The Bookish Elf

Most of the Book Clubs are started with a fair bit of optimism. Host assumes that everyone will read the book and club will have fascinating discussions with the group of readers. But every time the day of ‘book club meeting’ arrives and most of the members have not finished that book and some of them didn’t even open it. Sometimes the host is also unable to finish the book group has decided to read that month. The book club meeting goes without any discussions on the book of the month. As a host or as a member, this might lose your faith in your club. But that doesn’t have to be the death of your club. You don’t have to read all the books for your book club meeting and discussions to be fun; and that doesn’t mean your book club is being a good excuse to get together and have chit-chats on useless topics. What I mean is you can still have a fun and valuable literary discussion, even if nobody has read the book. So, don’t hang up on your book club meeting when no one has read the book....

Science fiction is the most argued and discussed over genre in literature. Every year tons of crappy sci-fi novels get published. Sturgeon’s Law states “90% of Science Fiction is crud – 90% of everything is crud”; sometimes the absolutely best (those remaining 10%) gets buried under this crappy pile. Here is a list of unconventional yet compelling Sci-fi novels that you really need to read. Slapstick Author: Kurt Vonnegut The book is in the form of an autobiography of Dr. Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain. Dr. Swain lives with his pregnant granddaughter in the ruin of the Empire State Building. Dr. Swain is a gruesome man whose ugliness, along with his twin sister Eliza, led their parents to cut them off from the modern society. Both, Dr. Swain and Eliza, came to realize that, when they both are in close contact, they form immensely powerful and creative intelligence.  Wilbur and Eliza combated the feelings of isolation and loneliness through reading and philosophizing together. 2312 Author: K...

5 ways How reading makes you more creative, more productive and more energetic. The health and psychological benefits of reading books has been subject of study for a long time. If you go through the long lists of the results of these studies, you might come out thinking that reading is some sort of super activity, or a wonder drug that makes us more creative, healthier and smarter. Regardless of the experts, research documents and the studies that endorse reading books as part of your daily routine, there are very disappointing statistics about how little people read. 25% of adults will not read a single book this year. 33% of high school graduates never read another book for their entire life. 42% of college graduates never read another book after college. 80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year. The problem is we mostly spend our time on reading blog, tweets, magazine and other short content. Though they are great for staying up to date with latest infor...

Half-baked and unfinished work, mindless time wasted on the internet and never catching up with on what you set out to do every day! It’s a struggle. A painful wrestling to do better but every time, somehow, falling behind our daily routines. As you read this article, you will discover and unleash the best daily routines of some of the most famous writers. If imitated properly, these daily routines can help you to achieve your goal. Want to know how those successful authors utilized their time and energy to achieve their goals? Stephen King “I try to get six pages a day” Best-selling thriller writer, Stephen King, has penned over 50 novels and sold over 350 million copies in a career that spans over 40 years. In case you're wondering, Stephen King’s daily routines usually looks something like this, “I have a glass of water or a cup of tea. There’s a certain time I sit down, from 8:00 to 8:30, somewhere within that half hour every morning,” he explained. “I have my vitamin pill and...

Travel Books capture the spark of seeing something new as well as it changes your perspective towards new places. Good books are an essential part of the ultimate travel packing checklist. Plane, train, or long bus rides can get quite boring if you don’t have a company of a good book and can give you a lot of ‘dead-time’ if you haven’t mastered the art of the 10-hours-blank-stare. If you’re looking for some really great travel books, here are my suggestions to inspire you to travel far-off lands: Wind, Sand, and Stars Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry It’s the chronicles of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s time, evolving new mail routes as an Aeropostale pilot in the 1920s and ’30s. Saint-Exupéry’s feelings when he faces his potential death while flying above the empty Sahara and his clarity about the trivial details of early aviation made it unique read. It’s a gripping, gorgeously written travel book that shows the window into a world that doesn’t exist anymore. If the early days of flyin...

Title: Lord of the Flies Author: William Golding Publisher: Faber and Faber Genre: Allegory, Social Commentary First Publication: 1954 Language: English Setting Place: Deserted Tropical Island Protagonist: Ralph Major Characters: Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon, Samneric, Roger Narration: Third person Omniscient Theme: Evil, Outlets for violence, Human nature, Loss of innocence, Savagery Vs Civilization Book Summary : Lord of the Flies In the midst of a nuclear war, a plane carrying a group of British school boys crashed on a deserted island. Without adult supervision they must work together and govern themselves to survive. At first the boys are civilized and elect Ralph, a boy of twelve years old, as a leader. Things start out okay and boys use Conch shell as a talking stick. The first day goes rather smoothly and they discuss about hot to get rescued and what they have to do until then any ship come to bring them home. Ralph is determined about creating a smoke signal, so Samner...

Every novel or story associated with the main character, but it needs some strong side character (side-kick for protagonist, who motivates them, distracts them or helps them to achieve the goal) to develop the story. These characters might have small roles to play in story but they make so powerful impact on us that we want more of them. The amount of emotions, excellence, fun, and wisdom they add to the story will give us reasons to remember their extraordinary portrayal forever. Sometime our favorite is not the protagonist; it’s that side-kick who stills the show for us. We want to know more about that character and his past and future life, but authors are only able to scratch the surface. Side Character has their own stories in amazing ways and authors should write whole book (or series) on that loved side character. For instance, Patrick Rothfuss picked Auri from his hit Kingkiller Chronicle series and created The Slow Regard of Silent Things starring Auri as starring character. A...