Last Minute Shopping

I was silly enough to venture to the mall yesterday to pick up a last-minute gift that my mother needed. Needless to say, I have sworn off the mall until after Christmas now! However, I know there are still people out there who have some more gifts to buy. If you are still looking for a gift for a teacher, bookworm, teen, or just that person who has EVERYTHING, may I suggest a gift certificate from Amazon.com? I know I have put this on my list anytime I have been asked what I want for Christmas. Everytime I look at my 15-page Amazon wishlist, I know I can never afford all those books on my own, so I look for gift certificates every chance I get. So for those of you who still have some shopping to do, get a gift certificate!

While at the mall yesterday, I managed to walk around the bookstore with Libba Bray’s Rebel Angels and Anna Godberson’s The Luxe for about 20 minutes. I really, really wanted to buy both of them but shouldn’t be spending the money right now. After wandering the entire store and stopping to read the first few pages of The Luxe (which I loved!), I managed to convince myself to leave them at the bookstore until after Christmas. Hopefully, I can spend some gift card money then and not my own! Eh, who am I kidding? I will definitely buy them, regardless. I just promised not to buy any gifts for myself until after the holidays. 🙂

Speaking of Libba Bray, I bought A Great and Terrible Beauty months ago. I read the first 100 pages or so, and just couldn’t get into it. I put it aside to read something else and never looked back. Last week I decided to give it another try after seeing blog after blog mentioning the forthcoming release of the third book in the series, The Sweet Far Thing. I picked it up on Monday and….well, I loved it! I couldn’t put the book down this time and need to read the rest of the series as soon as humanly possible. I also shared this story with my class, to show them that sometimes a book just isn’t right for us. However, when we abandon a book it doesn’t mean it won’t be right for us at a later time. It was a great lesson for my class and me!