I was not feeling very well last night when I left the office.  My knuckle was aching, perhaps because it was really cold, and I had a headache.  I arrived at SM Makati and remembered that I saw a title at the book sale there the other day, so I went.

I picked the book and started to walk towards the cashier when the salesperson ran up to me.  He informed me that the book was a “buy 1 take 1″ offer, so essentially I had to get another title.

I’m telling you I would’ve been happy to have this one book (at 99Php it was a bargain), because finding another title to take home would contribute to my headache.  After about 20 minutes or so of searching, I was already nursing a throbbing temple…

But in all fairness I think I got good titles.  I was wanting the Goddess WorldWeaver, then got the Deprivers as a bonus

And now, I have backlog… and I mean BACKLOG

I need serious vacation time to deal with this… hehe

Now back to the covers, I’m still not feeling very well…

I heard on the news that PGMA just ordered the lifting of the taxation imposed by the Department of Finance.  Then I saw this on the blogs

UNESCO objection to tax imposition.

Yey to that but I think somebody should get fired for saying that “books are not educational.”

A conversation with a friend reminded me that I should be looking for this book in the Metro.

This New York Times best seller (for over a year!!!) Eat, Pray, Love by the very lovely Elizabeth Gilbert.

If a more likable writer than Gilbert is currently in print, I haven’t found him or her…Gilbert’s prose is fueled by a mix of intelligence, wit and colloquial exuberance that is close to irresistible, and makes the reader only too glad to join the posse of friends and devotees who have the pleasure of listening in. - Jennifer Egan, New York Times Book Review

An engaging, intelligent and entertaining memoir…her account of her time in India is beautiful and honest and free of patchouli-scented obscurities. - Lev Grossman, Time Magazine

Gilbert’s journey is full of mystical dreams, visions and uncanny coincidences…Yet for every ounce of self-absorption her classical New-Age journey demands, Gilbert is ready with an equal measure of intelligence, humor and self-deprecation…Gilbert’s wry, unfettered account of her extraordinary journey makes even the most cynical reader dare to dream of someday finding God deep within a meditation cave in India, or perhaps over a transcendent slice of pizza. - Erika Schickel, Los Angeles Times

I can’t wait to pick up my very own copy at Bibliarch later tonight

I’ve been reading up this chapter in Allain de Botton’s book The Consolations of Philosophy.  There’s an obvious need of course. :-)  This is the paragraph that struck me

What should worry us is not the number of people who oppose us, but how good their reasons are for doing so.  We should therefore divert our attention away from the presence of unpopularity to the explanations for it.  It may be frightening to hear that a high proportion of a community holds us to be wrong, but before abandoning our position, we should consider the method by which their conclusions have been reached.  It is the soundness of their method of thinking that should determine the weight we give to their disapproval.

Admittedly, like the rest of us, I am afflicted with the opposite way of thinking:  to listen to everyone, to be upset by every unkind word and sarcastic remark.  Just like what de Botton said, we do have a tendency to treat with equal value the criticisms of someone who thought rigorously, and one who acted out rather hastily.

A pack of Milk Chocolate-covered Digestive from Marks & Spencers - 135 Php…

Fresh whole milk from the local grocery - 79 Php…

Spending a cool, rainy afternoon, dipping the Digestive in warmed milk while reading a book - priceless…

The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one - Wilhelm Stekel, Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

I love this quote. Sometimes it makes me think that half of the heroes of the world are immature. But as they say, the courageous may not live long, but the cautious do not live at all… Maybe a healthy mix of the two is needed. Something we can call Cautious Spontaneity, ei?