MANILA, Philippines – Early on Wednesday, September 13, in a corner of the SMX Convention Center, talk show host and talent manager Boy Abunda spoke to the media and the Manila International Book Fair’s (MIBF) special guests about some of his favorite books.

Boy was there to open the 38th MIBF as the founder of the Make Your Nanay Proud Foundation, an organization that helps mothers and their communities.

“There was a time in my life when I couldn’t afford to buy books so I had to go to friends’ houses to borrow books,” he began that morning. “Yung iba naging kaibigan ko habang-buhay, yung iba galit sa akin dahil hindi ako nagsauli ng mga libro. Hindi ko na ho alam kung nasaan.” (Some became my friends for life, while others are mad at me because I didn’t return their books. I don’t know where they are anymore.)

Today, Boy said, some of his best friends are books, jokingly adding that they’re the only ones his partner Bong Quintana allows him to sleep with.

He continued: “Some of my most spirited and insightful conversations are with books. Reading is conversing for me. It is listening, it is talking back. It is giving, it is getting, it is teaching, it is learning. I write notes in my books, ayaw iyan ng aking mga guro. I write when I agree or disagree, I encircle words I don’t understand. I mark lines that hit me straight in the face. I shade others that sway my thinging. I do marginal notes when I dissent or assent to what is written. I love spending time with books.”

In the video above, Boy talks about each of the 15 books listed below, which lines struck him the most, and how each changed how he thinks and lives.

1. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Acting: (*But Were Afraid To Ask, Dear) by West End Producer
2. Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
3. Powerful Prayers: Conversations on Faith, Hope, and the Human Spirit with Today’s Most Provocative People by Larry King
4. Dream: The Words and Inspiration of Martin Luther King Jr.
5. Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World by Bill Clinton
6. Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder by Arianna Huffington
7. Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
8. Great Political Theories by Michael Curtis
9. The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
10. Confucius from the Heart: Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World by Yu Dan
11. Para Kay B by Ricky Lee
12. Puppy Love by F. Sionil Jose
13. Ermita by F. Sionil Jose
14. Viajero by F. Sionil Jose
15. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

The MIBF 2017 runs from September 13 to 17 at the SMX Convention Center. The convention opens everyday on those dates at 10 am and closes at 8 pm. – Rappler.com