-Yann Martel (The Life of Pi)
Hello! Mabuhay! 안녕 하세요! Suilad! Thank you for visiting The Girl Who Read and Other Stories.
The Girl and The Blog
I am an Engineer, freelance writer, and–as you can probably already tell–a bookworm.
What’s with my WordPress username, “almeldiel”? A Tolkien language scholar converted my birth name to Quenya (High Elven), and that’s the result. 🙂
I’ve been blogging for years but have been wandering like a cyberspace gypsy from one blogging platform to another. But I feel at home here at WordPress now…despite the constant image upload quality battle that I have to wage!
Although this is primarily a book blog, this is still my personal journal. So while I will write mostly about books because reading is my passion, the title does include “Other Stories”, so I will also write about other things that interest me, like movies, music, TV shows, Korean dramas, and other random stuff. I will try to fangirl in moderation but it may be a halfhearted attempt at best. 😛
Book Review Policy:
I’m not a literary critic; I’m just a book lover who happens to love writing about books. The reviews that I write for this blog are my personal thoughts and feelings about what I read. Sometimes there will be serious discussions, sometimes there will be silly commentary, and sometimes there will only be theme song recommendations (“Scoring the Book”). The posts are not meant to be formal critical analyses; the New York Times reviewers already have that covered.
When given the chance, I read different kinds of books, but I gravitate more toward fantasy, science fiction, young adult, mysteries, and alternate/secret history. I am also making an effort to read more books written by Filipino authors.
To get a better idea of the kind of books I read, you can check the following: reviews I’ve posted in this blog, reviews I submitted for publication to a local news website, or my Goodreads profile.
I’m surprised that I’m actually getting requests to review particular books considering this incarnation of my blog is relatively new. Some of these requests were even sent in by the authors themselves. Thank you for sending in links to your books and for your kind comments about this blog.
There have been some changes in my professional life that make me too busy to accept any more book review requests. My apologies.
Last Policy Update: December 2015
The Girl Who Read and Other Stories 
Hi Meann! I have been reading your amazing blog about reading The Hunger Games Filipino Edition and was wondering where you got a hold of a copy. I am a Filipino that speaks Tagalog well, but I want to broaden my Tagalog horizons and read a book in Tagalog that I have read (and loved) in English. Please let me know! Maraming salamat, po!
Hi! If you’re in the Philippines, you can buy a copy at National Book Store or at Precious Hearts bookstores. 😊
Wow a fellow kdrama fan & bookworm! Hi! I’m new in the blogosphere so I’m happy to read other blogs for ideas & inspirations.
Welcome to the Blogosphere and thanks for dropping by! 🙂
I found your blog while checking up the Mark of Athena. I am Fillipino too, since my parents were born there! Too bad I don’t speak Kapampangan or Tagalog!
Hi, Nina! Thanks for dropping by. It’s nice to be found by other fellow Filipino book lovers. 🙂 Hope you find time to learn some Tagalog some time. 😉
I read your twitter page and you like GoT pala. Wala lang. It’s so hard to find someone who likes ASOIF in the PH and watch the series too. 🙂
Oh, there are a lot of people who love GoT here! 😉
Hi Maryann! Your blog, The Girl who Read, has been selected and listed in http://www.readphilippines.com. We’d love to have you join our fast-growing community of Pinoy readers!