my Space edition 2014

Dear Reader,

It's that time of the year again: for my annual Book Shelf Tour. You can see the previous "my space" posts by clicking on the links: 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 (where I made a video). Wow, this is my 5th year now! Though I have not been posting regularly, I have definitely been reading constantly and, given my book-buying-habits, it's no surprise that my bookshelves have changed significantly over the year. So without further ado, here are my 8 or so bookshelves:

1) The Fantasy Corner: It is probably my favourite part of my bedroom.

Starting with the top row are the fantasies that occur in our world though we common humans are blind to it all. From left to right, we have Coraline by Neil Gaiman, all of Maggie Stiefvater books (many of which are signed) and Percy Jackson & the Olympians series by Rick Riordon.


On the bottom row are fantasies that take place in magical worlds conjured from the author's mind: The Old Kingdom Trilogy by Garth Nix (technically Shade's Children is a dystopia but it's here because I wanted to keep all the Garth Nix books together), Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas, the Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo and the Graceling Realm Trilogy by Kristin Cashore.  

This shelf holds many of my pretty stand-alone hardbacks, including The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt and a signed copy of A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. These are followed by my Beloved Inkworld Trilogy by Cornelia Funke, my favourite two Jostien Gaarder books and enchanting The Golem and The Djinni by Helen Wecker.   

Down on floor we have my Red-Box of Harry Potter books along with Tales of Beedle the Bard, Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them and Quiddtich Through the Ages. To keep Harry Potter company I have Cassandra Clare's The Infernal Devices (one of my favourite YA trilogies) and City of Heavenly Fire. I also placed the Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld here, even though it's actually steampunk.
 






And even after all these years, Christopher Paolini's Dragons are still in battle with Stephanie Meyer's Vampires and Aliens atop my wardrobe.






2) My Classics (& Poetry):

This one, in my opinion is the most beautiful shelf in my room. I love waking up to the sight of it, though the photo does not do it justice, especially as all the titles are obscured. From left to right:

• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Middlemarch by George Elliot
• After that are all my Charles Dickens books - Bleak House, Great Expectations, then in the red leather and gold is Nicholas Nickleby (though I bought that copy recently, it was actually printed in 1936, making it the "oldest" book in my bedroom), Hard Times, Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities. (Aside: The only ones missing from my Dickens Collection are Little Dorrit and A Christmas Carol. May be they'll be there by next year, Inshallah.)    
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo in light blue. 
• A Round the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
• Peter Pan by J.M.Barrie
• Then in the passionate bright blue is my little Bronte Sisters box-set, made up of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.    
• Next to that in cheerful orange are the six Jane Austen novels in the order they were written - Northanger Abbey, Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Emma and then finally the bittersweet and sophisticated Persuasion.    
• On the other end, lying flat, are books related to Jane Austen or her work including The Secret Diaries of Lizzie Bennet by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.  

And because my love for classics could not be contained on just one shelf, there was over-spill onto the shelf just below:

• We start with my two favourite Elizabeth Gaskell novels - Wives & Daughters and North & South.
• Then Sir Walter Scott takes over with Ivanhoe, Waverley and The Bride of Lammermoor.
• Besides that are a few autobiographies - Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah, Living with the Enemy by Freddie Knoller and The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.
• Then some modern classics including The Book Theif by Markus Zusac, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

After To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, it seems as though poetry holds courts:

• Starting with a translation of Selected Poems of Rabindernath Tagore,
• followed by The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin. I am not a fan of Philip Larkin, that pretentious, misogynistic pig. I do not like his poems and had to study this anthology for my A-Levels. But I keep a copy of The Whitsun Weddings to remind me that the world and people are incredibly varied, and what I might despise might be another's delight.       
• Then much more down my alley, we have Ariel by Sylvia Plath, 
• Beowulf translated by Seamus Haeney, 
• and The Collected Poems of William Wordsworth, Thomas Hardy and John Keats. (Of my favourite poets, the only ones I don't unfortunately have are William Blake and Robert Browning). 

3) The Original Shelf:

With the exception of Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart Series (which are historical Crime/Thrillers), this shelf mostly contains my favourite high-fantasy. Here's a quick break down, from left to right:

• The Chronicles of Narnia (box set) by C.S.Lewis.
• My Tolkien Collection - Tales from the Perilous Realm, The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Lord of The Rings Trilogy and then a lovely little Arthurian Legend Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. 
• Continuing with the theme of King Arthur and his Knights, we have Idylls of the King and Selected Poems by Lord Alfred Tennyson, (Did you think I'd forgotten about him in the poetry section when mentioning my favourite poets? ... Well Alfred Tennyson gets a special place all to himself.)    
• More Arthur in T.H. White's The Once and Future King and T.A.Barron's Merlin: The Lost Years.
• Then we move on to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carol, and my favourite Alice-retelling The Looking-Glass Wars Trilogy by Frank Beddor.  
• On top of all of that is Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (in 3 volumes) and The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanne Clarke (a delightful combination of Jane Austen and Neil Gaiman). 

4) A Hodge-Podge:

This shelf is hard to explain. I'm not sure how it happened either, but here there are books from all over the place (generically speaking).

• Kate Mosse's mature real-world fantasies - Labyrinth, Sepulchre and The Winter Ghosts.
• Followed by Susan Hill's The Woman in Black, Dolly and The Small Hand. These are the only real "horror" books in my bedroom.
• More Neil Gaiman - The Graveyard Book, Neverwhere and Stardust.
• Then come 2 of the funniest books I've ever read - Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Prachett and The Princess Bride by William Goldman.
• After that are two books where a female is kidnapped - Sunshine by Robin McKinley and Stolen by Lucy Christopher.
• Some fairytale re-tellings - Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce, Beauty by Robin McKinley and Beastly by Alex Flinn (I dearly wish that The Lunar Chronicles where on this shelf but, alas they are only on my kindle, for now.)  
• Which leads to a wonderful array of children's books - The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman, Fairy Tales by The Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Andersen, Tales from The Arabian Nights translated by Andrew Lee, Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book and The Man Who Would Be King and finally The Story of The Treasure Seekers by Elizabeth Nesbit.    

5) Science, Sci -Fi & Dystopia:

Lying flat under my jewelry box are a handful of non-fiction science books including Cranioklepty by Colin Dickey, which I have reviewed here, Aspirin by Diarmuid Jeffreys, The Female Brain by Dr. Louann Brizendine and The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean.
After that we have some slim, black volumes of classic Sci-Fi by Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, and some classic Dystopia: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and The Handmaid's Tale by Margret Atwood.
Then moving into more modern times, we have the incredibly engulfing Shatter Me Trilogy by Tahereh Mafi, the time-traveling Ruby Red Trilogy by Kerstin Gier and end with Veronica Roth's Divergent Trilogy. (If it wasn't for my Kindle, then this shelf would have also contained The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins, the Uglies Series by Scott Westerfeld and the Delirium Trilogy by Lauren Oliver.) And hopefully "coming soon" to this shelf will by the The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner.

6) Shakespeare/Graphic Novels:

Starting on the right this time we have my second favourite Shakespearean comedy (The Taming of The Shrew) and favourite tragedy (Othello), followed eloquently by Shakespeare's Sonnets and Poems. Then comes a whole collection of Manga Shakespeare, including my favourite comedy: Twelfth Night, and history: Richard III. These were a wonderful birthday gift from my brothers.

After that is the graphic novel version of Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Illustrated by Cassandra Jean whose work I have been following online for quite some time now. She's quite talented.

Then we have a set of official comics centered around my favourite video game series Assassin's Creed, that I love playing with my brothers (hence the comics were also a gift from them). And finally, my childhood/teen obsession with Avatar: The Last Airbender series in exemplified in the beautiful Collected Editions of their spin-off comic book. (I still need to get The Rift which comes out some time next year.)

7) The Library Books:
I think the title is rather self-explanatory, and nothing more needs to be said about this collection other than the fact they're all due by some time this month.

And here's what it looks like when you put almost all of the above together (not including the fantasy corner of course):

8) My Deen:
The Window - which primarily contains books written by Muslims or about Muslims. The real stand-outs of this crowd are:

• G. Willow Wilson's Alif, The Unseen, The Butterfly Mosque (her autobiography) and Cairo: A Graphic Novel
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (I Haven't yet read his And The Mountains Echoed so I can't say how that compares to his previous work).
• From My Sister's Lips by Na'ima B. Roberts and her teen-novel Boy vs. Girl.

The Desk - this is where all of my Islamic books are housed, including: biographies, Islamic-lifestyle guides, books on Ahadith, with the Qur'an, in both Arabic and English, at the heart of it. On the very end are my Notebooks (which have drastically increased in number) and The Fat Grey Book (where resides all the poetry I have ever written).

And I think that's all for now. Take care and keep reading.

Nida

my Space edition - in a different 4mat

Dear Reader,

As a treat for you, I've made a video version of my annual 'my space edition' bookshelf tour.

Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and follow me on twitter: @Bookaholic786.

Nida

reading Slumps & youTube

Dear Reader,

Leviathan, image by
Keith Thompson

It has come to my attention that I haven't posted my reading list on this blog for a long time now. The last one I believe was just before my disillusionment; and my writing since then has been going through drastic ups and downs. I had been keeping up with my reading however. But I seemed to have entered a reading slump after finishing the Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell at the beginning of this year. I even tried to re-read my all time favourite novel North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell but even that did not bring me out of my slump. 

What finally brought me round was actually The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (often shortened to TFiOS). I'm not sure why I put off reading this book for so long, since I've been follow John Green and his brother Hank on Youtube for a few years now, and am proud to call myself a Nerdfighter. (Aside: some clarification for you, dear Reader, a nerdfighter is not someone who fights nerds but actual nerds who fight to increase awesome and decrease world suck i.e. bad things). 

So spoiler-free mini book-review: TFiOS is, on the most basic level, about a 16 year old girl named Hazel Grace Lancaster, who loves reading and watching American Reality TV and has an obsession with this inadequately ended book called An Imperial Affliction by Peter van Houten. Also, she's in the last stage of her terminal cancer. Then, in the typical style of boy-meets-girl stories, one day at Support Group she meets Augustus Waters, a gorgeous and charismatic cancer survivor who is, in turn, obsessed with metaphorical resonances. And so they embark on both an emotional and physical  journey to find out what happens after the ending of An Imperial Affliction. 

Surprisingly enough, it was not the book-within-a-book aspect that I like most about TFiOS (unlike Cloud Atlas, where I thought the book-within-a-journal-within-letters etc... was the best part). It was actually Hazel and Augustus's existential discussions that I loved the most. For example, that cancer and depression are just "side effects of dying", that there are an infinite number of infinities and that "some infinities are bigger than others" or how the world isn't a "wish-grating factory" and so disappointment is just an inevitable side effect of life. Anyway, I agree with Markus Zusak (The Book Theif) in that TFiOS is definitely John Green at his best. 

To add to the brilliance of this little blue book, around the time I was reading it I also discovered the booktubers' community on Youtube, which felt like coming home after a long and tiresome vacation. They reminded me of my love for reading, of discovering the stories that others had put words to and introduced me to a whole new chapter of books that I have still to explore. Which was something I was particularly lacking since my fellow bookworm/best friend, Codename: Pixie, had major eye surgery and has been unable to recommend new books to me for sometime. Anyway, there are in fact a few booktubers I'd particularly like to mention: thereadables, booksandquills, supersushipizza and Bookables.  

This post has become a lot longer than I had originally anticipated so my rather long reading list will just have to wait until next week. Be patient, my dear Reader. Now all that's left to say is: don't forget to be Awesome.

Nida 

P.S. - make sure to follow me on twitter @Bookaholic786, (though I realise now that that name isn't technically correct).

six Styles of Writing, and Me

Dear reader,

1) When is comes to writing - a thing that I do a lot of - the easiest form for me is, believe it or not, poetry and verse. Subhanallah, sometimes I find that even my thoughts are following some sort of rhyme scheme or meter, trochiac pentameter (with a lot of causurae) seem to be my subconcious' favoured style. (Aside: if you didn't understand anything from the last sentence, click on the links or over here.) When I confessed this to my mother the other day, she gave me such an odd look, as if I was a person she didn't recognise. Kind of heart breaking, given that she is the person I love second most in the world. But, in order to show you, dear reader, how natural poetry is to me, I present to you a poem that I wrote about Writing Poetry: 

Sometimes the most beautiful things

Are those with no inherent cause

Are spontaneously inspired

A single thought that brings

Words upon words without a pause.

So that is when these poems

Emerge and grow out of my brain

They take on life and flutter around

And align like gems upon a chain

But in my mind they cannot remain,

So I cease and caress the words

Nurture those seeds into a stem

Then my pen begins to caper

As I coax the words onto paper

That was bland and lifeless without them... 

2) The next style of writing, that I suppose I'm modestly good at, is description, in particular scenic description.I believe that description forms the majority of a piece of fictional writing. Without it, the piece would be only half-imagined and only half-conveyed. I know a lot of people who struggle with writing description. I often struggle with it myself. For some people, it's difficult to take exactly what they see in their minds and put words to it. For that, I recommend reading a dictionary and thesaurus, keep one close when writing or try thefreedictionary.com. For me, where the problem mainly lies is that my descriptions become far too long and wordy. Trust me, this is a BIG problem, because then the reader either loses interest or gets lost in the convoluted sentences. Which is the last thing any writer wants. And also, it diminshes the power and meaning of what we're trying to say. Here is a piece from Life in Conversations that, ironically, I struggled to get just right.    

She sat there,in her comfy corner seat, gazing out through the right-angled French windows; the precarious ones that over-looked the front of the house. Today she was looking out onto a silent Saturday-morning street. The summer sun causing everything to radiate with a warm glow. As she watched, a strident gust of wind swept through the yawning trees, pulling petals away from blossoms and across the sapphire sky, so that they resembled snow falling upwards. It was a perfectly inspirational moment.

Yet Nabiha’s normally spry pen hung over the page, stalled mid-sentence.

So she just sat there, her face serene, her skin soaking up the sun, her hair swathed over her neck like a blanket of silky scarlet-brown flames. Her shinny new note book lay open in her lap, with only the first page and a half filled with stunted-but-serpentine scribbles. The shaky tapping of her foot was the only indication of the frustration pent up inside her. Her brain sprinted and scrambled through hundreds of possible solutions but none of them fitted comfortably, seamlessly into the dilemma she had created. She was stuck. 

3) Then comes dialogue. I love to read dialogue. I love writing dialogue even more. Probably because it allows  the writer to reveal a person/character's personality without saying banal things like 'she liked to read the news' or 'he was witty'. Also, dialogue is one of those places where, as a writer, I can explore and develop characters and their relationships. Most of the time, when I'm in the flow of a conversation, I find that it can lead me and my characters to places I had not realised/planned, Alhumdulillah. I'm actually, at the moment, experimenting with dialogue within poetry, since I've finally begun working of my epic ballad(which I talk about here). It's called The Legend of Sirene and is the fourth "book" in fantasy quartet Chronicles by Anamika. Here's a sample from the first chapter: 

“I am one of the Sultan’s elite guards.

What you’re doing could be seen as treason.

Meddling in my mission will leave you scarred.

So it’s time for you to find your reason.”

That’s when Conla felt a prick on his chest,

And saw the knife she had pulled on him.

He had to admit, he was quite impressed,

And his language she had spoken to him!

He faced her fully, her arm he held tight

So that she could not try to escape him,

Though, he had not the will or strength to fight.

Asking how she knew his tongue, on a whim.

“How and what I know, is my own business,

Now please, will you kindly let go of me.”

“I cannot, for that I ask forgiveness.

But I must take you to MannCarh, you see.”

At his words, her round eyes were all ignite,

She suddenly stopped struggling to be freed.

Overcome by an idea so very bright,

Those pretty eyes, shone with something like greed.  
...

Please, please, dear reader, let me know what you think. I really need feedback on this to see if my experiment is working well or not.            

4) I suppose the next style of writing for me, has to be informal, non-fictional writing, like this blog or e-mails/comments to friends. I really enjoy this sort of thing because here I can just be simple-old  me, just someone who is speaking thier thoughts, if not out loud, then in at least in virtual ink. I hope you enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it. And even if you don't, it okay because your opinion on this probably won't stop me from writing, though I might try harder to improve.
  

5) Truth  be told, I'm pretty bad at writing action pieces where there is alot of movement and snap decision making. I think that this maybe because actions are not a verbal/wordy thing, and are much better seen than read. Take comic books, for example. They are well known for their superheroes and action-packed story lines mainly because they are so visual. In a comic book, you don't expect to find a long debate on the purpose of life and love, using metaphorical examples that hold little true meaning. But you can get action in novel form and, more often than not, it's vital to the story line. As I'm just beginning to realise, myself. Before, most of my novel ideas avoided action, preferring dialogue and conversation as a means to an end. But the fantasy quartet that I just spoke about, requires a lot of action. There's wars, spies, demons, pirates, chase scenes, flying dragons and hand-to-hand combat involved! So, yeh, I'm attempting to write action, but taking slowly, one step at a time. As an example, I give you the opening paragraph of the first novel in the quartet, called The Legend of Sharon: 

That regal buck had no idea what was coming to him, as he sipped away at the stream, his branching antlers skimming the water. Out here in the foothills of the CahnineCarh, a tall mountain range in the southern lands of MannCarh, the green woodland rang with its own music, oblivious to all that went on in the world at large. And as Sharon nocked an arrow in her long bow, she too was oblivious to everything but the buck. She held her breath, took aim, and let it go as the arrow flew from her fingers, and straight into the throat of the animal. A quick and painless death was her preferred style... 

6) Yet the style of writing that I am the worst at, is the one I have to do most of all: non-fictional, scientific/medical writing. It is the antithesis of poetry. And I absolutely hate it. My words don't flow out easily like they do with all the other styles. It just does not come naturally to me, for some reason. I have plenty of friends who can write fantastic scientific treaties and earn the best marks, whereas I'm always struggling to scrape out the right words from my mind. And I've been told by my professors an unaccountable number of times, that my writing is just too "flowery" or "unscientific" or "round-about".   

And really long essays are the even worse, because I quickly lose focus and my mind ends up wondering towards my next poem-in-the-making or an idea for a blog post (in fact, this is exactly what I'm doing at the moment). I think this might be because, scientific writing is just so bland and clinical; you have write very to-the-point sentences, bound in rigid structure, with no space for creativity. I'm not saying that scietific writing itself is bad. It is very important in this modern world of constant innervation. And I greatly admire those who can write scientifically and do it well. Probably because it is something that I can't manage to do. It's something that just does not sit well with my vibarent and flowing personality.

I truly have know idea how I've managed to get through medical university and to have done well! To have almost completed an MSc!! Sometimes I can't help thinking that maybe there are two different Nidas existing in this one body. One that is calm, studious, religious and shy; who wants nothing more than to curl up with a good book. She's the 'Nida' that most people meet on a daily basis. The other seems to be quite crazy and cheeky and loud and creative; who wears bright colours on dull days and wants to run around in green fields and empty beaches. But most of all, loves to paint, sketch and write about the made-up things she sees in her mind.

How they two seem to co-exist so harmoniously, is a mystery to me.

Nida 

P.S. - Please don't forget to tell me what you think about my experiment. You can do this by clicking on the comments bottom below. Thank you. 

thoughts On writing - Part 2

Dear Reader, 

As I was brooming the kitchen floor this morning, I couldn't help but think that this was what I've been doing my life lately: brooming and brushing away important issues rather than facing them. And one of these issues is my writing ... of the lack there of. 

You see, I might be an introvert, but I'm also a thinker, an observer of life and people, a writer. And more than any of that, I ENJOY writing. That euphoria you get when you write a particular sentence that captures the situation accurately, or the smile that appears after writing a witty turn of phrase, that you know no one will notice but you like it all the same. That's what I've been missing. In these last few months, as I spiralled down a vicious cycle of despair and loneliness, after parting from a certain someone, I seemed to have forgotten all this.

So, even though I might never be published, let alone famous, and maybe no one will ever read what I've written, it should not stop me from doing something I really like doing. Because I actually am a writer, and I will keep on writing.      

Nida

Eleven Facts & Questions

Dear Reader,

I know, I know. I've been away from the entire blogging scene for many months now, and I apologise to all those who missed me. Sorry. I probably wouldn't have come back either if I hadn't been tagged by my lovely fellow blogger x@hu to answer 11 questions. So, apparently these are the rules:

1. Post 11 random facts about yourself 
2. Answer the 11 questions I asked 
3. Tag other bloggers and create 11 questions for them to answer. 
4. Inform those that you tagged them 
5. NO TAG BACKS 

I decided to explain my prolonged absence in 11 facts about me.  

1. Currently I'm doing an MSc in Cardiology which, as you can guess, is a lot of hard work.  
2. As mentioned previously, I spent all of February, and some of March, on a working-holiday in a hospital abroad. 
3. While on this working holiday, I met my fiancée and his family after a very long time. 
4. This was a very pleasant experience and was the perfect remedy for spending long hours with very sick patients.
5. However, since I've been back, my life has been quite an emotional roller-coaster, leaving me with very little time to blog. 
6. Hmmm... I seem to have finished my explanation in only 5 facts. Fact: the rest will just have to random stuff about me. 
7. I'm a very fidgety person and my hands are very rarely completely still.
8. I need the sound of a ticking clock to help me sleep.
9. At the moment, I have more than 300 books in my little 8'x8' bedroom, (physical proof of my obsession).
10. I really want to learn to speak/understand Arabic and will be taking classes soon Inshallah.   
11. Ironically, I started wearing the hijab when I was 11 but didn't really understand what it meant and what it stood for until I was 19. 

And now for the 11 question that I have to answer.

1. Why are you, you? (tee hee) 

Hmmm..... now how do you answer a question like that without going into an philosophical essay .... well I suppose it's partly genetics, but I believe that most of our personality is shaped by our circumstances, our upbringing, the people we meet etc... basically by what experience through out our lives ... and this is actually something that is quite changeable .... So without writing anything too long, to answer your question: I am the product of my experiences.   

2. What was the highlight of your childhood?

Alhumdulillah, I've had a wonderful and brilliant childhood and have too many good memories to pick just one.  

3. What was the one thing about Islam that made you become interested in it?

As I briefly mentioned above, I use to wear the hijab but didn't know why. And so I started questioning and the first place I looked was the Qur'an ... And so once I had started I couldn't stop and carried on reading and learning more about Islam ... and Inshallah this learning will continue throughout my life.  

4. What's the weirdest thing you've eaten?

Years ago I accidentally ate this Lamb's-brain-curry-thing (Siri-pye in Urdu). Hands down, that's the most weirdest and disgusting thing that I can remember ... but my mum has always told everyone that I use to eat paper and magazines as a baby ... I guess I've been I bookworm from the start lol ;-)     

5. Do you push the elevator button more than once? Do you really believe it makes the elevator faster? :P

I use to as child. But when I realised it doesn't make the elevator come any faster, I stopped. :-p

6. Have you ever failed an exam?

I haven't actually failed ... but once I got a low enough grade to make me redo the exam ... does that count?

7. What's something you know you do differently than most people?

Hmmmm ... I don't know what most people do so I'm not sure what I do differently ... but I'm sure there are several things... 

8. What's your favorite book? Aside from the Qur'an of course :)

OMG!!! ... how can I possibly answer that question! I've read so many books, and plenty of them were brilliant, it's difficult to put my finger on just one. But I suppose I could give you, dear reader, a selection of favourites: North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Sabriel by Garth Nix, The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman, Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling and Fire by Kristen Cashore.   

9. If you could offer a newborn child just one piece of advice, what would it be?

A newborn child wouldn't understand me ... but this piece of advice would be for any/everyone: always respect and listen to your parents because they always have your best interest at heart, and always remember that Allah (SWT) loves you 70x more than your mother...  

10. Where would you like to be, ten years from now insha Allah?

In ten years time, Inshallah, I will be married, with a child or two, and working on becoming a published author. Insha Allah!!   

11. Lastly, what is your most beloved feature of Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wasallam)?

Choosing one attribute is very difficult. I've always held much respect and awe for our Prophet (SAW) because he was a Divinely-appointed final Messenger, an Extraordinary Revolutionist who changed the face of not only Arab Society but the entire world in general, a Brilliant Military Strategist, and a Just and Righteous Leader. But when I read about his loving and humble attitude/treatment towards his daughters, family and friends that made me realise how human he  (SAW) was and really made me love him the way, as a muslimah, I should.     

And now for my 11 daunting questions:

1. What makes you smile the most?
2. What is the one thing without which your day is incomplete?
3. What is your most memorable ayah/quote/surah from the Qur'an?
4. Other than the Prophet Muhammed (sallallahu alayhi wasallam), who do you look up to?
5. When was the last time you laughed like crazy?
6. Which food could you eat day-in-day-out, for years?
7. Do you listen to music? if yes, why?
8. What is your opinion on the state of the Ummah today?
9. What's the one thing you really want to learn?
10. What do you like to do in your free time?
11. And (because I'm just me) other than the Qur'an, what is your favourite book/series?

And finally here is a list of people who have to answer my questions. :-)

• Hnia
• Samia
• PotentialHijabi
• Another nida
• KnowGood
• Pearlof Islam101
• Najiyah
• The Sister who Smiles

If any of my readers want to answer these questions, you are most welcome to do so in the comment's below. I always love to learn about other people.

Nida   

Qualities

Dear Reader,

As I sat on my prayer mat today, after praying Zuhr (the midday prayer), my thoughts lead me to an examination of my own qualities. And I realised I have many, many flaws. For example: 

• as my rather perceptive mum would tell you, I'm far too loud at inappropriate times, 

• somewhat selfish when it comes to sweets/fruits/foods I like (Saag-paneer!! All mine muhuha haha haa), 

• I spend far too much money on books and particular clothes I take a fancy to, 

• writing a blog-post when I have a assignment deadline tomorrow and final exams in 3 days time shows I have obvious issues with procrastination,

• I get easily distracted when I'm not reading or writing - facebook can be my arch nemesis at times! (the struggle between us sometimes turns ugly)    

• I can be rather impatient at times, especially in things concerning my brothers,

• unfortunately, I take a bit too much pride in my appearance

• I can't sit absolutely still for more than 5 mins - either my fingers are perpetually fiddling with something or my feet are swinging/tapping (pen-tapping haters beware)

• and the list goes on...

Image from:  http://rosekate.me/2011/03/12/introspection/  

But there is one quality that I rather like about myself: ever since I was a child, I've not been very judgemental or prejudiced, especially when it comes to physical appearance, race, religion, culture, wealth, gender, sexuality, social status etc... (Aside: of course if some strange man was lairing at me at, lets say, a tube station, then I would probably pre-judge him and avoid him like the plague. But that's actually the difference between judging a situation and actually being judgemental.) Anyway, I truly and heartily believe the Islamic teaching that everyone is created equal, that we are all equal in the eyes of God. Being completely omniscient as He is, only He has a right to judge between us; only God knows what's really in our heart of hearts and how humble and pious we actually are. Besides, I think that physical appearances, race, gender, wealth, social status etc... are very shallow and superficial criterion on which to judge a person's worth. 

However, there's a flip side to this coin. While meditating on the prayer mat, I realised that the prejudices that I do hold (because no one is completely without them) stem from two things that are rather inter-linked. The first, and foremost, is arrogance. I hate it, cannot stand it and will not abide by it. Especially within myself. And the vast amounts of arrogance I perceive, is probably the cause of my abhorrence towards the "hip-pop" culture. Also, if I'm meeting a person for the first time and I detect true arrogance, then I can't help but take an instant dislike to them. Unfortunately, this has happened to me often enough, the most prominent case in my life being the brother of one of my beloved, old friend, whom I've known now for almost 17 years now. 

The second thing is disrespectfulness. It annoys me without end, whether it be towards older people, children, other religions/cultures, racism, being disrespectful in jest/mockery or disrespectful language used in films, songs and even books. As hard as it is to believe, there are actually books that I can't read. Those are the book that have a lot of swear words in them. I've tried reading a few that are well known "bestsellers" but I never seem to get past the first chapter. *Sigh.* I think that disrespectfulness in itself is caused by three things: 1) a very bad-temper 2) a disregard of other people's feelings and 3) thinking of yourself superior or better than someone else i.e. arrogance. Most of the time it's a vile combination of all three.      

...

Few! I'm glad I got that off my chest. But I should be getting back to my work now, before my mind finds more ways to procrastinate...

Nida

Life: as I see it - my Space (Revised) edition

Dear Reader,

Confession: I've been feeling rather nostalgic lately, for obvious reasons, and so you'll just have to bare with me for this post. So, since it has now been a year (+2 weeks) since I posted Life: as I see it - my Space edition (one of my most popular posts) I thought it was time I showed you, my dear reader, how my bookshelves have changed and how they haven't.

I can't wait to add Maggie Steifvater's Forever to this, which is now finally out. It is something that can't be help it, I'm a compulsive completionist.    

Other favourite writers on this shelf are Na'ima B. Robert and Jamilah Kolocotronis.     

This shelf is directly underneath the one above. You'll  find here Kristin Cashore as well as Kate Mosse, with some Robin McKinley being cut off at the bottom of the picture. 

This use to be my "Classics" shelf, but is now mainly Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, followed by the DVD of my Favourite BBC adaptations of Classics, including: North & South, Cranford, Middlemarch and Little Dorrit.      

This is my, much more serious, non-fiction shelf of mostly medical books, with the exception of Green Deen and  How I Killed Pluto, and Why it Had it Coming.

Aaahhh, Poetry... These huge collections are three of my favourites (minus LAT - see the comment on the link): Thomas Hardy, William Wordsworth and John Keats.  

And peeping in from the top are some of Rudyard Kipling's best works. 

The One and Only, Original bookshelf. Once upon a time, when I was a very little girl, this was the only bookshelf in my bedroom. Hence it still contains the likes of the Chronicles of Narnia and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I have to admit, I haven't much grown out of these books in all these years.  

I'd also like to mention Philip Pulman's Sally Lockhart books, the under-appreciated Garth Nix, and Frank Beddor for obvious reasons. 

Here we have a small neat section reserved for historical fiction and my favourite autobiographies. I think the titles/authors in this picture are clear enough to read, except the orange Dairy of a Young Girl. Anne Frank, may you rest in peace. 

This is where the rest of the Classics from the "ex-Classics shelf" have ended up, including Charles Dickens (in green), Victor Hugo (in the stripped blue)  and my copy of the Selected  Poems of Lord Alfred Tennyson. 

This is the spot where my beloved Inkworld Trilogy use to reside, but it was burrowed by an old friend and never returned. :'(

So to fill that gap in my heart...I mean shelf, I have filled this spot with the not as much beloved Books of Pallinor. Sorry Alison Croggon, that is just the honest truth.      

   

The Twilight Saga has been transferred, to the top of my big wardrobe to have a teeth and claw battle with...

... Christopher Paolini's dragons. Who will win this epic dual of fantasy vs. horror in the Young Adult Fiction genre? 

Let me know what you think in the Comments section below. 

Aside: Vampires come into the 'horror' category, don't they? Or am I thoroughly deceived? 

To lend his support to the Fantasy genre, is my collection of Tolkein's work, 

(also found at the top of another wardrobe).    

And finally the most important shelf in my bedroom, which resides in the top right-hand corner of my desk, hold my religious books. Most things Islamic, can be found in this shelf with The Noble Qur'an at the heart of it all. If you have been following my blog for long enough, you'll remember that much-used little blue book at the top is my pocket-size version of The Sealed Nectar, a biography of the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH).   

By the way, if you look to the far left, you'll see two unnamed books. They're mine. The grey one is choked-full of my poetry and the floral-pattern-one being my first note book entirely concerned with my novel-in-the-making Life in Conversations.    

I hope, dear Reader, that you have been awed and inspired by my vast array of books. I was going to continue on to a little piece about the gardening I've been doing recently with my mum, and the efforts we have put into salvaging and saving the lives of about 16 small and starved geranium plants we found on sale at B&Q. But I've realised that this post is already far too long and that tales of my epic weeding might bore you, dear Reader, to death. And that is something I don't want on my concious. 

Anyway, making this post longer is now no-longer an option as I must go and make some greek-style pasta for my ravenous brothers. 

Nida