March Photo Challenge: Guilty Pleasure

I used to buy all used copies of books. Why spend the money on the new ones when I was just going to wear them out? I don’t remember the name of the site now, but I was part of this club at one point where I could trade back and forth with other members and get new “old” books all the time, just for the cost of shipping.

And then I discovered SERIES. Beautiful. Matching. SERIES.

You can’t just go buy used copies of them, because you’ll almost never find a matching set. It is possible, but difficult. Especially in the right condition. And it is so much lovelier to find them in a boxed set, if they come that way! Of course, that means I can’t buy it until after I’ve already borrowed the entire thing from the library…or wait until I buy it to read it. Catch-22!

Still, buying whole series and seeing their gorgeousness is definitely a guilty pleasure of mine. These are just a few of them, I have many more!

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Daily Bookish Challenges | Day Five

If you liked this… You should try this…

People ask me all the time for book recommendations, and since my tastes are so varied, I usually can give them something. I tend to read whatever I can get my hands on, and that is EVERYTHING.

Here are a few recommendations based on popular books:

If you like…

…Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, you should try The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss

…The DaVinci Code, you should try The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury

…Gone with the Wind, you should try The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

…The Giver, you should try Breeder by KB Hoyle

Daily Bookish Challenges | Day Two

What’s on your book wishlist for the holidays?
Surprisingly, I don’t normally ask for books for Christmas.

*gasp*

WHAT?!

I know, right? As much of a book lover as I am, why wouldn’t I ask for books for Christmas?

Well, one, because it’s so damn hard to choose which books to ask for. I have such a huge wish list, I can’t just give the whole damn thing to my family. They would have no idea. My Nana used to get me the latest Nora Roberts books, but I have long outgrown those, so she’s stopped with that. Now, I usually just ask for Barnes and Noble gift cards, which I hoard until I can figure out what I actually want to purchase.

The second reason is that my mom LOVES clothes shopping. And she loves clothes shopping with her girls. So, every year, we would do a pre-holiday (and birthday, since it’s in November) shopping spree. She’d come down to Indy, take me to lunch, sometimes my sisters would come along too, and we’d all go crazy. So most years, I’d know what I was getting. But, my wardrobe would be set for the year–and it would be fashionable! Haha!

This year is a little bit different–since I live so far away now, we couldn’t do our traditional shopping trip. I missed it terribly. Instead, I built an Amazon wishlist, and there were quite a few books on there. They are exactly what you would expect from me:

Harry Potter by JK Rowling–I KNOWWWWW…but I still don’t own them, and it’s killing me. I would love to own the new UK collection, but if someone gets it for me, it’ll be the US version. If I buy it with my Christmas money afterwards though…I will be ordering it from across the blue.

Hogwarts Library–obviously.

I got The Wise Man’s Fear and The Slow Regard for Silent Things for my birthday, but The Name of the Wind is still on the list to complete the collection. I suspect it has already been purchased though…

Not that Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham–I haven’t read this one yet, but I keep hearing about it, so I must.

The Giver Quartet by Lois Lowry–That big gorgeous gray and red hardcover version.

Quiet by Susan Cain

Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis box set

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Lunar Chronicles Series by Marissa Meyer

Solitaire by Alice Oseman

Chasers of the Light by Tyler Knott Gregson

 

I can’t wait to see what books I get, and I’ll be sure to do a book haul post in January! Happy Holidays!

 

TreesofReverie December Readathon – Daily Challenge #1 – Introduction

Show or explain to us what your collection of books looks like. Do you have a specific way or order to how you like to keep your books?

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am mildly obsessive about certain things. My reading habits are where I am the most compulsive, probably because it is the one thing in my life that has been the most constant.

My books HAVE to be arranged alphabetically by author, then title. There is no other way to do it, in my mind. They have always been this way, and they will remain this way. Every time I get a new book, it immediately gets shelved, and that can be a painstaking process sometimes, because everything has to get shifted–especially if that book is towards the beginning of the alphabet!

There are a few exceptions to the alphabetic rule…but very few.

I have a To Be Read shelf now, but those books are also in order by author, of course.

 

I also have pulled some “reference” and “miscellaneous” books out of the regular collection, mostly because they just didn’t fit into any real order and they were messing up the aesthetics…and most likely they are going to end up in a closet soon, because I’m running out of space in my two bookcases.

Do you have a moment in your life where your love of books and reading became significantly evident? Is there a particular thing, event or person that influenced your passion for books?

I don’t remember not reading. My love for books is more like breathing than an actual hobby. My mom told me once that when I was little, before Kindergarten, she came upstairs and found me sitting on the floor reading one of her romances. I looked at her and said, “Mommy, this book has people kissing, and they aren’t married. You shouldn’t read this.” I can remember sitting at the base of our giant bookshelves up there and just being surrounded by books, pulling them all off the shelves so I could look at them all.

What sort of book or world is your favourite to get lost in?

I love fantasy the most–but it has to be the kind of fantasy that is rooted in historical legend. Books like Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. You know the kind I mean. The worlds that feel like you could almost step into it yourself.

I also really enjoy historical fiction based on real people, where the author has done extensive research. I want to be so transfixed that I feel like I am actually there, walking with the person.

What book/s would you recommend to others so that they could have a chance to get lost in your personal ‘bookish world’?

Any of the books I’ve already mentioned. The Thorn Birds, of course. The Secret Garden. The Slow Regard for Silent Things is another one of my more recent favorites, but they’d also need to read the rest of the Kingkiller Chronicles first.

 

The Slow Regard of Silent Things

I will be really honest with you. I am a little giddy right now. Maybe ecstatic.

The very first review I ever did for this blog was Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicles–The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear. I had just finished both books, and I had been blown away. Go check out that post if you want to know more, and if you haven’t read them yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

While the third book in the trilogy isn’t due out until next year sometime, Rothfuss just released a novella about one of the characters in the series, Auri. My wonderful husband preordered a signed copy (my first ever signed book!) of The Slow Regard of Silent Things, and it arrived yesterday.

He had given me the tracking info–and I think the UPS man was a little surprised because I was practically waiting at the door for him. Hiiiiiii give me my book now! Kthnxbi!

I had looooooved Auri in the Chronicles, so I was so happy when I heard this story was coming out. She is such a special character–extremely shy and skittish, and very mystical in the way she interacts with the world. She knows things that no one else knows. But she doesn’t do well around new people–she’s almost autistic in her social interactions–that’s really the best way I can describe her to you. At least that’s how she comes across in the Chronicles.

But then, in The Slow Regard, her mind just explodes into brightness and force. She is the only character. Or I should say the only animate character, unless you want to count a firefly like object. She is princess of the underworld, almost a faerie like creature down there. She understands everything about everything–how every piece fits together perfectly to keep the world turning. And if one of those pieces stops working, or gets bumped out of place, everything crumbles. She spends her whole life balancing on a fine wire, holding everything together, figuring out the puzzles and mysteries of inanimate life.

I know those two words don’t seem to fit together, but it makes complete sense to Auri.

Rothfuss cracks me up because he is so underconfident in his work that he has Author Notes at both the beginning AND the end of the story apologizing that this is not a normal kind of book. He is so sure that we are going to hate it because there’s only one character, and Auri makes soap for 8 pages.

But Patrick, if by some miracle you see this review…

I don’t often give 5 stars to a book, even though I love many. So rarely do I call a story perfect. This is a perfect story. Now, it does help to be familiar with the Kingkiller world in advance. Things do fit better that way. But, even without it, I think people will enjoy this. They don’t HAVE to know who “he” is to feel the wonderful sense of anticipation that is coming. The naming is in the story, but not in such a way that they will be confused, because Auri is so different from the other Chronicle characters.

Guys, read this novella. It is simple, it is sweet. Auri is one of the loveliest characters I have ever read. I want to read it again already.

Trees of Reverie September Readathon Daily Bookish Challenges Day Fourteen

You’ve just started to work at a bookstore or library – what are your top ten go-to book recommendations?

1. Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling
2. Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss
3. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austin
4. The Thorn Birds by Colleen Mccullough
5. Secret Garden by Frances Burnett
6. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
7. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
8. Game of Thrones by George RR Martin
9. Quiet by Susan Cain
10. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte