Currently on the bedside table

... *still* reading. Sigh. I seem to be good at picking up and starting books but not finishing them. Here are exhibits A and B.

I started "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine" last September. I can't remember why I picked it up in the first place. I got as far as the first couple of chapters and then October came in, and then I had to pick up a non-fiction title for the book club discussion of the month. Enter "H is for Hawk," which, because it is non-fiction, I failed to finish in time for the discussion. FAIL.

On audiobooks

Reporting back to work when my maternity leave ended in April meant one of many things: enduring two-hour stretches of traffic going home in the afternoon, and that's not even the worst of it because I try to avoid the rush hour as much as I can. Imagine those two-hour drives extending to three during rush hour... just thinking about it makes me ill already.

But because Manila traffic is one of those things that, so far, has no ready or apparent solution (ergo, you just have to grit your teeth and bear it), I decided I had to do something with my sanity -- at least on that part, I have some control over. Enter audiobooks.

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My favorite genre

September is historical fiction month over at the book club, and boy am I excited to moderate this discussion! You see, historical fiction is my favorite genre and I'm always amazed at the things I learn reading these novels.

So for this month, I intend to read these books:

Books for the Book Club

Over at the book club, we decided to shake things up a little this year in terms of our monthly reads/picks. For the past 6 years, we've been meeting in person to discuss a specific book; this year, we thought, why not try something new? So instead of a particular book that (most of) our active members have elected to read, we selected 12 genres and from there, the member will get to decide which book he/she will read for a particular reading month. The obvious advantage of this is, of course, the member gets to choose a book (or books) that he/she would really be keen on reading (as opposed to one that was "imposed", yeah?) and that would be more than likely he/she would already have in his/her library. We also get to book-push during the discussion and add more titles to our forever-growing TBR. The downside is that everyone would be completely clueless when someone is talking about his/her book of choice and the focus is really not on the books but on the genre. But anyway, it's just an experiment. We'll assess the result of this experiment at the end of the year and then decide if we want the old format back or stick to the new one.

For the first half of the year, these are the genres per month and the books I've picked.

Those were the days.

There was a time, years back, when a lot of us in the book club maintained book blogs. (I qualify that they are “book blogs” to differentiate them from personal ones, which a number of us [including me] also kept.) Some of us have even set up collective blogs, with a number of contributors, to write about a common favorite interest.

It’s been a long, long time since our respective first posts on our blogs, and although some of us have endured through the years, the majority (including me, again) has fallen way behind. What happened? Real life. Always the culprit. Mostly it’s lack of time, for some it’s lack of inspiration. As for me, it’s the former. Hey, having 2 kids (now) and a full-time job and managing an entire household demand time, right?

So anyway, I was tinkering with the blog today when I saw that it’s actually marginalia’s blog anniversary (blogiversary? bloggy birthday?) this month. It must be on its 7th year because I remember setting it up on the July of the year when my daughter was to turn 1, which is 2011. In previous years, I used to hold giveaways to celebrate this milestone, and always, the audience and/or participants would be my fellow bloggers/book club friends. Now, I doubt that anyone would still be around to participate if I were to hold one.

I may no longer hold giveaways or contests here but I will sure try to write about the books I’ve read. Sort of a blog reboot, yes. It’s so easy to just let it go but I don’t have the heart! All those years of write-ups and “reviews,” sayang naman. So I will try to post something at least twice a month to keep the blog running.

Oh look, this is my second post for July. See ya in August? :D

Really, I’m still here.

I haven’t been posting here as much as I want to - even though elsewhere in social media I’m pretty much active - and it’s because it isn’t as convenient to write a review as, say, posting a photo of the book I’m currently reading on Instagram or ranting/raving about it on Twitter. Also, I’m preoccupied with family matters - a new addition to the family has ALL of us busy - and I haven’t been reading as much as I’d want to. It’s only for the past couple of months that I’ve managed to pick up my reading pace. And then when I was gearing up for more time to update the blog, wham. My easy access via office desktop has been blocked, so I’m left with (1) blogging on my phone or (2) blogging on my laptop at home, which is a bit tricky considering the fact that whatever little time I have at home is spent with my family.

But enough about that - I’m here now, always have been, so let me regroup and start over. 

I’m currently reading Hanya Yanagihara’s “A Little Life,” and it’s so depressing, I feel like I need to talk to someone about it. But Jude, Willem, Malcolm, and JB are growing on me, and I understand the difficulties that Jude is going through. 

More on the next post.