National Bookstore Cut Price Booksale!

National Book Store Cut Price Book Sale - from August 28 to Sept 20, 2009.

Yes!  Time to go on a book shopping spree!

List of National Bookstore Branches and locations:

Metro Manila

Luzon

Visayas and Mindanao

The Last Lecture

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt,

just how we play the hand."

- Randy Pausch

This is by far the best memoir I have ever read. Randy Pausch was a professor who was diagnosed with cancer. Like most memoirs, I was expecting The Last Lecture to be another journey to redemption through a long and troubled past. Surprisingly every page of The Last Lecture breathes with optimism on how we can live our lives to the fullest. In fact it takes us through a journey where we are not left to draw the lessons from another dark and troubled past but from Randy's own conclusions from his own experiences. Each lesson is recounted in small chewable chunks - clearly illustrated with a short story. I found his narrative to be light and enjoyable, filled with, humor, truth, and a zest for life.

Randy Pausch's lecture is entitled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". But as I read through, I realized his intention was not to show how we can achieve our childhood dreams but how we should lead our lives. Because by leading our lives right, the dreams will come. His intention was also to leave his children with the wisdom they would need for life.

Here is a video of Randy Pausch himself giving his lecture before a packed audience in Sept of 2007, 10 months before he passed away.

The following are my favorite quotes from the book about work, marriage, and life in general:

• We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.
• Have something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcome.
• I probably got more from that dream and not accomplishing it than I got from any of the ones that I did accomplish.
• You’ve got to get the fundamentals down because otherwise the fancy stuff isn’t going to work.
• When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. That means they've given up on you. Your critics are your ones telling you they still love you and care.
• Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
• Head fake learning is absolutely important, and you should keep your eye out for them because they’re everywhere.
• The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.
• It’s pretty easy to be smart when you’re parroting smart people.
• It’s very important to know when you’re in a pissing match. And it’s very important to get out of it as quickly as possible.
• Until you got ice cream spilled on you, you’re not doing field work.
• Use semantics to phrase anything in a positive light: What time will the park close? - The park is OPEN until 8 pm. How long before I die? - You probably have three to six months of GOOD HEALTH.
• People are more important than things. Automobiles are there to get you from point A to point B. They are utilitarian devices, not expressions of social status.
• Throughout the whole ordeal, I don't think we ever said to each other "This isn't fair." We just kept going. We realized there WERE things we could do that might help the outcome in positive ways, and we did them.
• I can’t tell you beforehand, but right before they present it I can tell you if the world (his students project work) is good by the body language. If they’re standing close to each other, the world is good.
• If you’re going to do anything that pioneering you will get those arrows in the back, and you just have to put up with it. I mean everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
• Somewhere along the way there’s got to be some aspect of what lets you get to achieve your dreams. First one is the role of parents, mentors, and students.
• And he (Andy Van Dam) said, Randy, it’s such a shame that people perceive you as so arrogant. Because it’s going to limit what you’re going to be able to accomplish in life.
• You just have to decide if you’re a Tigger or an Eeyore.
• I have a theory that people who come from large families are better people because they’ve just had to learn to get along.
• Loyalty is a two way street.
• As I see it, if you work more hours than somebody else, during those hours you learn more about your craft. That can make you rmore efficient, more able, even happier. Hard work is like compounded interest in a bank. The rewards build faster.
• Syl said, it took me a long time but I’ve finally figured it out. When it comes to men that are romantically interested in you, it’s really simple. Just ignore everything they say and only pay attention to what they do. It’s that simple. It’s that easy.
• You can’t get there alone. People have to help you and I do believe in karma. I believe in paybacks. You get people to help you by telling the truth. Being earnest.
  I’ll take an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short term. Earnest is long term.
• Apologise when you screw up and focus on other people, not on yourself.
• Don’t bail. The best of the gold’s at the bottom of barrels of crap.
• Get a feedback loop and listen to it. Your feedback loop can be this dorky spreadsheet thing I did, or it can just be one great man who tells you what you need to hear. The hard part is the listening to it.
• Don’t complain. Just work harder. That’s a picture of Jackie Robinson. It was in his contract not to complain, even when the fans spit on him.
  Be good at something, it makes you valuable.
• Find the best in everybody. Just keep waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting, it will come out.
• Be prepared. Luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity.
• All my adult life I've felt drawn to ask long-married couples how they were able to stay together. All of them said the same thing: "We worked hard at it". Jai and I work hard at our mariage. We've gotten so much better at communicating, at sensing each other's needs and strengths, and at finding more things to love about each other.
• It’s not about how to achieve your dreams. It’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.

The Last Lecture is available at Fully Booked

Member, Fully Booked Bloggers Book Club

Bookstalgia: Books From My Childhood (Part 3)

(continued from Bookstalgia: Books From My Childhood (Part 2)

7. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell

The first time I read this book I couldn’t put it down I read it until 3 am! The Island of the Blue Dolphins is a book about the amazing strength of the human spirit. No other story has inspired me as much as Karana’s did. It won the Newberry Medal Award in 1960, the same year it was first published. To this day, Karana’s strength and spirit still lives in my heart to inspire me.

At the end of the book is a note by Scott O’ Dell that Karana's life is based on the story of The Lost Woman of San Nicolas who actually lived alone for 17 years (1835 – 1853) on the island of San Nicolas 75 miles southwest of Los Angeles until she was found, dressed in a skirt of green cormorant feathers. Today she is buried on a hill near the Santa Barbara Mission and her green cormorant skirt feathers was sent to Rome.

This is a classic so if you’re planning to get a copy I recommend the illustrated hardcover color edition to keep for life!

8. Matilda and other works by Roald Dahl.

Who among us can ever forget little Matilda, with her ingenuity and her optimistic persistence despite her circumstances. We all loved Miss Honey and hated Miss Trunchbull. The story of Matilda still lives in us to this day.



Here is the movie adaptation of Matilda released in 1996, directed by Danny DeVito. Click and watch Matilda herself!



9. Encyclopedia Brown by Donald J. Sobol

Getting a chance at solving a mystery yourself is perhaps one of the most unique and exciting things about reading Encyclopedia Brown (answers found at the back of the book.) No kid who has read Encyclopedia Brown has not dreamed of becoming like him. Encyclopedia, whose real name is “Leroy” is an ultra smart boy detective who assists his father, the local police chief of Idaville town, in solving cases at the dinner table. During summers he offers his services to the residents of Idaville for 25¢ per day plus expenses. This interactive feature of the book inspired many other solve-it-yourself mysteries.

Did you know that in 1989 HBO premiered a TV series based on the books? Here are 4 episodes to watch and see Encyclopedia himself in action!



Here are the 25 books written by Donald J. Sobol from 1963 to 2007.
1. Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective (1963)
2. Encyclopedia Brown Strikes Again (the Case of the Secret Pitch) (1965)
3. Encyclopedia Brown Finds the Clues (1966)
4. Encyclopedia Brown Gets His Man (1967,)
5. Encyclopedia Brown Solves Them All (1968)
6. Encyclopedia Brown Keeps the Peace (1969)
7. Encyclopedia Brown Saves the Day (1970)
8. Encyclopedia Brown Tracks Them Down (1971)
9. Encyclopedia Brown Shows the Way (1972)
10. Encyclopedia Brown Takes the Case (1973)
11. Encyclopedia Brown Lends a Hand (1974), reissued as Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Exploding Plumbing and Other Mysteries)
12. Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Dead Eagles (1975)
13. Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Midnight Visitor (1977)
14. Encyclopedia Brown Carries On (1980)
15. Encyclopedia Brown Sets the Pace (1981)
16. Encyclopedia Brown Takes the Cake (1982) (Co-written with Glenn Andrews)
17. Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Mysterious Handprints (1985,)
18. Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Treasure Hunt (1988)
19. Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Disgusting Sneakers (1990)
20. Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Two Spies (1995)
21. Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of Pablo's Nose (1996)
22. Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Sleeping Dog (1998)
23. Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Slippery Salamander (2000)
24. Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Jumping Frogs (2003)
25. Encyclopedia Brown Cracks the Case (2007)



There you have it! I hope that you enjoyed going down memory lane with this blog, and that it gave you on some ideas for you or your children to read!

Bookstalgia: Books From My Childhood (Part 2)

(continued from Bookstalgia: Books From My Childhood (Part 1))

4. A Light in the Attic: Poems and Drawings by Shel Silverstein

A Light in the Attic was the first book I had of poems . With it I learned to like poetry. I remember getting lost in the pages filled with Mr. Silverstein’s wonderful drawings. Some of my favorite poems in the book are:

· Memorizin’ Mo

· Mr. Smeds and Mr. Spats

· The Homework Machine

· Ations

· How to Make A Swing with No Rope or Board or Nails

· The Meehoo with an Exactlywatt

· Spelling Bee

· It’s Hot!

· Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony

· Nobody

· Zebra Question

· Poemsicle

Even though this multi-awarded book has been challenged for some of its themes, such as Little Abigail’s death from not having the pony she wanted, and how not to do homework, Mr. Silverstein’s amazing originality in writing and drawing continue to delight us even to this day.

Other wonderful titles also by Shel Silverstein are The Giving Tree, Falling Up and Where the Sidewalk Ends

5. The Ghost Wore Gray by Bruce Coville

I must've read this book over 20 years ago but to this day I could never forget how much I enjoyed it! It has all the elements of a good mystery - a haunted inn, a hundred-year-old secret, hidden rooms, and buried treasure!

In his site, Bruce Coville mentioned that Quackadoodle Inn was inspired by two inns – one that he read about and one that he actually stayed in. He was gracious enough to share with me some information about the inn that he actually stayed in – La Duchesse Anne in Mt. Tremper, NY. Just looking at the pictures really sets you in the mood for the book!

 

6. The Witch Saga by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

I was around 8 the first time I read Witch Water, the second book in the Witch Saga. It gave me chills but got me hooked to the genre for life! I still have my copy of the Dell Yearling edition printed in 1988, which had beautiful illustrations of the dark and mysterious atmosphere of the story. (The editions today by Aladdin are no longer illustrated.) I was so fascinated with Phyllis Reynolds Naylor then who today is a multi-awarded author. The Witch Saga consists of the following books:

· Witch's Sister
· Witch Water
· The Witch Herself
· The Witch’s Eye
· Witch Weed
· The Witch Returns

(to be continued in Bookstalgia: Books From My Childhood: Part 3)