The Gift of Reading

I wanted to write about this topic last Wednesday, but then reconsidered because I thought an introductory post should actually be introductory; so I chose to postpone the gift of reading entry until tonight as you can see! I've always been a big reader so my family, without fail, always gets me a lot of gift cards for Chapters so that I can feed my addiction at Christmas. I got about $140.00 worth of them this year, and then spent them online the minute I got home. Anyone that knows me, knows that if you let me loose with money in any store that sells books 99.9% of the time I cannot leave without buying at least one, so you give me $140.00 in gift cards and it's gone in under half an hour (now you understand why I have a to be read pile that's over 9 feet tall). I decided to use this gift card to finish up some of the series that I started reading within the last 2 years, except for The Zombie Bible books, those I bought because I won the 3rd part of the series from Book Riot. I got 10 books:

Me and my Christmas haul!

1. The Book of Night Book 3 in Pearl North's Libyrinth trilogy

2. The Calling Book 2 in Kelley Armstrong's Darkness Rising

3. What Our Eyes Have Witnessed The Zombie Bible book 2 by Stant Litore

4. Death Has Come Up Into Our Windows The Zombie Bible book 1 by Stant Litore

5. Goliath the 3rd book in Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy

6. The Gray Wolf Throne Cinda William's Chima's 3rd Seven Realms novel

7. The Crimson Crown 4th of the Seven Realms novels

8. Serpent's Kiss sequel to the 1st Beauchamp Family novel, Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz

9. Tiger's Voyage Book 3 in Colleen Houck's Tiger Saga

10. Tiger's Destiny Follow-up to Tiger's Voyage

Jedi Shadow: Young Jedi Knights Books 1-3

I knew that I would be getting gift cards, and that always makes me happy, this year I decided since I love reading so much, and I actively encourage all of my friends to read I wanted to share the gift of reading with some of the smallest members of my family. My littlest cousin is 18-months old and he's just learning how to talk, so he got a toddler laptop that I selected for him because of it's alphabet activity, it says the letter, sounds it out, says a word that uses the letter, and then repeats the letter; it's a little electronic spelling bee champ without the spelling; he also got two storybook CDs, the ones where you hear the story and follow along in print. 

Jedi Sunrise: Young Jedi Knights Books 4-6

My other two little cousins are 9 and 7, the 9 year old is a little boy who is mad about Star Wars, child after my own heart I am a Star Wars fiend! So when I decided on books for the kids this year I knew exactly what books to get him, and it took searching a few of my go to book sites to find exactly what I was after: the expanded universe adventures of Han and Leia's twins and their friends.

Jedi Shadow contains:                      Jedi Sunrise contains:

1. Heirs of the Force                          4. Lightsabres

2. Shadow Academy                         5. Darkest Knight

3. The Lost Ones                               6. Jedi Under Siege

It turned out to be a good choice on my part because the moment he saw them he was so excited he ran back off to his room with them. His dad was pretty pleased to when I informed him what they were because his Dad is a big Star Wars fan too so these books are ones they'll definitely enjoy together.

The 7 year old is the 9 year old's sister, and as mad as he is about Star Wars she's just as mad about princesses. Now I'm a tomboy, always have been, so I never really understood the fascination with girly princesses and frills. That being said, there's one literary princess who I have always adored, most because she's a total action girl. Princess Cimorene of Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles. This series is one of my favourite series ever, and the author is one of my favourites, I love everything that she's written. So I got the box set of the four novels for her, and when she saw them she was as thrilled as her brother; and once again so was her dad; "Oh man! Check it out honey, that princess has a SWORD!" (or something to that effect haha).

It was definitely a good feeling to know that my cousins share my love of reading; and it definitely made me feel warm and fuzzy to make the discovery that they even share my reading tastes! They don't know it yet, but they'll be getting books from me every year now!

What books did you all give and receive this holiday season?

--Ren