Bookmail, Funko's and a New Camera!

OMG!  I can't believe I actually spent so much 😵

Yes, I am now coming to you with the Canon EOS 200D, and I am beyond excited about finally owning a DSLR.  I've been wanting one for years, but could never justify the expense (soooo expensive in Australia!), however when my old trusty Nikon Coolpix started to fail I decided I needed to invest in a quality camera that was versatile and would allow me to use it for various projects.

Do I love it?  YES!  Am I freaked out by spending so much? YEEESSS!

Anyhoo, it will take me a little while to get myself sorted out with a filming setup, so don't worry if a few video's look funky, I'm working on it.

Thanks for watching, and until I see you next time

 

Reading Update, November 2018

Hello, my lovelies!

It's been a bit longer than I'd anticipated.  Things are just all over the place here.  At the beginning of last week I undertook the massive task of scrubbing all the floors in the house - and promptly started paying for it with my Achilles troubles flaring up, as well as my back issues roaring back to life... and we won't even talk about what happened with my carpal tunnel.  

Results... clean floor,  but I was stuck in bed for a few days.

This did, however, lend itself to getting some more books read.  I had already earmarked an Agatha Christie or two to pick up, and with some of my most anticipated books coming out, well I was perfectly content to become a hermit for a few days ;-D

Luckily, by the end of the week I was feeling pretty good, and was able to resume normal day-to-day activities.  Picked up some boxed sets of Poirot (series 4, 6 and 7&8 which are combined), and had a great weekend just flaked out on the couch with the AC running (mini-heatwave here in QLD), while I enjoyed revisiting with Poirot.  We won't even talk about the new remake of Murder on the Orient Express, because I just can't.

Anyway, I have some plans for future videos that I'm trying to nail down at the moment.  Still, there's always time to pick up a book, and I have quite a few I'd like to get read before the end of the year - but that's another video ;-D

Thank you for watching, and until I see you next time

 

Hey, I actually finished a book!

It's been a boring couple of weeks where I just have not had the inclination to pick up a book.  This does not happen often, but when it does, it's a real problem. Thankfully, my mum lent me her copy of Nora Roberts new book, Shelter in Place, and that did the trick.  Roberts is an almost guaranteed good read so... 'Thank You, Mum!'.

However, I only picked this up after finishing The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie.  I don't know what it was about this book, but it took me three reading sessions to get through this teeny, tiny, little book of 192 pages.  I know, right.  I've read three books in a day (1000+ pages worth) and done it again the next day!  Yet, trying to get through this Poirot was like pulling teeth.  Which is silly considering I actually liked it, and I can't wait to see the new BBC adapation.

Yes, April to mid June has just been the pits.

Thankfully it looks like that slumpy, grumpy, not-reading time is over and I've been enjoying rereading some old favourites which I will be talking about in my next video.

So until I see you next time,

 

Favourite reads of 2017

Well, hello!

Yes, it's been a hot minute since I last posted.  December was a crackin' reading month.  I caved in and used my library's Overdrive platform to devour a ton of books.  Apparently I can read even faster on a device, and the week before Christmas I managed to power through 40 books!  Yes, that was not a typo.  I will try to do a 2017 statistics wrap up soon, but today I just spoke about some of my favourite reads of 2017.  These are not based on ratings, or Goodreads reviews.  These are just the books that I kept thinking of when trying to decide what I enjoyed reading last year. 

It is a longer video, and it almost a wasn't.  I tried to film it twice on my little digital camera, but the battery got so hot that I had to stop, and the second time my battery went flat half way through so that was a bust.  Still, I wanted to get a video up today so I had to resort to the webcam on my desktop so the quality isn't all that.  Then it took nearly 3 hours for the video to upload to YouTube.  Seriously, 3 hours!

So, I've done my dash with this video.  It was as frustrating as all get out to do, but I'm glad I was able to upload something after being a no-show in December.

This year I have a few self imposed challenges.  My #aclassicamonth is heading into it's third year, and I'll once again be reading slogging through the Big Book 2018.  I'm hoping to get back to reading a Poirot a month, and I'm tentatively planning my Halloween reading list.  My Goodreads challenge is set at 100 books.  I completed the challenge in Aug/Sept last year and didn't bother to add any of the books I read after that point, so this year I want to log everything I read on Goodreads - just to see exactly what my reading year looks like.

Okay.  I've been online for hours today trying to get all this up.  My butts gone numb, and my computer is getting rather hot to the touch, so I'll say Happy New Year and good luck with your reading in 2018, and until I see you next time,

 

November wrap up

Hello my lovelies!  I hope you are having a better day than I am.  It is quite chilly and pouring rain - in November! - when it usually is hot enough to fry an egg under the blistering Australian sun.  Don't get me wrong, I love this kind of weather... however, it is becoming clear that the weather has no idea what it is supposed to be doing ;-D

November has been quite a good reading month for me.  I've had a very very late order arrive, ticked a few more books off my TBR list, and bought a few more books in current series.  Favourite reads of the month so far have been White Hot and Wildfire by Ilona Andrews, as well as Hardcore 24 by Janet Evanovich (even though it didn't get a high rating from me).

Biggest dud was Come Sundown by Nora Roberts.  Can't believe how much this didn't enthuse me.  Perhaps it's because I loved Obsession (ignore the first 80 pages) and have reread that so many times since it was published.  Oh well, will keep my fingers crossed that Year One will redeem her in December.

I've managed to make my way through two more Agatha Christies.  Murder on the Orient Express and After the Funeral were quick and compelling reads.  Not my favourites, but not too shabby either.

Still have a lot of books sitting on my ever expanding TBR pile.  Still have to get around to Artemis and Vigil before the end of the year and am saving the Decameron for next years Big Book project.

I think that's about it.  I need to get off the computer as the storm has picked up and the rain in bucketing down.  Don't need to be online if the power craps out ;-D

So until I see you next time,

 

Really late bookmail

What the hell is going on with the postal service at the moment?  I finally received some mail today that was as much as 6 weeks overdue (Misty's letter) and my order from Awesome Books was 2 weeks late.  Even my Funko and Booktopia order (in the flat oversized parcel) were late.  Is it the pre-Christmas postal panic?  I don't know - and I don't particularly care.  I am only worried about my orders getting to me in a reasonable amount of time!

Okay, now that that mini rant is out of my system - I actually didn't indulge in a hissy fit in the video - I will say that for once, all of the used books I ordered from Awesome Books arrived in very good condition.  There is always one item that looks like it's been dragged through the bushes backwards, but today, not a problem.

So out of everything that I opened this morning, the biggest surprise came with the green Harper Perennial spine you can see above on the video titlecard, it is sooo floopy and very much smaller than other editions of the book I own.  I'm trying so hard not to go into video spoilers, but if you've read the book you'll know how much of a chunker it is.  On the plus side, I now no longer have to worry about emailing sellers asking for refunds (and then quibbling about the refund of postage as well) so that's a huge plus.

I was also going to haul the books I discovered at a local thrift shop last week (and I have been posting images on IG) but that would have made this video super long so I might just leave for now.

Anyway, so happy to finally have all my missing orders here, I'm only waiting on two books I won on Twitter comps over the past two weeks.  I'm now going to clean up this mess around my desk and try to find a spot for them on my shelves.  Wish me luck ;-D

And until I see next time,

 

A big week in books

I had such a great week!  Found some amazing books - including one that I have been eying off for ages (and it costs a fortune) - at the annual booksale that takes place at the Town Hall here.  Spent a good 3 hours wandering around on the first day with my mother, and found some great books.  I had to go back the next day to see if there was anything else - and there was!  A much sort after King! *sigh*

Anyway, I bought a stack at the booksale, and then picked up some more books during the week - as well as ordering some more titles online (but that's for another video!).

In the meantime, I had the bright idea to move a huge bookcase into my bedroom (so I could have all my favourite books nearby when I want them), but now I have to finish sorting and shelving hundreds of books before the electrician is due on Thursday.  Why do I do this to myself?

Let me know in the comments if you've read any of these books, I'd love to know what you thought of them - but please, no spoilers ;-D

So that's all from me at the moment.  Have to get off the computer and back to hauling books.

And until I see you next time,

 

Yah, my Funko finally arrived!

Hi there!  Just a quick update today as I couldn't wait to show off today's bookmail.   

There were only two books, an Agatha Christie plus the obligatory Stephen King, but they were in great condition and I can't wait to start reading Murder in the Mews by Christie... well, at least her short story Triangle at Rhodes anyway.

Have another Hodder cover to add to the collection (seriously, I really do need like another two bookcases for all my new books this year!) and I really liked the simple design and the colour combination used.  Still have a handful of the Hodder's to collect, but I do enjoy the simplicity for the covers.

And last, but certainly not least, my Funko order finally arrived from Popcultcha (I'm still waiting impatiently for the Pennywise pre-orders to be released!) but these are so cute... if a little creepy.  Having a little issue with the poor paint job, but they are perfect for what I have in mind.  Lots of photos with a copy of The Shining, or other Kingly books/movies, for my Instagram booktags ;-D

Okay, so it wasn't the longest haul, but I'm super happy with adding the Funko's to my growing collection.  In the meantime, I'm off to do some housework before the family descends in the morning so I'll bid you all adieu, and until I see you next time,

 

Weekly Wrap Up

Hello fuds and duds!

Finally got my reading groove back.  It's been a while since I've been able to pick up a book and read more than about a page, but Agatha Christie has pulled me out of my funk.  I had fun reading Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun (loved that Death on the Nile is directly referenced in Evil Under the Sun).  Needed a little more Christie, so I picked up Black Coffee.  Although it's a novelization of her play, Black Coffee, I forgot that fact and enjoyed the locked room whodunit.

Bookmail, as always, trickled in.  Only four items this week - but I had a problem with one.  Still, the other three were amazing, so I'll call this a win.  Still waiting on late parcels - The Tommyknockers hardcover will get here one of these weeks - and I'm now switching my attention to completing my Discworld Library as those amazing clothbound hardcovers are soooo beautiful.  Four new titles are available in October, I think?, so I'm steadily buying any books I'm missing.

So that just leaves my reading plans for this week.  In honour of the A Discovery of Witches casting announcement the other day, I'm picking up A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night (my favourite!) for their yearly reread.  They are waiting on my bedside table, and I am planning on diving into them tonight.  

Then, if I manage to finish those two books, I have book one in the Dark Heavens series by Kylie Chan standing by.  White Tiger is such a fun read.  It's one of the few books where I have actually been to one of the places the characters visit!

Anyway, that's all from me for the moment.  Need to get my butt in gear and do a little tidying up around the house as I have electricians coming over on Tuesday to do a lot of work....

So until I see you next time,

 

What I'm reading

Well, hello there.  It feels like such a long time since I posted my last video, but it's only been a few days.  The windy weather is slowing, but still gusty at times - which has made for some tense moments.  At the moment all I want to do is snuggle up with a blanket and a movie, but that's not happening today.  All those pesky household chores to get done.

However tonight I will be starting either Evil Under the Sun, or Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie. Reading The Stand and NOS4R2 last month has really thrown my urge to read out into the doghouse.  But I did happen to catch the adaptations on the telly last week, starring Peter Ustinov as Poirot, so it has fired up a desire to at least read these.

Finger's crossed I can get through these two relatively short books this week.  I really need to get back into reading as I have a mountain of TBR books to get through - before more bookmail arrives to take their place!

Oops, need to go move the garden hose.  Don't need to drown my plants ;-D

So until I see you next time,

 

Done! At Betram's Hotel

Unlike most months where I procrastinate about starting my Miss Marple title, I actually picked it up on the 1st, and had it finished by the 2nd of October!  Shocking, I know ;-D

I was really surprised that I found this book better than the adaptations, as the final three books in the Miss Marple series are not generally the TV adaptations I go to when I need a Miss Marple fix.  This gives me hope that the final two books, Nemesis and The Sleeping Murder, will not be boring, or annoying (as I found The Murder at the Vicarage to be!).

Since I'm still not spending much time online (this is only the third time I've booted up the computer since I moved!) it will be a while before I begin to post a few reviews on what I've been reading for the past couple of weeks.  Fingers crossed that I can upload something else in the next week or so.

So until next time, my lovelies...

It can't be October already!

Seriously, I can't have been in this house for almost a month!  There are still boxes stored in the garage and stuff spread out throughout the house with only a vauge idea of where they will finally go - and I'm freaking out about the hours of unboxing and decorating that need to be done before Christmas.  So with that deadline foremost in mind, I fired up the desktop and put on a movie and spent most of this morning in the spare room trying to bring a little bit of order to what will be the 'library' and sewing room.  It was so messy that I nearly twisted my ankle trying to get past the boxes that had been conveniently dropped just past the door and forgotten.  It's now nearly 1pm and I'm quiting for the day so I can go grab some lunch and either continue reading my October Miss Marple, At Bertrams, or (most likely) whack in a season of The Vampire Diaries and veg out for the rest of the afternoon.

Looking out over the farmland behind my place!

On the reading front, I finished my September Miss Marple in a few hours.  Enjoyed it more that I thought I would, but I can't believe how much the Miss Marple TV adaptations play fast and loose with the source material.  I'm down to my final three books for the year, and while some books were adapted quite closely - others... only vaguely.  Hopefully in the future the BBC will remake all the Marples in the style of And Then There Were None as that was beautifully designed and filmed.

Apart from these two Agatha Chrisite's, I have only started reading the All Souls Trilogy as October means Halloween Reads is back on again.  Like the LOTR trilogy for fantasy fans, I think this has become a yearly reread around this time of year.  I love the way the story unfolds over the trilogy, and while I don't think it ended with all my questions answered, I do love reading A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night.

Couldn't resist these gorgeous Halloween Jack-o-antern lights!

Luckily my first lot of Book Depository orders have arrived at the new address.  One is a bind up of the first two Aunt Dimity books that I ordered last month only to have the order cancelled and refunded as they were out of stock of this very book.  However, when I saw it recently I ordered it again and managed to get a copy! (It's now out of stock again).  The final book in the Kylie Chan series arrived as well, can't believe that Black Jade is the final time we'll see these characters.  Thankfully there are nine books in the series that I can reread any time I get the urge to see Emma and Xuan Wu, but still, I'll miss them.

Still having trouble finding all the books I'd like to read soon as the bookshelves are a total mess (and I won't be unpacking any more 'book' boxes until I get the current mess under control), so I'll go with whatever strike the Halloween spirit in me.

Until next time, 

Grumpy reader at the moment

Hello, my lovelies!

I hope you're having a better July than I am.  I have two neighbours (in my unit complex) who seem to think that the only good music is extremely loud heavy metal and techno/dance music!  Earlier this month I even bought some noise cancelling headphones to try and dampen the sound, but it still bleeds through.  Reading is difficult at any time, but especially at night, and I've literally had to plug those headphones into my iPod to watch movies, or listen to a local radio station on my phone, to try and distract myself from going nuts!  Arrrrrgh!

However, you really don't want to hear any more of that, so on to some happy news - my latest bookmail!

Evie Nyxx likes the box most of all!

On Wednesday the courier dropped off a rather large box that only contain five books.  Yes, five smallish books all wrapped up in some amazing bubble wrap and held in place by those air pockets to make sure that my items were not going to move in the slightest.  It's so funny when you rip open the box as you have to make your way through all the protective wrapping to get to the books ;-D

Phrynekinns wouldn't get off the bed (or my pillow!), so she got surrounded by the books ;-D

In this haul I took advantage of Booktopia's free shipping period and bought some long standing items from my wishlist. 

I couldn't resist trying one of the graphic novel adaptations of Agatha Christie books.  I've seen them hauled and review quite a bit on BookTube recently, but the titles I would have loved to get (The Man in the Brown Suit, Death on the Nile, And Then There Were None, and Murder on the Orient Express) were all unavailable, or worse still - out of print!  So, I bought Hallowe'en Party, and I was very happy with it.  I read it that afternoon and it took no time at all as it's only 45 pages long.  Liked the art style, it was interesting but without being so odd or weird that it was distracting.  However I adore the cover art.  So good! 😸

Then I read Seventh Grave and No Body by Darynda Jones.  This is the seventh book in the Charlie Davidson series, and while it is still okay, I'm not sure that I will be continuing to buy these in hardcover - unless I come across some amazing bargins (books 1-3 for $1.49 each on Book Outlet, but the p&h was just highway robbery!).  Thankfully, this book was only $10, so I'm okay with that.  Will try and get a mini-review up at some point in the future.

The last three books are on my TBR pile.  Unseemly Science sounds amazing, but I don't know if I have to read The Bullet Catcher's Daughter first, or if I can just jump straight in?  So that's why it's on the back-burner at the moment.  Next is Shakespeare Undead, which sounds like a hoot and a half - and an odd coincidence as I reread Shadow of Night on Tuesday, and I love that books as we see Kit Marlowe as a daemon, and young Will Shakespeare as a wannabe playwright hanging around with the members of the School of Night - and eventually stealing Marlowe's work (given to young Annie).

Finally there is Stray Souls by Kate Griffin.  This sounded amazing when I read the synopsis online, and I love this style of contemporary urban fantasy that mixes element of mythology.  Since the Dark Heavens series finished earlier this year, I have been on the lookout for a new series (or stand alone) that can fill the void.  Hopefully, this may be it.

And that my lovely ladies and gentlemen, is what came in the mail for me this week.  Next week I am expecting the new release of the illustrated edition of Neverwhere.  I nearly bought the previous release of the author's preferred text edition (I love that cover!), but when I found out from an IG account I follow that this was on it's way - I had to pre-order it as I love Chris Riddell's illustrations!  So look out for a pic of that when it arrives ;-D

Until next time,

 

Autumn is finally here

{as you can tell from the photo above, it's later when I finished this post.  Sky was so lovely to photograph against}

Good morning, my lovelies!  Today is a beautiful chilly autumn day, you know the kind - with painfully blue skies and not a cloud to be seen.  Been quite a while since we've had any autumn-worthy weather, so I thought I'd take advantage of it and try some outdoor book photo's later ;-D

On the plus side, my wrist is getting better slowly.  There is still a hard part under the scar, but I can now type more comfortably - but it means that I've had to spend the morning trying to update my Goodreads book challenge as I've been M.I.A there for the past 4 and a bit weeks!  Oops ;-D

I've read a few more titles since my last update, including Boyfriend from Hell by Jamie Quaid {review to come}, and discovering that the book I bought the other day from the Big W bargain bin is the same book that was delivered about 2 weeks ago - only with a better cover!  Oh well, such are the problems of a bookaholic.

My May title for A Year of Marple arrived today.  Sadly I can now no longer put off reading what is one of my least favourite of the adaptations.  Fingers crossed that I find the book more palateable.  And I have only read the first few pages of my Classic a Month book, Emma by Jane Austen.  It's not looking very good on the book challenge front, is it, if I can't get my butt into gear and read my designated TBR.  See, this is why I don't like setting a TBR for myself as I am a mood reader.  Oh well, at least I can tick them off my list and will be able to confidently say that "yes, I've actually read that" by the end of the year ;-D

Okay, have to quite now as I'm getting more than a few "Stop. . . NOW!" messages from my wrist.  I've learnt the hard way to stop when the aching sets in.  Will update the blog as I can, but will be posting pictures of my reading life on Instagram if you want to know what I'm reading.

Until next time,

April Book Haul

April was a trying month.  In the middle of the month I ended up having surgery on my wrist, and about two and a half weeks later, without much improvement, I found myself sitting in the hospital's emergency room last Monday (waited 2 hours and froze in the air conditioning!), only to get some antibiotics and a referral to get an ultrasound done later in the week.  Results for that aren't in yet, but the guy doing the scan said there was no infection - awesome! - but I do have some keloid scarring happening... bummer.  Unfortunately this is almost as bad as the original symptoms and I'm hoping that massage and future physio might do the trick.  However, I digress as you probably don't want to hear about all that stuff, instead on to the book haul...

So with that in mind, it's perfectly understandable that I would turn to alternate forms of therapy to take my mind off the pain - and inconvenience of not even being able to do up my own bra! - with some retail therapy - and so I bought more books.  Bad, I know, but I was just so sore (and yes, bored), that I needed a pick-me-up.  However, I didn't expect it to be this problematic ;-D

Thankfully they didn't all arrive at once or else my mother, who stayed with me for nearly two weeks, would have had a conniption over all the parcels that the courier was bringing to my door.  As of the beinning of May I have read 9 out of the 15 - woo-hoo! - and I'm putting some aside for future reading as I'm just not in the mood for them now, but I do want to read them at some stage (i.e., The Black Tulip).

First book I read was The Casquette Girls, and I really enjoyed this paranormal YA book.  Was moody, atmospheric and had an interesting twist.  Could really see it being made into a movie, or TVM, as the New Orleans backdrop was amazing.

Next I went on to The Obsession by Nora Roberts.  It was pretty good, but not amazing.  Could have done with a 5 page prologue and not the nearly 80 pages we got, but the rest was pretty good.  She does write a good mystery/romance that you can read over and over again.

Then I thought I'd better start on my April #ayearofmarple challenge with A Murder is Announced.  Took me till the end of the month to finish it, but I got there.  Yeah, still isn't my favourite story, but won't be as bad as this month's offering, They Do It With Mirrors (which I really don't like).

After that, I sprinkled the week with my newly delivered Stephanie Laurens books - all three of them!  Yes, I totally caved and bought the first books in the Cynters Next Generation series.  I don't know why I did this.  Why did the author have to continue on with a new generation that will guarantee at least another 20 books!  I'll be needing a bookcase to devote just to her interconnected series by the time she's finished with them.  I enjoyed The Tempting of Thomas Carrick more than A Match for Marcus Cynster, and I was not all that fussed with By Winter's Light as the main romance between Daniel and Claire was overshadowed by the meeting of Lucilla and Thomas.

The Liar was an impulse buy as I'd enjoyed The Obsession.  But once again, I was feeling let down by the author as it was reminicent of other novels in her bibliography.  It felt like I was reading scenarios from her other books that had just been transfered into this novel after changing characters names and other descriptive info, etc.  Needed to revisit some older favourites to get the bad taste out of my mouth, so to speak.  Indeed, I spent some quality time with The Search, The Witness, Black Hills, and a couple of bowls of ice-cream over the next few days ;-P

Then Garden of Lies arrived and I was a happy little camper.  I have found these paranormal Victorian romance/mysteries quite entertaining.  This one was okay, but I think I'll have to give it a re-read to see if it was just my mood, or it really was just an pretty good story.  

And finally, the last book I read in April was the much anticipated Firebound, the second last book in the Sea Haven series.  I was hoping for a great book, but I didn't get that. Don't get me wrong, Firebound was pretty good, and it furthered the storyline along, but there were just too many inconsistancies and far fetched scenarios for me to be able to buy into the fantasy of it.  Will post a review in the near future discussing my thoughts on this series.

And so we come to the end of this mini wrap-up.  I can't believe I bought this many books in April, and actually finished so many of them as well.  Still awaiting a few more books, but thankfully I ordered those in the beginning of May, so they don't count ;-D

Hope you all had a fabulous reading month, and until next time,