artsy musings of a bibliophile

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The Musing Mind: The Thing About Goal Phobia

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Ponderings with little bursts of cartoon art.

goal phobia [/ɡəʊl/ /ˈfəʊbɪə/]: An act of avoiding goals like the plague because they’re scary and useless.

Hi, I’m a goal-phobic!

I’m also perfectionist which is awesome and great!

Err. I’m also a procrastinator which doesn’t make for a good combination with perfectionism. (It takes me hours to do what you can probably do in a half).

Oh, and that’s not all because I’m also passionate which means that if I’m motivated enough, I can read a book in under 4 hours.

As all of that is relative, what you can take away is that goals don’t always help you in not losing focus. Or maybe that’s just me because I’m usually all ‘in your multiple faces, goals.’

The yellow bird knows stuff. (Source)

Step One is Easy

Setting goals for yourself is the easiest part; staying focused and wanting to achieve said goals doesn’t come so easily. Especially when you’re known for your impulsiveness like I am.

Back in 2014, I was foolish and crazy (I’m still foolish and crazy, it’s just a different year so bear with me) when I wrote down ten bookish goals. Naturally, I failed in accomplishing all of them. It’s a real glass half full or half empty situation going on here.

That’s what I’ve been saying! (Source)

Let’s focus on the fact that I’ve been wanting to read 100 books in a year since 2011 or so but I keep failing because that’s just how I roll. 2015 is the year that I’m finally not aiming for 100 in the back of my mind. I’m going for 75 and I’m sticking to that number and I might just fail again.

(Despite just proclaiming that I’m a goal-phobic).

Obviously, I’m not a goal-oriented person that I once aspired to be. It’s just that I like to push myself in at least one aspect of life. With goals. Ew.

You see, that’s the problem. Right now, I’m pretty positive about finishing series because I managed to finish five last year. I’m clearly one of those people who rely on their past accomplishments for the likelihood of future success. Yet when I set an actual goal of let’s say finishing ten series, you’re damn right I’ll fail. And fail so hard because I can’t handle quantification.

Tending Towards Failure

Every year in January, the one thing I get really, really excited about is setting up my Goodreads challenge (and anticipating what color it’ll be because that’s important). In other aspects of my life, I’m mostly with this squirrel.

I feel ya, squirrel. (Source)

But then time passes and I go from feeling giddy over the feeling that I’d be able to accomplish my goals to procrastinating and losing all the patience and the passion I had for the goal. I end up feeling irked at myself and that’s no fun. It’s like I’m the squirrel again.

Both, but don’t pay attention to that. (Source)

However, as the year closes in, I remember all the things I set out to do and go about trying to achieve them in the time frame that I originally went for. And let me tell you this, that never works because procrastination is better.

And sleeping. Never forget that. (Source)

Shaking it Off

It all boils down to the fact that I can’t take a challenge as a casual thing. Other people set a goal, go about accomplishing it and ta da, it’s done. For me, for the most part, I focus so much on the gotta-get-it-done-gotta-get-it-done part than the fun part is non-existent. I finally had a custom bookshelf made last year (that took me a week to paint). But that’s not really an accomplishment to me because I’ve been wanting one ever since I was eleven or so. To me, the time it takes to accomplish a goal takes out all of the feelings associated with it y’know.

Shut it, turtle. (Source)

So yes, ideally I’d like to cut goal phobia in half, before it cuts me in half. But I guess I’m still learning.

Encore. (Source)

Trend Alert: Island Settings in YA

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Of trends and lesser-knowns.

No, this isn’t a post about taking books to a deserted island, it’s about books that takes place on them. A deserted island, a huge isolated piece of land floating in dark water, a death trap; you get the picture. It’s spooky, there’s a high likelihood of getting murdered and possibly no way out. But it could also be adventurous, full of mystery, chilling to the bone, or romantic.
Enid Blyton’s Five on a Treasure Island was the first book I read which was set on an island. Full of adventure and mystery, it made me fall in love with the Famous Five.

Classic When it Comes to Island Settings

There are always classics, the books that came before everything else and set a standard or just became classics on the basis of their stories. However, most of the classics in the genre are fantasy-based.

L. M. Montgomery’s Anne of the Green Gables series takes place on Prince Edward island and who doesn’t know that. Not many people like William Golding’s Lord of the Flies which is all things downright creepy and nightmarish and takes place on a deserted island. However, Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park and The Lost World takes place on a jungle island with dinosaurs.

Marguerite Henry’s Misty of Chincoteague features ponies and horses and Rachel Neumeier’s The Floating Islands is a fantasy that features dragons and men with wings.

Juliet Marillier’s Wolf’s Skin is a sweeping historical fiction fantasy about Eyvind who dreams of becoming a Wolfskin. Dan Elconin’s Never After is a reimagined tale of Peter Pan with perils and laughter as no genre is complete without a retelling.

And oh, Koushun Takami’s Battle Royale is also a classic in the sci-fi genre with an island setting.

Lastly, Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio Races takes place on a fictional island and what could be better than that?

Stranded with Suspense and Murder

I’ve watched one too many movies where a group of people get stranded on an island only to find that their number is decreasing one by one. Nothing good could come out of that.

In Gretchen McNeil’s Ten, it was supposed to be a three-day party weekend on an island. But now it’s all about one person having a killer party. Similarly, Abigail Haas’ Dangerous Girls and Dangerous Boys is all about everything gone wrong when a brutal murder happens. Running for your life has a new meaning and it’s Haas.

However, in Megan Shephard’s The Madman’s Daughter, we go back in time on a remote tropical island to uncover the truth about Juliet Moreau’s mad, mad father. Whereas Francis Hardinge’s The Lost Conspiracy is more about adventure than murder but there’s definitely something sinister going on.

Threats and Unraveling Truths On an Island

What is it about islands that’s just so damn creepy, anyway? I mean, yeah, they could be romantic and beautiful like that one time in Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn (barf). However, islands are majorly full of truths and mystery and if you want to get off one, you gotta figure out the truth. For instance, how in Suzanne Collins’ Catching Fire, the arena was in a jungle with the Cornucopia situated on an island.

But could island settings also be something wrought with a different kind of a danger?

Ransom Rigg’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is spine-tingling for a sinister reason and Marcus Sedgewick’s Midwinterblood is an unsettling story about immortality set in the future on an, you guessed it, island.

Anna Collomore’s The Ruining features insanity and I bet that insanity on an island is worse than in other place. There’s just something about it… Moving on, E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars is creepy on a private island.

But it’s not always psychological as Austin Aslan’s The Islands at the End of the World is a bloodchilling dystopia set on Hawaii featuring an epileptic main character. Moreover, Allegra Goodman’s The Other Side of the Island is all about finding out the truth and Lynne Matson’s Nil and Nil Unlocked feature an island that’s full of dangers and a terrible truth.

Francine Prose’s The Turning takes place on an isolated island where things are bound to get spooky and Megan Crewe’s The Way We Fall is about a community surviving on an island after it’s been quarantined because of a virus.

Crash! Now Survive

For some reason, crashing on islands isn’t as popular as one would think. It is a chilling scenario, though to find yourself on an island with no way out. How would you survive?

Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens is perhaps a stellar book when it comes to suvival because you got a bunch of beauty pageant participants on an island. Fun times ahead, eh? Contrastingly, S. A. Bodeen’s The Raft is about a couple of survivors, one of whom is unconscious for a better part of the book.

Basically, books set on island make me wish never to be on one. Do you like books set on islands? Does it get old for you fast or does the thrill of it all excites you?

The Musing Mind: Struggling… Struggling is Pointless

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Ponderings with little bursts of cartoon art.

pointless struggle [ˈpointlis ‘strəgəl]: the state between wanting to stuff one’s face with a book  (or a series or a genre or a- you get it) and booking a flight to Antarctica to get away from said book (or a series or a genre or a- you get it). 

Also, being a reader.

Being a reader is hard and me being a reader is harder. I may not be Nemi but Nemi is pretty much me.

See, it’s pointless. (Source)

There are all kinds of feelings associated with reading and as the years pass, so does the need to extend the feeling of anticipation. Of prolonging the foretaste. I would know this since I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows two years after its release (which means I read it five years after Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince). That’s some struggle, huh.

Also, muggles everywhere. (Source)

However, it gets complicated because the more books I read, the more books I want to read. And so the struggle begins. And never ends.

Pretty much. (Source)

What is better, though? Reading a book for the first time ever and falling in love with it or rereading it over and over and over?

Seriously, which one? (Source)

If a book is good, the first instinct is to keep reading it until it’s all over. However, when it is all over and it was phenomenal, then a feeling creeps up on the reader. The feeling that it was all over so soon and I should’ve waited and oh my God, what did I just do? Cue book hangover and the aftereffects of pulling so many facial muscles.

Cyan: What are you reading? Nemi: My diary from the 10th grade.
Words just got superfluous. (Source)

Sometimes the struggle is all about a genre. Can’t get enough of a genre? No problem, just embrace it in any way possible.

Books infiltrate everything. (Source)

We struggle when someone questions our love for fictional characters because their existence is irrelevant.

Nothing is typical when we heart eyes characters. (Source)

However, it’s a good idea to not interrupt a reader when they’re reading because then they probably struggle with doing something much more vicious than Nemi. Trust me, you don’t want to add to it.

Some people never listen. (Source)

Sometimes we are the books.

Too many books will do this to your brain. It’s awesome. (Source)

But we love our books. Sometimes a little too much.

Avoid? You mean deprived. (Source)
This kind of struggle is also real but it’s a beautiful kind of struggle and it never fails to fascinate me.

Can’t say this enough. (Source)
What kind of struggles are pointless for you? Don’t you just love Nemi? I know I do.
P.S. Yes, the title is all Tangled.

Trend Alert: Pakistani Authors on the Rise

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Of trends and lesser-knowns.

At the stroke of midnight on August 14th, 1947, Islamic Republic of Pakistan was born. It’s been 67 years of independence which makes Pakistan a relatively new country. I’ve read and heard countless stories of how it all started, the struggle which seemed endless, and finally, the sweet, sweet taste of freedom.

Today, in celebration of my country’s independence, I want to talk about the writers who hail from Pakistan and primarily write in the English language. Since most are adult fiction than YA, I also hope to contribute to the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign. From being shortlisted for Man Booker Prize to Orange Prize for Fiction, these are the people and their novels which make me proud. Some I’ve read and some I plan to.

Bapsi Sidhwa is perhaps one of the most renowned authors of Pakistan. I first read her novel, An American Brat, in high school. She’s mostly recognized for Ice-Candy Man, a novel about the partition of the Indian Subcontinent which was later adapted into a movie titled, Earth 1947. 
Mohammed Hanif made headlines when he wrote a A Case of Exploding Mangoes in 2008, a dark satire based on a 1988 plane crash which killed Pakistan’s military dictator, General Zia. I read it during my college years and found it to be a thoroughly engaging read. His second novel, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, is a story of a Christian nurse working in a government-owned hospital in Karachi.

Kamila Shamsie has written five novels. I was blown away by her writing in Burnt Shadows, a story that spans generations beginning from Nagasaki in 1945 to Afghanistan after 9/11. Some of the novels she wrote are Kartography, Broken Verses, and the most recent, A God in Every Stone.
Recognized for his novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid is a widely recognized author. The Reluctant Fundamentalist follows the life of Changez after the 9/11 attacks. His two other novels are Moth Smoke and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia. Moreover, Discontent and its Civilizations is a collection of essays releasing next year.
A British Pakistani, Nadeem Aslam wrote two novels before he rose to fame in 2008 when The Wasted Vigil was published. Set in Afghanistan, The Wasted Vigil is a brutal story following three main characters. His other works include Season of the Rainbirds, Maps for Lost Lovers, and The Blind Man’s Garden.

Musharraf Ali Farooqi is a Pakistani Canadian author of The Story of a Widow and more recently, Between Clay and Dust which is a story about a famous wrestler past his prime and a well-known courtesan. He is also a translator and an illustrator for children’s books.
Daniyal Mueenuddin, an Asian American, is known for writing short stories. His book, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, a collection of short stories that link together, is about a large Pakistani landowning family.

Despite being born and bred mainly in the US, Nafisa Haji is a Pakistani author. She has written two novels; The Writing on my Forehead and The Sweetness of Tears. She is a well-received author of stories dealing with tragedy, turmoil, and emotion.
Based in London, Moni Mohsin debut novel, The End of Innocence, was about a dangerous love after which she immersed herself in writing satirical series titled The Diary of a Social Butterfly.

Sorayya Khan, daughter of a Pakistani father and a Dutch mother, moved to Pakistan as a child and is known for her Noor and Five Queen’s Road which is a historical novel set in old Lahore. She is currently working on her next novel.

The Musing Mind: Character One-Eighty and the Love-Hate Relationship

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Ponderings with little bursts of cartoon art.

character one-eighty [ˈkarəktə wʌn-ˈeɪti]: a character’s personality makeover by the end of a book or series.

Take a deep breath and relax because everything is alright in the world. Why? Well, because the characters you love either died of plot device or changed beyond recognition to drag the plot forward. Meaning that if they are dead then let’s sob into oblivion together, but if they are unrecognizable then I volunteer as tribute to off them the hell off myself.

Choose one and I’ll oblige. (Source)

Wait! I’m definitely not exactly the person I was a year ago so why are we offing characters who’ve changed? Isn’t it their prerogative?

It is and I’ll walk with them towards that prerogative unless they’re a mere plot device. Then I’ll sure as hell will figure it out and probably hate it, too. Imagine where would Gansey be without his obsession of dead old Welsh kings, Celaena without her badassery, Peeta not in love with Katniss, or Snape choosing to die for Harry James Potter? Nevermind, scratch the last two off.

Thing is, plot-driven personality makeovers are just that. Scenarios put in place so that the end result could be achieved. Could be why I prefer character-driven stories over plot-driven ones, because then personality makeovers seem legit. More on that later. Changing a vital element of the story to fit the said story’s goal seems nothing more than a convenient way to tie everything up with a neat little bow.

Like this. (Source)

One of the main reasons why I hated Evertrue was because a certain character went through such a huge attitude makeover and to what end? As a reader, I spent so much time stressing about who’ll give up because the solution seemed close to impossible. And then for it to be solved by changing a character’s outlook on the whole thing? Not okay. Never okay. Never recovering.

When characters do a number on us, 180 to be exact, it has to be because they took our genuine lapse in not judgement to their advantage. Or because they grew up. Or because they are so well-crafted as plot devices that we notice it a little too late. The Hunger Games is a plot-driven series and yet Peeta’s personality makeover does not feel forced. It helped quicken Katniss’ character development, shook her into a reality that was unlike anything she had experienced before and during the games because there was no one left to share the horror of the games with her.

Only Cinderlla did really want to marry. (Source)

Am I saying that character one-eighties are only good to go in character-driven stories? Not… exactly. It’s more about the way they are handled than anything else. It’s the way of admiring Severus Snape by hating him one second and just being in awe of him the next. (Or in my case, just plain hating him). He’s so sadistic and loathsome that you just don’t know whose side he’s freakin’ on till the end. It would either make you go ugh or ah and it all depends on the why of it all. The journey from ‘Ah, yes. Harry Potter. Our new – celebrity‘ to ‘Always’ is seven books long of which I loved. Every. Single. Moment. Of. (Even if I hate the character to no end).

Are character one-eighties something you wish would happen more? Less? Not at all, please and thank you?