aoixchelle's review against another edition
3.0
"Everything begins and everything ends, and that's wonderful. You know what's going on when you read a book, when you listen to a song or look at a painting. Or even if you don't don't know what's going on, you know that there are underlying reasons for everything."
"It's nothing she can't handle, but sometimes she gets tired of handling things, of feeling that life is just an endless list of Things to Do."
"It's nothing she can't handle, but sometimes she gets tired of handling things, of feeling that life is just an endless list of Things to Do."
ilela's review against another edition
3.0
Hit or miss. Glad i didnt buy the hard copy. I find his teenage-like centrism of women kinda weird tbh
sky_reaper's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This book brings me back to the bittersweet memories of a long-winded, but treasured past. The words are written as if a friend of mine tell the tales of our innocence and youth.
I never could have imagined to live the world the author portrays in every story told.
I never could have imagined to live the world the author portrays in every story told.
willowonders's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.75
📚22/26: Dear Distance by Luis Joaquin Katigbak
Dear Distance is a collection of stories -- melancholic, dreamy and hits you right in the heart.
This book takes you to places unknown and you want to stay there to know the characters more. I want to know more of their dreams, inhibitions, limitation, have they lived happily ever after? This book expresses the things we cannot express -- the longing, the sadness, the frustrations. And it does not shy away from any of these.
Dear Distance is a collection of stories -- melancholic, dreamy and hits you right in the heart.
This book takes you to places unknown and you want to stay there to know the characters more. I want to know more of their dreams, inhibitions, limitation, have they lived happily ever after? This book expresses the things we cannot express -- the longing, the sadness, the frustrations. And it does not shy away from any of these.
earlapvaldez's review against another edition
5.0
Truly, truly worth it. Among my favorites are "And You Tell Me '87" and teenage love vibes ("And she had an opinion on Batman..."), "Dear Distance" (of robot love and sentiments), and "Passengers," a reminder that we all just have thin lines in spacetime that mean so much.
romchan's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.5
angelikatha's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
There are books you can't put down especially when the plot intensifies, and there are books you intentionally put down to let out a long heavy sigh, partnered with an absent-minded staring at whatever space lies between the mind and the visible. This book belongs to the latter.
It's like this: I'm meeting with a close friend I haven't seen and talked to for a long time. We talk of the way things were, and the way things turned out. How fragments of our lives got churned away by time, and distance. Then there's the song of The Script faint from the resto's bluetooth speakers. It gets to the part where Danny sings, "drinking old cheap bottles of wine, shit talking up all night, saying things we haven't for a while," then everything fell to a momentary silence.
What are your fears? I have too many. But one is, that there may be nothing left but the nostalgia I get when I stand in the middle of a school corridor, emptied of hurried footsteps, knowing those footsteps once belonged to me, and to everyone I once laughed and cried with.
Somewhere, reading Passengers, I asked myself, "Can we choose what we remember?" And while there were eight short stories that became favorites because they hit too close to where the bruises are, each of the twenty had in it something to remind me of. Something to remember. Subterrania, most of all.
Time is a place, or a person. Too far and it hurts, too close and we try to hold on for as long as we could.
"Nothing in this universe is certain," Robot Boy said. "But more depends on you than perhaps you realize."
It's like this: I'm meeting with a close friend I haven't seen and talked to for a long time. We talk of the way things were, and the way things turned out. How fragments of our lives got churned away by time, and distance. Then there's the song of The Script faint from the resto's bluetooth speakers. It gets to the part where Danny sings, "drinking old cheap bottles of wine, shit talking up all night, saying things we haven't for a while," then everything fell to a momentary silence.
What are your fears? I have too many. But one is, that there may be nothing left but the nostalgia I get when I stand in the middle of a school corridor, emptied of hurried footsteps, knowing those footsteps once belonged to me, and to everyone I once laughed and cried with.
Somewhere, reading Passengers, I asked myself, "Can we choose what we remember?" And while there were eight short stories that became favorites because they hit too close to where the bruises are, each of the twenty had in it something to remind me of. Something to remember. Subterrania, most of all.
Time is a place, or a person. Too far and it hurts, too close and we try to hold on for as long as we could.
"Nothing in this universe is certain," Robot Boy said. "But more depends on you than perhaps you realize."
dyaaz's review against another edition
4.0
It was a great delight to finally find this book after weeks of visiting nearby branches of National Bookstore in my area. I was expecting the stories to be light and carefree just like the ones I encountered in Happy Endings, instead I found myself engulfed by tales of science fiction and lingering flashbacks of the 80's and 90's -- as if the songs made famous during those decades were reverberating in your head.
koffeekween's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars out of 5!
I was browsing through the shelves of my local bookstore with my brother while we were waiting for our mom to get done with the grocery and I came across this book. The cover actually made it hard not to notice and the synopsis at the back of the book seemed really interesting.
This is actually the first book of Luis Katigbak that I’ve ever read. I mentioned in Twitter that I have only read a handful of local authors and that I find it hard to find local novels these days that aren’t fanfics of local celebrities, so having to find books like this, the feel to buy and read it is intense for me.
Dear Distance hasn’t let me down. Upon diving into the stories, I feel like I was a kid of the 70s and the 80s. It’s hard not to feel like I am one with the characters when someone writes so well.
“In the end, distances and surfaces are all we can ever be sure of, and this is no sad thing. In a world that has accelerated almost beyond recognition, it may be the only comforting thought of which I am still capable.”
My favorite from this collection is Sabado, 1995. I don’t know why, but it really made an impact to me.
I was browsing through the shelves of my local bookstore with my brother while we were waiting for our mom to get done with the grocery and I came across this book. The cover actually made it hard not to notice and the synopsis at the back of the book seemed really interesting.
This is actually the first book of Luis Katigbak that I’ve ever read. I mentioned in Twitter that I have only read a handful of local authors and that I find it hard to find local novels these days that aren’t fanfics of local celebrities, so having to find books like this, the feel to buy and read it is intense for me.
Dear Distance hasn’t let me down. Upon diving into the stories, I feel like I was a kid of the 70s and the 80s. It’s hard not to feel like I am one with the characters when someone writes so well.
“In the end, distances and surfaces are all we can ever be sure of, and this is no sad thing. In a world that has accelerated almost beyond recognition, it may be the only comforting thought of which I am still capable.”
My favorite from this collection is Sabado, 1995. I don’t know why, but it really made an impact to me.
grbreads's review against another edition
5.0
“There are silences that I wish I could record but cannot. The slow silent spin of planets; the swift and massive flight of neutrinos from the beginning of everything; the mystery-
whispers of dark matter; the endless afternoon of prehistory; the silence of a train of thought that irrevocably changes something you've believed in all your life.
There are silences I still hope to collect in the years to come.
And here, here is the silence of the words I have been looking for and never found:”
- Silences, page 55
My favorites:
1. Subterrania
2. Passengers
3. More Than I Ever Wanted Anything
4. Silences
5. And You Tell Me ‘87
whispers of dark matter; the endless afternoon of prehistory; the silence of a train of thought that irrevocably changes something you've believed in all your life.
There are silences I still hope to collect in the years to come.
And here, here is the silence of the words I have been looking for and never found:”
- Silences, page 55
My favorites:
1. Subterrania
2. Passengers
3. More Than I Ever Wanted Anything
4. Silences
5. And You Tell Me ‘87