Books and Reading

As most of my friends and followers already know, I am not the type to read. Really, anything that involves reading, I try to avoid. I come from a family of avid readers...book worms. It's odd how I didn't get the influence. I think it's because of my short attention span. Believe me, it's shorter than a pre-schooler's. Doing one thing can only keep me occupied for so long and then I get bored.

I'd like to think of myself as a five-year-old, only stimulated by colorful pictures and interesting sounds. I'm not proud of it, though. It's actually something I want to change in myself.

There was a time in gradeschool when I asked my mom to buy me a Harry Potter book. It was all the other kids were reading at the time and I was curious. (Little did I know of how awesome it actually is...) So we went to this bookstore somewhere in Ortigas (I think, I don't fully remember) and browsed through the best-selling collection. I picked up the second book, Chamber of Secrets, judging solely on the cover. Mom asked if I wanted to buy Sorcerer's Stone first, since it was the first book and it wouldn't make any sense reading the second one if I hadn't started with that. I declined saying I've already read it. Of course that was a lie but I just really wanted my hands on that second book and she said I could only buy ONE. So yeah, we got the book and I spent eternity trying to read it. My baby mind wasn't used to reading such words, I had to alternate with the book and a dictionary just to understand the thing. I think it took me a month to finish 5 chapters. Yes, it's that slow. I'd finish about three pages then get bored and distract myself with television, watching either Pokemon or some 'adult' movie on HBO. Long story short, I never got to finish that book. It's still lying in my bookshelf right now, prolly collecting dust. :(

Another thing... Book reports. You know how when you were a kid and the teachers in your grade would make you do book reports for every quarter of the academic year? Well, we had that in the Philippines too. We had to make 4 book reports each year. Being sneaky me, I always chose the thin books. I didn't care if they were cheap-ass chicklits or nonsense rewrites of the classics. What's important is how fast I would be able to breeze through that book. So I borrow the thin books from the school library, look at each one at home and choose four of the more interesting covers. (I'm sorry but I really do judge a book by its cover) But even if I did choose the thin ones, I never actually end up reading them. I just look at those summaries at the back of the book and "revise" them so that the teacher doesn't notice that I copied it. I had yet to learn of the Internet and search engines. And when the year is over and they give us back all these school papers with our grades on them, I gather all the book reports and put them in a binder. Why? 'Cause I recycle those for next year, if in case we have a different English teacher. If not, then I pick one from the thin books I already have mapped out in the library. With all those said, I am sorry to all my English teachers from grade school for cheating on my homework. (But I think they would've known what I was doing long ago. Lql)

...

Yesterday, my cousin and I were out. We came across this bookstore downtown, in the area where I work and looked at the collections they had. (My cousin is a book whore, if there is such a term) I saw all the pretty covers (yes, pardon my love for book covers) and they sparked interest in reading for me. I actually planned to buy books but the store was closing by the time we got back from eating dinner. I'm returning on Thursday before I go to work, though.

To my readers, if there are any left, can you recommend books for me to read? I've got a reading list already, which I'll plug in at the bottom of this post, but I want recommendations from those who read books since they know the best in the market.

Thanks mucho. Adios amigos ♡

Reading list: (In no particular order)

1. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

2. Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami

3. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

4. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

5. About a Boy by Nick Hornby

6. Asleep by Banana Yoshimoto

7. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

8. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

9. Empress Orchid by Anchee Min

10. Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

11. A Widow for One Year by John Irving

12. Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk

13. Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk

14. Piercing by Ryu Murakami

15. Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk

16. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

17. Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

18. The Art of Making Money: The Story of a Master Counterfeiter by Jason Kersten

19. The Orange Houses by Paul Griffin

20. Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk

21. Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

22. Choke by Chuck Palahniuk

23. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

24. The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

25. The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

26. To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee

27. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

28. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Wow, that's a lot considering I'm just starting to read. I also got a lot of Chuck Palahniuk in there. Hmm. What can you guys say? ☺

Quintilis (Part 2)

Recap: As I mentioned in my earlier posts, July is my family's birthday month. This is the part 2 I was talking about, my birthday. 

My birthday is on the 6th of July. It was a Wednesday. I got up really early to hear mass but was late. I ended up staying to pray by myself.  

Later that evening, we had dinner at Saisaki, West Ave. 

Got serenaded that night

My mom and dad :)

Food was ok. Didn't get to take a picture of everything since I was eating the whole time. We also got red, blue and yellow stuffed star toys after. 

As for celebrating with friends, I asked a friend of mine to invite my close friends for dinner and drinks on Friday, July 8.

Love you to bits, guys

Angela and co (We celebrated in the same venue)

They say pictures are worth a thousand words, but here's another thousand for you. I celebrated my debut at Yellowcab, Lacson (beside UST). It just so happened that my friend, Angela's birthday was on the 8th and she celebrated at the same place. When I got inside, people were singing me the Happy Birthday song. T'was cool.

I had a lot of fun and I'm very thankful to everyone who came. 

I also got cupcakes from Abby that day. This is the first time I got cupcakes for my birthday. She asked me what my favorite color was the day before and I said red. She ended up giving me green and blue icing. Haha! But I'm not complaining, blue and green come second place in my favorite color list. I'm guessing she gave Angela the red icing ones, since red is also Anj's favorite color. 

It says "Happy [star] Birthday! [star]" And no, that is not an 'X', that is a 'T' after the 'R'. 

❤

Quintilis (Part 1)

And yes, I changed the theme again. Haha! I apologize for being so fickle.

July was previously called Quintilis, thus explains my blog title. It is my family's birthday month: Mom's birthday is on the 2nd of July, mine on the 6th and Dad's on the 24th. I labelled this post Part 1 because I have the feeling I'll be blogging again after my birthday.

After hearing mass today, we had lunch out as a celebration of mom's birthday. We ate at Phở Hoa, which is one of our go-to places when eating out.

JUMBO iced tea (It's a regular but it's pretty big)

Dad and Mom

Cha Gio Viet (Fried rice paper roll w/ pork and vermicelli)

Dad's Pho Do Vien (Seafood Noodles)

My Pho Bo Kho (Beef Stew)

Mom's Cahn Chua Tom (Hot and sour noodles w/ prawns and pineapple)

My best friend, Sriracha Hot Sauce (I cannot eat without this!)

And suddenly,  I'm hungry again.

It was a pretty good day for us, though. We got to bond as a family again. (We don't get to do that often anymore) I was pretty amused with my dad who showed me one of those "Neurological Tests" that his officemates sent him via e-mail. He asked me to try to answer it. I didn't want to ruin his fun so I played along.
He's a really cool dad, though. He's the sweetest! I want to get him new leather shoes for his birthday since Dylan (our dog) destroyed his other pair. 

Apparently, he (Dylan) likes leather. He also chewed on Mom's leather belt. 

Speaking of Mom, I bought her a gift last Friday, just before heading to Girls' Night Out with friends. I got necklaces from Aldo because I was in a rush and didn't have the budget to splurge.

Please excuse my flower-y sheets. I didn't have anywhere else to take a picture so I used my bedsheets as background. It's so girly! :|

I believe this has been a long-enough entry. It turned out long because of the pictures. Haha! Sorry for the low quality photobomb, all photos are from my phone. (Was too lazy to whip out my camera) And for anyone who was curious, I used pixlr-o-matic to edit the images.

♥

Fickle

Changed the layout of stillsuper for the third time today.

I just can't seem to make up my mind. I actually liked my previous layout but because of the absence of the comment forms for that design, I switched it up to my current layout. And I'm still looking for a new one.

Why do I get the urge to change things everytime?


[edit]
I changed the layout again. I'll try to stick with this one for at least a whole week.
[/edit]

[edit2]
I changed it again. So much for "sticking to it for a week" Hehe. Expect a lot of theme-changing, then. I'm extremely fickle like that
[/edit]

Birthday Blues

I'll be celebrating my birthday next week, turning eighteen on the 6th of July. Although I am a fan of birthday parties, I'm anxious about this year's "celebration". In the Philippines, a girl's eighteenth birthday is an important milestone. Traditionally, debuts are held.

I won't have a party, though. 

Reason #1: It's a hassle. I think it's too tiresome to prepare a huge party. Maybe I'm more of a party-goer than a party-planner.

Reason #2: Money. Rather than spending a couple of thousands on a party that'll last for only one night, with nothing in return, I'd much rather use the money on stuff I really want. Plus, we're migrating to Canada in a few months so I really need the pocket money. 

I'm thinking of just eating out or having a movie marathon at home with a group of close friends. Something lazy, I don't know. So it's not really a celebration... What I'm really looking for is some bff bonding time. 

Any ideas?