My Asinine Thoughts

When things are out of control, when I’m stressed or when I’m down in the dumps, I buy a book. I have lots of books, go figure.

Whenever I’m especially stressed and going nuts like I am right now, I read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (P&P) to calm myself down and make myself feel better. The only problem is, I don’t have my book with me. I left it in my room in the Philippines thinking I wouldn’t need it since I would only be gone for a couple of months. WRONG! I’ve never needed it more than I do right now.

I could’ve purchased a new copy, but my P&P copy has sentimental value. We have history together. I remember quite clearly where I bought it (National Bookstore, Tutuban), when I bought it (1996), and why I bought it (because I just saw Sense and Sensibility on VHS). I remember that I was watching tv in my brother’s room one day and decided to multi-task by reading a book at the same time. I remember that the tv show I was watching was quickly forgotten and I was completely engrossed in what I was reading, never putting the book down until I finished the whole thing. I also remember that as soon as I finished the whole book, I read it again because it was so amazing!

I would never have that again, that first time of reading P&P, a book so special you’d want to announce it to all your friends, family and even strangers. I’m glad I’ve got the memories though, and I’m glad that my book is still in pretty good shape even after dozens and dozens of readings. I miss my book. I have to go home!

So as a temporary salve to my pain, I watched The Jane Austen Book Club. I’m a believer in delayed gratification when it comes to some things, and I try to pace myself when it comes to Jane Austen and anything relating to Jane Austen. I don’t want to gobble it all up in one go because I want to have something to look forward to and I’m really glad I resisted watching this movie until now because like I’ve said, I’ve never needed Jane Austen more.

The movie was wonderful! I was very pleased to see such talented actors emulating the character traits of some of Jane Austen’s heroines. Their discussion of 6 of Jane Austen’s books were funny and insightful and it made me wish to have a book club of my own, all Jane Austen all the time. I just need to find 5 people I know who actually read Jane Austen (ok maybe 4 but that’s still a lot!). Maria Bello’s character in the movie is definitely my favorite. She parallels Emma in her desire to be unencumbered by a man and her independent nature (and fortune!). Hugh Dancy’s character is a close second because he’s so good-looking, charming and funny. I’ve forgotten about James McAvoy, Hugh Dancy is now my favorite British actor. Yummy!

The best actor of all in the movie was Emily Blunt, hands down. I wish she could have played Jane Austen in “Becoming Jane” instead of Anne Hathaway. Anne’s ok, but Emily is extraordinary. She could’ve made that movie better because I felt like there was something missing in Anne’s performance and I ended up disliking the movie as a result, even if it was Jane Austen’s (embellished) life story and James McAvoy co-stars.

Which leads me to Ursula Le Guin and science fiction books.

Hugh Dancy’s character in The Jane Austen Book Club is obsessed with science fiction. He recommends a bunch of books and science fiction authors to Maria Bello’s character and he’s so passionate about them I became immediately curious. The day after I saw the movie, I went to Page One to look for Ursula Le Guin’s “The Left Hand of Darkness” and “The Lathe of Heaven” but Page One didn’t have any of her books! Ah! The humanity! I was so looking forward to getting my hands on these books!

I consoled myself with buying other books that day and it made me feel a bit better. I promised myself that I wouldn’t buy books while I was here, but it was an emergency so I’m excusing myself. I bought a book by Arthur C. Clarke to start my path to science fiction and Alain de Botton’s “How Proust Can Change Your Life” because it looked really interesting.

I’m very excited about getting into science fiction. It’s a new genre for me since I’ve always been more into fantasy. Neil Gaiman is the only science fiction/fantasy writer I’ve ever read. So there you see? My depression has lessened due to books, the anticipation, the procurement, the actual reading of the books. The next thing I know, I’m on my way back home, ready to be reunited with my Pride and Prejudice again.

Ditsi was the first one who started collecting Sweet Valley books in the family, I believe atsi skipped it altogether and went straight to Mills & Boon, bypassing Sweet Dreams and the like. Hard core! I, on the other hand went step by step by reading Archie first, then Sweet Valley Kids (short spell, it was a complete bore), Sweet Valley Twins, Sweet Valley High and Nancy Drew. I never liked Sweet Dreams so when I outgrew Sweet Valley, I read atsi’s Mills & Boon collection. She had over 400 books and I probably read about 50 and finally gave up. Reading different variations of secretary loves boss made me seriously ill.

Sweet Valley High was ok but it got too complicated in the end so I only read a few. I was more into the twins when they were in middle school because they seemed to have more fun and it was in keeping with my emotional and mental immaturity at the time. I was the only one who collected Sweet Valley Twins and I probably started in second grade because I was friends with Zerzendee when I started reading it. I have a time line kasi with my best friends because I don’t keep them for long haha!

Around 4th grade, I was really good friends with Sabrina and she collected Sweet Valley Twins as well. We would sometimes buy books together and I have a particular memory of us riding the kalesa discussing the Super Chiller edition of Sweet Valley Twins called The Carnival Ghost (fyi it was really chilly!) … hay, the things I remember.

I think I was able to collect around 70 Sweet Valley Twins books before I lost interest but I only have a handful left with me now. I’ve said before that I’m attached to my books but in a momentary fit of madness I sold almost all of them to the STI Library when I was in college. What was I thinking? Well I wasn’t, kaya nga momentary fit of madness eh (which I suffer from from time to time). I’m thinking of buying some of them back through eBay though, just so I can remember what I was like before and what it felt like to be 12, happy and fancy free!

I’ve been reading some really trashy books lately. I can’t help it. Whenever I go to the library, I home in on the trashy stuff. I can’t say what I’ve been reading though because I’m too embarrassed, I’ve even got a few Nancy Drew books thrown in for pete’s sake! Not only am I reading bad books, I’m also regressing!

Comic books shouldn’t count though, because it’s for all ages.

Obviously, I’m not a book snob. Any kind of reading is better than no reading whatsoever. I do tend to check out book selections whenever I’m in someones else’s home. They reflect taste, personality, humor, yearnings, desires (mwahaha)… let’s just say it’s a good way of getting to know someone a little bit better. If there’s no book to be found at all, patay (dead dead dead).

Comic books should count though, because it’s for all ages.

I have a lot of books, but I’m not sure how well it reflects my personality. Maybe the way I organize my books reflects my personality more than my selection. I even have a book about books on bookshelves (The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski) which I found interesting and entertaining. I’ve always organized my books by size first then by author. I hate seeing uneven books side by side. There are many conventional and unconventional ways of organizing books, and I might even try organizing my books next time by sentimental value, but I guess that would be too telling.

Comic books shouldn’t be placed in book shelves, even if it’s for all ages.

The library is well and good but it doesn’t have all the books I want to read so I go to Borders sometimes. One day, I really really wanted to read Terry Pratchett’s Making Money. I’ve been holding off because I’m waiting for the paperback edition to come out. There was nothing wrong with the hardcover copy but I know it wouldn’t look good on my bookshelf if I have 30 Terry Pratchett paperbacks and one hardcover (shudder). But that one day, I felt I couldn’t wait anymore and I really had to read it. So I took one of the hardcovers on the shelf, sat on the comfy chair on the second floor, milk tea in one hand and the Making Money hardcover in the other. I opened the book and discovered that I was holding an autographed edition. Not only that but a first edition. I bought it. I figured at the right time, I could sell it for a lot of money on eBay. I’d still buy the paperback edition though. No sense in messing up my bookshelf.

I think there should be a comic book/graphic novel version of all Terry Pratchett’s books.

I have a lot of comic books but I don’t have a huge collection of graphic novels. I don’t think I can afford to expand my reading collection anymore (money-wise and time-wise) and I am a girl after all, although sometimes I forget.

update: I found a Guards! Guards! graphic novel at Amazon UK! Yay!

Terry Pratchett’s latest Discworld novel is out! The title of the new book is Making Money and it marks the return of Moist von Lipwig! I want it! I want it! I want it!

Amazon is offering it for $15.57, but if I buy it with The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld, it would only cost me $31.18! Hmm, I thought there was a discount there somewhere.

I bought Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 11 years ago after watching Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility.

I read Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding because I read and loved Pride and Prejudice.

I bought Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity because I read somewhere that he was the male equivalent of Helen Fielding. He wasn’t. He was much better.

I recently bought The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby because it’s by Nick Hornby and he’s great.

Hornby wrote about a poet named Robert Lowell in Polysyllabic. I bought Dangerous Muse, a book about Lady Caroline Blackwood (I read an excerpt a few years ago and thought it was interesting). She was married to Robert Lowell.

I’m ordering Robert Lowell’s biography soon.

Bookbug \”buk-’b€g\noun (2005)

: a person who loves books in their entirety

Etymology. Bookbug is a variation of the idiom ‘bookworm’ which means a person who is devoted to reading and study. Bookbug takes on devoted reading and devoted study to a lesser degree but with a tinge of fetishism.

Example sentence. Michelle, stop sniffing the new books! You’re such a bookbug!

(taken from the Dictionary Michellica)

The Confession
I’m not the type of person who gets too attached to people, but I do get attached to my things - especially books. You’d be hard put to borrow books from me unless I really trust you, and even then…I worry. I worry about stains, creases, spine cracking - all that stuff. I can sit in front of my book collection for hours wondering how I’m going to catalog them next. The best that has worked so far for me is size then author. I would’ve wanted nothing better than to see all my books (regardless of genre) in alphabetical order, but the sight of different book sizes side by side disturbed me a great deal.

The Early Years
When I was in first grade, I was big on Archie Comics. You can make me do anything as long as you give me an Archie comic book. I’ll do cartwheels, spinning, break-dancing… most of all it’s the best way to pacify me as my mom soon discovered. Having two older sisters whom she could take with her to go shopping or watch movies with, I was somewhat of a liability. This was because whenever we went out I would have no patience for clothes-shopping and was not yet old enough to watch PG-13 movies (so was Ditsi but she could get away with it). I knew these two things were against me but I still persisted in joining them whenever they went out. To make sure that they can go out unencumbered by a tedious brat, they would trick me into thinking that only mom was going out - and before I knew it, I would be left all alone at home with the maids throwing a tantrum.

Now my mommy knew what she’s going to have to face when they come home, so she made certain than whenever they come back from wherever they’ve been, they’d have something for me as lagay (bribe). At first I was resistant, but eventually realizing the potential cash cow that was my mother’s guilt, I made the most of it. I had my phases, most notably the McDonald’s Chocolate Sundae phase. But the most enduring, the most beneficial, the most effective bribe - was Archie and his gang of friends in Riverdale.

Juvenilia
Eventually I longed for something with more words than pictures so I started reading Sweet Valley Twins and Sweet Valley High. Jessica and Elizabeth were good company during my adolescence and I used to have such a major crush on Nicholas Morrow (the picture on one of the book covers showed his profile, sumamente guapo!). I remember a time when I just got my Christmas money and Sabrina and I went to National bookstore (Recto branch) to buy some books. I ended up buying almost 20 Sweet Valley books and as soon as I got home, I stashed most of them away before anyone found out. There were plenty of times when my friends and I would swap books and opinions about each character, discuss plot lines(!), and wonder at the freedom these kids had compared to us. Reading about 12-year-olds riding their bikes all over town is a stark contrast to our way of life. Kidnappings were rampant at the time and the thought of riding our bikes around Masangkay, Benavidez, and Ongpin sounds too much like a deathwish.

Romance Novels
When I hit high school, money became harder to manage because there were more things to spend it on - clothes, shoes, movies, food, magazines and music records just to name a few. Budget became tight and books took a back seat. But just because I was low on funds doesn’t mean my sisters were. They kept buying their own books and since I still enjoyed reading, I thought I’d check out a few of what they had. I have ignored my atsi’s Mills & Boon collection for years and when the time came that I showed an interest, she had amassed more than 400 books! I cannot, I repeat, I cannot remember the number of times I’ve read stories that revolved around the brooding boss and the doormat secretary. Even before I went to St. Scholastica’s, I already felt my inner feminist burning up inside. May you burn in hell, Emma Darcy!

Mass Paperback
When I was a 3rd year in high school, John Grisham, Michael Crichton and Anne Rice exploded into the scene. Atsi had already started collecting Crichton so I bought books by Grisham and Rice. My book inventory dates back to 1993 when I bought my first novel, If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon for only P174.75. My Anne Rice phase was long and not insignificant. My high school friend Poliana, who was the only one of my acquaintance at the time who liked reading books, was someone I could talk to about my obsession with Anne Rice, and we would often write notes and poems in class about our favorite characters. Many a poem were written and exchanged about Lestat and Louis, and I still have them tucked in a diary somewhere. I was 15. I wanted to be a vampire. I was an idiot.

Classics
I was broke for pretty much my whole stay in college. I think most of my money went to food/eating out.

When I saw Sense & Sensibility, two things happened - I admired Ang Lee for deftly directing a movie about something that must have been quite alien to him, and I discovered Jane Austen. It’s been almost 10 years since I first read Pride & Prejudice and I still read it every year with great enjoyment. Supalpal parin si Miss Bingley from Mr. Darcy’s hirits.

One classic book followed after another because I found out that they were a lot cheaper than those that can be found on the bestseller list. They were often on sale too, I was able to buy 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Death in Venice, The Pilgrim’s Progress, The Brothers Karamazov et al for P30.00; Ivanhoe, Pygmalion, The Mill on the Floss, A Room with a View, Far From the Madding Crowd et al for less than P25.00; and one of my proudest moments, finding a very good copy of Sense and Sensibility for P10.00!

And how, how, you may ask can I still remember the prices of my books? Because I have them all neatly listed in my inventory notebook which I’ve updated conscientiously for the past 14 years.

Present Time
I’m still a fiction-lover but my taste in books have been steadily evolving.

I’ve been reading a lot of Terry Pratchett, Kurt Vonnegut, Jasper Fforde, P.G. Wodehouse and Evelyn Waugh for the past year or so. These guys have written some pretty damned good books. I like humor, wit, satire - the more acerbic the better! It suits my current sour
slash dour disposition.

Maybe in the next year or two, I’ll be reading something totally different but the point is, I’ll still be reading.

How to know if you’re a bookbug

* You count your books all the time to make sure they’re all there.
* You count one more time to be sure that they’re all there.
* You do not take off the price tag because they will serve as reference.
* You worry about maintenance. Should I follow the scotch rule or the no-scotch rule? Should I risk using duraseal again? It looks nice but there’s no going back.
* You get irritated when publishers change the covers of a book series because they all won’t match anymore.
* You wipe all your books clean every month just in case some dusts had the temerity to appear despite strict precautions.
* Take note of all stains and start an investigation when a curious looking splotch appears out of nowhere.
* If you find a better cover version of a book you already have, still buy it.
* If you haven’t bought new shoes for a while and only have enough money for a pair, use the money to buy books instead.
* Buy books you have no intention of reading until the next decade or so. If you take good care of them they will last a long time. At least get them now while they’re cheap.
* Write notes in pencil, only use a pen for really favorite books.
* Buy back-ups of books you like to read best. You wear one out, you can replace it with an exact same one.

My dear and unfortunate reader,

I proceed with much trepidation to tell you a little something about a man who lived hundreds of years ago named Vlad III a.k.a. Dracula. I know I’m doing this at great personal risk but I cannot with good conscience let these facts die with me. They must be shared or all my nightmares will be in vain. If you are of the faint of heart, I suggest you cease reading this letter lest you get an attack of the debilitating sort and sue my ass. I have no bank savings and my wallet only holds NT$2350.00 at the moment (a bout of weakness at Carrefour made me purchase several DVDs and a uh, printer). My one valuable asset is Jeeves and he is depreciating now as I write, besides I’d shave off all my hair before I give him away. Where was I? Oh yes, Vlad. And I was only kidding about the letter not being for the faint of heart unless you consider my writing horrific.

Note: Present day Romania is made up of Transylvania, Wallachia and parts of Moldavia. Most of the action involving Vlad III happened at Wallachia because it was the place where his grandfather, his father and himself ruled for some time. Transylvania as it turns out, was never really a major part of his story but then again, he was not known as a bloodsucker as well until Bram Stoker’s Dracula came out.

Alright, so there was this dude called Prince Mircea the Old who comes from a long line of rulers in Wallachia. He had an illegitimate son named Vlad II who was brought up in Hungary at the court of King Sigismund. Now this guy Sigismund organized an order to keep the Turks and Islam at bay and defend Christianity. He called his order the “Order of the Dragon.” Vlad II being brought up in his court and all, was naturally inducted into the order and was thus called “Vlad the Dragon” or to be more dramatic, “Vlad II Dracul” - Dracul meaning Dragon. Vlad II had a few sons, one of them was Vlad III, and since the latter was the son of the Dragon, he also came to be known as Dracula - meaning “Son of the Dragon,” duh.

Having read a few tidbits about Vlad II, I feel sorry for the guy. He was torn between being a liege to Hungary and being at the mercy of the Turks and the Ottoman Empire. When Hungary declared war on the Turks, Vlad II had to send his son Mircea to fight in his place because he didn’t want to anger the powerful Ottoman’s and the Sultan and at the same time felt an obligation to the order he belonged to. Anyway, the Turks proved difficult to defeat and Vlad II was blamed for one thing or the other and was soon driven out of Wallachia. When this happened he went to the Sultan to appeal his case and was eventually given the power to rule Wallachia again the following year, the only payback is he had to leave his 2 sons as hostages to the Ottomans. The 2 sons he left with them were Radu the Handsome and Vlad III.

Are you with me so far? I’m a little hazy myself with all these shifting powers and shifting allegiances. Nothing has changed much in politics I guess. So the constant fighting and conquering didn’t stop until one day Vlad II and Mircea were killed by some Lords in Wallachia and Vlad III became ruler of the place… for a spell…and with a thirst for vengence. Vlad III , besides being called Dracula was also called Tepes (the Impaler) during his reign because of a certain predilection he had for impaling people. Now on to the goodies.

Lots of interesting stories about the cruelty of Vlad Tepes can be found all over and I’ll try to enumerate all that I can remember from reading the book and surfing the net:

1. When Vlad III started ruling Wallachia, he sent for all the Lords of the place (some of whom he suspected of killing his father and brother) with their families for a feast. The celebration was in fact turned into a massacre by having most of them impaled while sending the others to work on the castle Vlad wanted built at the time.
2. Vlad III impaled people not by driving a stake through their abdomens but by driving it first into one orifice and having it exit into another.
3. To impale as many people as possible, he would herd his enemies over cliffsides where a bed of stakes would be waiting. Oooomph!
4. Vlad was known to have been a proponent of germ warfare by sending some of his people who were suffering from leprosy and other diseases into Turk territory.
5. When a Turk emissary offended Vlad by refusing to take off his turban, he had the turban nailed to the Turk’s head.
6. He dined amongst scores of impaled Turks around him.
7. Sultan Mehmed II from the Ottoman empire supposedly went to Vlad’s territory to attack only to find a field of 20,000 Turks impaled - men, women and children - on the way.

Hmm, it doesn’t sound as horrible as it did to me last week while I was reading it late at night. At the time, I was so mortified I was moved to write a short essay for a breather. The essay was not so horrible at the time though.

Comparing what I’ve learned from The Historian to the Bram Stoker’s Dracula movie (the book was so boring I couldn’t finish it) there were a few similarities there like Prince Vlad defending his country and Christianity. In modern day Romania he is in fact considered a hero and not this monster everyone seems to think he is. Dracula was also shown killing his enemies by staking them. His wife really did throw herself into the river but not because she found out that Dracula was dead but because she didn’t want to be the captive of the Turks when they were about to invade the castle. Vlad’s death seems to be a mystery as well since no one knows for sure if he was killed by the Turks or mistakenly by his own people. What’s sure though is that he was soon beheaded and his head sent to Sultan Mehmed II to show everyone that Vlad has been defeated. I actually liked Coppola’s movie. Campy, yes. Overacted, yes. Keanu’s horrible accent, yes. But it worked for me anyway.

For those who have read all I’ve written above, my deepest and sincerest apologies. I didn’t mean to bastardize history. I swear all of it sounded good while I was reading them but since I’m not a plagiarist I had to tweak the story in such a way that I’d be telling it anew. I don’t think I have even enough room to expound on the Ottoman’s. It just sounded so good in my head, darn it.

Regrettably yours,
The Muddled Historian

I’ve always had a morbid fascination for strange creatures that go BOO! in the night. But nothing, absolutely nothing compares to that fascinating, most darkest creature of all - the VAMPIRE. Before Anne Rice or Bram Stoker came into my life, the only vampire I was familiar with was Count von Count from Sesame Street. He’s very funny because he suffers from arithmomania thus the constant counting of anything he sees: One, ah ah aah, Two, ah ah ah aah, Three, ah ah ah aah! Man, I loved that purple count.

Well the innocence of childhood and math lessons were soon left behind for darker and more gruesome tales. I soon found out from movies, tv shows, books and comic books that vampires aren’t necessarily known for their mathematical prowess but for their blood-sucking ways. There is something about the myth of the vampire that just leaves us, its captive audience, yearning for more. I don’t know about the others but I’m a fairly level-headed person with simple hopes and dreams, but if ever faced with a fictional Dracula and his minions, I don’t think I would put up too much of a fight if they were to turn me. Of course I would run like hell if I find out I was only good enough for dinner. I would be quite yummy for sure, but no thanks.

I remember a story from an Archie comic book of how Sabrina the teenage witch went to visit a vampire in Transylvania. The vampire saw her and was just about hungry enough to feast on her neck when Sabrina noticed the pallor of his skin. She immediately opened the curtains to let some sunlight in much to the horror of the vampire. He intimated that he was allergic to sunlight so Sabrina produced a cream for him to use that would prevent him from disintegrating under the heat of the sun. The vampire was pleased. Sabrina also saw his fangs and commented that it was not very becoming so she shortened them. The vampire again expressed horror and said that without his fangs, he would not be able to drink blood. Sabrina thus produced a can of chicken soup from her bag and gave it to the vampire to taste. He naturally found it delicious and has vowed not to drink any more blood. Sabrina, the busybody that she is began looking around the castle and noticed the vampire’s bed/coffin. She thought it looked uncomfortable so she changed the thin lining into a waterbed. The vampire was again, very very pleased. In the end, he was so cheerful that he started offering free tours to anyone who wants to see his castle. Sabrina, feeling a sense of accomplishment and a job well done, left him leading a bunch of tourists into the castle wearing shades and a pair of Bermuda shorts.

After reading A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle, I immediately started on The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Those books couldn’t be more different you know. So while I was savoring the aftertaste of hearty lunches, cheeses and wines from Provence, I was suddenly steeped in history, lore and that bloody Dracula chap, Vlad III of Wallachia. This book was so thick that it took me 3 days of non-stop reading to finish it. I was unable to take advantage of my last few days of freedom and instead cooped myself up in my room only eating when the growling of my stomach became too loud to bear.

Kostova’s work has been compared to those of Dan Brown’s because her story is also steeped in history and fact though some may argue that Brown’s fact is more fiction. One thing I can say about their books is that they’re hard to put down. The Historian reads a lot like A.S. Byatt’s Possession because of the number of letters that are part of the story. There weren’t any boring and tedious poetry to go through in Kostova’s work though she made up for it by spending too much time explaining the movements of the pilgrims in Eastern Europe. But I’m happy to say that all in all the book was very entertaining and enlightening. She was able to weave fact and fiction in such a way that I am now quite curious about the history of Eastern Europe including the Ottoman and Byzantium empires.

Curious facts pertaining to the book and the story of Dracula in my next post.

First Graduation Program:

It’s been almost a year since I started teaching my little kiddies at Julia Kid’s and now, most of them are graduating and will move on to Grade 1. There is a mixture of sadness and anticipation for what’s going to happen next. I will miss them for sure but I will still teach them in the afternoons, so the separation (on my part) won’t be too difficult. Um yeah, you read that right. Now that my mornings are free, I’ve been given a new class by my boss, this time teaching absolute newbies! I’m a little scared truth be told. When I started teaching my kindergartners last year, their English was pretty good already. Now I have to start from zero which is both challenging and exciting. Joyce, another teacher from my school has been giving me tips - I hope I don’t mess up.

Anyway, last Friday was the last day of school and the day of the graduation program. The whole morning was spent practicing singing, speaking, dancing, and playing drums. My kids were in no less than 6 presentations and if it weren’t for their fortitude and excellent memory, it would’ve been a disaster. The afternoon was spent partying until one by one they were picked up by their parents. We would all meet up later that night at the auditorium in WuGu.

After several hours and lots of costume changes later, I was on my way home at around 10pm. I may not see myself as a teacher forever but I’m having a pretty good time now. Teaching kids is a lot of fun and I’m excessively kenkoy so it’s a good fit. I never really liked children before, I thought they were messy and bratty, well they are messy and bratty but they can also be extremely loveable. Even the not-so-cute ones.

Harry Potter and a not so Fantastic Four:

I paid for my Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in advance last May and nothing could’ve kept me away from the bookstore Saturday morning except work. Unfortunately I work on Saturdays and now have 6 hours of teaching time. By the time I was done, it was already 4pm. I had to get a quick bite to eat(4:50), commute all the way to Taipei City (5:25), walk several blocks until… yes! Kinokuniya Bookstore at Breeze (5:40pm). I gave the saleslady my receipt and order form and she handed me the paper bag containing my book plus a huge poster. At first I was feeling too euphoric to notice the book but I later realized that it was not the U.S. version I’ve been collecting but the British one (grrr). I thought of exchanging it but I saw that it was a first edition…hmm esep-esep.

After reading John Dunning’s Booked to Die, I realized that there is a huge and profitable market for first editions. I think I’m going to keep this one and see if the price appreciates. I’ve already used it though (and will use it again for the required second, third and fourth reading) but I’ll be very careful not to spill anything on it or crack the spine. Walking merrily through the aisles, I saw the combined screenplay of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset! I remember a long time ago (when I was around 17) how Before Sunrise affected me. It was such a unique and smart movie. Now I will be able to read the lines uttered by Jesse and Celine without the distraction of Ethan Hawke’s immense cuteness. I grabbed it right away despite my rapidly depleting funds and decided to head straight to the counter before further damage was done. But on my way… I saw Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian. Ayiiiieeeee!

I bought The Historian.

I had every intention of going straight home and start reading but I thought I’d check the moviehouse and see what’s currently showing. I was planning on watching Batman Begins but was disappointed to find out that it was not showing anymore. Fantastic Four was showing in half an hour though so I thought, hey why not? Ioan Gruffudd is fine.

Well if it weren’t for the good-looking cast members I would’ve been really pissed off with myself for watching such a crappy film. The effects were alright especially whenever Johnny turns into a fireball - hot in more ways than one. But the script! The terrible lines and the plot holes! There was no sense of time whatsoever. The editing of this film was butchered I tell you. It seems like they filmed a hodge podge of “cool” scenes and put them together. Yes, there were some cool scenes but for a moviegoer such as myself who takes her movies seriously, it was annoying.

The cast as I mentioned above were really easy on the eyes. There’s Ioan Gruffudd (pronounced Yo-an Griffith), Chris Evans, Julian McMahon and Jessica Alba. I also liked Michael Chiklis, bald head and all - he looks solid and huggable plus I thought he was the best actor in the bunch which is not saying much. They all looked good in their costumes although Julian would’ve looked better without the mask, the coat, the shirt and the pants hihihi.

As soon as the movie finished I ran straight to the MRT. The Harry Potter book was burning a hole through the paper bag.

Harry Potter marathon:

Most of Saturday night and Sunday were spent reading. I finished Sunday afternoon. I put the book down, went slightly catatonic and started to cry. It has always been said whenever JK releases a new one that it’s darker than the previous book. Well, I must say that the HBP is darker than OotP. Way darker. The HBP book was fantastic but it does not have as many pages as OotP. Several scenes could’ve been longer though or more explored. It’s either JK lost steam or she didn’t find them important enough. I wish books could have an extended special edition like DVDs. Sigh. I think I’m going to wait a couple of weeks before writing down what my thoughts are regarding the penultimate book in the series. There is the matter of the second, third and fourth reading to get over with first.