Summer Cleaning...sort of

Summer's here! And I mean OFFICIALLY HERE! I'm now free from all my workload from school these past weeks and I can finally sleep (oh how I missed sleeping until late in the morning!). That means i also get to read more often. But before that, I first need to clean my room and of course, my shelves which have gone pretty dusty.
I just hate it when you lift a book from the shelf and BOOM--a sandstorm! Okay, a bit exaggerated but you get the idea right? All the dust flying off the books is just, well, bad. And it also destroys books and accelerates the foxing process.
That's what pushed me into cleaning my bookshelf--again. I resolved into cleaning my shelf  monthly but I think that is not enough and I need to consider cleaning more often. I also want to make a sort of log-book to keep track of what I'm reading. Being the low-tech/caveman person that I am when it comes to organizing stuff, I initially wanted to keep a binder but problems would definitely arise when it comes to alphabetizing the books so instead, I opted for an Excel spreadsheet (yay for Microsoft haha) template I downloaded and tweaked to my preferences.
So here's what happened to me the whole afternoon (and lots of coughing and incessant sneezing after inhaling the clouds from hell):

I'm still not finished yet. I still have to put some polish so the wood will smell better. Tomorrow I'll be dealing with the dirtier cousin, the shelf in my room which contains a great deal of old books and encyclopedias. Ugh. I think I need to wear a mask.

AV

Red Riding Hoo-what?

I was first intrigued when I saw Red Riding Hood at the bookstore about a couple of weeks ago. They were stacked below an LCD screen that apparently shows the trailer of the movie the book was turned into. I don't know if the book was adapted to the big screen of if this is just a movie novelization. Nevertheless, I immediately looked up reviews on amazon.com to see if I'll buy it. I first saw the rating of two-and-a-half stars and asked why since very rarely I saw a book rated so low. Imagine my surprise (and to some degree, relief) when I saw what the reviews were. They were all blaring two words: RIP-OFF!. I guess I'll leave the explaining to this person:

2.0 out of 5 stars This edition = total rip off!, January 22, 2011

By

Beth Windham "Book Lover" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red Riding Hood (Paperback)

This story is genuinely wonderful and well written, HOWEVER, I highly recommend to everyone out there that you save your money and not purchase this edition of the book. The story is incomplete and its pretty much just a rip off. In this edition the ending is not included, even though there is no waning of that on the front. You have to go on the website and read the end AFTER the movie is released because that`s when the ending will be up. The average price of this book anywhere, is around $10. So you pay ten bucks for an incomplete product? Can you say rip-off? You wouldn't buy a book in the used bookstore with the end ripped out, would you? So why buy a full priced book with no ending? This is just a jacked up ploy to get people to buy movie tickets. Yeah sure, if you're thinking of buying this book you could look around on the internet and find out that there was no ending included in this edition, but the average person just going through the bookstore won't know that. There is no warning that the book is incomplete on the front, thus its set up to take advantage of people and suck them in, to where they'll be dying for the ending so bad that they will be most likely to just go to the movies when it comes out. I personally think this is soooooooooo wrong! Not only is this set up where people pay for incomplete merchandise, it also makes it to where if you really want a complete edition of this book to put on your shelf, and already bought this edition, you'll have to buy it twice. If the author/publishing company wanted to do it that way, they should have at least have been honest and have a blurb on the front of the book warning people about this, instead this is set up to be misleading and take advantage of someone who really wants to know the end. They purposely don't warn you of there being no ending because they know that far less people would buy it that way, but if they don't tell people, people wanting the full version will pay twice. I myself returned my copy when I found the page, at the END of the book, where it informed me that I couldn't read the end until AFTER the movie released. I encourage people to also return their copies of this edition. It would be a shame if this sort of thing turned into a trend with books; sucking as much money as they can from consumers just so people will pay twice what they would have so they can know the ending or have a complete book. You wouldn't pay for a pair of socks with the toes cute out, or a wagon with only three wheels, would you? So why should people have to pay good money for incomplete books? Its really unfair, dishonest, and just plain wrong.

Amen to that. Sheesh! Who wants to buy an incomplete book? It's like buying a preview. Lame publicity stunt. Very lame.

P.S. I heard that the movie is good though and I really like Amanda Seyfried (read: Mamma Mia!)

AV

I Am Number Four

Review #1, 2011 Reading Challenge #10

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore (Lorien Legacies Book 1)

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction

ISBN: 9780061969553

Published: August 23rd, 2010

Date Finished: March 21st, 2011

Where did this come from? Bought this at Powerbooks-Trinoma for P679 (roughly $15.79). HarperCollins First Edition Hardcover; 448 pages. It had been sitting on my TBR pile for over a week thanks to the torrent of schoolwork I am experiencing.

Are there any sequels? Yes. This is part of a five-book series. Book 2 will be entitled The Power of Six and will be published August 2011.

First Ever Book Review!

I have been into Science Fiction(SF) books lately. Not the geeky Star Wars or series that goes on and on but more on the YA side. I have never been a fan of SF novels partly due to the novel Alastor by Jack Vance. The book is actually an omnibus of three earlier novels: Trullion, Wyst, and Marune. What irritated me is the plethora of characters and the twisting plot. Maybe I didn't appreciate that during that time (I was still a high school freshman--maybe around twelve years old--then). This will be my first SF book review and I hope you find this interesting.

BLURB: In the beginning they were a group of nine. Nine aliens who left their home planet of Lorien when it fell under attack by the evil Mogadorian. Nine aliens who scattered on Earth. Nine aliens who look like ordinary teenagers living ordinary lives, but who have extraordinary, paranormal skills. Nine aliens who might be sitting next to you now.

The Nine had to separate and go into hiding. The Mogadorian caught Number One in Malaysia, Number Two in England, and Number Three in Kenya. All of them were killed. John Smith, of Paradise, Ohio, is Number Four. He knows that he is next.

I AM NUMBER FOUR is the thrilling launch of a series about an exceptional group of teens as they struggle to outrun their past, discover their future—and live a normal life on Earth.

I AM NUMBER FOUR.
I AM NEXT

In a nutshell (so cliché, I know), the book is about an alien named Number Four who moves into a new town together with his Cêpan or guardian Henri. They came from Lorien together with eight other children to escape the attack of the Mogadorians on their planet. They must constantly hide and blend in with the humans as they grow and develop their powers which in time, will be sufficient to launch an offensive against the Mogadorians and they will finally be able to return to Lorien. For ten years, Number Four, who is called John Smith, had no permanent friends. He kind of finally discovers a life in this new town of Paradise, Ohio and he gets close to a girl named Sarah Hart. He also meets a friend, Sam Goode who will later become one of his best buddies. As the book progressed, secrets were revealed and this causes mortal danger to John and the people around him.

I really liked this book (except the characters, which will be touched later). From the first time that I saw this at the bookshop, I really had the urge to pick it up, like I must read it immediately (Oh my, the aliens are controlling me! Kidding!). I liked this because I really like to introduce myself into SF novels. This fascination of mine was sort of rekindled late last year when I watched episodes of Kyle XY. Believe me, it was a great show and it's a shame that they ended it only after the third Season. The plot of the two are really the same. An alien/some weird  experiment that came to life, their powers developing, and their love story.

I Am Number Four is written full of energy. Told from the view of Number Four, I liked the pace of it. From the first paragraph stating the supposedly true events until the last good-bye, it was electric! every turn of page is like being pulled into a new event. Expect to find a lot of can't-put-this-down action scenes. There were also some emotional events in the book which I think is really heartbreaking and this also comes very unexpectedly though some take on twists and turns.

One thing that let me down though is the character development. Bam!  Not one of the characters has any substance and depth to them! Once a character describes himself or gives a description of another character, that's it. What you see is what you get. The characters have done their role in the book but none of them created a subplot. Well, you can consider Number Six's backstory to be a subplot but none of the characters have this mysterious and dark vibe (read: Severus Snape) that makes the plot thicker. As much as I want to like the book, the characters warrant the deduction of half a star (or whatever I will call my rating system in the future).

Overall, I liked the book and I'll surely be reading The Power of Six when it comes out in August 2011. Can't wait!

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 - Must read!

P.S. I love Bernie Kosar! And by the way, Pittacus Lore is a pseudonym for two persons who wrote this book. As this is my first review, I think that I may have overlooked and missed some things. Rest assured that my reviews will improve.

Next review will be on The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. Hope I'll finish it by next week.

AV

Surprise Saturday

I always find it depressing when the books I would like to read are not available here in the Philippines. This is what I hate about my country; there are lots of readers here but we have a dismal record when it comes to, how do I phrase it, updated book stocks. Finding books especially the popular ones and books that were published for some time already can really be a pain. Although you can order book from the bookstore and have them ship the book to the Philippines, the costs can be very staggering. And the LIBRARIES! You will not find a book published in  the last five years in any of the libraries here (okay, at least not on the libraries that I have gone to). If you think I'm exaggerating, try visiting some public libraries. Even the UP Main Library the library at UP-CAL is not updated (I'll not even talk about what is contained (or the lack thereof) at the Quezon City public library). You can certainly find lots of Classics there, but none of the likes of The Hunger Games, books more likely to be read by people. I was surprised that there were Harry Potter books there but they were in the Reserve section and can only be borrowed overnight. Why oh why?

So anyways, imagine the excitement I had when I found out that The Book Depository is now shipping FREE, yes you read it right, FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE--though not technically worldwide because sone countries are not included--but THE PHILIPPINES IS INCLUDED! Good-bye I read some blogs about Filipinos using the service and so far, all of them praised the efficiency of the service. It only takes ten to fifteen working days (or up to a month during the holidays) for the books to arrive and that is door-to-door delivery and not the lousy service of the Philippine Post Office (PhilPost). I will surely be checking out their free shipping service to see if it's really efficient. I even made an account on their web page and I'll be using that to buy a hardcover copy of City of Bones since it's cowhere to be found here *heehee*. So I think I'll now say goodbye to Special Orders from Fully Booked. I still haven't received a word or anything about my order of The Brothers Karamazov which I placed last January 4th and the semester's already finished. Thank you so much for not helping, Fully Booked. I'm really disappointed at this.

Now back to writing my five-page essay and studying for my final exams.

P.S. Shoot! I didn't notice that I set the Publish time to March 20th, a day late.

AV

Bookmark This

Well today is another go-and-find-some-good-reads-at-the-bookstore day! But I guess when I visit the bookstore everyday, I usually end up crestfallen after not being able to buy the books I want--oh money, will you please be infinite?

After our rehearsal for my Literature class, I immediately went to Powerbooks-Trinoma...

GOOD GRIEF! I LITERALLY SLEPT YESTERDAY WHILE WRITING THIS POST. Anyway, I'll still be writing this as if it just happened earlier. That's not cheating, right? :)

After our rehearsal for my Literature class, I immediately went to Powerbooks-Trinoma to have my usual book-hunting. I've been doing this almost everyday and it never tires me to visit bookshops to have books as company. I even travel across malls to visit their bookshops (see: Fully Booked, NBS, Bestsellers, and Powerbooks).

While browsing for books at Powerbooks, a particular book caught my attention: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (it's part of a trilogy). It has this really eye-catching cover of a knife (so fitting) imposed in a white background. I picked up an open-for-browsing copy and read the first few pages. Little did I notice that I already read nearly twenty pages. The plot, which I think is along the lines of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games, is really engaging. I decided to try to purchase it and being the O.C. book collector that I am, I asked for a hardcover copy. The staff there were helpful and they even know the other books in the series. After much typing and calling, the unfortunately couldn't find a copy so I opted to have the book by special order. But BEWARE: Special orders from this particular bookstore entails HUGE costs and I mean REALLY HUGE costs. The Knife costs about P850-P900 but when I asked for a special order, their calculated price was P1500!! What the heck?!? That's like, almost twice the price of the book! In the end, I just said I will return some other day and instead, I had Fully Booked order my book together with The Ask and The Answer.

I also bought these from Powerbooks:

[caption id="attachment_38" align="aligncenter" width="540" caption="I really like them!"][/caption]

I usually am not a collector of bookmarks but I have an addiction to them lately. Those two bookmarks I got from Powerbooks for only P15.00 apiece! Aside from being really cheap, they have lots of great designs too, though many of them are for women. This is what I like in Powerbooks. Their supplies and knick-knacks are really cheaper in comparison to Fully Booked who sells bookmarks as if they're made of precious materials. Sheesh. So there is my latest bookshop adventure.

P.S. I should really be studying now for my Final in my Literature class. Oh joy (sarcasm).

P.P.S. I would sincerely like to extend my condolences to the relatives of the Sedilla family who passed away in a fire accident. Even if I haven't personally known and met their daughter Miss Patricia who is a good friend of some of my high school classmates, I wish that she and her family will find eternal joy in the hands of our Creator.

Book Haul Number One: 2011 for 2011

Having a blog about books is somehow an achievement for a self-confessed bookworm and this will be my first post that's completely related to books. Hooray for me! I've been itching to write something about books and reading and finally, I had the opportunity to write one.

For this week, I actually got three books. Oh joy!. But that trigger-happiness that I experienced came with a price. MY WALLET GOT SLIMMER--wish I was the one who got slimmer instead. Bummer. I have formulated a sort of conjecture for this that relates money and the number of books bought: "The number of books is inversely related to the number of paper bills in a wallet".

Now back to the real purpose of this post. The books that I purchased are:

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore, The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan, and The Red Pyramid also by Riordan.

 

[caption id="attachment_20" align="aligncenter" width="540" caption="Nude books i.e. unjacketed"][/caption]

I got I Am Number Four from Powerbooks-Trinoma (yes, they've recently renovated their store there and it now looks "commercial" to me very much like National Bookstore. No more comfy seats and reading-on-the-floor. I guess I'll be missing their former store design with all the carpeting and wooden shelves and stuff) at P679 , The Lost Hero and The Red Pyramid from Fully Booked-The Block at P684 and P648  respectively. That brings me to a whopping expense of ...wait I'm doing the math...P2011!! 2011 for 2011! So expect some reviews on these books probably later this month after school ends and after I finish reading Good Omens (which I'll probably review next week).

I Am Number Four is sort of an impulsive purchase. I was expecting to get Number Four later this month since I ordered it from Fully Booked (so I guess I would be cancelling that order). Part of the reason I immediately bought Number Four once I saw it is that I aside from me itching to read it, I also want, no, I need to have my books in hardcover and finding this book in hardcover is a real pain--I know, it may seem wasteful to you, but reading and buying books is simply my guilty pleasure and I buy books in hardcover as much as possible to improve my growing personal library. I  prefer hardcover books over paperback because of their durability. Paperbacks do not really have much protection from the elements and they immediately suffer from foxing unlike hardcovers which rarely fox except for some which were printed using acidic book paper. I buy books based on their edition and condition and rarely on their price and I believe books can never be a waste of money and the knowledge and entertainment you get from reading is priceless. Leave me the whole day in a pretty big bookshop (Fully Booked-Bonifacio High Street = HEAVEN) and I would be ever thankful.

Do not judge a book by its cover. Scratch that. The cover of Number Four is just awesome. Best cover of a book I've seen so far. Why hadn't the publishers of Harry Potter...oh never mind.

[caption id="attachment_19" align="aligncenter" width="540" caption="I really dig the debossed symbol on the cover!"][/caption]

I'm so excited to read this and although I have this in its electronic format, I deliberately did not finish reading  because I want to own a copy of the book. LOL at my obsession.

On the other two books, the reason I bought them is because I liked The Lightning Thief. I liked Riordan's style of writing whilst intended for children, can also be appropriate for teens. I really wanted to finish the series but I'm still saving for the boxed set--and I already saved almost three quarters--which is rather expensive at P3799 (Boo!).

As I conclude this post, I would just like to extend my thoughts toward the people of Japan. Stay safe and be strong!

AV.