Posted by bennardfajardo on January 5, 2015 · 3 Comments
2014, like all years past ever since I started blogging, has been an extraordinary year for reading. I’ve read 62 books total and most of them were amazing reads. Yes, yes, there were a few duds and even some of the worst pieces of literature that I have encountered in my life but the good and the … Continue reading →
Filed under A Year in Reading, Books · Tagged with 2014, A Month in the Country, A Year In Reading, Atonement, Books, Civilwarland in Bad Decline, Claire Messud, Clarice Lispector, David Mitchell, George Saunders, Ian McEwan, In Persuasion Nation, Jhumpa Lahiri, JL Carr, Joan Didion, Joyce Carol Oates, Julian Barnes, Leonard Michaels, Margaret Atwood, Muriel Spark, Paul Auster, Play It As It Lays, Raymond Carver, Sylvia, Tenth of December, The Blind Assassin, The Hour of the Star, The Interpreter of Maladies, The Sense of an Ending, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
Posted by bennardfajardo on October 14, 2014 · 6 Comments
I’m feeling a little bit book giddy today, generally happy about the state of literature and about the large number of books that I have yet to read so I’ve decided to write, sooner that I would have, about the books that I got last month. September was a bit crazy overall because there was a … Continue reading →
Filed under Book Love, Books · Tagged with A Very Easy Death, Adrian Tomine, Anton Chekhov, Art and Litearture, Art Spiegelman, Bellefleur, Betrayal, Book Love, Books, Brian K. Vaughn, Cartesian Sonata and Other Novellas, Christopher Hitchens, Dancing Bear, David Mitchell, Donald Antrim, Ezra Pound, Fiona Staples, Graham Greene, Harold Bloom, Harold Pinter, High Lonesome: New and Selected Stories 1966-2006, Ian McEwan, Italo Calvino, James Crumley, Jeanette Winterson, Joseph Brodsky, Joyce Carol Oates, Less Than One: Selected Essays, Living Thinking Looking, Marcel Proust, Marjane Satrapi, Maus, Mr. Palomar, No One Left to Lie To, Persepolis, Poem Strip by Dino Buzzati, Saga: Volume 1, Saturday, Seven Short Novels, Simone de Beauvoir, Siri Hustvedt, Summer Blonde, The Bone Clocks, The Emerald Light in the Air, The Hundred Brothers, The Literary Essays of Ezra Pound, The Tenth Man, The Verificationist, Till I End My Song: A Gathering of Last Poems, William H. Gass, Written on the Body
Posted by bennardfajardo on December 30, 2013 · 7 Comments
This is probably my last post for this year (unless the blogging gods send their blessings) and my 80th overall. A nice round number would be a nice way to end this year in blogging (although a nice round number + 1 would be arguably better). Anyway, 2013 is almost at an end and sometimes … Continue reading →
Filed under A Year in Reading, Books · Tagged with A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, A Year In Reading, Alexander Pushkin, Alice Munro, Allen Ginsberg, Any Human Heart, Bill Willingham, Books, Chew, Dance of the Happy Shades, Dangerous Laughter, David Foster Wallace, David Mitchell, Elmer, F. Scott, Fables, Fatal Eggs, George Saunders, Gerry Alanguilan, Ghostwritten, Graham Greene, Guy Gavriel Kay, Howl and Other Poems, Hunger, Jason, Jeffrey Eugenides, Jessica Hagedorn, John Layman, John Williams, Jonathan Lethem, Jorge Luis Borges, Journey into the Past, Julian Barnes, Knut Hamsun, Labyrinths, Lolita, Lysley Tenorio, Manila Noir, Max Brooks, May Day, Michael Chabon, Mikhail Bulgakov, Milan Kundera, Monstress, Motherless Brooklyn, My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro, Neil Gaiman, Object Lessons: The Paris Review Presents The Art of The Short Story, Pablo Neruda, Pastoralia, Paul Auster, Porcupine, Raymond Carver, Sandman, Short Cuts, Stefan Zweig, Steven Millhauser, Stoner, Tales of Belkin, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, The End of the Affair, The Master and Margarita, The New York Trilogy, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Virgin Suicides, This is Water, Tigana, Twenty Love Poems and A Song of Despair, Vladimir Nabokov, Who Do You Think You Are?, William Boyd, World War Z, Yiyun Li
Posted by bennardfajardo on November 20, 2013 · 4 Comments
“My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?” – Adam Ewing Proof of the good influence that a book club can have on you is that you will read books that are usually out of your radar. Entering a book … Continue reading →
Posted by bennardfajardo on May 4, 2013 · 12 Comments
May is here and, okay, I know I haven’t been active in blogging lately but I wouldn’t miss this monthly feature for the world so I will set aside a few minutes of my time to present my reading list for the month of May. But before we proceed, let us not forget the rundown … Continue reading →
Filed under Books, Reading List · Tagged with Atonement, Books, David Mitchell, Denis Johnson, Donald Barthelme, Elmer, Essential Reading, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gerry Alanguilan, Ghostwritten, Goodreads - The Filipino Group, Hunger, Ian McEwan, James Salter, Javier Marias, Jeffrey Eugenides, Jesus' Son, Knut Hamsun, Last Night, Lolita, Milan Kundera, Object Lessons: The Paris Review Presents The Art of The Short Story, Raymond Carver, Shortcuts, Sixty Stories, The Great Gatsby, The Paris Review, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Virgin Suicides, There is a Balm in Gilead: Our Memories of Hope, Vladimir Nabokov, When I Was Mortal
Posted by bennardfajardo on April 5, 2013 · 7 Comments
March was an awesome reading month for me. Mostly because I was itching to try Russian authors for quite some time now and also because all of the books that I finished on March were rated with 4 stars or above. Here are the books that I read (or finished reading) last month: Labyrinths by Jorge … Continue reading →
Filed under Books, Reading List · Tagged with Books, David Mitchell, Essential Reading, Ghostwritten, Hunger, Jeffrey Eugenides, Knut Hamsun, Milan Kundera, Object Lessons: The Art of the Short Story, The Paris Review, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Virgin Suicides
Posted by bennardfajardo on January 15, 2013 · 7 Comments
“New year, new books” is now my favorite saying every New Year even if I just made it out of thin air to suit my book hoarding purposes. Anyway, I was doing fine with my new year’s resolution of limiting myself from hoarding books until I visited NBS, Fullybooked, and Booksale. To be fair, some … Continue reading →
Filed under Book Love, Books · Tagged with A Question of Heroes, Alain de Botton, Auggie Wren's Christmas Story, Book Love, Book Lust, Books, David Mitchell, Fairy Tale Fail, Ghostwritten, Hunger, Knut Hamsun, Man Walks Into A Room, Milan Kundera, Mina V. Esguerra, Nick Joaquin, Nicole Krauss, On Love, Paul Auster, Sandra Cisneros, Siri Hustvedt, The Believers, The House on Mango Street, The Summer Without Men, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Zoe Heller
Posted by bennardfajardo on January 4, 2013 · 10 Comments
Well, it’s that time of the month again for my Essential Reading post. Before I begin the list for January, I will just point out that I made some changes to the way that I shall choose books. I will no longer be thematic in my choices and I shall only employ themes every now … Continue reading →
Filed under Books, Reading List · Tagged with Albert Camus, Alberto Manguel, Any Human Heart, Books, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Chess, Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell, Exile and the Kingdom, Fahrenheit 451, Gilead, James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Marilynne Robinson, Paul Auster, Ray Bradbury, Roald Dahl, Stefan Zweig, The Ecco Book of Christmas Stories, The Lemoine Affair, The New York Trilogy, Two Gallants, William Boyd
Posted by bennardfajardo on January 1, 2013 · 8 Comments
2012 was really an awesome reading year for me. I have managed to finish 61 books (including graphic novels) which means I exceeded the number of books required for my Goodreads’ 2012 Reading Challenge. All in all, it was a very great reading year. But, of course, some books are better than others and this … Continue reading →
Filed under A Year in Reading, Books · Tagged with A Single Man, A Visit from the Goon Squad, Autumn of the Patriarch, Best Reads of 2012, Books, Chess, Christopher Isherwood, Chuck Palahniuk, Clandestine in Chile, Cloud Atlas, Cormac McCarthy, David Mitchell, Death in the Andes, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Haunted, History of Love, Ilustrado, In Cold Blood, Inherent Vice, Jeffrey Eugenides, Jennifer Egan, John Steinbeck, Kazuo Ishiguro, Kenzaburo Oe, Kurt Vonnegut, Leaf Storm and Other Stories, Man in the Dark, Margaret Edson, Mario Vargas Llosa, Michael Chabon, Middlesex, Miguel Syjuco, Nick Joaquin, Nicole Krauss, Nip the Buds Shoot the Kids, No Country for Old Men, Of Mice and Men, Paul Auster, Remains of the Day, Reportage on Lovers, Slaughterhouse Five, Stefan Zweig, The Yiddish Policmen's Union, Thomas Pynchon, Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Truman Capote, Wit
Posted by bennardfajardo on December 3, 2012 · 9 Comments
It’s December, folks, and I have been absent from the blogosphere lately due so I think its time for another post from your favorite book hooligan [citation needed]. What better way to start the month by listing my December reading list and this month’s theme is there is no theme. But before that, let us … Continue reading →
Filed under Books, Reading List · Tagged with Alberto Manguel, Any Human Heart, Beneath the Wheel, Blood Meridian, Budjette Tan, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Cloud Atlas, Cormac McCarthy, David Mitchell, Death in the Andes, Elizabeth Kostova, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Griffin and Sabine, Herman Hesse, Kajo Baldisimo, Kenzaburo Oe, Leaf Storm and Other Stories, Mario Vargas Llosa, Midnight Tribunal, Nick Bantock, Nip the Buds Shoot the Kids, Roald Dahl, The Ecco Book of Christmas Stories, The Historian, Trese, William Boyd
The Book Hooligan 