They don’t make coffee table books of this size (and magnitude) anymore.

At a time when they say that printed books are on their way out the window of book stores that keep closing shop, from Manhattan to Marikina, we are treated to a surprise by our good friend Ruben V. Nepales, who has put out not just another collection of his starry-starry, Hollywood personality profiles, but nothing less than a giant coffee table book!

Ruben’s book puts us at a loss as to when the last coffee table book was published in Manila. The practice ended long before the passing of Gilda Cordero-Fernando in 2020, who was one of the genre’s procreators in the Philippines.

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Now comes Bessie Badilla, sophisticate and former model, who has revived the art of the coffee table book by way of Ruben’s voluminous library of exquisite photographs taken of Hollywood celebrities at work, at ease, off hours, in their most unguarded states.

There are life-size pictures of Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise, Al Pacino, Robert Redford, Steven Spielberg.

Arranged in no particular order, the photos are accompanied by little vignettes, quotes straight from the horse’s mouth, that are at once arresting as they are honest, full of soul.

In parts, the lines can be considered ‘’novels’’ by themselves in their brevity.

Such as when Keanu Reeves confesses: "I definitely hold on to letters, cards and tokens, so I have some boxes of photographs and letters. There are times when I open them up and look at them…"

Or when Tom Hanks narrates: "I have made Rita Wilson the happiest woman on the planet."

"… You know what this lady needs? She needs a little dose of Tom Hanks. The same thing happened vice-versa. I was drowning at sea, then Rita swam and saved me."

Ruben, the first Filipino elected as chairman of the board of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, has unwittingly stumbled upon a treasure trove of novels just drawing these lines out from his subjects.

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“Through a Writer’s Lens” is a 260-page hardbound edition that boasts over 1,000 photos of 200 stars that the award-winning photojournalist (he writes a Hollywood column for Rappler) took in almost two decades.

The pictures were taken under the twin stresses of deadline and time pressure between or during interviews. As any well- meaning journalist knows, straddling the twin tasks---double jeopardy---of asking questions (they have to be good, introspective ones) and taking pictures (they have to be properly angled, revealing, and well-lighted, too) simultaneously can be a supreme test to one man’s prowess and versatility.

Trust Ruben’s way with words, inquisitiveness, good taste, and perfect timing, in coming up with a stunning collection of works, both photographic and textual, that expose the sheer humanity of even the largest of Hollywood’s superstars

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Packed in a hefty 12” x 14” package weighing 3 kilograms, “Through a Writer’s Lens” is Nepales’ second book, following his 2012 “My Filipino Connection: The Philippines in Hollywood.”

The size of the book may be big, it is heavy, intimidating, but the stories, printed in large font, are short, accommodating---call them captions if you may. They go beyond mere story-telling devices.

The carefully chosen quotes grab attention for their candor, honesty, warmth, sincerity. The fact that they’re written in brief, concise sentences should make them an easy fit for young people today, whose attention span is said to be fleeting.

Hardbound copies of the book, a perfect holiday gift, are available at ₱6,000 plus ₱200 for shipping. To order, send a message to: https://www.facebook.com/throughawriterslens/.