New Website!

I finally made the plunge back to being privately hosted using Wordpress! Let's hope this host is here to stay huh?

Anyway, this post is for anyone following me on GFC to say I'm no longer blogging here and am now at:

http://digestingthewords.com/

I haven't decided if I should close this down and have it re-directing to my .com or not yet. I still have traffic coming in here so it's a bit of a problem still. We'll see I guess! :)

Now go over to my .com! ^___^

http://digestingthewords.com/
http://digestingthewords.com/
http://digestingthewords.com/

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Leaving Blogger! :)

I'm currently in the process of moving from blogger to a privately hosted blog elsewhere (which is why my domain looks like a mess right now!)

I'm going to try to get it all set up and cleaned up asap :) I might even do a giveaway since I have yet to celebrate buying my domain! Seems like a great excuse right? :P

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In My Mailbox (3) - Sunday 22nd April

"In My Mailbox" is a meme in which you post you weekly book purchases, started by thestorysiren.com.


I've only got two books this week :)

Silver Hand by Steve Finegan

Synopsis: Gabe Wrenn is unsettled by his family’s move to the creepy old house on Byrnmor Street. Even more unsettling is the prospect of being the new kid in school on Monday, and the object of everybody’s gawking stares, when all he wants is to be left alone with his sketchpad. 

But unsettled can’t begin to describe how Gabe feels when he first stands in The Woods, an old oak grove bordering the park behind his house, and a mysterious voice summons him to “The Door to the East.” It’s a epileptic hallucination for sure, and another sign that his bullying older brother Sam is right: Gabe’s nothing but a brain-damaged freak. 

This opinion is not shared by Ellie Yvonne, the impetuous girl next door. With disturbing conviction, Ellie declares that Gabe’s epilepsy makes him special. It could even be the key to unlocking the secret of the Brynmor Witch’s bramble-choked grave at the heart of The Woods. 

Into the Mist: Silver Hand is the first book in a two-part fantasy adventure story about an unlikely hero who triumphs over isolation and adversity through friendship and a strange new sense of self-confidence that results when he takes possession of a relic of unknown origins.

I was sent this by Steve Finegan to review but of course I still have exams right now, so I've yet to read this! The blurb looks awesome though right? :)

The next one is an ARC (advance reader copy):

The Making of Us by Lisa Jewell

I was happy to see the back cover had this:

Synopsis: In a hospice in Bury St Edmunds, a man called Daniel is slowly fading away. His friend Maggie sits with him listening to the story of his life. He tells her about the children he has never met and never will, conceived with women he never even touched. Four of them: two boys, two girls. His legacy, he calls them. 

Lydia, Robyn and Dean don’t know each other. Yet. They are all facing difficult challenges. Lydia wears the scars from her traumatic childhood and although she is wealthy and successful, her life is lonely and disjointed. Dean is a young man whose life is going nowhere. Robyn is training to be a doctor, just like her father – a man she’s never met. When she falls in love with a man who is like her in every way, she needs to be sure. It's time for her to open the envelope her mother gave her on her eighteenth birthday. 

I was sent this one by Cornerstone (Random House) to read and review. The book is out on May 10th and I should hopefully have the review out in time for the release!

Wishing everyone an awesome Sunday!

P.S. My 20th is in a couple of days! Eeek I won't be a teen for much longer!

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TGIF (2): Book Blogger Influences

I'm back with another TGIF post! This is a feature hosted weekly by greadsbooks.com.

This week's question:

Book Blogger Influences: Has there been a particular book blogger who's influenced what you read? Share with us a review/book blog that convinced you to pick up a certain book.

I don't think I have any book blogger influences in terms of what I read, to be exact: I don't read book reviews before buying/reading books. I know it sounds silly considering I write book reviews myself, but I prefer to read book reviews after reading a book in order to see if other people's opinions match my own. Think what you want, but I like to read books without having someone else's thoughts and opinions clouding my judgement!

On the other hand, I recently came across a blog that I absolutely fell in love with: Parajunkee's View! I absolutely love the blog owner Rachel - she's so down to earth and lovely. I had somewhat of a book blogger's life crises last week where I couldn't help but question if I really wanted to be a book blogger or not. But then I read a "Book Blogging 101" blog post and realised I wasn't alone in what I was going through and what I was thinking. I have since read all of the series to date and though I don't really look at her book reviews, I love reading her posts! I guess you could say I was influenced enough to keep at book blogging, without the fear of losing myself.

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In My Mailbox (2) - Sunday 15th April

"In My Mailbox" is a meme in which you post you weekly book purchases, started by thestorysiren.com. Personally I prefer to post this whenever I've bought more than 3 books so I don't tend to do my posts weekly.

This week I bought The Game of Thrones series by George R. R. Martin. The series is actually 5 books, but A Storm of Swords and A Dance with Dragons were made into two parts for this edition.

A Game of Thrones

A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords part 1

A Storm of Swords part 2 and A Feast for Crows

A Dance with Dragons part 1 & part 2

I was initially planning to go to his book event/signing in London but due to certain circumstances I was unable to attend. I also had an annoying experience with Amazon in which despite my choice of next day delivery, they arrived two days later. However, I did get them on a 2 for £7 offer so I saved a ton whilst buying them!

I also received 2 eBooks to review :)

The Brotherhood of Piaxia by Michael Drakich

Power Within by C. L. Causer

And that's it for this week! Sadly, I won't be getting to any of these until May due to exams and deadlines!

Have a lovely week everyone!

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Book of the Month: March

I skipped February's book of the month because I only managed to read one book - Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins - which was anything but enjoyable.

However, my book of the month for March actually surprised me whilst I was reading it. I developed an unexpected attachment for this one - unexpected in light of the fact that I only read it because it was on my University reading list!

Confessions of an English Opium Eater by Thomas De Quincy

In this remarkable autobiography, Thomas De Quincey hauntingly describes the surreal visions and hallucinatory nocturnal wanderings he took through London-and the nightmares, despair, and paranoia to which he became prey-under the influence of the then-legal painkiller laudanum. Forging a link between artistic self-expression and addiction, Confessions seamlessly weaves the effects of drugs and the nature of dreams, memory, and imagination. First published in 1821, it paved the way for later generations of literary drug users, from Baudelaire to Burroughs, and anticipated psychoanalysis with its insights into the subconscious.

Confessions surprised me not only because it was actually very easy to read (it was a nice break from Wordsworth/Byron/Austen, 5 points if you can guess which of my modules this is from!) but also because I found myself able to relate to Quincy during his lower moments. Not that I'm a drug addict with racist tendencies suffering from hallucinations and nightmares due to my long term consumption of opium as a means of escape.

Feeling low is something we all experience in life and it's something not a lot of people, myself included, find easy to talk about. But there's something cathartic about being able to observe the beginning, middle and ending of someone else's suffering. Reading Quincy's experience; including the reasons why he began taking opium and why he found it difficult to stop, made me realise just how easy it is to become reliant on something external to distract you from internal conflict. A modern day equivalent to Quincy's opium addiction would probably be smoking, taking drugs, drinking (alcohol) and possibly even self harm.

It's not often that I find myself relating to a character in a book - especially one written so long ago, but I think this just goes to show that literature is universal.

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2012 Reading Challenge: Progress Report 2

For some reason my introductory post to my Goodreads 2012 reading challenge has disappeared from my blog, which is pretty upsetting. I haven't noticed anything else go missing so I hope it was a one off. To re-introduce the "challenge" my aim is to read 50 books by the end of the year. I can add to this number if I reach my goal (which I'm pretty sure I'll be able to do, since it's about 4 books a month to get to 50 in a year) but I can't take away from the number otherwise I've failed! (You can actually take away but this is a personal rule I set up) It's all in efforts to get me back into reading after I realised late last year that I hadn't read much that wasn't course related.

My progress at this point in time:

According to Goodreads:

Actual books:

 4 books read in March which is progress in comparison to February, but nothing at all finished this month. It is early into February though, so there's plenty of time to read! Since I've got exams until May, it'll only be course related stuff read but hey reading is reading.

May's update should have a lot more to offer but let's just wait and see!

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In My Mailbox (1) - Sunday 8th April

I previously posted a January Book Haul including pictures of the books I'd bought recent to the time of the post. Since then, my sister has introduced me to "In My Mailbox" a meme started by thestorysiren.com. It's a pretty cool idea in which you post your recent book purchases/books you've received every Sunday.

I've got quite a collection since the January haul post, but here we go!

The Girl with the Glass Feet by Ali Shaw and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (both from Foyles)

I bought these two on a whim because I was trying to hunt down a couple of other books to go with my 3 for 2 offer at Foyles whilst buying 1984 for my sister.

I’ve read Fahrenheit 451 already and really enjoyed it! :) Within the first 12 pages I fell in love with Bradbury’s writing style; it's so poetic. Whenever I found a sentence I liked, I went back, read it again and then proceeded to hunt it down on Goodreads to "like" publicly.

I haven’t started The Girl with the Glass Feet yet since I haven’t had time. The description made it seem like an adaptation of Cinderella which tickled my fancy at the time (considering the majority of the other books on 3 for 2 were Charles Dickens in honour of his birthday!)

Bake! by Nick Malgieri (from Amazon), The Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days and Step-by-Step Baking (both were given to me as gifts by my sister).

As you can tell.. I enjoy baking! :)

Pure by Andrew Miller (from Amazon)

I bought this after reading the blurb online. I think I discovered it after it won the 2011 Costa Book of the Year. I’ve read one chapter so far (around 3 pages haha) but had to ditch it for uni books…

The Vagrants by Yiyun Li (from Waterstones)

I bought this from on sale for.. yup 99p!! I was rummaging through the sale section back in February and happened to come across this. The blurb seemed interesting so I decided to pick it up!

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (from Oxfam)

I remember eyeing this at some point in the past but never getting round to buying it. I can’t tell you how happy I was when I saw the spine staring back at me on the bookshelf at Oxfam. I was even happier when I saw the price! £1.99 for a book that looks like it’s barely been touched? YES PLEASE!

Tokyo Year Zero by David Peace (from Oxfam)

I picked this one up on a whim whilst picking up Inkheart. The reviews on the spine looked good, the blurb looked interesting and generally I was just hoping to find another good book that was super cheap. I’m not sure how good it’ll be, but for £1.99 I can cope :)

Please Look After Mother by Kyung-Sook Shin (from Amazon)

I discovered this through twitter after the author won the Man Asian Book Literary Prize (she’s the first woman winner to win!) and then read the excerpt. As soon as I started the long excerpt (which I can no longer find.. sorry) I knew I needed to buy the book, so by the time I got to the end I was already ordering it off of Amazon…

P.S. Isn’t it interesting that the American version is “Please Look After Mom” whilst the English version is written “Please Look After Mother”? Haha my inner nerd finds cultural discrepancies within the same language interesting. I wonder if the translations inside differ at all or if it was just to make the cover seem less American for us Brits...

P.P.S. If I haven’t said it already, buying books from your local charity shop is an awesome way of discovering books (or even finding old books that are no longer in print) without breaking the bank. Plus by buying from a charity shop of your choice you’re supporting an awesome cause and keeping that shop alive!

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Updates: Book Review Hiatus

As you may have realised, I have a ton of stuff to read right now so I'm extremely busy with reading. Not only that, I also have revision to do for each of these books in preparation for my exams this year. It's a lot of work and due to personal issues I'm having trouble concentrating as it is. As a result, I'm taking an offical book review hiatus until May/June once my exams are over with and I've had time to breathe and sleep off all the late nights. Reviewing takes me a pretty long time to do (a few hours) because I only review books I have a lot to say about, so it only seems natural that I stop for now.

I'm going to queue as many other posts as I can in between now and then. It seems odd that I intend to continue blogging about other things anyway, but blogging does in fact help to concentrate on my writing. I also find that it helps me to de-stress so there will be a bunch of smaller posts to come.

I originally wrote this blog post in regards to Book Review Requests and what it means for this blog but I feel like since that was aimed more towards the reader, it's time to write something aimed towards anyone requesting a review. So now this page exists which I hope potentional author's with Book Review Requests will read before emailing me as it will get updated regularly.

In slightly more positive news, I finally decided to take the plunge and buy and register DTW as a domain! Hooray for being a .com website :)

Beware the barrenness of a busy life. - Socrates

I am reasonably happy, providing I keep busy. - Burt Sancaster

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TGIF (1): Book Series Finales

TGIF (Thank God It's Friday) is a blog hop hosted by greadsbooks.com. Every week a question is posed for bloggers to answer. I think it's an awesome idea to keep my blogging regularly, so I've decided to try to answer these as often as possible!

Note: This post has some spoilers!

This week's question:

Book Series Finales: Which book, from any series has been your favorite ending? What about your least favorite ending?

I'm such a picky reader that I'm finding it difficult to think of a single book I enjoyed the ending of. I tend to hate endings because they never satisfy me so even thinking of a least favourite will be difficult! Haha.

Favourite Ending:

I haven't actually finished many series' but of the ones I can remember not hating the ending of I'd say L. J. Smith's The Secret Circle Trilogy and The Vampire Diaries (the original books that came out in the 90s, I haven't read the additional ones/the books by Ghost writers, I'm also not a fan of either show) have to be at the top. I read the books back in high school around 7 years ago so I don't have that much to say about them. I did become an obsessed fan to the extent of late night fanfiction and roleplaying!

Least Favourite Ending:

The most recent unsatisfactory book series ending for me is a slightly easier question which I can actually elaborate on! It has to be Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins; I read it in February so the bitter taste of discontent hasn't left yet. I was planning to do a whole post on this (which may still happen if I ever decide to read the series again) but here's one of my reasons:

Katniss' behaviour towards Gale and Peeta continuously irritated me throughout the series. I was never a huge Katniss fan and frankly started to hate her at the end of the first book (the train scene!!). Slowly as the books progressed I found it more and more difficult to enjoy reading about Katniss because at no point was I happy to root for her without Peeta.  Peeta, on the other hand, had my heart from the moment Katniss described the scene with the bread. The fact that Katniss repeatedly broke Peeta's heart throughout the series made me develop a slow burning fire of hatred for her. I don't hate Katniss for being confused, I hate Katniss for being selfish in love. She told Peeta she couldn't return his feelings for her, yet spent nights sleeping in his arms. I will admit, I didn't hate Gale but Katniss prevented me from loving him as much as I could have. By the last book, I wasn't unhappy that Peeta loathed her (although, I would have been happier if he had got to that stage naturally rather than through torture). Katniss spent the entire three books "confused" and unable to decide between the two boys - effectively playing with both hearts. Then at the last minute, when things went wrong with her setup she just ended up with Peeta whilst pretending it was her own decision.

Ha this became more of a rant than anything else. Sorry about that, on a more positive note: happy weekend!

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I'm a Volunteer for The British Lung Foundation!

I've been applying for Summer jobs/internships/work experience placements/etc. for the past couple of weeks and I'm delighted to finally blog about some progress!

As of approximately 12.30pm today, I became a volunteer for The British Lung Foundation. It's a fairly small charity (even though it's been around for 20 years!) but the office is a lovely place and I can tell that I'll be comfortable there. I'll be working there once a week as a volunteer receptionist whilst taking up some administrative duties too. :)

I had been slightly nervous about the interview yesterday, especially considering I haven't had an administrative related interview before and have minimal admin experience (2 weeks worth). Surprisingly though, it all went pretty well (although it was an "informal interview", so maybe it isn't actually that surprising!). My interviewer was extremely nice and friendly and we ended up having a really nice conversation in which she even gave me some advice for the future! She asked me what I wanted to do after university and once I'd explained to her that I wanted to go into Editorial Publishing, she told me about possible editorial opportunities at BLF.

I'm so excited! It's not quite in the publishing industry, but not only will I actually be doing something beneficial with my summer, I think it'll also be an excellent chance to really build on my admin skills, improve my social skills and also meet some interesting new people!

At this point, improving my social skills through this role is my main personal goal. Networking isn't my forté especially since I still feel like an awkward teenager in the middle of an adult conversation. I think regularly being in a professional environment will really help to change that. I'm going to be 20 years old in less than a month, so what better timing? ;)

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So much to read, so little time

As expected, I'm behind on my uni reading list for the semester. I don't know if I've met anyone at uni (other than the lecturers of course) who has been able to keep up with the mass of reading we have to do. Considering I have pretty much no social life right now, I'm not even sure if it's possible to keep up with all the work we have to do.

So, to emphasise my immense work load here's my current reading list (excluding the books I've already read because I have read a few, the books I want to read for pleasure and the books from one of my modules which I'm still contemplating on dropping)

My current reading list:

1. Emma by Jane Austen
2. Persuasion by Jane Austen
3. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
4. Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
5. A Sicilian Romance by Anne Radcliffe
6. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
7. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
8. Silas Marner by George Eliot
9. Wessex Tales by Thomas Hardy
10. Dracula by Bram Stoker
11. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
12. The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Tennyson
13. Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
14. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
15. Confessions of an English Opium Eater by Thomas De Quincey

The books in italics are low priority right now, but I guess we'll see how much I can get through within the next two months! If you're following me on Goodreads, you'll know I've started quite a few of these: I'm "currently reading" 13 books! At this point, I think I'm going to have to take a break from all other books. Which means less book reviews (not that I write an abundance of book reviews anyway) in the next few months to come. On the plus side, I've got some book events lined up which should make for more interesting blogging!

So if I haven't successfully gained your sympathy already, consider the fact that I'm also studying Latin on the side of all of this! Although I excel under short term pressure, the work and reading is really starting to take it's toll on me. I can't help but wonder what my third and final year will be like if this is just second year!

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Book Review: "Torn" by Ashley S. Morgan

I was sent this eBook by Ashley S. Morgan to read and review. I started it almost straight away but it took me a while to finish as I was reading it at the same time as a couple of other books. Right now it only seems to be available on Amazon U.S. on the kindle for $5.13, I'm not sure if they'll be putting elsewhere or in other formats.

Synopsis:

Isadora Rivers feels trapped. Her small town high school is suffocating her.
Another day of wannabe gangsters, dumb jocks, and Barbie clones, and she'll just lose it. Her keen emotional sensitivity is to blame. She sees through all of the poser behavior to the pain and insecurity simmering just below the surface, and it's overwhelming. She feels like she's literally drowning in other people's emotions.

This same sensitivity, however, makes her a great actress. Suffocating or not, her high school is one of the top arts schools in the country. Acting is not only her passion, but it also looks like her way out. If she can just score the lead role in the school play, she might get herself noticed by a Hollywood agent. But she's got a strong reckless streak, and it keeps getting her in trouble and jeopardizing her chances.

Riding her bike at top speed, she swerves in front of a car and nearly gets hit. The driver, Tristan Blake, turns out to be the mysterious new boy at school. He's rebellious, broody, and wise beyond his years. He's also devastatingly gorgeous. From the moment their eyes meet, Isadora is irresistibly drawn to him. But as soon as he enters her life, things go horribly wrong. She begins having disturbing visions full of unimaginable glamour and unbearable darkness. He knows things about her he shouldn't. And he's somehow so familiar. As he at turns pulls her close, and then pushes her away, Isadora feels like her heart is being twisted and torn.

She soon discovers that her whole future is in jeopardy, and her only hope is to stay away from Tristan. But how can she turn away from the only boy she has ever loved? As a harrowing event looms closer, one that threatens to rip apart her psyche, Isadora must reach deep inside herself and find the strength to change her own destiny. But is she strong enough to do it?

The following review doesn't contain any direct spoilers, but if you want to go in reading it cold turkey, I'd skip to the last two paragraphs just in case!

The synopsis gives you a lot of the story line to the book which is off-putting in my opinion. I like to be surprised (sometimes) with my books so after reading the story line beforehand I didn't feel much suspense whilst reading the actual book. My first impressions were pretty good when I started the book though. In fact, I found the beginning chapters to be the most enjoyable part of the book. Ashley Morgan is gifted in her ability to describe abstract moments between her character and nature. Her descriptions are vivid enough for me to be able to feel the same experiences as Isadora riding her bike, within just the second paragraph. Written from Isadora's perspective, we're taken into her average teenage life of highschool classes and highschool problems. A lot of the information we get in the story is from dialogue between the characters which both helps to put us in Isadora's shoes but also minimalises Morgan's use of description - which is something that upset me throughout the book. To begin with, Torn actually reminded me of the first Wicca book (which I absolutely loved!) so I was floating on air in the first few chapters.

Yet once my honeymoon period at the beginning was over, the chapters started to become repetitive and very quickly I found myself bored. There was a lot of unnecessary detail which didn't actually add to the story, to the relationships or to anything at all.  It was irrelevant and frankly infuriating for me as I was constantly hoping for movement and action at which point I took a break and stopped reading. Thinking back, I realise that the book is very much a "the beginning", "the middle" and "the end" story. Additionally, the love story itself lacked any sort of build up. We all know the boy and the girl end up together in the end, but I enjoy reading the process of them falling in love more than anything else. Sadly, Isadora falls for Tristan instantly so their love often felt artificial. Just like her parents, I felt like she experiencing teenage lust more than an emotional connection to Tristan.

When I came back to the book, the synopsis had long ago become a blur in my mind. At almost exactly the half way point, I started to put all of the pieces together and figure out what was happening and felt thoroughly disappointed. The premise of the story and the paranormal aspects are pretty damn awesome, but for some reason they took a back seat for more or less the whole of the first half and only became sort of important in the latter half. The paranormal aspects of the book are not explained to the reader, though Tristan does seem to understand it. I wish we'd been able to meet Selma or Louise and see their characters in action because it would have made my connection to the story a lot stronger. For example, Isadora could have spontaneously stalked Tristan - out of jealousy or maybe even curiousity - during one of his visits to Selma and had one of her "visions" shortly after. The whole scene would have so much more interesting than Tristan simply telling Isadora what to believe.

Honestly, I feel like I would have enjoyed this book more when I was in highschool. I know some YA books are appropriate for even adults but this one I think is aimed more at highschool age group. There were a lot of funny and realistic school moments, I loved the fact that the students re-named Dick the security guard to Dickhead because I know it's something that would have happened back when I was in school. At the same time though, the book made references to up-to-date technology and celebrities so it could easily be relevant to any teenager now. My favourite character was definitely Sarah, who seemed like a breath of fresh air during Isadora's more immature moments. To me, Isadora only became bearable at the end once she'd figured out who/what she wanted to be - which may say more about my lack of patience with immaturity more than anything else!

This book had so much potential and I feel like it could have been a lot better than it was. I don't know if the book was rushed (I got that impression when I read a reference to Kim Kardashian's divorce which happened just last November) but I think it could still go through revisions and become an amazing book. That being said, it's still an interesting story of the journey of a young girl trying to find herself in an adult world, so I'd still recommend it to a teen interested in YA fiction.

Rating: 

Edit: The cover of Torn has been updated since my book review! Here's the new cover:

I have to say, I prefer the old one since it was a lot cleaner but I understand the concept behind this one more so I guess it makes sense!

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Updates: 5 months in and the whole world ahead of us

 

After a little thinking, I decided this was a post worth writing considering I've yet to post any site updates. (If you've been a lurker you may have noticed the recent drastic layout change though!) Whilst my blog is far from a successful and established book blog, I've reached what seems to me like a mile stone in my blogging: I've been lucky enough to have a couple of authors personally contact me about the possibility of reading and possibly reviewing their books.

I originally started this blog 5 months ago with the plan of discussing my thoughts on books and recording my journey into the publishing world. I've always considered reviewing books to be part of the former but at no point did I expect to be contacted by an author – I'm equally honoured and quite frankly flabbergasted by this situation. I have no idea how the authors found me, but I feel so grateful for the opportunity to have someone send me their work to read. I feel like DTW has come a long way since last November. I may not have a million subscribers, but I consider this to be massive progress in the right direction as a both a book lover and for my future career in publishing.

I feel it's important to mention that any books I have been sent to review will always reflect my honest views. I have nothing to gain from false depictions so I have no reason to lie. I know a lot of readers (myself included) can be put off by sponsored posts but I hope this will assure you that my reviews will always remain true to my real opinions.

As for recording my journey into publishing, I've been so focussed on University and my numerous blogs and hobbies that I've barely had time to think of anything else. I'm hoping to get some direct experience of the publishing industry some time between now and my third year of University, but I guess it'll have to wait until this year is over with before I can make any progress. It's a bit of a disappointment but I guess it gives me plenty of time for self improvement instead.

I will be aiming to post more here now I've got to this point. Clearly I'm doing something right, so now it's time to shine! The content I'm not exactly sure of yet. More of the same previous stuff (including reviews, favourites etc.) but I'd also like some new content so I believe it's time to do a little brain storming!

Until the next post! ♥

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Book of the Month: January

My book of the month for January is actually one of the first books I read this year. I'm pretty grateful that I managed to read an awesome book to start off my year too. :) The book I picked is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

I really enjoyed reading this book and managed to finish it within a couple of days. There were parts that I didn't like but of the trilogy this has to be my favourite book. Whilst I didn't particularly like Katniss or the following two books, the first book starts off really good. We're introduce to the country of Panem which is America of the future, where the districts (towns) outside of the Capitol city are forced intro submission through yearly "reapings". Reapings consist of a girl and boy between 12 and 18 chosen at random to go into The Hunger Games - a death match in which the last man (or woman) standing wins.

Whilst the idea isn't completely new to me (I am a Battle Royale fan after all!), The Hunger Games is able to distinguish itself through the romance aspects of the book. I absolutely love Peeta (one of Katniss' love interests), he's so lovely and caring. Katniss on the other hand is a lot more difficult to like. I was with her at the beginning of the book and I wanted her to survive, but the emotional connection I had with her was lost pretty quickly. Whilst reading the book, I was more interested in the romance than the aspects of battle and war, which I think is why I disliked Katniss: I wanted to see less calculation and more of her giving into her emotions. But I guess you need to be that person if you're trying to survive during battle.

My review on the whole trilogy is coming up soon, so I'll stop here. I've also decided to incorporate a rating system in my reviews based on my goodreads rating of a book!

Rating:    

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2012 Reading Challenge: February Progress Report

I've been slacking on my reading this month so I decided that a monthly progress report would help motivate me! (I'd also see have a visual of all the books I'd read over the year ^^)

Apparently I'm two books ahead at the moment. Which is probably from the fact that I read seven books in January just to get a head start.

Pathetically, I've only read one book so far during February. But I have books that I've start for uni (and haven't been able to finished) and I also have a life too. So as much as I'd like to, I can't spend all of my time reading.

I will try to fit in one other fiction (unrelated to University) book in this month though! Lots of small goals will lead me to greater success so I'll be making goals midway through the month just to make sure I achieve my final goal!

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The Jane Austen Challenge

I've already stated that my book related new year's resolution (of sorts) for 2012 would be to read at least 50 books this year. Now that it's February, I'm back with an additional book related goal! I say goal, but I prefer the sound of challenge - who doesn't love a challenge?

My Romantics teacher actually inspired this one. I say inspired, but he pretty much challenged our class to read all of Jane Austen's books during our life time. I just uhh shortened the time frame! Haha :)

The challenge: to read all of (or as many of) Jane Austen's published novels by 2013 and watch as many of the movie and TV adaptations as possible!

All of Jane Austen's books by 2013 - sounds doable to me! (Especially since she didn't write many books! xD) Watching the adaptations also seems like it'll be fun too, especially with my siblings at Novel Nerds. So I decided to make this something for other people to also take part in and will be "hosting" it on both blogs! ^^ So if you have a blog and want to take part, put the banner up on your blog and link yourself in the comments of this post for a free link both here and on Novel Nerds!

The list of her completed books includes:

• Northanger Abbey
• Emma
• Persuasion
• Pride and Prejudice
• Sense and Sensability
• Mansfield Park
• I'm also adding Lady Susan, The Watsons and Sandition which are her short stories that I happen to also own

Of course, there's nothing stopping you from hunting down her novellas too. There are a TON of movie/tv adaptations so I'm not going to list them all here, however I will update with what I've seen and what I've thought of it :)

My progress so far:

• Northanger Abbey
• Emma
• Persuasion
• Pride and Prejudice
• Sense and Sensability
• Mansfield Park
• I'm also adding Lady Susan, The Watsons and Sandition which are her short stories that I happen to also own.

Key: read | unfinished

I doubt I'll be able to really finish more than one or two of the books before Summer, so let's just say I've got a lot of Austen to come this Summer! Haha :)

List of participants: Please use the above link to sign up too! :)

Side note: I'm aware that bookandyarn started a jan 2011 - dec 2011 version of this challenge. I had no idea until I googled "Jane Austen Challenge" after posting this so I'd still like to acknowledge that her challenge existed first ^^

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Writers Block

I've felt so blocked and restricted over the past few of months. Whilst writers block has existed in my creative writing for the past 3 years, it only recently started to seep it's way into my educational writing. (Educational writing.. is that even a term?) Even now whilst I write this blog post, I'm finding it difficult to express myself properly. I have spent numerous hours trying to write coherant sentences for my formal work but somehow my brain temporarily shuts down each time and I'm left frustrated, impatient and thoroughly behind in my work.

Yet despite my consistant frustrations,  there have been some moments of joy. Last week I was able to write a short close reading piece on The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson. Then earlier this week I was randomly inspired to write a couple paragraphs of complete fiction. The piece I wrote was just an idea that built up as I went along. I actually haven't looked back on it since so I'm unsure about what to expect.

It all seemed like progress to me, but I quickly realised that wasn't exactly the case. As soon as I opened up an essay I'd half finished, I started to return to my slump. I need to figure out what to do with myself but it's getting harder to stay motivated.

To end on an uplifting note, here's a cute cat:

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January Book Haul 2012

And perhaps my first ever major book haul (44 books!!).The majority of these are for uni which is a bit deflating, but hey this blog was supposed to be a record of my growth (literary growth that is) and here's an excellent example of it. I've never bought more than 3 books at a time (for fun) before so this is a major improvement!

Starting with my Uni books and eBooks at that! Pictures are in the form of screenshots from my Kindle - who is named Augustus ^^

Emma and Persuasion by Jane Austen. I’ve read just over 10% of Emma but I haven’t started Persuasion yet.

 

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, Three Ghost Stories by Charles Dickens, Silas Marner by George Eliot, Wessex Tales by Thomas Hardy, Dracula by Bram Stoker. I’ve read about 20% of The Woman in White but it’s so ridiculously long… I’ve also read “The Haunted House” from Three Ghost Stories.

The Europeans; The Bostonians; Washington Square (not shown) by Henry James, Those Extraordinary Twins; The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Call of the Wild; White Fang by Jack London, House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, The Awakening & Other Short Stories by Kate Chopin, The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, My Antonia by Willa Cather, The Virginian by Owen Wister and McTeague by Frank Norris. And all of these are for one class T___T Luckily I have no exams in this class..

Oxford Latin Course: Part II by Maurice Balme & James Morwood and Decadent Poetry from Wilde to Naidu by Various Poets.

On to my books for bought for entertainment purposes!

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. Probably the prettiest book I own haha. It completes my Lord of the Rings set and is the only book I’ve read from it. x__x

The Summoning; The Awakening; The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong. I’m not sure how much I’ll like these so I decided to get eBooks instead.

Darkfever; Bloodfever; Faefever; Dreamfever; Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning. Goodreads recommended the series to me, so I thought they might be good to read (but again didn't want hard copies in case it's crap).

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami, The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins and Blood Witch; Dark Magic and Awakening all from Wicca by Cate Tiernan.

I bought Battle Royale from an Oxfam charity shop selling on Amazon (yeah, I didn't know they did that either until it arrived) for a pretty reasonable price. I'm looking forward to reading the similarities and differences between Battle Royale and The Hunger Games and will be writing a post on my thoughts about it all.  I bought the The Hunger Games box set from Waterstones in store with £10 off - all three books plus the box/cover thing cost me less than £14!! Suffice to say, I was over the moon about that bargain!

As for the Wicca books... At less than 200 pages a piece, I've already finished reading them!

I'm so excited about my purchases!

Crossed by Ally Condie (sequel to Matched) [left], Pure by Andrew Miller [middle] and Immortal Beloved by Cate Tiernan [right].

I've been meaning to buy Crossed ever since it was released back in November. I'll probably re-read Matched to freshen up on the story line before reading this one. It'll also probably read it after Mocking Jay (the final Hunger Games book) since I'm currently more invested in that storyline!

I actually only discovered Pure after it won the 2011 Costa Book of the Year. I read the synopsis and considering I'm studying The French Revolution I felt it was an appropriate buy. Plus, I wanted a change from young adult fiction.

Lastly, I bought Immortal Beloved simply because it was another series by Cate Tiernan. I love her Wicca series and and I'd love to see her growth as a writer. I don't particularly remember the storyline though...

And that's about it! I'm not sure when I'll get the chance to read these (they're all a lot longer than the Wicca books which can be finished in an hour or two) considering uni has been beyond stressful so far. But even so, I'm looking forward to finding solace in all of these new and unknown (some known) worlds!

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