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 , 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!
Congratulations
Julie Ann Walker Black Knight series – woohoo!
Happy Anniversary!
The Sherpani Willow is a gorgeous bag – and while I have a Nook (and therefore would be able to fit hundreds of books in it), I would first ceremoniously carry around my favorite book, Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin.
Happy Anniversary! I’m hoping to add the latest JD Robb to my shelf, and any of those bags, ASAP.
I would love any of these Willow bags and I would have to put my laptop in it as it has my Kindle for PC on it and has over 700 books downloaded that I have read and re-read and will read again..lol.
Happy anniversary! Can’t wait to see what year 10 brings us. I’m really looking forward to Suzanne Brockmann’s new book…Do or Die.
Anne of the lslands by L. M. Montgomery
College Girl: Blue Stockings, Sex Kittens, Co-Eds, Then and Now by Lynn Peril
Happy Anniversary!
Congratulations on your anniversary! I am happy to say I have been following you for most of the nine years.
I would of course want to pop my I-pad into my new bag, as who wouldn’t, but if I had to choose just one book I think it would be Sunshine by Robin McKinley, one of my all-time favorite re-reads.
Keep up the good work. I look forward to following you for the next nine years.
Happiest of Anniversaries!
Oh, the Sherpani! She and I have been eying each other for quite some time now. 😉
I think the book I would choose would be The Time Traveler’s Wife. I’d never read it and was told by my friend that I clearly could NOT be her friend anymore unless I read it. I’ve downloaded the audiobook and am enthralled. However, it is going way too slow! I clearly need it for my e-reader!
Happy Anniversary! I almost always have a J.D. Robb book in my bag. They are cracktastic and I love them.
happy anniversary! You do great work and I thank you.
I’d put a copy of pride and prejudice in a willow bag. 🙂
Happy anniversary!
I’d but my kindle with Night Broken by Patricia Briggs on it in the bag.
Happy Anniversary, wishing you many more years of blogging! I’m going to put a copy of “Saving Grace” by Julie Garwood. It was the book that started my love of romance novels, so it deserves a special space in the Willow Bag!
Happy anniversary!!
I would put the new Tessa Dare (which I ordered but havent read, and old Mary Burchell’s (which I discovered and love)
Thanks for turning me onto new crack (if by crack you mean books)
Happy Anniversary to the Bitchery! Thank you for the recs, the laughs and of course, the giveaways! ^_^
I’m looking forward to Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate Abroad but that doesn’t come out in a while. So Shelly Laureston’s next shifter novel is on my list 🙂
I would put Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen in that gorgeous briefcase 🙂 Really love allof her books! Happy Anniversary!
Happy Anniversary!
I love the bag idea. As I do with all my bags, I’d stuff it full of several reading options for every time I leave the house. Right now, that’d be Glitterland, It All Began With Jane Eyre, and the newest Liz Carlyle Bride.
congratulations!
Happy birthday bitches!!
It would probably be safest if I wound up not winning a bag, because I would wind up stuffing it full of as many books as I could, and then either the seams would rip or my back would go out. But that’s a risk I’m willing to take 😉
This website has made so much more thoughtful of books and the industry. It sent me down the rabbit hole of book blogging and I haven’t looked back! I would travel with my entire library thanks to my nook. But specifically I would carry the Game of Thrones series because that world blows mind!
Two things I love, books and bags!! :). I still prefer good old books. Just love how they feel! I would have the newest Chloe Neill book! Love her! Thanks for the chance! Congrats!!
If I won a Willow, I’d use it to carry by iPad, my Kindle paperwhite, my moleskine notebook, and maybe a couple of autographed paperbacks I have from Jill Shalvis (can’t wait for _Once In a Lifetime_)& Christie Ridgeway (LOVE the Beach House series!). Oh, yeah, and some chocolates 🙂
Happy Ninth Anniversary,
I would put my copy of Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati so I could read it again this year. It’s one of the few books I re-read every year or two. I would also slip in my Nook and my notebook so I could work on my own novel.
I would have to carry my kindle. Like many others have said, I could never choose just one! Happy Birthday!!!
Happy 9th Anniversary! I like the McKlein Leather Briefcase for my kindle.
I’d put Nora Robert’s Northern Lights in my bag. It’s my fave!
Happy Anniversay!
I need a bag to haul library books, so it would have a little bit of everything. Also planning a bookstore run for Wild Things so it could go in there too.
Happy Anniversary & keep up the great work! Because one book is never enough, I would carry around something sweet & something smoldering with Jill Shalvis’ “Instant Gratification” & pretty much anything from Charlotte Stein, respectively.
“Consider the Lobster” by David Foster Wallace
Happy anniversary!! I hope you have many, many more! If I were to win one of these awesome bags, I would have to put my Kindle with Kresley Cole’s Endless Knight in it.
Happy 9th! I have found more books and spent more money because of this blog, and I am very grateful. I’m a digital reader and these are very cute purses!
Happy Anniversary!
I’d carry one of my favorite comfort reads on my Kindle: Neal Stephanson’s Snow Crash, Sunshine by Robin McKinley or any Jennifer Crusie…
Thanks for all the wonderful Bitchery!
Happy anniversary!
The bags look amazing, and I’d definitely put Tessa Dare’s latest straight in.
Just discovered Crewel trilogy. Is load book 2 on to my kindle and slide it into the Kipling willow bag to celebrate. Happy Anniversary, Bitchery!
Happy anniversary!!
I would go buy the new Tessa Dare to put in my bag, because I’ve been moving, so I’m broke and too busy to read much! Plus, I want to be able to savor that one! 🙂
I would put in Murder in the Dark by Kerry Greenwood. It’s been a while since I’ve read a Phryne.
Happy anniversary and thanks for the giveaway!
Middlemarch – this year’s book club selection (on my Kindle Fire).
Hip Hip Hooray! Huzzah Huzzah! Mazel!
I came across you on NPR one afternoon a few years ago, and am EVER so grateful that I followed through in looking you up ( AND that you have such a memorable name)! My bank count hasn’t been the same since! 🙁 *sad trombone*
Even though I’m an information scientist ( new world speak for “librarian”), I still go extremely old school and prefer paper over plastic when it comes to information intake…. I’d probably carry the same book I’m carrying right now which is Beverly Jenkins’ Night Hawk.
I stumbled onto Ms. Jenkins two years ago after bitching ( yeah!) to a friend about how hard it is to find historical African-American fiction that ACCURATELY acknowledges the tumultuous truth of African- American history AND weaves a beautiful love story that reminds us how we all crave to give and receive love – it’s the human condition. *dramatic sigh* The hero in this novel haunts my dreams! And I love that her forward/afterward provides additional information for anyone who wants to learn more about what they’ve read.
Anyway, I attend the local library’s paperback sale and horde Jenkins’ books for dispersal. (shout out: Richland Library, Columbia, SC! – no, I do not work there!) When I find a Beautiful Informed Tactful Caring Hellion like myself, I foist my Bev Jenkins passion upon her in the hopes that she’ll “infect” others! Gosh, that just sounds wrong….
Thanks again for rocking! I listen to your podcasts with joy and envy (so many books, no time! no time!)
Happy Birthday, SB!
marleigh
I’d follow many of the other commenters and put my kindle in the bag. Icould never choose just one book!
Tigers in red weather. Love the bags, esp first twO. Great giveaways!!
Happy Anniversary!
I’d put in aaaaaallll the books, also known as my kindle.
Congratulations on nine years! Holy crap.
I would stick Sakuran or Insufficient Direction by Moyoco Anno in my Kipling-or-whichever-but-omg-that-Kipling. They’re both josei manga (the former about a courtesan climbing the ranks in Yoshiwara, the latter an autobiographical work about married otaku-context life), but those are still books, right? Right?
If words: probably Mountain Echoes by C.E. Murphy, because I’m behind, and the last of the Walker Papers books will be dropping soon. Or Seanan McGuire’s Incryptid stuff.