Freedom has come!

That is how I feel, now that Christmas break is FINALLY HERE.

For the last week (two weeks? Three weeks? Month?) I've been neglectful of this blog and the blogging world in general. (Sowwy.)

But particularly over the last few days I've been going crazy with the madness of finals week. If you follow me on twitter, you may have seen me counting down the days. Also, I sort of went crazy and started talking to myself:

And writing Les Miz parodies:

But - it all ended on Thursday and now I'm free! (For another month.) So in celebration of that, today I went to get a ton of books from the library! Here's my pile:

The Once and Future King (by T.H. White) is for my Arthurian Literature Challenge, and that's the one I'm reading first.

Next, of course, just HAS to be Blue Lily Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater,because THERE IT IS STARING AT ME. It is whispering "Come, read me, now!" I am utterly overjoyed that my library had it available. 

You see, my local library has been under construction for a while now, and will be until January-ish. A whole ton of books are in storage - available, but not without hassle. There are other libraries in the area (which is where I got TOaFK), but I just want my own library back! 

Thankfully, it still has some books available - just the newest ones though. I would like to point out something momentous. A while ago, I wrote about a library trip where it was notable how ALL the books I got were YA. Now, I've progressed from there. Almost all the books I got today were not only YA, but NEW YA. I was looking over the new YA shelf at my library and was rather excited when I realized how many titles I recognized. This is super cool. 

Of course, I'm not abandoning classics, but I adore that I am finally feeling comfortable in a new genre! Yippee!

What are some plans for this next month?

Reading ALL THE BOOKS. But that's just a given.

Catching up with blogs I've neglected to read.

Working on some WIP's I've neglected for the Venice NaNo project.

Christmas! (We have a tree and a wreath and lights. Next step is ornaments and decoration!)

Cleaning out my mother's bookshelf to make room for my own books. (Mwahahaha!)

Buying books to fill that bookshelf.

Possibly a vlog? We shall see. 

Have you read any of the books I just picked up? What did you think?

~Sophia

My Latest Library Trip Results

Today I stopped by at the library to quickly pick up The Dream Thieves. 
Guess what I came home with?



The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater.
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Cress by Marissa Meyer

Yeah, a lot more than I planned. And - they're all coming in twos! That's a coincidence.
Note that these books are all YA - and not just YA, but super popular YA.
This is odd for me. Very.
I also dislike that my library is calling the YA section the "teen" section. Young adult has such a better connotation that "teen."
But oh well. My library is awesome otherwise - they just did a really great renovation and it is so beautiful! There are quotes on the walls and self check out and the front door is actually a door and not just a "fire door" that will alarm if you try to go out that way.

I suppose I should talk about other books and things that I got recently. One is this book, which I got for my graduation:

It's from my aunt and uncle (and little cousin too, I suppose). My aunt is Hawaiian, and my cousin is named after St. Damien of Molokai, so this was a fitting gift. :-)

A second graduation gift I got from Samantha (remember her?). But it's not a book. It's this beauty:

She actually got to see Maggie Stiefvater in person (!!!) and was kind enough to get me the book cover! Next step - actually purchase and read the book.

Any exciting books you've acquired recently? Let me know!

~Sophia

Library Trip!

I  went to the library yesterday and got a pile of books:



I've got:

Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

How exciting! I would have gotten more, but I had no bag and I couldn't physically carry more than seven books. Also, on topic with The Broke and the Bookish's post a few days ago on library summer reading programs: I picked up the Teen/Adult summer reading brochure at the library! After I read eight books, I'll get a free book bag - which I clearly need, as evidenced above.

I bring your attention to the fact that more than half of the books I got are YA. This is clear evidence of my expanding reading comfort zone. I literally have not stepped into the YA section of my library in YEARS - until yesterday. Thanks to blogging and reading other blogs, I have gotten more comfortable expanding into non-classics. The reason why I read classics is because I don't want to waste time on books that aren't well-written. There are SO MANY bad YA, fantasy, sci-fi, and contemporary books out there - I just didn't want to try them randomly. But with book blogging, I am able to read multiple reviews of books, and decide if they are for me. So yippee more YA! :-)

(And also, the YA section of my library is very nice and has a variety of seating options to choose from. I'm going to have to spend more time there. Actually, they redid the whole library, and it's way nicer, so I'm going to have to spend more time at the library in general!)

What books did you get recently? Which of the books that I got do you recommend I read first?

~Sophia

Little Free Library

As I said, I have had very little time lately to devote to this blog, but I thought I'd share some pictures of something awesome I saw on our ski trip.

Outside of a bakery there was this little box on the wall:

It was filled with books!

I googled "Little Free Library," and THIS came up. Apparently, there are Little Free Libraries EVERYWHERE! The idea is that you take a book, and you donate a book. 

Spectacular! I'm going to find one near my house.

~Sophia