Title: Uncle Tom's Cabin
Author: Harriet Beecher Stowe
ISBN: 1840224029
Publisher: Wordsworth Classics/1995
Pages: 415

I had first read this book some twenty five years back. After reading Roots, I needed to re-read this. Both are on slave trade and there ends the similarity. Roots was written and published in 1976 tracing out the African roots of Alex Haley. Stowe's book was written in 1850 when slave trade was very much there and it was an instant success.

There are too many books piled up on my book shelves waiting to be read. Hence I joined From the Stakes Winter Reading Challenge. That way I can read atleast 5 books from that pile from Nov 1, 2007 to Jan 30, 2008.

My tentative list:

Roots by Alex Haily

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

Second Glance by Jodi Picoult

Deep Freeze by Lisa Jackson

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 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.

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!

Checking it twice. Okay, I'm making my book lists for 2 future challenges:

The 2nd Canadian Book Challenge hosted at The Book Mine Set. I'm picking The Free Spirit approach. I don't like being boxed in. Well, mostly it's because I still have a bunch of books I haven't finished for the last challenge. I will do better this time. Here's my list:

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

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.

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.

As it was BAFAB week from Jan 1-7, I bought books for my nephews, nieces and friends. I donated 50+ assorted books to an old age Home. I suppose I was just plain lucky to win three books I had put my name for. Thanks Melody, Dewey and Rhinoa. I look forward to read those. "The Road" was a coveted one!

The Road by Cormac McCarthy from Melody's Reading Corner
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher from Dewey

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.

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.

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.

As it is Buy A Friend A Book Week, there are many book giveaways going on. I will keep on adding to this post about new giveaways! Don't forget to check this out!

1) Dewey at The Hidden Side of the Leaf is holding one here. Do check out her link for further details!

2) Literary Feline at Musings of a Bookish Kitty is giving out two books. Check it for further details!

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!

Stolen...(again lol) from Literary Feline.... (thanks!!)

1. Plans and schedules keep me sane, but routine bores me (go figure!)

2. I'm happy when things are calm.

3. The last thing I drank was a bottle of water.....(excuse me, bathroom break!)

4. One of the most valuable things in my life is right now.....my health for my unborn child!

5. I like pepperoni and green peppers on my pizza.

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:

Here is a lot of book giveaways going on. Do check those out!

Booking Mama is giving out a copy of The Woman who is always Tan and has a flat Stomach by Laren Allison and Lisa Perry. It endes on March 16, 2008. Check that out too!

Stone Soup is offering two copies of A Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond: check it out too. It is on until March 17, 2008.

• 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

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 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.

I have not listed here those books, I have not reviewed as yet. have put this link up on my rightside bar, too. Click on the title for the review and feel free to link it to your review post! I You too can leave a link for me. I am way behind my target of 150 books to be read this year!

May (10)

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
The Second Journey by Joan Anderson
Tintin: The Black Island by Herge

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.

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.

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?

Trish, who's hosting the Classics Challenge, concocted this Classics Meme:

1. My favorite classic is Jane Eyre. I've re-read it many times. Jane is such a strong woman especially for the times she was living.

2. The classic I had the toughest time finishing is The Wings of the Dove by Henry James. It's one of the only books I can say I hated. The story was fine but James's style was hard to take. His run on sentences went on for pages.

3. I would recommend...........to someone who doesn't read a lot of classics or who doesn't generally like classics because tough one... if they don't mind size The Count of Monte Cristo, an adventure story with a purpose. If the size is too intimidating, I'd recommend To Kill a Mockingbird because I don't know anyone who didn't like it.

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