Merry Christmas!!!

It has been a wonderful year of collecting books. This year I got a lot of exchanges from old friends in Europe and new ones too. It is such a wonderful Christmas present from all of them that I managed to increase my collection to 77 books now. It is quite difficult to collect books from Europe, where The Little Prince have been published in so many different languages and dialect, so thank you so much to who made this collection grow.

Check the link below to view my updated "The Little Prince" book collection.

http://pinoyjourneys.blogspot.co.id/2013/08/the-little-prince-book-collection.html

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jigomeister
12.24.2015

Pencils Of Promise: Dear Adam Braun

The Promise Of A Pencil

Dear Adam Braun,

I just become your greatest fan. And I call myself a fan because you are quite a rock star. I am saying this because for teachers like me, people like you are considered real rock stars. Although I am in a different setting compared to what and where the Pencils Of Promise built schools, I found myself relating to your stories from the time you began to realize that you are going to build your first school.

Your book is an admiring accomplishment of how really an ordinary person, no matter who you are, can make a big difference to the world. Every detail of every mantra in the book shows the profound drive of an ordinary individual that gives us all a definition, a path to understand and to follow in order to make a big change in the place we live in.

As I read through each chapter of your book, from your life altering journey at SAS, your riveting experiences in Guatemala, your visits to different organizations in South East Asia and up to building your very first school for the heart-warming people of Laos, I cannot help myself but stop on some of the parts and examine myself as it struck me. These are not the mantras but rather those phrases you said that made me recall how my life has been until now.

The Promise Of A Pencil

Literary Breaks | Rough Guides

Rough Guides

I just have to archive this article on Rough Guides to be a part of my soon-to-be-done journeys hopefully in the next ten years. It is just an amazing article I could not refuse on sharing it. There are certain books here that really make me want to visit these places which have served as backdrops of this literary works. I particularly want to do see the places mentioned in Holden Caufield's New York in Catcher in the Rye as well as the New York Plaza Hotel for The Great Gatsby. A journey in the Nile River on a steamboat is also a promising thing to do for the book Death in the Nile plus a visit to Florence Italy for the book A Room With A View is also on my list.

I have read some of the books mentioned here but I will definitely try and search the other books and imagine about the places which served as the settings of these great stories.

Check out this literary breaks for bookworms which is a great article you can find on Rough Guides.

Literary Breaks | Rough Guides

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04.06.2014

Bookstores in Town: Singapore

Penguin Books sold in Books Actually

Book stores in Singapore have been declining in an appalling rate. So many major bookstores have closed down like Borders, Page One and Prologue (in Ion Orchard). And I think Prologue’s only branch left (Orchard Central) is also on the verge of closing soon too. Luckily, Kinokuniya, MPH and Popular are still around and surviving. As much as we would like to put the blame on the technological development that is “e-book”, there are still people who prefer going to an actual book store, browse through those timber-smelling pages and savor a story on either a hard or soft-covered books. Aside from those major bookstores, there are still those “specialty bookstores” and I found three of them in Tiong Bahru.

Books Actually

This book store is located in a shop house at Yong Siak Street. The store has a variety of Penguin published books, Singapore published and a small collection of vintage books. They also sell vintage gift items, stationery, postcards and other little stuff.  What I liked about this store is that they sell books that have rare copies. Books are priced almost at the same rate as major book stores in town although the stationery and other gift items are quite pricey but rare to find so it is still worth the price. And I love their caption, "Books Actually Love You".

The Railway Man: Movie Review

I am only writing this review because I have read the book, felt heart broken with the book and also felt a big relief after reaching the end of the book. I have finally seen the movie version last night. As much as I would like to commend Colin Firth for such an astounding portrayal of a POW/war veteran Eric Lomax, who suffered a long recurring post-traumatic stress syndrome after World War II, I must say that the book is better which has always been the case for book-adapted movies (I think with the exception of Game of Thrones, haha, bias)

Although the book's story line was only based on Eric Lomax's personal account of what transpired from Pre-WWII to Post WWII until his discovery of the still-alive Japanese translator and visiting Kanchanaburi and his trip to Japan (which was never shown in the movie), the movie story line also involves Patti (Lomax's wife) and Nagase's (Japanese translator) account of their experiences involving Lomax. But I guess in order for the movie to sustain the different characters in the sttry, it was necessary for them to present the parts of Patti and Nagase so I suggest that you read the book as well. The book depicts a more detailed recount of Lomax's of the time they were transported from Singapore to Bangkok and the beginning of the construction of the Siam-Burma Railway and to the discovery of the transistor and Lomax's railway map was such a gripping moment. It was harrowing and was morbidly described by Lomax in the book compared to what was just shown in the movie.

Bilingual Comics: The Little Prince Feature

For book lovers and language lovers out there, you will be glad that Gramedia, Indonesia's largest publishing house, released a series of Bilingual Comics of our beloved childhood fairy tales and famous fictional characters. This set of series which currently has 10 different story books is published in English-Bahasa Indonesia Language. It also comes with a bonus CD for the audio version of the book

I consider this to be the best souvenir I can take with me from Jakarta. Who would not be in love with these books that will help Indonesian kids and language lovers understand the story of famed fictional characters in two languages, both in English and Bahasa Indonesia in one book.

There are total of 10 books published but it was quite difficult for me to find a whole set as it ran out of stock in most bookshops. Hopefully I can complete the whole set soon.

These are the books:

   

                           The Little Prince / Pangeran Kecil      Aladdin's Magic Lamp / Aladin dan Lampu Ajaib

Review: The Reading Room Jakarta

Imagine coffee, food and books combined. I am not talking about those over oblivious customers who takes a long time studying / reading / writing while sharing one cup of iced latte in an over populated fastfood like McCafe or Starbucks. Oh god those two places share the top spot of my most hated places to hangout. So again, imagine coffee, food and books combined. Plus it is located in quiet neighborhood and does not get crowded on weekends and you will be surrounded by tons of books neatly arranged on shelves that serves was the dividers and decorations of the place itself. That is how The Reading Room looks like.

My Top Books To Read

Why do I Read books? It's a question some people ask me when I can watch and find out about the story in a movie or TV. I read books because the story telling is different than watching it. The characters in the story are given deeper appreciation and understanding. Books give you a lot of time to think more about the story and carefully understand each chapter. It helps you find out what characters of the story really goes through at specific scenes.

I listed the top books I have read with the exception of The Little Prince which is obviously on the top of my list:

1. The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger

Famous Quotes:

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.” 

“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.” 

Bookstores in Town: Mt. Cloud Bookshop

There is not a lot of great bookstores in the Philippines aside from the usual giant bookstores that we see in the malls. In Manila, it is quite hard to see a bookstore that once you enter, you will feel like being transformed into another place. When I visited Baguio, I made it a point to include a visit to Casa Vallejo where Mt Cloud Bookshop is located. And yes, this small, two level bookshop was indeed mesmerizing. Most of their collection are for children but they also other English and Tagalog Fiction and other books published by local press.

I just immediately loved the place upon seeing it. It was a different world when you enter. I love how they have a lot collection of Tagalog and Philippine-related story books. We have embraced the English language well that we have forgotten our own mother tongue. some people think its "baduy" to read books in Tagalog but what we are forgetting is that we were born with the Filipino tongue. For me it is not bad to learn to speak English or even other languages but do not forget to remember and love your own language.

Mt. Cloud Bookshop is a must visit for book lovers out there. And bring along your friends too and encourage them to read books in Tagalog and Philippine-themed books. I brought my friends there and they liked the place and love that they had such books that they never see in the usual bookstores in Manila.

Bookstores in Town: Jakarta and Vientiane

A book is every teachers' twin. We are all tasked to be handling books in the most time of the day and even when we reached home. But for me, I do not just dwell on text books and work books. I also read. Mostly fictional and literary books but I am so fond of books and reading of course. In my travels, I have always wandered into different book stores, whether its a major book store or just a small and privately owned shops.

Aksara is one of my favourite bookstores in Jakarta, Indonesia. I like it because they have a nice collection of books that are with different covers unlike in what you see in major book stores. Although they only carry a few collection, the way they have carefully laid down the books on tables and shelves are just terrific. They treated books as if it is a part of decoration of the store.

You can find Aksara at Level 5, Plaza Indonesia, Jalan MH Thamrin Kav, Jakarta Indonesia. You may click the link http://www.aksara.com/index.php to access their main website.

Bookstores in Town: George Town, Penang

Shu Children Bookstore

Penang, as most people who knows this place, would always be regarded as a food haven. The place is famous for its local food such as Char Kway Teow and Laksa. I enjoyed their Char Kway Teow. It’s not too oily but still very tasty. Aside from its very famous food, Penang is also known for its capital, Georgetown, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town itself is filled with shop houses dating back to early 1900s. I love old towns and Georgetown is indeed mesmerizing and filled with an old feeling that you can hardly see now. Georgetown is also famous for its street art scattered all over the cemented and brick walls all around. As most travellers would go to Penang and see all these spots in and around Georgetown, I myself tried to search for more, some parts of the town that are sort of less travelled. When I visit a place, I try to find bookshops. It can be any bookshops like a big one or those small one that sells second hand books or just any ordinary books. Lucky for me, I found a children’s bookshop just along Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, Georgetown and the shop is called Shῡ. Shῡ is a Chinese word for Book. The shop is located in one of the traditional shop houses in Georgetown. The owner, Mr. Teo (if I heard and spelled it right), is a local and a retiree and converted this shop house into a small bookstore.

Game Of Thrones Books

I finally finished reading this series and it's just an incredibly long story. Entertaining and just mesmerizing with how George R.R. Martin can think of all these stories tied up altogether. My goodness is all I can say. I was actually on the verge of giving up when reading the last part of 5th book as I was already dragging myself to read the book but then I told myself that I have to. I need to know what happens to the rest of the characters. Yes so many characters perished as I read through the 3rd and 4th books. So many that I would not tell you who are they. But of course to reward myself for painstakingly reading through these books, I am just gonna list down some clues on what happened at King's Landing, Winterfell, Storm's End, Casterly Rock, Dorne, the 9 Free cities across the narrow sea, The Wall, The Others Behind The Wall and so many other things. Many parts of the book may not be presented in the tv series but I think the show is doing good in presenting the story. So here it goes. Do not read if you are not willing to find out who are left. But I'm not going to mention names.

1. Somebody choke to death but actually was poisoned then died.
2. Two characters were accused of poisoning this somebody.
3. One of them was held but managed to escape.
4. The other one escaped without knowing how the poisoning happened
5. There's a new protector of the realm.
6. Somebody became blind but it was just sorcery so later on, that somebody got the eyesight back.
7. Somebody learned how fly its animals.
8. The hand of the king was murdered and found a whore next to the hand of king murdered. (But take note that there will be changes in the hand of the king)
9. This maid was sent to another quest. Then this maid almost died but at the end of Book 5, the maid is alive.
10. This character famous for his dick still survives even at the end of Book 5

Well so many things happened. I heard Season 4 of GOT will focus on the 2nd hald of Book 3 and bits of Book 4. I imagine that there rest of the stories until the end of Book 5 will reach until Season 6 or 7. Then George R.R. Martin is still writing 2 more books. the Book 6 aptly titled "Winds Of Winter". Well after 5 books of saying "Winter is Coming", winter finally arrived.


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09.05.13
jigomeister

The Little Prince Book Collection

My collection of The Little Prince book in different language is not that big yet but I am very proud of what I have collected ever since I started collecting in 2012.

My very first book is of course in English edition that I got at the Powerbooks Bookstore in the Philippines last 2005. Working abroad and traveling overseas got me the chance to collect more books. Meeting fellow collectors who follow the Little Prince Official Facebook page got me more friends from other parts of the world to do book exchanges.

So here are the The Little Prince books in different languages I have so far.

English Edition - My very first Copy