on my nightstand

Yes, guerilla-reading style nowadays:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia
Superpowers: A Novel by David J. Schwartz
The Starry Rift by Jonathan Strahan
Maps and Legends by Michael Chabon
Who Can Save Us Now?: Brand-New Superheroes and Their Amazing (Short) Stories by Owen King and John McNally
Bagets by Carla Pacis and Eugene Evasco
The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection (Year's Best Science Fiction) by Gardner Dozois
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Vol. 2 by Jonathan Strahan
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
The Wheel of Darkness by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Thieves' World: Enemies of Fortune (Thieves' World) by Lynn Abbey
The Hellboy Companion by Mike Mignola, Stephen Weiner, Jason Hall, and Victoria Blake
Hero by Perry Moore
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and Dave Mckean
Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees
Adventures in Unhistory: Conjectures on the Factual Foundations of Several Ancient Legends by Avram Davidson

And over at my office desk:

Superheroes by John Varley and Mainhardt
A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham

I'm going through the anthos, as well as the essays and non-fiction. The novels require more time - but I'm loving Oscar Wao (astounding) and Schwartz's Superpowers (now I want to write superhero fiction too!).

reading

I'll be reading from my collection, as well as signing copies, as part of the upcoming Dia del Libro over at the Instituto Cervantes on April 19th. My publisher, Anvil, will be there, as well as booksellers and booklovers. Huge discounts on all sorts of books - come on over.

On my personal reading list, a friend just added Greetings from Lake Wu by Jay Lake and Saffron and Brimstone: Strange Stories by Elizabeth Hand to my growing pile (seriously, I am a manic book buyer who has less time for reading) of anthos and collections. These days I'm a grazer, unable to commit to reading a novel - the last one I tried and abandoned was the abyssmal The Dragon's Nine Sons by Chris Roberson, an author who writes excellent short fiction (oh, and I am making progress on my guerilla reading of my Jose Saramagos).

It's short fiction that I consume the most, really.

The last non-fiction book I finished (overnight) was Discover's 20 Things You Didn't Know About Everything: Duct Tape, Airport Security, Your Body, Sex in Space...and More! - just the sort of thing that perks me up in the wee hours of the morning when stories refuse to cooperate (haha).

The latest story I listened to was Nikki reading from the kickass The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales by Maria Tatar, a hefty hardcover that can kill a man by sheer weight. Last night was "Bluebeard", the night before featured my personal favorite fairy tale "East of the Sun, West of the Moon".

Nikki consumes something like a novel every two days (she reads inhumanly fast). Sometime last week, I saw her with The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice by Catherynne Valente. Recently,she gave in the persistent movie trailers (even I am sold - it appeals to some of the things I enjoy most in a narrative) and is now reading a copy of The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory.

new to the bookshelf

Despite the fact that the Book Fair is about a week away, and the backlog of things to read on the shelves and bedside continue to grow, I couldn't resist buying books.

The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
The Geographer's Library by Jon Fasman

Also new: Philippines' Best Restaurants 2007, and a smattering comic book trade collections.

This year, at the Fair, I'm hoping to get more collections and anthologies of Filipino short stories. There's still a lot to read, enjoy and learn from.

reading at mag:net

Join us this Monday, July 23rd, 8:30PM at Mag:Net Cafe along Katipunan Road, Quezon City. It's all about love, with poetry read and sung with music by Delakrus.

I'll be the odd man out, I think, since I'll be reading a love story, but look at the roster of really cool poets, singers and creatives: Aldus Santos, Teo Antonio, Noel del Prado, Joel Toledo, Mikael Co, Angelo Suarez, Gabe Mercado, Karl de Mesa, Roxlee, Tengal, and Cynthia Alexander.

It's living lit, fusion lit, piano-love combo, call it what you will (I tend to think about in spec fic terms, so since it mashes modes and genres around, it must be interstitial LOL).

little big moment

One of the highlights of my week is Father-Daughter Day. Each week, Sage and I go out and spend time at a bookstore and a toy store and mix it up with visits to our pet store, the videoke, a resto, a dept store and so on.

I love taking my 5 year-old out because we get a chance to talk, make up wild stories and songs, try out food, critique toys and skip across the mall like a pair of loons, hurling imaginary stars into the air.

On our most recent FD Day, we chose the new Bestsellers over at Robinsons Galleria as our bookstore of the week. I told Sage to stay in the children's book section while I half-trawled the nearby areas (half-trawled because I'd look in on her every minute or so to see if she had in fact agreed to go home with some other father - "Dad," she'd tell me wearily, "I'd never leave with some other child's father.").

ME: Go ahead and pick out some books to read.

SAGE: Ok, Dad.

ME: I'll be around.

She selected several books from the lower shelves and plopped down in a corner. Every time I checked in with her, I found her studiously reading aloud. I wanted to see if she was actually reading so I finally sat down next to her.

ME: What are you reading?

SHE: Tiny Tim.

ME: Is it good?

SHE: Dad! I'm reading. I'm not finished yet.

ME: Read for me, nga.

SHE: (sighs) Ok, Dad.

And she did, with amazing speed and precison, stopping only to sound out the letters of words that were completely new to her (English is quite the unfair language, with more exceptions than rules), and confirming with me if she got it right.

In that whirlwind of recitation, I was lost in the sound of my daughter's voice. I was so proud of her. I knew she could already read but I thought it was more isolated words or a story that was previously read to her. But this time, with those books on the floor, every story was new, previously unheard by her. And with no help or prompting from me, except to correct pronunciation.

In the middle of the story, she looked up at me after reading the last word on the page, her eyes bright with wonder.

SAGE: Dad! He got turned into a big meatball! This is so funny!

I laughed along with her, sharing the absurd thought of people who turn into food, and watched her turn to the next page.