Hello Everyone,
This is a special post for me as it is my birthday! (Happy
Birthday to me, happy birthday to me…) Luckily for me, it fell on day N, and I
am nineteen years old.
Nineteen years ago today, I was born (duh, that’s what
birthdays are!), and in my nineteen years I have read a lot of books. So today
I am going to share my bookish memories with you guys (to keep with my book
theme).
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| Image courtesy of Marlene Simoes |
The first book I read
The first book I read is a difficult one, as I remember it
slightly different to my parents. They reckon that the first book I read was
Rosie and the Tortoise by Wild and Brooks. I think it was A Bug’s Life book of
the movie. Also, what I did was probably not technically ‘reading’. I took it
off whoever was reading it and ‘read’ it from memory (will point out at this
moment that I was 3 years old at the time, so I hadn’t even learnt how to read
properly yet!) Apparently I turned the pages at the right time and everything.
I can’t remember what the first book I actually read was, because I read a lot
of books with my mum when I had learnt to read. But the ones I remember are
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the Hobbit and Stargirl.
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| Not me I'm afraid, all my childhood photos are actual photos, not scanned via: http://www.flowergirlworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/girl_reading.jpg |
The last book I finished
The last book I finished was yesterday, and it was Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. After writing my post on the series, I
decided that I wanted to re-read the series.
The next book I plan
to read
Well, it should be Giovanni’s Room, as it will be the book
that we are studying next in my course. However, it will probably be Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire, if I’m going to be honest. There’s not much else
to say on that subject.
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| "'I'm wondering what to read next,' Matilda said. 'I've finished all the children's books.'" via: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIF-dxUYo03X0D1OehU0yNYcEM9r8Yc7pccz1mR3q-WI1_doahvisRdleCX7ZJd2G_juIfVFjQtBrfv9Cc_T_YG5T4lcrDgjMJm_U986-BBYc6Xseoif5qkl9eWnpSGQUsPxz4FBryeRBl/s400/Matilda.jpg |
My favourite book
This is a difficult one, as I really just have whole piles
of ‘favourite’ books (meaning that none of them are my favourite.) I really
loved Journey to the Centre of the Earth (see my review here) as it completely
captured my imagination, and I just loved it. Another book that I really loved
was the Great Gatsby. However, I have slightly gone off it at the moment as I
had to study it for Higher, and I just need a couple of months not thinking
about it to allow me to fully appreciate it again. I just love the tragic hero
of Gatsby, and his love of Daisy: his unattainable dream. There is just
something that speaks to me, and that I completely understand and empathise
with. I don’t know exactly what.
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| via: http://media1.onsugar.com/files/2013/05/03/842/n/3019466/44721c4b88300d88_2006.xxxlarge/i/How-whimsical-2006-Great-Gatsby-book-cover.jpg |
My least favourite
book
I don’t know if I have a least favourite book. I’m not sure
if I’ve really disliked a book. One book that I remember not enjoying was
Looking for Alaska by John Green. I don’t know why I disliked it, I just didn’t
like the characters, and thought they were all despicable. I just couldn’t
sympathise with their situation, and what happened to them. Another one that I
really disliked reading was Utopia by Sir Thomas More. There was no story or
characters to follow, and I just didn’t believe that the society he described
could happen.
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| via: http://www.napsbitmesra.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/alaska.jpg |
Most sought after
book
At the moment my most sought after book is Heroes of Olympus
House of Hades, as I had to go into three separate book shops on three separate
occasions to find a copy of it. Then, when I finally find a copy of it, I find
that it’s in hardback, and so very expensive. It also wouldn’t match my copies
of the previous books in the series as they are paperback. So I still have not
got a copy of it.
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| via: http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1370008006l/12127810.jpg |
Most anticipated
release
Apart from the last Harry Potter, which was the most
anticipated release the world has seen, I would say possibly that my most
anticipated release may have to be Anthony Horowitz’s Power of Five series: Book 5 Oblivion. I think I started
reading it when I was 10 or 11, and the last book didn’t come out until last
year. I can say, it safely lived up to my expectations. Another book that I really
anticipated the release was the City of Ashes (what I believed to be the last
in The Mortal Instruments series, but it wasn’t). It also lived up to my
expectations. One anticipated release that did not live up to my expectations
was the third book of the Divergent Trilogy, Allegiant. I don’t understand, I
think it could have had a better conclusion, and reasoning behind the book.
There were no clever little hidden things in the book that all added up to the
conclusion, it was just stated the answer, and that was that. No hidden
subtleties. This year’s anticipated release is City of Heavenly Fire: the
sixth, and last, book in The Mortal Instruments series. I cannot wait, and I
really hope it lives up to my expectations.
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| via: http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140116020116/mortalinstruments/images/4/42/COHF_cover.jpg |
Literary Hero
I have numerous literary heroes. JK Rowling, for hitting the
lowest point in her life, and still finding inspiration to write. Anthony
Horowitz, for creating some of the cleverest, and coolest characters ever.
Roald Dhal, for getting me through my childhood, and teaching me that being
silly is very important to life. F Scott Fitzgerald, for creating the most
tragic of situations. Cassandra Clare, for allowing me to indulge my romantic
and fantasy side. Jacqueline Wilson, for teaching me to always be myself. Hard to sum up really, without anything
really corny and trite. So I won’t bother. Except this.
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| via: http://meetville.com/images/quotes/Quotation-Louise-Penny-literary-world-heroes-Meetville-Quotes-475.jpg |
Who is your literary hero, and why? They can be characters
in a book (I decided that I couldn’t go down that road as I would never finish
this post) or authors. Comment below letting me know. I’m off to eat some cake.
Gracexxx
Happy birthday! :) Hope you have a good one!
ReplyDeleteI don't know about literary heroes... let's see. Maybe L. M. Montgomery whose life's passion was writing. Or maybe Charlotte Bronte who wrote a letter to her literary idol asking for a critique of her work and was told "Writing is for men, get back in the kitchen" (paraphrasing). So she wrote a little thing called 'Jane Eyre' under a male pen name and achieved huge success. Or perhaps it's Murasaki Shikibu, who wrote what is considered to be the first novel over 1000 years ago at a time when women weren't supposed to know how to read or write. She wrote a naughty little romance called 'The Tale of Genji' for the Empress, despite being told by the monks of the time that she was going to hell for it. "You don't know me; I do what I want." Is what I imagine she told them.
These are all fantastic heroes. I didn't know about Murasaki Shikibu, that is a really great one.
DeleteGracexxx