List IV: Places I'd like to visit/explore

I've been thinking a lot recently about wanting to do exciting things and make the most of living/being young I guess- but unfortunately spontaneity is a little difficult when it comes to travelling to out of the way places. I'd love to say that one day I will just wake up, decide I want to go to Paris, and damn well go to Paris- but realistically, I can't just set off at the drop of a hat. To take a trip I'd have to plan with family, work, money, and a number of things that make swanning off (as appealing as that is) impossible. So, I thought I'd just put together a list of places I'd like to visit in the hope that one day I will actually get the opportunity to do them.

• Venice, Italy

I've never been to Italy, so really I would love to go anywhere there- but the idea of visiting Venice has always been really appealing. From pictures it looks so beautiful and inviting, and I'd love to get lost among the back alleys and canals and travel across the water in a boat. I'm not sure but I think there may be a possibility of doing a year abroad there with my degree, although I may be getting than confused with Kent's course.

• Amsterdam, Holland

Everyone seems to talk of going to Amsterdam in pursuit of, well, sex and drugs mostly (which I'm sure it is good fore). My motives lie elsewhere, I just think it looks like a pretty cool city that would be ace to wander around and get lost in!

• Paris, France

I have previously been to Paris twice (and am considering doing a blog post about my trips) but I would love to go by myself. Both times were with the school, and although you are given a fair bit of freedom I often felt as though we were rushing to fit anything and everything into a short space of time, rendering us completely exhausted and unable to appreciate everything as much as we would have liked to. It would also be nice to go during the Summer, I find it's always nicer to be outside when you aren't wrapped up like a snowman and suffering from numb extremities! 

• York, England

One a little bit closer to home, where it would actually be possible for me to visit on a day's notice! I've been to York a fair few times, having friends who live near Leeds, but I'd really like to go again. Maybe just for the day to wander around- first train up, last train home kinda thing. England really does have some lovely places and I feel like I should explore them more!

There are lots and lots of other places I'd like to visit- Canada, Australia, Kenya, Brazil, Sweden etc- and I really hope that one day I have the chance to visit them! In the meantime I may just have to stick to exploring England, perhaps venturing to Edinburgh at some point if I'm feeling really adventurous. One thing I've always really wanted to do is see the Northern Lights, so if anyone could take me somewhere to see them I think I'd be obliged to award you eternal love (or at least eternal like).

Ladybird Likes goodie bag appreciation

Zo at Ladybird Likes recently put together a jewellery goodie bag and a stationary goodie bag full of wonderful things for just £20- and after much deliberation I settled on the stationary one! (She had me at bunting really)

As you can see I received lots and lots of lovely things! I really like having pretty gift tags for my friends' presents, and the sparkly ones will be perfect for Christmas.

This Alice in Wonderland pocket mirror is perfectly timed after having just read the story, and it's one of my favourite items!

I've got a growing selection of Zo's brooches and have come to the decision that you can never have too many. This blue butterfly is lovely and will look great on my new denim jacket alongside my ampersand brooch.

My favourite part of this bunting is the beautiful velvet ribbon, and it looks really lovely by my clock and Gatsby poster.

I would strongly recommend you check out Zoe's blog/shop- just head over to ladybirdlikes.blogspot.com and all the information is there!

David's Books haul

I really love going to David's (a local independent bookshop that we are really lucky to have) and trawling through row upon row of second hand books to pick out some good finds. There's a Virginia Woolf quote that explains my love of old books better than I can:

"Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack"

and it's ace to have somewhere so close where second hand books (as well as records, DVDs and what not) are readily available! Anyway, I thought I'd do a haul post of the books I found- partially because I wanted to take pictures against the pretty material of a pouffe belonging to a friend (haha)- so here it is...

I recently read Aldous Huxley's Brave New World so thought I would invest £2 in the novel that supposedly established him as a writer- despite never having heard of it before! Nevertheless, I am quite looking forward to reading it if Brave New World is anything to go by.

I really love Virginia Woolf, especially Mrs Dalloway after studying it for my comparative coursework piece last year. I've always been interested in reading The Waves, and have heard good things about it- £.150 well spent.

I was talking to a man at the pub about Hardy after saying that I wanted to read Tess of the D'urbervilles, and he told me that anyone who knew Hardy well would be more impressed if I said I had read The Trumpet-Major as it is a less well-known text, so I thought I would buy it! (80p)

The Picture of Dorian Gray is probably one of the best books I've read recently(ish) and I've been looking forward to reading more of Wilde's work. This looks from the introduction like it'll be a little different in style to DG, but I'm looking forward to it all the same! (£2.99)

Fairly recently I bought my brother's tablet, and so attempted to read The Metamorphosis on the Kindle app- but I really didn't get on with reading off of a screen! Initially I was looking out for getting The Metamorphosis today but I didn't find it, but I'm hoping that this will also be worth reading. (80p)

Admittedly I've never heard of this novel before, but the person I was with recommended it based on recommendations by others and their recommendations tend to be pretty spot on so I went with it! Have had a look at the blurb/online and it does look as though it'll be a good read. (£2.50) 

After looking at a post somewhere about the hundred top reads I saw this, and quite fancied it so it caught my eye today! I'm looking forward to reading it, and I think I'd like to read Of Mice and Men at some point too. 

I'm really excited to read all of these, despite the fact that I already have a growing mountain of books in my 'to read' pile, but hey ho. I also bought a few second hand records, had a mint chocolate milkshake and had an all round ace day! Time (and money) definitely well spent.

A handful of favourite quotes

I decided I wanted to do some form of quote-related post, so I flicked through my quote book, selected a few, then chose to write them out and photograph them against a pretty background!

An extract from a longer quote: "Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed, you will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again." (apologies for misquoting in the above picture!)

I will use some of the written out quotes as bookmarks and such like, but these ones look lovely at the top of my mirror!

Book review: Alice in Wonderland

I've always loved the story of Alice in Wonderland, mostly from watching Disney's version of events (as well as later on, Tim Burton's adaptation) but it dawned on me recently that I had never read the original version! I found this beautiful copy on a bookshelf in the house, that Mum thinks is my Granny's, and couldn't resist having a read- especially as a nice break after having read more serious matter. The edition is perfect and complete with both colour and black and white illustrations, and it was really lovely to read- I sort of felt as though I was reverting back to childhood and got a little too swept away in Wonderland.

My favourite illustration of the book- Alice and the Cheshire Cat

Essentially, Alice in Wonderland is a children's tale of nonsense and strange lands, but Lewis Carroll's careful crafting of word play, as well as an incorporation of themes surrounding growing up, death and danger, raises it to something that I think anyone could enjoy! Of course it is possible to simply read it at face value, as I pretty much have done, but I'm really interested to read a bit more into it as I've seen a lot of psychoanalysis of the tale online. Overall reading this reminded me a little of the magic of childhood and imagination, and filled me with nostalgia- especially as I'm at a time where I'm going to have to grow up pretty quickly! This is definitely worth reading, even just for a bit of fun- and I would like to read Through the Looking Glass too.

Next up on my reading list: Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark

List III: Things that make me happy

This is probably going to be a hideously cheesy post, but sometimes I think it's pretty important to think about things that make you happy- especially if you have a case of the blues.

1. Summer evenings spent with friends

I recently had a barbecue with some of my closest friends on a lovely warm day, and I remembered/realised how bloody lucky I am to have the friends that I do- people who I can talk to about anything and have a great laugh with, and just generally enjoy being around. I think it's important to surround yourself with people like that, and yeah, I'm just generally really lucky!

2. Productive days

I'm rarely happier than I am after having a productive day (same as I'm rarely more irritable and unhappy following an unproductive one), and am a firm believer that keeping active is really important to maintaining a good state of mind.

3. Getting into a good book

I love that point when reading where you find yourself totally lost in a narrative, and growing attached to the characters- it's part of the reason why I'm so drawn to English as a subject and can't wait to study it next year.

4. Being alone in a new place

After my adventures in London the other day, I realised that I really do like being alone in unknown territory. Some people see wanting to be alone as a negative trait, but I think it's important to be able to enjoy your own company (though not to the point where you avoid all society!) and to be able to feel comfortable in new surroundings just wandering around.

5. Giving good advice

Although advice is generally a selfless act, there is always a really nice feeling in knowing you have helped to make someone feel better in a time of need, and it's really lovely being able to be a source of help for someone.

6. Animals

I no longer have any pets, but I had a dog named Georgie for 11 years, and coming home from school to her wagging her tail was always a lovely feeling (even when she was old and smelly). Animals just seem to make things feel better, I love it when my Granny brings her dogs to see us, and whenever there are dogs around at work it's always nice to have a break to fuss them- it really can improve an evening!

7. Live music

I stand by that one of the best nights of my life to date was seeing Foo Fighters supported by Biffy Clyro, Deathcab for Cutie, and Tame Impala at Milton Keynes Bowl. The fact that particular songs- namely Best of You- brought tears to my eyes was wonderful, and I felt so happy in that particular moment. This is one of the reasons I am so looking forward to Reading Festival at the end of this month!

There are many other little things that make me happy too, from listening to an awesome song to eating a really nice cake, and sometimes you just need to sit back and appreciate stuff like that! But yes, that is a small list of things that have the power to make me pretty damn chipper.

Book review: Wuthering Heights

Due to hopefully becoming an English Lit student come September, I had half planned to read as many classics as possible over the course of the Summer- but I've inevitably ended up reading this and that which I fancy. I did however finally get around to reading Wuthering Heights, which I've always quite fancied reading. 

As the desolate setting of the moors would suggest, as a whole, Wuthering Heights is extremely bleak- certainly in respect to setting and mood. It is the characters of the novel that I found to be most enjoyable and compelling, particularly Heathcliff- who, despite his cruelty, I found to be a character I was never totally devoid of sympathy for (which might be a result of my comparing him to the creature in Shelley's Frankenstein). I enjoyed the way Bronte chose to convey the majority of the plot through Nelly's viewpoint, allowing her to serve as a form of narrator for the most part of the novel. The plot of the novel is fairly melodramatic, as is common within Gothic literature, but the complex structure- encompassing shifts between narrative viewpoint to allow a rounded version of events- made for a fairly interesting read, although admittedly I didn't give it the attention that it perhaps deserved, and was in a bit of a hurry to finish it. If you like a tragic love story, and/or Gothic literature, you may well enjoy this novel, and perhaps I will have a chance to study it in greater detail at some point!

Next up on my reading list: Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland