Making me happy right now ~ Reading

Making me happy right now is the the fact that I *FINALLY* finished reading this:

OK, so I may quite possibly be the only person in the planet who did not think The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo lived up to its WAY overly exaggerated hype, but I'm alright with that. It's taken me longer to read this book than any other I can remember. For a book being hailed as a modern-day masterpiece, I just could not for the life of me get into it. Now don't get me wrong, it had its interesting parts, but overall it just didn't do it for me. But since I am a bit OCD when it comes to HAVING to finish any and every single book I start, I stuck with it and finished it and am now beyond ecstatic to move on. Yes, I have the second book of the trilogy. And no, I do not intend to start reading it any time in the near future.

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Making me happy right now,....

Did I mention that my wonderful in-laws got me this here beauty?

Oh, I did? 

Well, did I mention that I am in LOVE with it? 

Cause I am,....

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Making me happy right now is the fact that I've already moved on to my next book and I am loving every single second of it so far.

As many of you may remember, I loved the Twilight series. Well, just like Twilight, this book is a Young Adult novel, which apparently is a book category I've really gotten into lately (The Book Thief, one of my all time favorite books, is also a YA novel). And just like Twilight, this book is the first of a trilogy.

The Hunger Games was highly recommended on a number of book blogs I follow. And being a third of the way into it, I can already tell you I am thrilled to have two more books to follow, cause I am so not looking forward to it ending any time soon. The second book in the series is Catching Fire and the final book is Mockingjay, which is scheduled for release on August this year. YAY!

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Making me happy right now is the fact that I have totally immersed myself back into reading and that I have a nice long list of recommended books that await me. Go check them out on my goodreads box to the right.

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And finally, making me happy right now is the fact that Starz is currently airing an eight-part miniseries based on Ken Follett's amazing book, The Pillars of the Earth.

I have to admit, I picked this book up after it was selected to be on Oprah's Book Club (seriously, is there anything that woman can't sell?). And initially I had some serious doubts about it. One, it's close to 1000 pages long (that is quite the commitment) and two, it was categorized as historical fiction (not exactly a genre I'm passionate about). But I thoroughly enjoyed it.

In a nutshell, the book is about the building of a cathedral during the tumultuous 12th century. But you wouldn't believe the amount of politics, corruption, romance, betrayal, and suspense it includes. It is definitely more of an exciting adventure that I would have ever imagined. So much so in fact, that I ran and picked up the sequel, World Without End, and happily committed myself to yet another 1000+ pages.

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Now it's your turn,... what have you read or are currently reading that you think I should definitely get my hands on?