Friday Memes

Q: What would you do over if you were to start your blog again from scratch?

I'd probably plan it a bit more! Haha! I think I jumped in a bit eager and didn't really think of how available I'd be in coming months. I jumped into whatever I could- review and memes. But I couldn't keep it up as exams came, so I wish I'd had the foresight to realise that an plan accordingly. Instead I found myself stressed and annoyed because I had to drop them.

Funnily enough though, if I did start from scratch my biggest regret with probably then be ever stopping since I've a lot a year (almost) of blogging!

Unexpected Books: Which books did you have reservations about reading, but ended up loving once you did?

Despite being a lover of her now (that sounds so wrong), I was nervous about Pride and Prejudice: just Jane Austen in general. I thought that I'd just hate her romances and hate the books. Instead I love them and have read most of them- I finished Persuasion last week! She's become probably my favourite classical author and I'm now afraid to finish all her books.

I felt similar about Dickens to. The first book I picked up of his (Great Expectations) was huge and I was worried it would be too long entirely! Again it wasn't the case, and he takes the proud spot of my second favourite classic author!

Probably every sequel/sub-story I've ever read too- I mean, what if they don't live up to my precious book?

Also, check out my giveaway her for a fantasy book by Jennifer Ford, The Waking Dream! LINK!

Slaughterhouse 5 (Or, the Children's Crusade) by Kurt Vonnegut

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This is well-known modern classic that follows Billy as he jumps through his timeline in what is an utterly bizarre story that somehow didn't lose my attention, though I expected otherwise.

It's an incredibly short book, which is nice. I think that had this book been maybe another 50 pages longer then I would have been annoyed; what featured in the book was that which was applicable and relevant. And there isn't actually anything bloody (despite what it's name suggests). There is some death but of a gory description. Billy actually repeatedly say "So it goes." as a simple to just accept death and move in. This kind of sums up the tone of book in general- it's emotionless without being bland or boring. Billy is stolid about most events in his life (either because he is or he has to be) so even the death of loved ones does not bother him in any discernable way.

The time jumping theme is also very well done. In some ways, it's like reading 3 or 4 different stories at different points in a linear timeline. The two goods things of this are, one, that when the other stories are perhaps less exciting, one stories will remain more interesting as it builds to a small conclusion of something that has been built up to. The other is when all the stories come to pinnacles at the end. In way we know what they'll be (what with time jumping and all) but watching everything come to a conclusion in tandem really pushes an idea of time to the forefront.

The idea, courtesy of the Extra Terrestrial Trafalmadore species, is that time isn't expressly linear and that everything you do in life is merely a path we can't see. This annoyed me in some ways since I don't believe in fate or destiny (and I get the impression that Vonnegut doesn't really either) but I appreciated the effect it had in terms of telling a story. It was one of the reasons that Billy was so stolid; because he knew what woul happen in the future and so he wasn't worried about it happening. There was a wonderful idea that since those moments in our life surround us, we are constantly living in the past or future in the best moments of our lives. So the point I took from the ending of stories all being reached similtaneously is that your life comes down to crucial moments that you are constantly working towards. The notion of legacy is always one I find interesting, and is a message I always take from a Chekhov production. Mortality scares me as much as anyone, but I like to think I live in other ways that aren't so tangeable. I'm not talking afterlife: I mean the influence you have on people, the things you do and the impression you make.

Quite famously, this is meant to be an anti-war novel. I can see it now I look back, but it wasn't something that leapt out at me, but I did notice some things. The major one was the nonchalant way in which the Trafalmadore know they will destroy the Universe when testing spaceship fuel. But knowing this, they assume it cannot be stopped; that time always has ended, always is ending and always will end at that time for that reason. Again my anti-fate idea is showing since my argument would be that that is no just excuse to destroy all life. Part of me wonders that Vonnegut didn't make war considered inevitable in the book only because, as humans, we are so adamantly against those ideas. True, some believe a higher being has a plan for them, but no one thinks their entire life is etched in marble; we like to believe we influence our owns lives and make our own consequences, for good or for ill.

Truly, this is a great book. It's the kind of one I'd pass to someone who wants to read more fiction and is perhaps leaning towards trying classics at some point. It's not at all difficult to read, and my only problem with it was that the Science Fiction element of the Trafalmadore felt wrong. It was well written and worked for the story, but it felt off. The book wouldn't have been the same without either though, so I am of two minds about this.

Anyway; this was excellent so I urge you to buy it somewhere and read it. Did I mention it's only 150 pages too? Beats a 700+ page Dickens novel.

Friday Hope Treize

Q: Many readers/bloggers are also big music fans. Tell us about a few of your favorite bands/singers that we should listen to in 2012.

Just as my reading is eclectic, so is my music. I'm a fan of music from some select musicals (my favourite is The Sound of Music), yet I am just as comfortable with Paolo Nutini, Gaga, Florence and the Machine, Adele, Mumford and Sons and many others. I don't pigeon hold myself as liking only one genre; provided I like the music, I will get it. And if an artist I like makes something I don't like, I won't get it. Just how people try to read books they want and avoid depression after a bad book, I try not to let stereotypes or expectations dictate my music.

I also tend to have phases. I'm in what I think of as 'My Dad's Music' phase at the moment. He's as eclectic as me, and used to listen to TLC, Black Eyed Peas and others. Growing up with them, they're subliminally ingrained in me!

Also, friends of friends played this song at New Years and I've fallen in love with it. I just can't stop singing or listening to it! I actually listened again as I posted this.

2012 Must Reads: Which books are at the top of your list to be read this year (new or old releases)?

NEW: I really want to read the sequels to many of last year's great debuts, such as Insurgent (Divergent), Outpost (Enclave) and A Million Suns (Across the Universe). There are other sequels I'm excited for such as The Rise of Nine (Lorien Legacies/I am Number Four) and there are bound to be things I'll hear about as they come out and think "Of course! How could I forget?!" 


OLD: (I'm classing this as anything that has already been published) I've decided that Nicholas Nickleby is going to be my next Dickens read so I've got that ready for when I decide to read it, but I'm also excited about the prospect of my next Austen novel. I was thinking Sense and Sensibility.

I'd also like to read George R. R. Martin's series since I now have all the books. The same for the Lord of the Rings. Legend, Anna Dressed in Blood, Girl of Fire and Thorns are among those which are only really a month or so old but they are also something I'm hoping and looking forward to reading when I finally sit down with them.

I also have ends of series to read. throughout Autumn and December, I feel like I started the first books of many series, and now I have all the sequels to read. I have the few I've mentioned above, as well Chronicles of the Necromancer, Runelight, The Dead Tossed Waves and others I can't be bothered trying to find on my (recently tidied) shelf. I feel like I have too much.

It was a good hop, but I feel overwhelmed with how much I'm going to have to read this year! I'll leave you with this thought, which occurred to me when I read TGIF question.

Surely all so-called old books remain new books until you've read them? Just like all old news is new until you've heard it. (Courtesy of David Eddings)