Posted by bennardfajardo on March 7, 2014 · 2 Comments
I absolutely have not one iota of restraint in my body. Again and again, I have said that I shall whittle down my book purchases for propriety’s sake (and because my TBR is already at a point where it’s threatening to bury me). However, good books abound and they are waiting for me to find … Continue reading →
Filed under Book Love, Books · Tagged with Book Love, Books, Cooking and Stealing: The Tin House Non-Fiction Reader, George Packer, Ignorance, Invitation to a Beheading, Jorge Luis Borges, Milan Kundera, The Assassin's Gate, The Book of Imaginary Beings, Tin House, Vladimir Nabokov
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 23, 2013 · 4 Comments
Finishing my last short story collection this year, Alice Munro’s Who Do You Think You Are?, I can conclude that this is a good year for short fiction. Of the 68 books that I’ve read so far for 2013, 23 were short story collections or anthologies and that is not mentioning the various short stories … Continue reading →
Filed under Books, Thoughts on Short Fiction · Tagged with Alice Munro, Books, Dave Eggers, Denis Johnson, Elmore Leonard, George Saunders, James Joyce, James Salter, JG Ballard, Jorge Luis Borges, Lorrie Moore, Lourd de Veyra, Lydia Davis, Lysley Tenorio, Miranda July, Raymond Carver, Steven Millhauser, TC Boyle, Thoughts on Short Fiction, Vladimir Nabokov, William Faulkner
Posted by bennardfajardo on September 5, 2013 · 6 Comments
It seems that the only constant thing in my blog nowadays is its monthly reading feature which, I think, is generally good blogging duties notwithstanding. It basically means that I am still a very engaged reader albeit a very disinterested reviewer and blogger at the moment. I still read my books with great interest even … Continue reading →
Filed under Books, Reading List · Tagged with Books, Dogeaters, Essential Reading, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jessica Hagedorn, Jessica Zafra, Julian Barnes, Leonardo Sciascia, Lolita, Lysley Tenorio, Manila Envelope, Manila Noir, May Day, Mikhail Bulgakov, Monstress, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Day of the Owl, The Eye, The Fatal Eggs, The Porcupine, Vladimir Nabokov
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 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 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
The Book Hooligan 