Books

In 2007, our company was asked to develop an instructional CD-ROM to help the Anti-Money Laundering Council train the staff of pawnshop and money changers.

We developed the CD-ROM using Flash, HTML and video, but we also threw in this low-budget comicbook.

Starting today, I'll record here the instances where Filipinos are featured in works of fiction. I've been meaning to do this, but always got sidetracked.

I have this small theory that Filipinos are very slowly taking the limelight in international media. (The Chinese are very well-known the world over and so are Thais. Filipinos are now slowly getting in the radar.)

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
By Gregory Maguire

This screaming-green book was gifted to me by Elmer and I've been reading it for a couple of weeks now. What's interesting about Wicked is that it tells the story from the other side of the coin. Wicked is the sort-of bio of The Wicked Witch of the West, the infamous villain that Dorothy vanquished in Wizard of Oz, through "liquidation".

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Inkheart instantly appealed to the book lover in me. It has all the elements that I like about a good yarn: a mystery, an adventure and a child who saves the day. Best of all, it has magic and, at the center of the adventure, is a confusticating book that is also titled Inkheart. This, plus wonderful character names like Dustfinger, Basta, Mortola and Silvertongue, makes Inkheart a good candidate for a read-aloud book.

I liked The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time because it is simple, fresh and touching. It is simple, because the narrative is easy to follow (being the point of view of Christopher, a teener with autism).

Last Sunday, the Philippine Tolkien Society, with much motivation and prodding from Ian, did a retelling of The Hobbit with me as storyteller. It was fun and we learned lots of lessons (we are revising the manuscript now to make it more engaging).