A Day in Bookland

Earlier this month I told myself I wouldn't set any reading goals for the year to come but these aren't really reading goals; more like reading activities I won't be doing. The first six months of 2018 will be me dealing with finals, a new semester and handling in my dissertation. And I don't think I'm ready. Don't get me wrong, I want to finish and be done with academia for the time being but I'm also a bit worried about my mental well-being, not gonna lie. And I've decided that as much as I would love to read for fun to unwind, it's not going to be a priority. At least from January to June. So here are my reading goals for 2018. If you've been reading my blog or following me on social media, you probably know that I haven't been in the greatest reading mood. However, I've realised that what is happening right now it's not an isolated moment. Looking back I've noticed that for the past two years - both in 2017 and 2016 - the...

As promised here are all the books I absolutely adored this 2017. I' gonna talk about each of them in the order I read them because I refuse to rank them so there is that.

This post is probably the hardest to do. This list is not about my most hated books and if I look back to all the books I read this year, there are so many more with lower ratings that aren't on this list because this one is about all those books I thought I would love, but ultimately that wasn't the case. I always feel the need to do a little disclaimer: the fact that I didn't love these books is no reason for them to be bad and I've seen many amazing reviews popping up for each of them. Two books in this stack - The Power  and Autumn  - I actually enjoyed reading and I would recommend them but the high expectations I had worked against me and that's why I included in my most disappointed reads of this year. As always, I will say if the premise of the book sounds interesting to you, I'll say give them a go; plenty of readers out there loved these titles. But let's talk the reasons why I included them in this list, shall we?

Books, books, books and always more books. Until now. I hate the word 'ban' so I'm not going to use it but I've decided to not buy a single book until I'm done with finals in February. I've said getting book mail makes me happy. However, it also distracts me from studying.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward { Goodreads } Published by Bloomsbury in 2017 Hardback edition; 304 pages Sing, Unburied, Sing  is a road trip story. The novel starts when Jojo's father, a white man, is released from prison. His mother, Leonie, gets him, his little sister and a friend of hers, and hits the road to the penitentiary to pick him up.

Reading His Dark Materials has taken me 14 years. Yes, you read right. 14 bloody years. I was 12 when I picked up the first book, before the (let me just say it, horrible) movie came out and after that, I never finished the last two books (one of my friends told me she didn't enjoy the ending and that was reason enough to not waste my time). Things changed this summer when I decided it was finally time for me to see what all the fuss was about. I'm glad I read it now, as an adult. I know as a child I would have had a different opinion of it and so many things would have been lost to me. I can see why these books created such controversy (with the Church especially)

The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night  by Jen Campbell { Goodreads } Published by Two Roads in 2017 Hardback edition; 212 pages I'm so happy I got to read this. Blending of fact and fiction, this is a fantastical and magical collection yet realist. There is a lot to read between the lines, Campbell doesn't lay it all for the reader because it is up to us to discover all the layers hidden in the stories. Fairy-tales are present throughout the entire collection but I guess that's not really a surprise. I love the way they were used to speak about all humane things, our darkness, our fears but also our hopes. Queerness and deformity are also present. The writing is beautiful and lyrical and worked very well for me.