Book Giveaway: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

I've been pretty quiet here on the blog lately but am launching back into posting with renewed enthusiasm and a revamped look. To celebrate I thought I'd start with a book giveaway. And so, I have a copy of Life After Life by Kate Atkinson to giveaway.

What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right? This is the premise for Kate Atkinson's enjoyable novel that spans two world wars and the aftermath of both.

To enter the book giveaway just leave a comment here. And don't forget to increase your chances by checking out how to gain bonus entries!!

Bonus Entries
+1 Entry = Follow our Blog
+1 Entry = Like Reading Habit on Facebook (Click here to do so)
+1 Entry = Following us on Twitter (Click here to do so)
+1 Entry = Leave a comment on our other blog (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 Sunday 30th June 2013. The competition is open to residents of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA and the UK. The winner of the competition will be announced on Tuesday 2nd July 2013. Good luck to everyone!!

Starting Point: My 1001 Books Reading Challenge

52 DOWN ..... 949 TO GO!! Yes, this is an ambitious challenge, but I'm one determined reader. I'll get there ..... just not sure when. As of today, I have read the following 52 books from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list. Books are listed in order of how they appear in the book (front to back), not in order of when they were read. I've been incredibly ruthless too!! If I can't remember reading a book, but think I have, I have to read it again. For example, I'm pretty sure I read Around the World in Eighty Days as a kid, but I can't remember it very well, so it doesn't count. Same goes for books I think I may have read, but am unsure whether I just saw the movie instead. Any words of encouragement to help me on my journey are welcome!!

Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen)
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
Mansfield Park (Jane Austen)
Emma (Jane Austen)
Persuasion (Jane Austen)
Northanger Abbey (Jane Austen)
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
Agnes Grey (Anne Bronte)
Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne Bronte)
North and South (Elizabeth Gaskell)
Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)
Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
Middlemarch (George Eliot)
Far From the Madding Crowd (Thomas Hardy)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)
Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy)
The Turn of the Screw (Henry James)
A Room with a View (E M Forster)
The Great Gatsby (F Scott Fitzgerald)
Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbons)
Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
Gone With the Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)
Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier)
The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
The Outsider (Albert Camus)
Animal Farm (George Orwell)
Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell)
The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)
The Lord of the Rings (J R R Tolkien)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (John Le Carre)
In Cold Blood (Truman Capote)
Chocky (John Wyndham)
Portnoy's Complaint (Philip Roth)
Slaughterhouse Five (Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.)
A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
Possession (A S Byatt)
Wild Swans (Jung Chang)
The Secret History (Donna Tartt)
The Shipping News (E Annie Proulx)
Enduring Love (Ian McEwan)
The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy)
Veronika Decides to Die (Paulo Coelho)
Disgrace (J M Coetzee)
The Ground Beneath Her Feet (Salman Rushdie)
Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenides)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Mark Haddon)

Back to School Discount for Teachers

With the first school term of the year looming,I’ve been talking with my teacher friends about their programs for 2013. Most of them are already pondering what new themes they can explore, or how they can jazz up some of their old ones. It occurred to me that most of the ‘Back to School’ advertising is all aimed at kids with little focus on the teacher, who often has to fork out money from their own pocket to acquire new resources. So here’s one for the teachers amongst us! We’re offering a 10% discount on all our teacher/education resources until the end of January 2013. To claim your discount, all you have to do is use the coupon code TEACH2013 when completing your order. Please note that the 10% discount only applies to the book portion of the order, not the postage. To view our online teacher resource catalogue, just click through to our website using this link – TEACHER RESOURCES. And, I’ll let you in on a little secret. You can use the coupon code for all of our stock, not just the resources. Shhhhh!

Xmas Giveaway - Fifty Bales of Hay - Rachael Treasure

Courtesy of our friends at Harper Collins, we have a copy of Fifty Bales of Hay by Rachael Treasure to giveaway.

Come have a roll in the hay with Australia's leading rural fiction author, Rachael Treasure, in her romping, rollicking first-ever collection of Agricultural Erotica. Guaranteed to get your tractor revving, Fifty Bales of Hay, is an honest and imaginative exploration of everyday men and women getting down and dirty on the land.

To enter our book giveaway just leave a comment on one of our blogs (including this one). And don't forget to increase your chances by checking out how to gain bonus entries!!

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

+2 Entries = Join the Reading Habit Community Network (Click here to do so)
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 21st December 2012. 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 24th December 2012. Good luck and Merry Xmas to everyone!!

The Book Lover's Storage Box That Inspired An Epitaph

About once a month I venture out of my office to restock the bookstore shelves. Most of my book buying travels take me directly into people's homes and quite often I find myself being offered more than just books to purchase. Vinyl records, DVDs, CDs and videos are the usual bonus offerings, most of which I refuse, but occasionally something more interesting pops up. Last week I was given the opportunity to purchase a home made storage box that featured the title and author of the maker's favourite books. Even though it was a bit knocked around this kind of one-off creation was right up my alley, so for just $5 AUD I couldn't refuse.

The book titles featured are The Golden Bowl, Gone With the Wind, On the Road, The Lord of the Flies, Portnoy's Complaint, Native Son, Possession and A Clockwork Orange. The top of the box is a painted illustration of some books and a lamp all resting on a table. When viewed from the side the lid of the box is actually a book laying down. The most endearing feature of this little treasure chest is also one of its' major flaws. Whoever painted the titles of the books didn't do a great proofreading job and instead of painting Gone With the Wind they mistakenly painted Gone With Wind. This could very well be the perfect epitaph for my husband's grave!

BOOK GIVEAWAY: Fifty Shades Trilogy (E L James)

This month we have the Fifty Shades trilogy of books to give away. The titles of the books are: Fifty Shades of Grey; Fifty Shades Darker; and Fifty Shades Freed. I won't bore you with an overview of the story line as I'm sure you're well aware of it! To enter our giveaway just leave a comment on our blog and don't forget to increase your chances by checking out how to gain bonus entries.

Bonus Entries
+1 Entry = Follow our Blog
+1 Entry = Liking the Reading Habit Page on Facebook (Click here to do so). Tip: If you like our competition post on facebook as well, you'll get another entry!
+1 Entry = Following us on Twitter (Click here to do so)
+2 Entries = Provide a Link to our Giveaway on Your Blog

+2 Entries = Join the Reading Habit Community Network (Click here to do so)
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 30th November 2012. 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 3rd December 2012. Please be aware that these are second hand copies of all three books. They are not brand new. Good luck to everyone!!

What's the Difference Between An 'Inscribed Copy' and An 'Inscription'?

One of the more common errors made by the book buying public is that they assume the word inscription implies the signature of the author is present. Book terminology can often be confusing, particularly if you don’t spend a lot of time in the field, so I thought I’d take a moment to clear this one up.

In book collecting terms, the word inscription is used to identify where a previous owner/giver has inscribed the book with something more substantial than just a name and date. This is usually in the form of a dedication. For example, “Dearest John, May this book give you lots of belly laughs, Love Aunty Maude”. An inscription is generally found on the endpaper, fly-leaf, half-title, or title page, but is not limited to these locations. Traditionally, book dealers only mentioned inscriptions if they were connected with the author (e.g. the author’s wife) or someone else deemed to be of significance. However, it has now become more common practice to mention an inscription regardless of its’ perceived importance. One could assume this is because a higher volume of books are now purchased online without being sighted by the vendor forcing book dealers to be more precise with their cataloguing. 

So if you’re looking for a copy of a book that has been inscribed by the author, what terminology are you looking for? When a book dealer uses the term inscribed copy they are now referring to a copy of the book that has been inscribed specifically by the author. I could drill down into this further and complicate the matter by explaining the difference between an inscribed copy and a presentation copy, but I think I’ll leave that juicy little nugget for next time. It is important to note here that an inscribed copy is different to a signed copy. A signed copy merely bears the signature of the author, whereas an inscribed copy implies more wording, as illustrated in the previous paragraph.

I lean towards the purist side when it comes to book terminology, so I am sure there will be those who disagree with my definitions. Hence, as a caveat I would advise that when you are unsure of what a book dealer means when they use either of these terms that you clarify before purchasing so as to avoid any disappointment. Requesting a photograph is also a worthwhile exercise. Lastly, I’d also suggest holding onto your correspondence until the book arrives so you are sufficiently armed if a refund is required.