Happy Valentine's Day! :)

(Credit: NASA)

Not bookish related, but I thought this was so cute. ;)

Wishing you and your loved ones a wonderful day! :)

Warmest wishes,

Kyendwarrior <3

Book Title Poetry #1

(What better way to show off my new book haul than with poetry? :D)

If I stay
Just one day
Like moonlight at low tide
There you'll find me
Bitterblue
The Lost Girl
Ensnared

(I promise next week's poem will be better lol. xD)

Technically, only The Lost Girl and Ensnared  (which I actually bought, but became impatient, and checked out the book LOL :D) are my part of my latest haul. I tried to make poetry with books that just came in the mail, but I gave up (no verbs!) and threw in some of my other books. ^-^  My book-buying ban was recently just lifted(YAY!!), so I might have gone a little crazy with the book ordering... xD.   As they all slowly trickle in, I'll try to make poetry with just the books I receive- but we'll see. :)

(PS: If any of you guys have done some book title poetry, I would love to see them! Comment below with a link! :) )

Warmest wishes, 

Kyendwarrior :)

365 Days of YA: A 2015 Reading Calendar

OMG YOU GUYS.  LOOK WHAT I FOUND.  IT'S A GIANT WHEEL OF YA BOOKS TO READ FOR THE YEAR. I AM TOTALLY FANGIRLING!!  IT'S  SO BEAUTIFUL!! *squeal*

Here are more detailed shots of it :)

Autumn

 Spring

Summer

 Winter

(Source: Epic Reads)

According to Epic Reads (to whom I give a GINORMOUS thank you!!!), the best way to use this is to print out a copy and rotate it as you go  (which I am totally doing XD).  

If you want all the books divided into list form (by season, month, week, or day), click here for the official page.

Which books are you most excited for? ;)

(For me, it's Magonia with its GORGEOUS cover!)

Happy readings everyone!

#TimeToRead

(Source)

Hi everyone!

National Readathon Day is coming up, and I'm super excited about it (it gives me an excuse to just read the day away :D )!!

From noon to 4, it's just high sailing with books, books, and more books! :)

For me, I have Mortal Enchantment saved just for this occasion- and if by some miracle I manage to finish it, then Snow like Ashes is next on my list. 

So are you guys participating? What books are you planning on reading? 

Happy Readings!:) 

Happy New Year!!

  (Penguin Random House) 

Wishing you all a wonderful new year full of joy and happiness!!

God bless,

Kyendwarrior :)

#31daysofreading

Hi guys!!:) 
So Pulseit is this AWESOME site from Simon & Schuster, and they put books online for free for a certain period of time. 

For the month of December, pulseit.com will have a different book every day (free!!) for 24 hours.  Plus, you can enter here to win all of the books! 

I'm so excited they are doing this again this year ( and hopefully for many years to come as well ;) ), and I can say from personal experience that this event is perfect for helping you increase your reading speed (LOL). ;)

There are so many books on that schedule that I've been wanting to read, and I can't wait to get to them! :) 

Hope you all have a fabulous week! :D

Warm wishes,
Kyendwarrior

Happy Veterans Day!

(source)

Thank you so much to all the brave men and women for their service. 

Best wishes,

Kyendwarrior :)

NANOWRIMO!

Hi everyone!! Nanowrimo has officially begun, and I'm so excited to participate again this year!!;)

It's the last year that I can use the Young Writers Program (which, really, isn't all that different from the regular one, but you get to set the word count- and it's more colorful ;) ), and so, I am determined to meet my word count goal this year.  I'm not sure what I'll set it as yet, but I'm going to start writing and see where it goes.:)

I totally encourage everyone to try it out! For those unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, it's an event were for the entire month of November, you write a novel (National Novel Writing Month xD) of 50,000 words.  I find it's a great way to encourage me to actually write (lol), and if you do meet your word count, they bind it in a book for you (an actual, hardcopy book). Isn't that awesome?!

Here is the website for Young Writers Program.  I love writing buddies, so if you get a chance, stop by and say hi!:)

Good luck everyone!:D

Best wishes,
Kyendwarrior

PS: There's this nifty website called Write or Die that I love (well, a fearful type of love? LOL) to use whenever I need help getting out of a writer's block.   The title... pretty much explains that website. ;)

I AM NOT A LION! by Prince Hamlet

**Disclaimer:  This is probably obvious, but just in case, I'll say it: this isn’t a real guest post. This is for a final project in my English class, and I thought it’d be a special post for Halloween. :) Also Prince Hamlet’s opinions on Disney/ the Lion King DO NOT reflect the views of this blogger.  On the contrary, I wholly disagree with him (Lion King is one of my favorite Disney movies;) ), but I did my best to write this in what I thought would be his take on the Lion King. xD  **

**MAJOR SPOILERS FOR HAMLET COMING UP!!!!!!**

**Official Cover TBA**

Hi everyone! Hope you all are having a wonderful week! :)

Today’s author is a well-known member of royalty and a close friend of Shakespeare. Please welcome Prince Hamlet of Denmark and his new memoir, I Am Not A Lion! Below is a guest post written by Prince Hamlet ( The Lion King: Setting the Facts Straight), as well as more information about the book. :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author: Prince Hamlet

Publisher: Shakespeare Co.
Release Date: March 15th

Summary:

The prince has spoken! In his new memoir, Prince Hamlet of Denmark discusses his supposed insanity,  his identity crisis, and the anguish of indecision.  With wit, irony, and soliloquies, Prince Hamlet writes about his emotional journey through revenge and the question of being.  He explores the idea of humankind ultimately being dust and addresses claims over his “unnatural” obsession with death.   His is not a story for the faint-hearted, but is a story of facing demons, making decisions, and ultimately proving why Simba has nothing on him.  

Guest Post:

The Lion King: Setting the Facts Straight

by Prince Hamlet of Denmark

Many people believe that the Lion King is a wonderful Disney classic.  Bah, I disagree.   Turning something as serious as my life into a trivial musical with singing lions and dancing hyenas- what has this world come to?

My main concern is with the lions themselves. Based on my life, they say? Rubbish! Simba is nothing like me.  I don’t run away from my problems literally.  I run away from my problems mentally and metaphorically- which is a huge difference. How? Well, running away from problems mentally and metaphorically requires a huge amount of contemplation and soliloquies. You can't forget the soliloquies.  But Simba does forget- and he makes a huge mistake, running away in the spur of the moment. Also,  this Simba character blames himself for the death of his father (which, by the way, is not done right; my father, who has a face like Jove and eyes like Mars, did not die grovelling to my uncle and rolling down a cliff ungracefully- he was poisoned; how does one mix up poisoning and pushing people lions off cliffs?).  I never blamed myself for his death; that was clearly my uncle’s fault. (So why was I still so hesitant, you ask? It is in my nature to think before I act for EVERYTHING- except when it comes to rats. Those I kill without a second thought.)  Then Simba goes off into the wild and starts singing every ten minutes at random intervals.  I may be crazy, but I'm not that crazy.   

If Pumba and Timon are supposed to be Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, than I am Hercules himself.   Rosencrantz and Guildenstern betrayed me and played me like a recorder.  We did not sing “Hakuna Matata” together, nor did they ever aid me in my struggles.  Rather they were self-seeking, and unlike Pumba and Timon, I could not tell them apart at times; in fact, the best way to describe them would be two sides of the same coin.  Sometimes I rather wonder how we were such good friends growing up. I found their songs rather annoying, and it was a great pity that they don’t perish like Rosie and Guildie do.  

And this Nala character- is she suppose to represent my sweet Ophelia?! Oh, how far has the Disney world fallen! The songs Ophelia sings are of madness, death, chaos, and innuendos, not of love and dreaming of me being king (though that is a sweet sentiment...).   Ah, this movie brings about remorseful feelings; as I watched the movie, I thought to myself why the Fates couldn't have been kinder to me and made Ophelia be the one to draw me out of my insanity and indecision (like Nala does to Simba). Alas it cannot be so; and bluntly put, my Ophelia was crazy- and dead. No more will she be handing out sweet rue or rosemary or fennel.  That scene where those two creatures pull each other into the water while prancing about into the night- my, that broke my heart and disgusted me with its insensitivity.    

Mufasa is perhaps one of the better portrayed characters.  Regal and majestic, he has Hyperion's curls.   He was nearly perfect- nearly.  My father did not appear on clouds, booming, “REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE.” That is ridiculous; of course I knew who I was.  My father visited me to remind me of my purpose, not to remind me to remember my destiny as king- that I knew. But I will admit (reluctantly) that Simba's purpose and my purpose are at least a bit similar (we both are to purge the land of evil). However, it also is not in my father's character to be so… encouraging like Mufasa.   And brightly colored clouds with flashing lightening? Way overdone.

Zazu reminds me much of Polonius, as they both constantly jabbered on.   I don’t particularly care to elaborate here (but if you do want to know, my new memoir has a chapter solely dedicated to him- he is my dead lover's dead father-: How to deal with chatterboxes); after all, he is dining with the worms.  I find it a pity in the movie that Scar didn’t eat him.

Lastly, Scar, the representation of my uncle, is the best portrayal out of all of them.   Conniving and manipulative, just watching that horrid man lion scheme murder makes me rage all over again. How satisfying that ending is, that his own minions turn against him! But the best part? He doesn’t marry my mother in the movie.  And oh, how I loved that ridiculous over-the-top musical scene!  A perfectly foolish song for a perfectly foolish man like him.

~~~

And there you have it folks, a guest post by the *ahem* delightful Prince Hamlet of Denmark! For more of his witty and charm-filled writing, look out for his new memoir coming out on the Ides of March. 

(Huh, would you look at that. ) 

~~

Thanks for reading XD  

#10books

Hi guys! Hope you all are having a fabulous week. ;)

So I was tagged by my friend for the 10 books game. :D

The game: list ten books that have stayed with you in some way. Don't take more than a few minutes,and don't think too hard.  

Thank you to my friend (who shall not be named :D) for nominating me!!:) 

1. The Bible
2. The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
3. If He Had Been with Me by Laura Nowlin
4. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
5. Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul
6. Atonement by Ian McEwan
7. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
8. There You'll Find Me by Jenny B Jones
9. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
10. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

If you've been tagged too (or decided to just do it for the fun of it ;) ) , comment below so I can check out your list! :)

Best wishes,
Kyendwarrior :D

What speed do you read?

Hi everyone!
Hope you all are having a fabulous week full of glitter and books! :)

Welcome to Post 1 from a series of scheduled posts I've set up for this week.  I've never done this before, and hopefully blogger doesn't glitch on me and not post on time!  :)

So anyways, for today, I wanted to share this really cool site I found on Staples. (link: http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/marketing/technology-research-centers/ereaders/speed-reader/ )

It  measures the speed at which you read and compares it to the national average.  I thought that was pretty cool in itself, but there's more!! They also tell you that if you maintain that reading speed, you could read certain books (classics mostly) in this much time.  Another thing they tell you is how many books you could read on an ereader (kindle, nook, etc) before recharging (super handy!!). :)

You can also retake the quiz with different passages! It's so cool! :)

I seriously encourage everyone to try it out!! Also, if you don't mind, I would love to hear about your results in the comment section below. :) (I read 759 (!!) words per minute, which made me 204% (?!?) faster than the national average.  I honestly think this is a fluke because my passage was from Alice in Wonderland, and even though I've only read half of that book, the passage was from the half that I read before LOL.)

Have fun with it! :D

Source: Staples eReader Department

Best wishes, 

Kyendwarrior :)

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July everyone!! :) 

(Pic credit)

Best wishes, 

Kyendwarrior :)

Test Your Vocab!

(credit at weheartit.com)

 Hi guys!:)

So, I found this pretty neat site called testyourvocab.com . It's a small quiz that measures how many words you know in the English language.  There's even a graph that tells you the average amount of words for people around your age.  I got 24,800 words- which is mind-blowing to me.  I'm always having trouble writing and expressing myself with the right words (when I need 'em, I can never think of 'em!), and here this quiz is telling me I know about 24,800 words.  That's so weird and cool at the same time ahaha :)

I encourage everyone to try it out! Share your results below!:)

Ultimate Blog Challenge

Hi guys! 

Happy New Year!! 

So I've decided to do this thing called the Ultimate Blog Challenge. ( DUN DUN DUN!)

It's this blog event where you post at least 31 blog posts for the entire month of January.  

I'm really excited to try it out, as I've been *sort of* training for it these two weeks during break (lol). 

Again, I can't guarantee I'll be able to keep up with all 31 posts (school and life), but I'm going to try my absolute best!

If you guys do decide to do this challenge (which I totally encourage everyone to!), leave a comment below!

WE CAN DO THIS

Wishing everyone luck!:) 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas:)

Happy birthday Jesus!

May your days be filled with light and joy!
God bless you!

:D

Hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful week! 

(Can you believe 2013 is almost over?)

#31daysofreading (Pulseit.com)

 

OMG you guys I'm crying. 
A FREE BOOK A DAY?!
WHY DIDN'T I STUMBLE UPON THIS SOONER! 
I'VE ALREADY MISSED THREE DAYS NO!!!! 
Gimme a minute to compose myself
....
I'm cool, I'm cool...

So anyways:)

Have you guys heard of pulseit.com?
It's this awesome website that I heard about through tumblr (THANK GOD FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE BOOKS!), and basically for the entire month of December, you get to read a free book a day! 

There's more info about it below (from the website), as well as the link:)
Happy readings and Happy December!

From Pulseit.com:

 For the month of December at midnight ET, pulseit.com will feature a different book each day to read for free for just 24 hours. Which means 31 books in 31 days! Plus, you can enter to win all of the books on Pulseit.com.

But wait! There's more.

Each day on the SimonTEEN Facebook page, we will be giving away 1 copy of each of the Pulseit #31days books! Just "like" the Pulseit.com #31days of reading book of the day post on our Facebook page & just like that, you've entered for your chance to win! You can see the full rules here.

See the full schedule below & get ready for non-stop reading!

Pulseit.com's #31daysofreading schedule:

• December 1: Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
• December 2: Precious Blood by Tonya Hurley
• December 3: Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger
• December 4: The Forsaken by Lisa M. Stasse (OMG wanted to read but I missed it! ;( )
• December 5: Unwind by Neal Shusterman (IT WAS SO INTENSE)
• December 6: Blood Red Road by Moira Young
• December 7: Fault Line by C. Desir
• December 8: Maid of Secrets by Jennifer McGowan (OOO This one looks so good!)
• December 9: Linked by Imogen Howson
• December 10: Crash by Lisa McMann
• December 11: Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry
• December 12: Two-Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt
• December 13: Winger by Andrew Smith
• December 14: Wither by Lauren DeStefano
• December 15: Golden by Jessi Kirby 
• December 16: Letting Ana Go by Anonymous
• December 17: Haven by Kristi Cook
• December 18: Honey, Baby, Sweetheart by Deb Caletti
• December 19: The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler (THEY ARE RELEASING THIS BOOK ON THIS DAY?! OMG MY BREAK STARTS THAT DAY!!!!!)
• December 20: Burn for Burn by Jenny Han & Siobhan Vivian
• December 21: The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
• December 22: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (THIS BOOK... 0.0)
• December 23: Changeling by Philippa Gregory
• December 24: Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card
• December 25: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
• December 26: The Program by Suzanne Young
• December 27: Poison Princess by Kresley Cole (OMG OMG OMG OMG!)
• December 28: Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson 
• December 29: The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
• December 30: Just Like Fate by Cat Patrick & Suzanne Young
• December 31: Read The Bane Chronicles: What Really Happened in Peru by Cassandra Clare & Sarah Rees Brennan & enter to winThe Shadowhunter's Codex by Cassandra Clare & Joshua Lewis

SO EXCITED!

NaNoWriMo!!

Hi guys!:) 
Kyendwarrior here.  

It's that time of year again- that time where we can tell who the writers are by the massive amounts of coffee they drink (my Starbucks bill speaks for itself), how they crazily mumble to themselves about dropping people off cliffs (it's a legit subject! It keeps readers interested...right?) , and how they run like their pants are on fire to their computers/journals and start stomping on the keyboard (no comment): NANOWRIMO! ;) 

Crazy word, eh?

 It stands for National Novel Writing Month.  What you do is you set a goal for yourself of some number of words (I'm in the Youth Writing Program, so we get to control our word count, but if you go with the regular NaNoWriMo, it's automatically 50,000 words), and you just write, write, write during the month of November.  I found out about NaNoWrimo just last year, but apparently if you reach your goal of 50,000 words or whatever, you can send it in, and they'll send it back to you as a paperback for free!  

Wicked cool ;)

So drop by and check it out! (And don't forget to say hi @ kyendwarrior !) 

Happy writing! :)