Top Ten Books I Hope Santa Brings

1. Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin I've read book one and I just couldn't bear the cliffhanger. I've asked for the rest of the books, but I'd be happy with just the next book to satisfy my curiosity. I mean, some reviews are saying they aren't good books.
2. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak is one I've heard basically raving about anywhere and everywhere. I'll be proud to know contribute in such conversation since I'll have read it.
3. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss Another one I've had recommended a couple of times that I'm finally getting around to getting. 
4. Legend by Marie Lu Since I heard about it a while ago, went to buy it and... it wasn't out yet. So this is the realisation of a book I've been waiting to have for a much too long time.
5. The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson To add to my pile of fantasy, I have another book which has mostly received good reviews and criticism (at least where I've looked) and I find the concept interesting and unique enough that I couldn't, in good conscience, pass this by.
6. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess Since my...inauguration in liking dystopia, this one has come up a few times. I haven't read it or seen the film, but again the positive feed back has me thinking I'll both like and be mildly disgusted by this book.
7. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë I'm trying my best to read classics, and this is another one that I feel I'll have to read. I've heard that with Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights, these make quite the set. I'll be glad to have read them all.
8. Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake Enough people have said this is weird in a good way that I feel I want to know how this book happens. The title puts me off a bit (I have a huge aversion to blood), but I've been mildly assured I shouldn't worry.
9. Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan I read the first book in this series earlier in the year and, bleak and depressing as it was, it was riveting and realistic. I won't be reading this too soon after Christmas (it is supposed to be joyous, after all) but I want to read it soon-ish, before I forget book 1.
10. Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb The final one is another fantasy one that I want to read. Seriously, I could spending the next three months on fantasy exclusively and still have some left. I think I'm making things hard for myself since I'm starting all these series that have the potential to depress me and consume me at exam time, but they've all come well recommended so I shan't shy away just yet.

Thanks for hopping by. Maybe you could tell me one book; because if we all write lists of ten down there, it just gets cluttered. And, if I agree with the one you do choose, I can feel confident to hop on over to you.

Anyway, Happy Hopping!

Oh: Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year too (if you're just the casual hopper)!!!!

Top Ten Books on my TBR List for Winter

I think I should say that would not expect to finish 10 books this winter, so take this list with a pinch of salt...as in I can't possibly do it and that I'll be easily distracted by the shiny new books I'll get at Christmas (as well as a truckload of revision)!

1. Another Jane Austen book. It's been too long since I read her and I'd like to do it again soon. The only un-read one I own is Northanger Abbey, so I guess I'll say that.
2. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I know the story (who doesn't?!) but I've never actually read the book. I'll try and read this before Christmas preferably.
3. The Blood King by Gail Z. Martin. I started this series over a year ago. It's not the best, but it is good. The next three in this list are the next three of the series I haven't read.
4. Dark Haven by Gail Z. Martin. As I said, this is a series I really want to finish. The books aren't huge but they're quite chunky. Thankfully the text isn't tiny though
5. Dark Lady's Chosen by Gail Z. Martin. If I get this far, I'll actually be able to buy the sequel series too! I kind of think I might not like the next series of books, but I have to at least try, don't I?
6. The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima. Another fantasy book, I know. But it's Christmas! Kind of the season for the fantastical, don't you think? (Well I do regardless of what you think! I shan't let any of you ruin my Christmas *glares*.)
7. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I've basically been in love (and desperation) since I heard about this book. I have voucher for this (not this in particular, but I've decided that that is what it is for) and at the time of writing I haven't used this voucher. Hopefully I'll have this and read this because I really want to fall in love with it!
8. Paradise Lost by John Milton. I have this on my iPod (iBooks) and I flick through it every now and then. I'm about 3% of the way in (actual figure) and even if I don't understand it entirely, it reads beautifully. I'd like to read a huge chunk of this (75%) if I can't actually read it all by winter. 
9. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I've never read Vonnegut and he's one of those everyone should read once (or so I'm told). Slaughterhouse  in the name puts me off a bit (I've a HUGE aversion to blood and gore) but I will move past it.
10. Temeraire by Naomi Novik. I actually got this book for free when I bought Inheritance, but I expect it will be the kind of book I like so I intend to give it ago. This is teh book I'm least worried about reading.

I just want to say here, before I go, how proud I am of this list. That sounds weird, except I pride myself on being eclectic and even though there is no proper YA (I've read through my store! But is Night Circus one?) I've got a mix of modern classic, Literary classic, Fantasy, Steampunk (Temeraire) and even seasonal. 

Happy reading!

Top Ten Authors I Want At My Thanksgiving Dinner (and a Challenge)

We don't actually have Thanksgiving, but its the top American Celebration I wish we did have. It seems so pleasant and honest (and kind of like an early start for Christmas). This is kind of my Disclaimer.

1. This has to be JK Rowling. She is the epitome of my second most favourite series and I could ask her a truckload of question- Harry Potter ones as well as about reading, her life, opinions- because as well as a being a good writer, she's marvellously opinionated. She's just a great Human Being.
2. David Eddings. He's dead, I think, or at least very old. This is a sad thing because he is the author of my favourite series, and I'd love him to tell me about how he wrote the books, the inspiration and also what he was like when younger. Mostly I want him to tell me more stories within the world he created.
3. Veronica Roth. Divergent's probably my favourite book this year, and I follow her blog, so I think I have an idea on this Lady's opinions and stuff. Mostly I'd just like to hear more about them. She's sounds relatively similar to me so I'd like to see how far this extends (and whether I'm just complementing my ego).
4. Muriel Barbery, as the author of my favourite book, also would have to be there. She's another of those really intelligent ones and someone who makes me think with almost every point she makes and question everything I do. I'd be self-conscious with her there, but I'd also be the better for it.
5. I have to invite Suzanne Collins too since I have to know about her books. I know where she got her inspiration, but I have to know what drove her to finish as she did. Theorising is great and interesting, but I want to hear it from the horse's mouth. Why did she write as she did in the last book?
6. Stephen Fry is kind of a solely English Celebrity (though I think most people do know him in the English-speaking world). He's intelligent, witty and just a mesmerising speaker who uses the most resonant vocabulary known to man. He's just...I don't know. I am in awe to a point of speechlessness.
7. Jenny Lawson (AKA The Bloggess) because she could make me howl with laughter, but would also say something really sweet and thought-provoking. Also, as much as I love them, the above writers probably have a tendency to withdraw into their own little worlds and Jenny would draw them out and we could all be outrageous, yet happy, fools together. There's the problem that she doesn't like lots of people but I'd get around that. She isn't actually published but will be soon!
8. Allie Brosh, who write Hyperbole and a Half (if you didn't know), is another really funny writer who hasn't really finished her book yet, but has lots of material online. She's be a hoot and I'd love her to tell us all some funny (hyperbolic) stories too. And she's been absent online for a while, partly due to depression. I need my hyperbolic fix, and maybe I could help her in some manner. 
9. Kathryn Stockett, who wrote The Help, is also a necessary addition because she moves me and wrote another of my favourite books from this year. I'd just have to hear about her experience while writing and the what Mississippi was like when she was there.
10. My final is Jane Austen. Of all my authors, she'd the least likely to even consider coming. Not that any probably are, but bar one, she's the only one who is undeniably dead. Makes it kind of hard. But she wrote amazing books: romances that I enjoyed. I'd want to know what she thought of the people in her time and how she would react to our modern society.

That's the cut off point. I can think of at least 5 classic authors I would invite too, but I tried to concentrate on modern writers. Jane Austen is there because no way could I miss her. She's my favourite Classic writer for the time being. Anyway, part two of the post.

I've decided that I'm going to take part in the Shakespeare Reading Month hosted by Allie at A Literary Odyssey. Shakespeare is a writer I really like and respect, and I'm disappointed I've hardly read him. I've read A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet, but they were both with the school. I also argue that I've read Hamlet, since I saw the play done (without cuts) and it had the lines coming up on the sides, which I read. Hence, I read it. But that is a fraction of his work. I've seen more that I've read (Richard III, Titus Andronicus, MacBeth, King Lear) but that's still only a total of 7 of 38 (not including other poetry), perhaps a fifth of them. I need to rectify this.

I've heard it said that you should read the Bard not just to understand; that it is even advisable to read merely for the pleasure of fluent writing and enrapturing imagery. To read him merely for the experience. I have no illusions that I'll read loads: I'm aiming to read but one if I can. For that reason, I will be taking part. 

Happy reading!

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

09/07/2011


4

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a more classical dystopia in a world where books are against the law and incinerated if found. The reason I like this book is that the premise and the world itself are very clever and believable, but I found the writing itself wanting.

I don’t want to ruin the plot (not that there is much of it) so if I seem vague, assume it is for that reason. All I can say is that it isn’t too important, I think, because it is a book designed to encourage you to think and presents you with ideas; think like Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy of five books. In a nutshell, plot is peripheral, I felt.

The way the world is built in this novel is so understandably logical (and in a way, proven) that one could worry for our own books’ safety. Though the law encourages the destruction of books, books became obsolete before the law came in. It is a book about the most extreme of censorship, stemming from self censorship. In our desire not to offend others, we would censor our books to avoid this offense starting with words and phrases before gradually destroying the book itself. The other reason cited (which is more political) is that society is generally happier when it doesn’t have to think. In the achieving of this hedonism, all thought is stopped by limiting social interaction, confusing ideas and what Orwell coined “doublethink”. How? Television.

It is a different kind of television but it is the idea that these people are your friends and family and that interaction is straightforward with the technology causing you to feel something without having to go through the mental stages of reaching that emotion: through chemicals or colour. I think- this was something I sort of felt my way into understanding because Bradbury was a little wordy, but I’ll explain the way he wrote in a minute.

The other interesting pieces of technology are earpieces that play music to induce a certain mood. Sound familiar? You’re hearing the prophecy of your iPod and MP3 players! These are supposed to distract and occupy humanity. Because as long as we are occupied, we cannot stop to think: so cars drive at unimaginably fast speeds, porches were gotten rid of to discourage leisurely sitting and neighbourly chatting while the law keeps tabs on suspicious morning walkers; all in the interest of reducing free thought.

But away from the story: to prose and writing. I felt that Bradbury was just explicitly in love with ideas. While writing in the plot, he would start off down the winding road of tangent and rambling which- though coherent- made the return to the actual story sort of like dropping into cold water. Nonetheless, it was interesting. Yet, for me, as someone who likes the story to fit like a jigsaw and not just be held forcibly together, I found this way of writing detracted from my complete pleasure in reading. If it had been beautifully written, I would have given it the next point level.

I think if dystopia is your thing (as is abstract) you should read this, ideally before buying. It’s an ideas book and so you need to be ready to learn and absorb otherwise the book becomes are huge mess of utter confusion.

DISCLAIMER :-)

I know I babble and ramble a little incoherently, but that doesn’t mean I don’t find myself annoying as well. I would fix this problem, but it’s too difficult. I don’t have a problem with it, it just distracts me from the book a little.