: Allenheld & Schram, 1983.

Ways to get a book

When one is a bibliophile. And is eternally in search of books to read one will learn eventually that there five ways to get a book.

The bibliophile can buy.
The bibliophile can browse.
The bibliophile can borrow.
The bibliophile can inherit or recieve.
The bibliophile can steal.

The first option seemingly is of course to buy. However, this can cause a sharp drop in the financial reserves of the book lover. There are of course other options than buying first-hand books, you can always buy previously owned or second hand books. The advanatge here is that the price is lower. Just make sure that the book that you get is of good quality - no missing pages, still in nicely binded, and the paper will not disintegrate in your hand. Always think Caveat Emptor !

Browsing is of course done always in the bookstore. It is a good way to kill time. Most bookstores tolerate this, some even like A Different Bookstore encourages this. The plus side to this is that its free. The downside side is you have to be fast reader or you have to go back to finish the book. Also there is a limited number of chairs and floor space available.

Borrowing a book is also a good strategy, Two sources of books for borrowing are public libraries and private libraries, owned by friends and relatives. It is a shame that there are not that many libraries here in the Philippines. In other countries, you just need to go to the library to get a book. Public libraries that I know of include the National Library and the Pasig Library, there may be more unfortunately I am not aware of them. There are also the libraries sponsored by corporate entities and foreign government - Goethe Institute, the British Counciland the Heritage Library (Ayala). I am not quite sure if the British Council still maintains a library, I was able to read a lot of Tolkien and CS Lewis books from their collection, I just paid 300 pesos for the library card. There are of course the school and university libraries, available to students and faculty, but in certain cases also available to the alumni. And then there are the friends and relatives, these are people close to you and will probably not mind lending a book or two you, unless you are a bad borrower, which is almost bordering on stealing.

The most fortunate way to get a book is if somebody were to give it to you. Its a thing given with love and affection. Unfortunately, most often love and affection does not equal taste in books. So please make sure your friends know what you like, but you have to be subtle a little bit overdone recipient of books designed to make fun of you or you will not get any book at all. Of course with inheritance that is another matter. Fortunate is he who has inherited a library from someone with excellent taste or whose tastes are similar to that of the heir. I wonder who inherited Rizal's library? Must have been Josephine Braken or maybe it was one of his sisters.

Not returning a book is stealing. Stealing is quite dangerous and will often lead you to jail. In the past though a lot of celebrated book stealers had a round-about way of stealing books. A Pope used to just get the books he fancies. And Shi Huang Ti of China ordered all non-essential books confiscated and burned.

In the old days book were highly valued. Nearly all were hand-written and hand-crafted. Monasteries and abbies were producing them and storing them. Some of the books were even chained to the table to prevent someone from stealing. Curses were also used to scare potential book robbers. Of course, the chain and the curse did not deter the book stealer from securing his prey.

So many ways to get a book.

Books from the book fair

I waited till the last day to go to the book fair. Despite the change in venue a lot of people went to the event. And I probably know now why they switched venue from a mall to the World Trade Center along Roxas. After several years, NBS and Powerbooks participated in the event.

There really was a lot of people there, We had to wait in line for 30 minutes before getting in. It was worth it. I ended up buying some Filipiniana books, most of them from the NHI booth, must be the influence of Ambeth Ocampo - the present chairman of NHI. I regularly follow his column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and re-read a lot of his books.

Some of the books I was able to get hold of:

Tristes Recuerdos Manila

The book is a pictorial album of the Philippine revolution against Spain. Tristes Recuerdos means Sad Memories and it must not be forgotten that for the Spaniards the revolution, which they called El Gran Catastrophe or Great Catastrophe, heralded the end of their empire. The album certain events from August 30 to September 4, 1896. In particular an uprising of the Katipunan led locally by Sancho Valenzuela. Its an interesting set of memorabilia from the past. Among the photos were shots of executed Sancho Valenzuela and three others - Modesto Sarmiento, Eugenio Silvestre, and Ramon Peralta.

The Miag-ao Church: A Historical Landmark

Miag-ao Church is one of the most beautiful church in the Philippines. The book details the history of the churh and the improvements that were done to it. It also details the reason it was a heritage. I also liked this book because it reminds me of the days I went to that church for two years. A few kilometers from the town of Miag-ao is the University of the Philippines in the Visayas , my alma mater for my Bachelor of Science Degree.

A couple of comic books: Y & Alec

A few weeks ago, I was able to read a couple of comic book: a contemporary American comic book from Vertigo and a comic book about a graphic novel.

Why Y?

I first learned of the comic book from my friend Inggo. The comic book was published by DC's off the beaten track sister company Vertigo. The same company responsible for producing the Sandman, Swamp Thing and Preacher.

Y is a tale about the last man on Earth; Yorick and his monkey named Ampersand or the symbol of "and". A unknow plague has infected the whole planet killing all mammals with the Y chromosome. Females have the XX chromosome while the males have XY. Its the Y is the chromosome that makes the males...well males.

Our hero Yorick and his pet monkey must go on a quest of sorts ,aided by a secret service agent know only by her number. A journey through America, during the journey must contend with visceral man-hatting amazons and agents of Israeli all-female military leadership, to discover why he was the last man to survive and to eventually find a way to be with his girlfriend in Australia!

So far this seems to be an interesting story. The paper does not seem to be of good quality and I mean not as nice as the paper Sandman or other TPB are printed on. Good smooth paper means the comic book will last longer. A good story deserves to last a long time, well as long as it can anyway.

Y: The Last Man - Unmanned
Brian K Vaughan/Writer
Pia Guerra/Penciller
Jose Marzan Jr/Inker
Pamela Rambo/Colorist
Clem Robins/Letterer
JG Jones/ Original Series Cover
Vertigo Comics

Something about Alec

Alec is about the life of British comic artist Alec. The Graphic Novel deals with the progress and set-backs of Alec. The book also chronicles the development of the Graphic Novel from the viewpoint the British Comic Book artist character.

The comic book is a revelation, because mid-way the main character muses about not only his life but diverts his attention to the story of the Graphic Novel, its rise and fall as he often quipped. Alec tells several stories and share his opinion about Alan Moore,Dave Sim, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison,Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird and others. Alec reminices a lot of encounters and stories with Alan Moore. For a comic afficionado who grew up reading a lot Alan Moore's work the tales were... interesting. Especially Moore's relationship with Dave Sim.

I wonder how close to home the story of Alec is to that of the writer and artist who created this comic book Eddie Campbell? How much is artistic license and how much is the truth. Perhaps, a great deal.

FYI, Eddie Campbell is the creator of Bacchus and illustrator of From Hell (As if you do not know).

A nice comic book. An interesting comic book fans. And perhaps a necessary comic book for comic book artists and writers. Plus the paper it was printed was white, smooth and nice.

Alec: How to be an artist
by Eddie Campbell
Eddie Campbell Comics
2001

The Book Fair: A picture essay

We, went last Sunday to the bookfair. Surprises, National Book Store and Powerbooks were there. The queue going in was long but the wait was worth it as you will see.

Book fair and cheap Filipiniana Books

Today is the start of the annual book fair. A friend of mine sent me a text message saying that he was at the book fair. According to him there were several good buys. Now the first thing on my mind was, what was he doing in the middle of the week in the book fair?

My friend has the advantage of being University professor, a denizen of the ivory tower. And as one of the elite educators he has a flexible work schedule. Or he was able to reason to his department chairman the reason he has to be there. Its the same reason he once bought a magazine with nearly half-clad women and chalked it up to academic study. I think he even got reimbursed for that magazine. Another advantage my friend has is a cash flow Midas would even envy. Such is life.

Veering away from my friend slightly and focusing on the book fair, he told me that there were several books on sale and almost half their price. Not suprisingly because it is a book fair. Undeniably, my friend had a good time. I wonder how many sacks of books he bought?

One thing he did tell me that was interesting is that several historical books published by the National Historical Institute (NHI) were selling at almost a steal. I was not surprised with this since even without the book fair these books are regularly sold at a steal. I remember buying a couple of NHI books at Popular Book Store a year ago and they were of good quality - hardbound and nice paper. And of course for me good reads. Several were translations into english of Filipiana books written in French, Spanish, German and Italian. Most were journals or travel tales of Europeans during the Spanish Colonial Period. The books were insightful.

I wonder, why do these books do not sell well?

Another friend of mine commented that nobody buys NHI books because they were boring. Its a pity. There are several interesting tales in these NHI books. I remember the tale of a French farmer in Laguna who journey from his farm in order to avoid the ennui of a Spanish Christmas only to be part of another Christmas celebration in another town, along the way he talks about bandits and indios with his man friday. Or the tale of fiestas in Pasig, the limestone of Guadalupe and the murder and execution of Augustinians priests inside the walled city. Interesting tales.

My friend will be dropping by Makati later, actually in a few minutes. The advantages of millionaire academic.