Imagine Winterfell from Game of Thrones, where everyone is wearing fur coats, there is snow everywhere and then they keep saying the winter was coming as if it is not at all cold then. Well that is what we are doing in Dubai, except with summer.
It is so hot at 100 F even in the mornings and the poor humidity is taking a toll as well. But here we are in the spring season still and the real summer is not even here. YET.
So we decided to remind ourselves that it is still spring and took a trip to the beach. It is a good thing that we have so many beaches around Dubai.
After a few weeks of over achieving in terms of reading, I am back to the old pace of one book a week. I know I could have read more but deciding which book to read is a nightmare when you are mood reader.
It has been a while since I hopped on to ‘Everyone I know’s blogs, but I did catch up on a few of them this week. So maybe I will do better next week?!? Maybe.
Recently I went on a quest for a friend, to find out books with adult superheroes that were not a series and ended up at The Writerly Way’s post. Do you have any suggestions?
I NEEDED this. As someone totally new to the graphic novels and comic world, Dani’s post on Perspective of a Writer about differentiating between Comics, graphic novels and other graphic versions is a godsend. Check this out.
Do you ever get stuck with English grammar? Deb at Debjani’s Thoughts explains it like you are five for you! Check this useful guide on simple grammar tips.
I am so excited for this post. Yes let us talk about books set in Japan, one of the countries that I am kinda creepily obsessed about, under the Flyaway Friday feature. Can you blame me?
What is Flyaway Friday?
Ok let us back up a bit first.
On Fridays, I take you guys virtually to a new country, recommend books set in that country and the most exciting part of all, have a blogger from that country to tell us more about living there and help us compare what we read or see in books or movies with the reality as they see. So far we have been to Netherlands,France, Finland, Italy and Philippines.
This epic family drama follows a Korean family that migrates into the imperialist Japan. We witness the WW II, division of Korea and the post war lives of the millions of Korean migrants in Japan through their eyes.
The author is a master storyteller that interweaves the prejudice, discrimination and racism in the society into this four generational saga.
This list is incomplete if I don’t mention Murakami. Kafka Tamura, a teenager runs away from his house in search of his long lost sister and his mother. Nakata, our second character survives by finding lost cats with his ability to talk to cats. Though they are physically close to each other, their lives are interwoven.
This surreal, poignant story will leave you with lots of hows and whys and wondering long after you finished it.
Kitchen talks about love, tragedy and grief in the loves of a young woman, who longs for a kitchen and the warmth of a home.
This novella stands out for its simplicity that will tug your heart. The simplistic narration talks about ordinary people leading a mundane life but had a profound effect on me.
It is not often that I recommend a thriller in these posts but I have to add Soji Shimada because I am a sucker for such closed room murders.
This whodunnit is set in a crooked maze house of a millionaire who invites eight guests on a snowy night. Once everyone has settled for the night, several weird things start to happen. And the following morning, a guest is found dead inside his locked room. Who and how was it done?
Set in Tokyo before the WWI, the author’s cat who is the main character wanders around their neighborhood, judging and making fun of its owner and the world. This satirical commentary of the society will not fail to make you chuckle.
If you are interested to read a satire account of 1900s Japanese life and culture, pick this P G Wodehose-eseque book up right away.
Sayoko is a 17 year girl living in a remote fishing village during the end of the war. The presence of the American troops looms as a sinister to the villagers and four of them pull Sayoko into the woods to rape her.
The novel follows the ramification of the event of everyone around them and a young man who promises to avenge it. The story will leave a punch in your stomach!
Not enough?
Here are some more books that almost made my list.
As someone who has been a book blogger for a while and silently lurking in the blogging world for even longer, believe me when I say that book blogging is not like the other niches of blogging out there. True that blogging is blogging and you are anyway talking to the void filled with imaginary (or not) readers but it does go deeper than that, even if you do not want to accept it.
Every time someone (not a book blogger) talks to me about new blogging tips and shortcuts they follow (read as: read on other blogs) and then lectures suggests me to apply them on my blog, I can’t stop myself from rolling my eyes. It is a good thing that most of my discussions are not face to face.
Listen I am not trying to say I know it all or the other person doesn’t, but how many times do I have to explain that most of those tips and techniques do not work for us, as a book blogger.
Why book blogging is different from other blogging niches?
Our problems are different.
The problems that the book bloggers face are so different from the other bloggers. So unless someone specifically addresses the problems of book bloggers in their posts (discussions and guides) we will not be able to use the generic blogging guides. Let me tell you why.We mostly blog for ourselves
We book bloggers blog because we need a place to talk about books. More like, yell, shout and scream about books. Everything else comes later.
I started my blog because I didn’t have many friends who read in real life. They didn’t understand my angst when a character died or the pain of waiting out for a sequel. It was not their thing. There began my journey of writing whatever I felt (even dared to call them reviews- forgive my young and stupid self) and later found my kindred spirits who understood me so well.
That has not changed for me, and most of us. But that makes a huge difference from the other niches which predominantly work aiming at making money or coaching/training people. MOST OF US DO NOT HAVE SUCH A GOAL OR COURSE.
That being said, if you have a successful business idea/plan based on your book blog, you, my friend, are a rock star! Kudos!
We do not get paid or even expect to get paid
Speaking of making money, about 95% of the book bloggers I know do not make money out of their blog. Or even expect to. In fact we spend on the blog much more than we get out of it, financially speaking.
Many bloggers (non book bloggers) earn money to run their blog and more. They charge a good sum of money to review new products or just to talk about them on their channels. They have more avenues to earn, which book bloggers fail to utilize or maybe they don’t simply work for us.
To be honest, we are more than happy to consider receiving free books to review as a fair remuneration. Many of the internationals (a term we use to refer to book bloggers who live outside the USA and the UK) do not even have access to them.
But most of us are happy doing what we love, ie, talking about books for free. Even accepting remuneration for book reviews is kinda looked down upon in the current scenario.
Far fewer number of page hits
Deciding who the audience are makes a huge difference in the blogging world. That is where the niche comes up. A lifestyle blogger might cater to a different set of audience from a fitness blogger. And most of the generic blogging tips will work for a lifestyle or a tech blogger will not work for other niche bloggers.
For example, a mid range ‘successful’ blog in any other niche gets about 1000 to 5,000 visitors each day, which seems too very far fetched for most book blogs. But trying to improve SEO and pinning on Pinterest can only get us to a point, it will not take us to the million hits in the near future. ( I seriously hope I am wrong though.)
What holds good for others, mostly doesn’t work for us.
Many affiliates are not successful
I have seen many many bloggers who stand by affiliate marketing and they even earn a sizable amount as income. By affiliates I mean linking to other sites like Amazon, Barnes and Nobles etc. And it does sound easy money, in paper, even for a book blogger. But in reality not so easy.
As it in my case, 70% of my visitors are other book bloggers, not a random person who is looking to buy a book, who already has or sometimes, even read the book already. Combine this with the already fewer number of page visits and be prepared to be dejected with the even lesser income through your affiliate links.
More genuine reviews
Not everything is bad, to be honest. I feel the book reviewers are far more honest when it comes to talking about the products, ie, books. Maybe it has something to do with ‘not getting paid’ that I spoke about earlier.
They do not particularly have a need to boost up the sales of a book or the author, even though we do all that anyway.
Amazing and strong community support
I know the blogging world as such is really friendly. But the book blogging community is even more welcoming to newbies and others alike. They are more understanding because most of us are inner nerds and introverts and we understand what it is to be a bookworm who disappears into a book.
The community has so much love and warmth to share, mostly, and you always get a helping hand if you ask for it. I think the book bloggers are more powerful collectively. Look at how we campaign for diverse representation in books! I am not so sure if other niche bloggers feel so loved and non competitive among each other.
Despite all these, do not lose hope. There are some amazing book bloggers who have been sharing guides and how to’s specifically for us. Let me know if you need any help!
Do you agree with book blogging is so different from other niches? If so, how? Do you think book blogging can ever be a full time income earning career? Why not? Let us talk.
It has been a while since I posted a review of a book as soon as I finished reading it. But today is one of those days! I finished reading The Big Four by Agatha Christie just yesterday and I spent more than half a day today talking about it and here I am ready to write a review.
Is that a good thing or not? Read ahead to know more.
We are used to reading and loving the various murder mysteries set in London or other British cities and suburban towns. But with The Big Four, Christie sets us for a crime thriller with not one but four international super villains aiming at world domination against the grey cells of our Poirot and his dear friend Hastings.
A random guy dies in Poirot’s apartment, which ends to be a foul play. This sets the duo on wild goose chase against The Big Four – A Chinese mastermind, a French woman, an American and a mysterious number four, who always seem to be a step ahead of our dear detective.
How does he stop them from reaching their evil goal forms the rest of the story in The Big Four!
Book review of the Big Four
The Classics N Christie has been reading Agatha Christie’s books based on the publication dates. This has been very helpful for me to understand the different writing and story telling styles that the author has been trying. I wish I could The Big Four is one of those attempts, that kinda bombed for me.
Earlier in the Murder on the Links, Dame Christie tried her hand at romance in mystery novels which I didn’t enjoy much. I enjoyed her take on spy thriller even lesser. I just can’t wait to get back to cozy little town mysteries from her.
Things that worked for me
The Big Four reminded me a lot of Sherlock vs Moriarty (I love that).
It may work better if you pick the book when you are in the mood to read a spy thriller.
Things that didn’t work for me
The Big Four seemed like a bundle of short mysteries badly woven together, which I found out to be true later. The Big Four was indeed published as a twelve short mysteries during a particularly bad time of Christie personally.
There are too many named characters and most of them do not even reappear after a scene or two.
I don’t like how Poirot somehow turned into James Bond at the end of the book. That is so not our Belgian detective.
Bottom-line
If you are looking to read a typical Christie or Poirot’s mystery you will be disappointed. I never thought I would read Christie’s book that would disappoint me as much, but here it is.
Have you read this one? What is the best murder mystery you have read till date? How do you handle disappointment about your favorite author’s work? Let us talk.
I am someone who usually runs behind the to do list and checking it off only as the last minute panic sets in. If I didn’t do it at the eleventh hour, is it even done?
Most of my posts go online just before the midnight for the same reason. At least I don’t panic as much as I used to and I have come to believe that I work better under pressure.
Okay maybe not, but we will never know cuz what else do you expect me to do? Work on it well before the time. You are crazy!
On a serious note, it is a vast improvement that I even have a to do list these days. I do not even want to recollect the messy days prior to that habit. I really want to get ahead of my tasks for a change. So help a sister out, let us talk about your time management and productivity techniques. Share what works for you and what not.
My reading this week has been on track. And it has been a while since it was on track! It was either 4 books a week or none at all. But hey, let us not get ahead of ourselves, touch wood.
I finished reading Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews and it made me laugh at place. I am not one for goofy laughter, especially not in a book. But this worked so well.
I also just finished The Big Four by Agatha Christie for the Classics N Christie club. And while I am not in love with it, it was not disappointing either. It was kinda okay, but not your usual Christie good, if that makes sense whatsoever.
From the Insta-world
If you aren’t following me on Instagram, you totally should. Why? Just take a peek at what I posted this week and then decide to follow me here.
If you think Twitter is a labyrinth and you should check out Angel’s post on her blog Avid Reader about leveling up with Twitter.
Well, someone had to say it. If you have a love/hate relationship with inspirational quotes that seems to be everywhere online, read up Trang’s post on why she doesn’t love them on Bookidote.
What are your time management and productivity techniques. How many hours do you need in a day? How far ahead have you scheduled your posts? Let us talk.