Sunday morning. As usual, all members of the family except me go to church. The reason is that I want to converse with J.C. in private. I have never been good at going to church. Every time I do, I get allergies or migraines and have to pretend they don’t exist because I’m inside the church. What a penance! I also pretend that I am deaf and that other people don’t exist when they start talking or giggling behind my back. I have to admit I am more of a hypocrite than a saint when inside the church.

After a week, another Sunday morning. I was finally persuaded by my young daughter to go to church (how can I refuse-ah, never mind the allergies). After that we went to the MegaCenter mall, Cabanatuan City. While the wife and kids were in the grocery department, I went inside a bookstore and bought two pocketbooks-one on poetry and the other is a collection of short novels of Herman Melville. The poetry book was written by a best-selling poet. Best-selling but not necessarily the best, eh? That’s the difference. I read some of his poems, which didn’t bite me at all. The poet and his poems are mediocre. No wonder he is only a best-selling poet. I’m not a graduate of literature or any related course but I read a lot. At an early age, I read whatever was laid on my hands. Now I have to be discriminating and select only the best books that would consume my limited time and energy.

At eight p.m., I finished reading BARTLEBY of Herman Melville. What a pathetic character, this Bartleby-and a little bit loony! Of course, I’m not the first to notice his eccentricities but the other characters, including the narrator. Melville’s style is a bit obscure. Still, I like his brilliant, psychological portrayal of this character.

Surprisingly, I didn’t get any allergy or migraine. I had a good conversation with J.C. and discovered two authors with different talents. Not a bad day at all.