Review: Empire of Blood

Empire of Blood by Arjun Raj Gaind
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was another original graphic novel from the house of Graphic India and like I said before it is good to see the artists and companies trying to do something original for a change and with this movement we would finally see the medium of Graphic Novel increasing as a storytelling device rather than being viewed as just comics for adults.

Now coming to the book, this is drawn beautifully in monochrome like sephia but with red. Story of this may be from a storyline is some series like The Twilight Zone. This is topsy turvy world where England was able to beat everything in the world war and is now ruling most of the world with blood. it has been often said that the British Empire bled India dry in here that is done literally as the Empire uses the blood for some nefarious purpose.

The story moves quickly enough what with 4 issues in the original run and it was fine just a slight new polish on the What If model of storytelling, we have mostly seen the scenarios where Nazis win the war and here a losing England wins the war with a miracle potion called Aqua Vitae. What is the miracle potion nobody knows but the new World is terrible and racist than ever before. So naturally our hero is a Britisher and has to fall in love with an Indian girl so yeah it's like movie or a TV series but done good enough.

Nice graphic novel and like I said earlier it's nice to see something new tried. So do give the support to the writers and publishers and read the damn thing so that more effort can be put in the future titles, so read and read and just Keep on Reading.

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Review: Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder
Which, as they kiss, consume”

Oh Westworld you nicked it from here and I remember it as your line now :P so the version of Romeo and Juliet I read was so decked full of information about Shakespeare and different versions of Romeo and Juliet. I loved the poems didn't like the play that much because there have been better movie adaptations and I must have seen more than 10 movies both in English and Hindi adapted from this classic. The story might be from 1600s but sadly in India you can still see if happening in so many places.

"Oh young love you shall ever burn with the fires brighter than the sun itself" (My quote)

And I see why it and more Shakespeare stuff has survived the time and I shall try to read and enjoy more of his classics but my re-reading or actually first actual reading of the play and like most of the classics which have been adapted countless times the original comes away lacking in some way especially which you consider the performances in all those movies and adaptations and there has to be said something about the fact as well that a play should be enjoyed in performance and not in reading but sadly reading is I shall be doing with other Shakespeare works because theatre production of Shakespeare is something which I don't see frequently. Though I remember seeing one adaptation of 'Othello' in theatre and it was great.

Well it's a love story nay it's a war story nay it's a tragedy and one for the ages for though the entire thing was stupid it was something which endured and that is something indeed. So yeah it's worth giving time to and cherished and while I go ahead and try to pursue other classics you should pick it and then just Keep on Reading.

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Review: Dead Beat

Dead Beat by Jim Butcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In his seventh adventure, Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard comes up against several necromancers whom are all powerful than him and he has to take all the help to overcome this threat or else there would be multiple people will die and yeah Murphy is out of action this time enjoying holiday in Hawaii.

Poor Harry he wants to do good but no good deed goes unpunished so it happens to him and he finds himself facing one of his toughest challenge yet and so many times coming just short of losing his life for fighting for the cause he believes in. Harry Dresden's saga continue and it is as strong as ever and as wonderful a read even in the seventh go and this is clearly the reason why the series is so popular. I have read seven books continuously in this series and now would be taking a short break from the series coming back to it later.

Harry is supported this time by Butters a medical examiner who works in a morgue and Thomas his brother who is a white court vampire. Once more Harry was in one peril after another with no help and he is chased by a fallen angel too who wants to help him as she says but Harry is not ready to believe or succumb to her. Oh well it's also fine and then there were Billy and his gang and Harry has to keep them away to keep them safe.

So yeah then do pick this book or start the series just once you do just Keep on Reading.

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Review: A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport

A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport by Ramachandra GuhaMy rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was wow, this was awesome, this was little bit slow but that's for the par for a book on history. This book is wonderful and I didn't even know about it till I get to know about it, funny how things can be. This is a history of cricket in India and it gave so much unknown information that it was informative and eye-opening. I hate that we don't care about history, I hate it that Palwankar Baloo is still not a well known name and thankfully it's changing a bit and Baloo has some information available on net.

But this book's narrations goes before and after Baloo and tells us the beginnings and progress of game in India. Maybe because I am not a big reader of history or maybe I am not old enough and maybe because I am not from Mumbai but I had no idea about the most famous cricket tournament in India before independence, but I guess considering we don't focus on history as much as we should as Indians, it's not surprising.

Well at least it will be changing for me, for i know have read this book, read it slowly but surely and I already have lot of history books by Mr. Guha and other writers and hope to put my ignorance about history of India to a level where it's less ignorant but till then let's hope that more people get to know about this book and they also read after all almost everyone is a cricketer in India and that too All-Rounder.

So yes very big recommendations to pick this book if you love cricket, you would be surprised by the history of the sport in India and then just Keep on Reading .

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Book Review - Afterlight by Aditya Mewati

What it is - A new dystopian novel by Aditya Mewati, and it's probably the first dystopian novel by an Indian so kudos there.

Blurb from Goodreads - Despite being raised to hate her own existence, Sayra Green found love after she met Aaron and his family. They gave her hope in a world where everyone is segregated as worthy and unworthy. 

They made her feel safe in a dystopian era where beasts prowl the land, and there are only a few walls to keep them out. 

Now, after turning seventeen, Sayra commits an act which sets in motion an event that starts affecting many lives, and with things going from bad to worse, can she save the people who ones saved her?

Review - So this is the story of Sayra and Aaron who are living in a dystopian city where on turning 17 everyone has to go through mandatory DNA test and based on that 25% are selected as unworthy and they aren't allowed to breed. This is a fast read with multiple POV chapters. Like I said this is probably the first dystopian novel by an Indian and this made me so so happy. This was the first book which I finished in the year 2019 and it was my first review on Goodreads for the year. When you would start the book it will feel like a fantasy novel because of the limited facilities in the city the story is based in and then it turns into proper dystopian level. Only issues I found was that sometimes the event occured too quickly and the story would jump here and there. But still it's a very nice effort by Aditya. 

Final Ratings -      4 out of 5

                               **** out of *****

Reading Plans for the New Year 2019

So Let's continue the conversation from my last blog post. It was all about the journey of last year, how many books I read, how did I read, what was the strategy. Now that we are already three days in the New Year let's talk about the Reading Challenge for 2019 and what books I am looking forward to reading. My initial reading challenge goal is set to 250 books. The number is high because I read lot of comics and I love reading them so very much. Like I did last year, if I manage to get to my goal before the year end I would modify the challenge by 50-100 books then.

Goodreads 2019 Reading Challenge

This year,

I am planning to finally start reading Manga comics hopefully, so that I shall be able to understand the many Manga inspired cosplay in better details. I bought bunch of graphic novels towards the end of the year and hope to continue the trend.

I am also planning or in fact have already starting to pick those books to read which have been waiting to be read for many years. There are lot of books which are waiting to be read for 10 years now, but all I can say is I would get to all, but all in due time.

I am also participating in few extra reading challenges from the groups I am part of on Goodreads. One such challenge is 12 Months, 12 Genres. Where you have make a concentrated effort to ensure that in the year you read books  which belong to the following genres:

♦ Classics

♦ Romance

♦ Fantasy

♦ Humour

♦ Adventure/Horror

♦ Young Adult

♦ Science Fiction

♦ Mystery/Thriller

♦ Contemporary

♦ Paranormal

♦ Historical

♦ Non-fiction

Now if you read a lot like me then it's not such a difficult challenge and this also helps to keep the reading list fresh if the books are from different genres and who knows if you won't find a new favorite from a new which you might not have tried before? So  Cheers to New Decisions, Cheers to the New Resolutions, Cheers to the New Plannings, Cheers to a New Year, May all you have a great reading year and you find new favorites to cherish this year as well. So remember whether you read only one book a year or many books in a year remember to Keep on Reading.

My Reading Journey of Year 2018

As readers as much as we love to read, tracking our reading progress and the books we have read is also important. Different readers use different methods, and along with tracking the progress, readers also love to use Reading Challenge to motivate themselves to read more than the previous year or simply read more than they would read otherwise. To that end I love to use and am using Goodreads to track my reading progress over the years and I also participate in Goodreads Reading Challenge to challenge myself to read more and read often. It's a simple challenge where everything you read counts, people who want to diversify their reading they can chose to take countless different reading challenge which has different topics which you have to tackle through to complete that point. 

    Having said that I am using Goodreads Reading Challenge since 2013 and I have been able to complete my reading challenge each time so far. So to that end what was my reading challenge for the year 2018. My initial challenge was 150 books which I reached pretty soon, so then I updated it to 200 books and so on and so forth. My final books target was 300 and I ended up reading total 338 books in the last year.

You might be wondering now how did I manage to read 338 books well it's this way that first I always read lot of comics so that helps, second I starting listening to my e-books so that has helped to continue reading while I work or ride to and fro work and then there is good old fashioned reading. So the number you see above is my year long reading journey and I hope to continue that in this new year 2019 as well. My initial target for this year is 250 and let's see how far I can push it then. So Happy New Year and Happy Reading Year to all my reading friends, also share how do you track your reading and do you also take part in any reading challenge or not. So till then Keep on Reading.