B3THANY READS

Ah, September. We meet again. This time last year I was getting ready to start my first year at university studying Comparative Literature and French, full of excitement and nerves. Here I am in almost the exact same position except for the daunting prospect of second year ahead where everything actually counts towards my degree. First year was just a practice run. So, as my second year fast approaches, I thought why not reflect on the Comparative Literature part of my degree and talk about my favourite books I studied this year. Think of it as a whistle-stop ride through BA Comparative Literature - the ones worth reading from the modules I studied. First up: Childhood and Adolescence in Modern Fiction I chose this module on the basis that I recognised a couple of books on the reading list. I thought I'd treat myself by choosing a relatively easy module to begin with so to not stress me out too much on top of the whole university experience. 'Childhood and Adol...

Title: The Maze Runner Author: James Dashner My overall rating: 2.5/5 Get it here from Amazon First thoughts I asked for The Maze Runner  for Christmas years ago and it has been sitting on my bookshelf ever since. I'm not sure why but I never picked it up until now. I had just finished The Night Circus  and didn't have enough money to buy a brand new book so I decided to finally read it. I probably should have read it when I received it, I would have liked it a lot more back then. Good bits The Maze Runner 's main selling point was that fans of The Hunger Games  would like it. Personally I disagree with that method but hey ho, I guess it worked. I never finished The Hunger Games , I only read the first few chapters or so which is probably why I thought the story line for The Maze Runner was really cool. If I had read The Hunger Games before, I would have probably thought it was a massive rip off. Nevertheless, The Maze Runner  was something I had n...

Sam @ Tsundoku  has kindly nominated me for the Mystery Blogger Award. Thank you, Sam! This award was originally created by Okoto Enigmas Blog  to create a new community for bloggers which I'm totally for. Okay, now lets actually do the tag. Rules Put the award logo/image on your blog Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog Mention the creator of the award and provide a link as well List the rules Tell your readers 3 things about yourself Share a link to your best post(s) Answer the 5 questions set to you by the person who nominated you Nominate 10 - 20 people Ask your nominees any 5 questions of your choice; with at least one weird or funny question Notify your nominees by commenting on their blog Three things about me I think it's safe to say that 'I love books' is pretty obvious, so I'll try to include other things. I bake a lot Within the last 5 or 10 years or so I have started to really enjoy baking all sort...

Title: The Night Circus Author: Erin Morgenstern My overall rating: 5/5 Get it here from Amazon I have never fallen as in love with a book as I have  The Night Circus . For that reason, I have chosen to gush about it in this blog post rather than writing my usual type of review. I invite all reveurs to join me. 1. THE WRITING Erin Morgenstern has said that her novels are 'fairy tales in one way or another' and she is absolutely right . From the moment I started reading The Night Circus  I was mesmerised by the writing.  'The rain increases and umbrellas sprout like mushrooms amongst the graves' There's something about the writing that is so poetic and beautiful . Although there has been a fair amount of criticism of The Night Circus  saying that it's very slow-moving, I personally never noticed as the writing is interesting enough on its own to grab and maintain my attention. 'October slips into November, a change that goes larg...

Title: The Martian Author: Andy Weir My overall rating: 3/5 Get it here from Amazon First thoughts I'm not entirely sure what drew me to this book. Maybe it was my cousin's unhealthy obsession with Matt Damon that introduced me to the film and then I found out it was a novel first. Or maybe it was the cool cover. Who knows. I think its important to mention that I read the majority of this book whilst sitting on an aeroplane. Probably not the best place to read a story about a man trapped in space with no escape - a bit like watching Life of Pi whilst on a cruise ship, which I've also done. Good bits The Martian  is super entertaining. After much consideration I have decided that Mark Watney is the funniest character I have ever had to pleasure to meet, which is a massive credit to Weir's writing. Watney reminds me of the 'fun Uncle' type who doesn't take himself too seriously and is always there to lighten the mood; the perfect antidote to...

Title: HEX Author: Thomas Olde Heuvelt My overall rating: 5/5 Get it here from Amazon First thoughts When HEX  appeared in my Goodreads' recommendations, I was intrigued. I suddenly realised that even though I am obsessed  with The Walking Dead  and other horror-related TV shows and films, I have never read a horror novel. I decided there and then that HEX  was going to be the first one I read. And I'm so glad I did. Good bits I whizzed through HEX. Olde Heuvelt has such an interesting writing style that even shines through being translated from Dutch to English, showing how talented he is. I could not put this book down. I have seen a few other reviews talk about how some of the idioms Olde Heuvelt uses don't translate well into English but I didn't notice it, I must have been too immersed in the story to realise. I absolutely love the concept of the story. A town being haunted by a 300-year-old witch who has her eyes and mouth sewn shut to prevent utt...

Title: We Were Liars Author: E. Lockhart My overall rating: 2/5 Get it here from Amazon First thoughts This book was kindly given to me by my best friend for my birthday, which kinda makes me feel bad for disliking it so much. But that's what reading is all about, right? Forming an opinion? 'My mum and my sister raved about this book and said I should read it,' my friend said, 'but I don't read books, so I thought I'd get it for you'. At least she wasn't emotionally attached to the book. That way my negative review won't completely destroy her feelings. Good bits We Were Liars is a semi-enjoyable holiday read. It is super easy to read, not requiring too much effort to understand the plot (probably because the plot is stupidly boring but we'll get to that later). I could have finished it in a day if life didn't get in the way, so if you're planning on bringing this with you on holiday I'd recommend bringing a back up......