"What's In A Name?" Reading Challenge
Dates: January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008
The Challenge: Choose one book from each of the following categories.

1. A book with a colour in its title.

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)

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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?”

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.

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?

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:

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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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

• 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

*****Sticky Post--it stays on top for a while*****

Today when I clicked nickname to type my name after leaving my live link in a post for a fellow blogger, I saw the URL field along with it. It is back! This time too they have not publicised it. So the onus lies on us bloggers to do so.

Do spread the word around, friends!

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.

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.

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?

Since it's the beginning of November, I think it's a good time to see how I'm progressing with my reading challenges.

• RIP 2 Challenge. 4/4. Done. Hurray!
• The Something About Me Challenge. 4/10. This challenge ends December 31. Epp! I better get on that.
• The TBR Challenge. 8/12 (2/5 Alternates). I don't think I'm going to finish this one. It ends December 31 as well.
  

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.

What fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?
(Older books that you read for the first time in 2007 don’t count.)
Hmmm...I would have to say:

The Blood of Flowers - Anita Amirrezvani
A Thousand Splendid Suns- Khaled Hosseini
Rises the Night - Colleen Gleason

That's a pretty eclectic mix but they were all excellent books.

What non-fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?

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:

This is my tentative list for the Decades Challenge 2008. At least 8 books to be read from consecutive decades. I can change my list at anytime.

Before 1800
1719: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

1810's
1816: Emma by Jane Austen
1817: Rob Roy by Walter Scott

1820's

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!!!!!!!

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

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.

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.

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?