Armchair BEA Intl giveaway (Catherine Fisher's The Dark City)

(This giveaway is closed. Thanks for stopping by!)

I happened to receive two ARCs of Catherine Fisher's book one of the Relic Master series - The Dark City and ONE copy is looking for a new home. So, as part of Armchair BEA, I have decided to give this copy away to one lucky reader. To enter, simply fill the form below. I'll be closing this giveaway on Saturday Monday 11.59 p.m. US Eastern time, and will announce the winner using the always-dependable services of random.org. To enter,

1. You don't have to be a follower of my blog.
2. You must be over 13 years of age.
3. International.
4. Enter by May 28, 2011, Saturday, May 30, 2011, Monday, 11.59 p.m. US Eastern time.
5. Fill the form.

Grooving in my Armchair during BEA

Welcome to the second Armchair BEA! Last year, I participated in this awesome event and am even more excited about it this year. This is where I primarily blog about the books I love - mainly literary fiction titles - and occasionally, it's also the place where I share my bookish thoughts.

The organizers of Armchair BEA want to know more about me and how I armchair! I can rattle on and on, on my blog (do I even know what a full-stop is?) about anything under the sun, but talking about myself. Gulp! Aren't we humans a really grand bunch of modest people? Why would we ever want to talk about ourselves?

Guess what the toughest essay I ever wrote was? Yes, the About Me section of this blog. I wrote it at the beginning of last year and then quietly ignored that portion of the blog where it is nestled. Ignorance is truly bliss! This year, I tackled it once more. Let me tell you the number of coffee cups I had to devour just to get through it. Two... Three... Four... Five... Speaking of which, I am in a mood for some coffee. Where's that pot? What? You wonder what number of coffee cup I am on now? Honestly, I don't know. But that's ok, it's only coffee. You know it's a staple dietary requirement for us. Oh it's not? I'm pretty sure it is - I did read something about that.

So where were we? Oh yes, the About Me section. *Hmm, delicious coffee aroma wafting by* Sorry, I got bog-tracked again. So yes, after many cups of coffee (I don't remember how many, really), I managed to write something respectable about myself. In fact, I'm pretty sure I was rather pleased with it. Just in case you're like me and want it dished out here, I stay in Virginia, working as a software engineer. And I'm a Hokie, so you know where my loyalties lay. I've been blogging for.. *doing a Tom/Jerry-imitation of scratching my head*.. five years, although books became my main topic only a year and a half ago. And yes, I'm a Harry Potter nut. 

Can I just say I'll be glad when BEA is over? All those posts and tweets from NYC bound-errrrs can dampen the spirit of people like me, and maybe even crush us hard. During last year's BEA, I was sitting in a coffee shop (yay, coffee even then!), writing or pretending to write my world-class thesis, and following the BEA hashtag on twitter. I certainly won't be doing that this time. It's just BEA after all. Meh. Who cares. (Don't remind me that I said this when I go next year.) Instead, I'll be relaxing at work or at home and reading The Picture of Dorian Gray (you can't help but love Oscar Wilde), The London Train (The British English is just so beautiful) and Jose Saramago's masterpiece of a novel Blindness. In the meantime, I promise to visit all you BEA-abandoned bloggers.

So, what was the question for today's post again? How do I armchair? *Thinking, Thinking* With a Glee playlist running and.. and.. chugging more coffee.. and.. and.. all of the above?

Armchair BEA: Wrap-Up, Thank You and Why I Loved Armchair BEA

And what a fun week it was! Armchair BEA was a huge success to me! I can particularly attest to that by saying that I didn't do much work at all this week - at least for the first four days. By Friday, I was slightly panicky, and because of my desire to end the week with a feel-good sentiment, I managed to work seriously yesterday. With my Tweetdeck tuned to #BookBloggerCon.

If you haven't checked out my posts yet, here are the links.

• BEA Discussion: Rise of the online book club member, in which I talk about how popular online book communities have become.
• BEA Discussion: The Blogger and the Microblogger, in which I suggest how bloggers can become avid microbloggers, aka twitterers.
• BEA Discussion: Books from far, far away, in which I ask how we can blog proactively and give more attention to the lesser-known books.
• BBC Panel: How to keep an active buzzing blog, in which I give a few strategies to keep your blog active and non-redundant.

Thanks to the wonderful organizers - Tif, Emily, Michelle, Florinda, and Danielle - for having set up this excellent event, that

• Gave me a chance to be a part of BEA and BBC from my comfy chair.
• Introduced me to a whole new set of truly wonderful bloggers, some who I have never come across before, and can't believe I missed them for so long!
• Spread a lot of blogger love.
• Gave us a chance to connect more as friends than bloggers during the Twitter party on Thursday.
• Gave me an excuse not to work this week.
• Gave me an excuse not to write reviews this week.
• Won me 9 wonderful books, without even going to BEA.
• Introduced me to a ten-year old blogger!

*Applause, Applause*

Armchair BEA Discussion: How to keep an active buzzing blog

Welcome to the third day of Armchair BEA! This four-day event is organized to coincide with the BookExpo America in NY that ended yesterday and the Book Blogger Convention, that is being held today Those of us unlucky enough not to be in the most happening place this week are instead a part of BEA from the cozy comforts of our home. (I know it's not much, but at least one can claim that feeling of participation!). Today, I'm doing a panel post on "Writing and Building Content".


Why do we blog? More specifically, why do we blog about books? Not all readers blog, nor do they review books by habit. There must be something more than a desire to talk about books that makes us sit late nights sometimes, tired after a long day but still finding the energy and the enthusiasm to write up posts. Blogging needs passion. It is easy to blog for a month and then succumb to burnout. In addition to loving books, one needs to love to blog or to write. Of course, we don't have to be a professional writer, nor do we need to worry about most of the things that publishers look for. Heck, if you can write humor into your posts, you're all set!

Yes, I really mean the humor bit. You don't have to be stand-up-comedian-style Rolling-On-The-Floor-Laughing-And-Crying-My-Eyes-Out funny. You don't have to be funny each time. It's okay to be sad and depressed occasionally. We're human. But liven up your posts. The readers who read your blog, need something more than a lot of words thrown in together to actually keep reading till the last word. I'll admit that I don't always read a post entirely. And I'm sure we all do that. When there are tons of blogs to read each day, how do you try to entertain your readers?

Keeping things lively
Even bloggers can get into a rut. If you have been following the same blogging schedule for the past many months, then you are getting into a rut. Almost every blogger gets there. After a while, livening things gets difficult. There is also that case of not wanting to change things too much, in case they don't work out. So how do you keep your readers interested, and get yourself out of that safe nook?

Let's get adventurous! There are so many things you can try. This is after all your blog, and there are no rules there. Your blog is what you define it. Your readers will accept it so long as it doesn't glare their vision, like that fluorescent yellow T-shirt you always hated. Some suggestions are:

• Do a special feature. This can be anything. You can challenge yourself to read books from a particular imprint or lesser-known publisher. Or books from your own country/state. Lesser-known books that I was talking about yesterday. All books that won a certain award or are featured in the NY Times Bestseller List.
• Do weekly / monthly discussion posts. There is no dearth to the number of topics you can talk about regarding all things bookish. These are perfect opportunities to make your blog discussion-oriented as well. Write your post in a way that evokes discussion, in a way that makes it an open topic.
• Create your own meme, but let's be innovative here. Come up with memes that encourage discussion and not just an I-can-write-this-in-my-sleep kinds. As you read through blogs, you would know the kind of memes you don't glance at much. Use that as the metric. Some really wonderful memes I have seen are Weekly Geeks and Jen's Character Connection.
• Write personal posts. Readers LOVE knowing more about the blogger behind a blog. Sheila's Morning Meanderings feature is so incredibly popular. I don't mean that you should bare out your life history, but you can choose what you want to reveal. Kathy once did a weekly feature on her life in France.

How often should I review?
Let me tell you that I almost never follow blogs that post too many reviews a day/week. Or I follow them but comment very less. I guess it's unfair of me to categorize a blogger by the amount of books he/she reads, but it's a personal preference. Reviews take time to read. Unless the blogger is my best friend, or someone who means a lot to me deeply and personally, I will not read through each review, and trust me, I want to read every review that looks good to me. Sometimes if a book has been reviewed a lot and I really really want to read that book, I will no longer read any more reviews, and if you are looking for more comments (we all are), it's a good idea to decide how often you want to post a day.

My typically busy day sometimes forces me to give a cursory glance through my reader, and when I come across a blog with 15-20 posts regularly in a week, I am tempted to "Mark all as read", sometimes without even looking through them. And I doubt many of us have that kind of time that lets us navigate through our reader each day. Once a day is perfect. Twice a day is good, so long as it isn't everyday. You don't really get more readers by posting more. If you really have to post 2 reviews a day, I suggest mixing them - do not review popular books together. It's cruel to the reader. At most, one book reviewed a day is healthy. It keeps your blog active without seeming intimidating.

Memes - Too many or too little?
When I started blogging, I did one meme a day. Almost. In those days, I believed memes were crucial. How very wrong and naive I was! Memes are good to get visitors, and also get more followers. It is also a way for you to find new wonderful blogs to feed your always hungry Reader. But doing more than than 2-3 memes a week isn't a good idea. The reason I don't like memes much is because they tend to be impersonal. Your blog is your voice. If all you do in your blog is list books and probably just add a synopsis, then you aren't making your voice heard. As a reader, it is very important for us to hear the blogger. And you make sure that your voice is heard through reviews, personal/opinion posts and random bookish topics. So, while memes can help you get followers, it may not help you in retaining them or getting more comments.

What a hypocrite! Did I just say no-rules and then give out a lot of rules?
They are just suggestions, from someone who's been writing since ninth grade. There are no rules in book blogging. Over time, you will come to set a pacing for yourself based more on what you do when you visit other blogs. Using your own intuition is the best approach, since you will know well what tires you out or perks you up. The rule of thumb I use is - I post what interests me, and I post as often as my readers let me.

What else do you do to keep things exciting at your blog?

Armchair BEA Discussion: Books from far, far away

Welcome to the third day of Armchair BEA! This four-day event is organized to coincide with the BookExpo America in NY that ends today. Tomorrow is the Book Blogger Convention. Those of us unlucky enough not to be in the most happening place this week are instead going to be a part of BEA from the cozy comforts of our home. (I know it's not much, but at least one can claim that feeling of participation!). Today, for my third post for the Armchair BEA, I'm going to step back a bit and look at us - bloggers - and the little-known books.


How do you decide which books to read or add to your always growing TBR? If you're like me, you probably heed recommendations from bloggers, members in your favorite online communities or book clubs, and friends or family members. Have you ever looked to see if most of the books you read (barring review copies) are the "hyped up" books? And I don't been that in a bad way, but more in an objective way.

Let me tell you about myself. I find that most of the books I read are usually the popular ones. How does one resist all that fanfare and good reviews? When the whole world was going gaga over the Twilight series or even the Harry Potter books, and now over the Hunger Games trio, I barely could sit on my seat. To prove my point, I recently pre-ordered Mockingjay, knowing fully well that I will not be able to wait for my hold to be through at the library.

Alright, that's fine. After all, who likes to be the odd (wo)man out at a book party?

But what about those books that are just as good but either is not written by a popular author, or has not yet been spotted by the media, or are translations? Some of us come across such books once in a while, maybe read a few, but how do we give them a greater stage presence, so to speak?

Iris' post on Blogging as a global phenomenon got me thinking about how we readers can be more proactive in our reading. I am passive at best, because I keep staring at my TBR mountain, wondering what it would be like to get through all those books during my lifespan. So I end up picking a book that is, at the instant of choosing, getting the most heat or sounding the most delightful. My goal is to change that (for the most part). I will still not be able to stay away from the books making the rounds, but I would like to intersperse my reading with books I think are good but have not got the necessary recognition or attention.

Looking at us bloggers as a collective phenomenon, how do we give the not-so-famous books the love they deserve? By spreading the word. Proactive blogging means not just looking at a book to see if we will love it and then adding it to our TBR. It also means that we don't hesitate to share it with our followers. Share the love. No, you don't have to write up a post for every book you find - that will be annoying to your followers. Just as your review reflects that you really loved a book, let us similarly share reviews of fellow bloggers, when they talk about some really amazing books that you have never heard of, and possibly half the world hasn't either. There are plenty of memes that let you share your finds, or bring to the fore books that you read in the past but didn't review on your blog. If you are an active Twitterer, you can consider tweeting about the books that you really want to make known.

How else can you spread the word? Challenges are one way. Another method I really like is a regular spotlight feature. I've seen many bloggers use it very effectively. By doing such a feature, you get the chance to explore new books, tell everyone how great a book is and of course, get more followers. Why not do a feature by focusing on a particular sect of books that you are passionate about? - books that just need a stronger word of mouth to get there.

If you had one book or a set of books that you would want to give a global presence, what would you do?

Armchair BEA Discussion: The Blogger and the Microblogger

Welcome to the second day of Armchair BEA! This four-day event is organized to coincide with the BookExpo America that is in full swing in NY. Those of us unlucky enough not to be in the most happening place this week are instead going to be a part of BEA from the cozy comforts of our home. (I know it's not much, but at least one can claim that feeling of participation!). Today, for my second post for the Armchair BEA, I'm going to analyze one of the biggest phenomena we noticed yesterday.


If you are like me, you must have stayed glued to your Twitter platform yesterday, following the #BEA10 and the #ArmchairBEA tweets. I was hoping to find out what was happening at BEA, while I wrote my thesis in parallel. What I didn't count on was that I would end up focusing almost entirely on the BEA tweets, while not getting even an iota of my work done!

Did you know that Amazon is on its way to be a full-fledged publisher within 6 months? You knew?

Did you know that the Kindle is the second most popular ereading device? (The good old computer is the first) Oh, you already knew that!

Err... so you have been on Twitter yesterday following the most-happening bookish tags? I knew I was not the only one!

Social media is all about well, social networking to me. I am still trying to see Facebook as more than a place to connect with friends. With all its sweet little annoying features, I find it hard to even envision it as a place to be professional. Ning, is an alternative to Facebook, with its many groups and networks, each dedicated to a specific purpose. But I've found the conversation in Ning to be one-sided at best. Occasionally, there are some great discussion topics set up, but on the whole, Ning needs to spruce up on the social level. On that count, Facebook is definitely more social.

But Twitter is going places in the book industry. Who thought that a 160 character piece of text can hold so much information, can convey as much news as a whole blog post can? By the time I read the online updates on the CEO panel, The Value of a Book, I had already heard (thanks to the tweets) and re-heard (thanks to the retweets) all the arguments. Yesterday's talk on social media focused on how authors and publishers can use it for their purpose. Let us discuss about how we can use social media for our blogs. Who doesn't like publicity? I'm sure we all have bright visions of our blog going places.

Twitter is a fine place to build followers. When people sign up for a twitter account, they accept that they will not be able to read every tweet that is burped out each day by the people they follow. Firstly, tweet as much as possible, but do not tweet too much, unless you are reporting from the most happening place on earth. This is quite relative, so you can only use your instinct here. You need to create a vivid online presence, not force it on others.

Whichever media you use to network your blog, make your micro-posts interesting enough. How do you do that, considering that most of us have our blog feeds connected to our social media accounts? Two suggestions - either make your post titles intriguing enough, or tweet about your most important blog posts again, but this time with an interesting premise.

Trust me, both are easy once you get the hang of what you want to publicize.When looking for a catchy phrase to use to promote your post, look at what you think is the interesting aspect of your post. Don't just focus on getting more followers or comments. Both will come if you go about it the right way - and that is, focus on the content. Considering that you can't write an entire paragraph to popularize your post, something short, maybe sweet, maybe not, can be quirky, definitely mysterious or intriguing is the way to go. It should be enticing the reader, pulling him/her in; you shouldn't be giving the full information, yet you should give enough for your followers to click on the link.

Finally, shorten your URLs! This is not very important, but believe me, some of those URLs are so long that they limit what you can type. Some of the popular ones are bit.ly, goo.gl, and TinyURL. That way, you get more space for yourself to write whatever you wish. Gotta love URL shorteners!

How do you make your voice known in social media?

Armchair BEA Discussion: Rise of the online book club member

Welcome to the Armchair BEA! Today's the first day of this four-day event, organized to coincide with the BookExpo America that is in full swing in NY. Those of us unlucky enough not to be in the most happening place this week are instead going to be a part of BEA from the cozy comforts of our home. (I know it's not much, but at least one can claim that feeling of participation!). Today, for my first post for the Armchair BEA, I'm going to talk, sing and glorify online reader communities.


How many online reading communities are you currently a member of? One? Two? Five? Countless? Don't-know? Don't-track? Rather-not-track?

For a long time, there have been book clubs. I mean the real physical book clubs, where usually, a bunch of avid readers sit in cozy couches or chairs (I like the couches better) around a table, and have an intellectual discussion about the many nuances of a book's plot. Lately, we have been having online book clubs and communities as well. And with their proliferation, online book communities are getting larger with more book selections per month, plus plenty of features to ensure that members return to the community many times a day, as opposed to the once a month meetings that are usually common with the physical book clubs.

Are physical book clubs dying out? I guess not, but are they becoming less popular compared to online book clubs? Or are online book clubs becoming more popular?

Is it fair to call any of the many online books clubs as a "book club"? Considering that not always do the same group of members come together to discuss a book online, as opposed to meeting physically.

Personally, I like the face-to-face on-the-fly nature of the physical book clubs. Nothing beats an in-person debate. How nice it is to see the actual expressions and listen to the strong opinions of fellow readers? Such book clubs are however hard to maintain. The time commitment required is something that the modern reader somehow lacks. Also, it is not uncommon to hear of book club members slowing quitting. On the other hand, it is an entirely different experience to discuss books, sometimes real-time, sometimes not, from your own bedroom, while in your PJs! What can beat that? How about sitting in your own classroom / office, and stealing glances into your favorite book club's discussion page and managing to add your two cents to whatever is happening there right now? So long as your teacher / boss does not see you in the act, or sees you but doesn't give you the evil eye, it shouldn't really matter. Right? How about that feeling of being connected? You don't have to meet a person to be connected to him / her anymore. And those tons of book recommendations you get daily from fellow readers. It's no wonder we have such humongous wishlists.

On the other hand, I think it isn't fair to even compare the online and physical book clubs. No one chooses between them, just as no one chooses between e-books and print books. The online communities are here to stay as they make communication easier and faster. They facilitate book promotions to a wider global audience, and most importantly, there is that real-time access to information. You don't have to smack your head if you forgot a crucial discussion point of a book club read.

There are plenty of book communities to choose from today, that someone who is a member of many of them would find it difficult to keep track. Goodreads, LibraryThing and Shelfari are probably the most popular dedicated book communities right now. In addition, popular booksellers and publishers have their own reading groups. Adding to the puree are the tons of book review and discussion blogs and websites that, with their own following, cultivate several huge communites. Phew!

Online book communities are a recent phenomenon. Or rather the spurt in their growth is recent. They are the one gathering place of a huge number of readers, authors, publishers and promoters, from all over the world. There is something rewarding about being able to discuss books with someone across the world from you, on a regular basis, without burning your phone bills. Most of these communities also offer free books, now who doesn't like that?

How do these book communities help the reader, the author and the publisher? As a reader, I love discussing books as much as the next reader. Discussing books has become my main pastime, probably eating up most of my time, even more than I spend reading. There, I said it. In addition to book discussions, there are usually plenty of other hot bookish topics in such communities - be it author interviews, series discussions, and even fun things like Secret Santa gift exchange. With plenty of online book communities focusing on different book genre and categories, every reader usually has a lot of options to choose from.

With such a large readerbase, such communities have a good following among authors and publishers alike. What better place than the wide-open far-reaching online communities to promote your books? What do you think of the growing presence of online book communities? Too much, or just enough?