Books Baby!

Yo yo yiggidy yo cyber tappers. Let's just ignore the fact that I haven't posted in a while cos you know, that's just what I do.

Now I can go on and on about how busy I've been and all the fabulous things I've been up to but you and I both know that would just be lies, LIES!

So quick update (woohoo!), I've been forced to switch to part time work for a month thanks to glandular fever using my immune system like its play thing (cheers biatch) and I can't work more then 4 hours a day so ya'll be hearing a lot from me over the next 4 weeks - lucky you! Also, I've challenged myself to read 30 books this year, yeah it sounds like it's a lot but I read a lot, I always have and I want to have my own personal library (like that bit in Beauty and the Beast were the Beast shows Belle his awesome library and she's all like "love it" and he's all like "yeah girl", that's what I want) and you can't have a personal library with only a few books, you get me?

I've bombed through 15 already and some have been brilliant and others not so great. I thought about writing down an individual review about the first 15 books but I'm not sure how much I can be bothered to do that, instead I'll just let you know how I feel about what I've read, standard init? Here we go!

Book 1: "Rebecca", Daphne du Maurier. Really enjoyed this story, I thought it was beautifully written. *****

Book 2: "The Fifth Elephant", Terry Pratchett. Anything by Pratchett makes me happy. ****

Book 3: "The Long Earth", Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter. First of their Long Earth series, so imaginative, what a brilliant partnership. *****

Book 4: "The Long War", Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter. Not as enjoyable as the first one, more exposition then anything else. ***

Book 5: "The Turn of the Screw", Henry James. Did not enjoy this story, I get how it might have been scary when it was published and it is well written but I found it boring.**

Book 6: "The Memory Keepers Daughter", Kim Edwards. Incredibly touching. ****

Book 7: "The Alchemist", Paulo Coelho. This came at the exact time I needed it to. All about listening to what the Universe wants for you and following those omens! READ IT NOW! *****

Book 8: "Frankenstein", Mary Shelley. Yeah it's a classic and a lot of people find it amazing but I didn't. It was far too long, the point had been made long before the ending and I switched off. ***

Book 9: "On Chesil Beach", Ian McEwan. Surprisingly enjoyable, I've never read anything he's written and I'll definitely read more. ****

Book 10: "Love in the Time of Cholera", Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Another classic, I did enjoy reading it but it didn't suck me in. ****

Book 11: "The Long Mars", Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. 3rd book in the series (4th ones out in July), enjoyed the continuation of the idea but anything to do with space makes me uncomfortable, I have no idea why that is. ****

Book 12: "Lolita", Vladimir Nabokov. No. No. No.No. No. No. I don't care if it is a classic, this book made my skin crawl. NO STARS.

Book 13: "The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman. Loved this, Gaiman can't do me wrong. Such a fantastically written story. *****

Book 14: "City of Thieves", David Benioff. A great story, I always enjoy fictional stories around WW2 and this didn't disappoint. ****

Book 15: "We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves", Karen Joy Fowler. Unexpectedly delightful, I can see why it was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. ****

Phew! If you want to recommend a book that you'll think I'll enjoy then come at me bruh! I'll take any suggestion seriously and I've noted down the ones people have already sent (Fight Club anyone?). I've got a lot of time to kill and I want to read as much as I can before I have to do my PGCE reading (more on that another time, I don't think I've got the energy to write about it now), I've 6 books in the pile but I need more dammit!

So for now I'll try and get my head around this whole "relaxing" business as I find it super difficult to chill out and I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. I'll binge watch Netflix and have a few coffees - that's a start right? Oh and I won't forget to read.

Rachel Out!