What books rock Gang Badoy’s world?

Gang Badoy Capati is writer-at-large for Esquire Philippines. She founded Rock Ed Philippines, a volunteer NGO with movements, projects and groups all over the Philippines. Rock Ed’s main objective is to provide venues for private citizens to participate in civic activities, and to make the young Filipino more interested in the learning and sense of contribution that comes from volunteer work.

I have been nagging Gang for her list of favorite books for weeks as I knew it would be varied and interesting. Finally, here it is.

All-time Favorite Ten Books and Why

1. A Mapmaker’s Dream by James Cowan. “Set in Venice, this is a journal of a 16th century monk who, without leaving his cell in an island monastery, listened to explorers, merchants and pilgrims (etc.) tell him stories of what they’d seen in faraway lands. They would all pay him a visit after they’d dock and narrate tales of the ‘new and different’ to aid him in his task, which was to create a map of the world. The cartographer slowly incorporates more than just the shape of the continents and kingdoms into his growing map. It’s a strange story, part-historical fiction, part philosophy — I found myself going back to this book periodically, maybe because slowly it started to make sense to me. I still learn from this book that the world is more than its topography — and that maybe, just maybe, interior landscapes and cultural terrain ought to be drawn as well. I’m not even sure if I’ve finished it or not, sa dami ng beses kong binalikan (considering how much I kept rereading its chapters).”

2. Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham. “Just like his other novel, The Moon and Sixpence, this book tells us the story of an individual who is torn between being successful in the socially acceptable definition and the ‘search for a meaningful life.’ The ‘search’ in both stories involves an abandoning of (what most of us consider) ‘the normal life.’ I guess when I was younger, I always imagined that many of my definitions of achievement and success were mostly imposed upon me from outside. Don’t get me wrong, I am not resentful of those lines being set; I guess, I was simply crazy about the idea that ‘This can’t be it.’ Both protagonists left their comfortable circles, gave up wealth, and basically disappeared, only to surface every now and then completely different from what they were before. They occasionally showed up to see friends unexpectedly, obviously stranger and simpler but calmer than the last time they did. I possibly keep going back to these novels because I still fancy myself doing that some day before I die. Or maybe I’m slowly doing this ‘abandoning’ now? Who knows. So I keep reading them over and over ‘til I get it.”

3.  Life Before X by Angelo Lacuesta. “The author is an old friend. We are practically the same age, had the same high school friends, I think possibly the same political leaning, if we even both had/have one. We were in our pre-teens before the EDSA revolution, our parents were politically engaged, we went to Catholic schools  — he views the motions of his growing up so differently from me — and at the same time his thoughts best articulate some of mine. (He is the better writer so he trapped the sentiments so well in his words, something I could never do.) So I go back to this book whenever I feel alone — it comforts me to read that someone so different is also so like me, but not quite. I think this book has become a friend, I spend more time with it than Mr. Lacuesta himself as we have both become too busy, me pretending to be grown up — him, well, I think he already did.” 

4 & 5. ) Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. “Along with Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction, I’ve read this book at least once a year since I first read it decades ago. I know the Glass family possibly more than I know my own. I think I understand and embrace my family more because of the Glass family. Isn’t it amazing what novels can do? These could possibly be the oldest books in my personal library. I never lend them. When someone wants to borrow them (even Catcher in the Rye pala) I end up buying them a new copy and lend them those. Some get returned, some don’t — so I may have two or three of each Salinger book with me until now. Always by my bedside pile. I know some chapters so well by now I lull myself to sleep reading the same sentences over and over. My copy of Franny and Zooey no longer has its front cover and I like it that way.”

6. Insectissimo & Super Panalo Sounds and most anything by Lourd Ernest de Veyra. “Disclaimer: the Palanca award-winning author is one of my closest friends and therefore it is always an adventure to ‘read’ his edited mind; it is almost as smartly entertaining as his unedited self. I suppose I also want to promote his book sales in the hopes that the profit will translate to him treating us to dinner more times this year. (Of course I’m kidding.) He writes as far and as wide as my brain or social life can take me (maybe further and wider even) and I like this kind of read/ride. For what is a book, really, but to take you away from your safe zone and fly you right back to it? Mr. de Veyra’s work does just that.” 

7. The Passionate Sightseer by Bernard Berenson. “From the diaries of the art historian himself, from 1947-1956 (he died in 1959). A compilation of his last thoughts on life and art, Bernard Berenson showed me the perfect way to write about passion and turbulence in a most tranquil way. I have not finished this one — maybe I think I’ll be too sad if I do. I read some entries over and over and I doubt if I will ever tire of it.”

8. The Summing Up by W. Somerset Maugham. “The reason for my loving this one is almost exactly the same as No. 8. Just like Berenson’s The Passionate Sightseer, this book is also a compilation of Maugham’s final thoughts on art, politics, religion, wine, food, walking, life in general. Essay after essay, all the lessons I have learned and yet to learn crawl out of the pages. Some I recognize, others I will when I finally get wiser.”

9. The Secret History by Donna Tartt. “I read this as an art history student who was about the same age as the characters in the book. Set on a beautiful campus, the story is about being uncertain, being certain, being flotsam, being decisive, murder, learning, Latin and Greek, fountain pens, dark lofts, winter, fashion, going against, following closely, the sound of the cello, the lasting effect of death on the living, everything my 20-something self wanted to read about while alone in a dorm room. Some stories grip me because of the plot, some because of the way they are written. This one got me with both, and got me bad. I still read it on trips sometimes, it fits right in my backpack side pocket. The last two backpacks I bought were chosen based on that requirement.”

10. Why Our Decisions Don’t Matter edited by Simon Van Booy. “The most recently purchased book on this list, this is a collection of essays, poems, even some photos and art by Homer, Sophocles, Horace, Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Voltaire, Blake, Dickinson, Twain, Rilke, Camus, Kerouac, Sartre, Borges, Beckett and others. (see how I cheated there?) All selections tackle the big question. It is presently tucked in my other backpack pocket.” 

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The Reading Club recommends The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connelly, same author as The Lincoln Lawyer, which was made into a movie. It’s an entertaining read, nothing cerebral, just a lot of fun. Available at National Bookstore and Powerbooks.

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For your comments and suggestions you can write me at mjrodis@gmail.com.