NaNoWriMo

Okay, I’ve been neglecting my blog for a while. That is stuff that happens, sometimes you just have to take a break and take care of other things instead. And I am not here to tell you that I am so sorry and promise to start blogging more often. Nope, I am here to tell you that I won’t blog much during November.

Why? I am doing NaNoWriMo baby!

Yes, I have thrown myself into this whole crazy thing. I hope that everything will go fine, and that I get to 50 000 words by November 30th. But as they say, even if I don’t get that far, I have written several thousen words that I wouldn’t have written otherwise.

It’s the beginning of day four, and as off the end of yeasterday I had 8000 fricking words! It is crazy! I have never attempted to write a big thing like this (not seriously anyway) and it has been a dream of mine for a long time to write a book. Ever since I was eight I have wanted to be an author (although now I have started to think about more likely carreers).

You probably won’t hear much from me here on my blog. So if you want to hear things from me, follow me on twitter! I am magical_books and I tweet a lot about my NaNo word count. You can also add me as a writingbuddy on NaNo’s website. My name there is oliviaherber.

Are you doing NaNoWriMo? Do you have any tips for a newbie NaNo:er like myself?

Happy writing!

Some things change

You might start noticing some changes in the way that I blog. Ever since I started my book blog, I've tried to be like all other book bloggers, written my reviews in a certain way, participated in memes, always written about the same things. And I feel like that's not really how I want my blog to be.

So I'll start blogging the way I want to. I'll make my book blog more me. It will still be a book blog and nothing else, don't worry. But I'll probably stop participating in memes, write my review a bit differently and just blog about whatever bookish things I want, whenever I want.

I just wanted to let you guys now. And I hope that I don't scare you away, hah. But the changes won't be too major, I promise. Who knows, maybe you won't even notice anything?

I'm finally on Pottermore (and my overall thought of it)

Ever since J.K. Rowling announced her new mysterious project I've been so excited for Pottermore. The day she was going to release the information about it, I sat bunked in front of my computer screen and watched the seconds tick down to zero. And then I found out that I would have to try follow some owls on July 31st to gain access to the website. What a disappointment. Especially since I was in England on that exact date, so I wouldn't have time to be on the Internet. Well, somehow I succeeded with getting an account on the fourth or fifth day I think. And yesterday I finally got my welcome email.

I spent about two hours on the site that Sunday and have played through the ten first chapters. And well, I've had some fun with it. The pictures of the scenes are amazing and I really enjoy the extra information you can read. It's a bit slow though and the site crashes from time to time. And it lacks in sound. Also, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do there after I've played through the first book, but I like it at the time being. 

If anyone would like to add me as a friend, my name is NightChaser95 (seriously Pottermore, what's with all this super high privacy stuff, I want to choose my own username!) I'm in Ravenclaw! (so happy about this, me luvs it!)  I feel like I'm one of those few lucky people who got in the house they wanted, haha. And I got the best wand ever; Elder, Pheonix feather core, 14½ inches, hard. A little tip to Pottermore, can't you start up an online shop where I can buy the exact wand I got and some Ravenclaw clothes? Please? It would be so cool!

Have you gotten into Pottermore? Do you like it? 

I'm done

Books are piling on the floor of my room and my wallet is empty. But I just can’t stop buying new books! I get more and more of them and I don’t have time to read them all.

So I’m done. With buying books that is. I just can’t do it anymore. I want to take a few months and not buy new ones, concentrate on those that I have. There s a ton of great books waiting to be read. Books that I’ve been wanting to read for a long time, but haven’t had the time to get to. During the last three-ish months of this year, I’m going to focus on my already owned books and not put any money at all on buying new ones. I'm going on a book buying ban.

I hope I can do this. It’s only a bit more than three months. I should be able to do it. Right?

I hereby solemnly swear that I, Olivia, will not buy any new books until the end of the year 2011. Instead I will read all of the amazing books that I’ve bought and been meaning to read for a long time.

Do you buy more books than you have time to read?

Top 100 Most Popular YA Books

Update! This list was created by the Swedish book blogger Anna, who has the awesome book blog Boktycke! She created it by comparing popularity lists on different book sites.

I've seen this list over at various other bloggers. I don't know who made the list, but apparently it's supposed to the the top 100 most popular YA books. I don't know if someone just made it up, or if there's some research behind it. But since I've enjoyed seeing which of the books other bloggers have read, I'm going to go through this list and mark the ones I've read as well.

Which of these books have you read? Which ones do you want to read?

I'll write the ones I've read in bold. If I have any comments to add, I'll write them in this gray italic font.

1. Alex Finn – Beastly
2. Alice Sebold – The Lovely Bones
3. Ally Carter – Gallagher Girls (1, 2, 3, 4)
4. Ally Condie – Matched
5. Alyson Noel – The Immortals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
6. Anastasia Hopcus – Shadow Hills
7. Angie Sage – Septimus Heap (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
8. Ann Brashares – The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (1, 2, 3, 4)
9. Anna Godbersen – Luxe (1, 2, 3, 4)
10. Anthony Horowitz – Alex Rider (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
11. Aprilynne Pike – Wings (1, 2, 3)
12. Becca Fitzpatrick – Hush, Hush (1, 2)
13. Brandon Mull – Fablehaven (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
14. Brian Selznick – The Invention of Hugo Cabret
15. Cassandra Clare – The Mortal Instruments (1, 2, 3, 4)
16. Carrie Jones – Need (1, 2, 3)
17. Carrie Ryan – The Forest of Hands and Teeth (1, 2, 3)
18. Christopher Paolini – Inheritance (1, 2, 3, 4)
19. Cinda Williams Chima – The Heir Chronicles (1, 2, 3)
20. Colleen Houck – Tigers Saga (1, 2)
21. Cornelia Funke – Inkheart (1, 2, 3)
22. Ellen Hopkins – Impulse
23. Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
24. Faraaz Kazi – Truly, Madly, Deeply
25. Frank Beddor – The Looking Glass Wars (1, 2, 3)
26. Gabrielle Zevin – Elsewhere
27. Gail Carson Levine – Fairest
28. Holly Black – Tithe (1, 2, 3)
29. J.K. Rowling – Harry Potter (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
30. James Dashner – The Maze Runner (1, 2)
31. James Patterson – Maximum Ride (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
32. Jay Asher – Thirteen Reasons Why
33. Jeanne DuPrau – Books of Ember (1, 2, 3, 4)
34. Jeff Kinney – Diary of a Wimpy Kid (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
35. John Boyne – The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
36. John Green – An Abundance of Katherines
37. John Green – Looking for Alaska
38. John Green – Paper Towns 
39. Jonathan Stroud – Bartimaeus (1, 2, 3, 4)
40. Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl – Caster Chronicles (1, 2)
41. Kelley Armstrong – Darkest Powers (1, 2, 3)
42. Kristin Cashore – The Seven Kingdoms (1, 2)
43. Lauren Kate – Fallen (1, 2, 3)
44. Lemony Snicket – Series of Unfortunate Events (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
45. Libba Bray – Gemma Doyle (1, 2, 3)
46. Lisa McMann – Dream Catcher (1, 2, 3)
47. Louise Rennison – Confessions of Georgia Nicolson (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
48. M.T. Anderson – Feed
49. Maggie Stiefvater – The Wolves of Mercy Falls (1, 2, 3)
50. Margaret Peterson Haddix – Shadow Children (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
51. Maria V. Snyder – Study (1, 2, 3)
52. Markus Zusak – The Book Thief
53. Markus Zusak – I am the Messenger
54. Mark Haddon – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
55. Mary Ting – Crossroads
56. Maureen Johnson – Little Blue Envelope (1, 2)
57. Meg Cabot – All-American Girl (1, 2)
58. Meg Cabot – The Mediator (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
59. Meg Cabot – The Princess Diaries (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
60. Meg Rosoff – How I live now
61. Megan McCafferty – Jessica Darling (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
62. Megan Whalen Turner – The Queen’s Thief (1, 2, 3, 4)
63. Melina Marchetta – On the Jellicoe Road
64. Melissa de la Cruz – Blue Bloods (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
65. Melissa Marr – Wicked Lovely (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
66. Michael Grant – Gone (1, 2, 3, 4)
67. Nancy Farmer – The House of the Scorpion
68. Neal Shusterman – Unwind
69. Neil Gaiman – Coraline
70. Neil Gaiman – Stardust
71. Neil Gaiman – The Graveyard Book
72. P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast – House of Night (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
73. Philip Pullman – His Dark Materials (1, 2, 3)
74. Rachel Caine – The Morganville Vampires (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
75. Rachel Cohn & David Levithan – Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
76. Richelle Mead – Vampire Academy (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
77. Rick Riordan – Percy Jackson and the Olympians (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
78. Rom LcO’Feer – Somewhere carnal over 40 winks
79. S.L. Naeole – Grace (1, 2, 3, 4)
80. Sabrina Bryan & Julia DeVillers – Princess of Gossip
81. Sarah Dessen – Along for the Ride
82. Sarah Dessen – Lock and Key
83. Sarah Dessen – The Truth about Forever 
84. Sara Shepard – Pretty Little Liars (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
85. Scott Westerfeld – Leviathan (1, 2)
86. Scott Westerfeld – Uglies (1, 2, 3)
87. Shannon Hale – Books of a Thousand Days
88. Shannon Hale – Princess Academy
89. Shannon Hale – The Books of Bayern (1, 2, 3, 4)
90. Sherman Alexie & Ellen Forney – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
91. Simone Elkeles – Perfect Chemistry (1, 2, 3)
92. Stephanie Meyer – The Host
93. Stephanie Meyer – Twilight Saga (1, 2, 3, 4)
94. Sue Monk Kidd – The Secret Life of Bees
95. Susan Beth Pfeffer – Last Survivors (1, 2, 3)
96. Suzanne Collins – Hunger Games (1, 2, 3)
97. Suzanne Collins – Underland Chronicles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
98. Terry Pratchett – Tiffany Aching (1, 2, 3, 4)
99. Tonya Hurley – Ghost Girl (1, 2, 3)
100. Wendelin Van Draanen – Flipped

I've read a few, not that many. Actually, there was a lot of books that I didn't even recognize. And there's a lot of series that I haven't finished .. I'll try to read more of these, since I've heard good things about many of the books. I'll come back here and update the list whenever I read more of the books!