Reading 2012

Last year I read a grand total of 83 books. My goal had been 100, but after the summer I came to a reading block all because of stupid Wolf Hall and other boring books on my course's reading list. Now, however, I'm serious about getting to 100. It is a goal that my friend, The Student Housewife, and I both wanted to achieve. She managed 100, sadly I did not. But this year I'm gonna do it! Okay, so far I have only read two books in 15 days, and if I want to reach my goal I should be reading two a week. In my defence though, they were long books (Bag of Bones by Stephen King and The Two Towers by, you guessed it, J.R.R. Tolkien). I have nearly finished Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, a relatively interesting book for a core text. So that makes three!

But it got me thinking about how many books I read that were on my own personal reading list. I have had it since I was in year 12, so around 2008, and really, I haven't read as many as I would have liked. The books that are left, however, are all the long classic ones, like Dickens and Austin  Not really my cup of tea.

So, here are the books that I read in 2012 that were part of my personal reading list:

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Through the Looking Glass
Brave New World
I, Robot
The Notebook
The Secret Garden
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy (all five)

....Okay, really not very many. But I also started reading:

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The Grapes of Wrath
Interview with the Vampire
Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Just The Return of the King left)
Middlesex
The Picture of Dorian Grey
A Room with a View
A Tale of Two Cities
The Time Machine
Treasure Island
The War of the Worlds

Clearly I get easily distracted. But I will have read at least two of these books before the end of the year for sure. The War of the Worlds is one of my core texts for my Sci-Fi and Fantasy module, and I really want to read The Return of the King. 

A great way to keep track of what you've read is by using Shelfari, it's that little bookcase at the top of my blog. It's really fun, if you're a book nerd like me at least. I definitely recommend you get one and keep on reading!

You can also find the full reading list here. And if you have any books you think I should read, please leave a comment!

Creative Writing Dissertation Reading

Now that my supervisor replied to my email I should be writing, but I find that I can't stop reading. I'd forgotten how easy and fun it is to read young adult fiction, much better than serious books, or worst Wuthering Heights. 

I bought quite a few books at the beginning of the summer but haven't read most of them yet. I started reading Gone by Michael Grant and became addicted, meaning the other books would have to wait. At first I didn't think it was that great but I really got sucked in. I was drawn in because Grant didn't explain everything or answer any questions, he only made more, so I just had to read on to find out what was going on. I've now read three other books in the series with the fifth one on the way, but am still excited to see how it's going to end. The last book doesn't come out until April and I'm becoming impatient. I haven't had to wait for a book to come out since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. 

After I read those books I looked into what other teen books were popular and decided to read some Darren Shan. I picked Cirque du Freak as it seemed to be the most popular with the kids, and my friend Lauren highly recommended it. I particularly wanted to read some Shan as he is a great horror writer, and I admit it was pretty scary and plenty gory at some points. Although vampires aren't my favourite supernatural monster, and Twilight has made them so much worse, I wasn't put off and found the way he was turned into a vampire very interesting. I haven't read the rest of the series yet as there are quite a few books, and I can't afford all of them. I might get around to it eventually because my friend Lauren says it has a great ending, and I do love a good ending.

At the moment I am reading the Percy Jackson series, and I just love them! I read them ages ago when they first came out but they are still amazing years later. I suggested that my boyfriend read them and then I decided that really wanted to read them again, too. It just so happened that it is also research for my ECP - genius. I have always liked Greek myths and these books really satisfy my need for gods and goddesses, while having a fascinating and gripping plot. I have seen that Rick Riordan has also written another Greek inspired series, The Heroes of Olympus and The Kane Chronicles, which is based on Egyptian mythology. After I have finished rereading Percy Jackson I may look into these other series.

Today I went shopping and bought some more books, though I realise that I should be reading the books I already have, but I can't help it! I think buying books is better retail therapy than clothes shopping is. So, I bought The Recruit which is the first book in the CHERUB series. From the questionnaires I did I found that this series was quite popular and it is a best seller so I thought I'd give it a read. It's about child agents which reminds me of the Alex Rider series, and I liked that as a teen so I'll probably like this one too.

The other book I bought was a surprise. It's called Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley. The reason why it's a surprise is because it seems to be a twist on Edgar Allan Poe's stories. Does that sound familiar to you? Yeah, that's right, that's what my ECP is about, aaah! I am going to read it after Percy Jackson and pray that it isn't too much like my idea, I would be devastated if it was.

Here's the blurb:

'Edgar can't resist the terrifyingly twisted tales his Uncle Montague tells when he visits him at his house beyond the woods.
But what is his Uncle's connection with the dark stories? Prepare to be chilled to the bone as you discover that Uncle Montague is the subject of perhaps the most terrifying tale of all.
This is a seriously scary book...Are you brave enough to read on?'

Frankly, I think my idea sounds better. At least I hope it does!

The best thing about book shopping today was that I got a free book, and not a crap one either. It was actually a book I had been looking at earlier. I first heard about it my Fiction for Children module and thought it sounded interesting, mainly because it was about time travel, and who doesn't love a bit of time travel? It's Time Riders by Alex Scarrow. It was supposed to be free when you pre-ordered the new Artemis Fowl book but the Waterstones lady gave it to me anyway. Score! Waterstones workers are so nice.

As you can see I have a lot of reading to do, not to mention the reading I have to do for my modules, which seem so boring. If you have any other book suggestions for me to read, go ahead a comment below!

Goffered by Ann Foulds

My Auntie Ann has recently published her very first book through eBooks on Kindle and I advise you to go out and buy it. It only cost 77p so it won't break the bank and it will also be a very enjoyable read.

Buy Goffered by Ann Foulds from Amazon.

I hope to get something published soon and my Auntie Ann gives me hope. She had worked at BT since she left school at around 16 and then one day many years later she just quit and decided to write a book. It just shows if you have a story to write and the determination, you can definitely get published. Look out for me on Kindle soon!

(Also, if you don't have a Kindle yet, get one! They are awesome!)

Here is a little more about self-publishing via @AdviceToWriters How Amazon Made Self-Publishing Cool.

Reading List

This is my reading list that I constructed during my last year in Secondary school. I aim to read all these books before I die and I would like you to join in too! Please suggest any other books you think I should be reading!

1.       2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke

2.       The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin, Mark Twain

3.       The Adventures of Thomas Sawyer, Mark Twain

4.       Aesop’s Fables, Aesopus

5.       Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

6.       American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis

7.       Animal Farm, George Orwell

8.       Atonement, Ian McEwan

9.       The Beach, Alex Garland

10.    The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter

11.    Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

12.    Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding

13.    Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres

14.    Carrie, Stephen King

15.    Casino Royale, Ian Fleming

16.    Catch 22, Joseph Heller

17.    The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger

18.    Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl

19.    Choke, Chuck Palahniuk

20.    A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess

21.    Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell

22.    The Color Purple, Alice Walker

23.    Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky

24.    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Mark Haddon

25.    Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham

26.    Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick

27.    Dracula, Bram Stoker

28.    Emma, Jane Austin

29.    The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje

30.    Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy

31.    Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter. S. Thompson

32.    Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk

33.    Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

34.    The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

35.    Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

36.    The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

37.    Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift

38.    The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Douglas Adams

39.    The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien

40.    The Hound of The Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

41.    Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo

42.    I, Robot, Isaac Asimov

43.    Interview With The Vampire, Anne Rice

44.    Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

45.    Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, Jules Verne

46.    Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling

47.    Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami

48.    A Kestrel for a Knave, Barry Hines

49.    Lady Chatterley’s Lover, D. H. Lawrence

50.    Life of Pi, Yann Martel

51.    A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett

52.    Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

53.    The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

54.    Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

55.    Lord of the Flies, William Golding

56.    Lord of the Rings Trilogy, J. R. R. Tolkien

57.    The lovely Bones, Alice Sebold

58.    Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden

59.    Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

60.    Middlesex, Jeffery Eugenides

61.    Misery, Stephen King

62.    Moby Dick, Herman Melville

63.    The Never Ending Story, Michael Ende

64.    Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro

65.    Nights at the Circus, Angela Carter

66.    Nineteen Eighty Four, George Orwell

67.    The Notebook, Nick Sparks

68.    Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens

69.    One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey

70.    Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood

71.    Perfume, Patrick Suskind

72.    Peter Pan, J. M. Barrie

73.    The Picture of Dorian Grey, Oscar Wilde

74.    The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan

75.    The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain

76.    Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

77.    Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro

78.    The Reader, Bernard Schlink

79.    A Room With A View, E. M. Forester

80.    Schindler’s Ark, Thomas Keneally

81.    The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

82.    Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen

83.    The Shining, Stephen King

84.    The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson

85.    A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

86.    The Talented Mr Ripley, Patricia Highsmith

87.    Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy

88.    The Time Machine, Thomas Hardy

89.    The Time Traveller’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger

90.    Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There, Lewis Carroll

91.    To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee

92.    To The Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf

93.    A Town Like Alice, Neville Shute

94.    Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh

95.    Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

96.    Ulysses, James Joyce

97.    Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray

98.    Vertigo, W. G. Sebald

99.    War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy

100.The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells

101.Whistling for the Elephants, Sandi Toksvig

102.The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga

103.Wise Children, Angela Carter

104.Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

105. The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman