Follow Friday/Book Hop (March 11th, 2011)

Today's question:  Who are you?  The boy/girl instead of the blogger...
My answer:  I am a city-girl who likes horses and nature.  I'm a health-conscious girl who drinks Cherry Coke.  I'm an optimist and a cynic at times.  I am a series of contradictions mostly.  (^_^)  I'm a dyslexic who loves reading and writing, even if it's hard to keep the letters in order haha!  I'm also a girl with a headache, but I'm not going to take any medicine for it, because my husband and I are TTC (trying to conceive) and I hope my headache goes away on its own and doesn't turn into a full-blown migraine.

Today's question:  If I gave you £50 ($80) and sent you to the bookshop right now, what would be in your basket when you finally staggered to the till?
My answer:  Well, spending money on books is always hard for me, because I always have so many more options than what I can afford (147 on my wishlist right now) and I tend to spend hours reading samples and mulling over my choices.  However, I will do my best to spend my imaginary money quickly.  :)

I would definitely preorder Wither right now since I still haven't done that.  This was my Waiting for Wednesday option I already talked about it more right here as well.  This book costs $9.99 so I would have around $70.00 left afterward to buy...

This book called, Bloodthirsty, is an fun twist on a cliché and I keep meaning to buy it sometime.  What if a boy decided to use his pale skin, sun allergy and innate strangeness to his benefit?  This book explores that possibility when a boy pretends to be a vampire to get girls in his new school.  I read that it was really funny too and I always enjoy a good laugh, so it costs $8.99 and that would leave me with around $60 pretend dollars left.

Kissed by an Angel has been on my wishlist forever now and a lot of my fellow bloggers seem to be reading the latest one now and that cover is just stunning.  I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but a beautiful cover always pulls me in to give the writing a chance.  I've also heard good things about this too, so I keep meaning to read it.  This book is only $7.99 on the Nook, so I would have $51.00 or so left (my estimates have been including tax too).

I keep considering Girl in Translation, but I always shy away from the $12.99 price tag, since I usually don't spend more than $10.00 on a book (unless it's an anthology or collection).  However, this book looks great and my money that I am spending is imaginary so I will just buy it!  Haha!  It's about a young girl who immigrates from Hong Kong to Brooklyn and spends most of her free time working in a sweatshop hidden in Chinatown.  I've heard a lot of great reviews for this book and as I already said, a beautiful cover always pulls me in and this cover is gorgeous.  I love the color (it's almost the same as my bedroom walls, speaking of getting to know me the girl instead of me the blogger).   This book leaves me with about $37 left still overestimating for tax.

Nothing, by Janne Teller has been passionately recommended to me by one of my reading friends and I think the concept sounds intriguing.  This book is called a Lord of the Flies for the twenty-first century and that's definitely a rave review in itself.  This book costs $13.99 and with my imaginary money quickly running out I have to make my last two choices with just $23.00 left.

I am always in the mood for a good fantasy and The Faerie Path looks like it might be one.  It's also part of a series with even more beautiful covers to come.  Gah, I am clearly a sucker for good artwork!  However, I do read samples before buying, so it's not just the outside that has to pull me in.  The story, the writing, the characters or the setting have to really speak to me within the short sample and if not, I usually won't give it a chance.  So, I am not really sure about any of these books, because I have not read any samples, but this is imaginary money, so I don't have to spend all that time reading before spending it lol.  This book is $8.99 and I am down to $14.00-ish for my last choice.

Torn a.k.a. Wired (these books apparently had their titles changed recently or something) is the third of the Gripping Trilogy and I just started the second one.  I've already reviewed the first one here and I loved it.  It's a dystopian which, as many of you know already, is one of my very favorite genres and it involves a girl who nearly dies only to be saved and wired into a robotic body.  So, she'll live indefinitely, but she's not sure she wants to, because her new life is nothing like her old life and many of her friends, family and even her boyfriend start to fade away, no longer interested in the strange thing she has become.  I love the writing in these books, the concept, the characters and the emotions so much.  I highly recommend this series to anyone and I would love to spend the last of my fake money on this book for $9.99.