Thursday Tea: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

The book: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.

I picked this up after seeing it all over the internet and then finally being recommended by a friend while standing in a Barnes and Noble. The exact recommendation went something like "the last scene involves Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy having a massive graveyard zombie fight with Lady Catherine..." I mean, how do you not want to read a book that has anything remotely like that?

I love Jane Austen (though she ruined my expectations for relationships) and I love zombies. I can't see how I won't love this book. I'm not very far yet, only on page 15, but so far I have been pleased.

The Tea: Earl Grey Yin Zhen Tea by Dammann Freres. I'm a big fan of Earl Grey and this is a great take on it. Not totally different, but not all the same either. It's like the very strange lovechild of English and Chinese teas made by a Frenchman. Anyway, I really like the company they have some great loose teas.

Do they go together?: Well drinking tea in the first place feels pretty appropriate while reading Austen. Then again, I am also reading about zombies and any tea that isn't brains-flavored isn't really appropriate for a good zombie story. However, I'm reading a classic novel revamped and drinking a classic flavor of tea with a twist. In a way, it works out.


Thursday Tea is hosted by Birdbrain(ed).net. It's simple, blog the book you're reading, the tea you're drinking and if they go together!

Final update 2:00AM - 6:15AM

Well, I made it until 6:00AM and then I spent the last our making a last cup of coffee, rearranging my bookshelf, picking a last book and then passing out before I could read it, but I did get another book in so I am proud of myself. Here are my read-a-thon stats:

Hours read: 20
Hours spent doing other things (coffee, blogging, buying): 3
Pages read: 1,557
Books read:
Nine Dragons - Michael Connelly
The Stranger - Max Frei
Good in Bed - Jennifer Weiner
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon - Stephen King

Partial Reads:
The Brass Verdict - Michael Connelly

I'm pretty happy with the overall turnout and I was still able to get about five hours of sleep before having to wake up for my Sunday activities, so it all worked out.

There are definitely things I'll do slightly differently for next year. I probably won't spend time at my library book sale spending $100 on books, that was distracting. I'll also do better about planning my pile of books and making sure my kitchen was better stocked with coffee, teas and junk food.

I also think that next time I'll participate in more mini-challenges as to prevent my eyes from bleeding the words on the page together and have some fun outside reading straight for the 24 hours.

12:15 - 2:15 AM update

2hrs into Good in Bed and I'm actually nearly finished. The book is about 370 pages long and I'm at the 250 mark. Definitely doable within the next hour.

I am, however, taking this book into bed with me, no pun intended. I'm grabbing a cup of coffee on the way there, but I have no idea how effective the caffeine will be. I'm hoping to get an extra boost of energy upon finishing this book as I want to at least make it until 4AM if not all the way to my finish time at 7AM along with hitting at least one more book off my list.

But before I head that way and run the risk of not posting again until the morning, I'm going to throw up some pictures from the day.

First, the loot from the book sale.

In boxes:


Aerial view + mah feetz:


Semi-organized on my floor:


Second, the to-read pile - 2.75/7 finished:


Lastly, the fuel for the night:


Sorry for the low quality of the pictures, my condo is not the most well-lit place ever and I couldn't find my camera so I was forced to resort to photobooth pictures. Oh well...

I want to say a big thanks to all the cheerleaders today. You guys are awesome and really helped keep my motivation high throughout the day! :)

7:00 - 12:15 update

Finished The Stranger and finally picked my next book!

I decided on Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner.

It's one of those books that I feel like EVERYONE has read but I never really got around to. It's also one of those 50+ books I picked up today at the sale so that's also good. I'm only about 40 pages in, but the dinner-refuelling session definitely helped me pick up some great energy for the rest of the night and hopefully I'll take another two books off my list. *fingers crossed*

So, I've got a steaming cup of mandarin orange tea and some of my favorite Hans Zimmer soundtracks (the Holiday among them) playing. I am good to go! Good luck to all the other readers during the last legs of the read-a-thon!

2:45 - 7:00 update

Still plugging away at The Stranger. I'm about 400 pages in, which isn't terrible for the four hours I've been reading it. Still really enjoying it, and am interested enough to keep reading it until the end.

I'm taking a break now though, to rejoin the living and eat some food, refuel for the nighttime run. Should be back into it by 9:00, but we'll see.

Only about 200 pages left in this book and then I'll have to figure out what's next. Indecisiveness is always the killer for me. I should probably post a picture of my GIANT tbr pile, especially after I loaded up from the library sale.

9:45 - 2:45 update

I read a few chapters of Michael Connelly's The Brass Verdict, which I had stored on my kindle, but stopped about a fourth through it when I felt like I needed a little bit of a change from legal mysteries.

The book sale took much longer than expected - all those books for only $1! I ended up buying way too many books (that feels pretty strange to type) but it's given me a lot of choices.

I was going to start reading my next Terry Goodkind book, I want to get through more of his Seeker series before the next season of Legend of the Seeker comes out, but I didn't want to get bogged down in such a long book today when I can start hitting off my shorter ones.

So, armed with a chai latte and over four boxes of unread, not-too-long used books I tried to pick out something. Of course, I ended up picking something I had bought weeks ago - The Stranger by Max Frei.

So far I'm really enjoying it and is a really fun read while still maintaining a sense of dark seriousness. I can't give an accurate review at this point since I'm nowhere near finishing and, obviously don't want to take up too much time posting and not reading.

Hopefully I'll be able to return and give a more encapsulating review after I finish. The goal is to finish this by dinner, cook up some hot pockets (yay! junk food) and start something new for the nighttime push.

First two hours - 7:00-9:45 update

I just finished Michael Connelly's 9 Dragons, his latest Harry Bosch novel and I'm about to move on to another one of his books, The Brass Verdict.

I'm reading both of these because I'm attending an event this weekend at which he is speaking and I'll get to spend some time talking to him and hopefully some autographs. I'd like to have something semi-intelligent to say.

9 Dragons was actually much more enjoyable than I anticipated. It's always a pleasant surprise to find that an author hasn't lost steam after writing the same character for the umpteenth time. I felt that the last couple of Bosch novels weren't very outstanding, but he definitely picked himself up in this one.

The crime takes Harry Bosch deep into Asian Triad territory and as a big fan of Asian culture and gang culture, that aspect of the investigation was really interesting to explore. It's hard to get fooled by mystery novels after reading them for so many years, but the plot wasn't over-obvious and it kept me reading until the end.

Adding a personal element was also a good turn for Harry Bosch. We got to see his reactions as his own family got involved in his case and his emotions were exposed in a much more vulnerable light than we have really seen before.

All in all, I enjoyed the novel even it took me way to long to read the 374 pages. Hopefully I'll pick up steam for the rest of the day. I'm off to grab coffee and swing by the library book sale to pick up some new titles for the rest of the read-a-thon, I'll of course be toting my kindle with me so that I can keep reading while on the go! That's commitment, folks.

books, books, books

I'm doing Dewey's 24hr read-a-thon starting tomorrow at 7AM. We'll see how it goes, I'm still in the process of mapping out a plan for the day, but I know it will include a trip to the library - they're having their annual book sale so I'll be able to pick up some cheap titles.