Pretty books and other bookish news ...

No review today, because I am completely swamped. Third year law is hell on Earth, but I'm loving every long night spent glued to my desk, lecturers who speak at triple-speed and page-long reading lists for two-hour seminars; the things I do for my degree.

Instead, I thought I would share with you all my newest literary purchase, amongst other things. I was browsing in Waterstones at the beginning of this week, not with anything particular in mind, but knowing that I wanted to buy something special for myself. I spotted this on the shelf and after a brief internal debate, I couldn't help myself.

This is the new September 2013 hardback edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, illustrated by the very talented Jemima Catlin. This is my first copy of The Hobbit and unlikely to be my last; the lady in Waterstones confessed to owning about five copies, yet still being tempted by this one too! I can certainly see why. Despite first publication almost eighty years ago, The Hobbit is a timeless classic and new editions are only getting more beautiful. I've already got my eye on the Deluxe Hardback editions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings!

I saw sample copies of the cover whilst I was interning at HarperCollins, but there weren't any interiors in the office that I could take a peek at. I'm glad that now that I've seen them, it's in my own copy; the illustrations are breathtaking. All illustrations are full-colour and there's at least one per double-spread; some pages have two. In addition, there's a dozen full-page illustrations, including the great dragon Smaug amongst his treasure.




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In other recent exciting book news, Bitten by Kelley Armstrong, one of my many favourite books, is being made into a television show. The first book in the thirteen-strong Women of the Otherworld series, Elena Michaels is the world's only female werewolf and still struggles to maintain her dual life on a day-to-day basis. Heroes and Heartbreakers has a fantastic summary here and I'm very tempted to revisit it again! The first trailer is out and it looks fantastic. Of the thirteen books, only a handful feature Elena and Clay and so I'm curious to see how far beyond the books they go over the course of the series.

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October 7th was Emma Approved day for those of Pemberley Digital fandom. This is the next full-length project that is being tackled post-The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and I was hooked after the first episode. I started reading Emma over the summer following the news that this was their next venture, and although I have yet to finish the book, the show is doing a stunning job. Emma can be very dislikeable at times, but the chemistry and interaction between Emma and Knightley is swoon-worthy. Mondays and Thursdays are good again!

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Charlie Hunnam has backed out of playing Christian Gray in the film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Gray. To be honest, I'm not surprised. He cited scheduling conflicts but I think that any actor or actress linked to the film is going to need to think long and hard about their involvement, with plenty of second-guessing their decision. As unfortunate as it is, there's huge potential for this to be a career-breaker and as much as Charlie Hunnam looks the part, I'm glad that he's made the brave choice to part ways with the project.

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Have you seen/heard of anything interesting happening in the book industry lately? Do share!