04 December 2015
All books 2015
Life happened, hence the lesser frequency of book writing on this space. Life meant work and its attendant time trappings. So demanding I had to take a break from part-time night teaching in a local university. My apologies for my lack of interaction with friends and acquaintances in the blogosphere. I do continue to read posts from blogs I follow, sometimes days after bookmarking them. I manage to read every fascinating book review and posting even if I can't bring myself to comment. Unmitigated, I still manage to go into book buying sprees at stores and online. Constants, bookish habits, that endure.
I keep on reading whenever I can. Blog reviews, books, print and digital. Fifty-two books this year, and that is enough. A blessed year of distraction all in all. Considering that life meant also fatherhood for me for the first time. A baby daughter, now a couple of months old, is finding her way into the world. She reads the air with her inquisitive eyes. She wakes up into a household of books. Soon she will open picture books, first chapters, and early chapters. And then young adult books the father was often not fond of. He will find himself browsing through shelves, catalogs, and collections not his usual fare. Some years and he will find The Tartar Steppe being interspersed with The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily. Mann's Joseph tetralogy broken by the volumes of Moomin.
Life. And he can't wait.
1. Kung Baga sa Bigas: Mga PilingTula (Just Like Rice Grains: Selected Poems) by Jose F. Lacaba
2. Light by Rob Cham
3. A Field Guide to the Roads of Manila and Other Stories by Dean Francis Alfar
4. Alinsunurang Awit (Attributed Songs) by Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles
5. Gagambeks at mga Kuwentong Waratpad (Gagambeks and Waratpad Stories) by Mark Angeles
6. Si Janus Sílang at ang Labanáng Manananggal-Mambabarang (Janus Sílang and the Manananggal-Mambabarang Showdown) by Edgar Calabia Samar
7. Climate Change: Evidence and Causes by The Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences
8. Guillermo Tell = Wilhelm Tell by Friedrich von Schiller, tr. José Rizal
9. Pitong Kuwento (Seven Stories) by Anton Chekhov, tr. Fidel Rillo
10. Ang Kuwintas at Iba Pang mga Kuwento (The Necklance and Other Stories) by Guy de Maupassant, tr. Allan N. Derain
11. Niyebe ng Kilimanjaro at Iba Pang Kuwento (The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories) by Ernest Hemingway, tr. Alvin C. Ursua
12. The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
13. The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, tr. Samuel Moore
14. Ang Metamorposis by Franz Kafka, tr. Joselito D. Delos Reyes
15. Remember, Body... by C. P. Cavafy, tr. Avi Sharon
16. Pangarap sa Isang Gabi ng Gitnang Tag-araw (A Midsummer Night's Dream) by William Shakespeare, tr. Rolando S. Tinio
17. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
18. Ang Trahedya nina Romeo at Julieta by William Shakespeare, tr. Rolando S. Tinio
19. Reportage on Lovers by Quijano de Manila
20. But for the Lovers by Wilfrido D. Nolledo
21. The Global Warming Reader: A Century of Writing About Climate Change, ed. Bill McKibben
22. The Hand of the Enemy by Kerima Polotan
23. All the Conspirators by Carlos Bulosan
24. A Sorrow Beyond Dreams by Peter Handke, tr. Ralph Manheim
25. Poems of Rolando S. Tinio, Jose F. Lacaba & Rio Alma, tr. Robert Nery
26. Old Masters by Thomas Bernhard, tr. Ewald Osers
27. Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos, tr. Rosalind Harvey
28. The Story of the Night by Colm Tóibín
29. Commend Contend/Beyond, Extensions by Edith L. Tiempo
30. A Small Party in a Garden by Linda Ty-Casper
31. Understanding Human Ecology: A Systems Approach to Sustainability by Robert Dyball and Barry Newell
32. The Deleted World by Tomas Tranströmer, tr. Robin Robertson
33. Translations by Brian Friel
34. The Cloak of God by Rosario de Guzman Lingat, tr. Soledad S. Reyes
35. Tres by Roberto Bolaño, tr. Laura Healy
36. Campo Santo by W. G. Sebald, tr. Anthea Bell
37. The Death of Summer by Rosario de Guzman Lingat, tr. Soledad S. Reyes
38. Woman Running in the Mountains by Tsushima Yūko, tr. Geraldine Harcourt
39. Sa Kasunod ng 909 (Next to 909) by Edgar Calabia Samar
40. Trip to Tagaytay by Arnold Arre
41. The Bamboo Dancers by N.V.M. Gonzalez
42. Green Sanctuary by Antonio Enriquez
43. Ang Kapangyarihang Higit sa Ating Lahat (The Power Greater Than All of Us) by Ronaldo Soledad Vivo Jr.
44. Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn
45. Ang Mundong Ito ay Lupa (This World Is of the Earth) by Edgardo M. Reyes
46. Child of Fortune by Tsushima Yūko, tr. Geraldine Harcourt
47. Bullets and Roses: The Poetry of Amado V. Hernandez: A Bilingual Edition, tr. Cirilo F. Bautista
48. Pesoa by Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles
49. Trese: High Tide at Midnight by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo
50. Retrato ng Artista Bilang Filipino (A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino) by Nick Joaquín, tr. Bienvenido Lumbera
51. Kaaway (Enemies) by Maxim Gorky, tr. Bienvenido Lumbera
52. Diary of the War of the Pig by Adolfo Bioy Casares, tr. Gregory Woodruff and Donald A. Yates
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Rise - Warmest congratulations on becoming a father! With books mixing together in the way you've described above at home, that is going to be one fortunate youngster. I suspect that your time for blogging may continue to be a bit scarce for a while - say, 18 years or so - but a lot of us will be eagerly waiting to read your posts whenever they appear.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Scott. Blogging has become second nature for me to give it up. I will strive to share my reading whenever I can as certain good books often move us to celebrate their existence.
DeleteI miss the frequency of your blogging, Rise, but I obviously have to forgive you for that given the magnitude of your big news. Congrats to you and your special lady on the birth of your daughter, and I look forward to the day when we hear tales of you reading Thomas Bernhard to the little reader-in-waiting! Other than that, what Scott says. Hope you have a wonderful end of the year. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteGods, Richard, that Bernhard storytelling would be a treat! Haha. Honestly, that line made me laugh. Thank you! And I'm reminded that our Austrian guy actually wrote a children's book (for all ages, it had to be said) so I may have something to report. Haha!
DeleteI know someone whose babysitter used to read aloud to her from Naked Lunch when she was a tyke, so I say go ahead with the Bernhard bedtime stories.
DeleteWhat an unusual book choice for storytelling sessions. Certainly something that expands a child's vocabulary. Haha!
ReplyDeleteMany congratulations on the birth of your baby girl! No wonder things have been a little quieter on the blogging front. I loved the Moomins when I was a youngster - those books made their way around all the children in my family. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jacqui! Tove Jansson is just a wonderful novelist so I'm excited on the Moomin. And quite certain the future youngster will be too.
ReplyDelete