Helsinki Book Fair 2019

Last year's post: link

This year I only spent Saturday at the book fair, but here's everything memorable!

This years theme was France with a record number of visitors - over 90 000.

I don't think the theme was as present as past years, with only some sections. Without knowing it beforehand I don't think I would've even realized that that was the theme.

A change they did this year was making the "center" bigger and having four bigger pathways to it, which I think worked out really well and helped navigating.

There were lots of talkers and books, though the 2e slots felt smaller when comparing to last year. In addition to books there were quite a few other things there this year, from cushions, bags, posters, mugs, tea and even beds.

As always I picked up some Christmas and birthday gifts, and ended up with some bits and bobs as well.

Read on lovelies,

S

Why I Post & Read

This is a slightly odd one, but I get asked why read and post.

I've said it before, but I started writing to express my feelings and clear out my thoughts on books.
Another reason is to keep myself accountable and organized in the challenges I try.

Overall I read to learn and just for enjoyment. The thing is though, I recommend expanding what you read, even though you're content in what you're reading.

So yes, I read books in Finnish and English and I've reviewed books in English that are only out in Finnish for that reason. Trying to expand what I read and maybe inspire you to do so as well.

Read on lovelies,

S

Gift Ideas II

I made a post about ones you can diy (link), which can be worth checking since these will just be additions, but I wanted to list some more gift ideas for a bookish person in your life, or even for one who isn't!



Trinket:
Bookmarks, key-chains, necklaces, earrings, bracelets...
(Google a favorite of theirs and maybe it has a famous quote or symbol for it, or maybe go about it with the general theme of books)

Wearable:
Scarf, shirt, even an umbrella!
(Again you can pick a favorite series of theirs and Google to see)

Decor:
Clock, computer decal, candles, posters, bed sheets, table cloth

Other:
Mugs, glasses, coasters, makeup brushes (for example HP wand ones)



Another thing, is that if it's a particular fandom that not too popular, or it can't be found, is that ebay is a place to definitely check! Lots of handmade things and there's something for everyone there!


For even more you can check this list: https://ebookfriendly.com/best-literary-gifts/

Read on lovelies,

S

Book Haul 2018 II

I made a post, link, in the beginning of May titled "Book Haul 2018 Quarter I" which first of all I posted in May and secondly should've been called Tertile (or something or another?). Also there's the fact that I've been really limiting the books I buy and getting my TBR down (link here) so I was never even planning on doing multiple haul posts this year... Anyway on to the haul:

BOOK HAUL:

All the books I've bought and received - 2018 quarter II:

ARCs received / publisher

- - -

1. The Kiss Quotient(e-arc), e

2. When Dimple Met Rishi

3-5. Emma, P&P, Jane Eyre (new editions)
6. My Plain Jane (physical copy)
7-8. Harry Potter 2-3 (illustrated editions)

- - -

Also as a follow-up haul to last weeks one all about the Helsinki Book Fair.
What I got from there:

1. Vuosisadan rakkaustarina

2. Työmiehen vaimo
3. Elias
4. Tarinoita suomalaisista tytöistä, jotka muuttivat maailmaa
5. Pyrstötähti

- - -

Read on lovelies,
S

Helsinki Book Fair 2018

This post will be about the Helsinki Book Fair (kirjamessut.messukeskus.com) and is like last years one, link, and haul, link, which will be up next week!

This was my second year there with a blog pass, and I wasn't disappointed.


Friday:

I wasn't planning on going today, but oh I did. For tips and tricks to also help I would recommend getting a map and acquainting oneself to it, because that's something I struggle with every year. Another thing that I'd recommend is making a list beforehand of the places you definitely want to visit. Even though I go through all the isles and rows systematically I always end up missing something.

Basically for the whole day I spent it perusing and familiarizing myself with everything and buying what caught my eye.

Another thing to mention is that a  theme of sorts this year was the States, which was seen in the amount of authors visiting and in some of the stands.

Saturday:

I spent Saturday mainly going to blogger events that publishers held.

It started out with a WSOY, Tammi, Johnny Kniga brunch with various authors:

Anja Snellman, Antti Heikkinen, Satu Vasantola, Veera Nieminen and Liina Putkonen.

Mostly what caught my eye was Jäätynyt tyttö by Liina Putkonen which is definitely something I want to read.

- - -

Next there was an event held by S&S with Katja Lahti, Sabine Forsblom, Annastiina Heikkilä, Lauri Ahtinen and Ida Salminen.

The ones I most want to read from this bunch are Tarinoita suomalaisista tytöistä jotka muuttivat maailmaa by Ida Salminen, and Elias by Lauri Ahtinen.

- - -

Lastly was Teos with Mia Franck, Hannu-Pekka Ikäheimo, Jarno Hartikainen, Rafael Donner, Juha Hurme, Kati Rapia, Henriikka Tavi, JP Pulkkinen and Mirjam Lohi.

And this time around Pyrstötähti by Kati Rapia and Juha Hurme really caught my attention

Sunday:

Today as the last day, I spent it with family who came with me to the fair. And buying whatever I couldn't stop thinking about so that regrets would be minimal.

I even bought a key-ring that can be used to tell what day of the week it is in whatever amount of time, which is frankly quite useless but I fell in love with it.

Read on lovelies,

S

Getting Rid of a Sticker and its Residue

Today was supposed to be a review of Sea Witch by Sarah Henning, but life got in the way and I'm still in the middle of reading it.
So instead here's something different!

- - -

I'm sure a lot of us has experienced this. Every once in a while we buy a book and it has a sticker on the cover (promotion, sale, used copy... too many reasons) and we peel it off - and the residue stays. And. It. Won't. Budge.

At this point you try to rub it creating goo lumps eventually just smearing the mess. Then we might google, but we can't just risk the book. But I've done it so you don't need to!
So for getting rid of a sticker and its residue read on.

Before continuing on with your own testing, try the possible materials on a bit of the cover first to make sure it won't be harmed!


1) Getting the sticker off

- Take a blunt object with an edge (ex. a ruler), but nothing too sharp so you won't puncture the cover

- Start with the corner of the sticker and once it lifts up use the edge of the ruler to push the sticker, until you can pull it with your fingers

- Note: in case of multiple stickers, finish with one sticker completely before starting another so nothing sticks to the goop while you work

At this point the materials to use differ based on the cover material type.


For non-absorbent covers
(ex. leather, cloth, plastic covered, some of the velvety feeling ones, most naked hardbacks):

2) Get something alcohol based, or not
- You can use perfume or nail polish remover, or even just oil
(I even managed with non-alcohol based nail polish remover)

- Add a few drops to a piece of paper and start rubbing the sticker

- You can finish off with a dry or damp (with water) paper to get rid of any moisture left


For other covers
(ex. most hardback jackets, paper, non-shiny I guess):

2) Rubbing

There's a couple ways of doing this, but each work because of friction and the residue will start to clump up

- Take an eraser (or even just a piece of paper) and rub the sticky parts. Don't use a crumbly one and do note that this will cause lots of crumbs to clean off, but the stickyness will be gone

- The I'd-even-say-iconic way would be to try blotting the sticker's residue with the sticker itself, but this would take quite a long time. So instead take a piece of tape and instead of blotting it stick it on (while still holding the ends) and rub it against the book

What not to do:

- Don't use heat on it like you can with wood, it will curl the pages

- If you're using any liquids, don't leave it on too long, it might soak through the cover

- Also with liquids try not get any of it on the book pages, because though they will dry they might end up curled

Another warning: it does get worse, before it gets better!

Read on lovelies,

S

Bookish DIY and Gifts

These are all bookish examples of things you can make/DIY
(or buy if you don't have a crafty thumb)
and potentially gift a book lover.

Also check out these links for more ideas and pictures:

Bookish.com

Buzzfeed, Penguin, Bustle

>><<

Bookmarks
Tassled
Hogwarts house
Favourite quote
Yearly read count (print a bookshelf and color them or write numbers)
Book characters and relations that you add to while you read. Like a sort of family tree whilst reading

amazon.com

Decor
Arrows pointing to fantasy lands (narnia, hogwarts, wonderland, Emerald City, Neverland, the Shire... anything you want)

themerrythought.com

Hogwarts house ornaments

Old book...
...Pages into quotes
...Pages into necklaces
...Letter - book cut sideways
...Word - by folding the pages


Tote or shirt (now you might be wondering how on earth this could be easy, but you can actually buy this paper that you can print on and then iron on any shirt/bag/pillowcase)

architechtureartdesigns.com

zazzle.com

Pouch (for a book or kindle)

Literary coasters


Bookends

Hope this gives you some inspiration!

Read on lovelies,

S

Kirjamessut / Book fair 2017 part 1

As I mentioned in a previous post (link), I received a blog pass for the Helsinki book fair (kirjamessut).

So how did it go?
I will have a separate post tomorrow about all the things I bought there...






Thursday:
On Thursday I toured the fair as a whole, first with only touring and then buying (this way I didn't need to lug everything around with me all day). This year there were 2 huge sections with everything 2 euros (a treasure I got last year from there was the Night Circus, and they had it this year as well).

Bigger publishers had 10-20% off of everything, and Adlibris (one of my absolute favorite online stores in Finland for books) had 3 books for 10e and 5 yarn rolls for 10e.

There was definitely a theme of Finland turning 100 this year, and also the fact that Dan Brown came was made a big factor. There was also a Harry Potter themed bus (picture below) and other bits and bobs which made the whole experience, yet again, amazing.











Saturday:


Saturday was my second, and last, day at the fair and it started off with a WSOY, Tammi and Johnny Kniga blogger brunch, which I loved. Food, books, authors talking and bloggers meeting - what else do you need? The people were lovely & I also got books signed for the first time, so that was something else to remember!

The authors there:

Heikki Valkama (Pallokala), - so excited for this one!
Marianna Kurtto (Tristania),
Roope Sarvilinna (Osuma),
Joonas Konstig (Vuosi Herrasmiehenä),
A. W. Yrjänä (Joonaanmäen Valaat)
& Tuomas Kyrö (Mielensäpahoittajan Suomi)



Lastly for the day I attended the Teos blogger meet-up with various of their authors telling us about their books:

Juha Hurme (Niemi)
Juhani Känkänen (Ilo irti, Apo Apponen!)
Marjo Niemi (Kaikkien menetysten äiti)
Maria Peura (Tunkeilijat)
Mikko Rimminen (Maailman luonnollisin asia)
Heikki Reivilä (Onnettomat Roomassa)
& Jarkko Volanen (Hiekankantajat)

Read on lovelies,

S

Bookish Humour

Bookish memes that ring so true to me:

Read on lovelies,

S

Data and Statistics

So every year I make a yearly post about all kinds of data I gather about the books I've read.
So this year I decided to add some data to my monthly wrap-ups as well will I've been enjoying.

2016 - link



I decided to make a list regarding the data I gather and add to my Excel and show some charts and explain some decisions



READ table - contains: title, rating, author, publication year, language, mark if it's part of a series, date read, genre, mark if I've reviewed it, edition (physical, e-, audio,  ARC) and times I've reread it

For example: 
       Title                                                      rating      author         public.    lang.     series  date read       genre

(stand alone: s. open series: o, finished series f)

EBOOKS table - contains: title, author, rating

OWN/TBR table - contains: title, stars, author, language, genre

SERIES tables - finished/won't continue, currently in the middle of, and the amount of books in the series

CLASSICS: a table for all author with bindups and listed all its contents (plays, short stories...) with title, rating, and order that it's in the book


CHARTS: monthly count, yearly count, star rating, genres of both read and owned

(So the genres are a bit weird but if one catagory is technically a subcatagory of another - like fantasy and magic - you choose the one that is closest and if there isn't one you take a broader one.
So if it's a fantasy book without magic you choose fantasy.
It's been working for me, but I admit it's very peculiar.)

Read on lovelies,

S

Purging Books

This might seem off the topic of books, but I like knowing what I own and really appreciating everything. The same goes for books.

   I like looking at my shelves and knowing that I, if not loved, really enjoyed them. So I unhaul some books every once in a while. (latest link)
Also it's awesome way to get rid of some TBR stress!

><><><

I have trouble deciding if I can part with a book - so here are some of those reasons & reasons you should get rid of it:

-Fear of being left out for not having a hyped book
   Not everyone will like a certain book, so if the fame is the only thing that drew you to it and you still haven't read it, will you ever? The hype will die down so what's your reason then?

-Certain infatuation with the books as a pleasure bringing object filling a shelf
   - not as pleasure filling your mind with a great story

-Even if you've read it, what if I need it? Review, picture, as a proud result of reading all the books one your shelves?
   I understand the feeling, but do I want a physical reference to a book I wouldn't recommend? And every time you saw it you'd think "oh that was so not my cup of tea"

-Classic that everyone just should read in their lives   This I'm struggling with because I want to widen what I read and I feel like it's a classic for a important reason and I should educate myself...

-I will actually hold on to books that are being made into movies, because I always want to read it before I see the movie and even if I don't, at times if I've really liked the movie I've gone back to the book to make my decision of getting rid of it
  In the end though if I love the story and want to revisit it I tend to always go towards one format or the other, and so getting rid of the other

Just remember:

×If you worry you'll regret the decision later know you can always repurchase it and love it even more

×Think and realize why you want to keep the book - the story or the physical appearance, the "mustness" gotten from others or the obligation as a book lover?
    ^None of these are wrong but I'd prefer to keep it because I loved the story

×Think about it: wouldn't an optimal shelf be a representation of your pride and joy in particular books - a reflection of you?

Read on lovelies,

S

Book Adaptations

2017

These are (maybe) all the book to movie adaptations coming out this year that I am interested in.
*bolded* -  the ones are adapted fromcomics
*space before the title* - The indented ones I'm not sure if I'll watch

Books&Lala made a blog post about ones she is looking forward to with more variety so check that out: link

Series of Unfortunate Events (Going on)

A Monster Calls (Came out)

    Before I Fall (March)
Beauty and the Beast (March)
    Logan (Mar)
         ^aka Wolverine

Charming (April)
        ^this is a animated musical comedy about fairytales, with Demi Lovato, Sia, Avril Lavigne,
         Ashley Tisdale etc. as voices

Everything, everything (May)
Gardians of the Galaxy 2 (May)
     Captain Underpants (June)

Wonder Woman (June)
     Despicable Me 3 (June)

Divergent: ascendant Tv movie (June) (?)

Spider-man (July)
     Valerian (Jul)
Kingsman (Sept)

Murder on the Orient Express (Nov)
Let it Snow (Nov)
Wonder (Nov)
Justice League (Nov)
     Thor (Nov)
Star Wars VIII (Dec)
  Pitch Perfect 3 (Dec)
         ^you're all wondering why this is here: the first movie was technically based on a non-fiction
          book, and I'm just really excited for this movie so I listed it

Unspecified, (release):

Ashes in the Snow (aka Between Shades of Gray)
Little Mermaid
Graceling
Lion King

Descendants 2 TV movie

    Big Little Lies TV show

Updated lists

Recap

If you didn't read a post of mine from a while back stating that during february and march I will be posting biweekly, then you now know.

That is also true for today (a day without an actual post), so I made a list of lists I've previously made and now updated.

  Also my monthly wrap-ups for January-March will be in one post at the end of March, since I'm in the middle of finals now and therefore won't be writing or reading.

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SERIES I've finished: link

SERIES I'm in the middle of: link

SERIES I won't continue: link

My goodreads shelves explained: link

TBR: link

2017 TBR challenge: link

Read on lovelies,

Sally

What Makes a Book Good

Feelings, statistics, both or neither

When rating a book I try to make an effort to distance myself from looking at purely the ending and my feelings right after finishing it. Looking back at books it's easier to see things that you really liked and what were unique and stayed with you.

So what makes a book good?
The feelings, the memorableness, the characters, the plot or something else entirely?

When I review a book I try to look at the book as a whole and work from there. But when rounding half stars on Goodreads - I just go with my feelings.

My STAR SYSTEM:
* Nope, maybe even DNF
** Decent? but wouldn't recommend
*** Good & Promising
**** Great & Entertaining
***** Unique & Loved it

Questions to ponder:
-Sensation after (is the book still good if the ending and only the ending was bad?)
-What do you remember (characters or feelings etc.)
-Which do you have rather lived? (like regret more what you did or didn't do)
-I love suprises and twists, isn't that just playing with your head & feelings?
-Should the book be a world that you are submerged in? - and you don't have a "wait a minute why is..." moment
-The importance of the writing, characters, plot, world and the development. If one is lacking are the others also affected?

The fact of the matter is - it's your opinion, and yours alone.

Read on lovelies,

Sally

Things We Don't Know We Know?

Language

Many of you probably saw Matthew Anderson's Twitter post circling around bbc, twitter, tumblr, pinterest - anything and everything. If not though, here is the BBC article regarding it - link.

“Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac. It’s an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out.”

He raised multiple good points on things that native english speakers know, but don't know they know. I for one was tought this rule - I'm not a native speaker - but still when I came across this post I was amazed at how I haven't thought of it in years! While writing I don't think of this rule since when getting the order wrong, it just sounds horrible.

Green great dragons? Nope.

><><><

Then he raises another rule with a bridge from the previous one.
There are some exceptions to the previous order rule like: Big Bad Wolf. But apparently not, since it follows another rule: the rule of reduplications.

Reduplication in linguistics is when you repeat a word, sometimes with an altered consonant (lovey-dovey, fuddy-duddy, nitty-gritty), and sometimes with an altered vowel: bish-bash-bosh, ding-dang-dong. If there are three words then the order has to go I, A, O.

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Then he goes to the tenses. Daunting to starters, natural to natives. To start of do you know what the future present is? Exactly. Daunting.

There are so many tenses you can use without even thinking about it, and almost certainly without being able to name them. It depends how you count them, but there are about 20 that you deploy faultlessly. The pluperfect progressive passive for an extended state of action that happened to you prior to another action in the past is, when you put it like that, rather daunting. But then you’d happily say “I realised I’d been being watched” without breaking sweat or blinking.

Another thing the author mentions is the rules of stress... I'll let you read more on that from the article.

><><><

I remember two poems we read in class five years back and thought they would be a great addition to this post - on the daunting prospect of english as a language.

Hints on Pronunciation for Foreigners

By TSW

&

De Chaos
by Gerard Nolst Trenité

(both can be found here)

So try reading them outloud. There are also videos on YouTube to check how you did.

><><><

Also to get a grasp on the fascination of intuition in regards to the english language check out this link I was sent: http://english.printexpress.co.uk/  to test out how well you can do with the order of adjectives.

Read on lovelies,

Sally

Penguin Classics : Metamorphosis

Pocket books, little black classics & review

A new series of thirty distinctive, unforgettable Penguin Classics in a beautiful new design and pocket-sized format, with coloured jackets echoing Penguin's original covers.

www.pocketpenguins.com

From the classic orange paperbacks to the clothbound covers, the Penguin that we all recognize has lots to offer. Penguin launched a new set of classics in the classic design, with the covers coloured to show the original language.

Among this new set of pocket classics, they launched a set of 126 short books - the Little Black Classics. Like every girl needing a little black dress, these tiny books are a fantastic way for diving into the world of literature. I've only read a couple, but I am officially in love with them! Poems, short stories and other stuff (though some only have a chapter or few from a whole book and I don't know what to think of that, maybe as a sample to see if you like the style?)... You can chuck one in your bag for wherever you go and read them in a moment. That is also the beauty with the sizes of the pocket book series.

www.littleblackclassics.com

I live in the faraway country of Finland and wasn't sure if these new books could be found. So I went to Helsinki and strolled around through multiple bookstores - and there they were, in Akateeminen kirjakauppa. A table of pocket books adorned with a penguin. The pricing is also very affordable - considering the quality - and the thing that sold them for me is the floppiness! Yup, you heard me, unlike most mass market paperbacks, and small paperbacks in general, these are not the stiff ones that are hard to read and inept to keeping a clean spine. And for that I give it an A+.

Then to the review of Metamorphosis:

*book kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review!*

  This pocket book: n.8 Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Featuring an ordinary man who wakes up to find himself turned

into a giant cockroach, Kafka's masterpiece of unease and black

humour, Metamorphosis, is brought together here with the best of his short stories.

I'd heard lots of things about this particular novel and had been wanting to read it for quite some time now. And at the same time it was worth the wait, but on the other hand, why didn't I pick this up sooner? So, yes I really liked the book and do recommend it. Also the fact that between the covers, this edition has lots of other goods to offer.

Goodreads' link & text:

From Meditation, a collection of his earlier studies; The Judgement, written in a single night of frenzied creativity; The Stoker, the first chapter of a novel set in America and a fascinating occasional peace, and The Aeroplanes at Brescia, Kafka's eyewitness account of an air display in 1909.

       Metamorphosis brought change, and alienation to a whole new level. As a cockroach one does not exaclty continue on like before. Then again a good way to impact people is to magnify and highlight the problems.

       The main character Gregor has to work through alienation and the disgust toward him from his family, not to mention trying to roll out of bed when your stuck on your shell.

    Kafka's imaginative ideas really brought to life the unforgettable struggles and thoughts that are enclosed in this book, and I think by reading it, one can learn quite a bit.

'I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.'

And for some exciting news come back tomorrow!!

Read on lovelies & good luck to you all,

Sally

Book Craft

Folding

For some reason I decided to do a folding book craft, of which I've seen plenty of pictures. And so the journey began


1. Google & Decisions
I grabbed a book that I had DNF'd and was planning of getting rid of, and I started writing a list of options that I could do and questions I needed to search.
I'd recommend writing straight to the cover of the book since from that you can find out if you are actually capable of potentially destroying the book!


2. Math

So after those decisions and googling for answers, I started making claculations.

So the book had 336 pages and so 168 foldable ones.

Then I had four letters, and three spaces in between those letters so (168-3x4)/4=39 pages for each letter and that is easily dividable with 3 so the letters'll go well and always sectioned to 3 x13 pages.

3. Lines for help

I saw lots of different ways to start the folding, with an extra paper with the outlines, by drawing it straight to the pages etc. but I decided to just go with it and see how it went.

So I added guide lines in where to fold the top and sides (see picture) and started with the straight beginning of the letter L.

And then I started the smaller section for the bottom of the L.

4. Between letters
For between the letters when I fold the 4 pages I took the whole page and folded it in half to the spine and that brought some volume  and separation witht the letters.

5. O whole?
Then the tougher part. An O has a line at the top and bottom at the same time! So some more googeling and results - you fold one paper to make the top line and the next the bottom, and you rotate those.

6. Slants
In the O it was quite easy to just take the third of the pages and gradually make the edge wider to make it shape up, then make the whole and slant the other side in a similat fashion.

But with the V on the other hand, oh boy there were some problems. So the first third I folded from the top line I sketched in the beginning and same with the third third. Then the second third from the bottom. Then from the middle of the second third I started the slants going upwards. And in similar fashion the edges to the bottom. Makes sense right? Try to look at the pictures to figure it, I can't really explain it.

7. E with three lines?
So the E was easy again with the first straight line being the same with the L and the ending part the same with the O whole alternating with the top and bottom lines.
But in between these two parts (the one left and not folded in the picture) there are THREE lines at the same time. So I decided to do the same as with the two line whole but with alternating with the three instead (so first the left then middle and lastly right and again and again).

8. Tadaa?

So now it was done, but I decided to paint the edges with a red/black/silver concoction to bring that out even more.

And from this last photo you can see that when folding the top parts I didn't exactly follow the line I sketched in the beginning and that really didn't matter.

Read on lovelies,

Sally