The Book Pile

In my latest attempt to get this blog off the ground I thought I'd try and introduce some regular features,the first of which is 'My Book Pile'. Forgive me if this name is already taken but I like the thought of doing a regular post similar to 'In My Mailbox' but also incorporating books I've read and am excited about that week.I may not include ALL of the books I've acquired that week purely because if I've hit some particularly lucrative charity shops my finds may be too excessive to admit to!

Books I've acquired recently:

(Apologies for the slightly lame photo!)From left to right:

David Levithan-How They Met and other Stories
Ian Mcewan-Sweet Tooth
Dorothy Koomson-The Rose Petal Beach
Tera Lynn Childs-Sweet Venom
Danielle Ganek-The Summer We Read Gatsby
Francesca Lia Block-The Water&the Wild
Lucinda Riley-The Light Behind the Window
Ian Mcewan-Solar
David Van Etten-Likely Story trilogy
Michael Walsh-As Time Goes By
David Levithan-Every Day

So quite a varied selection there!David Levithan is one of my all-time favourite authors so once I had his latest book in my possession it seemed only right to complete my collection by purchasing 'How They Met' too.I also discovered he is one of the authors of 'Likely Story' so I got that at the same time.The Dorothy Koomson book I've been looking forward to for months and has a gorgeous cover which my photo doesn't do justice!'The Summer We Read Gatsby' I've wanted to read ever since I read about it a couple of years ago,I ordered a used copy from the US which has taken 3 weeks to arrive so I'm pleased to finally have it and 'The Water&the Wild' is the only Francesca Lia Block book I don't have I believe,she's another author I absolutely love.

What I'm currently reading:

I'm enjoying the Mcewan although I'm finding it a bit slow at the moment so I'm hoping it will pick up soon, the slowness led me to  start 'The Repossession' which seems really good so far and not the dystopian book I was expecting.

In other news...

Those of you who know me personally may be aware I work in a bookshop where for the past 3+ years I've been looking after all of the Fiction sections.That's all set to change this week as I become a floor manager and I'm also taking the Teen section under my wing.I'm a huge Teen enthusiast anyway but I know once I actually work there I'll probably find so much great stuff to read I won't touch any other genres for a while!I'm looking forward to the change and hoping it will be the push I need to get around to reading some of the Teen stuff I've been postponing for ages!

That's all for now but I also plan to introduce a favourite authors post soon to give an overview of must reads for authors I love and think you should too!

The Return!

For months I've been thinking about resurrecting this blog and after considering it once again today I decided to go for it. Thanks for the twitter encouragement too people,you know who you are!

I'm not planning to stick to a rigorous schedule with posting as I figure this is supposed to be a fun past-time so I'm content to go with the flow. I've also been thinking about what kind of blog I want this to be, which is a bit more difficult. I definitely want the main focus to be books but I'm hoping to avoid writing endless reviews and instead feature some discussion posts and some more personal 'what reading means to me' type stuff. So here's hoping that all works!

I'd also like to overhaul the layout but for now I thought I'd ease myself in and talk about what I've been reading recently. I'm on holiday from work at the moment so I was hoping to read a lot and even made a list/pile of things to read.Of course that hasn't worked out so much,instead I've fallen into a bit of a book slump, fuelled by choosing books I subsequently found difficult to get into and further poor choices. It's picked up a bit over the last few days so I'm hoping for a fruitful few days!
I'm currently reading:

This is one I've had on my kindle for months but was reminded of after purchasing Jessica Warman's latest book 'Beautiful Lies'. I tend to be like that,I'll buy a brand new title from an author after neglecting other books of theirs for months,blame my massive hoarding streak!

When I'm reading an e-book I usually have at least one physical book on the go too, which at the moment is:

This is definitely a book I feel like I should have read by now, particularly as I've read all of John Green's other books and this is one of the most well known, it's certainly the first of his books I became aware of anyway. I think sometimes it makes me sad to think I'll be completely up-to-date on books by an author I love so I purposely 'save' one or two for when I need them, hoarding logic again! I like this so far but I don't feel like it has the magnetic pull I felt when I was reading 'An Abundance of Katherines' or 'The Fault in Our Stars' which I wholeheartedly think is a masterpiece.

While I'm on the subject of 'books I feel like I should have read by now' I ticked another one of those off my list recently:

This isn't actually the edition I read, as I couldn't find a picture of that one I just chose the one I liked the most! I've had 'The Great Gatsby' on my mental to-read shelf for years but had never felt it was the right point to read it.Now after reading it I wish I'd read it sooner as I think waiting for so long made me build it up to mythical proportions.I enjoyed it I really did and the writing is faultless. What left me disappointed I think was the brevity of the book and the romance. I was expecting a heartbreaking romance(which I generally LOVE)and instead I found most of the characters vastly unlikeable(which I think is intentional)and the outcome of the story almost pointlessly tragic.I feel bad voicing such opinions on such a well-regarded book, particularly when I did enjoy it and am generally a fan of Fitzgerald's but hey,this is my place to share my thoughts!

So I think that's all I have for now but I'll see you again soon!