Hey guys! So I've had a bit of a stressful time lately, and I've been super busy, so this month there are no photos to go with my wrap up video, sorry guys! This month I read a large amount of books AGAIN so the video is kind of long, and there's a tonne of mini reviews in it for each of the books I talk about! All of the full, written reviews are up on my blog if you wanna know more about the books or see more of what I thought about them! My video about my thoughts on Pride and Prejudice is up on my YouTube channel as well! All the links that you'd need for the books are on the video as are the links to my other social media! Let me know what you read in January, down in the comments!
Hey guys! The month is nearly over, I've read my classic for the month and it's time to tell you guys aaaalll about it! I wasn't quite sure how to do this, but I'm thinking I'll do it this way, I'll answer the questions here, and then in my videos I'll tell you what I thought of the book! That way the video's aren't really long and there's less of me babbling! This month's video had some technical difficulties, so there's no actual sign off because I didn't realise it hadn't gotten that bit, so sorry guys! It's not me being rude! ANYWAY, let's get started! So this month I picked Pride and Prejudice to read, in case it's not already obvious or known! I actually had a lot to say about it and had a fair few notes, but that's all in the video that I'll link down below!
1. When did I discover this classic?
I've been trying to think back to the exact point when I discovered this classic but I really am struggling! We never did any Austen books in school it was Jane Eyre and a lot of Shakespeare with some Of Mice and Men thrown in! I think around about some time when I was in Secondary School, is the answer! It's kind of hard not to discover Pride and Prejudice to be honest with all the adaptions of it floating about and all the merchandise to go with it, especially on Tumblr! I already knew about it but Tumblr just made me more and more interested in it!
2. Why I chose to read it.
Easy. Everyone raves about it and it's one of the classics that I consider to be one of the big, main classics along with Wuthering Heights and Little Women and so on. Not to mention the bits of the film that I had seen intrigued me and I had a feeling I'd like the book because ya know...romance. It's also technically historical these days as well! I've been wanting to read it for ages to be honest, I've not read that many Classics on my own just Dracula and Secret Garden and a couple of others, and seeing as P&P is a main classic, I'm kind of ashamed I haven't read it! I also have loads of different editions of it, because I can't resist pretty books, and I collect certain editions and my logic is that ya know...I'm gonna read it eventually, and I know I'm going to love it so why not?!
3. What makes it a classic?
I'm probably the last person who should be saying what makes a classic a classic seeing as I haven't read any! I mean, the fact people are still reading it and loving it makes it a classic I guess? Although I think the correct answer is the language of the book, and the romance. Also the setting, a lot of readers love this particular period of time, and it's a romance set in that time. It's a good romance and it's a great glimpse in to the time period and what things where like. I really suck at answering these questions!
4. Will it stay a classic?
I can't really say, things are always changing. I would think that it would because people are still just as interested in it whether it's in book form or film form. I've seen a lot of teenagers on Tumblr who love the book as well so it's not just older generations loving the book either! I think all the film adaptions that are out there will also help it to stay a classic, because you know...a lot of the time people are more likely to watch a book adaption, and a lot of the time someone might watch an adaption and then go and read the book! Not that like..just watching the adaption is a bad thing, it's also keeping P&P as a classic! I think people will always be interested in the time period, it's one that people romanticise a lot and it being a book written at the time, it's authentic in it's language. I think there's something about the language and the etiquette of the time and how things where that interest people, and that people enjoy.
I'm going in to essay territory here! But I also think that the romance is one that can stand the test of time, not to mention the characters! Elizabeth and Darcy are classic characters and you often find characters in modern day books that have aspects of them, or are very, very like them! Everyone loves a romance though, let's be honest!
5. Who would I recommend it to?
For a start, I'd recommend it to people who read a lot, like nothing against people that don't read all that much, but the writing and the language is such that I don't think a casual reader would get on with it, or they would struggle. BUT then on the flip side....it might get a casual reader reading more. So there's that. I'd definitely recommend it to Teens and up, because I think more teens should read the classics. I mean....I regret never picking up all that many classics. I didn't read classics when I was a teen, Dracula and stuff I read when I was younger, I actually got given a copy of Anne of Green Gables by a teacher in primary. But when you're at school reading classics is always a chore a lot of the time, I was lucky because I actually liked Jane Eyre and Of Mice and Men, but being forced to read the set ones at school can put people off, so I think teens should just pick a classic they like the sound of and give it a go! It's great for the vocabulary as well! This sounds really preachy, my bad!
So there you have it! I kinda feel like I'm doing an English Essay and I such at academic things like that so it's rambly and probably all wrong but I tried! I'll do better for February I promise!
Speaking of February....my February classic is going to be *drum roll* Wuthering Heights!
I'm assuming most people guessed seeing as it was my second choice for January, I was hoping to actually read Sense and Sensibility in January because I fancied it after seeing some of the film, but I didn't have time! I have this feeling like I'm going to end up binge reading classics at some point! But yes....Feb's book is Wuthering Heights! No idea what to read for March (which is my birthday month yaaaay!) so any suggestions are welcome! I'll probably do a Twitter people because I suck at being decisive!
Let me know what your classic for the month was as well hitting me with your suggestions! Check out what I thought of the book in the video below!
Happy New Year guys! I hope you had a wonderful New Years and didn't suffer too badly from the aftermath! I actually managed to complete my December TBR, which is kind of a miracle to be honest! This is probably ambitious because there's 4 books not actually pictured, and one books freaking giant! Let me know your TBR's down in the comments, and click the video to hear some more about the books!
Trying out a new background for these, a background that's waaaayy easier to take photos on!
Hey guys! Doing something a bit different today in a bid to make my blog more interesting and less all about the reviews! So here we have a book haul! Perhaps I should have done this as a youtube video, I have been debating doing some vlogs, but being an actor is weird. You see, when I'm actually acting, I'm all about the camera and I don't really care because I'm someone else entirely. But when I'm not acting and I have a camera shoved in my face you wouldn't believe how socially awkward I am and babbly and strange, so perhaps not. Perhaps I should stick to typing! I fear I might be not what everyone is expecting if they where to see me in a video compared to myself on here! We shall see!
Anyways, as some of my Twitter followers may know, myself and my dad complete an ambitious project a few weeks ago. My excitement for the project was dimmed as we had my Grandfathers funeral smack in the middle and family brings a lot of issues for me. But nevertheless we finished said project. I have many books. Many, many books. I had one bookshelf from Ikea that I had to share with DVDs and so my books where stacked on the floor, everywhere. I moved them all so that they where stacked up agains the wall, but the slightest movement and they'd tumble to the floor. The my dad had an idea. An entire wall full of bookshelves. So one day in June, we went to buy the wood, and the very next day we started to create them. Now I have, literally, an entire wall of handmade bookshelves with some littler shelves on my other wall that I reserve for classics and my history books. I thought I was pretty genius in my arranging of my shelves, I have two that are TBR you see, and the rest in this particular half are all fancy books. The other half is all the books I have read and they're all arranged in their little groups. Once I had gone through and decided which books I needed to get rid of because I wouldn't read them again.....I noticed gaps. Some gaps can be filled when next books in series are released or more books from the author are finally released. Other gaps need to be filled.
And thus we come to my book haul because what better excuse to buy more books than gappy shelves. Me being me, I opted to buy pretty books this time round, seeing as you know....giantly huge TBR that keeps getting forgotten about as I keep getting review books to read instead!
Penguin Drop Caps Classics are completely gorgeous and I've been eyeing them up for a while. Despite the fact that I have 3 editions of Pride and Prejudice already....how could I not get the A in the Drop Caps series!? As for Five Children and It, shockingly I have seen the film but I haven't actually read the book so I will rectify that!
Penguin English Library are my favourite classics to buy. The spines aren't the prettiest but the covers certainly are. You can have a pretty classic book, that you're not afraid to read. They're also quite a bit cheaper than the fancy yet very pretty editions. I opted for two that I'm missing from my collection. I don't actually have many of these, it's a collection in progress, I haven't actually read The Monk either, and let's pretend I don't already have two editions of Sense and Sensibility shall we?
The pretending needs to continue for the next book in my haul. This time we're pretending that I don't already have 4 editions of this particular book. Now 5 I suppose. Two of which are just different paperbacks. I may or may not be after a sixth but shhhhhh. The Hobbit is one of my favourite books to be fair and how could I not get the anniversary edition!?
Last but not least we have a book that I read when I was decidedly younger and enjoyed a ridiculous amount. I seriously was so obsessed with Eragon and dragons at one point. I'm just sad they haven't done the other books in the series like this....all leather-bound and gold and pretty. Seriously, I have such a thing for pretty books, if it's pretty, I will buy it. I just couldn't not get this version of the book. Which is my excuse for everything. "I couldn't just not get it" which is a pretty flimsy excuse and gets me a lot of eye rolls and everything but everyone should know by now that I have SUCH A WEAKNESS FOR PRETTY BOOKS. So yeah. No excuse. I had gappy shelves and I wanted pretty books. Hello pretty books! I've linked to the buy pages via the titles so you can grab them if you fancy them.
