No one really likes CS Lewis, right? Right.

Hey internet folks and folkettes! It occurs to me that I have neither 1) done a Sunday Sundries post, or 2) wrapped up Bout of Books (spoiler: my Saturday stats are pretty much it. I'm fine with it.) but THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT.

So basically, Alice of the Reading Rambo has written an awesome thing about George Eliot and the-order-in-which-you-should-read-her-stuff, and it is awesome (I mentioned that, right?) and it is a finalist in A Thing on Book Riot and it is not winning.

I know. It's just ridiculous. Instead some lady who wrote about CS Lewis in a much less entertaining (and actually, much less EVERYTHING) is winning, and THIS CANNOT STAND. Not only because George Eliot is clearly better than CS Lewis (She's a lady! And... didn't basically just steal The Bible to write books, as far as I'm aware, I AM LOOKING AT YOU, ASLAN!) but also, ALICE is clearly better than CS Lewis lady (who I'm sure is fine, but, you know, she's not my internet friend.)

So basically, this is me canvassing for votes. PLEASE GO AND DO IT. All you have to do is go here, and click on the little facebook 'like' at the top of the post and then Alice will win and BRING PRIDE to the group of awesome people (within which, of course, I include all of you.) Also, for the sake of... Something, I will link you to the CS Lewis post (DO NOT LIKE IT) just so you can see that it's clearly not as good. It just isn't guys, I'm completely serious about that.

So yeah. Go! Support good writing, and also the kind of person who would lovingly host a Harry Potter Readalong for 6 months. Oh yes.

Bout of Books: DAY SIX

In spite of yesterday's early excitement (in that super brief post that, really, isn't even worth reading) I actually didn't do any more reading for the rest of the day. But, you know, Les Mis was CRYING out to me (crying being the main word of last night) and I had to read ALL THE HARRY POTTER posts, and that was basically my evening done with. TECHNICALLY, I was reading blog posts and then watching a book, so it's all the same thing anyway really, right? 

Today I have woken up with the kind of annoying headache where, as long as I'm laying down, I feel perfectly fine (seriously! I mean, my eyes just hurt a tiny bit, but apart from that I feel fine!) but as soon as I get up my head feels all swoopy and dizzy and horrible and UGH. So, basically, today will involve much laying down and not-standing, and probably some reading because of that. Every cloud and all that...

But first. I am going to try and have a little sleep to see if that makes me feel better. And if it DOES (which would be awesome) I will do a lot less reading because I'm supposed to be making a cake right now and yeah. So a gone-headache would be fab.

Pages Read: 573

Books Read From: 5 (just started Little Men)

Books Finished: 2

Snacks: No. I really don't care for food right now. But I had some delicious ibuprofen...

Blogs visited: I looked at a few last night, I think... Even if I didn't comment, I was probably there!

Bout of Books: DAY FIVE

Well, hello everyone! How is everyone on this soon-to-rain Friday? Good I hope! This is just going to be a really quick update because I have to go to work imminently and I haven't even made my sandwich yet, BUT it's very important for me that you know that I finished my second book of the week today and I'm very pleased about that! Admittedly, it was only 150 pages long, but STILL. It's something. 

So. I WILL be back. I actually really want to watch Les Miserables tonight, so I might actually do that instead of reading, but hey- I finished a book today! That's all that matters.

Pages Read: 553

Books Read From: 4 

Books Finished: 2!

Snacks: I don't even know why I bother with this... But I did have some crisps this morning? But that was while watching Arrested Development, so... Whatever.

Blogs Visited: Um. Yeah. No. Bad Laura. 

"'Even You-Know-Who can't split himself into seven.'"

Oh, Deathly Hallows. You are so much more intense than your predecessors already, and we're only 10 chapters in! There's not only more ACTION in this book already, but, and I think we've all been feeling this, MORE OF THE CRYING. I just... Harry keeps thinking of his parents, and Sirius, and that's upsetting enough, and then there are other things about stuff that happens later and I don't even remember most of what happens later, but I still find everything really really sad. I literally started crying a bit at 'I open at the close', and nothing has happened with that yet! Or will for ages!

I'm really just not emotionally prepared for this AT ALL.

I don't know if this is just me, but the Bit At The Burrow felt kind of different to me in this book. I think that, in all other cases, I'm pretty much like 'GET TO HOGWARTS ALREADY' (I'm sorry, I really like Hogwarts) but this time it felt very calming and safe, almost definitely because what's coming isn't the other familiarity of Hogwarts, but the great unknown of the outside world, which, as is made extra-clear by Mad Eye Moody's death (WHICH I FORGOT ABOUT) is very very dangerous now. I mean, even the Malfoys are scared of Voldemort at this point. That can't be good.

It's bullet point time, I think, but first I'm going to start doing a body count for each section of the book, just so as, you know, we can keep track of who's dead. JUST LIKE VOLDY PROBABLY DOES.

Death Count: 4- Charity Burbage, Hedwig (NOOOOO), Mad Eye Moody, Rufus Scrimgeour. (And, let's face it, probably others at the Ministry, too).

• Have we talked before about how Hitler and Voldemort are not exactly dissimilar? Cause how's this one- Voldy's all like 'ONLY THE PURE BLOOD ARE ANY GOOD' and the dude toootally has a muggle father. Hitler's all like 'BLONDE HAIR AND BLUE EYES ONLY' and I think we all know that's not what he looks like. Just... I don't know, guys, crazy murdering assholes are stupid.
• It's gross how much Bellatrix is like

with Voldemort. I just... NO BELLATRIX. You evil bitch.

• I definitely didn't remember all this Dumbledore history. Am I right in thinking that it's not strictly  relevant to the story, but it IS really interesting? Or it's the most relevant ever and I'm just bad at remembering? 
• Dudley! Has he redeemed himself for YEARS of bullying? He has not. But it's nice to think, as Harry and the Dursleys part ways forever, that at least one of them doesn't think he's the shittiest person ever to have lived. AND HE WANTS HARRY TO BE SAFE! Oh, it's just adorable, really.
• Harry is very very much back to his not-wanting-people-to-risk-their-lives-for-him ways (which is very similar to his saving-people thing). And yes, it's all adorable and noble, but it is just extremely tiring. Because the thing that he doesn't at all get is that their not so much risking their lives for HIM so much as for the one thing that can stop Voldy. And yes, that is his burden, but it's not AT ALL one that he has to carry alone, obviously.
• The Seven Potters is both EXCELLENT and ENTHRALLING and seriously, my heart was in my throat the whole time. And I have read it before! More than once! So so awesome.
• Accio Hagrid? Accio HAGRID?! Can you even do that? Because I LOVE IT. And, oh man, Hagrid shouting at Lupin to leave Harry alone when he gets all rough with him. I just... I love you, Hagrid.
• "The measures they had taken to protect their families made him realise, more than anything else could have done, that they really were going to come with him and that they knew exactly how dangerous that would be. He wanted to tell them what that meant to him, but he simply could not find words important enough."

Please. You're killing me.

• Oh Dumbledore. You and your unexplained bequests. Oh, Scrimgeour. You and your annoying Ministryness. 
• Ron had no idea who Luna was before OotP, but sure, let's invite the Lovegoods to Bill and Fleur's wedding! On the plus side... LUNA! We all need quality Luna time, I think.
• There are some GREAT wand jokes in this section. I mean, really. "'You'd be surprised, it's not all about wandwork, either.'" and also "'I had not realised I ever discussed my vand vith fans.'" See, JK knows how to bring the funny still!
• I want an evening bag like Hermione's. I need to carry a lot of stuff with me. And also, HOW CLEVER IS THAT?! I'm so glad Hermione's there to sort everything out.
• I like that Harry is all sickened by Draco's fear and horror. I realise what this means from a Drarry viewpoint, but my thought is- would Draco feel the same way if he somehow had visions of Harry being all mistreated by Voldy? Because my gut feeling is that, no, no he would not. Or at least he wouldn't have before he started feeling all scared. And this is why Harry's the hero. 

As always, there is LOADS more to say, but I feel like I've already made you read ENOUGH. Go about your LIVES again, people!

Bout of Books: DAY FOUR

Bout of Book-ers! (And, everyone else). Hello! I am still alive, despite the fact that I haven't readalongly updated for over 30 hours (shut up, I know you missed me)- I meant to update last night before Mad Men but I watched it an hour earlier than I'd anticipated and then I just crawled into bed. And slept FOREVER, and was still tired when I woke up. Sigh.

Anyway. It's today now! (Technically, it's this evening now) and I don't have much to report on the reading front, but that's only because I spent my morning book shopping, which I think we can all agree is a legitimate activity. And because it has to do with books, that makes it a legitimate readalong activity too, right? So let's talk about what I bought!

So! I got a Rough Guide to Japan because I'm optimistic and also Oxfam were doing a buy one, get one free promotion on books, annnnd that was my free book. 

Above that, is The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson who, you probably don't know, is the lady behind The Moomins, but she's also written a load of adult books that I have not at all read but you know, I want to start! 

My other Oxfam book was Blindness by Jose Saramago, which I want to say... Megs? read probably ages ago, and I pretty much forgot about it until I saw it today and I was like yes, yes I will buy you. So yeah.

The other three I also got as a '3 for £5' dealie. Of these, The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas was the most wildcard-ish, and I nearly bought The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver until I saw this and remembered that Bex and Hanna both LOVE Thomas, so I was like, yeah, ok.

And THEN I still nearly bought the Shriver book, but I saw The Keep by Jennifer Egan, and... I genuinely like Egan, as opposed to vaguely disliking Shriver, and the back involved A CASTLE and also ADDICTION TO A WIFI CONNECTION, and so I obviously had to have it instead.

AND (I know) finally I got Love and Friendship by Jane Austen, which, as I understand it, is a collection of her really early writing and juvenilia and I kind of didn't know it existed, so obviously I needed it. Oh yes. 

And that was my morning, in book form! I did read maybe 20 pages of Kitchen with my lunch (haha!) but that's kind of it for today, so far (and I have to write about Harry Potter later tonight, so... there goes the rest of my evening!) but, you know, oh well! I'll make up for it this weekend. Perhaps.

Pages Read: 469

Books Read From: 4

Books Finished: 1 (still just the one!)

Snacks: Yeah, I'm still not really doing that. *shrugs*

Blogs Visited: Remember that sleeping thing? That was what I was doing. But I'm still at least trying to keep up with my book ladies!

Bout of Books: DAY THREE

Day Three of Bout of Books, and I am STILL DOING IT! That's... pretty weird. But good. Deeefinitely good. I was just about to say that it's probably because the weather is so gross, and I can't be bothered to do anything else, but really I'd MUCH prefer it if the weather was nice and I could read outside alllll morning. Stupid England.

Anyway. READING UPDATE! I... Really didn't read anything last night. Well, I think I read 2 chapters of Harry Potter 7, but then I went to watch TV which was really stupid because I ACTUALLY wanted to go to sleep. Stupid TV. (I watched Mary, Queen of the High Street, if anyone's interested. It was actually pretty good, which is why I stayed up. Stupid everything.)

But this morning, I've been allll over Harry Potter. I've nearly finished this week's chapters, which is awesome, and once I'm done with them I can read something else, and just do ALL THE READING EVER. Which, I believe, is the point of this thing? The drawback to all this reading is that it's nearly 1pm and I'm not dressed yet, BUT don't let that sentence fool you because this is basically ALWAYS the time I get dressed. I'm an absolute slob, you guys. But I really had better get dressed now.

Pages Read: 353

Books Read From: 3

Books Finished: 1

Snacks: I just had some diet coke? Seriously, I don't really snack...

Blogs visited: I did just go around my friends blogs, AND I commented on a new-to-me one (HA!) Go me!

Bout of Books: DAY TWO

Oh. My. Gosh. You guys, it's very nearly 9pm and I HAVE JUST FINISHED LES MISERABLES. This is genuinely a life event that deserves attention, and yeah. WOAH. That was a lot of pages, you guys. I think I'm still kind of in shock that I've finished it, really, but there's definitely a tiiiny bit of a weight lifted off my shoulders right now.

Obviously I'm going to review it with the proper attention it deserves at some point, but for now I'll just say... There were times when I was completely and utterly frustrated by it and wanted to just RIP IT IN HALF, but at this point? I'm going to say I would read it again- especially now that I know with confidence which bits I can happily skip. (Seriously, you have to skip bits. You just... Yeah.)

SO. That's one Bout of Books goal down! And don't let the fact that I'm going WILD on the internet right now make you think I'm not going to keep reading, because I totally am! After I finish this post, in fact, I'm going to unplug from the internet and read me some Harry Potter (which I forgot to include on my pile! But Friday IS Harry Potter day, and I need a post, dammit!) but I'm just basking in the glow of having finished a FUCKING MASSIVE book. Oh yes. It's very glowy.

In other news, I went shopping this morning and then to work this afternoon, so I've really only had this evening to read- a pattern that looks like it's going to carry on for all the rest of this week, despite the fact that I normally basically do nothing apart from work afternoons in the week. This... is very typical. But, whatever, I will carry on and just read in the evenings and it will still be awesome. Oh yes.

9pm Update

Pages Read: 235

Books Read From: 2

Books Finished: 1!!! Yesssssss!

Snacks: I did actually have this oreo cornetto thing that was awesome this evening. Mmmm...

Blogs visited: Um. Ask again tomorrow?