Reading Wrap Up #2

Things have slowed down a little bit on the reading front. Commuting by train leaves you with a lot of time to read. I don't miss commuting, but I do miss having time each day to read. I think in 2018 I will try and set aside more time to get through my TBR, because it's getting quite out of hand!

What's really in my bag

An oldie but a goodie! I've always loved What's In My Bag videos and blog posts, so thought I'd write one myself. I could try and make myself sound cool, but my life is definitely not glam. So I've just emptied out my bag and had a rummage through the contents!

Reading Wrap Up #1

Time for my first reading wrap up of 2017! I set fairly modest target on Goodreads of 25 books. Things were off to a flying start and I was miles ahead of schedule, but I took a little reading break whilst we moved house. But now we're settled and I'm back on it!

Adventures of an Agoraphobic: Haworth

The big news in my life at the moment is that I'm moving to a new town. Imminently. This weekend, in fact. Kris and I have been together for three and a half years and have been trying hard to find jobs near to each other so that we can get a place together. Things have finally come together, and so we're having the lovely stress of moving to a completely new town. It's exciting, but not exactly easy when it's a holiday weekend! And we've not got much time because we're going away to Iceland next week. Lots to do!

Kris moved up to the North in the summer of 2015, and lived in Mytholmroyd, near Hebden Bridge. It's a lovely place (despite the flooding) but not somewhere where we could settle. That still, I'm really going to miss it.

As English graduates, we always talked about visiting the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth. Ever since Kris moved up we planned to go, but never seemed to find the right time. With neither of us driving things can get a little bit tricky once you live in a more rural area. But we decided that we needed to go before we moved, so off we went!

Why are we so ashamed of Twilight?

Earlier in the year I read The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness and really enjoyed it. I loved that it gently poked fun of the YA fantasy genre. This, coupled with the fact that the films were recently added to Netflix (but not Breaking Dawn Part 2, why?), made me want to rewatch the Twilight films. Because Twilight was such a huge deal for a few years, then faded into obscurity a little bit. It's not forgotten, but it's not like you really bump into Twi-hards any more. Once upon a time I really loved Twilight. But I grew out of it just as quickly as I got into it. And for a while I was kind of ashamed that I ever liked it. I don't think I'm the only one...

Review: It's All Absolutely Fine by Ruby Elliot

In my January Favourites I mentioned that the first book I read in 2017 was It's All Absolutely Fine - life is complicated so I've drawn it instead by Ruby Elliot. I received this book for Christmas from my parents after wanting it for ages and ages. I've always loved Ruby's work ever since it first started floating around on Tumblr a few years back. I think the first one I saw was the "I am my sun, my moon, my tired pissed off stars". I don't think there's a picture she's done that I don't like. Going through Ruby's work is sometimes like looking in a mirror - my life is full of coffee/anxiety jenga, I am an emotional weetabix, I relate so deeply to that squiggly little caricature.

And so, as you can probably already guess, I loved this book.

What I got for Christmas 2016!

As with last year's post, my 'what I got for Christmas' posts will always come with a slight delay as I tend to spend Christmas with my Mum/Stepdad's family and New Year with my Dad so get staggered presents.

I love reading these kinds of posts because I'm so nosy! Obviously I'm not here trying to brag, but I'm writing this assuming that you're nosy too!

Why I don't like sex scenes in books

I don't like reading graphic sex scenes in books. Call me a prude, call me childish, but I don't. I feel like there are possible exceptions to the rule, but as a whole I don't care for it. Let's be clear here - I'm not talking gooey love scenes where a couple disappear into a bedroom and kiss passionately before the author cuts the chapter off and the rest is left to your imagination - I'm talking gratuitous sex scenes with lots of details. If I wanted graphic sex, I'd watch porn. Or buy a book for the romance section of Waterstones. If I was looking for sex in a book I wouldn't have this problem, but I kind of hate it when you're getting really into a book and there's a surprise sex scene that makes you blush like a beetroot. Here's why...

Bookshelf Tour

I own way too many books. I'm kind of counting down the days until I move out of my parents' house simply because then I can be brutally honest with myself and donate some of the books that I no longer read. I have an enormous bookshelf that's almost floor to ceiling, then piles of old university course books under my bedside table. I thought I'd do a little bookshelf tour, with the hope that I can do another once I move out and slim my library down!

Reading Round Up 2016 - Part 2

It's time for another reading round up! Partially thanks to Audible, I've really upped my reading this year. I extended my Goodreads target to 35 books and have beaten it already! And yet it doesn't feel like I'm reading enough. I've read a lot of shorter books this year, partially due to the fact that I've read a lot of kids books. High brow literature, no, but definitely a lot of fun!

You can catch up with what else I've read so far in 2016 here, and 2015 here and here, if you fancy a nosy. 

Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

I've been putting this post off for weeks - I've been finding it so hard to get my feelings down on paper. My brain is just a jumbled mess of feelings! But here it is, my thoughts on the Cursed Child!

The release of this book has just been such a surreal experience for me. In all honesty, I don't think I was that excited about it until a few days before 31st July. When they announced the play, I didn't try and get preview tickets - I don't live near London and at the time I was totally skint! When they announced the script I was relieved - who needs to go all the way down to London when I can just read the book? I used to pre-order Harry Potter books as soon as I was able to, but with Cursed Child I happened to be in Waterstones buying something for my Dad and and thought "why not?". That was in June, so in my opinion, I left it quite late! 

It was only when it reached late July that I started to get excited. I think it was seeing other people get excited that helped - it felt like I was back in the early 00s. Almost ten years we went without a Harry Potter book, and yet the whole buzz surrounding it hasn't changed. After reading this my boyfriend and I actually queued up on 4 devices to book tickets to see the play - November 2017 here we come!

However for me, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child felt familiar whilst being a completely new experience. Enemies of the heir, beware (of spoilers)...

Aging Pop Culture: Does popular culture have a sell-by date?

Recently I feel like I've travelled back in a time machine. The Harry Potter craze has taken hold (did it ever really go away?), Pokemon is popular again, and I've been reading The Princess Diaries books. Looking at clothes in shops currently, I could quite easily put together an outfit that my mum would have worn when I was a kid. This whole 90/00s feel has been around for a while - I remember a few years ago actually debating whether to buy a pair of jelly shoes (I thankfully didn't waste my money).

Popular culture seems to be so fond of nostalgia. Already the "millennial" generation (urgh, still kind of hate that phrase) seems to spend a lot of time looking back at memories from their past, in a way that makes us seem like old grandparents in their armchairs talking about the Blitz. But I wonder, does pop culture have a sell by date? At what point does it stop being trendy and start becoming dated?

My TBR List

Like many a bibliophile, I love finding new books. I just don't seem to get around to reading them all! I bring them home and they just sit on my shelf. They will get read eventually, but this post is me shaming myself into doing so more promptly!

So, here is a small selection of books on my TBR list...

Review: A Court of Mist and Fury

I mentioned in my June Favourites that I planned to review this book, so here it is! I really thought this would be a negative review where I ripped into both the first and second book of the series, but now I'm not sure where I stand. Just like A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury starts slow and builds up. Halfway through I was thinking "I suppose it's okay" but then was blown away by the ending. 

Beware, because the night is dark and full of spoilers...

So you want to read a classic?

I love books. I love them in any shape or form. I love most genres and love to hoard copies of all of my favourites. I'm not looking forward to the day I move out of my parents' house, because it'll involve shifting a lot of books...

As an English Literature graduate, I think classic literature will always have a special place in my heart (even though some of them were quite difficult to drag myself through). So I'm sharing my tips for getting into classical literature!

Reading Round Up 2016 - Part 1

After my Reading Round Up posts in 2015 (here and here), I thought I'd carry on into 2016. I feel like I'm reading a lot faster this year, probably due to the fact that I've been listening to Audible books a lot. I'm well on my way to my Goodreads goal of 25 books, maybe I'll beat it!

Fanfiction: cool, or still uncool?

I have a confession: I used to read a lot of fanfiction. I used to write a lot of fanfiction.
It's sort of a secret shame that I don't talk about to people, even though I was still actively part of the community right up until the end of my first year of university. By then I wasn't reading new stories, but I definitely had a commitment to finishing my own. My most popular work was a 89,000 word Harry Potter story. To date it has had over 186,000 page views and 382 reviews. That's a pretty big achievement. But why do I hide all association from it?

My Favourite Children's Books (that aren't Harry Potter!)

Children's literature makes me so happy. I spent a month last summer volunteering in the children's section of a library and loved it. I'm almost 23 and I still kind of get tempted to go into the children's bit when I'm in Waterstones. It's just so much more exciting than the 'grown up' sections!

I was a bit of a bookworm when I was a kid. When I wasn't reading Harry Potter over and over and over again, I actually picked up some other stuff!

What I got for Christmas!

This post comes to you with a slight delay, due to the fact that my family is spread out. Which means my presents get spread out! I really got some lovely things this year, so thought that I'd share.

Reading Round Up 2015 - Part 2

I did it! I reached my target of 25 books in 2015! I posted Part 1 of my 'books read' back in July, so here's Part 2.

As ever, feel free to add me on Goodreads!