Hello, it’s me

No, not Adele. Sorry to disappoint. (I may need to find newer cultural references, although Adele is GREAT).

It’s been a long old while since I did any blogging, which has genuinely surprised me, because in my head I kept thinking ‘it’s only been three months’. That is, in fact, a huge lie. I’ve been gone for nearly three times that. How has that happened? Did I step into a fairy ring and everyone was too polite to say? Possibly, or I fell out of routine and didn’t quite managed to get back into it.

The truth is, it’s really easy to stop doing something, even things you like doing. Frighteningly easy. And I’m not quite sure why.

But I am making a tentative move to get back into blogging, because if there’s something I love more than tea, and potentially more than sarcasm, its books.

Although nothing will ever match my love of brie. It’s a whole thing at the moment.

 

MISC: Hay Festival 2018

Last Friday I took the train home to spend the Bank Holiday weekend in bibliophile heaven: Hay-on-Wye. I packed light because I knew that buying books was just a possibility, it was a given. It was my second time visiting the festival and the little town bursting with bookshops, and the previous year I had gone into a manic frenzy, buying books after each event, queuing up for half an hour to get it signed and then rushing to the next talk. By the end of the May Bank Holiday in 2017 I had sixteen books, an alarmed mother, and a considerably lighter purse.

As a seasoned Hay-goer, this year I decided to take a slightly less intense approach. I booked slightly less events I asked myself whether or not I would read the books in the next year or so. I still haven’t read all the books I bought last year.

MISC: Sarah Perry at Bath Festival

Bath Festival had a brilliant line up this year, but sadly I had other commitments for a large portion of May so I was only able to go last weekend to catch Sarah Perry’s Change Maker talk in the wonderfully Gothic Masonic Arms. It seemed fitting that her talk was in a darkened room with thick oak panelling and velvet drapes along the stage. I almost felt as if I was sitting in a room from one of her atmospheric books.

MISC: Films I wish were books

If you haven’t watched God’s Own Country yet then I highly recommend that you do. Seriously, I will lend you my copy on DVD if I have to. It’s a significant film personally for me because it’s the first I watched on my own in the cinema. Admittedly, I did bump into someone I knew there, but I still sat on my lonesome and as the lights went down I was glad, because it’s a film you don’t want to be distracted from. You might think you’ve been transported to the world of the Brontes as soon as the brooding scenery and howling winds fill the screen, but this is an entirely modern story of romance and redemption.

MISC: Guess who’s back?

I may have taken an impromptu hiatus from the blog over the last few weeks. Sorry guys. It turns out that preparing for London Book Fair takes up more time and energy than this naive little intern thought. I enjoyed every minute of it, but alas the book fair is over and now I can turn back to the wondrous world of book-blogging. I’m excited to get back into the game and catch up with everything I’ve missed!

MISC: Taking on a Kindle

I haven’t been the most active on the blog recently, I’ve got a few posts scheduled, but I haven’t been leaving as many comments or actually been doing as much reading. The thing is, moving and starting a new job do take some adjusting, and while I’m having an absolute blast, I haven’t quite settled into a new routine yet. Literally everything about my day has completely changed and moving to the big(ger) city has already led to a lot of new and exciting experiences.

I’ve done my first commute to work and my first day in an office. I’ve gone for my first drink in Soho and gone to watch a panel show being filmed. But on a more bookish topic I did something that I didn’t think I’d ever do: I read a book on a Kindle.

MISC: 100 Followers Giveaway

100 followers to me is a very big milestone, and to celebrate I wanted to give back to all the lovely people who have read my posts, liked them, commented on them or just had a little poke around. I did think about doing this over on my Twitter, but it seemed more appropriate to do it here. So, I’m giving away a copy of my favourite book The Perks of Being a Wallflower and my favourite read of 2017 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.

How do I enter you ask? Well here are the rules:

• You have to comment on this post and tell me what your favourite book is and why
• You must comment on this post on or before the 17th October 2017. Late entries won’t be accepted.
• Only one entry will be accepted per person.
• You don’t need to be a follower of the blog, but feel free to follow if you like what you see!
• You must be a UK resident over the age of 16
• You must be happy to provide a shipping address if successful.
• Only one entrant will be selected to win both books (I wish I had more, I’m sorry)

I’ll announce the winner on the 18th October 2017 and once I’ve got the shipping address I will send out the copies ASAP. I am moving next week so I’ve timed this wonderfully (not) but I will let the winner know when I’ve sent the books so they know when to expect them!

So what’s your favourite book and why?

MISC: Songs Inspired by Literature

Before I was an avid book-reader, I filled the book-shaped hole with music. That’s not to say there’s only room for one of them, I still like to plug in my headphones, and to the distress of anyone nearby, sing off-key along with the songs, but there was a time when I was still at school that music and bands were everything to me. Now I feel like those albums I used to listen to are old friends; we don’t need to see each other every day, but I know that they’re there when I need. Listening to Florence and The Machine’s album Ceremonials this week, inspired me to write a post about songs that have been inspired by books and writers.

TOP TEN TUESDAY- 5th September 2017

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week they post a different topic that one of their bloggers answers, and they invite others to join in, by posting their answers as a comment of by creating their own blog post.

This weeks Top Ten Tuesday is all about books you struggled to make it through. So here are 10 books I made my way through, but the struggle was real.

MISC: WWW Wednesdays- 23rd August 2017

WWW is hosted by Taking on a World of Words. Each Wednesday book enthusiasts share their reads by answering three questions:

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?