Where do you get all those books?

I have a few friends that have asked this numerous times. You see, I'm a recovering book-a-holic. That doesn't mean I don't read anymore, it means I can't go into a bookstore without having a book blackout and spending hundreds of dollars. But I love books, and I always have a new book to read, how do I do it? I'm magic! Seriously though, there's many different ways to get free books - legally. You can enter contests - I'm really good at winning those, just won one today. You can join a street team for one of your favorite authors; some of them give you advanced reading copies (ARCs). There's always Amazon, of course! And to help weed out the rotten freebies from the good ones, Bitten By Books has a nice list for ya! Click here, for free reads.

Read More, Huh?

I think the universe has added a little incentive to my resolution about reading more.

I recently re-discovered a gem of a book called Secret Santa 4U by Paisley Scott and as fate would have it, Twitter suggested I befriend her, so of course I did! Well, she posted a tweet for an Amazon Best Sellers list of 100 erotic stories that they are currently offering for free. Guess who is at number one? Paisley Scott with a book titled, Sugar Shack. So of course I had to download it, and while I was at it, I decided to check the rest of the list out. I found a few books that piqued my interest. So, I have a feeling, I'll be reviewing soon. ;)

I linked my old review of Secret Santa 4U and linked the Amazon page in case anyone wanted to peruse. :)

This Night Just Keeps Getting Better

I know I said I was going to bed like almost an hour ago but I have to blog about this.

I don't even think I can go to sleep tonight! I'm too hyped up.

This has been one of the best nights of my life...and I guess some of you will think it's sad when you read WHY it's been such an awesome night. But you know what...I don't give a fuck! :D

I have friends out there that will get me and those are the ones I'm talking to in this blog.

Let's recap my awesome points of the night:

I watched one of the funniest, saddest, best episodes of Bones.

I saw and am anticipating the season finale of Bones (Bones and Booth NAKED in bed together...doesn't get better than that)

My friend Dylan came over. YAY, I love her.

I get to see her perform Saturday.

I read and reviewed (http://bookverse.blogspot.com) an amazing book called Remembering Ashby by Heather Long.

*Drum roll*

The following events lead to the pinnacle of the night.

Because Lisa Pietsch introduced me to Heather Long and her book, I befriended Heather on myspace...

And you would not believe who one of her top friends is!

LISA JANE SMITH!!! OMG!!!

L.J. Smith is the person responsible for my book addiction. The reason why I read and review books! I used to read in class and participated in Battle of the Books, and even read ahead in reading class...but I never thought to read outside of school...

Until The Forbidden Game Trilogy by L.J. Smith.

The summer after 7th grade...me and my two best friends at the time, the Anna twins, were at my house bored out of our minds! Well it so happens that Anna Maria had a book she just took out of the library and so we decided, what the heck! Let's read it out loud to eachother, its something to do.

I went first...I was only supposed to read the first chapter but they liked the way I read and I was digging the book so I just kept doing...

An hour later I was halfway done with the book and hadn't even noticed I had read for so long. I begged Anna M. to let me borrow the book overnight. And the rest, is history.

After I read the first part of The Forbidden Game I went to the library and got the other two. Then I moved on to The Vampire Diaries, The Secret Circle, and Dark Visions. From that moment on I've been reading, I've never stopped. And it's all because of her.

Then she kinda just fell off the face of the earth, no one knew anything from her since like 1998. I even remember once a while back googling her and not coming up with anything. And TONIGHT I stumbled across her and I was shocked and amazed...

And then I went to her site. And you will not believe what I just found!!!

The Vampire Diaries: The Return!!!

OH MY GOD! NEW STUFF! NEW OLD STUFF!!! WHAT CAN BE BETTER THAN THAT!?!?

So I am beyond giddy! I can't sleep, I don't know what to do with myself. I am so excited! I wish there was a 24hour Borders around so I could go buy the book! And I'm so thankful that I'm the book geek I am and that a few years back I saw The Vampire Diaries at Borders and bought them. So I have the 4 books. So I can re-read them (because it's been years since I've re-read any of her stuff) and then read the NEW one!!!!

And that's why I'm on top of the world right now.

1 migrane and a couple of headaches

That's why I haven't blogged. I swear it's not an excuse! LOL I could barely read much less write. Today is the first time that I've been able to be on the computer for more than 10 minutes, and I'm going to cheat. Instead of writing a blog (though some would consider THIS a blog) I'm just gonna tell you to go to my OTHER blog and read the new book review I just put up. :D So gooooo to Book Universe. You know you want to.

Ode to Libraries

I thought I’d take the time today to talk about a place that is near and dear to my heart, libraries. If you know me from the Coffee Time forum you might have read my signature quote, something along the lines of, I have seen the error of my ways with libraries. Borrowing and returning books? What’s that about? That’s like adopting a child and then returning him. And I stand true to that, I have every book that I have purchased since I was 13 years-old. That’s around 500 books. But if it weren’t for my local library I wouldn’t have that many books, or writing this blog.

At first, the library was just a place for me to hang out. It was the only place I was allowed to walk to when I was 10. It didn’t bother me much because I didn’t have any friends outside of school, I have always been shy and introverted. I just needed a place to go because my home wasn’t a good place to be. So every day after school I walked to the library, not to read, but to play on the computer. I always played the same game, it was a typing game, where you had a little town and bombs would fall from the sky with words in them and you had to type the word to blow up the bombs before they hit the town. Anyway, the library was shut down for two weeks for renovations, and when they re-opened the game was gone! I was terribly upset, it was my favorite game. So what to do now? Well, I was at a library, and there were a lot of books, and I did like to read on occasion (I was going through my Goosebumps phase) hmm…maybe I should read a book! And that’s where it all truly began.

I got myself a library card and started borrowing books. First Goosebumps, then books by Christopher Pike, and later L.J Smith. Somewhere along the line, I befriended the librarians. They all knew me by name and we spent hours talking when there weren’t many people around. It became routine, every day I showed up, even Saturdays. I would read or use the computer, looking for Sailor Moon pictures on the web. Diane, my favorite librarian, suggested I read Caroline B. Cooney, and I did. I loved her stuff, it was beautiful and unlike anything I had been reading at the time. The Stranger was the first work of fiction that made me cry. When I was in the 8th grade, around 4 years after I began my library routine, a friend of mine gave me a Harlequin Intrigue, and off I went into the world of adult romance. And wouldn’t you know it, my library had tons of Harlequin. I devoured them. Those books, along with my V.C Andrews and L.J Smiths were the ones that made me realize that the one thing I didn’t like about libraries was that I had to return the books. But for a young girl who didn’t have a job and couldn’t afford to buy books (the way I buy books, which is crazy) then the public library was heaven.

I have so many fond memories, about all the people I met, and all the things I did. I started my first and only book club there, where we read more Caroline B. Cooney books, as requested by Diane, because she knew how much I loved them and the sneaky woman had arranged for Cooney to come to one of our book discussions. Oh what a day! The library was also the place where I got into habit of writing outside of school. I spent hours on Microsoft Word creating short stories and Sailor Moon fan fiction. And on the day of my 8th grade graduation, after I got my diploma my mother asked me, “What do you want to do today?” And I said, “I’m going to the library!” And off I went to show my diploma to Diane, Carmen and Paul, where they were already expecting me and had a surprise party set-up. :D It’s still my favorite graduation party.

Alas, I am rambling. I just wanted to share my memories and explain why libraries are good, why they are necessary. If it weren’t for my library who knows what I would have done with my time. I never would have started writing, or reading different genres of books, I probably would have been stuck in the hell hole that was my home, or worse, been on the streets.

Operation Tap Out That Mutha

NaNoWrimo is officially over, and I didn't make the 50,000, I only made it up to 24,700 or something like that. Now a big part of me is disappointed because I really wanted to cross the finish line. But another part of me is just proud that I wrote and I stuck with it and that I wrote that many words! I've never written anything this long before...and I'm not finished. Just because I didn't win NaNo doesn't mean I'm quitting, I still have a novel to finish writing, thus Operation Tap Out That Mutha is oooon.

Crystal-Rain Love came up with this concept (along with the hilariously awesome name)because she's trying to finish her current novel, and she asked that we make sure she stays on top of things. Well since I have no life of my own, and I've grown very fond of Rain (she's such a great gal)I've decided to be all up on her Black Cherry Kool-Aid, and join her and trying to accomplish our own set goals. Mine being to finish my novel and read more books so I can review them on my Book Universe Blog.

On a quick upadate...I bought a new laptop yesterday, it should arrive around the 5th. I had so much drama with it because I first found the perfect laptop, a Sony Viao in pink (my fav. color) and it was on sale if I bought it online. It was only going to cost around $1,069. Then it went on Black Friday Sale until Monday, so then it was only going to cost $900.99. So here I am running about trying to get the rest of my money together by Monday to buy the darn thing, and THEN....Someone points out anothe website that's having an online Monday sale and they're selling a $2,000 Sony Viao for only $700.00!!! Now this is where all the crazyness began because the cheaper laptop was a different model than the one I was going to get. It was also black...I REALLY had my heart set on the pink one. Well even though the black one wasn't PINK and the keyboard and outer shell weren't as cute/pretty as the pink one, I bought the black one.

Why? Because it was CHEAPER, and because it had a bigger screen (17 inches vs 14 inches on my pink baby). The lappy I have now is 17 inch and I love the size of the screen. If I'm going to play Sims 2 AND 3 I need a BIG screen. :D So I rushed to do what I needed to do and bought the laptop and a flashdrive too, hehe. I'm still going to use my old laptop, and I'll probably take it to work w/ me so the flashdrive will come in handy when I want to work on a novel or read an e-book and it's only in one laptop. But hey at least I have more money for Christmas shopping!