Flash Reviews: Book Trivia

(I’m back! Sorry for the lack of new entries last week — was on a business trip up north, and there simply wasn’t time to blog. Here’s an entry I’ve wanted to do for a long time now, and will (hopefully) resume regular blogging this week.)

If you’re joining a book trivia contest (like I did), or if you’re a sucker for trivia (like I am), or you simply love books (like I do), trivia books about books are great for cramming in some literary trivia and finding more good books to read.

In the couple of weeks leading up to the Ultimate Book Geek finals, I managed to pore through a bunch of literary trivia books, and they were a big help in the contest. Here’s a quick run down of the books I read, in capsule reviews, as they’re just too many to review individually!

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Reading in the Dark

I’m one of those people who like reading in the dark — there’s just something so much fun about curling up in bed and sending yourself off to la-la land with your bedtime reading. And then there are the real flashlight-worthy books: the books you read that scare you silly or excite you almost to the point of apoplexy but you’re but unable to put down because they’re so fantastically good that you end up taking the book under the safety of your blanket and reading with your flashlight on.

When I was younger, I was forbidden to stay up late reading (because given a choice I wouldn’t sleep) so I smuggled  a penlight under the blankets. Now that I’m older, my mom can’t do anything about it (although she grumbles from time to time), so I’ve got all sorts of book lights on hand — a Lumos Lightwedge (waaah, currently out of commission, unless I can find a way to dislodge the battery that’s stuck to the terminal of the narrow battery chute — suggestions, anyone?), an LED mini-lamp, a clip-on lamp, and a squeeze-powered LED flashlight — so I can read all I want, even when the lights are out.

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Guest Blog: Welski meets Gaiman

Neil Gaiman was over here last week, to the delight of his legion of fans from all over the metro. While I enjoyed The Graveyard Book immensely, I must say I have yet to acquire the taste for his other works.  I’m not a big Gaiman fan so I’ve decided to leave the blogging to one real Gaiman fangirl — Welski, a book club friend from FFP, guest blogging from Bookerella the Enchanted.

I’m actually envious of her fan girl experience. I wish I was a Gaiman fan — he’s over here quite a lot, and there have been a lot of opportunities for fan encounters. I’ve never had a favorite writer (or illustrator for that matter) of mine visit the country for a tour.

Read on for the highlights of Welski’s story (copyediting and comments in blue mine).

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FFP sound trips to High Fidelity

After I missed last month’s Flips Flipping Pages (my book club) book discussion (The Shadow of the Wind, one of my favorite books!) because it coincided with the Ultimate Book Geek finals, I was glad I was able to attend this month’s book discussion: Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, as moderated by Mike, Ronald and Shani.

Holed up in an Irish pub, we had some music related games. We were divided into two teams (morbidly named Team RIP and Team Condolence), and for the first game, Mike produced a list of songs and read them aloud while we attempted to identify the songs’ album, artist, and year released. I was in Team Condolence and we got creamed by Team RIP!  Then we had an Anti Music Snob Name that Tune contest, where we managed (with Ronald’s help!) to squeak by with a one point win over Team RIP.

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Shamanka!

Rum-pa-pum-pa-pum-pum! Rum-pa-pum-pa-pum-pum! The drumming sound was driving me crazy. Maybe it was a combination of the heat and the fact that I’d been walking frantically for the past half hour, but the faint drumming I’d heard as soon as I stepped into the used bookstore complex was getting louder by the minute.

I rounded the corner and found a bookshop I hadn’t noticed before, small and cluttered, with a labyrinthine arrangement of tall shelves. The Hindu storekeeper beckoned with a smile, so I ventured inside. Instantly, the drumming escalated into a frenetic rhythm: Pum-ba-da-bum-ba-da-pum-ba-da-ba-da-bum! Heart pounding, I backed into a shelf, causing a stack of books to fall on the floor in front of me. On top of the pile was book covered in snakeskin, with a strange word emblazoned on the cover: Shamanka.

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