Super Six Sunday: My Favorite Fictional Worlds!

I'M BACK GUYS!!!!

So you may or may have not noticed I've been on a blogging hiatus for over a month now. My sister got married, I was a day camp counselor, I was super lazy for about a week, and then school started. Ironic that I'm getting back into the swing of blogging now that school is happening and I have less free time ehhhhh?

To get back into the swing of blogging I figured I'd take part in my new favorite weekly meme Super Six Sunday hosted by the gals over at Bewitched Bookworms! This week the theme is Most Original World Building, but I decided to simply do a list of my favorite fictional worlds. That's pretty much the same thing right? Let's get started!

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6. Any world created by 
Dr. Seuss

I don't know about any of you guys, but when I was a kid I always dreamed of going into the world of Dr. Seuss. It's just so magical, and colorful, and who hasn't been intrigued when the Once-ler says that the truffula trees smell like fresh butterfly milk? What does that even mean? I MUST KNOW. And what about Whoville? or the Jungle of Nool? Can someone please build a Dr. Seuss theme park? WHY IS THIS NOT A THING YET?!?! Okay, so apparently there is a small Dr. Seuss section at Universal Studios in Florida, but I think we can all agree that that is just not enough.

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5. Gallagher Academy from The Gallagher Girls series

Maybe it's because I grew up in the Spy Kids generation, but I've always wanted to be a spy. Yes, Gallagher Academy is set in the real world and not a fictional one, but the school is fictional one of my all time favorites so I had to list it on here. Sure, there aren't any guys that attend Gallagher Academy, but think of it this way: instead of spending all your time thinking about boys, you can put that time towards studying! The Asian in me loves the idea of being bilingual and studying extra hard to get straight A's all the time. Plus, I REALLY want to learn how to do hand to hand combat. Why don't they have those kinds of classes at community college?

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4. Wonderland from Alice in Wonderland

Who hasn't wanted to fall down the rabbit hole with Alice? ONLY BORING PEOPLE. Okay, sorry to all you people out there who honestly have never wanted to travel to Wonderland, but seriously I feel like it would be an awesome place to visit. Except of course for the fact that there is an insane queen there who yells almost nothing but "OFF WITH HER HEAD" all day long, but you know other than that it seems pretty great. Plus, it looked so awesome and fanastical in the Tim Burton movie version. Leave it up to Tim Burton to make something already awesome even more awesome.

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3. Narnia from The Chronicles of Narnia

I'm pretty sure that everyone who has read the Chronicles of Narnia (or seen the movies) has walked into a wardrobe, closet, etc, hoping to magically walk into Narnia. Unfortunately, no matter how many wardrobes and closets I walked into as a child, I never did find my way into Narnia. DRAT. The closest I got was walking through a wardrobe replica from the movie into the Narnia exhibit that came to the Arizona Science Center several years ago. So close, and yet so far! Narnia is definitely one of the best fictional worlds ever created. C.S. Lewis is brilliant.

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2. The Wizarding World from Harry Potter

One word: Hogwarts.

I didn't grow up with Harry Potter the same way most other people did (darn you parents and your need to shelter me from witchcraft!) so I didn't spend my childhood wishing for a Hogwarts acceptance letter, but now that I've read the books damn, I WANT THAT LETTER. Not only is Hogwarts a boarding school (not sure what it is about boarding schools, I just find them really intriguing) but it's a boarding school that trains you in magic. Plus, if you're a wizard you get to go to Diagon Alley. Take me there!!!

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1. Middle Earth from The Lord of the Rings

Middle Earth is without a doubt my favorite fictional world. Just look at that picture of Hobbiton guys. Who wouldn't want to live there? Seriously, I want to live in Hobbiton so bad. If I could go off into the wilderness and find some nice secluded grassy valley, I would build myself a hobbit hole and just live there happily forever. I was meant to be a hobbit guys. Since Middle Earth isn't actually real, I'll just have to settle for the next best thing and travel off to New Zealand. That is my dream vacation. I will go there one day! IT WILL HAPPEN. But yeah, Middle Earth is the bomb and I think we can all agree that J.R.R. Tolkien is a master of world building. He wrote entire languages for his world. If that isn't great world building, I don't know what is.

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So those are my six favorite fictional worlds! What are some of your favorite worlds in fiction? Let me know, and if you also took part in Super Six Sunday be sure to leave a link to your post in the comments so I can check it out!

Julia :)

Super Six Sunday: Those book series that I STILL need to read!

Super Six Sunday is a new meme hosted by Bewitched Bookworms and inspired by The Broke and the Bookishes Top Ten Tuesday.

This week it's all about the book series that I need to finally read. I'm so glad this popped up as a topic because I've been planning on doing a post about this for awhile now and just haven't gotten around to it till now.

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6. The Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie

When I first started my blog Matched was just coming out and I remember there was so much hype surrounding it. I totally bought into the hype so, not surprisingly, it ended up falling a bit short for me and I never got around to reading Crossed or Reached. I'm sort of on the fence about finishing this series. On one hand I'm really curious to know what happens and if it got any better, but on the other hand I don't really want to waste my time on a series that isn't worth it. Thoughts?

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 5. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

This is sort of embarrassing for me to admit, but I haven't actually read all of the Chronicles of Narnia books. Crazy right? I'm pretty sure I've only read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (because who hasn't?), and Prince Caspian. I also think my mom read The Horse and His Boy aloud to my sister and me when we were kids, but that doesn't really count. The reason I haven't read these is because after listening to Focus on the Family's radio dramas of the books so many times (seriously, they're amazing) I sort of feel like I don't have to anymore. Of course, I don't really believe that, but the content of the radio dramas is pretty much all dialogue and descriptions straight out of the books so it's almost like reading them. I'll get around to finishing this series eventually, I just haven't yet. I WILL READ ALL OF THEM, I PROMISE!

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 4. The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins

Because I'm such a huge fan of The Hunger Games I of course want to check out Suzanne Collin's other popular series the Underland Chronicles. Anyone of my lovely followers a fan of this series? I love the concept of it, and I've heard really good things. It's just that longish series tend to scare me off, especially when they're all already published. Everything seems so much more manageable when it's just one book a year you know? 

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 3. The Curse Workers Series by Holly Black

This series has been recommended to me by a bunch of my friends and on top of that I totally I love the concept behind it. I just haven't gotten around to reading it yet. I REALLY NEED TO THOUGH. The blend of magic, con-men, and mystery sounds so awesome! Also, I'm pretty sure that we can all agree that Holly Black is amazeballs. I really need to devote some time to reading these!

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2. The Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan

I read The Lost Hero and really enjoyed it, but I have yet to read The Son of Neptune and The Mark of Athena. The thing with this series is it's like my book intimidation kryptonite: the books are huge and I'm two books behind. Fortunately there is still time for me to catch up a bit before The House of Hades comes out, but not much. I should probably take advantage of that time before it's too late and at least read The Son of Neptune. 

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 1. The Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld

I want to read this series SO BAD. You have no idea how bad I want to read it. I also want it on my shelf even though I haven't read it yet. The covers are just amazing, I love the fact that Scott Westerfeld got a special illustrator to help bring the books to life, and everything about it sounds so awesome. I really do have to read this series pronto. In fact I should probably put Leviathan on hold at the library right now.

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So those are my top 6 book series that I still need to read or finish. What are some of the book series that you've been procrastinating on? Do we share some of the same ones, or are yours completely different from mine?

Julia :)

Super Six Sunday: My favorite summery book covers!

Super Six Sunday is a new meme hosted by Bewitched Bookworms! This is my first time joining in with this fun new meme. Maybe I'll make it a habit. :)

This week's theme is all about summery book covers, and boy do I have a lot to say about this because I am a huge book cover fanatic.

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6. The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

This book is pretty much the epitome of the perfect summer beach read, so of course it's cover had to be on my list. It's simple, yet still manages to give off that beachy summer vibe. Plus, I've always been in love with the stylized title font. 

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5. The Moon and More, That Summer, and Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

Yes, I do realize that I'm sort of cheating by putting all three of these books in the same category, but they're all Sarah Dessen so I figure it's okay right? Out of all of the covers for Sarah Dessen's books these four seem the most summery to me. I particularly love The Moon and More cover (can you say, summer beach house vacation?) and the original Along for the Ride cover. My reasons for liking the original Along for the Ride cover may or may not have to do with biceps.... :P

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4. The Best Night of Your (Pathetic) Life 

by Tara Altebrando

This cover totally reminds me of those late summer nights gallivanting about town with friends. Not that I've ever actually done that (I'm such a home body) but it makes me want to do that. Other cover designers should be taking notes because I absolutely adore the way the font is overlaying an image. More covers should look like this!

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3. Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

I just love this book and it's cover. First of all, the color scheme is gorgeous. Orange is my favorite color so I'm a big fan of sunsets on book covers. Secondly this cover totally has that easy breezy summer feel to it. It also feels strangely nostalgic, which makes sense considering what the book is about. Overall I just really love this cover and it totally makes me want to head off to a vacation house on a lake. 

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2. Five Summers by Una LaMarche

I absolutely adore this cover! I do realize it's practically the same design as the Second Chance Summer cover, but I prefer this one for some reason. I don't know about you guys, but seeing this cover makes me really want to head to the beach with my besties. I really need a good beach day! 

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1. Sleepaway Girls by Jen Calonita

This is hands down my favorite summery book cover. I am such a sucker for this book (if you like summer camp books read it) and I think the cover is just awesome. It encapsulates the summer camp vibe perfectly and just looking at it makes me want to immediately pack my bags and head down to camp, even though I'm too old to go to camp anymore. Why is there no such thing as college student summer camp? Oh right, that's called being a camp counselor. Why am I not a camp counselor?

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So those are my six favorite summery book covers! Well, technically eight if you count the extra Sarah Dessen one's, but who cares, that's a technicality.

What are some of your favorite summer book covers? Leave them in the comments below and be sure to link me to your Super Six Sunday post so I can check it out!

Julia :)