Unapologetic Reader, Psychotic Writer

Cam's head was heckuva lot better than Avery's head. Cam was sweet, sexy, hot and totaly lovable. And also totally cliched. But whatever.

This reminded me of the fact that while reading Origin I totally enjoyed the parts in Daemon's point of view better than those in Katy's.

Also since this is a novella and all the unnecessary parts are deleted, this also means much less monologue and whining of insecurity over their relationship and limbo pages where absolutely nothing happens.

But what I liked the most here? Jase and Ollie had a lot of space in this book, unlike Wait for Me and they totally rocked. This has also planted a nice foundation for Jase and Teresa's story in Be With You which I want so bad!

All in all, a nice read but still kind of meh. But I swooned over Cam so whatever. This was a much much much better read than Wait for You anyway.

And I am not sure whether it is because I've got no more to read or I'm just disappointed with the book in general. 

It made me laugh but it was so predictable and clichéd I did not really connect with the story. 

Oh well. 

Why does every attractive book guy have a bump in his nose? Why?

My book haz that red cover with the two kids lying there separately and looking like they aren't. I like it better.  I cannot seem to find it on BL :/

On a different note, this book better be funny. 

And I think I would have been better off DNFing it. The ending was so stupid. 

On the bright side - I'm done!!

And I have had enough for today. Kyla y u so dumb?

Just tell me there is not going to be a love triangle. I can already see the beginnings of makings of one and I am not happy. 

I've been stuck at 62% for almost four days now. For a book I seemed to be almost enjoying I am doing a mighty fine job of actively avoiding reading it.

Reminding myself that I've read through worse does not seem like a working motivational tactic anymore.

Reblogged from OstensiblyA:

If you don't want to annoy lots of people with big assed posts on their dash... Use the page break function. Makes things so much less huge.

_________

Spread the word!

Will it make me a bad Adrian fan if I say I am not even in the least bit interested to continue with this series? Because I'm not.

The cringing of my inner self at the mere thought of this book started with the release of that horrible cover followed by the completely un-Adrian-like first chapter. The trailers though were the last straw.

I knew the actors were horrible even if Nic does have a pwetty face but that dialogue is over the top. The first one was also equally appalling. I'm like Please No. I don't want anything from Adrian's PoV if Richelle Mead is just gonna screw it up.

I regret watching the trailers. But at least now I know that Adrian and Sydney bang in this book *shrugs*

Alternative Title: I am Technologically Impaired or Lazy or Both

I've never thought of myself as someone who had no technological skills. In fact I was the kid in school who taught other kids how to unravel the subtle nuances of technology. The common term would have been a geek. Or a nerd. I probably underestimated the effect shifting from a Computing major in my A Levels to Law School for my undergrad would have in my understanding of how a computer works.

In that way BookLikes has been an eyeopener for me.

I have accomplished nothing in the one month since I created a BookLikes account. 

It may have been because I have been too lazy to do anything about it too.

I look at my BookLikes shelf, I see the unmanaged list of thousands of books I imported from GoodReads. I think I should probably shelve it properly, make a few of my reviews readable and post smart and witty posts and wittier reviews on my blog here. 

I go to my Shelf page then.

And I am taken aback by the shitpile and non-formatting and complete lack of any sort of system there.

There is the pile of work all cut down for you, see? I think to myself.

I try to see where I can start my work.

I make a list of what I should do.

--> Manage exclusive shelves

--> Format a few of my best reviews

--> Make my blog look like that of an intelligent person and not a dumping site of crap

--> Add my GoodReads friends to my lists

--> Update my Currently Reading books (they're still stuck on September)

--> Add newer reviews

--> Read my friends' posts

--> Talk and mingle for the love of fuck - isn't that the point of joining this website in the first place? Also, bitch about GR.

At some point between starting to create the mental list and completing it I am completely overwhelmed by the enormity of what lies ahead of me.

Where should I start?

I stare at my Shelf page for hours and decide that the task of proper shelving can wait till tomorrow. I mean I have added tons of books on GR since I made a BL account and they should also be added to my new, improved and sensible shelf, right? Exactly.

I move on to my information page. I try to think of witty things to say about myself, a catchy name for my blog, an engaging description, anything - ANYTHING that would make me feel like a nice, smart and funny person. It only makes me feel weird about myself for trying too hard. Like this post is also starting to make me feel. I give up there too.

I move next to my dashboard and feel sad at the pitiful number of people I've added even when I know a lot of my friends have an account here. I read their posts and then feel sad about the pitiful state of my own blog. Then I feel sad about the fact that I have been forced to pity myself.

I don't want to feel sad anymore.

So I close the BookLikes. I pick up my Kobo. See that it is filled with books and and shelves in it are organized and I have so many books to read and I read them and post about it on GR and a tiny part of me is mad at myself for being a traitor and feeding the site that has betrayed its faithful reviewers while rest of me tries to silence it by saying ssshhh... Samba, just shut up and read. So I do. But that tiny part is still nagging my subconscious.

Then I feel sad about the fact that I cannot even be honest to myself. And so reopen BookLikes only to be overwhelmed again. I close it. Again.

This spiral of anger at GR, pity at myself, and confusion at BL had gone on and on plaguing me for an entire month.

Until yesterday, now that even Kobo betrayed my faith in it.

So I gathered all the willpower I have and marched into BookLikes with the intention of making it my bitch and decided the first course of action is to manage my wayward shelf. I opened my shelf in BL and tried to see what exactly did I have to do. There was a lot. And I had no idea where to start.

I spied that pretty 'Need help?' button at the side of my screen and pressed it and sent all my woes to the person on the other side waiting to help me. And I waited.

It felt useless.

So wrote a review. On BookLikes. MY FIRST REVIEW THAT I POSTED ON BOOKLIKES AND NOT PULLED IN FROM GOODREADS. I felt like the greatest BookLiking mofo there ever was.

And I waited again. But this time it didn't feel too useless.

The beautiful Kate replied me a few hours later and I started today on the job to create exclusive shelves and managing my books.

I created the shleves.

I started moving them.

I felt invincible.

I was doing something amazing on BookLikes. And succeeding.

Finally.

Until, that is, I accidentally deleted 75 of my books.

Now I will probably have to import my collection from GoodReads again to add those 75 books back - because I have no idea which ones they are - along with many others I added after my first import.

And I have to start with reshelving, then editing reviews and making it look like a blog for an intelligent person AGAIN before being a permanent annoyance on this website.

Which means more work.

The self-pity is worse today because I do not for the love of everything that can be loved see myself staying in GoodReads any longer than necessary now that most of my friends have fled, most of my favorite reviewers have fled and freedom of opinion of the readers has been cruelly banished. My not wanting to stay gets worse each day.

But I have to until I make this work. And work properly.

So I am back to my spiral of unproductivity and pitying myself for the said unproductivity and getting nothing done because I am too busy pitying myself.

I am lazy.

And also technologically impaired when it comes to anything BookLikes related.

And again too lazy to work on changing that.

But I will do it, slowly. One thing at a time. A few random posts, a few book reviews, one entry at a time. Even if it takes a motherfucking long time for me to accomplish.

Someday in the future I will have a flourishing community in BookLikes with a shelf overflowing with my book connection, dashboard filled with posts from my amazing friends in the book community and my own blog filled with nuggets of my currently missing intellect. Someday in the future I will be able to look back at GoodReads and smile politely and say "Screw you GoodReads but you brought this on yourself." when it is struggling with its emptiness and void. Someday in the future it will be true.

But this also means that Someday is not going to be today.

And so I've not completely shifted to BookLikes yet. But I'm also not gonna be a stranger anymore.

PS Tips to make this work out faster are greatly appreciated. I'm just too overwhelmed...

Allie Brosh can make me laugh. Alot too.

When I think of Brosh writing this book, I think of the white weirdly shaped, pink dress wearing, very yellow un-ponytail like ponytail having cartoon girl tapping away happily at the keyboard of a bulky white PC with her spindly hands while her two dogs lie on the floor beside her and whine unhappily because they are being ignored.

This is impossible because:

A) Allie Brosh is surprisingly a flesh and blood human.

B) This book has more pictures than words. Not exactly, but close enough.

C) That sentence is too long to have made sense for anyone except for me.

But I like to imagine it as true.

I have been following her blog for a very long time and am in love her posts - old AND new. This book is like an extension of the blog - with the best of the old combined with amazinger new stuffs.

Brosh has this direct and absofuckinglutely hilarious way of writing completely true things that are not supposed to make sense but somehow do. Add to the mix her crazy cute drawings and viola I had a masterpiece in my hands.

The best part? Everything in the book is true - exaggerated to epic proportions, but true. And where is the fun with no exaggeration?

I do not remember laughing as much as I did when reading this.

But what really sets this book apart from all of the other humorous retellings of an author's life's mishaps?

There are two chapters (contents? posts? nuggets of valuable information? treasure troves of awesomess?) about Brosh's battle with depression. 

I've come across books that have made me laugh.

I've come across books that have made me cry.

I've also come across books that have made me laugh till I've cried.

But crying with emotions and laughing with humor at the same time? Nobody but Allie Brosh could have managed that reaction from me - or any other reader.

Brosh has managed to move me to the point that I cried while reading those two treasure troves of awesomness and yet... yet I was laughing uncontrollably.

There were so many feels...I was a mess.

An even more amazing part? I had read both of the content on depression already on her blog. More than three times each. And yet it moved me each time.

Other epic favorites from her blog like The God of Cake, Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving and The Party have also been included in the book. And a few epicer newer content about Brosh's chilhood and questionable adulthood has been added too.

I am not too big on re-reading books. But this book is marked as a definite reread. And an obvious gift for anyone who needs gifting from me on the other side of November.

RECOMMENDED FOR EVERYBODY

This book is too good to be not read.

5.5 Stars because the pictures deserve that extra half. It would have been 6 if there had been more alot pictures.

This e-arc was provided to me by the publishers via edelweiss in exchange of an honest review. 

Amber's Story 1 Star Yup, it was that bad.

Demos's story 3 Stars Nice, but felt a bit inadequate.

Catching Suki 5 Stars I love Suki. I love her spunk.

Jack's story 3 Stars Again, nice but felt like it was missing chunks.

Alex's story 4.5 Stars The Moment part was so sweet - the events from his PoV leading up to it felt a bit redundant though.

All in all - a good collection to reminisce the series over but not mindblowingly awesome. Kinda like meh feelings.

DNF at 13%

Because I love my brain cells.

Choppy writing. Inconsistent reactions from the protagonist. Stupid conversations. And overuse of clichés.

Reading the paragraph about Claudia thinking how she fell for Michael at first sight despite him being a jerk should be a new form of torture. Because THAT SHIT DID NOT MAKE ANY SENSE.

AND TRYING TO IMPRESS THEM WITH HER SUNDAY SCHOOL KNOWLEDGE?
Yes, Claudia dear, Angels have wings. You can shut the fuck up now.

Oh and Michael with his I DON'T WANT YOU HERE ATTITUDE and 'cold stares'... You woulda been a heckuva lot more believable if the prologue had not been you whining about how beautiful she is and et cetera et cetera.

And there is love at first sight.

And probably there is love triangle too. I'd didn't stick around to see.

Because 13% in and I DID NOT GIVE A FLYING FUCK.

Everything so far was enough to put me off.

And I'd probably had had more content to rant about if I had bothered. I didn't.

No. Just No.

Free books are usually hit or miss for me. And this book, dude, missed by an entire continent.

1/2 Star because it is impossible to give any less.