My, Short, Summer TBR

My, Short, Summer TBR

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Chat | Getting Through Boring Books

Although studying English when you're a bookworm can seem like a dream come true there are still downfalls. One of these is that you will inevitably study a book that you think is incredibly boring. For Uni I've just finished reading Utopia by Sir Thomas More. I would never have read it due to my own will. It got me thinking though about how you struggle through a book you're not enjoying and I've come up with some tips!

1) Make Time to Read - This may be a bit simple, but I made sure that half an hour before I went to bed I spent it reading the book. 30 minutes is more than enough time. If you make this something you have to do you will be surprised how far you get each time.

2) Take the Book with You Everywhere - I found I was able to read a chapter on my work break or waiting for the train. Again, I was only reading in short bursts and it made it feel like it was going much, much quicker!

3) Look Ahead - I know reading ahead is wrong but I found it really helped. I would count the pages till the next couple of chapters and set this as my reading goal. When you then read more if you have time it makes you feel much better about the book.

4) Look for the Positives - I know this is hard when the book seems the most boring thing ever created but try. Who knows? You might even start to enjoy it.

5) Commit - This is the hardest step as perseverance is way more tricky than just giving up. Just look forward to the sense of achievement you will feel when you finally finish the book!

I hope these tips help, this is just how I struggle through the things I don't really want to read.

~ Han x

‘The Circus arrives without warning’ The Night Circus -Book Review

Meg recently read Caraval which is continuously compared to The Night Circus. I feel like my review of the latter is much more positive than that of the former.

This book was amazing! I had been warned that it was a heavy read but I completely disagree. The style it is written in starts with seemingly random story lines for individual characters that converge at the end in the most glorious way. - I loved it.

The story is surrounded with a sense of mystery, there’s a good does of romance and a heavy helping of tension that kept me reading through the night. I simply cannot put into words how clever the book is. The tale mainly follows two magicians who teach their pupils their own respective styles of magic, the battle ground is the Night Circus - that is all you need to know.

The Night Circus has easily made it onto my favourites list and I look forward to whatever Erin Morgenstern writes next!

Now, go read this book!

Happy reading,

~ Han x

The Girls - Book Review

To say that I had expected 'The Girls' by Emma Cline to be a light and happy read perfect for the summer would be an understatement. To say that I didn't love every minute of it would be a bigger understatement. I had seen 'The Girls' floating around as Waterstones' May 2017 book of the month and admittedly, I was drawn to the characteristically summery cover. I was very surprised at the dark and twisted nature of the plot, but it was so fantastically gripping. I could barely put the book down over the two days that I read it over. Cline uses imagery and simple language in her novel perfectly. I was transported to an alternative yet realistic world where everything was believable and tangible. The characters were intense and had extreme flaws though were still likeable in some aspects. The family relationships were gritty and real and added so much more to the development of the protagonist. Even the settings were described in ways so intense that I was caught up in all the small things. It's a pretty easy read and I liked that - it was quick and although it took me a while to figure out the time order of the varying paragraphs and chapters, it all did make sense quite quickly. I liked the fast pace and I liked how the mystery was revealed early on in the novel with an answer yet it wasn't fully pieced together until the very end, keeping me as a reader constantly guessing and being surprised by turns and twists with every new passage. Although I'd been expecting something a little more light-hearted, it still matched my expectations of the themes of females, friendship, coming of age and identity. I actually think it's a pretty important novel when you delve into the underlying meaning beneath the darkness and the perverse crudeness. So maybe it isn't the ideal summer read and maybe it's not a funny romantic read for the beach - but it is a bloody brilliant read nonetheless. I very, very strongly recommend 'The Girls' by Emma Cline. So far, it is my favourite book of 2017 and also jumped up into my top ten favourite books of all time. And that's saying something. Check it out if you haven't before! And if you have - what did you think? Happy reading. ~ Meg. X

Birthday book haul part 2!!! I am so, so excited to have my hands on the 20th anniversary edition of HP and the Philosopher's Stone!! I pre-ordered this back when it was announced around February time so I've been waiting in anticipation. It's beautiful! There were eight versions to choose from - I picked the Ravenclaw hardback edition. It was hard to choose from them all, but as a loyal Ravenclaw I thought I would go for my house and I already have the series in paperback so thought the hardback would be a nice addition. It is really stunning! I hope they release the rest of the series in the same edition. I also took Hannah's book voucher and visited Waterstones today. With the voucher I purchased The Outsiders by S.E Hinton. It's one of my favourite movies so I thought I would hopefully enjoy the book as I've heard it's a classic. I then picked up Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, an author who I really like. I enjoyed Sharp Objects and Gone Girl, and this particular novel seems even darker so I'm really excited to get into it. Finally I got Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh, another one of those books that I have kept going on and on about reading and never got round to. My TBR pile is growing quite high ... I have high hopes for how much I'll be reading this year! Have you picked up any new books recently? Let me know. Happy reading. ~ Meg. X

What would a birthday be without a birthday book haul?? This year i received 5 new books from my parents, with one more (Swing Time by Zadie Smith) on the way in the post. My mum knows me very well so she's hit the nail on the head with books I would like. 'Into the Water' is Hawkins' second novel - I loved 'The Girl on the Train' and I really enjoy mysteries/thrillers so I'm really excited to check this one out. I've heard good things about it so far. 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' by Lionel Shriver is a book I've been meaning to pick up and read for a long time. I really enjoyed the movie and I'm a big fan of books that revolve around mental health issues and the likes so I'm looking forward to reading this older novel. 'The Wonder' by Emma Donoghue really caught my eye with the blurb. I read her 'Room' and really enjoyed it and the plot behind 'The Wonder' seems really interesting so I hope that I'm proven right. 'The Girls' by Emma Cline seems like the type of novel that I'm going to really enjoy reading over my summer holidays so I'm happy to have this one. And 'All the Light We Cannot See' is a book set during WW2 (as far as I'm aware). I love books in historical settings, particularly when they are over the durations of wars and world history, so I'm excited to read this one. Hannah was also very lovely and picked me up a £10 book voucher, so I shall be heading over to a bookstore at some point this week to see what else I might like to read!! Thank you Hannah✨ ~ Meg. X

'The Woman in Black' Susan Hill - Book Review

As a self-proclaimed buff of the horror and the gothic, it is rare for me to find many ghost tales chilling or creepy in any sense - but lo and behold, 'The Woman in Black' ticked both of those boxes. Having watched the movie back when it came out in 2012, it quickly became one of my favourite horror movies - a hard feat when you have watched so many. I was determined to get round to reading the book, and after putting it off for so long, I've finally done it. It was an extremely quick and easy read which I'm hugely grateful for as I've been in a bit of a reading slump. It took me just two days over the space of three separate sittings to read it. It's very simple and fast-paced and after the first chapter is out of the way, the action is immediate and consistent. 'The Woman in Black' has been described as a classic English ghost story. This, I cannot deny. Yes, it is classic in the sense that it is predictable and it is of the same origin that many ghost stories tend to follow, however it was still enough to send chills down my spine. The simple and non-overly graphic descriptions of the ghost herself in the novel to simply put it actually did creep me out. A few times I found myself having to look around my room and wonder if she was standing watching me. Even though it is like any other ghost story, as one of the first, I found myself enjoying it immensely more. One thing I never say is that I was actually glad I watched the movie first. Some of the imagery in the novel was hard to wrap my head around and it helped being able to picture the scenes and settings from the movie. Apart from a few details, the movie itself does not actually stray that far from the book for the most part. I was pleasantly surprised to find how accurate it was, leave out a couple of things. The movie helped me picture the storytelling a lot more. The only thing I did not like so much about the writing was the extreme use of commas - there were a lot! Many of the sentences took up half pages at a time in their lengthy detail of compound sentences. However, not being a modern novel, this was not a huge issue to me, and otherwise the novel was extremely easy to read. I'm looking to purchase myself some more of Susan Hill's ghost stories as I really did love the creepy simplicity of it all. I recommend this novel if you enjoy the gothic and also if you enjoy classic literature. These go hand in hand in 'The Woman in Black'. If you are spooked easily, then I perhaps suggest you read this book with the lights on - or, even better, in the daylight. Next up on my TBR? 'The Night Manager' by John Le Carré. Who wants Light-hearted stuff, eh? Happy reading! ~ Meg. X