celebrations by maya angelou posted by imani , Monday, September 17, 2012 at 3:34 AM, in Labels: project blurb

mibf version 2012 posted by imani , at 2:49 AM, in Labels: freefall

i went to the recently held 33rd manila international book fair at the smx convention center in moa. aside from having briefly suffered from option paralysis, i played the role of a salmon and it was inescapable - what can you expect.

there were hoards and hoards of people swimming and swinging to and from all imaginable direction. that for a moment, i thought to myself that if it had been possible to go through me, i have no doubt there would be a number of them who would opt to do that.

and just like always, the first shelf i would visit in any book store, whether it be someplace as common as national book store or any one of those specialty book shops (powerbooks, fully booked, sketchbooks, a different bookstore) - i hung around this little space, a haven of sorts - for those seeking to read what would often be construed as lewd or offensive and find them 'tastefully done' - the erotic literature section:


but in my humble opinion, e.l. james' fifty shades series still does not offer the kind of material that would make it 'enough' to be in the same spot as anais nin, anne rice or henry james. it has just not achieved the notoriety all those three other writers has achieved.

one reason to be truly excited about when going to the mibf is that this is the only other time i know they would take twenty percent off of philippine publications, so as you might have guessed, i spent just about enough time rummaging and going through shelf after shelf in the space occupied by anvil publishing. until finally i settled for all the 6 books in ambeth ocampo's looking back series. i had the nostalgic recollection of how i would wait for his column on the philippine daily inquirer, how i would spend my mornings (during saturdays and sundays) and evenings (during school days) when i was still in high school - always on the lookout for trivia and trivialities, for information - whether necessary or unnecessary.


also - i got myself a copy of haruki murakami's kafka on the shore and after dark - an author who has been mentioned by my best friends reich and jerlen, one during a random conversation while we were drinking wine and celebrating her birthday, the other on a post on our facebook group 'booklust.' it did not take long to convince me to try reading his work, i checked the blurb and was instantly impressed with the reviews about his work...so what the heck, a shot is a shot and that's precisely what i am giving him.


the manila international book fair always have been an avenue for the bibliophiles to convene, no matter the truth some of us will remain faceless or nameless until the next year's book fair. but the most important thing there is that we do not feel as 'geeky' or as 'lonely' this time of the year - as there are thousands upon thousands of people we are sure would flock one place, (wherever the book fair will be held) with an appreciation for the written word and an undeniable love for reading.

in a world now so heavily dependent on getting information through and on the world wide web, it gives me a good feeling that there are still those who chooses to hold a book in their hands and turn the pages and live the the magic found in prose, poetry, dreams, realities, realizations, aspirations of all those who excised blood, sweat and tears and (possibly) other bodily secretions to share their stories.

this has a title and definitely has an author posted by imani , Monday, September 10, 2012 at 3:28 AM, in Labels: project blurb

i forgot to take note of the book title and the name of the author who penned it but i saw this at powerbooks last friday. hopefully when i go back i can get the details and share them with you.

om love by george minot posted by imani , at 3:26 AM, in Labels: project blurb

project blurb posted by imani , at 2:51 AM, in Labels: freefall

there is always this fraction of me that resorts to apologizing whenever i am unable to write on this blog. not that i am expecting for anyone to closely follow what i do or what i have been up to or what has been keeping me busy.

during the weekend i conjured this mini project of sorts. since i spend about enough time in bookstores and libraries and a self-confessed bibliophile myself, i would like to offer blurbs of random books to my readers - to one, two or three of my most faithful minions. :)

these can be of books that i have read or i want to read or books that i might not be too curious to buy but curious enough to read for a moment and take a picture of it.

if you happen to visit my blog and would like to share a blurb, you may send the photograph to my e-mail: alab_imani@yahoo.com. please do not forget to include the following details:

• book title
• author
• your name
• a gist about you

these are things i would like to ensure will be part of my post.

thanks for dropping by and keep burning. :)

unholy night posted by imani , Sunday, August 5, 2012 at 10:08 PM, in Labels: something else

enter balthazar of antioch - who is neither a nobleman or a magi - seth grahame-smith's unlikely protagonist in his most recent offering, 'unholy night.'

the author takes us to the judean desert in 2 bc - where herod's soldiers are in pursuit of the ghost of antioch - a thieving 'rat,' and a cold-blooded murderer who has, for the last decade, managed to steal and kill and slip off of the authorities radar when he needed to.

on one occasion he was actually caught by herod's men, only to escape getting his head cut off and this time, taking two other petty thieves with him. and please indulge me with a wild guess. yes, indeed. he met gaspar, a muscular, african thief and melchyor, a greek swordsman, hailed as the 'best in the eastern empire.' it was in their escape that they decided to follow a bright star shining down on them - leading them to bethlehem.

and just like how we have been told this story - this was exactly when and where they met a pair of zealots - joseph and mary - and their new born son, who was never named on the book but was pertained to as the messiah. balthazar was essential to much of the trouble faced by the fugitives in the book, and was also the unspoken leader of this odd band composed of both the religious and the non-believers. balthazar was also instrumental in securing that joseph, mary and their son reach egypt where they cannot be touched or executed.

within the story, we were afforded the chance to learn how balthazar grew up to be a celebrity criminal of some sort and what painful part of his life has pushed him to hunt and kill - especially those in position - mercilessly. but despite being a man of only one tangible belief - that is - the only thing worth worshiping is the god of wealth - the story does give us glimpses and moments when balthazar is deep in his thoughts, minding the causes that lead him to his life and assessing whether the same reasons still hold water.

the author has succeeded in weaving meticulous biblical and historical tales with that of his own funny, twisted ideas. the result was a surprisingly poignant and hilarious novel that any first-time reader would enjoy and would find to be 'adequate.'

peculiars posted by imani , Tuesday, July 31, 2012 at 1:05 AM, in Labels: something else

'i came to a place where the path emerged from the woods. in one direction lay home and everything i knew, unmysterious and ordinary and safe.'

penned by ransom riggs, miss peregrine's home for peculiar children is one such tale - it leads you to uncharted territories and opens new dimensions, whether metaphorically or literally.

i took the advice of my best friend jerlen (via our facebook group, 'booklust'). she said that the story is compelling and what's even more captivating are the odd pictures you'd find in the book. so off to the mall i went last week and found myself a copy from fully booked.

jacob is a 'regular' teenager whose life was dramatically altered when his grandfather died of unnatural causes. for years, his grandfather has told him of strange stories, mostly without proof, about having lived in a place where peculiar beings existed. everything went downhill when, on his grandfather's death, he saw odd apparitions and his grandfather's last words included finding a 'bird,' a 'loop,' an 'old man's grave,' and 'september 3rd 1940.'

unbeknownst to jacob, a grander plan has commenced and things beyond his wildest imaginings will soon be revealed to him. his grandfather's last words never did escape him, no matter how much he tried to shrug them off. and after getting the help of a psychiatrist, his father agreed to take him to a trip to cairnholm, an island off the coast of wales in the united kingdom. while he really did not realize what was waiting or what has been waiting for him there, it was only a matter of time before he would be introduced to a portal to go back to september 3rd 1940 and see those few who remain.

the story has a few surprises in it - the notion of finding love on a different plane or place, the author also dabbled a bit on time traveling, heroism at a point when you have lost all belief in yourself and that part of each of us that always yearned to be extraordinary - just that we are blinded by our own faults or that we, almost always, needed someone to tell us just how wonderfully strange we are.

it is something that i have enjoyed reading and i do make it a point to take a peek at the next few pages to check scary photographs, just to make sure i won't be taken aback when i flip them as i go on with the story. somehow, having read jacob's adventure with his peculiar lot, i realized that i have not grown old (too much, that is). i mean i think i have grown up, but there will always be a fraction of me that would want to remember being a kid, that fraction that needed, every once in a while, the capacity to believe that i am still worthy of such fun and adventure and that it is something i can will myself to go back to.

the new eros posted by imani , Sunday, July 29, 2012 at 11:51 PM, in Labels: freefall

i took a trip heading to the mall last friday, 27th july 2012, which coincidentally was our 23rd month together. tempus fugit. sweet.

i have been meaning to write about this for days but were confronted with either my body's ceaseless desire to sleep or the lack of power supply (just like last night).

as i was saying, i scooted as soon as my shift was over all in the hopes of getting myself another laptop. that same day, i sold my first laptop (a red hp mini netbook) to a friend of mine at work. after what seemed to be an endless battle between myself, my budget and what brand i wanted to get, i finally got myself a nice, sweet deal.

it was not as easy as i hoped it would be. i actually have been wrestling with the notion of upgrading my laptop for at least a month before i decided to let go of my wife's 28th birthday gift for me. jona did mention something which got me thinking - she said that 'you cannot allow yourself to think that gadgets have sentimental value.' and i could not have agreed more.

i got myself a samsung series 3 (300e4c-a03, to be exact) notebook. it came with a mailman bag (of the same brand), a pair of black usb-powered speakers (which i gave to my boss) and an optical mouse, which i decided to keep. since i have, for at least a year, been using a netbook, i thought to myself it would be good to get a 14" notebook instead.


this baby has a 2gb memory and a 500gb hard disk drive capacity. it came with a 60-day trial of norton antivirus (which is a staple, i think) and a windows 7 starter edition. it has a 14" anti-reflective HD LED display and according to the samsung website, it also has an anti-fingerprint, scratch-resistant finish. i just noticed that this machine is against a lot of things. matter of fact, it comes with a battery derived from samsung's anti-aging technology which 'ensures that the battery lasts 3x longer.'

it weighs a little over 2 kilos and the keyboard is definitely something i need to get used to. i have grown accustomed to the compact keyboard of my old hp laptop and when i first started using this, it felt as if my fingers were doing a little stretching every now and then. i opted to get a notebook since all the peripherals are already in one equipment and i can always bring phaidros (the pad) if i wanted something handy.

i spent at least an hour installing the usual (or necessary, for me, at least) files the moment i got home. that means mozilla (i am not a big fan of internet explorer), yahoo messenger, flash player and skype. the machine actually came with a pre-installed skype program, but for some reason, it just won't allow me to log in. so i uninstalled the program and downloaded a new version online. i just have not really had enough time to tinker through the built-in cyberlink media suite. who knows, it might just be something i would need when i create my mini projects.


overall, i only have had my new eros for roughly three days and everything seems to be working seamlessly. booting takes a little less than 20 seconds and even if i hook it up for half a day, the machine has managed to stay 'cool.' also, i'm glad that i got a darker shade of gray (i am unsure if this is too dark that you can already call it black), as the ones that i saw online were too colorful (and with colorful i mean yellow, orange, pink and green - which aren't my colors at all). this shade they call 'titan silver.' and indeed the machine is a titan in itself.

clean slate posted by imani , at 2:26 AM, in Labels: freefall

last week has been a pretty busy week for me. i did not just deal with my team and fulfilled about 20 hours worth of mod functions...i did something that usually takes me months and months to accomplish - i cleaned my pedestal.

and every time i do this, i always get reminded of my best friend chai. the first time she handled me as a coach she came up to me (which i thought would be for some lengthy one on one session) and asked me to unlock my pedestal.

i didn't have an idea what she wanted then but when she saw it she immediately said she will not leave until i have fixed it. so i did.

her idea behind it is simple - un-clutter so you can free up some work space and move around easily. and in a more metaphorical sense, she said she also practices it regularly as if to unload herself of past burdens and things we keep unnecessarily.

ever since then i would panic when i look inside my pedestal and find that i am still harboring post its drizzled with my unintelligible handwriting, notepads that have been filled with my scribbles, pens and markers that have all been used up, highlighters that just won't highlight things anymore.

so last thursday i told myself that i would have to get rid of the daily panic i put myself through and decided to turn my pedestal upside down and down side up (and inside out too). here's what the first, second and third drawers of my pedestal look like now:

the last year posted by imani , Wednesday, July 18, 2012 at 2:33 AM, in Labels: freefall

has been about waiting.

it has been about loving and lingering. it has been about our journey, our sacrifices, our distance, our tears.

but more than anything, the last three hundred sixty five days have been about keeping what we have alive, keeping what we have burning, and realizing every single second there is that nothing has been wasted.

i would not want to live the last year any other way. in another lifetime, i am sure i would still want you to be my partner-in-crime, my shock absorber, my sporadic nemesis, my best friend, my soul mate, my wife, the mother of our rohan.

for the past year we both have succeeded in laughing at the most mundane things, we both have succeeded in patching things up even after the worst of arguments. we have succeeded in wrapping each memory with nothing but desire, knowing that we were never alone, and that we will never be on our own.

what i want to really tell you is this, jona -

more than the sadness (or literally, being alone), in the last year i have challenged myself, i have surprised myself at what i can actually do, what i doubted (and possibly you did too) i could do. you have kept me going and have kept me sane (or have driven me insane, at times). but no matter has happened and no matter what will happen, i am assured that i have someone who will not let me down, i have someone who will always attempt to learn how to figure 'me' out, i know it can be challenging. i have someone who is proud of what we share and who is proud of me. i have someone who will fight for me and whose belief in my abilities is unwavering.

since i discovered my passion for written words, i have always made it a point to mark a moment - all by taking my pen and writing memories and visions and dreams down. i have never been this busy. as a matter of fact, i have been busier writing on your blog than on this one. hahahaha. though i only have posted (i think) two hundred plus sonnets of the three hundred and sixty five, i will see to it that you will always read something new in the next few weeks every time you visit your site.

so let me go back to that same road that took you away from me. and let me tell you that i will remain - that i will wait, that as much as i still could, exercise more patience, that i will be there until you emerge from oblivion and until i can hold you close again.

before you left, i promised that i will give you a sonnet for each day that we are not together. an entire year has passed, in a sense, we both have made that trip around the sun, this time, noting a different kind of anniversary. nothing could be more black and white. nothing could be more exact or precise. more than feeling a sense of accomplishment because i have proven i am still able to write, because you have prevented my brain from getting rusty, i feel that there truly is nothing i cannot overcome as long as your roses will be there to guide my fragrant remembering.

i love you, my lifetime. all my thoughts and wishes are for you.