Top Ten Tuesday #115 - (Not Very Interesting) Facts About Me...

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the fabulous girls cover at The Broke & The Bookish. This week's topic is -

Ten Facts About Me

I very rarely talk about anything personal on this blog so here are 10 facts about me  that readers of the Outsider may or may not know. I warn you now, there are no startling revelations!

1. I collect espresso cups and tea cups & saucers. I never use them as most are too pretty to put coffee or tea in but still, my collection is expanding!
2. I also collect Funko Pops! This is not a unique thing, I suspect hundreds (if not thousands) of bloggers do as well. My collection has grown in size from 3 two years ago to 56 as of yesterday...
3. If anything is owl or fox related I have to have it. Seriously! I have totes, socks, pens, journals, mugs and a million other things all with owls and/or foxes on. I'm considering starting to collect sheep-related things thanks to my little blog sheep :)
4. I'm one of those annoying people that learnt to read before I was three. My mama was a huge reader and encouraged me daily. I thank her every day for teaching me.
5. My beloved mama died at the end of 2012, she had pancreatic cancer and passed away just 7 weeks after diagnosis.
6. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis. It's not osteoarthritis (although I have that too) but a disease of the auto-immune system. I have had my left knee joint replaced and both my hips.
7. I have 2 sisters, all 3 of us have red hair!
8. I have 4 nephews and 2 nieces, the oldest is 29 and the youngest is 6.
9. I'm a bookseller, the best job (apart from a librarian) for a bookworm.
10. I collect horde multiple editions of my favorite books. Pride & Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, The Secret Garden, Alice In Wonderland and Jane Eyre are my biggest collections!
11. Bonus Fact - I have a tattoo that I got the day I turned 21. I love that I have a tattoo but I really wish I chose something different...

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone is having a fabulous day!

ARCs In April

 So, yet again I'm snowed under with e-ARCs from Netgalley and Edelweiss! A while back I managed to get my virtual review pile under control but there are so many fabulous books that I can't help but request and/or download it's got to the point where I need to do something about it again...

Thanks to my love of alliteration I came up with ARCs In April! Between April 1st and April 30th I'm going to read nothing but ARCs. Hopefully this will make a significant dent in my pile so I can stop feeling guilty about all the wonderful books that I have requested/downloaded, stop feeling guilty about reading books that aren't ARCs and increase my percentage on Netgalley again...

I'm not going to put a figure on how many books I'm going to read, I always seem to fail when I do that but given how many I have to read I'm going to try and aim for a minimum of three a week. Feel free to join if you too have gone crazy clicking those 'request' or 'download' buttons, it would be great to have some support. I'll put up a post on April 1st with a list of books I'm hoping to read, if you feel like joining in leave a comment and I'll start a list :)

Bookish On Vacation!

For the next 4 days I'll be sitting by the river, drinking champagne and shouting myself even more hoarse than I am now! I'm off to Henley for the Royal Regatta with my family, have a fabulous weekend whatever you're doing and see you next week :)

Never in a million years!

I always swore blind that I would never buy any sort of e-reader, vehemently! I remember having long conversations about them with my mother about how much we loved books as well as reading, and that poking a bit of plastic just wasn't the same! I wavered a bit when authors started doing novellas only available online or as a Kindle book so I downloaded the Kindle app for PC whilst holding firm to my stance on never actually buying one.

Then Amazon did something that got to me... They released the Kindle Fire HD, where not only could you read but you could watch movies, check email, tweet, play games - just about anything you could do on the PC. I must have been brainwashed because yesterday morning this arrived!

And inside was this...

For the last 24 hours I have tweeted, played Mahjong and Hangman, downloaded Goodreads & LOVEfilm, watched Despicable Me and added film after film to my watchlist! The only thing I haven't done is read a book on it, I still haven't decided what's going to be the first 'proper' Kindle book I buy.

Leave a comment with what book you think I should buy and you could win a brand new copy of The Gathering Dark by Leigh Bardugo (aka Shadow & Bone)

I'll ship internationally and choose a winner on February 6 so start leaving suggestions!

Best Reads Of 2012

So my last post of 2012 is all about the best books I've read this year, the ones I've given 5 stars on Goodreads and still think about now or recommend daily to other people!

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Chronicles

Buffy: Making Of A Slayer - Nancy Holder

Wonder - R. J. Palacio

God Save The Queen - Kate Locke

Anna Dressed In Blood - Kendare Blake

Girl Of Nightmares - Kendare Blake

World Of Poo - Sir Terry Pratchett

The Storyteller - Antonia Michaelis

The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen - Alan Garner

Runelight - Joanne Harris

Lover Reborn - J. R. Ward

A Touch Of Power - Maria V Snyder

A Discovery Of Witches - Deborah Harkness

Monsters Of Men (Chaos Walking #3) - Patrick Ness

Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury

Lots of fantasy, both Adult & YA, non-fiction and a couple of fantasy classics read this year all thoroughly enjoyed. Losing my mother at the end of October was hard but reading has kept me sane. Here's hoping next year is better all round, in books and life!

See you in 2013!

Thank you!

Just a quick post to say thank you to everyone who has called, emailed or sent a text message to see how I'm doing! We're all still in shock  but hopefully things will start getting easier soon, starting with Christmas and making sure we celebrate the way my mother would us want us to.

Regular posting will resume shortly so bear with me just a bit longer. In the meantime there's a giveaway for you all to enter to win a book of your choice!