A selection of books that are cool and you should really read.

The number of books I read in 2011 was, frankly, pitiful. I've never actually kept track of numbers before, but in April I joined Goodreads (which if you don't know about is a website you can use to berate yourself for how few books you can remember having read. You can also create a virtual to-be-read pile which will become insurmountable and make you feel inadequate. I think that's what it's for anyway.) Here's my profile. You can friend me as long as you don't look at said pitiful record in 2011.

I'm already doing A LOT better in 2012, which is because I'm on a huge YA fest of brilliance, and because - as I might have mentioned before - I heart my Kindle. And when I read great books, I feel the need to make YOU read great books too. So here's a quick visual of four books you should go and get right now and read immediately.





Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins


I think I love it more than The Hunger Games. Mockingjay purchased immediately upon finishing. If you're one of the three remaining people on the planet who hasn't read this trilogy now that I have, then you really need to do something about it.


Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins


Totally blown away by this series. Just LOVED it!







Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma


Reading this hurt my heart. 5 stars, just...5 stars.

Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson


Incredibly readable, interesting, intriguing, other stuff beginning with 'i'. Very much a page-turner. I'm the world's slowest reader and this took me three days. Loved it!





Right now I'm looking for YA sci-fi or ghost stories to read. Any recommendations? Or have you read something else that you think I should read RIGHT NOW or I will fail to be a complete human being? Give me the best YA book you've read this year so far. 

Kindle, I heart you a lot

I tagged this post Kindle, birthday, anniversary, cake - so you can tell it's about all kinds of lovliness before I even start :D This week it's been boy number two's 10th birthday. I didn't have a great deal of time to make the cake this year (enter lego) but said child was happy. I found candles that employ some sort of magic to make the flames different colours as well, so it was smiles all round when I produced this:

Three days later it was my birthday. As I ran through the living room in my usual I-now-have-minus-four-minutes-to-leave-the-house-and-not-be-late-for-work frenzy, I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight of a sleek black package tied with black ribbon. A card with my name on it sat on top. I didn't have time to open it but it lured me anway, enticing me to reach out tentative fingers and actually shake the package. I couldn't resist. It was my birthday after all, and if I was late surely the kids in my class could amuse themselves for a short while - I mean most of them are six now, right? Reason went out of the window and it became of national importance to find out what was under the thick black paper.

I may have emitted a small squeak when I pulled out a plain brown box with Kindle written on it. I may have scrabbled at the aforementioned box in desperation to get to my new toy. I may even have let out an I-just saw-my-first-firework sigh. And there I stood, holding this in my hands:

So sleek, sooooo pretty, soooooooooooo against everything I thought I believed in when it comes to books. I distinctly remember a post-grad student taking one of my seminars when I was an undergraduate (circa '97, yes, I'm that old. Moving swiftly on.) We'd been reading The Name of the Rose - an excellent and rather lengthy tome by Umberto Eco. Post-grad boy assured us that e-books were the way of the future and that there would soon be no need for my oversized backpack carrying no less than two Norton Anthologies. I was affronted. I think (read know) that I actually clutched The Name of the Rose to my chest. How dare he? The very idea of it was sacrilege and the post-grad student should possibly die for daring to utter such blasphemy.

Yet there I stood in my living room, carefully peeling the protective film off my new baby.

Don't get me wrong, I own a lot of books. I have no intention of parting with them (try and take them from me at your own peril.) This is less than a third of the collection in my house:

I love books. I mean I reeaallllyyyy love books.

But my new Kindle? The tiny device that will let me own vast quantities of literature? I marvelled at the screen - the one that looks like paper. I downloaded two books in seconds. I fiddled with facebook on it. I commented to my ever-patient husband 'Look, look, it plays music too! And I can ask it to read to me!' I browsed the huge library of free classics. I even appreciated the new Kindle smell (it really does have one, I'm not making that up.) Yes, I heart my Kindle.

Two days after my birthday (today!) it's my twelfth wedding anniversary. Cake, birthday, Kindle, anniversary.

So how's your week been? :)