THE Philippine fiction books published by Penguin Random House Southeast Asia are justly celebrated, along with the novels of Lope K. Santos and Amado V. Hernandez that have been translated for its Southeast Asian classics series.

But the biggest trade publisher in the world has also published important works of nonfiction. The latest among these is the English translation of the best-selling book of essays by Ferdinand Pisigan Jarin. Titled 'Six Saturdays of Beyblade and Other Essays' by John Toledo, the book deals with places the way N.V.M. Gonzalez had his Mindoro and Bienvenido N. Santos his Sulucan in Tondo.