BBW 2013 Preview Day Haul

December's hands down one of my favorite months. Other than Christmas (frowns don't stay put for long around all that festive buzz and cheerful decorations), year-end sales, and the promise of a new year just around the corner, it's also when I get to stock up on a whole year's worth of good reads. 

Lots and lots of glorious books! All thanks to the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale, a.k.a. the one where people go to carting two-wheeled trolleys and luggage bags - you won't be leaving empty-handed, that's for sure! Touted as the world's largest book sale, it's been a fixture on my calender these couple of years, and I was lucky to have won preview passes for this year's edition!

*swoon*

The crowd's definitely a lot less on preview day, as it's closed door and by invitation only. Another plus of getting first dips: the higher odds of snagging coveted books that are in short supply. The Hunger Games series, which was advertised on the BBW Facebook event page, was nowhere in sight by time I found my way to the YA section. 

This stunning hard cover, cloth-bound edition of Treasure Island (RM8, what a steal!) was the very last copy I could find lying around the small literature corner. It reminds me of the books you'll expect to find in the libraries of grand English manor houses of Lords something-or-other, no? :P 

 Be The Miracle (RM6), The Night Circus (RM8) and Winter Wonderland (RM8) are the other ones from my stash in the running for prettiest book cover. Haha, yes, I do have a very soft spot for turquoise green and vintage motifs. So gorgeous and dreamy!

Fight Club! I nearly squealed when I saw this. The movie's one of my favourites and no one does dark humour better than Chuck Palahniuk. No. One.

The infamous bookmarks you get with every purchase. This year's pirate theme is especially adorable :)

The one on the left, with Little Red Readerhood (geddit? :P), you get when making a book donation to the Budimas rural library programme. The bookmarks, by the way, were all gone when I made a second trip to the sale in its final week.

This set of 13 Sharpies aren't from the BBW sale, per se, but from a booth that was outside the convention hall. Got them for a really good price, around RM13+. Can't wait to put them to use!

Did you visit BBW 2013? Which books did you get, and what were your best buys? 

Aside from the Alexander McCall Smiths which I always enjoy, I've read Winter Wonderland and it's really fun! Puts me in a holiday mood ;)

Guess Who's Back?

bigbadwolfbooks.com

It's dear Wolfie, ashore after a perilous journey across the Read Sea in hot pursuit of the villainous B.A.D. (Book Acquisition Department), who made off with all the books set aside for this year's sale *gasp*.

But fret not - his ships have returned victorious, reclaiming no less than 3 million books for your reading pleasure. Hoorah! Full speed ahead for the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale 2013!

Should you rather shop than sleep (me too!), no problem, drop by Mines International Exhibition & Convention Centre any time - 11pm, 3am, 7am, it's your call - between 6th to 15th December for a serious dose of retail therapy, as the sale goes on for 230 hours without pause!

Phew, it's exhausting but so fun just thinking about it. Talk about making it almost impossible to find an excuse for not visiting. Don't forget your recyclable/luggage/trolley bags as you'll need them to keep your books safe and hands free to pick out more steals.

Take a day off from work if you have to and go during off-peak hours (11am-5pm on weekdays; 2am-6am any day) for maximum shopping comfort. Digging up hidden gems are a lot easier when you don't have to jostle against sharp elbows for standing space ;)

If you've scored preview passes, check your inbox as emails have been delivered with instructions on how to collect those precious passes. These "golden tickets" -  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory FTW - grant bearers access to the sale one day before it opens to the public, and they're highly coveted!

I'll be keeping an eye out for Haruki Murakami's works (sold out really fast like musang king durian ice cream last year), YA gems (Jellicoe Road's my best find to date), pop up books, and The No.1 Lady's Detective Agency series.

See you there? What titles/authors do you hope to find at BBW 2013?

The Scorpio Races

I've struck another book off my to-read list (YAY!! *humour me? :P )

Did Maggie Stiefvater's The Scorpio Races over the weekend. By now you'll know I suck at summarising books, so I won't. La-di-da...

I like the UK cover on the left :P

Let's just say there's a teenage boy and girl living on an island ("He was a boy, she was a girl, can I make it any more obvious?"), flesh-eating water horses, and every year there's a race on said horses which ends in a bloodbath.

If that's your kind of thing, then that's your kind of thing. Although, I kinda like the action bits more, which there wasn't really enough of. Ohh, words can't say enough how I hate those 100-page 'oh woe is us' sort of narratives.

I won't touch Ms Stiefvater's other books - Lament, Ballad, Shiver, Linger, Forever - but what really made me really wanna read Scorpio Races was this:

ISN'T THAT SO AWESOME? DOESN'T IT MAKE YOU WANT TO PICK UP THE BOOK?!!

Hehe. The artwork and music is by the author herself! *respect*

... But the yellow-ish orange colouring gave me the (wrong) impression that the book was set in a desert >,<

And I thought the characters were Mongolian/Asian....

In My Mailbox

Lola and the Boy Next Door arrived a couple of weeks ago from Book Depository.

I'm spending way too much on books, not to mention where am I going to put all the additional titles I've been adding to my collection lately!!

But oh well... it was pre-ordered waaay back in the middle of the year, so that's my neat excuse :D And, I just had to get it from Book Depository when I saw the listing.

Firstly, pre-order = better price. USD 12.74 to be precise, shipping included. Not bad for a hardcover. Secondly, I don't expect to see this locally anytime soon. Thirdly, it's Stephanie Perkins and it's Lola!

My willpower doesn't extend that far when it comes to this combination :(

The envelope it arrived in. Took the Brussels route again to get here. Envelope's grimey and dinged at the edges, but otherwise everything was alright. 

What's that I spy? *whee!*

Oo-la-la~

My most anticipated release of 2011! Isn't the cover gorgeous? XD *hugs book*

I thought I had sexy pictures of the book unclothed, but I must have accidentally deleted them :'(

You'll have to take my word that under that jacket, there's a purdy dark mint cover waiting to be discovered. ^^

You can sorta see it peeking out from underneath in the last photo. Nice colour, aye? <3