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!
Happy anniversary, Smart Bitches! And many moooooooore!
I was going to say that I’d put my TBR books in any of the Willow bags, but let’s be real, my TBR pile is TERRIFYING. I’d put in my current book, then, a paper copy of To Marry An English Lord that I borrowed from the LA Public Library (<3 the LA Public Library).
ALL THE BOOKS!!!! Because Kindle.
And a very happy anniversary to you!
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!! I’d put Iced by Karen Marie Moning in my bag.
Happy Anniversary & thanks for all the recommendations over the years! You have helped me keep my sanity through some tough work and personal times. You really are the best.
If I won a bag (sweet!) I’d put a copy of “A Confederacy of Dunces” in it. It isn’t a romance at all, but the hero (such as his is) does have a lost love.
Awww – Happy Anniversary! I haven’t been reading for near as long as you’ve been writing, but long enough so that my “to read” list is so long I will never, ever get through it. In my Willow bag, I would put Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was by Barry Hughart – a recommendation from the comments page a few posts back. I’m halfway through it- it’s a lot of fun – thanks to whoever recommended it!
Happy 9th Anny! Man, I’ve been visiting the pink palace of b*itchery for many moons! I came for the Sarah/Candy cover snark and stayed for the awesomeness 🙂 Mazel Tov!
And if you’re looking for Fabio, I suggest checking aisle 3 of your local health food store.
Happy Anniversary!! I don’t know how I functioned before your blog! I love your site 🙂
Like so many others, I’d put my Kindle in with many, many books. Including my current read, Hard As It Gets
Ooooh these are lovely… not nearly as lovely as the heavenly Pink Palace of Bitchery, but very very lovely all the same.
I’d keep my kindle in a willow bag, for easy access to all my favorites (and because it is lost in the depths of my current oversized tote) and also Dark Witch because Nora Roberts has always been my crack.
Happy Anniversary, and THANK YOU for introducing me to the radical idea that smart bitches can love themselves some romance novels without shame.
Gah! Forgot to mention what book I’d stuff between the leather…
Though I’d love to cheat and say my Kindle or Nook since they have oodles of books… I guess I’ll have to go with the latest from Diana Gabaldon – I STILL haven’t read Echo in the Bone! Plus, a book that size stuffed in a purse can double as a weapon 😉
Happy anniversary!
Just one book choice? Hmmm… I’ll go with a Mary Balogh, maybe Slightly Dangerous.
I’m currently reading Jay Bell’s excellent Something Like Spring, so that would need to go in my bag!
Someone Else’s Love Story, the latest Joshilyn Jackson, which is at the top of my to-be-read ASAP stack.
Thanks to SBTB for awesome discussions and recommendations which keep my to-be-read stack very healthy and here’s to another 9 + 90 more years. 🙂
I am rereading Persuasion, so would definitely bring that—and because you can never have too much variety, I’d also pack my Kindle and the neverending TBR contained within. 😀
Happy anniversary! I’ve been a reader since the beginning and I’ve had so much enjoyment here. Not even counting the ebook sales.
If I had one of these bags I think I’d have to bring my kindle, since 99.5% of my reading is on there. As for the exact book it would be one of the Lisa Kleypas titles that have been on sale. Now I have the entire Wallflowers series so I can finally read it!
Thanks for the contest! May you have many more anniversaries.
WHEEEEEEE!!! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!
I would LOVE the McKlein Leather Briefcase.
I would use it to carry my Macbook or iPad in, which I would use the Kindle app to read Live by Mary Ann Rivers and Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare. Thank you so much for this opportunity 🙂
Happy Anniversary!
Like many others I’d put my kindle in there, but I would also carry a copy of Goodnight Goon, because that’s the board book my children will NOT go to bed without hearing, so it has to come everywhere with us (even though I have it memorized).
If I won, I’d put my Kindle in it so I could have ALL of my books with me, including the ones I “borrowed” from my local library.
Happy Anniversary SBTB!!!! May you have many more!
Happy Anniversary!!!
I have been saving Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews (one of my favorite authors) to read on my Kindle. I think winning a new bag would be a good special occasion to finally let myself read it!
Thanks so much and many happy wishes for your next 9 years 🙂
OMG! Frickin’ bags and books. I so love you. I would carry the old handy kindle baby. I love this idea so much I really want to cuss every other word. Man, this is great. Happy Anniversary! Many more bitches.
Happy Anniversary!
I would put my iPad in the bag containing my Kindle library, plus a paperback or two of anything by Eloisa James. 🙂
Happy Anniversary!
Somehow, I missed out on Jeanine Frost’s Cat and Bones series up until earlier this week. So, the Kindle loaded with the 4 I haven’t read yet would fit perfectly in a Willow bag.
Happy Anniversary! Thanks for all the good book info. I hope you have many more anniversaries to celebrate.
Next up on my wish list is The Suitor by Mary Balogh.
Happy anniversary!
Like many others, I’d put my ereader of choice (ipad) in my new Willow bag because that’s like so many books in one, especially since the Philadelphia has a great digital collection that fortunately for me includes many many romance novels. I’d also add a paperback copy of Cutting for Stone since that’s next on my to-read list. You know, in case of power outages. 🙂
Well, my lovely Willow bag would hold my iPhone and iPad Mini both of which hold far too many books. 🙂 I’m finishing Joanna Wylde’s Reaper’s Legacy, so next in my queue is either KJ Charles A Case of Possession (the 2nd book in KJ Charles’ MM series A Charm of Magpies) or Terry Pratchett’s Raising Steam. I’d use the gift card to buy the next Kristen Ashley. 🙂
Happy Anniversary Smart Bitches! I love this site…when I need a book recommendation I always come here. I’ll carry my Nexus 7 tablet in my bag so I can grab a good book from Amazon at anytime. Enjoy another milestone guys 🙂
Happy Anniversary
G.A Aiken—Dragin Actually
Happy Anniversary!
If I won, the delightful Willow bag would be outfitted with my iPad mini stocked up with all the eBooks I’ve had yet to tackle. And I’d add the hardcover Jim Henson biography that I just started. 🙂
Happy Anniversary, SBTB!!! I would carry my Kindle (with its huge amount of books I have yet to read) in one of those lovely Willow bags.
Happy Anniversary Bitches! Hee hee, I feel a little naughty typing that!
So, the easy answer is to say I would put my Nook in the bag because it has All The Books but the more interesting question is what ONE book would I put in it if I had to choose. I don’t know if it’s because I just finished it and am still in the glow, but I’m going to say Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare. That was such a wonderful book. So many great lines, so many happy feels! I think no matter what mood I’m in, it would be the perfect book.
Happy Anniversary to an amazing site!
Does the top willow bag come with the gorilla? Inquiring minds and all that. I don’t understand the gorilla but it’s awesome! I would also suggest a leather-clad Fabio poster as a future prize, because seriously.
My Kindle goes with me everywhere, and the book Wild Invitation by Nalini Singh is on there always (also at home in paperback) because it has two of my favourite short stories EVER, and it is like a 20-minute comfort read that has replaced my anti-anxiety pills. I’m not kidding! I haven’t really needed them since my meds changed but felt anxious about not having them (if that makes sense) and it was really a security blanket thing, and this book is a much better method. Plus, side-effects only include briefly elevated heart rate, smiles and happy sighs. Much better than foggy head.
Thank you for all the work you put into the site, all the authors you have introduced me to, all the wonderful folks in the comments, and I look forward to more. What are you going to do for 10?
I’d have to put my Smart Bitches book in it first, since it’s signed by you AND Candy.
And then I’d get a digital copy of the latest Jeaniene Frost book.
Happy Anniversary!
Happy Anniversary! Thanks for all that you do to promote and legitimize this genre of fab fiction: romance. I’d be happy to carry my overloaded kindle in any of the above bags, a creative and stylish prize.
9 wonderful years of SBTB! May there be many more….
If I won, my iPad would have to go in (reading apps can be glorious!), but also Bet Me. Much like this site, that book makes me smile.
Happy Birthday!
I would put the last three months of Nora Roberts in my bag (so that’s like, what? 60 books or so?) … so I guess on my ereader! 🙂
Happy anniversary!
I would carry in my bag a book I have carried throughout my life, a book that reminds me why I fell in love with romance, a book I liberated from my family’s cottage before it met a more tragic fate. It’s a retro Harlequin titled Dear Conquistador, written by Margery Hilton and published in 1972. I carry it because the hero, some sort of Peruvian aristocrat or what have you, goes by the mouthful of a name of Conde Romualdo de Pacquero y Zaredopena, and on the cover he’s wearing a sweater vest and holding a sword.
I’d definitely put my Kindle in it, but I’d probably try to squeeze Anne Bishop’s Murder of Crows as well.
w00t! Happy 9th to the Bitchery! I’d put my Kindle in my Willow bag, pre-loaded with Julie James, Cindi Madsen, Shannon Stacey, and Rachel Gibson. That last one is YOUR FAULT. Stop tweeting book deals at me or I’ll be too broke to put anything else in the Willow bag.
Happy Anniversary! I would carry Naked in Death by JD Robb, my go to reread book. Of course it would be on my kindle so really I would have all my wonderful books with me.
Wait, wait, it’s been 9 YEARS? Where the hell did the time go?! Oh well, congrats, Sarah, and keep up the great work!
Well, I’d just put my NOOK in there and I’d be set with a few hundred books. Why choose one? Bwahaha!
Enjoy!
TBQ
I’d definitely slip my Kindle into any one of the bags, with my Susanna Kearsley novel (I’ve read most in the past few weeks, currently on The Splendour Falls) downloaded and ready for reading!