Books and films both tell stories, but what we want from a book can be different from what we want from a movie. Is this true for you? If so, what’s the difference between a book and a movie?

How can one even think of comparing books and movies? Both are entirely different mediums. I am not much of a movie person. I seldom even watch a movie. I prefer reading anyday. When a book is made into movie, no doubt it gets better publicity, lot more people watch it then reading the book. However, I find most of the movies that have been adapted from a book, leave me wanting more. In a book, everything is happening inside your mind. You form certain opinions about certain characters. I would rather escape the world reading a book than watching a movie. Most of the times, I get distracted from a movie but not while reading a book.

Christina of ardently book reviews is giving away a copy of Breaking her fall by Stephen Goodwin.

Kinsmen of the shelf is giving away Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder. It is on till midnight of April 12!

As this is BAFAB week yet again, I bought books for my nephews, nieces and friends. I also bought books for myself. A few book lovers too are offering books on their blogs. Do check those out for free books! This way, I won a few books in the last year! Do check out
Rhinoa's Rambling
Melody's Reading Corner

Anna Broadway is giving away copies of Sexless in the City written by her! Enter before April 15th!

You can order copies too:

Amazon and Barnes & Noble have it, for starters, with pre-order discounts till Tuesday.

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.

I forgot to wrap it up! As simple as that! All this week I left links at various blogs and a few fellow bloggers too, left their links. I have added those links to the main posts. However, I might have left out a few links. Do feel free to remind me. I have made lists of book reviews for 2006, 2007 and 2008, which shows on the top of my left side bar. I have even put up a message about link exchange.

I had thought of joining this challenge. However, I am not much familiar with southern authors. As an Indian, I go by country or continents. However, on Maggie's insistence, I am giving it a go.

Here is my list:

(1) Roots by Alex Haley
(2) Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
(3) In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
(4) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

As I have already read the first two, that too in May, those may be counted for the challenge. I only need read one more. The last two are very much with me and so reading those won't be a problem!

And now for a Southern haiku:

your very own greed

Another read challenge, which goes up from March 20 to June 19th, 2008! I might as well join this. There are many books I wish to read even though I am moving house which wil involve major work. Well, let me put up a list for it:

1) White Widow by Jim Lehrer
2) Magical Tales by R J Stewart
3) The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

These book are with me and do not figure in any other read challenges! I might add two more!

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:

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?”

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:

I just stumbled upon some book blogs I've not seen before and they are giving books away!

She Reads Books is giving away 5 books but the deadline is Thursday, June 3 at midnight EST so hurry on over! A comment give you one entry. Posting about the contest on your blog earns you two more!

A Book Blogger's Diary has very frequent giveaways! The current one is A Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander. Enter by June 15!

Mama Bear Reads is giving away her copy of Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik. Contest ends June 10 (her birthday)

Book Room Reviews is giving away a copy of The Safety of Secrets by Delaune Michel. Contest ends June 15

I did not read a single book this last week. I am in the middle of a few books but finished none. Infact, I read very little. I did not even visit the book fair which is an yearly affair. I always look forward to it.

I do not know why but did not feel like doing anything which consisted of books. I suppose I needed the break. I wrote a hell lot of poetry. I listened to music, watched two stupid movies and slept. Completely relaxed.

It felt good.

Every day when I wake up I ask myself the same question, "Is today going to be it?". Then I think about the date and think about how it sounds as baby's birthday. So here I am on March 26th still asking, "Is today going to be it?". I at least got a good long stretch of sleep last night and a good morning nap today. I have nothing more exciting than dishes and towels to be put away and carpet to be vacuumed. My mom bought her plane tickets today for coming to Texas a week from Sunday. I think everyone is thinking this little guy doesn't plan to come out of his own free will : )

Tigers won against Houston, 10-9 yesterday. Today they play the Pittsburgh Pirates... Arrrrr

• 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 it was a working day for me. Our annual exam results have to be declared tomorrow, that is, 31 March, 2008. There are last minute checking and rechecking. I went to school at 9 am and returned at 6 pm. A long day! I feel so relaxed now as our work is DONE! Anyway, I did manage to read a comics/Graphics novel. I am reading a lot of those lately! Re-reading! I am truly lovin' those!

Title: Asterix and the Mansions of the Gods
Author: Goscinny and Uderzo
ISBN: 0340192690
Publishers: Hodder Daurgaud/1975

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?

I would call this a fruitful week in the sense that I finished two difficult books. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, which took me a long time to finish. However, when I finally completed, I felt it is worthwhile. I have a good mind to re-read it again and I know I will savour it.

I also finished The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. This I read, while travelling to and fro for my seminar being conducted in another part of Delhi. I liked this very much. This is Eco's first book and he has done a great job of it. I look forward to read more from him. I will check out his other works. What I loved about this book is that it is entirely based on a library and revolves in and around it. By the description one can almost feel as if one is inside that mysterious library.

I think I am getting cold feet looking at my own list. However, I have to do this. I can't go on procastinating!

Man Booker Challenge 2008
1) 2007 The Gathering by Anne Enright
2) 2006 *The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
3) 2000 *The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood currently reading it
4) 1981 *Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
5)
6)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As my school is far from my present residence, I have been reading a lot while travelling. I have finished three books. Posted review for the other two. Today I will post a review for Did I Expect Angels? by Kathryn Maughan. I read it in April though. Sunday Salon seems like a good way to write a review. I plan to write poetry after posting my review. And catch up with my fellow bloggers. I have slacked enough.

Title: Did I Expect Angels?
Author: Kathryn Maughan
ISBN: 9780595402595

I have taken this negative meme from Dewey's blog. I thought I would give it a shot. My answers are not as good as hers! Feel free to do this meme and credit it to Dewey!

1. When you dislike a book, do you say so in your blog? Why or why not?

I do say so. As I spend a lot of time reading and analysing it, I do think I should mention the negative aspects too. However, I mention it why I did not like that particular book. There might be cultural reasons too. Some books simply do not work for me.

2. Do you temper your feelings about books you didn’t like, so as not to completely slam them? Why or why not?

Okay, even I can’t read ALL the time, so I’m guessing that you folks might voluntarily shut the covers from time to time as well… What else do you do with your leisure to pass the time? Walk the dog? Knit? Run marathons? Construct grandfather clocks? Collect eggshells?

Of course, I give myself a break from books once in a while. I am yet to finish a book till now, since February started. Somehow I do not feel upto it.

That gives me time to listen to music..I am exploring new music. I have bought myself a Yamaha keyboard player and learning to play it. I am nowhere near perfection as yet!

I have been looking up into art. I am visiting museums, monuments and trying to learn the history sans books.

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.

You’ve just reached the end of a book . . . what do you do now? Savor and muse over the book? Dive right into the next one? Go take the dog for a walk, the kids to the park, before even thinking about the next book you’re going to read? What?

As with most reading bloggers, I think, we all feel so elated after finishing it. Then a bit sad, if it was a really good book. I close the book and savour the book in my mind. Nowadays, I get into writing a review right away as instant recall works best for me. Next is, looking for another book to read. I read two-three books per week. So I do not keep much gaps between the books I read. I try to keep the genres different between reading. However, as most readers do, I too am reading at least three different books at any given point of time. So the end of a book does not affect me that much. And we must not forget all those reading challenges! So where is the time to give a gap?

And being single with no kids and neither pets helps me read as much as I want at any time!!

I could only read two books in the past book. Considering, one was 688 pages and the other 415, I think I did well. Both were difficult and thoughtful reads.

One was Roots by Alex Haley and the other, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Both deal with the slave trade in America. After reading the former, I had to re-read the latter. Both left me asking questions and made major impact on my mind. That too despite knowing about slavery all along.

Title: Yellowknife
Author: Steve Zipp
ISBN: 9780973632118
Publisher: Res Telluris, Canada/2007
Pages: 286

I had requested this book from Steve Zipp for The Canadian Book Challenge, way back in Nov 2007. He had posted it to me in November itself. However, I received it in April 2008. It took six months to reach me. I had assumed that it had been lost in the mail. I read it while travelling to work and back. It took me two days to finish it.