REVIEW: The Wives by Tarryn Fisher

Ah, I feel a mystery/thriller binge coming along. Especially with audio books.

Seth is, admittedly, a polygamist. He currently has three wives. He stays with them for a couple days a week then moves on to the next wife as scheduled. It’s not a very ideal arrangement but the wives seem to treasure every moment spent with him. All of them are crazy over him even if they only get him for three days max. The wives have never met and per arrangement, should never meet.

The first part was definitely a full 5 stars. The set up of the whole “multiple wives” idea was so smooth. Every(other)day, this guy goes home to a different wife and they are coded depending on what day he comes home to them. The book’s POV is the Thursday wife. It’s made clear at the beginning that this is a polygamous relationship and not simply a secret affair he’s holding with many women. The Thursday wife seemed to be “okay” with the arrangement and basked in the attention he was giving her during their time together.

But that doesn’t mean she was not curious. She knew of the other wives but of course, she doesn’t know them personally. Their arrangement involves them never meeting or not exchanging any personal information. Until Thursday sees a seemingly random communication bearing one of the other wives’ names. Curiosity gets the better of her and she decides to investigate.

This opens a whole network of deceit and manipulation. Who are these other Wives? Who really is this Husband?

Then we get to the second half of the novel where everything starts to unravel. And everything got out of hand too fast. At least for me. It wasn’t bad per se. It wasn’t even too-too predictable. But it wasn’t that… satisfying? I appreciate the fact that it did keep me guessing until the very end. However, it was all over the place. So many things happened one after the other and it didn’t click all that well. The ultimate fates of some of the main players in the book only had a sentence of explanation and after a set-up like this one had, that simply wasn’t satisfying enough.

The book dealt with a lot of things: polygamy, loss, mental health, abuse. I love that the reader was kept in the dark from a lot of things by using a single POV to tell the story. It kept me wanting to know more and while I was disappointed with the ending, reading the set-up part was totally enjoyable.

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars. Maybe a 3.75 even.

REVIEW: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

(I haven’t posted a review on this blog in literal years. On Goodreads, it’s spotty at best but I’m trying, okay?)

For my first read of the year, I went with a little novella about… well, a convenience store woman by the Japanese author, Sayaka Murata. I saw this available on Hoopla Digital and for a little over three hours of that day, I had something to do.

I felt that this was a perfect read for to ease myself into the year and into one of my “resolutions” of reading more books by Asian authors. And I’ve always wanted to read this since I first saw it at Kinokuniya. The narrator, Nancy Wu, did a good job of pronouncing the character names so it was a win-win for me.

What is a “convenience store”? Here in the US, we have 7-Eleven and gas station mini shops, and specifically in the Los Angeles Union Station, a Trimana. In Japan, they also have 7-Eleven and other stores called Family Mart, Lawson, Daily Yamazaki, and so many more.  So what is a “convenience store woman”? It is what it says… a woman working in a convenience store. And she is our main character in this story.

(The Japanese title 「コンビニ人間」 literally translate to “convenience store person”.)

Keiko Furukura is 36 years old but still works parttime in a convenience store (when I was reading this, I was picturing a Family Mart). She shows up early the same time everyday, restocks shelves as needed, greets patrons with fervor, promotes timed sales, and is just an all-around yet unassuming part of the team. This book is a hilarious slice of life of everyday Japanese people. There’s a convenience store in every corner, especially in the big cities. A lot of them are open 24/7 and there’s always a person there greeting you “いらっしゃいませ！(Irasshaimase!)” But probably not as lively as Keiko would. 😉

I loved this so much. I was so engaged! If you don’t know, I spent a good part of 2019 traveling to Japan, where this book is set, and there is pretty much a convenience store (or three) at almost every block. It honestly kept me fed for the most part of my trips whenever I was too tired to go to a proper restaurant… or if my brain to too fried to manage in what little Japanese I know. I’ve become very familiar with convenience stores in Japan – as a customer, of course. If it carries onigiri, I might’ve gone through their doors. The hotel I frequent has a Family Mart at their ground floor and that’s where I tasted the best napolitan thus far.

I found myself nodding and laughing at so many parts of this book. From the greetings to how they arrange their wares to “make sure you get out of the way when you see a customer looking at something on the shelf”. It was such a slice-of-life, not just for the konbini workers, but also to the patrons of such establishments. If you’ve been to one, you would probably agree with me lol.

The author even expanded to Keiko’s life when she’s not working. It gave a peek at how Japanese society view age, jobs, family, and social status. While Keiko’s former classmates and “same-age friends” have married and had children and careers, she was content with her baito – part time job – at the convenience store and being single. This fact is disappointing to her parents and even to some of her friends. She finds support from her younger sister but that doesn’t stop her from hoping more things for Keiko.

Overall, it was a short and very enjoyable read. Now, I miss Tokyo. XD But it looks like I’ll be coming back for a visit some time soon!

(Also, I listened to this in English and found myself translating some scenes back to Japanese. It was THAT relatable to me!)

コンビニ人間 (Konbini ningen) by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori

Rating: 5 stars.

TOP TEN TUESDAYS | Bookish Discoveries of 2019

Remember how I used to do this like clockwork? Well, let’s do it again!

(I know it’s not a Tuesday today but I was honestly busy at work yesterday for a change lmao. And yes, I still blog at work.)

I have quite a few things that I realized in 2019 but I don’t think I can make it to ten. In fact, not all of these might be bookish exactly. 2019 was a rollercoaster year and I admit that reading took a backseat from it all. However, it was a year of trying new things and that definitely included my reading habits.

• I can stick to and finish yearly challenges! I was able to finish the Big Bad Shhlut 2019 Reading Challenge. It took almost the whole year but I did it. I didn’t win the giveaway in the end but I read a book each to satisfy the challenge (pun lol). I’m not doing it again for this year though.
• Mystery Thriller is still one of my favorite genres. Looking through my read category on GoodReads, I haven’t been reading that many mystery thriller books. That changed towards the end of last year and I flew through two good ones. I didn’t want to read mysteries back-to-back because these books tend to get formulaic and I don’t want to burn myself out. But that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy them. Definitely reading more of that in 2020.
• True Crime books are awesome on audio. Thanks to the podcast, My Favorite Murder, I found some amazing true crime books on audio. It’s like listening to another podcast or a news report. I enjoyed The Real Lolita by Sarah Weinman so much. It was very well narrated and it hooked me from the start.
• I can’t read while on vacation. Not totally. I mean, I was able to read Kokoro by Natsume Soseki when I was en route to Tokyo last May 2019… because I kind of had to. I was scheduled to watch a reading drama of that piece the night of my arrival. But once I got to Tokyo, I didn’t touch my ereader anymore. This past December, I read a good chunk of Beyond Scandal and Desire by Lorraine Heath at the airport because I had literally eight hours to kill. So I can read while on vacation but I don’t choose to read if I’m not at home.
• My favorite romance trope is age gap. Especially forbidden age gaps. Older man / younger woman. I tend to read through them faster than cutesy contemporary romances.
• I love me some motorcycle romances. And yes, bonus if it includes an age gap. I like that they’re kind of dark and all those tattooed men goodness, oooh! My current picks are from Carian Cole and TM Frazier. What I could give for signed books from them!

(Referring to the 5th item… do you have age gap romance recommendations? I have quite a bit on my TBR but I’m open to more suggestions. If that’s not your thing, that’s totally fine too.)

I’M BACK! Sorta.

Happy 2020, one and all! How have you guys been?

Things are wonderful on my end. I’ve done a crapton of traveling (quarterly visits to Tokyo, literally). A lot of crafting was done over the holidays; I wanted most of my gifts to be handmade so I’ve been swimming in more yarn than I can crochet lately. I’ve experienced so many amazing things from an intense 3-day anisong concert to meeting my favorite Japanese stage actors. My 2019 life had been very good.

My 2019 reading life, however, er… that kind of suffered. I only read 81 things last year, some of those are manga re-reads or just speeding through a series to add to my numbers. Since I was traveling, I barely had any reading done. There were weeks where I didn’t even look at a book, much less pick one  up to read it. I did finish an audio book while in Japan only because my lease on that was coming up. I know 81 books is nothing to laugh about but in general, it was a rather weak reading year for me. I did enjoy quite a few books but towards the end of the year, I just wasn’t reading.

This year, I want to change that. Not only to read more but also to read more physical books. I, too, was sucked into the whole Book Outlet and books for cheap hype. Across used bookstores, thrift shops, and online sellers, I’ve accumulated a lot of physical books. (Hah, my yarn stash is starting to sing the same tune.) However, I also have e-readers and quite frankly, they are much more convenient to tote around on the go. I don’t think I even read a physical book all of last year apart from some light novels and manga. I already told myself that if I were to buy a book, it should be either signed or less than $10 brand new. (LOL, let’s see how long I can stick to that.)

Anyway, I don’t usually do this IRL but here are my 2020 READING RESOLUTIONS. I can’t guarantee anything but I am determined to stick to these few. It’s about time I get back into reading because it’s fun and I enjoy it very much.

For the first one, I already mentioned it: Reading more PHYSICAL books. I’m still going to read on my e-reader and listen to audio books but I will make an effort to read an actual book for a change. I have piles and piles in my room. I do have a book sleeve I bought YEARS ago and I want to be one of the cool kids that use theirs. And I honestly want to buy more of those book sleeves.

Speaking of piles of books, I want to try to Unhaul the books that either I’m no longer interested in or those that I didn’t like. That will then motivate me to read an actual book in order to decide whether I like that book or not. I mostly have older titles because I never really kept up with what’s new. I’m overwhelmed as it is haha. So I hope that will make this whole unhauling business a little bit easier.

Next on my list is to Review books on GoodReads. “I like it” or “It was meh” don’t cut it anymore. I used to word vomit on some titles – even blogging about them here – but lately, I’ve been uninspired. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve read quite a few amazing (and awful) books but none have fired me up enough to sit down and spend time to write about it. It’s one of those “I can’t be bothered” moments. I do have something to say but… I was lazy, I guess. If my falling from the face of this blog was any indication. 😉

One thing that I think was to blame for my disinterest in reviewing stuff was my goal of completing reading challenges. I would sometimes pick a book just so I can fulfill an item off the prompts. So it felt like it was forced rather than me really wanting to read something. Or instead of reading something I like, I’d reading something else just to cross that item off the list. Am I the only crazy one who feels this way? I’m definitely overthinking things, right?  So in that vein, my next resolution is to Not join annual reading challenges or readathons. I must say that I enjoyed the smutty reading challenge a lot! But while trying to complete that, I got so overwhelmed by the millions of romance books in existence. I tend to read oddly specific tropes, usually back-to-back, and I end up losing track of my reading plans.

I may participate in Tome Topple since that’s more chill and it gives me an excuse to tackle a 500-page book. Not that it’s needed. But that readathon is quite fun and the organizers are really supportive. So it’s not a total write off. Just… the less pressure the better.

I also want to go back to my yearly resolution of reading more from Asian authors, especially Japanese ones. I have quite a collection of Japanese fiction and I want to make a dent on that pile. I’m open to reading from other Asian authors but my priority is definitely Japanese ones. This includes light novels and manga.

What else? Oh, not really reading related but I do want to Write More. Not just blog posts and reviews, but in general. Honestly, I’ve sort of neglected my bullet journal for about a month now (vacation is fun but everything IRL takes a backseat lol). That used to be my main writing outlet. I also used to write fan fiction. I have so many ideas still! But right now, I don’t think I’ll post them anywhere. I would rather write them down in a notebook (I specifically bought a Moleskine squared grid notebook for this purpose last year)… and probably hide them for the rest of eternity. Hey, at least I got it out of my brain!

I think that’s it. I’m sorta back in the game. Maybe. Let’s see how long I can keep this up.

If you’re curious about the other stuff that I’m doing, the best place to keep up with me is my Instagram, I guess. And Twitter, if you’re interested.

So I guess, I’ll see you when I see you!

WRAP-UP | April 2019 + #TomeTopple Round 8

I’m such an awful book blogger. I tend to disappear with weeks and months only to come back with super late and almost irrelevant posts. But if you’re still here, still reading, I thank you so much. Like with every aspect of my fangirl life, I barely have reading mutuals IRL. So you, my bookish internet mutuals, are very much appreciated.

(If you want to know why I’ve been MIA apart my from my usual “life happens” spiel, do check out my Twitter and Instagram. Yes, life did happen – is happening – but all in a good way.)

Anyway, it’s a month late but here’s what happened with my Tome Topple Round 8 participation. I’ve decided this was my most successful attempt yet. There were only two set books in my TBR and I stuck with it. Nothing more and nothing less. I had a day or two left of the readathon after finishing my 2nd book but I was also prepping for an international trip so I capped it there.

 

I loved The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata (5 stars) so damn much. It was 16 hours on audio, 673 pages of slow burn goodness. I was saving this book for Tome Topple because it’s a romance book that satisfy the only important rule of this readathon. Then I also finished The Demon Crown by James Rollins (4 stars), part of the Sigma Force series that I love so much. I cheated on this a bit because the hardcover is a bit under 500 pages so I went with the ebook (and mass paperback) pagination that puts it at around 600.

I told myself that I’ll finally by catching up to Sigma Force so I strong armed this book for Tome Topple. Turns out, it’s partially set in Tokyo with Japanese characters… I was going to Japan at the beginning of May. Yeah. This is going to be a recurring event in the next month also.

The rest of my April reads were Soulless by TM Frazier (5 stars) and The Stone Sky by NK Jemisin (5 stars). I was supposed to read the latter for Sequelathon but was unable to finish it within the time allotted. But I loved it so much, as well as every TM Frazier book I’ve read so far.

In total, I read 2037 pages, two audio books. Not a single manga. XD

(I initially wanted this to be a readathon wrap-up for both Tome Topple and the Asian Readathon until I realized that my Asian Readathon IS my May wrap-up. LOL. Stay tuned for that.)

#AsianReadathon | May 2019

I know it’s super duper late but I can still put this up, right? I’m aware that I haven’t even posted wrap ups for April and Tome Topple but I’ll make it up to you with double wrap ups by the beginning of June. I hope. XD

 

Photo by Yours Truly.

I was super excited when Cindy from @readwithcindy announced that this readathon is a go. For the whole month of May. It was perfect because for the first ten days of May, I will be in Japan. Surely, I’ll be so inspired to read books by Asian authors there, right?

Weeeeell… I sort of can’t read for leisure when I’m on vacation. Time and time again, I’ve proven that. However, I had some “required reading” to do for the shows that I was going to watch while in Tokyo. They were by Asian authors, with Asian characters, translated from the original Japanese, and two are manga. Great.

And they were. All three books were amazing and reading them definitely enhanced my enjoyment of their stage adaptations. I’m glad that I was able to read them since my Japanese isn’t 100%. My listening skills are definitely better than my speaking and reading. Having the knowledge from the source material helped it along.

But I digress. I know we have ten days before the end of May but here we go.

This readathon is hosted by:

CINDY | SANDRA| CHLOE | KAV  | ELLIAS

I runs the whole month of May in celebration of the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM).

For the record, I am Asian. I’m Filipino. So with that, plus sending the first ten day of May in Japan, a certified lover of anime, manga, and Japanese fiction… this should be fun.

The challenges are very chill and since this readathon runs the whole month, there’s not much pressure. I think the hardest thing for me is to not fill this up with Japanese authors. I mainly read Japanese fiction in terms of Asian literature, not to mention my love for manga over graphic novels.

Challenges:

1. Read any book by an Asian author.  (Any of these count but I’m picking The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco for this. A fellow Filipina!)
2. Read a graphic novel featuring an Asian character or written/drawn by an Asian author. (I read Haikyuu Volumes 22 and 23 by Haruichi Furudate for this. It was in preparation for Hyper Projection Engeki Haikyuu: Tokyo no Jin. It’s a 2.5D stage play. Look it up. You’ll thank me later.)
3. Read a book featuring an intersectional Asian character or written by an intersectional Asian identity (i.e. queer, mixed, disabled, neurodiverse, etc). (I read The Bride Test by Helen Hoang. Thank you, Hoopla for your no-wait system for audio books.)
4. Read a book by Asian author that was originally written in their native language (translated books and graphic novels count). (Kokoro by Natsume Soseki was my pick. I read it because I was going to watch a recitation drama by Japanese voice actors on my very first day in Japan. It was life-changing.)
5. Read the group book: A Thousand Beginnings and Endings by Ellen Oh, which will be covered in the live show on Saturday, May 25 at 6pm EST on readwithcindy’s channel. (I’m currently reading this. Unfortunately, short stories aren’t my thing and it actually takes me longer to read these than single story books.)

If you want, you can fill everything with manga. Or manhwa to have some variety. I’m interested in re-reading the rest of Haikyuu because I was just so inspired by the stage play that I want to relive the next arcs.

I know I keep mentioning Japanese work. It’s because I’m most familiar with them. Japanese thrillers are amazing. But I have read works by other Asian authors. I’m open to reading more, not just during this readathon. I love reading other people’s TBRs and recommendations.

So let’s make the most out of the rest of the month. I hope we all continue to read books by Asian authors and with Asian representation.

#TomeTopple | ROUND 8 (4/13 through 4/26)

It’s back! I am excite.

So far, I’ve been doing well on my “one readathon a month” thing. I was hoping the Tome Topple announcement will come through before I decide on another on. And here we are!

The Tome Topple Readathon is created by Sam from Thoughts on Tomes. The GoodReads group for this readathon can be found here. If you’re looking for recommendations, inspiration, and/or buddies to read with, go check out the group.

This readathon is hosted by:

SAM | ADRIANA | SARAH-JANE | SIAN |  CAZ | SAM 2

It’s going to be from 12AM of April 13 through 11:59PM of April 26, your time zone.

I won’t be doing much explanation here. You do you. As long as you read a book that is 500 pages or more. It can be of any format as long as it comes in something that has 500 pages. You can pick an audio book that may look short (say, 10 hours) but the printed copy has 600 pages. Or maybe the hardcover has 450 but the mass market paperback has 700. That counts too.

There are challenges but I think for this year, I’m just going to pick two books and go with those. Of course I’m going to make it count… somehow.

READING CHALLENGES:

1. Read more than one tome
2. Read the tome that’s been on your TBR the longest
3. Read a tome that’s part of a series
4. Read a tome from a genre you don’t usually read
5. Read an adult novel
6. Instagram challenges. (TBD)

What’s crazy is that these last two weeks of April is going to be hectic for me. Mostly packing and trip planning for Japan. Hopefully, I can use that time to audio book or read on my breaks.

So what am I reading? Here are the main two titles:

• The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata. The physical copy has 673 pages but I’ll be listening to this on audio. Mariana Zapata has some LONG books and I heard they are very slow burn. I picked this because a lot of people on GoodReads shelved this under “book boyfriend”. I can’t wait. I’m going to make this count for prompt #4 because it’s only been a couple of months since I read romance extensively. Also, prompt #5.
• The Demon Crown by James Rollins. I’m in a James Rollins kick, okay. I do own a signed hard copy of this book. However, I’ll be reading the ebook because that has 672 pages according to GoodReads. And of course, being on the go, I always have my e-reader with me. This satisfies prompt #3 and 5. If I happen to finish both within the two weeks, that takes care of #1.

In the event that I finish one early and I still have time to squeeze in another book (at least start it), I’ll probably pick up Courting Darkness by Robin LaFevers. The hardcover says 498 pages but, come on… two pages more? 😉 If not that, maybe another Mariana Zapata (audio) book.

Let’s see how well I do this round. Good luck to all participants!

WRAP-UP | MARCH 2019 + SEQUELATHON

It was a modest reading month. I did participate in a readathon but I can’t say it was a smashing success. For shame. It was a rather easy one but it just goes to show how much a mood reader I really am.

But this was a rather unique reading month for me. I did not read a single manga… something that I will hopefully remedy this month and the next. Also, all five of my reads are from the NA romance genre, three from the same author, the same series. It’s not as if I’m consciously crossing out prompts from the annual challenge. It’s what I’m in the mood for.

I’m thinking that April will be different. I went to a James Rollins signing and that inspired me to go back to one of my favorite genres, mystery/thrillers. They’re fun and easy to read or listen to on audio.

In 2011, I won a Goodreads giveaway for the book The Devil Colony by James Rollins. I had no idea what I was getting into. Eleven Sigma Force novels (and 4 of his other works) later, I finally met one of my favorite authors! Thank you so very much, Mr. Rollins, for these incredible books. And thank you, Vroman’s Bookstore for the opportunity. It seriously made my month. It was so exciting to hear his speak. I asked him who was his favorite character to write and he said it was Kowalski. He liked him so much that he brought him over to Sigma Force from Ice Hunt. And because of that, I’m listening to Ice Hunt right now.

Needless to say, I bought books in March. All of them signed, of course. On the day of the signing, I scored a signed copy of The Judas Strain from a used bookstore. From the same store, I bought a mass paperback copy of Blood Line, my favorite from the series, and The Bone Labyrinth, to bring to the signing. I do have copies of James Rollins’ books in my house but it’s a literal excavation getting to them. Then I bought Crucible at Vroman’s so I can get into the signing line. Keeping up with this signed book thing is working so far.

Even if I only read 5 books, I consider it a good reading month. I didn’t take the easy way by padding my numbers with manga, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Again, mood. Then I was able to stick with a series. And I was able to be a bit more critical with my rating. I would like to continue this trend. Never mind reading “less”.

(However, I’ve been binge-watching reading vlogs lately. They’re seriously inspiring me to read more. But. The new anime season is here. OTL.)

TOTAL BOOKS READ: 5.

• King by TM Frazier – I’m still getting used to aggressive alpha males but oh boy, that ending! I’ve been meaning to pick this book/series up for a while now. I heard this is a good dark motorcycle club “romance”. A lot of blood and violence. At first, I wasn’t too sure about the possessiveness of the guy and the blatant drug use but the more I read it, I’m actually liking it. 4/5 stars.
• The Controversial Princess by Jodi Ellen Malpas –  Okay. So. Adeline. I have some words. I went into this with high hopes. As you know, I like the royalty trope. But… I did not like this book. Yes, I was expecting the ending but everything happened in between felt so detached and unnecessarily long. Adeline is dumb and I wanted to punch Josh every time he opened his damn mouth. Oh Adeline… I have no idea how real royalty is but I sure as hell know regular people as stupid and useless as her so I know how and why her character irritates me. And Josh should just go the fck away. However, I like Damon. He can stay. Everyone else can leave. That’s one whole star for him and the other for the ending that I 1000% expected. Who knows… maybe I’ll read the next one too, a glutton for punishment. 2/5 stars.
• Tyrant by TM Frazier –  2nd part of the King/Doe arc. This was pretty dark. Like, I was shocked. There were some parts that I didn’t expect but it all wrapped up well in the end. I don’t know how people come out of this without some kind of psychological problem. Just… wow. 4/5 stars.
• Gabriel’s Inferno by Sylvain Reynard –  I finally got to this book and it didn’t live up to the hype that was in my head. It was a 20-hour audiobook. If I have to hear the narrator say “Julianne” one more time, there’d be hell to pay. It was longer than necessary and that ending was rushed, I literally missed it. (I listen to audio books at work so half my attention is elsewhere. Next thing I know, it’s the acknowledgements.) It was bordering on pretentious. I was expecting that but I just can’t get over the damn “Julianne” thing. Will I continue with the rest? Maybe. Idk. Someday. 3/5 stars.
• Lawless by TM Frazier – I didn’t realize that I was alternating my reading. This one I read for Sequelathon. I thought of taking a break from TM Frazier after finishing one arc but I needed to read about Bear and his girl, Thia. I like Bear. I liked him even in King’s story. I enjoyed the narration of his POV; it has me literally laughing out loud at some parts. Something awful was done to him at the end of Tyrant but he never let that show. He did drown himself in bad things but when he was needed to step up, he pushed through his pain. Thia, wow. I liked her too. Although I didn’t get much of her personality. (It could be my fault because I was so into Bear lol.) These two are very damaged people who found strength in each other. I liked that. 4/5 stars.

STATS:

• 1733 pages
• 3 audio books

As for Sequelathon, I got about 70% of The Stone Sky before the readathon ended. So my only book read for this particular readathon is Lawless… which is sort of a spin-off sequel, if that makes sense. It does not directly follow the book that came before it, however, it’s in the same series. Eh, whatever. It counts. XD

For this month, my readathon pick is one of my favorites… TOME TOPPLE! I’ll post my announcement and reading plans within the week.

#T5W | Bookshelf Collectibles

This week is a freebie so we’ll be talking about our favorite bookshelf collectibles.

I call it “shelf clutter”. XD The KonMari method cannot exist in my fangirl world. EVERYTHING in my collection sparks joy.

However, I’m not much into the bookish fandom. 90% of my “bookshelf collectible” is from the anime fandom. Yes, I do have special edition and signed books but that’s about it. Compared to my anime stuff, it’s merely a speck of dust lol.

My short answer to this week’s topic is to just visit my MYFIGURECOLLECTION account and my INSTAGRAM feed. And yet, that’s not my complete collection. Most of it yes, but not all. Yes, I know… I need help. (I don’t want help LOL.)

But to break it down, here are the 5 main categories of my shelf clutter:

• Signed books.
  I’m trying to curb my book buying by only purchasing signed books. And only by authors that I actually like. I have a couple from Pierce Brown, VE Schwab, Marie Lu, and James Rollins. Some of them are even personalized. I do buy signed copies online and from bookstores but that’s about it.
• Blu-rays and DVDs.
  Complete boxed sets of anime, official stage play recordings, and live concerts. Oh man, they are expensive. Sigh. But I want them. They make me happy. I’ve pirated enough times in my younger years and I’m atoning that now.
• Nendoroids and scale figures.
  This hobby. THIS. HOBBY. I first said I’ll only collect Haikyuu and Yuri On Ice figures. Lies. I’m too much of a sucker for cute stuff and good anime to stick to that. Also, scale figures. Haikyuu, I’m telling you. I’m NOT a fan of Funko Pop but I made an exception with My Hero Academia. Yes, I also have the two Nendoroids and a couple of Banpresto figures but I wanted that glow-in-the-dark All Might and the Toshinori Yagi one. Until they make an Iida Nendoroid, it stays. Plus my Uraraka is the SDCC exclusive. I also have a Tommy Pickles Nendoroid… signed by EG Daily. You can’t say I slack on collecting just because I don’t like the medium. 😉
• Charms and pins.
  I’m more obsessed with those can badge covers actually LOL. I recently rediscovered my love for pin badges and I’m happy to have quite a collection of both fanmade and official ones. Same with rubber and acrylic straps. I love decorating my bags with them; yes, even the expensive ones. I did buy cheapo bags from AliExpress just so I can put pin holes in them.
• GUNPLA.
  For those not in the know, it stands for Gundam Plastic (models). They’re basically robots that you have to assemble. They originate from the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise and once you start, good luck stopping yourself from buying and assembling kits. My brother and I have quite a few already put together and yet so many still left untouched. It’s so relaxing, yet time consuming. But hey, isn’t that why we have audio books?

There you go. I admit it does look excessive and yes, it is. But it sparks joy in my life and the collector in me is happy when I find something special in a price that I agree with. I’ve gotten $2 signed books at thrift shops, hard-to-find figures for a steal, super cute fanmade merch in a bundle.

If ever I get my own house, all these will have their own room. XD

TOP TEN TUESDAYS | Not by the Cover

Last time, I used this weekly tag to break up the monotony. Now, I have them two in a row. Oh lol.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday the ten things that make me pick up a book.

I will try not to make this solely about NA romance. I’m still quite picky when it comes to that genre while I’m pretty much open to anything else. Maybe not Christian fiction. I mean, after strictly reading fantasy and mystery, I managed to find myself up to the eyeballs in romance.

With so many books out there, we all somewhat have stuff that tickles our fancy. Something that makes us pick that one book over the 1500 others in the same pile. Something that we gravitate towards in the sea of different genres available. And here is my list:

(I figured I’ll put the romance related stuff first.)

1. Age gap romances.
   It’s not a guilty pleasure. I genuinely am trash for this trope. If a book features a significant age gap between the main characters, same sex or otherwise, I’m there. Most of my NA reads so far have age gaps and I have a couple more in my ever growing TBR list. I picked up Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas because of this.
2. Royal relationships.
   Or the “rich guy-poor girl” trope in general. What can I say, I grew up watching Taiwanese drama. 😉 I like it better when there’s a royal aspect in a relationship. Not exactly fairy tale vibes but more on the difference in social status.
3. M/M romance.
   Especially if it’s done well. I’ve read many in the past where it’s sensationalized and simply not written well and it turned me off from the subgenre for a while. However, I read how Sarina Bowen does M/M and I’m hooked all over again. Try listening to an M/M romance audio book. You’ll thank me later.
4. Taboo/forbidden relationships.
   Maybe romance, maybe not. This, I can call a guilty pleasure. I hesitate to admit this some times but I can’t lie… this trope makes me so curious. It started with Priest by Sierra Simone. I don’t have to tell you what that is about, right?
5. Adventure thrillers similar to Dan Brown and James Rollins.
   I read and loved all of Dan Brown’s work and same with James Rollins, although I have yet to read all his books. I met him last week and it was amazing. He’s been one of my favorite authors since 2011. Listening to the audio versions of these kinds of books is fun too. It’s like you’re on the adventure with them.
6. Japanese crime thrillers.
   The Japanese write the best crime novels. Keigo Higashino is definitely my favorite. It’s so subdued and very simple. And yet, they really give you a thrill. Some do shock like Confessions and Penance by Kanae Minato. You think you know what’s going on but one the very last page, they spring something huge. It either leaves you so very satisfied… or in tears!
7. True crime.
   I don’t read nearly enough true crime but I do love watching documentaries. I have one true crime novel to read for 2019. It’s slow going but I have the whole year to get through it. I admit, I watch more documentaries but I would also like to read more of this genre.
8. Holocaust/WWII.
   Non-fiction, YA, espionage, thriller… you name it. Yes, even documentaries. Although I didn’t quite enjoy The Diary of Anne Frank. Sorry.
9. Multi-format books.
   Think Illuminae and Night Film. They (literally) break up the blocks of text. And these types of books go by fast because the multimedia aspect takes up space and next thing you know, you’re halfway through the book.
10. If I liked the anime…
    I admit, this is how I find out most of my manga loves. If I liked the anime, I’ll check out the manga… not just to continue the story, but from the very beginning. One of the few mangas I read before the anime is Ten Count because… see #3. 😉 Same with Boku no Hero Academia for a bit until it became crazy popular in the West and the fans terrify me caught up with me and I kind of fell off the wagon. And quite frankly, I don’t want to catch up to the manga source materials yet. After all, volumes count as read count on GoodReads. LMAO.

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That’s my list. It looks more like favorite tropes but it’s not. What a book looks like is immaterial to me because I do most of my reading digitally or audibly. Maybe I should put on here something about the narrator? Then again, I can’t control that. If I can’t with the narrator, I can also read the book, no biggie.

I’m interested to see what’s on your list. 🙂