Books & tea

I saw this yesterday. I was like

Or maybe

Or

I CAN'T WAIT

I've been waiting for a WHOLE MONTH and yet it was finally delivered. Neil ! Yay /o/

And it was exactly the right time for it to come, because my colleague is in holidays since three weeks, so I've been working full time, 39hours/week, I know many people are working much more but I'm just not used to it and I'm exhausted. And all the schools around here are freaking out and sending mails like "Hey, we still did not order those thousands different books for next term so can you do something about it ? Here, I'm sending you some random textbooks titles without giving you the edition number or even the school level but I'm sure you can guess. Can you answer tomorrow morning, knowing that it's 6 pm and you will be closed in half an hour ?"

-_-

But next week, I will go back to my 20hours/week (and I probably will take some holidays in August, still don't know when). AND I WILL LIE IN MY GARDEN WHILE READING GAIMAN.

I had a lot of work lately, but I finally managed to get through the 700 pages of this book.

And I loved it. Last year I read "Best served cold", by the same author, and I loved it too. Abercrombie is great at creating unforgettable characters. I particularly like Glotka, an ancient soldier whose body is totally broken after being tortured, and who became some sort of loyal psychopath. And Logen, because I always like barbarians :D

To tell the truth, I actually feel like the whole book is just a setting up of the story (but it's not boring. I never felt bored. Not once). Wars are coming, and a magician, Bayaz, is trying to... Well, it's not clear what he's really trying to do, but during the whole book he's trying to gather some people to help him. After seeing what he can do alone, I don't know why he needs other people to help him. I can't wait to know :)

Blood. Sadistic & mad characters. I love this book :D

Thank God, we still have good YA authors in France !

This has not been translated so I will be brief : Liam is a boy who just recovered from a cancer. His parents send him in a manor (you guessed it : it's the title) where each resident is strange : one guy is saying that he is Leonidas, a girl is searching for a knight who lived ages ago...
Of course, we understand soon enough that everyone is dead, but has to complete a task before really going into heaven, or whatever you may call it. Liam is going to help each of them.

You can guess what's going to happen way before Liam, but it is well written, the characters are charming, and even the little love story did not get on my nerves (they usually do).
I can't wait to put my hands on book two.

I'm trying to read, and eventually sleep because I'm working tomorrow.
Only, peoples on the street are honking and singing and screaming like mad because France won the party.
I don't care about football. I do care about Gaiman, and videogames. Am I honking at 11pm every time Gaiman releases a new book, or a new Zelda is announce ? No. I should. I think I will one day.

For now, I think I'm going to put my headphones on to block the sounds from the street and play Fire Emblem Fates a bit.

I hate football.

This book is supposed to be a self-help book, based on the daily life of some inhabitants of Middle Earth (because no, it's not only about Hobbits, there is at least one chapter about elves). The advices are simple and obvious. A bit to simple. I've been in the garden all day long (at least, until the storm -_-) and I can tell you that growing tomatoes is not as simple as it is described : if I believe what I read in the book, you just have to, like, throw some seed in your garden and watch it grow. I WISH IT WERE THAT EASY.

I can't help but think that Tolkien would have hated that book. He hated allegories, and there is many of it in the book : Saruman for the industrialization, references to the WWII... But I do believe there ARE allegories in LOTR, so I was not disturbed.

It was fun to read. Because I'm an insatiable reader of Tolkien, and the author knows what he is talking about : I've been trough too many books where the author had clearly only read LOTR and The Hobbit before proclaiming himself a specialist and writing books about Tolkien. I hate those books.

A light reading, but not really unforgettable. I borrowed it at the library and I don't think I will buy it. 

I am really, really enjoying it. A pity it is not available in English.

Ok, so Yuki Kaori was once my favorite mangaka. When I was in high school, I really enjoyed "Angel Sanctuary". Now that I come to think about it, I tried to re-read it a few years ago, and I was pretty disturbed by the incestuous relation between Setsuna and Sara. I hadn't seen it when first reading it. Seems like I was a bit stupid.
With "Alice in Murderland", I felt a bit the same feelings than when I re-read "Angel Sanctuary". I still like Kaori's drawings. But the drawings were the only thing I really liked in this book.

So, Stella is a young girl, her family is very wealthy, and every month all the members are gathering to have a tea party together. But one day, their mother tells them that to choose the one who will be the heir of the family, they all have to kill each others until there is only one left alive.
And there is this brother whose name I forgot (let's call him Justin) who is a bit mad and who tries to kill Stella but Stella was in love with another brother (forgot the name too, let's call him Alfred), but Justin killed Alfred, so Stella is not very happy about it and she magically transforms into "Mad Alice", who is a psychopath, and she kills Justin, but another Sister (let's call her Sister) becomes a psychopath too because she liked Justin and blahblahblah.

So, like I said, the drawing was good.

Now I think I'm going to take a cold shower and cry a bit over my lost youth.

(just kidding. In fact, I'm going to drink.)

Why does things like that ALWAYS happen when I'm alone at work ?

One of the biggest library of the department sent me an order. 56 books. I must type each ISBN by hand.

My trainee is autistic and I don't know how to behave with her.

Some teacher from a school sent a mail to ask if he can have the "teacher discount" mentionned on a website. I went to the website. It was clearly written that this discount was available only if you order directly from their site.

Someone called me and seemed very surprised when I told him that no, we do not have "Mein Kampf" in stock.

I have a headache. Three more hours and I'm free. Until tomorrow.

Halfway through it. I once really liked Kaori Yuki but it has been a while since I last read a manga (except Taniguchi), and... well, I don't really know what to think about it. It is (again!) Battle Royal-ish. I feel like the characters are not really developed. Am I becoming to old for this?

Okay, guess I need to introduce myself :)

I'm 30 years old, and I'm currently working in a very, very small bookshop somewhere in France. I won't name this shop, because most of the time, I think I will complain about it :)

I've always liked reading. I loved to read Garfield in the library when I was a really young girl, I fell in love with Tolkien when I was a teen, and I worship Neil Gaiman since ten years.

My boyfriend is really into Science fiction, and I learned, thanks to him, that SF is not only about spaceships shooting at each other. I read "Ubik" last year, and it was my best reading of 2015.
And sometimes some fiction, like Murakami, or YA (but I think it's harder and harder to find really good YA. The last one was "Incarceron", by Catherine Fisher).

Apart from that, I like tea (especially japanese green tea), and gardening (even if I'm not really good. And my slugs like to eat my radishes ><).

Hope I will have a good time here. I like the social features - the lack of it is the reason I have never opened a blog somewhere else. I'm also trying to write more in English (I can read it well, but speak or write it is harder). So if I make any mistake, feel free to correct me :)