Birthday Love From Fabulously Thrifty!! and Love/Hate Tag

Ahhh sweet Melissa gifted me with an Amazon gift card for my birthday! It took me over two weeks to decide what I wanted to get with it, hehe. How can I best describe my Amazon wish list? Like a dream...it changes frequently, it's mostly a place where I save things I might want to get in the future, but sometimes the "want" fades and so my list is constantly changing! Indecisive me couldn't decide on what to get...beauty/skincare related product(s)? New music? A dvd? In the end...I decided on what'd be enjoyable yet also of value...

Book Swapping

It was so sweet of you ladies to comment on my last post about books! Amanda brought up an idea that I decided to run with. She said "I wonder if there's a book swap site out there where people can swap books just like there's makeupalley for those people that swap makeup."

I remembered I met a girl last year who said she was a member of some website where she swapped books! At the time, I thought it sounded like a dorky online version of going to the library or buying cheap used books (yes, I can be such snob, can't I?) so I didn't give it a second thought until now. My book collection has grown like wildflowers in my room, not just from my own handpicked beloved selection and books from college courses, but also books people gave me, books I don't have a need for anymore (like CBEST prep and computer books), and books that I've outgrown (that were fun reads for me five years ago but silly for me to have now).

Well, I immediately googled "book swap" and tons of links appeared! I went with the top three that I noticed (smart enough to pay for advertising or smart SEO and marketing), which were PaperBackSwap.com, Bookins.com, and SwapTree.com.

2008 in Review

Movies
♥ Sex and the City
♥ The Dark Knight
♥ The Secret Life of Bees

Music
♥ Mariah Carey
♥ Estelle
♥ Ne-Yo
♥ Usher
♥ Lil Wayne in everyone's songs

New Addictions
♥ tivo (Jon & Kate Plus 8, Crash, etc.)
♥ anime/manga (Naruto and Bleach)
♥ NARS
♥ Blogger

Books I Read

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (Vintage International) by Haruki Murakami

Review: Cosmo's Sexiest Beauty Secrets

Magazines and Magazine Scans: Cosmopolitan December

I bought the December Cosmo magazine and made sure I skimmed through it tonight because I'm guilty of having but hardly reading two magazine subscriptions this past year.

I read books way, way, WAY more than I read magazines. So every month when I get my magazine subscriptions, they get placed into a stack until I have nearly a year's worth of two magazines cluttering my room. I've noticed that I rarely buy magazines at newsstands anymore, partly out of guilt of having unread magazines at home, but also because I rarely see a magazine that I flip through and must have (Japanese magazines being the exception). Also, when I think I want a magazine but don't get it, I forget about it and life goes on, and literally new issues come and go.

Bye Bye November Pretty Pink Boxes

November My Pretty Pink Boxes sold out in two hours this morning!!

What the hell, people...I was asleep! lol Grrr...I was up 'til 5:30 a.m. so I was knocked out between 7 and 9 a.m., when you early bird bastards were buying up all the boxes! I had no idea they'd sell out so quickly...or I would have just stayed up another hour and a half. Oh well...saves me money this month. =)

Sooooo who got a November Pretty Pink Box? Don't worry, I won't shoot you...I'm just curious. ;)

Yesterday's Oprah Show featured Dr. Oz and his new book, You Being Beautiful, which just came out this month and is about how beauty and health are related. Of course I love all things beauty, want to be/stay healthy, and I love reading so what better than picking up a copy of this? It already has positive customer reviews on Amazon.

October is...

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (and apparently a lot of other things too).

I may be misquoting but I believe Oprah said every hour we lose one out of every eight women to breast cancer. Wow.

While I'm not here to lecture, I just wanted to say that if you don't know, please educate yourself, be aware, show your support for the cause and help if you can. In the spirit of this "Pink Ribbon" month, I'm also doing these two things:

♥ reading A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That
♥ and purchased My Pretty Pink Box

Haruki Murakami Drops Knowledge on Me

"It's not a question of better or worse. The point is, not to resist the flow. You go up when you're supposed to go up and down when you're supposed to go down. When you're supposed to go up, find the highest tower and climb to the top. When you're supposed to go down, find the deepest well and go down to the bottom. When there's no flow, stay still. If you resist the flow, everything dries up. If everything dries up, the world is darkness...Abandon the self, and there you are." - page 51 in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

This is not an entirely new concept so as much it is a hard-earned one, what I hate to but will call a life lesson because I believe it comes with experience. Simply put, it means there is a time for everything. But it's just written so well and presented in a slightly different perspective.