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About Toi Other

Happy 2nd Blog Anniversary! – An Interview, Part 2

anniversayGreetings readers, bloggers, geeks, and authors. It’s my anniversary and I thought I’d interview myself and share it with you. I’ve come a long way as a writer, blogger, reviewer, and interviewer and I’d thought it would be nice to share some of the things I’ve learned and tell you a little about myself, in case you don’t already know.

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What inspired me to travel to the land of The ToiBox of Words?

I had played around with blogging for two years before I thought of starting The ToiBox of Words. Up to that point all my blogging efforts were focused on writing and promoting my first novel, Eternal Curse. At some point it hit me that I had so much more to offer than simply obsessing over my first book. I wanted to be able to connect with people, especially others in the book industry, and I wanted an opportunity to show people that I’m a real person, not just a writer trying to sell them a story they may or may not want to read.

So what would I say is this blog’s content rating?

www.wearemoviegeeks.com

I consider myself to be much more diverse and flexible than I actually allow my blog to be, and in all actuality, I’d like to think that The ToiBox of Words is pretty diverse. However, I won’t pretend that I don’t set limitations. I cater to an adult audience, but I know that my nephews, nieces, and their friends may stumble upon my blog at random intervals. For that reason I do not allow my content to reach beyond a teen appropriate level. For the most part, my blog content is PG, but because I am catering to adults, some of the themes can be mature.

Overall, how would I say I roll with all the punches of blogging?

Wikipedia

Blogging by itself can be a passion, an obsession, a job, or a way to escape. For me it’s all these things. It’s also just another form of social media so I have a love-hate relationship with it. Blogging consumes my time and my mind. Without it I feel lost, useless, and out of touch. With it I feel overwhelmed, inadequate, and sometimes invisible as a lone speck in the vast blogosphere. But…The ToiBox of Words has become my home on the web and I feel safe here.

Any comments on blog comments?

I get the feeling that most bloggers want comments, but fear what they’re going to get. I’m no different. It makes my day when I get a comment and it’s something positive, but I’m always wary that it’ll be something negative.  So far I’ve been pleased to either not get comments or receive very nice ones. I don’t stress over a lack of interaction because I know people are busy, and I know sometimes I want to leave comments and don’t because I’m just so busy. In any case, I do welcome comments, nice or negative.

They say everyone’s a critic, how about me?

I thoroughly enjoy talking about a movie I’ve just seen, a book I’ve just read, or an album I’ve just heard, but I’m still figuring out this whole reviewing thing. I don’t read as much as I’d like, but I’ve started to set aside time just for that. My next step will be to set aside time to review what I’ve read. I’m so bad with reviews. I do them, but it’s usually months after I’ve read the book. I’m not an overly critical reviewer simply because there are more than enough of those out there already. I am however honest. I even realize that while I may not like certain things, I try to keep an open mind to the possibilities that others will.

When I do a review, I do so because I either want to support an author’s work or because I want to share my experience. I do my best to keep pressure and animosity away from my review experience by not reviewing books I have no interest in. I hope to try doing movie and music reviews down the road.

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Okay readers, bloggers, geeks, and authors, that’s all for today…unless you have a question you’d like to ask me. 😉

Thank you for sticking with me these past two years. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for part three of this interview and hopefully enjoy some more of my insights.

This has been a

interviewpic-toibox

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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Books

Review: The Mongoliad: Book One

The Mongoliad: Book One (Foreworld #1)
by Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Mark Teppo , E.D. deBirmingham,
Erik Bear, Joseph Brassey, Cooper Moo

I give this book a 4.

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This is an epic tale in the tradition of something like the Song of Roland, but I think this is more much accessible to modern readers. This tale covers a short period of the Mongol rule in which various knights of Christendom are charged with the task of saving what little territories are left, but instead they decided to just take out the Khan. The main character of this story is oddly enough not a Christian or a knight. She is a scout  of mixed nationality who goes along for the ride to help in any way she can, hoping she doesn’t die, and soon begins to empathize with the cause of her comrades.

I like this book for the many stories it tells. There are so many details and lives that cross in this book. It’s a true pleasure to read great stories like these. Cnan and the knights have a great adventure tale shared between them, but each of this group has a story worth learning, even though they don’t all get told in this book. Even though they are united to save Christendom, most these knights aren’t Christians, they just want to take down the Mongols.  There are a few however who remind you of such characters as the Knights of the Round Table.

Then there is Gansukh (a hunter/warrior sent to look after the Khan), and Lian (an obedient and wise slave looking for an escape), and the slave fighters of the Mongols whose names aren’t important right now. There are so many characters and interesting stories to be told in the book that it does sometimes get confusing, but if you stick with it, it all comes together.

I love the way the hunting and tracking scenes are described, and the fight scenes aren’t bad either. My main reason for not giving this book a 5 is the fact that it doesn’t really end. I mean the pages stop, but there is no type of conclusion drawn. I find this a bit irritating. I get that books in a series never really end until the series ends, but I at least expect some type of indication that this part of the series is now complete.

I will never be on board with this idea that a series is an excuse to just stop in the middle of a story so the next book can be printed. I probably would have given this book a 5 if the goal of it had been for the characters to reach the Shield Sisters. The next book could start with what happens after that, but no- this book just stopped.

This is a great historical fiction epic that I think would appeal to readers of fantasy looking to try something different. If you can read the Game of Throne books, you can read this.

This review has been posted to GoodReads. If you’d like to obtain a copy of this book, try this link.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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Books

Review: Ghost in the Wires

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker
by Kevin D. Mitnick, William L. Simon, Steve Wozniak

I give this book 3, almost a 3 ½.

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This is the story of a computer hacker, but not just any hacker. Apparently this is the story of the world’s most wanted computer hacker, Kevin Micknick. The story is told from his point of view and is quite relatable to the modern trend of popularizing average people and making them seem larger than life. I do, however, feel that Kevin Micknick is so much more than average, but I got the feeling I was watching his reality show the whole time I listened to this book (I got it as an audio book).

There is a bunch of “stuff” to be learned from reading this book, but unless you have a keen interest in: phone & communication systems, computers, internet traversal, file sharing, and even a bit of legalese, this book isn’t going to keep your interest. I am actually fascinated by these kinds of things so, for the most part, I really enjoyed this book. Aside from all the technical talk, this book does tell the compelling story of one man’s life-long struggle with hacking and all that comes and goes with it.

I think the main reason I didn’t give this book a higher rating was because I didn’t care much for Kevin in the long run. His story is amazing and his level of almost genius hacking and manipulation skills are impressive, but he’s kind of a jerk. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that he’s a bad guy, he simply does a lot of annoying and silly things (I know a guy like him. He’s a friend, but still a jerk). Most of his problems he caused himself, and even after learning of the injustices he had to face, I still feel like he went through it all because there was no other way he was going to learn his lesson. I think someone who’s more of a people person than I am might not hold Kevin’s personality against the rating of this book, but since he’s telling the story, I find it difficult not to be swayed by my reaction to him as opposed to simply his story.

I think this book is a real eye-opener to all the people who think their identities are so secure and would recommend it for that reason alone. Who knows, someone else may really be in to Kevin’s personality. I don’t see many moms diving into to this, it’s not good for kids, some teens might like it if they’re into tech, but there is profanity present. This one’s for the guys.

This review has been posted to GoodReads. If you’d like to obtain a copy of this book, try this link.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords