The Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer A Nielsen [Discussion]

Hey, y'all! So, I just finished the Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer A. Nielsen, and since I marathoned the trilogy, I decided to do a single post devoted to discussing the trilogy.

For each book, I'll be doing a spoiler-free discussion, followed by the rating that I gave the book (A note though: these discussions WILL spoil the previous books in the series. To discuss book two, I have to talk about book 1, etc. So, if you haven't read book 1, don't read past the spoiler free discussion for book 1. I hope that made sense...). I'll then go into a spoilery discussion. Each of these discussions was written within 24 hours of finishing the book, and before moving on to the next one.

The False Prince

The False Prince centers around Sage, an orphan boy who is very clever, snarky, and a skilled thief. Sage is collected by Conner, a nobleman with a cunning plan. He needs an impersonator of the king's long lost son, and has recruited four orphan boys to compete for the role. But Sage will soon find out that things are much more complex than he originally thought. He must succeed... his life depends on it.

While I really enjoyed this book, I did have a couple problems with it. The biggest one was the twist. It didn't surprise me. I think there were some people who were surprised by it, but I just wasn't. When I heard that there was a twist, I thought "Oh I bet it's _______" and unfortunately, I was right. I was hoping the entire time that I was incorrect and that the book would surprise me, but it just didn't. And although it didn't hurt my overall reading experience, I was disappointed in it's predictability. That's not to say, however, that the book completely lacking surprises. There were definitely several smaller things which surprised me within the book.

The brightest spot for me was the main character, Sage. Sage is everything I love in a character. If I were to sort him in a Hogwarts house, he'd be a Slytherin. He's snarky, sarcastic, defiant, and proud, but he can back it up with his wit and cleverness. He can take care of himself and he's his own person and hates being ordered around. He's just super cool. 

I really appreciated the cleverness of the world building, The lessons are used both to teach the boys information that the prince should know, and to give us information about the world that the boys are living in. I also really enjoyed the plot. The book is about 350 pages, and there was never a dull moment. Sure, the entire book wasn't super fast-paced and crazy, but I was never bored and I never felt like the book dragged at all. And the last quarter of the book was just really epic, exciting, and fast-paced. 

Overall, I thought that this was a really great book. I ended up giving it 8.5 stars out of 10. (Which is 4/5 on Goodreads)

So there's really not much else to talk about except the plot twist itself. Honestly, when I heard that there was this major plot twist, I immediately thought "I bet the main character is actually the lost prince, pretending to be an orphan for whatever reason." and the entire book, I kept hoping that there would be some other twist and that I would be wrong for once (not trying to brag, this just happens an annoying number of times) but alas, I wasn't wrong. 

What did surprise me, however, was when Latimer was killed. That was the first really exciting thing that happened in the book, and it definitely did a great job of reeling me in. I also really enjoyed the little secrets that Sage keeps, such as the "gold" rock and actually being the one to steal the sword.

I think the last fourth of the book was definitely my favorite. Tobias attacks Sage, the boys have to hide in the tunnels, and then of course all the stuff that goes down once Sage actually gets to the castle. 

Since I'm writing this before continuing on to book 2, here are some things I hope to see going into the next book:

- As much as I like the name Jaron, I really hope that we get to continue to call him Sage. I don't think it's going to happen, but I'm going to continue to hope. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

- I really, really hope that a love triangle doesn't develop between the betrothed princess, Sage/Jaron, and Imogen. We just really don't need that. Imogen's the best. End of story.

The Runaway King

Book 2 opens with a bang as an assassination attempt stirs up trouble. War is coming, and the pressure is building. Jaron soon realizes that to save his kingdom, he might have to desert it. 

This book... there were points where I couldn't even deal with this book. It was so good. Like, I went into this series expecting to be blown away by book one because of all of the rave reviews, but The Runaway King is the clear star of this show (so far-- The Shadow Throne might impress me even more, who knows?!). The Runaway King was so fast-paced and action packed, and actually surprised me a lot more than The False Prince did! While there wasn't one big twist, there were so many twists and turns that kept me guessing the entire way through, and I was incredibly impressed. 

Also, I would just like to emphasize how much I love Jaron. Like, I'm willing to say right now that he is my favorite main character that I've ever read. Granted, main characters are almost never my favorite characters in their books/series, but Jaron is far and away my favorite character in this series. He's just too freakin' awesome. He's snarky and sarcastic and UGH he's great.

I enjoy The False Prince and The Runaway King for very different reasons, because even though they both have the same mood/feel/vibe, they are very different books. The False Prince is slower, but mysterious and intriguing, and I really enjoy when books are like that. However, The Runaway King is pure adventure. It's fast-paced and exciting, with thievery and pirates galore. I think that if I had actually been surprised by the twist in book 1, I might have rated it higher, because slow, intriguing, mysterious books with world-building are my fave. But since I wasn't surprised, I wasn't as impressed, and ended up enjoying The Runaway King more.

Overall, I really loved this book. This was super exciting and I enjoyed almost every second of it. I gave it 9.5 stars out of 10. (Which is 5/5 on Goodreads)

There were several times that I almost had to laugh out loud at this book. Jaron would get himself into a situation that seemed impossible to get out of and I would be like "Well how exactly do you expect to get yourself this terrible situation this time, Jaron? You're chained up in a cell perched over a cliff, and your leg is broken. I think you're officially stuck." And then what happens? Oh, he just casually climbs out the window and scales the cliff with his one good leg and then challenges the pirate king to a duel and wins. I mean, go you, Jaron. For real, he's just too dang epic!

I have to say, this book surprised me a lot more than The False Prince, even though I had expected the opposite. I did not see the Gregor thing coming. I got really annoyed with him and was sick of him trying to get someone to reign instead of Jaron, but I didn't think that he had betrayed the King by helping Conner. I was also really surprised that Jaron convinced Roden to come over to his side. I thought that there was absolutely no chance of it, but clearly he realized that he was being stupid.

Also, I am really annoyed at the love triangle thing, but I get why it is happening. Because clearly Imogen is the right girl for Jaron (RIGHT?! They have to end up together. PLZ, Jennifer Nielsen, let them end up together) but he has to be friendly with the Princess that he is betrothed to (who isn't terrible in the slightest, but Imogen.). And I'm not sure how this is going to turn out, because Nielsen clearly wants us to like Imogen and root for her to end up with Jaron, but it seems pretty unlikely and impossible at this point. The only redeeming thing about this love triangle is that it doesn't play an extremely prominent role. Yes, Jaron is constantly worried about Imogen, but that's just it... he's worried about Imogen. They're friends, and he's concerned about her and barely thinks about the princess. It isn't even until the end that romantic feelings are brought up, and even then, it's between Imogen and Jaron, but not Jaron and the Princess. Jaron and the Princess agree that they're friends. 

I know I'm being pushy here, but I'd rather just see a story where Imogen and Jaron really care about each other, but struggle to be together because of the war, the troubles they're going through, and they come from different classes. That would be so much better than a love triangle, even if they didn't end up together in the end. (and for the record, my ideal scenarios go: end up with Imogen = doesn't end up with anyone > ending up with the Princess. AKA, I like both of the first scenarios equally and am not a fan of the last one.)

The Shadow Throne

The Shadow Throne opens just as war is about to break out in Carthya. King Vargan has kidnapped Imogen, and Jaron embarks upon the journey to save everything that is most important to him. 

I thought that the conclusion to this trilogy was overall beautiful and emotional. There were several moments where I found tears falling from my eyes at moments of both despair and of joy. The Shadow Throne was an emotional roller coaster for me, going from wanting to throw the book, to wanting to hug it, to being down-right confused about what Jaron was doing. 

As wonderful as this conclusion was, however, it was not without its faults. Or rather, singular fault. As I said in the spoilery discussion of The Runaway King, there were several moments throughout this trilogy where I sat and thought, "Well how exactly do you expect to get yourself this terrible situation this time, Jaron?" and then he managed to come up with this crazy scheme that ended up working. And for the first two books, I really loved this, and I loved seeing him succeed in them because it was always so epic when he did. However, in this one it wasn't really like that some of the time. 

There were a couple times when I had to kind of suspend my disbelief. Some things were a little too coincidental for them to be perfectly planned out, and sometimes I just couldn't bring myself to believe that he had come up with that plan for the scenario he was in. It wasn't an overwhelming sense of "this is stupid," but rather a slight "meh, not sure if that's really that logical," and it didn't detract from my overall opinion about the book.

The Shadow Throne was also slightly less surprising than The Runaway King. There were a couple twists that were unsurprising, but there were also several things that I didn't see coming. 

Overall, I thought that this was an epic conclusion to the trilogy and ended up giving it 9 stars out of 10. 

So, as I was saying with the "suspending my disbelief" part of my discussion, I thought that there were a few plans that were a bit too coincidental. And I wanted one of Jaron's plans to epically fail at least once. But somehow, he managed to succeed constantly, and that bothered me. It was a little too neat and tidy. Everything wrapped up very nicely, but a little too nicely. 

Also, I wasn't surprised in the least bit when we found out Imogen was still alive. Honestly, I was waiting for it. I was acutely aware that there was still a chance she was actually dead, but unless the main character actually like sees the corpse/feels the pulse/ there's a funeral or something, I don't believe that they're actually dead. Like there was a book that I read last year (no spoilers!) where character #1 claimed that she killed character #2 and I was completely convinced that character #2 was going to pop up later in the book and not actually be dead. He/She didn't, so he/she is probably dead. However, I still think that there is a possibility that he/she is not dead. We shall see. Anyway, back to the point. I expected Imogen to pop up again, because it just wouldn't be a happy enough ending for Jaron if she was actually dead. Plus, this is a middle grade series that isn't very dark, so it would have felt very out of character for this book to suddenly get really dark and have one of the main characters die.  

So, that's all I have for my discussion about The Ascendance Trilogy! I hope that if you've made it this far in the post, you've actually read the trilogy (please don't read spoilers before you read the books!!!), so let me know down in the comments what you thought about the trilogy! Did you enjoy it as much as I did?

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Top 10 Most-Owned Authors!

Hey, y'all! I've seen several booktubers posting videos listing the 10 authors that they own the most books from. Originally, I didn't do this one because I didn't think that I had enough authors to make a full list. However, upon reflection, I realized that I had more repeat-authors than I originally thought, so I decided that this would be fun. Plus, I think it's really interesting to see who will end up on the list.

Before I get into this, some ground rules for counting of books:
- Each book counts once, even if I have duplicate copies.
- Novellas in bind-up form (ex: Unite Me by Tahereh Mafi) count as one single book.
- However, novels in bind-up form count as their own separate entities. (AKA, if I own a bind-up of two novels, that bind-up counts as two books.
- Ebooks will also be included, but not if it's a duplicate.

Although I didn't include duplicates in the official count, I did note underneath what the count would be if I did count duplicates as separate books. It's a bit ridiculous on a couple.

10) Lloyd Alexander- 5 books

Adjusted for duplicate copies: 5
Read: 0 

Right off the bat, we have a four-way tie. Lloyd Alexander gets the last spot between the four because I own the entire Chronicles of Prydain series by him, but I haven't read it yet. I bought it because I love the Disney movie, The Black Cauldron, that is based off of the series. I got halfway through The Book of Three, and couldn't really get into it, so I just put it down. I'll get through it eventually, I just wasn't feeling it in that moment. 

9) Stephanie Meyer- 5 books

Adjusted for duplicate copies: 5
Read: 4 

Of the four-way tie, Stephanie gets the third spot because I've read most of her books, but don't plan on reading any more. I haven't read The Host, and I'm not sure I want to anymore, but I have read the Twilight Saga. Several times. 

7) Scott Westerfeld- 5 books

Adjusted for duplicate copies: 5
Read: 4 

I totally forgot about Scott Westerfeld and didn't even consider the fact that he could make it onto this list, because the only books on my bookshelf by him are Pretties and Specials, books 2 & 3 from his Uglies trilogy. However, I forgot that I had Uglies, the 1st book in that trilogy, in e-book and books 1&3 from his Midnighters trilogy (The Secret Hour and Blue Noon, respectively) on my bookshelf at home. Of the 5 I own, the only one I haven't read is Specials. But it's been so long since I read the other 4 that I can't remember much about either series. I plan to change that soon!

7) Rick Riordan- 5 books

Adjusted for duplicate copies: 5
Read: 3 

Finally, rounding out the 4-way tie, Rick gets the top spot because I plan on buying more of his books fairly soon. I've only read the first 3 Percy Jackson books, but I do plan on finishing the series and continuing on to The Heroes of Olympus. 

6) Stephen King- 6 books

Adjusted for duplicate copies: 6
Read: 1 

 

I'm laughing at the 666 action going on with this one, especially since it's Stephen King, the KING (LOL bad pun) of horror. As you see from the pictures above, I own Carrie, Under The Dome, and the first two books in The Dark Tower series. At home, I also have The Shining and Everything's Eventual, which is a compilation of short stories. But I've only read Carrie all the way through. I almost got through The Shining but put it down for some reason. 

5) J.K. Rowling- 8 books

Adjusted for duplicate copies: 20
Read: 8 

As an avid Harry Potter fan, I probably should own Quidditch Through The Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but I don't. Eventually. But I do, of course, have the entire series, as well as The Tales of Beedle the Bard. I re-read the series for the millionth time over the summer as part of my Summer Reading Challenge, and you can click here to check that out, if you'd like.

Explanation for duplicate copies: I have all the Harry Potter books in e-book form and in hardcover. When I first got the books, I got the first 5 in paperback. So 7 + 7 + 5+ Tales of Beedle the Bard= 20. I feel no guilt or shame for this.

4) D.J. MacHale- 10 books

Adjusted for duplicate copies: 16
Read: 10

We have another tie with 10 books apiece. DJ got the lower spot because the author at #3 has a new book coming out next month that I'm definitely, without a doubt, getting. Anyway, I love the Pendragon series. It was also part of my Summer Reading Challenge this summer, so you can click here to check that out. This series isn't super well-known, but it's one of my absolute favorite series of all-time. It's so beautiful.

Explanation for duplicate copies: I originally had books 1-6 in paperback, and re-purchased them in hardcover.

3) Cassandra Clare- 10 books (11th coming soon)

Adjusted for duplicate copies: 15
Read: 9 

Basically, I have all of Cassandra Clare's books. I would show pictures of my actual copies, but they're scattered between home and school. Like I said in DJ's explanation, he and Cassie are tied, but since The Bane Chronicles is coming out soon, and there is absolutely no way that I'm not buying that, I put her in the higher spot. Also, I read all of these except The Shadowhunter's Codex this summer, so if you wanna check out my Summer Reading Challenge, you can click here.

Explanation for duplicates: I originally had Clockwork Angel in paperback and found an inexpensive hardcover. I have e-books of City of Bones, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, and City of Lost Souls because my copies are at home. 

 

2) Lemony Snicket- 13 books
Adjusted for duplicate copies: 13

Read: 13

I have all 13 books in the Series of Unfortunate Events. I kinda want to re-read these sometime soon, but I don't want to end up changing my opinion on them, because I'm worried I won't like them as much now that I'm older. So, I dunno. Maybe they'll get re-read soon, maybe they won't.

1) Agatha Christie- 25 books
Adjusted for duplicate copies: 26

Read: 9

These are not all of my Agatha Christie books, but it's the majority of them. If you'd like a full run-down of the books in this picture and whether or not I've read them, you can click here to check out my home bookshelf tour. There are 20 books in the picture above, but one is a duplicate. I also have And Then There Were None, Evil Under The Sun, and a bind-up of Sleeping Murder and Murder at the Vicarage in physical form, as well as ebook copies of The Mysterious Affair at Styles and Secret Adversary. Of these 25, I have read 9. But since I paid like $1 for most of them, I don't feel too bad about them. I can afford to take a while with these. She has a lot of books.

Explanation for duplicates: A lot of her books have been re-named in the years since their release, so I accidentally picked up 2 copies of After The Funeral/ Funerals are Fatal.

So, there you go, those are my top 10 most owned authors! A couple of them actually surprised me! This list will probably be out of date fairly soon, so maybe I'll make another one sometime. Not in the near future. At least 6 months from now. 

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.

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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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