What To Read Next?

Whew! So many books, few spare time to read!

I just finished reading Troll Fell and gave my review in my blog The Book Elf. After the dark settings of the latter book, I want something more cheerful this time. I wanted to read EON : The Dragoneye Reborn, but I don't have a copy of my own yet. I despised reading ebook from the computer, so I will wait till I get my own copy. I have started reading it in a bookstore while waiting for a friend of mine to arrive on out lunch date. Imagine how late she was? I read until chapter 3! It's too pricey, and they don't have a copy that has not been opened yet. Besides, I promised myself not to buy a book until I finished all the books I bought on my shelf! Which is a lot. But I really liked EON. It's so inspiring. A cripple vying for a post as a Dragoneye. And the sweet part of it was she is a girl pretending to be a boy. Cool, huh? It reminds me of the Walt Disney animation, Mulan. 

So, the question is , what to read next? Aaaarrgh! I am so stressed with work so I need a little inspiration from reading. By the way, I just watched an animation called Tangled and it was pretty amusing. I am thinking of reading the 3rd book of The Percy Jackson series, The Titan's Curse. Or, perhaps I will start reading The Mortal Instruments series..wait a minute, I heard it was dark settings too! Nah. Perhaps I will just pick a book in random. Whatever I might decide later, I will still read a book. I will stay away from bookstores. 

Oh look! Booksale! :)

It's Been A While

Greetings, it has been over a month since I have made a journal. I have been busy with my work. I bought several books while I was going to training on my spare time.  These are as follows:

It took me a great deal to finally found The Iron King in Fully Booked in Ayala. I also learned that the Power Books in Greenbelt is fairly vast. I sat in and took a peek on the book Eon, but apparently, there was no new copy i mean, unopened book, you know, with cellophane and all. I was hooked with it and will hunt some more!

So far, I have read the Iron King and The Garden of the Purple Dragon. You can view my reviews on my homepage. Also, I finished with The Golden Compass book and movie. Last weekend I hangout with my colleagues, watched movie The Season of the Witch and went to a family park. The movie did not wowed me~ it was just okay. 

I bought a sticky plastic cover that is not so sticky and have the Iron King book covered. So what I did was to iron it, making it the ironed book, i'd say!  Now, it stuck like a skin to the book! So, no worries about the other books that I have just recently bought though, since they are hardbound books. So in a way, I was glad.

New Book Sale Finds

Hello! I went out today for some errands, and was glad to find out that I will be passing a mall along the way. So , I merrily asked the lady guard what bookstores are available inside and she said that there's only 1, and it is Book Sale. 

So I went in and my eyes just gaped on two shelves containing YA fiction books. Wow! So, even though my budget was at risk here, I checked out the books and I found several interesting titles. Though I love paperback because of book covers, what's available there are hardbound books for price range of P125 ~ P165 (hey! I'm talking about YA Fiction books, okay?). And these are my finds: 

This again made my day today. I have added 2 books in my bookshelf for future read. Also, I went to Power Books again seems like everyday I go there! , and found the gift of my brother to me on the stands. I have informed you about it in my homepage, it's pasted on the right side, you can't missed it on The Book Elf. And lo! I have taken that thing for granted and it cost him P150!  I think I better promote it. It is a big help to hold your book with just 1 hand and flex the pages to desired flatness ho ho! that's a bit exaggeration! I will not be using it on my paperback books because I hate crease on the bounded area, but I can use it on my hardbound books. You can try it out too ,again, another free advertisement! and see for yourself. The clerk said they come in sizes.

Book Thingy

My book thingy is a a bit oversize on my thumb but I can still utilize it. And I can't complain because it was a gift! :)

~ back to homepage ~

The Joy in Covering Books

I prefer paperback books than hardbound books. There are several reasons why. First, it is lesser in weight ~ I can bring it anywhere whenever I travel. Second is the price~ It is less expensive than the hardbound books. Though, the paperback takes a little longer to come out in the stores. And Finally, I love covering books, so it is a very sane reason for me to buy paperback books. It's odd to cover hardbound books! Duh!

But I am particular in covering books. I use self adhesive plastic covers. I discover them when I traveled in Dubai. My boss asked me for help in covering her niece's books. Initially, I used them for my Archie Comic books. Then, when I returned home, I can't find it anywhere in the bookstores. Until last few years, I found a store that sells them. And I am so glad about it. I covered all my books with it and my friends thought my books are glossy. I told them they are covered with plastic and they didn't believe it until I showed them the proof that they are indeed covered. So, they asked me where to get it and how to use it, because the plastic is sticky, it will be all over your fingers, if you don't know how to do it. So, I told them my secret and it will no longer be a secret.

Since I mentioned yesterday that I might show you how to cover my book (the one that I bought yesterday) , I am here to show you, using that particular book, which is The Golden Compass. Just disregard my stubby fingers, okay? 

~ you will be needing ~

~ Self-adhesive plastic cover ~

~ Scissors ~

~ Slightly-moisted tissue ~

 First, you need to clean the surface of your book from dust and adhesives, with the use of moist tissue. Get the dimension of the book that you will be covering. Add a quarter of an inch from all sides. Cut the plastic cover. This cover has guides so you can just use them for cutting straight lines and I just use the guide for the additional length for folding purposes.

Then, fold the cover to get the middle and mark it. Lift the adhesive of one side.Put the book in between the folds, making sure that the books is centered and carefully tap the bounded side of the book so that the adhesive will stick.

With the use of moist tissue, ease out the cover carefully from the bounded edge of the book towards the other edge. What I do here so that there won't be bubbles is to slide the tissue from middle to top, middle to bottom moving progressively towards the edge of the book.

When you have completed the front side, the back side will be easier because there is still a paper holding the adhesive. So you can just simply slide it off while doing the same procedure.

We are almost done! You just need to cut the edge neatly on the bounded part and the point of the other edges of the book so that when we fold the cover, it will fold appropriately. Now, when you cut the edge within the bounded area, make sure that you don't leave any excess cover. That way, the edges are well-protected. 

Fold the plastic cover that I told you to add, inward, tapping the edges first so that the plastic is accurately folded ( no excess, we need clean edges).

If it is just a normal book, it is already done. But since this book has a cover short of 2 millimeters, we need to protect the first page too. Get a strip of plastic cover and remove the paper from the adhesive. Place half of it on the next page, where it is exposed (I normally give it 1 inch to 1.5 inches), then folding the other half on the other side. Flatten it smoothly and cut the excess part on top and bottom of the book. There are other books like this, for example, The Mysterious Benedict Society.

Voila! My finish product! A glossy well-protected paperback!

Well, I hope you like it and learned from this tutorial. No fingers were harmed in doing this demo. You will find all my precious paperbacks are neatly covered with this. So, see yah later! Heck! the newly bought adhesive plastic cover is not as sticky as the old ones. 

~ back to homepage ~

Scouting for Books

~ January 05, 2011 ~ 

I went to several bookstores today to buy The Iron King by Julie Kagawa so I can have a taste of her Faery World...Alas! there's none! I will hunt them down some more. BTW, The Iron King and the 2nd book of the Faery World series, The Iron Daughter have some very nice reviews in www.goodreads.com. You may want to check it out if you have not read the books yet before buying it. The 3rd book is coming very soon (February 2011). There is also a free ebook in Faery World's website which is called Winter's Passage. I have downloaded it today as well.

I also scouted for EON by Alison Goodman, since I saw it in the shelves last December 2010..but lo! it's out of stock. I was contemplating whether to buy it because I was thinking that the cover does not say Dragon Eye Reborn. So I was taken aback~ anyway, it's still in my wish list and I still don't know if it is different with the EON: Dragoneye Reborn (hardbound cover). But I know for certain that there is EONA, the second book to the EON. BTW, both of the cover designs are amazing! My friend apprehended me in looking for a book with amazing designs, he said it should NOT be that way (Do not judge the book by its cover, as the saying goes) but, I still love book covers!

So, I thought, this was a bad day for me~ I was almost out of luck, that is. But when I got to BookSale (a famous book store for used  and mint condition books, I found the Golden Compass paperback, which I was thinking of buying a long time ago~~so I bought it only for P110 and a nice The 4th Garfield Fat Cat 3Pack which made my day! Mind you, I am so easy to be pleased! So I went home and was glad about this day. I am thinking of covering it with my sticky plastic cover~ (I love it! It makes my book cover glossy and sturdy- and you can't figure out easily that it has a plastic cover)~~ perhaps I'll teach you how to cover books some other time~~ so ciao, I'll just be playing Fishdom first, then grab something to eat and later on, read Eragon~ aww..I haven't finished it yet. 

~ back to homepage ~