Daily Shenanigans, 30/03/2014: Mother's Day!

I had a really lovely, family-oriented day today folks! It was really nice! There's a lot to talk about today so prepare yourselves. The clocks went forward an hour, and so I lost an hour's sleep! I wasn't too upset though, despite being tired because I woke up in an inexplicably good mood (this is what Marvel films do to me). For Mother's Day, we got Mum a gift voucher for a clothes store and some puzzle books (she's Sudoku mad). I was then left for the rest of the morning to have a bath and be productive, which I was. I finally finished 'The Telling Error'. I'm really not sure why it took me so long to read, it wasn't a particularly long book.

I posted my Weekly Wishlist, which took quite a while to compile today, and my review for the previously mentioned book! I also have made a pretty good start on 'Tithe' by Holly Black, my next chosen read so I'm quite a happy bunny on the reading front at the moment. Now here comes the long bit. I went a bit Kindle barmy this morning and found an absolute ton of books (most of them free) to download, and have done:

• 'Evanescent' by Gabriella Lepore
• 'Silence' ('Silence' Series, Book 1) by Natasha Preston
• 'Covert' by Natasha Preston
• 'Twenty-Eight And A Half Wishes' ('Rose Gardner Mystery' Series, Book 1) by Denise Grover Swank
• 'A Field Of Red' by Greg Enslen
• 'Ravenstone' ('The Ravenstone Chronicles' Series, Book 1) by Louise Franklin
• 'Dark Promise' ('Between Worlds' Series, Book 1) by Julia Crane & Talia Jager
• 'Descension' ('Mystic' Series, Book 1) by B.C.Burgess
• 'Return To The Aegean' ('The Aegean Mystery' Series, Book 1) by E.J.Russell & Iain Chaffey
• 'Ill Wind' (Valkyrie Series, Book 1) by Karen Perkins
• 'Shadow And Bone' ('The Grisha' Series, Book 1) by Leigh Bardugo

As well as these, I also downloaded a set of Prequel stories to 'The Grimm Diaries' series (Volumes 1-6) by Cameron Jace, Jami Hampson & Danielle Littig. Whew! That's a lot of books. I only paid £0.99 to buy 'Shadow And Bone', because that is a ridiculously good offer that I just couldn't refuse!

I also went out on a little shopping trip with the family today, and my naughty sister persuaded me to come and look at the books with her. She knew I wouldn't be able to resist and I entirely blame on her on my subsequent purchases:

• 'The Shock Of The Fall' by Nathan Filer
• 'Life After Life' by Kate Atkinson

As much as I love paperback books, this needs to stop. Seriously I have an addiction! So all in all, a good book turnout today! I took some time to help Bev, my sister, with her Photography coursework as well which was a lot of fun! I spent the rest of the evening eating a lovely curry with the family, drafting my Wrap-Up post for this month in preparation for tomorrow, and watching a few videos while reading. Oh and desperately hunting down the 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' soundtrack, which I can't find to listen to anywhere. I'm devastated!

I told you this would be a long one! Tomorrow I will probably be going to Uni to do some work (even though it's Easter Break, I still have a lot to do for Multimedia) and I have an actual Work Shift too!

Daily Shenanigans, 26/03/2014: A Kindle Haul!

Well, what a day I've had! Firstly, I actually had a good lay in for the first time in what seems like forever, which was nice. I definitely needed it. I had work this afternoon but other than that, not an awful lot to do. At first I thought I'd get a lot of reading done, but even though I did read a bit, I ended up being a very busy bee with my Planned Reads instead.

I went through every single one of my 'To Read' books that I have on Goodreads and looked them up on Amazon to see how much they would be on the Kindle. Why? Because there is no way I am ever going to have that much space or money to buy each one as a paperback or hardback, as lovely as that would be. This started because (I forgot to tell you) on Monday I found out (having mentioned it on my Weekly Wishlist post) that 'Under Fishbone Clouds' by Sam Meekings was only £0.99 on the Kindle! That's an absolute bargain, and one I couldn't ignore. It made me wonder how many other bargains I was missing out on.

As it turns out, rather a lot. I went through, deciding only to take note of the £3.00 or under books (as a starting point). There were over 150 of them! I can't believe that I have never thought of this before! Perhaps it is because I much prefer the feel of an actual book in my hands, rather than the Kindle, but I feel there are too many pros that override this minor irritation. So without further ado, here are today's buys:

• 'Bang' by Steven Allinson.
• 'Forbidden Mind' ('The Forbidden Trilogy' Series, Book 1)  by Karpov Kinrade.
• 'Perfected Sinfulness' by Michael Gilbert.
• 'Alone', 'Untouched' and 'Soulless' ('The Girl In The Box' Books 1-3) by Robert J Crane.
• 'An Uncommon Vocabulary' by Jim Boyd.
• 'This Shadow Follows Me' by Joseph McGinnis.
• 'Forsaken' ('Daughters Of The Sea' Series, Book 1) by Kristen Day.

At this point you might be wondering how much I spent. Well, not including the original Sam Meekings buy, it's a big fat nothing! All of these books were free! How amazing is that? All of these look like really good reads and I can't wait to get started. But as well as this, I read a post on Facebook by Sarah Dalton, a Dystopian Author whose books I very much want to read, and she revealed that she had banded together with some authors and they had released a collection of six Dystopian books called 'Shattered Worlds'! Naturally I looked and how much was the entire collection? £0.49! Of course I bought it! Here's a quick look at the titles included:

• 'The Blemished' ('The Blemished' Series, Book 1) by Sarah Dalton
• 'Kahayatle' ('Apocalypsis' Series, Book 1) by Elle Casey
• 'Outside' ('Outside' Series, Book 1) by Shalini Boland
• 'The Torturer's Daughter' ('The Internal Defense' Series, Book 1) by Zoe Cannon
• 'Night Of The Purple Moon' ('The Toucan Trilogy' Series, Book 1) by Scott Cramer
• 'The Breeders' ('The Breeders' Series, Book 1)

What an awesome sounding bunch! And as an added bonus, Zoe Cannon's 'The Torturer's Daughter' was already on my TBR list, so that's two of my reads ticked off in one go. For the ridiculously low amount of money the series cost, it's well worth at least checking it out! Anyone who loves Dystopian fiction, this is a dream come true!

Okay, excited rant over. I really should get some sleep, tomorrow I'll be sorting out some blog stuff, doing a bit of reading, etc. and I might get round to buying a couple more Kindle reads, I was very surprised at some of the low prices. If you're one of those people who has an ever-growing TBR list, this might be a method well worth spending an afternoon on. You'll be surprised at the results!