The Return of the Bibliophilist

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October 12, 2007 (Friday)

After a few months of putting his books aside, eLf is back on reading voraciously again. Also, He's embarked on scouting again used-books shops around the city. In just a matter of weeks, he has amassed a number of books to add to his precious collection. Here are some books he'd recently bought, many of which I am yet to start reading (Yes, little does eLf know, I sneak in his library once in a while to "borrow" some books to ponder on) >;-):

Ann Rule's The Want-Ad Killer, The Lust Killer, The I-5 Killer, and Dead by Sunset - My sister Lovelle was the one who influenced me into reading books under the True Crime genre. I'm now on a mission to complete Ann Rule's bibliography. So far, I've already 17 books, which is less than halfway to completing Ann Rule.

Denise Chong's The Concubine's Children - eLf has become a fan of memoir books ever since he had read The Diary of Anne Frank more than a decade ago. This book by Chong is another gem among memoirs written by Chinese authors. eLf places this one along with his books under the genre: Adeline Yen Mah's The Chinese Cinderella, (One Written Word Is Worth) A Thousand Pieces of Gold, and Falling Leaves (Return to Their Roots); Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club and The Hundred Secret Senses; and Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth. He recently found out on Wikipedia that Buck's The Good Earth is a third of The House of Earth trilogy, the second and third of which are Sons and A House Divided. He is yet to acquire copies of these sequels.

Albert Camus' The Outsider - the book which, accordingly, inspired the musician Robert Smith into writing his band The Cure's song "Killing an Arab." At last, eLf read it! The book's style and manner of telling reminded him of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye; especially the cockiness of the main protagonists. Also, Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus.

Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet (Justine, Balthazar, Clea, Mountolive) and Prospero's Cell. eLf never knew about Durrell only until years ago when he stumbled upon a very lovely quotation from Justine: "We are the children of our landscape; it dictates behavior and even thought in the measure to which we are responsive to it."

Milan Kundera's The Book of Laughter and Forgetting.

Terry Brooks's The Heritage of Shannara tetralogy.

Books 1 (The Singer) & 2 (The Song) of Calvin Miller's trilogy. Unfortunately, Book 3 (The Finale) was missing! Another title to include on my books-to-hunt. Fortunately, just a couple of days ago, eLf was finally able to purchase the final book on eBay!

Og Mandino's The Greatest Miracle in the World.

eLf will be starting to collect once again the Sweet Dreams books of the '80s. Remember them? They were among his very first influences into reading pocketbooks. (Mine, too!) Unfortunately, they're elusive. He couldn't find them in any of the several book shops that he regularly visits. His last hope, for sure, is eBay. He already found some sellers, but he is yet to start on bidding.

Music
New album releases:
Siouxsie Sioux debut solo, Manta Ray
The Cult Born into This
Duran Duran Red Carpet Massacre

Slated for release next year:
The Cure, thirteenth studio album

Anyway, all these for now. I'll just be writing more about whatever is making eLf busy these cold days.