The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

First sentence:

Staring out the bedroom window, Ronnie wondered whether Pastor Harris was already at the church.

My favorite book written by Nicholas Sparks is definitely "A Walk To Remember."  Actually, if you'd probe deeper, I'll tell you that I like the movie better than the book.  I've read the book once and watched the movie several times and never tire watching.

Since I started my quest last 2009 to not read two books by the same author - at least not consecutively or at such a short interval - I never looked for anything written by Nicholas.  But wandering at the bookstore before Christmas, I found this book on trade paperback and could not resist not to buy it, for such a cheap price of Php 75.00 (about a $1.50).  So, since I wasn't reading anything at that time, I immediately started as soon as I got home and got the chance.

What's on page 68:

Will stood in the well beneath the Ford Explorer in his uniform, watching the oil drain while simultaneously doing his best to ignore Scott, something easier said than done.  Scott had been haranguing him about the previous evening on and off since they'd arrived at work that morning.

"See, you were thinking about this all wrong," Scott continued, trying yet another tack.  He retrieved three cans of oil and set them on the shelf beside him.  "There's a difference between hooking up and getting back together."

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

The first sentence:

My father had a small state in Nottinghamshire:  I was the third of five sons.

Again, this is a random choice from a sea of eBooks.  I guess the title attracted me, too, because as a child, I saw bits and pieces of the story on tv, but never really sat down and watch it in its entirety.

All I know (as a kid) was that he was captured by these little people in the land called Liliput.  I could still remember Gulliver lying down with these little people climbing the stairs that was placed somewhere in his torso.  I do not recall hearing a line said by any of the characters though.  Probably because I was only half-attending to the tv at that time and that I really wasn't interested.

I told a reading friend what I was reading lately.  He is reading Paul Theraux.  He told me good luck on reading Gulliver and I don't really know what he meant.

I replied that I chose the book by random and was only filling the vacuum.  I was on page 58, and at that time, Gulliver had just escaped the land of little people.

I told my friend that I thought it was kid's stuff.  But I thought it wrong when I reached page 110.  It totally changed my thoughts about the book.  Yes, it could be for the young adult, but I guess I am really wrong in calling it kid's stuff.

What's on page 68:

The farmer, by this time, was convinced I must be a rational creature.  He spoke often to me, but the sound of his voice pierced my ears like that of a water-mill, yet his words were articulate enough.  I answered as loud as I could in several languages, and he often laid his ear within two yards of me:  but all in vain, for we were wholly unintelligible to each other.  He then sent his servants to their work, and taking his handkerchief out of his pocket, he doubled and spread it on his left hand, which he placed flat on the ground with the palm upward, making me a sign to step into it, as I could easily do, for it was not above a foot in thickness.  I thought it my part to obey, and for fear of falling, laid myself at full length upon the handkerchief, with the remainder of which he lapped me up to the head for further security, and in this manner carried me to home to his house.

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

The first sentence:

Mr. Phileas Fogg lived, in 1872, at No. 7, Saville Row, Burlington Gardens, the house which Sheridan died in 1814.

And this is my second eBook random choice for this year.

Image copied here

I guess I am longing for an adventure that's why I randomly selected this book.  I turned to planetebook.com for a short list of eBook titles, and went to goodreads.com to download their version.  This is the most convenient way so far since keeping track of the pages won't be a problem if I downloaded the books from goodreads.  But of course, you can also get it from planetebooks if you're not really particular about the pages.

Anyway.

I guess I've been wanting to travel that's why I randomly selected this book.  It's like I imagine myself travelling around the world in just eighty days without leaving my home.  I guess this is also the product of watching too much TLC on tv.  Anthony Bourdaine was in Italy the last time I watched and I was really fascinated about the lifestyle of the folks there.  They still make their own cheese, grow their own cattles, extract their own pork lard, make their own pasta, and call themselves as the best makers of their own produces.  How I wish I could taste them for real.

So, that's tv.  But with books, I want it to take me back in time.  And this book took me back in those days when it took days to get from one country to another (when now it's only hours) and read about how it looked like at that time.

I am already on page 29 at the time of this writing and the boat Mongolia with Phileas aboard was just about to get to the Suez Canal.  This brought me to google about the canal since I wonder why there seems to be many Africans on board.  Yeah, yeah, I need to learn more about geography.  And maybe that's why I chose this book, too.

At page 68:

Phileas Fogg, self-composed as if the judgment did not in the least concern him, did not even lift his eyebrows while it was being pronounced.  Just as the clerk was calling the next case, he rose, and said, "I offer bail." 

"You have the right," returned the judge. 

Fix's blood ran cold, but he resumed his composure when he heard the judge announce that the bail required for each prisoner would be one thousand pounds. 

"I will pay it at once," said Mr. Fogg, taking a roll of bank-bills from the carpet-bag, which Passepartout had by him, and placing them on the clerk's desk.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

I have been reading using natural light for about a while now.  So, that meant I have most of my reading time in the afternoon when the sunlight is strong.

So, recently, when we have been having grey and gloomy days, I decided to use the computer so that I can read even if the lights are low.

Image copied here

I turned to Google Books to find an e-Book that I could start reading and I figured that I would not search or try to choose from a million books.  I'll just start reading the first book that I could lay my cursor into.  And this is what I found.

The first sentence:

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do:  once or twice she peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, "and what is the use of a book, " thought Alice, "without the pictures or conversations."

For some, this was a reading requirement maybe in grade school, or a bedtime story that their parent(s) read to them.  But since I went into a public school here in our country, reading a novel was never a requirement - even if it was a book by a local writer.  So, part of my quest was to read these classical books that inspire children to read and write.  My parents never read to us during bedtime.  But it was never a problem for me.

It's a good thing that I got myself into reading even if it wasn't a requirement in school.  I guess it was my dad's persistence that I read his collection of Reader's Digest - a collection which he kept so that we, his children could have something to read on.

Anyway.

Since it's an eBook, I don't have an image that I took of myself.  This is the image cover that I took from the site where I downloaded the book itself.

Here's what's on page 68 of the book:

"He must have imitated somebody else's hand," said the King.  (The jury all brightened up again.) 

"Please, your Majesty," said the Knave, "I didn't write it, and they can't prove that I did: there's no name signed at the end." 

"If you didn't sign it," said the King, "that only makes the matter worse.  You must have meant some mishief, or else you'd have signed your name like an honest man."

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

The first sentence:

A screaming comes across the sky.

I bought this book back in 2009, when I was still in Dubai.  I read about the book from a high school classmate who is also into reading classic novels.  Somewhere in his journals, I read that he was already somewhere in the pages of the book and still couldn't understand a lot of things.  I'm afraid this is happening to me now.  I'm already a few pages on, and still, I couldn't seem to dig the author.

Apart from the many characters of the book, there are a lot of (what I call) insertions that distracts me from the plot of the story.  At least that's what it is to me.  I am close to putting it off and not finishing it when I decided to read the comments of the readers of the book from goodreads.com.  One of them gave several advises and one of the advises was to have a little patience, at least until you reach the second part.

I am still a long way from the second part (I am only on page 64 of 902 pages), and I am trying to gather all the patience I have in putting it off and not finishing it at all.  At these point, a lot of characters are being introduced and the only one I can remember was the psychologist (whose name I need to remember).  There's a guy named Mexico who at first I thought was the country.  And there's a girl in a relationship with one of the characters.  Again, I need to remember her name.

Still, one of the advises said that it would be better to read the V book first.  But I don't think I'd go through that.  I am in this reading quest where I am to read one classic book from one author and that's it.  I just need to experience the author, his style, the way he makes the story, and how the world looked like at the time he wrote the story.  That's just about it.  Now, if Thomas Pynchon wrote about the future, then I may have a little problem with that.  Because one of the reasons why I am reading classical novels is to read about the past.

I guess I may have bought the wrong book for my quest.  But I still have the patience to read it right now.

I don't know how further more my patience will take me.  But I do hope that it's all worth it.

What's on page 68:

Mind to mind, tonight up late at the window while he sleeps, lighting another precious cigarette from the coal of the last, filling it with a need to cry because she can see so plainly her limits, knows she can never protect him as much as she must - from what may come out of the sky, from what he couldn't confess that day (creaking snow lanes, arcades of the ice-bearded and bowing trees... the wind shook down crystals of snow:  purple and orange creatures blooming on her long lashes), and from, Mr. Pointsman, and from Pointman's... his... bleakness whenever she meets him.  Scientist-neutrality.  Hands that - she shivers.  There are many chances now for every shapes out of the snow and stillness.  She drops the blackout curtain.

* Please note that on this page 68-quote, I double-checked my typing and there are no errors.  It's just the author's style of writing.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

The first sentence:

Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a stern and serious-looking man who seldom smiled.

This is the first time that I ever tried to read an illustrated classic.  And this will probably be the last.  It's not that it's no good.  It's just that it felt like it's a condensed version although I am not really sure.  The best thing to do to prove this wrong is to probably read it again and this time not the illustrated version.  That is aside from the fact that I felt like it's actually catered for children.

But anyway, the main reason why I tried the illustrated version is because of the price.  The second is that I just wanted to have an idea of the story.  When I bought this book, I was thinking that if I like this one, I'd probably  buy other titles on illustrated. But honestly, I did not enjoy it at all.  I have nothing against the edition.  I guess it's just probably me.

What's on page 68?

"Thank you, Sir." Poole said before quietly leading away the lawyer from the locked door.  He asked Mr. Utterson if the voice they heard belonged to Dr. Jekyll.   

"If it was, it changed a lot," Mr. Utterson said. 

But Poole was certain it was not his master's voice.  "I have been working twenty years for my master," Poole said.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

First sentence:

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you really want to know the truth.

This post is long overdue.  I was done with this book a few weeks ago already.  I got out of my writing mood and couldn't go back.  I couldn't even update my personal blog, let alone this book blog.

I started this book while I was at the hospital.  I brought the book just in case.  It was already my sixth cycle and I never brought one since the first.  But I guess I got a little more interested and started reading it instead of watching t.v.  I found out months back that this is one of the most controversial books in the U.S. although I've been looking for it since I was in Dubai.  It is my quest to explore classical authors that made me want to find the book.  It's actually the same with my previously-read book, "To Kill a Mockingbird."

What are the first five sentences on page 68?

She's all right.  You'd like her.  The only trouble is, she's a little too affectionate sometimes.  She's very emotional, for a child.  She really is.

Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson

There is this store in our town that started by selling school and office supplies, later on adding second-hand books.  It's been standing probably fifteen years already but I rarely buy from them.  I find it quite expensive for my budget, that's why.

But a few weeks ago, I saw this book and its price got me interested.  Not the title. Not the author.  Not the story.  Just the price.  I don't know if I ever mentioned in one of my posts here that I am into exploring authors although my all-time favorite is Stephen King, followed by Sidney Sheldon.  Just in case I already did, well, this goes for my new readers now.

This is the reason why I never stuck to one genre, one author.  If you noticed in my list, I even have read classic novels from classic authors.  In fact, that's the genre that I wanted to explore more.  Yes, most of those books are available online for free.  But, after several times of trying, I still love the printed word.  I still love the smell of a book as you flap the pages, I still love the way a book feels on my hands.  Not to mention the fact that I don't find any thrill in reading a book on a monitor.  It just seems like it doesn't take me to the place.

Anyway.

I bought this book for Php 45.00 (about a few cents more than a dollar) on that shop, without having any idea about the story.  At that time, I was thinking that there is nothing to lose in reading any book anyway.  We learn something from it one way or the other.

So, here is the preview (page 68) of this book:

"And who," said Pitchfork, "was I fighting in the Malay jungle in '51 and '52?" The same Chinese guerillas who helped us with the Burma business in "40 and '41."

Then the colonel said, "We've got to keep hold of our ideals while steering them through the maze.  I should say through the obstacle course.  An obstacle course of hard-as-hell realities."

Between Lovers by Erick Jerome Dickey

This book was lent to me by a friend and I didn't even know what it was all about when she handed it over to me.  At that time, I was just looking for any book with large fonts, big enough for me to read, because I was having trouble with my vision.  After a while, I got to have a new specs and started this right after that thing about cameras.

Here's the preview:

"No.  Love it.  I miss this.  We used to be like this all the time.  Damn near every night."

Something to learn about my frustration

I started "Letting Go of the Camera" by Brooks Jensen yesterday.  I bought this book second hand at our local book shop.  They had a buy-one-take-one promo and I got this together with "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt for a mere Php 150.00.  If you ask the date, I already forgot but it was even before April of this year.

I used to own a Nikon Fm camera back in college and was able to practice photography back then.  I filed all my negatives in a shoe box together with the information for each of the shots that I took (whenever it was possible).  But they're all gone now.  The big flood Reming took away a lot of my memories, this one included.

Anyway, I have yet to get myself a DSLR camera but I want to read about photography, hence, the book.

Here's the first five sentences on its page 68.

     If you are not prepared for this subconscious overload and the subsequent overflow of creative ideas, you run the risk of diffusing much of the workshop's benefits.

     Play a game with yourself before the workshop.  Imagine the workshop instructor is with you in photographing or darkroom sessions over the week and months before the workshop.  (Most workshops require advance registration; so you probably know far in advance that you are going to attend.)

     At every opportunity, think what you would like to ask the instructor at that moment of peak activity.  Jot this question down..  

Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux

This entry is really late.  Because I used to do this even before I start a book.  My page 68 entries are done that way.  So, my apologies.  I know that my chemotherapy treatment should not be an excuse but that's all there is.

My mood swings are really bad especially during the first few days after the drip.  I can't even bring myself to read even if I wanted to so much.

But I know that after five cycles, I know I have to fight this.  If you have noticed, I added a widget that shows I challenged myself to reading six books before the year ends and I really hope and I'll really try to meet this goal.

So, here we go.

On page 68 of this book, it's blank.  So I decided to move forward to the next page with writings, which, in this case is page 71.

While I was speaking about the visit to the Carmelites, I am reminded of the first visit which took place shortly after Pauline's entrance.  I forgot to speak about it, but there is a detail that should not be omitted.  The morning of the day I was to visit, I was thinking things over in my bed (for it was there that I made my profound meditations, and contrary to the bride in the Canticles, I already found my Beloved there).  I wondered what name I would be given in Carmel.  I knew there was a Sister Therese of Jesus; however, my beautiful name Therese could not be taken away from me.  

Bulalo Soup for the Sole: Jew Lariosa

She had found someone who loved her truly, regardless of the conditions that society imposes on us.. 

He loved her enough to sit through the whole ceremony in front of three priests and a huge crucifix looming overhead.  He loved her enough to endure the coaxing for friends and family to drink some more.  He loved her enough to beam at his wife and dance with a bunch of sloshed cousins, though he was burning with fever.  He loved her enough not to say a peep when they served pork at the table where he dined.

A Book By Frank

I've read 'Tis by Frank McCourt.

The book gave me a lot of inputs about Ireland and the Irish.

I have heard much about "Angela's Ashes" even before I heard that it was also a book by Frank.  I never got the chance to see the book when I was out of the country.

But I managed to get this book from a sale in one of our local bookshops.  To tell you honestly, I was surprised to see the book there at all.  I couldn't put it down even though I know that I didn't have a budget for books this month.  But it was such a good price that I couldn't resist.

ANGELA'S ASHES
By Frank McCourt
Type of Cover: Trade Paperback
ISBN: ISBN 0-684-84267-X
Purchase Date: October 2010
Place: Pandayan Bookshop, Philippines

     The smoking brought on Nora's cough and she told Mam the fags would kill her in the end, that there was a touch of consumption in her family and no one lived to a ripe old age, though who would want to in Limerick, a place where you could look around and the first thing you noticed was a scarcity of gray hairs, all the gray hairs either in the graveyard or across the Atlantic working on railroads or sauntering around in police uniforms.

     You're lucky, missus, that you saw a bit of the world.  Oh, God, I'd given anything to see a glimpse of New York, people dancing up and down Broadway without a care.  No, I had to go and fall for a boozer with the charm, Peter Molloy, a champion pint drinker that had me up the pole and up the aisle when I was barely seventeen.  I was ignorant, missus.

Getting Back To Where I Stopped

So, this is the book that I put down for a while and started and finished "In The Presence of My Enemies," by Gracia Burnham.

The Last of the Mohicans

by James Fenimore Coopers

Edition: Penguin Popular Classics

Type of Cover: Mass Paperback

ISBN: ISBN-0-14-062045-1

Purchase Date: June 2010

Magrudy's Bookshop, Dubai

"Wtih joyful pleasure do I consent," said David, adjusting his iron-rimmed spectacles, and producing his beloved little volume which he immediately tendered to Alice."What can be more fitting and consolatory, than to offer up evening praise, after a day of such exceeding jeopardy."

Alice smiled, but regarding Heyward, she blushed and hesitated.

"Indulge youself," he whispered. "Ought not the suggestion of the worthy namesake of the Psalmist to have its weight at such a moment."

Another True Story For Me

IN THE PRSENCE OF MY ENEMIES

Type of cover: Paperback

ISBN: 0-8423-8589-4

Purchase date: Borrowed from a friend

Date started: 4 Sept 2010

"By the next morning, I had it all ready and boxed up to fly.

The approach to this particular jungle runway was about as exciting as the best roller-coaster ride at Disney World. Martine followed the tree-lined river, edging lower and lower. We all gasped as he accidentally spun off into a sharp curve at the last minute to drop onto the grass. But as always, his technique was flawless.

The Rices were in a huddle with a group of villagers at the edge of the runway."

Just After Sunset

She lived in her Toughskins and shell tops, hair scrooped back behind her in a ponytail.  She and her best friend Becka watched old Eastwood and Schwarzenegger movies on TV instead of the Olsen wins, and when they watched Scooby-Doo, they identified with the dog rather than Velma or Daphne.  For two years in grammar school, their lunches were Scooby Snacks.

And they climbed trees, of course.  Emily seemed to remember her and Becka hanging out in the trees in their respective backyards for one whole summer.

Italian Mafia

According to investigations, it was Genard Marino McKay who made the place so profitable. He's the clan's point man in the area. And that's not all. Paolo DiLauro likes the way he runs things so he gave him franchising rights on the local market. McKay operates indepen-dently; all he has to do is pay a monthly fee to the clan.

The White Tiger

The next day I went to the bank - the one that had a wall made of glass. I saw myself reflected in the glass panes - all in khaki. I walked back and forth in front of the bank a dozen times, just gaping at myself.

If only they had given me a silver whistle, I would have been in paradise!

Kishan came once a month to see me.

Huck Finn

I landed, and slopped through the timber and up the ridge and into the cavern.  There, Jim laid, sound asleep on the ground.  I roused him out and says:
" Get up and hump yourself, Jim! There ain't a minute to lose.  They're after us!"

Rose

That's a point of pride with us.  And you'll eventually pay for your room and board, although we like to think the prices here are very reasonable.  She smiled that brief, preening smile again.  "You should be aware that the accommodations are a long way from fancy.  Most of the second floor has been turned into a dormitory.

How many women are like Rose?

This is the question that came up in my mind as I started reading the book, as I started reading about Rose.

She couldn't get out.  The worse part is she didn't want to get out.  Out of the house that she knew very well, out of the life that she's been living for the past fourteen years.  Her reason is simple.  But is this the same reason they all have?

All the women like her?