It's been a while!

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I went on a holiday where I had no internet so no blogging to be had there. Then i got back and started work again for the year. That has been all sorts of crazy. For startes I don't have my own room any more so I have to move classrooms every lesson, but I did get a funky trolly to carry all my stuff. I feel the need to steam punk the thing but I just had to work out a design. Secondly I have 2 extention classes and a stage 2 upper school so that means sooooo much more planning than I used to have to do. Weekends have been taken up marking, making homework and prepareing for the next week.

Anyway, that is boring real life stuff. The exciting news is that not only have I already read 17 books this year (18 and 19 well on the way to compleation as well.) but, most exciting of all. I had my 30th birthday and had a big party and instead of asking for small things that aren't much bother when people asked me what I wanted, I responded with "something spectacular" and boy did they deliver.  

Pictures to come but the pinicle was my awsome partner who got me (some how, I love eBay) an American first edition, signed Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. To top it off I got presented with it at my party (a week before my birthday) so I got to show off. Needless to say I cried. This book is now, instantly my prized possesion. Douglas Adams Touched My Book!

So, will post some pictures of all the other cool stuff I got soon and some reviews of the books read so far this year. Well on track to reaching my goal of 70 books this year. Yay!

Day 15 January Book Photo Challenge: Favorite Antagonist

Once again, I have cheated a little with this one and picked a group of antagonists. Namely zombies!
Zombie stuff (books, TV shows, movies) are my guilty pleasure and whats more (and I haven't watched warm bodies yet so I don't know how successful it was) they cant be romanticised like vampires and werewolves.

They are humans reduced to the most basic instinct, eating things. That it. And I love it! The cheesier the better as far as I'm concerned.

Just as a proving point of how bad it can get and me still love it, I have actually read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and loved it and then thought it would be a good idea to purchase and read Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. I got about a chapter in, it was terrible, terrible writing, terrible premise, terrible shoehorning in of the extra plot, which no doubt  Pride and Prejudice and Zombie had also, but without zombies, there was not the suspension of belief that I would have otherwise.

And who can blame me being taken in with opening line gems like:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.

It is just brilliant. I can't get enough of it.

 

Insurgent By Veronica Roth Review

This might be a bit harsh but I think that this might be my last OTP, YA, female heroine has something special about her but it takes the actions of the male love interest to bring it out in her type series I'm going to read for a while.
I'm not saying that Insurgent was bad, it's not, it just happens to be the one that I read as I get bored with the premise.
Veronica Roth is a very competent writer with a solid story, it just doesn't stand up as strong as the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld or The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

I will be reading the last book in the series because I want to see where the story goes but I won't be reading anything (The 5th Wave, Half Lives, Reboot) like this in the near future.
3 out of 5 stars.

Second Hand Shopping Book Haul

All for less than $10. There is something immensely exhilarating about picking a pile of books and walking up to the counter and seeing a hand written sign that reads "All Books Half Price" Makes my heart sing.
The Letters of Cicero has hand written notes in it. Yay. Also, The Whisper of Leaves is Australian.
  

Day 14 January Book Photo Challenge: Book OTP

I picked Threshold by Sara Douglas as my OTP (one true pairing) because Boaz and Tirzah were so bound to each other that in subsequent books (The Darkglass Mountain series) set many generations later, their offspring end up together.
Brilliant book, brilliant series, amazing author.

Day 13 January Book Photo Challenge: Page Saver (ie Bookmark)

This is my favorite book mark because my great grandmother (Little Nana) made it. I don't know when but I have had it for as long as I can remember. It is made of pressed flowers (everlasts I think) between two pieces of plastic bound together. It has recently been through a traumatic event when I first got Colin, our dog, when he got hold of it and chewed the top off. Luckily he did not damage the flowers and I was able to mend the top.

Day 12 Book Photo Challenge: Library or Book Store

I live in a relatively new suburb and consequently we don't yet have a library (and bookstores are pretty thin on the ground these days.)
I have, however, been following the progress of the building of the library that should open in April. Above is the drawing of what it should look like. I have been following this progress since we moved here 18 months ago and just 3 days ago my mum rang me to inform me that we were getting a library. Thank you mum.
Luckily I do work at a high school where a I am allowed to take out a large stack of books to last me over the summer holiday. Otherwise I would die....because I have so few books in my house hahahahaha.