This week flew amidst festivities, lights and lots of cooking. We had a festival called Diwali or Deepavali which literally translates to festival of lights.
We Indians generally make a huge deal of it with loads of fireworks, lights, feasts and of course new clothes.
And it is a little hard to be away from my family this time of the year but I tried to make the best of it. Look at those pretty lights that I snagged in my room for the occasion.
I also kept myself pretty distracted with a bit of DIY projects during the week. I guess the productive bee struck me again. *knocks wood*
What I read this week:
I didn’t read anything at all except for the books that I am beta reading. So technically I am reading, but they are not going on my count, right?
What I watched this week:
I watched not too much of TV this week and when I did watch I made sure I was doing something useful as well. So I guess I was good after all.
How did I not know about the Disney movie Kuzco? And I am surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. Maybe the only thing I enjoyed on Netflix this week.
On the blog:
A quick recap of the past week for those who might have missed.
Have you ever tried to remember that word and recall every word associated with it, except the one you need? I have and you should try Visuwords (visual words, you see!).
With the success of Blogoween Clo from Bookdragon and Sam are back with another event schedule. Catch up Bookend event post for more info.
No two bookworms can be same, right? Even if we read similar books and have similar tastes in bookish things, we can’t all be the same, can we? And that is true especially in my case because most of my bookish habits are weird and eccentric.
Tell me how different am I in my bookish habits than you in the comment section below, won’t you?
10. I do not care for the book covers
Of course, I love a beautiful art work on the book as much as any one else.
But I do not buy or judge books based on their covers. And in case of e-books I rarely even glance or remember them. I know many of my fellow book bloggers who do wonderful displays with those book covers on #bookstagrams, but sigh I can not be one of them.
9. You can’t spoil it for me
I don’t care for spoilers as such but I don’t mind if I stumble upon a few by mistake.
I know it might spoil the suspense or even the ending of the story for some, not for me. While I am not one to jump to the last age to know the ending, I am okay with a few small details or a major twist that I hear anyway. You will never find asking me to spare the spoilers
8. People before books, I guess
I am the crazy bag lady (mostly) who always carries a book or five with me everywhere I go. Yet if I were reading a book and someone talks to me, I close the book and talk to them.
When I am reading a physical copy I always try and remember the page I stop at. In fact I don’t even own bookmarks except for the free ones that come with the books. What is the point of owning those fabulous. beautiful bookmarks when I seldom use them right?
I can only see those awesome people who use those bookmarks or anything that resembles it so cleverly. Sigh.
6. I try to pause my reading at page that ends with 5 or 0.
This is one of the habits that I formed right from my childhood and I can’t seem to break it. Remember I told I don’t use bookmarks and I try to remember where I stopped at. So to make matters easier, I used to stop only at pages that ended in fives or tens.
Well, you can consider this as my kinda ‘five more minutes’ before bed time.
5. Read the book before I watch the screen adaptations
I am not sure when this habit started but I always make sure I read the book before I can get myself to watch its series or movies adaptation. I know I have broken this rule once or twice, owing to ignorance about the book at all or just the sheer volume of the book. I have found some great books and classics at that.
I am definitely gonna keep up with this one, so that I can see my own imaginations.
4. I have poor memory for character names and settings
I remember the names of most of the people I have met in real life, but I forget the settings / locations and the names of the characters I read in the books. Okay not immediately but in a while and this makes me the worst candidate for reading books in series.
Oh, to overcome this disadvantage, I can say, I have even started noting the character names and locations in my reviews.
3. It takes me a while decide on the books
Though this is not a steadfast habit and there have been lots of books that I have loved right from the first chapter, I usually take a few minutes or hours off from the book to decide how I felt about it.
After the break I start recollecting what I liked and didn’t like about the book, since I don’t usually take notes for books I read for reviewing. This works for now I guess.
2. Audio books are a huge no-no for me
I have enjoyed a few audio books in the past but I feel they require to much effort from me. I have to try much harder to focus on the narrator’s voice than the writing or the story itself.
It is so draining and as you all know, the time taken usually is a lot more. For me reading comes naturally, listening not so much.
1. I jump into a book blindly
Like most of us, I add a lot of books to my to-be-read shelf from others recommendations and blogs. But I like reading a book with zero knowledge about it.I like to be surprised by how good the book turns out to be, or bad in some cases.
I don’t even read the blurb usually and it is a blessing, sometimes, that I have such a poor memory that I even forget the reviews I read when I added the book to my list.
It seems to me that I am the only one that have these habits. Let me know if you have or do any of these things and make me feel better, please.
What can make a bookworm happier than a book sale? A bigger book sale!
The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale is here at Dubai! Dubai being Dubai, it definitely has to be the world’s largest book sale. Obviously! We don’t do anything normally.
There are 3 million books for sale and it is open 24 hours a day for 11 days. To quote an organiser, “if all of the books on sale in Dubai during the coming 11 days were stacked on top of each other (taking the average book thickness), it would reach a height 48 times taller than the Burj Khalifa (the world’s tallest building”.
Anyway today is the last of the book sale, and I still haven’t had time to go there. But I have some fabulous friends who shared pictures from their visit and I got some from the internet, just to show how massive it actually is.
I might still visit for a quick haul later today, fingers crossed.
What I read this week:
I finished the books from yester-weeks, I have no idea why I left them half way to jump on to other books. Anyway I am done now with the following:
I am fully focusing on completing my goals towards A-Z reading challenge 2018. Looks like I might reach it, surprisingly.
What I watched this week:
I spent quite a lot of time on Netflix this week, totally unsurprising I know.
I gave in and watched ‘The Haunting of a Hill house’ before reading the book, quite unlike me. I am over the guilt because I FREAKING LOVED IT and I am thankful that it didn’t have those jump scares.
I watched The good place – season 1 and I didn’t see the ending coming at all. I liked it!
I completed watching Jane the Virgin Season 4 and I was not expecting that season finale cliffhanger. I knew there was a cliffhanger coming on, but just not THAT!!!!
On the blog
If you had missed any of the posts on my blog this week, here is a quick recap.
I loved Ruby from Ruby’s books her hilarious post on Strange things that she thinks while reading.
I know everyone loves a bookish quiz, and Spohia from Bookwyrming Thoughts has the season’s best quiz on what snoopy creature are you? (Well, I am a poltergeist. Be scared!)
How was your week? Do you love such mass book sales? Did you watch any of these Netflix series? Share with me your favorite post of the week and I will take look right away. Let us chat!
April is proving to be as good as I hoped it would be. And I happy to share that I finished two books in a week. That is how many I read in the last month.
2) Love hate and other filters – I read this book also as part of the A – Z reading challenge and it has been the talk of the Twitter world. I stayed up all night to finish it.
What I watched this week
Did anyone else see Netflix’s adaptation of Anne of Green Gables and feeling as irked as me? Why on earth would they want to change a sunshiney positive book into dark and melancholic? Damn you Netflix!
I gave in and re-colored my hair with (Wait for it) violet peekaboo streaks. I love it and hopefully they won’t run out any soon.
Violet and black!
I have kept up my running schedule. I missed it just one day during the week and that is not due to my laziness, which is a wonder.
It is my best friend’s birthday today and though we are not living nearby, we spoke. So once again Happy Birthday, girl.
Around the blogosphere
I got back to blog hopping. If I missed your blog and you can leave me your link to your blog here.
Here are some of the posts / articles I loved online during the week.
I know it is that time of the year! New year and resolution fevers are everywhere. As I keep telling you December is my second favorite month because of the festive season and I start being all hyper right from the November end. I mean who would not be so, except maybe Grinch.
But seldom life let’s us to what we want right? I start out with great rigor and somehow that slowly fizzles out. Does it happen anyone else too? More or less, the following incident happens every year.
December 1st (8 AM):
Time for new resolutions! New year! Yay, excited (Grinning)
Dec 11th (8 PM):
Why have not I come up with a resolution yet?
Dec 17th (7 PM):
No problemo, I got it covered, 14 days more to choose one. Thankfully, I am not one of those “Perfect”s. I can choose many things to change.
Dec 25th(11 AM):
Oh my god! Just a week away, I am yet to decide on my New Year Avatar. As everyone else, I can improve myself if I use this resolution fever. Maybe if I just focus on my shortfalls, I can find it.
(11. 10AM):
Woohoo, Kungfu Panda on TV.. I will choose one right after the film.
Dec 27th (7 PM):
I have to choose one right now. NO PROCRASTINATION. Ok right after the ice cream that I have to search in the fridge.
8 PM:
Ice cream and the phone call.
9 PM:
Ice cream, the phone call and the Film.
11 PM:
Ice cream, the phone call and the Film and the urm… other stuff.. But it is now too late to think and I am tired too. And to think of future one needs to be in an energetic mode.
Dec 30th (6 PM):
After many days from the day that I decided to think on the topic and 1000 times questioned, I have to find the one resolution out. (I am putting on my thinking face)
(6.02 PM):
Hey why dont I see what resolutions my friends have posted on Facebook! I will get better ideas!
(9.02 PM):
Seriously this idea is not working. Maybe I should ask them. And do not think I would choose to while away time by speaking to them, I will text them. I have a mission in hand, I wont focus on chatting with them.
(11.02 PM):
%*&$# these guys are of no use. Wasting my time. There went my two hours. Maybe today is just not my day.
Dec 31st 2012 (9 PM):
No more Facebook, No more Mobile. I am putting them away. (Donning my Thinking face yet again)
ME: How about hitting the gym?
My alter ego: How many times have you had that resolution and have broken it?
ME: Ok forget it. How about going Vegan?
My alter ego: Think about all the cakes in the world
ME: How about..
My alter ego: Forget that, You would not keep up.
ME: I had not even completed saying it!
My alter ego: I can read your thoughts, right? Why do you think of “me me and only me”? It is time you tried to make adifference in the world.
ME: Wow! Ok, how about.. how about.. why cant… (falls asleep)
Jan 1st:
Every other earthling to me: Happy new year! So what is your resolution?
Me to Others:
Resolutions? ME? Just what are you implying? That I need to change? Well Buddy as far as I am concerned, I am perfect the way I am!
Didn’t I say Calvin is my soulmate?
