New Reads

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So following my recent post about trying to start or join a book club, I ended up joining Blind Date With A Book. It’s a simple concept. You go on their website and have the choice on genres or having them completely random – then for six months they send you one book a month to read. So far I have no complaints on the choices that have been sent to me – I did my order to come ASAP, so at the start of the month I received two of my six.

The company themselves are genuinely lovely people. You get a note with each book and a few bookmarks in the inserts. The note says effectively that if you have already met your ‘date’ to drop them an email and they will try to sort it out for you. Knowing my luck the first book I received was one I have already. One I have the whole series for. I dropped them a quick email to explain the situation and they were so sweet about getting it sorted. They sent me a new book first class and I received it the next evening. Also the person who dealt with me made me giggle over email because they were just sweet. They told me they were worried the same would happen, and if that was the case they would go on a mission to find me something niche.

Enough of my rambling and let’s get back on subject; New reads I have.

So it’s not a long list because I find when you make the list excessively long, it doesn’t get done.

  • The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

 

the_eyre_affair

When I received this book I was unsure what it would be about – The clues given to me about the book were as follows: Pet Dodos, Adventure, Mystery, Fantasy and Funny. I do love fantasy books that have humour. And who doesn’t love Dodos. My dad says it’s a good read and thinks I’ll enjoy it. So I will keep you updated on how that goes.

 

  • Night At The Circus – Angela Carter

Night at the circus

Having read Angela Carter during my college classes, I am no stranger to her works! I love her writing style and the creativity she brought to her stories. The Bloody Chamber, although a staple read for my exams, was super interesting and something I have considered picking up again. Let’s see how this one goes!

  •  What If This Were Enough – Heather Havrilesky

what if this were enough (2)

I bought this book at 2am whilst listening to a podcast that I binge religiously. They were speaking about this book and I just had to buy it! Although it’s not a fiction book with plot, I glanced through the index of essay titles and I am super interested in starting this.

I know this post is long by my standards but I will end it on one thing. So I’m ‘supposed’ to be paying off my credit cards and saving some money for a new tattoo but I was cheeky and I bought myself something. If my cousin is reading this, I may have skipped this purchase out of our honestly conversation earlier. Sorry, still love you! But I bought myself a Moleskine passion journal for books I have read. I know some people will say, ‘why not use a normal notebook?’ or ‘why specifically Moleskine?’ But let me tell you it is just an aesthetically pleasing journal. The information you can record. The organisation of the whole thing. I think I’m having a moment. There may be a tear in my eye.

I’ll stop being silly now and go back to reading fan fiction. Because I set myself up to procrastinate.

P.S. this isn’t a sponsored post. My sorry excuse of a blogger doesn’t have enough dedication and reach for that kind of thing. I just really like the company haha. Please check them out! https://blinddatewithabook.com/

Being sick

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The feature photo is sponsored by My Window Sill. Full of plants you can forget about and a layer of dust more stable than my future.

Being sick sucks. My chest hurts. My past time of smoking has been cut to 1 pull and I’m done. I can’t breathe without sounding like I’ve run a marathon. And my body aches like I’ve done 7 rounds at the gym.

But being sick has it’s pros:

  • I made a plan of how the blog will run on a monthly basis
  • I am binge watching Insecure on sky box sets – the soundtrack is amazing
  • I finished 3 books taking me to 24 – I know 50 was my goal but I feel like I can still make it
  • I’ve created a Rachel sized mold in my bed which is quite cozy

I’m trying to make the best of laying here.

Let’s hope I get well soon

Book Club?

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I’ve been toying for a while making or joining a book club. I’m currently reading The Vegetarian: A Novel by Han Kang and I’m really enjoying it, even if it is quite a dark book and not for the light-hearted.

I think having a group of people to just discuss the books with will motivate me more to read – and enjoy reading at that.

It’s just a thought. We shall see.

I’m going to type up my book reviews now and see if we can salvage anything from it.

Ciao

Day 1 and 2: Accidents, new books and settling in

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(The above picture is sponsored by swimming doggo – because he was cute and just having so much fun)

I’m going to be honest for a second, why did I pick such a hot country. Everyone knows I hate, like seriously hate, any type of heat or sun. I wear black nearly everyday, I stay home when it’s sunny, I shade hop when I’m out. But here I am, middle of July, in highs of 30+ degrees weather, walking along a strip of hotels and restaurants.

The one thing hours stranded in an airport does to you, is you find new books to read. I picked up The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin and so far it’s a good read. I may do a book review – I have 2 typed up reviews so far but I’m yet to post them. I’m waiting for the right moment.

This post is really choppy but I’m trying to put as much into it as possible. So today we saw a kid drop into the water. I saw we saw him drop, we actually saw panicked adults rush over and a man jump in to pull the kid out. Turns out he was reaching for his toy that had fallen in, became unbalanced and dropped. His brother who was only 3 inches taller than he jumped in after to save his brother but also got stuck because the ledge back onto land was quite high for him to climb back up. Cue the random man who was enjoying his lunch throwing himself in to lift the boys up safely. You could say it was paternal instinct – I mean we all hypothesize but not many people would risk themselves to save someone who isn’t related to them. When I get back I’m probably going to quit drinking and smoking and take up swimming again. Could have been a good competition swimmer but chose friends that I no longer associate with.

All in all, the most I’ve really done so far is think and get sad with what I realise. I pretty much realised I fucked myself over with bad decisions and all. But why bother dwelling on things that can’t be changed.

For me, this post has become boring and awkward so I’ll end it here. 2 more days and then I’m back. Fun, fun, fun.

Airport delays

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As you can tell from the title, I’m currently sat in an airport for way longer than I should have been. 5 hours to be precise.

1st hour – Wetherspoons. One thing I will give is with their new app I don’t have to move an inch for a drink. Lazy? I know. Convenient? Fuck yes, my foot is being a ball ache so not having to walk to much is a blessing.

2nd hour – Attempted to connect to airport WiFi, but failed epically. It wouldn’t even let me check the flight information.

3rd hour – realised we had 24% battery on both our phones.

3rd hour revisited – turns out drinking about 6 litres of coffee and fizzy drinks really fills up the bladder.

4th hour – found a Starbucks. Phones charging. Sipping yet more coffee. And rewatching The Duff on Netflix. Again.

The 5th leading up and into the 6th hour is just dragging. I want to sleep however I’m scared of waking up 3 hours the wrong side of my flight.

So were off on a ‘it basically limited cash till the last day’ holiday in an attempt ‘to relax before the stresses of adult life make you cry’. But everything up until this point has been a bit of a mess.

I’m going to attempt to blog at least once a day whilst I’m abroad. But I will never guarantee it, I’m always a bit shit.

If the wait takes longer I will update along this post accordingly.

Self-love

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Sometimes, the days really just gush past you and you’re left feeling numb to everything around you. Self-love and self-care is quite a difficult thing to comprehend if you think about it – Being there for someone, showing them affection and investing time in them, is a lot easier than having love and understanding for yourself.

I think I need to take a little time to understand who I am and what I want as a person. I’ve been lacking in the self-love department for some time and I think I need to work on that. It’s gotten to the point when people ask me how life is or how I am, I think for a solid minute and even then my answer is ‘A bit crap to be honest’.

We shall see. I’ve made some decisions recently and we will see where they takes us.

I should probably go to sleep considering I have to be up 6 hours.

Eli

To review or not to review?

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As of today, 20th May, I have reached and surpassed the ’20 book’ mark in my My Goals 17/18. I feel like I would have made it to here three months ago but I have a very short attention span, so I fall into phases of almost aggressive reading, then to not even glancing at a book.

So with all achievements and things considered, I feel like I could try my hand at ‘attempting’ to write a book review. I key the word attempting in that way because, let’s be honest, I haven’t been the best at coming up with plans for this blog and actually sticking to them. I have 10 drafts saved and they are just post titles with one note in them, and I don’t really know how to continue with them. I think I will be good at this – I’m extremely opinionated and I read a variety of genres, so I probably could cover something for everyone.

A few disclaimers: I’m no review expert; they won’t be excessively lengthy; and they will be honest without spoilers.

I’ll consider it. I don’t even think this post makes sense – the heat must be getting to me. I guess I will just end this here before I embarras myself anymore.

Eli