Pleased to see you intend to read One Hundred Years of Solitude, it’s a wonderful book. You sound a little anxious about being well-read, though. Not sure I understand why, especially since it’s very impressive that you’ve managed to keep a book-a-week pace even while including such bricks as Odyssey and Ulysses.

As for suggestions for new readings, here’s a few books you might not have heard of:
“The Leopard,” Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.
“The Moon and the Bonfires,” Cesare Pavese.
“The Emigrants,” WG Sebald.

You’re right, I still haven’t heard of those books. Which means, I’ll wiki them up tomorrow when I’m at the office (where I’m usually least productive. Shh!)

Eh, Odyssey and Ulysses slowed down my reading considerably. They’re the only books (plus Scanner Darkly) I’ve finished in March and early April. It’s last month when I started reading like mad again.

One Hundred Years of Solitude looks a bit intimidating because it’s thick, and the names of the characters confuses me (to think that Filipinos are accustomed to names like Aureliano Buendia - we even have a street called Buendia and a school called Arellano University). I’m going to stick with it though.

LOL

One book a week?

Addict! Hehehe. -_-

non-fiction: Dianne Ackerman’s A Natural History of the Senses, Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods, Nick Joaquin’s Manila, My Manila

fiction: Ninotchka Rosca’s State of War, John Knowles’ A Separate Peace

of course, one can list dozens, but these, off the top of head, are the ones that I want more people to read

@J Sometimes I wonder how I managed to “have a life” despite the book addiction.

@rina I’ve been keeping an eye on Nick Joaquin’s work too. Must be more updated with works of pinoys.

I agree with John Silver that Giuseppi Lampedusa’s “The Leopard” should be included in your must-read list. It is a masterful work and, in my estimation, comparable to “One Hundred Years of Solitude” in depth and intensity. If you are going to the moon and hang on there for a few weeks, these two books certainly would stave off boredom and give you a better–and unblinkered–idea of what life on Earth really means in the scheme of things.

By the way, I’m flattered that you have included my book “English Plain and Simple” among your must-reads, and I’m delighted indeed that it has merited #28 in your accomplishment report.

Would you allow me, though, to make a little plug for my little new book, “The 10 Most Annoying English Grammar Errors?” It went off the press in mid-May and is now available in leading Philippine bookstores. Getting to know its prescriptions and caveats about English usage could help writers and speakers avoid a grammar mishap too many and make their prose really shine.

Thanks and my best wishes!

Jose A Carillo, commenting on my blog? Wow!

I like your book, and I think that it is worth rereading. I find it rewarding, and I have learned a lot from it. I’ll be sure to see that new book of yours the next time I make my rounds on some bookstores.

“One Hundred Years of Solitude” have gone to my to-read list precisely because you have praised it very often on your book. John Silver (whose blog is amazing, btw) also considers it the best novel ever written.

I’d really like to know where I can get “The Leopard”, though (short of using Amazon). Isn’t that hard to find in our local bookstores?