Athena

x I hope you'll find a nice job !

x I couldn't do this. I like to have a bit of choice, since my mood changes quite a bit (also I don't want to be obliged to go out once I've finished a book, since I read quite fast and all that . What would you do if the book shop is closed! Of course you could re-read a book..). Admittedly, I don't need quite as much choice as I have atm, but ideally I'd never want my TBR to be very low or non-existant. x x My book cases are double stacked too. I plan to buy some more once I move into the bakery, though I don't know how much space we'll have for books since we also have DVDs and video games. We'll have to see but I plan to buy some book cases so at least a larger part of my collection can be single stacked. Meanwhile I also plan to buy less books and spend less money on books and be more strict about what I buy. I also plan on donating some books to charity. At the moment it's organised by genres, and at the back I either put books I don't plan on re-reading soon, books I don't plan to read soon (ie. free gifts) or books part of a series or all with the same author. That way, I know that author or that series is behind there. For example, all my Jodi Picoult books are on one shelf at the back row, with a few spaces left that I put other books in. I know that when I want to read a Jodi Picoult book, I need to go there. I'm not likely to forget an author of whom I have quite a few books or of whom I've loved most of their reads etc. It's more difficult in the genres where I have a lot of books all by different authors. I wish both you, Kay and everyone else who wants to, good luck in reducing their TBR!! (my aim is to not increase it as much as last year, I don't want to pressure myself too much heh).

x I hope your mojo comes back soon! It's not nice like that . I hope the weather clears up for you soon, I've heard it's pretty bad in some areas of the United States and Canada.

J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (re-read) Genre: Children's, YA, fantasy Format: Paperback Pages: 636 Synopsis: (no synopsis since it's part of a series My thoughts: Another read-a-thon, another Harry Potter book. I wasn't overly thrilled to start this book, because when I read it (in Dutch) when I was a teenager I didn't get on well with it for some reason. I started it and abandoned it about half way through. I tried again a while later and finished it but didn't like it as much as the previous three books. That was different this time. Once I started reading, I liked it a lot! In this book there's less emphasis on the 'school stuff', lectures do get talked about but slightly less than in the previous books. I always love reading the school stuff so I missed this a bit. But otherwise the book is pretty tense and interesting. The tenseness had less to do with The Dark Lord and more with the tournament that is going on. It's a different kind of tension, and I think it makes for a good change. Perhaps my mood was better when I read it this time, or maybe the original English is just nicer than the translation, I don't know. I really quite liked this book and it makes me want to read the next one very soon! (but there are also other books I want to read so I'll probably wait until the next read-a-thon before starting the next one). Rating: ***** (10/10)

Ilya - The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga Volume 3 Genre: Manga Format: Paperback Pages: 448 Synopsis (GoodReads):The essential collection for every reader intrigued by manga, this features the most exciting new work in 2007-2008 by the brightest young talents in the manga field—comic strip stories and characters influenced or inspired by Japanese anime and manga, and now being produced worldwide. This newest compilation of 25 self-contained manga in every genre imaginable, and a few more besides! Contributors include award-winning artists, as well a host of new talent, for a fully essential collection. My thoughts: Another read-a-thon, another manga book. This is the last one I owned that I hadn't read yet. * most stories in the book are coloured, but not all. Introduction This was allright, just a bit explaining how they picked the artists etc. Andi Watson and Woodrow Phoenix - Kitsune Tales This is a story about a fox spirit. It's to do with Japanese folkore. I'm not so familiar with that so I can't say how this story compares with other stories like this. I really enjoyed reading it though and thought the illustrations were pretty nice. Rating: ***** (9/10) Robert Rees - Unity Rising This is a science-fiction story. I thought it was quite nice and interesting and I enjoyed seeing the illustrations. Rating: ***** (9/10) Mitz - Pilot This story was very nice but unfortunately it doesn't end. I presume it's part of something larger yet to come and I'd certainly be interested to see how it continues. This story has a cool concept, which due to spoilers I won't mention. The illustrations were pretty nice. Rating: ***** (9/10) Paul Harrison-Davies - My Robot These illustrations were quite nice but unfortunately there wasn't much of an ending. The story doesn't really develop much. I enjoyed looking at the illustrations of the robot though. Rating: **** (8/10) Laura Howell - The Bizarre Adventures of Gilbert and Sullivan This story was a bit mental. It's about two friends and two relatives of one of the friends who play pranks on people. I thought it was a bit silly and over the top. I did like the plot development though. Rating: **** (7/10) David Slater - Cat's Paw This story is takes place after a war between robots and humans, people find a robot and restore it. It's very nice but I would've liked to know more about what happens after the ending and about the war between the robots and the humans. Rating: **** (8/10) Michael Kacar - Ramen Jiman This story is about a competition of who makes the best ramen noodles. I thought it was great and I loved the ending. Rating: ***** (9/10) Asia Alfasi - Beginnings This story confused me a bit. It's a story about a girl and her love for manga. I felt the plot didn't really develop. Rating: *** (5/10) Gillian Sein Ying Ha - Darumafish This story has a unique style of illustrations. It's a story about two people who find a fish on the beach. I thought the story was nice. Rating: **** (8/10) Gillian Sein Ying Ha - Tale fo the Una-don Eater This is a story about a creature eating a bowl of snakes. There wasn't much of a story. Rating: ** (4/10) Shari Chankhamma - Ed and Ecchi This is a dystopian story about a man and a cat. I quite liked it. The illustrations were nice. Rating: **** (8/10) Shari Chankhamma - Me and My Food This is a science-fiction story. There wasn't much of an ending. I liked the illustrations but would've liked more story. Rating: **** (7/10) Joanna Zhou - Carlos and Sakura There are several of her stories with these characters. Overall I quite liked them, but some more than others. There're all one page long. They're spread throughout the book but I'll rate them all here. Most of them I found funny. (Subjects in between brackets) Rating of the first one: **** (8/10) (technology) Rating of the second one: *** (6/10) (neighbours) Rating of the third one: **** (7/10) (bad squirrels) Rating of the fourth one: **** (7/10) (cooking) Rating of the fifth one: **** (8/10) (haircut) James Romberger and Marquerite Van Cook - Ground Zero: The Woger I didn't like the style of the illustrations of this story. I found it really hard to see what was going on. It's too chaotic for me. Rating: * (1/10) Eve Yap - July Tenth This story is about a husband and a wife. The illustrations are beautiful, but the story kind of stops before any conclusion is shown. It seems to stop in the middle of the conversation too, it seems to me like there should be more. I enjoyed reading it though. Rating: **** (8/10) Rainbow Buddy - Snowfall This is a boys love story (a story about two boys who love each other). I liked the illustations but unfortunately the story doesn't explain exactly what had happened. There isn't much plot development. Rating: **** (7/10) Niki Smith - Friction Between This is a girls love story (a story about two girls who love each other). I quite liked the first half, but the second half was a bit strange. There was a weird scene change I didn't quite understand. I liked the illustrations. Rating: **** (7/10) Yao Feila - Attack of the Peach Blossoms This is a dystopian story. The font was pretty small so I found it hard to read. I didn't like the style of the illustrations much. I thought the plot was quite interesting though. Rating: *** (6/10) Yu Yanshu - As a King The illustrations were quite nice but the story itself I found a bit confusing. It's about a person and a cat-person. I found it a bit weird. Rating: *** (6/10) Xia Da - A Dream in Garden These illustrations were beautiful. The text is like a poem and it confused me (I don't get on so well with poems). The story is about spring time. Rating: *** (6/10) Zhu Letao - In Manoa This is a story of a girl who talks about a café. The illustrations were great but there wasn't much of a plot. Rating: *** (6/10) James Romberger and Crosby Romberger - New York Stories The illustrations for this story were okish. The story was nice but there wasn't much plot development. There wasn't much of an einding either. Rating: *** (6/10) Phd - Hero Z I quite liked the ending but otherwise the story was a bit vague, I couldn't see exactly what was happening. I got the overall plot though. Rating: **** (8/10) Kit Wallis and Paul Fryer - Monster Mayhem This story is a science-fiction story. It's nice but a bit vague. Rating: **** (7/10) Sarah Burgess - Purikura This is a romance story, I thought it was very nice and sweet. Rating: **** (8/10) Sofia Falkenhem - White This story is a bit vague. The illustrations were okish. Rating: *** (6/10) Eli Basanta - In Dreams This story is about a boy who's dreaming. I wasn't quite sure of the plot. The illustrations were pretty ncie though. Rating: *** (6/10) Caspar Wijngaard - Last Shadows Cast This is an apocalyptic dystopian story. It was a bit vague but it had a very interesting twist at the end. Rating: **** (8/10) Chi-Tan (Chie Kutsuwada) - Moonlight This is a ghost story. I thought the illustrations were pretty nice. Rating: **** (8/10) Overall rating: **** (7/10)

A. C. Baantjer - De Cock 69: De Cock en de Moord in de Hondsdagen Genre: Detective Format: Paperback Pages: 142 Synopsis (Goodreads, me):De Cock has to solve a murder on an animal rights activist in the middle of the summer. My thoughts: Another read-a-thon, another Baantjer book. This one is the last one I own which I hadn't read yet. The hondsdagen in the title refers to a period in summer where it can be very hot. It doesn't have anything to do with dogs ('hond' is a dog in Dutch), but instead with the Hondsster (a star in the sky), so the book explains. I liked the link with animals in this book. Well, I always like it when there's animals in a book. The book is well written. It was published in 2008, the use of language though might make you think it was written earlier. In particular, I personally had never heard of the 'hondsdagen', my mum had though. So it might be a more old-fashioned term, I don't know. It doesn't matter though, it's all explained in the book so this helped me. The book was tense, I wanted to know what would happen and who had murdered the animal rights activist and for what reason. It was very good. I really enjoyed reading this book. Rating: ***** (9/10)

Ann M. Martin - The BabySitter's Club 8: Boy-crazy Stacey (re-read) Genre: Children's, YA, Chick-lit Format: Paperback Pages: 133 Synopsis (GoodReads):Spending two weeks at the New Jersey shore as mother's helpers, Mary Anne objects when Stacey neglects her babysitting duties after falling in love with Scott the lifeguard. My thoughts: Another read-a-thon, another English BSC book. This was the next one in series order that I have in English, so that's why I picked it. This book was pretty good, I loved this series as a child and I still do now. I don't know how it'd be for an adult who hadn't ever read this series before, for me part of the love is nostalgia too I think. Anyway, the book was pretty interesting. While this isn't one of my favourite stories I particularly enjoyed reading the bits about the children and the babysitting. I less liked the bits about the lifeguard (but I think it's always been this way). It took me a bit of time to get into the story, but once I did it was really good to read it again (in English). Rating: ***** (10/10)

Roald Dahl - George's Marvellous Medicine Genre: Children's Format: Paperback Pages: 104 Synopsis (GoodReads):George's grandma has some pretty odd views. In fact, she's not a very nice person at all. She thinks caterpillars and slugs are delicious and likes to crunch on beetles best of all. George can do nothing right in Grandma's eyes, so when it's time for her medicine he decides to give her a dose of his own special brew. My thoughts: Another read-a-thon, another Roald Dahl book. I picked this one because it sounded pretty interesting. This book was pretty good! I don't think I've read it before, so the story was new to me. I loved the story and the illustrations. In particular, I liked to hear about the things George put in the medicine. It reminds me of the things I've made when I was younger (I already loved chemistry then! My biggest accomplishment was to accidentally made laughing gas as I put a bunch of random things in a beaker while I was having a bath). So I loved the chemistry aspect of the story. The characters were interesting. What I liked less was the attitude against chicken that are involved in part of the story, they were sometimes called 'dumb chicken' which seems not so nice to me. Other than that though it was a very entertaining story and I really enjoyed reading it. Rating: ***** (9/10)

Simon Kernick - Wrong Time, Wrong Place (QuickReads) Genre: Thriller Format: Paperback Pages: 92 Synopsis (GoodReads):Have you ever been in the wrong place at the wrong time? You are hiking in the Scottish highlands with three friends when you come across a girl. She is half-naked, has been badly beaten, and she can't speak English. She is clearly running away from someone. Do you stop to help her? My thoughts: Another read-a-thon, another QuickReads book (only one left now). This one was on top of the pile, so I picked it. This book was pretty scary. I don't like it when books are too scary and I'm not a big fan of thrillers anymore (particularly because of the scary aspect) but I did want to keep reading and find out what would happen. There were some surprising plot twists that I didn't see coming. It's only a short book, if it had been bigger I would've liked to see more of the characters. That said, the story works as it is, and really made me want to read more. There was a lot of action. Overall I quite enjoyed reading it, though upon a re-read you'd already know these plot twists and it might then be less interesting (but that's the case for more books I suppose). The book surprised me, it was pretty tense. Rating: **** (8/10)

Well my goal is to buy less books and spend less money on books, compared with 2013, and be more critical of what books I buy. I don't want things to get as insane as they did last year.

x I loved this book! I hope you like it too . Congrats on all your new books! I hope you enjoy them .

Your David Gemmell books look really pretty!! I liked your review of Dawnthief. I'll still read it myself at some point, I have quite some of James Barclay's books, but it's a shame you didn't like it much .

I'm glad you enjoyed the first book you read in 2014, Sari! Congrats on your two new books! I hope your mojo will behave himself this year and not go off vacationing with his lover. He's yours!

Shame you didn't enjoy this book very much . Nice review . I hope your next read will be more enjoyable.

Kylie, I hope you have a wonderful reading year in 2014 !

I'm so glad you discovered the caravan book problem in time! It's not nice though that you have to be apart from your books for a while, but hopefully in the end it will have been worth it . When do you expect to be able to move into the house?

Congrats on your new books ! They look pretty good! x x . x x I'll have to look this one up !

x Thanks, Kay ! x x Thanks ! I think you can easily read book 3 on its own, though I do understand wanting to start with the first book in the series. I thought the first book was less enjoyable than the third book, but mainly because there were more sexual references in it and I don't like it when there's too much of that. I don't remember noticing anything strange about the women's perspective really, but of course opinions differ. I liked the first book enough to buy the second and later on third books, I think I rated the first book 8 out of 10. The first book is mainly about the two main characters dating experiences, I found it wasn't as in depth as book three. But I liked it, though. Sorry if this reply comes to you after the sale . EDIT: I went into the charity shop a few days ago and bought: Amy Gray - Spygirl: True Adventures from My Life as a Private Eye

I'm glad you enjoyed this book. I'm not sure if it's one for me, to be honest, but it does sound interesting. Nice review .

I wish you a great reading year in 2014 !

x This is kind of true I think.

Happy Reading in 2014, June !

I hope your reading in 2014 will be very good !

Happy Reading in 2014, Ooshie !

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the first book you read in 2014, that's a great start! Nice review .