Read or What?

(Updated the FAQ page to reflect current--shall we say--concerns. )

First, the name. Okay, yes, we know. "Read or Die" is not a cult of sociopath bibliophiles. We named the club after the title of a comic book series which features an embattled (and cute) librarian in the British Museum fighting against, well, Evil. We'd run out of options and every other name attached with Pinoy or Filipino seemed to have been taken. :D Besides, it makes sense. Taken out of context (that is, negatively or literally!), "Read or Die" sounds like just the thing for trigger-happy spambots, but considered as a semantic twist--the converse of 'read or die' is that one has to read in order to live, and live intelligently.

And it does make people nervous about the content of their bookshelves, which is a bonus.

I've also been thinking about the nature of RodCon (as compared for example to book fairs) and 'conventions' as commonly understood in local parlance, i.e., something to do with professional, academic, business or industry-oriented concerns. RodCon is a social gathering, organized for readers by readers. I think it would have been different if Read or Die had been a hobby org, promoting games or comics or anime or a specialty interest, but this is reading we're talking about, and who organizes conventions about reading?

The thing about RodCon is that, essentially, it's really one huge cosmic book meet-up with fellow (or would be) bibliophiles. Read or Die is a book club and would always be a book club--just a bunch of readers who meet once a month (or every other month) to talk about, you know, books and reading and which bookstore in which corner of the Philippines is on sale.

RodCon started out as a kind of organic offshoot of Read or Die, and then developed into an incipient extension program. On a wider level, as a charity benefit supporting a specific advocacy (this year being literacy for children), it is an opportunity for interest groups, literary associations, business organizations, and individual readers to connect, exchange information and networks, and find common points for future action with regard to emphasizing the importance of books and reading in our society. So RodCon is basically a talking point waiting to be used, which is why we're inviting as many organizations and individuals as possible to profile their own causes or platforms. If you need volunteers for your program, go to the con and ask around, or better yet get a table or a booth. If you want to provoke discussion about an issue which you think is important or noteworthy, sponsor a panel. And so on.

RodCon has three aspects to it: 1) a gathering of book lovers from all over the Philippines to talk about, exchange, buy books; 2) an available open forum for issues regarding reading, literature and literacy in the Philippines; 3) a charity benefit for AHON Foundation and UNICEF.