Pacific Rims by Rafe Bartholomew

It has been a long time since I watched basketball. I was an avid fan when I was in first year high school when I rooted for Ginebra/Anejo and worshiped Jojo Lastimosa and Samboy Lim (to be honest, I worshiped them for their cuteness. hehe). But I somehow outgrew it when I went to college. The only time I watch basketball games was when we were required to by our PE subject.

My husband is an avid fan of the sport and knows stats and player names. He can hold his own on a discussion regarding basketball. Over the dinner table, he and my father-in-law would talk about the latest game or who got traded to where (NBA and PBA). My husband even subscribed to Destiny Cable (even if we're already existing Skycable subscribers) because of their Balls channel where he can watch all the Basketball he wants.

When he bought Pacific Rims, I just shrugged that it must be another basketball book. When he learned that the author, Rafe Bartholomew, will be in town to have a book signing, he asked me to go (he was in Europe during the last week of August). Unfortunately, my schedule was a bit iffy so I was not able to go to either Powerbooks or Fully Booked which hosted the signings.

However, I got curious about the book when he would read it and bed and suddenly, the bed will be shaking because of his laughter. He would laugh over something in the book and when I would ask, he would just shrug because he knows he would have to explain the whole thing for me to get it--and he was enjoying the book to much to take a break.

During a lull here at home, I saw the book lying around and out of boredom, read the first chapter--and I was hooked. My high school love for the game suddenly resurfaced and I devoured every word of the book. I'm already halfway through and I've laughed so much already. Rafe certainly has a way with words.

Now, I'm sorry that I was not able to meet him in person and shake his hand (and maybe have a picture with him. He is cute. Hehe). As an avid and voracious reader, I never thought that I would be reading about basketball but somehow, Rafe wrote about it to make it easy to read and appreciate the sport--and our people--more.

When he was here a couple of weeks ago (he actually lived here for 3 years to do the book and speaks amazingly fluent tagalog), a couple of local shows did a segment on him. The video below is from Bandila--an evening news program.

I hope he'll return someday so I can have my book..errr...my husband's book signed. I won't be able to talk bastketball with him but at least I can tell him how my interest returned because of his book.

Mabuhay ka, Rafe!

ps
He's cute too :)