Advance Booking

I'm thrilled to have Nymeth from things mean a lot, guest post as part of the Christmas special that I've been having. Nymeth is someone everybody in the book blog world knows and loves, and I enjoy her insights into books and reading. Welcome to Advance Booking Nymeth!


I love Christmas. For some odd reason, this always seems to surprise people, who expected me to roll my eyes at the mere mention of the holiday season. Maybe it’s because I live in a very Catholic town and haven’t made a secret of the fact that I’m not, myself, a person of faith. But there’s still plenty that I do love about Christmas.

I mean, I understand why there are people who choose not to celebrate it, for religious or other reasons. And I think that the people who point out that it has become over-commercialized most definitely have a point. But to me – and as clichéd as it sounds, I have to say it – Christmas is about comfort, kindness and warmth.

My boyfriend grew up in the Southern hemisphere, so his way of experiencing Christmas has always been very different from my own. It goes without saying that both are equally valid, but personally I can’t dissociate Christmas from winter. I don’t know all that much about old-times Yule celebrations (note to self: seek a book), but from what I understand, the old Winter Solstice celebrations were in part about celebrating the fact that in the darkest, coldest time of the year, there was warmth, company and food. This might sound small now, when so many of us take comfort for granted, but I don’t think it is. Not at all.

On to what matters, which is the bookish part of this post: one of my favourite traditions is reading spooky stories during the holiday season. I actually started doing it before I learned that it was a real tradition in some parts of the world. It makes perfect sense that it is – what goes better with a warm fire, a cold and dark night outside, and a gathering of people than a spooky story?

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is a classic for a reason, of course. I never tire of it, or of its several movie adaptations. Last December I read M.R. James’ ghost stories, and they were absolutely perfect. And right now I’m reading Elizabeth Gaskell’s tales of mystery and the supernatural, which are definitely putting me in the mood for the holiday season.

What about you? Have you ever read spooky stories during Christmas time? Do you think they fit the holiday mood? Anything you’d recommend?

It's cute, it really is.

To all my blog readers, I wish a very Merry Christmas. May this festival bring warmth and good cheer into all your lives. I'll be having a Christmas special for the next couple of weeks to celebrate this festival, and you are all welcome to join in.

VIOLENT LOVE

I was left disappointed after Book 2, but this book redeemed the series. I enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to reading Book 4. Before reading this, be warned, I couldn’t talk about this book without recapping the previous one, so there are spoilers.

Elena wakes up after her car is run off the bridge, but she is not alive: she is a vampire. In a state of confusion, she attacks Stefan, who thinks that Elena doesn’t love him anymore. Damon helps Elena in her vulnerable state. But vampire Elena is not without worries, as Fell’s Church is haunted by an Other Power, to defeat which Stefan, Damon and Elena have to team up.

The Fury was written much better than the other two books; there was more depth in it. Elena emerges as a much stronger, sensible person after her transition. But the revelation is Damon. He transforms from a hateful character into one with grey shades, a bad boy with traces of good in him. I loved his devil-may-care attitude, a complete contrast to a slightly boring Stefan. The story is quite strong and moves along at a fair pace, though some of the characters are not properly fleshed out. The ending was crackling, a twist in the tale nobody could have expected. It is bittersweet story, and really intense too. There are two more books in the series, and I want to see what turns the story takes.

NON-STOP ACTION

I needed a book that would have zero love in it, after the romance overdose that was the Twilight series, so I chose this action-packed book. The Daily Telegraph called it “supersonically paced”, and I agree.

At a remote US ice station in Antarctica, a team of U.S. scientists have made a startling discovery trapped in an ice sheet 400 million years old, that can change the face of technology. Led by the enigmatic Lieutenant Shane Schofield, a team of U.S. Marines is rushed to secure the bizarre discovery for their own nation. Meanwhile, other countries are also hot on the trail. Schofield and his team have to battle enemies both external and internal, in a fight that could extract a very high price.

Ice Station proceeds at a breakneck pace right from page 1, and that worked okay for me. But it got a little frustrating after a point; I wanted the action to just slow down for a little while. Schofield seems to have super-strength- he dodges bullets, saves children, fights sharks, nukes a station and what not. The author puts him through some impossible situations through which he always seems to come out unscathed and ready for the next. The book read more like the screenplay of some guns-blazing action movie, and I felt it should have been made into one; it would have been more fun. But as a post-Twilight book, it wasn’t a bad read.