daily book pic - a final look

I'm a little behind the times on this final wrap up post but I've had a few others posts scheduled for this week and then my internet started misbehaving. Woot. Anyway. I had so much fun doing this from the awesome bookish photo a day project (started by Cassandra at Book Riot). It was neat to see the pictures other book lover's put up! Without further adieu, here are the final three pictures

Day Twenty Nine - Autographed Book

Looking at this picture makes me so happy. These are four of my Sarah Dessen books that I was able to get signed by her when I got to meet her last September. She's probably my favourite author so meeting her was one of the best things I've ever been able to do. Having these books as proof that I met her makes it that much better :)

Day Thirty - Book to Movie

I decided to go all out for this one and pull out every book that I had that had been made into a movie, and every movie that I have that was adapted from a book. Turns out I have quite a few! Being the nerd that I am, I even organized them - sort of. Starting at the top left of the all movie pile: non-fiction adaptations, Nicholas Sparks, random fiction. Top right: just books (mostly kids/teen, and fantasy to boot), Jane Austen, then the adaptations that I had both book and movie. Can you see any of your favourites in there? 

Day Thirty One - DNF (Did Not Finish)

When I still worked at the bookstore I had many girls tell me that I should give Shiver a try, so I did. Oh. My. God. I could barely stand it. It may be great for teens (think the younger end of the Twihards) but it really wasn't enjoyable for a twenty-something. Great YA, in my opinion, is when it's relatable to pretty much anyone. I know Harry Potter isn't actually YA but that's something that is appealing to all ages. It was unfortunate that I didn't end up liking Shiver but you can't win 'em all!

daily book pic - week four recap

Well, friends, we're nearing the end of the daily book pic! I've been having so much fun taking my own pictures and checking out some of the top ones compiled on Book Riot. So, without further adieu, here are my pics from week four!

Day Twenty Two - Comfort Reads

I chose the Harry Potter series for my comfort reads for a couple of reasons. First, the story is so gripping. Second, the writing is phenomenal. You've all read books that are just utter crap - awful story, horrendous writing. If I wanted to restore my faith in books and authors and remind myself that there were excellent books out there, I would turn to Harry Potter. What would you choose?

Day Twenty Three - Learning to Read

This was a bit of a tough one as I don't have any need for learning to read books in my house (I don't think my fish can be taught and my boyfriend and I have a good grasp on literacy). I then remembered that I still had two books that were birthday presents for my boyfriend's niece! (They're a little delayed...her birthday was July 4...2 years old and adorable!) This shot shows the page that convinced me to buy it - who doesn't love pink giraffes? :)

Day Twenty Four - Book Quote

Not the best photo, I know, but this necklace has a quote from Louisa May Alcott: "She is too fond of books and it has turned her brain" I got this from Etsy from the store BookFiend. She has some amazingly awesome stuff and I urge all bookworms to check out her shop - there's jewellery (including some awesome leather cuffs - I want one of these ones but I don't know what quote I'd pick!), stickers, magnets, bookmarks, and more! Here's a better shot of the necklace from her page:

Day Twenty Five - Book Bag

When I saw this prompt I immediately thought of this bag. It was a birthday gift from one of my friends (who will be mentioned again in the next description) and I use it every day for work. I pop my lunch in there along with the book I'm reading. I was looking at the compilation of pictures on Book Riot the next day and I realized that I thought differently than a lot of other folk. They took pictures of bags they got from bookstores. Didn't even think of that! Ah well. It's all about the creativity, right? (PS If you're as in love with this bag as I am, check out the shop Sugar and Candy on Etsy, that's where it came from and she's got some gorgeous stuff!)

Day Twenty Six - Re-purposed Books

I cheated a wee bit with this one as this picture is from last summer. I was in a little shop in a small town and came across this purse made out of an old copy of Heidi. I had to take a picture for my friend who shares a name with the protagonist (she's also the one who gave me that gorgeous bag in the book bag picture!). I would have considered getting it for her but it was well out of my price range. That, and this purse isn't exactly Heidi's style :)

Day Twenty Seven - Outdoor Reading Spot

Summer is the best time for reading because you can read in so many spots and you're not limited to the indoors. While I love reading at my best friend's beach or my boyfriend's parents pool, I haven't been able to do so much this summer as I'm now a few hours away. Instead, my new favourite spot is in my backyard. I've got a nice patio set (the colour scheme isn't perfect but the chairs are surprisingly comfortable) and we back out onto a ball park and two soccer fields. Lovely.

Day Twenty Eight - A Well-Worn Book

Ah, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. One of my all time favourite books, and series. Though, that's not too surprising when you see what kind of state the first book is in. It's the only one of the four (well, five) that I have in soft cover and it's showing some wear and tear. I've read it countless times, my sister has as well, and we've both lent it to quite a few of our friends. I've considered buying a hardcover copy to go with the rest of my set (the others aren't nearly as worn) but I kind of like my beat up copy. It shows that this book is well loved. :)

daily book pic - week three recap

Welcome to the end of week three of the wonderfulness that has been daily book pic! (Just in case you're new to my blog and haven't heard of this bookish photoaday, check out my week one recap...and week two, if you're still interested!)

Day Fifteen - Marginalia

What is marginalia, you ask? Any writing or inscriptions in books, particularly in the margins. Wondering what that has to do with the above photo? Well, my friends, I don't like writing in books. The only time in recent memory I've written in a book is in university and college when I was marking up textbooks. Since I didn't have any books that really fit this category I decided to take a picture of these post it note-esque tags one of my best friends got me for Christmas. She thought they'd come in handy for my reviews. I really enjoy  them!

Day Sixteen - Cover Art

I admit that I sometimes judge books by their covers. Honestly, who doesn't? The Nora Roberts Bride Quartet series always caught my eye when I used to work at the bookstore. I had no idea what they were about but, my god, I loved the covers. I don't own the books (I believe I ended up frequenting my local library for these ones...whatever my local library was at that time) so I couldn't get a good picture of the cover for this photo prompt. Cue Goodreads. Unfortunately the pic turned out crummy so I will include a picture I used for one of my past reviews:

Gorgeous.

Day Seventeen - Favourite Bookstore

Another admission: I really didn't want to use a chain store for this prompt. I think there's something to be said about local, indie bookstores. However. I have no idea where good indie stores are around St. Catharines (give me a bit of a break...only been here a few months and lack the funds to buy books from these indie stores, or any other stores for that matter). I ended up deciding on a picture of the store front of the Coles I worked at for a summer six years ago and again two summers ago. Not only did I work at this store but this was also the bookstore I frequented when I was young, no doubt begging my mom to buy me some books. I remember having my own money and getting gift cards for my birthday and choosing out my own books at this store. I've worked at two other Coles stores since I started at this one but this will always be the first!

Day Eighteen - Book Club

My, this post is full of revelations. Here's another: I don't actually belong to a book club. I went to one meet up when I first moved here but the club is on hiatus for the summer so I don't feel like I officially belong to it yet. I was stumped for what to do for this prompt until I remembered the reading challenge my local library is holding this summer. The deal is to read at least five books over the summer and there will be a draw for a winner at the end. I figure I'm going to be reading anyway so I may as well share the titles with fellow library goers. 

Day Nineteen - Reading Glasses

I don't have reading glasses. I imagine I will once I'm older but I'm only 25 so I don't see that happening any time soon. I decided to have some fun with this one and set up my stuffed giraffe Darwin with my glasses (that I need for distance) and the book What the Dog Saw. As my boyfriend put it, I'm sure he'd rather be reading What the Giraffe Saw.

Day Twenty - Book Pusher

You've got a pusher friend. It may not be for books but could be for movies or food or video games. They're those people who you always go to for advice and they will happily chat about the subject in question for hours...even after you've stopped listening. No surprises here, I'm the book pusher among my friends and family. I'm always the one people come to for suggestions and I'm a lending library to my mom, sister, and close friends (I'm a bit anal when it comes to my books so I don't like lending my books to just anyone! Yes. I know that's kind of odd.). In this photo you'll see a list of books I'm suggesting to my sister (it's a work in progress...been working on it for a few months and she keeps bugging me for it) and my old Coles name tag. I included that because that's where I honed my book recommending skills. It takes a special kind of person to recommend something to a guy who comes in looking for a book for his girlfriend and has no clue what she really likes. Yes, that actually happens. Often. :)

(PS this photo got put into the daily compilation on Book Riot! That's two so far!)

Day Twenty One - Books in the Wild

Another opportunity to have some fun! I wasn't sure what the idea was for this one. Did "books in the wild" mean seeing people reading out in public? Or did it mean books that were surrounded by the jungle? I decided to go more towards the latter and put a book into my garden (ok, since we're being honest in this post, the boyfriend is the one who takes care of the garden). I thought it was fitting that I picked Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah. It's obviously confused since it's sitting in a summer garden! :)

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my recap! We've got another week and a couple days left so stay tuned after the end of the month when I'll recap the rest of the month!

daily book pic - week two recap

Week two of the bookish photoaday is complete! Since I don't feel like explaining (again) what this is all about, please check out my week one recap to learn more - and see all the pictures from that week!

Here we go...

Day Eight - Book Fetish

I've had this library card kit for ages and I've never actually used it. I keep thinking about it and then I realized that if I lent a book to a non-booknerd I would be made fun of and/or have to explain myself. I'm sure those non-booknerds just wouldn't get it but I enjoy having this on my bookshelf (where it normally lives - not on the footstool in my living room where I placed it for this photo!)

Day Nine - Not a Book

This girl and a book statue is placed in the lobby of my public library. There's a neat water feature/fountain type thing behind her that really adds to the scene. 

Day Ten - Page Count

For this picture I learned that it is awfully difficult to take a picture of the page count on my Kobo! If you can't read it, I was on page 94 of 592 of Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness. I'm on page 213 now but I am *only* 35% read. Man, this book is HUGE - but oh so good.

Day Eleven - New Release 

I had to sneak into a bookstore to take this one as I do not yet have The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner. I reallllly want to read it and can't wait until it is on my shelf!

Day Twelve - Keep Meaning to Read

I have had The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern on my bookshelf for way too long. I actually won this signed copy through a Twitter contest held by Random House Canada. How cool is that? I've heard so many amazing things about this one so I need to read it soon.

Day Thirteen - Library Card

Yes, I have four library cards. Midland is where I grew up (and I actually worked at this library all through high school). I went to school in Waterloo so this card wasn't as well used since I didn't have a lot of time for reading for fun. Barrie was my next card and I only lived there for about a year and a half. I just recently got a card in St. Catharines (almost three weeks ago now) and I've already been a few times. I always like checking out a new library and I find that I always compare it to the Midland Public Library. It's definitely not the best in size (because it's the smallest. Midland has almost 17,000 people where Barrie, Waterloo, and St. Catharines have over 100,000) but I love the building itself. It used to be the old post office and it now has a snazzy new addition. Long story short - I love libraries and I think everyone else should too. :)

Day Fourteen - Picture Book

This was another sneaking into the bookstore shot. I have a few picture books back at my mom's house but none in St. Catharines. Since this was a covert mission I made my way to the kids section and the first book that popped into my head was The Wonderful Pigs of Jillian Jiggsby Phoebe Gilman. I don't know if I loved this book as a kid because I thought it was awesome or because my mom did. She's a huge pig fan so it must have been great to read a book about little stuffed pigs to her daughters!

And there we have it. Week two is complete! Are any of you participating? I'm having a lot of fun with it. It's also awesome to see what others are posting and seeing the compilation posts over on Book Riot. Oh, fun side note - my breakfast picture from last week made it into that day's compilation! So cool!

daily book pic - week one recap

I'm sure most of you have read of the photoaday things that people are doing these days - taking a particular photo (self portrait, sunset, pet, etc.) every day for a month. Cassandra Neace from Book Riot has decided to put a bookish spin on things and there are a ton of book worms (including myself) who have jumped at the chance to participate. If you want to get involved or just want to see the full list of photo prompts check out the original article here.

It's now the end of week one so I thought I'd share my pics from the week. I'm having a bit of photo envy as it seems many other people have artistic photos and mine now seem lacking. Perhaps I'll be a bit more creative as the month goes on :)

Day One - Favourite Reading Spot

I was already a few days behind when I decided to start this project and when I got around to taking the first two pictures it was approaching darkness. Why does this matter? It means that I wasn't able to get a good picture of me reading outside which is my favourite place to read in the summer. Reading on the couch (which you see here) comes in at a comfy second.

Though...now that I'm writing this I realize that my all time favourite spot was here:

This was on a cruise to the Bahamas in February. Not bad, eh? Sigh. Can I go back there?

Day Two - Current Read

I'm not one to normally read more than one book at once but because All Roads Lead to Austen (amazing, by the way) is a non-fiction, and I take much longer to read non-fiction books, I decided to start a fiction book as well, The Wedding Beat (also very good). I've since finished them both and recommend them! 

Day Three - Book Browsing

I've just recently made it to my new local library. I've been living in this city for just about four months and it wasn't until last week that I got around to getting a library card - shocking, I know! This photo was taken on my second visit. They have a fantastic seven day borrowing section full of new books so I knew to make a beeline for it as soon as I got there the other day. I ended up picking up Point, Click, Love (the one on the top shelf on the far right) and am excited to read it!

Day Four - Bookshelf

This picture shows the top two shelves on my bookshelf at my house here. I say that because I have another bookshelf back at my mom's house that is still full of books that I've already read. Yes, you are interpreting that correctly - I haven't read any of the books in the photo. And in the interest of full disclosure, those shelves are now a bit fuller (as well as the two shelves below it...) as I had other books to add. I know, I know...I have a problem :)

Day Five - Bookmark

As soon as I saw this prompt I knew exactly which bookmark I planned on taking a photo of. The one shown here is from Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. My best friend was down there last summer and picked one up for me. Why is this such an interesting thing? Because Flyleaf Books is Sarah Dessen's favourite local indie bookstore. I repeat, why is this such an interesting thing? Because Sarah Dessen is our favourite author. My friend thought I'd get a kick out of the bookmark and I did. Little did we know that that September we would get the chance to meet Dessen when she came to Toronto! I had her sign some of my books and this bookmark, which led to a discussion between her and my friend about when she was at the store. It turns out that the owner saw Dessen in another store shortly after my friend was there and the woman told Dessen that there had been a family from Canada who visited the store and the daughter was a huge fan of hers. And she remembered that! We thought it was the greatest thing. (And yes, that's a snitch pin. Got it when I went to Universal in February.)

Day Six - Book and Beverage

It has been an incredibly hot summer so far and, while I'm a new beer drinking, I equate hot weather with drinking beer. Therefore, day six led me to a Coors Light Iced Tea and looking at my next read (The Singles) and a book that arrived in the mail that day A Girl Like You). It was a good, but HOT, evening!

Day Seven - Book and Breakfast

This is what I normally have for breakfast. The Shreddies, not the book, of course. Juice and cereal at home and tea taken in a travel mug to work. Since I had actually gone out for breakfast the morning of day seven, I couldn't take a true breakfast photo. Well...I suppose I could have brought a book with me to the restaurant but I never would have heard the end of it from my boyfriend's ball team who we went out with. :) PS Have you heard of Seen Reading? I recommend you check out the website!

So, there you have it. Week one is complete! Stay tuned on (hopefully) Saturday when I will be recapping week two. Think about joining in - it's been a lot of fun!