The Desi Writers Lounge (DWL) is holding a short story contest. I submitted an entry that is almost 2k words long. The results will be announced in October, so I will wait until then to share it on the blog.

Until then, I will be sharing the shortest of shorts that I wrote for the Booksy subscription. It was included in the boxes with the other goodies. Here it is:

“Not into a bulb! Anything but that…”, the Ifrit begged but it was to no avail. What her hellions wanted, they almost always got. Fawj smiled as her daughter, Sid, morphed into a golem as big as a house. She looked down at the trembling Ifrit and lifted her behemoth foot, threatening to squash him. The Ifrit shook his head and vowed to murder his boss who had sent him into this madhouse in the first place. “It will be easy, they had said. They’re just a bunch of kids and their mother. You will be out of the house before they even realize you were in”, the Ifrit muttered as he transformed into a bulb in a room full of an octet of kids and their mom.

Ifrit

The golem bent down and picked up the bulb with surprisingly nimble bamboo-sized fingers. She hung him on an overhead beam and clapped like a little girl. She was a little girl, no older than five, realized the Ifrit as it gave her the evil eye, even as a bulb.

Girl Golem

The Thief of Thieves, he had been apprehended by a five-year-old as he sneaked inside her house to rob her! It did not matter that she had morphed into his personal nightmare at that time. Which was why, his guise had slipped, and the girl had snared him with a tentacle of an arm. It was too painful for him to remember what happened afterwards. He had been forced to turn into everything, from a cat’s chew toy to this last humiliation, a light bulb.

My Kinda Ifrit

“Brighter!” Sid growled now and he shined as bright as he could.  “Is that bright enough, mommy?” The girl asked, snuggling against her mother. Fawj nodded, watching her other children get started on their homework.

As if!

When I found out that subscription books were available in Pakistan, I was ecstatic. This is something that so many readers have endlessly waited for. Add to that they are also affordably priced and I was in heaven.

Booksy happens to be the first book subscription that I signed up for. I have waited until now to rave about it because I wanted to be sure that they could deliver a second time. I also wanted to see if how I felt about it was not partially based on the fact that it was my first. It isn't!

Here are some reasons why I have fallen in love with this service and will continue to order:

1. It is not only affordable, it happens to be one of the most reasonably priced boxes out there. It costs you 1500PKR. You will find other services that cost anywhere from between 2000-3500.
2. It focuses on the book as all book subscription boxes rightly should. The copy that you get is not only good quality but,
3. They also offer you choices between genres to choose from. To my knowledge, they are the only box service that currently offers that option. For June, they offered a choice between not two but five genres!
   
   
   
   They do not limit the books to the YA genre and I cannot stress enough how much I appreciate this.
4. I chose the dystopian and ended up with something that I absolutely loved. The book also features on so many lists on feminist literature and is one of the popular ones.
   
   
   
   I simply lost it when I saw the book they chose! Here is a picture of my copy:
   
   

6. The accessories are fun, of sufficiently good quality, and fun to collect. I especially loved the coloring book since I am a sucker when it comes to them. Here is what else I got in the June box:

7. They come up with ways to keep things fresh. One of the attractions for the July box were the genres:

Then there was this other little attractive offer:

Hey any book services that pushes classics is alright with me! lol

Finally, there was also this:

8. Once you sign up with them, you do not have to keep signing up for every month. There are no complications and you will get your order every month unless you unsubscribe.

9. The service will text you on the day your box will be arriving, so that you know when to expect it.

Needless to say, I ordered the July box and this is what I was sent:

I also got a sort of a journal and loved the hard work that was put into it. Each page contains a writing prompt that can be used to get the creative juices a-flowing. This is what it looks like:

The other thing that I absolutely went gaga over was the choice of book. Since I had chosen comedy, this is what I ended up with:

Like I told a friend, you cannot go wrong with P.G.Wodehouse!

Lastly, there were the writings that were chosen by Booksy to be a part of their boxes:

I am going to cheat and only put up pictures of the one that I wrote lol

What the service can improve:

a. The box itself. For now, it looks quite drab and understated. If they are going to compete with the other fancy brands out there, they will need to work on the packaging.

b. Notebooks. I have received notebooks for two months now and would like something different included in the box next month. It does not matter what it is as long as it is not a notebook!

Looks like I have gone Booksy and am staying that way. They haven't started taking orders for August yet, so you might want to keep an eye out for when they do. Trust me, you won't regret it. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

So, I luuurved it! The book, The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood was exactly what I would have chosen for myself. Maybe you guys have wizards working for you or something? The bookmarks: pretty as heck. The saying on the magnet: story of my life. Thank you for the package, in case that wasn't obvious already lol

I will be reviewing the box in excruciating detail on my blog later. Watch this space: http://midureads.blogspot.com/

Get yours here!