josh valentin > Recent Status Updates

I have so much time for Joan Didion's essays, MANY MANSIONS and HOLY WATER. So amazed as to how many trains of thought can converge into one piece...

On the beginning of the titular essay, Joan Didion describes a writer’s goal, which is to freeze in time their personal phantasmagoria. Not knowing what it was, I had to Google what that meant. I then wrote down my paraphrase of the Google definition, “dream like sequences of images.”

♥︎ day 4/15 of me reading a chapter of why nations fail everyday until it's done :-)

This chapter talks about country-specific critical junctures that affect the formation of institutions… and I can’t help but think of People Power and the subsequent writing of the 1987 Constitution as ours.

♥︎ day 3/15 of me reading a chapter of why nations fail everyday until it's done :-) WE ARE SO BACK

Anyways a great introduction to a framework of inclusive and extractive institutions when it comes to politics and economics, as well as how they are intertwined. Less riveting compared to the previous chapters, because this was a nerd out. But wow the analysis holds up, especially here in the PH.

GOODREADS MOOTS LISTEN thank you all for inspiring me to get out of a reading slump 🥹🤍 yall lemme start reading rayneowww

enjoying this selection of pandemic poems so far!

Need to log my progress specifically because Part 3’s ending gagged me so much ohhhh this would be such a good Netflix movie 😭😭😭

♥︎ day 3/15 of me reading a chapter of why nations fail everyday until it's done :-)

took a knack off chapter 3 and couldn’t read bc i had quite the day but i liked the north and south korea part so far because it showed the relevance of property rights in econ development. also the gasp i had… is this book neoliberalism propaganda…

♥︎ day 2/15 of me reading a chapter of why nations fail everyday until it's done :-)

the philippines is the best example for the THEORIES THAT DONT WORK chapter. the philippines is not poor because we are near the equator, which made us lazy, that the spaniards taught us shit values, and that made us and our leaders incomeptent. we are poor because our leaders are purposefully running the show wrong.

♥︎ day 1/15 of me reading a chapter of why nations fail everyday until it’s done :-)

firm believer (as an institutionalist) of how political institutions affect economic development and im glad for the unpacking as to how this system was built in the americas

♥︎ day 1/15 of me reading a chapter of why nations fail everyday until it’s done :-)

firm believer (as an institutionalist) of how political institutions affect economic development and im glad for the unpacking as to how this system was built in the americas

keep on forgetting to log HAHA but omg just picked this book up again at day 4… and now im in day 7. this book is getting more fun as it goes!

it was a delight to buy a book as a silly treat with my own money, especially with the book being relatively new, i feel my inner teen being healed.

Started this lovely book on a bus ride to baguio.

THIS BLOOM OF BLACKEST BLOOD is a pretty strong collection from Danton. I enjoyed the slight experimentation with form, and the messaging about how a queer person can be so intact with their religion and nation makes so much sense to me... as a person that is just like that

a book about current systemic failure with praise from THE ECONOMIST, THE NEW YORK TIMES and a finalist of the GOLDMAN SACHS BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD? i literally cannot wait to see what this book is about.

This book is getting heavier and heavier. A strike to the heart. The pages try to stop the bleeding.

Months ago, while on a book shopping day with my boss at the Ateneo Press office, my eyes were caught (shamelessly) by hottie Raymond Bagatsing in their “Grab A Free Book” corner. It was also a pleasant surprise that it was a poetry book!

Finally cracked it open and really excited because I’m using this to come back to close reading.

Picked up this book again after some light YA reading and wow sometimes you just get lost in a trance because of how eloquent this book is. And then it hits you with a rough blow.

Made huge progress on a beach trip in Coron, had so much fun with this book! A YA novel that is sooooo ridiculously YA it captures the angst so muchhhh

liwa liwa weekend trip book~! finally started this book yayyyy im having fun with it so far

Finished Part I: Memory. This is a lesson in English grammar. A history lesson. How to write a journal. How to signal a warning. This is a calm before the storm, only to find the calm just as horrific.

Enjoyed Pat's writing style it's sooooo good! Agree with a work friend that each chapter reads out like a good ol' Rappler longform article (obvious naman, she used to work there eh!)

OH. MY. GOD. Beautiful!!! Spent the afternoon just reading while waiting to do doctors appointment stuff and hanging out in the coffeeshop near me I’ve come to love. Bookmarking my progress on this page because it’s abt to be denouement time and im so excited as to where this will be… there’s an entire chapter btw thats just an email thread and I eat it up so much URghhh

Back from vacation and this is how far I reached. So excited to finish thisss <3

Bought this as a book to take while on vacation AND I AM HAVING THE TIME OF MY LIFEEEE🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️ I missed reading YA lit so mucch its so so fun I should read more of these and im so hooked its so slay. Genuinely Chapter 4,,, what a MOMENT

Surreal that I was reading Chapter 2–involving a personal recount of the EDSA revolution—while riding the EDSA Carousel, passing by the People Power Monument.

Anyways, finally started this (thanks to our office library for having a copy of this)!

read during Bacolod trip... definitely induced a tiny life crisis eme

Pre Holy Week reading I stopped here i don’t know how far I’ll go into finishing but let’s see!

I think I’m setting myself to finish this book tomorrow… honestly what an interesting literary feat

I can’t believe I have a “plane book” okay Jacob Elordi tea… anyways I picked this up again while waiting for a flight and after watching Anatomy of a Fall yesterday, and knowing Plath’s life, it’s been interesting to see as a writer the relevance of a “somewhat autobiographical” piece