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.

What's on the Book Vine #1: Ita Buttrose and Cleo Magazine

Following the surprising success of ABC TVs Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo, Ita Buttrose is definitely the current topic of many water cooler conversations. As an Australian woman who wasn't familiar with Ita's early work in journalism, I was certainly inspired by her trailblazing spunk and it seems I wasn't the only one. Since the TV show aired I have sold numerous copies of her autobiography A Passionate Life which was published in 1998 by Viking Books. Interestingly, some of these copies of Ita's book have been sitting on my book store shelf for years barely catching anyone's notice. This is what I love about the second hand book selling industry and it's appropriate here that I use a Heidi Klum fashion quote - "one minute you're in and the next you're out." Ita is definitely in!!

If you'd like to purchase a copy of Ita's book just click through to the Reading Habit website using this link - BUY: A Passionate Life (Ita Buttrose). And, if you missed the ABC series, you can still view it on ABC iView - Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo (Episode 1).

Easter Giveaway - The Luxe (Anna Godbersen)

It's Easter and we're feeling festive here at Reading Habit, so we've decided to give away a copy of the young adult novel The Luxe by Anna Godbersen. Described as "having all the glitz of The O.C. but with bigger frocks and more dashing boys", this is a teen novel that delves into the whispers, the scandals, the mysteries and the revenge of society's elite.

To enter our book giveaway just tell us what your favourite Easter treat is (mine is Cadbury Cream Eggs...yum!!). 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 Friday 29th April 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 Monday 2nd May 2011. Good luck to everyone!!

Classic Book Follow Ons: Good or Bad?

I was cataloguing some books last week and came across the book you can see on your left - 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye (Buy it Now) by John David California. This unauthorised sequel to the classic cult novel Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger, which revisits Holden Caulfield 60 years on, has been quite controversial. Personally I have no desire to read the book, preferring to remember Holden Caulfield just as he was in the original novel. But as I thought longer on the topic, I realised there are actually quite a lot of classic books that have been followed on (not by the original author). In fact, there's apparently a term for such books. They're called "Parallel Novels" and they can also be prequels, spin-offs etc. Some well-known examples include:

• Mrs De Winter by Susan Hill - sequel to Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
• Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys - prequel to Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• An Unequal Marriage by Emma Tennant - sequel to Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley - sequel to Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• March by Geraldine Brooks - parallel novel to Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

There's obviously a market out there for these types of novels, but how do we all really feel about them? Have you read any of these types of books and did you enjoy them? Do they take away from the original book? Are they even necessary? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject.

New Giveaway - My Soul to Steal (by Rachel Vincent)

I don't know about you, but I feel like there's such a huge amount of choice in the young adult genre at the moment that it's hard to know where to start. I certainly don't remember there being this much variety when I was a teen. In celebration of all the amazing young adult series gracing bookstores at the moment, we are giving away a FREE copy of Rachel Vincent's My Soul to Steal. This is the fourth book in her popular Soul Screamers series.

To enter our book giveaway just tell us who your favourite young adult series writer is. 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 Friday 25th March 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 Monday 28th March 2011. Good luck to everyone!!