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 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 June 4, 2013 · 5 Comments
I knew it. I just knew it. The moment I reveled in the amazing feeling of reading so many books last April, I conked out in May. I wouldn’t exactly say that I am in a reading rut since I still enjoy reading (or maybe I am just in denial?) but it’s just that I … Continue reading →
Filed under Books, Reading List · Tagged with Atonement, Books, Essential Reading, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, George Saunders, Ian McEwan, Lolita, Lorrie Moore, Love in the Time of Cholera, Michael Chabon, Pastoralia, Self-Help, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Vladimir Nabokov
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 November 26, 2012 · 13 Comments
Three nights ago, while I was browsing Bookriot (one of the websites that I frequent), I came across a feature of theirs titled Genre Kryptonite. Bookriot explains the feature in these words: GENRE KRYPTONITE is a regular feature about genres we have an inexplicable weak spot for. I clicked on one of the articles under Genre Kryptonite labeled as Dysfunctional Families (Under-the-Radar Edition) and … Continue reading →
Filed under Books, Hooliganism · Tagged with A Single Man, Books, Christopher Isherwood, Cormac McCarthy, Everyman, Genre Kryptonite, Hooliganism, John Steinbeck, Kenzaburo Oe, Man in the Dark, Michael Chabon, Nicole Krauss, Nip the Buds Shoot the Kids, No Country for Old Men, Of Mice and Men, Paul Auster, Philip Roth, The Autograph Man, The History of Love, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Zadie Smith
Posted by bennardfajardo on November 23, 2012 · 9 Comments
I present to you, dear reader, my birthday month haul for the year. In The Country of Last Things by Paul Auster – I have been a fan of Paul Auster’s essays, short stories, and his novella, Man in the Dark. Although I have not yet read another full-length work from him since I always feel compelled to … Continue reading →
Filed under Book Love, Books · Tagged with Blood Meridian, Book Love, Book Lust, Books, Cormac McCarthy, DBC Pierre, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, In The Country of Last Things, Jose Saramago, Kazuo Ishiguro, Les Miserables, Michael Chabon, Mikhail Bulgakov, Ned Beauman, Never Let Me Go, No One Writes To The Colonel and Other Stories, Pablo Neruda, Paul Auster, Selected Poems, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, The Cave, The Teleportation Accident, Vernon God Little, Victor Hugo. The Master and Margarita
Posted by bennardfajardo on October 2, 2012 · Leave a Comment
Top Five Tuesdays is a new semi-regular feature in The Book Hooligan that presents a list (either ordered by rank or haphazardly) about anything book-related that interests me. For those people who have intersecting interests in film and in books, there are some moments when you see similarities with a movie that you’ve seen and … Continue reading →
Filed under Books, Top Five Tuesdays · Tagged with A Moveable Feast, A Serious Man, Books, Der Untergang, Ernest Hemingway, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Inherent Vice, Kurt Vonnegut, Michael Chabon, Midnight in Paris, Oliver Hirschbiegel, Robert Schwentke, Slaughterhouse Five, The Autumn of the Patriarch, The Big Lebowski, The Coen Brothers, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Thomas Pynchon, Top Five Tuesdays, 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
Posted by bennardfajardo on September 19, 2012 · 4 Comments
“I don’t care what is written, I don’t care what supposedly got promised to some sandal-wearing idiot whose claim to fame is that he was ready to cut his own son’s throat for the sake of a hare-brained idea. I don’t care about red heifers and patriarchs and locusts. A bunch of old bones in … Continue reading →
Posted by bennardfajardo on August 31, 2012 · 7 Comments
August may have been my most productive reading month in terms of works read. This is primarily because I read a lot of novellas this month and because I don’t have a social life except for my girlfriend and for TFG. It may seem sad but it is not since I’m not really a going-out-the-door-to-party-or-to-go-to-the-mall … Continue reading →
Filed under Books, Reading List · Tagged with Books, Catcher in the Rye, David Mitchell, Essential Reading, F. Sionil Jose, Gagamba, Ilustrado, JD Salinger, Jeffrey Eugenides, Jonathan Franzen, Jose Rizal, Man in the Dark, Margaret Edson, Michael Chabon, Miguel Syjuco, Mina V. Esguerra, Nick Joaquin, Noli Me Tangere, Paul Auster, Reportage on Lovers, Shopgirl, Steve Martin, That Kind of Guy, Thomas Pynchon, Wit