July Wrap Up & August To Be Read (2014)

Books I read in July:

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

Rating: 4/5

Throne Of Glass by Sarah J. Mass

Rating: 4/5

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Rating: 5/5

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Rating: 3/5

Blue by Lisa Glass

Rating: 1/5

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Rating: 5/5
Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
Rating: 4/5

It was BookTube-A-Thon this month so I read the first three books above to complete some challenges. Although I only read three books for BookTube-A-Thon in the end, it's not bad for my first one (or so I keep telling myself!). I enjoyed all three books I read but I especially loved Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. It was one of those books that I literally could not put down. I can't wait to read her other books!

After BookTube-A-Thon I also read Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, Blue by Lisa Glass and both Anna and Lola books by Stephanie Perkins. I quite liked Shadow and Bone although I think it'll be one of those books for me where the next book in the series will either make or break the series for me so I'll have to get round to reading the next book soon. I also fell in love with the two Stephanie Perkins books I read. Both were brilliant but I think Anna and the French Kiss will easily be one of the best books I've read this year. I sadly did not like Blue by Lisa Glass though, as much as I did try to. I did a review on this book which you can read here if you wish.

Books I intend to read in August:

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
The Host by Stephenie Meyer

For August, the first two books on my TBR list are carried over from July. I started GoT at the beginning of July and I have been reading it incredibly slowly so I'd like to finally get it finished this month, along with The Truth About Forever which I started on holiday but have been neglecting since I got back home. I'd also like to carry on with the Throne of Glass series by reading the second book, Crown of Midnight. And finally my book jar pick for August was The Host. I've been put off from reading this in the past by it's size but I loved the film adaptation so hopefully I'll enjoy this one!

What books are you planning on reading in August?

Book covers from Goodreads

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Owned Authors

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme by The Broke and the Bookish which each week features a differently-themed list related to reading or books. To learn more about this meme click here and you can view their original post on this week's theme here.

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This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic was to list the authors you own the most books of. As you can see from below, I don't own that many books by the same author! These are excluding e-books because I'm too lazy to trawl through both my e-readers, haha!

1. Cassandra Clare = 11 books

All The Mortal Instruments books + an additional copy of the first book: City of Bones + a Cantonese copy of the third book: City of Glass and all The Infernal Devices books

2. J.K. Rowling = 10 books

All Harry Potter books, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, The Casual Vacancy and The Cuckoo's Calling (as Robert Galbraith)

3. Jane Austen = 7 books

Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen: The Seven Novels bind-up, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (if that counts?)

4. C.S. Lewis = 7 books

All Narnia books

5. George R.R. Martin = 7 books

All current A Song of Ice and Fire books + an additional copy of the first book: A Game of Thrones

6. Lewis Carroll = 5 books

5 copies of Alice in Wonderland (I'm obsessed with the original Disney film so my family and friends buy me copies of the book, which I'm definitely not complaining about!)

7. Stephenie Meyer = 5 books

All of the Twilight books and The Host

8. Christopher Paolini = 4 books

All Inheritance books

9. Jennifer L Armentrout = 4 books

Obsidian, Onyx, Opal and Origin (all from the Lux series)

10. Suzanne Collins = 3 books

All of The Hunger Games books

July Wrap Up & August To Be Read (2013)

Sorry this post is so late! I had actually typed up most of this post before the end of July but I ended up going away twice within the space of a couple of days which is why I haven't had chance to get this up until now. Eeek!

Books that I read in July:

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

Rating: 5/5

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Rating: 2/5

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

Rating: 5/5
The Selection by Kiera Cass
Rating: 3/5

My July TBR was composed of Clockwork Prince, Clockwork Princess, Hush, Hush and Under The Dome. While I did start all four books, I just couldn't get on with Under The Dome and ended up reading The Selection instead. I'm sorry! I like the idea of Under The Dome but I just can't get on with how graphic the book is. Such a sissy.

I really enjoyed reading Clockwork Prince and Clockwork Princess though, even if they did tear out my heart and rip it to shreds! I think I might even prefer this trilogy to Cassandra Clare's other series, The Mortal Instruments, as the characters were all so lovely. I even found myself liking Magnus Bane who I wasn't very keen on in TMI but after reading more about him in TID, I warmed to him a lot.

I also started The Hush, Hush series by Becca Fitzpatrick. I'd already downloaded the other three books in the series as I really liked the idea of the books from the synopsis, however I ended up being disappointed with the first book so I don't think I'll read the other three.

I also read The Selection by Kiera Cass which I'm on the fence about so I think the next book will either make or break the trilogy for me.

Books I intend to read in August:

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
The Elite by Kiera Cass
Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (re-read)

I only chose four books again for August as I know I will be spending a lot of time away from home, going on holiday and visiting the boyfriend. I've already read Hex Hall and The Elite and I'm currently about halfway through both Unspoken and City of Bones but I'll save my thoughts for my August wrap-up post.

Book cover images from goodreads.com

Stacking The Shelves: New Kindle downloads

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Goodreads page

Legend by Marie Lu

Goodreads page

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

Goodreads page

School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins

Goodreads page

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Goodreads page

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Goodreads page

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Goodreads page

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

Goodreads page

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Goodreads page

I've downloaded a lot of new Kindle books recently so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to start taking part in the 'Stacking The Shelves' meme by Tynga's Reviews where you share the books that you've recently added to your shelves. These books are all ones I've seen raved about recently by booktubers and book bloggers so I've downloaded them in the hope I'll love them too. I think you can tell that I'm a bit of a fan of young adult/dystopian books!

If you've read any of these books please let me know what you thought of them!

Book cover images from goodreads.com

July 2013 Book Haul

From top to bottom:

City of Bones The Little Book of Quotes - £7.99 from the Waterstones book signing
City of Bones Postcard Collection - £5.99 from the Waterstones book signing
Navigating the Shadow World - £6.55 from Amazon
City of Lost Souls - £7.99 from Waterstones
City of Bones Movie Tie-In Novel - £7.99 from the Waterstones book signing

Clockwork Prince - £7.99 from Waterstones
Clockwork Princess - £10.99 from Waterstones

The Novice - Gift
The Magicians' Guild - Gift
Angelfall - £6.99 from Waterstones
Insurgent - £7.99 from Waterstones
Divergent - £7.99 from Waterstones

Unspoken - £6.99 from the Waterstones book signing

The Cuckoo's Calling - £13.99
The Casual Vacancy - £3.99 from a charity shop

I know the amount of books I've bought this month does look insane but I did attend a book signing, plus Waterstones were doing a buy one get one half-price deal so that makes it okay... right? Besides my boyfriend gifted me The Novice and The Magicians' Guild so I've only actually paid for 13 of these books... quite harmless really... *cough*

Aside from the books I bought at the book signing at the start of the month (blog post on that here), I also bought City of Lost Souls, Clockwork Prince, Clockwork Princess, Angelfall, Divergent and Insurgent as I'd already read them my Kindle and loved them all so I wanted a physical copy of each to display on my bookshelf.

In addition, being a massive Harry Potter fan, when I heard about JK Rowling being revealed as having written The Cuckoo's Calling under a pseudonym (article on this here), I naturally had to rush out and buy it straight away! I also found a really good copy of  her other adult book, The Casual Vacancy so I'm hoping to read them both soon.

As well as buying a ridiculous amount of books I also bought an even sillier amount of TMI/TID-related merch but in an effort to keep this post from being double its size I thought I'd save that for another time!

Here's hoping I can control my book and related merchandise buying compulsions in August...

Top Ten Tuesday: Topics that make me not pick up a book

This week's Top Ten Tuesday theme is words or topics that make you not want to pick up a book. The topics that I avoid the most are ones that make me sad or upset. When I read a book I like to be entertained or happy, not crying my eyes out!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme by The Broke and the Bookish which each week features a differently-themed list related to reading or books. To learn more about this meme click here and you can view their original post on this week's theme here.

Words/topics that I avoid in books:

1. Vampires

I tend to be quite prejudice towards any book that is about vampires. However I've heard lots of good things about some vampire series like Vampire Academy and The Morganville Vampires so maybe I need to be a bit more open minded.

2. Werewolves

I've never been keen on werewolves and I often find myself getting annoyed at werewolf characters in stories.

3. Cancer

Hence why I've been avoiding the very popular The Fault in Our Stars like the plague.

4. Depression/other mental illnesses

I don't like reading books that make me feel sad or unhappy and I find mental disorders particularly painful to read about in fiction.

5. Death

I'm fine to read books where one or two of the characters die over the course of the story but I can't deal with books that centre around death or dying.

6. Poetry

I want to like it but for some reason I just can't!

7. Anything 50 Shades Of Grey-esque

I couldn't get even half-way through the first 50 Shades book so I have no interest in trying to read a similar novel.

8. Gore

I'm not really a fan of thriller or horror books anyway but anything overly-gory just makes me feel sick!

9. Books without love

Yes, okay, I am a big soppy girl but I need some romance!

10. Being preached to

I like to think that I'm a pretty open-minded person but I am not a fan of being preached to, whether its about religion, animal rights or anything else.

As other bloggers have mentioned there are exceptions to every rule but for the most part these are the things I try to avoid when choosing a book. 

What things put you off picking up a book?

Meeting Cassandra Clare, Jamie Campbell Bower and Sarah Rees Brennan!

WARNING: picture heavy post!

My ticket for the signing

Outside the church

Waiting for the Q&A session to begin

The books I bought at the signing

Queuing to get my books signed - you can just about see Sarah and Cassandra. Shame I didn't get a picture of Jamie!

My signed books!

I still cannot believe that at this time last week I was travelling back home from meeting Cassandra Clare, Jamie Campbell Bower and Sarah Rees Brennan! The event was held by Waterstones (whose staff were very lovely) in St James's Church in Piccadilly and consisted of a Q&A session with the authors and Jamie and then a book signing afterwards. Jamie even surprised us by playing two of his songs which were honestly so good. I've had 'Get Your Guns' on repeat ever since last week!

All three were so chatty and friendly but unfortunately by the time I got to the signing table we were being rushed through so I didn't really get the chance to talk to Cassandra Clare but both Sarah and Jamie were sweet to me when I met them. What a shame I suddenly became all shy and couldn't manage more than a smile and a couple of words!

I am so glad I overcame my nerves about going on my own and went to this event! It was great to meet more fans of the books, especially @ohmyeverdeen who very kindly helped me navigate the London Underground afterwards.

If you'd like to watch the event yourself it was filmed by @tmibritain and I've linked all her videos from YouTube here:

1. Q&A part one

2. Q&A part two

3. Q&A part three

4. Jamie singing part one

5. Jamie singing part two