I recently travelled to Monterey, California for a conference and decided it would be a crime if I didn't stay on in San Francisco afterwards. It was my first time there, and what a beautiful city! I could totally picture myself living there - if it wasn't so expensive!

One thing I HAD to do when I was there was check out a few bookstores, and I found myself lost in the stacks in some awesome stores

City Lights Bookstore
 

City Lights Bookstore was one of those bookstores that seemed like some weird space-time juju was going on. I stepped in the door, blinked, and somehow an hour had passed. This three-story bookstore was hiding away in Chinatown. The entire upstairs was a poetry room, complete with a rocking chair.

Bound Together Anarchist Collective Bookstore




This isn't your grandma's bookstore. I stumbled across this gem when I was walking through the Haight-Ashbury area. They have an awesome collection of books and even browsing through the shelves makes you feel like a badass. This bookstore is (I believe) run by volunteers, and also supports the Prison Literature Project

Readers Bookstore Fort Mason


Somehow I didn't take any photos inside here here! But I was staying at a hostel in Fort Mason, and this awesome bookstore was just a few minutes away so I may have visited it quite a few times... The hardest thing about my trip was the 20kg limit on my luggage (welp!) This bookstore is operated by Friends of the SFPL and sells secondhand books. I snagged a hard cover of the US edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerers stone for just $6! (They literally had a whole shelf of HP books)

This book takes a realistic look at infertility and how it can tear a marriage apart. This was super difficult to read for me. But the heart breaking sections of 'today' are tangled up between flash backs of the shiny new romance between our two leads and the story of them falling in love. 

“I think that’s the difference in the marriages that survive and the marriages that don’t. Some people think the focus in a marriage should be put on all the perfect days. They love as much and as hard as they can when everything is going right. But if a person gives all of themselves in the good times, hoping the bad times never come, there may not be enough resources or energy left to withstand those Category 5 moments.” 

I experienced this Category 6 storm with Quinn and Graham and came out of it feeling sunshine on my face. I 10000% recommend this book to anyone who reads contemporary!

So. Many. Pretty Books. I know... I know... "don't judge a book by it's cover" but I have a thing for beautiful book covers so when I saw this tag over on DreamlandBookBlog I knew I had to do it! I will only be answering with books I have in my collection

1. Best colour combo on a book cover


The Problem with Forever by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I don't know what to say except this gorgeous combination of water colours was the reason I bought this book. (It was fantastic though - I gave it 5 stars!)

2. Best typography/font on a book cover


The Illuminae Files series by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff are the winners for me. I love this collection of fonts on the cover, and this whole book has incredible fonts the whole way throughout - if you haven't picked up this series, you need to!

3. Best simple cover


This cover of You by Caroline Kepnes is simple, but insanely effective. It is intriguing and creepy and this

4. Best endpages


Even though I still am yet to read Starters by Lissa Price, these endpages were my favourite that I found on my bookcase.

5. Best map


Ok. I hate have a love-hate relationships with book maps. I hate geography (even fictional) and so when I see a map in a book I groan and skip past it. But then later when a places are mentioned I find myself flipping back to the map - then immediately forgetting everything again. However, A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas is one of the only books with a map that I really appreciated when I was reading it, so this has to be my winner.

6. Best naked hardback


I have waaaay more paperback books in my collection. In New Zealand hardbacks are very expensive, so I had a limited selection to choose from. The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness is my pick for best naked book.

7. Best back cover
The octopus is my absolute favourite animal, if it wasn't already obvious from one of my previous posts. They are elegant, mysterious, intelligent and unlike anything else. The art of this cover (AND back cover) for The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery is absolutely stunning.

This full spread of this book is even more impressive!

8. Best chapter headers


I adore the chapter headers for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them screenplay!

9. Best illustrations



This is an absolute no brainer for me. The best illustrations by far are the Harry Potter illustrated editions, illustrated by Jim Kay. I have the first three in my collection, they came out the previous three years just before my birthday so I've treated myself to them each year. This is the first year that one didn't come out in October - which is understandable - Goblet of Fire is huge! It is definitely my plan to keep collecting each of these beautiful illustrated editions as they are released.

10. Best spine


Dracula by Bram Stoker. I am obsessed with this Barnes and Nobel leather bound edition that my boyfriend bought in Chicago this year. It looks amazing on our shelves!

11. Favourite cover on your shelves


This was so hard! My favourite book cover changes all the time, however right now the cover that I think is stunning is Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor - the UK edition! The gold details on the dark blue are so eye catching!


What are some of your favourite book covers?

My insanely delicious birthday cake

It was recently my birthday, and even though turning 26 was pretty scary, I had an amazing day. My partner said he had to run off to the corner store to grab something then a few minutes later came bursting through our front door like Hagrid with a very special birthday cake. Just like Harry's, this was a (very!) large sticky chocolate cake with green icing. It had delicious raspberry buttercream frosting.

This four-layer masterpiece may be slightly beyond Hagrid's baking skills

The rest of the evening was spent watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and then Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire because I felt like jumping around.

Ladies - find yourself a man that respects and supports what you love!

My my my... It's certainly been a while since I've posted on here! I think my last post was...*cough* February 2017 *cough*. In my last post I talked about readers guilt, and it being ok to take time off from reading sometimes. Last year I went through one of the biggest reading slumps in my entire life, but I let myself do it because I needed to do other things, and I was so focused on my PhD. It paid off because once I had hit some mysterious critical time off from reading I turned back into a lean, mean, reading machine.

The bath has been one of my favourite places to read lately

This year so far I have read 104 books, which is more than my Goodreads goal of 100, and I still have over a month left this year!

Since I last posted on here I have also been doing a bit of travelling! I live in New Zealand but since last year I have visited New York, Tokyo, Australia and San Francisco (expect some travel related book posts in the next few weeks!) I am also heading to Hawaii next month for Christmas.

Stay weird. See you soon fellow readers.

Before I was introduced to the bookish side of the internet, before booktube, and book bloggers and Goodreads, I had a different perspective on reading. I would go through phases where I might read a ton, and then maybe for a few months I wouldn't read, and that would be perfectly ok. But ever since I got introduced to this (don't get me wrong - AMAZING) world, this phase has been known as the book slump. One of the most important things I have learnt: book slumps are bad, book slumps are to be feared. Do everything to avoid said book slump, because if you get caught in them you won't be able to power through more than a few pages


For a few years, I set my Goodreads goals at 100 books and powered through the slumps, forcing myself to read when I just wasn't feeling anything because that goal, must complete Goodreads challenge. This would cause me to not read some books, avoid slightly longer or larger books, because hey - I could read 3 smaller books in the time it would take for me to read that bigger one.

This year, I've had a shift in mindset. I started the year with all guns blazing, eyes on the prize, set to achieve my (more modest) goal of 50 books. I started the year with a bang, powering through nine books in January, thinking to myself 'Hmm.. maybe I will get to 100 books anyway.' I was on a serious reading roll, even finishing 2 books in a day, I was a lean, mean book reading machine.

Then, I just didn't feel like picking up a book after the ninth one. Nine books in a few weeks made me feel all read-out, and instead I found myself wanting to turn to Netflix instead, because Oh My GOD - I can't believe they just left of that episode of Jane the Virgin like that!! I guess it was what people in this world may call a 'book slump'. However, right now, I just think of it as a break - and that is perfectly fine. I want all books I go into because I have a desperate urge to read that book right now, not because I haven't picked up a book in a week and need to prove to the internet that I am a reader.

I read for pleasure, I read to relieve the stress of my PhD and get lost in worlds that I can never visit. I read to enrich myself, and get inside the minds of others, to think how others think and better myself. But I have realised that I don't want it to be a stressful thing, reading for me is about balance, and if I feel like stepping away from the pages for a few weeks that is perfectly fine, and I have no need to feel guilty about that.

Rating 5/5

Based on the title (Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls) I think any crazed Gilmore fan may have already picked up this book. If you couldn't tell already, I am a huge Gilmore fan. Gilmore Girls is my go to favourite show, and reading some of the behind the scenes made me feel all kinds of fuzzy.

This book is a collection of personal essays written by Lauren Graham (i.e. Lorelai Gilmore) about her life growing up, going to drama school, and all the way to Hollywood.

I read this book after I binge watched the reboot, and it made me tear up all over again.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get my hands on a copy of the audiobook, which I was sad about. I always love to hear audiobooks which are narrated by the author, especially autobiographies. Although, even through the pages, Lauren's personality shines through, reading this was fast (It only took a few hours) and it felt like I was having an over-caffeinated yarn with Lorelei herself.

I recommend anyone with a spare few hours to pick this up! It was refreshing and fun, and added a little more Gilmore to my day.