I just learned that today is World Book and Copyright Day! Who knew there was such a thing? According to the UNESCO site, the World Book and Copyright Day was established “to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity.”

April 23 was chosen as a symbolic date for world literature because this day, 23 April and in the same year of 1616, Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. It is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon, K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo.

To celebrate, Toni of Wifely Steps devised a bookworms meme of sorts. If you love reading, I invite you to join the celebration by answering these questions:

1. What books are you currently reading?
2. What books are on your to-be-read list?
3. What book/s would you recommend?
4. What book made you fall in love with reading?
5. Do you have a book collection you’re proud of? Tell us about it!

Here are my answers: Read the rest of this entry »

Bah! Time sure flies when you don’t watch it. Well, when you get busy at home and at work, then time just slips away without you even knowing it. No sense crying over slipped time though, you just keep on going.

Even though I hadn’t updated in over a week, that doesn’t mean I’ve been totally slack about blogging. I’ve been cooking up in the kitchen. Here’s what I’ve dished up lately:

 
 
 
 
 
 
I entered several contests/giveaways this past week and I was lucky to win one of them! I entered Tropical Escape Basket Giveaway from Saved Not Stupid to celebrate her website launch, and guess what, I won! I’m excited. She said she’s sending my prize next week. I’ll have to hide it from the girls so they don’t get all the good stuff before I get to it

There were also several book giveaways that I entered on Found Not Lost. I don’t know yet if I won any of those, but I’m hoping. If you’d like to win books, check out my newest blog find, S. Krishna’s Books. She reads tons of books then gives them away when she’s done.

I’m also reviving the backyard blog. I think it’s supposed to finally stop raining this weekend so maybe we can go out to the garden and start puttering around again. I looked back there today and already I am seeing lots of green. I’ll see if I can get out there tomorrow and take some photos of the returnees.

In the meantime, here’s something just for your dancing pleasure. It sure made me dance! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Thanks to Toni and my daughter Asi, who are both early and avid Twilight fans, I too have become a fan and waiting like a teenager for the movie and the next book.

If you’ve never heard of the Twilight series of books, you’ve got to start reading. The movie will be here before you know it!

I saw Toni’s post on If Twilight Were Asian, and was just throughly amused by the idea. Jade, who hasn’t read the books yet but love Korean dramas would love this. See what you think…

As bloggers, it would be our wildest dreams to be published. Published in real print. In books. After all didn’t someone say somewhere that we all have a great novel in us just waiting to come out? Several bloggers have achieved this feat of going from blogging to books and I am lucky to have as friend one such blogger.

Batjay, as he is known on the blogosphere, is an engineer who first started blogging to ease the loneliness and boredom of working abroad and being away from friends and family. He is the kind of person you’d want to hang out with and just listen to the with and intelligence that just naturally sprouts in his conversations and from his writing. Eventually, that is how his blog, aptly titled Kwentong Tambay (stories from the hangout), became just a big hang out joint where we share his stories, his insights and his humor.

He has already published one book based on his blog with the same name, Kwentong Tambay, which chronicles his experiences being an Overseas Filipino Worker. Now, he unveils his second book, Mga Kwento ng Batang Kaning Lamig. Roughly translated, it means Stories by the Cold Rice Kid. I’m not a linguist so my rough translation is far from the true inflection of the title.

This second book highlights another of Batjay’s talent as an artist and his love for graphic novels. If you happen to be in Manila on April 14, make sure to stop by the book launch at Fully Booked the author himself will be there signing copies. In the meantime, we who are abroad will have to wait until it becomes available online