Challenge accepted.

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt. Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses!

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling 

5 To Kill  a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible -

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman 

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - 

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger 

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky 

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame 

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 

34 Emma -Jane Austen 

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery 

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy 

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood 

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel  

52 Dune - Frank Herbert 

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - 

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac 

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding 

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie 

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery 

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo-

It's been a long time.

It has been more than a month since I posted something of worth in this blog. I've been such a bummer lately, sleeping late trying to bug myself with some school stuffs I obviously hate doing. So here I am, taking the opportunity to type my memories out on what happened to me during those hibernating times. And of course, this is in no particular order (as always). 


- I attended my friend's debut party. It was crazy, fun and not to mention very... musical. (boo the description. I know.) I saw friends and schoolmates I haven't seen for almost two years. I saw my crush back in highschool (I do hope he won't get to see this coz if he does, i'll be damned.). 


- I got to take 2 tablets of Kremil S in span of seven hours. (Just to say, antacids should be taken once a day ONLY. My poor stomach!). Blessed enough I didn't suffer from gastric irritation. However, I got hyped and all that very night that my friends concluded it was because of those antacids. Of course they're joking. :))


- I got a a grade of 2.0 on my major's midterms. I didn't get depressed, just regretful that I have always been careless when answering an exam. But I know I would be able to redeem myself on the finals!


- Mein Laptop war kaputt. Nasira yung laptop ko nung birthday ni Papa. I got so pissed I couldn't help but cry. huhuhuhu. My papers and projects are all there! My e-books! My movies! My ever beloved Minesweeper!  But I got guilty and felt remorse having to feel and think that way. I got so trivial once again and I did hate myself for that. I failed God that time. But I didn't dwell much on that fact. I gathered myself up and prayed afterwards, asking for His forgiveness that I became such a traveling cynic. 


Lesson learned: DO NOT PREOCCUPY YOURSELF WITH PETTY AND INCONSEQUENTIAL THINGS THAT WON'T DO ANYTHING BUT TO PISS YOU HARDCORE!


Well, well, well. This is it for know. I have other things to do. Goodbye!

Fragments

Today, I want to be boundless. The fact that I won’t care even if the world sucks big time thrills me more than anything else in the world. No. I am neither being apathetic nor lethargic here.  If you were in my place, even you might not be able to explain it.

Today, I wouldn’t dare open the television. I would close my eyes so as not to provoke any bad aura. Then I would shut my ears, devoid of any human fumes, those endless seethes that seem to deaf me.

Today, I would try to forget my problems. I would lock them up in the deepest recesses of this fragile unconscious part of mine. Fastened.  Silenced.

Today, I wouldn’t read nor write. I would curb these imploring ideas; let them die in this hiatus I am letting myself to take.

Today, I wouldn’t dare think of passing any oral or written exams that I have to take. Let me remind myself that those craps won’t be able to define me. Not now. Not ever.

Today, I wouldn't cry, even a tear won't be shed. Let these emotions banish, fade like bubbles in thin air.

For once, I want to free myself from the world’s bondage. Being detached from this domain of norms and fixations was once my dream.

But I know even if I dare, these portions that I keep on pushing out of my life would still sneak their way through me. And no matter how I suppress it, they just won’t leave me. These imperfections, as long as I live, will always hold a fragment of me. 

Believe me. I'm touched.

Dear Sam,

I wrote you something good. I wrote you a letter on yellow paper, longhand. I followed the margins carefully, kept it tidy---as you like it tidy. I wrote it the way they taught us how to write letters in grade school, with the date and place and time on the upper right part of the page, except that I made sure I wouldn’t scare you with my grade schooler’s penmanship; not making the lower case letters look like screaming capital letters. I also made sure that my periods didn’t look like commas, and my commas didn’t look like drowning letter i’s as they usually do. I wrote it in class while my professor was plotting Foucault’s panopticon on the whiteboard. He drew it so badly I had to write something else. I wrote you something. And I think it was my best.

I wrote you of the day we talked about Hemingway lost at sea while eating the whole fish from Dampa the two of us couldn’t finish. I wrote you of us, that day we slow danced---my first slow dance ever---alone in my room as George sang Something for us on my player. I wrote you, in italics, how gracefully the street lights glide from your hands on your knees, to your arms, to your face every time I drive you home. I wrote you a letter which sang of feelings I’ve yet to tell anyone else. Feelings I’ve never written down. Feelings I only admitted to myself then. I wrote you something. And I think it was my best.

I folded it thrice, lengthwise, crosswise, then diagonally. I taped it under a desk, not mine, so I’d forget where I placed it. It’s there. Somewhere. I wrote you something, Sam, and yes, I think it was my best.

Let me try, now, to write that letter again. Remember the same words, use the same punctuations, work the same syntax, make the same sense, and hope it would tell the same. Let me fail once. Let me fail again. Let me fail again and again and again and again. Let every attempt be second best. On the day that you find that I’ve written my best, don’t tell me that you’ve read it. Tape the letter under a desk and tell me you lost it. And I’ll gladly try again.

Yours,

DLSP

(Love Letter Writing THIRD PLACE : Dino Pineda, 4th year CW, UP Writer's Club)

This is ohmigahd. What's not there to like love? It's amazing how people could express 

so much just by writing a few sentence. I just wish things would work out well for both of them. kyaaaaaa~ 

The fruit of my Tagalog idiocy

31 Charles Crescent, Primrose Hill, N.W.

London, 31 Januar 1889.

Teuerer Freund!

Vor allem schreibe ich dir, dass ich an dem Trauer  Osterreich und ein deinemTeilnahme. Das Unglück welches das Osterreicheres Volk litt, ist zu groß , dass man auch hier sympathisiert. Aber es sind doch Völker die weit unglücklicher sind, sind für welche dieses Unglück, ware  es möglich, gewiss als Glück gelten wird.

Deinen Brief habe ich empfangen, und sage dir wärmsten Dank in dem Namen meines Vaterlandes, weil du die Präsidentenschaft angenommen hast. Fürchte nicht, ich will dich nicht kompromittieren, wenn du das auch Wohl meines Vaterlandes es verlaute. Wir wollen das Glück der Philippinen, aber durch Edelmut und Wahrheit, denn wir stehen ja auf unserem Rechte, und wir brauchen  nicht, Unrecht zu tun. Müsste ich unedel handeln, um mein Vaterland glücklich zu machen, so werde ich verzichten zu tun, denn ich bin sicher dass was auf Sand aufgebaut ist, früher oder später wird zusammenfallen.

Nein, fürchte nicht; haben wir Recht, so müssen wir Recht haben, trotz den Frayles u. dergl.m. und wäre es uns unmöglich, heute unsere Feinde zu besiegen, Morgen wird kommen, ein anderer Tag wird scheinen, denn es muss ja einen Gott der Gerechtigkeit geben, sonst werden wir atheist.

Ich habe Casal’s Buch schon gelesen, und bedaure sehr dass es Casal untergezeichnet hat. Man hat mir aus Madrid geschrieben, dass der Verfaner ein Frayle war; Casal kennst die Philippinen nicht noch die Bevölkerung; er hat als Kind, Philippinen verlassen, wurde hier erzogen, und als er dahin kehrte, seine Aufenthalt war so kurz –kürzer wie meine –dass er die Zustände der Bevölkerung nicht richtig lernen kennen konnte. Außerdem, Casal ist ein glückliches Mann, er hat nur mit glückliches und Machtigen verkehrt, er ist mit den Zuständen der Philippinen zufrieden, er hat ein schönes hinkommen, er wohnt nicht da, wozu wollte er den Quijotismo begehen paraendezar entuertos y defender al dewalido? Sicherlich wird seine Nachkommenschaft spanisch, und es wäre die größte Thorheit für die Philippinen kämpfen, wenn man alle Hoffnungen auf Spanien setzt.

Ich habe schon an Herrn Schadenberg ein Noli me Tangere hingeschickt : obwohl ich es ein geschrieben ließ, doch zweifleich, er käme es bekommen.

Jose Rizal

31 Charles Crescent, Primrose Hill, N.W.

London, ika-31 ng Enero 1889

Mahal kong kaibigan,

Una sa lahat, ako ay lumiham sa iyo upang ipabatid na kasama mo ako at ng buong Austriya sa inyong pighati. Kahit ang mga kasamahan ko dito’y nagdadalamhati sa kasawian na dinanas ng mga mamayan ng Austriya. Subalit mayroon pang mga taong mas kapus-palad kung saan ang ganitong kasawian ay maituturing pang kapalaran.

Natanggap ko na ang iyong liham at sa ngalan ng aking inang bayan, nais kong ipaalam sa iyo na ako’y lubos na nagagalak sa pagtatanggap mo sa puwesto ng pagkapangulo. Huwag kang mabahala, hindi kita isusubo sa kompromiso, kahit pa sabihing ito’y para sa kapakanan ng aking bayan. Wala kaming ibang nais kundi ang kaligayahan ng aming bansa, ngunit ibig naming itong makamit sa marangal at makatuwirang paraan, dahil ang katuwiran ay labis naming pinahahalagahan, marapat lamang na hindi kami gumawa ng hindi tama.  Kung kailangan kong gumawa ng masama para sa kaligayahan ng aking inang bayan, ako’y tatanggi sapagkat anumang itinayo sa buhanginan, di kalaunan ay guguho din.

Magkagayo’y wala kang dapat katakutan. Kung parati tayong nakapinid sa kung ano ang husto, asahang ang katuwiran ay laging nasa ating panig, sa kabila ng represyon ng mga prayle at ng iba pang tao. At kung imposible pa sa ngayon na tuluyan nating magapi ang ating mga kaaway, darating pa rin ang umaga kaalinsabay ng pagdating ng isa pang araw, sapagkat mayroon pa ring Diyos ng hustisya, kung hindi’y tayo ay maituturing nang mga ateista.

Nabasa ko na ang libro ni Casal at ako’y labis na nalulungkot na ito’y kanyang pinirmahan . Lumiham sa akin ang mga nasa Madrid at sinabing ang may katha ay isang prayle. Ang Pilipinas o kahit ang mga mamayan nito’y hindi lubos na kilala ni Casal. Lumisan siya ng bansa nang siya’y musmos pa lamang.  Siya’y nag-aral dito at nang siya’y bumalik ng Pilipinas, saglit lamang siyang nanatili –higit na maikli kaysa sa pananatili ko –kaya’t hindi na niya nagawang magkaroon ng sapat na kaalaman ukol sa mga mamamayan nito. Bukod doon ay isa ring masayahing tao si Casal at nakikihalubilo lamang siya sa mga katulad niyang mapalad at makapangyarihan at dahil doon, kuntento na siya sa kasalukuyang kalagayan ng Pilipinas. Kumikita siya ng malaki kahit na hindi siya doon nakatira. Samakatuwid, bakit kailangan pa niyang magpasailalim sa kihotismo para lamang maituwid ang kabaluktutan at maipagtanggol ang mga mahina? Ang kanyang mga desendyente ay malamang na mga Kastila at isang malaking kahangalan na makipaglaban para sa Pilipinas kung ang pananalig ng tao’y nakalagak sa Espanya.

Naipadala ko na kay Ginoong Schadenberg ang kopya ng Noli me tángere. Datapwat ipinadala ko ito bilang isang rehistradong liham, may agam-agam pa rin ako kung matatanggap niya iyon.

Jose Rizal