A to Z Bookish Survey

Subtitle: That post other people have done that I'm copying because I'm too tired/lazy to write a review of anything. I've stolen this from both Sarah and Alley and you should probably read theirs too, because, I don't know, reasons.

HERE I AM DOING THIS:

Authors you've read the most books from: Have you ever been here before? Because it's obviously Stephen King. I mean, even in the past 2 and a half years I've read 39 of his books and I've read more than that and WOAH that is a lot of books.

Best sequel ever: I don't know, man, I don't read books that are in a series. Let's say... All the Harry Potter books EXCEPT the Chamber of Secrets, which is TECHnically the sequel... Dammit.

Currently reading: Oh God... *Deep breath* Middlemarch, The Lost Continent, Tell The Wolves I'm Home, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. Friday Reads on twitter is like a NIGHTMARE for me every week

Drink of choice when reading: I really don't drink or eat anything (or only rarely) when I'm reading because I'm not even in the room, anymore, so I don't have bodily appetites, yeah?

Ereader or physical book: I loves a good physical book, but I'm also very fond of my Kindle- I haven't read that many books on it because SO MANY UNREAD BOOKS, but I don't dislike the experience at all. And I haven't taken it on holiday yet, but when I do finally go away, I am going to love it so much.

Fictional character that you probably would have dated in High School: I didn't go to High School because we don't have those over here. But I can't think of any hot teenage characters (because I'm OLD) so let's pretend Eric Northman (HE'S A BOOK CHARACTER TOO) and I would have been schoolish contemporaries and THAT would have happened because yum.

Glad you gave this book a chance: Um um ummmm... Oooh, OK, Ready Player One because it was exactly the book I wanted to read even though I didn't even know that. ALSO The Sisters Brothers. It was awesome.

Hidden gem book: What is this, like books that are awesome but nobody knows about? Everyone knows about Rainbow Rowell at this point, yeah?

Important moment in your reading life: I suppose my first Stephen King book was probably quite an important moment but I can't even remember what it was (it might have been Carrie because I'm like that.) BUT ALSO I'm going to copy Alley because starting this blog was a totally important thing because it took my book thoughts out of my brain and translated them into words I could share with other people and that's just AWESOME.

Just finished: The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger. It was fine... But I kind of want to say the cover was better than the book (the cover is AWESOME)

Kind of books you won't read: I kind of want to say YA only I DO read it, I just rarely enjoy it. HAVING SAID THAT, I believe Tell The Wolves I'm Home is YA and I am enjoying it muchly so you can just ignore me.

Longest book you read: Is it Les Miserables? I'm going to say Les Miserables. It's actually technically the uncut version of The Stand, BUT 1400 Stephen King pages is not the same as 1200 Victor Hugo pages.

Major book hangover because of: I kind of had a continual book hangover while I was reading Harry Potter because I didn't want to read anything else alongside it.

GIF BREAK:

Applies to most of these. Also this isn't even a gif.

This is just getting gratuitous now.

Number of bookcases you own: I technically only own one, which is why my books live in weird places like 'the gap next to my bed' and also 'the bottom of my wardrobe'. 

One book you've read multiple times: To Kill A Mockingbird, and I will read it forever.

Preferred place to read: It's my bed. Always, always my bed.

Quote that inspires you: I actually have two quote notebooks (I filled one up. I am all about the quotes.)  so let's look in the one that I can reach without moving... "Well, I must endure the presence of two or three caterpillars if I wish to be acquainted with the butterflies." From The Little Prince (I didn't read far into my quote notebook... BUT this is pretty and also it's french and papillon is possibly my favourite word in french/any language. This is random information I'm giving you...)

Reading regret: I dunno. The fact that I can't do it for a living? That's not really a regret, is it..?

Series that you started and need to finish: Seriously, I don't read series! And I ALWAYS finish them. NEXT.

Three of your all-time favourite books: It by Stephen King, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and and *dies from the pressure of having to choose only one more* Let's say East of Eden by John Steinbeck? But SO MANY.

Unapologetic fangirl for: Stephen King (obvs), Nora Ephron, Caitlin Moran, Rainbow Rowell, Bill Bryson, John Steinbeck, WILKIE, Murakamiiiiiiiiii.

Very excited for this release: In general, I don't really know about any new releases, but I am excited for the new Donna Tartt (so excited that I can't even remember its name) AND Maddaddam by Margaret Atwood, which I've already reserved at the library even though it isn't even out yet. Oh ACTUALLY that's part of a series that I must finish. 

Worst bookish habit: Buying books when I definitely don't need any more books. It's an addiction, people.

X marks the spot! Start at the top left of your shelf and pick the 27th book: Why the 27th though? This one is stupid. Ok, *moves* The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. I didn't do anything with it though...

Your last bookish purchase: I may or may not have bought three books on Saturday, ONE OF WHICH I already had out of the library and which I have now read and decided that I don't want to keep. This is not one of those stories with a happy ending (although I do now have another Richard Yates book which is cool because I like Revolutionary Road quite a lot).

Zzz snatcher- Which book kept you up way late?: SO MANY. But the most ironic was Insomnia by Stephen King, and possibly the best was 1Q84 by Murakamiiiiii, which I literally didn't know how to put down. 

I think we've all learnt a lot. My work here is done. 

Devouring Books: The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

I was trying to write my reviews in order because I'm a sensible kind of person like that, and then I read The Fault In Our Stars and couldn't contain my... Anything. And if you think that means I'm about to gush about it like 99% of the reading population, then clearly you haven't been following me on twitter.

This book. It's kind of terrible. And it shouldn't have been as terrible as I found it and I might be exaggerating its terribleness even to myself because of all the INSANE hype that surrounded it (remember last year when you couldn't swing your bag around the book blog world without hitting someone going 'OMG IT'S THE BEST THING I'VE EVER READ!') but I really didn't like it. And it was set up as something it seemed like I'd like- there was the book-within-a-book thing (we'll get to that later), the cancer thing (not that I like cancer BUT I have a certain interest in the topic and I'm not against reading something heartbreaking), and the thing that's like 'I don't want to make anyone like me because when I die they'll be sad', which is a really depressing but interesting way to be thinking, I think.

But. I hate the characters. Haaaaaaate them. And it's not even that I hated the way they spoke (which was annoying, let's face it), but I didn't feel like I knew them well enough to actually care about what happened to them. It was kind of like reading an obituary of someone you didn't know at all- it's vaguely sad, and you're not happy that they're dead, but you can't really care because it doesn't personally affect you. This book did not personally affect me.

Unimpressed

I didn't care about Hazel (the main character- a cancer sufferer, but one who isn't dying just yet) any more than I care about other self-centred teenage characters who believe that their way of doing things is the only way of doing things. Seriously- this girl allows herself to feel whatever she's feeling and that's the only right way to feel it, whereas everyone else's feelings- about her disease, about how they grieve, whatever- are wrong because they're not hers. I'm not saying that's not a very teenage way of acting, and maybe Green's point is that she's allowed to act like a teenager even though she has cancer (which is fair!) but I think it's more 'This girl! Look at how awesome she is. LOOK AT HER.'

And then there's Augustus (I mean, Augustus. Compute on. This is not the last days of Rome. I'm about to get loads of angry comments from Augustuses, aren't I, except NOPE, there aren't any.) I actually liked Augustus (Nope. Can't do it. We're calling him Gus.) in a way that I didn't like Hazel so much, BUT he's not real. At all. There is nothing about this kid that would exist in any way in the real world because he is ridiculous, and not in a good way. (Alley called him a Manic Pixie Dream Boy in her review and I am SO JEALOUS that she's already said it because she's completely right.) And this is just one example of his incredible ridiculousness: He puts cigarettes in his mouth. And doesn't light them. So as not to give the thing that could kill him the power to do so. 

*

You know what, that IS bullshit. It's 'a metaphor' and I get it, but metaphors are really only found in words and not so much in real life, and all I can think when he says that is, 'so, dude actually wastes money buying cigarettes that he doesn't smoke, thus handing over money to the corporations behind millions of deaths? Smart!' And if that had only come up once I'd probably be over it, but it's used again and again in the book as a motif for how awesome Gus is, but if you didn't find that awesome? It's just a constant reminder of how annoying these characters are.

What else? Well, the writing isn't as good as everyone claims it is (it might be good for YA, but I'll take Rainbow Rowell any day) and it kind of disturbs me that someone would read it and find it the most profound book they've ever read. To me, a lot of the things Green says about illness and life and death, I've seen elsewhere, better expressed, and without characters that made my eyes hurt from rolling them so much. In general, the writing kind of swings from authentic** teenage narration (lots of 'likes' and stuff. WHICH was actually really annoying and is it that annoying when I do that in reviews? Please say no!) to a more highbrow way of saying things, sometimes in the same paragraph and WHAT IS THIS? Please choose one way of writing and stick to it. Please?

Now, for the book within the book. There's this book that Hazel really likes (An Imperial Affliction) which sounds like the book John Green wishes he'd written (meooow) and is all meaningful to her and stuff. All of which is cool and I was sort of excited about this plot point. But then, even though it's a big part of the book, it's... kind of a shitty storyline. It turns into a 'never meet your heroes' sort of warning, and then ends with a teenage girl giving a grown man advice that she is in no way qualified to give. The point is, this. At one point, Hazel says to this grown man 'I think you're a pathetic alcoholic who says fancy things to get attention like a really precocious eleven year old.'

That's not what you and your boyfriend have been doing the whole book then (apart from the alcoholic bit). Ok, cool, glad we sorted that out. And here endeth the story of how I snorted during a sort-of funeral scene.***

Oh and by the way, did you know that Gus is really super hot and Hazel thinks she's not at all pretty but he thinks she's the most glorious person ever? Surprise!

I shan't bother you with my anger for much longer, but I will just say this: just before I started reading, I read the glowing praise on the back (SUCH glowing praise...) and the two authors blurbed were Marcus Zuzak (he of The Book Thief TERRIBLENESS) and Jodi Picoult, who I have read exactly two books by before realising they were all going to be the same, and who I am still mad at for the ending of My Sister's Keeper. This set off all sorts of alarm bells in my head, but I read it all the same, and hence I have learned- trust your bookish instincts. 

But if you want to read this whatever, you can probably do it in a few hours and it won't hurt your brain much as long as you ignore the emotional manipulation regarding characters you've been given no reason to like (cancer is not a reason to like someone). 

*NOT the (500) Days of Summer gif I wanted. But it'll do.

**Authentic in terms of the way teenagers actually speak.
***Needless to say, I didn't cry. FULL DISCLOSURE: I did get a lump in my throat towards the end because CANCER IS SAD OK, but I refused to make the same mistake I did with The Book Thief (tricked into crying)

Sunday Sundries: I have not eaten meat for 18 months so let's discuss that

It's Sunday AGAIN?

Not that I have anything against Sundays, of course, but they do seem to come up awfully frequently. *Regards Sunday with some suspicion*.

Anyway! I was going to skip Sunday Sundries (I always want to call it SS but then I'm like 'NO! Nazis. Bad.) this week since I've been updating things every day on this post right here, and, you know, that's pretty much my week neatly laid out in little paragraphs and page counts. I was also going to skip it because, you know, LAZY, but but but did you see in the title that it's kind of my not-eating-meat birthday and a half (which is a thing now, apparently) so I'll ramble about that for a bit and then let you be on your way.

Oh, ALSO, it's this dude's actual birthday. It's worth a mention.

Anyway! Meat. Or, rather, the lack thereof. Let's see... It's weird when you choose to do a certain thing (or, choose NOT to do a certain thing) and people have all these questions about it, which I do choose to take as interest rather than, you know, horror and aghastness (which I fear they actually are). The most common questions, though, are without a doubt: 1) Why don't you eat meat? Don't you like it? 2) Don't you miss meat? and 3) What do you eat?

Well, that seems as good a structure as any for a post! (See what I did there?) Why don't I eat meat? I mean, I feel like I've probably covered this enough already, but I'm always stumped for an answer when someone asks me in real life because what were those moral things again? Basically, I guess in the most simple terms, I don't really think that other beings should have to die so I can eat when there are plentiful sources of other foods and also meat is so gross. Like... Really really gross. Antibiotic abuse and standing in their own shit and never seeing daylight and just no. Nope. Can't.

And don't I like meat? I love it. I think it's delicious. But I also think there are things more important than tasty things (I know, whut?) and for me, personally, it's more important that I not be involved in, you know, killing animals and stuff than to have a really good burger. But I still willingly acknowledge that burgers taste good! I feel like other people feel like I judge them for eating meat, and I don't. At all. Just because I've made this choice doesn't mean that I look down on people for not having made it, but I sometimes feel like I am being judged for not eating meat, which is pretty weird.

Don't I miss meat? I don't. I really truly don't. I mean, sure, whenever I smell bacon cooking, all of my senses go into overdrive, but bacon smells way better than it tastes anyway, and nobody ever said anything about not being able to sniff meat. But really and truly, it's not like I spend my days fantasising about burgers and then sadly go and eat some falafels or something- I just don't even consider meat as a thing I eat. It's kind of on a mental list of foods I'm just not interested in, along with peppers and mushrooms and cauliflower. And this isn't the same thing as pretending that I don't like meat, it's just not a thing that I think about because I know that I don't want to eat it. If anything, that would be my number one tip to converting to vegetarianness- as long as you know you don't want to eat it, then you won't eat it. It's really that simple.

What do I eat?

Well, this is my favourite question because MY GOD I eat so many different foods now. Seriously, as long as there was meat, I was the least adventurous eater in the whole world. I would have been happy just with some chicken and noodles and beansprouts and, you know, not much flavour. But now? You have to do something to replace meat, and flavour is the answer. I can cook a lot more things than I ever used to be able to, and I like SO many more vegetables than I ever did (asparagus is probably my favourite. Asparagus makes all the burgers in the world irrelevant to me. And aubergine is reaaaaally meaty!) The answer to the question then, really, is (apart from cakeballs) so many more things than I used to eat, and all of them are doing better things for me than meat, I suspect.

Having said that, I'll never get used to asparagus pee. NEVER.

So basically, the update is this: It's all going well, I still don't miss meat and the smell of bacon cooking is still good. The thing I probably miss the most, actually, is jelly sweets, but when you think about all the crap that goes in them anyway... It's definitely a good thing that I don't eat them. I don't really have a definitive ending here because, I don't know, nothing's over, it's just getting started, but basically a meatless life? It's not as bad as you might think, and it's much easier than I ever thought it would be. Expect another update in about six months, I guess!

Devouring Books: Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner

"If you imagine you are going to read of model children, with perhaps a naughtily inclined one to point a moral, you had better lay down this book immediately... Not one of the seven is really good, for the very excellent reason that Australian children never are."

In spite of my newfound love for Australia (See: Bill Bryson's Down Under, Kayleigh's general awesomeness, including sending me this book!) my only real exposure to things that have come out of Australia has been Neighbours (sort of terrible, sort of awesome Aussie soap), Heath Ledger, and Australian Masterchef (much better than the UK version, just fyi). Because of this lack of things from Australia, I may have, at some points in my life, referred to Australia as a cultural wasteland (*ducks whatever Kayleigh is throwing right now* Don't worry, Kayleigh! I've also referred to the 80s and LA as cultural wastelands *hides from Megs*) and now I just feel mean about that.

So! Seven Little Australians! It's a book set in Australia and about Australian children and written by an almost Australian woman (Turner moved to Australia when she was 9, so basically Australian. But she was born in Yorkshire, so she's OURS) and I can just feeeeeel the Australian culture already. Not that this book exists to just go 'we are in Australia and look at all these Australian things we're doing and oh look! A kangaroo!' because that would be shit. Instead, it's the story of a family (guess how many children are in it) and their highs and lows and adventures and general hijinks, and in short, it's just a really good children's book.

Of the seven children, the two who really get the most screentime (screentime? Um... Pagetime?) are Judy (13) and Meg (16) presumably mainly because they're girls and Ethel obviously knows what it's like being a teenage girl better than a teenage boy, and also because, who doesn't want a children's book with female protagonists? I know that I do! Anyway, Judy is basically the best character- you know she's going to be trouble when she's described as having quicksilver instead of blood in her veins, and she truly proves to be a big problem to her exasperated father mainly because she refuses to do as she's told and act as a good young lady should which, you know, HIGH FIVE for Judy.

Meg is a much more traditional female character, but then also, she isn't. She has this terrible friend who has older sisters who have boyfriends and so this friend tries to convince her that they need boyfriends, and it's all just very 'Meg goes to Vanity Fair' in Little Women (why yes, they are both called Meg. I don't know if that's just a coincidence or what). BUT THEN it becomes all untraditional when Meg passes out because she's been lacing her corset too tightly to attract boys to her tiny waist, and it's all a bit 'well, that was really silly, maybe girls shouldn't do medically unwise things just to attract boys' which is an AWESOME message, obviously.

And there are all the other kids which have quite cruelly blurred into 'all the other kids' except I know there's a fat boy child who's really bad at lying (which is quite sweet, really) and another boy child who's kind of perfect and doesn't do too much wrong unless Judy is also there. NAUGHTY JUDY (I love you). And so basically Meg and Judy and the other nameless children all constantly egg each other on and drive their dad (think: Captain Von Trapp, with a new younger wife and everything) to distraction and just generally have a lot of fun.

And I had a lot of fun reading it. I really did. Things did take a bit of an unexpected turn at the end, but we shall ignore that (I am choosing to ignore it forever, actually) and just appreciate Seven Little Australians for its fun and cuteness and for finally making me read a book about Australia by an (almost) Australian, something which I can't remember happening for a long time, if ever. I think it's worth noting that, had I read this as a child, I probably would have been in love with it, but even reading it now, I just like it plenty. Which is good enough for me!

I think I sort of love Brit Marling...

Lovefilm is a tempestuous beast, and has been refusing to read my mind and send me the things I want of late. In a stunning twist of annoyingness, this month I had three films on high priority, and the one I really wanted to see was Smashed (it involves Aaron Paul and I needed a little Breaking Bad pick me up which I so don't need anymore because BREAKING BAD) so of course Lovefilm sent me the other two. Why these things can't just know exactly what I want at all times is just beyond me. Damn technology.

Fortunately, the other two movies I had on high priority were co-written by Brit Marling and also starred her awesome self. Remember when I went to see The East and could actually coherently talk about things other than Skarsnudity? It turns out that it wasn't just a fluke that a film co-written by and starring Brit Marling is really good, because these other two films (Sound of my Voice and Another Earth)? SO. GOOD. It's important to tell you that, after a close watching of all three of these films, I've determined that Brit likes to wear hoodies a fair bit, and also that (wait for it) she's awesome.

I'm doing two reviews in one here only because I have about a million book reviews to write (must stop reading...) and not because there isn't enough to discuss in each of them because OH MY GOD I could talk about Another Earth, especially, for DAYS. But then things get spoilery and people get sad and that's not cool, so instead I'll give you a little taster of each and make you REALLY want to see them, then we can discuss them in emails and whatnot. I know it sounds awesome.

Sound of my Voice

In the grand history of Brit Marling films, I feel like this one will be known as 'the other cult one'. Having only seen The East before I watched this, I was surprised at the unreal element to this (The East is very much grounded in reality), in that Marling plays a woman, Maggie, who claims to be from the future, and by surprised, I obviously mean delighted. The big draw of the story, then, is whether or not Maggie is who she says she is, and there is evidence presented both for and against the truth in what she tells us, although in the end it's up to the viewer what they believe.

And, you know what, it's gripping! It's kind of told through the eyes of Peter, who, with his girlfriend Lorna, has infiltrated this cult in order to expose it, only through doing so he gets sucked in more and more, as Lorna pulls away to the same degree. Watching their changing relationship would be interesting enough, but it's only one event in a big tableau of events in this film, and turns out not to be the most interesting. That, obviously, belongs to Maggie, and to the amazing (seriously) performance of Brit Marling who seamlessly can go from serene to furious in about 0.6 seconds. I can't even with this girl.

It also gets bonus points for involving a secret handshake that I desperately want to make everyone learn so we can do it whenever we meet:

Another Earth

I liked Another Earth so much that I went straight to IMDb after I'd watched it to get more information about it because I couldn't bear that it was over. There wasn't much, but I went to the reviews and they were almost exactly as I would have predicted them to be- half of them called it a masterpiece of gloriousness, and so beautiful (it really is) and dramatic and sort of perfect. The other half more or less went 'sci-fi?! There weren't no lasers or aliens or nothing! They didn't even GO to Earth 2!'

And I see their point, BUT I am much more of a 'it's a masterpiece person' because you know what? I thought this might be a bit too sci-fi for me, but the sci-fi in this is actually used to move the plot along (well, and create the plot in the first place) rather than it being all there is to the film, and that apparently happens to be the perfect amount of sci-fi for me. This plot: Another planet is spotted in the solar system that appears to be an exact copy of Earth (hence, Earth 2) on the same night that Rhoda (Marling) finds out she got into MIT AND makes the moronic decision to drive home drunk. As a result of this, combined with looking up at Earth 2 (because, WOAH) she crashes into another car, killing a pregnant woman and her child, and leaving the dad in a coma. Four years later, she leaves prison, a different person and wanting to make amends to the dude who survived her actions and things develop from there.

It's just so amazing and clever and the deal with Earth 2 was EXACTLY the deal that I wanted it to be (I'm not saying more than that because I was both shocked and delighted when the thing happened) and THE END is so awesome I could have screamed but I didn't because everyone was sleeping. There were a lot of things I liked direction-wise- Rhoda wears her hood up and doesn't wash her hair and wears terrible clothes while she's still feeling guilty, but as she helps the man whose life she ruined more and more, she starts to wash her hair and generally take better care of herself because, I don't know, she feels like she deserves it more? It's all very subtle but gorgeous and I love it.

I also love the fact that Rhoda is SUCH a fully formed character, and also that she gives a shit about science, something which I can barely remember of any girl in any film, ever. After prison, Rhoda returns to her childhood bedroom and it's filled with science textbooks and models of the solar system and it's almost a shock to see a woman portrayed onscreen who is obsessed with a certain thing, even though, um, THAT IS SO A THING WE DO. Brit Marling has said that she started writing movies because she kept being offered terrible boring roles, and she really does so well at creating female characters (well, all her characters are good, really) who feel incredibly real.

So there. Brit Marling is awesome and makes bloody good films. I think it's also worth noting that both of these films are basically 90 minutes long, and they did more things to me than most directors manage in more than 2 hours. Things don't have to be long to be good (see also: Alice's thoughts on Love Story) although I would happily have watched another 10 hours of Another Earth. And I could STILL talk about it for days.

Devouring Books: Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed

"You don't have to get a job that makes others feel comfortable about what they perceive as your success. You don't have to explain what you plan to do with your life. You don't have to justify your education by demonstrating its financial rewards. You don't have to maintain an impeccable credit score. Anyone who expects you to do any of those things has no sense of history or economics or science or the arts.

You have to pay your own electric bill. You have to be kind. You have to give it all you've got. You have to find people who love you truly and love them back with the same truth. But that's all."

I discovered the Dear Sugar columns on the internet not long before Sugar was 'outed' as Cheryl Strayed, presumably mainly so that Strayed could promote her memoir, Wild (which I loved) with a teeny bit of Sugar publicity behind her. It worked for me, anyway, because I couldn't imagine not wanting to read a book written by someone who, quite frankly, gives some of the best, and best written advice I've ever read. 

Seriously- before Sugar, basically the only advice columns I'd ever read were in teen magazines and basically involved telling girls not to feel pressured into having sex if they didn't feel ready, and SO MUCH talk about discharge that you'd think it was the only thing that girls thought about! What Dear Sugar is, really, is advice for grown ups, with complicated, messy lives and problems with their jobs, their friends, their spouses, their lives and every single one feels real, and horrible, and like it could happen to you, meaning that all of Strayed's advice feels like it's coming directly to you. It's the only advice column I've read where I've cried like a baby and felt weirdly renewed and so, in other words, it's not like an advice column at all.

Weirdly, there is a certain way in which I shouldn't really like Strayed's advice giving style at all- a lot of the advice she gives people is based on experiences she has had herself, and which have shaped her life (which makes this also, at least partially, a memoir) which comes a little bit too close to that awful, awful act of when you say 'this bad thing happened to me' someone else then goes 'oh, that happened to me, AND something else so mine is worse.' This is literally my least favourite thing that people do- a kind of one-upmanship of misery, if you will. Somehow, though, and I don't even know how, Strayed always manages to avoid sounding like she thinks your problems are insignificant because hers have been worse, and she genuinely manages to use her own experiences to offer advice, instead of an annoying perspective that your problems can't be that bad because hers have, at one time, been worse. Which would, obviously, suck.

There are also a lot of other ways in which she's awesome- she's not afraid to tell people that they're being kind of, well, stupid (although she says it much more nicely than that), and she's not afraid to tell them things that they don't want to hear- that they already know the answer, that they're going to have to do the painful thing because it's ultimately less painful than the alternative, that healing is never an immediate thing. There are so many different problems and issues covered, and most of them have never happened to me at all, BUT somehow, I could take something from the advice Sugar* offered in almost all of the cases. And I DON'T KNOW HOW THAT CAN BE, but somehow it is and it's sort of amazing.

Here are some of my favourite bits of advice:

"That place of true healing is a fierce place. It's a giant place. It's a place of monstrous beauty and endless dark and glimmering light. And you have to work really, really hard to get there, but you can do it."

"There aren't three options. There is only one. As Rilke says, 'You must change your life.'"

"Whatever happens to you belongs to you. Make it yours. Feed it to yourself even if it feels impossible to swallow. Let it nurture you, because it will."

"You actually do stop being an awful jealous person by stopping being an awful jealous person. When you feel terrible because someone has gotten something you want, you force yourself to remember how very much you have been given. You remember that there is plenty for all of us. You remember that someone else's success has absolutely no bearing on your own."

"Don't lament so much about how your career is going to turn out. You don't have a career. You have a life."

It occurs to me that all of these titbits mean almost nothing out of context, so go and get some context, guys! And this time, I'm not even telling you to buy this book (although you should, of course) but just go and read some of the Dear Sugar columns, some of which are in the book, and some of which are not, but all of which might contain some advice that you didn't even know you needed to hear.

*Apparently to me, Strayed will always be Sugar...

Ok, FINE, I'll Play

I've been going back and forth in recent weeks about whether or not to do the Bout of Books (8.0, if you will!) readathon because unnnngh readathons that last all week, but also yay making me read more often in the week and stuff? ANYWAY, I'm a gonna do it because hey, why not track my reading for a week? Works for me!

ALSO- I have four library books out at the moment which I realise isn't THAT many, but at the same time, I own more than 200 unread books so actually it's far too many. The thing is, they're all so WELL REGARDED that I can't just take them back. So. My main goal for this week is to read some of them because then they can go away and I can stop looking at them guiltily. Also I need some JK in my life, and I picked up The Cuckoo's Calling last week, so that's just swell.

Regardez, les books!

So these are the library ones. Of them, I really really want to read The Cuckoo's Calling and Tell The Wolves I'm Home, and I feel like if I do that, I can take The Newlyweds and The Song of Achilles back without shame. (NOT that I don't want to read them too, but they can wait, I feel.)

And then THESE are the books I actually own that I want to read. I'm about 120 pages into Middlemarch, but I could definitely do with some loooong reading time with it (I... have not read enough classics this year. So the thing that's not being said here, is basically 'it's haaaard.') I know this pile is tiny, but I'm being realistic, AND these are basically the only books left of the books I said I was going to read this summer (minus The Corrections, which I'm saving so Alley and I can readalong it for moral support) and imagine if I actually managed to stick to that?! It would be mental, obviously.

And, for the purposes of togetherness, all the books:

Oh yeah. They're pretty.

To avoid clogging up everyone's blog feeds (and because, you know, I don't want to make THAT much of an effort) I think I'm just going to do a little sum up of the days reading at the bottom of this post and if I do any challenges (Might. Might not.) then I'll stick them on here too. So it'll be a nice, BIG post by Sunday. Yay?

Monday
Monday! You were alright. I didn't anticipate reading very much because Monday mornings are for catching up with US TV (Breaking Bad and True Blood, obvs) and then for reading about said TV and whatnot, and then, you know, work and stuff. But I did fine! I finished the Moomin book I was reading (One book down, yesssss!) before work (this is because I wake up early on Mondays to watch Breaking Bad... Apparently that's a thing I do now) and then this evening I had a bit of a read of The Fault in Our Stars (I thought I would either love it or hate it, and I definitely... One of those things [hate. It's hate.]) in spite of the great temptation to watch Pushing Daisies because apparently I really like reading! Who knew?! Anyway. Bedtime now. Or in a bit. Whatever.

Pages Read: 156
Books Finished: 1
Books Read From: Comet in Moominland, The Fault in Our Stars
Snacks: Swedish Fish. But someone finished my doritos and I am not pleased.
Non-Reading Activities: TV and Internet. Like my liiiiiife.
Reading Activities: Rolling my eyes at teenagers being dicks

Tuesday
I worked all day today to help out at work, so I didn't anticipate much reading being done because I only get half an hour for lunch and everything is stupid. I did get through one chapter of my Bill Bryson book (woo! One chapter!) but I also read during breakfast and then also for quite a bit of the evening- although I did of course have to watch The Great British Bake Off and ALSO Don't Tell The Bride because that's how I roll. But anyway, I think I did quite well, and oh yeah, what was that other thing? FINISHED ANOTHER BOOK. Fuck yeah. Even if it was a YA book which could be read immensely quickly, DOESN'T MATTER.
Today's page count is going to look HUGE because I'm counting the pages I read right before bed (and, so, just after I turned my computer off) too, so don't take it as fact or anything. Also, I have totally and completely sucked at visiting other blogs, but all I have planned for tomorrow morning is washing my hair so I will try to do some social activities tomorrow.

Pages Read: 237
Books Finished: 1
Total Books Finished: 2
Books Read From: The Fault In Our Stars, The Lost Continent
Snacks: Not really! Or not reading snacks, anyway. Had a little cake slice while watching the Bake Off, naturally.
Non-Reading Activities: Work and TV.
Reading Activities: Getting a welcoming hug from Bill Bryson familiarity and genuinely laughing at a funeral... I don't like what this book has done to me.

Wednesday
Pfffffffffft. Did you hear that sound? That was the sound of not-much reading getting done. I read a bit this morning but spent most of it writing a scathing (SCATHING) review of The Fault In Our Stars, which I'm glad I did now so I could remember the things that most annoyed me, and also so that I can get rid of the book (getting rid of books! Success!) so it was worth sacrificing that extra reading time. I did start The Cuckoo's Calling though which so far is very good- It honestly has the best descriptions of London I've maybe ever read, but I don't know if that's just because I've been there a lot or whether it ACTUALLY makes it easy to picture. Either way, I'm right there with them. And I read a teeeny bit of Middlemarch last night and this morning. I'm trying. I would have read this evening but instead I went to have dinner with my friend which was lovely- friends are actually even better than books- or at least this one is, anyway. And I did visit some blogs today! Yes! Not... NEW ones, but still.
Tomorrow is my auntie's birthday so I believe we're going to do some kind of something (present giving?) before I have to go to work, so WE SHALL SEE how the reading goes. I always think I'm free on Bout of Books weeks (or... I did last time) and then things always keep popping up, but oh well! At least they're nice things.

Pages Read: 95
Books Finished: 0
Total Books Finished: 2
Cumulative Pages Read: 488
Snacks: Um... I had some pringles? They were nice.
Non-Reading Activities: Looking at the Ikea catalogue and hanging with my frieeeend.
Reading Activities: Wandering through London in my brain.

Thursday
Suuuper quick update because it's late and I've been tired allllll day. But I read things! We ended up not going to see my auntie until lunchtime (i.e. about an hour before I had to go to work) which was lame in one way, but in another, oh the reading I did this morning! And then also I did reading this evening, before and after losing about an hour and a half on the internet (GIVE ME MY LIFE BACK, INTERNET). But, the important thing is, The Cuckoo's Calling is so good that my bath went cold and it's now really late and I don't even caaaaaare and really I just want to stay up and find out who did it. But I won't because of that sleepy thing.

Pages Read: 230
Books Finished: 0
Books Read From: The Cuckoo's Calling
Total Books Finished: 2
Cumulative Pages Read: 718
Snacks: More Swedish Fish, but that's pretty much it
Non-Reading Activities: Staring around tiredly and eating cake (seriously, I had two kinds of cake today! Go birthdays!)
Reading Activities: Trying to solve the case- I have not even a CLUE who did it.

Friday
I'm pretty ecstatic that it's the end of the week (3 day weekend, yo!) and I am SO TIRED. It's barely 10pm here, but I'm already contemplating sleep and I'm definitely (clearly) contemplating turning my computer off in a few minutes. It's MADNESS, I tell you! I'm in a brain state where I'm either going to fall asleep as soon as I turn it off, or stay up reading for another hour, and right now I can't tell which way it's going to go (but it's probably the former. SO TIRED.) Today's reading... I'd call it average. I didn't do the MOST reading in the world, but I didn't really slack, either. You'll see in the stats. I'm excited for tomorrow's weekendness- I'm going to go out in the morning to get a few bits, but I'm thiiinking that the afternoon might be dedicated to reading, glorious reading (and it doesn't hurt that it's supposed to be rainy either- perfect reading weather.) I'm sort of tempted to 24 hour readathon it, but I SHAN'T for I am sensible. Mebbe.

Pages Read: 169
Books Finished: 1 (Yes!)
Books Read From: The Cuckoo's Calling, The Lost Continent
Total Books Finished: 3
Cumulative Pages Read: 887
Snacks: Hmmm... I don't think I ate anything while I was reading today, actually! I did have a diet coke (natch)
Non-Reading Activities: Working and walking in 80-odd degree heat. Unpleasant.
Reading Activities: Gasping at The Cuckoo's Calling and then going a-travelling with BB.

Saturday
Oh, Saturday, I had such grand reading plans for you, and yet... Nothing. Or hardly anything, I should say. A combination of things added up to conspire against me reading, including: waking up about half an hour before my mum wanted to leave the house (and she was giving me a lift to the station, I should add), forgetting to take a book with me so there was all this spare time on the train where I just sort of stared instead of, you know, reading, and then the shopping, and then the cake-making, and then the dinner making... There was not much time for reading, but it was still a pretty good day! (cake! Note: if you want a lot of random strangers to like your instagram photo, just tag it as vegan. Works every time.) But anyway, I did buy a few books so it wasn't a total bust!

Pages Read: 83
Books Finished: 0
Books Read From: The Newlyweds
Total Books Finished: 3
Cumulative Pages Read: 970
Snacks: So much chocolate frosting. Also, doritos.
Non-Reading Activities: CAKE
Reading Activities: Pondering cultural differences and multi-cultural marriage.

Sunday
For the purposes of completion... Sunday was a pretty good reading day, I neaaaarly finished a book but didn't because I had to go to bed early to go to the zoo (ZOOOOOOOO!) today, but I did finish it Monday morning so am tempted to count it in this count (but I won't because that would be a lie). Anyway. I didn't read so much in the morning, but from 5pm onwards basically all I did was read rather than my usual going-to-my-room-and-watching-internet-telly act on a Sunday. So that was good. In fact, the whole of Bout of Books has been generally good for me, reading-wise- I think last time I did it I sort of felt the pressure to take part (my own pressure, rather than anyone else's) whereas this time I was just like 'oh yeah reading, cool' and just prioritised it over tv. So, excited as I am to start watching telly again in the evenings (Pushing Daisies, I am coming to finish you!) I think I'm also going to make a better effort to read the things. She says...

Pages Read: 223
Books Finished: 0
Books Read From: The Newlyweds
Total Books Finished: 3 (NEARLY 4)
Cumulative Pages Read: 1193
Snacks: Grapes dipped in Nutella. Look into it!
Non-Reading Activities: Um... I did a facemask and saw my family?
Reading Activities: Being slightly perplexed by the plot direction of The Newlyweds...