Neelam Sharma

Please share with us about your amazing journey as a book reviewer?

For me, a graphic and website designer by profession, it was a spur of the moment decision she took, with a friend, while mulling over the entire concept of Book Reviewing and its affiliated possibilities in India, in 2017.

Since then, after this creative genius was born, Booxoul has witnessed strong fast growth with no looking back. Standing at being one of the best BOOK Reviewing and lifestyle and  Entertainment sites, Booxoul is striving to achieve it all.

What is the story behind ‘booxoul.com’? How was the idea behind ‘Booxoul’ conceived?

About Booxoul; The evolution and the story behind the endeavor

At Booxoul, ’Books literally breathe. They have a soul of their own, the words, the thoughts, stories, ideas portrayal being literally akin to blood, bones and sinew of the bodies’. Hence, the name Booxoul was born, a name of the 2 words “books” and  “soul” Neelam’s brainchild.

Booxoul stands high on popularity charts for several reasons. What matters it a cut above many is its ability to read and provide unbiased, critically acclaimed, genuine reviews with the available data. Alongside, Booxoul, while understanding the mindset and Reading Nerve of its’ readers. It also tries to keep the fair interest of its’ Authors in mind giving them the perfect platform to bring forth their talent in the right manner and style and thus reach their target audiences massively. Be it self publishing or traditional, every author needs to be appreciated, lauded and recognised for his talent. Booxoul strives to synchronise it all.

Does book reviews help an author to reach out to a large number of readers?

Yes, definitely in TODAY’S TIMES book reviews hold a lot of importance. With the advent of self publishing in INDIA, the platform has opened up in a significant manner for writers today. Gone are the times when it was TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING alone ruling the market. Thus, with this scenario, book reviewing becomes a vital and key component to promote the book and also helps it to reach the vantage of its prospective potential audiences. Both from the point of view of aspiring as well as established authors as well as the readers, they are indispensable. Once the reviews make their way to the readers, especially AUTHENTIC and organic reviews, they can understand the whole idea of the book and thus, comfortably take a call as to whether they wish to delve into it.

Thus, book reviews are definitely needed to reach out to a large number of readers today.

In the times of active social-media promotions, where do you place book-reviews as a marketing tool?

In these times, when book reviews definitely hold a lot of weight to steer organic readers and even potential reader traffic to the deserving and content rich titles, Booxoul acts as the medium bridging this gap. Proper pitching, book promotions along with detailed and comprehensive and illustration rich reviews help a book seek the attention it rightly deserves. Booxoul manages all of this and much much more.

What are the 5 books which everyone should read? Who are your top three favourite authors?

5 books which everyone should read would definitely comprise:

1. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
2. To kill a mocking bird by Harper Lee
3. The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
5. Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

As far as the top three favourite authors are concerned I absolutely swear by the writing of Haruki Murakami, Dan Brown and J K Rowling.

What would you say is the most key component of an excellent book-review’?

As per the ideologies at Booxoul, what really constitutes to be the key component of an excellent book review is a balanced overview of the book along with an honest feedback and opinion upon the creative attempt made through it. At the same time, a rich finesse i.e what can the end reader really ‘take’ as a ‘return’ from reading the book needs to be highlighted, but in a careful, precise way. Giving away too little or even too much also hamper and ruin the possibilities of the growth and success of the book. Hence, Booxoul tends to tread this fine line of creating a balance perfectly to the best of its’  merits and skill.

If you were to write a book about yourself, how would you name it?

If I were to write a book about myself self, I would name it “Eternally Ensouled in the Bookish Universe” which would address her limitless love for books and reading and all emotions related thereon.

What is that one message you would like to give to all the budding writers and reviewers?

At Booxoul, the message given to all the budding writers and reviewers stands crystal clear.

To writers; Remember, it is OK to fall down, get hiccups on your creative journey, FAIL. But don’t let that deter you. Get up and start writing again and spreading wonder and magic through your words and ideas.

To reviewers; People look upto you for honest reviews and opinions. So do the Authors, who have given their life essence, their sweat and blood to creating their craft. Be fair, unbiased and honest. But also refrain from taking the ruthless stand. Remember, ‘Overnight sensations’ or ‘Freak flash best sellers ‘ happen but not always. Every book is written meticulously and with a lot of effort, so give it time to breathe, live and speak. Similarly, any project should be handled with care be it lifestyle or even entertainment blogging. Be kind, not impertinent. The rest shall be handled by Destiny as well as the creative outreach and potential of it.

At Sharing Stories, we have an ongoing campaign ‘Empowering Our Kids’ where we are trying to encourage and inculcate reading habit from a young age. We are trying to pick up 20 to 30 must-read books for children and try and make them available at our library in Jaipur, also take this initiative across the globe. Please suggest some books which you think every child should read before the age of 15 (mostly the character-defining age).

Some books which children under 15 should read for character building are;

1. Charlie and the chocolate factory
2. Matilda
3. Harry Potter Series
4. To kill a mocking Bird
5. The cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss
6. The lord of the rings; the fellowship of the ring  by J R R Tolkien
7. The Lion , the witch and the wardrobe by C S Lewis
8. Eragon
9. Iqbal by Francesco D
10. Charlottes Web
11. The Martian By Andy Wier (classroom edition0
12. Beast Of the Buckingham Palace by David Williams
13. The Hobbit
14. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library 
15. The Percy Jackson series
16. The Night Diary by Veera H
17. Little Women by Louisa M Alcott                     

Rapid Fire Round

1. Favourite Place, Person, Food, beverage…

Sikar, Rajasthan | Hehehe Dumbledore | Dal Bhat &Bhelpuri | Tea

2. Your other Talents….

Talking Nonstop

3. Your First Love….

A genuine smile

4. Favorite Quote….

“I am rooted, but I flow.”

5. Favourite Character from a book…

I love Lucy from ‘The House at The Cerulean Sea – six years old, the antichrist because of his wicked sense of humour, likes to make threats for fun.

What if Round 

1. What if you had to live with only three things all your life, what would the three things be?
Only 3 things would be Books , Books and more Books!!!(clichéd but happy sigh;)) True!!!

2. What if you were given the power to change one thing from this world, what would you change?

If I were given the power I would wipe away the recently trending social monster called ‘Cancel Culture’ from the face of the social platforms. This culture comes in vogue if you refrain from commenting upon the events of recent social issues, using your platform as your voice, cancelling you out, singling you out as a marked person, in the event of this refrain. I feel it’s unfair because at the end of the day, maybe that person/website/organisation/social platform might not want to form or give an opinion on the matter from lack of knowledge, ignorance, incompetency, an ill feeling to do so, or simply because they feel unnecessary to do so. It is wrong to type caste them and shun and single them out thereby using an AVOIDANCE STRATEGY against them. I would want to do away with this as I feel these things cannot be marked as a judgement ground for such entities. If this continues, we may end up creating literary creative Frankenstein monsters who will just prowl about destroying each other and zeroing out everything in the END.

3. What if you had all the money in this world, what would you do first?

If I had all the money, I would apportionate it properly creating and nurturing new industry talents in different micro fields of creativity. Charity Endeavours would follow next.

I would also set up initiatives helping the cause of education, nature awareness and its’ endowment preservation.

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