When I was a kid, my sister would borrow books from the school library, mostly Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and promptly relate the stories to me and my older brother. My mom used to subscribe to vernacular magazines Bisaya and Liwayway, and that whet our appetites for good stories.
As I grew older, I raided my mom's mini-library, filled with Mills & Boons, Agatha Christie, James Bond and Perry Mason titles. I couldn't stomach Mills & Boons, Agatha Christie was OK, Ian Fleming's hero didn't really appeal to me that much, but I got fascinated and thoroughly enjoyed Earl Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason thrillers.
In high school, while flipping through the pages of my mom's Woman Today (I think) magazine, I chanced upon a serialization of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. The rather dark, brooding, passionate love story blew me away, it was unlike anything I have read before.
But the book that I really, really cherish up to this day is H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines. Maan, I really thought it was real. And when I saw the movie adaptation starring Richard Chamberlain, I couldn't hide my disappointment.
Stepping into college, I devoured Jane Austen (not a good choice of word, eh?), honestly, I really liked Pride & Prejudice. Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure still haunts me (what a really, really sad ending). I read every single Sherlock Holmes. Tolstoy's Anna Karenina annoyed me, Kafka's really strange Metamorphosis lead me to Eric Gamalinda's unforgettable Planet Waves. It was only a matter of time before a copy of Garcia-Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude fell into my hands.
20th Century literature fascinated me, starting with Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence and E.M. Forster's Maurice and Howard's End. I absolutely love Somerset Maugham, especially his monumental Of Human Bondage. And who could ever forget John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath?
I read a couple of Sidney Sheldon and Robert Ludlum, but since the novels end up predictable and unexciting after a while, I began to look for something with more substance, ya know, stories that are insightful.
So I turned to short stories, I read Flannery O'Connor (all her novels and short stories), Gilda Cordero Fernando and Lakambini Sitoy.
This may seem like just another list of all the books of fiction I have read. A lot of these, however, have influenced my views and outlook in life.
cheers!
As I grew older, I raided my mom's mini-library, filled with Mills & Boons, Agatha Christie, James Bond and Perry Mason titles. I couldn't stomach Mills & Boons, Agatha Christie was OK, Ian Fleming's hero didn't really appeal to me that much, but I got fascinated and thoroughly enjoyed Earl Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason thrillers.
In high school, while flipping through the pages of my mom's Woman Today (I think) magazine, I chanced upon a serialization of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. The rather dark, brooding, passionate love story blew me away, it was unlike anything I have read before.
But the book that I really, really cherish up to this day is H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines. Maan, I really thought it was real. And when I saw the movie adaptation starring Richard Chamberlain, I couldn't hide my disappointment.
Stepping into college, I devoured Jane Austen (not a good choice of word, eh?), honestly, I really liked Pride & Prejudice. Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure still haunts me (what a really, really sad ending). I read every single Sherlock Holmes. Tolstoy's Anna Karenina annoyed me, Kafka's really strange Metamorphosis lead me to Eric Gamalinda's unforgettable Planet Waves. It was only a matter of time before a copy of Garcia-Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude fell into my hands.
20th Century literature fascinated me, starting with Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence and E.M. Forster's Maurice and Howard's End. I absolutely love Somerset Maugham, especially his monumental Of Human Bondage. And who could ever forget John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath?
I read a couple of Sidney Sheldon and Robert Ludlum, but since the novels end up predictable and unexciting after a while, I began to look for something with more substance, ya know, stories that are insightful.
So I turned to short stories, I read Flannery O'Connor (all her novels and short stories), Gilda Cordero Fernando and Lakambini Sitoy.
This may seem like just another list of all the books of fiction I have read. A lot of these, however, have influenced my views and outlook in life.
cheers!
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