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#BBSReads

Hello friends! I am super excited to announce that I will be hosting the Bye-Bye Summer Readathon again this year! For those unfamiliar with the event, it was something I created half-baked and mildly spur-of-the-moment in August 2013. I didn’t have a specific reason in mind so much as a memory: of bygone summer days spent reading dog-eared hardcovers, hours at a time, from the local library. I guess you can say the readathon was my way of re-creating what continues to be some of my most cherished memories from childhood. 

This year, #BBSReads will take place 8/21 - 8/28/16. The finer details are below, but the rules are simple: go to the library, borrow some books, and read as much from them as you can for an entire week. Although this readathon is largely my own personal tradition, I warmly welcome everyone to participate. RSVP is not required, but if you decide to join feel free to let me know on Twitter.

Until then, I wish you all a happy summer and happy reading! 📚

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Details:

☼ The readathon begins at 12:00AM on 8/21/16, and ends at 12:00AM on 8/29/16. This is not time zone-specific, so start and end whenever the clock strikes midnight for you.

☼ Read ONLY books that you have borrowed from your local library. (If in a pinch, you can borrow from the personal library of a friend/roommate/family member/etc. Remember to ask them for permission first!)

☼ Read from whatever genre you want. Young adult, sci-fi, paranormal, non-fiction … the library is your limit!

☼ You do NOT have to read from a physical book! While I personally prefer “real” books, you are welcomed to read ebooks or listen to audiobooks if they are your jam.

☼ There is no limit — or threshold — to the number of books you can read. Just read as much as you can, as fast as you can. 

☼ You do not need an online presence to participate. However, I will be live-tweeting from my Twitter using the hashtag #BBSReads. You are welcomed (and encouraged!) to tweet along. 

☼ Have fun!

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FIVE FOR FRIDAY / all the star wars shirts!

Excuse the derp. I’m just happy to finally have Star Wars shirts. 😂

Happy Friday, friends! I hope you guys are doing well. Since I haven’t done a Five for Friday in a while, I thought I would do one today and share with you guys the Star Wars shirts I recently purchased. As I suggested in the caption above, this is the first time in my LIFE that I have owned Star Wars-themed clothing (minus the time I bought that Rebel baseball cap from Disneyland) and I am over the moon about it. Fandom shirts are my favorite merchandise to buy, and it is so meaningful that I finally own shirts that reflect a story that has been a part of my life for almost 20 years. 

1 / Her Universe

I don’t usually buy title-specific pieces, but I happily made an exception for this soft and gorgeous sweater. (Seriously guys, it’s so soft. So soft. Have I mentioned that it’s soft?) The gold foil is lovely and what I think really sets this piece apart. It’s not the cheap, flaky stuff and it catches the light so beautifully.

Her Universe is one of my favorite fangirl apparel brands, and I am so delighted to support them. Not only do they have some seriously on-point pieces, supporting and encouraging fangirls have been at the heart of their operations since day one. Founder Ashley Eckstein (aka Ahsoka Tano from The Clone Wars) created Her Universe in response to the sore lack of Star Wars apparel available for girls. The business has since expanded to include apparel featuring a number of other geek franchises, a daily Fangirl of the Day spotlight, and Her Universe Press, a full-on publishing imprint for original female-written fantasy and sci-fi work.

2 / Jordandené

I don’t know what sort of photographic mojo is going on, but this Han Solo shirt is definitely not as fitted as my picture is suggesting! The shirt is pretty boxy in reality, which is rather unusual since it’s from American Apparel and I never had that problem with their tees before. But that aside, I really like the lettering design. (Hand done, by the way!) It’s screen printed in a gorgeous bronze color that gives off a lovely, subtle shimmer in the light. And who doesn’t like this quote?

Jordandené is a company I am all too happy to get behind. In addition to being a small, US-based operation (Brooklyn, if you were curious), all their products are made Stateside and their shirts are print screened by hand using eco-friendly inks. They��re ALL about geeky, so check them out if want to rep other fandoms like Doctor Who, Harry Potter, and Marvel to name a few.

3 / Fifth Sun

Whenever I see this shirt I want to giggle. It’s so incredibly dweeby but that’s exactly what I love about it. I like x-wings and I’ve been wanting a shirt with an x-wing schematics print for some time. I’m glad I found one that looks this good!

I don’t know that much about Fifth Sun: they’re based in Chico, CA and from their website I get the vibe that they’re no small fry in the world of licensed apparel. Their Star Wars collection alone boasts literally hundreds of unique designs, and I think their collections for DC, Marvel, and Nintendo are equally sprawling. They’re a good place to start if you’re looking for geek shirts.

4 / Beep Boop Beep Clothing

I saw Jennifer Landa with this shirt* in one of her videos, and I thought it was such a fun and clever design. It’s a play on the Barbie logo, complete with a little Rebel Alliance symbol in place of the ™. I can’t wait to wear this once it gets a little warmer!

Beep Boop Beep Clothing is a small and very adorable family operation out of California. They hand print all their shirts, and each design was created in house. Check them out if you like minimalistic Star Wars shirts with tongue-in-cheek humor.

* Jennifer is wearing the women’s v-neck I believe, but I ordered mine in the mens/unisex crewneck.

5/ Amazon

This was the most satisfying purchase of the batch. I had been hunting for something like this for WEEKS, and I finally found it on Amazon. You can’t really tell from the photo, but the shirt is a lovely dark grey speckled with bits of white thread. It reminds me of a starry night sky, which I thought was very apropos. The drape is lovely too, which was a pleasant surprise.

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Bonus: Here are five more places you can check out for Star Wars apparel.

✨ Black Milk Clothing

✨ JCPenney

✨ Junk Food Clothing

✨ Kohl’s

✨ Target

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From last night: reading by the “fire.” 😂

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#LARMONTH / let’s do this!

Just a short note to announce that I will be doing #LARMonth again! 

For those unfamiliar with #LARMonth, it’s a readathon that was started by book bloggers Iris and Ana, and the objective is to spend January reading books you have meant to read for ages but never got around to. The rules are simple: you can read whichever books you want, however many you want, so long as they are titles that you have been putting off. 

I may be biting off more than I can chew (again), but for better or worse here are the books that I will be reading next month:

The Brothers Karamazov by FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY / I actually started reading this book a few years ago when I had scored an old, brittle edition from a book sale. The translation was terrible though, and I didn’t get far into the book before I eventually threw it away. But I bought a new edition recently that I think I will like a lot better. I looked over a snippet from the first chapter and liked what I read.

The Gesture Life by CHANG-RAE LEE / I don’t know that much about this book, other than its reputation for being one of Lee’s more popular works. I had a really good experience with On Such a Full Sea, so I’m curious as to how this one will compare.

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. MONTGOMERY / This is definitely a long-awaited read. I added this book to my TBR seven years ago after I had watched the Megan Follows adaptation, and am only just now getting around to reading it. If this isn’t a long-awaited read I don’t know what is!

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#HARRYXMASTOYOU / sorcerer’s stone

To be honest I didn’t have that much fun rereading Sorcerer’s Stone. Which was completely unexpected since I was so frigging excited for #HarryXmasToYou. I bought the books (again), followed the official Twitter, started bouncing around Harry-related vlog ideas. Yet once Dec 1 came around, and I cracked open the long-anticipated book, so crisp and new, I felt ... nothing. A month of giddy anticipation, and then just that: nothing. No excitement, no tidal wave of nostalgia. Nothing. I couldn’t believe it.

That lack of feeling, of desperate interest, continued to evade me through the entire book. I continued reading it though, so determined I was to enjoy it. I kept on thinking: maybe the next chapter, the next chapter, the chapter after that. One of these chapters, I will finally find the nostalgia I am looking for, the feeling of homecoming, the rush of relief upon uniting with a dear, old friend. But I didn’t. And I still don’t really understand why.

I wonder if it’s because I’m different now. I’m no longer the 12-year-old who was introduced to Harry's story, almost against her will. Who had scoffed at the idea of a boy who did magic. Who later ate her own words over Christmas when she found herself glued to the pages of her cousin’s hardcover. I’m twice that age now, and perhaps too old to appreciate the wide-eyed innocence through which Harry experiences his first year at Hogwarts. Which kind of sucks, considering how much this book means to me. 

But I take heart in what C. S. Lewis wrote to his goddaughter: 

“... some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”

I hope the same is true for me one day. 

⚡  Shout out to Family House Stampin’ and craftedvan for my HP merch! ⚡

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They’re heeeeeere! 💖💖💖 #HarryXmasToYou, I am ready for you! 

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ALL THE BOOKS

I really should have taken the extra 5 min on Friday to pick up a bottle of Excedrin from the pharmacy. I’m currently scuffling with a migraine that granted, is one of the milder ones of my experience, but is nevertheless unpleasant to deal with sans medication. But there is tea. And Criminal Minds. And books. Lots of books.

Today had a lot going on in the world of bookworms and comic geeks. In addition to Free Comic Book Day, it was also Independent Bookstore Day*, as well as Day 2 of a weekend-long used book sale put on in association with a local public library. Not wanting to take part in the festivities alone — like last year, ahaha — I invited my dear friend Corrie along. I’m so glad she was able to join me because today wouldn’t have been the great experience that it turned out to be without her.

USED BOOKS FTW

Our first stop of the day was the used book sale. 

I’ve been to this particular sale twice before. It’s something that I always look forward to every year because the books are RIDICULOUSLY cheap (like, nothing-is-more-than-$2 cheap) and all proceeds go directly to funding the library. So win-win all around. Because of the price, I’m always tempted to (and often do) go nuts. But I exercised a lot of self-restraint this year and purchased only 3 books:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer

Holes, by Louis Sachar

A Gesture Life, by Chang-Rae Lee

I read Guernsey like ages ago and really really liked it, so I was incredibly happy to have FINALLY snagged a copy, and in such good condition too! Same goes for Holes — although technically I do already own a copy, but it’s paperback and it’s pretty ratty and this new copy is HARDCOVER (yass) and pretty dang pristine. I haven’t read A Gesture Life, but I’ve heard good things about it and I did enjoy On Such A Full Sea, so I look forward to reading it.

Re the actual event — I don’t know if I just remember past events as being bigger and grander than they really were, but when I walked into the venue this morning, everything felt ... smaller. There were less ppl there than I had expected — but I guess that IS to be expected bc it was 10am on a Saturday, relatively early hours for a weekend. But the folks present were more than enthusiastic enough to make up for the lack of turn-up. I saw ppl walking out with STACKS of books. One lady came in extra prepared with an empty cardboard box and a hand truck. (I think it humorous to note that the event did have multiple hand trucks available for the attendees to use. We don’t joke around at this event, guys.) 

Oh and the children! And their parents! It always warms my heart when I see parents sharing their bookish enthusiasm with their young children. PARENTING DONE RIGHT FOLKS PLS TAKE NOTE. Seriously parents, I can’t stress this enough. Even if you don’t enjoy reading or can’t for the life of you comprehend why ppl have such a strong bond with books, PLS ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILDREN TO READ. Or at the least, don’t stop them when they show interest in books. Bring them to libraries, take them to events, let them gobble up a variety of stories. You’ll give them something irreplaceable and precious that will stick with them for the rest of their lives. And you’ll help them become better ppl. (Seriously.) 

NOT TOO LONG AGO, IN A COMIC STORE NOT TOO FAR AWAY...

After a pit stop at Corrie’s place, we headed to the local comics store for FCBD. The line outside was pretty long, but the wait wasn’t bad. Unlike last year’s experience, where I was awkwardly surrounded by little kids and their parents, there were actually ppl our age waiting in line with us. (YAAAY.) Also, there were a couple of LEGIT Stormtrooper cosplayers who I think were hired by the store, but they were awesome sports with us and they seemed to be genuinely having as good a time cosplaying as we had had interacting with them. They were totally cool with us taking photos with them. (Incidentally, one of my favorite moments from the entire day was when 2 little girls — one wearing an Elsa dress — came up to them, all excited, to take a photo. It was so flipping presh.)

Now for the haul!

Like last year, I picked up 3 free issues:

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Avengers

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

I was really looking forward to the ATLA comic bc Gene Yang, but I actually didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped, which was sad. The story was pretty sweet — sisterhood! working together! Toph cameo! — but somehow it wasn’t that satisfying. I guess it was just shorter than I thought it would be. And regrettably I didn’t like the artwork. On the flip side, the Avengers and TMNT comics were really interesting. Particularly the Avengers one bc omg new line-up?? With Ms. Marvel?? (♡◡♡) The artwork for both were really good too. Remind me to look up the artists...

Partly bc of this insightful post by Gail Simone, partly bc I really did want to get something, I purchased a couple things as well. 

Batgirl #37

Attack on Titan, Vol. 3

I wanted to buy more, esp as graphic novels & manga were going at 20% off, but again I wanted to exercise restraint. But I’m happy with my purchases. With #37 bought & paid for, my Batgirl collection is now officially caught up! Whoo! (Speaking of Batgirl, HOW ABOUT THAT ENDING IN #40, EH?? Can’t wait for #41!!) AoT is gonna be harder for me to catch up with bc there’s 15 — going on 16 — volumes and I only have 3. But slow and steady, I suppose. I’ll get there eventually.

Oh and guys, CHECK OUT THIS CHEAPY PLASTIC GREEN LANTERN RING. I got it for free bc the store was handing them out, but it makes me so happy right now. I don’t want to take it off, ahaha.

I wanted to sign off in a more eloquent manner, but my migraine is getting the better of me and I really just want to sleep it off at this point. So good night guys! Hope FCBD was as fun for you as it was for me!

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* We didn’t end up going to this. I forgot to bring it up to Corrie, but I wouldn’t have been up for it anyway bc I was booked out, ahaha. Plus I wasn’t feeling too well, with my caffeine headache (CURSE YOU CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY) and the migraine blooming in my brain. I don’t know if I’ll ever want to go bc I think it always falls on the same day as FCBD and FCBD is just more fun and plus I want to support comics bc I really think they still get snubbed when it comes to literary legitimacy and ok this sentence has gotten way too long.