More of my 26 books

Last week, I listed nine of my 26 favorite books. Here are some more books that I love:

10. Recipes for Writing: Motivation, Skills, and Activities, by Murray Suid and Wanda Lincoln. This book convinced me that English teachers should require their students to write at least one paragraph every day, but they do not need to read everything their students write. The focus should be on what students do, not what teachers do.

11. Le Petit Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I had to read the French original to pass my foreign language exam for my doctoral degree, but I enjoy both the English The Little Prince, translated by Richard Howard, and the Tagalog Ang Munting Prinsipe, translated by Lilia F. Antonio. My favorite passages from the book are “What is essential is invisible to the eye” and “You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”

12. La Cantatrice Chauve, by Eugène Ionesco. Using the two English translations (The Bald Soprano and The Bald Prima Donna), I adapted this play into Tagalog as Ang Tatay Mong Kalbo. My adaptation was staged by Cecile Guidote (not yet an Alvarez) at the Rajah Sulayman Theater in Fort Santiago in 1970. Much later Cecile (already an Alvarez) brought it on tour in several cities in the United States. There have been so many productions of my play that I have lost count. Now you know why the original by Ionesco has to be among my favorite books.

13. How Doctors Think, by Jerome E. Groopman. Because I see doctors much too often these days, I want to know why I am entrusting my life to the medicines they prescribe. As it turns out, if you read this book, it is not the prescription medicines that are important, but the doctors themselves. Fortunately for me, I have doctors who do not treat diseases but patients.

14. I and Thou, by Martin Buber. I have philosophical side which sees reality not for what it appears to be, but for what it is from the point of view of the Thou or the Other. An oversimplified way of rephrasing the thesis of this book is that everything is personal, even typhoons in Manila and earthquakes in Iran.

15. Language and Nationalism: The Philippine Experience Thus Far, by Andrew Gonzalez FSC. Brother Andrew, as I called him, heavily influenced the way I think of language. This book shows that there is no relationship between nationalism and language. We all knew that, of course, because Rizal wrote in Spanish, F. Sionil Jose writes in English, and their patriotism has never been questioned. My advocacy of Filipino as a language of instruction has nothing to do with national identity. The national language, or in many cases, the mother tongue is, simply put, the best way to get Filipino children to read fast and well.

16. Contract Bridge Complete, by Charles Goren. Despite the dozens of later books that discuss the sophisticated strategies and techniques now available for bridge players (professional ones, not those that play socially), this old reliable is, well, still reliable. Bidding systems have developed in leaps and bounds since Goren wrote this book, but his general ideas about how to win bridge games are still the foundation of more advanced ways of playing the only game that can match chess in complexity. After all, while Deep Blue has beaten chess grandmasters, no computer has so far beaten the world’s bridge life masters.

17. Fit for Life, by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond. I try but always fail to follow what the Diamonds say about eating only certain types of food at certain times during the day, but I believe their claim that a mere ten minutes of moderate physical activity a day will keep you fit for life. Maybe I am deluding myself, but at least I do not spend money on expensive gyms.

18. Small World: An Academic Romance, by David Lodge. My friend Edna Manlapaz keeps nagging me to write a similar novel about Philippine academics. While I appreciate her faith in my writing talent, I have not yet written a novel, though I do have plenty of anecdotes to weave into the kind of witty narrative that Lodge creates. One reason I like Lodge is that, after 50 years or so of being a literary critic, he started writing novels. Instead of talking about literature, one should create literature.

19. The Romance Mode in Philippine Popular Literature and Other Essays, by Soledad Reyes. One of my favorites among the 500 or so books that I published as head of the De La Salle University Press, this book goes against the grain of most Philippine literary criticism. I love original minds.

20. The Trilogy of Saint Lazarus, by Cirilo F. Bautista. Yes, I understand his poetry. Yes, I appreciate it. Yes, I am strange.

21. Pasyon and Revolution: Popular Movements in the Philippines, 1840-1910, by Reynaldo Clemeña Ileto. Although the literary theory behind this book is flawed, it is still an excellent way of approaching political history through literary history. As a writer, I think, of course, that the best way to understand the world is through literature. (To be continued)