Filipino Readercon 2014 – Filipino Friday 1: Surprise, Reader!

Posted by bennardfajardo on October 18, 2014 · 3 Comments 

The Filipino Readercon is just a month away and that means that its meme, Filipino Fridays, is once again here. Let’s get on to Filipino Friday’s 1st subject:

Surprise, Reader! Hello, it’s the first week of Filipino Fridays 2014! Whether it’s your first time to participate or not, tell us a bit about yourself. More specifically, tell us about your favorite book discoveries for this year. Any author you started reading this year that you can’t get enough of? A book you didn’t think you’d like, but you ended up liking/loving? Any book series that you just have to get your hands on? Have you discovered anything new from Filipino authors this year?

Yeah, to those who don’t know me, my name is Bennard and I like to read (obviously). I’m sort of a Luddite so I don’t want to get a Kindle or an eReader (yet). Also, I love using bullet points so I will presents my answers to the meme in said form below:

• Favorite Book Discoveries
  • A Month in the Country by JL Carr – Who knew that a book about a man trying to restore a painting in a small town would be this lovely?
  • The Athenian Murders by Jose Carlos Somoza – A postmodern murder mystery set in Ancient Greece? Sold.
  • Sylvia by Leonard Michaels – A dysfunctional marriage told in beautiful and exquisite prose.
  • The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector – “Meanwhile the clouds are white and the sky is all blue. Why so much God. Why not a little for men.”
  • The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark – A perfect dark comedy about a small town visited by the devil.
• Authors I started reading this year that I can’t get enough of
  • I’ve read some wonderful books from Margaret Atwood (The Blind Assassin), Julian Barnes(The Sense of an Ending), Ian McEwan(Atonement), Jhumpa Lahiri(The Interpreter of Maladies), and George Saunders(In Persuasion Nation and Civilwarland in Bad Decline) so I am now on the lookout for their other works.
• Books I didn’t think I’d like but ended up liking
  • I didn’t have any because I tend to read books that I know I’d like but I did read some books which I thought I’d like but did not deliver: If on a winter’s night traveler by Italo Calvino, Nobody Move by Denis Johnson, and A Sport and A Pastime by James Salter.
• Book series I have to get my hands on
  • I want to get Jeff Vandermeer’s The Southern Reach Trilogy which sounds like a very interesting read. I also want to get Yukio Mishima’s The Sea of Fertility Tetralogy, and Olivia Manning’s The Balkan Trilogy & The Levant Trilogy.
• Discoveries from Filipino authors this year
  • I was highly impressed by the short story collections of Dean Francis Alfar (The Kite of Stars and Other Stories), Nikki Alfar (Now, Then, and Elsewhen), and Daryll Delgado (After the Body Displaces the Water). Marivi Soliven’s The Mango Bride was good up until it delved into generic soap opera territory.

For details about the Filipino Readercon and Filipino Fridays, visit their blog here.

Filed under Books, Filipino Fridays · Tagged with Books, Filipino Fridays, Filipino Readercon