I bought my copy of the Special Christmas Issue of PGS today. (Yes, booksellers do buy from themselves.) I think it is easy to read (and like) Christmas stories, maybe because they are about a day that is familiar and memorable to most of us. I wonder if it was also easier for the writers to write Christmas stories given that there is a set premise and situation to work with.

My favorite from this issue was The Magic Christmas Box by MRR Arcega. What made MRR Arcega’s story the best for me was that it had just the right Christmas-sy feel to it. It had unfortunate circumstances, a journey of discovery, wishes granted, a happy coincidence, and a sweet ending. I’m just one of those people who thinks that at the end of a Christmas story, the reader should be smiling.

An excerpt:

I also enjoyed Dominique Cimafranca’s Twilight of the Magi which stars the Three Wise Men of the Nativity story as three magical wise men. Of course, one of my favorite genre stories for the holidays is also a story of the magi — a story by prolific mystery writer Edward D. Hoch which you can find online here.

Congratulations to Kenneth for publishing 21 stories through PGS in 2007. He wanted to encourage Filipinos to read more and write more and he actually did something about it. We hope to see more stories from PGS in 2008! Let’s make sure PGS continues to give us stories by our local authors. PGS:Special Christmas Issue is now available at the store.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Don’t miss our 2007 year-end sale, ongoing until January 15.

ALL books (old and new, big and small) are on sale. New arrivals at 10% off and the rest at 20% off. We have a special sale on books in our Children’s Books shelf and our big General Fiction shelf (there is a small one) — Buy ONE and get the regular 20% discount, buy TWO and get 25% off, buy THREE or MORE and get 40% off.

With our last shipment came a book I ordered for myself called The Queen’s Awards, 1948, a collection of award-winning stories from Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. I wanted this particular book from that particular year for one particular story, Robert Arthur’s “The Adventure of the Single Footprint.”

I had been looking for it ever since I read up on Robert Arthur recently from various websites. I knew him from my elementary days when I started reading the detective series Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators. With all due respect, after discovering The Three Investigators, I had to stop reading Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys (but, of course, I never stopped being a fan). It almost felt like taking the training wheels off of your bicycle. Jupiter, Pete, and Bob were more interesting characters and their mysteries more engaging and, if I may say, more mysterious. I thought back then, These were real detectives! They had their own business cards at the very least. Alfred Hitchcock himself introduced every book! (Many of the “Alfred Hitchcock presents…” books were actually ghostwritten by Robert Arthur.)

Robert Arthur created The Three Investigators and wrote the first how many books. I bought and borrowed every one I could find. Unfortunately, the books are out of print. They were brought back a few years ago, but Alfred Hitchcock wasn’t part of the story anymore. I hear though that the books are still big in Germany and new stories are still being written and released there. I hear also that a The Three Investigators movie is coming out next year but I do not think it is going to be released here.

For fans who are reading this. These are some of the sites I visited:
http://www.threeinvestigators.net/
http://www.threeinvestigatorsbooks.com/RobertArthurQuotes.html
http://www.elizabetharthur.org/bio/rarthur.html
(The photo of Robert Arthur above was taken from his daughter’s website, elizabetharthur.org)

Also, if you like mysteries and are interested in reading award-winning stories from Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine from some sixty years ago, let me know. I would be glad to share. By the way, according to the introduction to his award-winning story, Robert Arthur was born on Corregidor Island, Philippines in 1909. Imagine that.

We now have both large and pocket-sized Moleskine notebooks in every variety: cahiers, reporter notebooks, sketchbooks, ruled, plain, or squared. Large notebooks are priced at only P850.

A Booktopia gift certificate is the perfect gift for Christmas. It’s the easy yet thoughtful present to get for the book-loving people you care about.

We can customize a gift certificate to any denomination.

Terry Pratchett, fantasy author, has been diagnosed with a form of Alzheimer’s disease at age 59.

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Amazon.com buys one of only seven handmade copies of J.K. Rowling’s book of fairy tales, “The Tales of Beedle the Bard” for £1.9 million. Proceeds of the sale of the book written and illustrated by Rowling will be donated to The Children’s Voice, a charity the author co-founded.

Books for him
The Dangerous Book for Boys

Books for her
The Daring Book for Girls
Rachael Ray cookbooks
Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food

Books for everyone
The Little Prince (gift edition)
A Guide for Grown-ups: Essential Wisdom from the Collected Works of Antoine de Saint-Exupery
100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know
100 Words to Make You Sound Smart
The Intellectual Devotional
Secret Lives of Men And Women : A PostSecret Book
You: Staying Young: The Owner’s Manual for Extending Your Warranty

Reading journals for readers who read a lot
Books to Check Out
Books to Check Out for Kids

Books for fans
Hardy Boys Detective Handbook
Lost Files of Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew Cookbook: Clues to Good Cooking
Nancy Drew Sleuth Book : Clues to Good Sleuthing
Nancy Drew’s Guide to Life

Books for fantasy and science fiction readers
The Dresden Files novels
R. Scott Baker trilogy
Peter David trilogies
Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge

Books for your kids
There is a book for every child . Do not worry if your child does not read the books normally categorized for his or her age. Some boys will not read Hardy Boys but may appreciate a book on chess that was written for adults. Or maybe he enjoys reading car magazines. If you are not sure which reading material your child likes, bring him or her to a bookstore and let the child choose.

We have some books that we think are good gift ideas for children. Just arrived are Recorder Fun books from Hal Leonard for young musicians. Most have a recorder included with the book. A recorder is a simple wind instrument that is easy to learn and is popular with amateur musicians. It is a good first instrument for a child. My niece learned to play the recorder when she was five. It’s not just an instrument for kids, of course, adults who want to discover a new talent, can easily learn too.

Available titles are: The Sound of Music, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Snow White, Disney Princess collection and Disney Favorites

For adults, we also have Beatles music for recorder. Titles include: All My Loving * Hey Jude * Michelle * Norwegian Wood * Yesterday * Eight Days A Week * Eleanor Rigby * Let It Be * She Loves You

Other books your child may like are the all-time favorite Ologies — Dragonology, Wizardology, Pirateology, etc. We also have companion titles to these books. Each book is full of information, beautifully illustrated, and some have pop-up art or activities.

Our next shipment is scheduled for January, most likely mid-January. Please place your orders now if you want to make it to that shipment. Please note that if we do no receive enough orders for that shipment, we will move all orders to our February shipment.