Books for Christmas

verabear My Bookcase, Ramblings and Brain farts 3 Comments

Since losing a whole lot of books when Typhoon Ondoy wreaked havoc in our home, I’d been really sad and disappointed about their fate. I haven’t even read many of those books, while others were books I wanted to keep. One of the children’s books I lost was a treasure – I Can Tell Time. It’s no classic, but it was the very first book I received as a birthday present from my parents. The inscription inside, in my mother’s handwriting is something I cherish. The exact words are lost to me, but I will remember the message forever: now I was being introduced to books, and they will teach me many things and take me to different lands.

Of all the books we’ve had to throw out the morning after, it was that one that pained me most.

I told myself I would stop compulsive book-buying – something I do almost every other week when I passby the second-hand bookshop at The Loop. I won’t buy books faster than I can read them anymore. Here I am though, three months later, and I’ve already accumulated a (tall) pile or two.

Yesterday, I picked up four more bargain books. I would have taken six but I didn’t want to spend all of my money. I had the two reserved, waiting to be picked up next week. I listed them on my wishlist for the Kris Kringle we’re having with one of our teams… I hope whoever picked my name hasn’t chosen a gift for me yet. I hope he/she just gets me those… 🙂

Last year, I got a book (Confessor/Goodkind) and chocolates for Christmas. At the non-agent Christmas GA this year, I also got the book I wished for (Certain Girls/Weiner). We’re having a year-ender party on Sunday and I am expecting another book (or two) and chocolates. We’ll exchange gifts with my Tier2 team next Friday, that’s where I hope to receive the two books I put up on my wishlist.

I’ve found it easier to list books as my Christmas wish. So long as there’s a fixed budget, I can find a book to match. It’s easier than me asking for perfume, or a piece of clothing. Those things I’d rather shop for myself. Gadgets would be cool to list too, but none of my groups would raise the budget higher than 500 pesos! 🙂

Next comes another dilemma – where to put all these books? My mom has been taking our books to her office and her guests are free to take them. They don’t have to take them back. My dad doesn’t really care about collecting the books (not even the Cusslers or Ludlums, though my mom leaves those untouched), once he’s read them, they can stay on a bookshelf forever and he wouldn’t pick them up again. He has been known to purchase a book we already own though, haha. I’m not that way. I’d rather keep all of them for myself. I think of rereading them again someday. Or of accumulating enough books for a vast library where my future kids will grow up and revel in. But we don’t have space for a library.

There are some books though that wouldn’t be too difficult to let go of. I wouldn’t mind not owning them forever. But those are very very few (at least from the ones I bought myself).

So I’m thinking, after reading a particular book, maybe I’ll blog about it somewhere and sell it. Or lend it for a fee. Or something. Or maybe I’ll leave it lying around somewhere and anticipate until someone finds a way to get it back to me.

The Innocent Man – John Grisham

verabear My Bookcase, Ramblings and Brain farts 0 Comments

The Innocent Man was the book that kept me company on my trips to the hospital in the past few weeks (oh and also French Women Don’t Get Fat). Since we don’t have our TV here in the living room in the aftermath of Ondoy, and the PC wasn’t setup yet (like I’ve said before, we’re still not done with the cleanup and our living room is still a mess), I had the chance to sit down and finish Grisham’s first work of non-fiction on Saturday last week.

In the beginning, it was dragging. It’s a lot like reading a legal brief, as I would imagine it (though I wouldn’t really know). But as the story unfolds even further, you would really want to read it through to find out how the truth will eventually come out.

My thoughts? If this injustice can happen in small town America – what of those suffering in the Philippine justice system?

Here, there was no graft and corruption included. Simple incompetence. Or law enforcement’s sheer will to find their scapegoat to get the public off their backs. In the Philippines, you have cops, lawyers and judges on payola (allegedly).

One of the most oft used arguments for the death penalty is its power as a crime deterrent. But how many of those executed in the past really were guilty beyond reasonable doubt? Until the state can guarantee a fair justice system, more so for the poor, then the death penalty will not be effective. Then of course there’s the right to life argument.

The book does not talk about the death penalty though it did give us a glimpse of Ron Williamson’s horrifying experience at The Row and the H Unit. It also shows how dreams are accepted as confessions, and how jail house snitches will say just about anything just to get off their own crimes.

It’s also about prejudice. And how some people on trial are presumed guilty until proven innocent.

The stories of Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz, as well as of Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot, should be an example of how law enforcement and the prosecutors ought not to act.