my sembreak booklist

I'm actually happy that the time I have right now is partially devoted to catching up on my reading. Last year's sembreak (2008) saw me buying "Love in the time of Cholera" by Marquez, which I managed to finish this year around May. During our Dumaguete vacation, I managed to buy around 5 books, 4 of which I'm done reading! I'm also happy because these are some of the books I have always wanted to get my hands on but couldn't because of time and finacial constraints. Eunice actually told me that she could just imagine me at National Bookstore like a child running around, like it's already Christmas or something. Yeah, I do get giddy everytime I enter a 'real' bookstore. There isn't any thing remotely close to that here in Zamboanga.

So I was really excited when I saw the 39 clues being displayed at the entrance of the store. These are short (150 - 200 page) books published by Scholastic press, with each book penned by a different author. It revolves around the lives of Dan and Amy Cahill, who, upon the death of their beloved grandmother, discover that they are actually part of a powerful clan which basically shaped modern history. The whole point of the story is that the siblings are on the chase to find 39 clues that will lead them to the source of the Cahill family's power. A slew of greedy, powerful, deceitful, and oftentimes idiosycratic relatives who also took on the challenge of finding the clues add spice to the story. I only bought books 1 - 3 (The Maze of Bones, One False Note, The Sword Thief respectively) because 1. I didn't know if I would like the story and 2. Each book costs around P500 so buying in bulk is pretty hard on the wallet. But lucky enough, these are actually the kind of books I would really really read. It engages the reader enough to actually want to be part of the quest himself (The nerd I am). But seriously, the pace is just right and the one thing I craved about the book is its ability to make the reader want more.

Next on my list is the Hunger Games trilogy, with Hunger Games and Catching Fire (by Suzanne Collins) being the first and second book respectively. Now, this is totally different from 39 clues in the sense that if the 39 clues is a humorous adventure-thriller which is most of the time, PG, the Hunger Games on the other hand, tells a story of survival in the strictest sense of the word, in a post-apocalyptic US, which is ruled by an omnipresent government bent on maintaining order through fear. We have Katniss Everdeen, the underdog and a representative of the hungry masses. Her life turns around when she was chosen to represent her district in the Hunger Games..A contemporary gladiator bloodbath where teenagers (aged 12 - 18) are forced to kill each other in order to survive and to win. This was instituted by the government as a tool to keep in the people in line. For Katniss, winning guarantees fame, food and safety...or does it? If your don't get what the Hunger Games are about, or if you feel my explanation to be inadequate, you can always google it, or better yet buy the book!

I'm done with Hunger Games and I'm in the first few pages of Catching Fire and I have to say that I have become a fan. You can always look up reader's reviews and they are generally positive, heck, even Stephenie Meyer loves it.