Bookaholics Anonymous Tag

It’s BOOK TAG DAY!!! 😀

Actually, I don’t have a day designated for book tags, but since today is Wednesday, which means it’s an easier day than Monday, I thought why not celebrate by doing a tag that I was tagged for years ago last year. My homie, da Orangutan Librarian, hooked me up.

I’d confess that I’m hooked on books, but we all know that. This is a blog about books after all, so I’ll just hop right into this tag.

What do you like about buying new books?

The rush. It’s a heady feeling. I always feel good after purchasing a new book and it’s a stronger feeling when it’s sent in the mail because it’s as if I’ve received a present, though it’s highly likely it’s not since no one in my family buys me books as presents. 😦 They only get me clothes. Ugh! As if I like those things.

— Well, I do, but only in the fall because blazers and boots! ❤

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BBC #2: Splash of Color

I’m back with another edition of BBC, a new meme I started where I feature books with beautiful covers. Along with reading books, I admire the covers and sometimes determine what to buy or read next by how much I like the cover. There are many things that draw my attention to a cover, but for this post, I’ll focus on color, or more specifically,

splashes of color

On the covers below are blotches, splotches, drips, and dribbles of color that give the illusion of paint: as if the designer intentionally or carelessly threw the colors on the cover while puzzling out what the design should be.

The first featured cover is:

The Impossible Fairy Tale by Han Yujoo

Cover art by Kapo Ng

Bout of Books 20

Another Bout of Books is sweeping through the book blogosphere and I’m infected! 😀

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda at On a Book Bender and Kelly at Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins at 12:01 a.m. Monday, August 21, and runs through 11:59 p.m. Sunday, August 27, in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 20 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. — From the Bout of Books team

Bout of Books is one of my favorite readathons because of how laid back it is. As with all the readathons I participate in, I always make a TBR that I never follow and always do a post (this one) announcing my intent to participate but never join in any social media events/challenges (I don’t have time for all that). I’m also usually on vacation when the summer Bout of Books rolls around, but I’m working this time. 😦

Weekend Reads #76: Tome Topple Readathon Wrap-up

Weekend Reads is a weekly post in which I discuss a variety of topics and mention the books I plan to read on the weekend.

For this weekend’s post, I’ll report on my progress for the Tome Topple Readathon, which was held August 4 – 17. The purpose of readathon is to encourage folks to read the longer books on their shelves, i.e. books over 500 pages. I decided to join the fun because this readathon is more than a week long and because I wanted to see if I could rise to the challenge.

I did. And it was a —

SUCCESS!! 😀

I am proud of myself for completing several tomes during this readathon and meeting most of the goals. (I celebrated by partying.) 😆

“Sick” by Christa Wojciechowski

I read this one out of curiosity.

Lilyn over at SciFi and Scary read and reviewed it last year. She was so repulsed by the story that she was conflicted on how to write the review. My curiosity was instantly perked. It made we wonder why she had such a strong reaction to the story and if I would react the same too. But after reading, I understood.

Amazon summary:

A woman sacrifices everything to care for her husband whose chronic illness can’t be diagnosed. Susan Branch’s life revolves around the care of her charming and inscrutable husband John, a man born into wealth and prestige who lost his family’s fortune when his mysterious chronic illnesses left him bedridden. Together they live a decrepit existence beholden to the current owners of his family’s former estate.

After years of devoting herself to John’s care, Susan is worn out and frustrated. Yet she is determined to scrape together whatever resources she can to keep John comfortable and happy. This includes stealing Demerol from the doctor’s office where she works to feed John’s ever-increasing need for pain medication. As John’s condition continues to puzzle doctors, Susan begins to notice strange objects appearing around her house. Ever wary of creepy Old Pete, the groundskeeper, Susan decides to confront the elderly man and put an end to his snooping for good.

“Normal” by Warren Ellis

The cover made me to pick this up.

I’d seen it on a previous visit to the library. Thinking it to be a horror novel, I avoided it. On another visit, the cover again caught my interest and curious, I read the synopsis on the back. “Sci-fi,” I thought. “Pweh!” I don’t like sci-fi and sometimes the concepts discussed scare me more than the horror novels. Again, I didn’t bother to check out the book.

But the third time I saw it on the shelf, I was again curious, sci-fi or not, and decided to just read the first sentence:

“Hand over the entire internet now and nobody gets hurt,” she said, aiming the toothbrush at the nurse like an evil magic wand.

Since then I was hooked and hardly put the book down until I was done.

Languishing in the Spam Folder of Doom

A Plea for Release From Spam Jail

I’ve been outcasted from your blogs. For some reason, WordPress has seen fit to mark me as spam. I do not know why this is. It’s not as if I’ve peppered people with comments recently. I’ve barely had time to draft posts much less comment on other blogs. But now that I have time to comment, no one sees what I submit. It’s irritating and now my sunny Sunday is overcasted by the pall of the Spam dungeon.

Since I don’t know what caused my imprisonment, I don’t know how to break out or how to fix it. I could send notes to folks asking them to check their Spam folders, but to do so for each blog I visit would be time consuming. So, if you all don’t mind, could you please check your Spam folders and unblock me? Chances are if I liked one of your posts recently, then I probably commented on it too.

Z

Weekend Reads #75: My Poor Vocab

It’s been a while since I’ve had the time to sit, think, and draft a Weekend Reads post, a weekly post in which I discuss a variety of topics and mention the books I plan to read on the weekend.

This weekend’s topic is from one of Sara LeTourneau’s Weekly Writer Wisdom posts:

How do you encourage the expansion of your vocabulary and the maturation of your writing style? For example, do you look up definitions of words you’ve never heard of before? Or “collect” words by writing them in a journal? Do you use writing prompts or exercises as a means of stretching your “language muscles”? What other thoughts or ideas does this quote bring to mind?

Days of the Week Book Tag

Hello everyone:

Life has been surprisingly busy lately. A whole week has passed since I last posted something or read someone’s blog post. My hope was that August would be a bit slower, allowing me to catch up on here, but that hasn’t happened. However reading-wise, all is good. I’m participating in Tome Topple, which is going on right now, and have completed 1 tome so far.

Since it’s been a while since I posted something, I’ve decided to do a book tag! My plan was to do the Days of the Week Book Tag that I found on a blog back in June, but it seems that the blog was deleted so I googled the tag and found various versions of it. So, in classic Zezee fashion, I shall do them all! 😆

Starting with this tag created by Tera at Adventures Between Pages:

Secret Book Sunday

What book or series do you secretly love that you don’t always tell people?

I don’t think I have any books for this. I talk about all the books I read on here and review everything as well. I guess the only thing that fits this is that I sometimes read funny adult-content webcomics, like Oglaf, which I never mention on here because I sometimes discuss kids books and putting those two together don’t fit.

Mash-up Monday

Which two books or series do you think would be cool if they were mashed up as one book or series?

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

August Readathons | Tome Topple, Reading Quest, Bout of Books

Aentee, the creative bloggess behind Read at Midnight, has created another awesome readathon that I want to participate in (and will actually read books for).

Last year at the height of the Pokemon Go craze, she hosted the Pokemon Indigo League #ReadThemAllThon, which greatly appealed to me because I loved the Pokemon TV show. I made a TBR for the Pokemon readathon but didn’t have time to read any of the books, so I failed. But that won’t happen this time! I intend to be a Mage by the end of this Reading Quest.

Let me back up and explain.

This year Aentee is hosting a Reading Quest, where readers (I’ll call us “heroes”) embark on a journey to conquer their TBR pile through a series of stages. The quest is for 4 weeks, starting Sunday, August 13, and ending Sunday, September 10.

Heroes must choose one of the following paths: