2. Poland by James Michener
3. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
4. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
5. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
6. A Fortune Teller Told Me by Tiziano Terzani
7. The Powers that be by David Halberstam
8. Guns, Germs And Steel (The Fates of Human Societies) by Jared Diamond
9. Baka Sakali by Rofel G. Brion
10. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
I consider The Count and Poland among my favorites for sentimental reasons. My maternal grandfather gave me the Dumas novel when I was still in elementary and I got caught up in the adventure and hopeful ending. The Michener novel was given to me by my Uncle Boboy Macapagal when I was 13 and it turned me on to historical fiction genre. It was also the book that started my habit of reading during trips.
I like literature from Iberoamerica. Borges I am still struggling with but I particularly like reading books in the magic realism genre (Coelho, Allende, Esquivel). I haven’t read a book by Garcia Marquez that I didn’t like and Solitude is my favorite of his books. It is written with such breadth and passion. I see a lot of similarities between the Latin American culture and our own.
It was also the flowing writing style of Arundhati Roy that I loved in The God of Small Things. I had to read some sentences over and over just because they were so rich with imagery and the turn of the phrase made the English language sing.
I have three non-fiction books on my list: a travel book, a book on the history of journalism in the US and a book on the history of human societies. I enjoy traveling and Tiziano Terzani’s non-fiction book on his year of travel around Asia by every means except by air made the places seem familiar yet wondrous. One of my friends found it too patronizing – like a European wanting the old colonies to remain undeveloped – although thought he had great respect for the different cultures he visited and not at all dismissive as Paul Theroux’s Patagonian Express. David Halberstam’s book was given to me by a fellow editor-in-chief at my university paper at a time when I thought I wanted to be a journalist and all the professionalism and integrity (and power play) of how the New York Times came to be fascinated me. Jared Diamond’s book is one I enjoyed reading because although it was a book that combined different scientific and social science disciplines to tell the story of man and why our history played out the way it has, it is surprisingly wittily written and I found myself laughing out loud in various parts.
Nick Hornby’s first novel also made me laugh out loud. I bought the book in 1997, and for a moment I thought I understood the differences in the way men and women think. I loved the way a moral dilemma was posed as a question of buying the complete collection of Beatles singles for a pittance from a woman who was about to divorce her husband or turning it down in solidarity with the man.
I confess I should read more Filipino novels. I loved Nick Joaquin’s Manila My Manila and the Locsin translations of Rizal’s novels and Rolando Tinio’s works are just pure genius. When it comes to Filipino books, though, I am partial to poetry, probably because I have friends who are poets. My favorite is Dr. Rofel Brion’s Baka Sakali, a collection that won a National Book Award. His English and Pilipino poems to me are quiet but speak straight to my consciousness not only about being Filipino but about living life. His doctoral thesis, "Story," is also a revealing collection that allowed me to understand him more.
I have great respect for Neil Gaiman because he is such a creative and engaging storyteller. His Sandman comics were a world away from the DC comics fare and I found myself having to read more of the classics to get some of his allusions. With Stardust, he weaves the same magic but not as dark and it is to me the perfect fairy tale for adults. I would have placed Tolkien on my list but I am not worthy because I have only read one book from the series and a cousin of mine is such a fanatic, I pale in comparison. When I complete the ring series – and when I read Tinio rather than watch his plays on stage – I will probably have to revise this list.
Have just started reading this book. It is quite promising as it begins with the narrator (a woman doctor) describing her miserable marriage. It almost seems like one of my real women friends’ narrative of her day-to-day "being married" travails. Available at National Book Store and Powerbooks.
Magazine of the week: RED HERRING available from Emerald Headway.