i usually reserve this post until the very last days of december, just in case i finish reading a book at the last minute. but i doubt if i’ll pick up another book this week; let alone read it as ferociously as a rabid dog.
none of these books were borrowed or given. all of these i bought at — where else? — booksale. i love that store! i could go in broke and come out even broke-r, if there is such a word. i’d rather starve than pass up the opportunity to buy second-hand books at really low prices. especially if i find one with the oprah label. i like oprah’s taste when it comes to books. but, of course, i don’t just blindly buy whatever she recommends. i read the synopsis. after which, i read the first two or three lines of the first chapter. i’m kind of partial to the tone of the narrator’s voice. i can’t explain it but i always look for the lines that would, you know, draw me in. doesn’t matter how. they just have to intrigue the hell out of me.
and no, i don’t like books with highfalutin words. i’m not exactly proud of my range of vocabulary. i find it exasperating when authors show off just how many fancy words they can dish out in a single paragraph and i’m there wondering what the hell all of them means. i want communication. i want the characters to speak to me in a way that i can appreciate and understand. like a personal conversation with a friend instead of a supposedly therapeutic one with a shrink.
because, really, isn’t that what reading should be all about?
the pauses between 
So many o.o
i know it seems like a lot but i kind of have this tendency to skim. and some of the books there are fit for grade-schoolers so… hehe.
Makes me realize how poor I have become in my reading assignments
it’s alright. there’s always next year. =)
nice ni tanan jan? 😀 this year i havent bought any book 😦 but i bought a kindle and im a happier bookworm – although lahi ra jud kung libro imong hawiran 😀
not all of them is nice, lars, although i did enjoy reading all of them. by “nice,” i mean, you know, something that goes on my gushing-because-it’s-my-favorite list. but they are all okay. i would’ve stopped reading them a quarter of the way if i found them too boring to waste my time on. hehe.
some of the books here that made it on my list are the following:
♦ suite francaise — a very beautiful read about the war. this one definitely had me gushing!
♦ the middle place — the author is just so funny you can’t help but love her.
♦ five quarters of the orange — nicely written
♦ slammerkin
♦ so big
♦ back roads
♦ the confessions of max tivoli — kind of like that brad pitt movie where he ages in reverse
♦ the book of ruth
okay, daghan-daghan sad diay ko ug favorites dinhi. hehehe.
ill try to read sa mga gipang-recommend nimo 😀
wow. inspired to read more next year. merry christmas!
i hope next year finds you with a lot of books in your hands! =)
merry christmas!
Jan, equal na jud atong reading numbers. Hehe. Speaking of vocabulary, I would not recommend Nabokov to you. Hehe. That guy’s Russian but his English can beat even Hemingway. Is Jewel good? I have it. Got it from – where else – Booksale. Hehe. I put it on the bottom shelf (my designated back shelf) for books I may read after 10 years or may never read or may just give away. About Oprah, I never trusted that label after reading Joyce Carol Oates (an author unknown to me at the time) just because of it.
i’d probably give “jewel” a 5. or maybe a 6. you’re not missing anything much if you fail to read it. “suite francaise,” though, is beautiful! or maybe that’s just me. i kind of have this affinity for novels about the war. i have yet to read “anne frank’s diary.” for some reason, i haven’t found one yet at booksale. hehe.
thank you for the nabokov advice, whoever that guy is. hahaha. we wouldn’t want to risk a cerebral aneurysm now, do we? lol. the heavy readings, i leave to you. then i’ll just read your summaries over at your blog. =D
5 or 6 out of 10? Hmmm. Give away it is then.
you may wanna give it a try first. who knows, maybe you might like it. =)