Blog Tour review and excerpt: Girls Love Travis Walker, by Anne Pfeffer

Hey guys and welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Girls Love Travis Walker, an NA contemporary novel. Below you can find more info about the book as well as my review and an excerpt :)

Release date: March 15, 2013
Format: Kindle ebook, 323 pages

Goodreads description:
To nineteen-year-old high school dropout Travis Walker, women are like snowflakes--each one different, but beautiful in her own way.

He can charm any girl he meets, and yet down deep he fears he'll always be a loser like his jailbird father. As the landlady threatens to evict him and his sick mother, Travis takes a job he hates and spends his evenings picking up girls at a nearby night spot.

When he enlists in a teen program at the local fire station, he finds out he’s amazing at it. Then he meets the smoking hot Kat Summers, enlists Kat’s friend Zoey to help him woo her, and falls in love for the first time ever.

But he keeps the details of his life secret. His girl will never love him back if she knows the truth about him….


The following review is based on a copy I got from the tour organizer in exchange for my honest opinion.


Review:
Travis Walker can charm his way into any girl’s pants. Alongside his best friend DJ, he hangs out at bars to pick up women so he can forget about his problems for a couple hours. But those problems continue to grow until they can no longer be ignored, not even temporarily. Threat of eviction and homelessness for you and your sick mother will do that to you. Travis is forced to drop out of high school and work full-time in order for him and his mum to survive on a day to day basis. When he meets a girl who is different and realizes that there is a career path that he might be great at and feels passionate about, will he be able to keep his life together or will the pressure become too much?

Travis isn’t the type of guy I usually tend to like, but I really clicked with his voice and the realness of his problems when I read an excerpt of the book a couple months back. Travis, despite his rugged look and shitty life situation, is a good guy. He works his hands to the bone to take care of his mother, who does nothing but lie in bed sleeping almost 24/7 (I flip-flopped between hating and pitying her character). They cannot afford a doctor. She can’t work. His dad’s in jail, there’s no money, and Travis is the only one who can at least try to keep up appearances, somehow hold on to their flat, and put food on the table. And yes, he has a way with women, but he never lies to them or makes them believe there will be anything more than one night. Also, he changes a lot over the course of the novel. He wants something more, wants to evolve, wants to find a way out of the dirt back to a life worth living instead of just surviving one day at a time.

The novel does a good job discussing themes of poverty and homelessness. I haven’t seen that to this extent in a New Adult book before. Anne Pfeffer really lets her main character take a plunge down to the very bottom, and shows the paradoxical interrelation of needing an apartment to get a job and needing a job to pay for an apartment in a striking way. Lose one, lose the other.

The unfairness of it all was striking – you can try all you want and work very very hard, but you might still not get anything for it, while others have it all and don’t need to lift a finger. I think this aspect of the novel also rang with me because it’s something I’m not familiar with from my own country because it wouldn’t be possible here in this way (our health insurance/social security system is very different). Travis’ alternating feelings of anger, despair, hope, ambition, and pride were credible and tangible as the only thing that gives his life purpose is slipping away from him. I really rooted for Travis despite or maybe because of his character flaws.

I also liked his love interest a lot, though for spoiler reasons I cannot talk about her by name or reveal too much. She was kind and understanding and I thought they were evenly matched. They’re relationship was slow-building and gave them time to get to know one another as friends first. Some of that plot line was a bit predictable, but that didn’t make it any less enjoyable. There were steamy scenes, but nothing too graphic that would overstep NA boundaries.

The pace was good, the plot- and romance arch well balanced. Pfeffer knows how to write great dialogue that can also lift the mood and keep the story from becoming too depressing. One point of critique for me is that the ending felt a bit rushed and some things resolved a little too easily. Don’t get me wrong, I like the note on which the story ended, but it somehow happened a bit fast.

All in all, Girls Love Travis Walker is a great NA contemporary, especially if you enjoy authentic guy POV. The writing is fluid and very compelling; I read the book in a day. It tackles basic life problems and issues in a very realistic way without becoming too bleak and not offering a way out. Travis’ persistence was inspiring and also made me gain a new appreciation for things I tend to take for granted. The romance is important and has great chemistry but it’s by no means the only focus of the novel, as the title might make you suspect. I’d recommend it to anyone who is ready for a different set of characters than you’re usually confronted with and who is in the mood to dive into the world of struggling guy wanting to rise above his lot.


Excerpt:

Only fifteen minutes since I’d entered the halls of Perdido High School and already the beady eye of authority was upon me. I hadn’t even done anything wrong.

Yet.

“Travis!” Ms. Valenzuela called out to me from the door of the guidance office. Although she was getting old, maybe into her early forties, she hadn’t let herself go. She had great legs, which were hidden today by her lime green pants. 

“Yo.” I loped over and unleashed a grin that combined sincere remorse for my failings with my irresistible charm. 

She pursed her lips. “Don’t start with me, Travis.”  

I led the way to her office and took my usual chair while she sat at the desk across from me. “New picture,” I said, nodding to the updated photo of her two daughters. “Kelsi and … Julianne, right?”

She struggled to keep back a smile. “Yes, Travis. Those are their names.”

“Fifth and seventh grade, right?”

“Yes, Travis.” Now she was smiling for sure.

Maybe it was my blue-green eyes, or maybe my granite abs, but I could always get women to smile at me. 

Ms. Valenzuela opened my folder. “Six more absences since your last visit to my office. Plus numerous missed homework assignments. You’re this close to suspension.” She held up her thumb and index finger a millimeter apart. 

“I have to work, Ms. Val,” I said. “Gotta get ahead, you know.” I had a promising position as a bus boy at Jake’s Burgers.

“How many hours are you working these days?”

“As many as I can get, whenever I can get ‘em.”

“You can’t cut back?” She knew she couldn’t push me that hard. My family’s sudden move to Los Angeles in November of my junior year, coupled with my erratic attendance at Perdido High, had screwed up my graduation credits. With all my former classmates in college, I was starting my senior year, again, at age nineteen. 

“I can’t get weekend shifts at Jake’s,” I told Ms.Val.

She didn’t like me working there, but she should just be glad I wasn’t following in the path of my father, who knocked over a convenience mart a year ago and ended up in prison for armed robbery. Mom had gone to visit him, but I refused. He could rot there for all I cared.

“You’ve got one school year left to graduate. I want to see you get that high school diploma, Travis. Or a GED at least.” Between her fingers, she rolled a pen. It was the cheap kind the school district bought that wrote for about five minutes before it crapped out on you.

“Yeah, well, we’re about to get evicted,” I said, “so that’s kind of rearranged my priorities.”

 

Follow the tour and check out interviews and guest posts:

May 2 - My Bookmark Blog - Review

May 3 - Bean Counting Mommy - Review

May 4 - Flirting With Romance - Review/Interview

May 5 - Andi's YA Books - Review/Interview

May 6 - The Avid Reader - Review/Interview

May 8 - Gimme the Scoop Reviews - Review

May 11 - Please Another Book - Review/Interview

May 13 - Alway's YA at Heart - Review

May 15 - A Bibliophile's Thoughts - Review

May 16 - My Cozie Corner - Review

May 17 - Total Book Geek - Review

May 18 - Books and Needlepoint - Review

May 20 - Faerie Tale Books - Review

May 20 - Owlnestly Reviews - Review

May 21 - Up All Night Reviews - Review

May 22 - Read-A-Holicz - Review

May 23 - Shelf Space Needed - Review

May 24 - Bookishly Devoted - Review

May 25 - Doodles Book Blog - Review

May 27 - Love, Laughter, and Friendship - Review

May 28 - Reviewing Shelf - Review

May 28- Pixie Dust Reviews - Review/Interview

May 29 - YA Book Addict - Review

May 30 - LovLivLife Reviews  - Review

May 30 - Addicted to Books- Review

What do you guys think of my review, the excpert, or the general premise of the book? Is this something that would interest you? Let me know in the comments :)

Waiting on Wednesday: Untold, by Sarah Rees Brennan

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine to spotlight upcoming book releases that we're excited about.


This week's pick:

Release date: September 24, 2013
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages

Goodreads description:
Free from bonds, but not each other

It’s time to choose sides… On the surface, Sorry-in-the-Vale is a sleepy English town. But Kami Glass knows the truth. Sorry-in-the-Vale is full of magic. In the old days, the Lynburn family ruled with fear, terrifying the people into submission in order to kill for blood and power. Now the Lynburns are back, and Rob Lynburn is gathering sorcerers so that the town can return to the old ways.

But Rob and his followers aren’t the only sorcerers in town. A decision must be made: pay the blood sacrifice, or fight. For Kami, this means more than just choosing between good and evil. With her link to Jared Lynburn severed, she’s now free to love anyone she chooses. But who should that be?


My sister just finished my copy of Unspoken, so the series is more present in my mind again. She also reminded me of the TERRIBLE cliff hanger and is now all sulky about having to wait until September, nevermind that I've been waiting for half a year longer :P But yeah, I'm extremely curious about what's going to happen because pretty much anything could at this point.
On a side-note: I'm not happy about the cover change. I really hope they will make a new cover for the US edition that will match the old Unsopken cover with the silhouettes!
Are you also excited for Untold? And what did you pick this Wednesday?

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Book Covers Of Books I've Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week the participants post their top ten to a specific topic.

So this week is about favorite covers of books we've read... and it's soooo hard to choose!!! So much pretty! I'm sure I will forget something totally obvious and want to bash my head into the wall because of it. Ahem. Anyway, here goes in no particular order...




I imagine Varen to look just like that. I love that the models wear clothes the characters wear in the book. And I love all the writing on the image - it hints at Varen's mysterious notebooks.
As for Fragile Eternity, the butterfly looks just that - fragile. Frozen. I also adore the font! And it was one of my favorite books in the seris :)


Black City was a book I wanted to read for a whole year before it came out. The wait was agonizing. I love that shatteredrose, the font, the colors, the city in the backdrop. It's perfect.
Throne of Glass - so badass! The clothes. The hair. The daggers!! The colors and font. The UK cover is just so much better than the US one.


Masque's cover is even more beautiful in person because the paper has a shimmer to it that isn't visible on the screen. The colors, dress, and parasol fit perfectly. I love it!
Dearly, Departed is another parasol cover I love. The colors are perfect and again, it fits the actual content. I also adore the font!


Splintered's cover is just so vibrant!!! The colors are even deeper when you see them for real, and I love how there are so many details you only start to notice as you read the actual story.
With Chantress, the combination of the colors, her hood, the font, the tag line, and the thing she's holding in her hand intrigued me.


I have very mixed feelings about hte Fallen series, but I love the covers. Torment is my favorite. It looks eternally cold and mournful and you can just see the inner turmoil of the girl. It's stunning in its simplicity.
Something Strange and Deadly is another one you have to see in person because it shimmers so prettily! The model looks really close to how I imagined Eleanor and I think the detail of the cogs and wheels in the background is awesome.

Nevermore, by Kelly Creagh
Fragile Eternity, by Melissa Marr
Black City, by Elizabeth Richards
Throne of Glass, by Sarah J. Maas
Masque of the Red Death, by Beathany Griffin
Dearly, Departed, by Lia Habel
Splintered, by A.G. Howard
Chantress, by Amy Butler Greenfield
Torment, by Lauren Kate
Something Strange and Deadly, by Susan Dennard

This was really hard! I thought there would be less pretty dress covers and more graphically interesting ones but those are mostly covers from the TBR pile. Also, it's hard to separate my feelings of the story from those of the cover. There were many books I love whose books are pretty but just not quite awesome enough to make the list.
Anyhow, here are some runner-ups from other books I've already read:



Wither, by Lauren Destefano
In the Shadow of Blackbirds, by Cat Winters
The Pledge, by Kimberly Derting

With Wither, it's that the cover fits so perfectly! Also, mostly I chose it because the inner design of the book is so special and gorgeous! In the Shadow of Blackbirds was fantastic and I love that the cover photograph appears in the book, along with other copies of actual photographs from the time period the book is set in. The Pledge is so gorgeous, and what I think is special about it is that the word is juxtaposed on the image again and the texture is different from the rest of the cover. You feel the words when you trace them.


Oof. Alrighty, what do you guys think of my choices? Anything that is glaringly absent? And please leave your links, I can't wait to see what covers you chose and find new things to drool over ;)

Stacking the Shelves: Embers of Dreams hanging on Strings

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to showcase all the books we got in the past week. Those can be bought, won, gifted, for review, borrowed, print or ebooks... no matter, just share what you got :)


This week was pretty good for me! A bunch of these books have been on my TBR list for a long time, and with my current reading speed I hope to get to them soon :)


Bought in print:

Dreamfever, by Karen Marie Moning
Graceling, by Kristin Cashore

Dreamfever was fantastic but the ending was such a horrible cliffhanger!!! And the next book isn't available in the right format. Thank god my friend has it, but she's in Belgium till Monday >.< I even asked her for a small spoiler because I couldn't take the suspense. And I usually loathe spoilers with a passion.
Graceling I've wanted to read for sooo long! I even bought it in German but then never read it because I don't like translations (I didn't know it was *that* book when I bought it). I love the cover!

eBooks:

Anathema, by K.A. Tucker
Strings, by Kendall Grey
Ember X, by Jessica Sorensen

I really like the cover change for Anathema! I don't really know what to expect from the book but it sounds really interesting.
Strings should be fun. Just read the description XD
I already own Ember, but this is an 'updated' version that is more New Adult-ish than the previous one. I hope my old version wasn't changed because I'd love to read and compare both. Oh, and it was free on amazon when I got it, but no promises that it still is...


What do you guys think of my haul? Have you read any of the books? And what did you get in the past week?

Just-Finished-Review: The Sea of Tranquility, by Katja Millay

Release date: June 4, 2013
Publisher: Atria Books
Format: Paperback, 448 pages

Goodreads description:
I live in a world without magic or miracles. A place where there are no clairvoyants or shapeshifters, no angels or superhuman boys to save you. A place where people die and music disintegrates and things suck. I am pressed so hard against the earth by the weight of reality that some days I wonder how I am still able to lift my feet to walk.

Full of rage and without a purpose, former pianist Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone discovering her past and to make the boy who took everything from her pay.

All 17 year-old Josh Bennett wants is to build furniture and be left alone, and everyone allows it because it’s easier to pretend he doesn’t exist. When your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.

Everyone except Nastya, a hot mess of a girl who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. The more he gets to know her, the more of a mystery she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he may ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding or if he even wants to.

The Sea of Tranquility is a slow-building, character-driven romance about a lonely boy, an emotionally fragile girl, and the miracle of second chances.

Please Note: This book contains mature content including profanity, drug/alcohol use, and sexual situations/language.

Amazon     Barnes&Noble     Book Depository

The following review is based on a copy I got from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.


Review:
The Sea of Tranquility is one of those books everyone tells you to read because of how amazing it is. You go in expecting it to be great… but you have no way of knowing just how painfully real, how delicate, how brutal, how deeply affecting a story you are about to be swept into. I think there is no way to read this book and not be in some way changed by it. I know that the characters and what they faced will stay with me for a very long time, and that my mind and heart are the richer for it.

The most amazing thing about this book are the characters. I have never met two fictional people like Nastya and Josh. I know that many contemporary YA and NA books focus on characters that are in some way ‘broken’, but any that I’ve read of so far pale in comparison. Josh and Nastya are not just a series of traits or letters on a page, they become people. There is nothing shallow, nothing fabricated or melodramatic about them. They are complex, and strong, and shattered, and no longer believe that anything will ever be okay. And once you start to learn about what they’ve been through, you can’t blame them. My heart broke for their pain, their grief, their anger.

The story is told alternately from Nastya and Josh’s point of view, and I loved the chance to see into both of their heads! Their voices are so strong and basically leapt off the page from the very beginning. Nastya enters a new school in a new town where she now lives with her aunt after leaving her family behind. She has not spoken a word in over a year. She wants to be left alone. Josh already is alone, because everyone gives him a berth and no one knows how to deal with him. He doesn’t talk much either and never asks Nastya any questions, which is part of why they start spending time together after a chance-encounter.

I loved seeing them grow closer. There was nothing rushed, nothing forced about it. No talk of love after only weeks of knowing one another. I even would have been content if there’d been no romance at all, because the connection between them and their interactions were enough – which is not to say I didn’t root for the two of them to become a couple!

The minor characters are also amazing. There is so much more to them than I initially expected, especially Drew, Josh’s only friend who also grows close to Nastya. I never imagined him to have as much depth but it made me like him a lot more.

Another character I really liked is Clay, a talented artist. I generally love how important creative expression (or lack thereof) is in the story! It’s not just something cool to add to the people, it’s part of who they are and how they view and deal with the world around them.

Despite how bleak and painful the story may sound at this point, it also made me laugh quite a lot! The dialogue is awesome, both the spoken conversations and the things Nastya and Josh think but don’t say out loud. Both have a no-nonsense attitude and call things how they are. I also really like how openly the book treats questions of sexuality, drinking, and being confronted with things you aren’t ready for.

The pace is slow-building in the beginning, but I never wanted it to move faster because it never bored or bothered me. This isn’t an action-focused story, it’s about the inner journey of the characters and their changes. It needs time to grow, or it would not be believable. There are peaks of high emotion and drama, but never anything annoying or over the top. Katja Millay is also wonderful at spreading out information without ever revealing too much. Despite seeing into both Josh and Nastya’s heads, it’s a long time before there is any clarity to what precisely happened to her, and the reveal, once it comes, was very different from how I expected it to go down!

I don’t really know what else to say because I don’t want to give anything away, and the beauty and power of The Sea of Tranquility is in the details. In the things that go unsaid. In events for which there are no adequate words. This is a story about hope and despair, about choices, about hoping for second chances but not daring to, about anger and hatred and the wish for revenge. About fear, and how it might be overcome. About healing. About wondering whether one even deserves to heal, or be happy. It’s about how our expectations shape the world, and about how nothing is ever simple or black-and-white. It’s angsty. It’s powerful. It’s so compelling you will not want to put it down. It will make you feel the full range of emotions without being tear-jerky, without you feeling manipulated into feeling anything. It’s a story I will re-read because I know there are so many hints I will pick up on that I could not know about the first time around. I would not change a single word in it. I don’t have the right words to talk about it. So do yourself a favor and just go read it – it will be time well spent!

I only just finished reading this book and maybe I should have waited a bit longer with writing the review to better digest the story. There are a lot of things I haven't touched on in the review. But I just needed to voice my thoughts somehow! Have any of your read it yet? What did you think? Or if you haven't, what intrigues you about it? I'd love to hear your opinions in the comments :)

Waiting on Wednesday: The Golden City, by J. Kathleen Cheney

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine to spotlight upcoming book releases that we're excited about.



This week's pick:

Release date: November 5, 2013
Publisher: Roc Trade
Format: Paperback, 352 pages

Goodreads description:
For two years, Oriana Paredes has been a spy among the social elite of the Golden City, reporting back to her people, the sereia, sea folk banned from the city’s shores....

When her employer and only confidante decides to elope, Oriana agrees to accompany her to Paris. But before they can depart, the two women are abducted and left to drown. Trapped beneath the waves, Oriana’s heritage allows her to survive while she is forced to watch her only friend die.

Vowing vengeance, Oriana crosses paths with Duilio Ferreira—a police consultant who has been investigating the disappearance of a string of servants from the city’s wealthiest homes. Duilio also has a secret: He is a seer and his gifts have led him to Oriana.

Bound by their secrets, not trusting each other completely yet having no choice but to work together, Oriana and Duilio must expose a twisted plot of magic so dark that it could cause the very fabric of history to come undone...

This books sounds so unique and amazing! Spies, sea folk, uneasy allies, Paris... Ocotber can't come soon enough :)
What do you guys think of my pick? Have you heard of it or read any early reviews? And what book are you highlighting this week?

Top Ten Tuesday: books dealing with tough subjects

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week the participants post their top ten to a specific topic.


To this week's topic is all about books dealing with difficult subjects like abuse, suicide, grief, or other issues that are personally hard for us.
It was kind of difficult to come up with 10 books for this that I've actualy read. I'm not usually one for 'problem books' because I identify way too much and it drags me down. Also, I realized that I could name quite a few books that have an issue woven into them somewhere but it isn't the main focus. So here are 10 books of varying intensity that I read and enjoyed.

The Language of Flowers, by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
This was the first contemporary book I'd read in a looong time. I mainly picked it up because it was set in San Francisco and because the heroine was a foster kid. And there we're also already at one of the issues the book deals with. Victoria is a heroine that is hard to understand at the beginning, but the unfolding tale is wonderful, heartbreaking, and beautifully written. One of the things that happen to her is among my big no-nos when it comes to choosing my reads but it was handled wonderfully here! It's about homelessness, not belonging, grief, mother-daughter relationships, loss, love... and it left me with this feeling of catharsis. I cried, but I felt better at the end.


Pushing The Limits, by Katie McGarry
I know a lot of people would probably classify this book as romance but I think it also handles tough issues like grief (Echo's brother), mental illness, trauma, and the foster system. It makes the characters' pain real. It made me laugh and cry and swoon and get angry. I loved it so much even though emotionally it got heavy at times, for me at least. You can check out my review here.


Girls Love Travis Walker, by Anne Pfeffer
I *just* finished that one and really loved it! Travis is a guy with real-life problems. Having to drop school in order to support himself and his sick mum, the threat of eviction hanging over his head, knowing that the 5 dollars in you pockets are all the money you own in the world... he took quite a heavy fall but I liked how much of a backbone he had, and there were lighthearted scenes to balance things out.


The Breakaway / Pieces, by Michelle Davidson Argyle
I was part of the tour for these two and they had such a huge impact on me! Naomi's mental situation and the way she dealt with her kidnapping (and the aftermath!) were so real to me. I felt with her. I ached and hoped for her. It's also a book about finding your own way though, and about several types of dependent relationships. If you want to know more, check out my review.


Notes from the Blender, by Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin
Notes from the blender is an extremely fun read, but it also deals with issues about patchwork families, grief, guilt, and finding out where you belong. I devoured it in a day. Definitely one of my favorite contemporaries!


Hunger, by Jackie Morse Kessler
This one was personally hard for me to read. It deals with anorexia and bulimia and the physical, emotional, and social consequences that come with it. It's all wrapped up in the paranormal element of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse but the describtion of Lisabeth's situation hit very close to home for me. I really want to read the next books in the series!


Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson
Same as above, only more extreme. My experiences thankfully never went as far as that of Lia, the heroine, but I still saw more of myself at a certain point in my life in her than I would have liked. This one packs a real punch but it handles the issue really well, in my opinion. If you know someone suffering through the hell of anorexia and want to understand them better, this book might help.


Ultraviolet, by R.J. Anderson
This is eventually a paranormal book but it also deals with mental illness, being committed against one's will, asylums in general, and several kinds of abuse. I was glued to the page and need to read the sequel, Quicksilver, asap!


In the Shadow of Blackbirds, by Cat Winters
This one is set in 1918 during the Spanish Influenza. The description of a city filling up with corpses, the horrors of WWI, the grief of those mourning both the sick and the fallen soldiers of the war, was palpable to me. It also deals with the fear and paranoia of treason, with women's lot in the early 20th century, and with ghosts. Oh, and it's simply brilliant :)


Carrie, by Stephen King
I know many would probably classify this one as horror but for me, it's so much more and else than that. I was 16 when I read it for the first time and I identified with Carrie so much! Like her, I'd been bullied for years on end. I didn't have a religiously crazy mother to deal with like she did, but otherwise she basically got to do what I'd dreamed about quite a few times: revenge. With telekinetic powers.



This is it... I think I got in quite a few different ones. I also have a bunch of books dealing with tough issues on my kindle that I haven't read yet. What do you guys think of my list? Do you know any of the books? I'm also curious about everyone else's picks, so link me up :)

Get To Know Me: Favorite Things to Do on a Day Off

Hey there :)
I'm really late with this post today, it being Mother's Day and all...
I also couldn't really come up with a good topic. First I wanted to do music but that would have taken forever to format and how could I possibly only pick like 5 bands when I have 25GB of music by almost 300 bands on my computer?!

So I thought I'd talk about what I like to do on a day without university courses or work.

Reading
That's a pretty obvious one, right? I actually still get quite a lot of reading done even if I have courses because I have this habit of reading while eating, but I also love curling up with a book on my bed (or, now that I live at my parents' again, a couch) and just reading for hours and getting lost in these amazing imagined worlds!


Walking the city
I will definitely miss that a lot now that I don't live in Zurich anymore for the time being :( I'd just walk my favorite parts of town for ages, do some window-shopping and snoop around stores and watch people. Zurich is a very pedestrian-friendly city with great public transport, so getting somewhere with a car is actually harder and really annoying. Which is of course great for walking. The pace is brisk though but once I got used to it, I liked it that way :) Sometimes I go to the lake and walk along the promenade; there are usually some buskers there playing music, and of course lots of people just hanging out. In the summer you can also just spread your towel there and walk around in swim trunks/bikini. Oh, and you can rent pedalo-boats and get up to shenanigans out on the lake :P
I also like discovering new places in the city, so sometimes when I'm in the old part of town I just go down some random, winding alley and see where it takes me. I've discovered awesome hidden little squares, stores, and old houses that way! Sometimes I take my camera with me.


Sitting in a café / writing
Another favorite. Sometimes I just have to get out of the house but I don't really feel like going anywhere, buying anything, or meeting anybody. So I just go to a café, sit at the window, sip my cappuccino and relax. I watch people. Maybe I took my netbook with me so I can get some writing done. It's just overall really relaxing for me, lets my mind take a breath, and makes me feel good because I did something creative :) And if I feel lonely, I can still text a friend and ask them if they'd like to join me.


Staying in my PJs all day
Yeah. We all need those days every once in a while, right? Right? Sleeping in until noon (maybe I should remark that I usually stay up until like 2am), getting up, eating something, and deciding not to leave the house so what's the point in getting dressed. Then I read or watch some DVDs or whatever and listen to music.


Hm... I think this covers the most important bases. You may have noticed that there are no clubs or sports on there. The reason is that I don't do any. I just don't enjoy sports very much and I've yet to see a club I'd want to join. I also don't want to feel like I *have* to go to some club meeting now or do something in preparation for a club-thingy or whatever. Oh and then there's the money issue, of course.

So yeah, that's what I like to do when I have a day off. Lame? Lazy? Crazy? Boring? Do we have any 'activities' in common? What do you like to do when you've got a whole day without work?