Stacking the Shelves--The Birthday Edition

 

Stacking the Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course ebooks! The meme is now hosted by Reading Reality.

Well it was another week. It was my birthday Monday, so I took that day off to just chill. My aunt was in town so it was fun to hang out with her and my mom. We did some shopping and then went out to dinner. Overall it was really great day! Then the rest of the week was just meh. I am once again dealing with horrendous shipping woes. This time it's with Home Depot, of all the companies! That this isn't book related is shocking! I ordered my stepdad's Christmas present on the 14th and usually when my stepdad orders stuff from here, it's here within 3 days or so. Less than 5 for sure! Well, my package was received at the first UPS location in GA on the 17th and there's it has sat. For days!!! It has not moved once. They have sent "updates" saying delivery date of such and such and naturally it has not come because it has not left the state of GA which was the FIRST leg of its journey and I am like WTH?! This is a Christmas gift!! I ordered it wayyy over the limit of "order by this date and get it by Christmas eve" and it hasn't even shipped!! Seriously, what the heck is going on with the delivery systems this year?! And if that wasn't enough, my B&N preorder has once again been delayed!! And yup, it's at the SAME distribution center my copy of Spectacular is still sitting in! And they have had this book since the 18th. So it sat there the 19th, the 20th, and now the 21st. Tracking says I'll get it yesterday, but I didn't. So yeah, I think all the mail delivering companies hate me. I keep them in business with my purchases but they must hate me because they keep doing this crud to me and I am just fed up. So I had to print out a picture of my stepdad's Christmas present and I have that ready to be wrapped should his gift not arrive Monday or Tuesday...it likely won't. I don't see how it will be possible at all when it's still as far south as it possibly can be. My mom who helped me place the order in her name/account called someone and she said they will likely call me, as I put my number on the order to give me updates...which I did not get. So I'm hoping they call either today (unlikely) or Monday (also unlikely at this point). I am just so freaking angry that these stores dare to give you the BS of "order by this date to arrive for Christmas" when they literally prove that they cannot in fact do this when you order before said date.

Next year, I am demanding lists by October 1st so I can order before the end of October...that way I can account for companies' and the mail delivery companies' unaccountability.  

Onto what I did get this week. First up was my Pendragon's Shop preorder of the Caraval books! No I can't read Italian, but I loved the OUABH covers they did, so I splurged and bought myself this! It even came in an advent calendar style. Sadly, I was missing gift number 11 but since it comes from Italy, I don't think it's worth the hassle of getting a replacement when it could possibly cost me too. My Instagram account has been doing a poor job of translating foreign languages lately and basically leaves them in their original format, which makes me wonder what's the point of having a "translate" button? But whatever! The books are gorgeous and the other items I did get were pretty cool!

So when I got it on the 17th, I opened up the advent gifts in that order so here's where I stopped on the reveals.

Then I started being good the next day, but then mail stress had me opening the rest anyway! Lol.

This was a closeup of the smaller items: a coaster, a Legend magnetic bookmark, and a Prince of Hearts pin!

Then I also got my TBTB Secret Santa gift, which naturally, I started opening right then too!

I got: I Am The Dark That Answers When You Call by Jamison Shea
Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca
a stuffed polar bear
a Squishmallows hedgehog ornament
a Thomas Kincade Tangled puzzle
mini notebooks for my review notes
Reese's Peanut Butter Trees
Twizzlers

THANK YOU SOOO MUCH (again!) Chelsea!

Then I spontaneously decided to drive to the only Books a Million near me (which is like 30 minutes away) and I spent a good chunk of time browsing! I was surprised that they kept so many older titles on their shelves. B&N only ever has the most newest books out, like if you want a title from 4 months ago from an author who didn't hit the NYT Bestsellers List, you better go online! I was seeing books that were years older and it was just so nice!

I browsed in the bargain section the longest because holy cow there were a lot of titles there! Sadly, I couldn't find a OUABH hardcover that I need for an alternate cover. Surprisingly I do not have an extra floating around--shocking I know! I'm just waiting to find a decent used one, when I look online I basically get up to the cost of a new hardcover when you throw in shipping, so it doesn't seem worth it to buy used in that sense.

Daughter by Kate McLaughlin--I've had this on my wishlist pretty much since it released. When I saw it there in the bargain section for $6 and it was in perfect condition, I couldn't resist!
Stealing Infinity by Alyson Noel--keeper copy! I read this as an ARC, but never picked up a finished copy so again, found it for $6 and thought why not? Although I do wish they could put their "bargain dot" on the bottom of the pages instead of the top, but what can you can do?

Then a few of my bookish birthday gifts that I received:

My sister got me the shirt on the left that's really cool! Perfect coloring, Disney, books, Belle, what more could you ask for?

Then my mom bought me this...after I helped her with purchasing it since I had her use my account for points! I got this adorable sweatshirt from Pages of the Night!!

I also got B&N gift cards but forgot to snap pics, but my mom and sister both got me one as I tell everyone every year that that's what I want/need! Lol.

Then I got these ornaments:

Then my good friend Lisa at Lisa Loves Literature sent me The Vampire Diaries mini book from those Mini Book Capsules! I kept trying to get one myself, but always ended up with others, then she had a second one that she graciously sent to me! And she included this adorable ornament as well! I now have sooo many bookish ornaments on the tree and I love it!

AND THEN I got my adorable Gingerbread House from Pages of the Night! Britnee had made a very small amount of gingerbread houses and four of them were the ones on the UK covers of Spectacular! I snagged the legit Gingerbread House one as it was my favorite of the covers and naturally, my favorite of the houses she made! I did an insanely fast round of clicking and checking out that I gave myself whiplash! Lol. They were very limited as almost as soon as she made them her supplier was out or changed up the houses that she ordered and with how they are now she can't make them into the Spectacular houses. So I was super happy that I snagged this one right away!

It's just stunning! I love what Britnee did and I cannot wait til I can find my own home so I can have it on proper display. I mean seriously, I need to up my room count because I want a whole room dedicated to Stephanie Garber and her books and all the artwork/creations I have been buying for the love of this world and her characters.

 

And then finally, yes, there's an end to this even though I didn't get the one book I preordered that released this week, I got my preorder gift for The Whispering Night!

THANK YOU Tor Teen!!

And that was it for me this week! Stay tuned for next week's shipping woes update and my Christmas haul! Lol. What did you get this week?