by Rory J. Bolivar and Robespierre Bolivar
Eighteen published feature articles in and we continue to do what we love: reading and writing about books.
We have been avid readers for as long as we can remember. Curiously enough, our individual reading and writing stories followed similar paths (and timelines), before it melded seamlessly when we got married and continued on this wonderful journey together.
We were both in elementary school when we developed our love of books. We read whatever we could get our hands on, from children’s books, fairy tales, illustrated Bible stories, comic books, and young adult fiction.
We began our adult reading journey with the classics. From there our tastes branched off to different genres. We sampled as many kinds of books as we can, though we eventually settled on some favorites: the classics, historical and literary fiction, coming-of-age novels, and poetry, with a dash of fantasy and science fiction.
We hope you visit us here often. Let’s read and talk about books. And let’s encourage others to discover the wonders of reading.
Books are now as much a part of our home as the memories we bring back from trips. Even when we were starting our married life together and we didn’t have a lot of money, we religiously combed through second-hand bookstores and clearance sales, reveling in the amazing finds we were able to add to our shelves.
We have a growing library which reflects our common interests. It is our time capsule, tracking our progress through life and the evolution of our tastes, temperament and thinking.
Both of us discovered we had a flair for writing when we were in high school. We got high grades on book reports. We won local essay writing contests in our respective hometowns, and had mentors who encouraged us – and coached us – in our writing. We both wanted to study journalism in college.
And though we each diverged from this path when we entered university, we eventually found our way back into creative writing before graduating from college. We either wrote for an independent student magazine or edited a college organization newsletter.
Fast forward to 2020, when the pandemic forced all of us to stay home for long stretches of time. While we continued reading and talking about books on a regular basis in the intervening years, 2020 was when we began writing about books.
We wanted to share our love of books and encourage more people to read. And we thought writing about reading was the way to go. Fortunately, our first essay – on comic books – was published by a Philippine news website of wide circulation. This was shortly followed by more essays and book reviews, all published by major news outlets in the Philippines. Our January 2021 book review even launched the ‘Sunday Book Club’ column of one of these news websites.
We were also honored that our August 2021 book review was featured above the fold in the front page of the Lifestyle Section of one of Manila's major newspapers.
Eighteen published feature articles in and we continue to do what we love: reading and writing about books. We enjoy connecting with other book lovers on social media.
We hope you visit us here often. Let’s read and talk about books. And let’s encourage others to discover the wonders of reading.
To read more about The Authors click here.
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