Today is the 9th Anniversary of Smart Bitches! We were founded 31 January 2005, and what a long, funky nine years it's been!
Thank you for being here to talk about romance and all the other things we love and enjoy and don our ragepants about. I'm so glad you're here.
To celebrate, I usually do a silly giveaway that's tied to the traditional or modern gifts for that year's anniversary. Last year, the traditional gift included linen and lace, so I gave away fichus. (Bitches love fichus).
This year? OH, THE TRICKERYNESS. Because sometimes, the traditional and modern anniversary gifts are completely difficult, like this year: pottery and china! Or willow!
Or LEATHER GOODS.
I have some leather goods for you right here:
No, I'm not giving away a leather-clad Fabio. I wouldn't know where to find him.
I could go with The Urban Fantasy Belt, or some shoes. A leather trench coast would be interesting, but if you had to hunt vampires or werewolves, it might endanger your life with all that creaking and noisy swooshing that leather makes, so that wouldn't work.
Or, I could get everyone some pot, but that's only legal in two states.
Hmmm.
But soft! What gift idea from yonder browser window breaks? There are a bunch of different and very cute bags named “Willow.”
AW YEAH.
For our 9th anniversary, I'm giving away bags. Willow bags – bags named “willow” – each perfect for carrying one's books and reading essentials. And each one comes with a $50 gift card to the bookstore of your choice.
Meet your Willows!
This is the Kipling Willow, a canvas bag, the right size for the essentials. It has a zipper closure, and is 7″ (17.8cm) high by 13″ (33cm) wide. It also has a set of double top handles with 7″ drop, plus an adjustable detachable long strap with 26″ drop.
Another Willow! This is the Sherpani Willow bag:
It's a little funky, a little different, but still a good size for a book and your essentials — and reviewers online say the front pocket is perfect for a Kindle. It's 10″ by 10″ (25cm x 25cm), with an adjusaible crossbody strap.
But wait! There's one more Willow! This one satisfies the leather AND the willow gifts:
This is the McKlein Leather Briefcase. It's 16.5″ x 11.5″ (41.9cm x 29.2cm), with a compartment for a small latop up to 15.4” in screen size.
Want to try to win a willow and a $50 bookstore gift card? Easy! Just leave a comment as to what book you'd put in your bag, either in paper or digital format. I'll select three winners at random. One comment enters you to win one of the three bags and gift cards.
Entries will close on Tuesday 4 February 2014 at noon eastern. I'll announce the winners shortly afterward. Standard disclaimers apply. Void where prohibited. Open to international residents where permitted by applicable law. Must be over 18 and ready to read and rock a righteous bag to enter. By submitting an entry to the contest as set forth herein, each entrant does acknowledge and agree that, in the event such entrant is victorious, such entrant will perform a ceremony reasonably appropriate to such circumstance, including, without limitation, the Miposian Dance of Joy or, in the alternative, Gangnam Style.
Thank you for making 9 years of Smart Bitches so much fun. Happy anniversary!
Wheee! Happy anniversary to Smart Bitches and thank you very much for this blog!
If I were to win one of these fancy bags, I would carry “Bring Up the Bodies” in it. I’ve borrowed a copy from my friend and am very aware of the good shape it is in. I don’t think it would survive traveling around in my current bag, so it is currently sitting beside the bed, staring accusingly at me as other books leave to accompany me to work instead.
I’d put my nook in one of those lovely bags (which didn’t sound so dirty in my mind), it’s my go-to ‘travel book’ being a lot more lightweight than say the six books I would carry around otherwise.
Happy 9th anniversary!
I would put my brand new paperback of Flowers From The Storm by Laura Kinsale in the bag 🙂
Happy Ninth Birthday, SBs!!! I’m so glad You’re here 🙂
And this challenge is soooo hard. Because I have soooo many books! *weeps piteously at the thought of choosing just one* But my choice for a book to go in one of those gorgeous bags would be the first book in Nalini Singh’s Psy/Changeling series, Slave to Sensation, coz it’s one of my ultimate comfort reads I got back to again and again. I can just hear Lucas purring, “Sascha, darling”…. Sigh….
I would put my kindle in my bag. I could never choose just one or two books. This way I have all my books with me all the time.
I would put one of my all-time fave contemporary romance: Julie James’ something about you
I’d put Night Broken by Patricia Briggs in it. Or maybe Captive Prince Vol 3.
Happy happy birthday Smart Bitches!
Happy Happy Happy Anniversary!! Don’t know what I’d do without you 🙂 And my kindle would go in the bag, because I’m doing a reread of several books right now. Just (re)started Heart of Obsidian. Love me some Kaleb 🙂
I’d put my kindle in the bag, loaded with my next read – Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas. I hear it’s the best book in the Wallflower series so I’m really excited!
Mazel tov, SBTB! Happy ninth! Thanks for the years of hilarity and all the new favorite authors.
I would slip an Ann Aguirre book in the Willow. *eeny-meeny-miny…* Devil’s Punch seems to be next in the print TBR.
Happy anniversary!
I don’t know that I’d be Abe to choose just one, so I’d put in my kindle and iPad and take myself off to the coffee house.
Happy nine years!
I’d put my Kindle in the bag, preloaded with a Harlequin book from the library.
Happy 9th Birthday Sarah and The Bitchery!
I bought a kindle to avoid the “which book” problem – it’s got them all and an option to buy more! And then I need my phone/ipad to access this site so I know about all the sales and reviews adding to my TBR pile and blowing my book budget regularly.
Thank you for sharing the joy with this giveaway.
Happy Anniversary!
I would love to put my kindle with my collection of books on it..the last one downloaded was Sabrina York’s Devlin’s Dare.
Here’s to another 9+ years of Smart Bitches!!
Happy 9th Anniversary!!
I would have to put my kindle in the bag, which has way too many books on it. Both old favorites and new ones. I’m currently reading (again) Kate Daniels series. On book 3 now.
Thanks for all the hard work on the site. Enjoy it so much! And the podcasts are a favorite!
Happy Anniversary!
I’m going to start Wide Open by Deborah Coates next so I’d stick that in the bag. And then I’d consider for a second and stick my kindle in there too just in case the Coates book wasn’t working for me.
Happy 9th anniversary, Sarah! I came for the plagiarism scandal about 7 or 8 years ago and stayed for the hot-pink awesomeness that is this site!
I’m taking a cruise this year, so if I won one of those bags, my Kindle would be loaded with $50 worth of my current wishlist and ready to go!
Thank you for nine fantastic years.
The first book to go in my bag, in digital format, would be Nalini Singh’s Shield of Winter. I mean, come on, it’s Vasic’s story. The hard part would be waiting until June to put in there.
Definitely would carry my kindle in one of those bags. I just started Nalini Singh’s pay/changeling series, and there’s a lot of them!
I would definitely have my Kindle in there of course but they look roomy enough for the paperback book I still carry in addition to my Kindle. I can read at work in between phone calls when it’s slow but I can’t have the Kindle out because of the Wi-Fi (security issues).
I’d carry the newest Dresden Files book – even though it isn’t out yet! Plus, my Kindle with all the other lovely books on it.
Happy Birthday Bitches!
Happy Anniversary! Those bags are a great place for any books and ereader. I’d save space for the next Nalini Singh book. 🙂
Happy 9, SBTB! You’re almost a teen! Yay!
I’d put Eileen Dreyer’s Once a Rake and Anna Campbell’s A Rake’s Midnight Kiss in my bag. (Then I’d let my husband carry the bag for me.)
It’s also Chinese New Year so, here’s wishing you luck and prosperity in the Year of the Horse. ^_^
Many mazels! There was a time when the deciding factor for which purse to buy was if I could fit huge-ass Wheel of Time hardback in it. Now, however, I would put Tamora Pierce’s Alanna:The First Adventure, my next TP re-read.
I always carry a bag that is large enough to fit my iPad, which I don’t always take with me everywhere, but when I do it is always loaded with a ton of books!
I would put in my iPad, because I need ALL OF THE BOOKS. But more specifically, the Tessa Dare because that’s what I’m reading right now.
Happy 9th anniversary!
Happy Anniversary! Thanks for nine years of awesome!
I would probably put in Jennifer Crusie’s Welcome to Temptation to read on the train into school and a nonfiction history book so I could work once I got there.
Happy birthday, Smart Bitches!
I’d put my paper copy of Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley, which I’m currently reading/having a book love affair with.
Happy 9th Anniversary!
I would load my Kindle with my favourite series (Psy/Changeling, Kate Daniels, Cut & Run). I would also load it with books I’ve been meaning to read by Elizabeth Vaughan, Kristen Calliahn, Lisa Kleypas, Diane Gabaldon, Mercedes Lackey and Tamora Pierce.
Great giveaway! Thanks for the chance to win 🙂
Definitely hard to narrow down. I would probably put in my iPad because then I have access to whatever book I am in the mood for at the time
Congratulations on 9 wonderful years and hopefully many more to come.
I would pack my Sony eReader as then I would be sure to never run out of novels to read but my favourite novels that I have on them are the Anne of Green Gables series my love affair with Gilbert and Anne never leaves me.
Happy anniversary/birthday!!!!
I’d have to carry my Kindle of course but maybe also carry my ARC of Beneath A Patchwork Moon. 🙂
I would carry Inez Kelley’s Take Me Home, of course.
I’ve been reading this hear blog for about six years. Thanks for six years of fun and wit.
Happy birthday! I remember when the archive was under 5 pages 😀
Hmmm…tough decisions. Do I go with existing TBR books or with book I have yet to buy? How about a mix?
First up: Nalini’s Psy-Changeling series because I have yet to read them and everyone has heart attacks when I say that right after saying how much I love the Guild Hunter series.
Second: M.D. Water’s debut Archetype that I got an ARC of from her, and the sequel that I got an ARC of at the librarian conference I was at this past weekend.
Third: My Kobo with my entire digital library loaded onto it 😀
Happy Anniversary and thank you for this wonderful place where we can laugh and enjoy the funny side of romance books.
Of course I would carry my Kindle in the bag, we are smart after all. But I’d also squeeze in my battered copy of Once in a Blue Moon by Penelope Williamson, the first romance I read eons ago, featuring one of the most lovable heroines I’ve ever encountered on the page and one of the hottest heroes ever. (It hasn’t been released in digital format yet, could The Bitchery help me and ask Amazon for the Kindle version, please?). I’d also carry a solar charging kit in case I end up marooned on a desert island, one never knows ( I guess I would need two bags, woudn’t I)
Happy 9th Anniversary! What an accomplishment – big congrats. You just keep getting better and better. My book choice would be To Kill a Mocking Bird. A classic and a favorite to boot. Best of luck for the upcoming year.
Happy anniversary! Here’s to many more!
I’d have to carry Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie. Because it always makes me laugh. Like a maniac. In public places.
Cheers!
Happy anniversary!
I can see that along with a lot of other posters, I would put a Nalini Singh book in the bag – probably Visions of Heat, though it would be after a debate of which favourite to re-read.
Okay, I’m normally restrained in my bag lust, but that first Willow? My breast, it burns with lust. That Willow must be mine, mine, all mine, I tell you!
*ahem*
And what book I would carry in it? Well, it can’t only be one, now can it?
If we are talking new books, first up would be Nora Roberts’ The Collector, followed in June by Nalini Singh’s Shield of Winter. After that? Well, there’s a list…
And then there are the many, many titles in the TBR Mountain Range—who knows which would come first?
Happy Anniversary, Smart Bitches! Here’s to many more years! I would use the crossbody bag to house my kindle and earbuds. I need a dedicated bag for reading as well as listening!