I have been talking about my favorite and not-so favorite books and book related things here for a while a long time now. But how much I have divulged about me, the face behind the blog? Yes, I can hear it – I have spoken about myself quite a lot.
And here is more. I am doing the Behind the blog tag and here is a chance to know more about me. Let us do this.
Nominate 5+ bloggers you’d like to know more about, to do this tag
My blog’s name in books
1. Why did you start blogging? & Why have you kept blogging?
I started writing about books in this blog about 9 years ago for a selfish reason. I just wanted to catalogue the books that I enjoyed and the ones I did not. The catelogue ended up being my bookish diary where I ranted about books I hate and dreamed about the characters that I loved.
Then I never thought there might be people reading my blog or for that matter I would still be writing here about books after so many years. Having a blog ensured that I didn’t bother my friends and family in real life who rarely read or understood what and why I was obsessed about. But my internet readers friends did.
I think that is what kept me going, despite the number of blocks and gaps in my blogging calendar I had through these years.
2. What is your favorite type of blog post to write?
Initially, when the blog was private, I spoke of everything that was on my mind (and was called “Musings Over Nothing”), which was anyway more often than not about books. But I loved writing those commentary rants about the society and just people as such.
When I moved on to Elgee Writes, I decided to focus on reviews and bookish posts only. And so my rants discussions have been mostly about books which I love, especially since they are hard to come by. My second favorite would be the weekly update posts that I publish on Sundays and they are aplenty. They are a bit personal and a bit.
Short answer: Discussion posts and Sunday updates.
3. What are your top three favorite blog posts?
I am gonna be a cliche and say everything and that would be a lie. Not all posts are created equally. So here are the top three posts that I loved writing and it seems my readers love it too.
4. What are some of your favorite things to do to relax?
When I am overwhelmed or just distracted, making lists always relaxes me. Just putting down everything on a paper or an app helps calm down and carry on.
Also binging on Netlix, definitely.
5. What are three of your favorite things?
Spreadsheets | Beaches | Netflix, I guess
6. What are your proudest blogging moments?
I was the proudest when I received my first payment I received for the beta reading services. Until then I had always thought I was blogging for fun and never thought that people would be interested to pay for my opinions about their MS.
Well, that was years ago and I have come a long way from there, but I still pumped up every time someone asks me to write for their site or to read their manuscript. I think I will never get over it.
7. What are your hobbies outside of blogging?
I have the attention of a six year old. I get excited about a lot of things for a short amount of time.
I knit, crochet and draw.I love DIY-ing decors around the house.
I obsess over photography especially bookish ones.
But I don’t think I have focused on anything as much as I do with blogging and books. I genuinely surprised at that myself.
8. Describe your personality in three words.
Empathetic | funny | impatient
9. What are your top three pet peeves?
I find it annoying when people act without a consideration about other humans. Case in point: recent bulk/panic stockpiling and emptying the entire supermarket shelves in a minute.
I hate being in the dark about plans. If you are making a plan, tell me when, where and how or at least tell me when I can know the details. I hate it when people leave others hanging.
Not having plans to go out and my curls behave well, for no reason.
10. What’s something your followers don’t know about you?
I am terrified of cats. I am all for pets and I know they are adorable to you, but do not ask me to enter a room with a cat in. I probably will get a panic attack.
Have you done this tag? If so do link it to the comments and I will love to read it. If not, please consider yourself tag cuz I wanna know ya! Of course I am not being creepy.
I love doing bookish quizzes, even if most of the time I score real poor on them. But hey they are usually fun to do and kill some time right? It has been a while since I did one of those quizzes here, so let us match the authors name to their books now.
Do you like doing bookish quizzes? How much did you score on the “guess the authors of these famous books” quiz? Do you want me to make another quiz, a little bit tougher? Let us talk.
I have been seeing this tag for a long time now and here I am finally trying to write my name with books from my TBR. So let us get on with the My blog’s name in books tag, okay?
You do know how weird we, bookworms, usuallyoften sometimes are right? Not all people are suited for the book nerd life but as much as we put up with the muggles in our life, they do with us. So I am gonna write up a quick list about the weird things bookworms do.
Maybe it will make their lives easier, and they will not have to worry every time you burst into tears because a character died. Or complain about your massiveness of TBR list or lack of shelving space for your books when you had just bought a shelf two months ago.
Ten weird things that probably definitely bookworms do in life
10) Bookworms hoard books everywhere
Do I even have to explain more? Despite being on a self imposed book ban for a while now and the fact that the majority of my books are still in India, books are definitely everywhere in the small one bedroom apartment that I currently live in.
Just to dissuade myself from the book buying spree I avoided getting a book shelf for a long time here, and then got the smallest Ikea floating shelf. Well, I should not have even attempted that. Now my books are on the vanity table, coffee table, bed side table, the bed and every other flat surface of the house.
Credit: Giphy
TL;DR: Be prepared to be taken over by our books. Also don’t buy the small shelves, even if we say it would be enough. IT IS NEVER ENOUGH.
9) Bookworms can read anywhere
Running late for your meet up? Don’t worry about your bookworm, they will be reading a book just at a corner. They maybe angry at you but still they won’t fret much because they will a book or two or ten handy to read while they wait for you.
Credit: Giphy
Be it a holiday, a date, a party or even a movie, we are bringing our books and the Kindle with us. Do not attempt to stop us.
8) We complain about our never ending TBR list
If you are new to the bookish world, TBR means To Be Read and any sensible bookworm will have a long ass list of books they ought to read some day in the future. Usually the list is long enough for them survive without having to talk to any other human until the apocalypse.
Credit: Giphy
And of course, we are gonna complain about the number of books waiting to be read and how we do not have space to hoard stack the books. Get used to it, for your own safety.
7) We do not stop buying books
Despite the space issue and the number of unread books, we are never gonna stop buying books. And we will visit the library often, even borrow books from other friends. And you would think all these would reduce our book hauls.
But you would be wrong. We are bookworms and book shopping is what we do.
Credit: Giphy
6) And multiple copies of the same book!
Okay this is a truly weird one. But TRUE!
Many of us buy multiple copies of the same book sometimes. There have been times I loved the e-copy of a book so much that I ended up buying the physical format just to savor them again.
And I know of other bookworms who buy a paperback and a cloth bound and/or hardback because we love owning pretty things. We are humans, too!
5) Adaptations are scary and exciting
Every time a movie or television adaptation of a book I love is announced I am scream with excitement and then cower with fear. It is almost akin to risking to lose someone special.
What if they change the storyline? What if they massacre the character arc or just cut off an entire character? I mean the fears are real. But if and when the movie hits the screen and it turns out to be good, our excitement has no bounds.
Credit: Giphy
We will be right with you telling how it was in the book, while watching it.
Again we can’t help ourselves, YOU need to be more understanding.
4) We will totally judge what you read
We may tell you that it is great as long as you read, no matter what. But you may not have noticed that we had our fingers crossed.
We will totally, truly and repeatedly judge you based on what you read.
Maybe not in a bad way, but we size up your interests, taste and preferences on everything else based on your taste in books. Basically we are using books to typecast you. It may sound wrong, but it is mostly not.
Credit: Giphy
I give up, it is something we should not be doing. But we do.
3) Measure time and distance in terms of books
Did I say we judge a person based on the books and it sounded totally wrong? Well, this may soften the blow. We use books as denomination to measure time and distance as well.
How far is the next metro station? Oh it is close by, I read just one chapter in The Bell Jar.
Do you wanna go to that party? I can finish reading a whole book instead.
Well, you see how it goes?
2) Recommending books
Bookworms read a lot of books. They discuss a lot about them. Their whole life is consumed by books. So of course they can recommend you a book when you ask of them.
That is where you are wrong.
Bookworms simply can’t recommend A BOOK. They give you a list of books that you should read and why you should read them all. And then follow up with the things that you should watch out for while reading each of them. And then opens the book for you and reads along with you.
Okay now you would have realized that you may have made a mistake.
1) Do not ask to choose favorites
I repeat. DO NOT ask a bookworm to choose a favorite author or favorite book.
More often than not, they would be so overwhelmed that they forget their name. There are so many thousands of books to be read, hundreds of books they have read, hundreds that they are hoarding and you ask them to choose one? STOP IT!
Do you do any of these weird things bookworms do? Did I miss anything else? Do you have reading ritual? Share your eccentric quirks with us. Let us talk
The International Mothers Day falls on the 12th May of this year and I hope you all have got your gifts all packed for your mothers. And if you are a mother yourself, I hope you have a special day for yourself.
Badass Mothers from the books
While we are on the topic, I am gonna use this chance to talk about my favorite mothers in the literary world that I totally love.
Marmee is an epitome of strong women in not just literary world. She raised her four daughters Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy under the terrible circumstances of the Civil war that called their father away and drained them financially.
But she never lost her patience and smile even she reprimanded her girls, who turned out to be well read and ambitious making Marmee a great feminist ahead of her times.
Mrs Bennett, Pride and Prejudice
I know Mrs Bennett was not exactly a role model to mothers, but she always had her heart set out for the best of her daughters which was in her eyes – getting married to wealthy men.
She had less or no support from her husband in this area, and despite him, she did achieve what she set out for. I guess that makes her a badass mother. Don’t you agree?
Marilla Cuthbert of Anne of Green Gables
As quite opposite to Marmee, Marilla was not pleasant and she seldom smiled. She didn’t even let Anne call her ‘Aunt Marilla’. But that definitely doesn’t undermine her strength and love for her ward. She was a feminist and practical woman who comes to love the orphan in her own way.
Ma from Room
Despite being imprisoned in a small room for years, Emma did all she could to keep her son Jack, who has never been outside the four walls in his life, spirited and full of positivism.
She does not only teach him to read and write but keeps him engaged creatively and even gets him do yoga. That alone makes her a badass mother.
Cersei Lannister of A Song of Ice and Fire series
I am currently binging on the Game of Thrones and I would never be able to sleep if I don’t add Cersei to the list of badass women. I initially wanted to add Catelyn Stark. But now that I have watched the third season, I know Cersei will be the better choice.
She has her flaws about her being power hungry, cunning, ruthless and such. But one thing that comes so strong is her love towards her children. Her motto was ‘don’t mess with my cubs’, right from the beginning even when they were not appreciative enough.
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Let us chat
Did I miss your favorite mothers in the list? Tell me who is your favorite mother in the fiction world. What are your plans for the Mother’s day? Let us talk.
