new years bookish resolutions!

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Happy New Years everyone!
2013 is going to be an exciting, fun and productive year! With only a few hours left, I'm kind of rapidly putting together this post. Instead of looking behind at this year, I'm going to look forward :) I kind of already made some resolutions on the "hello and bye-bye: BIG CHANGES" post, but I'll summarise  and add a bit more, if you don't mind :)

More Reviews

I know, I know. I promised myself that my next post on this blog would be a book review, yet that hasn't happened, has it? So this year, I will make it a goal to post more reviews than any other type of blog content. Sounds fair, right?

Challenges

I stopped doing challenges for two years because I found myself reading books simply to fill in my challenges, and not to read good literature. When I finished a book, I would automatically think "Hey, now I can add this to my challenge bar!" instead of "Damn, what a good book!" I hope that this year will be different, and I'm actually doing some challenges. I've created my own, since I don't really want to hunt down challenge pages, haha.

Classics

I've already started on my quest to read more classics. I've finished Richard III, and I'm starting Othello as far as Shakespeare is concerned. Currently reading The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde. I'll focus on classics more than YA this year, hopefully.

Personal Goals

As for some personal goals, I am definitely getting a massive chunk of novel writing. The NOVEL will become more substantial than just a bunch of ideas and elements scribbled in a Moleskin notebook. Also, going to exercise more! I've been losing a lot of muscle due to my hypothyroid and I'm becoming flabby. Blegh! Eat healthy! Live healthy! WOOHOO! I'm all pumped!

A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

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new years clean-out giveaway!

Hallo everyone!
  Are you all excited about 2013? Nah, the world hasn't ended and we're moving on to a new year! Over my four years of blogging, I've amassed a somewhat mediocre collection of books that is meagre compared to a lot of bookshelves I've seen. Yet as you know, with the changes to Pages (ha, that rhymes) that I'm starting afresh.
  I went through the boxes of books I had in my closet (I ran out of space on my bookshelf and moved a lot of them into boxes) and picked out the books that I knew I could live without. I tend to keep items that have memories attached to them, and I have a few books in this giveaway that mean a lot, like "Fallen" by Lauren Kate, the ARC. It was one of the first times I had gotten a popular book from a publisher, and in ARC form too! Even though I didn't like the story, the actual physical copy of the book was important to me.  Prize Pack #1 are some oldies, hehe.
 I have an inventory book where I keep track of all the books that have ever been in my permanent possession (like, not borrowed, but actually owned) so I don't think I'll ever forget these books even if they're gone from my hands.

 The finished copies I own are going straight to my library :) So without further ado!

ABOUT these prizes:

• most of these are ARCs
• they're all in pristine condition (I take very good care of my books)
• the hardbacks have their covers on them
• some swag may accompany the book :)
• Please take good care of them if you win! Share the love <3 nbsp="nbsp">

Prize Pack #1

(ARC) Haunting Violet by Alyxandra Harvey

(ARC) Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin

(ARC) Fallen by Lauren Kate (that's how the ARC looks like)

Prize Pack #2

(ARC) The Wood Queen (#2) by Karen Mahoney

(ARC) Abandon by Meg Cabot

(Hardback) Above by Leah Bobet

Prize Pack #3

(Hardback) The City's Son by Tom Pollock

(ARC) Eve and Adam by Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate

(ARC) Tempest Rising by Tracy Deebs

Prize Pack #4

(ARC) The Summer of First and Lasts by Terra Elan McVoy

(ARC) Instructions for a Broken Heart by Kim Culbertson

(ARC) Sean Griswold's Head by Lindsey Leavitt

(ARC) Flawless by Lara Chapman

Giveaway Details:
Must be in US/Canada (if you are international, you may enter but you must provide a US address)
Must be Google Friend Connect Follower of Pages
Must fill out the form below (being an old timey blogger, I think it's easier to use Google Docs than Rafflecopter)

Giveaway lasts from December 29th 2012 to January 31st 2013

Feel free to use this giveaway button!

<center><a href="http://the1bookblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/new-years-clean-out-giveaway.html"><img border="0" src="http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae138/raokiki6/newyearscleanoutgiveawaybutton_zps5b153f1e.png"></a></center>

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feature and follow #9: THE SHAD---I know, I know

Hallo!
  Most of you viewing this must be old followers anyway, but I should reiterate for the new followers.


Here on Pages, I kind of tweaked the rules of Feature and Follow to fit my morals about blogging. Here are the "tweaked" rules :D

• If I followed you, you are NOT required to follow me back: only if you want to :)
• If you follow me, I'll seriously consider following you back, but it's not guaranteed

I don't like how people are required to follow other blogs in this hop. I think one should follow a blog because he or she likes it, not because he/she feels obliged because the other blog owner/writer followed him or her's blog. You know? (Being grammatically correct is a bit wordy). Life's a bit too busy to read blogs that doesn't fit one's taste.


I'm quite excited for today's question

WHAT BOOK DO YOU THINK EVERYONE SHOULD READ? IF YOU COULD GIFT THE ENTIRE POPULATION WITH ONE BOOK?

Hem. In the past, I would have said The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. But now, the answer that popped right in my mind at this question was the most obvious. 

The Shadow of the Wind (El cementerio de los libros olvidados #1)

by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Lucia Graves (Translation)

Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

my reviews (accidentally wrote two of them, believing that I hadn't already written one!)

review #1

review #2

This book is like....I can't even describe it. I kind of mourn over how beautiful a book it is on my writing blog, specifically this post, because it's just such a perfect book. The Shadow of the Wind is as good as gold, my friends: definitely a treasure worth adding to your collection!

Like always, please leave a comment below and I'll visit your blog :) An internet user's (bloggers/youtuber/facebooker)'s favourite thing to get is comments, hehe.

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film review #1: life of pi (spoilers)

Hallo all!
  This is my first film review (other than some scrappy ones I did ages ago, like for Tuck Everlasting...but that one was like, two sentences) and I'm really happy to say that it is: Life of Pi!

title: Life of Pi
director: Ang Lee
release date: 2012
studio: Fox 2000 Pictures

My thoughts:
  I had read Life of Pi for school, and since my teacher didn't really teach it much at all: I had no idea what it try was about, and I didn't really like it. In fact, I hated it.
  Conveniently, the film was to come out only a few weeks after I finished reading it. I wondered: how can you make a film about a book that's pretty much a massive metaphor with symbolism on every page? Apparently you can.

  As my dad, brother and I walked into the showing, I could see other Indian families there. People probably assumed we were only there because of the Indian actors and how the main character is Indian. Actually, it was because I wanted to watch it because of the book and how people in my class kept telling me how amazing it was.So thus, my choice was in. However, we went to the show that was in 3D and I was groaning. I hate 3D, and throughout the film, I realised it wasn't really necessary to have the goggles. Life of Pi isn't the type of film that REQUIRES 3D glasses, which would best fit a super SG film like Avatar (James Cameron).

  I was amazed by how beautifully the entire film was done, from the very beginning. Beside me, my Dad was like a little child, humming along with old Indian tunes and smiling and laughing. But that died down as the true grit of the film progressed.

  I was completely serious the entire time. The film was beautifully done, and it seemed as if reality and fiction moulded together seamlessly, both story-wise, and visually. Do you remember that film, Cast Away with Tom Hanks and his football Wilson? In that film, you could easily tell they actually filmed on an actual island with actual trees and sand and water...but in Life of Pi, the water reflected the sky like glass. The beautiful, thriving life of the bright sea creatures, then incredibly detail in the animals like Richard Parker and Orange Juice, and the lovely soundtrack transported me to another world.

  The beautiful special effects, and the transitions from scene to scene, and EACH scene was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! The best filming I've ever seen. And also, I enjoyed how Lee designed the boat to be like the one on the original cover of Life of Pi. This film truly stuck to the book, and the meaning of the book. There was no deviating (I loved it!)

  The film starts off introducing Pi, and all is bright and happy. This is where the theatre laughed and chuckled. In the book, the transition from normality to stranded, hopelessness was not really accentuated. I didn't really hear much else about Pi's family and I didn't really see or hear any desperate shrieks, yelling and all that...but having it on film hit home. To see Pi wailing, to see him mourn over his family which I had grown to like, was remarkable. The entire way through the beginning, I was dreading the ship wreck. I grew to love Pi's family and his peacefulness and innocence and then was hit with reality.

  What I also liked about the film was that it showed the allegories of the book, and how religion played a key part in the whole story. When Pi was starving and he killed his first creature (the fish) and burst into tears, thanking Vishnu for taking the form of a fish to save him."Thank you Lord Vishnu. Thank you for coming in the form of a fish and saving our lives." I don't know if anyone other than the Indians knew that signficance. Vishnu incarnates in the form of more or less than ten creatures, a fish, a turtle, a boar and so on. Each time he takes on a form, he saved Earth or saved something (can't really explain without going in detail). When he shouts his thanks, my Dad chuckles. While I am sitting there, my hands rubbing my neck furiously and my eyes threatening to spill tears as I can see how Lee incorporated the importance of religion in Life of Pi. It wasn't just Hinduism, but the other main religions of the world. Some people believe that Pi's life after the Tsitsum sinks is a spiritual journey, but that wasn't really shown in the film expect for those scenes where he talked about God. And the whole theme of the story "I have a story that will make you believe in God"

 I think my favourite scene (or scenes) was when, when the sinking was happening, Pi was waking his brother Raj up to come watch the lightening and thunder with him. Raj refused, of course, wanting to sleep and Pi ran up and laughed, slipping about the ship and doing funny dances. In just a few seconds, he's being tossed on a boat with his family drowned in their bunks. "My family!"

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  And once again, on the boat when the waves get rough and almost drown them, Pi starts laughing and undoing the tarp, yelling "Richard Parker, come out you have to see this! It's beautiful!" repeating exactly what he had said to his brother when the Tsitsum was sinking. I think my heart broke, and I think that's when I started to cry. He starts screaming at the storm, screaming at God "You've taken my family, my life, what more do you want?" (not the exact quote). It reminded me of a scene from my favourite animated series, Avatar the Last Airbender. Zuko wants to learn how to create lightening from his fingertips, but he just can't seem to get it. He gets frustrated, climbs to the top of a cliff and starts screaming at the storm, "Come at me! You've never held back before!". Something about facing a storm, the rain and the rashing waves, reveals a desperation in a character, and can be symbolic of many things. Just thinking of all the symbolism in Life of Pi is enough to make my mind geared to seeing it everywhere. "Ah! That advert just now! The cheese was placed there are a symbolic reference to etc..." Anyway.

 I wrote an essay on how Richard Parker is actually Pi. There are two halves: one half, the animal-istic nature in humans, is Richard Parker; The other half, the rationally human half, is Pi. However, I really wish there would have been more of an emphasis on the religion part and how important it was to the book.

 The film overall was spectacular, however, and I really enjoyed it!

There were many beautiful scenes, and even more beautiful lines in this film. Life of Pi is unforgettable! Since I don't know how to describe it, I'll let my idol Tom Hiddleston explain (he got to go to the premier!)

I give this film 4 and a half trees!

P.S. Happy Mayan End-Of-The-World. We're all still alive, whopeeeee :) Watching Life of Pi was a great idea. It's really making me contemplate my life, and how I should live it from now on.

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feature and follow (8): HALLO WORLD!

Welcome, welcome readers of all sorts! New readers, old ones, and even the in-between readers who have heard of Pages, but have never ~gasp~ followed!
Oh but no matter; it will soon be remedied as I introduce myself!

Hallo :D
  This is the first time I've done Feature and Follow Friday's....my last post was sometime in July. Naturally, it means there are many more bloggers I haven't yet met! Please leave a comment below so I can get to know you and therefore, become friends with you :)
Here on Pages, I kind of tweaked the rules of Feature and Follow to fit my morals about blogging. Here are the "tweaked" rules :D

• If I followed you, you are NOT required to follow me back: only if you want to :)
• If you follow me, I'll seriously consider following you back, but it's not guaranteed

I don't like how people are required to follow other blogs in this hop. I think one should follow a blog because he or she likes it, not because he/she feels obliged because the other blog owner/writer followed him or her's blog. You know? (Being grammatically correct is a bit wordy). Life's a bit too busy to read blogs that doesn't fit one's taste.

I hope you don't mind me changing it up a bit! 

 Today's question is such:
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM BOOK BLOGGING THAT YOU DIDN'T KNOW BEFORE ABOUT THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY?

Before book blogging, publishers were untouchables, like they were so high up there! I viewed them as

• obscure companies that had different names and symbols on books (Penguin had a different stamp than HarperCollins) I used to think they were all different, but the same. 

 I didn't even think about the companies much. All I cared about was the book. I noticed discrepancies  with how the book was formatted and how it differed from company to company, but that was pretty much it. They were just big, kind giants that let me read books.

That sounds very childish, but mind you: I did start blogging at age 13, unlike you experienced, older adults out there on the internet. :)

I've learned many things in my four years actually :) Let's list a few:

• Publishers appreciate bloggers and their input
• You can contact an author's publicist for ARCs, review copies, giveaways 
• You can talk to an author's agent or sometimes directly contact the author to find out more about him/her or just fangirl :)
• They are VERY friendly and always willing to help

Publishing companies really are nice, friendly giants. The e-mails I get in return are, however, concise and brief. But these people are busy and can't write a personal response each time, you know? 

So tell me about yourself! Leave a comment with a link to your blog so I can have the pleasure of meeting you :)

Happy Friday and a happy holiday/non-denominational winter break/winter season!

-Kirthi

P.S. I'm kind of in a Tumblr haze at the moment, and thought I'd let you other Tumbler-ers know that I am a die-hard Hiddleston fangirl (this blog's miscellaneous page has all that stuff :D)

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The bookish-themed one about Thor and Loki visiting the library has an inside joke. Look at the cover of Loki's book :D If you'd like, look up "Loki and Svaðilfari", hehehehe. Prepare yourself for a very interesting story.

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don't forget to.....leave a comment, ahaha :)

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hallo and bye-bye: BIG CHANGES

Hallo friends :D
  Some major changes going on around here! Read below to find out more :)

Blog Design

The most obvious change you can tell right away is my blog design. It's only temporary, as I'm having my blog re-designed (custom!). I hope to maintain a clean, minimalistic appearance that's easy to read AND navigate and such. My previous design looked too website-ish and out of touch, no matter how much I liked it.

New Features Coming Up

I have some ideas for some new features I'd like to have on here later this month into 2013. I need your help on choosing what I should do!

• Inspired by The Inky Melody: I'd like to do some historical tid-bit posts along with some literary quotes that I enjoy
• I will continue with the Topic Posts
• a "Blogging 101" or "Blogger Advice" page where I answer some questions about blogging and provide some of my experience as a blogger (4 years counts as experienced, right?)
• Some "Blogging Tips" where I post some help on blogging beauty, like blog buttons, drop down nav-bars, headers and all that.
• Social Media Icons! I'll only have a couple, since I'm not into social media that much. One to my e-mail, and one to my tumblr will probably be all I have (maybe Pinterest?) I was thinking also a "Subscribe" one, since I've always gotten rid of any form to subscribe (I don't really know what Feedburner is, help?)

Focus Shifting

All right, this is where the major change is coming in for the main theme of Pages. I've been talking a long time about my dis-like of many YA books...Pages will STILL be a YA book blog! I will still definitely review YA here, but it'll also have more historical fiction (like Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok) and literary fiction. 

I'm making Pages a resource for readers and bloggers. I'm going to go back to my roots, of why I started blogging: for the books. By this I mean that I will now have:

• a page with an organised list of linked reviews categorised by genre (on top of my normal archive page with reviews organised by titles)
• I will go back to all my posts and add tags so you can navigate more easily (I rarely use tags, but I realise now that I should have started a while ago) Plus for this, I'll create new tabs on the sidebar to make it more attractive :D So you'll see tabs on the sidebar that will say "Book Topics" or "Literary Quotes" (maybe)

This will most likely all happen over break when I have the time to go through every one of my nearly 600 posts and edit them to work. 

Do You Not Like Them (the changes?)

I've lost quite a bit of followers, so if you don't like how my focus is shifting from primarily YA to semi-YA, then you can feel free to follow the others in their decision to un-follow. I love you all very much and really appreciate you, but if you don't feel like staying, I can't stop you >_<

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topic: originality in blogging

I thought of doing this weeks Feature and Follow Friday blog event and then realised the promise I made to myself a while back: to not be obsessed with getting new followers. Plus, I didn't have the time to hop around, hehe :D

Is Originality Gone?

As I was on Parajunkee's website, I saw here post "Blogging 101: Is Originality Gone?" in which Rachel said:

"There is nothing but Book Blitzs, Promo Pieces, Cover Reveals and Memes in my Google Reader! And it just exploded. It wasn’t that bad a few weeks ago and now that is ALL IT IS! Is it the holidays? Is everyone stressed out, so they can’t think of anything CREATIVE to post about?"

 I'm a bit smug to say that I haven't done any of these. If you remember, I stopped/never did post of these for these reasons that I mentioned in posts ages ago:

• No More In My Mailbox: I thought it was people just bragging about all the books they have/ showing off all their ARCs and such. I as a reader don't really care what books people bought for the week, just the reviews. So I stopped doing this.
• No Cover Reveals: I may have done once so long ago that I don't remember, but I was never up for making posts entirely on a new cover. I personally don't like many YA covers and don't think their "swoonworthy" (anorexic, airbrushed girls in fancy dresses in fantasy backgrounds? nah)
• Few Promo Pieces: When I do the occasional author interview/giveaway, I do promote the book in the post with a summary and cover, but they're either spaced out over long periods of time or posted all at once at one time. Thinking of it....I kind of do think I need to do some interviews/giveaways...
• No Advertising Books for Publishers: I get lots of e-mails from Indie-authors or e-book authors asking me to post about their book and they'll give me a copy to reivew or link my website to theirs and so on...but if I don't like the book, then I say "no". If it's a paranormal romance, then it totally doesn't fit with the theme of Pages. I do what's best for this blog :)

Of course, there are some negatives of what I do:

• I Babble: on whole post complaining about my life
• I post funny Tumblr pictures that have nothing to do with books (well, I did have the Harry Potter funny picture posts, those were nice :D)
• I don't post often
• I'm usually in a constant state of apologising

Do I Feel Original? Is Pages really original?

Sometimes, I feel bad. I see all these blogs with their memes, cover reveals, interviews and everything and wonder if I should be like them. After all, blogs that those are really involved and get connected to the community of writers, readers, authors and publishers. 

 I have this idea that if I haven't read an author's book, then I have no right to ask for an interview. After all, what shallow questions could I ask said author? And why should I, one who hasn't read the book, have the privilege of hosting an interview when someone else out there who loves said book and has bazillions of questions doesn't? It is my own fault, since I'm going through a "must read only books I want" stage. Most of the authors I like are so untouchable, like high-up there and adult-ish and have no time for a little blogger like me.

But I do like to keep things on this blog honest and worthy of reading. I want to filter in only the good, meaningful content and want to write book reviews that people will want to read. I do feel original.

What About Other Blogs?

As I scroll down my feed, I look mainly for reviews and cool-sounding books. I almost always skim over the glitzy YA covers and romances, the steamy romances too, and many memes like IMM or variations of that like book hauls. (I hauled in a massive lot of books that is far superior to your spartan collection). It sounds cruel, and if I follow your blog, I'm following it because I like it. 

Also, I went back and found some of my most favourite Harry Potter funny pictures because I mentioned them earlier in this post and kind of want them back :)

OK the Turkey one :D I could NOT stop laughing after this one, for the longest time. Ahahaha

I used this last one at my lunch table a while back and I had this goofy smile on my face the entire time, whispering "Come for pie?" in a husky voice. Ahh.

But yes. I'd like you're input on this topic. Do you think originality in blogging has dimmed? Do you think your blog is original, or are you guilty of de-original-ising? Let me know what you think!

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books of cultural background

Hello everyone!
  No, it's not a topic post. It's actually me procrastinating my studying my delving into book related quests. I'd like to say that my school library is the best. The librarians are true readers, and they buy the latest books to share with the population of the school, most of which do not read. I find myself amongst others who either hang out in the library just to sit on the couches, or like-minded readers who talk about books to me. "Hey, is that really a good book? I heard it was" or "Yeah, I'm looking for a good sci-fi. Do you know any?" I prefer the latter bunch :D

 Now, back to the topic at hand. Most of the blogs I'm following review/feature/lust after a lot of YA books that honestly, to me, are trash. Books like Fallen by Lauren Kate and other paranormal books that are shallow and bland. I never mean to offend anyone, author or reader, but it's just how I feel about certain books. So on my quest to find cultural background books, I went to the #1 book website ever: Goodreads! (do you all remember shelfari? I used to have one, but then Goodreads came into existence and shelfari kind of died)

 I love cultural books and historical fiction because they have a true story, they have characters that don't fall in love with two hot guys and get trapped in a paranormal adventure of true love or anything: it's based on real life events and a rich, enchanting culture full of beauty and life.

 I'd like to feature some books that I really want to read (also, most aren't recently published, so you might find them in your local library!)

Winter in Madrid by C.J Sansom
A popular mystery writer breaks out with this page-turning international bestseller set in post-Civil War Spain 
September 1940: the Spanish Civil War is over, Madrid lies in ruin, while the Germans continue their march through Europe, and General Franco evades Hitler's request that he lead his broken country into yet another war. Into this uncertain world comes a reluctant spy for the British Secret Service, sent to gain the confidence of Sandy Forsyth, an old school friend turned shady Madrid businessman. Meanwhile, an ex-Red Cross nurse is engaged in a secret mission of her own. Through this dangerous game of intrigue, C. J. Sansom's riveting tale conjures a remarkable sense of history unfolding and the profound impact of impossible choices.

Most of the reviews are highly praising, and I love Spain (see voyage for all that stuff)

Bone by Fae Myenne Ng
In this profoundly moving novel, Fae Myenne Ng takes readers into the hidden heart of San Francisco's Chinatown, to a world of family secrets, hidden shames, and the lost bones of a "paper father." It is a world in which two generations of the Leong family live in an uneasy tension as they try to fathom the source of the middle daughter Ona's sorrow. Fae Myenne Ng's portraits of the everyday heroism of the Leongs--who inflict deep hurt on each other in their struggles to survive, yet sustain one another with loyalty and love--have made "Bone" one of the most critically acclaimed novels of recent years and immediately a classic of contemporary American life


I read Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok and other Chinatown books that were absolutely beautiful, and I can't wait to read another. There's something about the Asian style of writing that's so poetic and lovable.

Rooftops of Tehran  by Mahbod Seraji 

In this poignant, eye-opening and emotionally vivid novel, Mahbod Seraji lays bare the beauty and brutality of the centuries-old Persian culture, while reaffirming the human experiences we all share.

In a middle-class neighborhood of Iran's sprawling capital city, 17-year-old Pasha Shahed spends the summer of 1973 on his rooftop with his best friend Ahmed, joking around one minute and asking burning questions about life the next. He also hides a secret love for his beautiful neighbor Zari, who has been betrothed since birth to another man. But the bliss of Pasha and Zari's stolen time together is shattered when Pasha unwittingly acts as a beacon for the Shah's secret police. The violent consequences awaken him to the reality of living under a powerful despot, and lead Zari to make a shocking choice...

I've had this on my TBR for ages! I still haven't gotten to it, but it's moved up on my priority list.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Greece in the age of Heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia. Here he is nobody, just another unwanted boy living in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles.

Achilles, 'best of all the Greeks', is everything Patroclus is not — strong, beautiful, the child of a goddess — and by all rights their paths should never cross. Yet one day, Achilles takes the shamed prince under his wing and soon their tentative companionship gives way to a steadfast friendship. As they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something far deeper — despite the displeasure of Achilles's mother Thetis, a cruel and deathly pale sea goddess with a hatred of mortals.

Fate is never far from the heels of Achilles. When word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, the men of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows Achilles into war, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they have learned, everything they hold dear. And that, before he is ready, he will be forced to surrender his friend to the hands of Fate.

I once saw this on a blog a long time ago and remember wanting to win it (it was a giveaway post) so much! However, I just finished reading The Iliad recently and now I want to read this so badly that I would...I dunno what I'd do but I have to!


Are Your Eyes Bedazzled? Is your mind on fire? Do you want to read these or what?

Four is enough, ya? I have loads more, but I don't want to read them as much as I want to read these! The reason why most of my TBR list is still massive is because I usually wait for them to come out in the library. I'm too lazy, and too tight on money, to buy every book I want to read. If you've read, I've recently purchased my very own copy of The Shadow of the Wind after lusting at it for ages (I'd keep checking it out from the library just to read bits and pieces of the awesomeness).

I'm sorry I've been absent lately!It's not like I'm a massive part of your life and you've missed me dreadfully and oh how come you've left us all alone--hehe :D I'll be back! See, I'm taking a nice trip to the school library tomorrow and picking up a load of books to read over the holiday (I can have up to 5 books at a time! In elementary, it was only 2) Look forward to all those gorgeous books you'll be reading about here!

Have an awesome weekend, and the exams week if you live in America. God, I need to study for biology...ANYWAY: FAREWELL UNTIL NEXT WE MEET!

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NEW BOOK! + finals

HALLO!
  Perhaps some GIFS of how I'm feeling for finals in less than a week from now!

Less than a week from now ("Oh, I have a while before finals, no need to worry yet..wait....in less than a week....NOOOO!")

How I react to "Finals can only help your grade! They're easy, you'll do fine"

On the outside, I maintain a chill exterior. "I got this". When truly, inside, when I realise how important my grades are and how crucial it is that I have to pass:

"I HAVE A MIGHTY NEED TO PASS!"

No amount of studying will prepare me for that day when I walk in the room with nothing but a pencil and face that exam:

ON BOOKISH THOUGHTS:

Also, I got a book in the mail! This one I ordered off of Amazon and finally received:

The first is a glorious, first edition copy of The Shadow of the Wind. It's in mint condition, and contains one of the most haunting, beautiful stories I've ever read within. There's it beside it's sequel, The Angel's Game. If you haven't already, you must read it!

I must read the Tao of Pooh for class, but I dislike it, so I won't mention it in my bookish thoughts :D Hope you're all having a fantastic almost-end-of-the-week!

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updates + happy december!

HI EVERYONE! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! THANK YOU FOR NOT UNFOLLOWING ME IN MY ABSENCE!

Updates:
  I've missed you all so much, honestly. It's always on the back of my mind that I want to talk to my book blogger friends, that I want to take part in discussions and browse reviews, but I have made the time to do it, balancing between sleep, eating, chores and school. Therefore, I'm proud to declare: I'm BACK! Sadly, two things have happened since I left early November:

how I feel inside during this stressful time, haha

1. I dropped out of NaNoWriMo (for reasons explained here)
2. I'm getting a massive amount of homework, and a resolve to study absolutely

 The end of first semester is dawning, which means I have to bring up my straight Bs and 2 Cs in the matter of, oh yeah: 2 WEEKS! And then a full week of final exams. At the start of this week, I thought "Yeah, 3 weeks is plently" but now that it's down to two weeks, I'm thinking, "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit". I've got several high B's (87) that I have to bring up 3 points! in TWO WEEKS! I HAVE TO GET SOME A's!!!

 So I'm in a mode of constant, agitated, panicked state of mind that evolves around quizzes, tests and homework, all of which I must cleave through with high marks. As of now, I have been working since 1 pm (with like, half hour sleeping breaks, because I think my mind gets tired after more than an hour and a half of constant study) and I have this horrid Biology homework. My teacher hasn't explained punnett squares at all, and I only know how to do the 4 box one, not the 8 boxes or the 16 boxes and I've got two thick packets of problems to finish and....I'm just complaining, aren't I?

Sorry about that :) My point is that I will not be reviewing until the week of December 24th, when I have break and will get around to reading. I haven't been reviewing at all for the past few months: I'm a terrible book blogger!

Literature Class: (in which I claim bragging rights)

It will please you, however, that I am reading snippets of The Iliad in class and I am nailing it. I've already gleaned through it once long ago, forgot a bit, then re-watched the film Troy (2004) and am typing up an entire study guide. I think I've earned the reputation of teacher's pet in my Literature class due to how much I overacheive and therefore seem to know everything. Whenever the class has to write essays, and we have several days to do this, many students come up to me to peer edit their papers. My friend Hanna and I are the go-to's and one day, I literally had written two sentences for one whole 50 minute period because I had been editing so many papers along with Hanna, who hadn't even started her quota for the day. We've managed to become a editing duo that works like this:

(photo credit) how I felt like

• I'm writing, so when someone comes up, Hanna takes on the editing
• When I declare that Hanna needs to work, I take on the editing 
• When we're both at a point when we don't know what to do anymore, and someone asks us to read their paper, we say, quite literally, "Let's edit the shit out of this paper" . The paper is between us, as we write in different colours and consult each other on sections and when we're done, the paper is completely marked up.
• When we don't edit, we consult. Someone asks "Is this good?" or "Does this part make sense?". A hilarious thing happened when this jock (let's call him Jon) who keeps coming to us, pulled up a chair across from us. The table Hanna and I sit at is one of those black science tables where two people sit at. The chair remained there, and four students came up afterwards, sat in the chair as we faced them and offered advise.

Hanna and I sit up front, so while some students ask our teacher, others come to us. One girl, from the back of the classroom, giggled as she said, "Hey..I came to you guys because the people around me aren't really good at it (peer editing). Could you help?". At that moment, I realised my position in the classroom as a somewhat teacher's pet. I have dozens of stories to tell about this Literature class of mine, but I think I've written enough :D

December

(photo credit) holiday jumpers are becoming a trend
at my high-class, "elite" school.

Happy December everyone!
I love the winter months! The lovely cold which leaves me feet and hands blue, the delicious cool-ness and the hot tea and coffee and the inspiring gloomy atmosphere...ahh, perfect. This is the holiday season! I prefer to call my week and a half long break "Holiday break" while others call it Christmas Break. I understand that's the reason why I have that week off, but I don't celebrate Christmas so to me, it's Winter Holidays! WOOHOO!

 Blogging wise, I can't wait to start reading about holiday gifts, the SECRET SANTA thing I hope someone will host for book bloggers, and all the other holiday cheer! 

 And me? Well, I'll be salvaging the last bits of true, deep winter by staying at home wrapped in blankets, constantly boiling tea and writing and reading. I think it'll be a productive holiday break.

 Of course, this whole post has probably gotten you thinking that I won't be here for another two/two and half weeks, right? Well you are correct, friend. The only reason I have written this post is because I just realised now, thanks to my brother, that I have to redo a great load of the Bio homework I had spent about twenty minutes-half an hour working on and nearly died comprehending this fact. 

 SO until the end of finals my blogger family.

 -Kirthi

(PS: I've been craving Starbucks frappuccinos, which is odd considering its a cold, iced drink and not something warm, despite the season)

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