Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a wonderful christmas :)

I was lucky enough to get some awesome presents, including a typewriter!

Isn't she beautiful?? It works as well, and I've been having great fun bashing out nonsense on it. Everything seems so must more certain when it's written on a typewriter...

I also got 'Before I go to sleep', that book I've been wanting to read forever. It's just as good as I expected, couldn't put it down. A perfect mix of thriller and intriguing medical anomaly, it's about a woman with severe amnesia who wakes up each morning not knowing where she is or who is lying next to her. Captures the fear and feeling of losing yourself that such circumstances must bring.

Just been to see the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (take two: hollywood version). I have to say I enjoyed it. Of course I have my quibbles, but generally it was a really good film and most of the actors had convincing Swedish accents. Roll on the Girl who Played With Fire!

Next on my reading list: The Handmaids Tale, The Crimson Petal and the White, the last three WoT books (in preparation for the final final installment next year). Also plan to read some Steven King books. Oh and the latest True Blood book is out, so that as well. Can't wait for 2012.

Literary spots in Oxford

If you happen to be visiting this lovely place (or even be lucky enough to live there) make sure you check out the following spots:

The Alice in Wonderland shop. Yes, shop! It sells all sorts of amazing goodies and memorabilia.
You can sit on Lyra's bench (Northern Lights) and dream your way into other worlds.
If you take a walk, you can find the same lamp post that marks the way into Narnia, and a carved wooden door which gave inspiration for the title The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
Visit the Bird & Baby (real name: Eagle & Child) where great writers such as Tolkein and C.S.Lewis gathered around to talk about their books with the other 'Inklings'.
Parts of the Harry Potter films were also taken around Oxford, so keep your eyes open. For example, Hogwart's infirmary is set in the Bodleian Library (another great place to look around anyway).

I'm sure there are countless more references and literary haunts of past greats to be found in this city, and to be able to walk in their footsteps, sit where they sat, might even inspire a similar level of creative wondering.

The Hunger Games - verdict

So I read the Hunger Games. In a day. IT'S THAT GOOD.

But seriously, it really lived up to expectations. A perfect mix of adventure, and horrible-oppressed-world-of-the-future background that I find so fascinating. The books are very addictive, so much so that for a moment (just a moment) I considered staying at work so I could spend more time reading instead of taking the long (ten minute) walk home. When a story is this gripping, things like food, and moving become irrelevent compared to the necessity of just one. more. chapter.

As well as a good dose of fantasy and suspense, the Hunger Games has a great element of humanity that just tugs at your heartstrings; for Katniss's family, her friends, and all the people trapped in this terrible society.

There are only two things I find annoying about the series. One, Katniss's ignorance of what is going on around her can get tiring, especially when things are so obvious from an outsider's perspective. Yet, as I have acknowledged before, this is typical of anyone caught up in the middle of their own drama, and so only makes her more realistic. You don't like absolutely everything about any person you know, and this is true of main characters as well. We must empathise with them, we must like them, but not too much.

The other thing...I started the second book last night, and finished it about half an hour ago. I was excited to get to the end of the book, not only because I was so desperate to find out what happened, but also because I was looking forward to taking a break, and being able to do something other than read Suzanne Collins stupidly brilliant series. Just as I thought it was possible, the last sentences set the next book up perfectly and have me dying to know what it means, what's going to happen next and how it will all end.

I think I'm addicted.

Started writing again

My book that is. I never really realised that it would be so much fun. Perhaps I never expected it to be because some people do this for a living and work is not meant to be one of your favourite things. Or in an ideal world it is of course, but thats not reality. But I love writing, and I love books, so maybe my surprise was unfounded. Anyway, its fantastic! Developing characters means I can dissect the personalities of all the people I've met, mixing and matching characteristics, as well as my own, to create brand new people. Its kind of like the Sims, and I think treating it more like a game than something too serious could help ease any regimentalised pressure to write a certain amount of words each day or anything like that.

Additionally, that rush of excitement you get whenever you read about a place or activity you recognise? That happens all the time when its your own book, because the story and setting are inspired directly from your personal experience.

Writing a book also allows you a degree of objectivity to life; a perspective thats very welcome when you are prone to get caught up in the little things. Events that happen to you, people you meet; these can all become research, as opposed to dramatic changes. Things are often easier to understand, and accept, if you are not directly in the middle of things all the time.