Books I'm Bringing Home Over Break

Hey, y'all! I've seen several booktubers who are in college make videos showing the books that they brought home with them for the holidays, so I decided to do the same.

So, one of the biggest struggles over break is trying to figure out what I can bring home with me. Since I go to school a very, very, long way away from where my parents live, and checking bags is super expensive, I usually just bring a backpack and a small suitcase home with me, so it's always a struggle to try to figure out what clothes and fun things to bring home with me, especially because I know I'll be coming home with more things at the end of the break. So I had to choose the books that I wanted to take home with me very carefully, because even though I have a kindle, I have most of my books only in physical form. Let's get right into it!

Also, as a side note, I'll be listing these in the order that I plan to read them!

The Hunger Games Trilogy

Book 1: The Hunger Games

Book 2: Catching Fire

Book 3: Mockingjay

by Suzanne Collins

I've mentioned this before several times, but I've actually never read The Hunger Games trilogy. Now, before you go freaking out, allow me to explain. I tried to start it for the first time back in my senior year of high school 3 years ago, when it was huge, huge, HUGE because the movie was just about to come out. The first couple chapters didn't hold my attention quite enough, and so I ended up setting it down. And there were several reasons that I never picked it back up. I really wanted to avoid it because of all the hype around it. I didn't want another Twilight moment. I also heard a lot of negative things about the third book from some friends whose opinions I trust. And I ended up seeing the movie (just the first one!) before reading the book, so I knew what happened. And I got spoiled for some of the ending (a certain character's death, as well as the result of the love triangle). So yeah, there are a lot of reasons that I haven't read these books yet. But I know that I'll at least love the first book once I actually read it, so I just need to get on that already.

The Rook

by Daniel O'Malley

I've had this book on my TBR for a few months now. I saw it as a recommendation after reading Ready Player One, and the book summary had me hooked. I absolutely love fantasy and dystopian, and lately, I've been really digging adult fantasy. Ideally, I'll be reading this immediately after The Hunger Games, but I might read The Name of the Wind instead, since I want to read it by the end of the year. It honestly just depends how quickly I finish The Hunger Games trilogy, because I want to be done with at least one of the two before the end of the year.

The Kingkiller Chronicle

Book 1: The Name of the Wind

Book 2: The Wise Man's Fear

by Patrick Rothfuss

Ideally, I'll be done with everything through the end of The Name of the Wind by the end of the year, and The Wise Man's Fear will be my first book of 2015. However, things might get shuffled around. Who knows. But I'm really anxious to read these books. I've heard amazing things about them, and I've been really into adult high fantasy lately and both of these books have 4.5 stars on GoodReads. Seriously, that's just incredibly impressive. I don't even think that Harry Potter can boast stats that consistent. I just want to get in on this amazing series.

Ten

by Gretchen McNeil

I brought this one with me just in case I read everything I have with me and want something to read on the way back to school. I'm not expecting this to be that great, but a really simple murder mystery with no depth just sounds great.

So, those are the books that I brought home with me! If, by some odd chance, I happen to read all of these before the end of break (doubtful, given that the books in The Kingkiller Chronicle are over 700 and over 900 pages respectively), I have my kindle with me, and have a handful of books on there that I can read. 

I've started doing Booktube a little as well, so if you want to check that out, you can click HERE. I plan to post most of my videos to my blog, but just in case I miss one or decide not to post it on here, that will keep you up-to date. 

I've also created a Facebook page for my blog, so 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! If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe/follow so that I know you're enjoying what I'm posting! See y'all soon!

Bookshelf Tour: Home Edition!

Hey y'all! So, last month I did a bookshelf tour and promised that two more bookshelf tours would follow pretty closely behind it. Well, we have reached the first of those two! Last week, I was able to take a week off of work and go home. Well... not really home, but to where my parents live. They moved after I graduated high school. But anyway, I digress. While I was at "home," I was able to go through my bookshelves and re-organize them and clean out some stuff. So, I took some pictures of the shelves, and it's now time for my Bookshelf Tour: Home Edition!

This time, it'll be in just one single part. I'll go shelf by shelf and give an overview of its organization and then go book by book saying whether or not I've read it/ how many times I've read it.

If you'd like, you can also check out my last bookshelf tour by clicking here for part 1 (overview and organization) or here for part 2 (specifics and read/unread).

So, as you can see, I have everything divided by the six cubes. The top two cubes are double-stacked, as is the bottom right cube. The other three cubes are just single stacked.

So, a quick chat about the stuff on top of my bookshelf. On the far left, you'll see a stack of books. Those are all of my yearbooks, K-12. They're mostly in order, but my freshman yearbook is massive so it can't really fit anywhere but the bottom of the stack.

Beside those, you'll see a collar with a card on top. When I was 6, my family adopted a puppy named Sean, and we had him for 12 years before we had to put him down. The pet hospital sent us a card and so I put it on display with Sean's collar.

Whatta cutie!

Beside that, you'll see a little person. That is my Dwight K. Schrute bobble-head ornament. He says various things. I can't remember all of them, but I know one is from the season 3 ep. when he's job hunting and naming words that describe him. In case I haven't mentioned this, I'm a huge fan of The Office. I've seen every single episode, most of them multiple times. 

Lastly, we have the piggy bank. That's from my graduation party. My friends got that for people to put my graduation gifts in, and I decided to keep it because it was pretty cute. 

OK, on to the shelves!

This shelf is divided into 3 sections. The first and most obvious one is my Harry Potter paperback collection. These are the first copies of the books that I own, and as you can see, they have been well-loved and read many times over. The second section consists of my Harry Potter accompanying literature. This is mostly comprised of analyses of the series. Finally, I have some list books.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone- Read (5ish times)

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets- Read (5ish times)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban- Read (5-7 times)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire- Read (3-5 times)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix- Read (3-5 times)

What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7- Read

Muggles and Magic- unread

Ultimate Unofficial Guide to the Mysteries of Harry Potter (Books 1-4) - Read

Vs.: A Journal of Choices- unfinished

Music Journal (by Moleskine)- unfinished

Music Listography- unfinished

My Listography- unfinished

On the next shelf over, we have some of my favorite series. If you have seen my first bookshelf tour, you'll know that the other two books in the Mortal Instruments series are at school with me, and that I have the entire Pendragon series at school with me in hardcover. 

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare- Read (3 times)

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare- Read (twice)

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare- Read (twice)

City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare- Read

The Merchant of Death by DJ MacHale- Read (3/4 times)

The Lost City of Faar by DJ MacHale- Read (twice)

The Never War by DJ MacHale- Read (twice)

The Reality Bug by DJ MacHale- Read (twice)

Black Water by DJ MacHale- Read (twice)

The Rivers of Zadaa by DJ MacHale- Read (twice)

Moving down to the next row, we have my shelf that I have labelled the "paranormal romance" shelf. Although I'm not quite sure if The Host is a romance but since it's Stephanie Meyer, I'll just assume it is. 

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer- Read (5ish times)

New Moon by Stephanie Meyer- Read 2-4 times)

Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer- Read (2-4 times)

Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer- Read (5ish times)

The Host by Stephanie Meyer- unread

Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick- unread

Beastly by Alex Finn- unread

Beside the paranormal romance shelf, we have my shelf of assorted YA books and nostalgia books... AKA books from my childhood. 

The Muder of Bindy Mackenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty- Read

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler- Read (twice)

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell- unread

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan- unread

The Boys Next Door by Jennifer Echols- Read (2/3 times)

The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey- Read (several times)

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty MacDonald- Read (several times)

The Magic Tree House #8: Midnight on the Moon by Mary Pope Osbourne- Read (several times)

A to Z Mysteries #1: The Absent Author by Ron Roy- Read (several times)

A to Z Mysteries #8: The Haunted Hotel by Ron Roy- Read (several times)

A to Z Mysteries #13: The Missing Mummy by Ron Roy- Read (several times)

A to Z Mysteries #18: The Runaway Racehorse by Ron Roy- Read (several times)

The House on Hackman's Hill by Joan Lowery Nixon- Read (several times)

Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix- Read (twice)

All-American Girl by Meg Cabot- Read (10-12 times)

Rob&Sara.com by PJ Petersen and Ivy Ruckman- Read

Midnight For Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo- Read (2/3 times)

Banner in the Sky by James Ramsey Ullman- Read (2/3 times)

Call it Courage by Armstrong Sperry- Read

We're now on the last row, which as you can probably tell, is where I keep my Agatha Christie collection. All of these books, except the two on top, are from her Poirot series, the only series of hers that I've read from so far. And of course, I've read And Then There Were None, but I won't go into another discussion about that beautiful novel. And I have a duplicate copy of one of these because no one warned me about title changes, and I thought they were different books. Also, I thought these were in order, but I have discovered a couple are out of order and it's bothering me greatly. I'm honestly tempted to call my mom and ask her to fix it. But I won't, because it's currently 1 AM.  

Murder on the Links- Read

Lord Edgware Dies- unread

The Big Four- Read

Murder on the Orient Express- Read (twice)

Three Act Tragedy- Read

The ABC Murders- Read

Cards on the Table- Read

Appointment With Death- unread

Murder After Hours- unread

Mrs. McGinty's Dead- unread

After The Funeral- Read

Funerals are Fatal- Read (this is a duplicate of the book above)

Hickory Dickory Death- unread

Cat Among the Pigeons- unread 

Third Girl- unread

Elephants Can Remember- unread 

Curtain- unread

Death Comes As The End- unread

Crooked House- unread

Finally, the last shelf is the most random. These are mostly non-fiction and adult novels... plus Eragon. The first four are books I used in one of my required freshman classes in college, and I don't even know why I still have them. Either way, I'm not going to discuss them, partially because they're unimportant, and partially because I don't really know what they're called and can't read their spines.

Dictionary of Dreams

Writing for Children & Teenagers- unread

Writing Fiction and Nonfiction- Read- Read 

The Birth Order Book by Kevin Leman- unread

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson- unread

Eragon by Christopher Paolini- unread

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald- Read

A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare- Read

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card- Read

The Shining by Stephen King- unread

These books are on the same shelf as those in the section above, but these are behind them. These books are the ones I plan on getting rid of in the near future. Rather than go through all of them, I'll just let you know that the only ones I've read are the two on the right (Midnighters Books 1&3). Some of these books are ones that I know I'm probably never going to pick up (Cirque Du Freak, Found, Ten Great Mysteries, Book of Shadows, The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, Everything's Eventual, and Shutter Island). Then there's All The Pretty Horses, which I was supposed to read for school, but I hated it and only read a little. Finally, the last few books (Maximum Ride and the Midnighters books) are ones that I want in different editions. Because I hate mass-market paperback.

These books all sit on the shelf behind the Harry Potter books. Almost all of these, except the "simple diary" on the right, are quiz books. I'll save you the bore of going through all of them one by one. Just know that I've looked through these and taken the quizzes many, many times.

And finally, the last shelf. These books sit behind the "favorite series" books. As you can see, I have a lot of journals. And this isn't even all of them. Most of these have very little in them. The only one that's actually full is the pink one laying on top of the other books. It's one that I filled up when I was really young, and it's full of little short stories. I'm really glad that my writing has matured since then. It's tragic. Maybe I'll share one of the stories with y'all. I'm not sure if that would be a "so bad it's funny" scenario or a "terrible, cringe-worthy, oh-no-look-away" scenario.

So there you go, those are the books on my bookshelf at home! As promised, I will have a bookshelf tour for my apartment bookshelf coming out... sometime. Probably in September. I've got a lot of stuff in the plans for the rest of the month, so probably not 'til September.

I've also created a Facebook page for my blog, so 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!

February Series of the Month #1: The Miss Peregrine Series by Ransom Riggs

Hey, y'all! So, as I said in one of my previous posts this month, I have more than just one book of the month. I ended up finishing my original book of the month in about 5 days. So, since I finished it so quickly, I decided to read the sequel right after, and I'll be talking about both of them in this post.

Also, after finishing this series, I began another series and am almost finished with it, so I'll be talking about that series next week, which is why this one is being posted so early in the month. 

I will be talking about the books in some detail, so I'll just go ahead and warn that if you haven't read the books, I will probably spoil some things, so you should definitely go read the book and then come back and read this post.

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

The main character is a 16 year old guy named Jacob. Growing up, his grandfather told him all these stories from his childhood- unbelievable stories about the island he lived on, with monsters and children with crazy powers. He has all these strange photographs of children he claims he knew- children levitating, picking up boulders, etc. When his grandfather dies under strange circumstances, Jacob uses his grandfather's dying words and a strange letter to lead him to the small Welsh island where his grandfather grew up. When he gets there, he discovers that the children from the photographs are alive and well, although the islanders claim they were killed decades earlier and he begins to unravel the mystery of his grandfather's childhood and the monsters he believed followed him his whole life. 

One of the aspects of this book that makes it unique is its use of authentic, vintage found photographs. Throughout the book, I was curious whether the photographs were real or constructed for the book. Upon reading a section at the back of the book, I discovered that not only are they vintage photographs, but Ransom Riggs actually collected the photographs and then wrote the book, using the photographs as inspiration. I really enjoyed the use of the photographs, because it allowed me to see the characters as the author saw them rather than having to construct an image of them myself. 

I'm going to touch on the things I didn't like, and then move on to what I did like. First off, although the book descriptions that I've seen describe the book well, I feel like they failed to grasp the mood of the novel, and caused me to expect something different than what I got. The book descriptions all make it seem like the orphanage, the children, and Miss Peregrine herself, are all creepy. And that's just not the case. 

Secondly, I feel like it took me quite a while to get into the world and the characters. It was a very slow start, which seems odd to say, since someone is killed in the first chapter. But it honestly is a slow start. We aren't introduced to most of the main characters until chapter 5. Until then, it's extremely slow. Chapters 5-8 are then spent introducing both the reader and Jacob to the world of Miss Peregrine and her peculiar children. While this is certainly very important for both the reader and Jacob, it isn't so great for an exciting plot. Chapters 9-11 (the end) contain the only real action that we see in the book. I didn't really mind that, because I enjoyed getting to learn more about the world, but I feel like some people might get frustrated with how slow it's moving and give up on it. 

Another thing that I wasn't extremely thrilled with was that Ransom Riggs left some things unexplained for too long for seemingly no reason... and there are still some things I feel need to be explained. First off, it seemed like he waited way too far into the book to explain loops and how the children are preserved on the island. As I was reading, I felt like I was kept in the dark for quite a while, for what seemed like no real reason. Another thing that bothered me was that we were shown photographs of children we never met... and didn't really get much of an explanation as to why they weren't at Miss Peregrine's home. I'm left to assume that they were among the children who tried to leave the loop, because we aren't given any other explanation. I feel like if Ransom Riggs presents us with one of his found photos, he needs to explain its purpose or we're going to be left scratching our heads. I'm also still confused about Jacob's first encounter with the children. He didn't go through the loop entrance, and yet he ran into the children at the house. I can only assume that the children left the loop for a brief time to keep the loop going, but unless I missed something, this just wasn't explained. And when Jacob went through the loop entrance after that, he was in 1940. So clearly he was outside of the loop until then. 

The final, least important complaint is the editing. Although I tend to be a "Grammar Nazi," I tend to miss minor editing flaws when reading books, so the fact that I noticed at least 3-4 of them is problematic... and I have it in paperback. Did they really miss these mistakes in both hard cover and paperback? As I said, this is minor- a couple words with a missing letter, a couple in the wrong tense- but typically I don't notice little things like that. 

Whew. That seems like a marathon of complaints. You probably think at this point that I didn't like the book, but I actually really enjoyed it. Other than it being a touch slow and leaving one or two things unexplained, I thought it was a great, unique book set in a unique world. I appreciated that the peculiar children in the book are just that- peculiar children. They're among others with peculiarities rather than people who will put them up on a pedestal because they have these abilities, so they live mostly normal lives. Although they'd been alive for 80, 90 years, they were still children, as they should be. 

Although I think the book might be a little slow for a less avid reader, I really enjoyed learning about the peculiar world- the children, the hollows, the wights, etc. I think that the fact that Ransom Riggs found the photographs and then created the story is a big plus for the book. I feel like it helped give the children unique, peculiar talents, like Hugh and his bees, Emma's heat, and Enoch's toys. I feel like if the children had been given all very general talents that every superhero has, it would have made for a more average book. Instead, the children are special- peculiar.

Hollow City

It's very rare to find a sequel that isn't significantly better or worse than the first book, but I felt that Hollow City was just about on track... maybe a touch better. 

Hollow City picks up right where Miss Peregrine's left off. The children are on their way to the mainland to get help for Miss Peregrine. The book follows the children's journey to London, to find Miss Wren, who can make Miss Peregrine better. Throughout their journey, they hit several roadblocks, making this book very fast paced and fun.

This book felt MUCH longer than Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children for several reasons. First off, it took me a few days longer to finish, because I had an extremely large homework load during the time I was reading Hollow City. However, it's also because A LOT more happens in Hollow City. Hollow City is much more fast paced. These books are both very good for very different reasons. Miss Peregrine's is a marriage between our world and the peculiar world, is a bit mysterious (as Jacob is basically putting together the pieces of a mystery in the beginning), and is mostly there for world building. Hollow City is plot, plot, plot. Exciting, adventurous, nerve-wracking, etc. 

Book 1's main point was to introduce both the reader and Jacob to this whole world of peculiars. Because of the world building, not much happened until the last 3 chapters. I was totally OK with this, because I think the peculiar world is extremely interesting and unique. However, that made it a much slower book. The contrast between the important events in each book is absolutely incredible. 

Hollow City is also much darker than Miss Peregrine's. The darker tone present in the last 3 chapters of Miss Peregrine's carries through to this novel. It definitely adds realism to the story and shows the children's desperation. 

I also appreciated the way Ransom Riggs handled the Jacob/Emma relationship. It's definitely more realistic in this book than it was in Miss Peregrine's. Don't get me wrong- I really like their relationship- but in the very early stages of their relationship, it seemed like she fell for him simply because she was in love with his grandfather. And they were just so flirty all the time. In Hollow City, they did have their couple-y moments, but they knew that they had a task at hand and they weren't going to let their feelings get in the way of saving Miss Peregrine. And I really appreciated their argument about their relationship and feelings, because it was a topic that neither of them had really taken much time to consider. This is made more important by the fact that, by the end, Emma realizes that Jacob's true home is with the peculiars.

Last, but certainly not least, for me, the book was on the exact same level as the first book... until they got to Miss Wren. I kinda saw the twist coming. When 'Miss Peregrine' killed the pigeon, I figured something was up. There were several times I wondered if the bird was *really* Miss Peregrine. The twist, the Emma/Jacob relationship, and Jacob realizing that he can better harness his power- all of those aspects made it just a brilliant ending. I'm SO ready for the next book already!

So, there's my first series of the month for February. I'm almost finished with another series, and I will probably have the post out on Feb. 27th or 28th.

Also, in the span of the last month, I've created an account on Goodreads! The link to my page is HERE, if you'd like to check that out, follow me, etc. I'm really enjoying it, and it's helping me organize my books. If you go check it out, you'll also be able to see what books I'm planning on reading next! 

Exciting New Acquisition- Library Card Catalog!

This is a pretty random post, but I'm really excited about this, so I'm posting it now and hoping to get some suggestions!

I don't think I've ever mentioned this, but I work in my school's library in the cataloging department. I take care of the books- preparing them for library use by putting in barcodes, college stamps, making book jackets, etc. I also do repairs and shelving- my most frequent jobs.

Recently, my college has decided to stop using physical cataloging cards. Now, there's no longer a use for all of these huge shelving units the cards used to go in. Much to my pleasure, someone in the library decided that the cataloging staff, as well as the cataloging student workers, get to keep sections of the shelves- FOR FREE. I wish I knew who in the staff made that decision so that I could give them a huge thank you.

Not only have we been allowed a 5 drawer by 3 drawer section of the shelves, but we were allowed to pick out which drawers we wanted, allowing us to create our own unique section.

My section is the one shown in the middle with the post-it on it. It needs to be cleaned up a bit, but I'm really excited that I get it. I've always really liked these, and they're terribly expensive to buy- especially vintage ones like these. And let's be serious- vintage card catalogs are WAY cooler than pristine-looking new ones. 

Here's my predicament though... I'm not sure what to use them for! They're great to look at, but I want them to be functional as well. I know where I'm going to put them, but I'm not sure how to use them! Eventually, once I have my own place, I want to have an office with lots of books and bookshelves, so this would be a cool office organizer... or something. But currently, it's just going to go in my room, and I'm not exactly sure what to put inside. All that really fits inside are smaller things, and I'm not exactly sure what smaller things I can put inside. I've seen ideas online, but most of them show how to make card catalogs prettier, or how to make them into a table... but I just need organizational ideas.

So, what should I put inside my card catalog? Any and all suggestions will be helpful! I don't get to take them home for a little while, so I have a while to figure out what to do with them. Thanks in advance for your ideas!