The Great Bookstore Receipt Safari: The Final Store

After Kansas came Arkansas.  The best trip of all, somehow, even though I only bought three books and they were the most expensive.

I'm serious, y'all.  If you ever visit Little Rock, Arkansas, go to WordsWorth Books And Co.  The atmosphere is unbelievable, and even if the selection is small, it's amazing.  The place feels so... literary.  And soothing.  And peaceful.  I mean GET IN YOUR CAR AND GO.  Seriously.  It's spectacular.

My first book was The Alchemist and the Angel by Joanne Owen.  I've never heard of this book or this author, but the cover and the title sold me.  Hope beyond hope it's good.

Next was The Adoration Of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson.  I've heard of it but wasn't overly interested until a good friend with epic taste rec'd it.  I absolutely love this cover, too.

Now.  You remember my mention of my Norse mythos nerd?  Well.  At this amazing bookstore, I found - wait for it - THE ELDER EDDA.  FOR SERIOUSNESS.  I FOUND IT.

I have to tell this story because it's amazing.  When I finally got ready to check out, after hanging around for way too long, the lady who owns the store (she's amazing, too, fyi), looked at the Edda and laughed.  She told me her son had ordered the book just a couple weeks back, even though SHE thought no one would ever buy it.  And here I come in, have a freak and do a happy dance in the aisle because I want it so much.  Angel Chorus of Destiny, anyone?

That was my Bookstore Receipt Safari this past week.  Believe it or not, I still didn't get to a bookstore in Mississippi.  Oh well.  Next time.  I think I have enough books now, anyway.

After all, the total adds up to seventeen books.  I think that's a good enough haul for now.

The Great Bookstore Receipt Safari: Third Time's A Charm

After Missouri came Kansas.  I didn't go to a bookstore there until after the Summer Workshop, so I come to you with a collection I bought on Saturday.

My Kansas receipt comes from a bookstore called the Book Warehouse, in a mall in Olathe.  IT WAS HUGE AND AMAZING.  The children's/YA section ROCKED.  So many epic looking books... and a great sale, too.  I totally rec if you're ever in the Olathe area.  Or in the United States.  I actually got six books here, too.

First we have Flora Segunda by Ysabeau S. Wilce.  I never knew what it was about, even though my cousin loves it.  And Diana Wynne Jones endorsed it, so it has to be great.

Speaking of which!  I found Cart And Cwidder by Mrs. Jones, the first book in her Dalemark Quartet.  Again, I have no idea what it's about.  BUT IT'S HER.

Next is Flight by Jason Lethcoe, the first The Mysterious Mr. Spines book.  I love Lethcoe just for Benjamin Bartholomew Piff, but this series is pretty awesome, too.  I need to reread the first book, though...

Another thing you should know about me: I'm a blossoming Norse mythology nerd.  I love it.  So much.  So when I saw Thor's Wedding Day - by Bruce Coville, no less - I had to get it. even if it's not exactly a mature retelling.  I think I'm not a fan of Coville like most people are, but it was still cute.

Then we have Bones Of Faerie, by Janni Lee Simner.  I picked this up on a whim because I love faeries.  At it has a gorgeous cover.  Here's hoping it's good.

And finally, we have The Pied Piper/El flautista de Hamelin, a Pied Piper retelling in both English and Spanish.  I got it to practice my Spanish.  I mean, how impressive would it be if I could recite the Pied Piper tale in Spanish?  It should be really fun.

The Great Bookstore Receipt Safari: The Second Stop

Our next stop was in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.  The bookstore I had found was The Book Rack, one of a sort of chain of used bookstores.  It was AMAZING.  Walls and shelves of books.  Walls made of books (almost).  It's children's/YA selection wasn't large, but it was decent, and I succeeded in snagging six books.

I actually found another Diana Wynne Jones!  This is Mixed Magics, a collection of four stories set in her Chrestomanci world.  I've recently read it from the library, but I definitely needed it for my collection.

Next was May Bird Among The Stars by Jodi Lynn Anderson.  I've read the first May Bird book, May Bird And The Ever After, which was pretty much adorable, so I'm looking forward to this one.

I snagged a copy of The Mayflower Project, the first Remnants book by K.A. Applegate.  Definitely my favorite series by her, Remnants takes a while to get started, but when it does... hoo boy.

Yay, the store had manga!  Not much, granted, but some.  I got the sixth volume of Bleach, The Death Trilogy Overture, which I have already read but still need.  My Bleach collection officially starts at six. (And it was only four dollars.  FOUR DOLLARS for manga.)  I totally admit to picking Vol. 6 because it has Kisuke on the cover.

And we have ANOTHER of my favorite authors ever.  P.W. Catanese, The Eye of the Warlock, the third book in his Further Tales collection.  This one takes place after Hansel and Gretel.  Can't wait.

And finally, we have Vivian Vande Velde's The Rumpelstiltskin Problem, a collection of six stories retelling the Rumpelstiltskin tale.  I'm a huge Rumpelstiltskin fan (totally has NOTHING to do with the Once Upon A Time character, definitely not) and I generally really like this author's stuff, even if I'm not a big fan of short stories.  So this should be fun.

The Great Bookstore Receipt Safari: It Starts Again

Last Sunday, my mother and I began our roadtrip to Olathe, Kansas, for the OYAN Summer Workshop.  Our first stop was in Mississippi.

...However, the bookstore I had found was closed on Sunday.  So I received no MS books.  Later, my precious.  Later.

Next came Memphis, Tennessee.  There, I located a bookstore called The Booksellers.  It was quite pretty and large, but sadly devoid of sales on children's/YA.  I had to sort of skimp on the books for that reason - only got two books.

Still, the first book I got was a Diana Wynne Jones one.  If you know anything about my reading life, you should know that I'm a rabid Jones fan.  I love her.  All her stuff.  Read it.  It's amazing.  

So, this one I found was The Homeward Bounders.  It looks as good as she ever is.  And it has a pretty new cover, too!

The other one was the ninth Cirque du Freak book, or the ninth Saga of Darren Shan book, or whatever you call them. (I'm still not totally clear.)  It's called Killers Of the Dawn by Darren Shan, anyway.  Okay, I've only read the first two, but you should always be prepared!

The Great Bookstore Receipt Safari: How It All Started

In November of last year, I went to Lynchberg, Virginia, to check out Liberty University with some friends of mine.  LU was cool, but not the place for me; still, it had a bookstore!

While in Virginia, I bought four books.

1. The Kings of Clonmel by John Flanagan.  The eighth Ranger's Apprentice book.  SQUEEEEE.

2. No Passengers Beyond This Point by Gennifer Choldenko.  She wrote the Al Capone Does My Shirts duology, which is awesome.  As was No Passengers.

3. I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter.  Eh.  It was chick fluff with spies.  All right.

4. And the best for last... THE COMPLETE TALES AND POEMS OF EDGAR ALLEN POE.

YES.  It is that amazing.

Is that not beautiful?

I would have gone to VA just for that.

The Great Bookstore Receipt Safari

I don't really travel a whole lot.  Sadly.  I want to.  And when I do travel, it's hard for me to buy mementos.  Y'know, the cheesy little snowglobes, or stuffed animals, or shot glasses, or whatever.  I just don't have space for it.

BUT.  I am an avid, manic, insane reader.  So I've decided that, for each state I visit, I'm going to collect...

A BOOKSTORE RECEIPT!

Yes.  Be jealous that you didn't think of it before I did.

Anyway, so far in my life I've visited a few states outside my own, but not before I began collecting receipts.  Then I went to Virginia a while back, and that's when my search got started.

If you're an OYANer reading this, you know I went to the One Year Adventure Novel Summer Workshop in Kansas. (If you're not an OYANer, but you are a writer, I'd suggest looking this up.  If just for the forum, to get feedback on your writing.)  Well, my state is quite a ways from Kansas, so on my roadtrip, I got to visit a few new states to collect receipts.

Thus begins my Great Bookstore Receipt Safari.

Look! I'm on a Team!

TEAMS!

Any self-respecting female reader of the wonderful world of YA paranormal fantasy can tell you what Teams mean.  It means taking a stand.  It means setting an example for the young girls that follow in your wake.  It means truth, justice, and the American-

Okay, yeah, I'm laughing my head off over here.  Teams is more like where you decide which love interest is hottest and cheer him on.

I'm so glad to be a teenaged girl in this magnificent age of glorious literature.

Overload of sarcasm aside, Teaming can be fun.  (My issue is Teams becoming the main focus of a series when romance should so very not be the main focus, but that's a rant for another day.)  I Team around with some of the few YA series that I actually like.  It's fun in moderate amounts because, hey, what literary girl doesn't like arguing over which character is better?  Especially when it's between two well-crafted, interesting male chars...

(Hear me, YA authors?  I said WELL-CRAFTED.  INTERESTING.  I'll go into details some other day.)

All this to say - I found Team badges!  Most of the books I haven't read/can't make myself read, but there are a few.  Anyway, these badges are really cool.  If you like Teams.  In intelligent amounts.  Never forgetting that YA books should also have PLOT and not just insta-romance...

Yeah.  Here are my badges.

Simon is pretty much the ONLY character in that crazy series I liked.  And then I read a couple chapters into City of Fallen Angels and he was an idiot.  Couldn't keep reading them after that.



I've gotta say.  I read My Soul To Whatever The First Book's Word Is and gave up because I couldn't stand anyone.  Except Tod.  I've tried to wash the taste of the book out of my mind, but Tod was definitely good.  I like Tod.  Tod should dump them all and be awesome by himself.  Do I hear an amen?

ARIEL!  Because WHO WOULDN'T?  (Don't spoil anything for me - So Silver Bright is sitting on my To-Read stack.)  I mean... seriously.  The injured, broken, proud, kind of creepy but ever-so-polite (after Eyes Like Stars) wind spirit from The Tempest.  Nate, you never had a chance with me.


(Also learned some things about popular YA PNR that I didn't want to know.  For instance, there are FOUR love interests in House of Night?  No. thank. you.)

(And there's a Loki in the Trylle Trilogy?  It looked hideous, but I may have to look that up.  Because if there is even a hint of my dear precious Loki in anything, I will have to read it [I'll have to rant about my Unhealthy Obsession with Loki Laufeyson in the future].)

(Oh, and you ask about Hunger Games Teams?  I refuse.  The romance in HG is ridiculously played up when there are so many other things you should be focusing on.  Like, I dunno, THE INJUSTICE OF THE WHOLE KILLING THING.  However, if you have to know, the whole Gale vs. Peeta thing was never a big deal.  The real battle was between CINNA VS. FINNICK, Y'ALL.  Cinna wins by a nose.)

Thanks to I'm Loving Books for the badges - they're awesome.  Blogger wouldn't work with the cut-and-paste link, so I just used the image.  Also check out the favorite series banners - I may have another post for those...

OH.  And when I find Anime/Manga Team Banners, I will so be back.  Because those are even better than American YA.

Color psychology.

I'm an artist.  I love colors.  And I've recently been getting into color symbolism, color 'psychology,' etc.  I found out about this test, the Lüscher color test - I'm not sure how it works, because you have to pay to see it, but I found one based on it.  Usually not very accurate, right?  Except that I took it anyway, and... wow.

It's pretty accurate.  You can read my results here: Cactus's Mental State [Step Carefully]

Now, like it says, it's just a five-minute test.  You're by no means supposed to take this as 'OH STARS, MY ENTIRE LIFE IS EXPLAINED.'  You can't figure yourself out with any amount of color psychology.

But still - it's interesting to see how your favorite colors aren't quite as arbitrary as you may think.  

Take the quiz here: Color Quiz

[Oh.  Ignore the first and last paragraphs under Your Restrained Characteristics. *cough* Not me.]