Overbooked Reader

I'm torn about my review for  Mr. Mercedes . On one hand, it's a thrilling mystery read. On the other hand, it's a thrilling mystery read. I love Stephen King stories because they are full of horror, the paranormal and the supernatural. They are scary. Haunting. The stuff of nightmares. Even daymares! (Yes, it's a real word. I checked the dictionary.) Mr. Mercedes is disturbing in a psychological kind of way. But I've seen plenty of that on my favorite crime television series like Criminal Minds and Law and Order . I won't go so far as saying that King's book is just a text version of a TV crime drama--it's much better than that. It's just that the novel wasn't what I wanted or expected from the king of horror. Goodreads members, however, loved the novel. They voted Mr. Mercedes  as the best mystery and thriller book, in the Goodreads Choice Awards 2014 . King's book won over The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (a.k.a. J.K R

I just joined the Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge last week, but the rules state that I have to post an update every last Sunday of the month. Luckily, the first two books I read this year both feature fantastic fiction. Recommended to me by my friend JJ, The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie was a very fun and exciting read. I gave the trilogy's third book, Last Argument of Kings , a 5 out of 5 rating last January 7 because of its nonstop action, epic plot twists, and unforgettable characters.  On January 20, I posted a book review on Philippine Speculative Fiction Volume 2 , a fiction anthology given to me as a Christmas gift last year. I enjoyed most of the stories in the collection. I found some of them so amazing that I gave the book an epic rating as well. I'm now a huge fan of the anthology series and have since bought Philippine Speculative Fiction volumes 1 and 3 to 9. I have to get much more reading done, if I want to reach my goal of re

Only now am I discovering the wonder of book blogger-hosted reading challenges. Today, I've joined two challenges: the Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge 2015 and the Re-Read Challenge 2015 . Source: So Obsessed With This year's Re-Read Challenge is hosted by book blogs Belle of the Literati  and So Obsessed With . "No book is worth reading that isn't worth re-reading," reads a quote from Susan Sontag that absolutely agree with. Every time I read a book I find epic or amazing, I always feel compelled to read it again. This is why I've found myself re-reading favorite books like Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami and Carrie by Stephen King. My goal for this challenge is to re-read 24 books that I've read in the past. I'm only committing to two books per month because I've already committed to reading 30 books for the Flights of Fantasy Challenge , and I'm a slow reader. Completing these two challenges alone will require me to read

I was browsing through my Twitter feed today when I stumbled upon this Tweet from book blogger Chachic of Chachic's Book Nook : Thank you for the rain of comments on my blog, @alexalovesbooks ! Will reply to all of them later. :) — Chachic (@chachictweets) January 23, 2015 Curious, I visited Alexa's Twitter page, and found out she had a blog called Alexa Loves Books . I also recognized her, from her profile photo, as one of my batch mates from the Ateneo de Manila University. I recalled we were classmates in one of my Communication electives, and confirmed that she actually is a graduate of AB Communication from the Ateneo. Source: Alexa Loves Books As I scrolled down her profile page, I noticed on her left sidebar a 'challenge' section, where there was a button for Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge 2015 , hosted by book blogs Alexa Loves Books and Hello, Chelly . I love reading fantasy novels and I want to read as many of them as I can this 20

Philippine Speculative Fiction Volume 2 , edited by Dean Francis Alfar, is an anthology of 19 short stories written by established and debuting Filipino authors. Theirs are stories of speculative fiction, which Alfar describes as "the literature of the fantastic" in his introduction to the compilation. He also describes these stories as being told from "the Filipino perspective, the Filipino point of view, the Filipino lens," making them different from speculative fiction written by foreigners. I'm a fan of fantasy and science fiction stories, so I was eager to read such stories written by Filipinos. As a whole, I thoroughly enjoyed the anthology. Some stories I enjoyed more than others, but all of them were great reads, for various reasons. I loved the stories so much, that I bought the remaining eight volumes of Philippine Speculative Fiction. I found a paperback copy of Volume 6, but had to buy electronic copies of the rest. I can't wait to read t

Last Argument of Kings is the third book in The First Law trilogy by British fantasy writer Joe Abercrombie. An action-packed, fast-paced read, the novel concludes the stories of Logen Ninefingers, Superior Glokta, Jezal dan Luthar, and their many companions in a satisfying yet utterly unexpected way. The Union will soon fight a war on two fronts, as it attacks the barbarians in the north, and defends against the Gurkish from the south. The heart of the Union is practically defenseless against the Gurkish army and the Eaters, but can their army make it back from the north in time? And can they defeat Bethod and his Northmen, before they retreat? What I liked: This novel is chock-full of surprises, some more surprising than others. I expected Jezal to end up becoming King of the Union because there were plenty of hints leading towards. Bayaz's magically helping Jezal win the fencing competition. The wizard's helping Jezal pacify the farmer rebellion, without Je