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.

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.

Here are some titles our customers were looking for the past three or four weeks:

• Angelina Jolie: Notes From My Travels
• As a Man Thinketh
• The Classic Ten: The True Story of the Little Black Dress and Nine Other Fashion Favorites
• The Complete Locations of Star Wars: Inside the Worlds of the Entire Star Wars Saga
• Dynamic Light and Shade
• Education of a Coach
• For One More Day
• Ghost World
• How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got A Life: A Novel
• Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron
• Lists to Live By for Every Caring Family
• One-L
• No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories
• Schaum’s Outline of College Physics
• The Simpsons Library of Wisdom
• Supernatural: The Official Companion Season 1
• The Ultimate Success Secret
• The Writings of Florence Scovel Shinn
• The Wheel of Time series

I spent an entire Saturday by myself at the bookstore (on account of the staff coming down with the flu). This was something I had not done in a long while. I am writing this because I have always intended to put down the experience of owning and running a small bookstore in our blog but also because I wanted to remember how much I enjoyed myself.

The day started with two young boys from the bakery across the parking lot coming in almost right after I unlocked the front door. I watched them for a while, making sure they were of the responsible sort. At least one of them was and the other (the younger one, I suppose) seemed to listen when he was told what to do by the taller boy so I left them to do what they wanted which was to read to each other and to play with the toys on the children’s table.

Throughout the day customers would come in looking for this and that item. Some we had (Dinna Revilla’s “Riches in Foreclosures“) and some we did not (birthday cards). Someone came in looking for a book by Ned Vizzini. I asked for the title of the book and he said, “It’s kind of a funny story.” It took me a beat to realize he was giving me the title of the book. I should remember to re-stock “Banker to the Poor,” the memoir of Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank which extends financing to the poorest of the poor in Bangladesh. Someone was looking for it.

When I was not attending to customers, I answered mail. They were mostly requests for books. I also read short stories from the internet. I read old favorites like Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery and W. W. Jacobs’s The Monkey’s Paw, some I had not read before like Flannery O’Connor’s Good Country People, and then The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell I am not sure if I have read or not.

I also answered a few calls; one was from a customer in Carmona. The strangest was from a customer of the Japanese restaurant upstairs (Omakase). She left her glasses on the table where she sat but she could not get in touch with the restaurant so she looked us up instead. I called the restaurant myself and told them what happened. I hope she and her spectacles have been reunited.

The grandmother of a six-year old boy who liked to read and had just won an award in school came in. She was looking for books to give as his reward. My last customers for the day were two ladies who bought magazines. They were talking about how they did not read books anymore, not like when they were younger, when they absolutely had to read. Now, one said, she reads magazines. The other said DVD’s have replaced books (they do enjoy their Korean DVD’s). Ah, how unfortunate and difficult for a bookseller to hear. But, they were very nice ladies and I imagined it was all said with a hint of regret.

Soon it was closing time and while I was fixing up I was thinking about how much I enjoyed manning the store and that our computer needed an upgrade. It was a good day.

Our next ship date has not been finalized yet but it will be sometime in September or October. If you would like your books to arrive before Christmas, please be sure to order them now.

It could be out of curiosity or maybe people like to read what other people are reading, our customers usually like to know what other customers are ordering. Here is a peek at a few of the books we have been getting requests for this month.

• The Blue Place by Nicola Griffith
• Cases and Materials on Modern Procedure and Judicial Administration by Arthur T. Vanderbilt
• The Companions (Dragonlance: The Meetings Sextet, Vol. 6) by Margaret Weis
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
• The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management by Tom DeMarco
• Digital Designs for Scrapbooking by Renee Pearson
• Egyptology by Emily Sands
• Getting Started in Hedge Funds by Daniel A. Strachman
• The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
• Harry Potter 1-7 Box Set by J. K. Rowling
• Hegel’s Logic: Being Part One of the Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
• Jurisprudence by Roscoe Pound
• The Lady in the Tower: The Wives of Henry VIII by Jean Plaidy
• Lime Ricky by Jill Winters
• Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa
• Never: Jens Pulver And the Wednesday Group that Will Change the World by Timonthy J. McKinnon
• Riches Within Your Reach: The Law of the Higher Potential Robert Collier
• Run With the Bulls Without Getting Trampled by Tim Irwin
• To the Ends of the Earth: A Sea Trilogy by William Golding
• Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell
• The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good by William Easterly
• The Wrekening: An Ancient Mirrors Tale by Jayel Gibson

We are glad we are able to get books and people together this way. Ah, it does feel good to help.

If you have your own blog or website, you must know how much fun checking your site statistics can be. You can learn a lot from the many tools available that tell you how many people visited your site, their geographical location, how they found you, etc. As of today, most of our visitors access our site from Makati, then Manila, Quezon City, and Cebu City. Hello and thank you for visiting our site. We hope you that you come and read us regularly and that you enjoy your stay.

Security is very tight to ensure that no part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is released to the public before July 21.

As she is writing it, only J. K. Rowling has a copy of the book. On her visit to the United States for an event with Stephen King and John Irving, she was asked to check in her manuscript but she insisted on taking it with her on the plane and she was granted this request.

As she is working on the cover and chapter illustrations, Mary GrandPre keeps her copy of the finished manuscript in a safe and speaks of it to no one. Her family and friends do not even ask her about it.

Everyone involved in producing the book, printers, distributors, and others, are required to sign confidentiality agreements. Booksellers like ourselves have our own agreements to sign which essentially says we will not distribute the book before midnight of July 21, London time (7am here). The books and even the cartons they come in cannot be photographed before the release date. We must ensure that the books are placed in a very secure location as soon as they are released to us on a date we cannot reveal. We would not want any part of this book accidentally leaking out as we know it will take away from everyone’s enjoyment.

Hooray! Got this in our mailbox this week and we’re all excited over it. We imagine ourselves sitting quietly and doing our job, trying to be the best bookstore website we could be, and somehow someone notices. It feels great. Thanks to DigitalFilipino.com and their sponsors for promoting the use and development of e-commerce in the Philippines.

Dear Sir/Madam,

The DigitalFilipino.com Web Awards just concluded its final judging and your site, Booktopia, was selected as winner in the Books category.

In this regard, please join us in our awards ceremony…

The agenda and details of the award can be found at http://digitalfilipinowebawards.blogspot.com

The DigitalFilipino.com Web Awards in collaboration with the APEC Digital Opportunity (ADOC) Award program aims to advocate the use of Internet and e-Commerce for business development, through the identification, promotion, and highlighting of best e-Commerce practices from various websites in the Philippines.

Websites in thirty-one (31) categories were reviewed and judged for their ability to create a noticeable presence on the Internet — their ability to be seen and heard among all the noise and clutter of the Net. Commercial websites were also reviewed for their ability to conduct e-commerce, in simple yet professional manner.

All entries were nominated by the public from December 2006 to February 2007 and were judged by members of the DigitalFilipino.com Club. Details about the club can be found at http://www.e-commercephilippines.com

All winners will receive a trophy, Google AdWords voucher, special prizes, and a slot in a three-day advanced e-commerce training at the ADOC Center in Quezon City this May 2007.

From the 31 winners, there will be three ADOC Award winners too where the first placer will be able to represent the Philippines in the ADOC Week on July 24 to 27 in Taiwan.

The ADOC project aims to facilitate the bridging of the digital divide within the APEC community through training and trading. It is an independent, not-for-profit program funded by Chinese Taipei. The project was initiated in 2004, and to date, seven APEC economies are actively participating in the project. These are Chile, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Through this project, we hope to increase the awareness and promotion of outstanding websites and to get a better understanding of the benefits of the Internet, as well as the various ways in which e-Commerce can play a vital part in business development.

Thank you.

Respectfully yours,
Janette Toral
DigitalFilipino.com

We’ve been running here and there since the end of January and have only had a few chances to take pause. We’ve been packing books, unpacking books, moving shelves, talking to people, printing signs, and all the other activities connected with book sales and in-store events. It sounds tiring, and it is, but it’s also a lot of fun.

Near the end of January, we held a week-long book sale at the Ateneo de Manila University for their Humanities Week through the Ateneo Literary Society. Thanks to the teachers and students who passed by our table and thanks especially to Marielle of LitSoc.

The first weekend of February saw us at the Hotel Intercon in Makati for the Read or Die Convention. It was our first convention and we experienced for the first time setting up a booth. This involves hauling shelves and boxes and unpacking our things in the wee hours of the morning. It was a great experience though and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves during the convention. One of our favorite activities at RodCon 2007 was watching the Alitaptap Storytellers on stage. They were very entertaining and the children (and adults) in the audience were obviously enthralled by the storytelling. Even people who don’t read will love them. We plan on bringing the storytellers to the store in the future. We were pleasantly surprised to see a series of posters featuring local actors in a ‘Get Caught Reading’ campaign by the National Book Development Board (NBDB). (Local talents featured in the posters are Miriam Quiambao and Makisig Morales of Super Inggo. Interesting stuff, but useless if it doesn’t get the proper exposure.) We also loved that there was a publisher’s room where writers could meet up with publishers and discuss submissions. We enjoyed the concert with local artists featuring music based on literary works. It’s all in the interest of building a literary culture.

Hopefully, the other attendees and exhibitors feel the same way we do about the convention. It’s not the famous Los Angeles Times Festival of Books just yet but given a few more tries and a few more supporters, that’s how I imagine it can be. After seeing how much fun can be had and how much good can be done by having our very own book festival, I don’t see why we shouldn’t have another one next year. Thanks to the Read or Die organizers.

On the second day of the convention, we sponsored a panel discussion entitled “Speculative Fiction for Beginners: Reading Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror” which award-winning author and editor Dean Alfar facilitated with the LitCritters. It was great! And to think the LitCritters group only had a few days to work on their panel. It was a lively and interesting session. The LitCritters described their particular speculative fiction preferences: science fiction, fantasy, horror, interstitial fiction (general and young adult). Then they each recommended titles for beginning readers to look up. No wonder the sign-up sheet was full before noon and had to be taken from the reception desk because more people wanted to attend. Thank you to Dean and the rest of the LitCritters for a wonderful panel.

A few days after that, we held a book launch/discussion with first-time publisher Cozy Reads Publishing. (Incidentally, RodCon is where we met Cozy Reads Publishing!) The publishers and contributing authors were around to answer questions on the writing and publishing process. A book signing followed afterwards. Thanks to Sherwil for bringing their book, Heartbreak, to our store and for bringing those delicious mini donuts. We wish Cozy Reads more success with their upcoming titles.

(I don’t think it has been mentioned yet that aside from giving you the stories, one of the things that will impress you about the book Heartbreak is how beautiful it looks. People often complain that local books are just a bit unattractive but this book is different. The cover, the print and the thick and creamy paper look very professional; not your usual newsprint, and yet readers find it very affordable.)

We don’t really mind the running around. We love spending time with our customers and talking to publishers and writers. Hopefully the rest of year brings us a lot more of these activities. So if you have suggestions or ideas for future events, please tell us.

Last month, it was mentioned on this blog that we were carrying a new publication called The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories. We’ve taken a closer look at it and have decided that we like it. And since it is a new publication and we do want to see it in print for issue #2, at least, we thought we’d mention it again.

For Readers and Writers

Every story is introduced by the editor. In his introductions, the editor tries to give you something to think about. In one it is about fate, in another it is about how the author may have come up with his story. Some of you might find this unnecessary but given a Filipino audience of which most have yet to be introduced to genre stories, this can actually be very helpful in guiding the reader. (Genre stories are those that fit into specific genres like science fiction, fantasy, mystery, crime, horror, detective, etc. It’s really a big group of different kinds of stories if you think about it so you will most likely find something you like.)

The magazine doesn’t just give you good stories to read in a handy and affordable digest format, it also encourages you to write. At the end of each story is a short description of the author and a few words from the author about writing his story. The short profile also includes an e-mail address so you can tell the author what you thought of the story or maybe ask questions about it. This focus on the authors and interacting with authors will hopefully inspire many of you who have always thought of writing to actually sit down and write. You will see these authors are just like you, they go to school or they go to work, but they also write. Write to your favorite author. Ask him how he started writing. Ask him how long it took him to write ten pages of fiction. Ask what inspires him.

Near the end of a magazine is a story prompt. In the first issue we are given a photograph. Write a story based on the photograph and submit it and you could win a free issue of the digest. There is also, of course, information on how you can submit your own story to the magazine for publication. I believe that authors are paid for their stories.

At the end is the story of how the magazine came to be. Here you get the impression that the publisher without guarantees and with all the risks jumped in and went to press anyway because he wanted to make something good and readable.

The magazine is very affordable at P100. You don’t have to be very careful with it. You can roll it up and put it in your back pocket if you like. Take it with you on the MRT. Read it during your break. Pass it on to your friends.

The Feature Story

Our favorite story for the first issue has to be the feature story, The Middle Prince, by Dean Francis Alfar. It gives you humor, whimsy, and that feeling of wanting to know what will happen next. It’s also a story that many middle princes out there will find familiar. What’s a middle prince (or princess)? I happen to be one. Find out for yourself when you read the story.

Something About Writing and Publishing in the Philippines

Why is it so important to us that we encourage people to write? Because there is so much to write about and hardly anyone is doing any writing. We will not be talking about important it is to read or write here because we all know that already. One of the reasons people don’t write is that, for most, it’s just not a career that will pay the bills. What can we do to change this?

We can support publications like The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories. Brave efforts like this need our help. We can help by reading their stories, telling them what we think of their stories and what stories we would like to see, writing our own stories and publishing them even if just for a small fee because we all have to start with little steps.

Support the National Book Development Trust Fund Bill or HB 1531, which, if passed, will give local authors grants that will give them some financial leeway so they can produce manuscripts for publication. When you attend RodCon 2007 this February, please make sure to sign your name as a supporter of the bill before you leave the event.

Encourage the youth to read and write. When we attended the launch of Philippine Speculative Fiction Volume 2 last month, we were pleasantly surprised that some of the contributing authors were teenagers! Thank you and congratulations to their parents who taught their children to read and allowed them to write.