Books I Read In One Sitting [Top 5 Wednesday]

Hey, y'all! So for Top 5 Wednesday this week, the topic was books you read in one sitting (or close to). I had so many books that I wanted to mention that I decided to do a blog post just listing (and briefly discussing) all of the books that I could think of that I'd read in one sitting or close to one sitting.

So, since the list is so long, let's just go ahead and jump into it!

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

by J.K. Rowling

This is still the only book that I've ever been able to get at its midnight release, and I dove into it as soon as possible. I probably had to set it down a few times to do chores and such, but I pretty much read it in a single sitting. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

by J.K. Rowling

I've mentioned this several times, but I was on vacation when this book came out and instead of waiting until I got home to get the copy I reserved, I bought this at the airport and spent the entire day on the plane reading it and once again finished it in a day.

City of Bones

by Cassandra Clare

This book was my introduction to the Shadowhunter world, and I was hooked right from the start. I remember discovering it and being completely unable to put it down. And ever since, I've loved Cassie Clare and her books.

City of Heavenly Fire

by Cassandra Clare

I read this Cassie Clare novel really quickly for a very different reason. Last May, I was doing a reading challenge where I read all of Clare's books in one month. This was the last book I had to read for the challenge, and I had only one day left to read it, so I buckled down and read the entire thing in a single day.

Clockwork Princess

by Cassandra Clare

Similar to the last one, I was reading this for my challenge, and I was getting a little behind, so I really wanted to get it done quickly. However, that quickly changed when I got so pulled into the book that I couldn't put it down, and I fell in love with it.

13 Reasons Why

by Jay Asher

This is one of my all-time favorite books, and the first time I read it, I was so drawn in that I read it all in a single sitting. I just wanted to find out everything about the story, and couldn't put it down.

Divergent

by Veronica Roth

For this one, I read about 50 pages before going to sleep. When I picked it up the next day, I got pulled in and couldn't put it down. Like with Clockwork Princess, I got so invested in the story, I just had to keep reading and reading. 

The Shadow Throne

by Jennifer A. Nielsen

With this one, I'd been reading the trilogy for a while and just really wanted to figure out how it ended, and so I buckled down and read the whole thing in one sitting.

And Then There Were None

by Agatha Christie

I've obviously read this one in a single sitting multiple times, but I'm pretty sure that the first time I read it, I also either read it in one or two sittings. It's just too good. 

The Future of Us

by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

Like with Jay Asher's other book, 13 Reasons Why, this book had a really intriguing concept and I eagerly anticipated its release. When it finally came out, I bought it and was so intrigued that I just sat down and read the whole thing. Although the book didn't live up to my expectations, it was at least good enough to keep me interested until the end.

Ten

by Gretchen McNeil

This quick read was actually due more to a time constraint than to actual interest, even though I was curious about what was going to happen. I read this in the month where I had to read 6 books, and I was getting down to the end and just needed to fly through books, so I just sat down and got through this one in a couple hours.

Wildflower

by Janine Carbone

Just like with Ten, I read this in February where I had to read 6 books in a month. Plus, this book is really short and fast-paced, so I probably would have read it in a single sitting either way.

Evil Under The Sun

by Agatha Christie

This is another February, 6-books-in-a-month book. But this one was the last one of the month, so I was under even more of a time crunch. I definitely wouldn't have gotten through it as quickly without the time constraint though, because this is (so far) my least favorite book that I've read this year.

Horrorstor

by Grady Hendrix

I read this in October as a horror marathon, and was so intrigued by the concept and the very interesting and unique format of the book that I just wanted to see what would happen. It wasn't an amazing book by any stretch of the imagination, but it was intriguing enough that I finished it in one sitting. 

Ignite Me

by Tahereh Mafi

This was another reading challenge one. Otherwise, I don't think that I would've read it in a single sitting like I did. Definitely the best book in the Shatter Me trilogy by far, but still not anywhere near being one of my favorite books.

The Body Electric

by Beth Revis

This book was just so good. I couldn't put it down. The world was so cool and the story was so intriguing, and I just kept reading and reading. 

The Fault in Our Stars

by John Green

I was actually on a trip when I read this. It's a pretty short book, so it wasn't hard to finish it in a single sitting. And after this one, I actually continued right on to...

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

by Stephen Chbosky

...this one! Which I also read during that same sitting. Probably not the best idea to read both of these books in the same day, but oh well. They were both really good. 

Whodunnit? Murder on Mystery Island

by Anthony E. Zuiker

Murder mysteries are really quick reads for me because I just want to know what's going to happen. And these books are particularly quick reads because of the way that the murder investigations are conducted, so I just flew through this. 

The Twilight Saga (except Breaking Dawn)

by Stephenie Meyer

Yep, I read the first three books in the Twilight Saga in about 6 days. Two sittings per book, even though they're massive. I almost want to go back and reread them just to see if I actually enjoy them now. Breaking Dawn, however, took me a really long time to read because I hated Jacob's POV (even though he was one of my favorite characters in the series).

So, those are all of the books that I can think of that I read in (pretty much) one sitting! Let me know down in the comments what books y'all have read in one sitting!

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Summer Wrap-up!

Hey, y'all! Back in April, I did a monthly wrap-up post and mentioned that I might make it into a monthly series. Obviously, that hasn't happened... for several reasons. I had a lot of posts going up at the end of the month during each month in the summer, but the main reason I didn't do them is that my life isn't that interesting. I don't do that much. But enough interesting stuff happened throughout the summer that it warranted a wrap-up post. I'll also be discussing my monthly favorites! Let's get right into it!

The first, most obvious thing that I did this summer was my summer reading challenge. If you followed my blog at all throughout the summer, you probably already knew that. But, if you haven't seen anything about it, you can click here to check it out! It was definitely a big challenge for me, but I'm really glad that I decided to do it, because I got through 26 books in only 3 months! I'm really happy with the amount of reading I got done in May, June, and July.

Now, let's get into everything that went on in my life during each month!

May

As I mentioned in my April post, May began with finals. My finals were actually really early this year, and my last one was on May 2nd. Normally, I would almost immediately begin moving out after finishing my finals, but since I was working in the library on campus over the summer, I actually just got to chill out for a week before starting work. Both of my roommates moved out and went home, leaving me with a huge triple to myself! But the joy didn't last for long. Mid-May, I moved into summer housing. Let's just say it sucked. The dorm we lived in during the school year is one of the nicer dorms and we had a fairly large room. The room I lived in over the summer was very small, had bad lighting, and was in an older dorm with lots of pipes and a big window AC unit. It was a bit of a disaster.

Besides moving into my summer room, not much really went on in May. I worked 40 hours a week during the weekdays and relaxed in my room on the weekends... and didn't really do much else. 

May Favorites

The Mole

For those of you who have never heard of The Mole, it was a reality TV show from the early 2000s. There are 5 seasons. The first two are with regular people, the 3rd and 4th are with celebrities, and the 5th season was a regular people reboot circa 2008. The premise of the tv show is that a large group of people are competing to win money for a group pot that one of them will win. But the catch is that one person in the group is "The Mole," a saboteur hidden among the group who is working with the producers to keep the group from winning money. The contestants are attempting to discover who the mole is, while simultaneously trying to win money, and the home viewers also don't know who the mole is. At the end of each episode, contestants take a quiz where they have to answer questions about the mole's identity. The person who scores lowest on the quiz is eliminated. 

I first discovered the show last summer and watched the first two seasons. In May, I ended up re-watching the first two seasons and watching all 3 of the other seasons for the first time. If there were more seasons, I would have watched those too. I love this show. Oh, and the gif is of Anderson Cooper (who hosted the first two seasons and is half the reason it's amazing) being adorable after tricking the contestants into thinking he was about to eliminate someone. 

Clockwork Princess

Clockwork Princess was by far my favorite book that I read in the month of May. I read almost all of it in a single sitting, and it was absolutely beautiful. It quickly and unquestionably became one of my favorite books. Often, I have to give quite a bit of thought into what rating to give a book, but this one was a no brainer. 10/10 immediately.

June

June 1st, one of my school-year roommates got back to school for her internship that she was doing over the summer. We weren't living together because all of the summer rooms were just doubles, but it was nice to have one of my best friends back on campus. 

My birthday was on June 10th, and my parents were able to drive down to visit me, and they got there the same day my summer roommate (who I also live with during the school year!) came back to campus. So I spent the weekend with them and then my grandparents were supposed to fly in on Monday morning. Unfortunately, my grandparents' plane was delayed because of bad weather, so they didn't arrive until late that night. That afternoon, however, I took my parents to meet my bosses, and they actually bought me a cake and brought it in for all of us to eat!

  

 I love my bosses. They're some of the sweetest people ever. So, that night, my grandparents finally got in and I got to spend just a little bit of time with them that night. 

The next day, I showed them around my campus and introduced them to my bosses. We got to go out to dinner and then we picked up my cake and met up with my roommates to eat the cake.

My roommate Erin (the one on the right, who I wasn't living with over the summer) gave me a Wreck This Journal, which I was really excited to start using. Sarah, however, got... creative.

It's a running joke. We got Erin a wand for her birthday as well. We're all basically 5 year olds trapped in 20 year olds' bodies. Also, my smile is so weird because the icing on the cake turned our teeth black. Oops.

After my birthday, June wasn't really too interesting. It was basically just like May: work, chill, repeat.

June Favorites

Top Chef

Top Chef has been one of my favorite TV shows since 8th grade. So basically for 7 years *cue Kristen stopping and realizing that junior high was literally SEVEN YEARS AGO and that she's currently a 20 year old college junior* I have watched this show religiously. Well... lately not so much, but the first few seasons are perfection. Hulu added basically every episode of Top Chef, so I ended up making my way through *almost* all of the first five seasons while at work. I didn't quite make it to the end of season 5, because that was when the season started going downhill, and when the show started going downhill as well. Season 2 was the best season by far (followed by season 3, and then seasons 1&4 are tied). The only reason season 4 gets to tie with 1 is because RICHARD BLAIS. AKA my favorite contestant ever on Top Chef ever. Anyway, season 2, head-shaving incident. It will live forever in infamy. 

American Horror Story: Murder House

I had been meaning to watch this show for a really long time, but I have a very long list of shows that I've wanted to get to for a long time. I was in the mood, so I went for it. Season 1 was great. Haunted houses are my favorite haunted things. And Evan Peters as Tate totally has a Kurt Cobain vibe and I love it and I love him. I watched about half of season 2 before getting disinterested. I didn't dislike it, but I definitely couldn't get into it as much as season 1. If season 3 had been up on Netflix, I'd probably have just watched that, because I know I'd like it. But season 1 was great. I'll get to the other 2 eventually. 

July

Just like May and June, only one really interesting thing happened in July... the Fourth of July! One of my friends had an Independence Day party, where we ate lots of food and set off lots of fireworks. It was lots of fun.

So yeah, the fourth of July was really fun, but it was really the only exciting thing that happened in the month of July.

July Favorites

The Pilgrims of Rayne by DJ MacHale

This one shocked me. I always considered it to be one of the worst in the series (partially due to its terrible cover) but upon a re-read, it's unquestionably my favorite. I wish I could erase my memories of reading it and then go back and re-read it so that I could experience all of the shock and awe that goes along with it.

My Top 15 Stand-alones

I promise that this isn't just some shameless plug. I actually really enjoyed writing this post. I mean, I enjoy writing every post, but I especially enjoyed this one. I'm not quite sure exactly why I enjoyed it so much, but it was just a lot of fun and I got to see how some of my favorite books stacked up against each other... quite literally!

August

August is when things started to get really great. August first, Erin, Sarah, and I were able to move out of summer housing into our new apartment! Erin liked her summer room, but Sarah and I were very, very ready to move. Not only was our room completely cramped, but it had become ant and gnat infested and super gross. We wanted out of that place ASAP. And it didn't hurt that our new apartment is gorgeous...

The only tiny complaint is that the apartments were designed to have one person in each bedroom, but when our school took it over, they put two people per room. So our spaces are a little... cozy.

This is my side of mine & Erin's room. There's also an entry into the room with our closet, and on the wall across from my bed, I have my desk and bookshelf... but you can't see that yet because I'll be making a post all about my bookshelf later. 

After spending the entire weekend of August 1st-3rd moving, I packed up again on Monday and hopped on a plane to visit my parents! I spent a week there, and it was a nice and relaxing break from work and pretty much any responsibilities at all. It was great. 

And that pretty much catches y'all up with everything that has been going on with me this summer. Classes start today (well tomorrow, but I'm scheduling this for tomorrow, so... you get it) but I only have work-study and orchestra, so I have a pretty light schedule... until Thursday. That's when I start doing research assistant stuff out the wazoo. WOOT. 

August Favorites

Problem by Pentatonix

So, I will admit that I have listened to the original version of this song (by Ariana Grande and Iggy Azalea) a grand total of 0 times. All the way through, at least. So I wasn't extremely excited about Pentatonix covering it. I knew it would be great because it's PTX and everything they do is amazing, but I wasn't crazy excited. The day their EP went up for pre-order, I pre-ordered it, being the obsessed fan that I am. With that came this song, and the music video was released the same day. I then proceeded to listen to exactly 0 other songs for about a week. I'm not exaggerating. This song is probably my most played song on my iTunes at this point, but I don't want to plug in my phone and prove myself right.

Dare MattG

If you're unaware, this guy is Matt. His Youtube channel is MattG124, and every Friday, he does "Dare MattG" (That thing on the internet where you dare me to do some things and sometimes I do those things that you dare me to do). Anyway, since he's been doing it for almost 3 years and has had a few breaks from doing it, he has a little over 90 Dare MattG videos. Before starting this marathon, I think I had seen like 2. I've now seen 1-75. And I'm working on the last 20ish. I've loved his videos for forever, but never got into Dare MattG. And now I've seen the light.

This brings me to infinity and beyond... er... what my plans are for the immediate future.

I'm working with my advisor as her research assistant, so that's going to take up a lot of time. Plus, I have 2 300 level psychology classes this semester, which is intimidating. I also have a 100 level music class, but I'm not really concerned about that. I probably wouldn't be too fazed by taking 4 400 level music classes, honestly. Anyway, I also have the same work-study job as well as ensemble classes and private lessons and orchestra (for which I'm now the viola section leader, so YAY). Plus the many many hours I'll be devoting to research assistant stuff, which I don't even want to think about right now. Let's just say that I'm glad I dropped my fourth class.   

I'll be posting an update on schedule and such... soon. IDK when. Because I don't have a schedule yet. If you only knew how busy I am...

Don't forget that I've created a Facebook page for my blog! If you want to check that out and like it, you can click HERE. I'll try to keep that pretty up-to-date with new posts and such.

Thanks for reading this! If you like my posts, don't forget to subscribe/follow, since it lets me know that you're enjoying what I'm doing. See y'all soon!

Embarrassingly Large May/June Book Haul! [Book Haul #2]

Hey, y'all! So remember back in April when I did my book haul and talked about how embarrassingly large that book haul was? Clearly, I didn't understand the definition of "embarrassingly large." The real definition is THIS:

In case you were wondering, that's approximately 50 books. Granted, this haul is over the course of 2 months rather than just one, and June's my birthday month so I got birthday money, but that's still an incredibly large number of books. I'm actually so ashamed of myself that I'm putting myself on a book buying ban. I've made a list of books I'm allowed to buy if I find them for a good price, and I'm allowed to buy books from used bookstores. This eliminates the real problem which is my compulsive online buying. Often, if I see a book online for fairly inexpensive, and I've heard good things about it, I buy it. Also, I'm completely out of room on my shelves, and I can't put up my full 5 shelf bookcase until I move into my new apartment at the beginning of August. So the ban will probably span all of July, and then I'll probably change the stipulations some. Because if I don't give myself limits, I'll buy all the things.

Anyway, enough rambling. On to THE BOOKS.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

So I decided to start with the section that I feel the least shame about, because I actually bought less than half of these books. As I've previously mentioned, I work at a library. One great thing about working in cataloging is that if the library gets books as a gift, and it's determined that we don't need the books, I can have them if I want them. It's not like I'm allowed to take every single discarded book, but if I see some that catch my eye, I can have them. The library got gifted the first 11 books of A Series of Unfortunate Events. We already had books 1-9 and 11, so we didn't need extra copies. I'd already bought the 1st and 6th book a few weeks before, so I got to keep 2-5, 7-9, and 11. I then found books 10 and 12 at a used bookstore. I have yet to find book 13 anywhere, but I'm not in a huge hurry. I do want to re-read these eventually, because they were a pretty significant part of my childhood. And these books are just gorgeous, so I'm really glad that I have almost all of them now!

Book Outlet

I had a Book Outlet coupon and stumbled across a lot of books that I'd been eyeing for quite a while, so I made a pretty sizable purchase.

Music by Nicholas Cook

This was one of the more impulse buys of the order. I'm a music/psychology major, and I'm really interested in books examining how we think about music, and that seems like what this is about. I also liked the minimalist cover.

Nothing Feels Good... by Andy Greenwald

When I saw this book, I HAD to have it. It sounded like it was practically written just for me. I love punk rock and emo music, and I started listening to it when I was a young teenager (and it feels really odd to say that I'm not a teenager anymore). I'm excited to get into this, though I noticed recently that it doesn't have such great ratings on GoodReads. 

Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon

This is the first book in the Chronicles of Nick series. I've been eyeing these books for quite a while, and when I found this for only a few dollars, I decided to get it. It sounds like a really exciting and action-packed fantasy series with a similar premise to Cassandra Clare's books, and I see Sherrilyn Kenyon books everywhere, so she seems to be a pretty popular author. I'm excited to get into this series eventually. Because everything's eventual.

Invincible by Sherrilyn Kenyon

I also picked up the second book in the Chronicles of Nick series. It was a cheap hardback, and I really enjoyed the cover. I almost bought the 3rd, 4th, and 5th books, which were all also on Book Outlet, but I decided to wait just a little bit in case I didn't like the series for some reason.

The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander

In my last book haul, I showed the other four books in this series, which I also purchased off of Book Outlet. This time, the second book was actually on there (ONE lone copy- $2.99), so I snatched it up and plan to marathon the series sometime this year, complete with a viewing of the 1985 Disney movie, which is one of my top 5 Disney movies of all time. I'm just a little excited. 

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

This is actually the book that got me onto Book Outlet. I watched one of Ariel Bissett's videos where she raved about how much she loved this book. It sounded just so interesting, so I checked Book Outlet, and they had it for $1.49. So I grabbed my coupon and browsed around to see what else I could find. The concept behind this book is absolutely intriguing. I'm not sure when I'll get to it, but it was totally worth it.

You Have Seven Messages by Stewart Lewis

I saw this one in Barnes and Noble one time and the concept was interesting, so I took a picture of it to remember it. And then I saw it on Book Outlet for less than $3 so I just added it on. This one also doesn't have the highest GoodReads ratings, but the concept has me intrigued. It reminded me just a little of Thirteen Reasons Why, which is one of my favorite books.

Asylum by Madeleine Roux

I've been pining for this one for quite a while. I've seen it in a handful of book hauls and have wanted it since I first saw it. It looks so creepy, which is one of my favorite types of books/ movies. I think I'm going to have a horror TBR for October, so I think I'm going to be saving this one for that, along with a few more books I really want to read. 

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

This is yet another booktube find. A lot of people I watch have absolutely loved this book, and I thought that it sounded like a really interesting concept. This is also another one I've had my eye on for quite a while. I had really wanted the paperback cover of this, but this hardcover was inexpensive enough that I decided to go for it. If I fall in love with it, maybe I'll splurge on a paperback copy. 

The Pendragon series by DJ MacHale

I already had books 7-10 in hardcover, but I wanted the entire series in hardcover since it's one of my favorite series. So, I got the first six used from various sites, to varying degrees of success. At least they all will display well on the shelves, regardless of some of the semi-damaged books. I also think that some used bookstores need to re-consider what they consider to be "very good condition." I had to bring several of these to work to clean them up and remove stickers and other junk from the books. And those were the fixable problems.

Online Purchases

This section is just a random assortment of books that I got from several different orders at several different times.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

I already had this on my kindle, and I'm not sure why I didn't just buy the hard copy the first time around, but now I have it in hard copy! My one annoyance is that I ordered a used copy in the original cover... and this brand new movie-tie in was what I got. In general, I'm not a fan of movie tie-in covers. I don't dislike this cover, I just wanted the original cover. I almost returned it, but it's the same book, in perfect condition, with Logan Lerman on the cover. I can cope.

Ultimate Unofficial Guide to the Mysteries of Harry Potter

(Analysis of Book 5)

I have the first Unofficial Guide (which covers books 1-4) and found it really interesting. I happened to discover that they'd made one for the 5th book, which I was conveniently not far from starting, so I decided to pick it up and read them together. 

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

There's one booktuber who raves and raves about this book and how amazing it is. It's over 1000 pages long and sounds like a really interesting challenge. I had my eye on it for a while, and came across it one day on the Book Outlet, so I picked it up.

Daughter of Smoke & Bone and Days of Blood & Starlight 

by Laini Taylor

Katytastic on Youtube raves and raves and RAVES about this trilogy, and has touted it as her favorite trilogy ever. I tend to have a fairly similar taste in books, so I generally trust her quite a bit when it comes to recommendations. These were $6 apiece on Books A Million's website, so I jumped on the opportunity to get them.

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

This book... so beautiful. I pre-ordered it back in February and finished reading it less than a week after it came out. I did a full discussion on it, which you can check out by clicking HERE. It was an amazing conclusion to one of my all-time favorite series. LOVE.

Used Bookstores

These were all purchased during multiple trips to used bookstores throughout May and June. Yay for bargain books!

Pretties and Specials by Scott Westerfeld

These are the 2nd and 3rd books in the Uglies trilogy. I read the first two books of this trilogy back in junior high and really enjoyed it, so I wanted to pick it up and read the entire thing. I have yet to find Uglies, but I'm not in a rush. I want to pick up some more of his books, because I also enjoyed his Midnighters trilogy in junior high as well. 

Holes by Louis Sachar

I've been purchasing some of my favorite childhood books so that I can have a little collection on my shelves, and this was one of the ones that I had to have. It was always one of my favorites and I absolutely cannot believe that I sold this book a few years back.

Ghost Town at Sundown by Mary Pope Osborne

This is another book I wanted from my childhood. I read this series almost religiously, and this was my favorite of the books. When I found it, I jumped at the chance to get it.

Sweeney Todd

I stumbled across this and I'm still kinda confused about it. Sweeney Todd is one of my favorite movies, but as far as I know, it wasn't originally a book. I know it was a play and a musical before the Johnny Depp movie, but I don't think it was ever a book. I'm assuming that this might be one of those random movie to book adaptations, since it does have the movie cover on it. Either way, it seems really intriguing and I'm curious to see how it translates to a book.

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

To be very honest, I almost didn't buy these. I've never read the series (yes, I know, shock, gasp, horror, etc.). Honestly, the hype surrounding it is what has kept me from reading it for this long. I've had the first book on my kindle for more than 2 years. I do think I'd like it, since dystopians are my thing, but I just haven't picked it up. These were all together in perfect condition for only $7 apiece, so I decided to get them, because I'll read them at some point. So they'll sit for a while, but I'll get to them eventually. I promise.

The Dark Tower Books 1 & 2- Stephen King

Like I said in my stand-alone book discussions, I've been wanting to read more Stephen King and this series was recommended to me by a few people I know. It sounds really interesting and I found the first two books in the same edition at a used bookstore, so I picked them up.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Before anyone freaks out, this is not my first copy of the book! When I originally bought the series, the first 5 were out in paperback, so I got them in paperback. I have the last 2 in hardcover because I bought each of them the day they came out, and so I've been trying to find the first five books in hardcover, first American edition. That's why I was SHOCKED to see this first American edition sitting in a used book store, in near perfect condition. I had to grab it.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

My favorite used bookstore seems to get a constant flow of Harry Potter books, and many of them are in really great condition, including this one! They also had books 6 & 7 in PERFECT condition and I was extremely tempted to buy them because the dust jackets on mine are very well used. But I refrained, because my original copies have sentimental value. The store also had Chamber of Secrets and Goblet of Fire, but the quality wasn't as good as I wanted, so I haven't gotten those even though they're the last two I need in hardcover. I'll be patient though, because it's my favorite series, and I want them to be perfect.

Under the Dome by Stephen King

This has been on my to-buy list for quite a while. I'd been planning on buying the huge floppy paperback because I really like huge floppy paperbacks for some reason (like Infinite Jest! That's a huge, awesome paperback). I found the paperback and it was in good condition except that the spine was cracked in several places and I'm not a spine crack fan. I was going to get it, but stumbled across the hardcover on display just a few feet away for only $1 more, so I went for it because it was in near-perfect condition. I really can't wait to read this one because I keep seeing commercials for season 2 of the show based on this book and it seems really interesting.

Random/Misc. Books

This last section isn't super exciting, it's just a few books I got from assorted places.

Nobrow by John Seabrook

This is another book I got from the discarded books at work. Originally, I thought that it was a non-fiction psychology book analyzing our culture. And by looking at the cover, it would certainly seem like that. However, it's actually a fictional dystopian set in a world where the culture has deteriorated to the point where fast food restaurants are the fancy places. I don't know a ton about it, but what I saw sounded intriguing, so I took it home.

Sleeping Murder and Murder at the Vicarage 

by Agatha Christie

Once again, this is a book that I got from work. Agatha Christie is one of my favorite authors, so I was really excited to come across this. These are both from her Miss Marple series. I have read several Poirot novels, but I have yet to get into Miss Marple, so I think that these may be the ones that get me into it!

Wreck This Journal

This one was a birthday present from my roommate (well, we don't live together right now, but we lived together last school year and will be sharing a room starting in August, but whatever). I've actually been eyeing it for a while, but hadn't bought it yet. I've already done a few of the things in it, but I don't want to rush anything since the point is to get creative with it. This should get exciting!

So there we go, those were the nearly 50 books that I got over the last two months. Hopefully my next haul will be significantly smaller because of the semi-ban I've put myself on, but I've already ordered 3 books (all from the list of books I'm allowed to buy, and for a good price! Promise!) so it may be a bit bigger than I really want it to be. Also, new post tomorrow- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix discussion. Fanfiction chapter will be out... soon. Probably once I'm not reading constantly to finish my challenge. But it's my first priority after the Reading Challenge posts. 

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