Our Common Ground: Hope

Posted on 04/13/2020 by Lenn

It is in situations like this that we find beauty in the things that we used to take for granted — in things that were once present and constant. The irony of it all is that we, human beings, become so used to our surroundings that we tend to fail at appreciating the beauty that behold us. This pandemic is a huge reminder that we should give importance to the little things in our life because everything could be taken away from us in one fell swoop.

This situation made me realize how much I miss Makati; its streets that are usually packed with cars, the sidewalks that are filled with people rushing to work, the coffee shops that have long lines, the malls that I was so used to roam around during lunch breaks with my boyfriend and a lot more.

But amidst this pandemic, I know that there is hope. A desperate feeling within our hearts — our hearts that are eager to do something, to go places, and to start anew. An invisible contract within our souls to start living a better life because it is never too late to start over.

26 Titles Since Year 1

Posted on 03/28/2020 by Lenn

Photo taken by: JNVQ

It’s my birthday today, and this quarantine kind of sucks because I can’t celebrate it with the one person I would have loved to spend it with but I just keep in mind that this is all for the best. We need to stay separated for a while now, so that we can spend more birthdays together in the future.

For the past couple of years, I’ve been doing blog posts about the lessons I’ve learned in my x number of years here on Earth. This year, I thought that maybe I could tweak the concept a little because to be honest, I’m running out of lessons to take note of. Not that I do not learn new things anymore, but it’s just so hard to jot them down year after year. Also, to be honest, I feel like most of the lessons I write were carried over from the past year. So yeah, that concept kinda gets boring in time.

Continue reading →

2020, Here I Come

Posted on 01/01/2020 by Lenn

Like many other years that have passed, 2019 has been full of challenges, laughter, tears, surprises, and so much more. So what truly made it different from all the past years?

For me it goes like: This year was full of firsts. It’s been a year of surprises and going-aways and basically trying my best to live my life as best as possible. Continue reading →

What I Wore #3: Malaysia

Posted on 12/31/2019 by Lenn

To follow up on my previous entry for this series, I’m sharing with everyone the outfits I wore when we were in Malaysia back in June. Continue reading →

Yuletide Season 2019

Posted on 12/28/2019 by Lenn

Merry Christmas, everyone! I know this is a bit late and I’ve been on some kind of a hiatus for a couple of days without any warning post of sorts.

So maybe I owe everyone an explanation: My last work day of the year was on December 20 and that week was also the busiest as we’ve got a deadline to meet. It was also my first time staying up all night just to wait for our documents to be released.

After that week, it’s been my family’s tradition to spend Christmas at my grandparents’ house in Tagaytay. Aside from having limited access to the internet, we were all too busy preparing for Noche Buena and going places.

So setting all the explanation aside, I hope all of you have had an awesome Christmas! My cousins and I spent Christmas Eve watching Doctor Sleep while having a couple of drinks with my aunt and uncle over our DIY Samgyupsal.

Here’s a photo of what our little Noche Buena looked like:

Book Haul: Scholastic Warehouse Sale

Posted on 04/30/2017 by Lenn

There are so many bookish events going on recently that’s just too hard to ignore. Last month, NBS had this huge (and crazy!) month-long sale. I spent almost every weekend looking for awesome titles and it was my birth month, so I feel like it’s okay to splurge every once in a while!

This month, it’s my cousins birth month and she’s also just as bookish as I am. So during the weekend, my grandfather decided to go to C. Raymundo, Pasig City so we could buy (or hoard, in our case) a lot of books.

NOTE: Please forgive me for the blurry shot

Emily Windsnap and the Castle in the Mist by Liz Kessler
Summer and the City by Candace Bushnell
Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman
The Crossbones by Patrick Carman
Trash by Andy Mulligan
The Search For WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi
What’s Up With Jody Barton? by Hayley Long
Every Soul A Star by Wendy Mass

Here are the books I got from the sale, I didn’t avail their Box-All-You-Can books, but I do got all these books for almost half their original prices, isn’t that amazing?! I’m still so happy that I found The Search For WondLa because, I swear, I’ve been looking for it in every bookstore!

I also picked up the three weeks’ worth of comic books I reserved. Finally, I was getting scared that they wouldn’t hold my reservation anymore. Ha ha

Now, I wonder when I’m going to get to finish reading all this, given that I’ve grown really busy this month and then this May, Fullybooked will be holding their annual Free Comic Book Day! I’m so hyped up because graphic novels will be at 20% off! For more details, click here and follow their Facebook and Twitter page. 🙂

#MIBF2016

Posted on 09/20/2016 by Lenn

Went to the 37th Manila International Book Fair last Sunday with my cousin! After so many years of planning to go, I finally got the chance to! Finally, you guys! It was crazy inside because there are so many people since it’s the last day of the event, but it was an awesome experience nevertheless.

We only spent an hour or so inside. The lines were so long (so so so so long!!! and I’m not even overreacting) that it took us 30 minutes before we were able to pay for our books inside the Fullybooked booth! After paying, we tried roaming around just so we could see other booths and bookish events happening at the time. We also grabbed a copy of the MIBF map since my cousin wanted a remembrance from the event.

I personally loved this booth with all those hugot lines hanging above the place.

There are actually A LOT of people inside and it’s really hard to walk or overtake from anyone. My brother actually came inside with us, but we lost him somewhere, so he decided to go and just wait for us outside.

The only selfie we got from inside and I just realized that there aren’t any sight of books in the background from where we took the picture. *sad*

Here’s my very small MIBF book haul!

I can’t wait to start reading them but at the moment, I’m currently reading The Could Searchers (Amulet, #3) by Kazu Kibuishi! It’s a graphic novel and I’m so happy that I’m finally catching up with all the graphic novel series I’ve started reading last year. Yas. *hearts everywhere*

#ProjectAnnotationsPH

Posted on 11/27/2015 by Lenn

So last Monday, I finally received the book my blogger friends and I are passing along to read for our little book club. This is the pilot testing of our project, the original plan is to read one book per month but since we are all too busy with school/work, it took a lot of time to read. Since it’s just the pilot testing, that’s okay, at least we already know what to do next time.

So for our first project, we decided to pass along Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard.

Project Annotations means that we could do anything we want to the book while reading it. Highlight quotes, underline phrases or words, write comments on a certain chapter, write sticky notes, etc. Anything as long as the owner of the book approves.

So far, I have only read three chapters. I’ve been really busy with work and when I get home, I usually just immediately pass out, so I have little time for reading. Hopefully, I make a lot of progress during the weekend since it’s a holiday on Monday!

I’m the third person to read the book and there will be someone after me and then we’ll be passing along another book. So, you see, this is a mini book club with some of my blogger friends here. And while this is really enjoying, I find it really weird to write stuff on a book. It’s just…. I don’t really do that often. Wait, I don’t really do that. So this project is very new to me but so far, I am enjoying the process.

Xoxo.

My First Book Signing Event!

Posted on 08/04/2013 by Lenn

So yesterday was the first ever book signing event I attended, since I wasn’t really active in such events before. But a few months ago, I have been reading book blogs and read a lot of exciting bookish events. Ever since, I really wanted to go to events, plus I actually want to meet my fellow book bloggers and be friends with them. We actually got there at around 10:15, and whoa, I was already the 107th person to register!! And to think that the mall has just opened at the time.

At around 4PM exactly, National Bookstore was filled with excited Kiera fans! Everyone was actually screaming when Kiera appeared in front of us and, I assumed, she was actually touched by the crowd’s warm welcome because she was teary-eyed! There was a short interview before the actual signing started, and four people had the chance to ask her a question. I was so speechless since she was just a few steps in front of me.

It took an hour and 30 minutes before I actually had my books signed. I am still thankful for being the 107th person. Holy guacamole, there were 600+ people in there who wanted their books signed.

Finally, the most awaited. I get to hug and talk to her!!! Though, the event’s team were quite in a hurry because I understand that there are still a lot of people at the back. But still, you guys!! I was able to hug and talk to Kiera! Jeez, my feels!!! :’)

I left as soon as I got my books signed and as soon as I thanked and hugged Hazel! I really owe her one, because I forgot to bring a camera. It was nice of her to suggest of taking my photo since it was my first ever book signing. I am also glad to have met her, since she was actually my inspiration in putting up this book blog ♥

I am just so happy that my books are signed! The really long line + the wait + being scolded by Mom for going home late was all worth it! Kiera has been so kind and patient to all of us! ♥