Bright Book

For anyone who has known me for any length of time, it should come as no surprise that I am a huge lover of Shakespeare. His work tends to often send me to tears, particularly his tragedies but often his comedies too, and I find it absolutely fascinating to investigate how he uses language. I think what we don’t give Shakespeare enough credit for is actually how often we use the phrases that he himself coined, for we’ve come to use them as every day phrases without any concern for what their origins were. Ever heard someone use the word “swagger” in a sentence. Thank Shakespeare for he used it in two of his plays, Henry V and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other phrases such as to “kill with kindness” and “a sorry sight” can also be attributed to Shakespeare and their first written instances are found mostly through his work. 

I’ve always loved reading Shakespeare. I find it so rich and exciting, every world created is very different from the one before. I will admit that I have not read them all, for I fear that would take a whole lot of time and dedication to really understand them all in depth to their full potential, yet from what I have read I know that I really admire Shakespeare’s work. This blog post I really wanted to act as a sort of "Starter’s Guide to Shakespeare” so here are a list of the shakespeare plays that I find most engaging and the easiest to read. 

If you’ve not read Romeo and Juliet I urge you to do instantly. It’s a tragic love story with some of the most well known shakespeare lines, and it has three film adaptations, all retaining the original language of the play. The first was from 1968, black and white version with a Romeo who looks strangely like a young Zac Efron (but unfortunately isn’t), then we jump to 1996 for the most famous adaptation feature Leonardo DiCaprio playing the male lead before he was then taken over by Douglas Booth for the 2013 adaptation. The story follows Romeo and Juliet who are from two feuding families in Verona, Italy. They fall in love and a whole mess ensues when Juliet is told that she will marry a man called Paris despite being desperately in love with her Romeo. Tybalt discovers Romeo’s love and duel’s him on the street and is slain by Romeo who is then exiled. Juliet is devastated not only by the death of her beloved cousin but of the exile of her love. He sends her a letter through her nurse and asks her to meet him with the priest where they are married before she can marry Paris but she is forced to return to Verona without him for he is still in exile. She knows that on her return she must marry Paris so on the eve of her wedding she takes a draught like poison which slows down her heart beat just enough to keep her alive but appear dead. She is laid to rest in the crypt where Romeo finds her, assuming that she is in fact dead. He kills himself with poison just moments before Juliet awakes from her slumber to find him dead. She kisses him, hoping to receive some of the poison from his lips but there is none left. She ends her own life with a dagger and the two are together once more, this tragedy bringing together their two families. 

Another tragedy from Shakespeare but this time set in Demark. Young Hamlet’s father dies and his uncle, Claudius, marries his mother. Two guards and his most trusted friend find Hamlet to tell him of a ghost that resembles the very image of his father and Hamlet agrees to take watch with them that night. It is indeed the ghost of his father and he tells Hamlet of the horror that he was in fact murdered and he believes it to be Claudius, sending Hamlet to seek revenge for his untimely death. Hamlet takes this very heavily onto his shoulders and this drives him slowly into madness as he cannot decide if he should kill his uncle who has in fact usurped his father’s throne, or not. This puts strain on his relationship with the daughter of his uncle’s advisor, Ophelia, for whom Hamlet cares about a great deal. Essentially this story, much like Romeo and Juliet, dissolves very quickly into a mess of death and the final scene is one that should be read incredibly carefully, if only to make sure you’re aware of the order of the numerous deaths that occur. This play also has many film adaptations. My personal favourite is the 2009 RSC version starring David Tennant as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as Claudius. It’s stuck incredibly closely to the play in that I’m not aware of too many lines that have been eradicated or changed in any way. Another version that you should consider watching once you’ve read the play is Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 version, yet this has moved a few scenes out of sequence, although is a very good film. And if you’re looking for a happy ending, why not just re-watch The Lion King, and see just how close the two are. 

I bet you were all thinking, blimey Kelly when are we going to get into the lighter hearted stuff of Shakespeare’s. Well the answer is now. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s other well known plays, often taught in schools much like the two above. This play follows the story of three couples, Lysander and Hermia, Helena and Demetrius, and the king and queen of the fairies Oberon and Titania, along with their troublesome stolen changeling Puck. The story starts with Hermia being told that she should marry Demetrius, become a nun or die within the month. They run into the forest where the fairy king and queen are arguing over whether or not they should keep Puck. Titania tells Oberon she will not give him up and Oberon therefore uses the spritely Puck to play a trick on her. There is a nearby traveling theatre group, one of whom is called Bottom. Puck turns his head into that of an ass and finds a flower that is capable of making the person affected fall in love with whomever they see first. This becomes a huge problem when he uses it on both of the boys in the other two couples in the hope that they will fall in love with the correct person.  This is obviously not what happens, people accuse others of killing the other, and there are plenty of duels had before the situation is all resolved as they tend to be in comedies. I’ve not yet found a film version of this that I enjoy quite as much as the other two but I’ll definitely keep an eye out. 

This is probably my favourite Shakespeare comedy and one I turn to on my bad days. Set in Messina this time, Shakespeare introduces us to the house of Leonato, which he shares with his daughter Hero and his niece Beatrice. They are alerted to Don Pedro’s glorious victory in battle and that they will be arriving at his home soon. On their arrival we meet Claudio and Benedick, friends to Don Pedro who fight alongside him. From the outset of the play Claudio is instantly in love with Leonato's daughter Hero, and he announces to Benedick, who promptly tells Don Pedro that he intends to court her and hopefully marry her. Benedick swears that he will never marry which makes it even more funny when Don Pedro’s men decide that to pass they time they shall play match maker with Benedick and Beatrice, who is known to outwardly despise him. The men make sure that Benedick overhears them discussing Beatrice’s love for him whilst Hero and her nurse discuss Benedick's love for her and this somehow works. Both Benedick and Beatrice believe they are the object of the other’s affections and seek to make amends in their friendship and relationship. Meanwhile Don John, Don Pedro’s brother, plots to ruin the wedding by staging a way in which to make Hero appear unfaithful. On seeing this Claudio states that he’ll embarrass her publicly, at the wedding that will be happening the next day. The second act of the play searches to resolve this issue and therefore end happily, which it does inevitably, with both the wedding of Claudio and Hero, and Benedick and Beatrice who realise that they are, in fact, in love. There are two really good adaptations of this play. The first is the 1993 film directed by and featuring Kenneth Branagh as Benedick and Emma Thompson as Beatrice which makes for really easy watching. But if you want a more modern version there is a 2012 film directed by Joss Wheedon. I’ve not actually seen this one myself but it has some pretty good reviews. My other favourite is actually a recording of a stage production that was produced of this play, from 2011, featuring David Tennant and Catherine Tate as the two principal roles. This production has me in stitches every time. I absolutely adore it. 

I think this was the first Shakespeare play I read in full. It’s another comedy and involves one of Shakespeare’s most common tricks in this genre; a woman dressed as a man to cause confusion. Yet this is even more funny when you think that no women were allowed on stage during the time of the original production. Therefore it would be a man dressed as a woman dressed as a man. That’s not confusing at all! The story focusses on the twins Viola and Sebastian who are separated after their boat crashes. Viola dresses up as a man and makes her way to the palace where she begins to fall in love with the Duke Orsino, who is in turn in love with the Countess Olivia. She, however, is in love with Viola thinking that she is in fact a man and the whole situation gets incredibly confusing very quickly. There’s also a comic subplot wherein Countess Olivia’s steward Malvolio is lead to believe that she is in fact in love with him, which leads to him doing a whole host of embarrassing things which end up with him storming off and swearing revenge. I love this play because of how confusing yet simple it is. All of the characters are really easy to follow, for the most part, and the story is incredibly entertaining because of all of the confusion within the characters, yet there is enough that we know as an audience to really understand what’s going on. I’ve not yet seen any adaptations of Twelfth Night but I am aware that there is one from 1996 starring Helena Bonham Carter which I may have to search for.

If you know Shakespeare you know that there are so many more plays that he’s written which are equally as incredible as these five are. I just wanted to give you a very quick introduction to some of my favourites and to some of the easier ones that I’ve read over the years. I haven’t yet had a chance to delve too deep into his histories such as any of the Henry plays or Julius Caesar although I would like to. Perhaps over the summer I’ll give one or two of those a read. I’m hoping to eventually do a blog post of all of my favourite Shakespeare quotes, but that is taking a while to collate at the moment, with all their act and scene references, but hopefully that shouldn’t be too long. I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend, celebrating the bard’s 400th death day anniversary, and if there’s anything more you’d like to know about Shakespeare, any of the plays mentioned above, or anything else at all, feel free to leave a comment on this blog or find me on twitter.  

As some of you may know I’m currently studying Creative Writing and Media at university. I love it more than most things right now; bar books and family of course. But I found that this year was a lot of trial and error on how best to work with this course. I found that I don’t get a lot of contact hours and there’s A LOT expected of you right from the off. I thought maybe it might be a good time, coming to the end of my first year, to give some of you who might be thinking about it some tips on how to survive as a creative writing student. 

This is a key one for me. Making time to read is really important when you’re trying to be creative. You need to know what you like about books and what you don’t; what makes books appealing and what makes them interesting to read. I haven’t been the best as keeping up with reading novels in one go as I used to be, but I do find the time to read the odd chapter or two, be it on the bus to town to do my weekly shop or before bed at 3 am. I always try and find time because in the end this will help you become a better writer, not only for yourself but for your eventual readers. 

Never be afraid to carry around a pen and a notebook and whip that out when you sit down for coffee. Even if you’re just writing down character descriptions of people who walk by or are sitting across from you on the train, there’s always so much to write about. Keeping a writer’s journal is really interesting for you to look back on as you can often see the development of your own writing style as well as having a backlog of characters, plot ideas and random paragraphs that may be helpful to springboard you into writing after a creative slump. 

    

I mean this one. Take your laptop to class or have a very good ring binder. You never know what you’ll write in a workshop or a seminar, or what you’ll doodle on a random piece of paper that you want to keep and use at a later date. The things you write in class will often be things that you work on for future assignments and they’ll help you if you get into one of those slumps again. Also they’re really funny to look back on at a later date because hey, you and your classmates will write some really strange things together I’m sure and you’ll laugh when you get to read it back. My class for my writing stories module played the game where you write a line and pass it around the group when we were look at writing stories from the end and working back to the beginning. Yeah… someone ended up in love with their dog. Another person died. I had to read out some very odd things that day. 

I’ll say it again. You have to read as a writing student. I don’t really see any other way to get around it. Even if it’s just reading the work set by your tutor so you can discuss them in class, you still have to do that. Those are often the most important ones. But there is so much academic writing on how to write, and structuring stories and creating characters that you cannot ignore the academic side of a creative subject. It sounds like an oxymoron but really it’s incredibly important to read up on the background of what you’re doing because inevitably you’re going to have to write a reflective essay on what you’ve done. These in particular need your background research on the theory of writing and it’s so important to have this good solid understanding. Academic writing is often really interesting too. You can learn so much from reading journal articles or sections of ebooks on writing stories or poetry and in my case I’ve just finished an assignment on British Reality Television for my media theory module and I’ve learnt so much from reading up on a few books and articles. 

Lastly I really recommend editing your work. Even if you’re not sure you’ll ever publish it or you’ll never show anyone, sometimes it’s nice to sit down and edit a piece of work to make it better. This way when you find something months or maybe even years down the line you can find something you’ll read and be proud of. It might not even be your style anymore but it’ll still give you a sense of achievement. Also this can often springboard you back into writing and it’s something that I really love doing. Cup of tea, twinkly soundtrack music, maybe a couple of biscuits and editing work. There’s just something so relaxing about it all to me. However it can be the hardest thing to do, especially if you've written something you truly love and have to get rid of it.... kill your darlings as they say. 

So there are some tips that I have for budding creative writers. I’ve found this year to be a really experimental one full of learning about me and how I write and create characters, and finding that I actually do love poetry, quite a lot. I hope that you’re all well. Apologies for being missing in action a little recently, just been incredibly busy with assignments and such; but now I’m back to the reading for a while. New book reviews to come in the very near future. 

“Every year the saint came to the house. When Ursula was eight she and her brother Anton knelt on the window seat and looked out from the living-room window. The saint's white beard glinted in the torchlight; his tall bishop’s hat nearly touched the lintel and in his fat-fingered hands he clutched the curling golden staff and ancient book. His cheeks were dark like smoked ham, eyes half buried by pudgy lids - burnt currants peeping from an over-risen cake. Breath plumed from his purplish lips. Ursula looked for feet beneath his robes. Was he touching the ground or did he hover just above it?"

I met Holly Müller at a book signing at Waterstones in Cardiff, with no intention of buying a book at all. However, when I got talking to this fabulous lady I knew I had to buy this book. Not only is the cover beautiful, but the premise of the novel is stunning. It had me on the edge of my seat throughout, with a lot of moments where I had to just put it down to think. I'm still not sure I'm okay. 

Set during the course of the Second World War, in Nazi occupied Austria, we follow the Hildesheim family, in particular Ursula. Her brother, Anton, is a member of the Hitler Youth and is increasingly becoming more and more vindictive. Especially as Ursula befriends Schosi Hillier, a boy who is seen to be increasingly more odd than everyone else in the novel. The plot develops as Ursula starts to develop as a young woman, which just shows the strength that it takes to grow up during such a dark period in history. 

What I think Müller does incredibly well is show the Second World War in a new and interesting way. I had never seen a novel written from the other side, where there was a character who was was on the side of the Nazi regime. I had also never really read anything about Austria during the war, as much of the literature written by British historical fiction writers about World War II centres on the British involvement. Instead this focusses on Austria and running throughout the plot line is the involvement of the Russian forces. 

Additionally, I love that the plot of this novel doesn’t let up. It’s pacing could be seen as infuriating at times but this is reasonable in the build up of tension for later scenes. Particularly during part 2 there is a lot of waiting around on the part of Ursula and the farmer Herr Esterbauer, but I found this really important as we get to learn about Schosi's experiences. The two together really increase the tension throughout and there is something so intense about this part that wants you to keep reading and willing on characters.

Ursula is an interesting protagonist. She’s growing up throughout this novel and she can be seen as quite immature towards the start. She’s a known thief and she speaks out of turn, not really knowing or understanding anything that is going on. There is an understanding that something has happened between her and her brother, perhaps nothing sinister but there is a close relationship there, and this isn’t really discussed until the end of the novel when Ursula has grown up a little and knows better. Throughout we discover that Ursula is incredibly strong, and sometime this childish impulse helps her to gain a better understanding of herself and the situations she finds herself in. 

Schosi is also a character I love in this book. He’s, what I assume to be, autistic and is often hidden away by his mother. He’s got a piece of cloth that he winds around his finger when he’s nervous and a stutter and I think he is a beautifully written character. He doesn’t understand an awful lot, and gets scared incredibly easily, and I love that Ursula feels such a close connection to him. He’s incredibly childlike and innocent, thrust into the horror of a war torn state, forced to withstand torturous “treatments” and I think that Müller did an incredibly good job discussing the treatment of the disabled and those with mental illness during the war. 

I think my only qualm would be that the time frames all became a little fuzzy for me. I didn’t really know what time of the year it was, or if we’d even changed year. This made it a little more confusing towards the end as I didn’t know how old our protagonist was, or be able to work out from that the members of her family’s ages. This is often a confusion I have with novels that seem to span years, but there’s no real time specification. 

Overall this novel was a really tense exploration of the Second World War from a new perspective from a very strong and new narrative voice. I think that Holly Müller’s writing style lends itself to the darker side of literature, unafraid to tackle dark issues, whilst remaining an element of classical literature through her descriptions of settings and scenery. This book was a complete success that I would urge anyone with an interest in the genre, or not as the case may be, to give this book a go, despite how terrifyingly daunting its size looks. 

Total pages - 455

Total read time -  Untimed

Rating /10 - 7.5

Recommend - Yes

As part of my Poetry module I have to study a whole range of poetry styles and forms, but in our seminars we follow one rule; No Dead Poets. As I’m sure you’d imagine, we’ve wandered from this once or twice, and I definitely will for my list, but I think that this is something that needs to be discussed. Contemporary poetry isn’t really taught in GCSE literature classes which inevitably leads to young people feeling rather vehemently against poetry. Yet poetry can be so much more than the traditional sonnets or the dark imagery produced by Blake or Coleridge. What I’ve learnt since September is that poetry can genuinely be written about anything. We’ve had so much fun writing poetry within our group at university, coming up with some really beautiful imagery, from the extended metaphor of a bakery talking about marriage equality, and an exceptional rant about feminism to deep and meaningful poetry surrounding bereavements within families, to the absolutely absurd with a brain in a jar on the dining room table. Poetry has so much room for personal expression. Poetry doesn’t even need a form or a structure; half the time it doesn’t even need to make a whole lot of sense, and yet it might just spark someone’s interest. This is why I love poetry. 

Dead Poets - Lets get these out of the way first. These are poets that I love who I know are dead but who I really enjoy reading their work still

Alan Ginsberg - Howl

Jack Kerouac - Daydreams for Ginsberg

Shakespeare - To Be or Not To Be (Hamlet)

Thomas Hardy - Beeny Cliff

Alive Poets

Anis Mojgani

Shake the Dust

John Dorsey - The Bride of Frankenstein 

Rhian Edwards 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAv9qSk0khc

Kate Tempest - Brand New Ancients

Part 1

Part 2

Melissa Lozada-Olivia 

Like Totally Whatever

Bitches

How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse as an 82 Year Old Guatemalan Grandmother

Neil Hilborn

OCD

Kate Rokowski

How To Cure A Feminist

This list is not exclusive obviously! There are so many others that I love but this is a pretty good start for people who want to look into poetry. Many of these are performance poetry which is something that I really love. If there are any others that you think I’d enjoy feel free to leave comments below! Enjoy World Poetry Day!

As a student of creative writing, I take a module in poetry writing. I’m currently working on my second portfolio of work, but I realised that I haven’t really released any work on here for you to read. Some of my favourites I’m unable to put up, because they are currently being considered for an anthology to be released in April, but I have a few that aren’t, that I am still incredibly proud of. These three poems below aren’t following any theme but they reflect different styles of poetry that I am fond of. Stories focusses on relationships and the feelings of new love, University Kitchen focusses on the sounds of words revolving around the washing up situation in university, and The F-Word is an exploration of the overuse of the the swear word. Hopefully you enjoy and please feel free to leave comments or constructive criticisms. 

Stories

We are my current favourite story.

University Kitchen

The clattering of cutlery on half cleaned plates

From breakfast,

Stains like halos linger the undersides of bowls

Whilst water drips

Into empty glasses

Filling them for someone who’s not here yet.

 

I am lost in a mountain of milk bottles,

Searching through seas of uneaten cereal,

And dangerously stacked plates

To find a teaspoon.

The F-word (Not for the faint hearted)

God was that a fucking mistake.

“Don’t answer the door!” barked Dad from the kitchen, the washing-up subs popping on his grimy white vest. 

“Mr Tambo!” a voice boomed from outside. It was deep. I imagined the owner of that tone strutting in the park with a rhino on a leash. “We know you’re in there! Let’s be adult about this, Mr Tambo. Let us in so we can sit down and talk about your repayments. This is not going to go away."

 I breathed in a dose pure fear. Why are we in so much deep debt? Dad’s working. Why won’t he give them he full score on what’s going on? Dad dried his hands on the dishcloth and then draped it over his shoulder. He looked at my older brother, Nesta, who was standing in the hallway only a couple of metres from our drawbridge. Dad beckoned him to retreat. Nesta shook his head. I put my fork down on my plate. Suddenly I didn’t love my pasta and mince even though i had grated some cheese on top to nice it up. The letter box crashed open again. My heart rumbled. 

“Mr Tambo!"

This is the first novel of Alex Wheatle’s that I have read, but I am aware of his novel Liccle Bit that is set in the same universe as this one. And I am so incredibly glad that I am able to dip back into this rich and vibrant world that Wheatle has created with these characters, all of whom I really enjoyed reading about. 

Crongton Knights follows McKay and his friends, Liccle Bit and Jonah, as they take on a mission to get back the phone of Venetia from her ex boyfriend. This mission means heading through North Crong to the dangers of Nortre Dame. On the way to get back this phone and after we learn of a riot in South Crong that endangers the lives of our characters further. 

What I think is so marvellous in Wheatle’s character development is the way in which he gives every one of the main group of characters their own voice, despite their obvious similar dialect, and each has a redeemable quality. The dialogue is also incredibly funny and witty and evokes a sense of place. You can tell that perhaps the boys are not from the good side of town through their use of slang, as well as sometimes being seen as poorly educated compared to some of the other characters. 

What I love most about the protagonist McKay is that he is an overweight young boy who has dreams of becoming a chef. He is stuck in Crongton with few to no prospects at all and has a lot of disruption in his life, particularly within his family. We all root for McKay to make the right decisions throughout the novel and I found myself really rooting for him to get the food he so desperately wants. This seems to be a theme throughout the novel, hunger, but not simply for food. There is a hunger for justice, for calm and peace and this theme links seamlessly with the second theme I found of loss. Everyone in this novel has lost someone, or hungers for something. 

Additionally, Wheatle’s female characters really stood out to me as a female reader. I felt that the two girls, Venetia and Saira, were incredibly strong and therefore impressive. It is mostly to do with their cultural upbringing but both of these girls really prove themselves when it comes to standing up to those who try to belittle them, and they really prove that they are important members of the mission team. However this does not mean they don’t show weakness. Venetia in particular spends a long period of the novel crying which did feel a little overwhelming and yet necessary. She is incredibly sad talking about her losses in the past, and therefore her crying is really the only possible reaction for her to have. 

Overall I thought this book was incredibly enjoyable. I can’t wait to get back into reading some more of Alex Wheatle’s work because I genuinely think that he will become one of my new favourite writers, who inspires some of my own work. I highly suggest that people go and seek out this book, especially anyone with a fascination for the underground London vibe. 

Total pages - 304

Total read time -  Untimed

Rating /10 - 7.5

Recommend - Yes

This book was provided as an ARC by NetGalley but has recently been published. Forgot that I hadn't posted this review yet... oops!

Happy World Book Day! I was tagged by Beth at The Cat’s Out the Bag and I love all of these questions. I want to tag another Beth at Curly and Wordy, and Victoria at TheBookworm88!

Do you remember how you developed a love for reading?

I’ve always been read to from as early as I can remember,  but I think my newest return to reading was when I picked up Tom Rob Smith’s “The Farm” and I binge read the whole thing. It was the first book I’d read since my A Level coursework books and I realised how much I loved reading for myself. 

Where do you usually read?

Usually reading for me takes place in bed. It’s usually when I’m bored with nothing better to do. So whilst i say it’s usually in bed, it’s more than likely you’ll find me curled up on the sofa at home with a cuppa and a book, or even on a coach on the way home from university. The joys of having a kindle means that I don’t have to carry all my books with me!

Do you prefer to read one book at a time or several at once?

I always prefer to read one at a time. I feel that way I give every book the attention it deserves. But sometimes you just can’t help it. I’ve got a couple on the go at the moment, re-reading one and starting a new one. I find sometimes I’ll start a book but will put it down because I’m not feeling reading it at that moment in time. It’s just a matter of preference at the time. 

What is your favourite genre?

I am a huge fan of contemporary or YA literature. Fantasy always has an appeal but I always feel that the world lack something in the way of development unless they’re part of a huge series, and as a huge Harry Potter fan I struggle getting into any other kind of fantasy world. Contemporary novels concerning family issues really intrigue me because I’ve always felt incredibly lucky with my family, and I love YA books about growing up and LGBT issues because I love to see how the younger generation are being influenced through their choices of literature. 

Is there a genre that you will not read?

Ooooh here we go. I’m not a fan of paranormal novels or new adult. I find them too cliché and there’s something about them that doesn’t sit too well with me. I also am not a huge fan of definite romances where there’s instal-love scenarios or love triangles. They just irk me and it if I see anything about them in a blurb I will just not want to read on about it. 

Do you have a favourite book?

This is in the same category as picking my favourite disney film or character. I don’t think I can physically choose one. The Harry Potter series will always have a place in my heart, as will the new addition of the "Chaos Walking Trilogy" by Patrick Ness. Benjamin Alire Saenz’s “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe”, M R Carey’s “The Girl with All the Gifts” and Virginia Macgregor’s “The Astonishing Return of Norah Wells” are all books that I’ve binge read and fallen in love with for their writing style and the way they’ve made me think about my own life. I simply can’t pick one. 

What is your least favourite book?

I always try and find positives in every book I read. But probably “Northanger Abbey” by Jane Austen or L.P. Hartley’s “The Go Between”. Both of these are quite classic literary novels and there’s something about being forced to read books in school that makes me hate them quite literally. Both of these books made me feel really angry at their protagonists, had really dull storylines and I think the only think I liked about “The Go Between” was the fact that we could all write about sexual tension. 

What is the longest book you’ve ever read?

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 766 pages! But I do own "Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy which is a whopping 964 pages! That’ll be a long read! 

What was the last book you bought?

I bought two the last time I went to buy a book; Ali Smith’s “How to be Both” and “The Loney” by Andrew Michael Hurley. (Actually these aren’t the last books I bought, but the other one is my mum’s mother’s day present so shhhh). The last book I was sent a review copy for was “The Sudden Appearance of Hope” by Claire North. 

Do you prefer library books or buying books?

I love buying books. As much as I love a library, the books can tend to get dogeared, the spines bent, and if I love the sound of a book I won’t mind spending the money on it. Plus I love knowing that I own so many books! 

What are you currently reading?

Re-reading - Douglas Adams’ “The HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy"

Making my way through - Garry Apgar's edited book of essays called “A Mickey Mouse Reader” 

Reading - "The Bombs That Brought Us Together" by Brian Conaghan (Due for release April 30th)

Where do you buy your books?

Waterstones or Amazon. But I prefer being able to go to Waterstones and look around at books I may never have searched for online

Do you preorder books?

I think I’ve only ever preordered one book; Patrick Ness’ “The Rest of Us Just Live Here” because it was a limited edition hardback that was signed and it was beautiful in every way. I tend to get a lot of prerelease books so I don’t tend to preorder unless there’s a really good reason for it. 

How many books do you buy a month?

Depends. Usually around 2 or so, depending on how many I’ve been given as a prerelease and how much I want to eat because all the money I spend on books is really for my food at university. 

How do you feel about second hand charity shop books?

I love a good charity shop book. Especially if they’ve got notes in. This sounds really hypocritical because what I love about charity shop books is what I hate about library books. I love that they’re worn in and they could be noted and I love seeing other people’s interpretations of books. 

Do you keep your read and TBR books together?

At the moment no, because the books I have at university are the books I have not read yet. I tend to only bring those with me. Then if I’m reading them I tend to leave that at home if they’re finished. On my Kindle I tend to have them jumbled up. 

Do you plan to read all the books you own?

I’d like to try. A lot of them I have read, but there are some like “Anna Karenina” and “Lolita” which will take a lot of willpower to get through. 

What do you do with the books you know you won’t re-read?

I keep them… which is really bad because I could always donate them. But I love seeing them on my bookshelf. I love being able to look up and see a physical representation of what I’ve read and how much I’ve engaged with novels of a specific author. It’s just a really rewarding thing to see. Plus there are some book covers which are just outstanding. 

Have you ever donated books?

No but I would like to. 

Have you ever been on a book buying ban?

I should probably be on one right now. I have been before when I had over 20 books in my TBR and I’m pretty sure I’m over that number now. But there are so many interesting new releases coming out that all my old books tend to get pushed back further and further and it drives me crazy! 

Do you think you own too many books?

Ha! Is there such a thing?! Too many books! Who would’ve thought it. For an accurate answer ask my bank account or my mother. But for me, there’s no such thing. Books hold a world and wealth of knowledge and interesting ideas about the world and they are a great way to expand your mind and really engage with something new. Reading has helped me through some really dark times. So I’d say there’s no such thing as too many books!