For the Love of Rain

1. How I love rain!

I suffer from a terrible pollen allergy in spring. After some few rainy days, the air feels cleaner and I can breathe with ease. I even managed a visit to the botanical gardens this week, and took delight in all the beauty around.

2. I got mail

I’ll say it again, nothing is as beautiful, tactile and personal like holding a printed book. I’ve read the digital version already, but I couldn’t miss the chance to touch, smell and hear the pages as I turn them. You might have already guessed one of the books I’ll be rereading this summer.

A Collection of Short Stories by Rommy Cortez-Driks

3. Frugal ways and fabulous finds

Thrifting is personally rewarding, among other things. Some of the items I find at thrift stores are books. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know how I often complain about exorbitant shipping costs. So, I continue to find some really good books from second-hand shops and library book sales. Three of them are on my summer reading list.

4. When you know it’s not about you…

The other day, I watched a documentary about Warren Buffer for some inspiration on finance and investment. This quote is one of the take-aways, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

I resonated with it because of a recent incident. I won’t go into details but I’ll say this, people are vicious on social media. It’s even more sad when it’s someone you know personally. But instead of reacting, I walked away.

5. On paving way to happiness

I’ll leave you with this inspiring song, Just Do You, by Indie Arie. I think it’s self-explanatory.

Hope your week has been filled with all things good. Enjoy your weekend!

Occasionally, I share five random things I’m reading, watching, doing and thinking about. Hope you find them interesting.

2019 Summer Reading

Don’t classify me, read me. I’m a writer, not a genre. ~ Carlos Fuentes

Today, I share my reading list for this summer. Based on my last year’s reading experience, I know the list will likely increase, I’ll reread some of the books not listed here or I’ll end up swapping others. So, let’s see how I succeed.

My Reading List (in no particular order)

If you’ll be reading with me, please don’t forget to leave your link below so that I (we) can follow along.

Happy Reading & A Wonderful Summer!

How Do You Read?

It’s not officially summer but I’m posting the reading challenge in advance. If you are reading with me this summer, I hope you’ll have enough time to think about your reading list.

I’ve mentioned here that I tend to lean more towards female writers. There are a number of reasons. But the most relevant is that I’ve been working on my debut novel, which deals among other things with roles of women in certain societies. I think I gravitated towards other women writers to learn how they depict strong female characters.

Here’s my question to you. How do you read?

Unedited self stealing a read in between gardening activities.

I invite you to chase diversity with me as we read this summer. So, the challenge is not so much about how many books you read but to think carefully about the books you choose to read.

Chasing diversity means including in your list: books by authors from different backgrounds, cultures, gender, age, time periods, traditional published, indie press, and of course different genres. The challenge start June 1st and end August 31st

So, you get to determine the number of books (in any form) you want to read. Here are some ideas to help you with your list. You don’t have to tick them all but at the end of the challenge, please tell us how you managed to diversify your reading.

  1. From your bookshelf (physical/digital), pick a book you bought but haven’t read yet.
  2. A book in a genre that bores you or don’t care for, and see if your “prejudice” against the genre is well founded.

  3. A book set in a country you’d like to visit or written by an author from that country.
  4. Is there a classic someone was surprised to hear you haven’t read? Ignore that, instead pick a classic you’d like to read.

  5. A book in translation (from any language to the language you’re comfortable reading in).
  6. A nonfiction book on a subject you “know” your friend/sibling/spouse would benefit from reading.

  7. A book from your favourite genre by an author you’ve never heard of.

  8. A book recommended by a friend/colleague/stranger as a must-read.

  9. Sharing snippets or images of your reading experience on social media is optional.

  10.  Recommend at least one book by an author you think we should all read. 

Next week, I’ll post my reading list where you’re welcome to add your link in the comments section, so we all know who is reading with us. Hope you have fun tidying up your bookshelves. 🙂

Oh, I recently came across this reading flowchart, I truly think it’s brilliant!