I finished several titles in between work on my second novel (Sa Kasunod ng 909) and my dissertation's introduction: Miguel Syjuco's Ilustrado, Gina Apostol's The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata and Bibliolepsy, Alfred A. Yuson's Great Philippine Jungle Energy Cafe, Colm Tóibín's The Master, Karel Čapek's War with the Newts, Paul Auster's Man in the Dark, and all of Bob Ong's books (finally!) except for Kapitan Sino, which I haven't bought yet. I also re-read Ambeth R. Ocampo's Makamisa: The Search for Rizal's Third Novel (triggered, of course, by the closing sections of Apostol's Raymundo Mata), and began reading the first volume of The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights, newly released by Penguin Classics, with new translations by Malcolm C. Lyons. I might find time to write about my thoughts on them in the future. (I obviously didn't include here exclusively non-fiction works; most of them I read as research materials for things I'm working on right now.)
May gayuma siguro talaga ang misteryo ng numero dahil sa paninimbang nito sa tiyak at kawalang-katiyakan, na nag-uugat pa sa itinuring na isa sa mga ninuno ng nobela: ang 1,001 Arabian Nights . Kaya siguro interesadong-interesado akong magkakopya at mabasa ang 2666 ni Roberto Bolaño na kasama na pala sa bagong edisyon ng 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, kahit ngayong taon lang lumabas ang salin nito sa Ingles.