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The Gilmore girls booktag!

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Hi everyone!

Okay, so if you read my previous post – Why I suck at blogging – you would know that I intended to post once a week. Well, I failed, and it’s only week two! BUT! I have a valid excuse: last week I was terribly terribly ill and I couldn’t even get out of bed long enough to read a chapter. So that means that I was pretty damn sick. In order to make it up to you, I have the Gilmore girls booktag ready! One positive point about being sick last week was that I got to binge watch all four episode of the new Gilmore girls season. I have some mixed feelings (GRRRR that ending!!!! GIVE ME MORE EPISODES!) but I still decided to do the Gilmore girls booktag!

The main idea is this: match books to each of the main Gilmore girls characters. Ready? Lets go!

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Lorelai: A character with a witty or sarcastic sense of humor. Can I just say that I really love Lorelai as a mom? She is just perfect! But my favorite witty character is definitely Annabeth Chase from the Percy Jackson series. And I know for sure that I would have loved her even more if I read the books at the correct age instead of when I was in my twenties. Oh well, I just bought the Heroes of Olympus series so I guess you could say I loved both Annabeth and Percy enough (Percy is witty enough to be a contender for this question too BTW) to continue on with the other books.

Rory: Favorite classic. Oeh, you got me there, I don’t like reading classics all that much. But I guess Alice in wonderland might be my favorite. It is also a bit quirky just like Rory so that seems to be the perfect fit for this character!

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Luke: A book you secretly love, but are afraid to admit. Well, I’m not really afraid to tell people I love a certain book. So that makes this a very hard question to answer. But I guess I’ll go with Harry Potter and the cursed child. I know there are plotholes, I know there is some weird character development going on with our three beloved main characters and I know that some things just don’t add up. BUT I really loved diving back into the world after all these years. Plus, Albus and Scorpius are two wonderful main characters and they just made the entire story for me. It was so nostalgic to read that I just devoured it from cover to cover and I gave it 5 out of 5 stars. So there. Now you know!

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Lane: A musical character. Oh no, the only character I can come up with is Mia Hall from ‘If I stay’, who plays the cello. WHY WHY WHY can’t I come up with some cool, kick-ass character (yes, pun intended for those of you who get it 😉 ) from an awesome book?!! No, I have to come up with a character from a book I hated so much that I actually gave it away! I never give away books. They are my babies and I love them. But this one? Ugh! No thanks! So yeah, Mia, moving on quickly…

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Dean: Your first book love (character or book you first loved). Okay, this one is so easy and yet I still feel somewhat ashamed to admit it. But my first booklove was obviously Edward Cullen from Twilight. It is far from the first book I’ve ever read, but Edward is the first fictional character that I fell madly in love with. I so wish I could have answered with a Harry Potter character, but to be honest, I wasn’t really into the whole ‘I love fictional characters’ thing until the Twilight craziness hit me, HARD.

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Sookie: A book you’ve devoured. Three dark crowns by Kendare Blake. This is a very recent release and I absolutely LOVED this book. I fell in love with the characters right away. I liked the plot and especially the ending, which I didn’t see coming at all! I can’t wait for the next instalment in this series! (grabby hands!)

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Jess: A book you love, that gets the most hate. I could go with Twilight, again. But that would be repeating myself and I really don’t like that. So I’ll go with A court of mist and fury by Sarah J. Maas. Okay I know a lot of people do really like this book. But in my bookclub, almost everyone truly hates it! Or they hate the first book (which I did too!) and absolutely refuse to read the second one. Oh Rhys, come and save me from this madness! (Plus, he is definitely equally swoon-worthy as Jess is)

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Miss Patty: A book that was ruined by the hype. Paper towns by John Green. This book is sooooo overhyped and I ended up hating it. I might have hated it less if it wasn’t for my sky-high expectations of this book. John Green obviously brings a lot of hype, but secondly, the film also made me super excited to read this book. And it failed. Miserably. Moving on now, because this question makes me angry and disappointed with the book all over again.

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Emily Gilmore: An expensive book. I actually picked a series for this one, namely the Harry Potter series! I got the BEAUTIFUL hardcover edition that I got from my parents for my birthday a couple of years ago. And it was crazy expensive but so so pretty on my shelves! Just like Emily I guess, expensive but nice to look at? No? :p

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Paris: An uptight character. She kinda freaks me out actually. Paris is CREEPY when she doesn’t like you. And a little creepy when she does like you too. So the perfect fit for this one is Zoe Sage, the sister of Syndey Sage from Bloodlines. The spin-off series of Vampire Academy. In the beginning of the series, Syndey was pretty uptight herself but she ended up being pretty damn cool. Her sister however, never really gets rid of her uptightness. Even though she tries to redeem herself, which she sort of does, she still remains one of the most uptight characters ever!

So that was it you guys, the Gilmore girls booktag! I hope you enjoyed it, I hope you have a great week and I will get back to you very soon (I hope)!

Goodbye!!!

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Why I suck at blogging

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Hi guys!

Okay, so… in case you didn’t notice it, it’s been months since my last post. I really like blogging, but I just can’t seem to find a way to keep doing it. I guess that I always want to overdo myself. Every time I try to continue blogging I try to post multiple times a week. So maybe I’ll just try uploading once a week. That should not be that hard, I guess, maybe. We’ll see. So this is just a small post letting you guys know that I will try to blog more.

In the meantime I want to give you a short overview of my top 5 recent reads (since I stopped blogging in June):

  1. A court of mist and fury: Confession time, I was not expecting to like this book. I wasn’t even planning on buying and reading it in the first place because I HATED the first book! However, after the huge hype surrounding this book I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. And thank god that I did! I freaking loved this book! And I totally ship Rhysand and Feyre! So I probably hated the first book because Tamlin was there every step of the way.
  2. Three dark crowns: This is a story about three sisters who all want to be queen. However, only one can survive and rule so they are supposed to kill each other when they turn sixteen. I really bonded with Katherine in this story and I’m looking forward to see how it turns out. Also, I totally did not see the ending coming what so ever! And if I’m honest, yes there is some sort of insta-love or obsession going on here, but I didn’t really mind it.
  3. Outlander: One word: Jamie. He is the main reason I love this book so much. I also love the setting of old Scotland and his relation with Claire. So just read it already!
  4. The darkest minds: It has been a while since I read a really great dystopian story, however this one actually stuck with me. It has everything it needs to be epic: a huge disease that kills millions of children, surviving children who develop special powers, and of course a government that wants to get rid of them. Ruby is an awesome main character that has a lot of character development throughout the trilogy. Alexandra Bracken has a beautiful and enticing writing style that sucks you in from the start!
  5. Our chemical hearts: If you guys didn’t know this about me already: I don’t really like most contemporary stories. But this one, guys, this one is so heart wrenching! I was sobbing by the end of this book! It is about a guy that was never in love before. But when a strange new girl comes to his school he falls for her, hard. However, not all stories have happy endings, especially when it comes to a lovestory.

So that was my short re-introduction to blogging! I hope you liked this post and I will try my best to keep posting new content regularly! Have a great day and I will be back (hopefully) with a new post soon! Goodbye!!!

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Tome Topple ReadAthon TBR

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Hi everyone!

This will just be a quick post in between the BEA and BookCon stories and bookhauls to let you know that I am participating in the Tome Topple ReadAthon! This is a ReadAthon where you are supposed to read big books (over 500 pages!). The Tome Topple ReadAthon is created by Sam from Thoughts on Tomes and you can find the link to her channel HERE. The ReadAthon started on Sunday June fifth and will continue until midnight June 19th.

The goal is to conquer big books, so it is not about winning any challenges. But of course there are some goals for people who want them. These are the challenges:

  • Read more than one big book
  • Take a graphic novel break
  • Read a tome (big book) that is part of a series
  • Read over 500 pages in one week
  • Read an adult novel

Of course I will combine some of these challenges together because these books are seriously HUGE! Sadly I will not complete the graphic novel break challenge because I simply don’t read or own any at the moment. I was thinking about buying the amulet collection, but I’m not sure yet. If you’ve read these and want to share your thoughts with me ==> GO FOR IT! Now onto the books I’m going to read. First of all, I started Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. My edition of this book has 850 SUPER THIN pages with a very small font, and I’m currently about halfway through. This means that I will tick off the challenge of reading a tome that is part of a series, I will probably read more than 500 pages in a week since I am already at page 420ish, and this book is adult so yay! 3 challenges done, one more to go! I am also planning on reading A court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas. Even though I hated the first book, I had a lot of problems with the main character and the romance, I will still pick up this one. Only because everybody and their mother is raving about how amazing and awesome this book is. And I have a feeling that the main love interest in this book will change, so maybe I will end up liking this one.

So there you have it, my TBR for the Tome Topple ReadAthon! Let me know if you’re participating and what books you are reading! I will let you know how I did at the end of the ReadAthon so stay tuned for that wrap-up! Thank you so much for reading and I will see you guys very soon!

Goodbye!!!

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BEA day 3 – Stories and Book Haul

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Hi everyone!

So, with some delay, I will be talking about the final day of BEA. This day started off as one of the worst days ever even before the floor opened. Here is… My heartless story…

I was present in the conference hall at 4:45 AM, yes you read that correctly. It was freaking early! So I made the decision to go stand in line for the conference hall, waiting for my friend so that she could hold my place and I could go stand in line for the ticketed authors. At 5 AM we were the fourth in line at the ticket stand so I thought: I’m safe right, no way they will run out of Marissa Meyer tickets before I get one. WRONG! The three people in front of me go first and get their tickets and then the lady yells: WE ARE OUT OF MARISSA MEYER TICKETS! And I’m like: FUNNY! Now give me my Marissa Meyer tickets… But NO! They weren’t kidding! They only had 90 and most of the avid reader passes apparently picked her tickets. I asked for my other 3 tickets (Alexandra Bracken, Danielle Paige and Maggie Stiefvater) but I was soooo outraged! And very disappointed, on the verge of crying because that was the one book I really really wanted. So I go stand in line for the conference hall, ranting to everyone and  their mother about how  heartbroken I felt. It just didn’t feel fair at all! But then an angel came in the form of a girl who had an avid reader pass, chose the ticket for Marissa and didn’t really want it as badly as I did, asking if I wanted it. And at that point I actually did start crying. She was so nice! Faith in humanity was restored at that point, and I didn’t let go of the ticket until I got to the Marissa Meyer signing later that day.

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As you can see from the picture above, 3 of the signings where at the exact same time! (Who organizes these things?!) So when the floor opened, I ran for the Danielle Paige signing session because I wanted to be the first in line (stupidly running past the tickets for Caraval but I’ll get to that later) so that I could go stand in the other lines directly after. And by some miracle I ended up buddying up with Hannah, who missed out on the Marissa Meyer tickets as well and was still looking for a ticket desperately. She had a friend holding her spot in line for Alexandra Bracken so we both ended up going straight from Danielle to Alex (who is soooo pretty btw!). So two signings down, one to go!

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Next up: rushing to the Maggie Stiefvater line. She happened to be late due to traffic and we were all the way in the back of that line hoping she would show up in time to get all the books signed. Maggie is such a great person because she ended up moving her signing line so that she could keep signing until all of her fans had a signed copy of the Raven King! She is so sweet and she didn’t have to do that because tickets say that a book is not guaranteed! When she asked me if I read the other books I stupidly said no first, but of course I did! I love Rowan and Adam BTW!

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So we had been line-hopping for hours, next line being the Marissa Meyer line. Hannah left because she didn’t get a ticket, but then somebody was like: Hey, didn’t your friend need an extra ticket? Here you can have mine! So I texted and called until Hannah showed up, just in time. So moral of the story: People are so nice, if you’re not able to get a ticket: ASK AROUND! You might find that one special angel that helps you out! Marissa also signed my tote bag with all the Lunar Chronicles ships which I got in my Owlcrate box, so yay!

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That day I also got to meet Jennifer L. Armentrout, the creative mother of Daemon (Lux series) “SWOON”, and Natasha from Tashapolis. Both were so great! And I swear: booktubers have a special gene that makes them look perfect in EVERY SINGLE PICTURE!

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I though that I’d missed out on the Caraval signing because of my own stupidity,  but I wanted to go hover around at the back of the line to see if they had any books left after all the ticketed people were gone. Next thing I know, a lovely lady walked up to me, complimented me on my dress and said: do you need a ticket for Caraval? You can have mine! I swear I was the luckiest person alive that day!

So I got a total amount of 10 books that day! Some of the other books have stories as well but I will mention them with the book 🙂

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  • Heartless by Marissa Meyer: The crown jewel of my collection! A signed edition of one of my favorite authors. She wrote the Lunar Chronicles which is a sci-fi retelling of different fairytales. This book is a stand alone about how the queen of hearts in Alice in Wonderland became evil.
  • Stealing snow by Danielle Paige: I love retellings so I naturally love her Dorothy must die series. This new book is a retelling about the snow queen, the story on which Frozen is based.
  • The raven king by Maggie Stiefvater: This book is the conclusion to the Raven Cycle Quartet, and let me just tell you: it is MAGNIFICENT!
  • Passenger by Alexandra Bracken: All I know about this book is that it is the first book in a duology and that it involves time travelling.
  • Spindle by E.K. Johnston: This is supposed to be a retelling of the sleeping beauty, and that was really all I needed to know. If you weren’t aware yet: I’m a sucker for retellings.
  • Gemina by Amy Kaufman and Jay Kristoff: The sequel to Illuminae, which I loved! I was in line for 2,5 hours just to get this book! I wanted to get the second Disney’s descendants book when I heard that the line was already starting, so naturally I  dropped everything and ran off to that line! This book is told in such a unique way with emails, transcripts etc… I just love it!
  • The problem with forever by Jennifer L. Armentrout: A contemporary story about a girl who has a dark past as an orphan. She doesn’t talk much (or at all), and this is the story of how she experiences her senior year after being homeschooled for forever. When she meets someone from her past, everything changes.
  • Caraval by Stephanie Garber: I don’t know much about this book but it was hyped up to be one of the best books at BEA16, so I grabbed it. It’s about a girl looking for her kidnapped sister while  the Caraval show she always dreamed of seeing is in town.
  • A torch against the night by Sabaa Tahir: Sequel to An ember in the ashes, that I haven’t read yet. So I wasn’t planning on getting this book at all. But while we were in line for Gemina everybody kept saying that they still had tickets for A torch against the night. So I grabbed one, waited until the line was almost gone and got my copy signed!
  • Hatred day by T. S. Pettibone: Okay so I have a short story here as well: Me and Fede were done for the day and just wanted to go pick up our BookCon badge for the day after when we walked into the twin sisters Pettibone. Fede noticed that their badge said ‘author’ so he asked what book they were promoting. It ended up being their debut novel! So she showed us an amazing drawing of some of their characters and I was completely sold! And apparently they had some spare copies at hand and gave us one! I already read this book and totally loved it!

So that was day 3 of BEA, you can find an overview of the other days here: Day 1, Day 2. I had an amazing time! I will try to write up my experiences at BookCon ASAP! But work might get in the way of that 😉 Anyway, thank you so much for reading the blog post and I will be back soon!

Goodbye!!!

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BEA day 2 – Story and Book haul

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Hi everyone!

Today I’m going to talk to you about day 2 of BEA, and of course I’ll also show you all the books I got! If you want to know what went down on day 1 you can click HERE.

So, like I mentioned before I REALLY wanted to meet Kat from Katytastic on my birthday. But sadly my birthday fell on day 1 of BEA and I didn’t get to see her at all… But on day two I was very determined to meet her! Also, I was very determined to get all the books I wanted! A combination of this and the HUGE jetlag made me waaaaaay to early for BEA! An empty convention centre at five am is kinda creepy by the way. So I met some friends from day 1, made battle plans and rushed onto the conference floor at 9 am. First stop: the Laini Taylor chapter sampler goodie bag! Since I also wanted tickets at Macmillan and I wanted to start a line for the Ransom Riggs signing we were supposed to rush by the sampler baggies and keep going to the other booths as fast as we could. Sadly the lady at the sampler baggies was like ‘well, it’s not 9 am yet so you can’t have one’… That was just a liiiitle frustrating but we ‘patiently’ waited until she felt like it was 9 am. I got the ticket for the signing of Metaltown so the first ten minutes went by great! I got to meet Kristen Simmons and gave her two of my chocolates, just because she had a horrible experience with Belgian chocolate filled with goats cheese and I wanted her to forget all about that!

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Next we made the line for Ransom Riggs, which was awesome! Sadly we didn’t know that he was just signing a chapter sampler for The tales of the peculiar. I’m not that into chapter samplers but I really wanted to meet Ransom. The cute thing was that Tahereh was hovering behind him during the signing, so I got to have a picture with her as well, even though I was seeing her at her own signing later that day. Online it looked like they were signing together, which would have been so cool, but sadly they split the power-author couple up 😦

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After that I wandered around a little bit, picked up some books and talked to some of my new friends (everyone I met you can find in my overall wrap up of BEA and BookCon HERE). Next thing I know, I randomly walk into Laini Taylor! She is really cool and kept talking to me about how she lived in Belgium and tries to incorporate chocolate in every book, except for her new one Strange the dreamer. If you ever run into her, just talk! She loves talking to her fans!

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Now comes my huge dilemma of the day: Furthermore versus Heartless… This really nice lady I met in the Ransom Riggs line was going for tickets at Macmillan at 1 pm for an author I don’t know, and she was willing to ask a ticket to the Marissa Meyer signing for me if I could get her an extra ticket for Tahereh Mafi, which was also at 1. So here I was, standing in line for Tahereh, thinking that I was going to get both Furthermore and Heartless, but due to a HUGE MOB at the Heartless line this didn’t work out so well… She got stuck in a crowd of running BEA-ers all going for the Marissa Meyer tickets and four people in front of her they cut off the line 😦 This Heartless story goes on at day 3 of BEA, so stay tuned for that! And she did get me tickets for another signing with Keira Drake and some other authors so all was good. But while I was in line for Furthermore together with Whitney from WhittyNovels, all the big booktubers EXCEPT for Kat just walked by and sat down further in line. I was really nervous but Whitney just ‘forced’ me to face my fears and go up to them. So this is how I got to meet Christine, Jesse, Zoë and Sasha! They are all really nice, and if they ever by some miracle read this post: I’m sorry I was so damn nervous and couldn’t stop shaking. You are all just human too of course. Very photogenic humans, but still human.

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So this day was already pretty amazing, and I was still waiting patiently in the Furthermore line, when Kat just walked by. And Whitney was like: I’m going to call her over so you can talk to her. But I was sooooooo not ready! I was shaking all over and even though I rehearsed what I wanted to say a million times I just blanked out at that moment. But she did come over, and that just made my day/my BEA/my life/all the above! YAY! My goal was achieved! This totally made up for missing out on Heartless!

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Next up: the Adam Silvera signing. For some weird reason I do not have a picture of us 😦 and it took a long time to find the booth he was signing at because it was all the way across the conference floor, away from all the big booths like Harper Collins, Penguin, Macmillan etc… I did get to meet the Owlcrate crew while I was waiting in line though:

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After my long and exhausting day, Jenna took some pictures of us. She is an amazing photographer and she took pictures of all the big booktubers as well. You should check out her facebook page and all her BEA pictures HERE.

So all that is left to tell you about day 2 is, of course, the books I got!

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  • Strange the dreamer sampler by Laini Taylor
  • The tales of the peculiar by Ransom Riggs sampler
  • Something in Between by Melissa De La Cruz: I don’t know what this book is about, but I know that Melissa is a great author and she was signing together with Keira Drake so I got her book signed!
  • Our chemical hearts by Krystal Sutherland: contemporary book about a hopeless romantic boy who has never been in love before. Until he meets a girl who is broken and starts to fall in love.
  • Sunborn rising by Aaron Safronoff: I think this is a middle grade book, but I was mainly drawn in by the amazing illustrations in this book. Plus the booth had a virtual reality version of the world! I also got it signed by the author.
  • The lovely reckless by Kami Garcia: I got this book because I really liked the Beautiful creaturs series which is written by her and Margaret Stohl.
  • The Terranauts by T. C. Boyle: Goodreads said that this book  is a dive into human behavior in an epic story of science, society, sex and survival set in the early 1990’s. And this was enough to get me hooked!
  • Two copies of Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi: I got a copy signed for a friend too! Yes I went all the way to the back of the line, just in case people were prepared to be mad at me for that… This book is Tahereh’s first middle grade novel about a girl without color, living in a world where color is magic.
  • The changelings by Christina Soontornvat: where Izzy must save her sister from a fairy land as dangerous as it is magical. It has fairies, so I wanted it.
  • The motion of puppets by Keith Donohue: a book that centers around a modern take on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. It has something to do with a puppet and I liked the cover.
  • Elite by Mercedes Lackey: the second book in the Hunter series, a serie about monsters and remnants of every mythology across the world thrown together because the barriers between our world and the Otherworld were ripped open.
  • The raping of Ava Desantis by Mylo Carbia: I got a signed copy of this book about a raping of a college student by three wealthy fraternity brothers. She has to make a decision: accept money and keep quiet, or tell the police.
  • Love and first sight by Josh Sundquist: I picked up this book because it is written by a youtuber that I follow. Josh Sundquist is a motivational speaker that has hilarious videos, I’ve been following him for a while so I wanted to pick up his book!
  • Metaltown by Kristin Simmons: Signed copy of this book about factory life where food is scarce and hope is even more scarce. It reminds me of a dystopian book so I really hope that I like it just as much!
  • History is all you left my by Adam Silvera: I picked this book up because I really liked Adam’s previous book More Happy than not, if you want a review of that book you can find it HERE.
  • Replica by Lauren Oliver: I had been waiting in line for the ARC drop of this book twice but I didn’t get it, so when I walked by the signing of this book I really wanted to stand in line. Thanks to Elisabeth and some other amazing people from Team Epic Reads and the Harper Collins booth I ended up getting the last signed copy! This book is told from 2 perspectives. You can start with one and then read the other, or you can alternate between both!
  • The hundred lies of Lizzie Lovett by Chelsea Sedoti: To be honest I only picked this book up because of the pretty cover.
  • Vassa in the night by Sarah Porter: Signed copy. I added this book to my BEA list because the people at Owlcrate were interested in it so that must mean that it’s good! It’s about a dark yet hopeful tale about a young girls search for home, love, and belonging.
  • The continent by Keira Drake: Signed ARC about the story of a privileged cartographer stranded on an isolated continent populated by two warring nations.

So that was BEA day 2 and it was GREAT! Stay tuned for day 3 and BookCon stories/book hauls coming very soon!

Goodbye!!!

4

BEA day 1 – Story & Book haul

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Hi guys!

So today is storytime day, I’m going to tell you all about my fangirling moments, book grabbings and amazing friends on day 1 of Book Expo America in Chicago! If you want my overall opinions, click HERE.

I was so nervous getting on the bus to Mc Cormack Place! I needed to get my badge and go wait in line until the conference floor opened. I’ve never been to any of these events before, mainly because something as immense and amazing like BEA just doesn’t happen where I live. So I have to admit: when I saw Emma from Emmmabooks I had juuuuuuust a tiny heart attack. By now I know that she’s an amazing and really sweet person but at that first moment I was shaking soooo bad she must’ve thought that I had issues (but then again maybe I do…).

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After that I got in line to enter the conference floor and I met some amazing new friends. We all discussed battle plans for the day, talked about books and movie adaptations etc… (Conclusions: (a) some people love Will Herondale, I personally really don’t. (b) John Green is not everyone’s favorite author. (c) Opinions on the last Twilight movie battle scene were mostly positive) I also met Riley and Laini in line, they are both really sweet while I was still trying not to be too awkward.

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Okay, confession time here: I was frantically looking around because I really wanted to meet Kat from Katytastic! It would be great to meet her on my birthday but spoiler alert: I didn’t meet her until day 2 of BEA 😦

Next thing I know: the floor opens and all chaos erupts. ALL THOSE BOOKS! And to be honest: I grabbed way too much just because I was so overwhelmed! (I will show you all them books later in this post so stay tuned) Next it was time for my first ever signing session-line for Rebel genius by Michael Dante DiMartino:

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Other people I met on day 1: Sam from thoughtsontomes, Rossie, Monica from shemightbemonica

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After that, it was time for the bookternet meetup at the bean! I had so much fun meeting all those booktubers, including Whitney! Even though you amplified my Kat anxiety, thank you so much for pushing me to meet her even though I was not ready!!!! (Tune in for the storytime of day 2 for more info)

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Sooooooooo, all that there is left to talk about is of course: the books I got on day 1 of BEA!

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  • The Secret Keepers by Trenton Lee Stewart: A middle grade novel about a boy who finds a pocket watch that makes him invisible.
  • How to hang a witch by Adriana Mather: I heard that this was a crossover between gossip girl and the Salem Witch trials and that was really all I needed to want this book.
  • A deadly affection by Cuyler Overholt: Historical fiction book about a psychiatrist who fears that one of her patients committed murder because of something she did.
  • Lock and key, the initiation by Ridley Pearson: a middle grade retelling of Sherlock Holmes and his rival Moriarty.
  • The sun is also a star by Nicola Yoon: I got this book because I LOVED her previous book ‘everything everything’. All I know is that it is a contemporary story about a girl who meets the love of her life on the day she is going to be deported back to her own country.
  • What light by Jay Asher: Again, this is a book I picked up because I really liked Asher’s previous book ’13 reasons why’. So to be honest, I don’t know anything more about this book.
  • Blood for blood by Ryan Graudin: This is the sequel to ‘Wolf by wolf’, which I haven’t read yet. But I know that it’s about a society where Hitler won World War II so a girl sets out to murder him. This really intrigued me so I picked up the sequel before I even bought the first book, I’m so bad at this, I know.
  • Where did you sleep last night by Lynn Crosbie: A love story about a girl who starts a relationship with the ghost of Kurt Cobain. If that doesn’t sound interesting (or creepy AF) to you, I don’t know what will!
  • This is where it ends by Marieke Nijkamp: So, I casually talked to someone at the sourcebooks booth and I randomly mention that this author has a Dutch name. This book was on display only and we got to talking about the author being Dutch. She asked me if I read the book, I say no but I’m interested in reading it because it tells the story about a school shooting, and the nice lady just hands it to me! I love book people ❤
  • Rebel Genius by Michael Dante DiMartino: if it’s written by a co-creator of Avatar, I’m in, so honestly that’s all I know about this book. Sorry – not sorry. Also, this copy is obviously signed!!! 🙂
  • A shadow bright and burning by Jessica Cluess: Totally picked this book up because of the cover! But by now I know that the book is about a girl who can burst into flames, training to be one of Her Majesty’s royal sorcerers. I’m sold!
  • Three dark crowns by Kendare Blake: I actually got to meet her at BookCon (so stay tuned for this story later on!) and she totally sold her book to me! It’s about sixteen year old triplet queens who all have different powers that they use to fight each other to the death in order to be queen. Cool fact: this story is based on bees and how they function.
  • The forgetting by Sharon Cameron: Story about a city where each person’s memories are forgotten every 12 years. This is why everyone writes everything down, your book is your truth and your identity. Soooooo your book is your life? That’s kind of the story of my life 😉 except lots of books, not just one.
  • Wrecked by Maria Padian: A story about a sexual assault on a college campus.
  • The sun in your eyes by Deborah Shapiro: This book is also signed, and honestly I only got it because my friends recommended it so basically I know nothing (feeling some John Snow vibes over here)…
  • Aerie by Maria Dahvana Headley: So as you guys may know, I loved Magonia which is the first book in this duology. If you want to know more about my thoughts, here is my review! So I just had to get my hands on the sequel! Also, that book cover!
  • The lie tree by Frances Hardinge: This book has a signed bookplate in it, which was a nice surprise! This story is about a tree that bears fruits if you whisper lies to it. The fruit, in turn, delivers a hidden truth.

So this was day one of BEA. If you consider the fact that the conference floor was only open for half a day, beware for the stories of the next, full, days! I had a lot of fun on day one and I fell asleep freakishly early. Which was great because I was ready for day two at 4:30 am!!!

I hope you all had a lot of fun reading my report and bookhaul of day one, stay tuned for more BEA and BookCon stories coming to you very soon!

Goodbye!!!!!

 

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BEA and BookCon 2016

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Hi Guys!!!!

Okay, I know that it’s been months since my last update and I’m so so sorry! I kinda gave up on the whole blogging thing for a while… BUT: last week I went to BEA (Book Expo America) and BookCon in Chicago and it motivated me to start blogging again! YAY!

I have so much to share with you guys so I will end up dividing it into several blogposts, one for each day on the conference floor. But today I just want to talk about the overall experience, tips and tricks for BEA and BookCon, and the lovely friends I made! So let’s get started, shall we?

Overall Experience

First of all, what is BEA? Book Expo America is a three day conference for people in the book industry. This event is NOT open to the public (BookCon is). It is a place to meet authors, bloggers, booktubers, publishers etc… It is mainly a professional event, so be sure to behave appropriately. That being said, I LOVED going to BEA and BookCon! For everyone who is still unsure about whether or not it’s worth it: …

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You meet so many amazing people, authors, publishers, etc… You have the opportunity to get Advanced Reader Copies of the most anticipated books of the year, even if you have to fight for it (wait for my Heartless post for more info on that). Most of your day is spent in lines, socialising with other people in line. But this is actually a GREAT part of BEA! I was so scared of going by myself but I ended up meeting people before the show floor even opened up on Wednesday! This takes me right to the next topic…

Lovely friends I’ve made at BEA and BookCon

I’m so scared of forgetting people I met so if I forgot you: I’m SO SO SORRY! It’s not you, it’s me 😉

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  • RossieReads: Rossie you were the first person I spoke to at BEA, thanks for not making me feel all alone 🙂
  • Cool Beans Books: Cambria: thank you so much for all the awesome in-line conversations. You are great!!!
  • Cookieaddictions  : Tzivi you are such an awesome person! I’m so sad that I didn’t get to see your cosplay costume IRL
  • Millions Of Milly Books: Emily, even if you didn’t like to wake up crazy early like I did, you are your own special type of crazy and I love you for it!
  • Twisted Wonderland Broken Oz: Max, you were soooo lucky to live nearby! It was great meeting you in line that first day! I was so jealous of your Heartless copy!
  • JennaClarek: Jenna, thank you for the beautiful pictures! You are such a nice and extremely talented person and I’m so glad to have met you!
  • Emmmabooks: Emma, you are the sweetest person ever! I’m sorry for being such a spaz when we first met. I was just so extremely nervous!
  • Othersideofordinary: Leti, we had so much fun together! (See the GIF 😉 ). Looking forward to read your blog!!!
  • Paigerosee: Paige, I was so glad not to be the only European over there who was crazy enough to fly all the way to Chicago! Lots of love from Belgium!
  • Fede: Thanks for all the booktuber and author meeting adventures! BEA and BookCon wouldn’t have been the same for me without you!!!!
  • Allyson: You are such a sweetheart! It was a pleasure to meet you and I hope you got to your plane on time!
  • Brandonthebookaddict: Hi Brandon, didn’t forget your name this time! And I did remember that you are awesome so that counts for something, right?
  • Sandyreadsalot: Sandy, you are really great! I am binge watching your videos right now 😉
  • Whittynovels: Whitney, thanks for pressuring me into meeting Kat, even though I was soooooo not ready!!!!
  • And last but not least: I met all the other huge booktubers such as the booksplosion crew, Laini, Riley, Sam etc!

Thank you guys so much for making BEA a wonderful experience!!!

Tips and tricks for BEA and BookCon

First of all: PLAN AHEAD! Look up the BEA schedules, plan what you would like to do, who you would like to meet and make sure you have the correct times and booth-numbers. That being said: be prepared to change your plan at the last minute! Things can always, always change so last minute shifts in your plan are not the worst thing that will happen.

Make friends in line! Enjoy yourself and get to know other people! You and the people around you have something in common: you both love books! You are in line for the same book/author so don’t be ashamed: talk! You never know who will end up being your best friend for ever.

Bring a rolling suitcase that you can check in. Books are heavy and you will ALWAYS end up going home with more books than you planned for. So don’t hurt your shoulders or your back and just stack them all in a suitcase just outside of the conference floor.

Don’t forget to eat! All the excitement can make you forget to eat and/or drink, but bring something small from home to make sure you have something to nibble on while you’re waiting in line.

If you want to meet a certain other or get a certain book: get there early! Make sure you are in the front of the line to get onto the show floor. And please don’t be one of those annoying ‘hovering people’ who ignore the line and just go wait in the front to slip into the line once the show floor opens. It’s just not right to pass people who’ve been waiting for hours!

Last but not least: the ARCs (advanced reader copies) that are given to you FOR FREE are NOT FOR SALE! Don’t be one of those horrible people selling the ARCs online the day after BEA. You are stealing from the author and people who’ve been standing in line for hours didn’t get the book that you are now trying to ILLEGALLY sell!

 

So that was my overall experience, stay tuned for more pictures, stories and rants of BEA and BookCon coming to you very soon! I hope you all have an amazing day and I will be back soon! (I promise!)

Bye!!!!!!

0

Would you rather booktube edition 2.0 – Book tag

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Hello everybody and welcome to another tag post!
Before you ask: yes I am aware that today is top 5 Wednesday day, but unfortunately I can’t contribute much to the topic of today because today’s topic is top 5 graphic novels. I have only read one graphic novel and it didn’t blow me away (‘Interview with a vampire: Claudia’s story’), additionally I also own a total of 2 comic books that I have not read YET (‘Superman and supergirl’ and ‘Ms. Marvel Secret invasion’). So I didn’t feel like you guys would be happy with the post that would have come out of that top 5 Wednesday edition. So I decided to do a book tag namely the Would you rather booktube edition 2.0 tag! This tag was created by steakuccino and I will add her video down below. So let’s get started with the questions!
1. Would you rather do only review posts or only tag posts?
Well I do enjoy both of them, and I really like rereading my review posts later to see what I thought of that book at the time. BUT I have to stay true to the very reason I started a blog in the first place and that is to share my opinions on books that I love through tag posts. So I have to go with only tag posts. (Thank God that this is just in theory!)
2. Would you rather always see the film first or never see the film version of books?
I don’t have to debate on this one, I would never see the film version. Don’t get me wrong, I do love movies like The Hunger games or Harry Potter and I would be so annoyed if I couldn’t see them. But then I remember the times where I was so utterly disappointed or even full on mad (Yes Insurgent, you know I’m talking about you!) after watching the movie adaptation, and I could definitely miss that in my life! So if I have to choose, I’m going with never seeing the film version of books so that I miss that drama in my life.
3. Would you rather have a list of every book you’ve ever read (like Goodreads from birth) or still have the physical copy of your first favorite book?
I would love to still have the physical copy of my first favorite book! No doubt in my mind. I love collecting physical books and I feel like they are my babies and I have to take care of them, display them, LOVE THEM etc! I feel so sad that I don’t have the physical books of Roald Dahl anymore! I should go buy them, now! But I’m on a book buying ban since yesterday and I will control my book buying madness!
4. Would you rather have an active in-person book club of non-booktubers or have lunch with your best booktube buddy once a year?
I would LOVE to have an active in-person book club of non-booktubers! Because if I had friends that listened to my opinion about books and if they could be as enthusiastic about books as I was, I never would have felt the need to share my bookish thoughts with total strangers. Not that I don’t like you guys! I love talking about books online, but I know for sure that I would have never done this if I had real life alternatives.
5. Would you rather have the time to read everything you want to read or the money to buy everything you want to read?
I will make time, everywhere! On the bus, train, tram, during breaks at work, I would even sleep less to read! So I would love to have the money to buy everything I want to read, preferably in hardcover, in matching covers if we’re talking series, maybe autographed. You know, if it’s not too much to ask :p . I am a book collector as well as a reader so I would go for buying the book every single time!
6. Would you rather dream cast the film or have editing power over the script for the film version of your favorite book?
HAVE EDITING POWER! As long as they sort of look like the character descriptions I don’t really mind who plays who in a book to movie adaptation. But I have a hate that burns with the intention of a thousand suns on bad movie adaptations! I mean, how can they not show Kreacher’s transformation in the film! Or how can they add a stupid antennae that can tell you which faction you belong to or how high your divergent percentage is?! I would make those dumb movie scripts freaking awesome! And as close to the book as possible.
7. Would you rather have your favorite fictional superpower or your favorite fictional technology?
I don’t have either, actually. But I’m kind of a lazy person so I’m going with favorite superpower that I just made up which is flying so that I don’t have to walk anywhere. Being water repellant would also be nice because it rains ALL THE TIME here!
8. Would you rather read an amazing story with a ‘meh’ ending or a ‘meh’ story with a spectacular ending?
This is a hard one, because I tend to finish the books that I read even if I don’t particularly like them but I’m still going for the ‘meh’ story with the amazing ending. I hate closing the book at the end and feeling like I wasted my time. And I think that I wouldn’t feel that way with a spectacular ending to a ‘meh’ story.
9. Would you rather not be able to read in a moving vehicle or not be able to read lying down?
Oh, those are the 2 places that I read most in! But I think I’ll have to go with not being able to read in a moving vehicle. Even though I read on the train, tram and bus to and from work I still feel like I would miss way less reading time than when I would never be able to read lying down! Because whenever I’m home, which is a lot because the outside world is never as interesting as my book worlds, I read in my bed. Always, no exception!
10. Would you rather reread your favorite book or series with fresh eyes, like the first time, or be able to un-read your biggest disappointment?
I think I can deal with the thought of my biggest disappointment book because I know what I hate the most when people ask me that. So I would rather reread my favorite book or serie with fresh eyes. Which brings me to the bonus question because…
Bonus question: Would you rather go to Hogwarts or live in Middle Earth?
How is that even a question?! My favorite serie EVER is Harry Potter, I would love to go to Hogwarts! I know that I didn’t get my letter just because Voldemort erased the register of all the muggle born wizards born between 1985 and 1998, so that makes me feel a little better, but if I got the chance to go to Hogwarts I would take it with both hands, squeeze it against my chest and never ever let it go!
So I hope you liked this tag post! Let me know what your answers to some of these questions would be! I would like to tag Riley Marie over at RileyMarieReads to do this tag! If you read this Riley: I LOVE your youtube channel and your blog, you are an amazing booktuber and I value your book-opinion a lot! I hope you guys have an awesome day and I will be back with another blogpost very soon!
Goodbye!!!

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September wrap-up

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Hello everybody and welcome to another wrap-up!
I just can’t believe that September is over already! I had a HUGE READING SLUMP in the middle of September so most of these books I read in the beginning of the month. I liked most of the books I read but there is one I just HATED. So without further ado, these are the 7 books I read in September…
First of all I read the remaining 2 books in the ‘Under the never sky’ trilogy by Veronica Rossi namely ‘Trough the ever night’ and ‘Into the still blue’. I made a full spoilery review on these books which you can check out HERE. But basically, I loved both of these books. I loved the romance, I loved the world, I loved most of the characters, I loved the transitions between chapters etc. Plus, gorgeous covers, always a good thing because I love myself some pretty books to put on my shelves! I gave both of these books 5 out of 5 stars and I would highly recommend the entire serie.

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Next I reread my favorite book of all time (next to the Harry Potter serie) ‘Magonia’ by Maria Dahvana Headley. I love this book so much! You can read my entire review of this book HERE. But you can say that I am completely smitten with this book. It’s just perfect. So naturally I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars!

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Then I read ‘The shadowhunter’s codex’ by Cassandra Clare and Joshua Lewis. And I have to say that I was pretty disappointed with this book. I thought that it would be a nice read to relive old shadowhunter moments but I just didn’t like it as much as the other books in this serie and it makes me doubt if I should buy the Bane chronicles at all. What bothered me the most about this book is the boring writing style, it’s dry and feels exactly like a textbook in a class you don’t like. Additionally I didn’t feel like I learned much about the shadowhunter world that we didn’t already know. And finally, in the beginning it wasn’t clear for me at all who wrote which annotation and I also wonder at what time-point in the Mortal instruments serie these annotations were written. So I gave this book 2 out of 5 stars.

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Up next we have one of the most annoying books I’ve ever read, ‘Trouble is a friend’ of mine by Stephanie Tromly. Since I promised you guys a review, you can find it HERE. But to be honest, I didn’t like reviewing a book I hate with such an intensity. So before you read the review, beware of angry rants. I gave this book 1 out of 5 stars and I would give it zero if Goodreads gave me that option.

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The sixth book I read in September was ‘Fifty shades darker’ by E. L. James. I’m not really sure if I liked this book more or less than the first one. There was more of a storyline in this book. Stuff actually happened instead of focussing solely on Ana and Christian. But on the other hand, some of the elements of ‘Fifty shade of Grey’ were repeated so many times that it started to annoy me. I realise that most people are annoyed by this in the first book already but it took me until this book to catch up. First I really started to hate it when Ana bit her lip OVER AND OVER again! I mean, seriously, do people do that?! And my main annoyance: she talks about ‘her inner goddess’ as if it is an extra character in the story. Why?! Do you think about your inner goddess? At all? NO! And if you do, you wouldn’t think about it every 5 seconds whenever something arousing crosses your mind. So the story gets an extra star, but the main frustration points took that away again, so I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars.

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So it took me 2,5 weeks to read these 6 books, and then it took me the remaining 2 weeks of September to finish the Dutch version of ‘The warrior heir’ by Cinda Williams Chima. And it’s not the book, because I did like the story and most of the characters, but just the ugly little thing called reading slump. I just couldn’t pick up the book and read it. And the problem seems to continue on in October because I’m struggling to pick up the next book in the serie as well. Even though I really want to know what happens! But TV is calling to me. And I started my first job EVER so that takes away reading time as well. I don’t have a lot of thoughts on this book, I liked it but it didn’t blow me away. The story was okay, interesting but not fascinating. So this means that I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars.

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So that was my September wrap-up, I hope you guys enjoyed it. If you read any of these books and you want to talk about them: Let me know! I’d love to chat! Let’s hope that the reading slump reaches its end very soon, but thank god I’m 20 books ahead of my reading challenge on Goodreads (100 books) so I’m not too worried. I do keep buying books though, so they will really start to pile up if I can’t start reading again soon! I hope you guys have an awesome weekend and I will be back with another blogpost very soon!
Goodbye!!!
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Top 5 Wednesday – Banned books

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Hello everyone and welcome to another top 5 Wednesday!
Top 5 Wednesday is created by Lainey and you can find her booktube channel HERE. If you want to join in on the madness you can check out the topics in the goodreads group HERE. This weeks topic is the top 5 Banned books you have read, since it is banned books week (from 9/27 – 10/3). And I have to say that I was shocked to find some of the books that I LOVED on this list! So I had a hard time selecting just 5. But here we go!
5. On number 5 we have Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Okay maybe this one wasn’t a big surprise. I kind of figured that it would be on the list of banned books. I mean, brainwashing, growing kids in bottles, conditioning toddlers… It’s all very creepy but I really liked this book. It was a very original take on the future and I enjoyed reading it.

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4. Coming in on number 4 I have the Twilight serie by Stephanie Meyer. I’m not sure if I would call the sparkling vampires demonic and occult, I would opt for sexy as hell and mesmerising but maybe that’s the real problem. Who knows? But Twilight is one of the books that fuelled my reading addiction, therefor it will always have a special place in my heart.
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3. On number 3 I have a book that I was shocked to find on the list of banned books and that is The fault in our stars by John Green. I mean, come on, what is wrong with this book? Does is make you feel too much? Is it too heartbreaking? Does it make you understand serious illnesses a bit too much? WHAT?! This book is so emotional and makes you relate to the characters in so many different ways, you really care and that is why your heart breaks into a million pieces by the end of the book. On the other hand, I approve of adding Paper towns by John Green on the banned books list, but for me that’s just because I hated the book. This was just a side-note :p .

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2. My runner up for favorite banned book is The Giver by Lois Lowry. This book is just so good. I love dystopian societies so I was bound to love this serie as well. It’s inspirational and the main character Jonas is a very relatable character and his journey throughout the book gives you so much feels! What is it with banning dystopian books? Are they afraid of promoting this kind of society? Or are they just so afraid of what might happen in the future that they decide that nobody should read it, just in case it ends up becoming reality? I don’t know, but I like reading dystopian books and banning them will not make me stop reading them.

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1. And it should come as no surprise that my favorite banned book/serie is the Harry Potter serie by J. K. Rowling. Why is this banned? It is such an inspiration to so many people all over the world! I grew up reading Harry Potter and I instantly fell in love with it. When I recommend books to my younger family members I will basically force them to read the first book. It is amazing guys, if you haven’t read it yet: GO DO THAT! NOW!

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So there you have it! Those were my top 5 banned books in honour of banned books week! I hope you guys enjoyed this post, let me know what your favorite banned books are, were you as shocked as I was to find some of your favorite books on the list? Please let me know in the comments! I hope you all have an awesome day and I will be back with another blogpost very soon!
Goodbye!!!