100 Best Blogs for Book Reviews

This is also a great website for when I run out of ideas on how/what to review. http://www.onlinecollege.org/2009/09/15/100-best-blogs-for-book-reviews/

How to Write a Book Review

I found this wonderful post http://www.lavc.edu/Library/bookreview.htm. Very helpful and informative - if I ever decide to make a profession out of this.

2011 Global Reading Challenge

And why not? Find out more here.

I'm going for Medium this year:

The Medium Challenge
Read two novels from each of these continents in the course of 2011:

Africa:
1. Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed
2. The Boy who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba

Asia:
1. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
2. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

Australasia:
1. Genesis by Bernard Beckett - DONE
2. Lilian's Story by Kate Grenville

Europe:
1. The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk - DONE
2. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

North America:
1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger - DONE
2. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maude Montgomery - DONE

South America/Central America:
1.
2.

The Seventh Continent ( either choose Antarctica or your own ´seventh´ setting, eg the sea, the space, a supernatural/paranormal world, history, the future – you name it).

From your own continent: try to find a country, state or author that is new to you.


Try to find novels from fourteen different countries or states.

My other bedside reading stack

No, I have not finished the previous stack yet. I just have a different collection at my mum's house in DU.

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My current bedside table

New Books to Read

I'm addicted to MPH Online. My latest set of books arrived:

1. Up in the Air (Movie Tie-in Edition)
2. What the Dog Saw
3. A Taste of the Miracle of Juice
4. Saladin And The Fall Of The Kingdom Of Jerusalem
5. The White Queen

I wonder which one I'll read first...

2010 Global Reading Challenge

I've decided to join a reading challenge. Read about this one here.

All I need is to find an author from each continent. Seems easy, but the only African author I know of is Ben Okri. A friend gave me 'The Famished Road' as a birthday present, and at the time I did not particularly enjoy it. However, I'm willing to give him another try. Just like I've outgrown Feist, I may find myself growing into Okri this time round.

After some searching on the Internet, I ordered a few books from MPH Online.

So my list goes like this:

• Africa - JM Coetzee (South Africa): Disgrace
• Asia - Orhan Pamuk (Turkey): The Museum of Innocence
• North America - Walter Kirn (USA): Up in the Air
• Europe - Philippa Gregory (UK): The White Queen
• Australasia - none so far. The only Australian books I could find on MPH were either children, teen or cookery books from Australian Women's Weekly.
• South America - haven't started searching yet. I'll probably pick Isabel Allende or Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Although, with Coetzee now being an Australian resident, Gregory actually born in Kenya and Pamuk teaching in US, it all gets to be a big mix-up. So I'll do my challenge based on the locale of the plot, which is more consistent with the above.

The hunt for Australasian books continues...

Sod off, Sudoku!

As I stated before, I will only start on my Reading List after I complete the Sudoku puzzles. Sorry, can't wait!

And I'll start with the Malay travelogue/memoir.

Tempted by Words

From the departure hall to the boarding gates at KLIA, one has to walk past the duty-free section with your usual array of perfumes, chocolates and toys. One of my weaknesses was also there: books. I almost always end up buying something to read when I travel alone, even when I already have a book in tow.

This time, the promotion (10% discount for 2 books, 15% discount for 3) really caught my attention. Initially all I wanted was a magazine that cost less than RM10. But then a fictionalised history snared me. 5 minutes later, by the time I left the cashier, I had exchanged RM120 for a magazine, a novel and two other books. It almost cost me my flight, too.

I haven't started on any of them yet, though. I still have my original travel companion to finish.

Your parcel has arrived

Strangely enough, despite being a member of the MPH Readers' Circle (MRC) for a number of years, I've only just discovered MPH Online - and with discounts too. Last weekend I placed two orders of books - and the first parcel arrived today! I felt a heady rush not dissimilar to what I used to experience during A-Levels whenever that brown carton made its way to me on the staircase of Wyatt House 13 years ago.

The books I ordered are supposed to get me through my confinement after I give birth, but I couldn't help taking a sneak peak. I've still got two other books to finish though (or restart, since I've left them about a month ago), so the new ones will have to wait. And of course there's another parcel to look forward to next week Oh bliss!!!

Oh no, not another book review...

Yes, yes, I know some cynics out there will be saying this is just another mediocre no-brainer blog eating up precious cyberspace - but I don't really care okay? Besides it's much easier for me to file something on the Internet, with pre-sorted labels and all, rather than put it down on paper and misplace the notebook and start all over again. And if I'm really unhappy with the way things tuirn out I can always just delete the whole thing.

Anyway, what inspired me to start this blog was a post I read on Lina's blog. It reminded me of those logbooks we had to keep in primary school to encourage reading. Each student would have to make it a point to read something like 10 books a term, and record the name, date, number of pages and a summary of the book. I think there was also a section to list at least 10 new words picked up from the reading material.

Back then it wasn't difficult to chalk up 10 books a term - I read voraciously, was a member the TTDI Children's Library and even dreamt of starting up my own mini-library at home (my sister and I made it a point to collect the whole Enid Blyton rewards series). And at boarding school, it was easy to swap books with friends.

Studying in the UK was a blast as far as books were concerned. I discovered book clubs from the back of magazines or flyers, where introductory member prices were as low as 50p each for 6 books or something like that. While other girls in my hostel received love letters from their boyfriends, I would be anticipating the brown packages that carried these wonderful tales to my bedside. Yes, sad but true.

I read almost anything but murder mysteries and horror (I don't really appreciate getting frightened till I can't sleep at night). The only exception I ever made was for Interview with the Vampire, and even then it was because I was such a huge fan of Tom Cruise so picturing him as Lestat was pretty exciting. And I've only just picked up reading non-fiction and all those management-type books.

Perennial favourites are fantasy and historical fiction. Of course I've had my fair share of Judith McNaught and Mills & Boon, but after a while romances lose their appeal, unless I'm really looking for some fluff with dark hair and cold, steely eyes.

So, like I said before, I'm not expecting anyone to take my reviews seriously. And you shouldn't - there's hardly going to be anything deep, and it's not like I can predict the next Booker Prize winner or anything. You're free to share your own reviews or comments, everyone's entitled to their own opinions. But comments will be moderated, so don't attack anyone personally, okay?

Happy Reading!