Jan-Feb Book Haul - Part 1

Hello, my lovelies!

I am so far behind the 8 ball this year, in regards to videos I want to make, that it's not even funny.  So far 2020 has not been a stellar start to a new decade. Although, during all this mayhem in my everyday life I have managed to read at a ridiculous rate, smashing my Goodreads reading challenge goal by February.

In this first of two parts, I have just gone over all the new books that I have added to my library, and the few that I have already read.  Sadly, after filming Part 2 (up soon) I have already accumulated a few more books.  It's a sickness, I tell you.  Then there is Kindle Unlimited... and I think you can guess how my reading month for February went.

Outside of my reading life, things have been chugging along as always. Chronic pain is never fun, but it has really kicked my butt this summer. The hot and humid weather we've experienced here (it's not humid here!) plus the bushfires, etc., just wrecked havoc with my system.  Thankfully with autumn temperatures kicking in, I'm feeling a lot better, but still not yet 100%... well, as good as I'm going to get at the moment anyway.

I'm hoping to do to a big unhaul, or weeding my shelves, in a couple of weeks so if you're interested in that, let me know and I'll see if I can get something up.

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

 

Uh, Amazon, why did you do this?

So, Amazon did a thing to my book that I'm a little peeved about.

Let me know if this has ever happened to you after ordering online.  I'm genuinely curious as to how often this actually happens, if it does, or did I just get super unlucky?

Thanks for watching, and until next time,

 

Last Bookmail in July

Hi there!

I finally fired up the ol' desktop today and while I was waiting for Norton to update all the anti-virus things, I thought I'd edit another video for you all.

July was a great month for bookmail - I only wish I hadn't ordered all this myself! There are still some items that are currently MIA, however, I have high hopes that the AbeBooks will arrive in the next week or so... but that Powell's order from the US is still not here, and I am getting rather antsy about it.

Okay, I'm off now.  Hope your July reading was wonderful, and that you found something new and interesting, or rediscovered an old favourite.  Thanks for watching, and until I see you next time,

 

More Stephen King bookmail

When I went up to the post office this morning, I didn't expect to get a pile of Stephen King stuff.  It makes me so happy when I can add more Kingly items to my collection ;-D

Although some of the items mentioned in the video were bought from Amazon (US), they were actually ordered through Amazon AU as Amazon still won't let Australians order from any of the international Amazon sites.  I've got to say, being geoblocked from all the other Amazon sites sucks severely.  The small pool of items Australia has access to from overseas on the site is very frustrating - especially when an item is available on just about every other site, but Australia's!

Anyway, that's a rant for another day.

Of the film adaptations that arrived in the mail today, I'm most excited to watch 'Salem's Lot (1979), and Silver Bullet (with Corey Haim).  I've now read both the books that these movies are adapted from and I'm intrigued to see how the adaptations used the source materials.

There are still more items winging their way to me, but I just couldn't wait to tear into the packages so there will be another haul towards the end of October, early November.

So that's it for today.  Let me know what your favourite Stephen King movie is, or what book would you most like to see adapted.  I always love to hear what fellow Constant Readers think about any screen adaptations.

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

More King Swag

Yes, I'm back with some more King stuff ;-D

I had a great King inspired week, with bookmail and funko's arriving in the post - God, I love bookmail!

Last week I tried ordering from a new bookshop that sells rare, collectible, hard to find and out of print books.  If you're in Australia and are trying to locate a certain special book, try MARLOWES BOOKS.  They were super helpful, and my order was posted quickly and arrived in a few days.

On the home front I'm not doing a huge amount of reading thanks to the mini heatwave that has hit parts of Australia.  So I won't be adding reviews any time soon - although I do plan to start adding those in the future.  I've got a few 'scripts' written, but I'm just lacking the energy to film them (and my old camera is acting up), so they'll just have to wait.

Oh, and when I filmed this I completely forgot that my Dark Tower funkos had arrived on Monday (durp!), but I'll do a video on my King funkos when I have them all.

Okay, I'm out.  And until I see you 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,

 

Mid August Bookhaul

Okay now.  I know it's been a shitty couple of days in US politics (wish I could turn on the TV, Twitter, or any news program and NOT hear about Trump!) and you'd think living in Australia it would be okay, but no.  It's all over the freaking media.  So, I'm avoiding most of it via old Agatha Christie movies.  There nothing like a sweet Miss Marple mystery to throw all things Trump out of your head.

On the book front, I've received a lot of books in the mail over the last week.  Most of them were either my usual Stephen King hardcovers that I'm attempting to collect, or a handful of books that Sophie {HERE} made me buy because she made them sound so amazing!  One of the pitfalls of booktube - all the recommendations.  I'm like a kid in a candy shop ;-D

So, I hope you enjoy this haul.  I'm still waiting on some overdue parcels, but hopefully they will arrived soon and I can start planning my August Wrap Up.

Let me know if you've read any of these books.  I'd like to hear what you thought of it.

And until next time,

Yet another SK book haul

Hello, my lovelies!

Yes, here is yet another smallish bookmail bookhaul of Kingly titles (with two Jasper Fforde books as well).  I'm loving these Hodder covers and hope to collect the majority of them in the future.

Let me know in the comments what your favourite Stephen King find of late is.

And until next time,

 

So lucky to get this!

Thankfully Big W still had both copies of Victoria The Queen on their shelves! I can now add this beautiful biography to my collection. #bookstagram #reading #tbr #musthave #biography #queenvictoria #juliabaird #aussieauthor #beautifulcovers #bookaholic #bookaddict #booknerd #booknerdigans #bookobsessed #biblio #bibliophile #aussiebibliophile

A photo posted by Dallass (@tundrablue) on Jan 19, 2017 at 5:12pm PST

 

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,