Let's Talk About Books

I've always considered myself an avid reader, but in preparing for this blog post I've realised that I'm not as well-read as I thought I was. That's something I'm going to have to remedy I think, there's tonnes of books on my 'to-read' list. I'm not going to set myself a target though, because I always fall embarrassingly short and I'd prefer to read without putting so much pressure on myself. It's supposed to be fun, after all.

Anyway, I'm not here to discuss what I haven't read, but what I have read, both in my childhood/teen years, and what I've read more recently. It's a favourites list, sort of.

A couple of the books I'll mention are not pictured, because I have them on my Kindle rather than a hard copy.

1. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison. This is the first of ten(!) of the Confessions of Georgia Nicholson books. I probably started reading them when I was in my young teens and carried on until the last one came out when I was probably 19 or 20. I'd always finish them within hours of starting as the diary layout is very quick to read, but they were, and still are, hilarious. I don't think I'll ever get rid of them, I'd happily re-read the entire series. The movie (Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging) is well worth a watch too.
2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Out of all the books I've ever been forced to read, this is my favourite. I studied it for A-Level English Literature, and I normally end up hating any book I have to study just because you have to go over it in such minute detail that it takes away any potential enjoyment you might have had for it under other circumstances. Luckily, not in this case and I actually really enjoyed it, despite not really taking a liking to any of the characters! Also, it reminds me of this Kate Beaton comic which is hilarious:
   
3. The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I would highly recommend this. It's about the journey of a man and his young son through a barren wasteland to try and find the coast.  It's a little (okay, a lot) emotionally draining, but it is so well written. It's post-apocalyptic and I love that kind of book. I haven't seen the movie adaptation yet, I'm not too sure I want to, but you should definitely read the book, it's fantastic.
4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. This story is narrated by Death and it follows a young girl, Liesel, who is living with a foster family in Germany during the outbreak of the second World War. She has a penchant for stealing books (hence the title). I don't want to give anything away, but it's beautifully told with an array of different characters, definitely worth a read. Again, I've not yet seen the film but my brother tells me it's good.
5. Firesong by William Nicholson. This is the third book in The Wind on Fire trilogy. All three are great but this one is my favourite. It centres around twins Bowman and Kestrel that have a telepathic connection (which would be so cool) and their journey to their homeland. It was one of my favourites as a teenager and I think I'm about due for a re-read.
6. Redwall by Brian Jacques. The Redwall books are synonymous with my childhood, I don't think I'll ever tire of them. They're so imaginative and wonderfully descriptive. I just love the idea of mice wielding swords and being great warriors. I think Redwall is the first one but any of them (and there are loads) are worth reading.
7. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. I read this last year, and although it took some time to get into it, I became hooked and just had to find out what had happened. I don't want to say anything about it because I wouldn't want to give anything away. I didn't know anything about it when I first read it so it was very refreshing and surprising.
8. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. This is a really sweet little love story but it also deals with some pretty serious issues like child abuse and racism. Another fairly easy read, but I couldn't put it down. 

Honorable mentions go, of course, to the Harry Potter books, but I thought that would be so obvious and so left them out. Plus everyone's read them already. I'm hoping for some more favourites to add to my list this year, if you have any recommendations please let me know!

Song of the Day: Heal Over by KT Tunstall

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