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Showing posts from November, 2014

Twelfth Night; or, What You Will by William Shakespeare

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"Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" Summary from Goodreads : Separated from her twin brother Sebastian after a shipwreck, Viola disguises herself as a boy to serve the Duke of Illyria. Wooing a countess on his behalf, she is stunned to find herself the object of his beloved's affections. With the arrival of Viola's brother, and a trick played upon the countess's steward, confusion reigns in this romantic comedy of mistaken identity. I was yet undecided about what to read for TFG's Shakespeare month, but then I came across a Shakespeare Made Easy edition of Twelfth Night at a bargain bookstore, so the decision was finally made for me. Also I have come to the conclusion that I need to have some sort of assistance when it comes to reading anything from The Bard. With Much Ado About Nothing, I came into it having seen a couple of You Tube clips of Tennant and Tate's stage production, and I had an aud

A Calendar of Tales by Neil Gaiman

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Description: "On February 4th 2013 Neil Gaiman embarked on a fantastic art project in partnership with Blackberry and millions of his fans. He tweeted twelve questions to the world, one for each month of the year. From the tens of thousands of responses he received, Neil picked his favorite answers and wrote twelve short stories inspired by them. Releasing these back to the world, Neil asked people to contribute art to illustrate the stories." You know one of the age old questions that writers get asked? "What inspired you to make this story?" And I am always interested in the answer because really, we all have that need to know the origin, the beginning from which such a masterpiece sprung forth. With A Calender of Tales, the inspiration comes from the fans. He gave out 12 questions/prompts (one for each month of the year), the fans answered, he picked his favorites and wrote stories out of them, launched them to the world, then asked the fans to make illustr

2014 Filipino Fridays #4: Let's Talk About Diverse Books

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Visit Filipino ReaderCon for more information Do you think we have enough diversity in the books that we read? Are our choices enough to satisfy our different tastes? Are our writers able to present the variety of people, culture, lifestyle, interests and so on? How diverse are your reading interests, and are you able to find enough books to satisfy your  reading needs? Do you think we need more diverse books? International literature is pretty diverse. When it comes to genre classification, literature is expanding constantly, like now there's New Adult, New Weird and Cli-Fi (a subgenre of sci-fi that focuses on climate change). But I once heard in the international publishing scene, that many are lamenting the lack of characters of color in YA and Children's Literature. There is just no cultural diversity in the stories the kids consume, nowadays, they say. Which I think is kind of true. But then again like if the writers are white, they will most likely put in white ch

November 2014: Required Reading

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October Required Reading Report: 1. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks - (4/5 Stars) Not at all stiff and formal because Dr. Sacks is a great story teller, who gives free reign in the exercise of his poetic license, without compromising the integrity of the scientific facts presented, in my opinion. 2. A Calendar of Tales by Neil Gaiman - (4/5 Stars) - The idea behind A Calendar of Tales is amazing. A collection of tales borne out of collaboration between author and readers.  I think Gaiman can create a story out of anything. Dust bunnies, a gum under your shoe, a sneeze. Anything.  3. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler by E.L. Konigsburg - (4/5 Stars) Precocious children are a hoot. Sassy, wealthy old ladies, even more so. And this book has both. 4. The Distance of the Moon by Italo Calvino (on audio, read by Liev Shreiber) - (4/5 Stars) Unlike If On A Winter Night's A Traveller, this particular Calvino s

2014 Filipino Fridays #3: What Do You Think of Fan Fiction?

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Visit Filipino ReaderCon for more information "Fanfiction is pretty popular, no doubt about it, but it has been received with mixed feelings by many authors and writers. Some don’t mind it, and even welcome readers who give their own spin on their work. Some writers don’t like it at all, to the point that they contact fanfiction authors to take their work down. Others use it as a jump-off point for their own writing. How about you? What is your take on fanfiction? Do you read fanfiction, and if you do, what kind of fanfiction do you read? Do you write fanfiction, and why? Or are you against fanfiction? Enlighten us."   The first time I've heard of fan fiction was through my sixteen year old cousin and her gaggle of teenage friends. She told me about this site called Wattpad, a writing community where anyone can write, read and share stories including fan fiction. Since the site requires registration, which I was not up to doing at that time (or now), I don't