Like I said when I posted this on IG, Yah! My Dark Tower bookmail is starting to trickle in 😊
I read The Gunslinger about 18 months ago, and just never continued on with the series as I didn’t have the next books. There was also the very real book problem of trying to decide which edition to get. Unfortunately by the time I decided on these US ones (in this very odd, tall mass market paperback format), they seemed to be going out of print for some of the titles.
Thankfully, these two were easily obtained from Amazon AU, while the rest had to be sourced from AbeBooks, and Powell’s (from America), which is a whole other story. Fingers crossed the used books I bought match this edition.
It’s been just over 6 weeks since I visited the local RSPCA shelter and came home with a new cat. Luckily, EG has been such a catalyst for settling the troubles between Evie Nyxx and Smokey. On his second night in the house he decided that he was not having anymore of this isolation sh*t, and he cried and kicked up such a fuss that I had to grab him late that night. He swanned into the bedroom with me, jumped up on the bed - much to the shock of Evie Nyxx and Smokey - and proceeded to snuggle down and purr up a storm. No one lashed out at him, and there were only a few grumbles and a small growl or two, and from that point on, EG was a member of the family.
Now, he gets into mischief with Phrynekinns, plays chase-me-Charlie through the house with the more recalcitrant Smokey, and has no fear about barging onto my lap, or chest, at night while I’m trying to cuddle Evie Nyxx. He’s a delightful bundle of energy that has make a rather tense threesome into a calm and interactive foursome. Looks like this time, the fourth cat was the charm.
I missed out on the first Barnes & Noble edition of the Stephen King omnibus, so this time round I was determined to get one. Sadly, it’s not available in Australia (well, at least from Amazon AU, Booktopia, Book Depository or any of the other online book retailers I’ve tried), so I had to go to the source and pre-order it from Barnes & Noble in the US.
The whole process was pretty pain free - although I was frustrated the 10% off coupon I had for signing up didn’t apply to international orders 🤨 - and after parting with over AU$50 all I had to do was wait for my order to ship, and then count the days till it arrived.
And today was that day, and I am delighted with it. I have yet to unwrap it, however the cover art, and the colour palette, are really eye catching. Even with the book on the shelf, the spine draws the eye. I’m not sure if there are any illustrations, but I’ll discover that when I get around to peeling off the plastic 😄
I did order one other B&N leatherbound edition, a 2011 copy of Jane Eyre, which arrived yesterday in fabulous condition, and in a twist which surprised me, this earlier leatherbound book was much smaller than the King omnibus. Although not my favourite classic, I did enjoy Jane Eyre, and this edition is gorgeous.
I’m not sure if I’ll be purchasing more of these leatherbound books as they are rather expensive here, but I would love to add a few more to my collection. I uploaded my ‘unboxing’ of the SK omnibus this morning if you’d like to see my reaction 😅.
So, that’s all from me at the moment. I now have to find shelf space for these two beauties, so until I see you next time,
Sorry I've been a little haphazard in the uploading department, but I did get around to editing the Mid Year Freak Out Tag video, and right on time as it turns out.
There are some new books, some not so new books, and a few books mentioned in more than one question, but so far this year - even though I've read nearly 300 books so far! - there have been more misses than hits.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video, and until I see you next time,
Well. This feels a bit strange. I haven’t ‘blogged’ in so long that this feels a little weird 😉
I’m running a little bit behind this month, but I thought I’d take a moment to put up my June TBR. After May was a complete disaster on the reading front, Audible has been a great way to ease back into picking up books. I caved and bought the Kindle editions of Swamp Sniper and Swamp Team 3 by Jana DeLeon. These are books 3 and 4 respectively, and I am having so much fun with this light-hearted series. Full of comedy, murder, mystery, and a dash of Southern charm, I would recommend this series to anyone, but if you love Stephanie Plum I think this will appeal to you.
So, with my urge to read kickstarted, I am hoping to get to a few of the books that I neglected in May. I need to catch up on my #aclassicamonth by reading The Picture of Dorian Gray (April), Persuasion (May), and June’s classic which has yet to be decided. On the Stephen King front, I’m hoping to read Different Seasons, or at least one or two of the novellas, plus perhaps dipping my toes into The Talisman. The Rook by Daniel O’Malley - which hid from me for about 6 weeks, don’t ask - is also on my radar because of the upcoming Stan series, and last, but by no means least, I really need to get started on The Count of Monte Cristo. That sucker is over 1,400 pages and I have yet to read one sentence (really wishing I had joined in last years readalong).
So, I have officially committed. It is here for everyone to see, and will hopefully motivate me to get threw all these books. If I get the time to film and edit a TBR video I’ll link it above, and I have plans to film and upload a few videos this week, including a ‘Meet Earl Grey’ update.
Anyway, that’s all for the moment. I hope you’re having a lovely day, and until I see you next time,
I tried to get this up last Friday, but thanks to more NBN maintenance - thanks Telstra! - I wasn't able to get it up. So I just ended up filming a wrap up of what I ended up reading instead.
If you have read any of these books, leave a comment below as I'd love to connect with fellow Constant Readers ;-D
Thanks for watching, and until I see you next time,
OMG, Winter is here. This morning was so cold and I didn't even want to stick my nose out from under the blankets. When I finally emerged it was to discover that the mercury had plummeted to -2.4°c (felt like -4.8°c) and that does not bode well for the next few months. It's at times like this that I really wish all houses in Australia came with wood heaters or radiators, because OMG it's so freaking cold.
On the book front, I have just filmed my book haul for May. Not sure if I'll use that, or re-film it on the weekend because those last stragglers could arrive in the next two days, couldn't they? ;-D Anyway, I'm feeling more upbeat about things, so hopefully that will translate into filming more, and actually editing the footage I already have.
In the meantime, I'm off to play with the new floof that I adopted on Sunday. Earl Grey, or EG (as I've already dubbed him), is such a ball of energy. He can be so relaxed and chill and then be zooming off somewhere to chase a leaf. Such a cutie.
Let me know what you thought of Elevation, and do you think King should stop publishing these novellas and just concentrate on his big ass novels? But I digress. I'm out. Thanks for watching/reading this, and until I see you next time,
Yep, I nearly brought home the most gorgeous Alaskan Malamute.
Sadly, she was more than I could handle at the moment (with my health issues), so I decided it wouldn't be fair to her to adopt her. However, I did find out that if she isn't adopted, she will be going to live with someone from an Alaskan Malamute Rescue group that will rehome this gorgeous old girl.
Instead, I came home with a new cat... my fourth cat!
He's a little hyper at the moment, so I'm going to wait a few days for him to calm down before trying to photograph and get some footage of him. All I can say is that he is a gorgeous black fluffy cat that has fit in so quickly with the other three.
Let me know if you'd like me to do a video on my cats below. And until I see you guys next time,
I am so happy to be able to say that my mum is out of the CCU (Cardiac Care Unit) and is currently in the rehab ward of the hospital while she undergoes some physio in preparation of her coming home.
As you can well imagine, the last 2 weeks have been a complete nightmare.
However, now that my mum is on the mend, I will try to get my butt back into gear and start filming some new series I hope to include on my channel. It won't happen this week as I'm taking this slowly, but I hope by the end of May I should be uploading more regularly.
Thank you once again to everyone who commented on my video with their well wishes, they were very much appreciated.
Okay, I don't think this Lucky Dip Question was solved by any means, but it's something that I've wondered about for a while now. Why does time move so differently for some characters in the Stephanie Plum series?
If you have read the books, and notice this weird phenomenon, then please let me know what your thoughts are about this odd little quirk in the comments below.
It's been a hot minute since I have been able to either film, edit, or upload something. Today I'm just letting you know about a fabulous series I've recently been devouring and let me tell you, if you are a fan of fun, quirky, fast paced and action packed series with a hint of romance, and laugh out loud moments, then please pick up the Miss Fortune Mystery series by Jana DeLeon.
Would be a fantastic inbetween series for fans of Stephanie Plum.
Let me know in the comments if you have read this series because I am dying to chat to someone about these books and characters ;-D
Anyway, gotta go and hop on to editing the next video (trying to make up for lost time), and until I see you guys next time,
I am so glad to be back at the computer, and finger's crossed, there will be no NBN or power maintenance holdups for the foreseeable future.
Now, as you can see from the title of the video, I've gotten back into my Stephen King groove and have been watching - and buying - a whole lot of King stuff. Firstly, I blame this on finding Needful Things had dropped on STAN (Australian streaming service) and from there I bounced over to Netflix to partake of Gerald's Game. I had been putting off watching Gerald's Game because I had wanted to read the book, as I mentioned in this video, but alas, I caved and on a hot afternoon I got myself comfy on the bed, snuggled down into the pillows with my iPad, and pressed PLAY... and OMG! did I love this adaptation. Won't go into spoilers because I want to read the book and compare it to the adaptation in a video, but dang, it was amazing!
I have also been trying to track down some of the US hardcovers of Bag of Bones, Pet Sematary, Night Shift, Carrie, The Shining, and a few others that I just can't seem to find for a reasonable price. I do have some more editions in the upcoming PARTS TWO and THREE of my King-ly Reading Update videos, because I got a little 'click happy' this month.
Anyway, I've got to get back to editing the new footage so I can get something up during the week. Thanks for your patience, and until I see you next time,
Oh, boy. Just when you think it’s safe to go back in the pool, Murphy’s Law strikes.
So. I had two videos that I was hoping to finish editing and get uploaded this week, but the internet gods have thrown a spanner in the works and I received notification that not only was my NBN Broadband going to be down this week, you know, for maintenance (yeah, right), but my power supply would also be in question this week as the electricity company also wants to do some maintenance... seriously, what are the odds for this?
That means that I’m not going to be editing diddley-squat because I do not want to loose any of my footage thanks to an ill timed outage, not that I will be able to upload it anyway. So, I’m falling back on my reading, and to my delight, I’ve been burning up the pages. I’ve already surpassed my goal of 100 books for the year (28 February), and I’m now chasing my highest page count of 45,000+ (set in 2017). I’ve been discovering a lot of great new authors and series - thanks to the free books on Amazon Kindle - so I think I’ll try to put together a list of my favourite new authors/series.
Then there are the books that I’m trying very hard to read because a) they’re on my personal reading goals list for this year, and b) because I want to watch the adaptation, so I need to read the book. So far I’m working my way through Pet Sematary by Stephen King, and I’m expecting The Meg blu-ray in the mail tomorrow so I’m downloaded the ebook. For my #aclassicamonth challenge, I’ve decided to go with Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie so I can get it off my list. However my #bigbook2019 progress has floundered because I have yet to pick up The Count of Monte Cristo. Oops.
I’m currently flying through some new urban fantasy and paranormal cosy mysteries, but I’ll catch you up on those in a future post. Now, I think you’re all up to speed on what’s happening, or not happening, so I’ll leave you here, and until I see you next time,
Trying to keep this post nice and short, so all I'm going to say is that I'm trying a slightly different format for my end of the month reading wrap ups (to try and keep the run time down), so I hope you like it.
Thanks for watching, and drop me a line below if you have any ideas or book recommendations for me ;-D
Sorry about the delay. I've been having a few issues with the new Mojave OS ever since I updated my software from Yosemite. It's been slow, and sluggish, and yesterday I couldn't force quit a program that was preventing me from shutting down the computer, so I had to pull the plug - oops, power outage.
Today I think I've gotten some of the kinks ironed out, but it's still so frustrating to feel like you're being held hostage by your iMac. Finger's crossed I can actually shut down properly today.
Anyway, last week was quite a good week for me. Two of the books I've been wanting to read - to see if I want to continue on with the series - were actually at my library. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but trust me, in a small regional country town, having any of my paranormal romance or urban fantasy series on the shelves is major.
I'm still on the fence in regards to Torpedo Ink. I enjoy the overall story, but the messed up lives, the abuse, and the extremely graphic nature of these books is starting to get to me. It's like the Anita Blake books all over again. If you have any thoughts on the matter, let me know in the comments. I'd seriously love to discuss this with anyone who is having problems with the direction the series is going in.
Thanks for taking the time to watch my videos, I hope to get more up soon. And until I see you next time,
