the reader’s nook

Well, it’s been a while since I last posted. Honestly, I might abandon this blog and consolidate it with my other blogs. But there’s still things I have to do before I can get to that so this blog is still alive. So, for a few updates:

Bookstore now open!
My good friends from college and I have decided to open an online shop to sell our pre-loved books. Some of them are ones we’ve had for years, while others are new and have been read only once. We’re gearing up for new releases from our favorite authors in the coming months, and we’re also in desperate need for shelf space.

You can check out our stock over at Books and Baubles. For now, we’re limiting our selling and shipping to the Philippines, mostly because we don’t have any means to accept payments from abroad just yet. I do hope you can drop by and see if any of the books catch your interest. We’ll be updating it every now and then, so keep coming back!

Book buying spree
Warning to all: browsing eBay.ph is addicting! I went there initially to compare book prices, but I spotted a book that I wanted and it was cheap. I purchased it, browsed for me and the next thing I knew I had purchased more than a thousand bucks worth of books. In two weeks, mind you.

One thousand pesos for ten books isn’t bad, considering that they are all in great condition and that they’re all quite brand new. Good thing that the money I used was some extra, and not the one I put aside from daily expenses. But my golly, I have to stop this or at least go on a hiatus for two months! Still, it was fun though. Hehe.

I promise that this latest batch will be the last one I’ll buy. Really. Because my financial resources are totally drained.

Reviews
I’m not so very good at writing reviews, but I’ll try to do some. I’ve gotten some pretty interesting books recently, and I just want to share them. So look out for some book reviews in the near future!

I’m a big anime fan, and have been watching it since I was a kid. My brother and I used to watch Voltes V and Daimos on weekends, and borrow Betamax tapes from the neighborhood video shop for classics like Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, Pon Poco, etc. That was back in the early to mid 80s.

In high school I was a sort of misfit because I read manga and watched anime. Of course, we don’t have bullies in school since my classmates and I knew each other from pre-school. I just get teased a lot, though I’m thankful that my close friends were all anime-freaks like me.

I used to get Animerica magazine from the then small shop Comic Alley. However, I usually had to save up to get the latest one or go for a back issue. Still, it was fun to read up on what’s new with anime.

Nowadays, you can pretty much get all the information you need off the Internet, but it’s still fun to grab a magazine and read up. Animerica is now a free magazine, but you can only get it at a specific bookstore in the U.S. Probably the premiere anime magazine nowadays is Anime Insider, with monthly manga magazines like Shojo Beat and Shonen Jump for your manga fixes. I can’t get these magazines here unless I pay for a subscription (which is too expensive). Though sometimes I get lucky and find back issues in Booksale. Nice.

A word of caution though. I noticed that sometimes the prices of magazines and books are different per branch. I got an issue of Shojo Jump for Php130, but in another branch it costs Php250. Big difference.

Of course, if I do want to read manga there are *stops and decides to shut up*. Fans would know what I mean.

I had just finished reading Mary Balogh’s Slightly series, otherwise known as the Bedwyn series. I’ll talk about it a little later, but I had a realization the other day while I was watching Animax. I was watching an episode of Kyo Kara Maoh and I realized that the characters can be a shoo-in for the anime version of the Bedwyn brothers. Of course, if we’re going to consider the hair color and the nose, they may not be, but anime-wise, the guys of KKM are as close as they can get to the Bedwyns. Not to mention the period and the costume.

:)

Günter von Christ as Wulfric Bedwyn
In the anime, Günter isn’t the oldest, but the way he looks reminds me Wulfric, especially when Wulf does his "peering into the quizzing glass" thing.

Conrad Weller as Aidan Bedwyn
Conrad looks like a soldier, so I thought he fits Aidan’s role well.

Gwendal von Voltaire as Rannulf Bedwyn
Gwendal may be the eldest of the Demon brothers, but I think he fits the description of Rannulf well.

Wolfram von Bielefelt as Alleyne Bedwyn
They’re both the youngest. Nuff said.

I just got a message from my friend Denise saying that the first book of Nora Robert’s newest trilogy entitled Morrigan’s Cross is now available in local bookshops. Huzzah! For the heck of it I kidded that she should buy me one since she still hasn’t me a gift for last Christmas and my birthday. Next thing I knew, she said she’s got the books already. Can’t wait to read it.