I just finished Fire and Hemlock this morning and, wow, completely reminded of why I love Diana Wynne Jones so much. Plus a plot that’s essentially a retelling of Tam Lin/Thomas the Rhymer? It could have been made to appeal specifically to me, quite honestly.
Planning to do a proper review later over on my sideblog.
I did it, eventually, although it’s by no means intelligent or even that coherent!
I just finished Fire and Hemlock this morning and, wow, completely reminded of why I love Diana Wynne Jones so much. Plus a plot that’s essentially a retelling of Tam Lin/Thomas the Rhymer? It could have been made to appeal specifically to me, quite honestly.
Planning to do a proper review later over on my sideblog.
With the end of the year fast approaching, there’s always this rush to finish your goodreads challenge or a certain number of pages or any other goal you’ve set for yourself, reading wise. And I just want to tell you: breathe deeply, it’s okay if you don’t reach those goals. It’s okay if you’re one book or 50 below your challenge or if you’ve only managed to read a book or a chapter this year.
We tend to get so competitive with ourselves, with others, that we often forget that the whole point of reading is to have fun. Escape the world. Live somewhere else for a while. Find peace or meaning. It’s not a competition or a race or a struggle. It shouldn’t be stressful or anxiety inducing. And if it gets to that point, it’s okay to take a step back and reevaluate.
And always, always remember that you’ve been a reader since you read that very first page and realised “man, I love this”. And no one can take that away from you.
Something i’ve really been thinking about lately: i’m genuinely so grateful for books. For stories and writers and their wild imagination. This year has been incredibly hard, no one needs a reminder of that, and being able to escape somewhere else is beyond comforting. Sure, there are days when I’m unable to read at all, because life gets in the way, or the weight of everything that’s going on feels like too much to even be able to read one word. But there are days when I devour page after page and those are the days when I think…when I know that books have saved me.
Wuthering Heights: The food is as unappealing as the host’s personality. You find yourself fleeing the estate and taking refuge in the surrounding moorlands before the second course is served.
Great Expectations: The host wears a mildewed wedding dress as she cuts what looks to be a thirty-year-old piece of vanilla cake. You sit quietly and try to fake a smile.
Northanger Abbey: You think your host is the type of person who might have murdered his wife and hid her body in a dusty old dresser. As you take a bite of the pot roast it doesn’t even occur to you that he might just be a dick.
Jane Eyre: The fare is far better than the stale bread and bitter tea provided at your boarding school, but that’s little comfort when the host’s wife keeps setting the table linens on fire.
Dracula: You know that you are sipping on a fine Cabernet, but what is he drinking?
Pride and Prejudice: Over dessert, one of your guests confesses that he has fallen in love with you in spite of your family’s terrible table manners. You stab your pudding with your spoon and tell him he’s the last man you could ever be prevailed upon to marry.
I miss the library.
I miss the library.
I miss the library.
Exciting bookish news!
Bookshop.org - a website providing local indie bookstores with an online platform - has launched in the UK on 2nd of November, just in time for the second national lockdown. Very happy about this, I’ve been waiting for this service to reach UK ever since I heard of it!
Spread the word for your UK-based followers - I chanced upon a little note in a newspaper, there’s definitely not enough coverage for this! 📖☕