Charter for Compassion: About to Reach 100,000 signatures

 



On the Brink of Reaching 100,000 signaturesWant to add your signature? Well, here's your opportunity: Click Here.
Also, there's Facebook page for the "Charter for Compassion" as well!

Yes, a Charter for Compassion or even Karen Armstrong's recently released book "Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life sound very insipid. Is that our gut reaction though to a world where we often suffer the malaise of compassion overload? We are told in insistent voices often about the importance of being compassionate, without fully understanding the implications of the rigor of having true compassionate for someone else than your own self. I personally never really understood the term till I stopped letting my Christian faith become too insular/too dependent upon my own salvation. The end result was that I not conventionally Christian, neither am I particularly religious either. The honest face of my doubts has no strict religious countenance. Why should anything not bound to facts become something unimaginative and legalistic?

     Anyways, I was overjoyed to hear recently that the Charter is nearing 100,000 signatures. I highly recommend that all my blog readers check out the site. Believe me, these things are totally easy to ignore, and pass off as trite. Except, I don't necessarily find Karen Armstrong's analytical studies about compassion to be trite by any means. In July, I will be featuring books that I think have the subtle power to enhance our ability to empathize deeply with others. No, these are the preachy, didactic books/media that produce the internal disgust we show towards any superficial representation as something as deeply impacting as true compassion. No, these are books that have the power to edify, but also the primary goal is to make us emotionally invest ourselves in the fate of characters that are strangers from the beginning. Reading high-quality literature or watching well-produced films can sharpen our empathetic senses.

    Again, throughout July, I'll be trying to recast the face of compassion in a far more sophisticated light. Hopefully, everyone's ingrained belief that compassion is something unsophisticated and is the "party pooper" element. Believe me, Compassion is much more than  feeling pity/ooshy-gooshy feelings for someone. Those things are not exactly compassion. Compassion requires more vigor.

    If you haven't seen this brilliant video where Karen Armstrong speaks about her proposed "Charter for Compassion," project, I highly recommend it. Sometime in July, I will be doing a thorough review of her book that accompanies her project, "Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life."


Also, I've written about Karen Armstrong's remarkably thought-provoking memoir,Spiral Staricase,  before. If you feel disillusioned with religion that is doctrinal/belief obsessed, I highly recommend this. It is perfect for the doubters that feel left out, and without a secure category.

 

Comic Wednesday: Channel Zero

Click the link above to access this on Dark Horse's webpage!

Channel Zero Review



     Awhile ago, Dark Horse Comics allowed me to access another of their recently released titles, this time it was a republished volume of an "oldie, but goodie." I never really understood that slang phrase because it makes it sound like anything that is slightly aged has depreciated in quality. Based on what I read of Channel Zero though, it has not become decrepit to the point of being irrelevant. Conversely, the premise of the comic seems shockingly much more relevant than when it was published.

     Intriguingly, the comic has a dystopian mood and was written in the late nineties, around the advent of the invention of the internet. In this fractious world, particularly in the United States, ultra-conservative Christians have dominated the political scene in America, and have essentially taken advantage of the destabilized status of the American Government. Within this comic, there are fascinatingly no colored images, rather there are a bevy of black and white images that are curiously drawn in a manga style. Normally, manga reads though from right to left, while this comic reads from left to right because it is an American comic.

There are cyber rebels in this comic, who utilize the power of primordial dial-up connections

    Anyways, the main antagonistic force within this comic is interestingly politicized, fundamentalist Christianity. It is not a comic that is insidiously targeting Christianity as a whole. It is not blithely unaware of the deep complexity of Christianity, which is a religion that can hardly be defined as "monolithic." Anyone who lives within America though should find this theocratic religious model to be a very frightening reminder of the behavior of our own Christian fundamentalists. Essentially, this comic preceded the dawning of "Fox News," but the theme was still pertinent in its time because the fundamentalists gained much more traction politically around the seventies. They were basically a reaction to the excessive liberalization of our country at the time. Naturally, a counter force always constructs itself as a reaction to great renovation. Some people cannot adapt themselves to a world where all the values they were formerly complacent with have become obsolete. Beneath the facade of being "religious," the fundamentalists are just a reactionary group that works to revert the conditions of our country that offers them the security they once thrived on. Within all ideological groups, the predominant thing, beyond the face of political parties and religious sects, that everyone desires is commodious structure. Otherwise, the "God" or "Gods" throughout time being invoked are merely theatrical acts meant to implore the ardent followers of religion to invest their energy to supporting a specific political movement. 



     This comic expertly illustrates this wild political scene that is recurrent throughout historical civilization. In the meantime, there are always renegade groups/rebels, much like the aptly named "rebels" within the original Star War Films. In "Channel Zero," they are the rebellious group that works to regain their voice in a society where there are restrictive rights in relation to what type of political message can be broadcast. Basically, the world has been overrun by "Fox News" in the contemporary sense;any group that supports their message or an Evanglical one basically are the only accepted group. The rebels are working for true democracy,and anyone reading the comics will hopefully cheer for this group throughout the comics, even those who might ally themselves with the fundamentalists who have control. Again, its not an Anti-Christian comic. There is an interesting quote ironically from the Pope within the comic, who decries American Evangelism for essentially being "American totalitarianism in disguise." If you ever study the Christian fundamentalist movement, it is always surprising to see that  a extreme form of capitalism is worshiped over "God." American Evangelism is not truly interested in spiritual goals, just like any institutionalized religion that effectively becomes subsumed into the political scene of the time. I think the comic offers a very substantive message about the dangers of this form of politicized religion. It is not against those who are humble, inquisitive followers of any religion. This is a distinction that might be muddled in the minds of people who read this brilliant comic.

     Essentially, this is a perfect time for this comic to be reprinted by "Dark Horse Comics," because the message continues to be very relevant. Also, the illustrations, while they are colorless, help evoke the loss of "color" and dynamic opinion in a world where these things are easily manipulated or restrained. Anyone who likes scifi punk shows like Dark Angel will ultimately love this because the mood of the comic is distinctly scifi punk. I really enjoyed this comic overall because it is highly relevant and very thought-provoking; it is another example of comic books that are written with intelligence.


I obtained a complimentary of copy of this from Dark Horse Comics via Netgalley.

Magical June:Review of Night Circus

Night Circus Review: A Literary Indulgence





 

Book attained at the Random House Booth at BEA: Thanks for providing a copy of this spellbinding novel!
(I'm striving for more concise reviews btw!)




       This book is a hard one to pin down because describing my enjoyment of it relies upon so many ineffable adjectives, or just adjectives of awe that might be a bit too overblown for a professional review of any sort. Additionally, it doesn't fit any genre specification perfectly; it majestically transcends genre markers. More importantly, the story has a sense of lightness and a lack of melodrama; it consists of another type of literary substance; an appeal to rich aesthetics or the sensory experience of viewing an shadowy circus through the light of different eccentric perspectives. What does this "dark circus" that is hardly cavernous have in store for us? How does one read a book, where the setting itself becomes its own mysterious character set in the same enigmatic shadows as its crew of  colorful characters?

   Its a very difficult book to evaluate for this reason because I kept wondering why particular characters felt a bit detached from the narrative. This is a completely different type of story that relies upon mystery to keep us entranced with the whole awe-inspiring sight of the interior and exterior of the circus. There are many auxiliary characters in the story who further add more depth to the mystery of the novel. Creatively, the whole book is assembled not as your standard sleuth mystery, but one of inquiring about the purpose of this circus, and why are the two main characters being forced into a fierce magician duel. More importantly, Why are we not yet seeing their romance become spontaneously consummated like many other novels with romantic elements? (The author is so good at tastefully developing this very rich romantic subplot) The book is slow with this evolution, but it never becomes tedious. Its not drudgery at all to read about the dizzying descriptions of the circus' attractions, or the Midnight Dinner that reads like something out of a Lemony Snicket novel.  Essentially, the whole book felt like a rich, impressible experience of being so dazzled with the sights of the circus that it was sometimes hard to completely pinpoint the seemingly invisible moments of character and plot development. This is not a criticism,rather its praise for a novel that separates itself from the pack of novels that are so clear about fulfilling certain quotas for how the standard novel works. Conversely, this novels engulfs us with its air of rich mystery, and it becomes a fairy tale filled with artful imagery and very mysterious, yet endlessly intriguing characters.

    Wonderfully, this book is an unconventional departure from the known formula of books that must have a specified climax. It is nonlinear, and it can be crushingly disorienting at moments.At the same time, the task to try to discern the story is part of the fun, as we are overstimulated by the well-written descriptions of this whimsical circus. I really loved the novel as a whole, and just greatly appreciated the author's bravery in doing something different and achieving a novel that subtly develops a deep sense of richness of its universe. This novel will slyly effect you, by having you dream long dreams of mysterious circuses and puzzling clocks that are illustrative of the hidden complexities of this novel. If you are desirous of a book that is so different that it might turn off some people who are strict fans of the conventional novel, I highly recommend it then to those courageous people who are unafraid of something so unconventional that you'll long be suffering a deep, burning desire for the dream of the Night Circus to become manifest in our own reality.


Side Note: Weirdly enough, the book reminded me of one of my favorite Tim Burton film's, Big Fish, in the way that the story reads like a modern fairy tale. Some people might scoff at fairy-tales, but I find that I need them because they are a very refreshing reprieve from the many books that can be  far too depressive. I love those novels, but sometimes we need some fairy-tales to give us an ounce of levity and mystery to our mundane lives.
       

Book Blogging 101: Premise Deception

At least, you know that this is probably a sex-laden book!

Premise Deception
(When books about vampires, elves, and mermaids are really one big literary sex romp/cheesy love story)






   Why do I commonly feel like the only blogger facing this woeful dilemma of premise duplicity? How many of you have signed up for book reviews, based on the enticing premise and cover alone, only to discover the book was utter crap? Then, you are expected to write honest, constructive reviews, which aren't entirely negative or snarky. I've written my slew of snarky review before because some books are very worthy of snarky reviews. I think bloggers often view the field of pre-published books in a largely exaggerated, glorified form. We are only given the terse excerpts, fleshed out merely for the purposes of insuring a purchase from a prospective buyer. We are given that same faulty deception, which quickly transforms to deep regret upon finding that we really do not like the book we are reading. Wait... Didn't we just promise the author in an email that we were willing to review their book??


        How can a blogger safely disentangle themselves respectfully from this mess?


     I'd suggest relying on NetGalley or authors that you normally feel very safe with. I always hear fellow readers bemoan those who never step outside their safe haven of "approved authors." As a blogger and even a reader, I definitely have my safe structure of writers that I feel aren't going to write drivel. In the past, I once was given an offer to review a "vampire book" with a premise that sounded very magnetic. Of course, it was devoid of any suggestive details that the book might be "smut." I didn't discover that until ten pages into the book, the main couple was already tearing their clothing off without any development. The worst is when every cosmetic detail of these characters are glittered with adjectives of sheer perfection (well-shaped lips, finely formed torso, blue eyes, blonde hair....Arayan porn). Yes, these books usually go the way of becoming Nazi love stories by relying on the whole underlying message that  "blue eyes and blonde hair" are inherently perfect....

    Have you noticed that these books are becoming much more expertly disguised as your standard fantasy/scifi novel? It is only twenty pages into the book, and fifty references to bedroom eyes, that you are then forced to read agonizing sex scenes, that hardly are sexy since the characters are normally cardboard thin. In real life, who really just jumps into the proverbial sex bed ten minutes after meeting someone. Where is the wrongly placed, unflattering pimple. Seriously... why are there not some behavioral problems/ a shred of some form of imperfection??? These books are just too unrealistic for me, and I think publishers love to disguise them as normal fantasy&scifi books for the naive public. We didn't know we were subjected to a whole different kind of fantasy; something that creates body heat.

Why Netgalley/the publisher is much more trustworthy than other sources?
 
Anyways, I just find myself reading through so many mediocre books as a blogger that I'm becoming a bit more of a solid NetGalley user. NetGalley lets you view something before committing to a review. At the Random House Breakfast, one of the representatives from the company even mentioned that this was a great asset to this site for both the publisher and the blogger. As bloggers, we are assailed with requests for books that sound very promising, but often aren't. Also, subject matter is hardly a good judge. I think the label of being a "science fiction/ fantasy" blogger sometimes garners some of the same badly written books that any blogger, with or without certain genre preferences, are given. Premises, genres, and covers are very inept judges for evaluating a book, but they have become the standard trio used by prospective writers looking for bloggers.

    In an ideal world, we shouldn't have to "commit" before receiving the full text of the book, or partial text. If you do commit and happen to honestly hate the book, you should be given the right to negatively review it. Lying is not something I think should be promoted, but I often think book bloggers find themselves in an uncomfortable situation,where they feel they must write a "positive" review. Some blog tours will even require you to write only "positive" reviews. Does "positive" allow room for constructive critcism? How much nuance can we have in our reviews, or are bloggers only expendable bots? Reviewers are criticized all the time by the public for writing negative reviews of popular films. As someone who reviews things, you are bound to detest something. There really are a fair number of bad books that sadly are very readable. Many of the books that I read are in the "unreadable," "blaughh" category. They are ones that are tedious. The same thing happens with "Blaughhhh.." tv shows, where you closely watch the clock more-so than the tv-show. Its really hard to write coherent, honest reviews of something that you feel nothing but apathy for. I've yet to see someone write a book blog review that says, "Honestly, this book was pure drudgery.." I've felt like writing that so many times as a book blogger.

Conclusion to my "Rant"
                      You're so "facetious, and unfair.." Yes, some people might claim that I'm one of those two things by writing this. I sometimes need space to rant  as a blogger. I quite love this little "profession" of mine, but some things just don't sit well with me. Part of any job involves frustrations, and the important element is to learn from them. From now on, I'm trying to be much more judicious when planning to "commit" to reviews because a lot of my book review commitments turn out to be books that I really dislike. Some of them are well-written, but the writing itself is laced with so much contrived sexual content that I can't help but "roll my eyes." I have no problem with reading books with romantic elements, but I find that there are a bevy of these books that are far too unrealistic. If I see one more of these romances with  "blue eye, blonde hair" women or men with well-shaped lips/ well-constructed torso; I will literally stab my eyes out! Also, I must repeat it again: "Any book with a sex scene with these dull characters in the first five pages are worthy of going to the incinerator." *Metaphoric Flames only*

                      Anyways, I do happen to get some very good books once in a while and for those requests, I am a very happy person!! Moreover, I hope that I learn my lesson to carefully research a book before committing to it on the basis of premise/cover duplicity.


         

   

Magical June: Magic Month

Before Harry Potter, there was Prospero from Shakespeare's infamous magic play:The Tempest

   Introduction to "Magic Month"
    "Magic" is a word that conjures many images in our minds of a fancifully dressed wizard,brandishing a wand, who is set on casting some kind of enchantment upon us. Within the dictionary, the term "magic" interestingly relates to any performing arts that creates illusions of supernatural acts or anything that defies the boundaries of what we safely term as "natural." That means the art of storytelling, stage-play (particuliarly Shakespearean stageplays), and films laden with CGI effects are all magic. We've all heard people describe the transcendent effects of movies as "movie-magic," thus we know that the word magic does not restrictively relate to the arcane subject of "magic" that allows people endued with special senses or psychic abilities to bend reality. Within the natural world, magic really means "illusions" that make us temporary believers within what we might term the "supernatural." During the Middle Ages for example, many people were illiterate and had no knowledge about Latin;therefore, a priest giving a sermon in Latin held awe-inspiring power over them because those foreign Latin words seemed magical in a sense. None of these people really understood the meaning of the sermon without the aid of visual guides through elaborate stain-glassed windows or the church plays that occurred during special occasions during the year. They were pushed beyond the prison of simply thinking these stories were factual.

      In Harry Potter, JK Rowling wisely chose to have her magical spells be derived from Latin because Latin was the vernacular of people who had a special connection with the supernatural realm. While it might sound insulting to some Christians, many of the Peasants had no Google, Wikipedia, or other resources that have suspended our belief in "magic." Really, atheism and agnosticism are the natural result of the age of empirical proof being required for new advances in our knowledge. Since we are much more literate, religion has vied to pretend to be empirically proven.  The congregants are no longer mystified by the "magic" of the many Biblical myths. We no longer understand that though the mythic boundaries will be too unreal to stoically believe them to be factual, the underlying moral message has the magical property of  moral transfiguration. This is a transformation much deeper  and more powerful than the arid, literal  notion of Genesis being nothing but a "scientific idea." The creationists are the same types of people that sought to ban Harry Potter and The Golden Compass. During the Inquisition, they literally believed in witches more than others;therefore, they ruthlessly killed people with the Dark Magic of misusing religious for pernicious purposes.

   Sadly, our scientific age has demanded religious knowledge to become a species of  abstruse fact. It has been this way for some literate people for ages. It was the peasants who readily believed within the stunning mythic fabric of these stories. These stories enhanced people's lives, in much the same way that many people are enchanted and edified by superhero stories, Harry Potter, Star Wars; these are the new magical myths that with "film magic" suspend our empirical senses, and allow us to temporarily believe in the illusion of impossible things. The Biblical myths, Greek myths, and the Roman myths have the same ability to dispel our reason and transport us to a deeper psychic reality.  The "magic" of these stories grant us solace in a brutally harsh reality, where nihilistic ideas are at bay. In "Lord of the Rings," good magic provides us with substantive ideas of reality that enthuses our senses, while "dark magic" is a reductionist form of magic, much like fundamentalist, literal forms of religions, that makes us believe doubtlessly and unimaginatively in a hopeless idea of the world. The Rapture believers are no different than the types of rigid atheists that insist that our anomalous universe has no underlying purpose. Why should we bother making extrapolations about mystery? The whole fabric of this universe supposedly has a terminable beginning and end. Beyond that, there is the unfathomable nothingness, where all the lofty ideas of purpose and compassion become insubstantial and useless.

*This is an extraordinary lecture from Madeleine L'Engle about finding ethical "truth" in fantasy*
   We need fantasy stories infused with magic to help us remember the wild mystery of the world. It certainly helped the Greeks, the Egyptians, and the early medieval Christians to survive a hostile world. Religion is not inherently evil (I quite love religion, but the dark fundamentalist wizards have ruined its magic); it is the malicious dark magicians that reduce religion to fact or really everything to "fact" without an ounce of imagination and wonder that destroy our ability to love and to acknowledge the vast mystery of the universe.In one of my favorite Charles Dicken's novels, Hard Times,  the same fleet of dark magicians (there's no wizards in the story, its my symbolic way of representing fictitious "dark magic" as being reductionist)  try to cruelly sever the children's connection with the imaginative layers of life, and force children to unquestionably believe within the literal scientific ideas without wonder or emotion. This has become a model for other English orphan stories, where the antagonist malevolently seeks to destroy any imaginative grasp on hope that these kids depend on for survival.  Sadly, the people who criticized Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials  missed out the critique on a form of organized, domineering religion that has no wit of levity, magic, or artistry. The great ethical message of those books was to teach us to respect the mystery of nature and the universe. Philip Pullman followed the tradition of the British Romanticists, who reminded of the deep purposeful, edifying effects of nature and the profoundly mysterious universe. Its a real pity that some people dismissed these series because they believed in the nominal label of "atheist," thus these people really lost their capacity to understand the richness of art and magic. Imagine, how many people do the same with JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis? How many people refuse to read Narnia because its labeled as "Christian?" Its ridiculous how there are so many superficial barriers that keep many people from being deeply moved and transformed by the magic of these stories. Maybe, these people need to be reminded of the important message of Shakespeare's The Tempest.


        Progressively, Fantasy and Science Fiction have become a hybrid, the boundaries separating these mutually exclusive terms have become muddled. Within Anne Rice's recent series,The Mayfair Witches, the magic of the witches is something that is based in genetics. Anne Rice has always been very knowledgeable about history, so instead of reverting magic to its traditional definitions; she has allowed magic to become melded with "science." In science, there are many inscrutable elements that appear like magic to us, such as the elusive concept of quantum particles, these particles might not fully exist in our reality. They can flit from one dimensional space to another unknowable one. They are not quantifiable; they are the new form of "magic." Doctor Who is a modern magician, a combination of both a scientist and a magician. He can travel through dimensional space, which would be scientific if we knew more verifiable facts about quantum physics. Since quantum physics, parallel universe, and other new concepts of space are still new; these things are in the realm of "magic" for now. Meaning, storytellers or artists can manipulate this science to cast our minds to believe temporarily in things that are the substance of illusions. Within Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time," one of these modern magicians, curiously named Ms. Which, has the power to bend reality in a way that seems  scientific, as she permits Meg to travel across dimensions long before Doctor Who. In many ways, Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time inspired the creation of Doctor Who, Ms. Which was the "iconic Dupin," Poe's detective that inspired the creation of the more famous detective: Sherlock Holmes.


    There are numerous other concepts of magic that I wish to touch upon in later posts. For now, I'll give you some magic-related books that I hope to review that will hopefully imbue your mind with images of things of a fantastical nature. Is "modern magic" in contemporary stories more scientific? Or are there some that are a bit nostalgic about magic that completely defies the order of natural, scientific laws?


Books for "Magical June"











 

Adventures at BEA in a Small Nutshell

Is it possible to cram this huge experience into a nutshell?



Highlights of Book Expo America

    Whether you want to admit it or not, words are inherently limited compared to the full emotional capacity of your thoughts. Then again, the best writers have the ability to deceive you into thinking otherwise. For example, Shakespeare causes you to have what many call a "numinous" experiences, which literally means that transcendent moment when your mind departs from its superficial hold on reality, and goes beyond it. BEA was a celebration of the accomplished league of writers who write books that have this devastating ability to leave us speechless or transport us somewhere beyond the words on the page. Its hard for me to take what was such a rich experience, and grind it down to something simpler. How can I do what these writers did when trying to convey the stellar awesomeness that pervaded the air of BookExpo America? (Yes, that sounds very absurd to people who aren't bibliophiles). What is the secret behind the intoxicating sensation of being in BEA? Its akin to that same rich experience of reading an engrossing novel. Once you're done, and you're left staring at the walls of your bare white walls of your boring mundane life; you wish that you had another wonderful novel to lead you on another wild adventure once again. Much like a novel, BookExpo America was fleeting For the two rather successful days I was there though, it was very mesmerizing, and very educational. I might not be able to completely articulate my experience, but I'll try nonetheless.

Picture with Erin Morgenstern, author of the recently released Night Circus.

Random House Booth&Power Reader Breakfast

        Over the course of two days, I repeatedly returned to Random House's stand because they hosted many great signings during BEA this year. Last year, I was able to meet Chuck Palaniuk at this same stand. The stand this year in particular seemed to be even better than last year; a few of the author among the litany of other well-known writers that appeared at this stand that I met were Erin Morgenstern (author of Night Circus), Chris Bojahlian (author of  the upcoming release:Sand Castle),  and Justin Cronin (author of The Passage  and  its upcoming sequel: The Twelve). While the longs were pretty long for both Erin Morgenstern and Justin Cronin,  the lines moved speedily, and I still was able to have some small coherent conversations with the writers when meeting either three of them. The most impressive thing about Justin Cronin's signing was that I got both the upcoming second book in his vampire horror series, along with the previous installment in the series. Since I had never read his books before but have seen them mentioned everywhere on horror fiction blogs and forums, I was really stoked about reading the novels because they looked like they were the alternative to the latest trend of romantic, brooding vampires. By the way, I love these sorts of vampires, but its also nice to be reminded of their other dimensions as well.

                     About the breakfast itself, I had a fantastic time there and I felt a little pampered. The event itself took place early in the morning and at the Random House publishing house itself. In the foyer of this building, I felt transported to another world, as I stared at the shelves of book fancifully displayed along both walls. On these shelves, I spotted an old hardcover edition of Interview with the Vampire,and copy of The Wolf Gift. Getting to the breakfast itself involved taking an elevator with all the other bloggers who had gathered for the breakfast. Entering the lavishly decorated room with weird spiked balls hanging on the far reaches of the room, I was stunned by the  exciting sight of  a little espresso bar in the middle and the table that featured an array of very good breakfast foods. During the whole of the event, I conversed with bloggers, people who worked for Random House, and several writers whose books were recently released by Random House. Everything was remarkably casual, and I think the other bloggers attending were just as overwhelmed in a very good way. Many of the writers in attendance wrote for The Huffington Post, The New York Times, and even The Daily Show.  There was also an inspiring speech about the power that bloggers have to encourage people to read. One of the writers,Charles Duhigg (writer of The Power of Habit), wrote a novel about the psychological components of habits and intriguingly spoke about the neuroscience of habits that are explored in more detail his novel. Of course, the event ended with a bag of complimentary books from the publisher, but the experience itself yesterday morning at the Power Reader Breakfast was the most rewarding part.









Shadow Mountain  Booth  at BEA

 


     Whenever the In-booth signings at the stands of the major publishing houses became too crowded, I always wandered back to the Shadow Mountain booth. In the past, I have read Brandon Mull's Fablehaven, which they are responsible for publishing. I always liked the colorful cover designs of those books. From the other books that I received from the Shadow Mountain stand, the covers were just as flashy, and detailed. While many readers scoff sometimes about their noble endeavor to "not judge a book on its cover," I think cover design has an unconscious effect on us. I certainly find myself paying more attention to books with appealing covers over those with uninteresting ones. Of course, some of my favorite books have very boring covers. Luckily, the quality of Brandon Mull's writing was just as excellent as the covers for his books.Another thing I like about this publisher was the fact that a lot of their novels were bursting with creativity, such a series of books about the under-appreciated Janitors. These books remind me of Brandon Sanderson's witty children's books about the villainous librarians (weirdly called Alcatraz). Anyways, I'm very excited to hopefully feature some of these books in the coming months on my blog.


     





Mountain of ARCS

         Instead of going through a detailed list of the books that I received, I'll just state here that I received many ARCs, and more of them this year are much more pertinent to the types of books I specifically review on this blog. I don't have enough energy to completely go through all the books and give them the attention that some of them deserve. In the coming months, I hopefully will review some of these books. I've been aspiring to involve several more reviews on here, and write more condensed reviews. I think that might be great improvement, compared with some of the lengthy, rather verbose reviews that normally are  featured here. In June, I am going to strive to experiment with different forms of reviews and try to find a much more effective way of writing them.






Fellow Bloggers


    Sadly, I lost my ID badge with several business cards from other bloggers that I met over the last two days. Its a shame because I really want to acknowledge the existence of these people's blogs on here. I think my greatest lesson from this year's BookExpo America was that blogging is not a private activity, and other bloggers should not be viewed as competitors. I think a lot of bloggers, including myself, forget that book blogging is not inherently a competitive activity. We are not going to be rewarded the Book Blogging equivalent of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. We're here to share our love of books over the internet, and I think this year was the year that I acknowledged that my blog has been failing to mention other bloggers or trying to reach out to other book bloggers in the blogging community. In June, I have made it my goal to do just that: connect with other bloggers. I'm thinking of doing a post to show off blogs that I really like, which are not necessarily just scifi/fantasy blogs, because just focusing on those blogs is just another way of building another wall around my blog. 



Pigeons at the Train Station
 
  


       It sounds unexpected, and even could be  the premise of lunacy, but there was a pigeon fluttering around the Amtrak Lounge at Penn Station yesterday. If anything, this pigeon might have been a pathetically hilarious sight, but it also reminded me to not take everything so seriously. Doesn't the word levity suggest lightness? Well, the bird was certainly metaphorically lightening my mood after a very tiring day. I wasn't miserable, or simpering by any means. I had a highly memorable experience, but your weary body is going to force yourself to feel rather cranky. That is the body's way of alerting you to its exhaustion. I thank the pigeon trapped in the Amtrak Lounge for reminding me that life inevitably has its frustrations and growing pains. We might very well feel trapped just like the pigeon, aimlessly gliding around the Amtrak lounge. Sometimes my blog work feels a bit trapped and sterile, but at the same time I need to write in a way that isn't always exceedingly serious, but something that has an ounce of humor. Thank you once again to this pigeon for making me smile and laugh, while my sore body waited for my train home!
      








Be on the Lookout for more updates tomorrow!

BEA Day 1 Update

BEA is "fun-tastic" Yes, I'm using the Buffy the Vampire Slayer vernacular to express how much I love the tiring affair that is called BEA. Its still a bundle of fun, and I can't wait to write more updates once every muscle tendon in my body does not hurt.


Right about now, I'm snoozing and planning for another activity-packed day on Day 2 of BEA.
Watch out on either Thursday and Friday for more flashy, explicit details about my BEA journey. Its arduous, but very rewarding thus far!

(Click on the zombie-like woman below to head to my Twitter page for the latest BEA-related updates. Keep abreast of all the latest tantalizing (not) details!)

Relflections before venturing to BEA Tomorrow

Preemptive BEA Reflections 

 Tomorrow, I depart for BEA, and hopefully I'll continue seeking out new methods of improving this blog. By talking with other bloggers sometimes, I learn that a lot of the stressful elements of blogging are pretty universal feelings. Having books that are so mediocre that one can't possibly express their feelings about it is very difficult. How do you go about writing a review for a book that you get to "page 10," and suddenly find yourself feel uninterested in the author's prose? Yes, the premise might be so irresistible that it makes you offer to review it, but the writing itself makes all the difference for me in the end. Maybe, the premise is truly not enough to judge a book by.

   As I scan through the authors appearing tomorrow, I am positively overwhelmed. This is my third year at Book Expo America, and the experience still feels largely frustrating. Planning for it can be the most unexciting bit. I've seen some very helpful blog posts about "What to pack?" and "How to organize what places to go to?"
 I'm totally not good at that sorta of stuff. Once I enter the venue, the frenetic pace of the event itself makes me feel very overstimulated to the point of forgetting things quickly. My schedule and all my organizational pieces I put together are soon abandoned by the mad rush of morning people flitting from stand to stand in search of the most desirable Advance Reader Copy. It feels so terribly disorganized and serendipitous.

   Thankfully, the BEA website is slightly more organized than previous years. It is still largely overwhelming because this information is void of any information about the actual books. I organize my list therefore by author, and eventually I learn from Facebook or other blogs that these authors are not necessarily giving away a book that I want. Therefore, I start from square one once again to figure everything out. Why is there no website with the actual books listed?? Its just so damn confusing. Then, there is the feral pack of book hunters that infiltrate the entrance at about 9:30am every morning. I still have not discerned their pattern and where they receive their intelligence about stands to go to. For this one year, I might migrate away from the morning pack of book hunters and slowly seek out books that I might actually want to read. Its a lot more relaxing that way. For the last two years, everything I received from the early morning rush for free items was mostly undesirable items that I impulsively picked up. I thinks its better to be a bit more judicious and actually seek out books that one would actually read.

   Anyways, the updates will continue sometime on Thursday. On the right side of my blog there is a link to my Twitter account. Hopefully, I'll be making updates about BEA throughout the day on both Tuesday (June 5th) and Wedneday (June 6th).