Completely Random: How To Waste 20 Minutes On YouTube

It starts simple enough. First you jokingly make a reference to your brother about "Oh Long Johnson". When he looks at you like you don't know what he's talking about, of course you have to show him:



Then, thanks to YouTube's related videos feature, this clip catches your attention:



Okay, that was kind of freaky. Let's find something more normal. Ooh, here's one with two cats, I wonder what it is:



Oh, that's just so cute. So you watch it again. And then another related video pops up. There's a translation, cool!:



Hehe. That was kind of funny. Ooh look, the same guy's got another video:



I love this guy! What other kind of videos does he have? A mystic cat?:



Which leads to this:



And then this (which is my favorite):


By this time you are rolling on the floor, so you call your dad over to show him, and play all 8 videos again.

20 minutes wasted. Thanks YouTube.

Waiting On Wednesday: 1.26.11

Well, I can break out of a book slump long enough to do a WoW post. :)

Waterfall: A Novel (River of Time Series)by Lisa T. Bergren

About the Book (from Amazon.com): "Gabriella has never spent a summer in Italy like this one.
Remaining means giving up all she’s known and loved…
and leaving means forfeiting what she’s come to know…and love itself.

Most American teenagers want a vacation in Italy, but the Bentarrini sisters have spent every summer of their lives with their parents, famed Etruscan scholars, among the romantic hills. Stuck among the rubble of medieval castles in rural Tuscany on yet another hot, dusty archaeological site, Gabi and Lia are bored out of their minds… until Gabi places her hand atop a handprint in an ancient tomb and finds herself in fourteenth-century Italy. And worse yet, in the middle of a fierce battle between knights of two opposing forces.

And thus does she come to be rescued by the knight-prince Marcello Falassi, who takes her back to his father’s castle—a castle Gabi has seen in ruins in another life. Suddenly Gabi’s summer in Italy is much, much more interesting. But what do you do when your knight in shining armor lives, literally, in a different world?"

I have a thing for time travel, so I was instantly intrigued by this one. The cover is interesting, but I saw the book for the second book (out in July) and it is really, really pretty. Is it bad I might read this only so I can read the second book? Hehe.

Waterfall: A Novel (River of Time Series)will be officially released on February 1st, but according to Amazon.com you can order it from them right now:

Meh

Sorry I've been absent last week. I still have more 2010 wrap up posts to do, and it's my goal to publish all of them before the end of January, I hope.

Unfortunately I find myself in a bit of a book slump lately. It's been steadily increasing over the last few weeks. And it's affecting my blogging. I don't really want to read so I'm not in the mood to blog much either. Meh.

The problem is that I have a book that I got to review for a local newspaper, so I absolutely have to turn in a review. And although I'm not hating this book, I'm far from loving it. It's over 400 pages and I am stuck at about page 100. I'm not invested in the story or the characters, I just don't care about either of them. But since I have to write a review for it, I need to at least get a little farther before I abandon it.

Anyone have good ideas to get out of a book slump? I've tried reading a different book, but I just end up tearing through that book since I'm enjoying it so much more and then when I'm done with it I'm back at point A.

Well, at least with less reading I've had more time to work on bookmark orders. Here's one of my latest finished. I think it turned out pretty good, don't you think? (Even if my camera took a not-so-good picture.)

Happy Birthday!

Just wanted to pop in and say Happy Birthday to my friend Katherine.



Hope your day is fantastic!

$20 Amazon.com card for $10!

I'm coming a little late to this party, but check out this deal. You can get a $20 Amazon.com gift card for $10 here... but only for the next 8 hours! So hurry, because this is a great deal.

Waiting on Wednesday: 1.19.11

My first Waiting on Wednesday post of the New Year! And this one is going to be a good one. Or, I think it looks like it will be good. Since I haven't read it yet. :)

A True Princess by Diane Zahler

About the Book (from Amazon.com): "Twelve-year-old Lilia is not a very good servant. In fact, she's terrible! She daydreams, she breaks dishes, and her cooking is awful. Still, she hardly deserves to be sold off to the mean-spirited miller and his family. Refusing to accept that dreadful fate, she decides to flee. With her best friend, Kai, and his sister, Karina, beside her, Lilia heads north to find the family she's never known. But danger awaits. . . .

As their quest leads the threesome through the mysterious and sinister Bitra Forest, they suddenly realize they are lost in the elves' domain. To Lilia's horror, Kai falls under an enchantment cast by the Elf King's beautiful daughter. The only way for Lilia to break the spell and save Kai is to find a jewel of ancient power that lies somewhere in the North Kingdoms. Yet the jewel will not be easy to find. The castle where it is hidden has been overrun with princess hopefuls trying to pass a magical test that will determine the prince's new bride. Lilia has only a few days to search every inch of the castle and find the jewel—or Kai will be lost to her forever."

Yes, another fairy tale retelling. But you probably guessed that already from the title. This one sounds like a mash up of The Princess and the Pea and The Snow Queen, but with a new twist of both. I am enjoying Zahler's other fairy tale book, The Thirteenth Princess, so far so I have high hopes for this one.

Plus, look at that cover (click on it to see it larger)! If you read by Best Covers of 2010 post the other day, Zahler's The Thirteenth Princess made it on to that list. And this cover is just as pretty. I love the artist HarperCollins has doing her artwork...

A True Princess will be released on February 3rd, 2011 (almost there!) and is currently available for pre-order:

Best Book Covers of 2010

So after a couple days' delay (things are still crazy around here) I'm back with another top 10 from 2010. Today we're looking at the best book covers from 2010. Now, I haven't read all of these, but the covers to these books are super cool anyway.Those of you who are longtime readers are familiar with how much I gush about covers during my Waiting on Wednesday posts. So I guess I'm somewhat of a cover enthusiast. I love to gush about good covers, and rant about bad ones.

So let me tell you, this was hard. I mean, really, really, really hard for me to choose only 10. I got it narrowed down to 20 fairly easily, and 15 eventually, but narrowing it down to only 10 was killer. But after looking at the 10 I finally chose, I saw that they narrowed down into semi-categories. And I thought it would be fun to present them that way. Perhaps in a few days I'll post the runner ups, because there were a lot of great book covers last year.

So here are my Top 10 Covers of 2010. I made sure I uploaded large files, so all of these can be clicked on and be viewed large size in all their splendid glory.

Enjoy!

Category 1: Period Dresses

Oh, the dresses. I can't help it, I think my obsession with these types of covers comes from living two semesters with a roommate who was majoring in fashion design with a theatrical costume emphasis. And it's probably party of my inner girly-girl escaping as well.

I've noticed that I tend to favor photographic covers (although they are sometimes heavily photoshopped) like The Bad Queen: Rules and Instructions for Marie-Antoinette and The Agency 2: The Body at the Tower show. But I also really love the painting style for The Thirteenth Princess. Something about it just glows. By the way, The Thirteenth Princess was one of the covers featured for the 2010 12 Days of Christmas giveaways this year, and it was probably the second least correctly guess cover of the bunch.

Which reminds me, I still need to post the answers for those. One more thing on the to-do list...


Category 2: Pretty Colors

I can't help it. I love color. And the colors in these covers are awesome. I love how the blue of Forgive My Fins instantly makes me think of mermaids (which the book is about, obviously). Either that or a girl who's frostbitten, but there you go.

I really like the effect of Jekel Loves Hyde as well. The sickly green glow of that boiling beaker nicely contrasts with the purple of Jill's shirt. This is one of the books on this list that I have read, and I think this cover perfectly captures the tone of the book.

And last we come to that beautiful shade of green on the Matched cover. I've heard this one is even more pretty in person because it has a pearly sheen to it. I haven't seen it in real life yet (though I do have a copy on it's way in the mail to me, yay!) but even the virtual version is pretty. I like the imagery too, the idea of being trapped in a bubble, which sounds like it really accurately reflects the book. And it's a pretty dress. (I know, I know, I'm gushing about dresses again...)


Category 3: What's with the cat eyes?

Okay, so this might be a stretch to lump these two together. But still, it works! There's something about changing the shape of the pupils in both of these covers that give both of them a subtle hint of the supernatural (without them being scary). Needless to say, Mistwood draws me in right away with the misty woods and castle. And I really like the font used for the title too. And as much as I like this cover, the sequel's is even prettier. Really looking forward to that one too.

Firelight could also go in the pretty colors category. I love the warm feel of the reds in this cover. The moment I saw this cover I knew I had to have the book. It's sitting in my To Be Read pile right now, and I hope it lives up to the expectation I've gotten from the cover. In addition to the subtle change of the eye, I love how you can just barely see the sheen of scales around her eye. Very cool. Or hot... oh, you know what I mean!


Category 4: Ally Carter!


Yeah, I know this is kind of an odd category. But in grouping my covers I noticed I had two left, and both of them were for Ally Carter books. I guess she had a good year for covers in 2010.

First is the new Gallagher Girl cover, Only the Good Spy Young. Can I just say that I've loved these covers for the whole series, but this one by far has to be my favorite. The plaid theme is super cool on the spine, and the title treatments are always fun. But this one is PINK! My favorite color. So of course, no future GG books will ever be as much favorite as this one is.

And last by certainly not least, is Heist Society. I already wanted to read this book as soon as read the description. But when I saw the cover, I knew I had to have it NOW. I love the juxtaposition of Kat's sunglasses and the painting reflected in them. I've seen another cover for this book (I think it's the UK or Australian cover, maybe?) where Kat (who's blond instead of brunette) is in front of a painting in a ski cap with a bunch of red lasers around her. And while that might say "thief" more than this cover does, I love this cover so much more. The other version just doesn't feel like Kat to me. She has so much pizazz, and I think this cover shows that way better.


So that's my Top Ten Covers for 2010. What were your favorites?

Best Book Trailers of 2010

Book trailers have come a long way. The first time I saw a book trailer was in 2007 I think, and it wasn't much more than a bunch of pictures and some text. And while there's nothing wrong with that kind of trailer, they've also gotten lots more sophisticated over the last 3 years.

So my first 2010 wrap up is sharing with you (in no particular order) my top 10 book trailers of 2010. I haven't read all of these (actually I haven't read most of them) but they sure do make me want to read them all right away!

So which trailers were your favorite this year? Any you really liked that I missed?

Breathless Reads (The Eternal Ones, The Replacement, Nightshade, Matched, and Sapphique)


The Karma Club by Jessica Brody


Heist Society by Ally Carter


Vixen (The Flappers) by Jillian Larkin


Matched by Ally Condie


Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale (not actually a 2010 book, but I saw the trailer on Shannon Hale's blog in Feb of 2010, which is why it makes the cut)


The Poison Diaries by Maryrose Wood


Mistwood by Leah Cypess


Hearts at Stake (Drake Chronicles, Book 1) by Alyxandra Harvey (also technically a 2009 book, but I saw in Feb 2010)


The Iron Fey by Julie Kagawa

I'm not dead, I promise!

So I know I promised everyone some new posts several days ago. My carpal tunnel flare up finally subsided Tuesday, and I had most of Wednesday off from work so I could go to the doctor. It was my plan to use the rest of the time between when I had to go back to work and when my appointment was over to catch up a bit.

Unfortunately, I not only had to get a (painful) shot, I had 9 vials of blood taken for blood tests. This meant my arm was pretty much as limp as a noodle, and I could hardly type. Le sigh.

But, I'm feeling much better today! I want to put the first post up tonight or tomorrow morning and complete the four 2010 wrap up posts I have planning in the following days. I seemed to have misplaced my list, so I'm having to redo everything which will take a little longer, but will still hopefully be up soon.

After that it still might be a bit quiet for a little bit, since I'm working on a lot of behind the scenes stuff. New content for the New Year and all that, but you'll have to wait and see what it is. ;) Anyway, bottom line, new post coming either later today or tomorrow morning, so come back to check it out!

2010 Posts Coming Soon, I Promise!

I know I promised a series of "best of 2010" posts last week. You may have noticed they aren't up yet.

Unfortunately, I had a really bad flare up in my carpal tunnel show up on New Year's Eve. It's slowed down my computer activities a lot, and I've had to save what little typing I can do before my fingers go numb for work stuff (bleh).

Anyway, it seems to be clearing up a little bit, so hopefully by Friday my hands will be back to (nearly) normal typing activities.

More coming soon, I promise!

Books For Sale: January 2011

One staple of the New Years at my house is cleaning. I've been told I need to clean some of the stuff out of my bookshelves, so I'm updating my Books for Sale post. There's several new titles here, as well as some leftovers from the last list.

A good chunk of these will be donated to the thrift store if no one claims them, so if you see something you want, let me know right away so I can save it for you. Also, if you have something on my wish list (left sidebar) I might be willing to trade for the below titles as well. Never hurts to ask.

If you see something on this list you'd be interested in buying, send me an email (shadyglade(AT)mail(DOT)com) and let me know. Prices are $1.99 for any paperback, and $2.99 for hardbacks + the cost of postage.

Shipping will be done via Media Mail for US addresses, since it's much cheaper. Shipping is determined by the weight of the books. If you'd like to know beforehand how heavy something is that you're interested in, let me know and I'll weigh it for you. Shipping costs also include delivery confirmation for the US, so you can track the package while en route.

Shipping costs
Up to 1 pound $3.18
1-2 pounds $3.57
2-3 pounds $3.96
3-4 pounds $4.35
4-5 pounds $4.74
5-6 pounds $5.13
6-7 pounds $5.52
7-8 pounds $5.91
Above 8 pounds, you can email for a quote.

I prefer PayPal as a method of payment, which requires a credit card. Anyone who can't do PayPal, send me an email (shadyglade(AT)mail(DOT)com) and we'll work something out.

Almost all of these are either new or like new condition. I take very good care of my books. I will confirm condition of every book before shipment, so you'll know exactly what you're getting before you pay for anything.

If you have questions, feel free to email.


Paperbacks ($1.99 each + shipping)
Alex Unlimited Volume 1: The Vosarak Code by Dan Jolley
Ceres: Celestial Legend, Vol. 1: Aya by Yu Watase
Double Cross (Chloe and Levesque Mysteries) by Norah McClintock
Dramarama by E. Lockhart
Fairest by Gail Carson Levine
Fate by Jennifer Barnes
Four Word Film Reviews by Benj Clews and Michael Onesi
Frannie in Pieces by Delia Ephron
Getting the Girl: A Guide to Private Investigation, Surveillance, and Cookery by Susan Juby
House of Dance by Beth Kephart
Over the Edge (Chloe and Levesque Mysteries) by Norah McClintock
Peach Fuzz, Vol. 1 by Lindsay Cibos and Jared Hodges
Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli
Stones of Abraxas by K. Osborn Sullivan


Hardcovers ($2.99 each + shipping)
Dream Girl by Lauren Mechling
Flora's Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room) by Ysabeau S. Wilce
Flyte (Septimus Heap, Book 2) by Angie Sage
Forget-Her-Nots by Amy Brecount White
Girl to the Core by Stacey Goldblatt
Girl Parts by John M. Cusick
Magyk (Septimus Heap, Book 1) by Angie Sage
My Brother Abe: Sally Lincoln's Story by Harry Mazer
Newes from the Dead by Mary Hooper
Persistence of Memory by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Physik (Septimus Heap, Book 3) by Angie Sage
Stargazer (Evernight, Book 2) by Claudia Gray
The Heart Is Not a Size by Beth Kephart
The Humming of Numbers by Joni Sensel
The Princesses of Atlantis by Lisa Williams Kline
The Softwire: Betrayal on Orbis 2 by PJ Haarsma
The Snowball Effect by Holly Nicole Hoxter
They Never Came Back by Caroline B. Cooney