50 Book Challenge 2011 [FAILED]

Me again!

As promised, this is a round up of the final six books that I read in 2011. Nothing to get massively excited about, except perhaps The Hunger Games which sees the film release later this year. As I've said before, I read the first two books in the trilogy and found them them to be somewhat of a let down, especially Catching Fire (the second one) which was just -painful- in places. But go watch the trailer! It looks like they've taken all the good parts, mainly the idea, and I'm dead serious when I say I'm looking forward to it.

A Kestrel for a Knave

Kes, 1969

I also read A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines, a hard hitting British classic that I think everyone should read. It's what the film KES is based on and I'm well aware that the film is far more popular than than the book (and another essential for anyone wanting to brush up on their British films). The dialogue in the book is written in Yorkshire dialect which means at some times, I had no idea what was being said but that doesn't detract from how emotionally powerful this little book is.

The final book that I read last year was We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. I don't think there's much else I can really say about this book considering the film came out at the end of last year amid much media hype. The book is heavy in the most literal, metaphorical and physical sense and I loved it. The film did a brilliant job of translating Shriver's sinister tale to the silver screen. Read/watch it.

The Book List 2011

#9 - 14

9. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins ****/*

10. Catching Fire [The Hunger Games Trilogy] by Suzanne Collins ***/**

11. Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin ****/*

12. A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines ****/*

13. One Day by David Nicholls ****/*

14. We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver ****/*

50 Book Challenge 2011

So there's this thing called the 50 Book Challenge in which people try their damnedest to read 50 books in one year. On the surface, it sounds like an extremely achievable challenge, even if you're a slow reader like me, just so long as you choose your books wisely and aim to spend no longer than roughly 7ish days on each. For the record, I am an incredibly slow reader (hence why I have a volcano of unread books and a new years resolution to not buy any more this year... starting from today... as I miiiight have bought one yesterday.... but that doesn't count.... cough)

ANYWAY.

I think it was through Falletron that I first heard of such a thing but only decided to "give it a go" last year. And by the by, when I say "give it a go", I knew I had no chance so in a way, I kinda gave up before I'd even started! On top of being a slow reader, I don't actually spend that much time reading unless perhaps I'm on a bus or the book is particularly gripping.

This video is actually a mashup of eight videos that I intended to make last year, i.e. a review video for each of the books that I read, but ended up being too lazy to make at the time.

The Book List 2011

#1 - 8

1. Shakespeare by Bill Bryson ****/*
2. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards ****/*
3. Witch and Wizard by James Patterson with Gabrielle Charbonnet */****
4. In Sarah's Shadow by Karen McCombie ***/**
5. Secret Window, Secret Garden [Four Past Midnight by Stephen King] ****/*
6. The Library Policeman [Four Past Midnight by Stephen King] **/***
7. The Sun Dog [Four Past Midnight by Stephen King] ***/**
8. The Langoliers [Four Past Midnight by Stephen King] ***/**

The next video will be along the same lines and be a mashup of the remaining six books that I read last year. Like I say at the end of the video, I promise to read more this year!

The Book Buying Ban

Weh-hey! It's a new year! Woo! Yeah! Let's call it TWENTY TWELVE guys, none of this two-thousand-and nonsense any more.

Anyways, as you can see, I've made a new video. I kind of decided, back when two-thousand-and-eleven was drawing to a close that I should try and be a little more productive when it comes to my YouTube channel... especially now-a-days when it seems as though some utter arse has been ignoring my plea to not tell anyone about it. And before you say anything, yeaaah, I know, if I don't want people to see my videos then why have them up on the INTERNET? Surely that's ridiculous right? Well, I beg to disagree. I didn't have to tell anyone but I foolishly trusted this so-called-friend to not share my secret but alas. A lesson has been learnt: no one can be trusted.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

But putting my trust issues aside, I basically had to make a choice; either recoil in embarrassment and delete my channel... or take a deep breath and carry on. I've chosen the latter. Which is interesting because this is the first video I've made since Sept.

Here's the deal. This video explains that my New Years Resolutions are to firstly STOP buying books (I'm such a slow reader and such a fast buyer) and to secondly, try and read more books than I did last year... which shouldn't be too difficult because I only managed a grand total of 14....

But what I didn't mention was my video making resolution (mainly because no one actually gives a shit if I make videos except for me yet you'll be surprised at how many people care about books no matter who is talking about them). In a nutshell, I'm hoping at least a video once a week. The rules are slightly sketchy even to me (and I'm writing them for Pete's sake!) but as today is the 6th of Jan, I have successfully managed to stick to said sketchy rules. Now I have another 7 days to produce a new video. Hopefully one without such terrible lighting but I stayed up till stupid o'clock watching the third season of Dexter. And playing The Sims on my iPad.

I neeeeed to get my priorities sorted out.

Free Cinema Tickets

After several months of leaving my YouTube account unattended, it was this video that made me think fuck it! i'm gonna make a new video!! I decided against writing a plan/script for the video and just sat in front of the camera in my PJs and just decided to talk about anything at all. This is the result. Anyways, I've got a really important video to make soon so hopefully I'll get that up and blogged about ASAP.

The Raven

Earlier today I randomly started quoting The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. I've had this version on my iPod for almost a year now and I absolutely love it. I actually haven't read much of Poe, although what I have read truly grips me.

Currently reading Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin after giving up on The Hunger Games after the second book. I will definitely read the last one (Mockingjay) at some point, I just got a little sick of Catching Fire and it took me a good two months to finish the damn thing.

In other news, my sister has moved back to the UK! After a good seven-odd years of living in far off distant lands (and this is my younger sister we're talking about!), she has decided to grace our shores once more! It's also the first of September today... which means I'm taking part in RE:LENTLESS. I'm basically torturing myself by not drinking any carbonated soft drinks for a month. Today was day one. I'm shattered. I need sleep.

Pretty Much Sick

So I'm pretty much sick. Woke up this morning with a few sniffles, nothing to write home about. Then by the time I got to work, I had started to get that horrific tickley feeling behind my eyes as I seemed to be in a perpetual state of needing to sneeze without any such bloody thing actually happening. The day dragged and all I wanted to do was go home to bed. Which I did. So my room is still a mess and I have managed to do nothing at all productive which sucks. What sucks even more is the thought that if this gets any worse, I'll have to take a day off work which I really can't afford after two holidays in one summer.

Anyways, being sick is a good enough reason as any to write a blog post. The picture is of Charlie McDonnell, aka charlieissocoollike and I just really liked it. Hope to have some videos up shortly as I now have a massive backlog of footage.

One more thing, I'm gonna pay by cheque!

Saving Eeyore

Things have been pretty hectic for me recently, a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and being a general pest to myself and others in my vicinity. However, I have finally finished moving all my crap into my new place and accidentally/on purpose managed to acquire an Eeyore stocking along the way. Be warned; this anecdote illustrates how mentally unstable I really am!

You see, I think it had something to do with the lack of caffeine. I drink a lot of coffee/energy drinks at work and on Monday, I was challenged by those at the desks around me to go one full day just drinking water. I knew it was going to be tough and I knew I was going to be cranky. By the end of the day, my mood was all over the place and I just wanted to go home to bed. The last thing I really wanted to be doing was moving the last drips and drabs of my stuff. Especially as it was "pishin it doon". I mean, it wasn't just a drizzle, it was borderline torrential.

It was as we pulled up one of the neighbouring streets to park that I saw it. Something on the road. Something that looked a little bit like a red towel. Then a pillow. Then it became clear! It was Eeyore! In the road! Abandoned and getting soaked! I can't really explain why I felt such a strong urge to "save" it because even now, I know it sounds gross. But that's what I did. I picked it up (it turned out to be an Eeyore Christmas stocking), took it home and bunged it straight into the washing machine. The photo came about due to my telling this tale at work. And then my deciding to share it with you.

I told you, this blog is ODD.