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By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor Sunday Inquirer Magazine WHEN I returned from a vacation abroad with my bag full of new books I had bought years ago, a customs person at the airport examined my bags and looked at me quizzically. What did I do abroad, she asked. I was on vacation, I answered. She scratched her head and then said irritably: If you were on vacation, why did you bring books with you? This anecdote comes to mind with something that really bothers the book lover in me. Several people much smarter than me have commented on this issue recently, with my personal favorite being Manolo Quezon’s May 4 column in the Inquirer. He said it perfectly, so I’ll quote him:

“The policy of our government seems to be the exact opposite: to put the squeeze on citizens in order to add to government coffers depleted by electioneering expenses. Over at McSweeney’s is an entry by Robin Hemley, the director of the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program who’s in the Philippines on a Guggenheim Fellowship. In ‘The Great Book Blockade of 2009,” he details the creativity of Filipino bureaucrats like Customs Undersecretary Espele Sales. According to Hemley, the situation developed this way. Stephenie Meyer’s novel ‘Twilight’ apparently did so well in the bookstores that the number of copies being imported attracted the attention of a Customs official. Examiner Rene Agulan decreed that duties be paid. It seems that the importer of the book reacted in a manner familiar to most book lovers in the country: to eliminate the hassle, the importer complied with the Customs levy on the title. Hemley says surrendering to the authorities was a mistake because the Philippines, back in 1952, became a signatory to the Florence Agreement, a United Nations treaty that mandates the tax-free importation of books in order to facilitate the free flow of “educational, scientific, and cultural materials.” The importer’s submission to the whims of Customs whetted the Bureau’s appetite; they put a squeeze on all book importations by air. The result? For two months virtually no imported books entered the country. Not least because it seems book sellers had the gumption to challenge the government. Enter Undersecretary Espele Sales whose PowerPoint presentation to booksellers Hemley describes as ‘Orwellian,’ because of an essay in which Orwell examined how officials twist words to suit their purposes. Take the official’s interpretation of the following sentence in RA 8047 (the Book Publishing Industry Development Act): ‘the tax and duty-free importation of books or raw materials to be used in book publishing.’ According to Sales, this lacked a comma after the word ‘books,’ which meant that what was tax and duty-free was only books used for book publishing. People in the book industry were left scratching their heads, wondering what a ‘book used in book publishing’ is. Customs went further and said it interpreted the Florence Agreement to mean only educational books are tax-free, with Customs deciding whether a title qualifies as being educational or not. Booksellers responded that this went against half a century’s common understanding of the treaty; did this mean everyone had been wrong and Customs suddenly right? Sales replied, ‘Yes.’”

Succinct and sad. There’s no other way to say this: It is disgraceful of the Bureau of Customs to apply this ridiculous reasoning to taxing books. Now, I’m vehemently against the taxing of any books regardless of the reason. I have a long list of complaints about the Post Office’s delight at taxing books. But this reason, and the way it’s been applied and justified, is embarrassing. It taints the entire government. Taking advantage because people want to read books? Reading is a bad thing? Just because you can’t properly collect customs and duties due to incompetence or bad policy doesn’t mean you should make it up by milking the honest people who do pay their taxes. And this woman who decided to reinterpret the Florence Agreement to suit the government’s purpose? She needs to read more. Or maybe that’s exactly the problem.

By Pennie Azarcon-dela Cruz, Executive Editor Sunday Inquirer Magazine IT’S that time of year again when I feel I’ve died and gone to heaven. Once a year just before Holy Week, books, books and more books drop like manna from the sky, giving us staff an excuse to lounge around feeling like Tom Sawyer chewing on a blade of grass while studying the clouds. Except we’re popping our eyeballs reading the latest book releases so we can write reviews that, hopefully, will guide readers into picking the right titles to pack with their swimwear and goggles for the Lenten break. This is one time when we really get to say--with a dolorous sigh and buckets of crocodile tears, “Tough job, but someone’s got to do it!” Yeeaah, Momma! Here are some quotes from five titles I’ve chosen for the diverse audience they address: “The Independence of Mary Bennett” for the hopeless (or rather, the hopeful) romantic, “The Mayor of Castro Street” for gays, gay advocates, social scientists and history buffs; “the Many Ways of Being Muslim” for the literati, Muslims, and anybody who wants a good read, “Cory: An Intimate Portrait,” not just for Coryistas but also those seeking another definition of leadership beyond tantrums at Malacanang, and “The Philippines Through European Lens,” for anthropologists, historians, senior folk and just about anybody who finds interesting the grainy but striking black and white photographs of Filipinos and the Philippines during colonial times. Ideal for photo buffs (and which Pinoy isn’t?), this last is the perfect foil for the flawless (thanks to photoshop) digital shots of the here and now. 1. “Cory” (An Intimate Portrait) by Margie Penson-Juico (editor) I vividly remember the coup attempts of August 1987. I was out supervising the placement of armor around the palace when bursts of gunfire rang out. I rushed to the president’s official residence in Arlegui St. across from Malacañang, and found the president and her family upstairs. I asked them to go downstairs and turn off all lights, and instructed my guards to stand mattresses against the windows. I then made a headcount and found one missing. I went back upstairs and noticed light coming through the open bathroom door. It was the president combing her hair. “Ma’am,” I begged, “Please go to the ground floor, it’s not safe here,” to which she calmly replied that she needed to look presidentially presentable when she met the media. Here was the woman reported by a newspaper columnist to have hidden under the bed at the height of the coup attempts. In fact, she was the calmest soul around.” (Volts Gazmin, “The Calmest Soul Around,” p. 59) 2. “The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet” by Colleen McCullough He began to plot. First of all, how to meet his Mary not only again, but many times? Secondly, how to impress her with his undeniable assets? Thirdly, how to make her fall in love with him? In love at last, he found to his horror that things like social imbecility did not matter. Once he had snared her, he would have to paint Mrs. Angus Sinclair as an eccentric. That is the best quality of the English, he thought: they have an affinity for eccentrics. (p. 62) 3. “The Mayor of Castro Street” (The Life and Times of Harvey Milk) by Randy Shilts Gays who escaped blackmailers had to run the gauntlet with “Lilly Law,” as police were known among gays in the 1930s. Police knew that one Market Street theater was a popular pit stop for wandering gay men, so authorities routinely assigned seats there to the most comely police cadets. Once a gay man sidled to the next seat, the cadets would wriggle their legs suggestively. After the preliminaries of fellatio, the plainclothesman would suggest that the pair meet outside for more fun. In the darkness of the theater, the gay cruiser would not know the policeman had painted mercurochrome on his penis. The artistry, however, was obvious to the vice squanders who stood in the lobby, arresting any man who emerged with telltale red lips. (p. 49) 4. “The Many Ways of Being Muslim”(Fiction by Muslim Filipinos). Edited by Coeli Barry After the prayer, Sayid goes out to the mosque, to pray some more. I began filming. Connie’s gown is on her bed, kept in place by the heavy crown. The “panumping” is mine. I have to lend it to her because hers wouldn’t fit on her head for some strange reason. Do you want me to wake your mother? I ask. No, thanks. She takes the prayer garb off. She’s just wearing panties, black ones. Her skin is alabaster-smooth, small belly, nipples like soft erasers that can make Sayid forget me. I become aware of the folds of skin on my tummy, my wrinkles, crow’s feet, and a dead toenail on my left foot. (“Ayesha’s Pretty Hate Machine” by Pearlsha Abubakar, p.168) 5. “The Philippines Through European Lenses” (Late 19th Century Photographs from the Meerkamp van Embden Collection) by Otto van Den Muijzenberg Along entrance trails, images were placed to protect the inhabitants. I was able to secure two wooden anito figures. Both are carved from the trunks of young trees about a meter high; one of them carries a bow and four bamboo arrows…the mouth and eyes have been indicated by stones, and the back is decorated with long reed grass. On their heads and at their feet, the Kiangans place offerings like rice, corn, tobacco or betel nut, and a coconut shell containing basi wine. I wanted to take these two figures along, but I had to refrain from it as my porters were so frightened they would have dropped my baggage and run away. (p. 185) For brief but concise reviews of 64 new titles, check out the Summer Reading Issue of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine on March 29. Free with your copy of the Philippine Daily Inquirer!

IT is always weird to be sitting somewhere quiet and then someone reading a book suddenly bursts out in uncontrollable laughter. But such is the power of really, really funny books. Sense of humor being relative and all, some books are clearly funnier than others. Here are a few recommendations, books that, if read while you’re drinking soda, will send softdrinks through your nose: 1. “Twisted” by Jessica Zafra: The first of Zafra’s smart, acerbic essay collections remains the best. Originally published in 1995, it is still sharp after over a decade. 2. “The Best of Pugad Baboy” by Pol Medina Jr.: These small books gathering Medina’s strips about the overweight denizens of Pugad Baboy are particularly effective when read in moving vehicles and waiting rooms. 3. “No Shitting in the Toilet” by Peter Moore: Aussie Moore has been around the world, riding and eating and drinking it up. His tips, recommendations and warnings are universal. 4. "Leading with my Chin” by Jay Leno: If you think Leno is hilarious now, you should read about him growing up. This memoir shows that he found the funny in everything—especially school. 5. “Confessions of a DOM” and pretty much anything by Gary Lising: The manic Lising can’t stop being funny even when doing regular things and his go-to topics (his looks, sex, stupidity) are evergreen. 6. “The More The Manyer”: Wow, we use a lot of bizarre malapropisms, don’t we? “Keep that bear in mind” is a good one and Elbert Or’s drawings are a good pulutan. 7. “Ngalang Pinoy” edited by Nenin Sta. Romana-Cruz: From nicknames to storefronts, this book has all the evidence you need that we find humor in any situation. 8. “Me Talk Pretty One Day” by David Sedaris: To borrow the phrase, the Sedarises puts the “fun” in dysfunctional. You won’t believe what David and his mates come up with to keep from being boredom. 9. “Nextwave: Agents of Hate” by Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen: This comic book series from Marvel Comics takes superhero tropes and sends them up—in regular Marvel continuity. Oddly enough, Aaron Stack—Machine Man—came out of this run a hot commodity. 10. “Wala Lang” by Bud Tomas: This underrated collection of essays about a guy’s travails through grade school all the way to high school is smart and hits the right spot. Read about all the funny stuff in the March 8 issue of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine.

By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor Sunday Inquirer Magazine AS a dual-layered way of expressing affection, choosing favorite romantic movies, books and whatnot resonates. It is not only a choice of a specific form over another (It loves me, it loves me not…) but also of specific content. Living up to the fact that I am very much a book nut, I've decided to impose on you dear readers certain books I've recently read, books centered around a love story (as compared to plain old romances). Take note that this is a list of book's I've read within the last year or so, not an ultimate all-time list of books about love stories. That would be a truly intimidating task, though I imagine Pablo Neruda and Nick Bantock should make that list easily. But this is about new reading material. Some may be a bit out there, but at the end of the reading, each one exemplifies the magnetic pull of romance, a force strong enough to mend or rend lives. In no particular order: "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" by Rachel Cohn and Dan Levitan: My current favorite. Ostensibly a novel for young adults, "Playlist" is a stunningly winning tale of a single night in New York built around punk rock, Judaism and a yellow Yugo (the car not the defunct nationality) named Jessie. Oh and two lost soul mates named Nick and Norah, duh. There's a charming movie based on it starring Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, a thoroughly enjoyable adaptation that diverges away from the book rather heavily. The movie is pretty good. The book is awesome. "Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane" by Sean McKeever and Takeshi Miyazawa: Why is a comic book series included in this list? Because McKeever and Miyazawa, through a reimagined contemporary take on Mary Jane Watson, (she has a cellphone now) tackles the bittersweet and yet broadband-quick world of high school romance with just the barest dappling of superheroic high jinks (though the bit with Firestar was very nice). The series has been restarted with Terry Moore at the helm, but the original two hardcovers are just lovely. "The Post-Birthday World" by Lionel Shriver: Perhaps the saddest good book on love you will find, Shriver's novel is easily compared to that Gwyneth Paltrow-John Hannah movie "Sliding Doors," where a woman makes a choice and two timelines emerged. We find out that sometimes things are beyond our power to change. This book is the intelligent, nuanced, heartbreaking but unforgettable iteration of the idea. "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer: Yes, this book has its share of flaws and yes Stephen King hates it, but this book won over readers because of ideas. One of them is the forbidden and problematic attraction between a vampire (how much badder can this boy be? He's dead) and a human (a self-involved ninny at times to be honest). But it's the other element I'm impressed by: Meyer's ability to accurately or at least convincingly depict the modern teenager's thought process when falling in love. It's the best of the series even if it was the first because—painful dialogue aside—it made us think that the vampire-human pairing could happen. "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro: Ishiguro knows how to write about the slow burn of affection. "The Remains of the Day" smoldered with it. But "Never Let Me Go," an unusual concoction of sci-fi and romance, takes the idea to a new level. If clones, grown only for their organs, fall in love, what are they to do? This book has the haunting but subtle answer. Read about other things Valentine's Day related in the February 8, 2009 issue of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine.

By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor Sunday Inquirer Magazine LIKE a twist in one of his books, news of Michael Crichton’s demise arrived as a shock. No one knew the author was even sick, so finding out Crichton was really dead at 66 after a battle with cancer was truly startling. What it also does is remove one of the few authors who really had a following after all these decades. Crichton was never the easiest author to read. His prose tended to be heavy with dense paragraphs of explanations, often moving at the speed of crawling magma. The movies adapted from his books essentially pared down his narrative to just action. He always considered explaining how these things happened as important as why. What he never lacked was the big idea. This was partly because of his truly unique background. He moved from studying English at Harvard to studying medicine at Harvard, writing in his spare time before finally quitting med school. Most readers know Crichton hit the big time when his dinosaur-redux novel “Jurassic Park” gobbled up the competition on the shelves in 1990 and then the box office in 1993. That movie changed our idea of modern day monsters forever, launching a merchandising empire and making dinos cool again. The real defining moment of Crichton’s writing, in my mind, came much earlier, in 1969, when he wrote “The Andromeda Strain.” That novel, plus the 1971 Robert Wise movie, came to define our idea of pandemic panic. Its claustrophobic setting became the definitive environment for any unseen bug that runs wild in a lab. That very same paranoia informs every single sickness movie today, from “Outbreak” to “28 Days Later.” Plus the stark, minimalist 1971 film is superior in every way to the slick but stunted, nearly unintelligible 2008 TV remake. He made us fear the biohazard symbol. It was then that Crichton hatched his idea that science can indeed be scary. After an early stint writing books under the pseudonym John Lange, he has since explored that theme, from time travel (“Timeline”) to aircraft safety (“Airframe”), from robotics (“Westworld”) to nanotechnology (“Prey”), from aliens (“Sphere”) to mutant apes (“Congo”), even delving into social issues (“Disclosure”) and courting controversy by railing against the very concept of global warming (“State of Fear”). That Hollywood often failed to capture the essence of his books did not stop the movies from being successful for the most part. “Congo” and “Sphere,” in particular, were turkeys. Ironically, “Jurassic Park” was, among his more recent work, the movie that hewed closest of his book, it was the sequel “The Lost World,” that really ran off the tracks. The movie hardly even resembled the book in any way. The third and planned fourth film were not adapted from novels. He did many other things, of course, directing films (“Coma”), writing films (“Twister”) and creating TV series (“E.R.”). It should not be surprising then that his best books also resulted in the best movies, though decades apart. “The Andromeda Strain” and “Jurassic Park” don’t even seem to have anything in common save for their author, yet both stand as remarkable explorations of science and the zeitgeist at the time. Even as he terrified us with the prospect of science unleashed, he told us why and how it should be. He gave mad science a face, whether it was the invisible organism, Yul Bryner’s cybernetic cowboy, or the T-Rex chomping down on a lawyer. He made science a star, and that we will miss the most.

By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor Sunday Inquirer Magazine I REALIZE I've broached this somewhat in an earlier blog entry, but I think it is important to emphasize how books can have a second life. Instead of just lying somewhere in your abode gathering dust or (worse) being used as appetizer by rats, books can begin a new journey, be appreciated by another person. Here are a few suggestions: 1) Give them to someone specific: Books can sometimes be valuable precisely because they are used--by you. When you give them to a friend, it is an act of affection for both the friend (only good friends would have his experience) and the book (precious enough to be given to someone who will take care of them). It is just a matter of finding the right book for the right person; blindly giving your books away is fine if the whole point was to be giving them to just anyone. Irrepressible readers can appreciate pretty much any book. But the closer the book to the nature of the recipient the better; cookbooks for that aspiring chef, biographies for that friend in HR, and so on. Popular books like the Harry Potter or Twilight books work for pretty much anyone as long as they don't hav e those yet. Your scribblings among the pages serve to make the book even more personal; do make the effort to write a dedication. 2) Sell them: It may feel like a cold-blooded act, but selling books is part of the cycle as well. Booksales are common enough events on college campuses, but now you can sell your books to either second-hand bookstores or on eBay. Just remember the key is to price the book accordingly, the more worn, the lower the price. Also it should not have any dedications and such; those actually lower the price. Popular or rare books will be easy to move; more obscure ones less so. Just remember, even if you paid this much for a book, you cannot base the new price on that. This is particularly true for comic books and graphic novels. The book travels to the hands of someone who will appreciate it and you get a bit of cash to buy more books. You will have to decide which titles you have that can sell and it helps to have someone who already sells books to begin with. Otherwise, you will have to either sell them yourself or learn how to do it on the Internet. 3) Donate them: High schools, grade schools and colleges still do have actual brick-and-mortar libraries and they still welcome books to add to their collection. This is one case where obscure titles might find a home, but remember to keep the books appropriate to where you're donating. Good childrens lit titles for grade school, textbooks for high school, and so on. This is the way by which you can move the most books, but you have to ask the libraries first if they are accepting contributions. You should look around for a library that really needs your books. You will also have to bring the books to the library yourself. By the way, complete encyclopedias make great donations. Feel free to suggest more. Any of these would be better than either burning the books (never!) or to just throw them away (gasp!) to clear space. Save a book today and your soul will thank you for it. Get more ideas for recycling with the October 19, 2008 issue of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine.

By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor Sunday Inquirer Magazine EVERYONE says reading is dead or dying, the victim of shortened attention spans, TV or the Internet. Others says that reading is merely changing, migrating from the page to the screen. I've been asked why I haven't moved to Amazon's impressive little Kindle; I say it's because I don't just like reading, I like books: old-fashioned, made from dead trees books. It isn't romantic, it's just nothing matches the tactile feel of freshly minted books, the smell of the book paper, the sound of those crisp pages. I'm a holdout, and will continue to be so. My living spaces continue to be invaded happily by piles and piles of books; no shelves are enough to contain all my little treasures. It used to be quaint for others; it's so 20th century. It seemed that reading had become some kind of secret pleasure, shared only by writers, teachers and the odd person out there. But then J.K. Rowling happened. Then Stepehenie Meyer happened. All of the sudden, reading was cool again for the general population, especially if you're under fifteen. The most visible sign of this has always been the Manila International Bookfair. I've seen the fair from its old stomping grounds at the SM Megamall Megatrade Hall (cramped and crowded) to the World Trade Center (airy and crowded). This year, the Bookfair has moved to a new location, the SMX exhibition hall on the SM Mall of Asia grounds. It's a great venue--and it was packed to the rafters. The booths were bigger this year; we missed some of the smaller, more exotic exhibitors. But the exhibitors who were there came ready. lots of goodies all around. But the prices were just awesome, especially the bargains. I saw people park themselves next to the bargain bins and--no kidding--rifle patiently through the books for hours, eventually emerging with piles of books for buying. I saw entire families with each member holding purchased books. The kids even enjoyed the mascots (even the Oishi guy) and the Cosplay performers. The twenty percent discount was awesome, too. Reading is alive and very, very well. The Bookfair was proof positive of that. The pages are turning. See you next year, everybody.

By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor Sunday Inquirer Magazine EVERYONE is an expert; it’s just a matter of finding what that area of expertise is. Sometimes, that area is a crossroads, an overlapping of two specialties, creating a unique one. Sometimes, it comes by accident. Since I review mostly books -- and some movies -- I am often asked what I think about motion pictures adapted from books. That’s a trick question, of course. Even when adapted from a book, a movie is still a movie and has its own coherence. The book remains a book, even if a movie is made of it. They do not affect one another save for the initial shift from page to screen. Let me just say that devoted faithfulness to the original text is not required; indeed, sometimes, the difference between book and movie is what makes the movie special. Still, I look forward to seeing adaptations, particularly of novels. It is a very interesting case of fiction taking on a kind of three-dimensional life. Here then are five movies adapted from books that I thought were well done: 1) “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”: The first two Harry Potter movies were slavishly faithful to the first two books, something that can be attributed to the devotion of director Chris Columbus to J.K. Rowling’s source material. But it was the third movie, directed by Alfonso Cuaron, that really developed a life of its own, a character that was added to the potency of the excellent third book. Take note that “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” directed by David Yates, was similarly well crafted and for the same reason. 2) “The Bridges of Madison Country”: I know what you’re thinking. How can anyone consider that maudlin love story about old people well-done? Well, let’s just say it’s because I thought the original source material, the novel by Robert James Waller, was awful. The 1995 film, directed confidently by Clint Eastwood, was tolerable if similarly sappy. The improvement alone is worth hailing. 3) “The Remains of the Day”: Wow. I remember watching the movie directed by James Ivory and thinking, this is Kazuo Ishiguro’s book truly come to life. It was stately and sad, but never mawkish. What a wonderful house the action happened in, and Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson were simply sublime. 4) “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe”: C.S. Lewis’ novel had been adapted several times already, mostly in animation. But Andrew Adamson’s adaptation worked in every way. It really looked like Narnia. And one cannot say enough by how awesome Tilda Swinton’s White Queen is. She may be evil, but she is amazing. 5) “Black Hawk Down”: There are many, many differences between Mark Bowden’s excellent book and Ridley Scott’s 2001 movie, including my particular pet peeve, composite characters. But the bone-jarring realism of Scott’s take on the Mogadishu mistake stays with you long after the movie ended. If I ever thought of a movie that showed what modern warfare felt like, it would be this one.

By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor Sunday Inquirer Magazine ANTICIPATION truly is half of satisfaction. Surprises are powerful but also elusive. It's when we spend day after day looking out the window waiting for something, anything, in particular, that the little fragments of satisfaction are accumulated. Disappointment waits in the wings, of course, but that danger is part of the lure. Here then are the eight things I look forward to the most every year: 1) The Christmas season: It sounds cornball and can even be nerve-wracking as the activity and stress levels rise, but nothing comes close to the anticipation awaiting Christmas. From the shopping to the colors to the temperature, Christmas is the coolest occasion of all. 2) Last day of school: It is so primal for Filipinos to long for summer, but summer is most important because it heralds the end of the school year. Two semesters can stretch very long indeed, so when that final bell goes off, it is a cathartic sound. 3) The start of college basketball season: July was a ho-hum month when I was younger, but once college began, July was accompanied by the syncopated cheers, the synchronized drumming, the shrill whistles and the slide of sneakers against parquet. UAAP or NCAA: July is a month of welcome madness. 4) The Oscars telecast: Yes, the show's too long. Yes, the gazillion commercials can be irksome. But the potent mix of movies (hopefully good) and good hosts (hopefully Billy Crystal) makes this a cinematic guilty pleasure by itself. 5) Formula One starts: March is a month that goes by so fast, just like the machines that inhabit the grids of Formula 1. The engines are started, the drivers get set and everything is go, go, go! At least until October. Luckily that's when… 6) The NBA season kicks off: The best basketball in the world. Every day. The Celtics. The Pistons. The Warriors. The Cavs. The Suns. The Wizards… and whoever the Sonics are going to turn into. Hoop heaven. 7) The Manila International Bookfair: Wallets get lighter and book bags get heavier. For the Filipino bibliophile, the World Trade Center becomes the must-visit destination for the weeklong exhibition of book lust. 8 ) November 3: I don't know about you, but the intricate craziness that builds around cemeteries on Nov. 1 and 2 is truly not of this world. I want to remain solemn about the occasion and remember lost loved ones, but it's kind of hard when it takes two hours to get to the memorial park and people are trying to sell you cold pizza. November 3 sees the world go back to normal. See 11 new talents to watch out for in 2008 in the August 3 issue of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine.

By Pennie Azarcon-dela Cruz, Executive Editor Sunday Inquirer Magazine "HEY, this book is all about me and my sisters," I thought, awe-stricken, after reading the first few chapters of Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women." Well, how could anybody miss the similarity in the names and temperament of the March sisters and my own siblings? Meg, the eldest sister, is sweet and domesticated, exactly like my Ate who even took up cooking lessons to perfect her sans rival. Jo, that tomboyish and spirited budding writer, is definitely me, with my baptismal name Josefina, my love of books, the penchant for writing poetry in grade school, and the physical scrapes I always got into with my male cousins. Amy, the pretty and vain sister, is my third sibling, whose fair good looks became her main ID. Elizabeth March, the sickly sister, is my fourth sibling, whose severe asthma attacks kept her away from school most of the time. Why, they even have similar names! I must have been in fourth grade when I made this astounding discovery that I had a fictional twin. Only, it didn't feel fictional at that time. After all, this was a real book, a hardbound book with no pictures, only pages of text that marked it as serious reading. It was worlds away from the household staple, the komiks that defined our childhood. We read them all -- Pilipino Komiks, Redondo, Kulafu, Aliwan, Tagalog Klasiks, Wakasan, and those vernacular magazines Liwayway and Bulaklak. These were my parents' favorite reading fare, a comforting habit they took with them to the city where they fled to start life anew after the war. Of peasant stock, they had to stop schooling during the "Japanese time," forced to a hardscrabble existence in the mountains of Central Luzon. Starting over in Tondo in the 1950s wasn't easy, but they had their trove of komiks to turn to after a hard day, where they would cozy up with Mars Ravelo's Dyesebel and Darna and vicariously feel empowered as these characters fought off evil. It was this fantastic world we reveled in as kids, so it was quite refreshing to find out that people didn't need to have a fish tail or fly in a costume to have books written about them, that stories could be about ordinary folk and their everyday life and still sound interesting. "Little Women" made it so. More magically the book told my story, or so I thought, and I made sure to hew closely to the novel's storyline as the years went by. I guess that's how I wound up as a writer. For more books — life-changing, uplifting or plain entertaining — check out the Sunday Inquirer Magazine’s Summer Reading Issue this Sunday, March 30.