Not Entirely Clear

I'm a big fan of the "literary blogs," a subset of which includes "librarian blogs" and "bookseller blogs": Maud Newton, Beatrice, Bookangst 101 (soon to disappear into the ether), Bookslut, Bookninja, Booksquare, Fresh Eyes: A Bookseller's Journal, you name it.

But I read the lit blogs with the same sense of removal that I reserve for the "gossip blogs" (hey, Eileen has Fabio romance novels; I have gossip blogs): Gawker, Defamer, Go Fug Yourself, etc.

Neither one of these worlds is mine; I just like to watch. And so I was suprised at the very slight intersection I discovered yesterday between the lit blog universe and my own one-inch square realm .

I drop by Notes From the Slush Pile occasionally. I'm not sure why—it's all about children's lit publishing and though I obviously read children's lit (did I tell you? did I tell you? We're reading James & The Giant Peach and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory! Hooooooray!), I don't write it. Still, I like the blog. Anyways, it turns out that its blog mistress is Candy Gourlay, a UK-based Filipina. And she was one of the editors of Hinabang Gunita, an oral history of Filipinos in the United Kingdom.

I'm fascinated by this. Because even though I know Filipinos are everywhere, I just never imagined that "everywhere" included the UK. I'm also fascinated for other reasons, but I'm not entirely clear what they are. Which is generally how I live my life. Being not entirely clear, I mean.

You see?