Thank you to all 158 of you who entered the latest Literary Giveaway Blog Hop hosted by Leeswammes. There can only be one winner though and that lucky person (generated by random.org) was #113

Sznikka

Sznikka will recieve a copy of The Secret History. Hope you enjoy!

Welcome to the second literary giveaway blog hop hosted by Judith at Leeswammes where there are a whole buncg of blogs giving away books! Hurrah! The last one was a great success with 28 blogs joining in the fun and this year there are even more (make sure you pop over to see who else is giving lovely books away). What better way to start the weekend than to have a little mosey at all those lovely books being given away and trying to win some (or all) of them! Good luck!

As I did last time I will again be offering a choice of 3 books. All three books are ones that I have absolutely adored (and all of them are in my top 10 favourite books):

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

“This is a seductive and evocative epic on an intimate scale, which tells the extraordinary story of a geisha girl. Summoning up more than twenty years of Japan’s most dramatic history, it uncovers a hidden world of eroticism and enchantment, exploitation and degradation. From a small fishing village in 1929, the tale moves to the glamorous and decadent heart of Kyoto in the 1930s, where a young peasant girl is sold as servant and apprentice to a renowned geisha house.”

This book completely and utterly spellboung me. It is beautiful, exquisite and you cannot fail to be moved by this book.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

“A misfit at an exclusive New England college, Richard finds kindred spirits in the five eccentric students of his ancient Greek class. But his new friends have a horrific secret. When blackmail and violence threaten to blow their privileged lives apart, they drag Richard into the nightmare that engulfs them. And soon they enter a terrifying heart of darkness from which they may never return.”

This book is amazing; pure brilliance! Read it!

Blindness by Jose Saramago

“A driver waiting at the traffic lights goes blind. An opthamologist tries to diagnose his distinctive white blindness, but is affected before he can read the textbooks. It becomes a contagion, spreading throughout the city. Trying to stem the epidemic, the authorities herd the afflicted into a mental asylum where the wards are terrorised by blind thugs. And when fire destroys the asylum, the inmates burst forth and the last links with a supposedly civilised society are snapped. No food, no water, no government, no obligation, no order. This is not anarchy, this is blindness.”

Like nothing else I have ever read. This book is pure genius!

Rules:

Please choose ONE of these three books and tell me why you would like to read it. It’s that simple!

Good luck!

 The Literary Giveaway Blog Hop

Welcome to the first literary giveaway blog hop hosted by Judith at Leeswammes where there are a total of 28 blogs giving away books! Hurrah! What better way to start the weekend than to have a little mosey at all those lovely books being given away and trying to win some (or all) of them!

I am going  to offer ONE of the following books to giveaway and the choice is yours! I have chosen three books that I absolutely LOVE and are woefully neglected in my opinion.

# ONE

East Lynne by Ellen Wood – read my review here

First paragraph of my review:

“Eat your heart out Wilkie Collins. What a fantastic book this is! I just loved every minute of it (and there were a LOT of minutes – for some reason it took me an age to read). For about three weeks I felt like I was living in the middle of a Victorian soap-opera. There was murder, betrayal, divorce, disguises and death and all this set among a backdrop of stately homes and horse-and-carriages. What’s not to love?”

# TWO

Villette by Charlotte Bronte – you can reaad my full review here

First paragraph of my review:

“Reader, I heart Ms. Bronte! Reading Villette was like reading a huge epic that I was so emmersed in that I walked in Lucy Snowe’s shoes, I felt what she felt. How many authors can do that to you?”

# THREE

Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong – you can read my full review here

First paragraph of my review:

“From the very first page I was hooked. Jiang Rong creates such a vivid and compelling narrative that I found myself similtaniously gripped with the story yet trying to slow down and savour every word, so beautiful was each sentence.”

  WHICH ONE WILL YOU PICK?

All you need to do is comment below telling me which book you would like – simple as that! All bloggers and non-bloggers from around the world are welcome and no need to do anything silly for extra entries.

The competition closes on 23rd February and I will pick the winner at random the day after and post the result on my blog.

  Good luck everyone!

Thank you to everyone who entered my competition. I had great fun reading which books everyone would buy (and added a few more to my Mt. TBR in the process ). The contest is now closed and I added all the entries to a spreadsheet and then chose the winner by using random.org. The winner will recieve books of their choice from The Book Depository up to the value of £20.00 (or equivalent).

And the winner is….

Shannon

Well done Shannon! I have converted the amount into Canadian dollars for you and you now have Candian $30.00 to spend on lovely books from The Book Depository.

Shannon is one of my favourite reviewers on Goodreads and also has her own blog (which she has recently revamped and which is looking fab!) here at Giraffe Days which I hope you’ll check out – she is a reading machine!

Thank you!

I want to start with a Thank you! This is for all of you reading this blog right now – thank you for sharing my book passion /aholism / madness with me since I started this blog. I started this blog back in mid December as a way to log my thoughts about books I love and connect with like-minded people and although it can be hard work, it’s ultimately worth it.

I’ve made it to 10,000

When I first started blogging I had no idea where it would take me really. I didn’t even know that there was such a huge book blog community out there already and I am still constantly amazed by some of the fantastic blogs I keep coming across on a weekly basis (some of my favourites are listed in my blogroll if you want to check them out). So, I am delighted that from a standing start of nowhere, in just over 4 months have received over 10,000 hits on my blog. I never expected that in a million years and I am so happy that you have all popped on my my little blog for some book chat – that makes me smile

So, as a token of my appreciation…

…I have decided to have a little giveaway to celebrate. The prize is £20.00 to spend on the book(s) of your choicen (that’s $30 US or 23 Euros just to give you the idea).  Just think what you could get for that! This competition is open internationally and you don’t have to be a blogger to enter. The prize will either be an Amazon voucher of £20.00 (for UK peeps only) and the rest of the world can choose as many books as you like up to that value from The Book Depository and I will order and send to you.

The Rules!

Please read this part carefully as non-compliant entries will not be counted.

1) Please comment below and tell me which books (if you win) you would order and why. (You won’t be held to this – I just  love to know what other people like to read so be sure to tell me all about those lovely, shiny new books you are drooling over!)

2) Please put a valid email address along with your entry so that I can contact you if you win.

3) You do NOT need to do any of those really annoying things to get extra entries. It is one entry per person. If you want to tweet or post a link to this competition and share the love then that’s great (and thank you!) but it’s not necessary (I know – it annoys me as much as you!)

4) The closing date for entries is Sunday 16th May at 6pm GMT.

Good luck and get sharing those bookish must-have’s!