Last week I found this awesome site called The Pigeonhole that helps members of book clubs read together by emailing parts of books periodically. And there are quite a number of books I have not read in their collection. Don’t you love discovering new bookish apps and sites? Is there any obscure bookish sites that you recommend?
Why am I talking about it? I wouldn’t have read The Turn of the Screw by Henry James if not for this site. Actually, I was planning to read it with a friend like a proper book club who then bailed, making it a party of one. I am not sure if I enjoyed the book but I loved waking to up to a new chapter to be read and I had the push to finish the novella in a week.
Trust me, I would not have complete or even read it if it is not for the app. Now all they have to do is add more books and I would become their die-hard fan!
On other news, I love the weather currently and don’t be surprised if I come back with a lot of beach pictures next week!
We watched US on the cinemas on Friday and I am stoked. I am still thinking about the plots and theories from the movie. And I should confess that I almost left scared. For sure, one of the best horror movies watched so far in 2019.
I finally understood what the obsession about Korean drama is all about, when I started watching Marriage Contract on Netflix on Monday and the next thing I knew it was Wednesday. I have no idea one can binge so hard on a series, and I watch a lot of series.
I have been playing a lot of catching up this week around the house after a hectic last week and being obsessed about all the superhero movies on TV.
The winter is fleeting around this part of the world, Dubai precisely, which means the weather is being weird.
I thought we are ready for spring but then came the rain for a day, then the cold is back and it has been so foggy for the past two days. We even had the hail in some parts.
The Dubai Frame looks weird right?
And last morning we saw the sun again. I have no idea how it is going to be today. Unlike many people, I love the gloomy and dark weather for some reason.
Here are a few pictures from different parts of Dubai, that my friends shared with me during this week.
I am sure they would be okay with me sharing them here, don’t worry.
What I read this week:
I had the ultimate book worm problem this week – I couldn’t choose what to read next and I spent about two-three days struggling. But then the ClassicNChristie run by Fanna and Sim helped me choose, still I feel guilty for wasting those hours. Maybe I should come up with a better system to handle my TBR?
And I stayed late last night to finish Agatha Christie’s The Secret Chimneys. I am still reading the Persuasion by Jane Austen, from last week.
My last week was filled with a lot of superhero entertainment.
To start with, I finally watched the Captain Marvel and I am kinda feeling meh about it. Maybe it was the high expectations I had or was it just ‘the same wine in a different bottle’ situation?
Did anyone else feel that? Anyway the next on my superhero watch-list is Avengers: Endgame and I am excited already.
During the week I also watched The Punisher Season 2 and The Umbrella Academy. Unsurprisingly I loved them both. Didn’t I say I love Superhero stuff?
I know that is a lot of Netflix to watch in a week right?
Well, I did it anyway.
On my blog
After a long while I posted according to my blog schedule and if you had missed any of the post here is a quick recap for you.
Don’t you hate it when you forget important dates? Then you will love this post with a huge list of literary celebrations for the year by Vidya from Lady in Read Writes .
The last leg of the #DubaiLitFest got done yesterday and I have not still out of the stupor. I have a lot of pictures to be uploaded but I am gonna keep it for the Instagram. So if you are not following there, you might as well.
But that doesn’t mean I am not gonna tell you what did happen, because let’s face it, who else would enjoy reading about me getting excited over authors who might never remember me? My family sure doesn’t. They are still getting over the idea that would rather volunteer at the literature festival from 9 AM to 9 PM than sleep in during my weekend.
Anyway, I got the sneak peak of the session with the Chinese best seller and literary award winner Cixin Liu, whom I had never heard of before. The LONG queue of people who stood for an hour or more to just greet him and get their book signed and the fact that 3 different people whom I met during the session insisted that I should read him make me wanna read him.
I even asked the Twitter world to help me!
Twitter, tell me why I should read #CixinLiu ? I had 3 different Asians tell me I have to but they might read it in Mandarin. If you have read the translation, tell me how did you like it!
I also met Sandhya Menon of the “When Dimple Met Rishi” fame, who was so sweet and kind to everyone around. Unsurprisingly she is funny as well. Did you know she also hates the “love conquers all” trope just like many of us?
We also got to meet Pierce Brown of the Red Rising fame. And we kinda crashed his dinner and clicked weird pictures with him, and he didn’t tell us off, which was so nice of him.
Oh I am in love the passion, energy and words this man brought on and off the stage! Lionheart is my new obsession everybody!! You should all go search him right away and stalk through all his social accounts.
Let me reel it up a little bit! So Lionheart is a spoken word artist and the author of the Mute’s rebellion and I will have to dig for his videos and will post on Instagram soon.
And we had so much fun in the after party. We even did a long conga line during the author dinner party. Well, I guess it was worth all the tiredness I am feeling now.
So how has your week been? Do your family and friends understand your bookworm problems and eccentricities? Who is the last author that you met and made you all giddy with excitement? Let us talk!
I am back with some exciting news from my week y’all. Are you ready for some February updates?
Remember me yapping about the Emirates Literature Festival for a while now? So it finally started this Friday! And I volunteered both on Friday and Saturday (the weekend here) and I may go again the next weekend as well.
I met Cassandra Clare and Holly Black, and they are definitely one of the nicest authors ever.
And just seeing the younger readers piling onto the long queue to talk to her or get their book signed was a treat by itself.
We also had Jeff Kinney, the author of The Diary of a wimpy kid series, making the little ones jump, and scream during his session. He was an entertainer all round.
I met some awesome bookish friends during the festival and we had some quirky breaks during the 12 hour shift. And I can’t wait to met them all next week again.
Quick February updates
I read 4 books in the last month, And that is one less than last month but I am okay with this.
I got done with my TV and Netflix ban and I binged watched so many movies and series during the month. So many that I let that creep into my reading and blogging times even. Guys I am not proud of myself about that at all.
On the other hand I got back to running and I think I might start to enjoy it again.
I tried my hand at crochet and I should maybe accept my defeat. It takes so much time and patience, y’all!! BUT, I ended up with this not so perfect heart at the end of the day. So what do you think?
I have been reading the 5th and 6th books for about 10 days now and I have not yet completed about 50 pages on them put together.
What I watched:
I watched the Unbreakable and Split again last week so that I will not miss anything for when I watch Mr Glass. But I guess it went futile. I liked the movie but I didn’t love it.
And I am so late to the Bohemian Rhapsody and I confess a sobbing mess during the end of the movie. Why I did that? We’ll never ask!
My monthly top picks
Now that I have spent a lot of time watching movies and series, why not put it to use for my blog? So here are my top five picks
I have not been able to hit all the blogs this week, but I have a quick round up of the ones I loved here.
I found myself agreeing with a lot of the points that Lena from Lena’s Notebook mentioned on her post on book snobbery.
Do you feel bad and ashamed for the things that you do or don’t as a blogger? I do, constantly. Sam fro WLBB wrote an entire post on blogger shame just to say that we aren’t alone on that.
Do you love audiobooks? Then you need to head on to Nicole’s post on why audiobooks are important and join the discussion on Feed your fiction addiction.
I loved Dani’s post on how and why Urban Fantasy is her favorite subgenre on Perspective of a writer.
If you are a writer, you have to join the discussion with Clo on Bookwyrming Thoughts on writing realistic characters right away.
I added a few books to my TBR from the post on list of books for Slytherins by Malanie from Malanie loves fiction.
Pin me!
Let us chat
How was your February? Was it as fun as mine? Who are the authors that you want to meet some day? Let us talk.
While I have productive on the blog front and otherwise, mentally it has not been a great week.
I had a tough week processing and adapting to a few new changes in my life and I had not realized how easily we take a few things and people for granted without even knowing. Well, one thing led to another and soon I went on a spiral which obviously didn’t end so well.
Well, I am okay now, just a bit tired.
But on the bright side, I have taken up to running again. All the stress have made the unbelievable happen, I am being not lazy. At least this week I was not.
Hope the pleasant weather in Dubai and the pretty sights on my trail would keep me motivated. Fingers crossed.
What I watched:
Did anyone else watch the Netflix series Bodyguard on Netflix? I liked how it kept me hooked until the end and of course, their accent.
I am hoping to watch Glass on the theaters this week, so I did my homework and watched the Unbreakable and rewatched the Split last week. Oh I also watched Incredibles 1 and 2 as well.
I watched too many movies for my own good right? Well it reflects on my reading.
I am finally ticking off some of those bad boys from my TBR.
I added Eliza and her monsters about two years ago, when people were raving about its ARCs and I finally picked it as I needed to read something contemporary after the back to back classics I have been reading.
And I should say it was worth the wait. Don’t forget to look out for its review soon.
I am currently reading Persuasion by Jane Austen and Fahrenheit 451. Yes biggies, but I hope to manage.
On my blog:
A quick recap of what happened on my blog last week, in case you were out of the loop.
I am planning to do a Flyaway Friday feature on Netherlands soon and I am looking for guest blogger. If you are Dutch or you know anyone who would be willing to do one can you contact me. Help a fellow blogger out, please!
I don’t add rated stars books on my reviews in the blog. But I know you all will resonate Marija from Inside my library mind’s post on how she rates books on her reviews.
