Reviewing Quirks...

Being a bookworm is awesome, although we've got our own share of quirks and stuff that feels like creepy crawlies trawling along on our arm! I'm not going to talk about that. When I started with this blog, I had no idea I would be doing whatever I'm doing right now. Seriously, if you go look at the initial posts and the reviews I post now, you wouldn't believe they're by the same (insert adjectives synonymous with 'intelligent' and 'sweet' and alright, naive too) girl. I've learned a lot yes, and most of it has been totally unexpected and exceedingly exciting! :D (Shamelessly I'm saying again, if you're someone who'll pay me for reading-and okay, reviewing- and if you like what I write, hire me :P ). However we do come with our own share of weirdness and quirks and I'm sure, book bloggers would agree!

1. Having to answer the question, "What book would you suggest me?"

This is the question I'm confronted with the most. Knowing that someone values my opinion is definitely charming, though it brings with it a sense of responsibility, don't you think? If someone sincerely asks for a book recommendation, I'd want to suggest something they'd really like, because that way they'd read even more, right? Answering the question makes me nervous, though. I first want to know what kind of a book they prefer. There are all sorts of books! How do I know what they'd like to read? Those who define a category are easier to deal with. Those who answer mechanically, 'whatever you think is good' are the hard nuts to crack. What I like might be something you would hate. It's such a risky answer. But then if your recommendation turned out successful, it feels more than awesome. :D

2. Giving review books priority over books you have been dying to read.

You salivate just looking at bookstores, kiosks with discounted books, amazing offers online and end up buying gorgeous books you want to just sit down and read. Anytime, anywhere. You bring them home, make a place for them on your bookshelf-shrine and lean back to admire how perfect they look. Then your eyes land upon the 'review' pile, books you've received for reviews and your heart drops down slightly, because sometimes you want to read what your heart says and not what you signed up for. In the end, before you know it, you're reading review books and it's been months since you read the first book in the Vampire Academy series and the rest of them are still stacked, unread, witnessing your sad, droopy, puppy eyed looks. 

3. Making reviews interesting...... and different.

Especially with similar books, or books by the same author where the writing style is very similar (obviously), you've got to think a lot and delve deep into what you actually feel about the book, because otherwise all your reviews would end up being somewhat similar. And hence, boring. Which I don't personally want my reviews to be. (Tell me if you think the reviews seem boring or repetitive?). Picking up from some blogger, where I read about this technique the blogger uses, I now make notes of the points I wish to talk about in the review. There are certain things that come to mind when I'm reading and it is 100% likely I'll forget it soon, so I note down those thoughts and it actually gives me a lot to write about when I'm finally down writing a review. Plus, with all the book bloggers and lovers out in the blogosphere, it does take effort to effectively bring out your love and thoughts on books. Something that makes your reviews different and useful! 

4. Tasting a different dish. And not liking it.

Sometimes you feel so tempted with a book available for review, even though it's not your usual kind of a book, you might have been attracted to it's cover (like psychos like me do), or whatever reason, you get a book, the kind you never read before and unfortunately, you end up understanding that it's actually not your kind of a dish. The reading experience feels forced and reviewing becomes even more difficult, because you try not to be biased. Hard, hard work.

5. Avoiding same-book reviews until you write your own!

I usually avoid reading any kind of a review of a book whose review I'm waiting to write, for fear of unintended plagiarism. I don't know what other reviewers feel about this, but I just can't read a review and not think about it, so I guess I might as well not read them at all. Once I've posted my version though, I am open and free to read others' versions. :D

6. Turning down a review request.

God, this is the worst aspect for me. I hate turning down requests, but I have to. One, my college takes up 90% of my life, forget about time. Two, there are just some kind of books I can't just read. And it feels bad to have to say No when it's a book I know is not my thing. Still, you have to do what you have to do. 

All this is actually fun to deal with, if you look at it from my perspective. Nothing gives you as much satisfaction as getting to know that someone read and loved a book you recommended, or a book after reading your reviews. Initially I wished people would at least read these. I had no idea what impact a genuine book talk/review could make. I still think we're not yet aware of its full potential, because it is actually huge! After the first person who said she purchases books based on my reviews, I've had quite a few such responses. Maybe they did not even read that much before, maybe once they bought and loved a book based on a review that touched them, they read more of the blog and get more books. It's just amazing. I'm never ashamed of being looked like a shy person who's 'too much' into books and maybe even 'boring'. I seriously don't care, because people's judgment is faulty, not me. Plus, I've already brought about a difference to a few lives in a very minuscule way, but I'm sure it'll last forever. It made a positive impact, which is far more than what the 'loudspeakers' ever do. I'm oh-so-proud! ^_^

PS- I've posted after a long time. College college! Apologies for this tardiness. I'm working on it.! :D

You know you're a bookworm when...

...

1. You feel lost when you don't have a book securely sitting snug with you in your bag.

2. You constantly make book references, even to people who wouldn't even understand what you mean.

3. You wish book characters were your friends in reality. Like, real reality.

4. You mentally compare the humans you come across in your life to random book characters. And yes, you do keep a lookout for someone who precariously resembles a character you have a crush on.

5. You arrange your books in whatever order you find best: by series, by author, by color, alphabetical, by size, etc. You re-arrange the same books in your spare time.

6. You collect bookish stuff, mostly bookmarks. But anything that makes you think anything bookish can also be found in your bookshelf. Or your bag. Or maybe both.

7. You might have been apprehensive about e-books and e-readers, but you'd still have experienced them both. Everything bookish has to be experienced. No exceptions.

8. You squirm at the thought of books made into movies, with changes, but you'll still be one in the line at the theater, on the first day. Even more so if you've read the book.

9. Before starting reading, you spend a little while admiring the book from all angles, the cover, the blurb, the comments. If you're like me, you'll also read the publishing details.

10. You don't fully open a fresh paperback, even when you're reading because you don't feel like denting the spine. While lending out books (if you lend out, that is), this is what you ask your friends to do too.

11. You really wish every single person would be allowed to breathe only if they're interested in books and reading.

12. You constantly feel like having friends who'd talk bookish to you.

13. You want your friends to read the book(s) you adore, but the thought of lending your books makes you squirm with unease.

14. You cannot tolerate dog-earing the pages, using pen over the pages, or any other activity that makes the book any different from how it was before.

15. You, of course like the smell aroma of pages. Someone like me could also have favorites. 

Yes, this too!

16. You might have this annoying habit of automatically making impressions of people based on the books they read. Someone reads similarly to you? *Respect*

17. You mark book-releases like they're festivals.

18. You would prefer books over any party, any time! 

19. You can't go into a bookstore and come out empty handed. If you do, you'd still have marked a book to be purchased later on!

Finally, you got excited seeing the title and read this whole thing through, mostly nodding your head because you know it's true. There's so much more I can think of, but I don't want to make this too long. Probably you could suggest a few more? ;) What is it that makes you a bookworm, then? :D

PS- You can now follow Journal of a Bookworm at Bloglovin' too! Click here to follow with Bloglovin'. :)

Where are the paper books going? :|

Books go a long way back in history, to the time when paper wasn’t even invented (or at least, reading and writing was). When it came around to paper books, it was a revolution. Knowledge spread, and so did books and reading. Publication houses opened up and bang! A whole new industry, all about books! I haven’t done any fact survey, but I’m pretty sure they did really well. I kind of love this industry, not just because it’s book-related (though that is a reason) but also because the whole process of creating a book seems magical and fascinating to me. (If anybody’s interested, I’d love to work in the publication industry! :P)

I’m a bit worried though, if the rate at which things are now going is any indication. I mean, the first thing I came to know when I returned home from a stupidly-useless day in college was that Penguin and Random House are merging to become one entity. Not that I’m against it, I am happy. I’ve always admired both these publishing houses, what with all those great books they come out with. But I have to admit my first reaction was slight disappointment. So instead of going, ‘Whoa! That’s great!’ as my parents expected (when they gave me the news), I went, ‘What? But why?’

They say it’s because there’s a decline in sales of books, thanks to the boom and increasing preference for e-books. That’s kind of sad, if I were to quote my personal opinion. I mean, removing all emotion aside, how do you dream of a world where there are no books? I can’t. I’d rather die. Seriously. If not, I’d die of boredom anyway! Even if people are not book maniacs like me, they’d still have at least some preference for paperbacks? How can you miss out on the thrill a reallyyy old book you find in the store room or attic gives you? Or the delight of seeing those volumes set on a shelf, gleaming and torn, old and new, paperbacks and hard-covers, tilting your head to read the spines, using your index finger to pull the book out? Just imagining a time where people will only have e-books gives me the shudders.

I cannot do this with an e-book, can I?

No, that’s not going to come true for some centuries at least, I think. (Am I hoping for too much?) But still, what’s with the decline? And it’s not just because of e-readers or reading apps on PCs/Laptops. It’s because of piracy, too. A book can easily be available on the internet, if you’re smart enough to find the right thing. Talking only about people in my city (and country) and I’m not generalizing, because I know all of us don’t do that, but it is a fact that many don’t like spending a lot on buying books. (Not that it increases libraries, or memberships there, in any case). Apart from the obsessed like me (and let me remind you, it’s not much appreciated either, being obsessed, I mean. But whatever), many go for cheap copies available with the redhi walas, for less than half the price, the only problem with them being the poor paper quality, which they don't seem to mind. Or for pirated books off the net.

Which is where I start feeling uneasy. I’d admit I tried finding a book too, when I couldn’t seem to find it at a reasonable rate, but I gave up after a few minutes of searching. It wasn’t right. But people do it, right? Apart from the obvious reason of saving money, I cannot find any other factor. And I don’t want to start about the differences in paperbacks and e-books and which is better and all that. It’s already been talked about a lot. I got a Kindle myself, but that’s not because I do not like paperbacks. I prefer them any day; in fact I haven’t been able to read more than two books on the Kindle anyway, thanks to its need for wifi, which I don’t have at home yet.  Besides, I got that only for the Amazon freebies that I’d been reading on the Kindle app on my laptop before. Those books are like ‘quick, fast and light’ reads for me. Somehow I’ve never been able to think of them as ‘books’.

Anyway, with the new Penguin Random House projected to be the biggest publisher (sounds mighty!), I’m also very happy to know that one out of every four books would be from this publishing unit, according to an article in www.guardian.co.uk. But even then, it’s not exactly comforting to know that two great publishing houses are now one. The numbers are dwindling and it’s kind of scary. I love you paperbacks, and I hope you’d be there forever! :)   

PS- This is probably the first ever post on this blog that isn’t a book review or a meme. I know that’s pretty sad and I think by now, those reviews-only posts ‘might’ just have made it monotonous. I blame my first blog, which pretty much carries my life’s weird stories and that's where I ramble when I’m either frustrated bored or emotionally charged up. Whatever pertained to books, I kept it here and now that I realize, I’ve never actually posted anything off the topic, or anything I’ve written randomly. This isn’t a post to deliberately break that norm either, but I did feel a lot about this issue and wanted to talk about it. 

Any views? What do you feel?