Halfway Through (On a day that is decidedly at the end of the week)

As you may be able to tell I'm coming to you from a Thursday, because yesterday I was being totally lazy and neglected to do this post. Also, I haven't even picked up a new book since last week's post. So, since I'm not halfway through any books, I just decided to do a post on the other things I am halfway through.

Number One: My November Issue of Wired
I read Wired every month, and this one just came in the mail.

Number 2: The first season of Chad Vader: Day Manager

I recently found out this Star Wars parody show is on hulu. It's not really much of an accomplishment, given that each episode is only 5 minutes long.

Number 3: My Biology Homework

I have to create an analogy based on "A cell is like a...." then draw pictures of all the parts of a cell. Yay, drawing pictures of vacuoles! 

Number 4: An email conversation with one of my friends.

......Somewhat self explanatory.

Number 5: This senten-

As you can tell, I'm running out of things to write.

Well, I have exhausted my brain of things I am halfway through. That's all for now.  

October Book Count!

A Note to the reader: I'm trying to multitask and am attempting to blog, watch Totally Booksessed YouTube videos, and text my friends all at the same time! So if anything really off pops up in this post (ie "no way, HEs going out w/ HER!!!?? he just broke up w/ whatsherface yestrday!!" or "eeerrhghggdjag i totally screwed up that bio quiz!") just disregard it.

So on to topic, as the title of my blog may suggest, I am totally OCD about counting my books. I count my books every month and compare the numbers from month to month. And yesterday I did my October count and the total number of books I have is.....(drumroll please).....269! That means that in the past two months (249 was from the August count) I have bought 20 books, or ten books per month! At that rate.....I'm going to need a bigger bookshelf.

Well that's all for now, but next week I plan on filming a bookshelf tour and posting it (if I have time). Until then, I'll see you tomorrow with Halfway Through.

Recently, in the world of Mia's book related adventures.....

Two...what adjective do I use here, cool, amazing, intriguing? I'll settle for interesting. So, two pretty interesting book-related things have happened to me lately. Actually, wait 3! Needless to say, it's been an exciting couple of weeks.

1. Now, this first thing will only appeal to those you who, like myself, are quite totally obsessive about their books, and are even bordering on obsessive compulsive "book collector" AKA hoarder. So, to flush this story out a bit, you're gong to need to understand the back story. So there's this book I ABSOLUTELY adore, The Selected Works of TS Spivet by Reif Larsen. When I read it for the first time (and had my mind blown by the genius of this book- seriously, read it) I got it from the library, and the copy I read was the 1st edition hardback. as aforementioned, I loved it. Soooo, I went to Barnes and Nobles and lark, they had it in stock! I walked out with the 1st edition paperback version. Now, the covers on these two editions are totally different. The hardback = gorgeous. The paperback? Not so much. But I was content.
Now to my story. 2 weekend ago I was in Barnes and Nobles, browsing through the books. sadly, our Barnes and Nobles was remodeling so nothing was where it should have been. Literally, I was looking through books that were piled up on the floor. Since YA was pretty much scattered all over the store, and I already had my prime selection (The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkins-awesome book by the way)I had retreated to the bargain books section for some organized peace. And when strolling past a table of books, what do I find? A hardback copy of The Selected Works of TS Spivet, the exact same version I first read it in And what was the best part of this revolutionary find, you may ask? It was 6 BUCKS!!! Usually, this book is a wallet empty-ing 27. 95 US dollars! I was, in a word, ecstatic. So that's it. Just wanted to exclaim my excitement to the worldwide web. I'll attach pictures of my two copies of TSWOTSS below.

Hardback

Paperback

2. Don't worry, this is more relatable to regular people. Sort of. It's about a pretty funny coincidence. A bit of back story: There are exactly three facts you need to know to understand this story. A) I have a friend named Tristan who I recently introduced to the wonders of the Colorado public library system, and how to put books on hold (it was funny, he was so amazed. Even better, you should have seen when I introduced him to iTunes) B) I possible want to be a librarian someday and C) Tristan is well....a bit eccentric. So this past afternoon, he comes up to me with a book in his hand, and asks "Mia, did you hack into my library account and put this on hold?" The book was Librarianship: An Introduction, and no, I did not hack into his account, and unless he put in on there himself, it must have just been a really weird coincidence. I just found that somewhat amusing.

3. And three.....well I started this post a week ago, and I kind of forgot what the third one was...It must not have been that interesting. I suppose instead I'll write about how I almost cried while reading The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness. Which the thing was, it was one of those books where when __(I would put the name of the character who died in, but I don't want to spoil anything, hence the blank) died it was so sad you just wanted to cry your eyes out, but, unfortunately for me, I was on the school bus, so I couldn't. But it was heartbreaking-ly sad. I'm still reeling from the shock. Poor poor __.

So, that's all for my book-ish events lately, but what about you? Has anything amazing happened in your world of book-related adventures? If so, tell me in the comments below!

Fall Whale of a Book Sale 2011!

So, I just came from the biggest Colorado book-stravaganza of the season- the Jeffco (Jefferson County) Library Book Sale!!! Any of you that live in Jefferson County or attend the sale know what I'm talking about when I say that this is the BIGGEST book related event ever. It's not by any means the biggest as in importance, and lost's of people coming, but the biggest in size by far. To get the jist of what I'm talking about, close your eyes and picture a large warehouse, about the size of your average baseball or soccer field. Now imagine it filled with recalled and donated library books. All of which are less than 2 dollars, or 5 for a bag-full if you go on Sunday. That, my friends, is the Whale of a Sale Book Sale (that's the official title- I didn't make that up).

As any of you who know me personally know, I'm a huge supporter of the Jefferson County library system, hence the reason (beside the cheap books) I go to the sale every year. All of the profits from the sale goes toward the library system and books for the teen's and kid's summer reading programs.

Sooo, know that you know what this magnificent sale is, here's all of the books I got: (Also, I want to add, I got all of these books for-get this- 5 bucks. Amazing, is it not?)

General Fiction:
Memoirs of A Geisha by Arthur Golden
Sail by James Patterson (There was, as always, a TON of James Patterson books. I'm not necessarily a fan, but they're fun reads, Also, there was like 20 copies of Micheal Crichton's Airframe.)
State of Fear by Micheal Crichton
The Restaurant At the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
King Lear by William Shakespeare
Android Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and Ben Winters
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
Tooth Imprints On a Corn Dog by Mark Leyner

Biographies:
Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
Marie Curie: A Life by Susan Quinn

Psychology/ Economics:
Switch by Chip and Dan Heath
Everything's An Argument by Andrea Lunsford, John Ruszkiewicz, and Keith Walters

Reference:
Dictionary of Literary Pseudonyms by Frank Atkinson
Forensics and Fiction by DP Lyle, MD

And, just because I love Dilbert, Journey To Cubeville, A Dilbert Book by Scott Adams

Did any of you go to the whale of a sale this year? If so, what did you get? And if you don't live in Jeffco, what's the best book sale in your area?

 

New Feature: Halfway Through

So, as many of you who frequent book blogs may know, most things written about books come after the blogger has read the book. Reviews are written after a book has been read, and often themed pieces are written again after a book is read. On the occasion that things are written about a book before it's finished usually it's before the book has even been started. So what's missing in this equation? The middle of the book!

I've decided to do a feature every Wednesday (since Wednesday is halfway through the week) on this very subject. I'm going to write a post on whatever book I'm halfway, or around halfway through. It'll pretty much be the same as a review, but instead of finalized remarks, it'll include things such as what I think of the book so far and predictions that I can reference to when I do review the book.

This weeks book is......(drumroll please)...The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak!

I'm currently reading this book for freshman English, and am around 160 pages in. For those of you that don't know, The Book Thief is a pretty famous book. It was published in 2006 and was on the NY Times bestsellers list for over 190 weeks. It's a tale about Nazi Germany, told through the perspective of death. highly symbolic and serious, hence the reason I have to read it for English.

So far, it's a good book, even though I have to annotate it. And now, a word from our sponsor: Mia's UNBELIEVABLE hatred of annotating. I hate annotating. And it's not even one of those things that I hate without reason, I have a very compelling argument of why annotating is stupid!! What happened to letting yourself be engrossed in a book? When you have to annotate, take down quotes and figurative language that you find interesting, it's like taking yourself out of the story. You go from the streets of 1940's Germany to your English classroom. And you, or at least I do, tend to subconsciously annotate, which is the great part of it! It's subconscious! You get to be engrossed in the story, but still be an active reader. Why mess with that perfect balance? Anyways, that's all.

The Book Thief is interesting. I like how it tells the story of WWII from the point of view of a German child who is in the Hitler Youth, instead of the usual Jewish family.

I'm not that far into the book, but I already have this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I just know something bad is going to happen. I just have this feeling that something is going to go terribly wrong. I'm not sure what it's going to be yet, but I'm having a feeling that it'll be either one giant catastrophic event, or a landslide of pain and misery, one event after another.

That's all I have for now, but I promise that in future weeks this feature will start to gain it's bearing. I'll be doing this every Wednesday, so see you next week! What book are you halfway through?

Review: Matched by Ally Condie

Title: Matched
Author: Ally Condie
Release Date: November 30, 2010
Publisher: Dutton Books
Pages: 366
Source: Library
Genre: YA Dystopian
Famous For ???: Nothing big yet......Disney bought the movie rights










Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.
(Summary courtesy of Goodreads)


First off, let me just say Wow. As in wow with a capital W. I really wasn't expecting much from this book, it seemed like just another teen dystopian, with another heroine (ever notice that in most dystopians either the lead is female and leads a rebellion all by herself, of there's a seriously strong female character somewhere? Talk about the re-birth of girl power). But it was good! I had seen bloggers rant and rave about this book, but it never quite hit me that this is a really good book. 


As you can see, I loved this book. One of the great things that jumped out at me was the characters, and that's saying a lot, because often that's not one of the main reasons I say I love a book. Yes, I get severely attached to characters in quite a bit of the books I love, but I'm not one of the people that talks about character development a lot. 


For starters, Cassia is officially my favorite heroine. I loved how you could literally see her changing. It was believable rebellion, not one that was just suddenly there at the beginning of the book. Cassia started out with faith in the Society, but when she saw a "glitch", it was that growing into rebellion. And the best thing? I wasn't screaming at her in my head the whole book! She was not the whiny, clueless, love struck character, like Katniss in the Hunger Games. Finally, we get a strong lead who actually has a strong personality and is sure footed in her decisions. 


Next, (and I'm sure every teenage girl who read this book thought this was awesome as well) there's not just one hot amazing guy- there's TWO! And I know there was two in the Hunger Games, and a ton of other books, but these guys were ones who were a) likable, b) smart, and c) not mortal enemies. I could go on, but in short, both Ky and Xander were awesome, and all three of the main characters were ones I actually felt connected with.


This book really caught my attention. The cover's gorgeous, and I love that it ties into the book. Also, it's simple, yet elegant (I'm a sucker for simple book covers). And the story is great! The writing was fast-paced and was always moving, with great details sprinkled through the book on what living in the Society was like. And, quite a bit of the story deals with one of my favorite things- words! I don't want to spoil anything, but it's a great on how moving written word can be. Also, even though it is fiction, Matched deals with topics that we deal with today- things like book banning and censorship.


Overall (as my gushing review blatantly tells) Matched is a great book. The only problem? The sequel doesn't come out until November. 


So until then, what are some of your favorite dystopian novels, and what are your thought on the characters in Matched compared to other books? Tell me in the comments below!