Reading a book while commuting is like being accompanied by a real person on your way to work. It makes the whole ride to the office less dreadful.
Once I was accompanied by Thad Beaumont and let me tell you, he gave me my most violent morning to date. I also recall being accompanied by Dolores Claiborne, she talked a whole lot but it was fun because when she talked about Vera Donovan, I felt pity, fury and terror all at the same time. When Clay, Alice and Tom joined me in my early morning commute to work, I was inspired to raise zombies in my workstation for Halloween.
Whenever a character is about to say goodbye, I feel sad and panicky. I start thinking of another book to read. I am no literary connoisseur so I tend to stick to the authors I’ve developed a furious admiration for. That will be King and Gaiman. I read other titles too but these two guys are the ones who occupy the most space in my desk.
I recently finished the whole of Sandman and it was awesome. Morpheus is the best companion of all because he brings a whole army of other creatures and characters for me to play with.
Which now brings me to my next target: Wicked. I was dead set on getting Wicked after work. I heard Elphaba and Glinda are awesome commute-mates. I went to Megamall and headed straight to Powerbooks. I wanted to maximize the card thinger I got from there. After making me wait for 20 minutes:
Powerbooks Girl: Sorry, out of stock
Me: Oh… really?
Powerbooks Girl: May dadating naman po. Gusto niyo magpareserve?
Me: Kelan dadating?
Powerbooks Girl: Hindi po namin alam eh.
Uhm… whut? I turned my back on her and went to National Bookstore. I was surprised with the number of graphic novels they have in stock. Then my eyes traveled and found a whole shelf full of Gregory Maguire books.
Mirror Mirror… Lost… Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister… Son of a Witch… A Lion Among Men…
…That’s it? They had everything except Wicked. Great. I felt so sickened right at the pit of my stomach that I wanted to either throw up or cry. I thought of buying LXG or Swamp Thing or V for Vendetta instead since I have been planning to buy those anyway… but it just wasn’t the same. I had an appointment with Elphaba, it just felt wrong to be with someone else. So I went to the nearest bookstore: Bestsellers in Podium.
Eureka! They have it! So now I’m a happy sorbetera. I was so happy, I took Kingdom Come off the shelf as well. I’ve been meaning to read it since… oh I don’t know, three years ago? Two years? And since Bestsellers didn’t have V for Vendetta (why is everything fucking out of stock!) and Kingdom Come was just 700php, I took it!
Yay! New companions! 
touch it?
Koji A. Iizuka
December 13, 2009
wow! i like king and gaiman too. i’ve only read coraline from gaiman but i get where he’s coming from and i like it. looking forward to buying the sandman series. wicked by gregory maguire has been on my wishlist for months
have you seen the musical? idina menzel as elphaba is the bomb. i still get the shivers when i hear her sing defying gravity.
chu
February 10, 2011
Do you have any books by Graham Hancock?