A Day in Bookland

I can’t remember the last time I sit down to write a tag but the lovely Olivia over at Olivia’s Catastrophe – check her out because she’s awesome and very sweet – tagged me this one and since it’s autumn I thought ‘why not?’ The tag was originally created by Sam at Novels and Nonsense , who is one of my favourite booktubers. Let's get on with the questions, shall we?

Unnatural Creatures. Stories Selected by Neil Gaiman { Goodreads } Published by HarperCollins in 2013 Paperback edition; 462 pages { BookDepository } Unnatural Creatures is an anthology, collected by Neil Gaiman, which holds 16 short stories about peculiar and fantastical creatures from werewolves and griffins to mermaids or even snake-speaking girls that only have place in our imagination.

For a while I have kept reading blog posts or watching videos regarding rating systems and why it brings pressure onto our reviews and I thought about throwing in my two cents and talk you through my decision of not using a rating system anymore here on my blog. I will still use it on Goodreads but I don’t post fully reviews on there so there’s that. Rating is useful; that much is true. It gives us base to organize our thoughts around a number. However, I found the main problem to be that ratings are a personal thing. Stars or whatever form you use, concerning the reader who is giving them, can mean differently. 3 stars for instance, are rather controversial. According to Goodreads – and me – it means you liked the book. However, there are loads of people out there who wouldn’t read a book with a 3 star rating.

Did You Ever Have A Family by Bill Clegg { Goodreads } Published by Jonathan Cape in 2015 Hardback edition; 304 pages { BookDepository } The day before her daughter’s wedding, tragedy strikes June’s life. Flames consume her house and with it, her daughter and soon to be son-in-law, her ex-husband and her boyfriend. She’s the only survivor and unable to cope with the pain, she leaves the town and everything behind and finds herself in a motel room, trapped by her past.

Once Upon A Time  by Marina Warner { Goodreads } Published by Oxford University Press in 2014 Hardback edition; 201 pages { BookDepository } Non-fiction is way out of my comfort zone, not because I don’t like it but because I feel is like reading a text-book and for that, I have Uni already. Yet, I was very much intrigued by this. I’m getting into fairytales lately and I’ve heard of Marina Warner before since she’s supposed to be prominent figure in this department. I have no idea how to review a non-fiction book and therefore, I’m just gonna tell you below the issues it addresses and how I liked it.

Westwood  by Stella Gibbons { Goodreads } Published by Vintage Classics in 2011 Paperback edition; 464 pages { BookDepository } Meet Margaret Steggles, a plain bookish English girl who isn’t already married and whose mother doesn’t think will ever be. You see, she is not the type of girl who attracts men. Hilda, her best friend, on the other hand is quite popular among the male population. One day Margaret founds a ration book and famous writer Gerard Challis enters both their lives. Stella Gibbons was a one hit type of author even though she wrote quite a few novels. Her first one, Cold Comfort Farm , was an absolute success but her other works didn’t meet the same fate. This was a bit devastating for Gibbons whose novel Westwood was apparently the work she was more proud of.

The Chimes  by Anna Smaill { Goodreads } Published by Sceptre in 2015 Hardback edition; 304 pages { BookDepository } The Chimes takes us to a dystopian London where the written word has been destroyed and people are incapable of creating new memories due to a gigantic musical instrument which gives name to this novel. When the Man Booker Longlist was announced, The Chimes was one of the first titles to catch my eye especially since the author later announced she had written this book to be targeted at YA readers; however, her editors believed the story could be enjoyed by a wider audience and, fortunately, they publicized it as literary fiction. I’m not entirely positive The Chimes could have made an impact seen as YA because it’s not the typical example of that particular genre. Or maybe I’ve never come across something similar.

Someone please tell me where September has gone to because I seriously have no idea. I know this is such a cliché to say but this time, it’s true. My month can be summarized as a lot of car drives to our village (by that I mean where my grandparents used to live when they were young) to spend time with my grandma and aunt. It’s nice to get away from time to time but also tiring. Uni hasn’t started yet and I’m getting a bit bored if I’m honest. October 6 th can’t come soon enough (I’m pretty sure once it is here I will start complaining about it though…) Reading wise, I’ve read a mix of genres: Fantasy, classics, literary fiction and YA. I even managed to squeeze a non-fiction book about fairytales into my reading month as well. And I have to say, not counting Percy Jackson, I’ve been reviewing every single book I’ve read which I’m very happy about. Two of those reviews will be up later this week though.