Moira Young Signing | May 12th 2014

Today, I went to the Moira Young Signing at Chapters Brampton. I have been so busy with school recently that I just did not have the time to read all the books prior to the signing. I started Blood Red Road yesterday and I was really enjoying it and then I picked up the final book today before the signing. I ended up going with my two bestfriends Nikki and Michelle, and I also saw a bunch of familiar faces from previous signings! 

Moira came on stage and immediately began telling us the story of how the first novel was conceived and went through telling us the trials and errors which she experienced while writing it. She told us how her inspiration sprung from seeing great epic films with her father growing up and spoke about the western elements in the book and what inspired them. She then went on to explain the process of the other two books and how she planned and organized the narratives for the three novels.

The Q&A session was particularly my favorite where she went into great detail about the actual writing process and how it is significant to have a problem big enough for it to matter to the protagonist and that would serve as the driving force for them throughout the novel. I know it is pretty obvious that point, but really, it is overlooked and she honestly inspired me to want to write! 

We were there pretty early so I was literally the third person in line. Moira spoke to me a bit about how the character Emmi is inspired by her sister and then went on to talk about how her publisher brought in a bird and the significance of the animals in her book. She was incredibly lovely and even asked how far I came to come to the signing. She took the time to speak to all of us for a bit and came around the table and took a picture which was so awesome. It was seriously a wonderful experience meeting her and it really made me appreciate her books on a whole different level. I was enjoying them already but hearing about how it all came together and just seeing HER as a person, well that was something else. She is simply awesome.

I can't wait to continue reading the rest of the books in the Dust Lands series! Have you read them? Let me know in the comments below! 

Jenny Han Signing | April 23rd 2014

After the previous book signing, there was another book signing immediately the day after at Chapters Brampton and it was for Jenny Han. She wrote the Summer I turned pretty series and she came to sign her newest release To All The boys I've loved before! I went with my bestie Michelle and we got to meet the lovely Ariel Bissett and NicolePJ there, fellow book bloggers/vloggers. It was such a busy event but we got all of our books signed (I brought a lot!). 

Jenny Han was so nice and remembered me from twitter so that was cool! She read a few passages from the book which was really interesting and enjoyable and even did a giveaway for some tshirts which was awesome! She was honestly the sweetest and she took the time to talk to everyone for a little bit during the signing. 

Overall, I had a blast at the signing, got to meet an author I really admire, hung out with my bestie and some new bookish friends and of course, got a bunch of my books personalized and signed! Win! 

Laini Taylor Book Signing | April 22nd 2014

Hi everyone, so I went to a lot of book signings recently.. and I am going to be posting a few individual posts about them within the next hour. I was finishing up the end of the semester so that is why I did not post about them sooner. Anyways, first up.. I went to Chapters Queensway and I got to meet Laini Taylor on April 22nd, 2014. I had only finished Daughter of Smoke and Bone then and I absolutely loved it, so I was super excited to meet her and get my books signed. 

Laini was BEYOND lovely. Her speech and Q&A session was amazing. She spoke about her writing process which was really interesting and also remained spoiler free! It was pretty busy there, but Laini took the time to speak to everyone a little bit before hand, and she signed all of my books which was amazing and signed books for my bestfriends too, who couldn't come and she was sweet enough to personalize them. 

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I had such a lovely time, and I also got to meet other book bloggers so that was super exciting. :) Overall, it was a great event and I am so grateful I got to meet Laini! :)

#AYearAThon Update Days 4-7 & Wrap Up

Hi everyone, so here is my update and wrap-up from last week's #AYearAThon where the theme was to finish/catch up on series. I am sad to say, I was only able to read three books last week because of my final papers and also, I was out a lot last week too. But this week starts the bout of books one, which I hope to get a lot of reading accomplished for. So here is what I ended up finishing! 

Books Completed: 

• If I Stay by Gayle Forman
• Where She Went by Gayle Forman
• Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Total Pages Read: 880 pages

#AYearAThon hosts a week read-a-thon once a month with a particular theme and this was my first time participating in it. The next theme is Rick Riordan, so that is definitely exciting because I have some books to read by him. I am going to try and participate in most of the #AYearAThon read-a-thons to come because it is a great way to narrow your reading list and get some reading done! Even though, I only read three books, I am still pretty proud of myself to finish a duo-logy by Forman and also, make some progress on the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, which I do not want to end! I will be reading the final book in that trilogy after this week of bout of books because I don't think it is the right book to marathon, it is so detailed and I honestly want to savour it, lol! 

How did you end up doing on the #AYearAThon read-a-thon for May? Will you be participating in the one next month? Let me know in the comments :)

Bout of Books 10 Goals

So Since Bout of Books 10 starts on Monday, I thought I'd post my goals list earlier which includes my goals for next week and my TBR list. :)

Goals for Bout of Books 10:

• Read a minimum of 6 books. (I gave myself this goal for the last read-a-thon and I definitely surpassed it but also, I will be working on some school work, so I don't want to overwhelm myself) 
• Participate in at least one of the twitter chats. 
• Participate in a minimum of two challenges. 
• Write a daily update everyday for the read-a-thon. 
• Read a minimum of an hour a day. (I have some friends staying with me next week and they are both participating in it, so this will definitely be do-able) 

My To-Be-Read List:

• My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
• Blood Red Road by Moira Young
• Rebel Heart by Moira Young
• Raging Star by Moira Young (Not pictured, I am getting it Monday)
• The Last Policeman by Ben Winters
• Countdown City by Ben Winters
• We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
• Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira 

I am going to the Moira Young signing on Monday, so I definitely want to read some of her books by then, so I might start those earlier during the #AYearAThon read-a-thon, but who knows. Also, I want to read the Winters series because the third book of the trilogy comes out later this year. Of course this TBR is subject to change because it all depends on the mood, but I will update you on that as we go along. I am really excited for the bout of books read-a-thon. I had a blast last time around and I am doing it with friends this time too so that will be super exciting. 

What are your goals for the Bout of Books 10 read-a-thon? What is your TBR list?

Liebster Award

So, I was given this award by one of my bestfriends Michelle a few weeks back and recently also given this by the lovely Aimee, so I thought it was about time I wrote about it. 

So what is the Liebster Award exactly? This award is usually given to those who have less than 300 followers. You get to know a bit more about the person who received the award, and also get to discover some new blogs from the people tagged for the award. 

The rules:

1. Thank and mention the person who nominated you
2.  List 11 facts about yourself. 
3. Answer the 11 questions that you were asked.
4. Nominate 5-11 blogs.
5. Create 11 new questions for them to answer.
6.  List these rules in your post.
7. Lastly, tell the blogs you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster Award, linking to your blog post on it so they can learn more about it.

11 Facts about myself: 

1. I am a massive DOCTOR WHO fan. Seriously. Ask any one of my friends and they will tell you how much of an addict I am. My whole room is decorated in Doctor Who stuff. 
2. I am pretty obsessed with all things Tom Hiddleston. I just adore him to bits and pieces. 
3. I like to drink flavoured coffee with just milk. 
4. My favorite book of all time is The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and I currently own 5 copies of it. I hope to one day own a variety of different editions. 
5. When I really like a song/album, I will listen to it non-stop on loop for a very long time. At the moment this album is AM by Arctic Monkeys. 
6. I have three dogs: Kaile, Jasper and Bentley. 
7. I love receiving mail and cards. I think cards are the most significant part of any gift. 
8. I have been to medieval times so many times in the past few years and I am not bored and I can't wait to go again. 
9. My favorite painters are Cezanne and Van Gogh. 
10. I am currently hooked on the game Farm Heroes Saga. It is super addicting. 
11. I really wish to travel to London and Tokyo in the near future. 

11 Questions asked by Michelle and Aimee: 

Since I was tagged by both Michelle and Aimee, for the 11 questions, I am going to answer a variety of them! 

Question 1: How do you feel about E-books? 
I got a Kobo reader a few years back and I really enjoyed it at first. It felt like I was just breezing through books, but then I started to really miss having an actual book and the turning of the pages. My kobo also started acting up at this time, freezing and lagging, so I haven't picked it up since. I sometimes use my ipad mini to read small books you can only get in e-format, so I don't mind. Overall, I don't mind it, but at the moment, it is not my option of choice in terms of reading. I plan on getting a better kobo reader sometime in the future and maybe when my room becomes completely buried in books, I will use one again. 

Question 2: Why did you start blogging?
I actually previously use to have a beauty blog which I maintained for over 3 years.. unfortunately, the passion for it just fizzled out and I was more interested in speaking about books, because reading is my first love. I found that just using goodreads was not enough and I much prefer to document things in a journal manner, so here we are! 

Question 3: What is something weird you do whilst reading?
hmmm.. weird? Well, my most favorite spot to read is in bed and I am always lying on my side to read. But I think, what is weird is that I read at like lightning speed at night time. That is when I accomplish most of my reading. 

Question 4: What canon OTP would you change?
It was canon in the movies I guess, but I really loved Luna Lovegood/Neville Longbottom, so that is the only thing I would make canon in the books, and also I am a bit of a Draco Malfoy/Ginny Weasley shipper. :$

Question 5: What book series really needs a movie/tv adaptation?
Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi. Warner please. 

Question 6: Other than reading, what is your passion?
Watching movies and tv. A bit of writing too. 

Question 7: What's your favorite concert you've been to?
Ah this is really hard because I have been to so many great concerts. I will have to say it is a three way tie between The XX which I saw a few years back at Massey Hall with the boy and my two bestfriends Steph and Vik, Florence and the Machine which I saw at the Molson Amphitheatre with the boy and Steph and finally, Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z with the four of us again. It is always such a blast going to the concert in a group of us four, so I think that is a big part of why those concerts were particularly special to me. 

Question 8: If you could have a super-power, what would it be?
The ability to read-minds! 

Question 9: Where's your favorite place you've been on vacation?
Paris, hands down. I loved it so much. I was there for one week and it wasn't nearly enough. I can't wait to return there one day. The dream would seriously be to live there for a period of time. 

Question 10: If you could learn one language, what would it be?
I have a big desire currently to learn french since I am horrible at it, but along with that, Japanese, German, Russian.. ah, I can't decide! 

Question 11: Who is your favorite youtuber? 
I am a huge fan of booktube at the moment and my favorites include: Ariel Bissett, Regan from PeruseProject and Raeleen from padfootandprongs07. 

Nominate Blogs
I don't know that many book blogs, so I will tag only three. 

• http://paperbacksandprotagonists.blogspot.com.au/
• http://exllibris.wordpress.com/
• http://nikkitheknack.blogspot.ca/

My Questions to you: 

1. What book releases are you looking forward coming soon later this year or next year?
2. What was the last book you read that you really disappointed with and wish you didn't buy?
3. What is your favorite summer beverage? 
4. What was the last movie you watched and what did you think of it?
5. What do you like collecting?
6. What is your favorite song at the moment?
7. Do you have any pets? 
8. What three tv shows would you recommend? 
9. What Harry Potter House do you think you would be sorted into? 
10. Which do you prefer, book blogging or booktubing? 
11. If you could go anywhere in the world right this second with unlimited funds, where would it be? 

And that's it! I want to thank Michelle and Aimee again for tagging me in this award. It is so awesome! :D 

#AYearAThon Update Days 1-3

Hi everyone, I have been so swamped lately, but I just wanted to quickly update you all on the fact that I am currently participating in another read-a-thon and it is called #AYearAThon which is hosted on goodreads and the theme this month is to finish/catch up on a series. It goes from May 5th to May 11th. Here is my progress from the last three days! 

Currently Reading:

• Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Books Completed: 

• If I Stay by Gayle Forman
• Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Total Pages Read: 494 pages

I started the If I Stay duo-logy right before the read-a-thon started, so I was able to finish both books just last night. I started them because of the release of the trailer. I really enjoyed the series and can't wait to pick up the next series by Forman. For the rest of the read-a-thon, I think I am going to focus primarily on finishing the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy and maybe start the Dustlands trilogy by Moira Young since I will be going to that signing on Monday with some friends. 

How are you doing so far on the #AYearAThon read-a-thon?