Top Ten Five Books I HAD To Buy...But Are Still Sitting On My Shelf Unread

I got pretty good at reading my accumulated book pile last year so I don't actually think I have 10!

1) The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe. This book sounded like something I'd love, it was my favourite era/setting etc, but ... I read I am Charlotte Simmons first and realised what a terrible author Wolfe was, so this is still unread.

2) Underworld - Don Delillo. This was an author I'd wanted to get into for a long time, and when I finally got Underworld cheaply on eBay I was really excited to read it ... but it's still unread!

3) Invisible Monsters Remix - Chuck Palahniuk. The reason I've not yet started this one is because I want to re-read the original again first, and I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

These next two are kind of cheats because they actually just came today but:

4) The Host - Stephanie Meyer. Research for my dystopia project.

5) The Handmaid's tale - Margaret Atwood. Research also.

Time to take a seat on the director's chair! If you could turn one of your favourite books into a film, who would you cast?

I have always, always said that I would love to see Chuck Palahniuks Haunted adapted because I think it would make an amazing series. There are so many stories, revelations and plot twists, I think it would be great. Who would I cast? I have no idea, I'd just love to watch it!

Watching: Game Of Thrones Season 2, I bought the box set yesterday as I had a cheeky discount and it's so good to have Westeros back in my life!

Listening To: Lana Del Rey, David Bowie, Cillie Barnes, Leonard Cohen.

Thinking About: Being lazy; I've just had my knee tattooed so all I want to do right now is give it time to heal.

Loving: Having the excuse of my upcoming uni project of a dystopian drama to buy lots of new books as "research"!

Reading: The Long Walk - Stephen King.

Making Me Happy: James Fanco's Instagram, eBay, eating out.

Top Ten Favourite Romances

(And yes, I'm putting all the ladies before men)

1) Kathy & Heathcliffe ♡ Wuthering Heights

"If he loved you with all the power of his soul for a whole lifetime, he couldn’t love you as much as I do in a single day."

2) Elizabeth Bennett & Mr. Darcy ♡ Pride and Prejudice

"I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."

3) Julia & Winston ♡ 1984

"We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness."

4) Dolores & Humbert ♡ Lolita

"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita."

5) Brett & Jake ♡ The Sun Also Rises

"Oh Jake," Brett said, "We could have had such a damned good time together."Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly, pressing Brett against me.Yes," I said. "Isn't it pretty to think so?"

6) Anais Nin & Henry Miller ♡ (As authors not characters) 

"Henry to Anais on March 21, 1932Anais, I don't know how to tell you what I feel. I live in perpetual expectancy. You come and the time slips away in a dream. It is only when you go that I realize completely your presence. And then it is too late. You numb me. [...] This is a little drunken, Anais. I am saying to myself "here is the first woman with whom I can be absolutely sincere." I remember your saying -"you could fool me. I wouldn't know it." When I walk along the boulevards and think of that. I can't fool you - and yet I would like to. I mean that I can never be absolutely loyal - it's not in me. I love women, or life, too much - which it is, I don't know. But laugh, Anais, I love to hear you laugh. You are the only woman who has a sense of gaiety, a wise tolerance - no more, you seem to urge me to betray you. I love you for that. [...] I don't know what to expect of you, but it is something in the way of a miracle. I am going to demand everything of you - even the impossible, because you encourage it. You are really strong. I even like your deceit, your treachery. It seems aristocratic to me. 

Anais to Henry on March 26, 1932This is strange, Henry. Before, as soon as I came home from all sorts of places I would sit down and write in my journal. Now I want to write you, talk with you. [...]I love when you say all that happens is good, it is good. I say all that happens is wonderful. For me it is all symphonic., and I am so aroused by living - god, Henry, in you alone I have found the same swelling of enthusiasm, the same quick rising of the blood, the fullness, the the fullness ...Before, i almost used to think there was something wrong. Everybody else seemed to have the brakes on. [...] I never feel the brakes. I overflow. And when I feel your excitement about life flaring, next to mine, then it makes me dizzy."

7) Juliet & Romeo ♡ Romeo and Juliet

"Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake- its everything except what it is!"

8) Scarlett & Rhett ♡ Gone With The Wind. 

"I want to make you faint. I will make you faint. You've had this coming to you for years. None of the fools you've known have kissed you like this-have they? Your precious Charles or Frank or your stupid Ashley". 

9) Ygritte & Jon ♡ ASOIAF. 

"I know I want you," he heard himself say, all his vows and his honour all forgotten."

10) Isolde & Tristan ♡ The Romance of Tristan and Isolde. 

"Fold your arms round me close and strain me so that our hearts may break and our souls go free at last. Take me to that happy place of which you told me long ago. The fields whence none return, but where great singers sing their songs forever."

Watching: Girls, 2 Broke Girls, New Girl, (Geez, what's with that word lately?!) The Big Bang Theory, Pretty Little Liars. All the shows I watch are back after a hiatus over Christmas and I couldn't be happier. Last weeks episode of Big Bang killed me. I think the noises I was making were the definition of "chortling".
I have also been loving Ripper Street on BBC1, mainly because it stars the beautiful Matthew McFadyen...but it's also great drama.

Listening To: The Postal Service, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Icona Pop, Jimi Hendrix

Thinking About: NEW YORK, less than two weeks to go now!

Loving: Deciding what to pack, coffee, and baths.

Reading: The Crimson Petal And The White - Michael Faber. This is a pretty hefty tome, so it's taking me a while to get through it.

Making Me Happy: My dog, thoughts of the next few weeks, and upcoming tattoo appointments.

Top Ten Best Bookish Memories (waiting in line for a new release, meeting an author, or some sort of great experience with a particular book that was unlike others)

1) Getting a book signed by my favourite author; Chuck Palahniuk. I got the book as a Christmas present a few years ago from the site St. Helens Bookshop, which has sadly now closed down. Having a personally inscribed book from this author means so much to me, definitely a treasured possession.

2) Twilight. I know, I know and I don't want to hear it! I read these books when I (like Bella Swan) was 17 years old and they were huge to me. I will always remember that feeling I had when reading this series and discussing it with my best friend.

3) Bedtime Stories. My mum used to read to me brother and I every single night before bed. Our favourites were Old Bear and Roald Dahl's Tales Of The Unexpected.

4) Meeting Jacqueline Wilson. If you're about my age or younger and you grew up in the UK, you read this authors books, it's just what you did. Once, she was coming to our local bookshop, and those of us who wanted to go and meet her (I was about 9) got the day off school to do so! I ended up taking all of my hardback Wilson books but unfortunately she was only signing her new release, Vicky Angel....I still have it somewhere.

5) Dying my hair silver so I could be like Daenerys Targaryen. (Seriously, after watching the show, who didn't want to be called "Silver Lady"?!)

6) All of the wonderfully fantastic adaptations that have been released over the years. There's something so special about watching something you've only seen in your head, come to life right in front of you. 

6) It's not necessarily bookish, but he was a poet, so: The first time I heard The Doors music. Jim Morrison's words hit me really powerfully, weather he's speaking or singing and I can remember, about four years ago, the very first time I sat down with my second hand "Best Of The Doors" compilation, bought in a charity shop because my mum thought they were "my kinda thing", and listened to The Crystal Ship. I'm still in a daze for their music.

7) Being Dorothy Gale for the entirety of my childhood.

8) Romeo & Juliet. I'm not sure how I'm construing this as a memory, but it's always struck a chord, plus I can recite the prologue from memory, so...

9) The first time I read Fight Club (At 16 I think). My first ever transgressive novel, or novel of any sort outside of classics and YA really, and boy, did it blow my socks off.

10) Starting this blog!

Top Ten Most Frustrating Characters Ever

1) Inspector Javert - Les Miserables. Self explanatory,  the man obsessed over one man for his entire adult life. I mean, there was a revolution happening right under his nose, and he had one of it's leaders within his grasp, but why do his job and keep peace on the streets when he could be chasing down Valjean for the mighty debt of stolen bread. Go home Javert, you are clearly a mad man.

2) Scarlett O'Hara - Gone With The Wind. Oh Scarlett, you just couldn't see a good thing when you had it. Rhett Butler is one of the best men in classic fiction, and I love his character, but ugh, Scarlett. She obsesses over sickly looking Ashley who wants nothing to do with her, and throws Rhett's love away, she only wants him after he'll no longer have her, she's such a brat. 

3) Alex DeLarge - A Clockwork Orange. Why do you do it Alex?! Better yet, why do I feel sympathy for you?! I just wish Alex had had the change of heart on his own, and redeemed himself, instead of feeling remorse through the experiments.

4) Cersei Lannister - ASOIAF. There is nothing that will make this character redeemable. She has been locked up, paraded through the streets of Kings Landing naked, lost her husband, lost her children, and still she feels no humility! 

5) Mrs Bennet - Pride & Prejudice. Her nerves. Her nerves give me bad nerves, I swear. I hate the way she just forgives Lydia with not so much as a reprimanding look, just forgives her and accepts her happilly becsause she has a ring on her finger, and I hate the way she treats Lizzie as her least favourite. Speaking of Lydia...

6) Lydia Bennet - Pride & Prejudice. What a scheming child she was. Forgetting the fact that Wickham and Lizzie were a kind of thing - she just vanished with him, not sparing a single thought for her reputation or the reputations of her 4 unmarried sisters, so selfish.

7) Frodo Baggins - TLOTR. I know his weakness is humanity and it's supposed to make us empathise with him but god, every time he puts that god damn ring on I get so mad, then there's the most frustrating moment of all (for me), when he puts on the ring to "hide" from the ring wraiths, and then JUST LIES EXACTLY WHERE HE WAS, THUS THE STABBING. Yes they can see him anyway, but he clearly didn't know that, he could have rolled to the side or something ATLEAST.

8) Holden Caulfield - The Catcher In The Rye. He just makes so many bad decisions and he's halfway between acting how he wants and how he thinks he should at all times, I wish he'd just commit to one. 

9) Kathy - Never Let Me Go. Just feel something will you Cathy?!

10) Amy March - Little Women. For burning Jo's manuscript. I will never not hate you for that Amy. 

Top Ten Settings I'd Like To See More Of (Or At All)

1) England - I realise there are a lot of English-set novels, particularly of the classic variety, but I'm talking more modern here. I think I've read 2 modern English novels in the past year and I'd really like to read more this year. 

2) New Orleans/The Bayou - I have a little compulsion when it comes to this setting, and I tend to be drawn to books that are set there...more please.

3) The Past (Medieval) - We all know I'm a big huge massive fan of ASOIAF, and I feel like I need a little something else to obsess over in case GRRM does the unimaginable and breaks my heart by taking away my beloved best character :(

4) The Past (Romanticism) - I'm talking Austen, Bronte, etc..you can never have too many books set in this era.

5) The Past (Victorian/Georgian/Edwardian) All those romantic poetic men like Tennyson and Elliot...yes please, more.

6)The Past (Post Modern - 60's/70's) - My favourite decades! And I barely ever find books set in them, I think I've read 6 or 7 max, and none were exactly top notch.

8) Boats/n'HoesShips - I really like novels set on boats, especially if they're done cleverly and sound authentic, because then you're learning something too. I once wrote a script set a ship using only information I'd garnered from novels. So handy.

9) Hollywood - Classic Hollywood, why aren't you in more novels? I love classic Hollywood, the language, the style, the feel, everything. 

10) Planes - Like the boats, I like having a book set on one confined space, because then they have to be really character driven, which I love. Look at Life of Pi, Pi had only his imagination and a life boat - yet Martel gave us a story that felt huge.

Blog Hop 12-18th

With Autumn upon us and Halloween drawing near, what books remind you of fall? What ones do you enjoy reading that are about autumn?

First off, let me just say that I'm a total wuss and scare really easily, I can't watch horror films without having trouble sleeping for about a week and I own one book that is considered a horror novel; Carrie (I know, I know...) So I think that says for me that even though Halloween is creeping ever closer, and I adore Halloween, that the one type of book I'm not reading is Horror. At this time of year I tend to read quite a lot because the atmosphere is so prefect; dark and cold outside with perhaps heavy rain hammering down on the roof, Candles lit and a record playing in the background; it's just perfect to crack open a book in that place. The most autumnal novel I own is I think Wuthering Heights, not because it's set in that season, but because there's something about that kind of huge love story that's prefect for this time of year. I also love Shakespeare at this time of the year for the same reasons. This time last year I had just started the Song Of Ice And Fire series so I was really into that and I think it would be nice to start another series this winter, I'm just hopeless with series because I don't read them too often, so if any of you have any recommendations, please leave them below.

Blog Hop 14-20

Highlight one of your favourite reviews from the past month?

When I fist saw this weeks prompt I thought it meant a review by someone else that you liked, but most people on the links seem to have done the review of their own they like best, I'm going to do both! I don't know if I have a specific favourite review but Juli's reviews over at Universe in Words are always really well written, recently she's written posts about Persuasion by Jane Austen, Andrew Marvels poetry and Emily Dickinsons poetry that I've really enjoyed reading. I also really like Rory's blog, she reviews quite a mix of genres and just seems like a lovely person in general!
My own favourite review is going to have to be on The Perks of Being a Wallflower which you can read here, purely because I really enjoyed writing it, and it's a great book.

Book Blogger Hop - (Aug 24 - 30)

What is your favourite thing about blogging?
I really like that I'll always have these posts to look back on, it's like a database of my own thoughts on what I've read and it's a lovely reminder of what made the books I've reviewed special to me. I also like feeling creative in a literary way, I really miss writing but don't have much occasion for it on my University course.