T5W: Authors I Want To Meet

There are so many authors I'd like to meet and sit down and discuss their books with yet I found it surprisingly easy to name my top five. I'm taking the liberty that this includes any author living or dead. 

1.  John Green - I am a massive VlogBrothers fan and so I think seeing his personality for so long made him an easy choice for top position. He is the only one in this list who I'd really like to talk with about matters other than their writing.
2. J K Rowling - Like many of you Harry Potter was a massive part of my childhood and I'd love to be able to sit down and really comb through the characters with their creator. 
3. J R R Tolkien - As with J K Rowling I'd love the chance to discuss the details of the world he created. Lord of the Rings was also a massive part of my life (admittedly the films more so than the books). 
4. Patrick Ness - He is one of my favourite authors and from his twitter account it is clear he has a great sense of humour and I know he'd make me laugh. 
5. Enid Blyton - It surprised me when I thought of this name as I usually don't when thinking of my favourite authors but as soon as I did I knew she had to make this list. Her books were are very large part of my younger years and she's been such an inspiration. If I could trace my love of books back to a single author it would have to be her. My Mum read the Five Findouters and Dog, The Enchanted Forest and so many more of her books to me when I was little and made me fall in love with stories long before I cared to read. 

Link to Top 5 Wednesday's Goodreads page.

On Graphic Novels

This year I have read my first two graphic novels: Arkham Asylum by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean (illustrator) as well as the first volume of Scott Pilgrim by Brian Lee O'Malley. 

It turns out I quite like this medium and would be excited to continue to explore it if it weren't for the price. The average cost for a basic graphic novel or Manga seems to be about £10 yet they only take an hour to read (and that's being generous). 

Above is a few pictures from the pages of Arkham Asylum. The colours are vibrant and each page is a work of art printed on high gloss paper. I found myself spending ages on each page and revisiting it after I'd finished to examine and awe over the illustrations. This is a book I understand paying extra for and I am happy to do so.

Now this photo is from the Scott Pilgram graphic novel. With the images being in black and white and the pages being the normal paper you find in books. Now don't get me wrong I really enjoyed the story and I gave it four stars on Goodreads, but I won't be revisiting it over and over again. This is not to fault Brian Lee O'Malley as his format is by far the norm. In fact, I had to pay extra for Arkham Asylum. 

Overall  I really enjoyed my experience with graphic novels and, despite the price, I will be continuing to explore this medium. I'll definitely be continuing the Scott Pilgrim series (I also really want to read Blankets by Craig Thompson). I just wish they were cheaper!

Review: Throne of Glass

Throne of Glass

by Sarah J Maas

(Book 1 in the Throne of Glass series)

This book has received a lot of hype recently and now I understand why. 

Celaena Sardothien was the worlds most feared assassin until she was betrayed and throw into Endovier, a salt mine/death camp. A year later the Crown Prince of Ardalan asks her to compete against other killers to win the title of the King's Assassin. If she wins she will also win her freedom so she eagerly excepts but there may be more dangerous thing than her competition awaiting her at the palace. 

I gave this book four stars on Goodreads but the second half was definitely five star worthy and the last third had my heart racing and I couldn't put it down. I did initially have a problem with Celaena's personality as she did not fit my preconceived idea of a child assassin. I expected a much colder character but once I got used to this more emotionally open bad ass I grew to really like her. The magic and world building was done really well and I cannot wait to continue the series, especially as I have heard it only gets better. My only criticism would be I felt Maas was trying to create a love triangle where none was needed and I definitely wasn't feeling it but this didn't get in the way of my enjoyment of the story however I am cautious to see how it progresses.

Goodreads Link. 

T5W: Series I want to start this year

So I am planning on doing Top 5 Wednesdays from now on (I missed the first week of the year and this one is a day late whoops). This week's T5W is series I want to start this year. These are in no particular order.

1. Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas (already started the first one just the other day)
2. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
3. Anna and the French Kiss companion series by Stephanie Perkins
4. Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi
5. The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare

Most of these are pretty big series that most people in the book blogging community have already read or at least started. At the end of the year I will look back over these and see how much I manage to complete.

Link to Top 5 Wednesday's Goodreads page.

Writing Plans

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to be a writer and having a book published is my dream. Yet I never write. I have so many story ideas and I continue to come up with new ones. I develop the characters and the world and the plot but I will be lucky to write more than a couple of pages of anything.

This year I have decided to actually take my writing seriously for a change. I have set the goal of completing the first draft of a book. This may be too big a goal but by first draft I do mean an unreadable pile of garbage that simply gives me words to work with. A story set out from beginning to middle to end which I will likely almost completely rewrite before it even resembles the finished thing. I figure the hardest part will be getting the initial words down.

I have decided to do Camp NaNoWriMo in July this year. For those of you that don't know he original National Novel Writing Month takes place in November and the goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Now, seeing as I have never sat down to write a book before I figure 50,000 words might be too high a goal. Camp NaNoWriMo, however, allows you to set your own goal so I have decided that 30,000 words is doable (hopefully as that is only 1000 a day) and I won't be at uni in July so hopefully I won't be too busy. Then, if the story isn't over, I will continue writing throughout summer with the aim of finishing the draft before going back to uni in September. I can then spend the semester rewriting it.

My goal in the meantime then is to pick a story to write (and stick to it). This is proving extremely difficult as every time I choose one I either remember a "better" story idea or I start to really think about it and start to notice too many flaws that will either make it difficult to write or will need too much time dedicated to fixing. Once I manage this though I am going to spend the rest of my time up until July outlining it. Beginning to end. Chapter by chapter. I am outlining Katytastic style and she has some great videos on this topic on her YouTube channel.

I am not sure how many posts about writing I will make but you can expect updates, especially in July.

Winter Book Haul

This is my book haul for the Winter Break of 2014/15 seeing as I go back to uni in a week and I have managed to accumulate a lot of books this past month. Most are books I've wanted for a while and haven't been able to get during term time. I don't know how interesting of a blog post this will be but I really enjoy watching book hauls so I figured I'd do one of my own. 

So the 25 books pictured above are all the books I've gotten this holiday and I'm sad to say only 2 were gifts.....  Most of the books I buy are either bought second hand online or are on sale but this month there were a few Christmas gifts to myself that I used to justify the amount of money I've spent. If you click on the titles it will take you to their Goodreads page.

1. Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas  -- This is the book I am reading currently and I will be posting a review of it fairly soon but I am really enjoying it.
2. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell  -- Obviously I loved this book and I have already read it and posted a review of it.

Review: Eleanor and Park

Eleanor and Park

By Rainbow Rowell

What a way to start the year! An easy five stars!

This book is told in the dual perspectives of Park, a quiet boy who just wants to read his comics in peace, and Eleanor, the new girl at school whose eccentric dress and larger frame make her the perfect target for bullies. They meet when Eleanor sits next to Park on the school bus and the most realistic progression from strangers to love interests I have ever read unfolds. 

Eleanor has a very difficult home life and finds solace in Park's company and the seemingly perfectness of his family. This story is about acceptance and the inevitability that first loves are doomed to fail. 

This book broke my heart in the most uplifting way imaginable. Definitely recommend to anyone who likes harder hitting young adult. 

Goodreads Link. 

Favourite book of 2014

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

By Benjamin Alire Sáenz

This books was not only my favourite book of 2014 but also makes it onto my list of favourite books of all time.

It is set in the 80s in El Paso and is about two Mexican-American teenagers. It is told from the point of view of Ari who has never had a real friend until he meets Dante at the local pool and the most beautiful friendship I've ever read about develops as we follow these two through their struggles with discovering who they are and navigating their way towards adulthood. 

One of the great thing about this book is the family aspect. Too many Young Adult books neglect to talk about the relationship between the teenage protagonist and their parents but this book doesn't and the result adds a layer to the story that makes it beautiful.

It deals with family drama and the challenges of trying to be a good friend; with feeling like you don't belong and allowing yourself to open up to someone. It deals with hurt and blame and love and a lot of pent up anger. This book made me squeal at it's cuteness and brought a tear to my eye more than once and even after I put the book down it stayed with me. 

Goodreads Link.

Looking forward to 2015

This year my aim is mainly to just read as much as I can. Goodreads asks for my goal for the year and I have been really struggling to decide. I don't want to make it too high and fail but at the same time I feel everything realistic is too low. Personally I blame the BookTubers who read 150 books last year for my unrealistic expectations! I also want to try the 100 book challenge as I know that I could have completed that many books in a year back in secondary school with only a little bit of work required. Now with all my uni work I know there is no chance.

In the end I settled for 26 books. Although this feels like very few it is still a book a fortnight. I know I will not always be able to keep on top of that but I'm hoping that I can catch up over my 3 month summer holiday (although hopefully I will be working!). I guess I just haven't gotten used to my new reading limits yet...

My other goal is to read more diversely as I have recently noticed the lack of this both in the authors I read and (more interesting to myself) the cultures explored in the books and their locations.

I also hope to blog regularly and post book reviews here for everything I read. Maybe someone will even read them! So that's basically everything I am aiming for this year (well maybe to pass my modules and get a place on the honours programme but let's just focus on the 26 diverse books okay). 

Why I am making this blog...

With it being the Christmas holidays I get a month off in which I finally have time to read. Since going to university a year and a half ago the amount of reading I manage to fit in is practically non-existent due to a mix of the sociability of living in halls and the heavy workload of my course. 

This holiday I have really gotten back into books and realise how much I've missed it. I also got into BookTube this year and discovered the world of blogging and discussing books and thought starting my own blog would be the perfect way to keep up my reading once term starts again.

Hopefully I'll manage to force myself make time for reading in my life again.