2015: A year of books

Hi guys!

2015 is coming to an end, and this means it is time to think about everything that happened this year and, more importantly, every book I read this year. Some were good, some were... less good, but all things considered this was a pretty nice reading year! According my Goodreads challenge I completed a grand total of 66 books, which means I completed my goal of 60 books! (And I'm still reading four books at the moment!)
Now, on to the interesting part, the (super official) Reading ever after-book awards 2015! 
The rules are simple; I picked my favourite books and characters, from books I've read this year, in 15 different categories, but; no book or character can win more than once (otherwise two books would probably make up the entire list).

These are this years winners, in the category...

1. Best book of the year... Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo! My-oh-my how I love this book! This book was just wonderful! Full of suprising plot twists, great characters and an amazing plot! (Also, great writing! Yeah!) This book might actually be not just my favourite book of the year, but maybe also my all time favourite book!

2. Best young adult fantasy...The Throne of glass -series by Sarah J. Maas! (I couldn't just pick one of them!) I read all four books this year, after hearing everyone hype about them, and I'm glad I did! The story starts of being a kind of fun lil' story, but becomes a great epic fantasy later on.
3. Best adult fantasy... The night circus by Erin Morgenstern! This book is lush and magical and absolutely beautiful! I just loved every single page of it! Everything when described in brilliant detail and the story was really captivating.
4. Best novella or short story... Fairest by Marissa Meyer. Normally I'm not really keen on novella's, because they generally don't actually add anything to the story, but Fairest wasn't like that at all. While this book isn't essential to read to understand the main storyline, I do recommend reading it! Usually villians become less strong, as characters, or less creepy when you find out more about them, but Levana is so beautifully wicked and terrifyingly twisted. Yes, I do understand her motives better now, but am I less scared? No. She became even creepier, and I love it!
5. Best young adult contemporary... To all the boys I've loved before by Jenny Han, such an amazing and cute novel! I usually don't read a lot of contemporary, but after reading Jenny's story in My true love gave to me, I was sure I'd to give this book a chance.
6. Best middle grade novel... The sword of summer (Magnus Chase and the gods of Asgard, #1) by Rick Riordan! I just love Rick's books and this one was just amazing! Loved his take on the Norse mythology and definitely looking forward to the next Magnus Chase-book.
7. Best book read I had to read for school... Gone girl by Gillian Flynn! This book was just so fascinating. It was incredibly twisted and the characters were definitely complicated (the understatement of the century!)
8. Favourite LGBTQ+ novel... With all the amazing developments this year in the LGBTQ+-community I had to include this category! The winner is... Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz.
9.  Favourite retelling... Cress by Marissa Meyer! The Lunar Chronicles are beautifully crafted retelling, with both well-known as well as more obscure references to the original fairytales, and Cress really stood out to me.
10. Favourite female lead... Celeana Sardothien! I never expected to like this fierce assassin as much as I do now! Celeana is sassy, strong, brave, a little arrogant (or maybe a bit more than a little...) and absolutely fabulous. I've been getting sick of seeing female protagonists become more and more stereotypically masculine, especially the more kick-ass ones, but Celeana isn't like that. She loves dresses and glitter and all things shiny and expensive, while she also is ready to kill anyone who dares touching her or her loved ones!
11. Favourite male lead... Harry Potter! The last time I read the Harry Potter-books, I was nine and just rushing through them, not caring that much about anything but the accomplishment of reading such massive books. This year, eight years later, I finally re-read the series and I've come to realize just why everyone loves it.
12. Favourite couple... Anna and Etienne! These two idiots just stole my heart! They are absolutely adorable!
13. Favourite sidekick... She would hate being called a sidekick, but I just want to mention her somewhere; Samirah al-Abbas! You want a kick-ass muslim valkyrie? Who also is fierce as hell and fights for what she believes in, even when that means losing her powers? And who defends her religion and is not portrayed as a oppressed muslim-woman? Sign me up! Samirah has all of these things, and more! (a magical scarf, lots of sass and an adorable personality!)
14. Favourite non-human character... Grimalkin in the Iron Fey and The Call of the Forgotten-series! Grimalkin acts just like you'd expect a talking cat to act; sassy, snarky and sarcastic. Still he is very lovable and even though he wouldn't like it, I'd like to have him as a pet!
15. Favourite cover... The dream thieves by Maggie Stiefvater! I just love the design of this cover. It's elegant, enchanting and I just adore the colourscheme! (I'm a sucker for nice colourschemes!) The cover also matches the content of the story, which strangely enough seems to be really scarce.

You can see exactly which books I read this year, right here!


I'd like to wish all of you a happy, healthy and bookish 2016!

Lots of love,
Sabine

Uniqueness

"A bookshelf is a particular to its owner as are his or her clothes; a personality is stamped on a library just as a shoe is shaped by the foot." - Alan Bennett

This weekend I came across this beautiful quote by Alan Bennett and I've not been able to forget about it ever since. The quote truly got me thinking about how unique our homelibrary can be, whether it is big or small, organised or messy, only filled with books or with a dozen other trinkets as well. To me, my bookshelf used to simply be a place to store my books, but I've come to take a different look at it.
Everything about my bookshelf is unique. Someone can create a similair design and place the same books in the same place, but it still would be different. The way I organise my shelves might be extremely logical and aesthetically pleasing to me while someone else may think of it as an illogical mess. The uniqueness of my shelf, obviously, isn´t due to the fact that I collected different books than someone else, nor is it the placement of my books and all the objects around it, it´s due to smaller things.


I have collected a few small Marvel-heroes and placed these on my shelf. I've also got a bunch of stickers and postcards laying around. And I've got YA-buttons to decorate my shelfs. Even the small layer of dust that seems to immediately form after I've cleaned up, makes my shelf unique.

The other way in which my shelves differ from other peoples shelves, is the way my books look and lay. My books are all slightly scratched or dented. The books I've read sometimes have bend pages and broken spines, the books I haven't read have small scratches on the cover. No book is in perfect condition, but they are all still perfect. Take my copy of New moon (by
Stephenie Meyer) for example, the back is broken beyond repair, the cover is partially ripped of and I'm pretty sure a friend of mine used it to put her cup of coffee down on. Obviously I minded the damage done to it when it had just happened, but right now I feel like it gives the book a character. Most books are printed the same, but their journey afterwards is unique. In a way, our bookshelfs represent us. When we write in a book, our handwriting and notes differ the book from the rest, when we carry our book with us, the damage represents its journey. The state a book is  in tells as story sometimes far more interesting than the words printed inside it. The shelf it is placed on tells a story about who we are and who we want to be. The casual way in which we organise our books, is what makes it personal. No one is watched and you do what you want to do. And I think it's beautiful.

Introducing me

Hi everyone!
This first post is just a little introduction. I decided that besides telling you some facts about me, I'd also do the Bookalicious book tag! This tag is just a lot of fun and I feel like you will get to know me even better this way, so let's do this thing!

First, the facts! My name is Sabine, I am 17 years old and from the Netherlands. I love reading and I mainly read YA. My favourite genre is fantasy. English isn't my first language, so forgive me if I make some mistakes writing this blog. I read mostly in English when I own books, but library books I'll generally read in Dutch. My reviews/tags/posts are also going to be mainly English, but I can't promise I won't write a Dutch post every once in a while.

Now, on to the tag!

THE BOOKALICIOUS BOOK TAG

1. What % of books do you get from the libary and what % do you get else where?

I get about 65% of my books from the library, and 35% I get else where. I normally don't borrow books because I'm to afraid of ruining them, so the last 35% are usually books I buy/get myself.

2. What character would you want to be and why?

Most characters tend to have pretty crappy lives, so this one is kinda difficult. I guess I'd want to be Aelin from the Throne of Glass-series if she didn't have such a tough life. Maybe being Piper McLean would be nice as well.

3. What is your favourite book from your childhood?

I LOVE fairytales, and I used to have this beautiful hardcover, illustrated fairy tale book that I adored so much! My parents gave it away a few years ago and I'm still not over it!

4. What is your favourite book?

Such cruelty! How can I possibly answer this one? *sigh* I'm really don't know, so I'm just going to go with the first books that came to mind; Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas and Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo :) (See how I cheated here by answering several books? I don't regret anything)

5. Which book series do you have the most books of?

Let me quickly count! *runs towards shelves* The Vampire Academy series! I own all the six books :) (I also own the first two books in the Bloodlines-series.

6. Do you buy used books or use swap.com?

I do buy used books every once in a while, but never online and only if they are still in a good condition. I hate it when my books are damaged, so buying a truly damaged book if not my thing. I don't use swap.com.

7. Who is your favourite/hottest guy or girl?

Hmm... Adrian Ivashkov! For sure, I adore him. He's witty, he's loyal, he's caring and also slightly a bad boy. And he's really cute!

My girlcrush is definetely Aelin from Throne of Glass tho :3

8. What is your favorite book cover?

I love Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, but the covers of the Grisha-trilogy are also stunning! They are just full of details you'll only notice when you've already read the book.

9. What is your favorite type of book cover?

I love books with typhography on the cover, even more when it's combined with a simple drawing. Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe has one of the most stunning covers ever.
I don't like it when there are real people or faces on the cover.

10. What was the first book you read?

The first one I remember reading is the fairytale-book I mentioned earlier.

11. What is your favorite book to movie adaption?


MOCKINGJAY PART I, no doubt! (maybe a little bit of doubt, Catching fire was also really great!) The movie did justice to the book and proved that staying true to the book can definetely work. The Hanging Tree-scene still gives me chills, everytime I see it.

12. When did you start making videos on youtube? 


Changing this one to, "When did you start writing posts on your blog?", and the answer to that is easy, today!

13. Where is the best place to read?
Either in my bed, or in the small windownook on the third floor in the Waterstones in Amsterdam.

14. Have you written your own fanfiction for a book?

Maybe... *blushes* To be honest, I've written three completely finished fanfics, and two fanfics I did not finish. I started writing fanfics when I was 12, and the last time I wrote was just before I turned 17. I never wrote dirty fanfics or anything, but I liked taking these characters and creating my own story around them. (Also, it was great writing-exercise, since I wasn't able to come up with an entirely original story just yet)

15. If you could only read 3 books for the rest of your life what would they be?

Percy Jackson and the lightning thief, because it's really fun and whimsical, Six of crows for the awesome kick-ass characters and the fantastical world and Fangirl for the feels.

16. What is the longest book you have read?

*Quickly checks Goodreads* That would be Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix!

17. If you were to write a book what would the title be and why?

I am currently writing a novel-length story and I hate naming things! Whether it is a character or a place or even the novel itself, I just hate it! For now, it will be called "Kick-ass females, hot guys, a gay prince and magic for all!"

18. How many books have you read last month?


In October I read 4 books!

19. What was the last book you read?

The isle of the lost by Melissa de la Cruz.

20. Do you fantasize yourself in books you like?

Yes, quite often actually. This is mainly how I started writing fanfics when I was 12!

21. What is your favorite bookstore?

Waterstones in Amsterdam, Boekhandel Donner in Rotterdam and Boekhandel Haasbeek in Alphen aan de Rijn are all great stores!

22. Hardback or paperback?

On my shelves, hardback. To read, paperback.

23. Do you have more than one copy of the same book?
I do have some e-books that I also have as an actual book, but I have no other doubles.

24. Would you rather read about vampires or werewolves?

Vampires!

25. Do you own more than 150 books?

I don't know, I might! Time for a quick count!
I don't! I actually own 132 books, so I'm pretty close to the 150 ;)


I hope I gave you guys a good impression of who I am! I hope to be posting both reviews and tags to this blog in the future, so stayed tuned for that!

Lots of love,

Sabine