Quotes

Day 30 Book Photo Challenge Top Favorite Books Read This Year

This year I read some new things and got around to reading some old things finally and this is the stack of books that I own that were my favorite.

• Eye Of The World By Robert Jordan
• Magician by Raymond E. Feist 
• Goliath (Book 3 of the Leviathan series) by Scott Westerfeld
• Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
• The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
• The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities Edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer

Not pictured because i borrowed them from the library are:

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• The Search for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi
• A Hero For WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi

Day 29 Book Photo Challenge: My Bookshelf

I took this as a good opportunity to up date the photo I have of my library. I have other large book shelves around the house but this is the main area where I read. There was at some time in the past some sort of order to the books but that has been left by the wayside.

When we moved in the shelves were already attached to the wall which meant that our original plan of making this room into a pool room couldn’t happen. Its called the library because that is what button on the air conditioning calls it. And I couldn’t have been more delighted.   

The Re-Reading of the Hitch Hiker's Guide Ombibus

I have decided to re-read The Hitch Hiker's Guide omnibus because.....well.... I want to and I haven't in many years.
Here's the plan/challenge:

• Read one chapter per day (or so, let be honest)
• Find my favorite quote from each chapter.
• Blog the quote with one of my terrible drawings ( it would be one of my beautiful, well constructed drawing but frankly I'm still waiting for that to happen)

The results prediction:

• I get to re-read Hitch Hiker's which I always enjoy and is never a waste of time.
• I get a repository of awesome quotes.
• I may just get a little better at drawing, which would be nice. 

So, I invite you to come alone on my journey of my own interpretation of The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Day 28 Book Photo Challenge: Makes Me Incredibly Giddy

I have picked Comics for this thing that makes me giddy. I assume the intention of the challenge was to pick a specific book that makes you giddy or even an author but comics (buying, browsing, looking at old and new ones, reading and the prospect of any of these things.) is one of the few activities that I do, that I genuinely can not help my self clapping my hands, jiggling my feet and having my voice go up an octave like one of my students talking about some god awful boy band member. 

Just recently I discovered a comic book store near our new house and I think my partner was afraid I was going to send us bankrupt. I have been known to do all of those excitable things described above and say "I'm off to the comic book store" at the end of a work day and have people either look at me oddly or think that I am joking. Just to put it in context, I'm nearly 30 and female. But quiet frankly, I get my love of comics from my mum who still goes to comic stores even if she gets looked at as if she has taken a wrong turn on the way to the grocery store.

So in conclusion, comic books make me giddy and people shouldn't judge others on the stereotypes in their head.

*please note, I call them comics and I am sorry if you like calling them graphic novels. I love them whatever they are called.

2014 Genre Challenge January: Historical Fiction

So I started the 2014 genre challenge for January a little early but in my defense, Ken Follett's "The Pillars of the Earth" is a really big book.

I have been meaning to read this since I watched the mini series a couple of years ago. I know, did it the wrong way around, watched the show before I read the book but I would never have bothered if I hadn't.

I have just finished the first chapter and (spoilers) after a series of worsening events with Tom having lost his job on a nobleman's house in the middle of summer and the theft of their pig that they had invested half their savings in Tom Builder is unable to provide for his family and his wife dies in his arms after giving birth to their fifth child in the woods, in the middle of winter with no shelter or help. I teared up just a little even though I knew that it was coming. the writing is just so evocative that I almost felt cold when the family was walking through the frozen forest.

All bodes well for the rest of the book and hopefully i will finish it before February.  

2014 genre challenge January: Historical Fiction

Created by eternal-books on Tumblr

Day 27 Book Photo Challenge: Has Been On My TBR List Forever

These two have been on my to be read list for years. I got around to reading a lot of my science fiction list last year (Day of the Triffids, Brave New World, We and War of the Worlds) but these got left of for this year. I plan on reading them in this holiday but like any good book addict my to read list is longer than I can ever imagine and is subject to change at my slightest whim. 

But I will get their eventually.... at some stage.....I guess.... maybe. 

Day 26 Book Photo Challenge: Most Relatable Character/Book

My most relatable character is Rincewind from the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett. This might sound a little strange because he is a wizard in a world where magic is a real, everyday event, (except for him) but hear me out. Rincewind is the outcast weirdo in a world of weirdos that just wants a nice calm life and to do well in what he has chosen to do well in. What happens to him, however is he meets weird people that want to go on adventures, gets adopted by a murderous chest that follows him wherever (and I mean wherever) he goes and gets possessed by a magic spell that is so dangerous that all other magic spells are afraid of and refuse to be in the same brain with.
I feel complete empathy for Rincewind. As a teenager I had friends that would drag me out of the house when all I wanted to do was stay home and read. I have only recently stopped feeling like someone would work out that I wasn't supposed to be wherever it was at any one time, University, job ect even though I had earned my place. And I often had people following me around that were good to hold things but not much else. (Horrible, yes I know but truthful.)
That and I am incredibly uncoordinated but manage to scrap through in the end.
My Most relatable character: Rincewind of Discworld fame.

Image from http://www.au.lspace.org/art/fan-art/groups.html by Catskind

Amari By Steven Atwood Review

Amari is a science fiction, dystopian future, space adventure where the UN took over the running of the known universe after the GFC. They became power hungry tyrants that basically became thought police. They shipped people off to Mars to be “Re-educated” in the mines and others who escaped colonised Europa and beyond, creating places ripe for piracy and black market trading.

I think I was hoping for Firefly and was sorely disappointed.  I also thought I could read around the religious aspects of the book but couldn’t. The idea that all the religious people were calm and righteous and all those against religion were cruel, callous and fear their own death more than anything else really grated on me. Mainly because I read science fiction because it reflects the world quite well and I don’t see this as the way the world is. Simple being religious does not suddenly make you a perfect person as it seemed to do in this story.

The further you go in the book the more grammatical errors there are, which slows down the reading process dramatically.

If religion is the saviour of you world and you like science fiction with that flavour, this would be a great book for you but not me.

I received this book from Library Thing’s Members Giveaways. 2.5 stars out of 5

Day 25 Book Photo Challenge: Gift Giving

So, once again this year I did not get any books for Christmas. But I sure gave out a lot. These two are my partners, he asked for a non fiction book with lots of diagrams and I do believe I delivered. I slightly brought the Schrodinger on because I wanted to read it but that is beside the point.
I took a trip down to my favorite independent book store (we practically don't have any chain books stores left in Australia since Borders went under and took a few others with it) Crow Bookstore in Victoria Park.
I love the place, and going in there not just looking for me was a great excuse to spend up big. I got my Mum "How the Hippies Saved Physics" by David Kaiser  and my mother in law as spellbook and a biography on Channel. Everyone loved them and I may have pre-rewarded my self by getting Castle in the Air (Howl's Moving Castle #2) by Diana Wynne Jones.
Would have liked to get a book though :(

Day 24 Book Photo Challenge: Stayed Up All Night

This is another one with no photo because I have a confession to make.
Not only have I never stayed up all night to read a book, no matter how much I love it, am into it etc, I regularly fall asleep reading. Sometimes use it as a sure fire way to get to sleep when feeling restless.
I do this so regularly that I have trained myself to fall asleep with my finger in the the page of my book and my partner often has to take my glasses off me and takes my book and puts my bookmark in where my finger was.
I think I do this because I find the simple act of reading so relaxing that I simply fall asleep if its time to do so. Sometimes, even when it is not.

Day 23 Book Photo Challenge: Own Multiple Copies

These are just some of the books in my house that are multiples. Not surprisingly we have multiples of Douglas Adams Dirk Gently books with the omnibus belonging to my partner and the separate books to me. The Raymond E. Feist books of Magician are multiples because I'm looking after my friend's books until she moves somewhere with more space and the old one is mine (its as old as me!)

Day 22 Book Photo Challenge: Winter Theme/Setting

Yeah, I am totally rebelling against this one because I live in Australia, if you haven't already worked this out, and quite frankly I'm thinking this is a Christmas themed book challenge and I have never seen snow let alone a white Christmas. What I have had a lot of are 40 degree Celsius Christmas days, pool side, eating seafood, cold meat and salads.
For these reasons I am giving you pictures of my favorite summer/desert themed book: Dune by Frank Herbert (note how cool this guy is with his popped collar)

 I love this book, specifically this edition of the trilogy. My parents had this edition when I was a kid but it was too involved for me to be able to tackle back then and my brother read it and I have never seen it since. This copy I found at a second hand book sale after having searched for years. This series effects me so much when reading it and for weeks after, that I drink more water and feel like I have a scar coming up on my cheek from the water collection apparatus they wear.
A perfect read for the hot dry Christmases that I know and love.

Just a short one

My Year in Books! See what I read in 2013! http://bit.ly/1l5UIKZ 

Totally going to squeeze in a few more before the 31st!

Day 21 Book Photo Challenge: Would Suggest to a Friend

Today's topic is definitely a challenge because, although I regularly suggest books to friends (and to be perfectly honest anyone who will listen to me for more than 10 seconds.) My suggestions are target to the audience.

For example, I have a friend who has read (and adores) the Mortal Instruments series and has actually read the fifth book which i have not. I would recommend The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

To my friend that that reads even more than I do and loves both fiction and not fiction and strange things i would recommend The House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, but mostly she recommends books to me.

To people who like reading the next big thing i have recently been recommending The Bone Season By Samantha Shannon and have done recently.

To I regularly recommend The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett partly because i love them and partly because the humor in them eases people into the science fiction and fantasy genre.

I recommend Threshold by Sara Douglass to people who like maths and fantasy and Ellis Peters books to people who like crime fiction but don't like books set in the modern day.

The most common thing i recommend to people in general is simply to read, and being a teacher i do this a lot. Don't just read tumblr or twitter or facebook but an actual book. I don't care if it is an ebook or a physical book, a piece of classic literature or a pulp fiction novella or even a graphic novel but read something because in the words of the great George R.R. Martin "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one."   And life is too short to live it only once if you ask me. That goes for puppies too.

Day 20 Book Photo Challenge: Blew My Mind

For mind blowing, utter ridiculousness you can never go past the ultimate cult classic House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.

Like most people (I'm lead to believe) that have read this book i heard about it from a friend of a friend at a party and the description is always the same with the sounds that aren't actually words and the miming of turning the book upside-down to read everything and the gesticulation of how truly awesome and mind blowing it is and then the "you just have to read it!"

About a year after i got this explanation i found this book in my favorite book store Crow Books in Victoria Park and it seemed to jump off the shelf and smack me in the head, yelling look at me, buy me, read me!

I complied when I flicked through and realised that it was the same book I had been told about. I was not disappointed but i was a little tramatised.

I am now so attached to this book that I keep recommending it to people but will not, for the life of me, let it out of my house for fear of it never coming back. 

The plot line (if you could call it a line) and the visual format that mirrors the actions of the characters' actions and what is happening to them (whether they like it or not) comes together in such a powerfully effective manner that it just blows my mind. Not to mention the narrative within a narrative writing that just gives the most amazing layers and depths to the story. For these reasons and more I was completely unable to do my habitual multiple reading (several books at the same time) and had to use all my brain on following all the little threads.

Just amazing and blew my mind. 

Day 19 Book Photo Challenge: Makes Me Feel Nostalgic

This was, without a shadow of a doubt, my absolute favorite book as a child and it was the first book I went out and found for my niece, it is that important to me. Enid Blyton was my favorite author for the longest time and I read a lot of her books but I always came back to good old Pip (or not so good at sometimes, he is a pixie after all).

The stories are really short, mostly less than two pages a piece, so they were really good for me to practice reading with when I was young and not that good at reading. Sometimes I would just look at the pictures and remember the stories when I couldn't read them (too young to read and after learning how to read, to tired to concentrate around my Dyslexia.) 

For this reason, I have chosen The Adventures of Pip by Enid Blyton as my Nostalgic pick and included photos of some of my favorite illustrations. Enjoy, I do.

 

Catwoman vol 1. New 52

Well I finally got the chance to sit quietly and digest this yesterday and honestly i love it as much as i ever used to as a teenager. (*Warning this will contain spoilers)
I love the rawness of Selina's personality. She has been broken and had to build herself up again and again and had no one to rely on until she found Lola. This means that she takes unnecessary risks, almost childlike in behavior that get her in trouble that she then has to get herself out of. This risk taking, reckless behavior combined with the beautiful drawings and layout by Judd Winick and Guillem March make it one of my favorite comics yet again.
I may have cried a little bit when Lola was killed and then again when Selina (Catwoman) went to Gwen for help at the end, even though she promised herself she would not. This volume has set up Catwoman beautifully to be that rather damaged cat burglar that i have come to love. The best bit is they haven't gone into the territory of Selina becoming unhinged like Harley Quinn and that way i have two strong women to read about. Yay!
I will be going out next week and getting the next volume so stay tuned if you want to find out more.

Day 18 Book Photo Challenge: Set in the Past or The Future

As part of my initial foray into the steam punk genre late last year I discovered Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan Trilogy. The series centers around a boy called Alek who is the son of the Franz Ferdinand, who’s assassination causes the first world war and Alek’s run for freedom.

On his journey he meets Deryn Sharp, a girl in disguise as a boy in the British Air Service. This is of course an alternate history in which the British forces have genetically modified and weaponised creatures thanks to the brilliance of Charles Darwin and the Germans and allies are refered to as the Clankers thanks to the steam powered contraptions that walk their cities and country side.

I loved this series and because of it have read more steam punk themed novels and also read all of Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies books.

Unfortunately, at the time of my reading it, my library didn’t have Goliath so I had to buy it which means I will have to get the first two to round out the set. What a shame….having to buy more books but I wouldn’t what this one to get lonely now would I? 

Day 17 Book Photo Challenge: Favorite Classic

I picked A Study in Scarlet as my favorite classic but, honestly, I could have picked any of the Sherlock books that I have read as my favorite because I just love the character.
As I have said previously I didn't start reading classics until I got my kindle four years ago for Christmas and was a broke university student who discovered free books from the Gutenberg Project. Since then I have read quite a few but I found that the Sherlock books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle speak to me the most because they are the most like what I normally read in modern fiction. Smart characters that get one (or several) up of the authority figures of the piece but are a little bit broken them self.

Let the Reading Marathon Begin!

Hip Hip Hooray! The Holidays Start Today!

This is the time of year that I love being a teacher. I love my job, don't get me wrong but who wouldn't love the mandatory 6 weeks off over the Christmas break.

My Plan for the end of year reading is a little cheeky. I'm gong to read one or two of my big thick books before new years and then get stuck into my smaller books on my reading list to knock down some of the books on my Goodreads reading challenge for next year.

This year I set my reading challenge at a conservative 40 books and I reached that awhile ago and am now sitting on a comfortable 55. The plan for next year will be to stretch myself to 60.
Feeling quite good about this as I has looked at some of the statistics for the challenge and nearly half a million people registered and as of today, just over 8000 have completed it.
I would put a list of what I am planning on reading in the next 6 weeks but I know from experience that that is just the most ridiculous waste of time because I always end up changing my mind.
And, Of course I will be keeping you all updated as to what I'm reading and what I think about it right here.

 

Day 16 Book Photo Challenge: Guilty Pleasure

The Sookie Stackhouse series is most defiantly my guilty pleasure. I don't want to bag it but it is a bit trashy and not exactly written in a manner that will make it a long lived classic but i love the characters and the world and they just make me feel like I'm talking to old friends without that whole tedious going out and talking to people thing.

These are one of the few things that I chew through in about a few days a book because it is so simply written.

I will admit, I watched the TV show first and after about a season, I went out and found the books. I find it's a bit like reading fan fiction becasue the characters aren't quite the same and the plot line now differ greatly but anything to slake the need.

My Guilty Pleasure (other than reading in general) The Sookie Stackhouse Series By Charlaine Harris. 

Day 15 Literary Photo Challenge: Currently Reading

I am currently reading reading a few books. Mainly I' reading Amari by Steven Atwood which I got through Library Thing for free. I'm halfway through Catwoman vol 1. I'm listening to the Collected Public Domain Works of H.P. Lovecraft from Liborvox. 

The Widowmaker: A Thriller For Horror Buffs I have been reading on and off for a while now but it hasn't really grabbed me.

Literary Photo Challenge Day 14: Favorite Character Name

I am running a little behind at the moment so here is catch up time.

Slartibartfast is one of my all time favorite character names for the shear ridiculousness of it. It was so ridiculous Adams even acknowledge  it in the dialogue between Slartibartfast and Arthur Dent.

That and my Mum used to call my brother and I Slartibartfast just as a funny word to say and not tell us where she got it from.

Douglas Adams' Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a great one for awesome names anyway but this will always be my favorite. 

The Day The Young Writers Festival Came to Work

Out of the blue, Ron Barton at my school had organised a young writers festival at school yesterday.

He had organized all sorts of workshops and different authors of different genres and writing types to come in and give lessons and have Q & A sessions with the students. 

This was great because I have totally stopped being shy and can now just poke my nose in anywhere at work and see whats going on.

This of course means I got new signed books! Yay!

The Hatchling is written by Hayden Selfe (the son of one of my colleagues) and is book number one in the Dragon Paladin Series.

  The Darkening is written, drawn and inked by Marcus Schultz and is the first publication of Dichosis Studios.

I will put up reviews of these once i have read them, but in the mean time lets take a moment to thank the good people of my schools English department and all others who organised this event and further enabled my addiction to signed books. Give them a round of applause would you.

So I Went Into The Library Looking for Some Ursula Le Guin......

So I went into my school library looking for some Ursula Le Guin and to cool down because half the school doesn't have air conditioning and it turns out they don't have any. The School is only 7 years old so they don't have the archive that you would expect of a library. 

But I got talking to our library lady and walked out with this haul for holiday reading.

When I walked buck into my office i got some jealous looks and some accusations of preferential treatment by some colleagues but I maintain that i don't know what they are talking about and anyone would get treated like i do if they are nice to everyone. And promptly blew raspberries at them.

When I got home they did have to undergo the sniff test but luckily they passed Colin's approval and he is now waiting for me to start reading them to him.

Wish me luck!

Literary Photo Challenge Day 13: Reading By The Fire

I couldn't pick one single book so I picked BOOKS 

I grew up on a farm where we had fire places and bonfires and outdoor stoves and things all the time so i would read by the fire because they were just always around. I miss them now that i don't have them but I don't have that fantasy of reading by an open fire because I have done it and i know how much work it is to maintain that sort of thing.

I might not be so romantic but I much prefer reading by central air. Considering it reached 40 degrees Celsius about an hour ago here, i much prefer it. 

As an added bonus, if I really want that extra sensory feeling of being in Westeros i can crank the air con up and feel like i'm freezing and then when i step outside i can be across the Narrow Sea and stretch my legs on the Dothraki Sea. 

Literary Photo Challenge Day 12: I Wish I Had Read This Sooner

I couldn't pick a particular book for this one so I choose a genre.... sort of.

I wish i had have started reading classic literature sooner than I had. Unlike a lot of people who read a lot of the classics in high school, we read things that they thought we would like such as tomorrow when the war began and Lockie Lenard: Human Torpedo, both of which I hated. Not to mention the fact that some years we didn't even read a text as part of our schooling, this is what you get for going to school in the country.

When  I got my Kindle however, I was in my last year of University and hence i was broke and couldn't really afford to buy any of the new release books.  This was when I discovered The Gutenberg Project and their free downloadable mobi files for kindle.

I read quite a few classics that year and a few since then. I have enjoyed then greatly and had an epiphany as to why classics are classic.... they are so well written and even one, two or even three hundred years after being first published, they read beautifully. I honestly wish i had started reading them sooner.

Literary Photo Challenge Day 11: Frustrating Read

My frustrating read will always be the first book in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever series, Lord Foul’s Bane.

It wasn’t just the dilapidated condition of my copy that made this book frustrating.

This book actually belonged to my Dad and he would read it (and the rest of the series) in the down time on the trucks at work. To Quote him “there is only so many times you can read the paper.” He must have liked the book and read it several times because this is the condition that I found it in the bookshelf as a teenager (having been published in 1977, seven years before I was born.) complete with duct tape (because duct tape fixes everything.)

So there is the condition of the book that is frustrating adding to the fact that the old paper and the small font size is messing with my dyslexia (even if I didn’t realise it at the time) and the idea that my dad had read it so I would definitely enjoy it. conglomerated in a book that took me seven attempts to finish. To add to this, even though I at least the next five, possibly more, books in the series, I have never read them. 

All together the epitome of a frustrating read.

Second Hand Book Shopping

Whilst out getting my Harley Quinn book yesterday I spotted a second hand shop, or thrift store if your American. Picked up this nice little haul.

Had to show you the covers of these two however:

I truly love the cover art!

Christmas Presents for Niece

Went out and got my Christmas presents for my niece today. She loves books and I am all for encouraging that. 

Best part, and this is going to make me Aunty extraordinaire, her name is Mia and I managed to find a book about a monkey named Mia.

Am I awesome or what!