Since a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been hearing more and more about Shomi books (Book Binge has had a Spotlight series on Shomi the past month). I had been meaning to blog about them for a while and then this contest came along, giving me the perfect opportunity to do so. All I have to do, is pimp the contest on my blog (check, done that) and show which Shomi books I’d like to read in the future. 

So what exactly are Shomi books? They’re a new line of speculative romance books from Dorchester, all not bound to the rules of our reality. Some of them are futuristic, some time-travel, some paranormal. It’s a great mix of a different kind of romance novel. So far there are 9 books out and two coming out in the next two months.

While they’re not all my cup of tea, some of the stories look great… and completely different to any previous romance books I’ve read. Here are a couple that grabbed my attention:

Countdown (Michelle Maddox)

A romance novel with a plot most similar to Cube and Saw? Interesting (sometimes I wish I could embed voices into this text. That ‘Interesting’ definitely had a mad Transylvanian scientist accent to it.) Set on a post-plague Earth, Kira Jordan is a thief with a wicked sense of humour. The book starts with her waking up, handcuffed to a wall in the dark. And she’s not alone. Chained to the opposite wall, is the convicted mass murderer, Rogan Ellis. With only 60 seconds to escape, Kira is forced to work with him, if she ever wants to make it out of there alive.

Moongazer (Marianne Mancusi)

I’m not completely sure what the setting of this book is. It seems to be a paranormal/other dimension type of story. Skye Brown is a normal girl in New York, with everything she wants: a cool job, a boyfriend, a great apartment. But at night she has weird dreams. Of a post-apocalyptic world with a bleak futuristic wasteland. In them, she’s not Skye, but Mariah Quinn, a Moongazer. It sounds kind of fun, right? Is it another world? Are they messages from the future? I can’t wait to get my hands on this.

Phenomenal Girl 5 (A.J. Menden)

If it wasn’t for the Book Binge’s spotlight, I most probably would have ignored this book completely. Lainey is Phenomenal Girl 5, a superhero with great strength and the ability to fly. She’s just been made a member of the Elite Hands of Justice, but before she can go on active duty, she’ll have to complete her training with one of the toughest superheroes around: the Reincarnist. It sounds a bit cheesy, but after reading an excerpt Book Binge posted, I just knew I had to put this on my To Read list.

Check out the Shomi website to see all the books (and excerpts). If you want to read reviews about some of the books, the Book Binge blog has got some interesting ones.

As I’ve said many times before, I consider myself a real geek. It’s not something I’ve grown into the last couple of years or have taken on because it’s nowadays “hip”. I can seriously say that at all stages in my life I’ve been a geek in one form or another.

A while ago (10 months to be exact) I wrote a post about the definition of geekiness, where I tried to explain what I think a geek is. At the time I came up with the following:

a person with a passionate devotion to and an extensive knowledge of a particular interest

The main difference from the original “definition” that I wanted to bring across, was the fact that geeks aren’t just fans liking a specific topic, but that they truly are obsessed/passionate/devoted to it. Plus the fact that they aren’t necessarily socially inept. Yes, there are non-social geeks… but that doesn’t mean we all are.

Photo by alistair_uk on Flickr

Now I’ve noticed most people tend to agree with my definition (in as far as I can claim it as “my” definition). Except for one point. They always assume the particular interest is tech-related. Geeks mean gadget-loving, computer-wielding tech-lovers. Is this true? I don’t think so. In my eyes, you could be a geek in any topic: from math to snowboarding to mobiles.

And that brings me to the title of this post: six degrees of geekiness. I am six types of geeks all rolled into one*:

1. The TV Show Geek

2. The Sci-Fi Geek

3. The Movie Geek

4. The Book Geek

5. The Game Geek

6. The Computer Geek

I was going to write about how I got into each of these geekhoods, only to discover there’s way more backstory to each of them (hey, I’m a blogger, I like to talk about myself, get used to it). For instance, my descent into Sci-Fi started with my attempt to enter a harmless drawing competition at our local mall. And how could I not tell the tale of how I became a computer geek without mentioning my beloved graphic calculator?

Photo by illustir on Flickr

So instead I thought I’d do a collection of blog posts: each one about another of my geek sides. You can expect the first some time later this week. In the mean time, why don’t you share a bit of your geek background stories. How many degrees of geekiness do you possess? 

* I am now omitting my minor prior geekhoods of Math Geek, Egypt Geek, Conspiracy Theory Geek, Paranormal/Ancient Weird Stuff Geek. I’m not as obsessed about those topics now as I once used to be. But, seriously, you’d be surprised at how many weird random facts are just floating through my brain.