Book Sandwich

This week kicks off the start to binging on every sort of food one can find for the next three months.  YAY!  To start us off I found this nifty little book.

This is an art piece/book by the artist Pawel Piotrowski and I absolutely love it!  Go check out the rest of his stuff too!  Happy Reading Everybody!

Decor Of The Literary And Spooky

It's almost Halloween!!! Time for ghoulies and ghosties and some book themed spooky decor for your next fabulous book themed costume party of Halloween epicness!

Poe Wreath

An atmospheric and classic way to greet your guests.

Pumpkin Book

I love books, I love pumpkins...I love this idea!

Boo Banner

Printed on some ghost stories this decor also keeps your guests entertained!

Spell Book

I cast a spell on you...to leave me alone so I can keep reading!

Pretty Books

Even our books like to get up for Halloween, so let a couple put on these printable covers and join the party!

Ok, now that I have given you all some idea's I need somebody to have a party so I can come dressed as one of my many favorite book characters and have a rousing literary discussion!  Happy Reading Everybody!

I Can't Believe I Read The Whole Thing!

With all the crazyness and adulting we have been experiencing lately, Hubbin declared yesterday a day of do nothing we don't want to.  These happen very rarely and we decided to take full advantage.  To make it even better the day was all cloudy and stormy...perfect for some reading.  I have been finding it difficult to read more then a chapter or two of any book at a time so I looked forward to some uninterrupted reading.  Lucky for me I even had a new book on hand.  So we made a big cup of coffee, Hubbin settled on the couch and I snuggled into my favorite giant reading chair.  I found every available pillow to cushion me and started reading.  I kept reading until the book was all done!!!! I have not been able to read a book start to finish like that in ages.  It reminded me of when I was young and still in school without all my adult responsibilities and tearing through whole books in a single day, especially during the summer was actually pretty normal.  My poor parents would have to take me to the library for insanely large stacks of books on a regular basis just so I could keep up.  I very much enjoyed my day of literary immersion and will try and build in a little more down time for the brain freeing experience that is the ability to read with no interruptions.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Off The Blog

Hi Folks!  How is everybody today?  Today I am gonna do something a wee bit different.  Hubbin sent me the most wonderful and amazing post today.  It's called I am in a Bookshop by Julian Stodd and it pretty much sums up everything about books and reading and bookshops and libraries and well pretty much all thing book related.

 Please go read it, I found it inspiring and hope every person who has ever picked up a book and found a new world, thought, idea or feeling will get a chance to read this post.  Ok I'm gonna quit yapping at you and let you get over to that other site and read it for yourself.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Lego Authors

Here I was just perusing the internets when I found these amazing dudes and dudettes!

These are all found here along with a bunch of other non literary related characters.  Seriously though I want all of these!!!! 

Hidden Treausres

As if books are not awesome enough, check this stuff out.

I want a whole bookshelf full of these!!!!!  I wonder if I can get Mamma to learn to do this for me.

Chalk And Circles

Picked up a book over the summer that had a very interesting premise that I felt could go very very well, or very very wrong.  Since the book involved chalk and a school as major components of the plot, I choose to read it when the school season started...'cause I'm weird that way.  Anyways the book is called The Rithmastist by Brandson Sanderson and apart from a few of my normal picky complaints I enjoyed it.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Our story is set in an alternate America where instead of a continent, we have islands...the map is actually super cool and one of the reasons I picked it up in the first place. Anyways, back to the story.  In this alternate America...which is set in an alternate world all together a menace called chalklings, two dimensional beings that swarm people and essentially eat them.  A defense has been devised by using a method of imbuing certain chalk circles with various types of defenses and then...well it's complicated and yet oddly in the book makes perfect sense.  Essentially the only people who can use this chalk power are people called Rithmatists, people who are chosen through some sort of pseudo-religious process when a child is eight years old.  The person is then trained in one of several academies along side the regular kids and then sent to the island of Nebrask where the wild chalklings have been contained for the most part.  This is very dangerous work and Rithmatists are partly revered, partly feared, and partly resented as they act very aloof and privileged.  The story itself

focuses on Joel, a boy who is at the academy along side the Rithmatist students.  He is obsessed with Rithamacy and can draw the circles better then anybody, but since he had to miss his inception due to his fathers death, he never got a change to be chosen as a Rithmatist so as good as his circles and drawings are, he can never actually use them.  He is working for a Rithmatist Professor Fitch over the summer and meets Melody, a wild, crazy, Rithmatist student who is also studying with Fitch for some remedial work on her circles.    The two of them assist the Professor in his investigation into a potential new menace.  Rithmatist students have been disappearing and the only clues are the terrified circles the students had drawn to try and protect themselves and odd marks through out the house and grounds.  Melody and Joel...after finally getting used to each other start to work together to try and figure out what is going on.  Melody also tries to help Joel by convincing the priest to let him "re-do" his missed inception.  He goes in, but he still does not become a Rithmatist (I love this, I'll tell you why in a bit).  After much research, events, madness, crazyness and back and forthness we finally figure out what in the heck is going on.  Turns out that at some point in his career both the main inspector AND a professor had been working on the defense of Nebrask and had gotten inside the circle.  When they came out, they were carrying a sort of shadow being inside their heads.  These shadow beings are the ones who had been kidnapping the students and turning them into wild chalklings.  The shadows had figured out that there are a limited amount of Rithmatists and for some mysterious reason a new one can only be chosen when an old one dies.  To this end, the shadows were turning the students into immortal, controllable chalkings that kept a new Rithmatists from coming into being.  The book ends with a unique collaboration between Joel and Melody that is just awesome, culminating in them winning a huge competition...and the promise of a second book.

If that didn't make any sense...well I really didn't expect it to.  This book is really hard to explain and in fact the book itself would be a bit difficult to follow if there were not these super great and simple illustration/diagrams in the beginning of every chapter.  I feel this added visual element clarified a lot of confusing concepts, making the book much more followable.  Ok, other then the pictures, what else did I like about the book?  Let's start with the characters.  Joel rocks it as a main character, he is layered and smart and still retains a bit of child like naivete mixed with an acceptance of his status that all combines with his obsession to make a complex yet relateable character.  And that totally sounded like a pretentious review description...sorry.  I like that Joel, while having some great talents...all

gotten by hard work and practice, he was never a super hero.  Even when he gets the chance to become a vaunted Rithatist, the author took the brave and awesome route of leaving him "ordinary".  This kept Joel from becoming one of those characters who just happens to be so talented that he can solve all the problems.  On the flip side we have Melody, who just makes me smile every time she is on the page.  She is loud, rude, attention seeking and at the center very good hearted.  She is a Rithmatist, but resents that her path has been chosen for her.  She sucks big time at all aspects of Rithmacy, except for the chalking creatures, which she excels at.  The other characters also have their various facets, making every person we read about interesting on some level or another.  One of the great things in this book is the various levels of cooperation between the characters.  Joel and Melody show this the best in the competition where Joel draws the circles and Melody traces over them and brings them to life.  We also see Professor Fitch work with the students, the head of the school work with pretty much everybody, all kinds of awesomeness.  I love it 'cause most books use conflict and misunderstanding to create interest, and this way of showing people use their talents and flaws to create awesome teamwork made me super happy.  World building in this book was both fantastic and infuriating.  Overall it was a complete world, with a history, customs, culture and whatnot.  We continually learn about this world (and it's awesomely unobtrusive steampunk elements) through out the story in many different ways.  That being said, we never really learn about what the chalkings are, exactly what it takes to become a Rithmatist (though it is hinted at) or why they even exist.  This is very annoying as it is kind of the center of the whole story!   That being said, even though I desperately want to know a full chalking history and all its details, the story and most of the world did not suffer from this lack of knowledge too much.  Overall I very much enjoyed this book for reasons that are difficult to describe.  I give it 8 out of 10 clockwork coins and can't wait to read the next one.  I recommend it to anybody who wants a non romance driven YA book, likes things that work, and want a great world experience.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Books To Wear

I WANT THESE SO BAD!!!!!  Seriously, it's probably a good thing I don't get paid for a while 'cause seriously I want all of these!!!!!!!  You can find all of them at www.litographs.com which is quickly becoming a favorite site of mine. They are shirts made from the texts of the books they depict.  They come in various color schemes and seriously I NEED THESE!

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Pride and Prejudice (front and back)

Peter Pan (front and back)

Alice in Wonderland (front and back)

Phantom of the Opera

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Tempest

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Anne of Green Gables

So there is a billion trillion more shirts I want, and on top of that the site has totes, posters, and temp tattoos that are all super awesome (I'm not being paid I swear).  This is book love in one of its purest forms.  Sooooo if anybody wants to get me a present ANYTHING from this site is welcome...Happy Reading Everybody!

Books And Flags

Here in the States it is Independence Day tomorrow.  The day we celebrate the day we became a nation and blow up awesome fireworks.  Here are some cool ways to celebrate with books!

Flag wrapped books

This is a great idea that you can do with any set of books

Bookshelf Flag

I love this idea, especially in a bookstore or a massive library

Book Collage Flag

Unique and creative idea

Book Page Flag

Classy and Elegant

Bookend Flag

Quick and creative

Happy Birthday USA and Happy Reading Everybody!

Alphabet By The Books

I am SOOOO EXCITED!!!  Get to go see my nephews due to an impromptu road trip on my part.  Yep my impulsivenessstrikes again resulting in plane tickets for a weekend in Chicago.  Maybe while I am there we can learn the alphabet.

Book Alphabet

In case you hadn't noticed I am a wee bit excited :-)  I will be sure to have a post chock full of the nephew goodness when I get back.  But in the meantime HAPPY READING EVERYBODY!

Thinker Pages

So completely random post today, but saw some of this artwork and couldn't get it out of my head...so here you go. All of this is by a Malaysian artist by the name of Daniel Lai and I think it is wonderful.

I love the combination of a recognizable figure (usually The Thinker) and book art, it seems very apropos (yay using my big girl words!).  I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did and check out the rest of his work.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Tower Of Books

How cool is this?!?  The tower structure is a helical structure of 7 stories high covered with 30,000 books in different languages ​​and dialects.  It is made of all donated and recycled books.

Tower of Babel

Check out the website for in progress shots...I wanna go see this so bad!
Happy Reading Everybody!

Literary Themes of Christmas Trees

In my eternal search for all things bookish...and my love of Christmas, I have stumbled across these inspirational trees.

ARC Tree

This tree is decorated with items made from ARC's...which is about the only way I could justify tearing up a book.  Check out the rest of the post for close-ups, it is really well done.

Mad Hatter Tree

I am loveing this Mad Hatter tree inspired by Alice in Wonderland

White Tree of Minas Tirith

Not a traditional tree, but this is an awesome representation of the the White Tree of Minas Tirith from The Return of the King,  and would be cool for the non-traditional types. 

Narnia Tree

Once again click the link to get all the details.  I love the lampost topper as for me that is one of the most memorable book images I have ever read.

Harry Potter Tree

Yay Harry Potter!  In the books the importance of Christmas makes me smile, and this tree captures the book and the spirit perfectly.

Oddly enough I could not find any Jane Austen trees...so...I guess I know what I'm doing next year :-)  send me pics and tell me about your literary inspired tree!  Happy Reading Everybody!