New Giveaway - Need (by Carrie Jones)

If you're sick of reading about vampires and werewolves but still want something fantastical to dip your nose in then we suggest you enter our new giveaway. This month we're giving away a copy of Need by Carrie Jones. Described as a cross between Stephenie Meyer and Stephen King, Need is the story of Zara White who unexpectedly finds herself immersed in a world of pixies. This is the first novel in a continuing series and is a New York Times bestseller.

To enter our book giveaway just tell us your favourite fantastical creature (mine are fairies!!). Bonus entries can be earned for this giveaway. Just read the following for more information.

Bonus Entries
+1 Entry = Follow our Blog
+1 Entry = Liking the Reading Habit Page on Facebook (Click here to do so)
+1 Entry = Following us on Twitter (Click here to do so)
+2 Entries = Provide a Link to our Giveaway on Your Blog
NB: If you're eligible for bonus entries, make sure you let us know when you leave your comment!!

Entries are open until 5pm EST on Thursday 30th June 2011. The competition is open to residents of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA and the UK. The winner of the competition will be announced on Friday 1st July 2011. Good luck to everyone!!

My Borders Splurge!!

As an avid reader, I was sincerely disappointed when it was recently announced that Borders was going under and that they would be closing many of their stores in Australia and overseas. Now I'm not a shopper!! In fact, I can't stand shopping centres and I don't practice the popular art of browsing, except when it comes to books. Up until recently I was lucky enough to have two Borders stores within easy travelling distance from my home and often found myself trawling the stacks for hours on end. Sometimes I'd buy something, sometimes I wouldn't, but I always enjoyed the "looking". Much to my horror it was announced a few weeks ago that one of the Borders stores I frequent was getting the chop and I was pretty emotional about it.........until I realised what kind of money I was about to save and what kind of treasures I was about to pick-up for next to nothing. This particular store is now closed, but I managed to visit the store twice before it closed it's doors and took advantage of nearly 70% off some brand new books. My credit card is not happy, but I'm one happy girl. I reckon I purchased about 20 books in all for the grand total of about $300 AUD. My favourite purchase is the three books pictured in this post - three volumes of the Australian Children's Book Reference series by Marcie Muir and Kerry White. These books will be an invaluable resource for my second hand bookstore as they index every Australian children's book written between 1774 and the year 2000. I also managed to get my hands on quite a few Aboriginal History books, some classics that I can add to my collection, and some modern novels that I've been hanging out to buy. I'm also happy to report that I still have one Borders bookstore that's handy to me. Let's hope it stays open. Read people!!

Help Us Raise Money for Multiple Sclerosis

For the second year running the staff and customers at Reading Habit will be helping to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis in the Australian MS Society's annual Novel Challenge. Last year we managed as a team to raise over $1,500 AUD and if possible, we'd like to set a new benchmark in 2011. Multiple Sclerosis affects the Central Nervous System and there are currently over 18,000 Australians living with this incurable and difficult to diagnose disease. You can help in one of two ways. You can donate money to our team which is appropriately named 'Feed Your Reading Habit'. The MS Novel Challenge website is secure and allows for credit card donations complete with a full receipt. No donation is too small!! Every little bit helps. Alternatively, you can join our team and start your own fundraising campaign. All you have to do is visit our team page to sign up and follow the instructions. The novel challenge runs for three months and the MS Society has a target of $200,000 AUD to reach, so get on board with Reading Habit and do something positive with your book addiction. To find out more about the disease itself we suggest you visit the MS Society About MS page.