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I.
May I introduce you to The Black Letters, a joint literary blog run by Emera, my good friend and fellow bibliophile. The Black Letters is slanted towards SF, fantastical and historical fiction, sprinkled with bibliophilia such as bookstore visits and book-curiosities. So far I’ve enjoyed reading their intelligent posts, so please pay Emera and Kakaner a visit!

II.
Where do you head for in a bookstore? was a question asked by Jeff VanderMeer a while back. On my part, I make a beeline towards the (1) SF/Fantasy section to scope out the latest interesting titles, then comes: (2) graphic novels/illustrated/artbooks, (3) kids/young adults fiction, (4) literary fiction, (5) non-fiction science/mathematics/natural history, (6) non-fiction arts/culture, (7) general fiction, (8) non-fiction artbooks (ie. architecture, design, photography), and finally (9) latest releases and bargain bins, by which time I’m tired of the bookstore and proceed to the exit. Most of the time I don’t make it past (3).
How do you make your rounds in a bookstore?

III.
Sundry updates! I’m still on my official graphic novel reading challenge; since it’s proven to be a great success I shall extend it to the end of August. I’m currently working through my back-log of book and film reviews. Also in the works are more Bookshelf posts (including the recent autograph session with China Miéville) and reviews and summary of the graphic novel challenge.

Stay tuned!

The Graphic Novels in June-July reading challenge has commenced. There’s a fine pile of graphic novels on the floor, accumulated from both my bookshelf and the lending library. I picked up the library books on Saturday and they looked so tempting sitting there, so I’ve started a couple days early! And I’ve gotten through quite a bit! I’ll probably do a bulk review at the end of the challenge, instead of reviewing each graphic novel/series separately. Novel-reading will be cut back in the meantime, but knowing myself, I doubt I’d stop reading novels entirely.

I have also rejoined LibraryThing, as Vegalivia. Feel free to watch or add my library as a friend. I hope to add some of my reviews to that system, albeit greatly abbreviated.

I hope you’ve been reading well! What are you reading now? Are you on any challenges? Recommend something good you read recently — regardless whether it fits my taste or not. =)