Hello everyone! Before I can start reading today, I have to write a couple of important emails and get a little cleaning done. I hope to finish these wearysome tasks in the next couple of hours so that I can start around 14:00 with my read for the day, which is The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line, the first Veronica Mars novel. More on that later. Toodles! …

I decided to participate in this easter special of 7 Days 7 Books, which in a nutshell challenges you to read as many books as you choose (but seven would be nice) in seven days. As a special easter treat, we get an extra day, so it’s actually eight days and you only have to read four novels to take part in the raffle – at least, if you have pledged to do so in advance. Although I trust myself to be able to read four novels over the course of eight days, I decided to go with the other version in which you can choose your own goals …

I bet you thought that this is a horse novel, but really, it is not. It’s more or less the 1987s version of a New Adult novel that has incidentally horses in it because it’s set on a farm. You’re probably not convinced yet. After all, there’s a horse on the cover and it has ‘stallion’ in the title (well, one could read it metaphorically, but we really, really don’t want to go there) . . .

Talking about my new camera: you have no idea what I went through to get that thing! The retailer messed up twice and I wouldn’t have it yet if it weren’t for a long phone call. It basically took them all of March to ship it to me. But it’s gorgeous and I adore it. Have I mentioned that it has freaking WLAN?! You can remote control it with an app on your mobile. So cool! Naturally, it was quite expensive but I wanted a new camera for ages. I’ve outgrown my beautiful EOS 1000D a while ago and it’s literally getting senile anyway. Ever since we strolled through Vienna on a rainy day in March 2013, it has some kind of error and frequently forgets that it has an SD card to which it’s supposed to save the images. It’s my own fault for not taking care of it properly that day. After all, it survived several wet holidays in Ireland and the UK. The new one is waterproof though I won’t test that anytime soon. I’ve been saving for the last couple of years but could never bring myself to spend that much money. When I finished my bachelor thesis, I decided that it was time to reward myself – although I didn’t know whether the thesis was any good. Turns out it was and now my new camera answers to the illustrious name of Katniss EOS-70D-een …

As a matter of fact, I failed yet again to read the stuff that I put onto the March list. Of the eight novels I planned to read, I only finished two. I just happened to fall into a reading slump right in the middle of The Bone Season. Hopefully, I’m back on track now. At least I feel a little more motivated …

Actually, I didn’t get tagged but I saw it on numerous blogs and decided to jump on the bandwagon. You’re supposed to name at least five of your favourite literary couples. I had a list with over twenty but decided to cut back because it really isn’t that easy to find great quotes in novels you haven’t read in the last couple of years. In some cases, I remembered what I wanted and where I could find it, in others I got lucky and just stumbled upon a great quote. So here are my twelve favourite literary couples in no particular order – well, except for the first one because Rhaegar and Lyanna are my absolute OTP …

I got tagged by the lovely Ric and I’m pretty much the last person doing it so I won’t tag anyone specifically but if you haven’t joined in and want to, feel free to do so! …