T5W: Favourite books of the year so far

1. The Well of Ascension (Mistborn book 2) by Brandon Sanderson  - This was definitely the best read of the year and one of my all time favourites.
2. The Final Empire (Mistborn book 1) by Brandon Sanderson  - I had to include this too as it was also easily my next favourite and I don't feel like I have read enough so far to be able to clump series together. If I had finished the third book I am sure it would be on here too.
3. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell  - This book is the best contemporary I have read in a long time and it broke my heart.
4. We Should Hang Out Sometime by Josh Sundquist  - This memoir was so funny and told in a really unique way.
5. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett  - this was a very odd play (the style is called absurdist) which somehow blew my mind. I think it helped that it was short and so I could get through it when I was too busy to read properly and also that my friends studied it this year so they talked about it a lot. Anything that leaves me researching essays and interpretations for fun definitely earns a place on this list.

Top 5 Wednesdays Goodreads page.

Books I won't read

This was the topic of last weeks Top 5 Wednesday and I did not post anything as I couldn't think of a single book. Now that I have seen other people's lists I thought I would make a post explaining why this confuses me.

I do not understand why anyone would completely write off reading any book. Sure there are some books I have looked at and decided probably are not for me but I would never say never. Even books I have started but could not finish... I may have reason to revisit them. What confuses me most is when people put an author on lists like this. Authors can have so many works and be so versatile that their works cannot just be lumped together. If one book wasn't to your liking it doesn't mean another one won't be. I understand if for some reason someone has a moral objection to an author and does not want to support them but you could still buy their books second hand or borrow them from a library and they would not make a profit from you (although I guess I understand not wanting to even do that for them). 

The closest thing I have to books I will never read are a few unfinished series that, after up to 10+ books, I decided were no longer appealing to me. But even in this case I could never say I definitely will not read them.

Update

It feels like ages since I last posted anything but with school I have been awfully busy lately but now that exams are over and I am back home for the summer I will be back to blogging regularly. Although I start work on Monday I will hopefully now have time to read again so I will have more reviews up soon.

It is almost June and I had been planning to do Camp Nanowrimo but now that it is almost time I know I am not ready. I decided a few months ago on what story I am going to write but the outlining process has proved difficult. There are a lot of different aspects and tropes I have found myself enjoying lately and playing around with them in this story has caused it to be fairly long and complex. At this stage I have decided to postpone the writing process in order to figure out what exactly my heroes do in the second half of this story. I still hope to have a fair bit of story actually written (as a first draft) by the time uni starts back up.

T5W: Books that Should be TV Shows

These are a few book I think would make great TV shows (not movies). I love what has been done with Game of Thrones and I think that has shown that complex books can be adapted to TV shows and still keep their complexity. 

1. The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness - this is apparently going to be a film at some point but it's been in the works so long I don't know what's happening any more with that. I am worried about how the Noise could possibly be visually represented but assuming that could be done I think this would make an amazing TV show and they couldn't really delete a main character. The first book could be a short 6 episodes with the second and third book being longer as needed. I can just picture all the cliff hangers at the end of each season and how suspenseful it would be. 
2. The Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanderson - this series is so epic and I'd love to see allomancy come to life. I think with each book being so different it could make an amazing set of projects with great action scenes as well as intense political suspense. And with how vivid Brandon Sanderson's imagery is it would be easy to turn the Central Dominance into a setting. 
3. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach - this is a very character driven story and I think that a TV show could possibly really bring the characters to life and make an audience really care about them. I am worried however that this would become an overly dramatic college show rather than keep it's really deep and moving plot. 
4. Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah - this story is based on Adeline's own childhood with her emotionally abusive family. I think this could make an amazingly moving short series and it could be adapted without having to add or subtract anything. 
5. Our Lizzy by Anna Jacobs - this book would make a great historical drama. With World War 1 just around the corner a series following Lizzy and her siblings could be a really moving and enthralling series despite not being too fast paced. I can picture something similar to Downtown Abbey but without the wealth. 

Review: Waiting For Godot

Waiting for Godot 

By Samuel Beckett

I don't read many plays but I truely loved this. It is such a short 2 act play I think everyone should give it a go. 

This play as it depicts the characters Vladimir and Estragon waiting for someone called Godot who never arrives. Literally nothing happens in this play and it's simplicity allows it to be open to so many interpretations. Although it seems that Beckett honestly meant it to have no meaning at all it somehow manages to be a very deep and meaningful play. I'd highly recommend reading some essays on the play while you read it (or at least the Wikipedia page) because while is come up with a few ideas of my own reading it was much more enjoyable once I could see all the different interpretations people had come up with.

I am clearly not doing this play justice as it's very hard to explain. At only 100 pages and it being public domain it is definitely worth the read.  

Goodreads link here 

T5W: series enders

1. Monsters of Men (Chaos Walking Trilogy) by Patrick Ness - this perfectly tied up every possible loose end and was such an emotional roller coaster and the ending nearly killed me.
2. The Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter Series) by J K Rowling - this may be an obvious pick but for a good reason!
3. The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) by Rick Riordan - this book again just rounded the series off perfectly and everyone got a deserved ending. 
4. The Hero of Ages (Mistborn Series) by Brandon Sanderson - I am still reading this book but I doubt I'll be wanting to change this answer. This whole trilogy was amazing and this last book is no exception. 
5. The High Lord (Black Magician trilogy) by Trudi Canavan - I was obsessed with this trilogy when I read it and the last book was so action packed and intense. Completely broke my heart. 

Top 5 Wednesdays Goodreads page.

T5W: books that feature traveling

I love how vague this topic is as there are so many types of travelling and any genre can feature it.

1. The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking book 1) by Patrick Ness - this book has Todd running away from his corrupted town and the people who don't want him to leave. This book takes place mostly on the road and is one of my favourite books of all time. 
2. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - Not the most obvious travel book by John Green but Hazel and Gus travel to Amsterdam in this book and their adventures there are the main essence of the book.
3. These Broken Stars (Starbound book 1) by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner) - this book has the characters travelling across the universe at hyper speed before it crashes on an uninhabited planet. It is mostly a survival story but once they have crashed Lilac and Traver have to travel across the rough terrain to make it to where they think a rescue ship will arrive. 
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter book 7) by J K Rowling - this book largely follows the Golden Trio as they travel around the UK trying to figure out what their next move is. 
5. The Circle Trilogy by Nora Roberts - this was one of the first high fantasy books I ever read and I'd be really curious to reread this series and see how I feel about it now. This book has travelling through time and travelling between worlds and made for a thrilling read. 

Top 5 Wednesdays Goodreads page.