The business of books and reading

Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something, learned something, become a better person. — Nora Ephron

Read in order to live. — Gustave Flaubert

A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. — Chinese proverb

It’s sad to read news about the June 26 death of the outstanding American journalist, novelist, playwright, book author and top filmmaker Nora Ephron, who created such unforgettable movies as Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail.

Ephron was the author of such famous books as Wallflower at the Orgy, Crazy Salad Plus Nine and the 2006 No. 1 New York Times bestseller I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Reflections on Being a Woman.

In the 1998 romantic comedy You’ve Got Mail, actress Meg Ryan plays Kathleen Kelly, who owns an independent bookshop called The Shop Around The Corner, and Tom Hanks plays Joe Fox, whose family owns a mega bookstore chain similar to Borders or Barnes & Noble. Thinking of that old movie led this writer to think about the business of books, and how we can hopefully encourage not only more bookstores but also more public libraries.

How is the state of book selling and book publishing in the Philippines in this era of the Internet, social media and the ubiquitous power of TV? How is the state of the country’s libraries, such as the National Library along TM Kalaw Avenue in Manila? Are we doing enough to support books and the promotion of reading nationwide?

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Book Store Entrepreneurs

Apart from our admiration for the undisputed bookselling leader, the self-made tycoon Socorro C. Ramos of National Book Store, Powerbooks and Anvil Publishing; and also for the young entrepreneur-architect Jaime Daez behind Fully Booked and Bibliarch, this writer also admires the inspiring but little-known businessman behind the Book Sale outlets found in SM malls.

Emmanuel “Manny” Sison, 69, is a self-made entrepreneur who founded the Book Sale chain of second-hand bookshops. His first outlet opened in 1980 in Makati Cinema Square with a capital of P20,000. This book lover, cancer survivor and former polio victim was a working student and scholar when he finished his literature course at the University of Santo Tomas (UST). He became a college professor, then made some money in marketing and advertising before becoming a successful seller of affordable, second-hand books.  

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Tribute To Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Congratulations to book lover and multi-awarded artist Rodel Tapaya for recently being among those winning the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ 13 Artists Awards. I wish to share the image of his outstanding 5x4-foot oil painting, which is his tribute to 85-year-old Nobel Prize-winning journalist/novelist Gabriel “Gabo” Garcia Marquez of Colombia.

Among the author’s remarkable works available in local bookstores include One Hundred Years of Solitude, Autumn of the Patriarch and Love in the Time of Cholera. Similar to Tapaya, I look up to Marquez as one of my favorite novelists, along with Ernest Hemingway.

In May this year, a hoax on Twitter claimed Gabriel Garcia Marquez had died and this false news became viral. Although the author is still very much alive, he is believed to be weak or ailing. His literary agent, Carmen Balcelis, in 2010 said to the Chilean newspaper La Tercera: “I don’t think he’ll write ever again.”

Billionaire Jorge Araneta’s Colombian-born former Miss International beauty-queen wife, Stella Marquez Araneta, admires the author and she told me she once tried to invite Garcia Marquez to visit the Philippines.

Business leader Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala’s Colombian-born wife, Elizabeth “Lizzie” E. Zobel, also admires him. Incidentally she is also co-founder, vice-president and treasurer of the Sa Aklat Sisikat Foundation, Inc. which promotes literacy and reading in the Philippines. The foundation’s co-founder and president is Margarita L. Delgado, a top executive of the UPS-Delbros Express, Inc. and also of Delbros, Inc. One of the supporters of this foundation is Summit Media boss Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng.

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New And Notable Books

Here are some books this writer has received from STAR readers of this column. Thanks and congratulations to the authors and the publishers:

• Wala Lang: 500-word articles on Philippine Life & Culture by Philtrust Bank chairman and former Bangko Sentral Governor Jaime “Jimmy” C. Laya — The book is delightful, easy to read and very informative, not just for history buffs but also a must-read for all interested in Philippine culture.

• Mistresses Play… Husbands Stray… Wives Stay… by Jullie Yap Daza — This talented veteran journalist gives us a very engrossing, well-written and insightful book on philandering husbands, their suffering wives, mistresses and their oft-shocking foibles.

• My Daily Race: My Life as a Senator, Mom and Triathlete by Senator Pia S. Cayetano — This is an interesting and inspiring memoir of one of the country’s most enlightened political leaders.

• Passage: Poems 1983-2006 by Edgar B. Maranan — This book won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2008 from the National Book Development Board and Manila Critics Circle. It is a wonderful book of beautiful poems by one of the Philippines’ most prolific and talented literary writers.

• Chinese and Chinese Mestizos of Manila: Family, Identity and Culture, 1860s-1930s by Richard T. Chu — This is an earnest, scholarly attempt to understand the complex dynamics of colonial-era ethnic Chinese and their Chinese mestizo offspring, seeking to better understand their fluid identities and predicaments.

• YSG! Young, Sexy & Gorgeous! by Joyce Peñas Pilarsky — This health and wellness book is authored by a Filipina now based in Germany, with proceeds from sales going to the philanthropic Gintong Palad Balikatan, Inc. in the Philippines and the Joycelyn & Gunther Pilarsky Foundation in Germany. It is a useful guide for beauty tips, health superfoods, natural skincare secrets and a veritable bible about staying young for those beyond the age of 40.

• It Only Hurts When I Pee by RJ Ledesma — This entrepreneur, multi-media practitioner and yogi offers us a colorful book on male foibles and antics with his inimitable style of humor.

• Suplado Tips by Stanley Chi — Wacky humor in short vernacular Tagalog quips or jokes; easy and fun reading.

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