Their favorite books, our favorite essays (Year 2)

There is no time wiser spent apart from reading a book than being with book lovers and talking about books. Especially when they have a wide range of reading choices – from rabbits that go house hunting, to mothers and their imperfect relationships with their daughters, to an aging superhero, and a treatise on living life with all of one’s senses awakened. It was a special occasion, too, because the event was attended by two award-winning fictionists whose own works are on our lists of favorite books.

At the recent awarding of My Favorite Book Year 2, held at National Book Store, Shangri-La Plaza, they talked not just about the joys of reading, but also the joys of writing.

Palanca hall of famer Krip Yuson had this piece of great (and naughty) advice for all: "Spend your life between covers, and live fully with many lovers." He had written this line for a friend, Eric Villegas who runs Libris Bookstore in Parañaque, as the slogan for his business. We will take to heart that advice, Krip!

Dr. Butch Dalisay, UP vice president for public affairs and himself a 16-time Palanca winner, said, "I would not have been a writer had I not been a reader. When people ask me what’s the best way to write well, I say, read well."

As STAR editor in chief Isaac Belmonte pointed out, "When you take a book and make it a part of your own experience, you transform it into something it was not when it was sitting on the shelf."

A brainchild of STAR president Miguel Belmonte and Lifestyle editor Millet M. Mananquil, My Favorite Book was a contest waiting to happen. National Book Store general manager nanay Socorro Ramos and vice president for purchasing Cecilia Licauco wanted to partner up with STAR two years ago to encourage people to read more.

Two years later, we still think it’s the best contest a newspaper could ever run.

This year’s winners chose books that truly changed their lives. Grandprize winner Cecile Lopez-Lilles wrote about Janet Fitch’s White Oleander, a book that tells the struggles of a mother and daughter, and also wrote how the book proved to be catharsis to her own damaged relationships.

She writes in her winning essay: "The girls had spent too many years in parental neglect. My initial clumsy attempts at reconciliation and atonement either puzzled or annoyed them. It didn’t take much longer for our relationship to come undone. It was as its layers were peeling that I read the book."

It was an appropriate coincidence that the judging was completed on the evening of February 13, and so when we called up Cecile, she was in Tagaytay having a pre-Valentine dinner with her family. This mother of six children cried over the phone as she told me, "This is the best gift I’ve ever received." Well, we didn’t argue with that! Cecile received P50,000 – P25,000 in cash and P25,000 in National Book Store gift certificates.

Second-prize winner Ma. Leonora P. Marzan wrote about Kitchen Table Wisdom. The book came into her life at a time when her body and spirit desperately needed healing from cancer. In author Rachel Naomi Remen, she found an ally. In fact, after her entry was published in the STAR, Leonora wrote her a letter and Remen sent her copies of her new books and audio tapes.

The Baguio-based winner has stopped her own chemotherapy treatments and spends her free time visiting children undergoing chemotherapy at the Baguio General Hospital. A member of the cancer survivors group called Minda’s Buddies, Leonora helps gather art materials for these children – crayons, coloring books, watercolors, sketchpads. Part of her prize – P30,000; half in cash, half in NBS gift certificates – will go to funding the project.

Third-prize winner Sherwin Pineda wrote one of the most interesting essays last year. The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller is set in the future with a 60-year-old Batman and Superman battling it out. Sherwin writes about being asked by a girl he was infatuated with what he wanted for his birthday. "Instead of sex, I asked for the trade paperback The Dark Knight Returns, the next best thing…When my birthday finally arrived, (the girl) gave me a copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul, a real book as she called it, one which I politely took, tried to read, and never got past the second page."

His entry brought out of the closet all the Batman fans present at the awarding. Editor Isaac Belmonte confessed to having always wondered what happened to Batman and Superman when they got older, while Millet Mananquil confessed to collecting Batman and Superman comic books and Mad magazine when she was a kid and hoping she’d become Superwoman when she grew up. "Instead, I just became a Madwoman," she quipped.

Sherwin is a head writer and producer at the Knowledge Channel. With his prize of P20,000, half in cash and half in NBS gift certificates, Sherwin can buy all the Batman comic books he wants.

National Book Store and STAR also gave out five honorable mention prizes – P2,000 in NBS gift certificates.

Leslie Lofranco Berbano wrote about Watership Down by Richard Adams. This freelance writer wears many hats – as a mother of three children, a stage director for musicals for her church in Fairview, and she also does documentary work for a network of NGOs. It was her daughter, she says, that pushed her to write the entry and she had no idea how much she would enjoy doing so. "This year, it’s my time to nag her to writer her own entry!" Leslie said.

Patrick Campos, a film teacher at Miriam College and Philippine Women’s University, wrote about the children’s book Papel de Liha by Ompong Remigio in his winning essay.

"This book of less than 30 pages weaves together the sweetest, softest, most delicate spot in my heart," he wrote. Patrick edits and does musical scoring for independent films and he’s taking up his master’s in Comparative Literature at UP.

Jean Lorrie M. Tabora, our youngest winner this year, chose Benilda Santos’ Alipato as her favorite book. Unfortunately, she couldn’t attend the awarding as she had a biology exam at Miriam College, where she is taking up BS Psychology. According to her mom Viola Tabora, Jean has always been into reading. On her list of favorite books are those by Benilda Santos and Rio Alma.

Christelle Mariano’s essay on Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen touches on loss. Like for most of our readers who enter the contest, the book came at a time in her life when she needed it most. Her beloved uncle had just died, and she felt Yoshimoto’s characters speaking of her own loss when Satsuki says, "The night he died, my soul went away to some other place and I couldn’t bring it back." And also speaking of her hope when Satsuki intones, "It’s all right, the day will come when you’ll pull out of this."

In her speech at the awarding, Catherine Rose Torres describes how seemingly oppressive her office was at her former job. It had no windows, she couldn’t see the skies. So she quit her job to be able to smell the roses. This was no surprise from a girl who wrote about Diane Ackerman’s A Natural History of the Senses, a non-fiction book that celebrates humanity through the five senses. Between jobs right now, Catherine is dabbling in photography and smelling quite a lot of roses.

This year’s panel of judges was composed of STAR columnists Krip Yuson and Butch Dalisay; STAR editors Isaac Belmonte, Millet Mananquil, Juaniyo Arcellana, Ching Alano and myself; National Book Store execs Cecilia Licauco and NBS marketing communication officer Joanne Santos; Joy Buensalido, president of Buensalido & Associates, the PR firm of NBS, and her daughter Monique Buensalido, Young Star columnist and recent Palanca Award first prize winner. The awarding was organized by NBS marketing services manager Letty Cid and her staff.

So, what did we learn from this year’s batch of entries? Several things. One is that Tuesdays with Morrie is still hugely popular; two is that when you haven’t read the chosen book of an entry, you always know how well or badly written the entry is by your desire to read the same book and see if it fits your life; three, a book can truly change your life; and four, reading takes time, whether it’s a bad book or a good book, and you have to set aside the time to do it. It’s almost like riding a bicycle again. You always know instinctively when to stop. And when to let go and enjoy the ride.