Book blogging, as a concept, is essentially pretty simple: If you have Internet access and an opinion about a book, you can be a book blogger. However, actually maintaining a book blog is much more complicated — our blogs are labors of love that require a lot of time, energy and devotion. For this edition of Weekly Geeks, I want to focus on the little things that make your blogging and/or reading life a bit easier. Do you use sites like GoodReads, LibraryThing or Shelfari to organize your books? Do you swear by Book Darts? Couldn’t live without your Book Buddy? Love connecting with other bloggers on sites such as Twitter? Tell us about what makes your blog tick. Is there something specific that keeps you organized or inspired?

This is the Weekly Geeks for 23rd Oct, but I’m already loosing track of things, so I guess it’s ok

Before my blog I had an account on Shelfari. I used to LOVE it. Most of the books on my wishlist came from endless surfing on that site.

But after I started blogging, most of my wishlist comes from other bloggers. I opened a new account on Shelfari, one with my blog name. But then it tends to load very slowly. It really irritated me at times. I had heard about Goodreads but somehow I never liked it. But when Shelfari was blocked at my new workplace, I tired Goodreads and now I love it. There are things to be desired still, but usually I’m satisfied with it. But I think the communities in Shelfari are more active than the ones in Goodreads. Anyway…let’s move on.

I swear by Google Reader too as many of you do. I don’t know what I would have done without it. It helps me keep track of more than 200 book blogs and 200 other blogs as well.

What else makes my life easier? Twitter? NO, I think it takes away a chunk of my reading and blogging time. But then it’s fun connecting to people and getting to know them a little better. Besides you get to know a lot of things that are going on in blogspere that you otherwise would have never got to know about.

What makes your blog tick? Is there something specific that keeps you organized or inspired? As I have always said, my blog lets me talk about books and that’s more than enough inspiration. It has become a way of life now.

I’m on Ning too and bookblips. I access Ning sometimes but I don’t remember the last time I accessed bookblips. Sometimes it all gets so overwhelming.

Here are the links to my active profiles
Shelfari
Goodreads
Twitter
Ning

Do leave yours in the comment section

Title: Thirteen Reasons Why
Author: Jay Usher
320 pages
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Razorbill; 1st edition (October 18, 2007)
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My thoughts:
Thirteen Reasons is the story of Hannah Baker and as the book title suggests, 13 reasons why she died. All these reasons are in fact related to 13 people who helped her reach the state she did-the state where she felt like she had no other choice but to take her own life. Before she commits suicide, all the people who were somehow responsible for it were sent a set of tapes so that the person knows how much his/ her actions affected Hannah.

Whenever I hear somebody committed suicide, my first thought is obviously “Why?”, followed by thoughts like how can something this trivial force someone to take his/ her own life and leave so many unanswered questions and blame games behind. But it’s almost never one thing; it’s never “just” or “trivial”. It’s a culmination of many incidents and as Hannah says “A snowball effect”. Thirteen Reasons Why shows exactly that, the other side of suicide, something which we would probably never get to see or should see.

Hannah Baker is the new girl in town and like everyone else she finds it difficult to fit in. Hannah has left her own town and with that her old life which was filled with rumors and she hopes to start with a fresh slate. But things don’t turn out how she wants them to. Rumors follow her in the new town as well, trusts are broken, games are played and at one point Hannah doesn’t feel safe anymore, neither in her school nor at home.

Clay Jensen is one of the guys who gets the set of tapes. The book is an intermingled narrative between Hannah’s voice in the tape and Clay’s thought process or rather his reactions to it. It helps the reader get a different perspective on Hannah’s story. It also made it difficult for me to get into the story. The moment I felt I was getting involved in what Hannah was saying Clay would come up with totally unrelated things to say, not always unrelated, but many times. I know Clay’s perspective was important too, but it wasn’t done as well as it could have.

The writing was okay. In fact I really didn’t think I was going to like this book at all. Some where after the first 100 pages, the book really picks up pace. But I feel the power of the book lies in the story, in the message. To some people it will help realize how even their smallest of actions could affect someone’s psyche if it was fragile enough. Teenagers usually tend to be insensitive and wrapped up in their own world, it would hopefully make them realize that everyone’s worlds are overlapped and some things could have greater consequences than they realized. But on the other hand, it does not provide any hope to people who are probably thinking of giving up on the world like Hannah.

I would say it’s a good book which would probably be great for teenagers and adults as well.

I’m joining one more challenge but this one runs through next year so that’s good.

I have read a lot of books with the “Women Unbound” theme but mostly they have been memoirs. So I thought I’ll do a list for people who are interested. I have divided the list into 2 sections “read” and “to-read”. “to-read” will be my list for this challenge.

My “to-read” list
This list is tentative; I read whatever I feel like at that moment. But so far I have these in mind.

• The Story of my Life by Helen Keller

• Samira and Samir by Siba Shakib

• My Feudal Lord by Tehmina Durrani

• Their Eyes were watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

• The Complete Persepolis by Satrapi Marjani

• Educating Esme by Codell, Esme Raji

• Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto

• Madras on Rainy Days by Samina Ali

All these books are from my TBR pile. But I will obviously buy or borrow books if Singapore has a good library or a bookstore, so this list could change. Do let me know if you feel any of these books do not fit with the challenge. Also, I’m not sure how many books I’ll get to read but I’m keeping my options open and my reading list long

Recommendations for the challenge:
A Thousand Splendid Suns: It’s not exactly feminist fiction but it is about 2 women trying to survive in the most difficult of times. It also shows the relationship between Laila and Mariam beautifully. A great story of getting through the daily horrors that life offers and coming out of it with hope.

Do They Hear You When You Cry by Fauziya Kassindja: I picked this book up because it was about an African girl and honestly I did not expect much from it, mostly because I had never heard of this book before. I ended up loving this book. It’s about a young girl who runs from her home and ends up in America as an illegal immigrant. The story follows her struggle to stay in a foreign country and make them understand the difficulties and the dangers she would face if she is sent home. She also spends some time in the refuge prison. Turns out this was a landmark case in American Refugee history. Other than the fact that her story had to be told in whatever form possible, I also liked the way the book was written. It describes her life before she runs away from her home and also her life as a refugee in the U.S. This is a very heartfelt and a sad memoir but with lots of hope. I remember not liking something about the book but I really cannot recall what.

Not Without My Daughter by Betty Mahmoody: One of my favorite books of all time. (From Amazon) Betty Lover met the perfect “dark stranger” in a Michigan hospital. Her Iranian therapist, Dr. Sayyed Bozorg Mahmoody, became her husband and the father of their daughter, Mahtob. Despite the vicissitudes of the Iran-U.S. hostage crisis, Betty and he flourished until their summer “vacation” in Iran in 1984. The next year and a half were a nightmare. Betty and Mahtob, held hostage by Mahmoody and his family, were subjected to Islamic fundamentalism, Persian nationalistic fanaticism, and a life of squalor.

Mayada, Daughter of Iraq: One Woman’s Survival Under Saddam Hussein by Jean Sasson: Again an awesome book. I cried a lot while reading it. (From Amazon) in 1999, Mayada was arrested by Saddam Hussein’s secret police for allegedly printing anti-regime pamphlets in her Baghdad print shop and imprisoned for nearly a month in Iraq’s brutal Baladiyat Prison. Sasson’s candid, straightforward account of Mayada’s time among the 17 “shadow women” crammed into Cell 52 gives readers a glimpse of the cruelty and hardship endured by generations of Iraqis. Mayada stares down this ugliness as soon as she’s yanked from her meticulously run shop into the prison’s interrogation room: “She saw chairs with bindings, tables stacked high with various instruments of torture…. But the most frightening pieces of… equipment were the various hooks that dangled from the ceiling. When Mayada glanced to the floor beneath those hooks, she saw splashes of fresh blood, which she supposed were left over from the torture sessions she had heard during the night.” Almost all Jean Sasson books fall under this category.

Wild Swansby Jung Chung: This is another great book that documents the life of 3 generations of Chinese Women-mother, daughter and grandmother, during the regime of Mao. It does get a little tedious and overbearing at times but over all it’s a very good book. If you were like me and didn’t know anything about the times of Mao, this book will provide lots of information. Review Link.

Empress Orchidand The Last Empressby Anchee Min: These are 2 books in a series but you can read the first book without reading the second. These books chronicle the life of the last Empress of China as fictionalized by Anchee min. They are both great books imho. Here are my review links: Empress Orchid and The Last Empress of China.

Abandonedby Anya Peters: This book is about sexual abuse. And seriously, the abuse scenes are so descriptive and detailed that I felt myself cringe a number of times. Her story is very heartbreaking. Anya Peters is a really good writer though. Read it only you can stomach such issues.

The Color Purpleby Alice Walker: I read this book long back and I don’t remember much about it other than the fact that I loved it. It did take some time to get into but it’s a great book if you like the writing style.

Prisoner of Tehranby Marina Nemat: This is what I wrote about this book a few months back. “Marina shows amazing courage in the midst of all this chaos. It is difficult to believe that a person who has seen so much hatred and destruction in the name of Islam, to still have faith in God. But it is this faith that pulls her out of it all and keeps her sane. This book is a very sad reminder of what is or was happening around a certain part of the world when we were comfortably sleeping in our beds or going about our normal duties. Read this to know about a time and place so different from what most of us have lived and also marvel at the courage of a woman called Marina Nemat.” Read my review here.

Cutting Looseby Nadine Dajani: Okay, this ones fiction and a little chicklit-ish but it does fall under this category. As I said about this book “As the story progresses, all three of them find the courage required to cut loose their ties from the past, enter into a whole new and challenging territory, leaving something that is painful but familiar behind”. It’s a classic tale of 3 women from different backgrounds who face problems similar to our own. That’s in fact what made me resonate with the novel more. It’s could be a tale of any 3 women.

Some more recommendations from Janaki@twistntales
1) Diddi by Ira Pande
2) The Book of Rachel by Esther David
3) Changing by Liv Ullman
4) Refuge
5) Janani-ed. by Rinki Bhattacharya
6) My Story by Kamala Das
7) A year by the sea by Joan Anderson
8 ) Pitching my tent by Anita Diamant

That’s about it I guess. How about you? Are you joining this challenge?

These updates do help me get things into perspective and see what all is going on with my life. You are probably not that interested but you get to read them anyway.

• First things first. It’s getting very cold and I have realized that I have come to hate cold weather. I used to love it before but now even the slightest cold makes me uncomfortable. Give me the warm weather and summer anytime.

• My boyfriend would be husband found a flat in Singapore and he sent me the photographs yesterday and I must say I’m really impressed with the way things work with the rent system in Singapore.

• I had to send back my wedding ring twice, first time they had got the design wrong and the second time the finishing wasn’t good. If I’m spending so much I want the design to be perfect. Hopefully it will be ready by Sunday. He has also ordered his ring and I’m surprised by how non-fussy the process was

• My college friends wedding reception this Saturday, this means I’ll get to meet a lot of people I haven’t been able to for a long time. yay!!!

• I have to constantly remind myself why I am getting my wedding stuff stitched from a designer rather than my friendly neighborhood tailor. She keeps on postponing the date saying she is busy with things like ‘kids school function’, ‘going to Mumbai’, ‘family function’ and stuff. I mean I get it that you are doing it for a hobby but I’m not getting my dresses stitched from you for hobby. I hope she gets them ready on time.

• Wedding photographer booked, wedding make up woman fixed. yay…

• Neither wedding card nor reception card has been printed yet. But I guess a couple of days more.

• I feel so bad leaving so many of my books behind. I have almost finished all the ARC’s, except 3-4 which I plan on finishing this month.

• My last date at this job is on 6th Nov. I’m still trying for a transfer; let’s see how things work out. But I’m looking forward to the 20 days off before the wedding.

• What else? I’m reading Where the Heart is which also happens to be an Oprah book club pick. So far, it’s good.

What’s up with you guys? Anything new?

Suggested by Jennysbooks:
Something I’ve been thinking about lately: “What words/phrases in a blurb make a book irresistible? What words/phrases will make you put the book back down immediately?”

hmmm…very interesting.

For me, words like “true story”, “war zone”, “fairy tale”, “scary”, “southern charm”, “romantic”, “in the depths of the forests”, “magical” make a book irresistible.

What I won’t care about is probably “spiritual journey”, “suffering from incurable disease”, “sports”, “has to take a super secret chip from Russia and plant it in the USA and then act as a spy by infiltrating the British Army” (basically anything that looks too complicated)

That’s it’s actually. But I am a very impulsive person; I just might pick anything depending on whim and if any blogger I trust effectively pitches it

I have answered the question considering what I understood is correct

Title: Book of a Thousand Days
Author: Shannon Hale
Genre: Young Adult
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books
Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

About the book (From Amazon):
When Dashti, a maid, and Lady Saren, her mistress, are shut in a tower for seven years for Saren’s refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment.
As food runs low and the days go from broiling hot to freezing cold, it is all Dashti can do to keep them fed and comfortable. But the arrival outside the tower of Saren’s two suitors—one welcome, and the other decidedly less so—brings both hope and great danger, and Dashti must make the desperate choices of a girl whose life is worth more than she knows.
With Shannon Hale’s lyrical language, this forgotten but classic fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm is reimagined and reset on the central Asian steppes; it is a completely unique retelling filled with adventure and romance, drama and disguise.

My Thoughts:
Book of a thousand days is based on Grimm’s fairy tale Maid Maleen. But Shannon Hale has effectively twisted the tale and made it her own.

The story begins with a princess and her Maid being shut down in a tower for 7 years. The princess’s father wants her to marry Lord Khasar, the ruler of the down under, but the princess wants to marry Khan Tegus, also the ruler of one of the eight realms. The father wants to teach her a lesson by isolating her for 7 years in the hope of bringing her to her senses.

The maid is a 15 year old girl who has no family of her own to speak of and she is assigned to the princess just one day before she is to be locked in the tower. The maid without knowing anything about this pledges to serve the princess in all conditions.

The maid’s name is Dashti and she is a mucker, the people who roam the grasslands for a living. She knows how to live in frugal and harsh conditions and in turn takes care of the melancholy princess.

This book has the perfect fairy tale ingredients, obviously since it’s a re-telling of one. But I loved how Shannon Hale gave an extra dimension to every character in the story. She created characters you could hate and love. She also created a wonderful atmosphere which was as melancholy as the princess’s situation. Here is one of my favorite paragraphs:

Here’s something true about darkness-after enough time, you begin to see things that aren’t there. Faces look at me, and when I turn my head, they dissapear. Colors wash themselves before my eyes, then fade away. Shiny gray dream rats dart between my feet but don’t make a sound. I wanted to write this down so I can remember that those things aren’t real.

Shannon Hale has also challenged the concept of beautiful in connection to happily ever-after in The book of a thousand days which made me appreciate the story even better. If you’ve read Grimm’s fairy tale or this book, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

All in all I would it’s a very good book with an ending suitable for fairy tales. This is one of the YA books that could be a cross over. I cannot wait to get my hands on other books by Shannon Hale. Recommended.

Before you go any further, I would like to tell you where this all started.

It started when an author put a link back to my review of his book.

See? What I mean? How sad does that look? So I decided why not have a button and change my avatar in general, I’m kind of bored of this girl.

So I spend more than 2 hours in making these buttons which I thought were good enough at that time. But now I’m not so sure. I don’t quite like any of them or maybe I’m being too critical?

So dear all, please do tell me what you think? Do you like any one specifically or do you like all? Feel free to tell me to chuck them all.

I won’t feel bad except to regret the 2 wasted hours of my life when I should have read a book instead of making these useless buttons

P.S: I’m kind of partial to the last one.

Thank you so much for your help. As Wendy said, looks like everyone has different choices But I guess many people like #5 and #9. I’m not so fond of #5, so I’ll go with #9. Thank you again, you all are awesome

It’s 5.30 in the evening here in India and I did not manage to read much because my cousin dropped in with his wife and we chatted for a long time. BUT…I finished the short story Pop Art from 20th Century Ghosts. yay!!!

And we are at the end. I think we all did great!!!

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
I think around 1.30 in the night. I took a nap for half an hour and felt really good. Naps work people.

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
Short books, romantic, chick lit, Young Adult, humor and so on. Something which does not require too much concentration.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Ummm…could we keep the mini-challenges a little less complicated? Lol, no, honestly? Nothing, it went so smoothly

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
Cheerleaders, as always

5. How many books did you read?
One book, one novella and one short story and a little from a book.

6. What were the names of the books you read?
The Thousand and one days by Shannon Hale.
The novella, The Teacher from Upon a Midnight clear by Jude Deveraux and short story Pop Art from 20th Century Ghosts
66 pages from The Everafter by Amy Huntley

7. Which book did you enjoy most?
I enjoyed all the books actually. I took care to stop reading and do something else, like cheerleading if I felt very tired.

8. Which did you enjoy least?
None.

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
I wasn’t an official cheerleader. But no advice, they were all wonderful.

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
I think being a reader works for me because I do comment on other blogs anyway in my break time. But it really depends on how much I can commit at that particular time.

Finally, thank you so much to all the Readathon organizers and volunteers. You seriously rock!!!

Hello everyone!!!
It looks like I spend most of my time reading and blog hopping than reading, lol. It’s 1.30 in the afternoon.

Anyway, I was out for about 1.5 hours on errands. By the time I reached home it was lunch time. I did read 15 pages on the bike though but I started feeling a bit nauseous, so I didn’t.

Anyway, veggies look elsewhere. This is part of my lunch, one of my most favorite dishes in the whole wide world Chicken Lollipop.

I’m so full now but I don’t feel sleepy. I realize I need to change books because doesn’t look like I’ll be able to finish The Eevrafter and right now I need the motivation of something that says “done”.

I guess I’ll pick up 20th Century Hill by Joe Hill. I’ll probably start with Pop Art that Eva suggested that also happens to be the next story. I like reading in sequence and I’ve already read the first 2 a few days back.

I think I’ll blog hop some more, it’s fun to see what other people are upto

First and foremost, thank you to those who commented. You keep the spirits high

My last post was at 3.00 in the night. After that I shut down the computer and went to bed with a book, a collection of short stories, novellas rather- Upon a midnight clear.

I finshed the first story which was 90 pages long as a really good way to stay awake, I said romance can keep me awake, didn’t I?

I slept at 5.00 in the night after finishing the story, woke up at 9 in the morning and read 50 pages from The Everafter by Amy Huntley. Yes, I found my previous readathon books

Title of book(s) read since last update: None
Number of books read since you started: One, The book of Thousand days
Pages read since last update: 140
Running total of pages read since you started: 440
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 3 hours
Running total of time spent reading since you started: (keep track of this one to be eligible for a prize!): No Idea
Mini-challenges completed: Don’t remember, 2 I think
Other participants you’ve visited: A few, I did a little cheerleading last night.
Prize you’ve won: none

Now my sis is making tea and I get to drink it, I think I’ll do a little blog hopping for some time now. Then we have to out to collect some things for my bro-in-law. Hopefully it won’t take more than an hour. See you around. How’s your reading/ cheerleading going?