Bookish meriment

This year Goodreads has made a really neat My Year in Books summary for its members. As this year turned out to be not my best in the reading department I was still delighted to see the results.

Even though my reading has taken a back seat for a bit, I’m still happy with books I’ve been reading this year. I’ve been reading some classics I’ve been meaning to for years and I managed to squeeze some new books as well.

I liked that with many genres I’ve ventured into this year I still prefer YA adventure and urban fantasy. Also for the first time ever I had some really good books that I enjoyed and a book I rated with only 1 star out of 5.

While I love my books I also love gaming and other shiny pretty things. Here is the latest one: a puzzle I got this Christmas from a good friend I met trough a book club. I started on it at New Year’s Eve.

There are some books I have been lugging on “reading” shelf that I mostly ignored for months. I have started reading them again and I’m very optimistic with my progress.

As it turns out the last book I’ve read in 2016. was A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. And there is one rather ominous quote that can be applied to my monster TBR list.

To reach goals one must set them first. And this is why I am making plans for my reading in 2017. With mandatory finishing books I started I decided to clean up my TBR a bit.

My To-Be-Read list is closing in on 400 books currently. My goal for 2017. is to get it close to 300. I plan on doing this by finishing some book series and getting to reading books I already own.

 

To keep this plan up I decided to launch a preemptive strike at each month and make a list of books I want to read and things I want to do. I’ve been neglecting my blog because I’ve been having too much fun with some other things and it is time to start writing about them too.

So Happy New Year everyone! May you be blessed with interesting books and fullfilling lives ❤

A Christmas Carol – Book Review

Finished reading

A Christmas Carol

by Charles Dickens

★★★★

Expectation

This was my first reading of this little book. It was a book club assignment for December. Since lately work has been busy and reading has been scarce altogether I liked the idea of a short little book. Nevertheless I decided to read it in English in this quirky edition showed in the picture above.

“I HAVE endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it. Their faithful Friend and Servant, C.”
― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Summary

As I began to read I loved the author’s dedication at the beginning of the book. It was the first thing about this little book that made me realize I’m going to love reading it! Lately I was in bit of a Scrooge mode myself and this one paragraph really struck a cord:

“What’s Christmastime to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older; and not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ’em trough a round dozen of months presented dead against you? ”

Only thing I’ve read by Charles Dickens before this was Oliver Twist as a mandatory reading in school. As an easily impressed child I found it to be quite depressing.

This time reading it in English AND with a bit more cheery topic I loved the authors writing style. Some catchphrases and metaphors had profound impact on me.

…fellow passengers to the grave…

…darkness is cheap…

…more of gravy than of grave with you…

…bachelor was a wretched outcast…

Conclusion

I’m glad I’ve read this little book. It is a wonderful feel good book. If not for it’s Christmasy theme it might not be so easy to go over some parts of it. Just complaining over this tiny bit makes one feel like a Scrooge from the beginning of the book.

Book loot for the end of the year

Last month I’ve been to a book fair and lately I’ve been hoarding unusual number of new books. Some were gifts and some I bought for myself. Most I just grabbed and wouldn’t let go…

I swear I’m like a bear getting ready for hibernation!

Here are the books that are new on my shelves!

Half Bad (The Half Bad Trilogy, #1) by Sally Green

&

 Half Wild (The Half Bad Trilogy, #2) by Sally Green

Both of them I’ve read earlier this year and I’ve even bought a Croatian edition. Third book in this trilogy Half Wild in English I’ve gotten in April as a gift.

 The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Also Croatian edition. This is one of the books I bought at the book fair in Zagreb. This book is relatively hard to come by. I was very happy to have found it. Yesterday I’ve seen the first photos and stills of the new miniseries based on this book and I’m even more glad to have gotten it!

 The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

  This is one of the books I’ve heard from my friend. She read the copy from the library and I was intrigued because it totally missed my radar when it first came out. Again Croatian edition. It has a dark and twisted feel to it and I hope I get to reading it soon.

 Saga Omnibus by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples

Croatian edition is a chubby omnibus that collects first three volumes. It is really heavy and not cheap but I love it anyway! I was thrilled when I first read this graphic novel and hopefully next year t this time I’ll have the second omnibus as well!

A Wrinkle in Time (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #1) by Madeleine L’Engle

&

 A Wind in the Door (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #2) by Madeleine L’Engle

These are Croatian editions of a children’s classic I’ve been eyeing for years now. Sadly it is a five book series and there probably won’t be translations for the last three books A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time.  😦  I also found English edition of a second book A Wind in the Door hidden in my shelves o.o

  Hammer of Thor (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #2) by Rick Riordan

I loved the first book and when I’ve seen this one finally arrive I just grabbed it and wouldn’t let go. This is one of the few books I’m getting in hardcover editions as they come out. There are tons of pictures with American edition covers but not many with British edition covers I’m getting. I will try to snap a few good pictures when I do the review.

The Hidden Oracle (The Trials of Apollo #1) by Rick Riordan

Only Rick Riordan’s books that did not sit well with me were Kane Chronicles. As for the rest of them I plan to get them all eventually.  I love the feel of adventure they bring to life in me when I read them! Maybe I’ll even give Kane Chronicles a new chance as well!

Half a King (Shattered Sea, #1) by Joe Abercrombie

For the purposes of a book gifting in my book club I asked my boyfriend to take his Croatian edition of this book. I promised to replace it with a pretty English edition and I did. I’m actually hoping to get the whole trilogy eventually and read them as well!

The Witch with no Name(The Hollows #13) by Kim Harrison

Last book of The Hollows series. I still have to read one book before it but wouldn’t start before I got this one. I ordered this one online and it is in the mail as we speak!

Staked (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #8) by Kevin Hearne

This book series I need to catch up as well. Boyfriend read all before this book and will be happy to read it too. Ordered online and also in the mail!

Busy Busy November 2016

This November I’m going without Monthly reading review for the first time in two years. I started it in October 2014 (!) and kept it going ever since.

What has changed?

I read less…

There are many reasons that piled up for me lately. It is time to face the facts not just ignore them as excuses.

First and foremost for months now my vision has been deteoriating. I’ve even gone so far as stopped watching movies and avoiding even some of my favorite TV shows. I’ve went to check on my eyesight and I need glasses. I haven’t got to buying them yet and something always keeps getting in the way. I get tired easily because of my eyesight and it makes me cranky and a bit depressed.

To top it all my reading lamp stopped working and I haven’t replaced it yet either.

On the other side …

I have been busy anyway.

This November after six years of missing it I went to a book fair in Zagreb. Money for books was in short supply so naturally I went and borrowed some. This made my purchases a bit more humbler than I would liked but the experience has somewhat revitalized me.

In the picture is my humble loot.

I feel I need to add that I was there with some book club friends who are even more enthusiastic about books than me. We traveled to Zagreb and even had a real suitcase on wheels, a backpack each, AND more than few bags full to carry our loot in home.

As you can see in the picture  there are few books and some other things as well since I decided to drop in the gamer fair that was also happening just next door. Most of the things were presents and stuff I bought for others.

As I work in a bookstore I was mainly concentrating  on searching out for older editions that I can’t order or find easily. I’m especially proud of a little book in Chinese and gaming mugs for me and the boyfriend – he got the Deadpool mug and League of Legends is mine.

I’m very happy to have found Croatian edition Handmaiden’s tale by Margaret Atwood and favorite book from a decade ago – Blue Wolf by Homeric, a tale of Genghis Khan.

Birthday parties…

In November our gaming club Titan Atlas had a second birthday party and we went all out on the cake and games. Here are some cake pictures and link to our site 🙂

Klub Titan Atlas Osijek

Also my local book club had a third birthday party. Our members produced and performed a play based on a book one of the four active reading groups read this year. We were even promoted in local newspapers and news portals online 🙂

In conclusion…

In November I’ve eaten a lot of cakes and read only one book! Book was called Four Dukes and a Devil and is a compilation of short stories by five different authors. It is romance oriented and every story had a Duke in it! It was a mostly easy reading before bedtime on a tablet.

Four Dukes and a Devil by Cathy Maxwell et all ★★★

In the meantime I have already gotten my hands on some new arrivals in the bookstore and my December book loot will be a real dragon hoard indeed…