Last Sunday was a double header, for there are 2 book fairs held simultaneously. One is the Chinese Book Fair held at the local Chinese School (Philippine Cultural High School) and the other is the Book Fair held at the World Trade Center at Pasay. For one whole week, I was looking forward for the events last Sunday but unfortunately, I missed the Chinese Book Fair. It happened that they’re open till noon that Sunday and it’s their last day as well. I only managed to get there at around 2pm. Blame that on the “catch up” sleep I usually had every Sunday morning for missing the book fair. Apparently, the old adage of “the early bird gets the worm” or more succinctly, “the early (book)worm gets the books” is never been true in this instance. Too bad, I was looking forward to buying some Chinese history books from the fair, i.e., the ones I didn’t manage to buy in China. Well, I guess I had to wait till next year. Anyway, I did manage though to visit the other fair and boy, oh boy! The place is teeming with “worms” errr bookworms to be exact. It seems to me that I’m not the only one who loved books. Well, the place to me was like a paradise. In particular, Islam’s version of paradise, a paradise where I was surrounded by a harem of 30,000 women except that instead of women I had books. Speaking of women, books are like women. You don’t judge them by it’s cover but what’s inside just like a book. However, the difference between a woman and a book is that one cannot sleep with a book (although I do sleep with my books beside my pillow). And second, books don’t talk back while women don’t stop talking. Anyway, I was so deeply mesmerized by the whole event that I got “dazed” to the extent that I almost didn’t recognize my friend and fellow blogger, Jaz Chan, who was also there to shop for some books (incidentally, Jaz kept a very interesting blog, www.jazchan.blogspot.com. I highly recommend that you visit her blog). I spent about 3½ hours browsing through every book in the shelves per publisher stalls (miraculously, my eyes nor my feet didn’t buckle under the intense punishment I put on them). In particular, I trained my eyes on history books and business books. I got a few nice picks along the way but I didn’t get to buy all of them because they are way, way, way to expensive. Most of the books I chose had a price tag of 4,000 pesos upwards! Not that I couldn’t afford the price or that I’m not willing to spend that much rather I felt that price doesn’t commensurate with “value” of the book. You see I have this intuition that I could buy a similar book for “less” or that the book doesn’t really offer anything interestingly new from what I already knew (but I still want to buy it for my collection if the price is right). As a result of this nit picking, I finally settle down and purchase 4 books that day for a total of 4,000 ++ pesos. They are:
1. “Peripheral Vision: Detecting the Weak Signals That will Make or Break Your Company” by George Day and Paul J.H. Schoemaker; Harvard Business School Press.
2. “Designed to Win: Strategies for Building a Thriving Global Business” by Hiroaki Yoshihara and Mary Pat McCarthy; McGraw Hills.
3. “Philippine Labour Migration: Critical Dimensions of Public Policy” by Joaquin L Gonzales III; De La Salle University Press, Inc.
4. “Chinese Traders in a Philippine Town: From Daily Competition to Urban Transformation” by Norbert Danhaeuser; Ateneo De Manila Press.
Another 4 more books added to my growing library; Another 4 more books added to my long list of books to read; And 4 more books added to my wealth….
POSTSCRIPT
My Professor, Elfren Cruz won the National Book Awards’ Best Book in the Business and Economics Category Prize last August 31. The award given by the Manila Critics Circle is in recognition of my professor’s seminal work, “Setting Frameworks: Family Business and Strategic Management.” Congratulations to my professor for winning such a prestigious award. As an added bonus to winning the award, he now joins his wife as a National Book Award recipient, probably the only husband and wife tandem to receive such a distinguish award. His wife, Neni Sta. Romana – Cruz is a National Book Award recipient for Children’s literature. Having said that, I can’t wait to see him come up with his second book if he ever plans on writing one. I wonder what topic will he write then but rest assure, the title will definitely have the word, “framework” (his column in BusinessWorld is titled, “Frameworks”). We had a joke in MBA, if it is about frameworks, it got to be Elfren (Cruz). “ )
1. “Peripheral Vision: Detecting the Weak Signals That will Make or Break Your Company” by George Day and Paul J.H. Schoemaker; Harvard Business School Press.
2. “Designed to Win: Strategies for Building a Thriving Global Business” by Hiroaki Yoshihara and Mary Pat McCarthy; McGraw Hills.
3. “Philippine Labour Migration: Critical Dimensions of Public Policy” by Joaquin L Gonzales III; De La Salle University Press, Inc.
4. “Chinese Traders in a Philippine Town: From Daily Competition to Urban Transformation” by Norbert Danhaeuser; Ateneo De Manila Press.
Another 4 more books added to my growing library; Another 4 more books added to my long list of books to read; And 4 more books added to my wealth….
POSTSCRIPT
My Professor, Elfren Cruz won the National Book Awards’ Best Book in the Business and Economics Category Prize last August 31. The award given by the Manila Critics Circle is in recognition of my professor’s seminal work, “Setting Frameworks: Family Business and Strategic Management.” Congratulations to my professor for winning such a prestigious award. As an added bonus to winning the award, he now joins his wife as a National Book Award recipient, probably the only husband and wife tandem to receive such a distinguish award. His wife, Neni Sta. Romana – Cruz is a National Book Award recipient for Children’s literature. Having said that, I can’t wait to see him come up with his second book if he ever plans on writing one. I wonder what topic will he write then but rest assure, the title will definitely have the word, “framework” (his column in BusinessWorld is titled, “Frameworks”). We had a joke in MBA, if it is about frameworks, it got to be Elfren (Cruz). “ )
5 comments:
(incidentally, Jaz kept a very interesting blog, www.jazchan.blogspot.com. I highly recommend that you visit her blog)
highly recommend? whoa! you sure do have a wacky sense of humor & an even wackier sense of taste when it comes to blogs! *lol*
of course you know i'm kidding, right?
seriously now, i think that's the reason why education sucks here in 'pinas....coz books & publications are sooooo darn expensive that most people can't afford to have a copy of their choice.
though am not really a fan of heavy reading, those books you purchased seem to be nice picks. enjoy bookworming then =)
I agree with your assessment about the cost of books as one of the primary reason of in your word "why education sucks in 'pinas". However, I think that is not a major reason. In my observation, the major culprit here is the "quality" of the students. Most students rarely opened their book even if they could afford them. The educational system doesn't encourage "independent" critical reading by the student. Most student rely on the lecture notes of teachers rather than books. On the macro scale, this is also reflected on the types of book that society patronizes. It is rare to see people buying trade books or professional related books or even technical books, much less, scholarly written books.
Oh by the way, if I as a reader is wacky for "showing interest" in your blog, what that makes you? " )
Oh by the way, if I as a reader is wacky for "showing interest" in your blog, what that makes you?
you implying that wackiness begets wackiness?
hmm, maybe.
but you know what'd i rather say?
'opposites attract'
*lol*
Hahahaha. Nice one. However, I doubt it as an attraction between opposites since you said that I have a wacky sense of taste when it comes to blog. By that, you suggest that the blogs I chose are in itself wacky in the first place. " )
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