Bookshelf Tour: Special Editions

Hey guys! 

It's time for another bookshelf tour! You guys voted over on my Twitter and wanted to see my Special Editions so here we go! Later than planned however, I had kind of a crappy week last week because stuff, and I just wasn't in the mood to edit the photos I'd taken and actually do the blog post, so yeah. This should have gone up last week but I was basically silent all week oops! 

So, there is one missing because it showed up the other day and it's all over my Twitter and Insta but I'd already taken the photos for this so I couldn't include it! These are all special or collectors editions that I have because I'm a sucker for a pretty book and can't resist them! 

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Okay so this has been on my shelves for ages and I still haven't actually read it yet but I will I swear! This is  the collectors edition and you guys it's completely gorgeous! It's got sprayed edges, the dust jacket is a poster on the inside and the cover under the jacket is awesome too! Lookie: 

Cath and Wren are identical twins, and until recently they did absolutely everything together. Now they're off to university and Wren's decided she doesn't want to be one half of a pair anymore - she wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and let loose. It's not so easy for Cath. She's horribly shy and has always buried herself in the fan fiction she writes, where she knows exactly what to say and can write a romance far more intense than anything she's experienced in real life. Without Wren Cath is completely on her own and totally outside her comfort zone. She's got a surly room-mate with a charming, always around boyfriend, a fiction writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilised world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words...and she can't stop worrying about her dad, who's loving and fragile and has never really been alone. Now Cath has to decide if she's ready to open her heart to new people and experiences, and she's realising that there's more to learn about love than she ever thought possible. 

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame Smith

Soooo I loved Pride and Prejudice and I mean....P&P plus Zombies...what could be better?! I have the regular paperback version, the movie cover and then this edition. Which is completely gorgeous. It's all red and it's got fancy endpapers, and just look at it. It's one of my favourites! 

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all new scenes of bone crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton- and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr Darcy. 

Divergent by Veronica Roth 

I'm fairy certain these where supposed to come in slipcases, but Waterstones just had them in shrink wrap so who knows, hence why mine looks a bit battered on the front! I still haven't actually read Divergent, I'm kind of hesitant because I've seen so many people complaining about the other two books and it's putting me off a bit but I can't resist a pretty book! 

For sixteen year old Tris, the world changes in a heartbeat when she is forced to make a terrible choice. Turning her back on her family, Tris ventures out, alone, determined to find out where she truly belongs. Shocked by the brutality of her new life, Tris can trust no one. And yet she is drawn to a boy who seems to both threaten and protect her. The hardest choices may yet lie ahead...

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

I freaking love Game of Thrones okay, so of course I had to get this collectors edition! Except when I discovered this, it was all sold out everywhere and still is so I actually ended up buying this used, and as you can see....it's basically like new so I was lucky! I'm kinda gutted the publisher didn't do the other books but at the same time I'm glad because money! 

Do I need to do the synopsis? It's right up above this! It's readable right? 

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Hunger Games, another "OMG I completely love" although I haven't re-read in ages. I only have one set now, the adult ones, but like the black minimalist ones not the new cool shiny ones! I did have two because I had the kids covers but I didn't like them all that much! So this one has a gorgeous slipcase, as you can see, and it's just all nice and clothbound and has cool pages! 

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Set in a dark vision of the near future, a terrifying reality TV show is taking place. Twelve boys and Twelve girls are forced to appear in a live event called The Hunger Games. There is only one rule: kill or be killed. When sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen steps forward to take her sisters place in the games, she sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature. 

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

A beautiful edition of a classic up next, the publisher has done a couple of these and they're completely gorgeous and I need to get the others, I just haven't gotten around to it yet! So anyway, this isn't as fancy as the one I've seen on Tumblr with the legit strike patch for matches, BUT I love it anyway! 

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books. 

Eragon by Christopher Paolini 

Eragon! I remember first reading this when it came out and then pre-ordering each of the hardcovers in to Waterstones! I love dragons okay, and this was one of my favourite books as a kid. Every time I do these bookshelf tours I'm like..I really need to re-read that because I haven't in ages, but this is even more so true with this one because it's honestly been like...forever! So I love pretty books, and this is one of the prettiest! It's all blue and  faux leather-bound with shiny gold all over it....just look at it! 

Fifteen year old Eragon believes that he is merely a poor farm boy- until his destiny as a Dragon Rider is revealed. Gifted with only an ancient sword, a loyal dragon, and sage advice from an old storyteller, Eragon is soon swept into a dangerous tapestry of magic, glory, and power. Now his choices could save - or destroy- the Empire. 

Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

Of course I got the fancy edition of Lady Midnight. How could I not? You guys know the story with Cassie Clare! Her books are some of the first YA I ever read and through them I got in to loads of other books and so on and so forth. Honestly, The Infernal Devices is my fave, more so than The Mortal Instruments, and Lady Midnight is on par with TID and I loved this book so much! I'm hoping the other two in the trilogy will be given the same fancy treatment! 

It's been five years since the events of City of Heavenly Fire that brought the Shadowhunters to the brink of oblivion. Emma Carstairs is no longer a child in mourning, but a young woman bent on discovering what killed her parents and avenging her losses. Together with her parabatai Julian Blackthorn, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches across Los Angeles, from the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica. If only her heart didn't lead her in treacherous directions...

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Couldn't resist buying this edition of TKAM! It's gorgeous, and this year I finally read it and there's a discussion about it on YouTube and on my blog, because I completely loved it. I can't even. I'm so annoyed at myself that it took me this long to read it! Not entirely sure I'll read the sequel though! But this is a gorgeous clothbound and you all need it now! 

Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much. To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age story, an anti-racist novel, a historical drama of the Great Depression and a sublime example of the Southern writing tradition.

BOOM! My fancy editions, as I call them! There's a couple more on my wish list that I'm hoping to get at some point in life! Let me know what you want to see next down in the comments! I think leather-bounds came in a close second? 

Bookshelf Tour: Graphic Novels

Hey guys! 

I'm back giving you guys another mini bookshelf tour type thing! If you missed my manga one it's...here! 

This time round I'm showing you guys my rather measly graphic novel collection! I know a fair few of you have kinda huge graphic novel collections, so mine is pretty tiny compared to you guys! But still, you wanted to see it so here we go! 

DC are overpowering poor old Marvel, I don't really prefer one over the other in case you where wondering, it's just DC has Bombshells and the New 52 and ya know...Harley Quinn! I actually have Harley Quinn 1-26 in single issues, I need to get the bind ups from now on though, because it's easier! I'm starting to prefer getting the bind ups to the individual issues! 

DC Bombshells: Enlisted

I keep going on and on about this one lately, it's my latest addition you see and I'm completely in love with it! It has all my faves in it, and they're all 40's and I mean...I think I might prefer them all 40's to their regular looks! This is all about them joining up to the Bombshells unit and how they join and so on! Although I'm not entirely sure what the hell Harley is up to! 

Learn the story behind the alternate reality where the Second World War is fought by super powered women on the front lines and behind the scenes! It all begins with the stories of Bat Woman, Wonder Woman and Supergirl collection together Bombshells 1-6. 

Harley Quinn and Power Girl 

Harley is my fave okay, I'm sure you guys know that by now, and like I said, I have all the issues of Harley's New 52 up until now, I need to actually get the bind ups and then I'm gonna just focus on bind ups instead of individual issues because frankly, I can't keep up! Although I am still getting her Little Black Book issues! Anyway, I love Harley but at points when I was reading this I was like what the hell is going on?! I felt like I was a little bit high, but then one of the characters was definitely high during this so there you go! This collects all 6 issues of the spin off series! 

Power Girl and Harley Quinn are stranded in a forgotten dimension, on the homeward of the amorous warlord Vartox! They'll sacrifice anything they have to in order to get home! Except their dignity....KIDDING! That's the first to go. This new series puts together two of DC's most unlikely allies in their first ever team up! 

Spider-Gwen Volume 0: Most Wanted

Truth telling time...I haven't actually read the Spider-Man/Spidey Event that spawned this series, I just kinda dived in and went with it! I mean...I understand what's going on or has gone on and I did read Silk from the library, so I have a fair picture of things. I completely loved this, I mean Gwen as a spidey person, what things are like for her, how she's dealing with everything, Gwen herself as a character, it's all completely awesome!

Gwen Stacey is Spider Woman, but you knew that already. What you DON'T know is what friends and foes are waiting for her in the aftermath of Spider-Verse! From the fan favourite team that brought you Spider-Gwen's origin story in Edge of Spider-Verse! Collecting Spider-Gwen 1-5. 

Rat Queens Volume 1: Sass and Sorcery

Okay, so a friend of mine kept bugging me until I got this and read it and I'm so glad that they did because I completely loved it! It's funny, it's imaginative, it has a brilliant storyline and it's a lot of fun, not to mention the brilliant art! I believe it's been described as having a Lord of The Rings world on crack and I think I agree with that, there's fighting and monsters and ya know...sass and sorcery. 

Who are the Rat Queens? A pack of booze guzzling, death dealing battle maidens for hire, and they're in the business of killing all god's creatures for profit. It's also a darkly comedic sass-and-sorcery series starring Hannah The Rockabilly Elven Mage, Violet The Hipster Dwarven Fighter, Dee The Atheist Human Cleric and Betty The Hippy Smidgen Thief. 

Ghosted Volume 1: Haunted Heist

As an ex avid viewer of Most Haunted, and lover of Supernatural, I couldn't not pick up a graphic novel called Ghosted with a first volume titled Haunted Heist. I found this suitably creepy, with plenty of humour, and some interesting art to it. I really need to pick up the other volumes because this first was brilliant, I mean...a heist in a haunted house, what could go wrong!?!

Jackson T Winters is one of the greatest criminal masterminds to ever live...except he's rotting in jail after his last doomed score. But when a filthy rich collector breaks Winters out, he's tasked to put together an elite team of paranormal experts to do the impossible: steal a ghost from a haunted house of horrors! 

Five Ghosts Volume 1

I will admit, I didn't find myself liking this one as much as I thought I would, or as much as the other ghost related graphic novel above. However, it wasn't too bad, and I'm interested in checking out the rest of the series to see what happens next, I think I just found this first volume to be a bit boring. The synopsis sounded brilliant and I've seen people raving about it, but it didn't really match up to my expectations! 

After a tragic encounter with an artefact known as "The Dreamstone", infamous treasure hunter Fabian Gray is possessed by five literary ghosts and granted access to their unique abilities. 

Wonder Woman Volume 1: Blood

This is the first volume of the New 52 Wonder Woman and is the one I was recommended to read, and I completely loved it! Wonder Woman is one of my faves okay, and I loved everything about this book of hers. The art, the story, everything. I really, really need to catch up on this one, because I'm SO behind it's not even funny!

Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, has kept a secret from her daughter all her life- and when Wonder Woman learns who her father is, her life will shatter like brittle clay. The only one more shocked than Diana by this revelation? Bloodthirsty Hera- so why is her sinister daughter, Strife, so eager for the truth to be told? 

Green Arrow: Year One

In case you didn't know...I am a HUGE fan of Arrow. Before all I had known was Batman and Christian Bale and Harley Quinn and The Joker and the Arkham Games. Arrow showed me the light and hit me with a load of new characters from the DC universe that I found I wanted to check out! I picked up this particular volume because I heard that it was what was used for Arrow, or what Arrow was based on or some such thing, and I was intrigued to see what the show had done with it. It's different...although in the current season I'm seeing some of this! Just a little bit though! If you're an Arrow fan and don't know where to start with the comics...I'd go for this first! But then...I'm sure someone who knows more about comics/graphic novels can instruct you better! 

How did socialite Oliver Queen become the brave hero known as Green Arrow? Find out in this TPB collecting the 6 issue origin miniseries. Explore Ollie's time on the island where he's forced to fight for his life against dangerous drug dealers and find his true calling as one of the DCU's bravest heroes. 

Batman Arkham Asylum

Batman obsessed as I am, it's shocking that this is the only Batman volume that I have. It really is. To be fair Court of Owls has been sitting on my list for ages, I'm just fussy and want the expensive one with the mask because why not!? Anyway, I picked this up when I spotted it in my local comic shop, because I've heard people raving about this and I found this to really live up to the hype. The art was amazing, it was creepy, and it's definitely one of my favourites! 

One of the greatest Batman stories ever told, Batman Arkham Asylum is celebrating its 25th anniversary already! The inmates of Arkham Asylum have taken over Gotham's detention center for the criminally insane on April Fools Day, demanding Batman in exchange for their hostages. Accepting their demented challenge, Batman is forced to endure the personal hells of the Joker, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Two-Face and many other sworn enemies in order to save the innocents and retake the prison. 

And there we have my very small graphic novel collection! Have you guys read any of these? What did you think of them? Can you rec me anymore!? This is it for now with the whole bookshelf show and tell thing, but if there's any of my other collections you'd like to see, let me know and I'll do a post on it! Leatherbounds? Word Cloud Classics? English Library? Any of those? Or something! 

Bookshelf Tour: Manga

Hey guys! 

How's everyone's Monday going!? Today i'm giving you a mini bookshelf tour, or more accurately...a tour of one part of my bookshelf! 

I asked you guys what you wanted to see and you where all eager to check out my Manga collection which is what you're getting today! You also wanted to have a nose at my graphic novel collection which I'll be doing soon! Let me know what other sections of my bookshelf you would like to see! Leather-bounds? Word Cloud Classics? Clothbounds? I might make it a regular thing if there's more bits you want to see! 

So anyway, my manga collection! I usually get manga from the library because they can be expensive and a lot of them have so many volumes it's insane..Fairy Tail is one of them God help me! Recently I started to watch various different Anime shows thanks to Netflix, Seven Deadly Sins, Blue Exorcist and Fairy Tail are a couple I've watched! Seeing as how I loved the shows so much, I decided I needed to own the manga, I'm sure I'll come to regret my determination to collect Fairy Tail! I've not watched Seraph or Death Note yet I just liked the sound of them, I mean once I ventured in to the Manga section at Waterstones I kept spotting various different ones that are now on my list! As for Twin Star, that one I stumbled on when the Anime was announced! My collection isn't that big, but I'm working on it! 

Fairy Tail

Fairy Tail is my current obsession, I'm not going to lie! I've slowly worked my way through the Anime and I'm very close to catching up but I'm trying really hard not to because then I'll have to wait for new episodes to be dubbed and I'm really impatient! I'm determined to collect the Fairy Tail manga because it's brilliant and funny and original and kind of addicting! The world is huge,there's always something happening and there are so many different kinds of magic in the world! I've only got 6 volumes though and there's like 50 and counting...pray for me! 

In the land of Fiore wizards form in to Guilds, the biggest of all being the guild of Fairy Tail in Magnolia. Fairy Tail is full of the most powerful wizards and Lucy is determined to join! Luckily for her she bumps in to Natsu a Fairy Tail member, of course, she only comes across him when she gets in to trouble with a dodgy wizard and his gang of pirates. It's not long before Lucy becomes a part of Fairy Tail and the adventures begin. Warring Guilds, Dark Guilds determined to cause destruction and set demons loose, missions, mutiny and more! 

The Seven Deadly Sins

Seven Deadly Sins is the Anime that started it all, I stumbled across it on Netflix because they where advertising it everywhere and watched it all in a couple of days and I completely loved it, I've been obsessed ever since! The manga was necessary because I'm impatient waiting for season two and ya know...adaptions are always a little bit different! I have way more chance of catching up to this and the others than I do Fairy Tail at this stage! This is fantasy, there's magic, it's funny, there's action and mystery and it's another original! It took me far too long to work out that the spines of these volumes make a picture! 

The Seven Deadly Sins were once a group of elite Holy Knights in the region of Brittania, formed by criminals. They where forced to disband and flee the kingdom for their lives when accused of the murder of the Great Holy Knight and plotting to take over the Kingdom. The Holy Knights claim that they've been defeated, but rumours abound that they're still alive. Fast forward ten years and the Holy Knights are up to no good, staging a coup d'état and imprisoning the King leaving themselves in charge. The third princess of the Kingdom, Elizabeth, manages to get away and sets out to find the Sins to enlist their help in defeating the Holy Knights and taking back the Kingdom. Luckily for her it's not long before she stumbles across their Captain. 

Blue Exorcist

I watched the one off season of this in a couple of days and while I was unsure at first, it ended up being brilliant! Seeing as there would be no more Anime of it, I had to get the manga because I just need to know what happens next, although the Anime adaption is actually quite different! I gave up on watching Supernatural and this fills the SPN shaped hole in my life! I also love the full colour illustration in the front of each volume! The demons in this are original, and there's so many different kinds! You'll find a guide to them in the back of most volumes! It turns out it's inspired by a Brother's Grimm fairy tale, which makes it even more awesome! 

Rin's always been a bit of a screw up when compared to his younger twin Yukio, forever getting in to trouble and letting his temper get the best of him. The twins where raised by Father Fujimoto, an exorcist and as we join the story Rin's having the rather awkward "Your real dad is Satan" conversation after an encounter with a demon. Yep the twins are the sons of Satan, however Rin is the only one who's inherited the power. When Fujimoto dies to save Rin, Rin does what he was forbidden to do by Fujimoto, he draws the demon-slaying blade Kurikara, which restrains his powers. From that moment his power has been unleashed. Rin is determined to become an Exorcist like Father Fujimoto, and become the strongest of all so he can defeat Satan. Rin ends up enrolling at the prestigious True Cross Academy, which is the cover for the Japanese branch of an international organisation of exorcists. While attending regular classes, Rin also attends special exorcists classes with a few others who's goal it is to become exorcists of varying different types. Turns out Rin's twin Yukio has actually been doing the Exorcist thing for years and is one of his new teachers, then there's also the whole "the people in charge don't know about you otherwise you'd be slightly less alive" thing. 

Twin Star Exorcists

This one is one that I wasn't entirely sure on. I ended up seeing the first few minutes of the Anime's first episode, but it hasn't been dubbed yet and I get too distracted by the animation and forget to read the subtitles! So I haven't watched the rest but the first few minutes looked really good, so I decided why not! Every manga I've picked up has been unique and original and this is no exception, the demons are different to the ones in Blue Exorcist and there's a different hierarchy to the exorcists and different mythology to it. I was definitely iffy at first, but it's been getting better and better! I was actually all caught up on this until volume 4 came out the other day! 

Rokuro is from a family of exorcists and he's one of the best exorcists in the country, although after a tragic incident 2 years ago, he'd rather be anything but an Exorcist! Trouble is...being an Exorcist is the only thing he's actually good at. When new arrival Benio arrives on the scene and the two find themselves in more than one dangerous situation, Rokuro begins to rethink his decision to never be an Exorcist again. When an old enemy resurfaces....there's no decision left for Rokuro to make. Alongside all of that, it turns out Benio and Rokuro are the prophesied Twin Star Exorcists and are fated to be together. Awkward. 

Seraph of The End

I found this one when I was browsing in Waterstones, and I watched the trailer for the Anime and it looked brilliant! I actually picked up volumes 5 and 6 from a charity shop looking like they'd never been read, and since I have and have read volume 1...those two volumes are staring at me begging to be read but I need to get the others first! This one's interesting because there's vampires and everything...but it's not the standard that you'd expect. This manga has a dystopian feel to the world when you read about what happened, but then it seems pretty normal at other points until a vampire bursts in! I'm not sure what to class this as, fantasy? Supernatural? Dystopian? Bit of everything? I think it's actually down as Dark Fantasy though so let's go with that! 

It's the year 2012, and a catastrophic epidemic kills everyone over the age of 13, leaving vampires to rise up out of the recesses of the Earth, bringing age old horrors of the dark, thought to be myth, with them. The vampires take immediate control, enslaving what's left of humanity and taking them beneath the surface for safety. The price of this safety? Blood. That's the story everyone's been told anyway. Yuichiro and his friend Mikaela plot to escape along with the other children from their orphanage, but when everything goes wrong, Yuichiro is the only one to make it to the surface alive. It's there that he's rescued by the Moon Demon company, a vampire extermination unit of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army. It's through them that he learns everything they've been told by the vampires has been a lie. Four years later and Yuichiro has dedicated his life to destroying vampires and seeking revenge, he's determined to join the Moon Demon company, the best of the best. The only problem is he has a bit of a problem with team work. 

Death Note

Not going to lie, I still haven't read this yet. Why? Because I immediately saw this edition and decided it was the edition I needed, not only because it has both volumes 1 and 2, but because it's all black. The edges are sprayed black and everything, so of course I needed the fancy edition. So why haven't I read it yet? Because I'm trying to work out how the hell to read it without getting my grubby fingerprint marks all over it...yep, it's one of THOSE covers that refuses to have fingerprints wiped off! So yeah, I still need to read this one, but I've heard good things and it sounds awesome! 

Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects. He's also totally bored out of his mind, that is...until he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook...dies. Now in possession of this notebook, Light has vowed to use it to rid the world of evil. But then criminals start dropping dead and the authorities send legendary detective L to investigate and track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal...or his life? 

So there you have my rather small collection of Manga! I still have four of them to catch up on, Fairy Tail being the biggest challenge, but I'm sure I'll get there eventually! There's also plenty of others lurking on my amazon wishlist that I'd love to check out! Perhaps when I've built my collection more you'd like me to do an updated version? Or a part two with any new manga I get? We'll see! Next time, probably next week, I'll be doing my graphic novel collection, it's also not very big but oh well! Let me know what manga you love, hit me with your recommendations, and also let me know if you want to take a peek at what manga is on my wishlist, and what other collections of mine you'd like to see, if any!