More than a quarter

Whoa! I never realized it's been nearly four months since I updated this blog. FML.

Anyway, if you've been following my Flickr, I guess you know that I still breathe. It's just that I've been busier than usual during my 3-month-plus hiatus.

Anyway, these two book are definitely must-reads, especially if you've been long enough to witness the rivalries of Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Larry Bird. Not much of a review, eh? ^_^

Oh yeah, regular programming (i.e. toy-related posts) will be back very soon. My material is piling up too much to not have them blogged about.

Pacific Rims by Rafe Bartholomew

Pacific Rims by Rafe Bartholomew

This book caught my attention a few months back since it was all about Philippine basketball as seen by someone whose nation invented the game. It almost forgot all about getting it until a friend pointed it out when we were at a local bookstore.

When I saw it at 20% off the retail price, I just grabbed a copy and headed straight to the cashier. ^_^

The book was a great read about hoops in the Philippines and almost every aspect has been wonderfully documented by Rafe in a light and almost comedic way... plus a bounty of historical facts and annecdotes that even I didn't know about.

Anyway, kudos to Rafe Bartholomew for letting the world know that Filipinos got game too!

The 20% off just made it even sweeter. :)

Tifosis over vampires

Here's another book-related post for those of you who want to see if I really do any kind of reading.

I didn't know what the phenom behind the Twilight saga was... that is, until I watched the first film, and I quite liked it. OK, so I liked it a lot.

I'm guessing if the movie was good, then the book behind it must be better, right?

Last night, I bought the entire set to save myself from having to come to the bookstore every time I finish the previous book.

There were hard-cover versions available but they were almost twice as expensive as the paperbacks, so I opted for the latter... although I admit, the New Moon special edition with black cloth cover, storage box, and came along with other memorabilia was very tempting. I resisted the hard-covers and the special edition since I'm gonna store these for good as soon as I finish the entire set, anyway.

On a related note, a few months ago, I was actually choosing between a Michael Schumacher bio and the 4-book set. The tifosi in me won. ^_^

The best ever

Back to the topic -- I started reading Twilight this morning on my way to work while on the commute (MMDA's color-coding sucks bigtime!) and 15 pages in, I like the book already. :)

Movie-perfect

Ohhh-kay. Time to bring out a little more diversity for this one, and post a book review. Yes. A book review.

I had just finished reading Dan Brown's latest novel, The Lost Symbol, two nights ago and... well, it didn't actually blow my mind off.

So I guess it would be needless to say that Brown's Angels & Demons is still on top of my Robert Langdon adventures. With that in mind, I'm still second-guessing on which is better -- The Da Vinci Code or this one.

I do not know if Brown is lobbying for a third movie installment (of course he is, right?) but with the way the novel is written and the way it's time frame is delivered, The Lost Symbol is perfect for a two-hour movie.

The telling of the story is pretty much straightforward that you'd think you were actually watching a movie unfold before your very eyes.

As expected, Brown has once again sprinkled it with lots of trivia about things what we already know, and you can expect this to go on the moment you turn past the first pages until the very last chapter. If you're a trivia buff about general knowledge (like I am), you will be giddy about this book which covers interesting facts over a vast array of disciplines -- religion, art, history, technology, to name a few.

There is only one major twist in the story that would make you utter the words "I thought so," although there is a number of turns on the side.

Much like the first two Langdon adventures, The Lost Symbol only contains a handful of action scenes... sheesh, I'm now talking like this is a movie review.

Speaking of the movie-like way the book was written, I'm imagining Morgan Freeman to be cast as one of main characters. If only the female boss of The Incredibles was a real person, I'm quite sure that she'd make it, too. ^_^ Surely, Tom Hanks would reprise his role as the great cryptologist, Robert Langdon. And as for the main antagonist, a good friend of mine, Bryant, suggested Dwayne Johnson. LOL!

Come to think of it, what he said is a possibility.

All in all, I'm not a ratings (read: n out of 5 stars) kind of reader/reviewer, but The Lost Symbol is definitely a must-have. Just go out and get your copy. Now.