Tag: Books

  • My Reading Alphabet Challenge – sum up

    I had terrific fun with my alphabet challenge. It made me look beyond the books and authors I always choose, with the result that I’ve found some absolute treasures that I’ll be looking out for more from. Having to (mostly) stick to a particular letter of the alphabet provided some structure and there was a…

  • Summer Scavenger Hunt

    Summer is nearly upon us. Have you got your summertime reading lined up? If not (and even if you have), check this out. In June, the Alliance of Young Adult Authors is sponsoring a massive young adult scavenger hunt. This is a chance to meet some new authors, grab a bunch of free books, and…

  • B is for … barely a story

    Okay, that’s rather unkind, but there is a danger this post may turn into a slight rant. My “B” book selection was BR Paulson’s Barely Alive. Now, one thing I’m loving about this challenge is that I’m finding all kinds of new and wonderful things. Barely Alive was pitched as a zombie romance – now,…

  • Free Reading Challenge: How much is too much?

    Finding Free I’ve spoken before about how I’ve found books to read for my free reading challenge. I’ve surfed Amazon (not a brilliant success), found books from e-mail promotion companies, and from recommendations on Facebook and Twitter and signed up to blog tours (much more successful). Just lately, I’ve also signed up to several author newsletters…

  • My free reading challenge: giveaways

    My endeavour to spend no money on books for myself until Christmas continues… This week I found another fabulous source of free books: giveaways. I entered a contest run by several YA authors I’ve heard of but haven’t yet read, and as well as being in the draw to win a kindle (I think that’s…

  • 3 reasons I love my library

    Libraries are a hot topic in the UK at the moment, with the government and councils seeming to view them as pointless moneypits which can easily be dispensed with without any derogation to life or culture. I’m not going to add anything dramatic to the debate, but I wanted to articulate why libraries full of…

  • Words are magic, that’s why it’s called spelling

    Wide-range reading I’ve been reading out of my genre this week – Longbourn caught my eye (and who wouldn’t want a chance to escape back into the Pride and Prejudice universe?) and I’ve absolutely loved it. As well as the story (it’s Pride and Prejudice seen from the servants’ point of view), I’ve loved the…

  • Spread the (book) love

    I love books. You might have noticed. I don’t love ALL books, though, that would be impossible (and ambitious, given how many now exist in the world). I have my go-to genres, and even within them there are books I pick up and put down, books I abandon after reading the first couple of pages, those…

  • Superpowers

    Creating the world of Fane has made me ponder about superpowers, because everyone on Fane (and fanes when they visit other planets) demonstrates some extraordinary abilities that human beings would consider superpowers. Deena, the heroine of The Last Dreamseer, has probably drawn the short straw. Her superpower is the ability to see the future in visions.…

  • Book Lovers Rock

    Okay, so we all know that books are fabulous and the people who read and write them are brilliant, too. This isn’t something new, I’ve just been particularly reminded of it recently. Firstly, I’d run out of things to read. Yeah, I know, my TBR pile is always huge, but nothing on it leapt out…