books!

Back to the ordinary daily musings.

Yesterday Cathy and I met up with a former co-worker at Glorietta. She was in Manila for a week for a job training. After eating at Mexicali we found ourselves looking for gift items at National Book Store. Yes, I am the type who gives books or other learning materials to her little cousins for Christmas. But the agenda for the day was not to look for gifts for cousins but to search for a book that was requested for our class Kris Kringle. Unfortunately, the book By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paolo Coelho was nowhere to be found. I did find other books to give to friends, though.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez goes to a Friend C who has expressed her desire of reading it when she saw my copy. I’ve read the book years ago and although I’m usually happy with reading magical realism this book unfortunately fell short of my expectations. I suppose high expectations prior to reading was the cause of the disappointment.

The second book is Eat My Frog: Get More of the Important Things Done – Today! by Brian Tracy. I’ve never read it before but I’m sure Friend M would get the joke, laugh about receiving it and possibly actually read it.

I bought You Know You’re Filipino If . . . A Pinoy Primer edited by Neni Sta. Romana-Cruz for my sister in the States. She has been asking for it for a long time but I haven’t been able to find a copy until now. I think she would like to share it with friends for them to know more about the Filipino mindset. I would like to look for more children’s books in Filipino with English translations to send to her. She’s teaching three levels in grade school and I know she would love to read a few tales from the Philippines to her students.

The last book I bought is for myself. (It will serve as my Christmas gift to myself because it was worth so much that now I am left with no more money to spend.) I splurged and bought The Lonely Planet’s Guide to Experimental Travel. And when I say I splurged, I mean I really did splurge. The book burned a P1k+ whole in my shallow pockets. In any case, I’m pretty happy with the buy. I do hope this will quench my wanderlust and my penchant for the quirky and bizarre until I feel I am entitled to splurge as much for myself again (which will probably be next Christmas).

So, what are YOU getting yourself and your friends and family this Christmas?