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.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Two Most Anticipated Books For 2013

I'm going to assume that this prompt means anticipated as in, books you're waiting on being released, but personally I'm not so good with the shall we say "new releases". I very rarely wait for a book to be released because I tend to have so many titles on my "to read" list that have been out for a while. I think this past year I bought two books on or near their published dates, which were; A Dance With Dragons - George R.R. Martin, and Damned - Chuck Palahniuk (which I actually think I pre-ordered.) Getting down to it I think there's only one new to be released book I'm waiting for this coming year and it's (absolutely no surprise here)...

The Winds Of Winter.

Shocker right! Yes, book six is (hopefully) going to be released in 2013, which I am more excited about then I can eloquently say, as I presume, a lot of us are. (If you've not read the sampler on Martin's website you can find it here.) I do fear I'm being a bit optimistic with this choice, and in all likelihood the book won't be out next year at all, but dammit, I can hope!

And again, (I see a pattern here) I'll most likely be awaiting Palahniuks new novel which is said to drop next year and is a sequel to Damned. I really tried to think of a couple more titles but I can't! I have a pretty hefty list of book to get through at the minute anyway, so this is probably a good thing.

Also, I really like the look of new movie; The Silver Linings Play-book, (and if you follow Brett Easton Ellis on Twitter, you'll know he hasn't stopped raving about it being one of the films of the year) has anyone read the novel it's based on?  I had a sneaky peek at a few pages and it looked interesting, let me know!

Tune In Tuesday

Tune In Tuesday is a weekly feature in which bloggers get to showcase another one of their loves, music! The feature is hosted by Ginger over at GReads! but until further notice you can find it at Kate’s Tales of Books and Bands.

I used the site 8tracks to create a playlist for my Tune In Tuesday with the track-listing as below:

Manchester Orchestra - Slow To Learn

Brand New - Aloc Aloc

Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower

Death Cab - We Looked Like Giants

Brand New - Untitled 1

Death Cab - Brothers On A Hotel Bed

The White Stripes - Sister, Do You Know My Name?

Joni Mitchell - The River

You can listen to my playlist here

Blog Hop - October 5-11

This weeks Blog Hop is hosted by Soon Remembered Tales. Question: Banned Books Week ends on the 6th. How do you feel about books being challenged to be banned from libraries or schools? Have you read any banned books?

I actually have quite a large collection of previously banned books. In my opinion the books that have been banned are the ones that are very thought provoking, have important messages and really just worth reading, (also, who doesn't feel rather cool toting around Henry Miller...) In fact when I first got my laptop a few years ago I saved the American Library Association's list of banned or challenged books to my favourites as a "to buy" list! I always find it so amazing looking at the things that were banned less than a hundred years ago, things that people don't bat an eye at in today's society, look at the first 20 titles on the list; 

I've read the majority of these novels and in our time with most of them I'd never guess there had ever been any question about their readability. The idea of censorship in general really rubs me up the wrong way. I don't like the thought of what I see or read being controlled, but apart from being aware there's really not anything we can do about it, everything is controlled, if it's not by the government it's by the media and occasionally a book will come along which doesn't cater to the parameters of what's deemed acceptable; thus banned books!

 So, How do I feel about the banning of books? In a word: Angry! Sex exists, violence exists, drugs exist, you can't change the existence of these things so why try to halt people's awareness of them? It's so backwards for people to believe that just because you can't see or read about something then it just doesn't exist! As far as I'm concerned we should judge for ourselves if we're prepared to read about something, if we're not we can just close the book, the option of picking it up at all is what matters...I think I may have written more than the hop really asked for here so I'll stop my little rant now. I'm really looking forward to reading what everyone else has to say about this subject.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten "Older" Books You Don't Want People To Forget About.

I'm warning you now; I may exceed have exceeded 10 on this list...
I've always, always been a reader. Typical "excellent work" stickers and move up a class behaviour in school, but the reason I've always loved books so much is because of my mum. She'd read to my brother and I aloud every night when we were little and she's the type who always has a book on the go, and growing up I fell into the same patters. When I fist started branching out from kids or YA fiction at about 10 or 11 the first books my mum put into my hands were from authors like Dickens, Austen and the Brontë's, and I've never looked away from the "classics" since. These books have survived the test of time for a reason, here are some of my favourites. 

1) Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë - My favourite love story of all time. Desperate, haunting and absolutely fantastic.

2) Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen - I've written a review on this book which you can read here.

3) Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë - I think I like Jane's character more than I like the books itself, and that seems to be the case with quite a lot of people, She's very...real, and she's the constant underdog.

4) Tess Of The D'urbervilles - Thomas Hardy - Poor Tess, I feel so terrible for her every time I read this. A book which shows you haw far women's rights have come and makes you truly understand the terrible stigmas put on girls in those times.

5) 1984 - George Orwell - I wrote a review on this book a few weeks ago, which you can read here. One of the most important books I feel I'll ever read, makes you so aware.

6) Little Women - Louisa May Alcott - I love the characters in story, and my favourites are the obvious; Jo and Beth, such a lovely, heart-warming tale about family and again women's rights, I love that Jo won't take no for an answer and is determined to write.

7) The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald - Again, I've written a review on this recently which you can read here. 

8) A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess - A book I still find difficult to read, even after a few times. Ultra Violence and Human Nature. Viddy Well, Little Brother. 

9) On The Road - Jack Kerouac - Again...haha, I have written a review of this which you can read here.

10) Junky - William Burroughs - In the same wild times of On The Road, such an exciting and well written (considering!) book, not for the less mature audience.

11) Little Birds - Anais Nin - Definitely not for the less mature audience. I adore Nin, I think her writing is fabulous, but lets leave it at that. 

12) Howl - Allan Ginsberg - I think this must be included, one of my absolute favourite poems of all time, I'm with you in Rockland.

13) Tropic Of Cancer - Henry Miller - I'll leave this one vague for the same reasons as Little Birds.  

14) Fiesta - Earnest Hemingway - Hemingway had to be on this list, I wasn't sure which to put down but Fiesta is a favourite of mine. Wonderful, vibrant, exciting, and home to one of my favourite females in literature, Brett Ashley. 

I'm looking forward to seeing every one else's top ten!

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Series I Have Yet To Finish:

I'm really going to have trouble with this weeks topic, because I don't really read that many series, and if I do, I tend to finish them. I actually don't think I could make a list of 10 series I have read...With that in mind I'm going to have to change up the prompt to have anything to write about this week, so here's my...

Top Five Books I Have Yet To Finish:

1) Titus Groan (oh hey that actually is from a series!) - Mervyn Peake. I started reading this a few weeks ago and got about half way through before I put it down for a few days, after that I started a couple of new books and I just haven't got back into it yet.

2) The Complete Marquis De Sade, Vol.1 - Marquis De Sade, Paul J. Gillette. I bought this from Amazon after picking up an Angela Carter non-fiction at a charity shop called The Sadien Woman, where she discusses Sade's work. I bought the book more so to read and understand the criticism and theories on his work and understood that it was, shall we say, not for the light hearted? So I recommend neither of these titles if you are under 18, as they both contain mature content.

3) Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks. I mentioned this in my mini-haul last week and haven't started it yet, though I'm excited to!

4) White Oleander - Janet Fitch. Same reason as the above!

5) Superman: Man Of Steel - John Byrne, Marv Wolfman, Jerry Ordway and Karl Kesel. A graphic novel, not a book, but I'll include it anyway! I'm a big Superman fan, he's my second favourite Superhero, not much to say about this really, other than I'm reading it currently. 

Maybe some of you should recommend me some series so that I don't get stuck like this again...

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is run by The Broke and the Bookish. This weeks question is;

Top Ten Books That Make You Think (About The World, People, Life, etc.) 

I think this is quite a difficult question to narrow down into 10 as in my opinion that what most books do; they make us think and they change opinions, so I've tried to narrow it down into books that had (to me) a really strong message that made an impact. (In no particular order).

1) Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk. "The things you own, end up owning you". Just how materialistic are we?

2) Into The Wild - Jon Krakauer. There really is nothing stopping us from just picking up one day and going out to find beauty or purpose or meaning in the world, it does't have to be novelised.

3) 127 Hours - Aron Ralston. See above. The instinct to survive can make you do incredible things.

4) Survivor - Chuck Palahniuk. The way you look does not define who you are.

5) Fiesta - Earnest Hemingway. Love is not a fairytale, but "Isn't it pretty to think so."

6) 1984 - George Orwell. We are all under others control.

7) A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess. Violence is everywhere. It is senseless and consuming.

8) The Road - Cormac McCarthy. Love will always exist, even in the absence of all else. It can be a strength and a weakness, but what would we rather have? A loved one to share in despair? Or the ability to survive longer, alone.

9) Hey Nostradamus! - Douglas Coupland. "God is Nowhere. God is Now Here."

10) Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy. Women's rights have really come such a long way in the 120 or so years that this book was published.


What books changed the way you think?