Reading on a Rainy Day

The ladies behind BBAW have certainly outdone themselves. First they asked us to introduce ourselves through the books we read, and if that wasn't challenging enough, they want to know about the books I have loved thanks to a blogger. I mean, what book haven't I loved thanks to a blogger recommendation? Talk about having our work cut out for us. After much deliberation, and I say that with an over-expressive gesture, I want to spotlight two books that I have read and loved due to blogger recommendations. No specific blogger was individually responsible for me reading these two books, rather the entire community came together to recommend them. Day 2: What have you read and loved because of a fellow blogger? Kindred by Octavia Butler: I may have had Kindred on my TBR for a long time but I wasn't exactly clamoring to read it. I hadn't bothered to read what the plot was about but I knew it was historical fiction - something I didn't read much of. The lan...

Here's a freebie fact about me. I shy away from introducing myself. So I generally find myself conveniently forgetting to take part in Day 1 of blog events like these, or Hour 1 of readathons just to skip the introductions and jump to the fun part of the event. This time however, although I cautiously opened the BBAW post to check today's prompt, I quickly started working on my list, browsing my Goodreads books to see which titles I could relate to on a personal level. And honestly it was tough, but the good kind of tough - the kind that has you gleefully rubbing your palms at the sight of a welcome challenge. But after poring through a much bigger list, I think I finally managed to narrow it down to five titles. Day 1: Introduce yourself by telling us about five books that represent you as a person or your interests/lifestyle. Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling: At this point, it is probably clichéd to put the Harry Potter books on a favorites list. Of course, al...

And finally it's the last day of Book Blogger Appreciation Week  - this has been a fun week, with a break from reviews, and having a different reason to visit blogs, seeing a lot of new faces around and reading some wonderful perspectives on interesting topics. Today's topic about any tools we use for blogging is pretty interesting to me, because I can't think of very many I use. In fact, I'm pretty positive that other than this blog itself, and Photobucket for pictures, and maybe one or two here and there, I don't really use any tools. I'm pretty lazy that way - I like my job to be simple. I used to love having a ton of widgets on my sidebar. I still do like widgets, but I no longer put everything I like on my blog, since they heavily slow down the site. It took me a while to get there, but I removed all widgets that I didn't think anyone would ever look at. My rule of thumb is scroll down the sidebar quick, and if my eyes get screwed up, remove one...

It's day 4 of the week-long Book Blogger Appreciation Week  and I'm missing it already! I spent some time over the past three days catching up on all the wonderful posts erupting in my Reader, and I'm nowhere there . I loved reading the posts - there were a ton of blog recommendations, all of which I managed to resist adding to my reader - not by choice though, only because I was reading mostly on my phone or iPad, and they aren't really the best devices on which to go jumping from page to page. Today's topic about how blogging has influenced your reading was the one I was most looking forward to, mainly because I didn't know my answer yet - I was planning to write it out and see where I end up. I know for sure that what I read and the way I read has changed tremendously since the early days of blogging. And it's funny that I sit down to type up this post now, because just five minutes ago, I came across Goodreads new beta Recommendations feature th...

After months of preparation and waiting, the Book Blogger Appreciation Week is finally here. Last year (being my first year of blogging), I was mostly watching the buzz from the sidelines. This year though, I volunteered to help Amy (BBAW founder) with any background help. And let me tell you, there was just a ton of work to do. It didn't matter that this has been running for 3 years already - there was still a lot of paperwork involved and clarifications to make, fine tuning of processes, and changing whatever didn't work last year to something more reasonable. And now, after all that hard work, I'm glad to sit by and do some posts in celebration of this event. There are a bunch of daily topics up at the BBAW site for this week, if you're interested in checking them out. I may be participating in some or all of the topics, depending on how busy things are at my end. Today's topic is all about Community - " While the awards are a fun part of BBAW, the...

The book blogging world surely has no shortage of awesome events. Only yesterday I was talking about the Indie Lit Awards. Today, I have another event to talk about - the 2011 Book Blogger Appreciation Week . I have a lot of links shared up in this post. You can also just go to the main website and browse around. The BBAW, as it is better known, is Amy's (of My Friend Amy ) brainchild. It has been running successfully for a few years now, and if you don't know what it is about, it is a week of celebrating book bloggers and all that we stand for. There are awards for various categories and niches and also a few book categories. The 2011 BBAW runs on the week of September 12-16. Starting now, you can register your favorite blogs in their respective categories or niches and once nominations are over, the judging will start. Learn more about BBAW 2011 and the award process this year. To know if a blog you enjoy reading is eligible for a 2011 BBAW award in any category ,...

Let me put this question to you - what is your best part of reading a blog? Is it the memes or the reviews or the bookish topics? Or is it the anticipation of discovering a new book that you hadn't heard of, so that you can go add it to your wishlist? I'm sure it is a combination of all those features, but how often do we go pick up a book the moment you hear of it? Or if not the moment, then the very day itself or the next day? Of course, I'm assuming here that you had not heard of that book before. Now what if that book is out of that comfy zone you are in? Are you willing to get off the lazy couch and read something that's not your cup of tea? You got to be kidding me, right? With all the mountains of books to read - at your home, in your library hold list and in your virtual TBR (wherever it is that you catalog your reads) - each new book we add inevitably goes to the bottom of the list, but to the list it goes for sure! So, although I have an Mt. Eve...

It's the BBAW week! Yay! I know, how dumb of me to celebrate when we are already into the second day, but hey, it's still the BBAW week, which means we should still be celebrating - us! I missed the first treasure because I had too many treasures that I couldn't choose a few from that. So here I am, with the new treasure - interview swap! I interviewed the delightful Roberta from Wrapped in Foil today, and of course she interviewed me too (So if you want to check that out, check her blog .) While I'm on that topic, Roberta's blog was a new find for me and I very much fell in love with it! Her reviews are really insightful, and although I don't read children's books yet, I found myself reading her reviews with a lot of interest! I'll definitely recommend her blog to you guys! Now, we shall move on to more interesting stuff, shall we? So, with a hot cup of tea (or coffee, if you prefer), let's find out more about Roberta and her blog, and *ssh...

So I'm finally getting down to this post, which has taken much time to decide upon. Nothing like being last to the party. I'm finally throwing in my hat for the Book Blogger Appreciation Week , that will take place this year during the week of September 13-17. What is Book Blogger Appreciation Week? Book Blogger Appreciation Week is a week long festival celebrating the community of book bloggers and their contribution to preserving a culture of literacy through book reviews and recommendations, reading reflections, and general bookish chat. BBAW also includes an awards component. For more information on the BBAW 2010 Awards and how to participate, please visit the BBAW 2010 Awards Blog . BBAW events include daily blogging topics, blogger interview swaps, special guest posts, and so much more! I am choosing to nominate my blog for the niche category, Best Eclectic Book Blog , and the featured category, Best New Book Blog . These are the five posts that I wish to n...