Book Quiz

I saw this on Blair's blog and had to do it.


Favourite book cover: There isn't a book that I instantly am drawn to because of its cover, so I have chosen this copy of Moby Dick which I bought the other day, even though I have yet to finish it. I chose to write on it for Uni, so obviously my interest in it waned about halfway through, which I plan on amending soon as I have officially finished uni for the year! 

What are you reading right now? I'm reading Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. I haven't read anything by Welsh before, and I rewatched the film a few weeks ago which made me buy Trainspotting and Porno. I want to finish them before I buy Skag Boys. I'm really enjoying it so far! It's a bit difficult to read at first, simply because it is written in a Scottish accent, but once you get used to that. 

Do you have any idea what you’ll read when you’re done with that? I have a ridiculously long list of books I have bought but haven't read yet. I think the first one I'll tackle may be Moby Dick by Herman Melville, or The Bell Jar, which I have read before but want to re-read, especially as I have chosen to write on it for my dissertation. I'll also read Porno soon too. 

What 5 books have you always wanted to read but haven’t got round to? There are a ridiculous amount! I want to read a lot more Classics than I have done. If I had to list five I would say:

• Tess of the d'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
• 1984 - George Orwell
• The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - J.R.R Tolkein. Another summer project
• All of The Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
• The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

What magazines do you have in your bathroom/lounge right now? I generally don't bother reading many magazines anymore. I have a copy of Grazia, and do enjoy reading Elle once in a while.

What’s the worst book you've ever read? If I don't enjoy a book, I don't finish it, so I can't really single one out.

What book seems really popular but you actually hated? Lovely Bones. I just do not understand it. I read it once and half enjoyed it, but didn't understand the hype surrounding it. I reread it after seeing the film and hated it. Also The Catcher in the Rye. I won't go as far as to say I hated it, but I just didn't connect with Holden Caulfield at all. 

What’s the one book you always recommend to just about everyone? The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chobsky. I read it for the first time a few years ago and just really, really loved it. It's written in an epistolary form and is really easy to read. I think most teenagers/young adults will be able to relate to it. It's just lovely to read.

What are your 3 favourite poems? I don't know anything about poetry. I didn't particularly enjoy studying it at school, and haven't enjoyed anything we study at university. I do love W.H Auden, particularly Funeral Blues, and I did love Tennyson at A-Level, as well as Anne Hathaway by Carol Ann Duffy. 

Where do you usually get your books? Amazon. I pretty much buy all of my books, I enjoy owning them, unless it's secondary sources for essays, which I get from the library.

Where do you usually read your books? Anywhere I can. I love reading whilst travelling either on the train or in the car. I read in bed, on the sofa. Anywhere really.

When you were little, did you have any particular reading habits? Not any I can remember. I always read before bed. When I was younger I loved reading Beatrix Potter, and loved being read to. My mum read The Hobbit to me when I was 10. It's just so relaxing. 

What’s the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down? When I read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. It's only the second books of his that I have read (the other being Looking for Alaska) but I adored it. I read it in one sitting. I just could not put it down. 

Have you ever “faked” reading a book? No. I have skim-read books, such as ones I needed to for uni, but more often than not, if I didn't enjoy it, I didn't read it, which made life hard for myself. I haven't ever faked reading one though. Do people actually do that?

Have you ever bought a book just because you liked the cover? Not really. The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson caught my eye because of the cover but if I read the synopsis and don't like it, I won't buy it.

What was your favourite book when you were a child? Anything and everything by Jacqueline Wilson. I also really loved a series of books that were about dogs, I can't remember what they were called, but there were a huge amount of them and had red covers.

What book changed your life? I wouldn't say so. I've read fantastic books that affect me, such as The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, but I can't say anything has changed my life. Yet.

What is your favourite passage from a book? I'm sad to say that nothing immediately springs to mind. There are small quotations that I highlight on my Kindle, such as this from Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption in Different Seasons by Stephen King which really stand out to me:

'Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.'

What are your top five favourite authors? I'm quite varied in my tastes so I'm not sure if I have five different authors. I loved to read Jodi Picoult when I was a teenager, although her books can get a little samey. I enjoy how she acknowledges different issues in her books, but they all have pretty much the same format. My favourites of hers are The Pact, My Sister's Keeper, Tenth Circle and Keeping Faith.

I also love J. K. Rowling because she shaped my childhood. I haven't read widely enough in other authors to establish them as favourites yet.

What book has no one heard about but should read? I'm not entirely sure if there is anything that I've read that many others haven't. I know Perks is well known online, but I'm not sure how many people outside of the online world know anything about it. 

What is your favourite book by a first-time author? The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I believe it's Chobsky's first novel? I just love it. 

What is your favourite classic book? Jane Eyre. It's just beautiful.

5 other notable mentions? Wicked by Gregory Maguire, The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory,  Atonement by Ian McEwan, Looking for Alaska by John Green and Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier.

Note: I really want to read some Charles Bukowski. Have any of you read any of his works? What would you recommend?

Also, what is your favourite book and why? Leave me some recommendations! I plan on reading my summer away! 

Thanks for reading x

Random Ramble: Decisions, Decisions.

Tonight I've made a decision about the direction I want my blog to go in (pretty sure this post is a bit anti-climatic. I apologise.)

I've been uhmming and ahhing about where I want my focus to lie, be it beauty, fashion, books, lifestyle. I've decided that I'm never going to be a 'fashion blogger' as I don't have the time, nor can I really be arsed to take daily OOTD photos. Although I do want to include a few in the future. If my sister will take my photos for me (Colette, if you're reading this...)

I've decided, upon reading Blair's blog that I want to focus a lot more on literature. I'm an English student, so reading is a huge part of my life. I'm really loving reading again at the moment, so I want to include it a lot more.

Basically, my blog isn't going to have one focus, there will be bits and pieces (hopefully) of all of the above, but I definitely want to focus much more on the literature/lifestyle posts. I want to start taking more photos (currently thinking of buying a load of disposables for summer, opinions please?!) and documenting things a bit more.

Obviously, when I buy new things/find a new product I like/wear an outfit I like, I'll post about it. I'm not an OOTD girl, I hate having my photo taken, nor am I knowledgable enough about beauty to be a beauty blog.
I'm a new blogger and want to share snippets of my life with all you lovely lot who read my rambles.

What do you think? Is this mish-mash a good idea, would you want to read more of my crap? (ha!)

I guess I'll just see where this takes me :)

Thanks for reading x

Booklust Review: Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

This is the first of many (I hope) book reviews. Wicked is the novel which inspired the musical of the same name. I went to see the musical a few years ago, not realising it was based on a novel. When I found out it was based on a novel, my sister bought me the books (it is part of a quadrilogy) alongside a copy of The Wizard of Oz for Christmas. I've tackled Wicked a few times without ever actually completing it, so when I broke up for Easter I was determined to finish it. And I did woohoo!

Anyway, the review - I'll try not to include spoilers. Wicked centres around Elphaba, who becomes to be known as the Wicked Witch of the West. It tells the story of how she becomes 'wicked', beginning at her birth. You follow her through her life, we discover her relationship to G[a]linda (who becomes known as the Good Witch) and how they met at school. 

The following description is taken from Goodreads:

'Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability, and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to become the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly, and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.'

I was blown away by this book. It differs from the musical, so if you've seen that, I highly recommend this to you. Unlike The Wizard of Oz the book isn't aimed at children, and contains quite a lot of sexual content, which shocked me at first. It is a political and social commentary on the nature of good and evil, using the world created in The Wizard of Oz. There are issues about different races, religions and the way that the land of Oz is ruled by the Wizard.
Elphaba is an intriguing character to say the least. She begins life as almost feral in the way she acts, but she grows to be eloquent and inquisitive, but also very opinionated and always independent, due the fact that she has always been different.

I don't want to say too much else as I wouldn't do the book justice. It is multi-faceted and I'm sure that the next time I'll read it I'll notice things I hadn't before. I wholly recommend this book to anyone. If you haven't seen the musical, you definitely should too. Because it is AMAZING.

What do you think of the book reviews?

Thanks for reading x