I’m a serial re-reader. When I find something I love, I tend to come back to it every few years, just to remind myself what it is about the series I adore. 

The Moorehawke Trilogy

One of my favourite series is The Moorehawke Trilogy by Celine Kiernan. It’s such a great story, of a girl who shouldn’t have had to leave home but did, all to overcome the somewhat insane ramblings of her king. 

It’s got everything I love in a series. Adventure, a touch of magic, overcoming all the odds, and a wholesome romantic sub-plot that happens because two people are forced to support each other through a trial that neither could overcome alone. You can tell from the spines that I’ve read and re-read these time and again, and I’ll certainly be doing that again this year. 

And how stunning are these covers? We’ve already established that I’m a visual person, and these are some of my favourites.

Trickster

The Trickster series is my all time favourite by Tamora Pierce. Oh, I adore most, if not all, of her books, but this one is the one I come back to again and again. 

Another coming of age style story, this volume of Trickster is made up of the two books, Trickster’s Choice and Trickster’s Queen. I find the world building in all of Tamora Pierce’s books fascinating, and this one is no different. Not only that but the way this series deals with racism and prejudice is just wonderful. 

Healer Series

The Healer Series is my favourite of the Maria V. Snyder books I’ve read. Another series full of rich world building, with side characters I fell in love with only sentences in. The world is colourful and stunning, even though it’s dealing with the fallout of a major plague. 

This series is a story of friendship that overcomes all odds and love that is hard won. It’s a story of sacrifice and of happy endings even when life is difficult.

So those are the three series I’ll be rereading this year! While there are more that I might pick up, these are the ones I’m really looking forward to. 

Do you re-read series? What are some of your favourites to go back to?

CampNaNo has begun!

This means I’ve got no excuse not to write this month. But working from home thanks to lockdown laws has actually made this harder for me, not easier.

I usually get some great writing done on the train in to work. Because I start an hour earlier than most, I almost always get a seat, and I can pull out my laptop and tap away for an hour until I get into the office.

But now I’ve lost that, and I’ve had to build some new routines. I’m still refining those, working out what in my new schedule does and doesn’t work for me. I made the mistake the first day of camp of writing after nine o’clock at night. That didn’t go so well for me – there were more yawns than words.

Thankfully I’ve got a little helper, and she has one of the rules of NaNo down pat; don’t let your inner editor out. With Junior Editor Ellie’s support, my delete button became inaccessible, and I had to focus on putting more words down than on reworking what I’d already written.

Between helpful Ellie and the virtual write-ins my region are doing this month, I should be able to hit my goal no problems. Then again, maybe I should set my goal higher to make it more challenging for that reason.

Are you doing Camp this month? What are you aiming for? New words, editing, or something else?

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There are few places where I am as happy as I am in a bookstore. 

There’s something magical about walking through the shelves of books stacked almost as tall as I am (okay, I’m not very tall so that’s not much of an achievement) and just looking at the covers. 

My local Australian bookstore Dymocks, like many around the world I am sure, writes handy little thoughts on series, then sticks them to the shelves underneath the books. I love taking the time to stop and read those, especially when it’s a series I’ve already read. That might sound counter-productive, but one of my favourite things is finding out what others thought about a book or series I’ve read. Did they like it as much as I did? If not, why? What was it that drew someone to a book I didn’t like, or didn’t interest them about one I did?

Then there’s the smell. Paper and cardboard and ink, nowhere smells like a bookstore. Even a library can’t quite capture that same smell to me, but maybe it’s about knowing when I’m in a bookstore I’m about to walk out owning a brand new book, not just borrowing one someone else has. 

At this point I feel compelled to point out that there is no right or wrong way to read. Ebooks certainly have their place, and I myself own a lot of them. You can’t beat them for convenience. So long as you are reading, you’re doing it right.

But for me, nothing will beat the feeling of holding a book in my hands while I read it.

What’s your favourite way to purchase books? What about to read? Do you have more ebooks or physical books?

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