Mini Book Haul

Hello everyone!

Today's blog post is a mini book haul! Book hauls are things that make me SO happy, but they are probably very bad for health and my wallet. I stood between bookshelves of a the book shop as my heart palpitated and stress coursed through my veins. Shopping for books should be a pleasurable experience, but for me it is incredibly exhausting wanting to buy every second book I see, but not having the budget for it. (Side note, how cool would it be to have a no budget book shopping spree?!)

On this visit to the bookstore I was pretty good at restraining myself. I only bought two books: A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Mass and The Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riodan. I had originally went to the bookshop to buy the new Rick Riodan novel, because duhh, it's a NEW Riodan book  I had felt like I had waited for this book for an eternity for this book to be released. I was planning to pre-order it online, but after a little incident involving sleep deprivation and an intense feeling that I did not own enough material goods that I have no need of, my parents unanimously agreed that perhaps that I shouldn't be allowed to shop online. *looks around guiltily*

Upon arriving at the bookstore I grabbed The Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle and whispered 'my precious' to it... *insert background laughter used in TV shows* I'm joking I only took the book into my hands and stared at it adoringly, The latter one was not a joke, ahaha. I then wondered around the store until I decided that before I lost my self control I should leave. As I was waiting in line, my eyes fell on A Court of Mist and Fury. In that moment, A spotlight seemed to shine on it and angels seemed to sing 'Hallelujah Hallelujah'. My self restraint melted and I left the store with two books, which is not too bad.

That was my mini book haul for today. I'm so excited to read these books and will have my thoughts up soon on my BookTube channel, so keep a look out for that! I have exams coming up next week, so I will be a little busy, but I'll post as often as humanly possible,

Happy reading!!

-xox The girl with her head in the clouds

aka Kellie :P

THE NEW COMEBACK!

Hi my name is Kellie and I like to read. I'm obsessed with Harry Potter and pizza. I have no pets, but I did have a sunflower plant that I accidentally killed (RIP Sunny). You may be wondering, 'What is with the introduction?'. Well my curious readers, it has been a while since my last post and I'm a little afraid that you have forgotten who I am.

I was neck deep into exam revision and I thought about how unhappy I was. I blissfully thought about how I'd rather be reading or do anything other then studying. Then I was distressingly hit with the realisation that I had subjected my poor blog to neglect. Urgh :( It was then that I decided that I couldn't let this continue. I have given my blog a make over (how good those it look now?!) and now I feel so motivated to post at least once a week (don't quote me on that though, because I think we all know that I am not the best at following schedules, XD).

Here is to a start of a more constant blogging schedule!

-xox Kellie

A NEW HARRY POTTER BOOK!

Hello everyone!

So today's post is about to break my little PotterHead heart. I thought that my world was forever changed when I saw the Fantastic Beast and Where To Find Them trailer. It was amazing! I have a reaction video on my BookTube channel if you want to check that out! *smiles at shameless self-promotion*

My mind was even more blown away when I heard around a week ago that the script of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child script was going to become the newest book I freaked out. This is amazing. It's a new Harry Potter story! A new instalment in the story that had shaped me as a person. This is an appreciation post because I'm just so excited. This is going to be awesome.

Although since it is the script of a play it is going to be very different from the original books because it will have scene directions and other elements typical of a play. These things will differentiate the reading experience between the original books and this new one, but honestly I don't care! Honestly my heart feels like it's about to explode. This is so exciting! I never thought that this day would come, but it finally has and I'm overjoyed. Now comes the anxious wait until I am able to get my hands onto the book! :)

What are your thoughts on this new instalment in such an iconic series? Are you excited? Nervous about where J. K Rowling will take the story? Tell me down below! :D

BookTube vs Book Blogs

Hello everyone!

First and foremost I want to wish everyone a happy new year! I know it is a little late but this is after all my first post for 2016. For today's post I have a topic that I've been thinking about maybe too much lately and that is BookTube against book blogs. For those who are not familiar with BookTube, it is a community on YouTube that talks about books. BookTube is quite popular and some of the most popular BookTubers have hundreds of thousands of subscribers. I am also a BookTuber who admittedly has NOWHERE near that many subscribers. What I really enjoy about BookTube is that it's so fun. I just sit in my room and talk to a camera and fangirl about books like I do with my friends. Blogging to me is also like that with videos it has a whole other element to it.

I don't know if many people know this but I have a very deep love for photography. I'm not very good but I love it and my Canon 600d is my baby. I love trying to improve my video quality and investigating different lenses. I really want to expand my BookTube and create the best quality videos that I possibly can, but that in turns takes up a lot of my free time that I used to use for blogging. I feel torn because I love both but don't have time to make them both good, so one has suffer. That is why my blog content has also been suffering lately. I just have all this inner turmoil because of this.

I also feel like I can't make a video about something and then talk about it on my blog so that is why I have also been feeling like I do not have enough to talk about about. No one wants to watch a video on a specific book and then read a blog post about it. Do you ever have those moods where you feel like you have nothing to talk about and you're not interesting? That happens to me sometimes and that prevents me from wanting to post anywhere.

Here is one of my videos if you would like to check it out. It is quite old but there are more recent ones here if you'd like to check it out. If you check it out and subscribe if you like it I'd be soooo grateful :)

At the end of the day I love both platforms. I just really enjoy anything that allows me to express my love for books. I think what we learnt today is that I need to balance both and not let one prevent me from doing the other.

I hope that you have a great new year and can learn to balance whatever you need to If you already have good balance in your life I'm very jealous of you and wish to learn your craft, ahaha. :D

The Holidays!

Hello everyone!
The holidays are almost upon us! Well for those who celebrate the holidays anyway and for those who don't, I'm sure that whatever holiday you celebrate during another day of the year is just as great. My family personally do not celebrate religiously, but we do love to put up a tree, have a nice dinner and exchange gifts. I'm very excited for the holiday season and for today's post I decided to have a holiday themed post. I am going to count down my favourite holiday themed books and movies. I may also just add a couple other things that I love about the holidays. ;) Let's get started! :) (I'm sorry about all of the exclamation marks, I'm just so excited about all of the holiday festivities)

The first book on list has to be 'Let it snow' by Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle and John Green. It is a lovely book that weaves together three beauty Christmas stories together. The three authors each written their own character and story line that created this interconnected world. I most admit that I had originally only read it because it was partially written by John Green, but after reading it I loved all the authors. This book is very Chrisstmasy (I know that isn't a word, but lets pretend that it is, ahaha) and is a great holiday read.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone the movie is one of my favourites for the holiday season. Usually my philosophy is always 'books are better than the movie', but this may just be the one exception. I love watching this movie leading up to the holidays. It feels me up with a holiday vibe and it isn't Christmas until I watch this movie and eat so much popcorn that my stomach feels like exploding (unfortunately this does actually happen every year...). This movie is not just about the holiday season, but the main theme is love. Watching this movie is one of holiday traditions it just embodies the holidays for me.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickinson is a beautiful novella that is a classic. I love it and I most admit that I also love the animation version. I think that this is a great holiday read, because it is shorter so that you can spend other time with your family and friends. Some of my earliest Christmas memories are watching the animation then learning about the novella and reading those. This is a beautiful classic that is perfect every year.

My favourite Christmas movie of all time has to be Elf. As a little girl I never owned the DVD, but it would always be on TV in December. It's a hilarious comedy about an 'elf' who is actually a human. As he goes into the human world he is far out of his comfort zone, but he is filled with Christmas spirit. I'm pretty sure that most people have watched this movie because it always shows around Christmas but if you are reading this post and you have not watched it, do it now! It's extremely funny and perfect for the holiday season.

Hot chocolate is one of the most delicious drinks ever. Unfortunately in Australia Christmas is crazy hot due to it occurring in summer, but hot chocolate is still delicious. I've tried to make cold chocolate instead of hot chocolate and it actually worked pretty well. I used chocolate milk, whipped cream and crushed candy canes. This is the perfect treat to drink cuddled on the couch watching a cheesy christmas movie. This is super random, but I had to share my love for chocolate flavoured beverages.

This was my holiday related post. I hope you enjoyed it and have some ideas of what to read, watch or drink. :) This is going to be a very joyous holidays, I have a very good feeling about it.

Until next time,

The Girl With Her Head in The Clouds


aka Kellie xox

Reading for pleasure vs reading for school

Hello everyone!
It's been wayyy to long. I know and I'm so sorry. I've just been caught up writing, because as some of you may know this month is November and November is novel writing month. I've been writing like crazy and whenever I can, but that's not where most of my time is taken up. I have spent so many nights studying for exams and so many nights worrying about them. I'm a naturally anxious person and when a stressful event happens you can bet that I'd be very stress out and worried. You may wonder what this has to do with anything, but it will make sense, because today I will be discussing reading for pleasure against reading for school.

Reading for pleasure is this beautiful thing where you can just enjoy yourself and read because you want to. Read because you have a passion for it. Read because books are freaking amazeballs! You can completely lose yourself in the text and enjoy, While reading for school your mind is always thinking about what the hidden symbolism in it it. What the author was discreetly trying to convey. How you should structure you analysis essay. You can't simply enjoy the whatever you're reading. Don't even get me started on reading to memorise. I have read so many facts this week and tried to cram them into my brain. That is probably my least favourite way of reading. Reading something that you have no interest in, over and over, so that it stays in you brain.

I find it sort of funny how whenever I want to read for myself I would want to drop everything and read it straight away, but when it comes to reading for school I would do whatever I can to avoid it and be the queen of procrastination. It is as if once it has a connection to school my brain is like 'Nope, I'm done with this. Don't make me read it." It's not a conscience choice, my brain just doesn't want to do it and it is very stubborn. *yup, Kellie blame it on your brain and don't place the blame where it is meant to me, you and your lazy ways* You are probably really worried about me, because I'm talking in third person. Don't worry, I may be a little weird, but I'm fine. Just a little sleep deprived, but fine. :)

I hope you enjoyed today's random post. I just missed it and had to write something and this just blurted out of my brain. :P

-Lots of love the girl with her head in the clouds  


aka Kellie xox

Inky Award Ceremony 2015!

Hello everyone! 

So as I'm writing this sentence as I'm on the train coming home from the Inky Writers Awards. For those who don't know, this is an award where young adults are able to decide what young adult books are good. It seems like something that is given; young adults critiquing young adult books, but unfortunately it is not something very well practised. This is why the Inky awards are very important and why I'm so honoured to have been there. 

I'm going to apologise in advance because I did not bring my baby (aka my canon camera), so the photos you are about to see, will be very blurry. 

So the day started off very stressful because my local train station is being remodelled and I did not know. I had to make different plans to get to the State Library of Victoria. Luckily I was successful and made it to the city with time to spare. It's actually very fortunate that I had time to spare because I actually became sort of lost. I'm using 'sort of', when I actually mean 'very'. While I have blogged in their You're The Voice program, I have never been physically inside the library. I have seen it many times and admired the building from outside before, yet I have never actually set though in it. (I know, I know. I'm very ashamed.) From the outside the building looks big, but when you're walking in it, you will discover that it is not just big, it is gigantic. I did not have time to fully explore it because I had to find the ceremony, but I fully into on doing so one day. That library is so big and beautiful it's just very intimidating when you first enter. There are just so many places you can venture. 

When I actually found where I was supposed to go I was greeted by someone who I shall not name because I did not ask for her permission. I know that she knows about my blog though and if she's reading this I want to say thank you so much. You are a wonderful human being who made me feel so welcome.

Okay I got off the train and am now home. Now I shall continue this post. :) So after I went into a room that was bright red and 'red room filled with pictures of angry looking white men'. The room admittedly was very red and had many paintings in them.

A picture of the room in question.

The lovely Gabrielle Tozer, telling the audience what inspired her book,  The Intern. 

Then was the actual ceremony part of the night. The shortlist was filled with amazing books, but in the end there would only be two winners; one for the Gold Inky (Australian books) and one for the Silver Inky (international). Ultimately Rainbow Rowell won the Silver Inky for her novel Fangirl. Congratulations to her! I really enjoyed her novel. I actually have a review up on that book that you can read here. She was not able to come in person, but she sent a very lovely video. Then it was time for the Gold Inky that was awarded to, duN dUN DUN, Gabrielle Tozer!

Gabrielle Tozer with her award and Inky the mascot!

After the ceremony there were refreshments and the audience were given a chance to talk to the authors and the teen judges. I had a conversation with the teen judges and they were all so wonderful and nice! They were so down to Earth and fun to talk to. I'm afraid that I looked like a total weirdo just coming up and asking for their picture for my blog. Although they were very welcoming and did such an amazing job. There were many judges but I only spoke to 4. It was very cool because some (two if my memory is right) teen judges flew interstate to be there. After that I was awkwardly standing there looking like a loner because I wanted to talk to some authors. It was weird standing alone in a crowded room, but most of the time the authors were in a conversation and I did not want to interrupt them. I did see a friend though and for a fraction of the time I did not look like a loner. *laughs awkwardly* 

The beautiful/handsome teen judges. (From left to right: Oliver, Melanie, Jamiee and Genevieve)

I was able to talk to Alice Pung and give her a fan mail letter from my friend who loved her book. he was actually the one who recommended Laurinda to me. Shout out to Ted. :D I was also very fortunate and spoke to Clair Zorn. I absolutely love her book The Protected. It made me cry so much. I told her that and when she signed my book she wrote 'sorry for making you cry'. She is so funny and was very nice when I spoke to her. It feels so surreal that I met her. I also got to talk to Gabrielle Tozer, who was so wonderful and humble. She said she was very surprised to win. The Intern is her debut novel and since she just received a Gold Inky award for it, my prediction is that she will have a very long and successful career. It's a funny story actually, I was standing alone for about 10m minutes waiting for her to finish her conversation, until I was introduced to her by a friend. It was just so incredibly awkward standing there. I'm sure I looked like a creeper. I also need to apologise for using awkward so many times. There just aren't many more words I can use and I have checked the thesaurus. My life sometimes feels like a series of awkward events that span for years.

Just a casual selfie with Gabrielle Tozer. 

I just want to mention that I look very red in the above selfie because I was sort of embarrassed and honestly a tiny bit starstruck.

Today has been amazing. I had the opportunity to met many authors and other likeminded teens. This is such an important event because it really celebrates young adult opinions on books made for young adults. I am so grateful to have been invited to this event and had an amazing time. Go Inky! :)


-The Girl With Her Head in The Clouds

aka Kellie ♡