My book club friends and I have been busy preparing for our first ever Christmas party. One of the highlights is an exchange gift activity, and what else would we be exchanging but books, of course. Books for gifting would be something that has some sort of significance to each of us. It could be a book that was memorable, something by an author we love, or even a book we didn’t like. Basta may impact sa life somehow.
So, in order to decide what book I wanted to give, I went down memory lane with Joei over WhatsApp, looking back on the books I’ve loved reading. Sadly, they were all out of stock in both Powerbooks and Fully Booked Alabang. So not meant to be, right?
Seven seems to be my lucky number because my 7th choice was finally available. But argh, I really would have wanted to give one of my first 6 options to one lucky book clubber.
The good thing about this whole exchange gift planning is that I now have a short list of the books that I want to re-read someday. Unluckily for me, I only have 2 out of the 6 left in my library. I can’t even remember who borrowed the ones that have gone missing.
So, in case you guys are looking for something to read, and are up for the challenge of finding an apparently rare copy of a good book, you can check out one (or all) of the 6 books on my Read Again list.
1. The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
I love anything Winnie the Pooh. I once had a fairly large collection of Pooh stuffed toys that I had to give up once I became a mommy because they just collected too much dust. One of them was a Macarena-dancing Winnie the Pooh. Sadly, along with my stuffed bear collection, my The Tao of Pooh book is no longer in my life. The good news is that the life lessons I learned from reading the book still are.
2. The Nancy Drew Cookbook by Carolyn Keene
My lola loved books. She even had her own library at home. She also loved to give books, which was great for me because I have always loved receiving them. One of the most memorable book gifts from her was The Nancy Drew Cookbook . I had one, and so did my sister and our 2 female cousins. The books were hardbound, and each had a special note from Loli written inside the cover.
The first recipe I ever tried to prepare was from this book. They turned out to be completely disastrous, to tell you the truth, because I didn’t follow the instructions correctly. My copy, as well as my sister’s, has since gone missing. I feel my brother might have had something to do with their disappearance because he was the poor unfortunate soul who had to eat all of the Nancy Drew Potato Pancakes that I had so terribly botched.
3. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Angela’s Ashes was another book that came from my Loli, but this one I took straight from her library. I lived with her during my college years and I remember seeing the sad looking kid on the cover every time I’d be in that room. I asked if I could borrow it and I just never gave it back. It had a really sad story, and I found myself weeping for this little boy and his mother several times. I also bought the sequel, ‘Tis, but I never got to finish it. Sad to say, it didn’t live up to my expectations after reading the first memoir.
4. Gump and Co. by Winston Groom
I bought Gump and Co. on sale at Powerbooks a long, long time ago for something like 95 Pesos. I’ve read it twice, and MrC has also finished the book. It’s a really nice follow-up story to Forrest Gump, and while I’ve never read the original Gump book, I loved the movie a lot. It was nice finding out what happened next.
5. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
I read the book, I saw the movie, and I remember the movie but not the book. Strange. There were a lot of memorable scenes for me in the movie, and that’s why I included this book on my list. Given the change, I would probably re-read The House of the Spirits first among the 6 I’ve mentioned. I also am interested to read other works by Isabel Allende,so if you’re looking for something to get me for the holidays, you know na. Hehe!
6. Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
When I was preggers, my first friend ever in the whole wide world, Chriselle, loaned me a few books to help me stay sane while I was stuck at home. Strange Pilgrims was one of them. I rarely read short stories, and I’m glad that I gave this one a chance. With each story, it felt like I was people-watching. It was so interesting getting a peek into the lives of the characters in each one. Too bad I had to return the book once I was done.
I’ll tell you about book #7 when I write about our Christmas get-together. Wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise for whoever’s gonna get my gift after all. Oh, and I also want to thank Buqo for being one of our raffle sponsors. Thanks, Gabs! More about them, too, in my next book club post.
Have you read any of the books on my list? Did you like them enough to read them again?
