A to Z Survey

Author I've Read The Most Books From:  Oh, wow, there are many... Carol Shields. Susanna Kearsley. Isabel Allende. Kelley Armstrong. David Levithan. Charles de Lint. Bill Willingham. Jacqueline Winspear. Charles Todd. Jennifer Estep. Probably many others...

Best Sequel Ever: um... hm. I am sure there is something that will come to me after I click 'post'.

Currently Reading: The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson.

Drink of Choice While Reading: It depends on the time of day... I like coffee, orange juice, and maybe something alcoholic in the evening. 

E-Reader or Physical Book: I will read both, but I am mostly a physical book reader.

Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Dated in High School: hm, well, when I was roughly that age I was definitely an Anne of Green Gables fan and really liked Gilbert Blythe. I am not even sure who else fits the criteria. I never really was big on fictional crushes. 

Glad You Gave This Book A Chance: Oh, so many! Most recently I am so happy to have read Night Film. I loved it and am not big on thriller-type reads normally.

Hidden Gem Book: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. People that are not typically into fantasy should give it a try because it was awesome. I even read it twice. 

Important Moment in Your Reading Life: When I started blogging and discovered there were many other genres that I had never really read before and I really liked now. 

Just Finished:  Night Film by Marisha Pessl.

Kind of Books I Won't Read:  I am actually at a point in my life where I am pretty flexible on what I read. I still don't rush out and read like romance novels and westerns, but I have.

Longest Book I've Read: Oh, phew, I don't even know. I don't keep track. There have been some long ones.


Major Book Hangover Because: If I read too much I get tired of reading and need to take a break. I have read long books in one sitting before and then needed to chill afterwards. 


Number of Bookcases I own:  Probably like 7 or so? 


One Book I have Read Multiple Times: The Time-Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

Preferred Place to Read: In bed. It is the most comfortable place to read.

Quote That Inspires You/Gives You All the Feels From a Book You've Read:  "You can never have too many books"


Reading Regret:  I wish I was a bit limited on my reading so I could feel a bit more accomplished. I read across too many genres and I have way too many books to choose from. 

Series You Started and Need To Finish (All the books are out in the series):  Ha! There are so many I couldn't even begin to tell you... I am terrible at finishing series!!

Three of Your All-Time Favourite Books:  The Time-Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, and The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.


Unapologetic Fangirl For:  This always seems to change. There are lots of authors that I make sure to always buy their new books, but I am not sure who is entirely leading the pack. There seems to be themes, though. I remember a year of Carol Shields, another of Isabel Allende, more recently I discovered Susanna Kearsley and read everything I could by her, and then this year I had to own everything by James S.A. Corey. 


Very Excited For This Release More Than All The Others:  There is new Fables out this year. I can't wait to see what direction The Unwritten is going to take. I am waiting for the Jim Henson biography to ship. That is just the ones off the top of my head. There are still many good books out this year.

Worst Bookish Habit:  Lately? Not making reading a priority. I am having a very quiet reading year and still books come into my house...

X Marks The Spot: Start at the Top Left of Your Shelf and pick the 27th Book: I can't do this right now. I am getting organized to move.

Your Latest Book Purchase:  I bought the Jim Henson biography last night. :)

ZZZ-Snatcher Book- Book That Kept You Up WAY Too Late:  Oh, so many! Recently I spent a lot of time reading Night Film. It still took me forever to read it, but I did stay up late many times trying. 

Book Hoarding...

I recently watched the first season of Hoarders on Netflix. It left me thinking about clutter and with a burning desire to clean. Just the state of some of the fridges on that show lead me to clean our fridge at like 11 at night. Then, I tackled the one closet that still had tonnes of junk in it. I literally just threw things out the door and the cc went behind me and bagged it up. The thing that I haven't tackled recently is my books.

I used to be obsessed with rearranging my shelves and changing the organization. The thing is that I live with the cc in a place too small for a lot of books, so my books mostly still reside in my mother's basement. The goal is to get them out, but I know that when I do there are a lot of them. I have no probably purging anything else but my books. I do it, of course. I more often than not have at least some book credit at the second hand bookstore. I only have about 100 books with me at the cc's and a few months ago I went through and took out all the books I wasn't very interested in anymore. So, I know that if my books were here, I would be cleaning through them all the time.

My goal was always to keep the books down to a level that they could fit on my shelves. Last time I rearranged my books, I even had leftover space. So, as long as they fit, I never really considered myself having a problem. Moving them, though, hurts my head. I have a lot more books than I did when I moved last. Mainly because I had more room for said books. The basement room they are in has one of those ledges. Then, I have shelves hanging on the wall and six bookcases. Everything is such a mess right now, though, I have no idea if they would still all fit on the shelves. I go over occasionally and drop off books that I have read and take some more for the pile here. The thing is that I don't take the time to rearrange the shelves to make up for this movement of books.

The main reason? I know I don't want to move all those books, but trying to purge that many is overwhelming. And, I know that I have to do it because while I want to have my books the same place with me, I know that as long as I keep pushing it away, the more books that I can keep. I am not sure if that makes me a hoarder, though. I know if I put my mind to it, I can easily get rid of books. It is just the overwhelming task that gets to me. Not just the actual decision making, either. Then you have to do something WITH the books. Normally I take them to the second hand bookstore and then what they won't take, donate to charity or something along those lines. I don't like taking all of them in at the same time. I usually stagger it... I'm weird.

Anyway, so, what do you think? Are you a book hoarder? Do you think I am and am just in denial about it?

E-Books and Me: A Discussion

For Christmas, the cc bought me an eReader. I had only sort of wanted one since they came out, but he had a good argument. My books won't fit in our place and are still mostly residing at my mother's house. Maybe later this year we will finally have enough room, but just in case that doesn't happen I can put books on an eReader and then I don't have to worry about space. Then, I can resume buying books once in a while and actually know where they are AND maybe get them read. He made a good point and I agreed that I wanted an eReader for Christmas. I still bought books, though. All the books in my list of books I was looking forward to in 2011? I pre-ordered them all and they will be physical books. They are series and authors that I love and will want to hang onto for years to come.

Just because I was getting an eReader, though, I had no idea what I was going to do with it once it arrived. Would I even like it? Would it be something I love for a moment and then get tired of? I opened it up on Christmas Day and discovered that I love it. It came loaded with 100 classics and I always feel like I don't read enough classics. Why buy them, though, when they are available free? It is much more affordable to read them on an eReader. It is not taking away from authors, either, because they are dead. I feel no guilt. Plus, I am currently making a list of books I have read either through my eReader or the library that I want to own. If I see them at a second-hand store, I will buy them then. If not, they are just books that I will buy when I have more space.

I actually have reasons for why I like eReaders:

• The big one is space. I don't have room for everything that I read... Once I read a book I do tend to decide if I want to keep it or discard it, but sometimes that doesn't help much.
• Money! I want to read classics, so this way I can read them for free and buy the ones that I really love at a later date if I want to.
• Font size. I hate really little font in books. I will either not read or put off reading a book because of it. With an eReader you can change the size and this means I am reading books I probably would never have read otherwise.
• Page count. I am really good with books in the 300 to 400 page range. Bigger than that, though, I tend to start them and never finish them! With an eReader you have no idea how big a book is. I just read and don't worry about it. With paper books I am constantly checking to see how many more pages a chapter is or how many more pages the book has left. The eReader counts down the pages and tells you how far you are from the end. I actually read ebooks faster!

Those are just the reasons that come to mind. What is it that you love or don't love about eReaders? I have seen lots of posts about the subject, but I am still curious about this issue.

Another thing I have seen circulating is piracy issues. Some authors have found ways around this by supporting the free downloading of books. Last night I downloaded a whole series of books by Lois McMaster Bujold from Baen Books. I am excited because I have always wanted to read the series, so now I can read them and then decide if I like them or not. If I do, you can bet that I will buy them. If I don't, then, well, I didn't waste money. I don't feel guilty if I get a few free books here or there, though. I used to buy books just based on recommendations, but I have to be picky about that nowadays. When you don't have space for anymore books you have to do what works. There are sites that are even starting to make the first book in series available for free. I think that is an awesome idea because if I like the first book I will buy it and then buy all the rest of the series... I have to have complete sets!

What are your thoughts on free ebooks? Do you think they have their benefits, or are they a bad idea entirely?

Book Discussion - Book Covers

In my interview for BBAW I mentioned judging a book by its cover, but there is another cover-related topic that I have been thinking about lately. Matching. I love it when I have a series of books and they all match cover-wise. It drives me crazy when you have a long series that you are in the middle of and they change the covers suddenly. Then, they go back and change all the old book covers. This is great for people just discovering the series, but it means that if I want my matching set than I have to go rebuy the books. I am not quite that obsessed. Besides, it is one thing to do it when you have a really long series, but is it really necessary for a trilogy or smaller series?

Let's look at some examples, shall we?

Kelley Armstrong:

(Paperback) (Hardcover) (New Covers)

Shannon Hale:


(Old Covers) (New Covers)

Maria Snyder:


(Old Covers) (New Covers)


J.D. Robb:


(Old Covers) (New Covers)

Carrie Ryan:


(Old Cover) (New Cover)

So, obviously this whole thing doesn't stop me from buying books! It is just something that bothers me. Now, it is time for others to chime in. Does it bother you, even if you buy the books anyway? What are some examples of series it has happened during that has really bothered you?

(Note: I live in Canada. These are the covers that were or are readily available here. They may not represent book releases in other countries.)