Review #8 - The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World by Lewis Hyde

The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World by Lewis Hyde is an odd book. It was recommended by the woman who will always be a role model to me - Rosianna Halse Rojas. She posted her video on her book clear out and I needed more non-fiction books so I decided to read it.

a photo from Rosianna's instagram and tumblr.

The Gift is an odd mix of literary criticism mixed with psychology. Every chapter is a new idea about giving gifts ranging from your talent to women (yes, I know, we'll get onto that later). The Gift kept my attention despite the fact it was projected to take me six hours to read so in that regard, and the way I rated it, it was good but I did have several criticisms of the book.

The first chapter was all about the movement of gifts between person to person. I read this for half an hour and I still don't get the point he was trying to make. The chapter mainly included examples of Hawaiian tribes and the circulation of gifts and a bunch of Scottish myths. It was never explained how the movement of gifts could help us from day to day and I didn't like that. It should have been made relevant for the reader. There were also no real arguments for why this was important. I felt like I had just read all these examples for nothing.

There was a really weird chapter about woman as gifts and giving away women. Is this because this was written 40 years before I read it? It still felt really, really odd. It felt like it had no real place in the book.

The last two (massive) chapters of the book changed the tune so entirely I looked for the announcement that I had changed books. It went from giving gifts to poetry analysis. Yes, it was about gifts (loosely) but it felt completely irrelevant. It felt like Hyde decided to go "yes, ok I want to write about everything that interests me ever and shove it in a book." I got really bored at these parts as it felt like a historical analysis rather than a language analysis.

After years watching speeches in class I have learned something important which Lewis Hyde has never learned:

never ever ever introduce new points in the conclusion.

Seriously, what was he thinking? I was like, oh great, a summary, but he introduced new points and new myths and I just started to monitor how close I was to the end to the book. I just lost interest.

I've sounded very negative but it did have a really interesting perspective on gift giving (especially as a person who cares a lot about it). It also did keep my attention for the first 66% which is impressive for a humanities non-fiction book.

I gave this three stars.

Review #7 - Eve and Adam by Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate

Ok.

This book is good.  Not ok, not very good but good.

Eve and Adam is a book about a girl who is in a car crash and is shipped to her mother's hospital in her giant research company.  Her mother decides that Eve can create the perfect person on a computer similar to The Sims but much much more complex. It's about the ethics of genetic modification and also has a love story.

Firstly the book is split perspective. I hate split perspective like my cat hates the hoover i.e. RUN AWAY AT ALL COSTS. I had to separate out the two different story lines in order to like it. It just didn't feel like a book, it felt like a husband and wife bonding project.

I loved the genetic modification parts. It was the reason I kept reading. It was just so fantastically done. I am such a Biology Nerd with a love of The Sims (3, of course) and these parts really appealed to me. I looked forward to these parts more than anything else in this book.

I didn't really like Solo as a character. He was whiney and I didn't like his constant "us-and-them" attitude towards everything. He was very wishy-washy. I know everyone always go on about (and rightly so) that we need 3D female characters who are both strong and weak but this book seriously needed a male character with depth.

This book is a three star book. It would be a 1 or 2 star but Eve's dialogue and the genetics parts of this book pulled it up to good. Well done Katherine Applegate.

My Bloggiversary

Last year on this date I was at my friend Nina's for burns night (n.b. a scottish poet celebration where you eat haggis) where she said I should get a blog.

She designed it, help me set it up and I wrote my first ever post.

4802 views later and I love this blog. It is me all over and I love my stats I could not be more proud of my blog.

Honestly,  setting this up was a great thing to do so thank you Nina. I've written reviews and articles on medicine and put up photography and lists and things that I care about.

A complete set of stats should go up soon. Expect lots of pie charts.

Happy Bloggiversary Kaleidosophie. I love you.

Review #6 - When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

If you read my blog regularly/stalk me/Miranda you've found my blog you'll have seen I put this book on my Bout of Books wish list thing. I send Miranda my list and she let me borrow her copy (in exchange for Wreck it Ralph.

When You Reach Me is a book about a girl named Miranda living in New York City. One day she gets a mysterious note telling her what to do and she could save someone's life. 

The narrative is disjointed between past events and present events which I really liked especially because the kids talked about time travel through a lot of the book. The book is in first person and really captures the spirit of being a child, not just an adult narrative with simpler words.

I loved Miranda as a character. It was like she was just starting to notice social interaction and how society functions. I especially liked the parts about her wealth and her self-conciousness. It made her very real as a character. The narrative was fantastic. It was like she was trying to make friends with you across the page.

The ending wow. If you closely read it as well there are links towards the ending and it was just really gorgeous. It was like everything you thought was just description fit beautifully into the plot.

This is a fantastic children's book I would really recommend it for both children (9-12) and adults and teens. Seriously. Read this book.

Five stars.

Access to stories

Today in chapel (yes I go to a cofe school) my maths teacher announced that we would be having a collection for a charity that donated books to Ethiopian schools because of the lack of books there. I've sort of been subconsciously thinking about this all day for various reasons.

I saw Rosianna's video about a month ago about donating all but 50 of her books to charity in which she said "I have always have access to stories." I don't know it's just daunted on me how lucky I am to have this access to books. I go to a school with a large library (most of it non fiction but I'll get on to this at another time), a local waterstones, a kindle and my parents who let me read whatever I want and support my love of reading. It just made me acutely aware of how much I get to read and I love that.

Secondly, I have an (unnamed) friend who is the sweetest who I am currently on a book lending spree with. I read The Gift by Lewis Hyde (reviews are coming) and this idea of the movement of gifts really struck me in regards to books. I just love circulating books like I read my friend Miranda's copy of When You Reach Me and her annotations just made the experience so much better. I felt like I was sharing something.

Thirdly, I am acutely aware that in a year and a half I will no longer live at home. When I leave home I will no longer have an income (babysitting) or my parents credit card details. I have been told that you are going to be a med student you won't have time for a job get a loan and I know at this point I will no longer have access to books and this will be probably the hardest thing to lose when I go to uni. But tis better to have loved and lost that have never loved at all. I am so grateful for my access to books.

I can't imagine living without books.

May access to books become worldwide and nationwide.

N.b. I am a world book day giver (more on this closer to the time) in regards to this which I am so excited by all brits can have access to stories.

Sophie, no one cares.

Why do I keep writing these to buy lists? I know most of you won't care. Sure, you want stuff. Seriously though, review When You Reach Me. Iphoto crashing is not an excuse.

I like to have goals. I don't know why but I'm very driven by them. I know what I want in the near future and most of the time I know what I want long term. That's why this year new years resolutions have become very important to me. One of the things I plan to do is have a monthly "wrap up" where I tell you which posts I've written, how many books I've read, which films I watched and how far I am into my New Years resolutions.

So these TBR posts aren't for you.They're for me.

Now go away Sophie and get some sleep.

Night

My Ultimate To Buy/TBR list

A.k.a. buy them for me

Why do I blog?

Frankly I ask myself that when browsing my archive.

In "It's kind of a funny story" by Ned Vizzini there is a lot of focus being placed on Craig finding his anchor.

I am not always an articulate person.

But when I write I feel very comfortable.

It has become an anchor of control because I hate being out of control.

That's why I blog

I'm taking part in the become a better blogger lift challenge and the first question was why.

Review #5 - This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E Smith

I absolutely loved Anna and the French Kiss and I believed I had misjudged YA romantic fiction. I thought I'd been overly harsh, that it was enjoyable fiction overall. I was wrong.

This is What Happy Looks Like has potential as a story: it's about Ellie who lives in a small town in Maine who gets an accidental email one day from a boy who she talks to for many a month (stranger danger). In other completely unrelated news, there's a new hot celebrity guy in town shooting a movie called Graham (be still my heart).

This is What Happy Looks Like is not a book that I had a specific problem with as such (I say as I tear it to pieces), but it was just boring.

The characters were boring, the plot was boring and oh how Graham was boring. Ellie was so 2D she was verging on 1 dimensional. The plot was obvious and lacked subtly. And the writing! Seriously,  it was so shallow. It just seemed very basic.

Romantic fiction should make you fall in love. It didn't make me feel warm or fuzzy. That is why it truly failed.

Two stars.

Review #4 - Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral

Chopsticks is a sort of scrapbook: photos of artefacts and people and web chats and newspapers. There are these big double page spreads of photos taken on film. It's a coffee table book but with a plot. It's beautiful however I found it breathtakingly average.

The plot lacked substance. It was just boring and the end became confusing. The romantic plot line lacked any form of chemistry and there were a few photos between the girl and the boy that suggested that they actually were in a romantic relationship at all. Their conversations were mainly about her father and how annoying he was. It came across as a very biased view of teenagers and their parents so much so that I felt it was trying to push me away as a reader. Why do you write a book for teenagers and then try to annihilate them?

I will be fair to this book and say it is a pretty book. However, coffee table books are expensive and there are so many more that I could spend my money on (I'm very lucky, this is a book of my sisters) for example Rookie Yearbook 1, Rookie Yearbook 2, A Maps of the World The World According to Illustrators and Storytellers. So many books are truly beautiful, you have to stand out as an artist. This book was beautiful, but there's only so much grainy photography a girl can take. Have you heard of a digital camera?

So thank you Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral. I was worried my reviews were too positive that I was coming across as one of those people who doesn't give negative reviews because everything is so awesome.

Your ability to create a completely and utterly average book saved me. 

Lots of hugs and kisses,

Sophie

p.s. I'm big on lindsay lohan movies today.

Should I buy a kindle?

This won't be a wordy post like my usual rambling essays.

I'm not going to go through every single pro and con of a kindle because everywhere on the internet has that. I am going to work out how many free classics or payed books you'd have to read to justify monetarily to buy a basic kindle (£69). 

All books are assumed at their minimum Book Depository Value as of January 2014 in British Pounds

1. The Great Gastby -£3.99

2. Pride and Prejudice - £2.40

3. Les Miserables - £7.01

4. The Secret Garden - £2.40

5. Wuthering Heights - £2.72
6. A Tale of Two Cities - £1.99
7. Great Expectations - £1.99
8. Dracula - £2.73
9. A Christmas Carol - £2.95
10. The Ugly Duckling - £2.50
11. The Picture of Dorian Gray - £1.99
12. Little Women - £2.40
13. The Wind in the Willows - £1.99
14. David Copperfield - £1.99
15. Persuasion - £1.61
16. Moby Dick - £4.49
17. The Time Machine - £2.07
18. The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights - £6.94
19. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - £1.30
20. The Iliad - £1.99
21. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - £2.13
22. Gulliver's Travels - £1.99
23. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - £2.64
24. Northanger Abbey - £2.53
25. The Three Musketeers - £1.99
26. The Scarlet Letter - £2.13
27. The Moonstone - £2.54

If you read 27 classics you would be able to afford the basic kindle.

For the payed bit I will work out the difference (book depository - kindle cost)

1. The Husband's Secret - £3.66
2. Twelve Years A Slave - £4.37
3. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy - £8.36
4. The Goldfinch - £9.65
5. Abducted (The Lizzy Gardner Series #1) - £4.89          
6. Inferno - £8.62
7. The Railway Man - £3.26
8. Saints of the Shadow Bible - £7.66 
9. First Thrills - £3.87
10. Gone Girl - £5.56     
11. When You Walked Back Into My Life- £5.34
12. The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul - 4.40

You would only need to read 12 payed for books on kindle to justify buying the basic kindle.


n.b. this blog post is not sponsored in Amazon in any way I'm just that odd mix of maths nerd and literary nerd.

Review #2 - It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

I was nervous before reading this book.

Last year round April I had read a lot of depression books by accident like The Bell Jar, The Virgin Suicides, everything I read contained suicide in it, Every Day, A Working Theory of Love. I didn't like this. I just went off these books because I didn't want to read about suicide over and over again. So I knew Ned Vizzini had recently passed away and I was scared this would be another Bell Jar.

It was beautiful. It wasn't depressing, it was uplifting. It gave me hope and still was about depression and I loved this.

He spoke so truthfully and I recognised myself in some of the earlier passages of the book even though I haven't dealt with most of the things in the book. There were just these parallels with my lifestyle, especially last year and the schooling and I did relate to Craig. I think that is the most impressive part of Vizzini's writing. He paints people as people, not as characters, not as people who have a mental illness but people.

I loved loved loved the maps and the references to his childhood and just this beautiful enthusiasm for art and creating which I lost last year in the midst of Art GCSE. It reminded me of what I'd lost. I used to be so creative and all I did was create art and read in my spare time and that's not there anymore. 

Could this become the world's top depression-novel-with-authors-that-ended-their-life-afterwards? I think if people stopper heralding The Bell Jar as this beautiful piece of fiction (and it's really not) then I think that, yes, maybe this could. I would love it if it did. This book is made from sadness but it makes you feel like it is about happiness. And isn't that what we need from a depression novel? Not electrocution, not a slow decent into whatever you can call the second half of The Bell Jar, but happiness.

I just think that matters.

Five stars.

Buy this book
Add to goodreads

Bout of Books Challenge

I know, I'm not actually doing the bout of books readathon because it is mocks time. However I just love buying books so:

Imagine if you will: you’ve just received some FANTASTIC news! You have won a $100 book buying spree! Now comes the hard part though: what books will you buy?! For this challenge, you’ll be creating your book buying spree wishlist, and sharing it in the comments or in a blog post.

Ok, I'm doing £100 pounds because I live in the UK.

If you know me, feel free to buy me any of these.

I actually own a physical copy of LFA and a kindle version of Paper Towns but I really want the American Cover of LFA and the old British cover of Paper Towns. I have The Travel Book which is amazing but not the Cities book. If only I were richer.

I really really want the American Copy of Eleanor and Park. It's just so gorgeous.

 I have a Kindle version of fangirl but it ranked #6 on my top books of 2013 and I love the hardcover and oh how I want a physical copy. I also really want Lola and the Boy Next Door but every Waterstones in the country is selling 50 bazillion copies of Anna and the French Kiss but no Lola and the Boy Next Door. Come on I expected more from you.

Review #3 - Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

As a general rule, I don't like soppy teen romance. I don't like soppy romance. I don't like romance novels with their 2D characters and the predictability and the fact that when I finish the book I don't feel like I've achieved anything. Did I like Anna and the French Kiss?

No. I loved it.

Anna is an American girl sent to an American boarding school in Paris for senior year. Throw in her super hot best friend and adventures in Paris and you have Anna and the French Kiss.

I was gripped immediately but it took me until thanksgiving to warm to the characters as people. That is probably my only complaint with this book. Oh and I had a little bit of trouble with the "nasty" girl. (When girls are nasty they do not name call. They undermine your confidence in a toxic way and make you doubt yourself. Their greatest weapon is you.) However everything that I don't like about romance and this book's clichéd flaws actually warm me to the book.

The characters had faults. 3D female characters with both strength and love and that was amazing. I feel often as a feminist that I can't feel certain things because it's not supporting my views as a feminist but this book makes these gorgeous characters that bust these myths. Anna is wonderful and oh so relatable as a teenage girl. She is smart and has interests in films and Paris.

At first I was wary about the text and how it was written. I am not a fan of capital letters in novels. Capitals are strictly reserved for Sherlock Tumblr posts and Facebook chat. I'm not big on exclamation marks in text. Ever. Anna and the French Kiss pulls this off somehow because you are reading Anna's inner monolouge and she sounds like me and other girls I know and no other book quite captires being a teenage girl like this book.

I went to Paris when I was 14 and I was in love with the idea of Paris and the Eiffel Tower and little streets. Paris let me down a bit. It was dirty (oh so dirty) and the way the metro gates slam scared me. This book portrays Paris well and not just in that Devil Wears Prada way. Also I have an incredible passion for London. This book portrays this passion but for Paris. I loved the way it promoted enthusiasm. As a teenager it is regarded as "cool" to not get enthusiastic. This book was enthusiastic.

The best thing about this book is the aftermath. That warm glow inside of you. A glorious ecstatic feeling. You feel like you are in love and that is glorious.

I gave this five stars.

A must read.

Buy this book
Add to Goodreads

Review #1 - A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

I have a confession to make.

I read this book because a specific reason and that may alter our relationship but I'm ok with that because you need to know.

My favourite Christmas movie of all time and joint second favourite film of all time is (breathe in breathe out) The Muppets Christmas Carol. I was listening to the soundtrack on my Spotify and before the Marley and Marley song they said this quote which I just fell in love with:

"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death."

So I downloaded a Christmas Carol onto my Kindle (free books are the best) and I really enjoyed it.

A Christmas Carol is about a cold hearted man named Scrooge who hates Christmas and how he is visited by three spirits of Christmas and how this changes him.

It was gorgeous and sad and Victorian English was just so beautiful. I loved the spirits personalities and I loved Scrooges backstory and how he became so bitter. I did see parallels between myself and Scrooge which terrified me (hopefully I'm not evil and coldhearted and I am generous and loving) and I think Dickens was an early critisier of consumerism or maybe I'm over analysising. Or making this all about me. Probably both.

I did find the bit around the second spirit a little boring but it was really good the rest of the time, especially the ghost of Christmas past. That left the biggest impression on me. The end of this spirit made me cry it was just so heartbreaking (it's not in the Muppets version).

I would recommend it but for those who want a slightly more challenging read just because the characters are so complex rather than the language. Oh and lovers of the Muppets (seriously it's crazy how loyal they were to the book).

I gave this four stars.

Buy this book

Add to goodreads

New Years Resolution #6

My 6th New Years Resolution was to write more reviews.

I'm going to set myself a challenge.

I want to review every book I read in 2014 (my goodreads challenge is 75 books). It's just because I watch a lot of booktubers (book youtubers) and I hate it when people do hauls and they've bought these really interesting sounding books or books that I've read and I'm interested in their opinion and they never read them or review them.

I get that they have book buying addictions and I know everyone is known to go a little mad when entering Barnes and Noble (or Waterstones or the London Review Bookshop) but I try to read every book I buy unless I loathe them and they're more than 400 pages.

So, I've already read three books so far and I'll try and write and upload as quickly as possible.

They may not always have pictures and I'm sorry about that because of kindles and often it takes a lot of time so sorry.

I love reading and writing and communicating and I hope I can get that across.

Bring on the 75 review challenge.

Review: A Geek's Guide to Dating by Eric Smith

A Geeks Guide to Dating is what I says on the tin. But what is the difference between this and your classic "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" book?

To start with this is a book for geeks, namely comic, film and video game geeks. It is scattered with references (most of which I didn't get) and filled with geek humour and explanations. It was nice and the illustrations were gorgeous. I found the lack of book and computer and science geek references sad because that is my kind of geek but it was still entertaining. The thing is that the author mentions book and science and social media geeks but doesn't really reference to them past the first chapter.

This is basically dating for dummies. It goes through everything, including what to wear to a date (XY chromosome only, but I'll get onto that later), where to find a date and how to arrange a date. I really liked this, as a bit of a rookie to the dating world (I've been at all girls for 9 years, what do you expect?). Some of it was over simplified for people who are a bit socially incapable which was a little boring but I liked a lot of it. The guide is instructive and informative.

I really loved the geek indentififier in the first chapter and the skills you have as a result of being that kind of geek. It also tells you how those skills are good and bad in regards to dating which was really entertaining but also extremely interesting.

Oh I did have a niggle which affected my enjoyment of the book. You may have noticed, I'm a girl. This book is very male oriented. There is a side note to women but the rest of the book is very male oriented (like six pages of what men should wear to dates, nothing on what we should wear. Admittedly my mother has taught me this but still.)  I found this book hard to get along with as a result and a little redundant.

This is great for first time daters and mega geeks. Who probably should be male. Or someone who just wants a gorgeous book on their shelf.

I gave it three stars. Come on, Geeks Guide, you had so much potential.

2013 Reading Challenge

So I read a lot of books this year.

Before the end of 2012 I hadn't really read for about two years. I'd always read really regularly as a child but I fell out of routine with it and started reading 10 books a year, max. I read Looking for Alaska at the end of November last year and I started reading regularly again which was really nice and comforting in an odd way. My new years resolution for 2013 (and the only one I've ever kept) was to read 52 books in the course of a year, one book a week.

I read 108 books.

So, I made a list on numbers (because that's what mega-dorks do) ranking every single book I read this year. And I'm sharing this with you.
Oh and if you want to read reviews I wrote they're linked apart from the top 10.

108 The Red Headed League by Arthur Conan Doyle
107 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F Scott Fitzgerald (I didn't like Gatsby why did I optionally decide to read more Fitzgerald?)
106 You & I by Padgett Powell (never optionally read a book of pure dialogue)
105 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (controversial)
104 Divergent by Veronica Roth (controversial)
103 Composition No. 1 by Marc Saporta (proof that artsy books are not always good books) 102 Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
101 The Thorn and the Blossom by Theodora Goss


100 Revenge Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger  (worst ARC ever)
99 The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus 
98 A Scandal in Bohemia by Arthur Conan Doyle (proof that the BBC drama is sometimes better than the book)
97 The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan
96 The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
95 We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo  (controversial as this has since won 50 billion awards)
94 The Official Highway Code by Department for Transport (dork)
93 Ten Billion by Stephen Emmott
92 Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
91 The Hanging Garden by Patrick White


90 The Road by Cormac McCarthy
89 Slam by Nick Hornby
88 The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien (controversial)
87 The Periodic Table by Primo Levi
86 Make Good Art by Neil Gaiman
85 The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
84 Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
83 Strong Woman: Ambition, Grit and a Great Pair of Heels by Karren Brady
82 Bar Balto by Faïza Guène
81 Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce


80 The Geek's Guide to Dating by Eric Smith
79 The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar
78 Lolito by Ben Brooks
77 The Extincts by Veronica Cossanteli (I know, I know but I got an ARC)
76 The Drugs Don't Work - A Global Threat by Sally C. Davies (a book on GCSE level Biology)
75 Maybe Tonight? by Bridie Clark
74 Player One by Douglas Coupland
73 The Last Letter from your Lover by Jojo Moyes
72 The End Games by T. Michael Martin
71 Picture Me Gone by Meg Rosoff


70 1984 by George Orwell (controversial)
69 Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
68 Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher
67 Miss Penegrine's Home for Perculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
66 The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan
65 I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
64 North of Beautiful by Justina Chen
63 The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
62 Zombicorns (Zombicorns, #1) by John Green
61 The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World by Susan Veness (dork)


60 Harry Potter: The Prequel by J.K. Rowling
59 The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
58 Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
57 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
56 Wide Awake by David Levithan
55 Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
54 The Vincent Boys by Abbi Glines
53 A Working Theory of Love by Scott Hutchins
52 An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin (I loved the bits on art)
51 Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde


(nb. this is 4 stars upwards at this point so I really enjoyed everything from here)

50 The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
49 Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
48 Loteria by Mario Alberto
47 Bakuman, Volume 2: Chocolate and Akamaru by Tsugumi Ohba
46 The Key to the Golden Firebird by Maureen Johnson
45 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
44 A is for Angelica by Iain Broome
43 The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
42 Across the Universe by Beth Revis
41 More Than This by Patrick Ness


40 Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
39 Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
38 The Hive by Gill Hornby
37 The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
36 The Dinner by Herman Koch
35 The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
34 How The Light Gets In by M.J. Hyland
33 Cinder by Marissa Meyer
32 About a Girl by Lindsey Kelk (ARC)
31 The Program (The Program, #1) by Suzanne Young


30 Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
29 Beastly by Alex Flynn
28 The Name of the Star (Shades of London, #1) by Maureen Johnson (don't read at night if you like sleep)
27 Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (more of a Fangirl girl)
(nb. this is five stars upwards so these are all highly highly recommended)
26 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
25 The Red House by Mark Haddon
24 Bakuman, Volume 1: Dreams and Reality by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata  
23 Wish You Were Dead (Thrillogy, #1) by Todd Strasser
22 Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King
21 Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler  (buy it just for the illustrations)


20 Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
19 Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle
18 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
17 Abstract and Brief Chronicles of the Time by Rosianna Halse Rojas  (gorgeous)
16 The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith  (much better than the casual vacancy)
15 The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
14 Every Seventh Wave by Daniel Glattauer
13 The Circle by Dave Eggers
12 The House of Hades (The Heroes of Olympus, #4) by Rick Riordan
11 Brooklyn Girls by Gemma Burgess  (best ARC ever)


TOP 10 HERE WE COME

10 Every Day by David Levithan
9 Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer
8 The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall (only non-fiction I enjoyed this year) 
7 Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz  (oh so gorgeous)
6 Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
5 Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass, #2) by Sarah J. Maas

4 Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1) by Sarah J. Maas (Team Chaol)
3 Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
2 Ready Player One by Earnest Cline
1 The Wave by Todd Strasser 


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It's Kind of a Funny Story

There are these books, right.
They're normally published by American Publishers and they're the American editions and they've been shipped over on a big plane across the Atlantic Ocean in its entirety.
You know these books?
These books are the weighty ones.
British books are so light.
You read a penguin classic, you know the white and grey and black ones with the white spines and the monochromatic pictures, and it'll be so light.
I like weighty books because they feel like proper books. They are not woosy books. They are strong books. Books that send you promises that they will be important to you.
I'm reading It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini. I can feel this deep feeling that this book will mean something to me. That it will be another Looking For Alaska. I read it and I understand even though I've never been through anything in the book.
This book is a weighty book.

2013

So I wrote a blog post about resolutions and sticking to them and my 2014 resolutions but I didn't feel that 2013 got a proper send off. 

Also I found my 2013 resolutions which was both hilarious and embarrassing. 

1. Read a book a week
I read 108 books in 2013 which is a massive 56 books more than I'd planned. I was so so so pleased with this because I've missed reading and my writing and analysis has become so much better as a result and I think that this lead to my really good English GCSE results.

2. Move School
I did this and I'm quite proud of myself for this. I'm so happy I got in and I like to think I'm doing well now.

3. Raise £1000 
Did not happen. Way to ambitious. 

4. Be in Paris for New Years 2013-14
Didn't happen. I wanted to go to Disney for New Years (Paris, of course, because I'm not mega-super-rich) but in the end I went in the summer to Orlando and it was wonderful. I love WDW so much.

5. Get more Youtube Subscribers.
I gained like 80 in 2013 which YEY success but I'm now not dependant on my Youtube channel and I mainly post DYL only now. Maybe I'll do some stuff in 2014 I don't know. I hit 100 subscribers.

6. Revise 20 minutes a day
Did not happen. I revised a lot but not consistently.

7. Document my year
Major success. I started DYL and I have a blog now. ALL THE DOCUMENTING.

Other things I did in 2013

• I performed in front of 250 people with my band which was absolutely amazing and I met some really amazing people there.

• I started this blog and I now have had over 4000 views which feels amazing. I've got so much better at writing since I got it and graphic design and just being totally comfortable with myself.
• I started Document Your Life.
• I met John and Hank Green and John told me and Chitra we dressed well.
• I got to a really good standard at skiing, up to the point where I was almost at french black runs.
• I moved house and my bedroom is so gorgeous.
• I saw Imagine Dragons twice.
• I bought a really nice camera which I earned myself (not a single penny was from my parents).
• I saw Watsky with Maiya and Dylan Saunders was in the band.
• I got three work experience placements in the hardest field (medicine) without any contacts. I literally cold-called 30 different practices.
• I got all excellents on my Work Experience feedback.
• I went on a London Bookshop Tour with my mum in the summer and discovered lovely shops.
• I got ARCs from publishers and Waterstones to review.
• I became a Book Depository Affiliate.
• I went to Cornbury and saw Keane.
• I went to Oxfest.
• I went on an Oxford Bookshop Tour with my friend Sophie.
• I visited New York and Orlando.
• I became much braver with roller coasters.
• I started pin trading and overcame my shyness with shop assistants.
• I got fantastic GCSE's.
• I got 100 subscribers.
• I moved school to a college in my local city.
• I saw my friend Julia from America.
• I finally met Neelam who is the sweetest.
• I met Sanne from Youtube which was awesome.
• I met Maureen Johnson, David Levithan and Sarah J Maas.
• I passed my theory test first time with a really high score on hazard perception.
• I made lots of new friends.
• I carved my first pumpkin.
• I performed as a chorus member in the school musical.
• I read 108 books.
• I have been completely meat free which feels fantastic. 
• I went to London at least once a month.
• I've become comfortable with myself.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

My 2014 Resolutions
1. I want to do well academically.
2. I want to get interviews for medicine.
3. I want to start writing a novel.
4. I want to get well enough to go to South Africa with Biology. 
5. I want to write more.
6. I want to write more reviews.
7. I want to blog more consistently. 
8. I want to do more for my future.
9. I want to take more photos. 
10. I want to keep my room tidy.
11. I want to be more productive. 
12. I want to stop being terrified of growing up.