List VI: Things to look forward to in 2014

I thought I'd do a follow up of sorts to my previous 'things to look forward to' post, which can be found here. I guess it kind of links to my brief list of things I want to do this year, as I haven't really got anything much planned yet!

• Having a house!

As I will be going into my second year at university in September, my flatmates and myself will be moving out of halls! It's going to be so nice to have a proper house, and actually live by ourselves as opposed to being somewhat still looked after by security and what not here! It will also be great to be able to have a shower without setting the damn fire alarm off. The best part is that I get the attic room and I'm so looking forward to making it all homely and nice!

• Music

I already have plans to see Foals with Chlo in February, Wild Beasts in March, and hopefully Reading Festival (round 3!) with Dan at the end of the Summer. I'm really enjoying being able to see lots of live music with lovely people, like LC! just before Christmas and Frightened Rabbit just before, and I definitely want to see as much as I can this year. I'm also really excited for a few upcoming albums, such as new stuff from Foo Fighters (squeal), Wild Beasts- Wanderlust, and various others!

• Nick coming to stay

My brother hasn't visited me at university yet so I am so so excited for him to come and stay! We are going to go to cool places like Mettricks (an ace coffee house in Old Southampton), Beatnik Emporium and Ed's Diner which will be ace.

• Easter 

I'm looking forward to the Easter holidays because my birthday is slap bang in the middle and I get to be at home for a WHOLE MONTH which will be ever so lovely. And that's pretty much it really.

• Summer

I don't really have any plans as yet for Summer, but I'm just really looking forward to having a long period of time where I can regularly see my family, Dan and the girls- and actually appreciate it! It will be made even better if me and the girls manage to pull off some sort of holiday, visiting somewhere like Amsterdam or Berlin with them would be ace. As we will have moved into the house by July I'm also hoping that my flatmates and myself will have a little holiday here, which would be pretty cool! Pipe dreams like Isle of Wight and Reading Festivals are also looking very appealing- and the are the reason why I've promised myself that I am going to save money from work for once.

• Second Year

Although it seems like quite a way off right now- especially as I haven't even started Semester 2 yet! -but I'm so excited for the amount of choice I will have next year. Although I've enjoyed the work so far at university, it's all core stuff really and so hasn't necessarily all been what I would like to study- but the amount of modules on offer for next year is amazing!

I guess that's about all that I can think of right now, but it seems like this is going to be a pretty cool year.

Book Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close off the back of The Remains of the Day was pretty odd, because I changed from the voice of an old man to that of a nine year old boy (amongst letters of various others), but after I'd got into the swing of this novel I absolutely loved it. What I liked most about it was possibly that it wasn't just prose, Foer had various other ways of telling the story such as photographs and letters- my favourite were the excerpts detailing what was written by the man in the novel who couldn't speak, to show how he communicated with other people. I think I probably enjoyed this so much because it reminded be of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events in which he did similar things.

I don't really have much of note to say about this read, it was hard to concentrate on specific details of it because I read so much whilst on the train from here to home and visa versa, and I always seem to get distracted easily when reading on trains. Despite this, I did find it ridiculously compelling, and wanted to read it all of the time which is always nice! I also found it strange, but nice, that I was able to identify with a nine year old boy, his grandmother, and a non-speaking 'renter' simultaneously- making the novel even more enjoyable. I'm still not quite sure where (or who from) I found out about Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, but I'm so glad I did- and I'm really looking forward to reading another of his novels: Everything is Illuminated. But next on the menu is Stoner by John Williams.

(apologies, this seems to be turning into a bit of a book review blog as opposed to anything else- but I've been doing very little other than reading recently! But I am planning a few trips such as one to Pie and Vinyl in Portsmouth so I will be writing about them as soon as they happen.)

Book Review: The Remains of the Day

I have literally finished Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day not two minutes ago, but I thought I'd turn out a review of sorts before I forget my initial feelings towards it. I was first drawn towards this novel on the basis of having enjoyed Never Let Me Go so much, and I wasn't disappointed at all. A totally different novel, albeit spent mostly reminiscing over the past as does Kathy in Never Let Me Go, I loved the tone of retrospective-ness intertwined with the journey of Mr Stevens throughout.

Admittedly, I've finished this novel very quickly and spent less time over it than I usually would have- but at the moment I'm between semesters and trying to get as much 'pleasure reading' in as humanely possible (my next book is already sitting on my bed ready to be started!). But that aside, I don't feel like the haste of my reading has impeded on my enjoyment of the book at all. It seems that Ishiguro has a way of just forming amazing characters that one can relate to on different levels, despite the fact that I was reading about an (I assume) sixty-or-so year old man. My favourite part of the novel was the way it wove seamlessly in and out of the present and past, in such a way that is reflective of one's own reflections throughout the day. I also quite liked that the protagonist said "that is to say" quite a lot. Despite the short time spine of six days in which the novel is set, it covers a broadness of times that doesn't allow that to limit the impact of the novel- and I now see why people have recommended it to me in the past!

Next up is Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, something else that I am also very excited to read.

Book Haul!

I recently received some book vouchers from my old school and promised my head of year that I wouldn't spend them on books for my course, so I thought it fitting to go on a bit of a book shop earlier today! Aside from this great lot, there were a couple of others I didn't manage to get- namely Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer but I will be sure to keep a look out for them later on. It was really lovely going to a bookshop and being able to look for new things, and picking up books just because the cover caught my eye, instead of having to pop into the university bookshop with a specific list of books for my course!

There's always one book that you seem to see everywhere, and before Christmas I kept seeing John Williams' Stoner on display in pretty much every bookshop. I quite like that it's a classic that has recently been brought to everyone's attention, so I'm really looking forward to reading it (and the copy I got is beautiful!). 

This is the book out of the five that I know the least about, but the cover caught my eye and I'm pretty sure I've heard/read something about it somewhere! It's a rarity that I will buy something knowing nothing about it, but it's probably good to do that once in a while.

I've wanted to read this since reading Never Let Me Go a couple of years ago and absolutely loving it. I don't know what it's about, I only know from others that it is great. I'm just about to start reading it and I'm embarrassingly excited about it.

This is another novel I've wanted to read for a while- I think it was since my Mum read it for a book club she was part of when I was younger and she told me I was too young to read it, but as luck would have it by the time I was 'old enough' to read it, we no longer had a copy. So I'm happy now to have my own copy that I am able to read! 

I remember quite a while ago someone recommended this to me in conjunction with my reading of 1984 and Brave New World, and as the latter was possibly the best novel I read last year I thought it best to give it a read too!

Book Review: The Book Thief

A new book review has been a long time coming for this blog, but having a book-a-week to read for my course has made reading for pleasure a little difficult. I've wanted to read The Book Thief for quite a while now after a few people have recommended it, so I was very happy to get myself a copy and actually have time to read it! I spent the beginnings of my Christmas holidays completely glued to this novel, but when I got a bit bogged down with assignments and revision I found myself reading about a chapter a week. But yesterday I finished exams and assignments so have been reading almost constantly since then, which is why I've managed to get through the second half of the book so quickly!

The Book Thief is a novel narrated by death that follows the life of Liesel Meminger (or, the book thief) following her little brother's death at the beginning of WWII in Germany. For a novel narrated by death, it is surprisingly heart-warming and the characters are beautifully formed- my particular favourites were Hans Hubermann (Liesel's caring foster father) and Max (the jew hiding in their basement who writes picture books). The character of the book thief herself is lovely too, making the conclusion to the novel pretty heartbreaking- but obviously I don't want to give anything away. My favourite part of the novel was the little inserts such as 'Here is a small fact: You are going to die' and 'A strange word: Kommunist' that break up the main body of text through and bring Death and reader close together. I also loved that all of the chapters were named- there's something about named chapters that always makes me happy. All I can say is that I definitely recommend The Book Thief and I'm very glad I found the time to read it! Apologies for the shoddy review, though, it's been a while. Next up is Kasuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day (which I bought today and am very excited about!).

Thoughts on...saying goodbye to 2013

Thought I'd do a fairly typical post about the good stuff that happened to me in 2013. If you follow my Tumblr it's already on there, so apologies!

As a whole, 2013 has been pretty great- even given the amount that has changed. It started horribly but has ended brilliantly, and I can't help but compare how much happier I am now than I was this time last year. (not really hard, eh- considering I entered 2013 crying and having to be looked after by my ace friends)

Education-wise this was a bloody great year, I worked hard for my exams and it all paid off, meaning I was able to go to Southampton to study English which I really wanted to do. I'm so glad I went there because I have met some of the best people and have been lucky enough to leave with people I am now very close too! The course itself has been manageable for the most part and I'm really looking forward to having more choice next year. I also passed my driving test in March which was kind of cool (except for those that have been driven by me!).

Obviously universities/other plans meant leaving the girls and everyone here would be hard but we had the best summer to make up for it. Our little jaunt to Sheringham was absolutely lovely, and Reading with Darcy and Holly was amazing as expected- among all the other little trips to the pub and what not that made the summer so great. I also got into a new relationship with Dan (3 weeks before buggering off to Southampton, great timing hey?) and he is just bloody great and makes me very happy. 

Goals for 2014:

• read more
• go 'gallivanting' again- preferably somewhere outside of England!
• get a 2:1 (or above, if possible) in my first year of university
• see more live music
• buy lots more vinyl
• dye my hair pretty colours
• save up some money for going away and other nice things
• maybe (probably not) be a little bit more healthy!
• write on this blog more often
• write more letters to people (i.e. Granny and Chloe)

So, that's it really. Happy New Year everyone!