I wanted to share with you some of my favorite first lines from various novels. By definition, the first line of a book is the first thing we read. From them we can get a hint about the story and the feeling of the book. They’re the kind of thing that can be SUPER impactful if done well, but never hurts the story if they’re not a “blow-you-away” kind of line.

Some of them I like because they are funny, others because they are jarring, and others because they’re just damn beautiful.

Fun fact: Garth Nix is one of my top 5 favorite authors. I have loved his Old Kingdom series and Keys to the Kingdom series for soooo long. I’ve talked a bit more in detail about his books in my Libraries in Literature post and Rainy Day Reads post, and have definitely mentioned him in a few others. When I heard he was publishing his first adult fantasy (Angel Mage) I was SO EXCITED. Like, this book has been on my TBR since it was announced basically.

So I preordered it, but naturally didn’t get to reading it until now, a month later. Which tbh is pretty good for my track record this year, seeing as how I preordered The Priory of the Orange Tree which came out in the beginning of February and I still haven’t read that… oops.

Back to Angel Mage…haha. It’s easy for me to get off track.

Yes you are reading this correctly – an actual blog post after 2.5ish months. Seeing as this is a hobby for both me and Shari, I don’t feel guilty about taking some time away but I do miss blogging! It’s fun 🙂

So it’s time to come back! For me at least haha. Shari, as you may or may not know, is a BOSS who is following her dreams at animation school!! How cool is that?!? But that also means she’s quite busy with projects and art and all that incredible stuff. I have no such excuse – I just got out of the habit of blogging lol.

What have I been up to these past 2.5ish months? Well, I’m glad you asked. If you didn’t, too bad. I’m gonna tell you anyway.

Every year, I always look forward to Frenzy Presents hosted by HCC Frenzy at the HarperCollins Toronto office. I don’t have a lot of bookish friends in my area so when you have a day dedicated to inviting a bunch of book bloggers, feeding them A+ snacks, and talking to them about upcoming releases? It’s like going to the bookstore with an infinite credit card. (Ok, I actually don’t know what that feels like but I can imagine)

I honestly don’t know where half the year has gone, but it’s that time of the year where Fall Releases are APPROACHING and I’m excited to tell you all about them. This batch in particular feels like there’s something for everyone so without further ado, here’s a list of upcoming books you can cozy up with a blanket as summer draws to a close:

Hey you know what are great? LIBRARIES. Books for free? Amazing. Spaces to read? Amazing. Media beyond just books, like DVDs and CDs and magazines? Amazing. LIBRARIES ARE AMAZING. And they have amazing people who work there to spread the love of books, so basically it’s a heaven on earth. I am so sorry for my copious use of the word “amazing”.

AAAAnyway, I’ve recently read a few books which heavily feature libraries in them and that got me thinking! How do libraries in literature compare to modern day/real life libraries? Okay, so we have the obvious point – a lot of what I read is fantasy, so clearly real life libraries don’t deal with anything magical. But what are the ideas behind literary libraries? The functions, the themes, etc. Do they match up with how we think of real life libraries? So I’m just gonna talk about a handful of books (that I happen to love) that feature libraries, and then discuss my thoughts a little bit!