Hey guys! Here's a quick look at the books that I've finished since the beginning of the year so far! The last two weren't quite done as of filming this video, but I have finished one of them between filming and uploading this video, so only one remains unfinished, and I do still have two weeks to finish the Mists of Avalon =)
Let me know what you've been reading!
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Hey guys! Just a quick, fun book tag. I'm hoping to read more and thus have more books to review for you this year, so let me know if you enjoy that kind of thing!
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Hi Guys! I've been mostly doing these posts as videos, but it's been a long time since I updated on the books I've been reading, so I didn't want to wait to film. What I want to do in this post is quickly go over the books I've read since my last Book Chat video (spoilers: there aren't many), as well as show you 7 books I'd like to read this year!
You may remember that I did something similar last year, with 6 books I wanted to read in 2016, so I thought it would be fun to do a similar post this year, since one of my resolutions this year is to work on reading more, since I miss it when I am not reading. If you want to see the rest of my 2017 Resolutions, make sure you check out that blog post!
What I've read since Sept 2016:
1. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
2. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
3. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
I told you there weren't many! I didn't even make it to 10 books last year! I'm pretty disappointed, but I'm really happy that I managed to reread the Twilight series, because I really loved it in highschool, but was worried it wouldn't stand up to a reread so many years later... but I loved it all over again! It's such a quick easy read with (I think) really interesting characters and quick plot. I wish Meyer would stop writing other books I don't care about and give me some more of her vampires, but alas, that seems unlikely. She's probably told all the stories she had to tell there... I didn't include Breaking Dawn, because I'm currently still reading it, I didn't manage to finish it before the new year, but it will certainly be included in my next round up!
MY 7 Books To Read in 2017
1. The World of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin
This one was on my list for last year, but obviously I didn't get there, though I still really want to! This is basically a history book slash encyclopaedia of the Game of Thrones world written by a maester, and full of beautiful art depicting famous people, events, and places in the World of Ice and Fire.
2. Tale of the Body Theif by Anne Rice
Another book that I didn't get to last year, though it was on the list. This is the fourth book in the Vampire Chronicles series from Anne Rice, and I loved the first 3, and I love Vampire novels, so hopefully the Twilight series will have helped me spring back into this series this year!
3. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
This one has been pretty big lately, I think, and aside from that Rothfuss seems pretty active in the nerd communities, which is fun. It feels a bit like Game of Thrones, and maybe it's riding on the coat tails of ASoIaF, but it's just a big fantasy series, and I love me some big-ass fantasy novels. Aside from that, I've opened it up before in stores and read the prologue or first chapter, and the writing style is just beautiful. I'm hopeful that the writing will help to launch me into this world, because I love in depth fantasies, and I love series.
4. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I read The Great Gatsby for the first time a few years ago now, and I fell head over heels in love with Fitzgerald's style. I'm not even sure the novel itself was all that compelling, but the style with which Fitzgerald shares his ideas, and the way he strings his thoughts together was mesmerizing to me. Immediately afterwards, I bought my own copy of Gatsby, as well as a book containing This Side of Paradise, as well as The Beautiful and Damned, and I want to get through at least one of those novels this year, so I can feel better about claiming Fitzgerald as one of my favourite authors.
5. Beowulf by J.R.R. Tolkien
I actually have read Beowulf before multiple times for different classes in University and high school. I actually really love the story, and wish there was more to it. I'm a huge fan of medieval writing, and Beowulf is obviously one of the oldest written examples of such. This particular book is a translation by J.R.R. Tolkien, not a retelling or anything original, but as I am a huge Tolkien fangirl, as well as a fan of Beowulf as a story, when this came out I found it super compelling and asked for it for Christmas. However, I haven't even tried to get into it yet! It's quite short, so I really should, so I'm hoping this will be the year. There is also Tolkien's attempt at a retelling included in this book as well, though: the Sellic Spell.
6. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
For a long time I have had no interest in reading this particular novel, after managing to avoid it somehow in middle school. It did not interest me, despite how much it seemed to have affected even some of the less bookish types in my classes. However, it is a very short novel, and often pops up in other things, since the story is such a part of our collective consciousness. Also, my sister really enjoyed it, and although she is sometimes a reader, she doesn't often make recommendations, but she adored this story and has insisted I should read it. So here it is, on this list.
7. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Finally, a bit of a weird one, which is a huge part, I'm sure, of why I've always wanted to read this one. It's been such a controversial but popular novel, and I've heard that Nabokov's writing style is really beautiful, even when the subject matter in this book is a little... creepy? Also, this one was written in English, though Nabokov was Russian, so it's nice to know you're reading the author's words, not the interpretation of a translator. Or maybe that's only something I worry about as an English student?
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There are lots more books I want to read, of course, as my extensive GoodReads to-read list will show, but these are just 7 I would really love to get through this year. As I mentioned in my resolutions, my goal this year is 15 books, so if I read them all, these will be only about half of my 2017 books!
Let me know in the comments the best book you read last year, and one (or some) you want to read in 2017! Oh, and also let me know if you prefer book content like this, or in video form!
Thanks for reading!
In which I finally share what I've been reading since my last round up video a whole year ago...
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Hi guys, no real introduction needed here, I think, so here's today's video:
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1. Cry of the Dove by Fadia Faqir
2. My Drunk Kitchen by Hannah Hart
3. Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
4 & 5. Girl Friends (vol. 1 & 2) by Milk Morinaga
**All cover images borrowed from GoodReads**
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First of all, Happy Free Slurpee Day! =P
Anyways, no book review for you this weekend, just a reminder that my most recent Book Chat video went up on Monday, in case you didn't see it! In those videos I do a round up of all the books I read since last time, and talk a bit about the book and how I liked it.
TL;DR: The past 6 months, I only read 6 books! O_O
If you wanna see the video, here you go:
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Hi guys! Today—as promised, or at least alluded to—I have for you a book review. As I think I mentioned in my book haul last weekend, I'm planning to start these reviews with the books I mentioned in my 10 Influential Books tag video—which you should go watch if you haven't seen it yet, so you can see what's coming up in this series =P—so the first book that I'll be reviewing is The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
I'm pretty sure that the Lord of the Rings is so much a part of popular culture now that I don't really need to go into what it's about, but that could always be my own bias talking, so I'll try to admit that there's a possibility that there are people who know nothing about this book, or the movies that were made based on them, and I'll attempt to summarize the concept of this beautiful novel.
What it's about: The Lord of the Rings is a classic high-fantasy novel, which follows a fairly large cast of characters (though no where near as large as some of today's books/shows, such as Game of Thrones) through their adventures and trials in Middle Earth, and is in many ways a book about good and evil, but the complex and beautiful world that Tolkien sets his story in makes it so much more. I guess it's about how the good races come together—elves, hobbits, dwarves, men, etc.—to stop the forces of evil: Sauron, orcs, goblins, ring-wraiths, etc... I don't want to accidentally give anything away, so I'll leave it there.
My Thoughts: Spoilers... I freaking love LotR! It is quite literally my favourite book of all time. The story, the world, the words and the way that Tolkien wrote is just so beautiful; this book is like my comfort food. And by the way, I should have been more clear by now, but I keep saying this is a book, and not a trilogy, because it is, even though it is usually presented in three volumes/books, and the three parts have their own names. But yes, it's all one book.
If you love fantasy novels, then LotR should really be a must-read for you, because in so many ways, Tolkien was practically the father of the genre, and so many of today's fantasy novels borrow from or build on his work both knowingly and unwittingly. Also, if you are a lover of description and imagery, Tolkien is the author for you; his scenes and characters are beautifully and painstakingly described, sometimes to the point that it bores people, but I personally love it! If you're all about the character or plot driven novels, then LotR might be a bit of a tough read for you, but if you're an experienced reader of classic literature, then I doubt Tolkien's style will be a problem for you!
I also wanted to briefly describe why I included this novel as one of the books in my list of top 10 most influential to me. I already mentioned that Tolkien and LotR set the stage for a lot of today's fantasy, and thus that is one way in which it has been very influential, but the tag was supposed to be about what I felt influenced me... That said, my love of the fantasy genre grew out of reading first the Hobbit and then the Lord of the Rings with my mom in elementary school... It wasn't until after LotR that I read Harry Potter, and then further went in search of other fantasy novels, and fantasy largely remains a favourite genre for me, be it novels, shows, or movies. In a similar way, I also feel like it opened me up to the world of historical fiction, since Middle Earth is somewhat Medieval or pre-medieval. But in general, I feel like the novel has had a huge impact on me, especially considering I keep going back to it (and the movie adaptation), and how this story and Tolkien's words feel like home to me...
And now that I feel like I've written Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings a very public love letter, I'll stop gushing and leave you for this week. I'm sure that I've forgotten a thousand things I would have liked to say about this book and author, but I'll stop because I feel like I'm just rambling! I'll finish by saying: if you love classics, fantasy, historical fiction, and/or the LotR movies, please consider reading this book if you haven't already! =P
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So let me know if you've read the Lord of the Rings, and what you thought about it, whether you agree or disagree with me. I'll try not to let my feelings be hurt if you hated it! =P
I hope you all have an awesome weekend! Thanks for reading!
So I gave myself an idea when I was filming the 10 Most Influential Books Tag—which went up on Monday, I think. Click here to go watch that very quick video if you haven’t seen it yet—and that idea was to do a book series on my blog. So what I'm planning is to do book reviews and sometimes other random book-related posts most Saturdays. Sometimes they’ll be reviews of books I've preciously read that I want to share my thoughts on, books I’ve read recently, I’ll also do some book tags, and rarely, book hauls. I’m not really a book haul-er though, but that’s what I have for you today!
Today (as I’m writing this), my local library had their annual book sale, so of course I had to check it out! The paperbacks were on for 25 cents, or 5 for $1. But while I was picking out books, the librarians came around and changed all the signs to half-off, so in the end, I got 10 paperbacks for a dollar, and also a magazine for another 10 cents. Most of them are random books I’ve never heard of, some by authors I know, or authors I have heard of and wasted to read, and some just sounded interesting. A couple are actually parts of series, and not always the first books in their series, but that’s okay... I can get the first books out of the library when I get there.
So anyway, here’s a look at everything that I got, as well as the back cover blurbs. For any that didn’t have blurbs on the back covers, I’ll insert a quote of their blurb on GoodReads
Enjoy!
My Comments: I know most people read this in school, but somehow I avoided it all through Highschool and University. I want to read it though, and this sale seemed like a great time to pick up my own copy!
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My Comments: I love Merlin/Arthurian books, and that is what this is. This is the beginning of a series, or something, but at least it's the first book! This seems like a cool, more historical, realistic approach to the legends, but obviously with magicky stuff. Yeah. I honestly know nothing about this book or author, so we'll see.
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My Comments: This one looks really interesting. And it's about a culture I don't personally know a lot about. It sounds dramatic and intense, so I hope it's good.
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My Comments:I love dragons, and I know that a lot of people like Anne McCaffrey, though I don't know if these are my type of books. We shall see. This is the first of a series as well.
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My Comments: I've wanted to read this book for some time. It actually has pretty harsh ratings on GR (GoodReads), but it sounds really good, and I think it basically pioneered steampunk as a thing, so that's really cool. Plus I know I like Gibson as an author. Looking forward to this one!
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My Comments: I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to all kinds of British stuff, including the royal family, and the Queen is freaking awesome, so I was excited to see this collector's edition of Hello celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee for only 10 cents! I'm sure I'll enjoy this!
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"A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants can choose -and change - their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.
"Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction." (Blurb as on Goodreads)
My Comments:I don't remember why, probably because I wanted to read more Ursula Le Guin, but this book was already on my GR want to read list before I bought it.
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My Comments:This one actually sounds really good. Of the ones I've never heard of, it's probably the one I'm most looking forward to. I love WWII period books, and this one fits that, while also being set in an area I've read little to nothing about. Hope it's awesome or at least good.
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My Comments: I again bought this because Ursula Le Guin, but this one sounds quite odd, and possibly really good.
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"A tale of chivalry and doomed, transcendent love, The Romance of Tristan and Iseult is one of the most resonant works of Western literature, as well as the basis for our enduring idea of romance. The story of the Cornish knight and the Irish princess who meet by deception, fall in love by magic, and pursue that love in defiance of heavenly and earthly law has inspired artists from Matthew Arnold to Richard Wagner. But nowhere has it been retold with greater eloquence and dignity than in Joseph Bédier’s edition, which weaves several medieval sources into a seamless whole, elegantly translated by Hilaire Belloc and Paul Rosenfeld." (Blurb from GoodReads)
My Comments:I was simply intrigued. This is a side-story to the Arthurian stuff, if I remember correctly. Tristan being one of Arthur's knights. Hopefully this retelling is good, it was originally sold at a University Book store, so that seems hopeful.
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My Comments: Finally, this is disappointingly the third book in the series. Blah. Still, it sounds interesting, so I'll just have to get the first two out of the library when I finally get around to this book. Oh well. 10 cents. *shrugs*
***Let me know if you’re read any of these, or heard of them, and what your thoughts were! Also let me know what new books you’re picked up recently! Hope some of you are interested in a book series! =P
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