Finally! #Insurrecto #GinaApostol #Novel 
"It was not the feeling of completeness I so needed, but the feeling of not being empty." -from Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated 
"There is no way in which to understand the world without fish detecting it through the radar-net of our senses." -from Diane Ackerman's A Natural History of the Senses 
"At the hotel, he discovered that loneliness and regret, things that otherwise noisily grated, assumed a certain silence when muffed by material comfort. Loneliness didn't snore or shift if one slept on three hundred thread-count Egyptian cotton. Regret chewed quietly during thousand-peso meals. They were there, nonetheless: saying something desultory about the late night news, wishing him good night before he turned off the bedside lamp ('Good night!' Alvin would sing-song back). Soon he realized that he could further soften the edges of his new companions by doing nice things, like giving big tips and doling out bigger alms, taking long, aimless walks, and this, getting massages. He indulged in this new life until loneliness and regret were so hushed that it was almost possible to ignore them. Being able to snatch such shreds of delight, he realized things weren't so bad after all." -from Glenn Diaz' The Quiet Ones #TheQuietOnes #GlennDiaz #PhilippineLiterature #Fiction #FilipinoAuthors 
Here is a photo of some of the books I gave away earlier this month. I decided to let them go because I had promised to limit my possessions and keep only stuff that I regularly use. 
“You already know that the first thing that makes you foreign to a place is to be poor in it; you don't need to emigrate to America to feel what you already felt when you were ten, looking up at the rickety concrete roof above your head and knowing that one more bad typhoon would bring it down to crush your bones and the bones of all your siblings sleeping next to you; or selling fruit by the side of the road to people who made sure to never really look at you, made sure not to touch your hands when they put the money in it. You've been foreign all your life. When you finally leave, all you're hoping is a more bearable kind of foreignness." -from Elaine Castillo's America Is Not the Heart #ElaineCastillo #AmericaIsNotTheHeart #Novel #Fiction 
Fun read! My favorite from this collection is called "Appliances". I also liked "An Unexpected Stop". #Wonderlust #ShortStories #NikkiAlfar #PhilippineLiterature #Fiction #ReadLocalPH #FilipinoAuthors #SpeculativeFiction 
I bought this book for Php20 in July 2012, from an old bookstore in Antipolo that sold both new and pre-loved books. And yes, I am only reading it now. #TheWhiteAlbum #JoanDidion #CreativeNonfiction #Essays #AmericanLiterature 
I have been busy with work, so I am not yet done reading this. But my to-read list is still sooooo long; I really have to make time for it and perhaps read faster! Also, once I am done with it, I'm going to write about it on my book blog (maalikabook.wordpress.com) to share my insights on its depiction of the Philippines. #TheTrialOfMaximoBonga #JohnHarris #Novel #Fiction