Monday Reads: My TBR pile on my bookshelf

Here are the top 10 books on my bookshelf that I'm itching to read. Because I collect books faster than I read them, I have a big pile of books that I have yet to read.

 Dearly Beloved by Lia Habel

 Wither by Lauren DeStefano

 Sever by Lauren DeStefano

 Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

 Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

 The Evolution of Mara Dyer

 Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

 Frostbite by Richelle Mead

Evernight by Claudia Gray

Tuesday Tech: My top 5 favourite iPad apps

Here are some of my favourite iPad apps that I have been using for a while now.

1. Mahjong Towers by Big Fish Games. This is an addictive game and is a great time killer when you need one. There are so many levels to play that get progressively more difficult.

2. Jasmine. This is a great YouTube client app that I actually prefer over the standard YouTube app. Many will have noticed that the streaming to Apple TV does not work with YouTube after the iOS 6 update. This app works perfectly with the Apple TV.

3. Etude. This is one of my favourite music apps. It allows you to buy sheet music, which you can then display on your iPad. I have downloaded so many songs that I have wanted to learn and have been having a ton of fun with this app.

4. Evernote. This is a great app that allows you to save a variety of notes across all of your computers and devices. I find this especially handy as a teacher because I can store assignment marks on my computer at school through this app and then access them on my iPad when I get home.

5. Flipboard. This is like a personalized magazine that you can customize. You can have all your favourite blog feeds and news feeds stored in this app so that it is like a magazine of only the things you want to see.

Monday Reads: Book purchase from eBay

This is a book I have been looking forward to reading for quite some time now. A couple of years ago I picked up the first volume of short stories in this series The Book Lovers’ Appreciation Society for $2 on the bargain table at Chapters. I didn’t think too much of it and it sat on my shelf for quite a while. The reason I bought it was because I noticed some famous chick-lit authors on the list of short story contributors. I threw this book into my bag on my trip to NYC that fall and completely fell in love with the stories. I am more used to reading novels, but there’s something so great about picking up a book of short stories. It’s so easy to read a whole story on a lunch break or before bed. I recently found out that there is another book of short stories by many of the same authors called The Sunday Night Book Club. It seems to be out of print everywhere, but I managed to snag a copy off of eBay for $2 a few days ago. I cannot wait for it to come in the mail. Some of the authors included in this collection of short stories are: Wendy Holden, Maggie O’Farrell, Cathy Kelly, Adriana Trigiani, Patricia Scanlon, Andrea Levy, Joanne Harris, Alexander McCall Smith, Claire Bolan, Katie Fforde.