TTT – Ten Books On My Spring TBR

This week we were given the topic of talking about ten books that are on our reading list for the season of Spring. I must admit I was quite happy with this topic because I just recently decided to follow my 2016 TBR list in order, or close enough but there are a few books I plan to read that are not on that list. Here is my chance to talk about them or at least mention them.

If you’re interested in joining in with us then head on over to Broke and Bookish for the details 🙂

NUMBER 1

Vicious by V.E. Schwab (CURRENTLY READING)

This book is the next book on my books to read this year so I thought to myself that there was no reason to not read this and I have heard nothing but good things about it. I’m going into this book mostly blind so I don’t really know what to expect.

NUMBER 2, 3, 4 & 5

Death Note, Black Edition Volume 3 (CURRENTLY READING)

Death Note, Black Edition Volume 4

Death Note, Black Edition Volume 5

Death Note, Black Edition Volume 6

by Tsugumi Ohba, Takeshi Obata (Illustrator), Pookie Rolf (Translator) & Alexis Kirsch (Translator)

I’m currently reading Volume Two right now (13th) so I might be finished with it by the time this is published so I haven’t included it seeing as it isn’t Spring quite yet. Nevertheless I want to continue collecting these books and finish reading them. I watched the anime last week, week before, and immediately fell in love with it. I don’t know why I haven’t watched it sooner as I’ve known about it for years. I’ve heard that the manga finishes a little differently than the anime so it’ll be interesting to see if that’s true.

NUMBER 6

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami & Nathan Collins (Translator)

I don’t know if I am going to start this book from the beginning again or just carry on from where my bookmark still is. I remember the film pretty well so I don’t think I’ll be too lost but maybe I should re-watch it before hand just to get my facts right in my head. It has been about a year since I last tried reading it…

NUMBERS 7, 8 & 9

Blue Exorcist Volume 9

Blue Exorcist Volume 10

Blue Exorcist Volume 11

by Kazue Kato

Still loving this series and I can’t wait to continue reading. I am catching up with the books they have released now so I only have a few more books to collect.

NUMBER 10

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

I put this on here because it seems to be a rather light hearted book and I thought I needed at least one book on here that isn’t too action packed. I needed at least one YA book on here after all 🙂

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Well that was a nice short list. This year has been all about manga for me so far. I’ve only read a few books and managed to finish one series off. What books I have been reading though are some books that I have been wanting to read for quite a while so I’m pretty happy with that. For example I finally got around to reading Memoirs of a Geisha which has been on my TBR shelf for three years!

Have you read any of these books? Any you think I should get to ASAP?

As always I’d love to see your TTT posts, I’m interested to see what kind of books you’ll be reading this Spring so feel free to link it in the comments.

Until Next Time,

Tori x

TTT – Characters Everyone Loves But I Just Don’t Get

Right well here we are again for another TTT. As always you can go over to the Broke and Bookish to see what TTT is and the next topics.

NUMBER 1

Katniss Everdeen – The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 

Katniss just seems very dull to me. She acts like she doesn’t care about things. Maybe this is because of the films and my dislike of the third book but I just can’t see myself reading the Hunger Games books again any time soon. (Although talking about them is making me curious. I haven’t read them in a long time.)

NUMBER 2

Severus Snape – Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

In have a love hate relationship with Snape. Sometimes I dislike him and other times I like him because of how complex a character he is. Snape is regularly jumping on and off this list.

NUMBER 3

Chaol Westfall – Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J. Maas

I don’t hate Chaol but up to the point I’m at (just read Crown of Midnight) I’m not liking him as much as everyone else seems to. I don’t know what it is about him but I’m still going to give him a chance.

NUMBER 4

Deliah “Lila” Bard – Shades of Magic Series by V.E. Schwab

I’ve only read this once and it was a while ago but I remember not liking Lila. She wasn’t fleshed out as a character and I had trouble reading about her when I know so little about her. Hopefully in the second book – A Gathering of Shadows – we get to know more about her.

NUMBER 5

Opal Cowan – Glass Series by Maria V. Snyder

Opal is very self-centred and it get old very fast. She is so obsessed with her own problems she forgets that there are other people with their own problems around her. She is too self absorbed for her own good. We do however see her grow as a character as the books progress and I like her in the third – and last – book in the series, Spy Glass.

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For now these are all of the characters I can remember that I don’t like. I thought about putting Cath from Fangirl in but it isn’t the character I have an issue with, I think it is the book in general so I decided not to include her. (If you’re curious here is my mini review)

Do you agree with me on any of these? I’d like to know 🙂

As always feel free to leave a link to your TTT in the comments.

Until next time,

Tori x

TTT – Books To Read If You’re in the Mood for a Short\Quick Read

Sometimes you just want a short book to read to get you back into the flow of reading or just a bit of a breather from the bigger heftier books. Well here are my top recommendations for you.

Top Ten Tuesday is created and hosted by the Broke and Bookish so go over there and take a look at their posts and everyone else’s TTT posts 🙂

NUMBER 1

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

REVIEW

NUMBER 2

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

NUMBER 3

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

NUMBER 4

The Egg by Andy Weir

You can read this online, it is very short but worth the read.

NUMBER 5

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K. Rowling

NUMBER 6

Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli 

REVIEW

NUMBER 7 

Shaman King by Hiroyuki Takei

NUMBER 8

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

REVIEW

Well those are all I can think of for now. Have you got any recommendations for short books?

I’d love to see your TTT so leave a link if you’d like 🙂

Until next time,

Tori x

Top Ten Tuesday #19 – Books I Wouldn’t Mind Santa Leaving Under My Tree

I’m back again with another Top Ten, this week’s topic is all about the books we’d like to receive from Santa this year. I’m not expecting any books for Christmas this year so I’ll probably end up buying these for myself at some point.

If you’re interested in joining us for TTT then head over to TheBrokeandBookish for more information.

These are in no particular order. 

NUMBER 1

FullMetal Alchemist (3-in-1) Volume 2 by Hiromu Arakawa

NUMBER 2

Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination by J.K. Rowling

NUMBER 3

The Wrath and the Dawn by  Renee Ahdieh

NUMBER 4

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

NUMBER 5 & 6

 

The Silkworm and Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith (Hardcover)

NUMBER 7

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

NUMBER 8

 

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

NUMBER 9

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

NUMBER 10

Legacy of Kings by Eleanor Herman

Well those are ten of the books that I would like to receive this Christmas, are any of these on your list?

I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and to those who don’t celebrate this holiday I hope you have a good day regardless.

Happy Holidays 

Tori x

Top Ten Tuesday #18 – Best Books I’ve Read in 2015

This week we’re all talking about the Top Ten Books we’ve Read in 2015 and as soon as I saw this topic I knew I had to get my hands on it and give it a shot. So here we are, it’s the end of 2015 and this is the list of my favourite reads of this year.

Top Ten Tuesday is created and hosted over at TheBrokeandBookish, head on over there if you’re interested in finding out more about this weekly bookish meme.

NUMBER 10

Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma Vol. 1 by Yuuto Tsukuda, Shun Saeki and Yuki Morisaki

This is mainly on the list because I loved the anime and I think that translated back to the manga when I read it. I don’t know if I’ll continue collecting but I will watch it again if they make another season.

NUMBER 9

Twilight: Life and Death by Stephenie Meyer

I freaked out when I heard about this and I actually really enjoyed it. I mainly brought it because I was curious about the premise but after reading it I actually really liked it and I might even like it better than the original!

NUMBER 8

Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Promise Part 1 by Gene Luen Yang, Bryan Konietzko, Michael Dante DiMartino and Gurihiru

I thought that this was a really good opening comic to a series and I can’t wait to carry on collecting the series. If you like Avatar then you will probably really like this too. It carries on after the end of the final season and gives us a look into the events that happen after the final ‘battle’ and the long reaching consequences and problems that occur.

NUMBER 7

 Nimona by Noelle Stevenson (Reviewed)

I really enjoyed this book. At first I wasn’t sold on it but then the story fleshed out and by the end of the book I was really invested in the characters and I really wanted to know what happened. This is a good book to introduce someone into the genre of Graphic Novels.

NUMBER 6

Shadow Study by Maria V. Snyder

I was a little disappointed in this book truth be told. I didn’t really like the change in writing style that was introduced but I was so happy that she decided to continue with the series. I honestly thought that she had finished with it but turns out that there is going to be another two books. It was really nice to be able to read a new story about some of my favourite characters.

This was made even better by the fact that I got to meet the author Maria V. Snyder at a book signing and I even had the chance to interview her via email for a blog post!

NUMBER 5

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab (Reviewed)

I’m glad I read this this year. I want to try reading more of Victoria Schwab’s works and look forward to reading more in the new year. I was expecting to be blown away by this book but it fell a little flat for me unfortunately but I still enjoyed it enough for it to make this list.

NUMBER 4

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

This was one of the only classics I read this year but I’m glad I read it. I don’t know what I was expecting when I went into this but I really liked it and I hope to go back and read it again eventually.

NUMBER 3

The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (Reviewed)

You’re probably wondering why this isn’t one of my top two. Well it’s because it took me a long time to read this and I was a little out of my comfort zone. This was the first detective novel I have read and it took some getting used to. I still marvel over the writing and the amount of detail J.K.R goes into. The characters were all so real and I could easily imagine them in my head right down to how they sounded. It was like I was transported into a TV show in my head.

I loved it and I plan to read the second book, The Silkworm as soon as I can. I plan to buy it in the January sales so I can grab Career of Evil around the same time.

NUMBER 2

Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (Reviewed)

I’m surprised too. When I read this I never expected it to be one of my favourite reads of the year but I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a quick read and deliciously sweet. I fell in love with this book because of the characters and the format. If you haven’t read this book yet then you seriously need to get a move on and pick it up!

NUMBER 1

The Martian by Andy Weir (Reviewed)

Yeah. I love this book. I will re-read this in the future. I loved this book so much I got my Mum to read it and she too loved it. I was surprised when I read this, I had been gifted this last Christmas and it took me months to pick it up. I have to admit the cover put me off.

This book had me on the edge of my seat so many times I lost count. I even started to annotate notes in the margins as I read because I found myself reacting to his sarcasm and responding with my own. I seriously loved this book and it deserves to have the top spot. I was a little late to this but I don’t care, I got there eventually and fell in love. This is a new favourite book and yes, this was the best book I read this year.

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Well those are all of my top ten books of this year, are any of these on your list? Send me a link to your TTT I’d love to see your Top Books of 2015. I can’t wait to see what my list will be like next year!

Until next time,

Tori x

Top Ten Tuesday #17 – Debut Authors to Further Explore

Well this is an interesting topic, I know one off the top of my head that I am going to include but the others are a mystery as of this moment.

As always if you’re interested in joining in TTT then head on over the host site the Broke and Bookish.

Andy Weir – The Martian

REVIEW

I read The Martian a few months ago and loved it, it is still the best book I have read so far this year and I can’t wait to see what he is going to do next.

Becky Albertalli – Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda

REVIEW

Again I read this a few months ago and I found it adorable. I would love to see another novel from her as I really liked her writing style.

Zoe Sugg – Girl Online

REVIEW

Technically she shouldn’t be on this list but I have only read her first book so I’m going to slip her in here. I own her newest book Girl Online: On Tour and plan to read it soon.

Authors I’ve Read This Year I Want to Further Explore

For this little bit I will be talking about the authors that are new to me this year that I want to further explore. They aren’t debut authors but they were to me (if that makes sense?)

V.E. Schwab – A Darker Shade of Magic

REVIEW

I read this at the beginning of the year and liked it. It didn’t blow me away but I like V.E. Schwab as a person – from what I’ve seen of her on Twitter – and I would like to try reading some more of her books before giving up on her writing style.

Rainbow Rowell – Fangirl

I read Fangirl last year and didn’t really like it but I have recently brought Carry On her newest novel and it looks really interesting so I want to give her another chance.

Rick Riordan – Percy Jackson

I have read about half of the Percy Jackson series so far and I am really enjoying his writing style. It will be nice if I can actually finish the series and try some of his other book series.

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I think that’s all I have for you this week, sorry it’s so short but what can you do? Have you read any of these books? What did you think?

Send me a link to your TTT in the comments 🙂

Until next time,

Tori x

Top Ten Tuesday #16 – FREEBIE Vampire and Gothic Literature

Halloween really isn’t my sort of thing. I hate being scared, scary stories, films, pictures anything scary and I’ll hate it. I tend to ignore Halloween as much a possible.

With that in mind when I saw what we could do for this weeks topic I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t have anything to talk about, however I looked at my bookshelf and I saw quite a lot of gothic literature and vampire novels\series. I thought I would use this FREEBIE post to talk about those ones that I have read and those that I want to read.

As always TTT is created and hosted by the Broke and Bookish, so head on over there if you’re interested in joining or knowing what TTT is. You should also check out their other posts too!

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Lets start off with an obvious one. Every one knows Dracula even if they haven’t read it. I have read about half of this, I picked it up a few years ago and then again last year (year before?) for university. Both times I didn’t finish but I do want to read it eventually.

Dracula’s Guest and Other Weird Tales by Bram Stoker

As a companion to Dracula I decided to include this. This is a collection of short stories that Bram Stoker wrote but didn’t publish his wife collected these together after his death and published them. When I found this on Goodreads I was intrigued so I decided to download it to read after I’ve finally read Dracula.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

I read this at the beginning of the year and loved it. It is a short book so if you want to get in to reading more classics this is a short and interesting one for you to read.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

I read this last year and loved it. Granted it took me a long time to get in to the story but once it had caught my interest it has me hooked.

Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

This is actually a short story I read for university. I really liked this one. I had very low expectations for this story and was pleasantly surprised with it. I think I liked the discussions this book created in our class more than the book but if you’re interested in reading different takes on vampires then I would recommend trying this one out. It is not very long but it got me thinking.

Vampire Book Series

The Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine

This is a very long YA vampire series. I started reading this when I was in High School and I still haven’t finished. I am on … probably book ten and I still need to read\buy the last few books in the series.

I love this series but it can get a little long winded and a tad repetitive, I mainly love reading this for the characters not the overall plot (though I am interested to see how the series will end …

House of Night by PC Cast and Kristin Cast

Again another series I haven’t finished. I was obsessed with this during my Twilight faze. This was my rebound series. I own most of the books but stopped buying them when I caught up with the series at the time. Since I last read the books the series has been completed.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Well if we’re talking vampires then the ‘sparkly’ vampires need to be mentioned at least once. I loved this series and I have plans to go and re-read it soon. I recently finished reading Life and Death and really enjoyed it so I am going to give it some time before trying to re-read the actual series.

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

I have a running trend of not completing these book series. I am working on this one though. I have read the first two books and own another two of them which I need to read. I love the characters in this and the plot is unique to what I’ve read before. I can’t wait to finish this series … when I get around to it

Vampire Knight by Matsuri Hino

This is a manga series that I’ve read and actually completed. I hated the ending to this manga however and I will never read it to the end ever again. That being said I love the first half of the series and I can recommend that.

I was a little leery of putting this on my list because I don’t have a clear opinion on it but I decided to go with it anyway. What is a list of mine if it doesn’t have manga on here?

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That is all I have for you this week. I hope you all scare yourselves silly on Halloween and for those like me that hate anything scary I hope you stay safe under your covers 😉

As always leave a comment, like and send me a link to your TTT I always love reading them.

Until next time,

Tori x

Top Ten Tuesday #15 – Wishes I’d Ask The Book Genie To Grant Me

I really liked the sound of this one when I went to see what our topic for this week was. It really caught my eye so I’m hoping to have some fun with it.

If you didn’t already know Top Ten Tuesday was created and is hosted by the Broke and Bookish, if you’re interested in joining in then head on over there for the details and weekly topics, as well as links to other people’s blog posts for this week.

I Wish For Stephenie Meyer to Finally Write and Publish a Sequel to The Host

I’ve been waiting for a sequel to The Host for years. It has got to the point that I’m a little scared of it, what if she does write and publish it but it isn’t as good as I want it\expect it to be. I don’t want to ruin the first book because it is one of my all time favourite books!

I Wish For a Perfect Reading Place

Imagine the perfect reading place, a place where it is quiet, warm, cosy ext. Hmmm yes please!

I Wish My Books Didn’t Deteriorate

The books that I go back to constantly are starting to look a little worse for wear. I don’t think I’ll replace them because that was the book I fell in love with but I would love it if they still looked as nice as they did when I first brought\got them.

I Wish I Could Go Back and Read Harry Potter for the First Time Again

I don’t think I need to elaborate on this one.

This is another double edged sword. Harry Potter let me access my inner fangirl and connect with some of my friends in a way I couldn’t before. When I was in University it was a good starting point to talk about when in doubt. On the other hand I would love to experience the reading of Harry Potter for the first time again. It was such a magical read and I can still remember where I was when I first read them. Harry Potter holds such fond memories for me.

I Wish I Could Read a Series All the Way Through Without Stopping

Lately I have been starting a series and stopping three of four books in. I have the intention to carry on reading but I get distracted and the book\series moves slowly down my list of priorities. It would be so much easier if I could just commit to reading a series all the way through with no other books to distract me.

My Own Library

Can you imagine? I don’t mean a normal home library I mean a proper library that gets new books in when they are released, all of those books available to you at the drop of a hat. Don’t feel like reading that? No worries why not read this one you’ve been eyeing before you forget about it? All of that without having to leave your house or use an e-reader. Yes please.

I Wish for my Bookish Boyfriends

Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Fred and George, Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin (Seriously the list can go on and on)

Ian O’Shea (The Host),

Valek, Ari, Devlen (Chronicles of Ixia by Maria V. Snyder)

Those are all of them that I’m going to list at the moment …

I Wish That We Could Have Our Books in Movies\TV Exactly the Way They Are

I know this is unrealistic but this is a list of wishes. I would love it if we could see out favourite books translated in to film exactly as they are. In some ways this could be annoying but in others amazing! We wouldn’t be annoyed that they left things out of butchered the story. We could have it exactly as it was imagined originally.

I Wish I Could Buy All the Books I Want

I know I can buy any of the books I want to when I want to but it all depends if I can afford it or not. I wish I could spend as much as I wanted on books and bookish merchandise but unfortunately the world doesn’t work like that and we do have to worry about the money.

I Wish I Could Read to Music

I can’t read if there is any noise around me. I wish I could listen to music when reading but I can’t even listen to ambient music or instrumental music. It distracts me too much and I can’t concentrate on the words.

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Well there you have it. Those are all of my bookish wishes, or at least the ones I can think of right now.

As always I’m interested in seeing what you have put for this weeks TTT so send me a link in the comments as well as telling me your thoughts on my wishes. Do you agree with any of them? Why?

Thank you for reading and,

Until next time,

Tori x

Top Ten Tuesday #14 – Ten Bookish Things I Want to Quit

Over at the Broke and Bookish they have given us the topic of listing ten things relating to books that we have quit or want to quit.

It’s interesting but nothing really comes straight to mind when I think of this so it will be interesting to see what my answers are.

Genre

The first thing that comes to mind isn’t something I want to quit but something I want to change. I feel as if I am constantly reading YA books and recently I’ve been having the urge to branch out a little and read other genres.

Stopping Half-Way Through

I have a bad habit of starting a book series and not finishing it, I reach a certain point in the series and then pick up a different book promising myself that I will go back and read it after I have finished reading. I hardly ever keep that promise.

One particular series I’m annoyed with myself over is the Lunar Chronicles. I loved the first book Cinder, not so much Scarlet but I still haven’t read Cress. I want to read it before Winter comes out but I doubt it will happen.

Collecting Manga

I collect manga, I don’t plan to stop but I have an annoying habit of buying just over ten of the books before I stop buying the books. It really annoys me because I do want to complete my collections. I have a lot of unfinished collections on my shelves and it needs to be remedied.

I only have two complete manga collections so far, those being: Dragonball Z and Cardcaptor Sakura.

Bookshelves 

I am terrible at organising my bookshelves. I have a system but I’m just not happy with it at the moment. I want to change it up a bit but I know that if I do it differently it’ll bother me!

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Okay. Well, I had finished this post and had it scheduled but then I was watching some Youtube and the idea came to mention something that has been bothering me lately and you won’t be surprised as to what this is.

Small SPOIlERS for CROWN OF MIDNIGHT by Sarah J. Maas

Love Triangles 

Yes. Love Triangles. I’m reading the Throne of Glass books at the moment and I’m currently on Crown of Midnight. It is really bothering me that the main character switched from one love interest to another in the two books. There was some build up for the relationship but it just really annoys me that it was almost at the drop of a hat. Love Triangles in general just annoy me. I get that it is a good\easy plot device to use and it does create some interesting moments but in the end the result is almost always the same. The main character will either choose one of the men\women or they won’t choose either, leaving you wondering if there was a point to it at all!

Sorry. Rant over.

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Well unfortunately those are the only ones I can think of right now. I was finding it difficult to come up with things to talk about this week, you can probably tell. I’m sorry this isn’t a very long or detailed list but at least it’s a post!

All that being said I’m curious to see what you have on your TTT so leave a link in the comments and I’ll head on over for a look 🙂

Until next time,

Tori x

Top Ten Tuesday #13 – If You Like Nimona You’ll Like …

This week over at the Broke and Bookish they’ve given us the topic of recommending books based on a book or author. For example if you like Throne of Glass I think you’ll like Poison Study. Or if you like Sarah J. Maas I think you’ll like Kristin Cashore. I think you get the idea.

I’m going to preface this by saying that I really struggled with this. I don’t usually read these types of posts or watch these videos. I’m not sure why I don’t like them but I am going to do this post anyway. It is always good to go out of your comfort zone.

This list is going to be my recommendations on if you have read and liked Nimona by Noelle Stevenson. I read it recently and reviewed it.

If You Liked Nimona Then You’ll Like –

• Rat Queens by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Illustrated by Roc Upchurch 

• Saga by Brian K. Vaughan (Writer) and Illustrated by Fiona Staples

• Fairy Tail by Hiro Mashima and translated by William Flanagan

• Lumberjanes by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis and Brooke A. Allen

I’ve never actually read it but I have put this in here because it is written\illustrated by the same person who wrote Nimona so it stands to reason that you’d probably like this too.

• Dr. Slump by Akira Toriyama

• Avatar: The Last Airbender by Gene Luen Yang, Bryan Konietzko, Michael Dante DiMartino and Gurihiru

• A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

• FullMetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa and translated by Akira Watanabe

• Stardust by Neil Gaiman

CARTOONS

Gravity Falls by Alex Hirsch

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Okay, so those are all of the recommendations I can think of if you liked reading Nimona. Quite a few of these book series I haven’t actually finished yet so I’m still withholding judgement on them but I liked them enough that I can recommend them to you.

I hope you liked my list this week, remember I would love to read your TTT so please leave a link in the comments.

Until next time,

Tori x