Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Who Is The Reader?

When She Reads Profile Lisa, somebody from Brunei on a island in the middle of South East Asia, is an avid reader of perhaps 50-75 books per year, though these days since I have had started working and life has been intruding alot, the dear number has been decreasing slowly over the years. I am also a secondary school librarian who is an avid reading culture advocate and motivator for my patrons. With all the busy schedule, I do still manage to get some reading done. The bad part of it is, there are more books out there than there's time to read them! (Oh no!) I am also a writer, a reviewer, a web designer and a watcher all roll in one.

As for my reading background, I've come from a family who encourage as much reading to their children as they could as they are readers themselves. My first book was a dictionary (seriously). I had it colored in as proof and actually excelled as a dicspeller throughout my schooling life. I remember getting to visit the bookstore when I was a kid as a treat, and I got to choose two books to buy. This number significantly increasing throughout the years. My aunt, who happened to be a teacher and a reading  remedial teacher, actually have these lot of books available when I got back from school which I can actually read! (cause my grandparents took care of me when my parents were at work.)  My English teachers when I was still studying, encourage (still do) the reading factor in my life too. Not forgetting to mention, of the big fat Cambridge dictionary we had to buy while back in school (my English teacher was very particular in which dictionary we had to buy back then) and had to bring every single day, so we can use it whenever we could. Thanks Teacher, I actually still use that dictionary in a daily basis. Now I’m making sure the students I meet must learn to use the dictionaries available at hand.

I actually have reading logs everywhere, notebooks, MS Excel, websites, blogs... in some box, under my bed, exercise books, etc... I just need to update it more frequently. It's a habit I have been keeping up since I was in my Secondary years. Keeping lists are one of my guilty pleasures so sometimes I get side tracked when I am suppose to read. So expect some list to appear here and there in this blog and the memes I have joined so I can actually keep this blog up, without procrastinating it.

Favorite genres includes: Horror, Mystery & Thriller, Retellings, Paranormal, Supernatural, Science Fiction, Literature, Classics, Young Adults, Children, Graphic Novels/Comics, Historical Fiction, Adult Fiction. Series are an extra! Biographies and memoirs has been my latest love.

Favorite authors includes: Aimee Carter. Alice Sebold, Arthur Golden, Christian Jacq, Darren Shan Enid Blyton, Gary Paulsen, Joan Holub, Jim Butcher, Paul Jennings, Rick Riordan, Stephen King, Suzanne Williams... don't let these lead you on, I have a lot of other authors who also weave words well enough, that I actually enjoy them.

Reading Habits: I always bring a book with me everywhere, but these days, I am extremely satisfied with my PRS-600 iPhone Samsung Tab 10.1, where I have about hundreds of books stored in ready to read anytime. Anywhere. I read while waiting in queue line, waiting for my food if I'm alone in public places, at the clinic waiting or hospital, etc. Sometimes a soothing instrumental as a back ground as I read, Bach preferably. I fearfully dog-eared my page but I tend to prevent it by using them post-its, receipts, phonecards, or real bookmarks. Though nowadays my bookmarks tends to be keepsakes.

I have my iPhone as my reading gadget as well nowadays. I ♥ ya iBook. I have Bluefire, Kindle, Stanza and ubook applications as my e-book reading apps as well. in I actually find it handy cause I am able to read my books everywhere I could with just *tapping* and swiping, not to mention I seem to read more now since my ebooks are everywhere with me, even for a quick 5 seconds read. (Not kidding)

Other Than Reading: Creative writing, music, tv series, movies, blogging, graphic designing, bbq-ing, e-shopping, book selling, reading motivator.

Other Interests: Gadgets, USB pendrives, bookmarks, phonecards, postcards, music, TV series, movies.  

Favorite Shows: 30 Rock. A Gifted Man. Accidental on Purpose. Aku Bukan Cinderella. Alcatraz. Ally McBeal. Angel. Antara Cinta & Dusta. Are You There Chelsea? Autumn in my Heart. Avatar: The Legend of Aang. Awake. Bawang Putih Bawang Merah. Being Human. Being Human US. Ben 10. Better With You. Bob’s Burgers. Bicara Aur Dengan Tebing ♥. Body of Proof. Bones. Breaking In. Breakout Kings. Broadwalk Empire. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Burn Notice. Californication. Camelot. Campus. Caprica. Castle. Charmed. Cinta Kirana. Chuck. Community. Cougar Town. Covert Affairs. Criminal Minds. CSI: Las Vegas. CSI: Miami. CSI: New York. Curb Your Enthusiasm. Demons. Desperate Housewives. Dexter. Dia Anakku. Doctor Who. Drew Carey Show. Eastwick. Endgame. Episodes. Eureka. Firefly. Flashforward. Fringe. Game of Thrones. Ghetto Justice 怒火街頭. Ghost Whisperer. Glee. Grey’s Anatomy. Grounded for Life. Happy Endings. Harry’s Law. Hart of Dixie. Hellcats. Heroes. Hot in Cleveland. House MD. How I met your Mother. Human Target. Hustle. In the Middle. In Plain Sight. Justified. Knight Rider. Kyle XY. Last man Standing. Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Less than Perfect. Leverage. Lie to Me. Liontin. Lost. Lost Girl. Mad Love. Malcolm in the Middle. Marimar. Melissa & Joey. Merlin. Modern Family. Monk. Monroe. Moonlight. Muslimah. My Sister of Eternal Flower 花花世界花家姐. NCIS. NCIS: LA. Nikita. No Ordinary Family. Once Upon a Time. Painted Skin. Perfect Couples. Private Practice. Pretty Little Liars. Princess Hours. Psych. Pushing Daisies. The Queens of Diamonds and Hearts 東西宮略. Ratapan Anak Tiri. Revenge. Rita Rocks. Royal Pains. Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Sanctuary. Save by the Bell. Scrubs. Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Shameless. Shit My dad Says. Sisters of Pearl 掌上明珠. Skins. Smallville. Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Spartacus: Gods of the Arena. Supernatural. Stargate Atlantis. Stargate SG-1. Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospitals. Supernatural. Taken. Tasbih Cinta. Teen Wolf. Terra Nova. The Big Bang Theory. The Big C. The Blacklist. The Borgias. The Chicago Code. The Client List. The Crazy Ones. The Dresden Files. The Event. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The Good Wife. The Journey to West 西遊記. The Killing. The Lost Room. The Mentalist. The Middle. The Musketeers. The Nanny. The Neighbors. The Nine Lives of Chloe King. The Originals. The Ringer. The Secret Circle. The Simpsons. The Tomorrow People. The Tudors. The Vampire Diaries. Torchwood. Traffic Light. Treme. Trophy Wife. True Blood. Twin Peaks. Two and a Half Men. United States of Tara. Vanished. What about Brian? Whose line is it? Without a Trace. V. Workaholics. Yes, Sir. Sorry! Sir 點解阿sir喺阿sir.

Top Ten Books
- Childhood Favorites
-
I'd Quickly Save If My House Was Going To Be Abducted By Aliens (or any other natural disaster...you get the drift. )
-
“Older” Books Lisa Doesn’t Want People to Forget About
- Series I Haven’t Finished (2012)

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Lisa’s Top Ten books I resolve to read in 2013

Happy New Year everybody! It’s a brand new year of 2013. We’ve survived the Mayan Apocalypse of 2012. Read alot of good books and talk with brilliant good book people, friends with other awesome bloggers, and found alot of brilliant books out there. My “To Be Read” pile, has increased significantly like crazy this year. Ouch! *lol* Oh well… not that I’m complaining. How’s yours?

Anyhoo, as always, here’s a list of books I resolve to read this year. Most of them are book series I meant to read.

toptentuesday2
Hosted by
Broke and Bookish

1. Beautiful Redemption (Caster Chronicles #4) by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl. I just finished reading the third book. It was well… I need to read this one as soon as I could.

2. Halo (Halo #1) by Alexandra Adornetto.

3. Hush Hush (Hush Hush #1) by Becca Fitzpatrick).

4. The Iron King (The Iron Fey #1) By Julie Kagawa.

5. Unearthly (Unearthy #1) by Cynthia Hand

6. Die For Me (Revenants #1) By Amy Plum

7. Starcrossed (Starcrossed #1) By Josephine Angelini

8. Breath (Breath #1) by Sarah Crossan.

9. Everneath (Everneath #1) by Brodi Ashton

10. What the Spell? (Life’s a Witch #1) by Brittany Geragotelis

Book Review: Beautiful Chaos (Caster Chronicles 03); by Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl

I didn’t expect that ending. Maybe I did. But that ending came down hard. The authors did sort of put hints, and yet I fall for the red herring.

I am still trying to sink this in after reading it for the whole night till morning. That was my mistake. Reading this at night. This book has the tendency, where when you’ve reached a point where you are supposed to put it down, you can’t. It was horrible (good kind of horrible). It happened all suddenly the realization… the sacrifice.

Though James Breed hiding in Ravenwood was kind off expected, though I didn’t expect that little twist with Ridley. I feel so much sadness for Amma and Aunt Prud. I cried when Ethan cried in his mother’s ghostly arms. That’s just so sad. I found myself feeling sorry for Sarafine. My heart poured out to that dark hearted woman. And then there’s Aunt Mirian. *sigh*

It is crazy how good this series is. Still sinking in… Come back later maybe …

Quote. I’ll love you until the day after forever.

Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl Beautiful Chaos (Caster Chronicles #3)
By Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl

Ethan Wate thought he was getting used to the strange, impossible events happening in Gatlin, his small Southern town. But now that Ethan and Lena have returned home, strange and impossible have taken on new meanings. Swarms of locusts, record-breaking heat, and devastating storms ravage Gatlin as Ethan and Lena struggle to understand the impact of Lena's Claiming. Even Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals is affected - and their abilities begin to dangerously misfire. As time passes, one question becomes clear: What — or who — will need to be sacrificed to save Gatlin?

For Ethan, the chaos is a frightening but welcome distraction. He's being haunted in his dreams again, but this time it isn't by Lena - and whatever is haunting him is following him out of his dreams and into his everyday life. Even worse, Ethan is gradually losing pieces of himself — forgetting names, phone numbers, even memories. He doesn't know why, and most days he's too afraid to ask.

Sometimes there isn't just one answer or one choice. Sometimes there's no going back. And this time there won't be a happy ending.

Finished Reading: 1st January 2013
Acquire: 02nd November 2012
Rate } ♠♠♠♠♠
Genre }
Fiction | Young Adult | Paranormal Romance | Supernatural | Urban Fantasy
Release Day }  18th October 2011
Publisher }
Little, Brown and Company
Format } Hardcover
ISBN } 9780316123525
Pages } 518 pages
Source } Bought
Age Group } PG 15 yo +
Interests } Paranormal
Awards }
Support my reading by getting your copy }