What’s your favorite book that nobody else has heard of? You know, not Little Women or Huckleberry Finn, not the latest best-seller . . . whether they’ve read them or not, everybody “knows” those books. I’m talking about the best book that, when you tell people that you love it, they go, “Huh? Never heard of it?”

I was tagged by Melody for this fun meme.

The rules of this particular meme are:

1). Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages)
2). Open the book to page 123
3). Find the fifth sentence
4). Post the next three sentences
5). Tag five people

Although I am currently reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman, The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan was the nearest book. Here I go:

I have listed the Nobel Laureates and their books I have read so far. I have not reviewed all of those on my blog as I read a few, long time back. If I do, I will link those here. I am in the process of reading another book by Steinbeck, three by Marquez and one by Orhan Pamuk.

1907 - Rudyard Kipling
Jungle Book

1. The drive is often the best thing about traveling.
2. I love a good snuggle with my husband when I'm cold.
3. I often use pasta when I am cooking.
4. I'm reading Little Women right now; I love it.

• Pick up the nearest book. (I’m sure you must have one nearby.)
• Turn to page 123.
• What is the first sentence on the page?
• The last sentence on the page?
• Now . . . connect them together….
  (And no, you may not transcribe the entire page of the book–that’s cheating!)

I am currently reading My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

Today’s suggestion is from Cereal Box Reader

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I would enjoy reading a meme about people’s abandoned books. The books that you start but don’t finish say as much about you as the ones you actually read, sometimes because of the books themselves or because of the circumstances that prevent you from finishing. So . . . what books have you abandoned and why?

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Kristin Gorski of "Write now is good" has tagged me for this.

10 signs that I have written a book:

1). It is set in, of all places, Australia. Frankly I don't know, why. I have never been there. However, I would like to write a book set in Australia.

2). It is about a man lost in the forests trying to find his way out. He can talk to animals and commune with trees. He is not your macho man.

3). No fairy tale like endings. Our man will cry when he is hurt.

4). There is lot of internal dialogues. Symbolism is must.

5). It would be a third person account. I cannot write in first person.

Friday Fill-In #49
1. I love the nostalgia surrounding Christmas.
2. Blue is/are my favorite color(s) for the Christmas tree lights.
3. The non-existent candles in the window have non-existent bulbs.
4. A Christmas Story (You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!) is one of my most favorite Christmas movies.
5. My favorite Christmas lyric(s) is/are

I found this meme posted at A Fraternity of Dreamers. Kookie had such fun answers that she inspired me to give it a shot. Here goes:

What kind of soap is in your shower right now?
Ivory(DH), B&BW Rice Flower& Shea(Me), B&BW Exotic Coconut(DD),
Old Spice Red Zone(Sons)

Do you have any watermelon in your refrigerator? No

Kookiejar started this and then it spread like Chicken Pox in a Daycare. I had to do it too!

Here's what you do:
Set your Mp3 player on shuffle and write the title of the first song that comes up as an answer to each question no matter how stupid it sounds...(savvy? Here we go.)

IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY?" YOU SAY?
1234 (Feist) That's how long you got until the sheet hits the fan, dawg.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Tom Sawyer (Rush) Though my mind is not for rent, don't put me down as arrogant.

1. My favorite song of 2007 was "The Face of Love" by Sanctus Real.
2. I'm most tempted not to do housework by reading a book.
3. Today I want to stay home and relax.
4. The last thing I took a picture of was my daughter.

I saw this meme at Fraternity of Dreamers. It's a weird one but it'll give you an interesting view of my world:

What kind of soap is in your shower right now? Ivory Body Wash and Dove Bar Soap (with the little nibblets in it).

Do you have any watermelon in your refrigerator? No but I do have a Pomelo.

Melody from Melody's Reading Corner tagged me for this meme, which is to sum up your life in 6 words. I can't think of anything other than the following right now (and I know it is too tame!) :

Reading as much as I can

Now for the rules:

All other things (like price and storage space) being equal, given a choice in a perfect world, would you rather have paperbacks in your library? Or hardcovers? And why?

What new books are you looking forward to most in 2008? Something new being published this year? Something you got as a gift for the holidays? Anything in particular that you’re planning to read in 2008 that you’re looking forward to? A classic, or maybe a best-seller from 2007 that you’re waiting to appear in paperback?

1. The last compliment I got was from my husband; he/she said I was doing great on a project I have undertaken.
2. I'm reading The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer.
3. I woke up today and thought T.G.I.F!!!!!!!

In this week I could manage to review only one book, that too a Tintin one, The Lake of Sharks. Comic books take less time to read and review. A new house entails a lot of work. Although I am nicely enconsed in my new home, all those paperwork for banks etc has to be completed. In India, nothing gets done by telephone or the internet. One has to go there and get things done.

It's that time of the year again when Major League Baseball hands out its annual awards. On Monday, the first two awards will be announced, and that is the AL and NL Rookie of the Year awards.
Here are my choices for the awards and the days they will be announced:

Nov. 12: AL Rookie of the Year: Dustin Pedroia
NL Rookie of the Year: Ryan Braun

I am kind of liking to participate in weekly geeks. A good way of community building, to discover new blogs, new books, new bloggers. Best is to read different perceptions about same books! That is the theme for this week's geek which Dewey borrowed from Darla's blog, books and other things. You review a book and then link it with the review of the same book reviewed by a fellow blogger. That way you and your reader get to read diverse viewpoints. I think this is a great idea. I have infact linked a few of my reviews in previous posts, before this.

Searching through archives might take a while but well worth the effort. Time for me go link hunting and post those here. The linky think might work well after each review. That way, more might look out for their older reviews and just copy/paste the links in the linky thing.

I must be out of my mind. I joined a few more challenges for 2008. I think I can overlap many of those. Click on the icons to know more about those challenges. Join as many as you can.

The challenges in alphabetical order are:

Total 52 books. 26 each for authors and titles.

HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY TO ALL MY FELLOW
IRISHMEN & WOMEN!

Nothing new on the baby front, but wouldn't mind him wanting to come into the world today! I have a few people betting that today or tomorrow will be the day, but I know this little guy is on his own timetable unknown to the rest of us. If I do go to the hospital today, I have a super cool green hat to wear to the hospital to entertain everyone : ) Even though I am only a quarter Irish (paternal grandmother), I like to celebrate it all the same.

Inspired by what Dorothy at Of Books And Bicycles did with her Nov.7th posting, I am going to do a meme-thing involving the letters of my blogname.
Here is the criteria, the rationale, the raison d’etre:

Booking Through Thursday

• Pick up the nearest book. (I’m sure you must have one nearby.)
• Turn to page 123.
• What is the first sentence on the page?
• The last sentence on the page?
• Now . . . connect them together….
  (And no, you may not transcribe the entire page of the book–that’s cheating!)

Aha! An easy one:

"I am," I say. Mankind has veered off course in terms of lifelong mating.

There it is. I'm wondering how I'm going to comment on the other posters. Hmm. That's from Ask Again Later by Jill A Davis. I'll be writing a review of this book later today. Stay tuned.

What else can I say? I made some bookmarks for my Etsy shop, if you're interested. And tune in tomorrow for guest blogger Linda Wisdom, author of 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover.

Hurray for shameless self-promotion!

The Worst

Luckily, there wasn't any real stinkers in the books I read this year. However, I was frustrated with a few. I wasn't impressed with Moll Flanders but I can't fault it since it was a product of it's time. Anyway, here are the awards for the Worst.