The Reader Problems Book Tag

08:18 Unknown 0 Comments

This tag is old and done but I thought, since I’ve been MIA for a bit with uni work, that I’d let you guys get to know a little bit more about me as a reader. And how better to do that than through a list of questions that everyone’s already answered before me! 



  1. You have 20,000 books on your TBR. How in the world do you decide what to read next?
     
Well I tend to look at a few things when I’m picking up books to read. Usually I’ll look at what I have on my kindle first. These are my ARCs or paperback reprints that I get through NetGalley and was really interested to read from their synopsis. I’ll usually revisit my shelf and reread synopsis to see if any of those interest me. If not I take a trip to my shelves and pick out what I’m feeling like. Maybe a book I’ve heard lots of hype about, or a new book by one of my favourite authors? Admittedly sometimes I choose the smallest books. Or the ones with the prettiest covers. 

  1. You are half way through a book and you are just not loving it! Do you quit or are you committed?

This question has me a little stumped. Sometimes I read on, other times I simply can’t. I feel bad for leaving books half finished but sometimes I just feel there isn’t enough of a plot to catch onto. However, if I feel there are enough ends to be tied up at the climax of the novel I do tend to read on in the hope that it’ll get better. Sometimes it does and it just takes time to get to. 

  1. The end of the year is coming and you are soooo far behind on your reading challenge. Do you catch up and how?

Hahaha reading challenges. I try and say I want to read 50 books in a year but it never happens. With university I’m trying to be so creative whenever I can, writing and what not, that I find reading tends to be at the back of my mind. I’m hoping it will be less so next year when I’m in a house, away from the noise and hassle of halls, where I can take more time to myself to really read. I think if I was behind I’d try and  catch up by reading novellas and graphic novels. 

  1. The covers of a series do not match! How do you cope. 

I don’t. Plain and simple. If I can’t get a matching cover I feel the need to buy a whole new set. Granted I tend to be so behind on popular series that I can just tend to buy them with their final cover evolution in a set so I tend not to be faced with this issue too often. But I do truly despise cover changes when the original covers are just so so pretty. 

  1. Everyone and their mover like a book that you don’t. Who do you bond with over shared feelings?

I tend to just read lots of reviews. I’ll usually find someone who has the same opinions as I do. And I tend to just write honestly on my blog and put it aside. I’ve had this experience before but I’ve never gotten too hung up on it. Sometimes you just don’t like certain books. And that’s okay. 

  1. You are reading a book in public and you are about to cry! What do you do?

Stifle tears as best I can. Locate the nearest bathroom. Cry there. If no toilets are available; grab tissues and just cry it out. If anyone asks you what’s wrong, recommend them the book. If you’re crying, that book has obviously gotten you emotionally invested; it’s a good book. 

  1. A sequel of a book you really like has come out and you have forgotten a lot from the prior novel. Do you reread the book? 

I tend to prefer standalone novels but when I am faced with a sequel or part of a series that I am late to reading I’ll usually try and find a review on youtube or a synopsis somewhere. Usually I’m pretty good at remembering the details of the books I really like and would seek the sequel of, so I don’t think I’d reread. Maybe I’d skip through a couple of chapters towards the end or so. 

  1. You don’t want anyone borrowing your books. How do you politely tell them no?

“Oh uh I’d really rather not. I’m kind of particular with my books and I’d hate to have the spine bent or something like that” 
“But I promise I wouldn’t…."
“Ah but you never know. Really sorry but I can link you to places where you can find it cheaper"

  1. Reading slump! You’ve picked up and put down at least 5 books! What do you do?! 

I try and take myself away from reading all together if I’ve picked up that many. Usually I’ll sit and watch Netflix, take a walk, spend time with friends and family, and do all the other things I can until I become bored of the real world and long for the one between pages. I’ll usually start with a book I know I’ll love, or one of my favourites, just to get me back into the swing of things. 

  1. There are so many books you’re dying to read! Do you buy them all?

I have a note in my phone of all of the books I see when I’m in Waterstones that I can’t buy. If I’m in there I’m usually buying one or two already (only if they’re buy one get one half price) but then I’ll come home and search on amazon or book depository to see if they’re selling them any cheaper. Usually I just wait until birthdays, christmas etc for books. Easter time I got Caitlin Moran’s Moranifesto which I’m slowly working my way through!

  1. After you buy those new books how long till you get round to actually reading them?

Sometimes I’ll start them the same day, other times they’ll sit on my shelf and I won’t read them for a few months, or when I have the time. You’d think if I bought them I’d want to read them straight away, but I already have so many I haven’t yet read!


Thank you so much for sticking with this blog if you’ve been reading for a while. I really appreciate every reader and it’s something I love to do. Thank you!

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The End of the World Running Club - Adrian J Walker

11:05 Unknown 0 Comments

“Beliefs are strange. Things of certainty about things uncertain. Take mine for example. I believe there are graves in the field next to the house where I live. I stop at the fence every morning and I look at three lashed crosses standing crooked against the sea, and I believe I know who is buried beneath them. 
But I can’t be sure. So I believe instead. I supposed I could dig them up, but, as I see it, there are only two ways that little enterprise can end and neither of them is particularly palatable. Besides, if you have to go round digging up graves to prove your own sanity then you’ve probably already lost it."



Oh my goodness, where do I start with this one? Well let me just start out with a virtual round of applause for Adrian J Walker for this incredible novel. It’s just joined the list of my favourite novels. And he has others!! They’ll quickly be joining my to be read list. 

So how does one go about defining The End of the World Running Club. Well as the title suggests it is set during and after an asteroid strike; note the "End of the World” part. It follows the protagonist Edgar, or Ed as he is mostly referred to throughout the book who is a 35 year old man living in Edinburgh. He’s got a family; a loving wife called Beth, a daughter Alice and his son Arthur. However he’s not the best. He’s an overweight regular drinker and a very reluctant father. He’s often dreamt about being left in the world on his own, as if the world has ended, but he didn’t expect it to actually happen. 

The family are forced to live in their basement for a couple of weeks before they are rescued and offered refuge in a nearby army barracks just in the nick of time, with the hop that they’ll be picked up by helicopters for evacuation from the UK to somewhere safer. Whilst at the barracks Ed offers to go on salvage runs to find food and other supplies with a few others but on their return they find they’ve just missed their evacuation; left behind by their families. 

This novel follows Ed’s journey, as well as the friends he makes, across the United Kingdom, from Edinburgh to Cornwall, to find his family. It’s a true exploration of what the human mind and body is capable of. 

So, why do I love this novel so much? 

There are a few reasons I could throw out and not talk about in detail but I really want people to understand where my love for this book comes from. So I think I’ll start by looking at some of the characters, because they are phenomenal. 

Ed is the perfect protagonist for a book about a man running across the UK to find his family. He’s overweight and actively seeks to avoid his family when he can. It’s such a complicated situation that he is put in and Walker really uses the first person narration for us to see Ed’s physical and emotional torment throughout. And boy does he go through some rough times. They all do. 

Also, as part of the salvage group, and later the running club, are Richard, Harvey and Bryce. These men are also civilians but all have something to offer Ed. Richard is a father as well and often has Ed’s side when people begin to question his role as a father and his dedication to his family. He’s also lost his wife and therefore feels the same desire as Ed to reach the evacuation point in Cornwall, so that he can be with his son. 

Harvey is the one who teaches Ed how to run effectively. Throughout the novel we hear about his incredibly running adventures and whilst they do seem a little unbelievable at times, it acts as a little comfort to Ed to know that it is possible to cover the 20 miles a day they have to average. He’s also an Australian (if that helps you at all). Thinking a little more about it and looking at Adrian J Walker’s biography the two seem a little similar, I don’t know if this is in fact the case but I’d be interested to know if he took any experiences from his own life when writing for Harvey. 

Bryce is probably my favourite of the male characters purely for how he’s described by Walker; “His eyes twinkled like diamonds from a deep coal pit. His hair was black and long and a beard covered half of his face, all of his neck and what appeared to be a permanent grin.” He’s such an interesting character to me because when we first meet him he’s full of bravado and yet as the novel progresses we see  him start to soften and become more human than “bear” as he’s described by Ed’s daughter, Alice. There was one particular moment where I really began to dislike him, but that was quickly rectified. And that moment was during a conversation with a character called Grimes. 

Laura Grimes is one of the army personnel who is out on the salvage mission when the evacuation helicopters leave. She’s very strong yet has a very kind heart. Bryce tries to intimidate her, asking if she should really be out with them or if she needs protecting and she just hits back with the fact that she’s really protecting him, although she was seriously debating stopping doing so. I think she’s such an interesting character who I really enjoyed reading about. 

There are another two people with them on their salvage trip; Yuill and Henderson. However, I think I’ll let you read about those two for yourself. 

What Walker has done incredibly well as far as I’m concerned as a reader, is create really well rounded characters who carry the plot with them. Even the secondary characters are fleshed out to a point where you almost want to read more about them. For example they meet a teenage single mum called Gloria with her new born Sofia and I wanted to read about how her life changed after the asteroids hit. The same with Rupert who they meet at Bartonmouth Hall. And I even wanted to read more about Jenny Rae (who is by far one of the most terrifying people in this novel). Every single person has a flaw but also has something they’re working towards. No one is completely good or completely evil. Often times you can find yourself sympathising with someone you know you shouldn’t because you understand their actions. 

Additionally, what I love most is that this is a novel set in the UK. I love novels set in Britain. To me they just mean so much more because understand the geography of where they are and how far it is to get from A to B. Even more importantly with this novel was to understand the devastation of the place. To find out London has essentially become a giant crater made me understand the level of destruction that had been caused and how many people must have died or been injured in that one asteroid hit. It also allows me to have a good indication of the scale of the task at hand. Whilst I can claim to know how large America is from one side to the other, I don’t. It’d be harder for me to get my head around that scale than it is for me to do so with the place I currently live it. The well crafted devastation really meant that the novel was full of unexpected twists. I learnt that in an end of the world situation, don’t rely on finding a car. Because even if you do it might not get you very far. And stay away from the coastline if possible. Sometimes it’ll have become swamp like. 

The novel’s themes are obvious ones such as endurance and family, but there is also an undercurrent of love. Whether it’s love for themselves or the longing for or rejection of love, Walker covers it all. In this desolate place that has been created, there is nothing quite so heartbreaking as seeing someone long for the love of another and be rejected, or to discover someone’s love just too late. Pair that with the exhaustion and hunger that you feel alongside the characters who have to struggle through this wasteland, meeting all kinds of people and battling, at times, with each other, this novel becomes incredibly overwhelming in places. The ending of this novel feels as though it should be the happiest ending to a story that there could be. A clichéd reunion between Ed and his family, Bryce finding someone he can love as much as he loves himself or alcohol, and Richard finding his son. I’m not going to tell you the exact ins and outs because I’m not a spoiler of books unless asked specifically. But just be prepared with a box of tissues. In fact I’d have them there from the start. 

Yet what Walker has done so well is juxtapose these dark times with humour, either in the form of Bryce's excitement about finding miniatures of alcohol, to just conversations that they have. The way that Walker writes, utilising the first person, is incredibly engaging and made me want to continue reading. The narrative voice was something that, in fact, kept me going. This, with the characters and the plot line itself, is really one of the reasons it's one of my new favourite books.

This novel taught me a lot about my own self too. I learnt that I can be resilient and can conquer that inner voice that says that I can’t do it. I learnt that, especially in running, it’s better to take smaller steps and make smaller decisions, all of which amount to one larger outcome. I feel that I have learnt so much about human strength and the capability to survive when the worst happens whilst building friendships and keeping each other strong. It’s going to be one I reread when I need to remember that not everything is so bad and that there’s always a positive to what seems like the end of the world. 

Total pages - 464
Total read time -  Untimed
Rating /10 - 8.5/9

Recommend - Yes

Also, once you've read it. Go back and reread the first chapter of the book again. Realise all of the things that you didn't originally and revel in the feeling that you now know something you didn't before. You won't regret it. 

0 comments :

Buffering

13:47 Unknown 0 Comments

I don’t usually write personal lifestyle-esque blog posts on here but I feel like right now I need to. I could disguise this as a piece of fiction but I don't think I can. What I'm experiencing is affecting my every day and I’m not reading as much as I would like to. This is because I’m buffering.

Buffering is how I like to talk about my struggle with depression and anxiety. It’s the feeling of having to stop whilst everyone else moves forward. Imagine watching a youtube video with a friend and their’s continues to move on whilst yours stops loading for a few seconds so you’re constantly behind. That’s what I’ve always felt my depression to be like. 

I’ve been medicated since August 2015, so not very long in the grand scheme of things. I know people who have been on tablets for way longer than I have but this for me was a struggle in itself. I didn’t want to admit that I needed help. I just thought I was in a dark patch that was due to hormones and it would pass. This was what happened to every teenager right? Everyone’s stressed and down at times and it just passes?

Well, I took some time to really research what I was experiencing and discovered, thanks to the NHS online test, that I could be diagnosed with depression and generalised anxiety. When I went to the doctors that was what it was and I was offered counselling or tablets. At the time I felt so much stigma attached to my depression that I couldn’t face counselling, so took the tablet option instead and that’s where I’ve been ever since. 

There have been two occasions where I’ve stopped taking my tablets at university. The first I forgot to renew my prescription due to exams and my christmas holiday. The second has been in the last few weeks and I don’t think I’ve ever felt worse about the best time of my life. 

I’ve recently got a new boyfriend, been to an anime and comic book convention and even been told that I’ll be having two of my original poems published in an anthology by my university, yet everything feels like I’m buffering still. Not taking my tablets has not helped. Any doctor you talk to about mental health medications will tell you that you shouldn’t stop taking them without discussing it with your doctor first, yet I’m prone to forgetfulness. However what hit me today was that I’m sick of seeing things in black and white; I want to see the world in technicolour. Much like Dorothy in The Wizard Of Oz, I want to leave this hurricane and step into a bright new world of opportunity where I can make friends again and enjoy life. 

I just want people to know that mental health issues are not something to be shy about. If you’re not happy, go and speak to a professional. They will be able to help you to come to terms with the issues that you may be going through, or the effects you may be feeling on your body. They may not be severe to begin with but they are better to be treated early than left to manifest. Linked below are some really good websites for mental health issues that you might want to investigate. 

Mind: For Better Mental Health

SANE: Together We Can #StopStigma

YoungMinds: The Voice for Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing

Blurt: Increasing Awareness and Understanding of Depression

And there is also this wonderful list of websites and phone numbers produced by the NHS


Please remember that you’re alive in this world for a reason. You are incredibly special. You are loved. And you’re never alone. You do not have to suffer in silence. 

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RE: The Imagination of the Child

12:55 Unknown 0 Comments

This blog post could also be entitled, “Why Samantha Shannon is right”. I was reading through the Guardian in search of some feature articles for my second year research and I came across a title which read “Why the headteacher who believes reading Harry Potter causes mental illness is wrong”. In this article written by Samantha Shannon she discusses a blog post written by The Acorn School’s headmaster, Graeme Whiting called “The Imagination of the Child". I wanted to to do the same. 

So what Whiting’s post is trying to say here is that children’s minds should be protected from “negative experiences”. He suggests that this should be done until they’re 14 at least and then they can slowly “move towards conscious thought as adulthood looms”. It’s a very interesting subject, that of protecting the minds of children, yet I’m not in any sort of agreement with Whiting here. I think that whilst, yes, some of the darkest things should be kept from children in order not to encumber them in life, children need to learn how to talk about difficult issues that may arise. I’m not saying let a 8 year old read “Room” by Emma Donoghue, but there are certain elements that arise, particularly in fantastical fiction, where they can actually help a child’s development. 

One of the series he mentions is Harry Potter. This book series, like to many others, is very near and dear to my heart. It helped me through a lot of tough times and gave me some much needed friends from time to time. So to hear Whiting talk about how children should leave these books until they have “first learned to love beauty” hurts me. A lot. I think that fantasy fiction is best enjoyed as a child. They are full of fun and fantasy which is incredible to read as a child. It was also what got me into reading! I also can’t see how, in any way, reading a Harry Potter novel could “damage the sensitive subconscious brains of young children.” 

Sticking with Harry Potter as an example here, I think that Whiting has missed a key issue. Books can be used as therapy, especially when looking at the darker matter. There is a guide book written by Kathryn Markell called “The Children Who Lived”. In this it uses literary references in order to help grieving children and adolescents. Harry Potter is a key component of this book because it does deal throughout with Harry’s loss of his parents and what he has to live up to. It allows a child to then relieve their grief and talk about it more openly because they’re using literature as a stepping stone to recovery. Without something like this they may not be able to talk about it as well with counsellors and therefore be stuck in a cycle of thinking they should have done something or they could have stopped it, which could leave them more severely mentally ill. 

Furthermore, Whiting states that he “stands for the old-fashioned values of traditional literature, classical poetry, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Dickens, Shakespearean plays, and the great writes who will still be read in future years”. Samantha Shannon makes a very good point in her article about "Titus Andronicus", a Shakespearean play which by all means should mean, to Whiting, that it is perfectly acceptable for children to read. The daughter of Titus,  Lavinia, is raped and then has her hands and tongue removed so that she can’t tell anyone. She is murdered by her own father out of shame for her being raped. I personally love that Shannon tries to find a Harry Potter equivalent which is near impossible, settling for Wormtail cutting off his hand, although she admits “it’s not quite in the same league”. 

I just want to mention a couple of other Shakespeare plays, whilst I’m here. "Romeo and Juliet” has three people stabbed in duels, Romeo drinks poison, Juliet stabs herself and Romeo’s mother dies of a broken heart. In “Hamlet” almost everyone is stabbed or poisoned apart from the people who die off stage who are beheaded or drown themselves. And in "Macbeth" just pretty much everyone dies. I think what Whiting wants us to think about are the comedies of Shakespeare, but even in those there are elements wherein they can be tense which could be said to torment a child. 

Additionally, lets talk about Dickens shall we. “Oliver Twist”, wherein a child is in a workhouse without family, is sold to the local undertaker who beats him before he runs away to London. He ends up in the company of pickpocketing homeless boys but on one of his pickpocketing jobs he is taken in by a rich man because of how much he looks like a young woman he has a portrait of. However he’s taken from this place by Bill Sikes and his lover Nancy and told he’ll go and burgle the place where he’d stayed. Oliver is shot but then taken in by the people who live there. If this currently isn’t enough of a tough time for a child reading it, I can’t imagine what they’d think when they read about Sike’s brutal murder of Nancy or that he inadvertently hangs himself on his escape mission. 

Classical literature isn’t all light and beautiful as Whiting would have parents of his school children believe. I feel that whilst classics are interesting to read they aren’t the be all and end all of beauty. I do not have a favourite book that could be classed as a classic. Additionally, I feel that when children are forced into reading classical literature it almost instantly kills their love of reading. I have had to talk to so many young adults who have just finished their A - Levels or their first year of university and many have said they’re just getting back into reading because they’re not being forced to read anything. Whilst I understand that Whiting may believe that beauty may only lie within the pages of classical literature, I implore him to read more. I think more than anything within his post the idea of having read all he wanted to before he was 30 hurt me the most. I can’t imagine having read everything I wanted in the next 10 years. There is always more. There are new classics to be made. New beauty to discover within new book pages. There is so much more to the world of literature than middle aged white men. 

Whilst I’m here too, Whiting talks about how children are “magnetised by the colourful and graphic attraction of the new book cover”. Yes. That’s because there are so many books that if you’re ever going to find something new it needs to stand out. I have picked up many a great book because of it’s eye catching cover. There’s nothing to say that this is wrong, sir. I’d also like to say he's wrong in suggesting that “authors don’t really care who reads what”. Ask any author of young adult fiction if they care about their audience. I’m almost certain that every single one would say yes. Because they’re writing to better the modern child. They’re writing to open children up to modern issues and creating a safe way for them to discuss issues which I think is incredible and something that Whiting is missing out on. 


He concludes his blog post by saying “beware the devil in the text! Choose beauty for your young children!” I can’t remember the last time the devil was mentioned in a novel I read. I can’t remember the last time I picked up a fantasy, or contemporary novel and didn’t think “wow this is beautiful”. What Grahame Whiting is trying to do here is say that classical literature is better than contemporary literature or that which lies in the fantastical realms of the imagination. Allow your children to explore and examine the world around them through different eyes. Allow your child to pick a book they think they’ll enjoy and if they’re young read it with them and don’t allow them to be ignorant. Discuss issues with them. Allow them to be free to read and enjoy reading. For after all, understanding yourself and the world around you is the most beautiful thing of all, isn’t it?

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