Q20

As she read, at peace with the world and happy as only a little girl could be with a fine book and a little bowl of candy, and all alone in the house, the leaf shadows shifted and the afternoon passed. 

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn | Betty Smith

JUST BEFORE THIS LONG, ODD SUMMER ENDS

I stumbled upon Jenny Han's Summer series once upon a sappy night.
And with utter desperation, I tried to settle with quotes from the book, for the mean time, so I hope.

In the wishlist:

The Summer I Turned Pretty

• "For me, it was almost Winter didn't count. Summer was what mattered. My whole life was measured in Summers."
• "Victory is a thousand times sweeter when you're the underdog."
• "Would you rather live one perfect day over and over or live your life with no perfect days but just decent ones?"

It's Not Summer Without You

• "I will never look at you the same way ever again. I'll never be that girl again. The girl who comes running back everytime you push her away, the girl who loves you anyway."
• "I release you. I evict you from my heart. Because if I don't do it now, I never will."
• "How do you regret on of the best nights of your entire life? You don't. You remember every word, every look. Even when it hurts, you still remember."

We'll Always Have Summer

• "Firsts were important."
• "But just because you bury something, that doesn't mean it stops existing. Those feelings, they've been there all along. All the time. I had to face it. He was part of my DNA."
• "I knew I had to be careful. I had to keep my distance. If she knew how much I still cared, it was all over. I wouldn't be able to walk away again. The first time was hard enough."
• "I'd stayed away for two years. I had to. I knew I shouldn't even be at the Summer house,... it was dangerous."

I know these books carry a pocketful of risks, just because. Let me have them, anyway. 

APRIL'S READ: NICK HORNBY'S JULIET, NAKED

A graduation gift from a v. good friend,  Frauleine. :-)

What do you do if you think you've wasted fifteen years of your life? 

This is a story of two people who have reached the end of the road after quite realising that they have spent more than a decade of their lives by the wasteland instead of wonderland and being brought together by an album of crappy songs.

Simply trying to account someone's days, wondering where they had all gone and what have been missed.

Well, for Tucker Crowe and Annie Platt, that's the rub. 

This book's one that will fit under the Pop Culture shelf. An iPod Lit to be exact. If you happen to know the background of the author, Nick Hornby, you'll probably know the themes of his works: Music. Pop Culture. Messy relationships. So this book goes with all of the contents above. 

Here are some of the notes that I've written as I was reading:

• The mystery of Tucker, his MIA years and Annie's sense of reality.
• Tucker Crowe is a monumental figure of speech till he was resurrected on Chapter 4
• The redeeming and mending power of music.
• The growing catch of how Tucker would prove his identity to someone while for how many years he's been physically detached to his fans and all that. Sadly, he had let other people speak in his behalf without him attesting or denying a single statement-- these things put him in danger.
• Funny logical conversations about someone's death with a kid.
• Annie's question of Tucker's experience sparked or challenged him to prove his existence is the same as telling your boyrfriend, "You don't love me, do you?" Just to let him prove that he loves you. A typical reverse psych. 
• Internet myths and crepes courtesy of WIKIPEDIA. Haha! This, I find funny. 
• Ways on how to get your partner out of your life and many other questionable love disasters

There's actually another main character here, Duncan (Annie's long-time partner and an obsessed Tucker Crowe freak) but I'm such a prejudice that I don't want to focus on him cos he's boring. 

Anyway, the whole plot is about the reality of things that we never want to be or happen. This is life at its complexed measure that we try to untangle. Oh yes, this is the naked truth. 

Score:    

P.S.

One of the sweetest dedications ever:

Erika,
May this book enlighten you as you have enlightened me.
May this book teach you as you have taught me.
May you love this book as you have loved me.

This may not be one of the books that I would like to give you but at least I know you want it.
And that's the point, right?
Let me give you your first Hornby book. Enjoy!

Congratulations and thank you.
Let's not end everything at PICC.
I love you!
-Frau Villanueva"

#and there goes the BIG smile on my siopao face. :-)

JUST READ: SYLVIA PLATH'S THE BELL JAR

"To the person in the bell jar,
blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream."
-Esther Greenwood

Thanks to Frauee for lending me the book. Reading this shortly before college days are over. 

Yeah, I'm a late-bloomer type of a reader. Better late than never. :-) 

/edit

So, I'm done reading the book and honestly crammed to get it done so that I could return it to the lender yesterday.

I kinda like the shorts from the Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams (also by Plath) more than The Bell Jar. 

 Score: 

THE SHELF-ISH SIDE OF ME

One of my interior design dreams is to have some very stirring bookshelves that will practically give me the unending hunger for reading. I have a white bedroom with soft orange halogen lights and majority of the stuff inside are in natural colors-- charcoal, pearl, sand and wood. So with that, I've been in the pursuit of finding a perfect match of bookshelves for my room. Prolly a more relaxed, laid-back natural feel in it.

So, if I'll be given a chance of buying em shelves or better having em customized, they'll look like one of these:

1) A 2-in-1 sofa/bookcase. So savvy. I'm actually asking my dad to buy me a sofa bed instead of a bed frame, but when I saw this, I might ask for a sofa/bookcase instead. Who says I need a bed? /loljk

Only that I need some foam in there for long hours of reading.
 Obviously, I will still need a bed if I'm gon have this.

 2.) A white installed shelf/rack. It's made of wood where the color matches with the contemporary-minimalist interiors. I liked it because of the cylindrical poles so to give a curved rather than edgy surface for my room. 

3.) So let's stand up for that eco-friendly vibe and have one of these, yes? Call 'em the indoor trees of knowledge, literally!

Red so fierce! 

Never separate this combo. They remind me of winter trees. Simply dramatic.

This is prolly the simplest that I can ask for.

So there.

Look, I really don't have a large collection of books yet so, prolly having the idea of 'em shelves will motivate me to buy moooore books.

from L-R starting from the top: (1) Summit Media magazines and Sunday school handouts;
(2) 2 layers of novels; (3) newly-compiled handouts and thesis copy from senior year;
(4) 2 layers of journals and novels

This one's located in our family hall. In it are my books when I was still 4,
some devotional guides and daddy's architecture books. /excuse the wrong foto angle. oops!

My journals really need some decent space, yes?

Derr ya gow! :-)

/foto credits to www.digdigs.com and LomoLomo app

JUST READ: J.D. SALINGER'S THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

This is just another bildungsroman novel in line with Huck Finn, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and To Kill a Mockingbird where the protagonist is going on some maturity and all them crazy stuff.

I finished the book in two sittings, it was actually an easy book to read all through the last leaf of it but I just had to hit the sack, thus the cut.

Reading The Catcher in the Rye, like Holden, got me "killed" for some reasons, only that he had to be killed over twenty times in the whole novel. Poor chap, he gets himself killed saying, "it killed me."

1. Language

Here's a little som'n: there's this extensive use of the adverb "and all." For all I cared, 'twas written 343 bloody times! Yes, I tallied it for feet's steak! HAHA. Let alone those other keywords.

Much to my dismay is how Holden's mouth is filled with profanity. I am honestly bothered while reading. And why wouldn't I be? He was even told off by some people in the story. He be cursin' real bad. REAL BAD. 

2. Symbolisms

Salinger got plenty of them but the ones that I actually did like were these:

a. "The Catcher in the Rye"


According to SparkNotes, in ref. to ch22 of the novel, Holden wants to catch children before they fall out of innocence into knowledge of the adult world and stuff.

At first I thought that the "rye" is actually a place in New York, 'cause it's also in the map. NY was mentioned a couple of times in the novel where it was described as a messy place for boys like Holden and things like that. I mean, New York's pictured as an adult's world.

b. Holden's red hunting hat

It kept croppin' in throughout the novel and I was thinking even on the first mention of the hat that it has something to do with the protagonist. It was a bit ridiculous but, methinks he puts the hat on important moments like when he was writing about Allie's mitt, staring at the mirror acting tough, when he left the dorm and when he's kind of vulnerable in some way.

It was also mentioned of how the hat has become so important to Holden that when he wears it he would pretend not to care what the others may think about how he looks like. He says, "I took my red hunting hat out of my pocket and put it on-- i didn't even give a damn how I looked." 


Holden hates corny things, but the corny thing is actually on his head and he doesn't give a care about it.


Or I have somn about the color red-- on how it's associated with the head (Allie's hair, the hunting hat). I mean, red could be politically claimed as rebellion, then I remember that communist thing, the bloodshed and all the fierce correlations about the color.

Maybe, red (rebellion) starts in the head.

c. The light

Holden always prefers the light turned on. He seeks for it figuratively in the story, but he's searching for it in all the wrong places.

d. Death

It was seen real in Holden's life. The loss of Allie his brother, his classmate James Castle and even how Pencey built their establishments from the money earned by funeral parlor bargains. Death, being everywhere, led him think about his own demise in the hands of this reality.

3. Religion

He dealt with his life apart from faith and religion. Holden's a self-proclaimed "sacrilegious" atheist but never had a good point in telling why. I didn't see how strong he was with his claim just like someone who shoves his way sayin', "I hate Twilight! Twilight sucks" without an apparent reason. HAHA I remember one guy saying how he dislikes pop-culture when he's actually living his way in it. Funny.

Some people really got it all wrong particularly on that atheist thing. Like, how could you even renounce that there is a God when you actually have the idea of a 'God?'

4. Mr. Antolini's quote

"Once you get pass all the Mr. Vinsons, you're going to start getting closer and closer-- that is, if you want to, and if you look for the it and wait for it-- the kind of information that will be very, very dear to your heart. Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them-- if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry."

This got me, okay. It's 'nuff said.

So, bulgar words be set aside, the plot was indeed a good one.  

Score:  

CURRENTLY READING: LOOKING FOR SALVATION AT THE DAIRY QUEEN

Reading this for some bit of cool air in the middle of hades.

(This is what I got from the book exchange I had with Che) 

STRAIGHT FROM THE BOOK: MY NAME IS MEMORY By Ann Brashares

Ann*As promised*

• I have seen beauty in countless things. 
• She honored herself with the idea that maybe he needed her, that maybe she was the one who could understand him. 
• "If he liked you, you would know it."
• How many times could you give up on someone you loved?
• "This might be the last time I see him, " she said plaintively. "I don't know what will happen after this. I need to make him remember me." 
• "I thought the year would end and we would all go our separate ways and we could never have talked to each other," she said bravely.
• "I'm so sorry. I love you. Do you know that?" He was holding her, pressing his face desperately in her hair. "I always have."
• He'd push her. He'd scared her. He besieged her. He'd vowed he wouldn't and he did.
• She is my doing and my undoing. She always had been.
• He tricked himself into thinking that she would look into his eyes and remember, that love would conquer all.
• "You were supposed to remember... him." Esme said it loudly and with indignation. "You were supposed to remember how you loved him. He said he would come back, and you promised you would remember him."
• "I thought maybe you finally gave up on Daniel and decided to move on, but now I'm suddenly thinking that's not the whole story."
•  That was the first time I knew her and loved her. I loved her innocently then, I promised you. Even in my mind.
• How much silence was lonely? How much attention was unsettling? How little attention was cold?
• There are short periods of joy you have to stretch through of empty years... You have to make them last as well as you can.
• "You're a good man and I do not understand you."
• When you live as long as I do, always is a crippling distance.
• Smell was like the wormhole connecting you to the other parts. Memories of smell didn't fade, and they short-circuited your entire psychology. It is the closest thing to time travel on this earth.
• As I've said it's desire more than anything else that keeps us coming back for more. 
• "I loved him. He didn't want to leave me. He said we'd be together again. He said he wouldn't ever forget me, no matter what, and I have to try not to forget him. That's why I wrote the note."
• "This didn't happen by accident. You are my first memory every time, the single thread in all of my lives. It's you who makes me a person."
• "I'm sorry for what you've been through," she said. "I can't stand to think of the pain you've been in. You deserve better."
• "I'm a stubborn chit, you know." I held her hard. "Yes, you are. But you are not hopeless."
• "You'll fall in love again. And maybe you'll look back and remember me every so often. And when you come back again, I will be waiting for you. I will find you."
• Please believe him. Keep your heart open to him. He can make you happy. He has always loved you, and you once loved him with all your heart.
• "You are a hoarder," Ben said to me once. "You hate to let go."
• "Attachment disorder" it said in big, sharp print at the top.
• It was the thought of her that kept me moving forward.
• "Love who you love while you have them. That's all you can do. Let them go when you must.if you know how to love, you'll never run out."
• "You love your memory but you need to love your girl," she said by way of parting. "You remember what is lost, and you forget what's right in front of you." 
• "Next time?" "Next time,"she said. It was a ritual between them. It was always next time. She wanted something to hold on to so she could believe in next time.
• Some chances you really did lose.
• "I still love you, and I think about you all the time. I'm not down there. I'm right here."
• He loved it because he'd been loved.
• It was not a smile but like a smile.It wasn't a face of fear.It was an expression of faith more than anything. She had faith in him and the things he promised her. She trusted him.
• No! If you don't have a choice, you had to make a choice. If you didn't have options, you made some. You couldn't just let the world happen to you. 
• "I know I said I'd let you, but I can't."
• He had to fight. That's all he had. Not memories, nor experiences, not skills. He had a will. And his will was to fight until he couldn't fight anymore.
• Don't you go yet, he begged his heart.

"I need to tell you something."

"Okay."

"I'm glad you told me."

"Yes, because now I can tell you that it's okay."

"What Daniel taketh away, Daniel giveth."

"What do you mean?"

"You gave more than you took, my love. We're all square."

• I get defeated or discouraged, and I die because I've figured there's always a new life and it will be better. But nothing can be better than this life, because I have you.
• You promised me, she said to him in her thoughts every morning and night and a thousand times in between. I love you. I won't give up on you.
• Love demands everything, they say, but my love for you demands only this: that no matter what happens or how long it takes, you'll keep faith in  me, you'll remember who we are, and you'll never feel despair. Yours forever,...