recently read - april 2012

• Twisted Perfection
• Hot Ticket
• The Silver Linings Playbook
• I Choose You
• Unmaking Hunter Kennedy
• Stealing Parker
• Trust in Me
• Things I Can't Forget
• The Hunger Games
• Rock Hard
• Emancipating Andie
• Snowed In
• Hawthorne, Rachel
• Make it Last
• Mockingjay
• Fever Dreams
• Selling Scarlett 
• Catching Fire
• Calculated in Death 
• Running Time
• Backstage Pass
• Double Time 

i guess this is goodbye..

I'm a well-known bookworm among my peers. I'd read almost anything I can get my hands into (well, except for textbooks - they bore me), and I'm usually seen with a book, even way back my elementary and high school days. I'm the student who always carries a novel with me, I knew who Albus Dumbledore was even before JK Rowling's books became a worldwide phenomenon, and I'm probably the only one in class who never complained about our quarterly book reports.

In this day and age of technology, I guess it came as no surprise when I was the first among my friends to get a Kindle. I prefer reading an actual book, but back when I was unemployed, books became an unnecessary expense. Of course, it didn't stop me  from buying them, but even on sale, it still cut a huge chunk out of my budget. It was by chance that I discovered Amazon's Kindle. And from the very first time I read about it online, I knew that I just had to have it.

Of course, buying it was a problem. I don't know where I can buy it here in the Philippines. I thought about buying it straight from Amazon's website, but I figured the shipping fee would be expensive. So I decided to wait it out. And good thing I did, too. Last February 2011, Mom went to Singapore with her brother, and lo and behold! She brought home my very own Kindle. 

For almost 2 years, I was never without that gadget. I bring it almost everywhere with me (yes, even when I have to go to the comfort room). I was so proud of that baby, proud of the fact that I owned something most of my friends never heard of. I loved that little thing.

That's why it breaks my heart to say goodbye to this nifty gadget, my bestfriend, my reliable companion. 

It started having problems late last year. While I'm reading a book, it would suddenly freeze up, then it would restart on its own. And just when I thought all is well, it would freeze up and restart all over again. I contacted Amazon support, but none of the troubleshooting tips they gave me worked. So I had to stop using it.

Sometime last year, I bought an iPad Mini. It now doubles as a tablet, and my primary e-reader. 

But despite having a new gadget I can use for reading, I can't seem to let my old Kindle go. A couple weeks ago, I picked it up but when I slid the sleep button, it won't turn on. I tried charging it, but it still won't power up. So I contacted Amazon support again, and they said that my Kindle's issues can't be resolved. They provided me with replacement offers, though. I can buy a refurbished Kindle (it's "like new" and also comes with a one-year warranty) with discount.

I opted for the Certified Refurbished Kindle (I think some call this Kindle 4) that costs $59 that became $47.20 because of the discount. I'm having it shipped to my boyfriend's sister's husband who's in the States right now, and he'll bring it home to me.

And the customer support I chatted with was so nice. She gave me an option of a $13.98 2-day shipping or the free super saver shipping, so of course I chose the free one, but then she said, "Actually I will leave it on 2-day shipping. I have waived the shipping fee for you." How's that for awesome? Thank you, Tamryn.

For only $51.45 ($47.20 for the unit, plus $4.25 tax), it's a steal. I can't wait!

So I guess this is the end of the road for us, buddy. We had fun together, but nothing lasts forever, so.. Thank for almost 2 awesome years together. I'll never forget you.

RIP Kindle 3

February 14, 2011 - May 16, 2013

You will be missed.

recently read - january - march 2013

January

1. Fallen Too Far
2. Waking Up to Boys
3. The Secrets of Boys
4. The Perfect Boy
5. Forbidden Boy
6. The Other Boy
7. Flirting with Boys
8. Already Home
9. Cut and Run
10. Betrayals
11. Midnight in Death
12. Second Chance Summer
13. Interlude in Death 
14. Overprotected
15. The Lady Most Willing...: A Novel in Three Parts
16. Shades of Gray
17. Bittersweet
18. Perfect Fit
19. All She Wants For Christmas 
20. Back to You 
21. Hometown Girl
22. The Racketeer
23. A Rare Gift 
24. The Litigators

February

1. Just for Now
2. The Vincent Brothers 
3. While It Lasts 
4. Because of Low
5. Breathe 
6. The Vincent Boys
7. Abandon 
8. Dark Sky 
9. On Fire
10. Hurricane

March

1. Cold Dawn 
2. The Boyfriend League
3. Take Me
4. Tempt Me 
5. Suite Dreams
6. Try Me
7. Immortal Ever After
8. Playboy Prankster 
9. Slow Burn 
10. On The Move 
11. Total Control 
12. To The Limit 
13. Dangerous Curves 
14. On The Edge 
15. What Happened to Goodbye
16. The Truth About Forever
17. The Valentine's Arrangement
18. Luscious
19. Crazy Thing Called Love
20. Love Unrehearsed
21. Love Unscripted 
22. Caribbean Cruising
23. Eighty Days Yellow
24. Beautiful Bastard 
25. Never Too Far 
26. Ceaseless 
27. Predestined 
28. Existence

confessions of a bookaholic part 2

I'm a The Hunger Games Trilogy late bloomer. I know the first book was released 2008, and it became even more popular when the movie came out on 2012, but I just wasn't feeling it, you know?

All my friends know what a bookworm I am, and almost all of them kept asking me if it was good. And I kept getting these shocked looks when I told them that I haven't read it, and that I've no plans to read it. 

It's quite known that I'd read absolutely anything (well, except for Sidney Sheldon, Stephen King, and a handful of other authors I really don't like, but that's another story), but it doesn't mean that I'd read everything. I'm open to trying authors I've never heard before, and despite the saying "don't judge a book by it's cover", I've been known to pick up a book and start reading it just because the cover's pretty.

I don't read books because everybody's reading it. I've never been known to jump into a reading bandwagon. And there are certain times when I've already read a book even before it became popular. Case in point: The Twilight Saga. I've finished the first three books, and was waiting for the release of the fourth. I even told my friends to read it, because while I never thought of it as a really good book, I felt as if it has potential. But did anybody listen to me? No. And then when the movie tie-in was announced, well it was pretty much everyone could talk about. And it irked me. It irked me so much that when the books were all sold out, I gloated over the fact that I have all four books, in hardbound. And no, I didn't allow then to borrow my copy. (Bitter, huh?)

So what made me change my mind?

As I've said on my Instagram post, I had four reasons for reading it.

Number one would be because I ran out of books to read. I have several books that I downloaded from torrent, but since I'm not familiar with them, I decided to skip them first. Hunger Games has been on my Kindle, then my iPad, ever since the books came out. So I told myself, what the heck and just got on with it.

Two, was for my friends to stop telling me "but you're a bookworm, you love to read, how come you never read Hunger Games?" blah blah stinking blah. It's like I'm committing a grave sin, the way they look at me when I say that I don't like to read it. 

Reason number three would be because I'm tired of defending and explaining myself that being a bookworm  doesn't necessarily mean that I'd be devouring every available book there is.

And lastly, number four would be to satisfy my curiosity. Almost all my book-lover friends read it, and they kept saying how good it was and all that shit. So I decided to see for myself what the hype was all about.

So I finished all three books in two days, but since I'm a naturally fast reader, time isn't a good indicator of how good the book was. I thought it was good enough to keep me reading, but frankly, I got tired of Katniss and all her self-centered, self-loathing thoughts. The first book was ok, but when I got to the middle of the second book, I got bored already. I was hoping that Katniss would die in the arena so that the book would finally end (despite the fact that Katniss is the main protagonist, and let's face it, the lead characters seldom die). By the time I got to the third book, I was already speed-reading. I expected the third book to have more action, and in the story it did, but it was just dragging on and on and on. I'm so glad when it finally ended. I did wish for a much more detailed epilogue, though. I felt like it left me hanging.

All in all, it was a good book. Definitely a step up from the Twilight Saga (which was so ugh), but still worlds away from my favorites: JK Rowling's Harry Potter Series, and Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson Series and The Heroes of Olympus Series.

Oh, and I haven't watched the movie, too. But maybe I will, now that I've read the book. Also because of Jennifer Lawrence. I liked her in X-men First Class, loved her in Silver Linings Playbook. Might as well see how she portrayed Katniss. =)

confessions of a bookaholic part 1

"Hi, I'm Belle, and I'm a bookaholic." Everyone else (in monotone) "Hi Belle."

That is what I always hear in my head everytime I go into a bookstore. I rarely leave without buying anything, and ever since I've been able to hold on to money, bookstores became on top of my favorite places list.

I'm a semi-shopaholic, meaning I do enjoy shopping but I'm not driven by a compulsion to buy everything I like. I can pick up a dress, try it on, and return it back to the rack (even if the dress is really flattering) as soon as I see that the price is out of my budget range. I prefer buying clothes on sale; sometimes going to secondhand shops known here as ukay-ukays. I don't mind hand-me-downs from my aunts and cousins, and since I have a small frame, I get a lot of those, too.

Books, however, are a different matter. No matter how expensive they are, I just have to have it. I've been an avid shopper at National Bookstore since my elementary days more than a decade ago. It used to frustrate me, because the only time I get to splurge on books is during summer, when I go to Manila for month-long vacations. And then I'd blew my pocket money away in one swoop. 

I remember going to the mall, armed with reasons why my cousin (or whoever I'm with) should leave me at NBS. They'd go grocery shopping, or watch a movie, while I'll be contented spending the whole day inside the bookstore. I used leave my money at home because I know I won't be able to resist buying. There was a time when I was there less than two hours, but I've gathered almost a dozen books, costing me to more than 8,000 pesos.

That was indeed a wake up call. Imagine spending 8k for books, in a single receipt purchase, at my age that time. I think I was only 14 years old. My Dad got mad at me (he found out because I didn't have enough money and he had to pay for the rest), and he got even madder when he had to pay for excess baggage at the airport (books are heavy, you know?).

I had to lie low for a while, but the need (yes, NEED) to read is making me crazy, and I cave. Then I discovered Fully Booked. I mean, it's no different from NBS, they carry mostly the same titles, but I do love how they arrange their books alphabetically, making it easier for me to find books under my favorite authors.

Of course, in the past few years, I've been content to get secondhand books from Booksale, occassionally shopping at Fully Booked or NBS for the titles I want to add to my brand-new collection. 

And since technology is ever-evolving, Mom got me an Amazon Kindle last 2011, when she traveled to Singapore. It saved me A LOT of money, since I just download eBooks for free off the internet. And what I couldn't find, I buy from a seller on Facebook. She sells eBooks in all aformats for just 10 pesos apiece. My Kindle, however, died late last year (from overuse, according to Mom), and I've upgraded to an iPad Mini. Different gadgets, different formats, but the end result is the same: I can still read on my device.

And it suits me just fine.

recently read - december 2012

• A Winter Scandal
• Amy and Roger's Epic Detour
• Kismet
• Fated
• Leave Me Breathless
• Back to Basics
• The Best Thing
• The Proposition
• Bared To You
• Reflected in You
• The Marriage Bargain
• The Marriage Mistake
• The Marriage Trap
• Riding Wild
• Riding Temptation
• Riding on Instinct
• Riding the Night
• The Next Always
• The Last Boyfriend
• The Perfect Hope

i haven't posted for two months..

..so what?

Seeing as it was Christmas, a time for celebrations and what-nots, I should have been blogging like crazy. Actually, I had A LOT to blog about. But I had the longest case of laziness in the history of laziness, so I ditched my blog and just posted one-liners on my Twitter. 

And anyway, this is not an update. This is just me checking in to see if my blog is still alive. Maybe I'll post one later, or tomorrow. =))

my latest baby

I'm not one to usually splurge on a gadget. Sure, I've got a camera, an android phone, a Kindle (well, it's dead but that's another story), an iPod Touch, and a laptop, but so far the most expensive thing on my list is my laptop. And it's not even that expensive compared to the prices on the market.

And I didn't grow up with gadgets, either. Looking back, sometimes I feel so deprived. I've never owned a Playstation, a Gameboy, no Nintendo DS, and the like. I had an ancient Family Computer, and the next thing I got was a PSP. Just those two. There were times when I'd envy my friends. I'd listen to them talk about the latest games, and I could never relate that much. The only time I'm able to play was when I'm at my friends' houses.

I guess that's why, even at my age, I still have a yearning for gaming consoles. But I'm trying to supress that urge and go for gadgets that are more age-appropriate. Hence, the camera, Kindle, iTouch, and laptop.

My constant companions were my books. That's why the Kindle was is the perfect gadget for me. Sadly, my Kindle died expired gave up on me is on a hiatus. It suddenly kept on freezing and restarting, and the Amazon live chat CSR I talked to could offer me no solutions that worked. According to my Mom, my Kindle died of exhaustion from being overused.

Anyway, for a while, I debated internally whether I'd get a new Kindle, an iPad 2, an iPad Mini, or the latest iPad with Retina Display. After much deliberation, I decided on the iPad Mini. And, no regrets! I love how small, light, compact, and slim it is. It's a bit pricey (and my bank account is still weeping), but I think it's worth what I paid for.

I still have to buy some accessories to protect my baby, but with it being new (and not yet available at Apple Philippines), I'm having a hard time looking for the perfect bling. I'll just have to be patient (which is so not one of my virtues).

But anyway, I present to you Mini Bellatrix (Mini with it being the iPad Mini, and Bellatrix from my favorite Death Eater, Bellatrix Lestrange) or Mini B, for short. My friend Janelle coined the name (she calls me B, so my baby is my Mini version, hence, Mini B), so I appointed her godmother.

God, we are so weird. 

Anyhoo, here she is!  

recently read - september - october 2012

September 2012

• Harvesting The Heart
• Perfect Match
• The Pact 
• Sing You Home
• Playing to Win
• Softly at Sunrise
• Echoes at Dawn
• Goodnight Tweetheart
• Delusion in Death
• Night Sins
• Guilty as Sin
• A Kiss at Midnight
• When Beauty Tamed the Beast
• The Duke is Mine
• The Ugly Duchess
• Sex with the Ex
• The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight
• Home is Where the Bark Is

October 2012

• Cold River
• Chemistry for Beginners
• Copy Cat
• In the Groove
• The Manolo Matrix
• The Mark of Athena
• The Temporary Wife
• Snowfall
• The Angel

not everything done on impulse is fun...

...and painless.

I'm a pretty impulsive person. When I really want to do something, there's no stopping me once I made up my mind. 

My impulses are usually fun, and harmless. Like buying something so expensive but totally useless, or going out at 3 AM because I feel like having a stroll. There was a time when I cut butchered my own hair, because it was too late to go to a salon, and I really wanted a haircut. Or the time when I joined my cousins at the beach. I didn't have a change of clothes, but I was so envious of them swimming that I just jumped into the sea. I had to go home in wet clothes, but hey, I had fun.

Of course, some of my impulses get me in trouble. Like the time when I accompanied our helper to the market. I think I was about 7 that time. I saw this stall selling catfish, live catfish. And of course, I just had to buy one. My Dad was not happy. When I was that age, I also bought 2 ducklings from a sidewalk vendor. Again, Dad was not happy.

So, now I limit my impulsiveness to myself (no point having Dad rant at me). Like getting my hair permed (I did this twice), dyeing my hair to burgundy with red highlights, and the like.

I was at SM Cebu with my Mom last Tuesday. We were killing time, for our ship doesn't leave until 10 PM. My Mom got tired from all the walking, so we settled on one of the chair at the Northwing. It just so happened that we were in front of Lay Bare, so I went in and ask for details about their Brazilian Wax. And right then and there, I decided to get one.

I've been meaning to try this a long time ago, but the potential pain kept stopping me. I was a bit uncomfortable and apprehensive, and when I got into my cubicle I was asking myself if I really wan to inflict a lot of pain on my body's most sensitive part, but I just decided to go through it.

Jessica, my wax technician, kept me at ease by answering all my question, and making small talk to distract me from the pain. Although, it wasn't that painful. I'd give it a 3 or 4 out of 10 on a pain scale, with 10 as the most painful. 

And I know there are a lot of waxing salons out there, but I'd personally recommend Lay Bare. Their cubicles are clean, and their staffs are all very nice. And as opposed to the hot wax usually used by most salons, they use cold sugar wax, which they make themselves  It is made with natural ingredients (sugar, kalamansi, and honey) and contains no chemicals. It's also less painful, and more comfortable. I tried hot wax once on my underarms, and I didn't like it. I can only imagine how it would feel during a Brazilian.

So, Lay Bare, cheers for making my first time as comfortable and as painless as possible! =)