How to survive the holiday madness without tearing out your hair or others’
Horrendous traffic jams, nasty overcharging taxi drivers, long queues at the mall, bad service in restaurants as the staff is busy rehearsing their dance number for their company party. . .It’s the holiday season! Some survival tips:
Sugar. Lots of sugar.
Bibingka souffle at C2 Classic Cuisine, Power Plant Rockwell
Intense Leche flan, also at C2
PB&J tart at Lu, Joya building (beside Ice Cream Bar), Rockwell
Cheese. Can’t go wrong.
Raclette at Astralis, Power Plant.
The unique present.
Abel Iloko table runner. For inquiries, email rene.guatlo@gmail.com.
Books you plan to give your friends but end up keeping for yourselves.
Cooking With Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson, one of the funniest books ever written, available at National Bookstore in Power Plant, Rockwell. Then you can read the two hilarious sequels: Amazing Disgrace and Rancid Pansies.
Get Vladimir Nabokov’s The Original of Laura for your friends and then argue over whether it should’ve been published at all.
In the Literary Review David Lodge writes, “In the last two years of his life, which were marred by various accidents, illnesses and increasing physical debility, Nabokov worked on a novel called The Original of Laura, writing it, as was his habit, by hand in pencil on small index cards. It was unfinished – very far from finished in fact – when he died, and he had expressly directed Vera to burn the manuscript in that eventuality. Having rescued Lolita from the incinerator many years before, when Nabokov had a sudden failure of nerve about publishing it, his widow understandably hesitated to carry out his wishes with respect to his last work. The Original of Laura has lain in a bank vault for thirty years, the object of intense curiosity and speculation among aficionados, while Vera and the Nabokovs’ son Dmitri agonised over whether or not to allow it to be published. They finally decided to do so, and here it is.”
Copies available at NBS Rockwell, Glorietta 1, Glorietta 5, Greenbelt 1 and Shangri-La.
T-shirt you can wear with confidence because you’re not likely to run into someone wearing the exact same shirt. Although it’s happened to Raymond and me.
Striped T-shirt by Raymond Lee with artwork by Mariano Ching and Louie Cordero. P600. Order from elmondray@yahoo.com.
A while back I mentioned that I collect different editions of A Sport and A Pastime by James Salter. If you find copies of this book or others (Light Years, Dusk, Last Night, Burning The Days) by James Salter in bargain bins and book sales, could you send them to me? Please bring them to National Bookstore in Power Plant Mall, Rockwell and leave them for me at the Customer Service counter, or mail them to me care of Anvil Publishing, 8007B Pioneer Street, Mandaluyong. Don’t forget to enclose your full name and mailing address so I can mail you a book for your trouble. Thanks.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
December 16th, 2009 at 11:26
Is he like Sedaris-funny, Twain-funny, Adams-funny? How much is it? I think I have room in my wishlist for another book; I’ve mostly horror books in this year’s list (Twilight Zone, three volumes of Dark Delicacies, and then there’s Ribblestrop and Catcher in the Rye). Ms. Zafra, can you please recommend one really scary book? Something made up. I’ll go with something that’s not the Auschwitz kind of terrifying. Those books are real heart breakers.
I’m still looking for Scary Fairy Tales by the Russian author. Them bookstores here in the Ortigas time zone don’t have it.
The Oscar Wao book was an absorbing read BTW! I’m always a casual reader, but it made me read at a rate of a hundred pages a day!
LAVET!
December 17th, 2009 at 06:20
Momelia, I saw 2 copies of the Scary Fairy Tales book at Bestseller in Galleria. It was being sold for 600+ pesos, which is quite expensive, nagulat ako. I’m still thinking if I will buy it once I get my 13th month pay, hehehe.
December 17th, 2009 at 19:08
Jessica, I can get you all of James Salter’s books that you have mentioned. How long are you prepared to wait? Am not due to go home ’til July, sorry. I could post them to you if you want, but I don’t think I could get them to you before Christmas. Just let me know what you prefer. Oh, there’s a catch, tho. You would have to sign my collection of your books that came out from 2000 onwards. You have already signed the ones that came out earlier =).