Day of Thanks and Pie

Happy Thanksgiving! Today is when people watch the parade and football, agonizingly wait for the meal, and then stuff their faces. Oh, they also—hopefully—acknowledge the whos and the whats that they're thankful for. Instead of reiterating the same "family, friends, dog" list, I thought I'd highlight just a few of the bookish things (and whos) I'm thankful for as a reader and as a blogger. 

The Hunger Games, Gallagher Girls, and Seraphina

I mentioned in a previous post (and others) that The Hunger Games was a big stepping stone for me as a reader. After tons of historical and contemporary fiction, it was the first different genre I read. Gallagher Girls is contemporary, but it was still different from the other contemporaries for me. Also, this series gave me the best bookish characters to be friends with (my greatest wish was to be a Gallagher Girl). Seraphina was the first fantasy book I ever read and the first book I read to review later for my blog. Without these books, I wouldn't love so many books so much. 

Livia Blackburne, Stacey Kade, and Jessica Brody

The authors that I've met and interacted with have been many and they've all been wonderful, but these three were milestones for me. Blackburne gave me an incredible opportunity, Kade's The Hunt was one of the first ARCs I ever received and she was the first author I interviewed, and Brody gave me the best author meet-and-greet experience (we basically became bffs in two minutes). These women and their books rock.

Bloomsbury, HarperTeen, and Disney-Hyperion

These three publishers are the nicest publishers I've worked with and read from. I can't exactly go into detail, but Bloomsbury and its publicists have really made me grow as a blogger (they're also credited as giving me one of my first ARCs as well). HarperTeen has given us all the lovely EpicReads girls to interact with weekly. Then Disney-Hyperion has continually been an absolute joy to work with (doesn't hurt that the publicist I talk to is super nice) and never fails me with their books. Overall, though, these three have published some amazing books, especially in 2014. My reading log can prove it (and will do so with the End of the Year Survey coming in December).

I'm also incredibly grateful for: 

• Gifs
• ARCs
• Bloggers
• Fandoms
• And, of course, PIE

I'm thankful for all of you!

Top Ten Tuesday: Things on My Bookish Bucket List

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This list was actually surprisingly hard for me. Since I make challenges and daydreams for myself all the time, I assumed it would be easy. Oh boy, I barely made it to 10.

BEA
Obviously. I think every time there's a post about bucket lists or what I want to do this year, BEA will be on it. So keep scrolling. Nothing new on this point.

Meet more bloggers in person.

I WANT TO MEET ALL OF YOU. And squish you.

Actually read all books on Top Ten Tuesday TBR post.
I mentioned this in the last Top Ten post I did, where I listed books I wanted to read this spring, but I probably wouldn't complete it. Every season this happens. One day...

Read on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower.
Hey, it's bookish. I'd prefer it to be a nice, cool day in Paris and I'd be sipping on my freshly made coffee with a book in my hand. It'd be even better if it was set in Europe.

Meet a publicist in person.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to meet more authors, but I'd also love to meet publicists. So far, I haven't talked to one online that wasn't nice. Who doesn't love nice people? I want to squish all of you too.

Have my own reading room.

I thought putting library on there was too ambitious so I stuck with a "reading room." Basically, big comfy chairs, wall-to-wall shelves, and preferably a fireplace with a rolling library ladder. Also preferable: a window overlooking the city.

Read 150 books in one year
I've actually never counted how many books I've read in a year, but I am this year. Here's hoping.

Finish all the series I started
Graceling, Just One Day, Under the Never Sky, Everneath, the list goes embarrassingly long.

Read Harry Potter

I know.

Have coffee with YA authors
It doesn't have to be more than one, but I think it would be way more fun to sit down and drink/eat something with an author than quickly meet them at a convention. Girl time, if you will.

EDIT: Bonus: Right after I published this, I thought of one more and it was really big in my mind: Learn how to computer design/work with code. I'm always in awe of people who can make buttons or whatnot and I'd love to be able to do that.

What's on your bookish bucket list?