If Books shape a personality...
These is a list of my personal books; meaning I just bought them for my reading pleasure and not because I was forced to seek knowledge from them or as gifts.
I like "classic" books that had already received good references from other readers, usually my friends. I usually buy them at different branches of BookSale.
Short Comments included:
Brian Jacques
Redwall
Mattimeo
The Bellmaker
- three tales from Brian Jacques' Redwall series, a tale of peaceful but brave meadowland animals defend their country from evil beasts. Vivid descriptions of badgers, squirrels and mice versus ravens, weasels, and others stir my inner war-child.
Tales of Terror (a Penguin compilation) by Edgar Allan Poe
- Fall of the House of Usher, Masque of the Red Death, The Tell-Tale Heart are included here. Stories older than my grandfather, yet strangely, darkly, fascinating.
J.R.R. Tolkien:
Silmarillion
The Hobbit
Fellowship of the Ring
Return of the King
- As you can see, I still have to find a cheap copy of The Two Towers. ;) I enjoyed this series, though I find it not my style to learn Elvish myself, study Tolkien's esoteric references to religion and the Norse Eddas. Great sleep inducer.
Anthony Burgess
A Clockwork Orange
- nothing prepared me for this insanity. Burgess wrote a book using an invented slang he just made up. I consider this book a forerunner of today's cyberpunk genre, in which dark, dismal futures are a staple.
Jean Auel
Valley of Horses
The Mammoth Hunters
Plains of Passage
- ancient feminist version of a Thomas Edison! The heroine, Ayla, is the first woman to tame wild animals, to invent the brassiere, to invent the modern sewing needle, to propose the idea that essences planted by men in women during Pleasures create children (and not gods)... It can get pretty erotic, but treated with a very smooth manner. It is one of the best prehistorical fiction.
The Canterbury Tales (Bantam paperback) - Geoffrey Chaucer
- I appreciated English more when you see its past. This work is a great way to learn about medieval times, tongue-in-cheek. Humor can be so not-for-children.
Frank Herbert
Dune
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune
Heretics of Dune
Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
Dune: House Harkonnen
Dune: House Atreides
- I love this sci-fi universe. In order to imbue the reader with an understanding of his world, Herbert took half a book just to explain the importance of spice, his universe's prime commodity, and built political ideas, economics, environmental concerns, religious philosophy, fighting techniques into a great book. No movie can do this justice.
Robert Howard (Ace Fiction)
Conan
Conan the Freebooter
- Classic Sword and Sorcery.
John R. Powers
The Last Catholic in America
Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?
- Imagine Bob Ong in a Catholic neighborhood. In the U.S. During the 1950's. I feel so young yet so old whenever I read this.
C.S. Lewis
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
- a rare instance in which the beauty of the movie matches the book's majesty.
Bel Kaufman
Up the Down Staircase
- A story of an new, idealistic teacher in a U.S. public high school. Teenage angst, Fresh graduate idealism, and harsh reality mix in a drama like this. The story is told in the protagonist's letters home, in memorandum circulars, office communications, suggestions by students to give that first person feeling.
__________________________
Inggit sa long hair ko.
- neckromancer's blog
- quote
- 101 reads
Paminsan-minsang Paglalambing
Hindi ko naman maipapangako na lagi akong makakapagsalita... Pero lagi ko kayong kapiling para maglambing!
I was able to read the Tolkien trilogy by borrowing it one at a time from the library when I was still in high school. My curiousity got piqued when my mother bought a copy The Hobbit. (That book was later misplaced in our old house). I don't think I've read Silmarillion. However, I've read something which had a Farmer Giles who went to fight with a dragon.
I've only read a short excerpt describing a scene from Canterbury Tales where the cobbler was making a pun about being "the mender of soles".
Wow, Dune! ^^' I'm overwhelmed to start a relatively long series because I'm not sure if I will be able to avail of all the books. I only got to watch the old version of the movie (not the modern remake) on Sci-Fi channel during my vacation at my aunt's in Florida. trivia: I normally don't watch TV. I avoid it when I can, and I usually can. ~,^
You've gone through some interesting stuff. I wish I had the time to become a bookworm again. ^e^
-smiley v Seravi (^,^)
9th Saturday of 2008
"We are born naked, wet and hungry. Then things get worse."
__________________________I bought Dune piece by piece and almost all of it in order. I mean, when I bought Dune, I waited until I would find Dune Messiah (in BookSale) so I read them in order. Fate has been kind to me. That way I took years to read the series.
I also have here Stephen King's The Dark Tower, Gunslinger Part 1.
__________________________Inggit sa long hair ko.
wala akong pambili ng libro puro hiram lang.. yung mga libro Anne Rice yung gusto ko.. kasi variety eh.. fantasy,horror and inspirational ang mga ginawa nyang mga libro..
meron ba dito nakakumpleto ng Dragon Lance Collection?
__________________________If my hunch is correct, t'was Francis Bacon who quipped, "Reading maketh a full man." I share similar notes with kurabo. There was a time during early college days when I have three library cards, one for a public library and two private ones. The downside is I can only browse since the max time was only three days. A saving grace though came from the old but reliable Readers Digest, a lot of my vocabulary was taken there.
Memory jogger: The Codex Vaticanus is the oldest known bible written in Greek. It can be found in the Vatican museum.
__________________________"Consciousness: That annoying time between naps."
@kurabo: Iba talaga nagagawa ng trabaho. Kaya nga I love Book Sale e. I also used to read books sa National Bookstore, minsan nakakatapos ako ng buong joke books (patago nga lang). Nagparang code of honor ko na lang na hindi pumunit ng plastic cover ng libro, binabasa ko lang yung books na halatang binasa na ng iba (i.e., dog-eared).
@kwix: "Reading maketh a full man" - I guess reading is my substitute for travel, as another wit told readers, to expand the mind. I choose to be choosy for my reading materials though. I read and reread old Readers Digest magazines ever since my OFW aunt started bringing them here as "pasalubong" from her employer abroad. I appreciated them more than the shoes, canned goods, and chocolate everyone else were so eager to get their hands on.
__________________________Inggit sa long hair ko.
I suggest you try & read books by our very own F. Sionil Jose, National Artist Awardee(for Literature) and Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Awardee(for Journalism)...he's a living legend. Try Gagamba and/or Viajero for a start...then sample Platinum: Ten Filipino Stories and/or Waywaya: Eleven Filipino Short Stories ...then if you get the hang of it already delve into the Rosales Saga Novels(a five-novel series) starting with Po-on>>Tree> >My Brother, My Executioner>>The Pretenders>>and lastly Mass. F. Sionil José also owns Solidaridad Bookshop, which is on Padre Faura Street in Ermita(lots and lots of nice reads there). Parang commercial yata itong comment ko ah...but I bet you kung Pinoy ka, you'll admire the works of F. Sionil Jose.
And Ben Singkol, how can I forget that nice funny character.
__________________________Vita brevis, occassio fugit, experimentum periculosum, judicium dificile.
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