Sign up for my email list to get the latest newsletter!

#BattleWornBooks: Winners!

Behold: some of the (many awesome) submissions we received for our #BattleWornBooks contest!

We’ve tried to include as many as possible for you all to enjoy. (Note that if you submitted more than one photo, we chose one to put up on the site here; and we may have edited your caption for length as well.)

Thanks to all who participated!

Oh… you want to know who the winners are?

The GRAND PRIZE Winner… who will receive the Subterranean Press edition (the very, very limited edition!) of Perfect Shadow… is Shadow Neconish!

Shadow edges all others by (1) having carried this book through legitimately super hard places (2) claiming to have the name “Shadow” and (3) by showing an appreciation for the fine art of leaving his readers begging for more. “Wait, what? What happened? And you came back? When? Why?”

Hi! My name is Shadow Neconish. I’ve had this book since I was 19. I went homeless a few years later. My favorite book is one of the few things I held on to. It’s been through hell and back with me. – Shadow N.


Here are the Top 5 Winners
— who will each receive a Brand-New Author-Signed Set of The Night Angel Trilogy:

I have read the Night Angel Trilogy 19 times, with this particular book being at least a dozen of those. A well-loved book that’s been brought on many trips and adventures. – Daniel C.

19 times is… a lot of times. Plus, this picture is just so darn Christmas-y!

Me and my girlfriend used to sit down together and read books, it’s our little ritual. One day during such time I just pulled out a ring and bent on one knee, asking her to keep me company for the rest of my life. Thank God, she said “yes”! Can you guess which book she was reading back then? (Tip, it’s in the photo) #InLove #ToBeMarriedSoon #BeyondTheShadows #HappyEnding #BattleWornBooks – Krzysztof K.

Aw, I’m just a sucker for a love story. Right, you guys? (But, how did you not kill each other if one of you is a faster reader and had to wait at every page?)

My #battlewornbook is “The way of the Shadows”. It was the one I was reading when my family home burned down in 2010 and since it was the one closest to my bed, where the fire started, so it was pretty much unreadable. I did not get to read the series since then. – Ruben K.

To me that book looks suspicious. It’s paper… it’s paper, and yet standing there like it had nothing to do with what happened here. (But seriously, sorry. Fires suck.)

So this is my kind of entry: we won a battle with this book against fever and crabbiness and crying. Little girl on my back was sick so I put her on my back, started to read up from the book and walking in circles in the room. She got calm and fell asleep…

This one almost won Grand Prize. This is what I call Playing the Man, not the Game. I’ve been a parent, so I know how that feels. Also, well done!

Submitted by Lisabeth C.

It’s just… so darn pretty.

And here are (many) of the rest for your viewing pleasure!

Fell in love with these on the first page and have read them three times since. They’ve got through high school and work and have gotten three other people to read them as well. – Glenn D.
My books are in fairly good shape as I value them dearly, but they have traveled the country with me. I met someone on a bus in San Jose who loved your work and befriended a couple in Tucson who named their son after Kylar. – Ricky W.
My entire trilogy is battle worn, because Peter v Brett’s books keep picking fights with them. It gets messy and I have to keep splitting them up. No torn pages yet, but it’s only a matter of time! – Bronwyn P.
Got this from New York Comic Con about four or five years ago, and on its way home, it got bent right at the neck below the cowl! I’m sad it got ruined, but it also seems more fitting.​ – Russell S.
These books have been between home, college, and even once out of the country. My brother and I have each reread the Night Angel Trilogy as least once a year. – Dylan B.
Actually my book is not that batlle worn, because i always try to keep care about my loved books. My most worn book (the german version of the way of shadows) is at the moment by a friend I lent it to. Thats also the reason why its a bit worn out, because I forced all my friends to read it. – Melanie B.
A total cover buy of course. This is my favourite one because it’s the start of one of my favourite series ever. I take great care not to get my books all scruffy, but if you just could get a sniff of this book you’d realise it has ‘persona’ as I love to read it in front of a small bonfire…and the smell is notorious. – Joccelyn L.
“You’ve never read Brent Weeks!? Here, you can borrow my copies!” -Me, to all 13 of my cousins at the same time while we’re staying in a cabin without cell service or internet. – Salazar S.
Long story short: I found it left by some patient in the waiting room, took it home, forgot about it, read it, loved it, read again, then read other two books, loved them all. Now I display the whole series in the same waiting room for others to read, only in a local language. – M. K.
This book originally belonged to my brother who passed it on to me as I left for college. Although I’ve yet to finish Beyond the Shadows, this book has kept me extremely entertained and I’m eager to finish it soon. – Zachary R.
I fetched this out of the box in the garage, and I was expecting some really bad wear. But, it seems all three books are in pretty good condition considering it has come all the way from the UK to Perth, Australia(6 years ago), survived two house relocations, being in storage for over a year, not to mention the amount of shelf rearranging and dusting. I think they maybe more battle hardened than battle worn! – Aaron
#BattleWornBooks, we’ll I scored this box set second hand so who knows how many hands it passed through before coming to rest in mine. These books have endured several rereads and survived multiple earthquakes and aftershocks just since they came into my possession and yet still they’ve retained their shape, impressive I’d say!
I lend my favorite book once to my biology teacher. It came back as one of many #BattleWornBooks
#BattleWornBooks This is one of the first books I bought myself. And it has been through alot of misuse during it’s years. It was held hostage by an ex-girlfriend, for over a year. Left on a ship during rain. And it caught fire once when I reread it and brought it to close to my a forge where i worked. Still one of my most treasured books.
Submitted by Jobee C.
Submitted by Elyse R.
Submitted by Monika R. J.