retail therapy only works for me when it's about books

and being the impressionable lad that i am, i succumb to books with interesting plots and an even interesting, bordering on curious titles from whatever source or inspiration.


E.L. Konigsburg's "The View from Saturday" piqued my curiousity on account of the characters described at the back of the book and how these seemingly ordinary characters turn out to be champions in a competition.



"Touching Earth" caught my attention when on its first page, the author gives prospective readers a warning that the book is a dreadfully sordid world and not for the faint-hearted. (because of this, i can't wait to devour this one.)



i have heard so much raves and praises for Philip Roth's "The Plot Against America." i have read Roth's "The Dying Animal" and loved his prose. i have great expectations for this one.



Sarah Miller's "Miss Spitfire" caught my eye because of the title. when i got home the night i bought it, i immediately sat down to read it. i wasn't the least bit disappointed, in fact, i'm left wanting for more. so now, i'm looking for that biography which Helen Keller herself wrote about her "teacher."



i have heard of Miguel Syjuco's "Ilustrado" in Jessica Zafra's blog. what really prompted me to buy this is because the book promises to narrate and trace almost 150 years of Philippine history forged under the Spanish, the Americans, and the Filipinos themselves. (if there was anything about Cory's death that struck a chord in me, it would have to be her cancer -- because my brother was also claimed by it; and the fact that, during Cory's time, it was so good a time to be a Filipino. if that patriotic feeling can only be relived and nurtured, Inang Bayan would be proud.)



i rarely come across a book with a strange title as this, "All Shall Be Well; and All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well" by Tod Wodicka. the plot itself is strange, because the main character's set in NY city but he acts as if he's in the medieval ages.



by far, this has got to be my favorite Erma Bombeck book, "A Marriage Made in Heaven or Too tired for an Affair." this came out beautifully because Erma laid herself, her marriage and her family openly before the public. what's more, after having read this, i instantly understood what one wanted out of marriage -- companionship, the feeling that you'd be in it together, come what may. for Erma, she had contemplated murdering her husband but never divorce.