Summer reading!

I love to read. In fact, I adore reading. And summer vacation is the best time to sit down outside with some iced tea and an amazing novel. I've been making a list of the books I want to read throughout this summer, and might be doing reviews of them on here, depending.
Anyways, this is my current to-read list, in no particular order:

1. Mark Zusak's The Book Thief

2. Charles Dickens's Great Expectations

3. Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (re-read)

4. Micheal Morpurgo's War Horse

5. Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy

6....

But I still need more to read, does anyone have suggestions for me? I'm open to all genres. As well, what books have you read this summer/do you plan to read? I'd love to know!

 (featuring my sister as a model!)

Abandoned houses and libraries.

I found some awesome photos on Flickr of the inside of an abandoned house and wanted to share them here. I adore old things, old houses in particular. And libraries, I adore libraries. I figured you might enjoy them, as well. (link)

On a personal note, I'm up north here in Ontario visiting family (I have family up from Dubai, so it's awesome to see them!). I'll do a post at the end of the weekend about my visit. Have a good weekend!

batman comic!

I recently received a Batman: Year One comic book from 1988  in excellent condition.
I love comic books not only because, y'know, superheros, but also because the art is usually very, very good. The artist/writer of this book has also done other comics, such as 300 (except the movie sucked). I've found comic books to be similar to watching a movie with subtitles, which works well because I am a visual learner. This story is just that: the origin story of Batman. Well, one of many variations, of course. It was an excellent read, I'm going to be keeping my eye out for more from the same author!
Take a look at the cover (and my face what):

book recs: mari's favourites

I figured that today, I would write out a list of my top three favourite books and explain why. Books have always been important to me and I wanted to share some of my absolute favourites.

 

 Prequel to the Lord of The Rings, this book follows the adventure of a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins and his journey across Middle Earth. Of course, it's more than that, but I don't really want to spoil it for you. I first read this book in elementary school and it completely transformed my way of thinking. I became enveloped in this fantasy world and I never wanted the book to end. The Lord of the Rings series itself is also phenomenal, but The Hobbit will always have a special place in my heart as the book that introduced me to a whole new fantasy world.

 In this science fiction novel, the main character - Ender - is a genius child chosen by the government to try and save the world from another alien attack. I love this book because I've always been a fan of science fiction novels. Other sci-fi authors such as Rad Bradbury and Douglas Adams will always be amazing to me, but this book stands out. You get a view into this child genius' mind as he tries to process these great and terrifying situations and it is, frankly, fantastic. This book really got into my brain and made me almost think the way the main character did, which can be difficult for many books to achieve. Over all, I adored this book and would for sure recommend it to someone, sci-fi fan or not.

 I actually read this book quite recently, and had heard quite a bit about it. Many people I talked to about it either adored it or couldn't stand it, but I figured I would give it a chance anyway. And let me say, totally worth it. This book is a lot more than meets the eye. Not only is it wonderfully prose-like in its writing, but the story itself is overpowering and interesting. It encapsulates not only the insane vibe of the 1920's but also the personal narrative of a man called Jay Gatsby.

So there you have it - my favourite books! I actually have a lot more, but I figured that I would narrow it down for the purpose of this post. Do you agree/disagree? Tell me! As well, tell me what your favourite books are!