Heena’s Comments (group member since Oct 13, 2014)

Heena’s comments from the RMFAO (Reading My Frigging A** Off) group.

Hello everyone,

July is just around the corner and so is the month of Dystopian and Apocalyptic Fiction. Like nay other month, you can join anytime during the entire month and read as many (or as less) books as you can manage.

Here are the DEFINITIONS for this month's genres:

Dystopian Fiction Also referred to as Dystopia. Dystopia is a form of literature that explores social and political structures. It is a creation of a nightmare world - unlike its opposite, Utopia, which is an ideal world. Dystopia is often characterized by an authoritarian or totalitarian form of government. It often features different kinds of repressive social control systems, a lack or total absence of individual freedoms and expressions, and a state of constant warfare or violence. Many novels combine both Dystopia and Utopia, often as a metaphor for the different directions humanity can take in its choices, ending up with one of the two possible futures.

Apocalyptic Fiction: Apocalyptic is from the word apocalypse, referring to the end of the world. Apocalyptic fiction focuses on the end of civilization either through nuclear war, plague, or other global catastrophic risk.
Apocalyptic literature is a genre of religious writing centered on visions of the end of time. Many apocalyptic stories focus on stories that are on the brink of the end of the world of the civilization. Post-apocalyptic fiction is set in a world or civilization after such a disaster. Also called 'Holocaust.'

-->>Please Note: There are absolutely no limits so you can interpret this genre in its broader sense and include other similar genres and/or subgenres that you feel might have a wee bit of similarity with the main genre. You can also include books that are not particularly centered around the main genre but has its components or elements somewhere in the story.

Here's a quick summary of the levels:

Level 1: Casual Reader: 1 book (easy)
Level 2: Frequent Reader: 2 books (moderate)
Level 3: Bookworm: 3 books (mildly strenuous)
Level 4: Bibliophile: 4 books (strenuous)
Level 5: Bookiopath: 5 books or more (challenging)

Please mention what type of books you'd be reading:

PB: Paperbacks
HB: Hardback
EB: E-Books
AB: Audio Books

Please feel free to announce your to-read books along with the level you are targeting for below.

PLEASE READ (for new members):
1. You can read any number of books for the respective genre each month in one particular month.
2. Take your time and go through your entire TBR-list before deciding the books to read.
3. You can join the challenge at any stage (in any month.)
4. You can drop out of the challenge any time you like.
5. You can select different levels every month.
6. Use this discussion board to share your reads with other members of the group.
7. Please be active and don't hesitate to ask questions or recommend books.

Note: The main intent of this challenge is to incorporate different kinds of books and genres in our normal reading routine to make the experience more fun and entertaining. Please do not lose yourself in the technicalities as we all know how literary genres can be confusing.

If you have any doubts or questions, then post them below and we'll be happy to answer/discuss them.
Happy reading!

I cheer for Iceland too!! And also Sweden :)

Yeah... that's true for everyone who takes an interest in football here.

Mark wrote: "While I expect Sweden & Iceland not to be major players I must admit liking especially the Iceland team, even if it is not for their football, which is mostly strong defending with a few counters. ..."

Agreed, but Sweden did make it to the main groups (leaving behind Italy.) I, in general, have a bigtime respect for Iceland players.

I'm a huge Messi fan and hope he gets at least a couple decent goals ASAP! Germany was defeated badly, but I am sure they'll pick up sooner rather than later (or I really hope they do.) They did win the last cup so it'd be a shame if they don't go to at least the semis.

Mark wrote: "Spain, Portugal, Brasil, Belgium & Switzerland"

Ditto here for Spain, Portugal and Brazil. And also Germany, Argentina, Sweden and Iceland.

Who are you guys rooting for??

Dagny wrote: "At least you have managed to get started, Heena, and finished two. I started the Haggard Diary earlier but haven't read a single entry since the World Cup started."

Haha... I know what you mean. Vishal's been ignoring (and even cancelling) most of his events since the cup started. Lol.
I'm a selective watcher (not sure if that's a word) but I watch the matches only when the countries I'm rooting for play (Germany, Argentina, Iceland, Sweden and Portugal.) So, thankfully, that leaves me enough time to read :)

1) How Bad Writing Destroyed the World: Ayn Rand and the Literary Origins of the Financial Crisis - 2/5 - It was NOT what I was expecting at all. It was more academic than anything else.

2) Stephen King and Philosophy - 3/5
A good book for King fans though I had to skip some of the parts because of not having read some books on which the parts were based on. But I really enjoyed the writing and did enjoy the various discussions.

Mark wrote: "If I have the time to read with the world championship football starting right now."

Lol... yes. That is one of my concerns too.

Cheryl, Dagny and Mark - Yes, the size is very intimidating. Feel free to start the book a bit early if you guys want (like Cheryl mentioned.) I'm thinking of doing the same now.
I haven't read 11/22/63 but plan to read it in the coming year. I'm going to read The Green Mile, Carrie and Doctor Sleep before that as they are comparatively short and can be read with ease.

Dagny wrote: "I got Inferno from my local library - even though I have a ton of things to do and other books I should be reading. May have been a big mistake! I thought I'd just read some here and there and take..."

I loved The Inferno! I'm not surprised that you dove right into it after the first chapter. I happened to me too when I read it a while back :)

I got my books and I'm starting with Angels And Demons tomorrow.

I'm going to start reading for this month now :)

Adelaide wrote: "#1) I Feel Bad about My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman - 3/5 stars. Meh. I don't think Nora Ephron and I are interested in the same things."

Lol.

Cheryl wrote: "The second story features a situation between a mother and daughter similar to that in the book Everything, Everything. Let's just say the daughter didn't react quite like Maddy did when she found out the truth."

Haha... I'm going to check this one out. Sounds a lot real, at least more than Everything, Everything's ending.

Hello all,

This is where we are going to discuss one of the most talked about books of 2017 - SLEEPING BEAUTIES by SK and his son Owen King.
I've had this book sitting on my shelf for over 6 months now, waiting for this buddy-read and I, for one, am really excited that July is finally here!! I'm posting this thread in mid-June sot hat everyone interested can get their books ready - buy, loan or issue them in time so that we can begin as soon as July hits. But in case if you get it late for some reason or have other books planned before it then don't worry, this is a month long read so you can join anytime (though the most fun is generally int he first 10-15 days!)
I'm sure a lot of King fans may have already read it. But that's never an issue with bookworms cause we can always re-read the entire book or our favourite parts any time we like. If you're one of those who've read it then don't hesitate to join us for the discussions!

I'd like to begin the discussion by asking the one question that bothers me every time I find a book with an interesting as well as unusual blurb -
What do you think about this book?
Because there's only so much that can be covered in the blurb.

FlowerFairy wrote: "Hi, everyone! I was invited here by my new GR friend, Cheryl (thanks much, Cheryl!). I’m 45, mom of two. I have a BA in English that I never used, was a zookeeper for 20 years, but now a phlebotomi..."

Hi FlowerFairy, welcome to the group.
I've never met anyone who's been a zookeeper, so it's really very nice to meet you! Do check out our year-long challenges because I'm sure you might like some of them.

Hope you'll make new friends here and get and share some amazing recommendations :)

Adelaide wrote: "I've had a hard time getting interested in reading this month, which has been super frustrating. So I threw out my plan and read an Agatha Christie instead. (I am mildly cheating since it was writt..."

This has been happening to me too for a while now for the last couple of months. To break this bad spell, I randomly picked up Everything's Eventual by Stephen King this month.

Yeah, they do tend to go on for a bit. I've actually read the 3rd and the 4th books so it shouldn't take me long to read those, but I hope I'll be able to catch up soon.

I've read 3 for this challenge so far -
1) Manga Classics - The Count Of Monte Christo - 2/5 - I started this last month for Graphic Novels but finished it this month so counting it for this challenge.
I was do utterly bored in the last part that I was skimming over dialogues... it proved to be a bit of a torturous read.
2) Manga Classics Romeo Juliet - 1/5 - DNF. Quiet a horrific adaptation.
3) The Alchemist - 2/5 - The buildup was good but the end was anti-climatic.

Dagny wrote: "#5 of 10
The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon #2) by Dan Brown

This is actually a reread, but it was over 12 years ago. I wanted to go ahead and reread it since I'm going for the entire series this year..."

Dagny, I'm so sorry I totally forgot that we planned to read this series this year. I've ordered the first two books from Amazon so they should be here by next week. I'll be beginning with Angels and Demons and will try and catch up with you fast :)