Young, broke & fabulous.

So. I don’t know if you remember, but I talked about wanting this book a few weeks ago, here. I finally caved and bought it last night (after reasoning why I needed it and having approval from Jess, Isobelle, Raquel AND Nicole).

To be fair, I shouldn’t have. At all. Rick and I spent a little too much money on a new rug, new clothes and indie goodness last week, so a $40 book definitely was over kill… but I figure a book is always worth it. AND I did put many a penny into savings for the ole ’big day’ (Wedding), after paying bills and doing boring food shopping.

So, even though I am completely flat broke now, when my book arrives with my other goodies, I’ll be in complete happiness. And oh how I will talk at Rick about it.

I did completely validate the purchase (in my head) before I clicked “proceed to checkout” - and here they are:

• I LOVE fairytales. Like. Seriously. Fairytales are my thing. The bee’s knee’s. The cat’s pajamas!
• I collect books. I want my own in-house library one day. This is a necessary book for the future House of Belle library.
• When Rick and I babysit, I can read the kiddos stories from this book.
• I can read stories from this book to our future babies! And I wouldn’t be able to do that if it weren’t in our in-house library.
• It’s pretty.
• I wanted it.

Say it with me now, VAL-I-DATED.

Are there any things in your life, that you absolutely love, that you kind of know you shouldn’t love that much? Like a TV show, a book, a movie? I’ve always been a huge Harry Potter nerd. Always. Rick loves HP too, plus one of my best friends Raquel. So we have our little HP fan club and it’s awesome. So, actually, I don’t feel embarrassed about that because I have people who are equally as in love as I am.

But then… there’s my new obsessions. The Hunger Games. And, Once Upon A Time. You guys… I just love them. The Hunger Games was a series that I saw in the bookstore all the time and ignored because I just “knew” it wasn’t my kind of book. Had an early Morning flight a few weeks ago, wasn’t feeling the book I bought a long with me, so decided to give it a go. Turns out it’s exactly my kind of book. I fell in love so quickly, it was one of those “don’t want to do anything but read, no time for eating or sleeping” kind of books. I read the trilogy non-stop and was so. sad. when I finished the third book. I made Rick read them, I made Raquel read them, and I’ve told all of my other book loving friends to read them as well. The movie is out soon, so I’ve been spending some of my time… fan girl-ing. Looking at stills from the movie, reading about the different actors cast for the characters. Fan girl-ing it UP. I am all about Peeta. The people who have read them so far like them, Rick likes 2 of the books more than 1, but isn’t that excited about the movie. Raquel is though, so again, I don’t have to be too embarrassed because I have her, but there’s only two of us? I need a group! (Or a third person, 2 isn’t okay but 3 people is).

Then… there’s Once Upon A Time. First and foremost - I would like to point out that I am embarrassed about how much I like this show. Even if 40 of my friends liked it too, I’d still be embarrassed. I am so lame about this show, it’s just so embarrassingggg. Anyway, I digress. My sister in law Jessica told me about this show, and I loved it from the very first second. Jessica has since decided she isn’t a fan, and her brother has the same opinion. We don’t watch it together anymore because I actually end up getting mad at him for ripping apart “my show”. A few episodes into the season, and I decided to make Brigitte watch it. It was one of those things, were you go on and on about how good something is, that when you finally get someone else to give it a go, suddenly you are nervous and worried and thinking “what if they don’t like it? They’ll think I’m an idiot!”. Luckily for me, Brig was a fan. Then Scott became a fan. Isobelle, my other sister in law, is also a fan. So I have a little group. AND I’M STILL EMBARRASSED. Because they aren’t the kind of fans I am. Did you know, yesterday, I spent a good 5 hours of my working day reading theories that other fans have come up with on who’s who, and what’s going to happen? Normally I natter away at Rick about these sorts of things, when I’m excited, or annoyed by something, I natter his flippin ears off. But he hates the show. So poor Scott had to endure it. He took it on well though, good lad. And I am unbelievably excited about the day when Alice in Wonderland is included on the show. And I was annoyed, that I didn’t pick up on things that other people have. So annoyed I started watching the series from the beginning again last night. And I’m still not over a certain death in the show. Still. See? Embarrassing.

Thank god for the younger generation who are ALL ABOUT fan-ing it up, so I can pretend, online, that I’m not 24, that my obsession is age appropriate, and that I don’t have to be embarrassed about being a teenage girl at heart still.

I guess I’m just a sucker for fairy-tales and make believe. The Hunger Games doesn’t really fall into either of those categories though, perhaps make believe? Anyway - I ask again, does anyone else have these sorts of obsessions? Come on, make a girl feel better and share! (Also, let’s not pretend we haven’t noticed how long this blog entry is compared to my other entries… man, I haven’t done myself any favours on the embarrassing scale have I?)

So I have a pretty standard routine when it comes to reading.

I find a good book, charge through it, then continue reading like a champion until I come across a book I’m really not that into. But, I can’t not finish a book once I’ve started it, so it takes me 400 years to finish reading it (seriously, 400 years. Just ask Rick.) and by the time I do, I’ve lost all interest in reading for a while. Fast forward a few weeks, sometimes even a few months, when I’ve decided to pick up a book again, and the process commences once more.

A few weeks ago I started my routine with One Day, by David Nicholls, and now I’m reading How to break your own Heart, by Maggie Alderson.

I’ve decided I hate my old routine and want a new one. This is where you guys come in! Book recommendations. Let me have them! I always regret stopping reading for so long because I really do love it. If I have plenty of good books to keep reading, I won’t ever have to stop :) I’m generally a big fan of Chic Lit or Fantasy, but you can check out some of my reading lists here to get a better idea.

(And there’s only so much time I can spend on the Wattpad app. Thanks for that Jess!)

I figure the more books I read, the more books I’ll have to keep buying, which means I’m closer and closer to one day having my own “library”. I imagine my dream home housing a room that looks like this. (Or this or this.)

Heaven right?

True story. I actually refuse to buy books that have the movie adaption covers.

The only time I will is when I have tried every possible store, online shop and any other option available and failed, but need to read/own said book immediately. (You know, in case something horrible happens like all book stores burn down, or someone decides we don’t need to make books anymore.)

I hate buying movie adaption covers. I strongly believe a movie never, ever tops the book. Ever. (Even if for some reason I am seeing the movie first, and reading the book second - I know (okay, I assume) the book will be better). So why would I want the movie adaption cover when it sucks in comparison!?

Example - I’m a huge Harry Potter fan, of both books and movies, but you will never hear me say the movies are better. Because they aren’t. (I will admit once I have seen a movie from a book series, if I like the actor playing the character, I will imagine them as that person while reading from then on.) Back to the point - I love HP, but would never buy a copy of the book with Daniel Radcliffe’s face on it.

Some book purchases (both recent and past) that I have successfully managed to buy without movie adaption covers: I am Number 4, The Princess Bride, Water for Elephants, The Lovely Bones, Lord of the Rings, The Time Travelers Wife, Harry Potter - the series, Twilight - the series, The Notebook and Dear John.

I buy all of my books online at Fishpond, and if you want to see what else I enjoy reading (regardless of possible movie adaption covers) you can see my book lists over at Goodreads, here. 

P.S - Happy Monday everyone! My weekend was busy but good. Photos were such a laugh on Friday night, will post some pictures soon : ) I’m being far too busy lazing around with my lover to post as often as normal (just joking, I’m at flippin work).

Dear Angus & Robertson

Please don’t send me things like this when I am trying to save for my holiday to Melbourne. I don’t need anymore books and I don’t miss you.

Sincerely,

Me.

P.S - I’m lying, I always need more books, and of course I miss you. (But a weekend getaway with some of my favourites to one of my favourite places in Australia - totally worth it) 

Update:

Whoops…