Stash
Mat and Saffy with last month’s stash, originally uploaded by Koosama.
Books found in bargain bins in April, most of them under P100. Filipiniana and La Mirada Oblicua are from the World Book Day fair at Instituto Cervantes. (La Mirada is in Spanish, but it’s a photography book so I can just look at the pictures.) Domino by Ross King, The Book of Proper Names by Amelie Nothomb, Hunger by Elise Blackwell, Strangers by Taichi Yamada, Toddler-Hunting by Kono Taeko (stop giggling), and In The Wilderness by Manuel Rivas are from the sale last weekend at Fully Booked. Manuel Rivas also wrote the story Butterfly’s Tongue, which was made into a heartbreaking movie. Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair (nothing to do with T-shirts or clubs), Tim Winton’s Dirt Music, James Hamilton-Paterson’s Gerontius, and The Selected Writings Of Christine De Pizan are from the fourth floor of National Bookstore in Cubao, one of my favorite time warps. (It’s been cleaned up, and the books arranged into shelves, but the prices have gone up. Most of the fiction trade books go for P200.) Christine De Pizan, who was born in Venice in the 1364 and lived in France, was the first professional woman writer. The National time warp also has a number of books about rugby and photography. There’s one called The Vanishing Commissar, about how official Soviet photographs trace the rise and fall of Stalin’s men. To announce that they had fallen out of favor, Stalin would erase them from the photos—scratch their faces out in ink—and they would be. . .erased. An early and terrifying version of Photoshop.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
May 3rd, 2007 at 08:21
I know what you mean about National Cubao’s top-floor hideaway. Just last week I picked up a hardbound copy of ‘Toast,’ Nigel Slater’s autobiography, for P250. Pwede na rin, I suppose, though malayo sa P75 that I spent a few years back for David Foster Wallace’s ridiculously fat ‘Infinite Jest.’ Which remains unread, by the way.
May 4th, 2007 at 10:22
I just started browsing through Philstar’s webpages when I realized that since its Friday, your column must’ve been posted already. So, I immediately ticked the “Youngstar” link and then…”ZAPRA”!!.
“Harsh realms
EMOTIONAL WEATHER REPORT By Jessica Zapra
The Philippine STAR 05/04/2007”
The movie “Bridge to Terrabitha” also shares the same theme with “Pan’s Labyrinth” . However, the former is less cinematique and more contemporary. It anchors itself how gradeschool boy’s use of imagination in overcoming issues like school bullies, secret crushes, poverty and taking care of a younger sister.
National Bookstore- Cubao before its completion was like a labyrinth especially after dusk. Musky and eerie yet allures you to dig deep for biblio-finds.