Monday Amusements 10

My first video post, from the Top Ten Tuesday of the week before last. I'll be posting my second video this week!

Wow, I'm up to ten of these already! I felt ill yesterday evening after a busy day eating cyclindrical sandwiches, scones, and cakes, and drinking tea, so had to do all the work today, but hopefully this is still a readable and enjoyable list!

Once Upon a Bookcase will be having yet another (excellent, I'm sure) theme month! July will be LGBTQ YA Month, and I'm looking forward to reading the posts.

Malinda Lo, who wrote the wonderful fairy tale retelling Ash, posted this thoughtful and inspiring piece about Sex and YA Fiction. It's full of Very Good Points.

I don't think that I will ever choose to get a tattoo but nevertheless, I enjoyed this list of 50 Incredible Tattoos Inspired By Books. Also on Buzzfeed, 25 Signs You're Addicted to Books.

Ink, by Amanda Sun, is currently on my TBR and has one of the most gorgeous covers I've ever seen. Right now you can download the eBook prequel for free!

I've wanted to read Zoe Marriott's books for ages, but her post for SisterSpooky's Geek Week, How Do I Love Geeks, Let me Count the Ways, made me want to run to the library, right now. Too bad it's closed...

I loved Quinn's choice of Top Ten Tuesday topic last week - Top Ten Ridiculous Character Names. I don't mind Echo, as it's a name from mythology and I love those, but the rest are pretty silly. Especially Patch. I know the Hush, Hush series is really popular (though I don't think it's my thing) but Patch? Like Quinn said, it's a dog's name! The allure is lost on me, but then I also couldn't imagine Edward Cullen as attractive when he wore pale blue sweaters and beige leather jackets. I do love giving characters unusual names though!

Mur Lafferty wrote a quick, important post about Helping Authors. And not helping them. I'm pretty sure that most book bloggers do all of the good and none of the bad!

I absolutely adored the latest in Michelle at Fluttering Butterflies' Bookshelf Requirements series, in which Hannah (@AitchLove) shares her love of Arthurian literature. I definitely need to investigate her recommendations, when I was a kid I was obsessed with the King Arthur legend.

Liesel Hill's post about the origins of the Pied Piper story was really interesting, and quite sad too.

Why is it so bad to judge a book by its cover? wonders Natassia at Literary Escapism. I have to admit, I find myself judging books by their covers more and more. Covers indicate what kind of book is likely to be inside, and there are some genres and topics that I have no interest in and want to avoid. A well-chosen, attractive cover also indicates to me that the publisher had high enough hopes for the book to spend time and money making sure that it was properly presented.

I'd been planning to read The Great Gatsby soon anyway, but if I hadn't been convinced that it was time to give this classic a go, this post at So Many Books, So Little Time would have done the job.

Onto my favourite reviews this fortnight! You Look Different in Real Life by Jennifer Castle went straight onto my wishlist, thanks to Magan at Rather Be Reading - "one of the happiest surprises of 2013"? Yes please!

Raimy at Readaraptor's review of Melvin Burgess' The Hit was honest and interesting, as was Cicely's review of The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen, which compared it to her other books. I also enjoyed seeing Michelle at Fabbity Fab Book Reviews' review of How My Summer Went Up in Flames by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski and Sophie at So Many Books, So Little Time's review of The Humans, by Matt Haig.

Finally, tooting my own horn (again) here - last week on this fleeting dream was Diary of a Crush week! Please do check out my posts, I'd love to know what you think.