Transitioning to Blogger

Hi, everyone! I am slowly transitioning my WordPress blog to Blogger. I have seen so many other features at Blogger that is going to be very helpful for me. I’ll let you know once it is up and running and I’ll have to close this one.

Cover Alert: Inheritance by Christopher Paolini

Finally, finally, finally!  After about 2 years and a half of waiting for news about the 4th book of the Inheritance series, I got a surprising news earlier.  It will be released on November 8th this year!  Woooot!  About time I say!  And, here’s the cover of the final book.  So what are we expecting in this book?  “The burning questions asked by fans around the world will finally be answered in this last installment,” said Christopher Paolini. “All will be revealed!” – you can also read through the detailed article here.

 

Chachic’s Birthday Giveaway

Chachic at Chachic’s Book Nook is having a book giveaway for her birthday (wooooot!)… check the details here.  She’s one of the very first book bloggers that I started stalking even way before I decided to have my own.  You can check all her awesome reviews at her blog. 😀

 

 

Young Adult Sub-Genre

I was checking my bookshelf earlier and it suddenly hit me.  I have tons of books coming from the YA genre and as I was browsing, I realized that I am not only into a particular sub-genre of Young Adult, but I got a LOT coming from different kinds… from contemporary to fantasy to paranormal and the list goes on and on.  Anyway, so I looked the different sub-genres of YA and found this very helpful article at… http://www.yafantasyguide.com/for-writers/identifying-your-fantasy-novels-genre.htm which was written by Stacey O’Neale.

High Fantasy :

If your novel takes place on any other planet other than Earth then it is ALWAYS high fantasy. There is no wiggle room here. You could have elements of other subgenres, but the location of the novel always overrules everything else. Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis is a great example because most of the story takes place in a different or parallel world.

Epic Fantasy :

Typically a series of books that revolve around a quest. Think sword fights, medieval weapons, and damsels in distress. Some people have coined Epic fantasy as Sword and Sorcery. The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini is a very well known epic fantasy series.

Dark Fantasy :

This is usually when monstrous creatures play the heroes and the romantic element is small. Think vampires, werewolves, dragons, etc. Tithe by Holly Black is considered a dark fantasy because her faeries play good and evil roles.

Urban Fantasy :

The setting is an urban city and the story is taking place right now. The city is usually well known like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington DC, London, etc. The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare is considered an urban fantasy because it takes place in New York.

Dystopian :

The story takes place in the future and the society is usually controlled and/or repressed in some way. Great examples of this subgenre include The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld.

Steampunk :

A popular setting for this subgenre is Victorian London in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s. The technology is steam or spring powered and made mostly of brass and copper. Think science and futuristic inventions. A great example for this subgenre is Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld.

Paranormal Romance :

This is simply a romance with fantasy elements. They mostly take place in our modern day world and usually involve humans encountering other fantasy species. Think romance with vampires, werewolves, faeries, angels, etc. They also tend to feature human characters with some sort of psychic special ability. Paranormalcy by Kiersten White and The Immortals series by Alyson Noel are two great examples of this sub-genre.

Date a Girl Who Reads by Rosemarie Urquico

So I was blog hopping, looking for book reviews when I stumbled upon this great article (I found it at Chachic’s Book Nook).  I definitely related to this and made me smile and nod and nod and nod again!  Apparently this is written as an answer to another article, “You Should Date An Illiterate Girl.”

Read on…

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted.

Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her.You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.

Did it make you smile and nod and say to yourself, “Well that’s me alright!”  I bet you’ll also give a copy of this to your friends who have been always restraining you of buying tons and tons of books!  Well I definitely did and they asked me if commissioned the author of this article to write something about ME!  As if!  LOL!  I know in my heart that a LOT of you can be able to relate to this.  Anyway, ’til next time!  Happy reading!