Category: General

Top Ten Tuesday

Posted July 7, 2015 by Nicky in General / 16 Comments

This week’s theme from The Broke and the Bookish is “top ten hyped books I’ve never read”. Hmmm, let’s think…

  1. Breaking Dawn, Stephanie Meyer. I read Twilight, because I thought I ought to give it a chance, but it’s really not for me and I have a whole lot of objections to it.
  2. Divergent, Veronica Roth. I think it’s technically on my TBR somewhere.
  3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling. Though I am planning to read this soon, ’cause I’m doing a readalong with some other folks.
  4. City of Bones, Cassandra Clare. Doesn’t really appeal, especially since I know about the author’s history of plagiarising.
  5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson. I have this to read, but I’m pretty uninspired about getting round to it.
  6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky. It’s never appealed at aaaall.
  7. The Fault in Our Stars, John Green. It really doesn’t sound like my thing, even if cancer didn’t freak me out unbearably.
  8. A Game of Thrones, G.R.R. Martin. I am actually going to read this. Eventually.
  9. On the Road, Jack Kerouac. I’m sorry, I hated it.
  10. The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks. Not my thing at aaaaall.

What about you guys? And are you listing books you intend to read someday, or books you never read?

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted July 4, 2015 by Nicky in General / 10 Comments

Yet more shenanigans in Canadian bookshops! Why do I gotta go home?

Cover of Dreams of Shreds & Tatters by Amanda Downum Cover of Sing the Four Quarters by Tanya Huff Cover of Fifth Quarter by Tanya Huff

Cover of No Quarter by Tanya Huff Cover of The Quartered Sea by Tanya Huff Cover of Summon the Keeper by Tanya Huff

Cover of Artemis Awakening by Jane Lindskold Cover of The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison Cover of The Stone Prince by Fiona Patton

And yes, I already had The Goblin Emperor, but as an ebook, which isn’t ideal for flipping to the back and checking the extra stuff. Plus, excuse to reread!

Also, a ton of comics between me and my partner…

Cover of Rat Queens: Sass and Sorcery Cover of Sex Criminals vol 2 by Matt Fraction Cover of The Movement vol 2 by Gail Simone

Cover of ODY-C vol 1 by Matt Fraction Cover of Ms Marvel: Crushed by G. Willow Wilson

I think that’s the end of my Canadian book spree, particularly since I’m no longer sure this lot will fit back into my suitcase to go home… What’s everyone else been grabbing?

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July TBR

Posted July 2, 2015 by Nicky in General / 2 Comments

So June’s TBR didn’t really go down as well as I’d hoped. I’m gonna blame the holiday, though: so much to do, so little time. I’m not going to have everything in the catch-up section, just the ones I think I actually will get round to. Here goes…

ARCs

  1. The Raven’s Head, Karen Maitland.
  2. The Dead in their Vaulted Arches, Alan Bradley. (I know, I know. Way late.)
  3. The Philosopher Kings, Jo Walton.
  4. Adaptation, Malinda Lo.
  5. A Suitable Replacement, Megan Derr.

Library

  1. A Dance in Blood Velvet, Freda Warrington.
  2. The Goddess Chronicle, Natsuo Kirino.
  3. Half the World, Joe Abercrombie.
  4. Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling.
  5. Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling.

Owned

  1. Assassin’s Blade, Sarah J. Maas.
  2. Heir of Fire, Sarah J. Maas.
  3. Fair Game, Josh Lanyon.
  4. An Ember in the Ashes, Sabaa Tahir.
  5. Clariel, Garth Nix.

Rereads (including books counting as owned-unread because of ebook duplicates)

  1. The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch.
  2. Red Seas Under Red Skies, Scott Lynch.
  3. Powers, Ursula Le Guin.
  4. Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling.
  5. Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling.

Catching up (from last month’s TBR)

  1. Heartless, Gail Carriger.
  2. Timeless, Gail Carriger.
  3. Abhorsen, Garth Nix.
  4. Named of the Dragon, Susanna Kearsley.
  5. The Winter Sea, Susanna Kearsley.

Wildcards

  1. The Killing Kind, Chris Holm. (ARC.)
  2. One Night in Sixes, Arianne ‘Tex’ Thompson. (Bought, book club read.)
  3. Poison, Sarah Pinborough. (Library.)
  4. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling. (Challenge read.)
  5. Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho. (ARC.)

ETA: tweaked this a bit because I forgot about a book challenge I was doing. Some of the original list, alas, will have to wait!

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted June 30, 2015 by Nicky in General / 13 Comments

This week’s theme is the top ten books read so far in 2015. Which is at least easier than all-time favourites or something like that!

  1. Voyage of the Basilisk, Marie Brennan. Or Tropic of Serpents, in fact. I gave them both five stars!
  2. Acceptance, Jeff VanderMeer. Though it’s the whole series, really; they’re so weird, and I think you do need to read all three to get a good picture.
  3. Grave Mercy, Robin LaFevers. Or the second book… I might even prefer the second book. But yeah, I was surprised by how much I liked these.
  4. The Just City, Jo Walton. Nobody’s surprised. Are you?
  5. Season of Storms, Susanna Kearsley. Go on, break my heart, you meanie.
  6. Lock In, John Scalzi. Really fascinated me.
  7. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke. Okay, okay, I know it’s a reread, but I discovered a whole new appreciation for it.
  8. Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie. I might not have given it five stars myself, but it is pretty awesome.
  9. A Court of Thorns & Roses, Sarah J. Maas. I wasn’t a huge fan of Throne of Glass, though it’s fun, but ACOTAR… yeah.
  10. The Lie Tree, Frances Hardinge. I don’t love it like I loved A Face Like Glass, but. Yeah. <3

Looking forward to seeing everyone else’s, but bear in mind I’m in Canada on holiday right now and might not get much chance to comment!

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted June 27, 2015 by Nicky in General / 20 Comments

Greetings from Canada! Though my WordPress scheduling still has stuff going up at my standard UK posting times, I am indeed far from home.

So the haul this week… I got The Long and Faraway Gone due to a giveaway Chris Holm did. <3 I hadn’t heard of it before, but I’m intrigued. And then, well… Canadian bookshops. Calgary is amazing.

Cover of The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney Cover of Through Wolf's Eyes by Jane Lindskold Cover of Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences by Ursula Le Guin

Cover of Mission Child by Maureen F. McHugh Cover of A Fistful of Sky by Nina Kiriki Hoffman Cover of Reading in the Brain by Stanislaw Dehaene

Cover of Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link Cover of Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe Cover of Armor by John Steakley

Cover of The Thousand Names by Django Wexler Cover of Dinosaurs Without Bones by Anthony Martin Cover of Illusive by Emily Lloyd-Jones

And me and my partner jointly got Nimona. And she got Sex Criminals and Loki: Agent of Asgard. We share comics anyway; reminds me I need to lend her The Wicked + The Divine if I haven’t yet. And is the next TPB of that out?

Cover of Nimona by Noelle Stephenson Cover of Sex Criminals: One Weird Trick by Matt Fraction & Chip Zdarsky Loki: Agent of Asgard #2

Seriously; Shelf Life on 4th Street SW was okay, Indigo in the Core was great, but Fair’s Fair on 9th Avenue/8th Street was a paradise.

And here’s our weird Canadian encounter for the week: while stood at a bus stop with our bags of purchases, my partner and I noticed a guy walking towards us with a book in hand. Naturally we wondered what it was, but I didn’t let her ask (I’m too British). As he came up to us, he asked if we liked books. Partner said yes and showed him the bags as proof. He dropped his book into the bag and walked on before we even had chance to say thank you.

Cover of Margin for Murder by Bronte Adams

I’m not sure if I’m gonna read it, but I will keep it for the story of how I got it…

What’s everyone else been getting? Are you anywhere exciting this week?

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted June 23, 2015 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

This week’s TTT topic is a bit meta — it’s a top ten list of favourite Top Ten Tuesday topics! I haven’t done all of these, I just browsed through the list of past challenges to look for fun ones. If I haven’t done them, I may well do them next time we get a freebie week!

  1. Books I’d want on a desert island. It’s a classic, after all.
  2. Books I just had to buy… but are still sitting on my bookshelf. Er. I’m not a major perpetrator of this one. Nope.
  3. Books I’m so happy were recommended to me. Because you’ve got to appreciate the people in your life who just get it right.
  4. Books I wish I could read again for the first time. I did this one recently, with Guy Gavriel Kay’s “if I’m found with amnesia…” twist.
  5. Books I’d quickly save if my house were about to be abducted by aliens. Because let’s face it, the theme made me laugh, and it’s a valid question.
  6. Most frustrating characters ever. Come on, who doesn’t have a fictional character or two they just want to smack?
  7. Characters I’d never want to switch places with. FitzChivalry Farseer is probably topping that list.
  8. Popular authors I’ve never read. It’s always nice to know I’m not the only one.
  9. Characters you want to check in on after ‘the end’. I thought this one was an interesting one, and we all have characters/worlds we wonder about, right?
  10. Heroines. Because yay girl power!

What about you? Is there any you’d like to do next time there’s a freebie, or anything you’d like me to do?

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No Book Buying Challenge: Best So Far

Posted June 22, 2015 by Nicky in General / 6 Comments

Well, the theme for this month’s #ShelfLove update is to do a mid-year review, which I’ve already done. So I will do July’s theme already: to share the best book so far this year that counted toward this challenge. Let me dash to my Goodreads shelves and take a look… Seems like the winner is Marie Brennan’s Tropic of Serpents. You can read my review here!

  • 30/51+ already owned books read (last one recorded: Ancillary Justice, 21/06)
  • Spent: £21 out of ~£30 budget (budget is 10% of my income) for January
  • Spent: £20 out of ~£25 budget for February
  • Spent: £22 out of ~£25 budget for March
  • Spent: £15 out of ~£16 budget for April
  • Spent: £45 out of ~£30 budget for May
  • Spent: £18 out of ~£40 budget for June

Can you tell I’ve been earning some more money this month? Such a relief. It’s going to be a bit difficult to keep track of the rest of this month, given that I’m in Belgium, Canada and the US, so dealing with various different currencies. It will basically go green if I manage to keep to my main budgets, and I won’t worry too much about the exact total.

Here’s my more general progress on resolutions:

  • No books impulse-bought (despite a recent spree, that was still books I considered for at least a day first!)
  • Read every day (I had problems with this because of an assignment, so I’m giving myself half a pass on this one!)
  • Bed before midnight (nearly every night now)
  • Up before ten every day
  • Only bought one book from a series at a time
  • Posted to the blog every day
  • Commented on at least one other blog every day (I should have made time for this despite my assignment, it’s not like it takes long)
  • Tithed 10% in January, February, March, April, May & June
  • Done 55 hours volunteering total
  • Reading/reviewing books from NG/etc (60% ratio; massive progress in the last month!)

Obviously this month I added some colour-coding. That red line for May will give me extra determination not to have more! Green is for good progress or sticking to a target; orange is for marginal or in progress things.

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Stacking the Shelves

Posted June 20, 2015 by Nicky in General / 16 Comments

This week, I got some major goals done — the book I was ghostwriting was finished (well, one of them), I got a lot of transcription work done, and I got an assignment done. So I was allowed some books, and much deserved they were. Also, one of them was bought with a voucher my mother gave me a few weeks(!) ago. Aaand then was Support Tor Day (warning: link to Vox Day’s blog; no, he isn’t supporting Tor, he’s calling for a boycott, which to me is tantamount to asking all reasonable people to support them).

Plus, Susanna Kearsley sent me an Amazon voucher to make up for me getting smacked with a customs charge for a book she sent me. I don’t have that book in my hands yet, but I do have a couple of her others. I had some of these from the library, but…

Cover of Uprooted by Naomi Novik Cover of Across the Wall by Garth Nix 23213811

Cover of Mariana by Susanna Kearsley Cover of The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas Cover of Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

Cover of Hammered by Elizabeth Bear Cover of The Seventh Bride by T. Kingfisher Cover of The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury

Cover of The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley Cover of Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang Cover of A Companion to Wolves by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette

Excite!

Comics

Ms Marvel

I’m not sure how I feel about this event, but still. Ms Marvel. Yay.

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48 Hour Book Challenge

Posted June 19, 2015 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

Well, thanks to Ryan (SpecFic Junkie), looks like I’m joining in with MotherReader’s 48 Hour Book Challenge. My 48 hours will run from 6pm Belgian time 11pm on Friday to 6pm 11pm Belgian time on Sunday, and I’m not aiming too high in terms of participation — I know I’ve got a chemistry assignment to finish, prep for a trip to Canada, and also, you know, time to spend with my partner. And sleep. And the bunny. Obviously 12 hours is the minimum bracket, so I’m aiming for at least that.

Watch this space for updates! I have no particular stack, but the books will come from my June TBR, or fill one of my three remaining wildcard spots.

Blogging stuff: 4 hours.
Talking about books: 2 hours.
Reading: 6 hours. Finished Ancillary Justice; started The Philosopher Kings; read a couple of short stories.
Reading for assignment: pretty much 12 hours, no kidding. So much science.

I am hesitant to count the blogging stuff because yeesh, self, that is a lot of time noodling around on blogs. And the assignment stuff also includes doing math and rearranging equations, so it doesn’t count really.

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Top Ten Tuesday

Posted June 16, 2015 by Nicky in General / 14 Comments

This week’s theme from The Broke and the Bookish is all about the summer TBR! Because I type this up in advance, I might have had chance to read some of these already, but even so, here goes a list of books I’m highly anticipating reading sometime this summer, particularly with my long flight to Canada to encourage reading time.

  1. Simon and the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Becky Albertalli. It sounds like a lot of fun, and I picked it up recently so… why not?
  2. Dorothy Must Die, Danielle Paige. My sister made me buy this because of Ollie the educated monkey, so I’m going to have to read this soon before she kills me and pries it from my cold dead hands.
  3. The Lions of Al-Rassan, Guy Gavriel Kay. This is a reread, and I really must get round to it, because I do love GGK’s work, and I’m determined to finish rereading all of it in publication order before I finally get to read River of Stars.
  4. An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, Chris Hadfield. His videos and stuff on the ISS were really cool, and generally he seems like a pretty fun guy. And I’ve had this for ages.
  5. Landline, Rainbow Rowell. Whyyy haven’t I got round to this yet?
  6. Signal to Noise, Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Recommended by someone in the Cardiff SF/F book club, and I just bought it, so hopefully I’ll get to it soon.
  7. Dreams of Gods and Monsters, Laini Taylor. High time I finished reading this trilogy, I know!
  8. The Enchantment Emporium, Tanya Huff. Not only have I got this, it’s on a list of books recommended by friends. So high time I got round to it. Which is a theme on this list, it seems…
  9. Fair Game, Josh Lanyon. Both books in this series, really. They’re fun and I don’t know why I haven’t read them already, especially since I had the second one as an ARC.
  10. The Bards of Bone Plain, Patricia McKillip. I had to pick at least one of her books. <3

What about everybody else? Are you keeping your list full of current books, or are you trying to catch up?

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