Days 7-17

So I am way, WAY behind on all of the blogging that I was supposed to be doing. I got a job, you see, and the time that I was spending typing up blogs on my laptop at home was replaced with time spent typing up legal documents in plain English. Anyway, I am sure there will be another post about my new job at some point or another, but that is not what this post is for. This post is to catch up on the days that I missed from the book challenge. I didn't want to give up on it, and I didn't want to write eleven separate posts, so I figured that I would put them all together here. I won't bore you with long stories about why I chose these books this time around - just a line or two to explain how they apply to the topic. The book covers are a little small at times, but you can click them to be taken to a bigger picture or you can click the book titles to be takes to their Wikipedia pages. Enjoy!

A book that you can quote:
The Great Gatsby is one of the books that I was forced to study at University, but that I absolutely loved. This meant that when it came to the exams, it was one of the books that I aced purely because it was one that I managed to remember well having enjoyed it so much. And yes, I can quote a couple of lines from it.

A book that scares you:
As someone who would like to have children some day, the idea that my child could turn into a monster or a psychopath is scary. The whole nature vs. nurture idea that was behind
We Need To Talk About Kevin is one that intrigues me and yes, scares me more than a little.

A book that makes you sick:
I don't see how anyone who has ever read American Psycho could disagree with me on this one. It was another book that I studied at University, and I pushed through it, but could only read small sections at a time as at times the descriptions would just get far too vivid and I would actually start to feel physically ill.

A book that changed your life:
I know that this is going to sound more than a little corny, but
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone really did change my life in more ways than one. It got me addicted to reading, addicted to fantasy (and led to some more hardcore fantasy reading of course) and it was the foundation for one of my best friendships - I don't think that Natasha Karpul and I would have ever clicked if we hadn't discovered our mutual love for JK Rowling!

A book by your favourite author:
Choosing a favourite author was always going to be a difficult one, but there is one author whose work I love and that is Khaled Husseini, author of The Kite Runner. You will see another of his books later in the challenge.

A book that reminds you of your own life:
This was another hard one, but the first thing that came to mind (and this is more from the movie than the book really, although I have read the book) was Bridget Jones's Diary. A silly, overly emotional rollercoaster is the best way to describe it, and yes... that does sound quite a bit like my life.

A book that has a main character very much like you:
I haven't seen the movie, so I cannot tell you that I am very much like the character in that, but I can tell you that I am quite a lot like Becky in The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic: a. A shopaholic (Grant can attest to that), b. Have an over-active imagination (once again, just talk to Grant for proof) and c. Am more than a little nutty (no proof required).

A book that has a main character that you want to marry:
I am not the kind of girl who likes bad boys. I like gentlemen, men who are kind and sweet and nice and lovely and... anyway. The quintessential gentleman? Why, Mr. Darcy from
Pride and Prejudice of course! Sure, he wasn't all that kind and sweet in the beginning, but it turned out that way at the end, didn't it!

The first "chapter book" that you can remember reading:
I still fondly remember sitting on my mother's lap and paging through Black Beauty. There were a number of books that I did this with, but Black Beauty was also the first that I snuck off to read on my own, a fete that I remember being rather proud of!

The longest book you've read:
It took me awhile to think of this one, but I believe the answer would be The Earthsea Quartet. It may be four books in one, but it certainly is a very long collection and, as I have yet to finish The Lord of the Rings, I think that this is probably the closest that I have gotten to that length.


The shortest book you've read:
This is, without a doubt, Heart of Darkness. It is a novella and I was really surprised and excited to see how thin it was when I had to study it in High School. Little did I know the horror ("The horror!") that awaited inside. A cure for insomnia if ever there was one.

Day 6

So today I am supposed to write about a book that I loved when I was a young adult. There were many of these because that was when I really started getting into reading. Sure, I read before, but I didn't swallow books whole like I did back then. This was the age when I started having all-nighters just lying in bed and reading until the sun rose. Those were the kind of all-nighters that I loved, far better than the university variety which involved staying up and studying or writing essays until the sun rose and it was time for your first lecture. Anyway, because I figured that a lot of the books that I read at this age would come up elsewhere in this challenge, I decided to pick one in particular that I thoroughly enjoyed but many people have probably never heard of.

I can remember very clearly what drew me to Stargirl. It was the bright pink, very simplistic cover and the price tag that read only R11. I knew that Mom couldn't say no to letting me have the book at that price, and of course she didn't. And then it sat on my bookshelf for a long while without my bothering to pick it up. I had other books to read first. One day, my friend Natasha came over and saw the book. She had nothing to read at the time, so she asked if she could borrow it, which I let her do without hesitation. Natasha was like my library at that point - I was constantly borrowing books from her (she had all the best ones after all), so when I had a chance to pay back the favour, I leaped at it. And she absolutely adored it. Within two days she had returned the book to me and went on a mission to find her own copy. Of course, by this point I wanted to know what all the fuss was about and opened up the book myself. And then couldn't close it again!

Stargirl is a wonderful story for young girls about a girl who doesn't quite conform to what people think she should be. Fine, she is downright strange. She prances around the school halls being what some people see as overly happy, and for awhile her individuality is praised. For awhile, people look up to her and admire her and she becomes the centre of attention. People start wanting to be like her. Which ends up taking away from the individuality a little bit, because how can you be an individual when you are the same as everyone else? Anyway, the acceptance doesn't last for long, and soon people start turning against her when they realise that she really doesn't conform and is never going to. The whole book is seen from the eyes of her "boyfriend" and the way that he sways with public opinion.

Basically, I think this book is a wonderful example for teenage girls, the morals of the story being that it is better to be an individual than to conform to peer pressure. It may not be one of the best books that I read in those years, but it is certainly one that stands out in my mind and is still lining my bookshelf today in the hopes that one day my own little girl can read it.

Day 5

Day 5 is supposed to be a book that you wished you could live in. Once again there are many of these that come to mind, from Memoirs of a Geisha to almost all the novels of Jane Austen and more. But, though I found myself easily getting lost in those worlds, there was one world that I found myself particularly drawn to and I decided that should really be the book that I write about today.

I really loved CS Lewis as a child, and the world of Narnia has remained engrained in my brain (teehee for assonance). With its beauty, its lore and its mysticism as well as the touch of magic that is sprinkled around, I think that Narnia is the one fictional place that I wish I could live in. Well, maybe not live in per se. After all, you can visit Narnia and stay there for a lifetime and return back to the real world to find that no time has passed at all. Perhaps it would be the ideal vacation spot - a place to run away to when the stresses of life get a little too much. A place where you could have your own adventures separate from the real world and return to reality without anything having really changed. How lovely would that be?

Day 4

For day 4, I am supposed to write about a book that makes me cry. This was a very difficult one for me. Though I get overly emotional and tend to cry in just about every movie that I watch (terrible, I know) it is not quite the same for books with me. I think that it's because when I get to a point where I feel I might cry, I can just put the book aside and do something else for a short while, detaching myself from the story and giving my emotions a bit of a break. There was one book though that despite my tears, I just couldn't put down.

The Time Traveler's Wife is one of the most beautiful, terrifying, funny, mindbloggling, glorious, heartwrenching books that I have read and I absolutely love it. You should have seen how angry I was when I realised that my copy of the book (frugally purchased for R10 from Cafda before I had realised what a treasure it was) had been ruined by... I don't know what exactly. Coffee? Perhaps. Whatever it was, more than half the book is covered in a dark stain that cover at least half the width of the pages, and though you can read what is written, it is certainly not pleasant. I look forward to purchasing another copy of the book very soon, but the story behind my finding of it will not be quite as interesting or lucky, I am sure.

Day 3

So I didn't get around to writing this blog up yesterday, but day 3's book is supposed to be one that makes you laugh. The book that I chose for today came to mind pretty quickly and it's one that I have written about here before.

When I read Northanger Abbey, I couldn't help but laugh at the way Austen describes her characters and sets up situations. Towards the end of the book, the humour died out a little, as should be expected considering that the book was supposed to be more of a drama than anything else, but even so, the comical language exchanges continued throughout and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Day 2

So, on day two, I am supposed to talk about my least favourite book. This is quite a difficult choice for me because it is not often that I come across a book that I truly dislike. I might come across books that I find to be a little boring at times or a little disappointing, but never BAD. But there is one book that stands out amongst the disappointments that I have experienced, and that is Shalimar the Clown.

Perhaps it is because I had such high expectations for the book. Perhaps it was because I spent so much time reading it, put so much effort into it and found all of my hopes for it torn apart, but I had the worst time reading this book, and by the time I finished it, all I wanted to do was throw it across the room and give up reading forever. The little bit that I had read of Salman Rushdie before this had given me such high hopes, and Shalimar the Clown tore them right down. And so, I think that this, if anything, counts as my least favourite book. I am not, however, giving up on Rushdie and still intend to read books like The Satanic Verses and Midnight's Children.

30 Day Book Challenge: Day 1

So I have been seeing a lot of challenges going around lately. There are photo challenges, music challenges and movie challenges. But I had never heard of the 30 Day Book Challenge, and I was rather intrigued when I came across it. And so, I thought that I would start to take part in this challenge (as well as the music challenge - you can follow my progress in that one over facebook). I didn't want to do this challenge over facebook, as I figured that I could use this opportunity to write little posts about each of the books - why they are up there and all.

For those of you who would like to join me in this endeavour:

Create a photo album and use Photobucket, Amazon, or Shelfari (or some other sight with pictures of books) to share pictures of the books on this list day by day.

Day 1: Favorite book
Day 2: Least favorite book
Day 3: Book that makes you laugh out loud
Day 4: Book that makes you cry
Day 5: Book you wish you could live in
Day 6: Favorite young adult book
Day 7: Book that you can quote/recite
Day 8: Book that scares you
Day 9: Book that makes you sick
Day 10: Book that changed your life
Day 11: Book from your favorite author
Day 12: Book that is most like your life
Day 13: Book whose main character is most like you
Day 14: Book whose main character you want to marry
Day 15: First “chapter book” you can remember reading as a child
Day 16: Longest book you’ve read
Day 17: Shortest book you’ve read
Day 18: Book you’re most embarrassed to say you like
Day 19: Book that turned you on
Day 20: Book you’ve read the most number of times
Day 21: Favorite picture book from childhood
Day 22: Book you plan to read next
Day 23: Book you tell people you’ve read, but haven’t (or haven’t actually finished)
Day 24: Book that contains your favorite scene
Day 25: Favorite book you read in school
Day 26: Favorite nonfiction book
Day 27: Favorite fiction book
Day 28: Last book you read
Day 29: Book you’re currently reading
Day 30: Favorite coffee table book

And so, to day one. My favourite book.

This is a bit of a hard choice and an easy choice at the same time. There are so many books that I love, but the first one to come to mind was Cloud Atlas. I have spoken about the book before, but I absolutely love it. From the moment I opened it to the moment that I put it down, I never stopped loving it, and it is one book that I don't think I could ever get enough of.