Fulfilling Friday: Reads, Presents and Revision

Fulfilling Friday is a feature where I talk about the happenings of the week, focusing on the positives, and plan for the upcoming days- on a Friday, of course!

The past two weeks of February have been rather exciting.

Bookish

First of all: Big Bad Wolf Fire Sale! I went on 3rd February, reaching the doors before they opened with my friend on our Thaipusam holiday. I bought 15 books on that trip. The second time around was on the final day of the sale, 9 February- on which I bought another 17 books.

Sorry for the blurry photo, but nevertheless you could see a queue at the entrance.

It's nuts. More on that in the previous post!



I have read six books so far this month, which I have obviously not reviewed and will review after my exams, in what will be the biggest series of reviews and scheduled posts for a while.

Now review has ceased to be a word.

Anyhow, to punctuate the emptiness of book reviews this past week I'll tell you what I read so far this month:

1. Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daugher of Smoke and Bone #1) by Laini Taylor
2. The Black Mage: First Year by Rachel E. Carter
3. Fever (The Chemical Garden #2) by Lauren DeStefano
4. Sever (The Chemical Garden #3) by Lauren DeStefano - and FINALLY I can quit the series.
5. The Magicians by Lev Grossman
6. A World Without Princes (The School for Good and Evil #2) by Soman Chainani

I enjoyed most of these books. 

I'm currently reading my first non-fiction book of the year, a Big Bad Wolf Fire Sale purchase: This Star Won't Go Out by Esther Earl, co-written with her parents. I didn't mean to start the book earlier, like less than an hour ago, but while semi-organizing my shelves and deciding that it needed a cover pronto, I made the mistake of flipping through.

In my defense it is like a vacation-revision. A vacation-revision is a term I just coined which means a side reading worthy of the most miniature form of revision for academic purposes, and does not have to take place in a vacation setting per se. Imagine being on vacation and trying to do revision: you would probably do a very minimal amount of studying, unless you have the iron will of a wizard, or passing the upcoming exams means life or death, or you're just... not me.

 

Basically, it's what you tell your Mom when she asks you why you're reading an obviously non-academic material with your exams in one week's time: 'I'm revising! ... *In a smaller voice* kinda.'
I'll definitely review it later, but basically it's a collection of musings, artwork and other media of Esther Earl, a teenager who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer (hence the vacation-revision). It's a great read so far.

Other than that, I'm also picking up The Cry of the Icemark by Stuart Hill again, which I started reading around late 2014, until I got to the middle and stopped- probably because other books caught my fancy. The political and military drama in Icemark were starting to make my eyes wander. It's not a weak book, but it just wasn't the book for me at that time. Of course, I probably will continue Icemark after the exams, along with several other books- if I ever manage to stop myself from reading more non-revision books, that is.

Again, I also accidentally picked up the second book in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy- Days of Blood and Starlight. Another Big Bad Wolf Fire Sale purchase, most definitely worth more than what I paid for it. More on the series in a couple of weeks or so- they're fast becoming one of my favourite series.

Revision

I wish I had more to say about this. But apart from potentially boring other people, I feel it's better if I invest more time actually doing revision than talking about it.

Or posting pictures of it.

Stolen off my instagram. Weirdly, quite a few people liked this.

Ah, instagram. Our relationship is ambiguous at best, but you can certainly be rather irresistible.

Presents

If you have read my previous posts (or even the sidebar in this blog) you would know that I am in love with Kundry's artwork. Earlier, in the related post, I wrote about having two of her artwork in physical copy, in A4. That turned out to be wrong- now I have her artwork in A3.

The moment I got them out of the envelope, I let out a squeal of delight- not unlike a 5-year-old opening her birthday present (21 years and 5 days off)!

For the price of ONE A4 and only because she thinks they are too detailed to be wasted on A4.
And believe me, they're even more beautiful physically and on a larger scale.

Yes. A thousand times yes.

It's so unfair that I got this for free. SO. UNFAIR.

If you're reading this Kundry, THANK YOU SO MUCH. I can't even express my gratitude properly. Maybe I'll send you a physical thank you card or something on your return address.

So you might understand why I am totally her biggest fan now- they're my favourite unofficial birthday presents! On a side note, the post handlers were being rather silly and blatantly ignored bold red instructions on the package saying 'Please do not bend' which I find annoyingly funny. If you look a little carefully you could see the prints have some creases on them- nowhere near enough to spoil them though.

Bends everywhere! xD

Now if I can only convince her to make extra large ones in A1 or something~

Since we're on the topic of presents, with my birthday coming up my boyfriend will be sending me two hardcover books that he bought from Book Depository, which is amazing. I can't wait for the package- will definitely do a belated birthday unwrapping then (even though I already know what books will reach me)!

I also gave a couple of friends some presents, one for her birthday and one because she has been rather helpful the whole semester. I think it's become my favourite hobby to just give presents when I feel like it. If anything, it's rather selfish- the feeling of giving out presents and knowing your friends are grateful for them is certainly amazing. And no, I did not take pictures of them so I can't show you what I gave them. I couldn't even give them personally because I was sick at the time!

Anyhow I suppose those are most of the stuff that mattered these past couple of weeks.

I hope your weeks were fulfilling as well!