books read in 2014

eBook
Finished: March 22nd, 2014

eBook
Finished: March 24th, 2014

Acquired: February 15th, 2014
Borders-Muscat Grand Mall, Oman
Finished: April 25th, 2014

...When she starts shrieking, you ask her, Darling what ever is the matter? She calls you:

a cocksucker
a punk motherfucker
a fake-ass Dominican.
She claims:
you have a little penis
no penis
and worst of all that you liked curried pussy.

(which really is unfair, you try to say, since Laxmi is from Guyana, but Alma isn't listening.)
Instead of lowering your head and copping to it like a man, you pick up the journal as one might hold a baby's beshatted diaper, as one might pinch a recently benutted condom. You glance at the offending passages. Then you look at her and smile a smile your dissembling face will remember until the day you die. Baby, you say, baby, this part of my novel.
This is how you lose her.

Habang aking ninanamnam ang bawat hinabing mga salita, mga sugnay at mga talata ay may pakiwari akong hinango ang mga kwento sa pahina ng talambuhay ng manunulat. Malayong-malayo eto sa aking napagtanto habang binabasa ang kanyang unang nobelang The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao na kinulayan ng bahagya ng mga elemento mula sa talimuwang at science fiction na isinabuhay ng pangunahing tauhan sa nasabing akda. Hindi mapagkakaila ang bahagyang pagpilas mula sa binigkis na karanasan ng may katha ang mga kaugnayang pinatingkad ng pagsinta't pagkasawi na lalo pang pinatotoo ng mga palasak na wikang unang kinamulatan ng awtor. O sadya lang sigurong magaling ang pagkakalahad ng mga kwento kaya ako'y dagli-dagliang napaniwala. Ito'y aking pinanghawakan hanggang marating ko ang kwentong inilahad mula sa pananaw ng isang babae. Hindi maayos na lumapat ang pagkakasipat nito. Hindi likas at mukhang sadyang pilit iniba ang daloy ng aklat ngunit hindi nito napagtagumpayan ng manunulat.

Acquired: February 4th, 2014
Borders-Muscat Grand Mall, Oman
Finished: April 26th, 2014

I have no murders to tell about, but I have joys and sufferings and love. And love is every bit as violent and dangerous as murder.

Ay Hamsun, saan ba magsisimula?
Hanggang ngayon, naaalala ko pa noong una akong makatapos ng nobela ni Hamsun (The Growth of the Soil). Pati na rin ang pangalawa (Hunger). Iyong pangatlo ay hindi gaano (Victoria). Pero hindi mapagkakaila ang husay ng manunulat dahil ang nasabing unang dalawang aklat ay magka-iba ngunit magkabilaang mukha ng kalahatan ng kanyang mga katha. Ang akdang The Wanderer na pinagbuklod na dalawang magkaugnay na nobela ay masasabing nasa pagitan. Gaya ng akdang pangatlong nabanggit. May mga parteng sadyang tatatak at mamumuhay sa alaala ngunit sa pagkalahatan ay unti-unting lilikas patungong pagkalimot.

Acquired: May 5th, 2014
Al Batra Bookshop, Qurum, Muscat, Oman
Finished: May 6th, 2014

At dahil wala akong kaalaman tungkol sa kasaysayang pampulitika ng bansang Ehipto, ay sa bandang kababawang bahagi lamang ang tinungo ng aking pagkaunawa sa nobela.

Acquired: May 5th, 2014
Al Batra Bookshop, Qurum, Muscat, Oman
Finished: May 9th, 2014

Acquired: May 5th, 2014
Al Batra Bookshop, Qurum, Muscat, Oman
Finished: May 16th, 2014

Then I whisper in her ear, "Remember that you haven't wasted your time here. If you've come to know what is not good for you, you may also think of it all as having been sort of magical way of finding out what is truly good for you."

Acquired: July 25th, 2014
Kinokuniya Bookstore-Dubai Mall, United Arab Emirates
Finished: August 1st, 2014

As the day advanced, the sun slanting through the high bars divided the whole cell into triangles of light and shadow. At that hour the odor of cigarettes and bodies grew thick and sticky. The prisoners were mostly dozing on their hammocks; whenever they turned over, the flies rose up, then settled back down again. Other prisoners huddled silently in triangles of darkness they had sought out. Conversations was reduced to a few words. Everyone knew what fate held in store: their wanderings in this world soon would be over and that insistent, torturing thought also engendered a stoic calm. Those brief conversations, conducted in the cheery light of lamps that were about to sputter out for lack of oil, brought back memories of long forgotten smiles. Mortality gave an air of indulgent melancholy to eyes that were turning away from the world and looking back into the past. Sharing a destiny gave the same expression to different faces. Everyone felt transported to a distant shore, and the triangles of light slanting across the cell sharpened silhouettes of those emaciated figures in modern, cubist style.

Acquired: May 22nd, 2014
Borders-Muscat Grand Mall, Oman
Finished: August 1st, 2014

Acquired: July 25th, 2014
Kinokuniya Bookstore-Dubai Mall, United Arab Emirates
Finished: August 15th, 2014

Acquired: July 9th, 2014
Borders-Muscat Grand Mall, Oman
Finished: August 30th, 2014

Acquired: August 28th, 2014
Al Batra Bookshop, Qurum, Muscat, Oman
Finished: September 25th,, 2014

Acquired: September 7th, 2014
Borders-Muscat Grand Mall, Oman
Finished: September 27th, 2014

Acquired: July 25th, 2014
Kinokuniya Bookstore-Dubai Mall, United Arab Emirates
Finished: October 5th, 2014

Acquired: November 8th, 2014
Borders-Muscat Grand Mall, Oman
Finished: November 9th, 2014

Acquired: November 8th, 2014
Borders-Muscat Grand Mall, Oman
Finished: November 15th, 2014

Acquired: July 25th, 2014
Kinokuniya Bookstore-Dubai Mall, United Arab Emirates
Finished: November 20th, 2014

Acquired: December 10th, 2014
National Bookstore-CB Mall, Urdaneta City, Pangasinan, Philippines
Finished: December 12th, 2014

Acquired: January 10th, 2010
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Finished: December 20th, 2014