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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