Magic and Soul

Tsundoku is a Japanese word that means the practice of buying a pile of books and then not getting around to read them. I am guilty of this. So here is my pile of two books which i think i would not have time to read. Maybe it will take me a year or two to even read them because the life of a 35 year old soap opera writer and mother is yadda yadda yadda yadda... or i just want to sleep.

I got Illustrado by Miguel Syjuco since I follow him on twitter. Ha! and also of course, this book won a The Man Asian Literay Prize. I am not familiar with it but it must be pretty heavyweight since the this novel was published in NY by the Picador people.

Oh and the blue book. Ah yes, Call Me By Your Name. I saw the film---beautiful, quiet and heart breaking. It set me back to my little imagined fireplace in a corner (we don't have one and i live in a tropical country with hell like summers) and I sobbed myself there too.   Armie Hammer was a dashing snob and Timothee Chalamet was everything a person in love was.

I was curious of the novel after I saw the film. Aside from that, the first few sentences of the book urged me to really take it to cashier. I have this teeny habit of judging the book not on its cover but by its first few sentences, if it sends a shiver down my spine then I just had to grab it. Here it was for this book:

"Later!"  The word, the voice, the attitude. I'd never heard anyone use "later" to say goodbye before. It sounded harsh, curt, and dismissive, spoken with the veiled indifference of people who may not care to see or hear from you again.  It is the first thing I remember about him, and I can hear it still today. Later!

Yiiiii. I feel the gush and so i bought. Illustrado book was covered in plastic so I can't read the first few lines. But I am currently nosediving from time to time with Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar. I picked this up since I didnt know she had a book. After i read the first sentence, I wanted to buy it already.

It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.

 

Pak! Iba talaga si Manay Sylvia. Without looking at the tag, I bought it and I am not halfway there yet because the life of a 35 year old soap opera writer and mother is yadda yadda yadda yadda... or i just want to sleep. 

Oh, its Valentines day lest i forget. I am alone on a self love mood and waiting for an email. I dont have flowers with me but I already ate 5 mini-Snicker bars.  But for the sake of  this day and the feeling that consumes it, I leave you with a scribble from my 8 year old daughter.

And this page from Call Me by Your Name.

It means Soul of my Life. Beautiful words no?  May you have magic and soul from the darkest of days and the brightest of nights.