In My Mailbox #2–A few books in this week.

In My Mailbox #2

Hi
In My Mailbox is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Kristi @The Story Siren and inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie

Sorry this “In My mailbox is a day early this week, I have a little free time today and wanted to let my nice new followers know what I’d been up to.  I finished ‘Glass Houses’ by Rachel Caine over the weekend so expect a review of it fairly shortly.  Obviously I’ll go into more depth in the review but I  would say that I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to reading more of the Morganville Vampires series soon.  You will also see that I’m running a giveaway of Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson, to enter all you have to do is sign up to follow the blog and then send an email to fade2fiction AT gmail.com and I’ll include you in the draw. The draw will close on the 4th July so you’ve got a little time to enter.

Anyway enough plugging.  Saturday saw an unexpected trip to Edinburgh which enabled me to go hunting round the bookshops.  I spent a long time in Waterstones (there are 2 in the city centre both within a 5 minute walk of each other) looking at rows and rows of books trying to decide on something I might enjoy.  It was great fun looking at the books, in the past when I was reading lots as part of school work (nearly 20 years ago now) we were always told what to read so having an entire bookstore to choose from sent my mind into a spin.

In the past I always used to drift towards action/adventure novels but I don’t want to stick to those and would like to try looking at genres I would normally stay away from, although I see Tom Clancy has a new novel out, that may be my first Kindle purchase but more on that later.

One book I knew I had to try and get was “True Grit by Charles Portis.  The reason behind this choice is that Ellie over at Musings of a bookshop girl is looking for guest bloggers for her “Page to Screen” event.  I had contacted Ellie with a few ideas and I think my review will be around “True Grit”, looking at the novel, the 1969 John Wayne movie and the recent film by the Cohen Brothers.   I was extremely lucky and managed to get my hands on the last copy of the book in the store but as its quite a small book (around 200 pages) and so I was on the hunt for more. Next I decided to pickup “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief”.  I know that there is a film of that already out and so if the “True Grit” book doesn’t work out for my “Page to Screen” blog entry then I have this as a fallback.  As it was in a 3 for 2 offer it seemed rude to pass up the chance of another 2 books so I also picked up “Fallen” by Lauren Kate, as every blog I seem to visit raves about this novel and finally I bought “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins as again I’ve heard that this is an amazing series.

So I’ve only actually read one book so far but my books to be read pile is almost into double figures now, I guess that this is just how it goes though.  I’ve also mentioned to my wife a couple of times that I would like a Kindle for my Birthday next month, I only thought I’d mentioned it a couple of times but she did ask me the other day if there was any conversation I couldn’t crowbar the word Kindle into.  I guess that she’s got the message now, I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.
So here’s the books, its quite a haul for me

So after my purchases I went off to the Starbucks located within Waterstones for a nice relaxing coffee and a long read.  Very convenient having a coffee shop in the bookstore, do you think they planned it like that

Well that’s it for this weeks IMM, hopefully I’ll get True Grit finished this week so I can start on my review, I would also like to get a review of “Glass Houses” up for you guys to read.  Blogging really is a time sink but so far has been great fun.  If you want to let me know what you’ve been up to please  post in the comments below……………

Win a copy of Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour

To Celebrate the launch of my blog I’m giving away a copy of Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour written by Morgan Matson.  To be in with a chance of winnning all you have to do is follow the blog and then send an email to fade2fiction@gmail.com stating that you wish to be included in the draw.  The draw will be made at 12.00GMT on 4th July with the winners name published on the blog.

Good luck everyone
Erik

The Stephen King Reading Challenge

Hi Folks

Just a quick update today to let you all know that I’ve decided to participate in the 2011 Stephen King Challenge hosted by Book Chick City.  The challenge is split into 2 levels, the first level is to read 6 Stephen King novels and the second level is to read twelve Stephen King novels (more details can be found here).  I have only ever read one Stephen King book and I think if memory serves me right that was ‘The Green Mile’  As I have never seen the movie and to be honest can’t remember much of the story I think that I may start by reading that book over again.

The one issue with staring a book blog halfway through the year is that a good number of the reading challenges are already underway, sure it would be great to participate in a challenge asking you to read 25, 50 or even 100 books but when the year is almost half gone then I may struggle to complete that.  This challenge, being only six books for level one shouldn’t be too difficult for me and I look forward to getting on with it shortly.

Remember to check back to see how I’m getting on.

 

Erik

In My Mailbox #1. The Journey Begins………

 

In my Mailbox #1

Hi Folks and welcome along to the first “In My Mailbox” post.

In My Mailbox is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Kristi @The Story Siren and inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie

So where to begin.  After a long period of non-reading I’ve started to find the urge to pick up books again.  Having enjoyed the Twilight series I thought that I would try to find some fiction similar to films I have enjoyed so much. 

I’ve decided not to read the Twilight books yet as the films are still too fresh in my mind and I want those memories to fade a little before I start reading the books.

Anyway to cut a long story short I came across Rachel Caine’s Morganville Series thanks to the wonder of the Internet and have decided to start reading the first of these books to get me back into reading.  I know I’m not Rachel’s target market being a thirty something year old guy but the plot looks interesting and it looks fairly relaxed and easy going for my first novel.

So this weeks IMM saw me getting the first 3 Morganville Vampires Novels, Glass Houses, The Dead Girls’ Dance and Midnight Alley

Thanks to a lovely Waterstones 3 for 2 offer (As I understand from other book bloggers, this offer often tips weaker book lovers over the edge)

Thanks to a few hours in Airport departure lounges this week I’ve already made a good start on Glass Houses and I look forward to finishing it fairly soon.

Please feel free to comment on any of my posts here and I’ll try to return the favour if you link to my blog.  As a newbie blogger if you can offer me any help, hints and/or tips I’d sure love to hear them

 

Erik

Hello Interwebs

Hi Folks

Well I've decided to jump on the bandwagon and start a blog where I'll be able to join the rest of the worldwide book bloggers.  As the blog progresses there will be reviews, memes, weekly (hopefully) 'In my mailboxes' and who knows maybe even the odd giveaway (don't get your hopes up yet though)

So now I've arrive I'm off to have a look around and fiddle with the layout of the blog, I suppose its a bit like moving into a new rented apartment, you assume everything is here, you just need to get it all laid out the way you like it. 

Catch you soon

Erik