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 December 4, 2013 · 6 Comments
Hello! December, the end of the year, is finally here and that means that I am in the last month of my reading for the year 2013. It has been a wonderful year of reading but that should be for a different post so, for now, let me recap the books I’ve read for November … Continue reading →
Filed under Books, Reading List · Tagged with Alice Munro, Books, Doris Lessing, Essential Reading, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jeffrey Eugenides, Paul Auster, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, The Golden Notebook, The Marriage Plot, Timbuktu, Who Do You Think You Are?
Posted by bennardfajardo on July 1, 2013 · 8 Comments
I have been going into a blogging rut lately because of various disturbances in my life (rewatching sitcoms, for example) that I felt that I should at least post a short feature to hopefully restart my article production especially reviews and whatnot. Yes, baby steps first. Anyway, I just remembered that we are already halfway … Continue reading →
Filed under Books, Hooliganism · Tagged with Alice Munro, Any Human Heart, Books, Dance of the Happy Shades, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Graham Greene, Hooliganism, Hunger, Jeffrey Eugenides, Knut Hamsun, Michael Chabon, Mikhail Bulgakov, Milan Kundera, Pablo Neruda, Paul Auster, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, The End of the Affair, The Great Gatsby, The Master and Margarita, The New York Trilogy, The Queue, The Virgin Suicides, Twenty Love Poems and A Song of Despair, Unbearable Lightness of Being, Vladimir Sorokin, William Boyd
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 March 3, 2013 · 4 Comments
January has come and go. With that, I present to you my book acquisitions for the month of January: Sixty Stories by Donald Barthelme (Tent Bookstore, UP Diliman) – After Rhena got me Forty Stories, which is also by Donald Barthelme, I went back to the Tent Bookstore three days after I received the gift. To my surprise, Sixty … Continue reading →
Filed under Book Love, Books · Tagged with Book Lust, Books, Donald Barthelme, Jeffrey Eugenides, Lolita, Milan Kundera, Sixty Stories, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, The Book of Other People, The Virgin Suicides, Vladimir Nabokov, Zadie Smith
Posted by bennardfajardo on February 3, 2013 · 8 Comments
This month’s theme, which is books about love, may be very predictable (owing to the fact that it’s Valentine’s month) but I still wanted to do it. Love is a universal subject and it is something that I like reading about (to be fair, I like reading about anything as long as it is well-written). … Continue reading →
Filed under Books, Reading List · Tagged with Alien Hearts, Books, Dalisay and Lacuesta, Essential Reading, Fourteen Love Stories, Graham Greene, Guy de Maupassant, Jeffrey Eugenides, Journey into the Past, My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro, Pablo Neruda, Stefan Zweig, The End of the Affair, Twenty Love Poems and A Song of Despair
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 19, 2012 · 8 Comments
Christmas is just around the corner and, before I begin, I want to wish all of my readers a Merry Christmas. We just held our book club’s Christmas Party last Saturday and I was so happy to receive gifts in the form of books this year. This is actually the first time in my life … Continue reading →
Filed under Book Love, Books · Tagged with Albert Camus, Ambeth Ocampo, Book Love, Book Lust, Books, Chad Harbach, Christmas, Estremelenggoles, Exile and the Kingdom, Gilead, Jeffrey Eugenides, Marilynne Robinson, Meaning and History, My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro, Owen King, Rio Alma, The Art of Fielding, The Insanity Defense, Who Can Save Us Now, Woody Allen
Posted by bennardfajardo on October 1, 2012 · 10 Comments
For this month of October, my beloved book club will take on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and I instantly thought that this would be the perfect moment to read works created by female authors. I do not know why but my list of read books is lacking in works created by women. I do not want … Continue reading →
Filed under Books, Reading List · Tagged with A Visit from the Goon Squad, Bonjour Tristesse, Books, Elizabeth Kostova, Essential Reading, Everyman, Françoise Sagan, Inherent Vice, Irène Némirovsky, Jane Austen, Jeffrey Eugenides, Jennifer Egan, Le Bal and Snow in Autumn, Michael Chabon, Middlesex, Mrs. Dalloway, Philip Roth, Pride and Prejudice, The Autograph Man, The Historian, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Thomas Pynchon, Virginia Woolf, Zadie Smith
The Book Hooligan 