Top Ten Tuesday

I haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday for SO long, mainly due to, you know, laziness and also, meh-ness, and ALSO I have a long standing blogging job to do every week now, and THAT involves Harry Potter, so... Yeah, obviously I'm going to do that instead of this. But anyway- I'm off work today because I'm trying really hard to recover from THE PLAGUE (so weak and tired guys. So much.) AND I really like this week's topic, because I'm really an author oriented book buyer, which is why I pretty much have to read ALL the Stephen King, because, y'know, I bought them all first.

So anyway. The list!

Top Ten Auto-Buy Authors

1. Stephen King-

I mean, obviously. Since I am reading all his books in order, I'm pretty lucky that I am physically able to wait for his books to come out in paperback/be in charity shops, otherwise I'd basically just spend all my money on Stephen King books. Which... would not at all be a bad way to spend all my money.

2. Haruki Murakami- I love Murakami so much that, when it was announced that his new book is coming out in Japan in April, I instantly wanted to start learning Japanese so I could start reading it. Instead, I've decided to actually read the books of his that I own and haven't read yet (which is a surprising number, but I've been trying to save them!) but still.

3. Emma Donoghue- Donoghue always manages to write in a way that, for me, is exactly how I want a book to sound. She's kind of my jam, and I haven't yet been really disappointed by one of her books (The Sealed Letter was only ok. But still not terrible.)

4. Margaret Atwood- I'm basically genetically modified to hunt out Atwood books in charity shops and then, you know, buy them. Actually reading them is another story, but that's true of basically all these authors. I am lazy.

5. Bill Bryson- Even before I'd read any Bill Bryson, I had about 6 of his books, don't ask me why. Now that I have, ALL THE BRYSON MUST BE MINE. Because he's awesome.

6. Paul Auster- Auster is an author that you hardly ever find in charity shops, so I mostly just have to wait for birthdays and things to acquire his books. Which are awesome and mind bendy and I love them. Just so you know.

7. Joyce Carol Oates- I don't actually have as many Oates books as I think I do, and I actually need more because I've read all the ones I do have. But I'd still read basically anything she writes, because she is SO GOOD.

8. Jeffrey Eugenides- The Marriage Plot was one of the few books (ever!) that I HAD to read as soon as it came out. Because, you know, MIDDLESEX. That book is freaking amazing. I'm pretty sure I'll just keep on wanting to read Eugenides for always.

9. Annie Proulx- Annie Proulx is such a weird thing for me, because on the one hand, I'm never exactly sure how much I like her books (I think her short stories are amazing, her novels less so, but I don't know how much I actually enjoy them) but she describes a landscape pretty spectacularly and I just keep buying her books! Maybe I just go on auto-pilot (see what I did there?) when I buy them.

10. Penguin Clothbound Classics- If you're thinking that's not the name of an author, then congratulations- I guess you really are a reader! But the point is that I buy the CRAP out of these books, and we should all be thankful that there are only about 30 because otherwise... I would be in trouble, both financially and space-wise.

Quick confession- I don't actually know what an auto-buy list is. So I've just taken it as 'the authors you seek out when you go into a charity shop like I DON'T DO ANYMORE (at the moment).' Like, I'm not desperate to read all their new releases immediately, but that's only because they have a lot of books out that I haven't even read. Except Eugenides, of course, whose new books I would eat up with a spoon.

Devouring Stephen King: Desperation

"'Oh no, praying is great, without it the thumbscrews and the Iron Maiden probably never would have been invented.'"

The last time I read Desperation, I vividly remember that it was juuust at the end of summer, where it was still warm enough to read outside, but there was a delicious little breeze that meant it wasn't too hot, and everything seemed right with the world and this book felt like the best book ever. That was pretty much the pinnacle of reading, as summer reading always is for me, and it has made me really fond of this book ever since.

This time around, it took me about a month to read. It's way too cold to read outside, I've been reading other things, I've neglected it because I felt weirdly rebellious about 'having' to re-read a book when I 'should' have been reading all the other books I have not. It just didn't feel as good as it did last time, because re-reading something in the winter that you associate with summer just isn't, and there's not a lot you can do about that. Other than, I suppose, saving that book for the summer, again. Which maybe I should have done.

But, all is not lost! It turns out that I'd just forgotten that this book is a little bit of a slow starter, at least for me. It takes quite a while for all the characters to get assembled, and even longer for them to figure out what they're supposed to do, but somewhere in the last third of the book, everything suddenly falls into place and it's such a relief and almost a pleasure, that you realise what all the rest of the book was for, and where this story's been going all along. And that place is really kind of depressing, but then, you knew there was a reason I liked it, didn't you?

Should I tell you something about the story? I probably should, huh? Desperation almost starts in the middle, where a catastrophe that we learn more about as the characters do has already happened, and the main characters are all being collected by a psychotic police officer who has (literally) gotten too big for his boots. They're just as perplexed as we are as to why they've been arrested, and why this man has killed some of their loved ones, and so are we. There isn't a point where they know any more than we do, and I think that's kind of a rare thing in a Stephen King book. *Puts on Stephen King experty hat*

I'll tell you one thing about this reading of Desperation though- there's something about it that I never ever would have realised if I hadn't been reading all of his books, in order, and it made me feel weirdly vindicated for reading like that. SO, a main character in this book, Cynthia (who is, by the way, super wicked awesome and probably the best female character in it and you SHOULD HAVE GIVEN HER MORE TO DO, KING) was a minor character in Rose Madder, and when I realised this I was in the bath and literally went 'oh SHIT!' fairly loudly so that my mum went 'are you ok?!' apparently thinking I was drowning or something. But connections between books is one of those things that are my favourite things for books to do, so I was pretty pleased with myself for reading all the King. For once.

There's just one more thing I want to discuss about Desperation, and it's a God thing. To my knowledge *adjusts the hat* this is the first and maybe only time that God, as in the actual, Christian concept of a God comes into play in one of King's novels in any major way. There are always major forces at work, sure, and some of them are good, but never anything so, I don't know, traditional as God. I don't know what my point is here, really, other than that this God is maybe a liiiittle bit selfish, quite a lot cruel, and if the kinds of signs He sends out actually happened, I'd have a lot of a harder time being a non-God person. (I would say atheist, but they seem to be forming their own 'religion' now, and the thing I like least about the whole God thing is the organised religion thing, so.) 

My other point is, I wonder where King was at when he wrote this. I don't really know anything about his religious beliefs, but I think I'd always thought of him as not really having any? But then, maybe he was at the point of not-drinking where he was trying to get all religious since, in my understanding of it, that's how AA works? I don't know. Either way, I'm kind of glad that whatever was going on with him was, because the exploration of God in this is really kind of clever, doesn't involve organised religion, and made me think about some things. Also whilst scaring the bejeezus out of me, which it doesn't do quite as much any more, but still... There's some scary shit going down in the desert.

Basically, I'm a big fan of this book. I recommend reading it laying on a blanket in your back garden on a warm summer's afternoon, but even without those optimum conditions, it's still pretty great. 

Sunday Sundries: BLEUUUURGH

This is truly going to be a really short Sunday Sundries post, for I have neither the motivation nor the bodily healthiness to write anything longer. Basically, from what I can remember, the first part of the week was fine (this may or may not be true, there's no way to tell) and then on Thursday evening I developed a gross need to throw up every half an hour or so. All evening. And then also some on Friday. And Saturday.

You'll never know how long I've been waiting to use this gif...

And it has not been at all fun (obviously) and I've kind of lost two days and thought it was Saturday all day Friday, but thought it was Friday all day Saturday, except really it was like one big massive day that wasn't a day at all but my own personal hell? But I sure did get to watch a lot of Daria, so that's always a plus. 

I have nothing else to say, really. Except, just wish me good health and stuff, kay? Hope you're all way weller than me!

"'I"m not putting them on... I like a healthy breeze round my privates, thanks.'"

Ooooh, Goblet of Fire. You may take way too long to get to Hogwarts, and already I am sick of Quidditch, but daaaamn, do you know how to bring the scary! Some people last week were saying that they think that the end of The Prisoner of Azkaban is where Harry Potter really begins, but I respectfully disagree- I think all the serious shit really starts in the woods, with the conjuring of the Dark Mark. And ooooh, the CHILLS!

But let's back up a liiittle bit. I really vividly remember reading The Goblet of Fire for the first time- it was the last book to read at the time, and I was kind of nervous because this was IT for a while, and then it starts and I'm like 'but... what IS this?' Because apparently I'd forgotten everything about Wormtail from PoA, but ALSO because... you can't just bring back Voldie, even in diminished form, and not explain how it happened, can you? WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME, JK?

And then we go back to Harry in the second chapter and the world makes sense again. Even now I have a better idea about what's going on, I'm still like 'whaaaa?' and getting back to Harry makes me feel calm HOW'S THAT FOR LOVE OF THE HARRY FILTER, EMILY?!

Ahem.

So I just want to take a second to appreciate the Weasleys. And by 'the Weasleys' I basically mean, let me tell you about how much I fancy Bill (it is A LOT) and also, remember when they tried to travel by floo to the Dursley's but the fireplace was blocked up because, well, that's what we muggles do (it's totally what would happen in my house) and the entire thing is HILARIOUS, but THEN Mr Weasley is all indignant for Harry and forces Uncle V to say goodbye to him? THAT is almost as cute as this gif:

I JUST WANT TO SQUEEZE MR WEASLEY, AND ALSO RYAN GOSLING.

Also there was this:
"By the time they had finished, moths were fluttering low over the table and the warm air was perfumed with the smells of grass and honeysuckle"
Aaaaaand now I really want it to be summer.

Before I get to the bullet points, one last thing. Did everyone notice the little allusions to puberty that JK planted in this book? First of all there's Harry, thinking about GIRLS (well, one girl... "Harry caught a glimpse of Cho, the Ravenclaw Seeker, cheering Stewart Ackerley as he sat down. For a fleeting second, Harry had a strange desire to join the Ravenclaw table too." Awwwwwww!) and of course there are the weird gross plants that you have to squeeze LIKE SPOTS (disgusting but oddly satisfying!) to make acne medicine. I just... It's like really subtle things, but there's just always that little reminder that awwww, our kids are growing up!

Apparently these things are more important to me than The Tri-Wizard Tournament, but ARE WE GOING TO BE TALKING ABOUT THIS FOR THE NEXT 3 WEEKS OR WHAT? Yes. We totally are.

Bullet points!

• This is maybe my favourite moment in Harry Potter so far, and I didn't even remember that it ever happened!

Gawd bless this readalong, is what I say.

• "Dear Professor Dumbledore, Sorry to bother you, but my scar hurt this morning. Yours Sincerely, Harry Potter." Obviously, this would have been the worst ever letter. BUT explaining it PROPERLY to Dumbledore? WHY IS THAT SO DIFFICULT?
• If I had a wizard tent, I would without a doubt go camping all the time. I mean, seriously!
• It's weird how some things in the books you don't remember at all (FERRET) and others that you do so well that it's like ingrained in your brain. I didn't realise that we didn't know Hogwarts was masked from muggles, until Hermione brought it up as new knowledge on the train. Strange stuff.
• Mad-Eye Moody kind of terrifies me. And this is the greatest description/insult ever: "It was a face unlike any Harry had ever seen. It looked as though it had been carved out of weathered wood by someone who had only the vaguest idea of what human faces were supposed to look like, and was none too skilled with a chisel." I mean, OUCH!
• I know all the Ministry stuff is kind of important, and REALLY important for the next book, but mostly I was just like 'can we pleaaaase go back to Hogwarts now though?' This may not bode well for later books...
• "'Can I have a look at Uranus too, Lavender?' said Ron."

Devouring Films: Lincoln

I accidentally went to see Lincoln last week, a happy little mistake that was caused by the internet LYING to me about movie times for Les Mis, my mum being gracious and agreeing to go and see this instead, and my eternal love for Daniel Day-Lewis. (Don't worry- we saw Les Mis at the weekend, and I will never trust the internet again. Lessons learned all round.)

But Lincoln. WOAH. I'm not going to say that I just completely and utterly loved the film, or there weren't times when I wanted to sleep a tiiiiny bit (I had been to work beforehand, to be fair) but I was uncomplicatedly blown away by Daniel Day-Lewis, or maybe I should say Daniel Day-LINCOLN. Because I mean, seriously, there's acting and then there's just downright POSESSION, and well, I think DDL was definitely channeling old Abe in this movie. SERIOUSLY FREAKY (and, you know, awesome.)

I kind of envisaged Lincoln as a biopic in a traditional sense- they'd get someone to play young Abe, there'd be some heartbreak in his formative years before he finally found a good woman and she helped him become President, and THEN he'd free the slaves, but actually Lincoln turned out to be a lot more interesting than that. What it's more like is a really long episode of The West Wing set in the 19th Century (so not TONS like The West Wing), covering the time juuuust before Lincoln's second inauguration up to SPOILER (lol) his assassination, i.e. a period of about 4 months, ALSO i.e. the time he got the Thirteenth Amendment passed and freed the slaves and all. If you're an American you're probably like 'yep, learnt allllll about that at school', but we have abouuut a thousand years of Monarchy to cover, so WE DID NOT. And so I was way interested, and I was learning stuff.

Like, I learned that Lincoln's eldest son (played admirably by a chronically underused JGL with a tash) didn't massively love his dad, and totally defied him to run off and join the army. And I re-learned that it takes a lot more than just a President to get a bill passed in Congress. And that the Republicans and Democrats used to have the opposite roles to the ones they have now, and HEY how did that happen? I also importantly remembered how much I love Tommy Lee Jones as an actor, suddenly realised that the sponsor of the 13th Amendment was Gale Boetticher from Breaking Bad AND that Spielberg really is a kind of awesome director, which I guess is something I've been denying forever because his films are, you know, popular?

Anyway. Lincoln maybe isn't a perfect film, but its opening is wonderful, its middle bits are great, and the part in Congress where the Congressmen were voting on the Thirteenth Amendment made me want to jump to my feet and applaud every 'yea' vote. And also to cry juuuust a teeny bit. Other than the rousing bits in the house, my favourite parts were probably those where Abe and his wife, Mary (played by Sally Field, a casting decision which confused me because she's like, what, 65 and she's supposed to have a 10 year old kid? BUT she was actually awesome, as she tends to be) have conversations in her bedroom, she still cut up with grief over the death of their son a couple of years before, he frustrated with her and her grief... I realise I'm not making these conversations sound like the best, but it shows a side to Lincoln so different to his public persona that it's really interesting, and sometimes heartbreaking to watch.

My other other favourite bits are Lincoln's monologues. I can but assume that he actually did, in hugely important meetings, take whatever they were talking about, find an anecdote that loosely related to it and tell it, before finally, FINALLY bringing it round to the point, again. At least, I hope he did because it is AMUSING and also kind of brilliant, and really really really reminded me of The West Wing (I'm assuming that Aaron Sorkin put a little bit of Lincoln, and maybe all the Presidents he admired into President Bartlet, because he does that anecdote thing A LOT.) One of Lincoln's senior staff gets so annoyed by this that he storms off ("You're going to tell one of your stories! I can't stand to hear another one of your stories!") rather than listen to another anecdote, but... Imagine getting to listen to one of President Lincoln's stories! And because DDL has somehow morphed into Lincoln, well, you kind of get to.

So this was ridiculously long, and garbled, and if you stayed for the whole thing then THANK YOU, and have a cookie (cookies not included). Basically, the point is this: Abraham Lincoln was a pretty super dude, and even though I was expecting a biopic, I'm not sure observing him over a longer time period would do him any more justice than watching him in his last months, and finest hours. In film terns, it's kind of unfair to all other actors that Daniel Day-Lewis exists, because he is the actual amazingest and should win ALL THE OSCARS (apart from Best Supporting Actress, for that must go to Anne Hathaway). And, yeah, you should probably go and see Lincoln. ESPECIALLY if you're not American, because hello History lesson taught by DDL. If only all teachers were you...

Devouring Books: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

"How did we go from Character to Personality without realising that we had sacrificed something meaningful along the way?"

 I've been struggling to write about Quiet because it's a book that at the time I was a bit reticent to pick up at any point (I'm so not into non-fiction at the moment) but now that I've finished it I kind of can't stop thinking about it? And actually, it's not even that I can't stop thinking about it, so much as that something will come up and I'll be like 'oh man, I was just SUCH a classic introvert right there', and it's just made me really aware of a lot of my behaviour that I probably wouldn't have noticed before. Only, you know, in a less annoying way than that sounds.

So, Quiet. Basically it's a book about how awesome quiet people are, and how undervalued they are by society Western Societies, and actually parts of it read as an instruction manual: for teachers, on how to nurture introverted children, and for businesses, on why to hire introverts. It takes a look at the history of how introverts came to be so undervalued by, well, everyone, and then systematically looks at why that was wrong, and all the advantages there are to being an introvert in all aspects on ones life, and how it wouldn't hurt extroverts to look at the behaviour of introverts sometimes, and apply them to their own lives.

I can't even tell you how much I needed to read this book. I'm actually really secure with myself to what I think is sometimes an annoying degree, and I think a lot of that has to do with being an introvert- my brain is really good company for myself, and I always feel sad that there are people who must not like being alone inside their own heads, so seek out others to be around them all. The. Time. (I'm not saying this is true of ALL extroverts, but, you know, some of them.) But in spite of this, I've always felt that, when it's time to venture out of my bedroom and interact with other people that it's 'wrong' to be so quiet. To not always know what to say. To be bad at starting off conversations but ok at participating in them. To have more friends on the internet than I do in real life.

But no more! This book, honestly, feels like it could be a bit of a life-changer, even if it didn't feel that way at the beginning. Not in any major ways, but just knowing that hey, it's ok to be quiet, and it's ok to think that, when it comes to speaking, quality>quantity. Basically that, it's ok to be quiet because the world needs listeners just as much as it needs talkers, and right now, maybe it does even more so. There were a few things I was especially fascinated by, and I'm just going to bullet point them up right now:

• That introverts are really uncomfortable with small talk when they don't know someone, but once they feel like they do, small talk is fine- This is SO accurate to what I'm like, only I really never realised it before. But I can't do small talk AT ALL, but I totally can once I'm more used to a certain person. Extroverts are apparently the opposite.
• That introverts have trouble projecting artificial enthusiasm- I'm SO bad at this, (and also at lying in general) but I thought it was just me being an arsehole. Turns out that heyyyyy, it's just another introverted trait! (I also might still be an arsehole.)
• I kind of already knew this, but I would be SO popular in China, where apparently in a study they asked children what they valued in their friends and they said 'being humble, altruistic, honest, hard-working', as opposed to American children who said 'being cheerful, enthusiastic and sociable'. Seriously, SO popular in China...
• Public speaking is the number one fear in America.
• "The same person who would never raise his hand in a lecture hall of two hundred people might blog to two thousand or two million without thinking twice. The same person who finds it difficult to introduce himself to strangers might establish a presence online and then extend these relationships into the real world."- The internet=really good for introverts. Hey, writing is easier than speaking, amiright?

If you've been thinking that this book is anti-extrovert, then you would be wrong (and also kind of a douche. Like someone going to the NAACP and going 'you're so ANTI-WHITE!' You're missing THE POINT). But anyway. At many points, Cain talks about how good it is to have balance between introverts and extroverts, and I have to agree- I love extroverts, especially the ones that are good at getting other people to talk, and I find them way easier to talk to. The point isn't to say that extroverts are terrible people, but just to show how poorly valued introverts are, why this is the case, and then to prove that introverts DO have attributes that are worthy of attention and that wouldn't hurt EVERYONE to consider taking on, just like everyone NOW is expected to act like an extrovert. It's not a book about hating anyone, it's a book about appreciating everyone. And I love it.

I really think this is a book that anyone, introvert or not, can appreciate, and in fact, I think it's almost more important for extroverts to read to really get a better understanding of how introverts operate and why. I really think that it's the kind of book that tilts your view of the world juuust enough to have a new appreciation for all different kinds of people, rather than just the ones that society celebrates and puts on pedestals. There are times when we could all do with being a little quieter, and this book shows us why that's ok. Why, in fact, it's awesome. And I love it for that.

Sunday Sundries: Sluuuuuuuuuump

I seriously need this. Seriously.

This post is going to be another one where the title isn't exactly true anymore, but CAN I be bothered to change it? I cannot.

So this Sunday Sundries was going to be about my reading-blogging slump, BUT I'm tentatively going to say that I'm not in a reading slump anymore, because last night I was really tired, but I wanted to stay up to finish my book (a bit because I'd been reading it for about a MONTH, but also because I just wanted to read it, you know?). So that was awesome, and I think I've just been kind of meh about reading because I've been reading TOO MANY books at once and that makes them feel never-ending because, well, they never end if you read like that.

So now I'll just be reading my Harry Potter chapters every week (which is not a hardship, believe me!), and then trucking on through Les Miserables (135 pages in, and... Fantine isn't even pregnant yet. Maaaaan...) AND (I know, I'm trying to CUT down on the number of books I'm reading at once. This IS cutting down, trust me!) then I'm just going to have one other book that's my main/non-restrictiony book. And hopefully this'll work and won't leave me all frustrated at the lack of finishing books.

The only thing is, even though I WANT to finish books, I'm apparently not in the mood to write about them. Only I AM, and even at this very second there are books I want to write about that I've finished (Quiet, for example. THAT BOOK HAS CHANGED MY THINKING!) but I think it's like... I have a limited amount of free time to do stuff in now (I mean, it's still a lot of time, don't get me wrong!) and I think I just prefer doing things in that time that aren't writing? The other thing is, in the mornings I'm reticent to go on the computer too much because I know I'm going to be staring at a screen all afternoon, and then in the evenings I'm too tiiiiired. So basically working afternoons has stolen my prime blogging time and that's really annoying.

Basically, I think I just need to sit down for a few evenings and just kind of catch up with myself and write all the posts I've been putting off, and then start again and just like keep up with the things I read? Or something... I need to stop slumping, basically, because it's pissing me off.

In other news, I made definitive lists of all the books I own and need to read, split into like, types (non-fiction, literary fiction, etc etc) and in news that will be no surprise to anyone, the categories with the most unread books are non-fiction and classics. Which I am AWESOME at buying, but not so much at reading. I should probably do something about that. This week, I also made some awesome Valentines for my internet buddies (and still need to make more, for I have stalled in that whole process), made THREE kinds of pancakes and still wanted more, and I got a new recipe book and immediately had to make STRAWBERRY MILKSHAKE CUPCAKES because OMG. And the verdict? So incredibly good.

Quick note: I'm just going to defend the fact that I bought a book by saying that HEY it's a recipe book and so exempt from like having to read it, and also, did I mention strawberry milkshake cupcakes? And also many, many other things that I wanted to make. I seriously was squealing over every page of the book, and that NEVER happens. But maybe I was just high on new book fumes.

Finalement, I accidentally went to the cinema twice this week. On Wednesday I totally tried to take my mum to see Les Mis but the internet told me the wrong times (I WILL NEVER TRUST YOU AGAIN INTERNET!) so we ended up going to see Lincoln instead, about which I will for now say OMG DDL! I will of course be reviewing it because JGL is in it and, well, I seem to review his films above all others. Oddness. Anyway, so that was cool in the end, but then yesterday I totally made my mum and sister go to see Les Mis in the afternoon with me and it was, of course, still epic, and I cried even more than the first time and it was sullied only by my mum trying to pat me right at the end when I was trying to sob ON MY OWN (no pun intended.)

Honestly, I'm just going to go by myself next time! How were all of your weeks then?