Stacking the Shelves: The Yearly Edition 2015

Tags

A Court of Thorns and Roses, Alexandra Bracken, Alienated, All Fall Down, All the Rage, Ally Carter, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Amie Kaufman, Amy Ewing, An Ember in the Ashes, Barry Jonsberg, Because You'll Never Meet Me, Bright Before Sunrise, Brigid Kemmerer, Champion, Cloudwish, Courtney Summers, Cynthia Hand, Dawn Kurtagich, Dead of Winter, Demon Road, Derek Landy, Dreams of Gods and Monsters, Ellie Marney, Every Move, Every Word, Far From You, Fiona Wood, Fleur Ferris, Frostbite, Half Wild, Happily Ever After, Harry Potter, Harry Potter Illustrated Edition, Hold Me Like a Breath, Holly Black, Illuminae, Illusions of Fate, In the Afterlight, In The Skin of a Monster, J.K. Rowling, James Smythe, Jane Austen, Jay Kristoff, John Flanagan, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Julie Kagawa, Justine Larbalestier, Kady Cross, Kathryn Barker, Kerstin Gier, Kiera Cass, Kiersten White, Kresley Cole, Laini Taylor, Lair of Dreams, Lauren James, Lauren Oliver, Leah Thomas, Legend, Leslye Walton, Libba Bray, Lisa M. Stasse, Maggie Stiefvater, Magnus Chase, Magonia, Margo Lanagan, Maria Dahvana Headley, Marie Lu, Meagan Spooner, Megan Miranda, Melinda Salisbury, Melissa Grey, Melissa Landers, Miss Mayhem, Pandora Jones, Panic, Percy Jackson, Pittacus Lore, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Prodigy, Queen of Shadows, Rachael Craw, Rachel Hawkins, Ranger's Apprentice, Razorhurst, Rebel Belle, Red Queen, Renee Ahdieh, Richelle Mead, Rick Riordan, Risk, Rogue, Ruby Red, Sabaa Tahir, Sally Green, Sarah J. Maas, Sea Hearts, Shadow Kiss, Shiver, Sisters of Blood and Spirit, Skulduggery Pleasant, Soman Chainani, Sophie Jordan, Soulprint, Spark, Star Wars, Stephanie Oakes, Stray, Susanna Clarke, Tess Sharpe, The Darkest Part of the Forest, The Dead House, The Diviners, The Dream Thieves, The Fate of Ten, The Foretelling of Georgie Spider, The Forsaken, The Girl at Midnight, The Heir, The Iron Warrior, The Jewel, The Last Time We Say Goodbye, The Next Together, The Raven Boys, The Ruby Circle, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, The School of Good and Evil, The Scorpio Races, The Sin Eater's Daughter, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, The Wrath and the Dawn, These Broken Stars, Thicker Than Water, Tiffany Schmidt, Trish Doller, Uninvited, Vampire Academy, Vanishing Girls, Victoria Aveyard, Way Down Dark, Where the Stars Still Shine

Stacking the Shelves is a thing where we talk about the books we’ve collected in the past week. These can be bought, delivered, ARCs, ebooks, etc.. Pretty self-explanatory.
Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tygna’s Reviews

When I did this last year, it was so much fun I just had to do it again.

So, here are ALL the books I obtained throughout the year 2015.

Books Bought:

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, by Leslye Walton
Illusions of Fate, by Kiersten White
Hold Me Like a Breath, by Tiffany Schmidt
An Ember in the Ashes, by Sabaa Tahir
Illuminae, by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Magonia, by Maria Dahvana Headley
Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard
The Ruby Circle, by Richelle Mead
The Diviners, by Libba Bray
Lair of Dreams, by Libba Bray
Way Down Dark, by James Smythe
The Darkest Part of the Forest, by Holly Black
Pandora Jones: Admission, by Barry Jonsberg
The Last Time We Say Goodbye, by Cynthia Hand
Razorhurst, by Justine Larbalestier
Alienated, by Melissa Landers
Sea Hearts, by Margo Lanagan
The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, by Stephanie Oakes
These Broken Stars, by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
The Wrath and the Dawn, by Renee Ahdieh
The Dead House, by Dawn Kurtagich
Vanishing Girls, by Lauren Oliver
Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes, by Rick Riordan
All Fall Down, by Ally Carter
Ruby Red, by  Kerstin Gier
The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riordan
Rebel Belle, by Rachel Hawkins
Miss Mayhem, by Rachel Hawkins
The Fate of Ten, by Pittacus Lore
In the Afterlight, by Alexandra Bracken
Every Word, by Ellie Marney
Every Move, by Ellie Marney
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling (new edition)
Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope, by Ian Doesher
Vampire Academy: Graphic Novel
Frostbite: Graphic Novel
Shadow Kiss: Graphic Novel
Legend: Graphic Novel
Sisters of Blood and Spirit, by Kady Cross
Far From You, by Tess Sharpe
The Sin Eater’s Daughter, by Melinda Salisbury
Uninvited, by Sophie Jordan
Soulprint, by Megan Miranda
In The Skin of a Monster, by Kathryn Barker
The Girl At Midnight, by Melissa Grey
The Raven Boys, by Maggie Stiefvater
The Dream Thieves, by Maggie Stiefvater
Risk, by Fleur Ferris
Ranger’s Apprentice #1, by John Flanagan
Because You’ll Never Meet Me, by Leah Thomas
Skulduggery Pleasant books, by Derek Landy
The School of Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani
Dreams of Gods and Monsters, by Laini Taylor
Rogue, by Julie Kagawa
Happily Ever After, by Kiera Cass
The Heir, by Kiera Cass
Half Wild, by Sally Green
Prodigy, by Marie Lu
The Foretelling of Georgie Spider, by Ambelin Kwaymullina
Queen of Shadows, by Sarah J. Maas
Box Set of Puffin Classics, various authors
Harry Potter Illustrated edition

The Shiver Trilogy, by Maggie Stiefvater
The Scorpio races, by Maggie Stiefvater
Champion, by Marie Lu

Books Won:

The Jewel*, by Amy Ewing
Spark*, by Rachel Craw
The Iron Warrior, by Julie Kagawa
Demon Road (signed ARC), by Derek Landy
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
Cloudwish, by Fiona Wood
In the Afterlight (signed), by Alexandra Bracken

I also somehow ended up getting a bowling ball.

*Won in 2014, received in 2015

Miscellaneous:

ARCs and Review Copies (requested and surprise):

Bright Before Sunrise, by Tiffany Schmidt
Where the Stars Still Shine, by Trish Doller
Stray, by Rachael Craw
The Next Together, by Lauren James
Thicker Than Water, by Brigid Kemmerer
A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas
The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, by Stephanie Oakes
The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riordan

Books I got through BooksForTradeAU:

Pandora Jones: Deception, by Barry Johansberg
Pandora Jones: Reckoning, by Barry Johansberg
The Forsaken, by Lisa M. Stasse
Cinder (ARC), by Marissa Meyer (Not pictured)

Presents (Birthdays, Christmas, etc.):

Panic, by Lauren Oliver
Dead of Winter, by Kresley Cole
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Seth Grahame-Smith (and Jane Austen)

Books I got for free (through various means):

White Time, by Margo Lanagan
All The Rage, by Courtney Summers
The Lost and the Found, by Cat Clarke
This Raging Light, by Estelle Laure
Pompidou Posse, by Sarah Lotz
Dumplin’, by Julie Murphy
Running Like China, by Sophie Hardcastle
We All Looked Up, by Tommy Wallach
Hidden, by Marianne Curley
The Astrologer’s Daughter, by Rebecca Lim
Lifespan of Starlight, by Thalia Kalkipsakis
State of Grace, by Hilary Badger
Cooper Bartholomew is Dead, by Rebecca James

---

So…that was all the books I got my hands on 2015.

How was every one else’s year?

Dear Book, I judged you by your cover, I am so sorry

Tags

Bloodlines, Cassandra Clare, City of Bones, Gillian Rubenstein, Legend, Marie Lu, Richelle Mead, Space Demons

So, you know how there’s the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, and you know how we all totally just do it anyway…

Well, there has been many a time where I have not even picked up a book, purely because I didn’t like the cover…and I have regretted it dearly.

So, here are some books that I have neglected to pick up in the past, because of their covers, but later picked them up to discover I loved them.

Legend, by Marie Lu

I saw this book around the place for ages before I picked it up…

That cover just does not appeal to me. At. All.

I can’t remember what made me eventually pick it up, but pick it up I did…and I loved it.

And then Champion destroyed me.

City of Bones, by Cassandra Clare

 As with Legend, I saw this everywhere, but had no desire to read it…I’m just not a fan of that cover.

But then I heard of a book series called ‘The Mortal Instruments’, and it sounded interesting, so I googled it (this was back before I knew about goodreads), and I discovered that it was this book.

I read the first chapter sample thing online, and I was hooked.

Space Demons, by Gillian Rubenstein

My relationship with this series has a bit of a different story.

See, we had to study an author for school (we literally pulled author names out of a hat to see who we had to study), and I was looking at the books our school library had…

The two sequels for this book both looked appealing, which is the only reason I picked this one up…

And it was a good thing I did, because I love this series.

Bloodlines, by Richelle Mead

THIS. SERIES.

I’d been sort of intending to read the Vampire Academy books for a while (those covers held no real appeal to me, either), but I had no desire at all to read this books until I realised that they were the sequel series.

This is one of my favourite series ever!

---

So guys, are there any books that you aren’t reading because their covers don’t appeal to you? Have you ever loved a book but hated the cover? What about the other way around? Have you read a book because of its cover, only to be disappointed?

Let me know.

 

TTT: Authors I’ve Read The Most Books From

Tags

Brigid Kemmerer, Cassandra Clare, J.K. Rowling, Julie Kagawa, Kiersten White, Lauren Oliver, Maggie Stiefvater, Rachel Hawkins, Richelle Mead, Rick Riordan

Top Ten Tuesday is a thing where we get given a topic, and we have to list our ‘top ten’ things for the topic. Pretty self-explanatory.
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This Week’s Topic: Top Ten Authors I’ve read the most books from

1. Richelle Mead: 12 books + 1 extra + 3 graphic novels

2. Rick Riordan: 12 books + novellas

3. Julie Kagawa: 11 books + 3 novellas + bonus scenes

4. Cassandra Clare: 9 books + extras

5. Maggie Stiefvater: 9 books

6. J.K. Rowling: 7 books + 3 ‘textbooks’

7. Kiersten White: 7 books

8. Rachel Hawkins: 6 books

9. Brigid Kemmerer: 5 books + 3 novellas

10. Lauren Oliver: 5 books

July: A Summary

Tags

Aimee Carter, Alienated, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Blood Of Olympus, Captive, Dark Days, Dead of Winter, Debra Driza, Derek Landy, Dreams of Gods and Monsters, Frostbite, Holly Black, Illusions of Fate, James Smythe, Julie Kagawa, Kiera Cass, Kiersten White, Kresley Cole, Laini Taylor, Legend, Marie Lu, Melissa Landers, Mila 2.0, Mortal Coil, Pittacus Lore, Rachael Craw, Renegade, Richelle Mead, Rick Riordan, Rogue, Skulduggery Pleasant, Stray, The Darkest Part of the Forest, The Fortelling of Georgie Spider, The Heir, The Revenge Of Seven, Way Down Dark

I’m back at uni and with the return to uni comes what can only be described as a need for procrastination. As some of you may have noticed, I disappeared around the middle of July, but it’s ok. I’m back now.

So, why did I disappear?

Well, some of you may recall this post where I talk about my plans for July: namely, much reading during the uni holidays.

And I quite succeeded in this challenge: I read 11 books! And while that doesn’t really feel like much (especially since I had a 5 week break from uni), it does sound rather impressive when I say that 7 of those books were read within a 6 day period.

I’m actually really proud of that.

Of course, in order to do that, I decided it was best to disappear from the internet (almost) completely. I went a whole week without twitter (*shock horror gasp*), and only went on goodreads to update the books I was reading. Though I did continue to check instagram.

And did I miss twitter? Well, yes and no. I did miss talking to people, and generally shouting random things into the void, but I spent practically an entire week doing nothing but reading.

The last time I was able to do that, I was probably 13 and the only thing I would read back then was Harry Potter.

But then I returned, just in time to find out something very exciting

THIS BEAUTY WAS RELEASED INTO THE MAIL!

And it was glorious!

My review is coming…I just need time to get over all THE EMOTIONS!

And what I find hilarious about all this, is that if I’d stayed away from twitter for one more day, I would have never known it was coming…which meant there would have been much less running around screaming with excitement as I grabbed my keys and jumped into my car to race to the post office to get the package.

And where’s the fun in that?

Despite returning to twitter, I remained absent from the blog

Like, seriously, as of the time when I am writing this, I have done zero blogging for 2 weeks…at least.

And, honestly, I didn’t really miss it.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love blogging, but to just read/do nothing for 2 weeks without writing a single word has just been so relaxing. I’ve actually missed not blogging.

But that does not mean I’m planning on quitting any time soon.

Ok, musings over, what have I been reading?

Frostbite Graphic Novel
Legend Graphic Novel
Blood of Olympus, by Rick Riordan
Rogue, by Julie Kagawa
Captive, by Aimee Carter
The Heir, by Kiera Cass
Dead of Winter, by Kresley Cole
Renegade, by Debra Driza
The Revenge of Seven, by Pittacus Lore
Illusions of Fate, by Kiersten White
Stray, by Rachael Craw
Dark Days, by Derek Landy
Mortal Coil, by Derek Landy

And what books did I buy/receive?

Bought:

Frostbite Graphic Novel
Legend Graphic Novel
Dreams of Gods and Monsters, by Laini Taylor
Alienated, by Melissa Landers
Way Down Dark, by James Smythe
The Darkest Part of the Forest, by Holly Black
The Foretelling of Georgie Spider, by Ambellin Kwaymullina

Received:

Stray, by Rachael Craw

What can you expect in August?

Due to time constraints, because of various stuff happening, I probably won’t be posting much variety (unless I can come up with and write a brilliant discussion post within, like, an hour), but there are several reviews I’ve been meaning to write, so expect those.

TTT: Most Anticipated Books for the Next 6 Months

Tags

Ambelin Kwaymullina, Amie Kaufman, Black Widow: Forever Red, Fleur Ferris, Illuminae, James Smythe, Jay Kristoff, Julie Kagawa, Margaret Stohl, Queen of Shadows, Rachael Craw, Richelle Mead, Rick Riordan, Risk, Sarah J. Maas, Soundless, Stephanie Oakes, Stray, The Foretelling of Georgie Spider, The Iron Warrior, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, The Sword of Summer, Way Down Dark

Top Ten Tuesday is a thing where we get given a topic, and we have to list our ‘top ten’ things for the topic. Pretty self-explanatory.
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This Week’s Topic: Top Ten Most Anticipated Books for the Rest of 2015

 1. Risk, Fleur Ferris

2. Queen of Shadows, Sarah J. Maas

3. Stray, by Rachael Craw

4. The Sword of Summer, Rick Riordan

5. Foretelling of Georgie Spider, by Ambelin Kwaymullina

6. The Iron Warrior, by Julie Kagawa

7. Soundless, by Richelle Mead

8. Illuminae, by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

9. Black Widow: Forever Red, by Margaret Stohl

10. Way Down Dark, by James Smythe

Bonus: The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, Stephanie Oakes
This is the bonus because I’ve already read it, but YOU PEOPLE NEED TO! This book NEEDS to be released into the world!

TeenCon2015: All the Awesome

Tags

A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Thousand Pieces of You, Amie Kaufman, Becky Albertalli, Brigid Kemmerer, Cassandra Clare, City of Bones, Claudia Gray, Cooper Bartholemew is Dead, David Levithan, Divergent, Dumplin, Eleanor and Park, Fallen, Fleur Ferris, Gayle Forman, Hidden, Hilary Badger, Hunger Games, If I Stay, Illuminae, Isla and the Happily Ever After, Jay Kristoff, John Green, Julie Murphy, Lauren Kate, Lifespan of Starlight, Maggie Stiefvater, Marianne Curley, Marie Rutkoski, Meagan Spooner, Patrick Ness, Paula Weston, Rachael Craw, Rainbow Rowell, Rebecca James, Rebecca Lim, Red Queen, Richelle Mead, Risk, Sarah J. Maas, Shadows, Shiver, Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Spark, State of Grace, Stephanie Meyer, Stephanie Oakes, Stephanie Perkins, Storm, Stray, Suzanne Collins, TeenCon2015, Thalia Kalkipsakis, The Astrologer's Daughter, The Fault in our Stars, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, The Winner's Curse, These Broken Stars, Throne of Glass, Tommy Wallach, Twilight, Vampire Academy, Veronica Roth, Victoria Aveyard, We All Looked Up, Will Grayson Will Grayson

As some of you may have noticed, I was at TeenCon2015 yesterday, which is a part of Sydney Writers Festival.

Painting my Support Team Jamie poster

I started preparing on Saturday, with a big blue piece of cardboard and some yellow paint.

As it turns out, yellow paint on cardboard appears green.

About 10 coats of paint later, the sign was looking adequately yellow.

And then came Sunday, and the journey toward TeenCon began.

Our trip started well, missing the train by a mere minute (I blame trackwork, which required us to go to a less familiar station). After missing the train, instead of having a full half-hour to find the venue, we had 10 minutes.

It took us half an hour.

Nevertheless, we eventually arrived, Team Jamie sign in tow, and ended up with seats…though not ones with an amazing view…

There was a pole in my way

We had arrived during the bloggers panel, in which four popular booktubers were discussing various bookish things.

 

You don’t fall in love like you fall into a ditch

 

 

After the bloggers, the publisher people got up to tell us books that we need to read now, and books we need to pre-order now. Some of the books mentioned were:

(out now)
Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard
Shadows, by Paula Weston
A Thousand Pieces of You, by Claudia Grey
A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas
Spark, by Rachael Craw
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

(coming soon)
The Rest of Us Just Live Here, by Patrick Ness
Risk, by Fleur Ferris
The Sacred lies of Minnow Bly, by Stephanie Oakes
Illuminae, by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Stray, by Rachael Craw (Spark book 2)

And then it was time for the Book Boyfriend Battle, in which each publisher had 30 seconds to talk about their two nominees.

Boyfriends nominated were:

Allen and Unwin
Tarver, These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Chris Merrick, Storm by Brigid Kemmerer

Bloomsbury
Chaol, Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas
Arin, The Winner’s Curse series by Marie Rutkoski

Hachette
Park, Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Edward Cullen, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

HarperCollins Australia
Four, Divergent by Veronica Roth
Josh, Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

Penguin Teen Australia
Augustus Waters, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Dimitri Belikov, Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Random House Australia
Cam, Fallen by Lauren Kate
Adam Wilde, If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Scholastic Australia
Peeta Mellark, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Sam Roth, Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Text Publishing
Rafa, Shadows by Paula Weston
Tiny Cooper, Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Walker Books Australia
Jamie, Spark by Rachael Craw
Jace, City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

 

’twas time for the Jamie sign to shine

Most unfortunately, Jamie did not win. Instead, the winner was

With Chaol and Four coming close second and third.

After the Battle, it was time for TeenCon to end, which meant BOOKS!

Books obtained:
Risk, by Fleur Ferris (extract)
Hidden, by Marianne Curley
Dumplin’, by Julie Murphy
The Astrologer’s Daughter, by Rebecca Lim
We All Looked Up, by Tommy Wallach
Lifespan of Starlight, by Thalia Kalkipsakis
State of Grace, by Hilary Badger
Cooper Bartholomew is Dead, by Rebecca James

And PRETTY BAGS that the books were in.

After TeenCon, some of us stayed behind to chat. I got a picture with the wonderful Claire:

And got to (finally) meet some people who I had only met via twitter.

Which was a lot of fun. We talked about books and…books.

My kind of party.

It was around 9pm when we began the trip home. I reunited with my travelling companions, and we got on a train towards the station.

However, I was to learn that my night was not yet over. As we passed through Central, I had an epiphany:

I had Chemistry homework due Monday morning.

 

TTT: Authors I really, really want to meet

Tags

J.K. Rowling, Julie Kagawa, Kiera Cass, Kiersten White, Maggie Stiefvater, Rachael Craw, Rachel Hawkins, Richelle Mead, Rick Riordan, Sarah J. Maas, Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a thing where we get given a topic, and we have to list our ‘top ten’ things for the topic. Pretty self-explanatory.
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This Week’s Topic: Top Ten Authors I really want to meet

1. Maggie Stiefvater

2. Rachael Craw

3. Julie Kagawa

4. J.K. Rowling

5. Richelle Mead

6. Rick Riordan

7. Kiersten White

8. Sarah J. Maas

9. Rachel Hawkins

10. Kiera Cass

TTT: All Time Favourite Authors

Tags

Alexandra Bracken, Brigid Kemmerer, Cara Lynn Shultz, Cynthia Hand, Julie Kagawa, Kiersten White, Lauren Oliver, Maggie Stiefvater, Marie Lu, Michelle Hodkin, Rachael Craw, Rachel Hawkins, Richelle Mead, Sally Green, Sarah J. Maas

Top Ten Tuesday is a thing where we get given a topic, and we have to list our ‘top ten’ things for the topic. Pretty self-explanatory.
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This Week’s Topic: Top Ten ALL TIME favourite authors

These are basically the authors on my auto-read list.

1. Richelle Mead

2. Julie Kagawa

3. Kiersten White

4. Maggie Stiefvater

5. Cara Lynn Shultz

6. Sarah J. Maas

7. Cynthia Hand

8. Rachel Hawkins

9. Sally Green

10. Alexandra Bracken

Bonus:

11. Rachael Craw

12. Lauren Oliver

13. Michelle Hodkin

14. Brigid Kemmerer

15. Marie Lu

The Challenge: A Summary

Tags

A Court of Thorns and Roses, Alexandra Bracken, All Fall Down, Ally Carter, Amie Kaufman, Ballad, Cooper Bartholemew is Dead, Cynthia Hand, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Derek Landy, Half Wild, Harry Potter, In the Afterlight, J.K. Rowling, Justine Larbalestier, Laini Taylor, Lauren Oliver, Leslye Walton, Maggie Stiefvater, Meagan Spooner, Megan Miranda, Melinda Salisbury, Never Fade, Rachel Hawkins, Razorhurst, Rebecca James, Rebel Belle, Red Queen, Richelle Mead, Ruby Circle, Sally Green, Sarah J. Maas, Shadow Kiss, Skulduggery Pleasant, Sophie Jordan, Soulprint, The Darkest Minds, The Last Time We Say Goodbye, The Sin Eater's Daughter, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, These Broken Stars, Uninvited, Vampire Academy, Vanishing Girls, Victoria Aveyard

As some of you may recall, I gave myself a challenge at the beginning of February. I was to limit myself to reading only books that I already owned/had out from the library. I was not to buy any new books in this time, with the exception of new releases.

So, how did I go?

Well, silly me forgot to take into account the fact that it was my birthday in February. Which means that I got birthday money to spend on ALL THE BOOKS!!!

So, here are the books I bought with my birthday money:

And here are the books I was ‘allowed’ to buy during the challenge period:

And here are all the other books I bought because they were there, or because they were cheap, or because books.

And here’s a picture of them all together:

Total number of books bought: 16.

That’s like, one book every 4 days.

Better yet, for every one book I was allowed to buy, I bought three others.

Reading wise, I faired a little better, reading 6 of the books I bought, as well as several others:

And due to the fact that I read a few ebooks/library books/Netgalley books, here is a full pic of all the books I read:

Total books read: 18.

So, while I did technically read more books than I bought, I made a very, very small dent in my to-read pile. Also, some of these books didn’t make it to the to-read pile before they got read (namely, the ebooks/Netgalley books), so they were, if anything, counter-productive.

In conclusion:

TTT: All Time Favourites

Tags

Alexandra Bracken, Amy Zhang, Bloodlines, Brigid Kemmerer, Disruption, Divergent, Falling into Place, Jessica Shirvington, Kasie West, Maggie Stiefvater, Markus Zusak, Michelle Hodkin, Pivot Point, Rachael Craw, Richelle Mead, Spark, The Book Thief, The Darkest Minds, The Raven Cycle, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Top Ten Tuesday, Vampire Academy, Veronica Roth

Top Ten Tuesday is a thing where we get given a topic, and we have to list our ‘top ten’ things for the topic. Pretty self-explanatory.
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This Week’s Topic: Top Ten Books you would classify as your all time favourites from the past 3 years

Note: I’m taking ‘from the past 3 years’ to mean books that I have read in the past 3 years.

1. Vampire Academy/Bloodlines series, by Richelle Mead

2. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, by Michelle Hodkin

3. The Raven Cycle, by Maggie Stiefvater

4. Divergent, by Veronica Roth

5. Pivot Point, by Kasie West

6. Disruption, by Jessica Shirvington

7. Falling into Place, by Amy Zhang

8. The Darkest Minds, by Alexandra Bracken

9. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak

10. Spark, by Rachael Craw

Bonus: Spark, by Brigid Kemmerer