Hiya,
So here I was about to dive back in to Wicked by Gregory Maguire, and the other half only hands me a copy of Oscar nominated "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close". So that will be your next review...and if you are really dying to find out what Wicked is like, don't wait for me to tell you, go out and read it.
Wont be long for EL&IC.
:-) xx
Procrastination of the Intellectual Kind...
“If you can read this, thank a teacher.” |
|
Tuesday 6 March 2012
Thursday 23 February 2012
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings....
It was 2001, I had just gone in to 2nd year at high school and we were given a new teacher. A great teacher, she made me want to read, made me want to learn, made me sure that English really was my favourite subject. She also made me realise what rules are sometimes ridiculous and really are made to be broken. This amazing woman wanted to teach us about a book called "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" the first part in the memoirs of an awe inspiring women. She was told no and, I quote "because it contains a very graphic rape scenario." Now whilst the book does contain said scenario, it is no more graphic than what we see on TV or the internet and I felt this was a gross failing by the powers that be at *** Academy.
So in retaliation I went out and I read and re-read and then re-read it again and again.
This book is amazing. Purely and utterly amazing. It's well written and so personal you can't help but feeling everything our author describes.
I am a white, modern woman from a big city yet I felt myself living this tale of a young black girl, growing up in adversity, in the middle of nowhere.
Maya Angelou makes you feel her pain, makes you imagine what it was like being her, and makes you want to know more. Whilst I know that Ms Angelou survived her upbringing and went on to receive the highest award possible for a civilian in the United States, became a professor at a top university and even read one of her poems at Bill Clinton's 1993 Inauguration, you still find yourself lost in her story and hoping and pleading that everything turns out okay.
This book is the first of six autobiographical memoirs by the great lady, and is definitely not to be missed.
Read it for all the times you were told you weren't allowed to do something, read it for the story of a survivor, read it for enjoyment, read it for all the times you've felt caged, read it for any reason.
The most important thing is that you read it.
So in retaliation I went out and I read and re-read and then re-read it again and again.
I am a white, modern woman from a big city yet I felt myself living this tale of a young black girl, growing up in adversity, in the middle of nowhere.
Maya Angelou makes you feel her pain, makes you imagine what it was like being her, and makes you want to know more. Whilst I know that Ms Angelou survived her upbringing and went on to receive the highest award possible for a civilian in the United States, became a professor at a top university and even read one of her poems at Bill Clinton's 1993 Inauguration, you still find yourself lost in her story and hoping and pleading that everything turns out okay.
This book is the first of six autobiographical memoirs by the great lady, and is definitely not to be missed.
Read it for all the times you were told you weren't allowed to do something, read it for the story of a survivor, read it for enjoyment, read it for all the times you've felt caged, read it for any reason.
The most important thing is that you read it.
Saturday 19 November 2011
The List # 1
Ahh the O.C.D sufferer, in me, does love a list. So in true pandering style here comes the first "What I'm reading this week," list:
1. Wicked- Gregory Maguire
2. Seeker- Cate Tiernan
3. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings-Maya Angelou
Taking it easy this week as I have a boat-load of coursework to do.:-(
Obviously that being said I will be reading these over the course of the week and if I finish them I'll pop the reviews up as soon as I can.
Happy Reading
Aj x
1. Wicked- Gregory Maguire
2. Seeker- Cate Tiernan
3. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings-Maya Angelou
Taking it easy this week as I have a boat-load of coursework to do.:-(
Obviously that being said I will be reading these over the course of the week and if I finish them I'll pop the reviews up as soon as I can.
Happy Reading
Aj x
The Plan
So I couldn't really decide how I should structure this; should I write a list of books that I will be reading and reviewing and the stick to it, or should I just pop up with a review of whatever takes my fancy at any one time?
The O.C.D side of me, loves the thought of the list but the reader in me is screaming "there should be no structure to your reading!!!" (wow apologies for the exclamation mark overload there but I feel they were the only way to get across how angry the reader is.) Anyway I digress and of course admit that the reader is right and the thought of having to stick to a set list of books fills me with dread. I will however post a weekly list of what I happen to be reading at that time, just so you know what to expect.
I should probably add a disclaimer to the blog as well....I read TRASH. Not just trash, I'd like to point out, but there is a lot of trash on my book shelf. DESPITE this at least I'm reading. I promise you that I will also be reviewing the Classics, biographies and autobiographies, memoirs, non-fiction and the like but I will not be giving up my fluff for anybody.
The first list will be going up right after this :-)
The first list will be going up right after this :-)
Aj x
Thursday 10 November 2011
Welcome.
Hi there, my name is Amanda-Jaied and I love to read.
I'm not talking magazines, letters, billboards and cereal packets here...I 'm talking full on books. Nice, papery, musty smelling, spine-cracking, absorbing books.
It doesn't even, really matter what genre, be they Chick-Lit, Horror, True Crime, Thriller, Romance, Autobiography, Memoirs, Classics; i'll have them all.
I love the feeling you get when you first open a book, the smell that hits you, the feel of the paper beneath my fingers, the sound the pages make when you turn them. (death to the Kindle and E-reader IMHO). I love walking in to a store and running my fingers along shelfs-upon-shelfs of undiscovered titles, discovering and re-discovering stories that really mean something to me.
I have been reading books since I was knee high to a grashopper (some will say that wasn't that long ago but ignore them) the point is I can't even remember when I started or what the first book I read was, simply because it was so long ago. As a child I was like little Matilda, piles of books from the library were always strewn across my bed, I made my mum sign up for countless book clubs, so I could get a new book every month. When we went shopping I didn't pout and stamp my feet because they wouldn't buy me sweets, no I wanted more books. I would read everything and anything you put in front of me; from "Biff and Chip" to "So We're Going to Have a Baby"-a very enlightening read for a 9 year old!!!
My genre of books has steadied itself out a bit now and thankfully, grown up a little bit too. I will still pretty much read anything but I have found a style I'm not a great fan of and that's True War and SAS type stuff, that my boyfriend seems to devour. I don't know why I don't enjoy them but I guess there had to be something, eventually.
The point of this blog is that, I recently discovered that many of my friends don't read. They can't remember what the last book they read was and some even reckon it was "something boring they were forced to read at school". This saddens me and a quick google search of 'why aren't people reading anymore' wields the views of many others that agree with me. I don't know if it's because, in this technology driven world which we live in there is just so many more exciting(?) things to do or if people have just forgotten, how to imagine.
A good book can take you further than any movie, using your own imagination and the words of an amazing (or sometimes even mediocre) writer, you can create worlds, people, situations and emotions that last alot longer than the 120minutes of a standard run time movie. A book can make you laugh, cry, hang your head in despair, get angry, cheer up, whatever feeling you want to feel, pick the right book and you can feel it.
Im going to show you some of my favourite books, over the next few months, i'll review them and I highly suggest you read them, or even just read more in general, it wont hurt to try.
Thanks for Reading
Amanda-jaied
I'm not talking magazines, letters, billboards and cereal packets here...I 'm talking full on books. Nice, papery, musty smelling, spine-cracking, absorbing books.
It doesn't even, really matter what genre, be they Chick-Lit, Horror, True Crime, Thriller, Romance, Autobiography, Memoirs, Classics; i'll have them all.
I love the feeling you get when you first open a book, the smell that hits you, the feel of the paper beneath my fingers, the sound the pages make when you turn them. (death to the Kindle and E-reader IMHO). I love walking in to a store and running my fingers along shelfs-upon-shelfs of undiscovered titles, discovering and re-discovering stories that really mean something to me.
I have been reading books since I was knee high to a grashopper (some will say that wasn't that long ago but ignore them) the point is I can't even remember when I started or what the first book I read was, simply because it was so long ago. As a child I was like little Matilda, piles of books from the library were always strewn across my bed, I made my mum sign up for countless book clubs, so I could get a new book every month. When we went shopping I didn't pout and stamp my feet because they wouldn't buy me sweets, no I wanted more books. I would read everything and anything you put in front of me; from "Biff and Chip" to "So We're Going to Have a Baby"-a very enlightening read for a 9 year old!!!
My genre of books has steadied itself out a bit now and thankfully, grown up a little bit too. I will still pretty much read anything but I have found a style I'm not a great fan of and that's True War and SAS type stuff, that my boyfriend seems to devour. I don't know why I don't enjoy them but I guess there had to be something, eventually.
The point of this blog is that, I recently discovered that many of my friends don't read. They can't remember what the last book they read was and some even reckon it was "something boring they were forced to read at school". This saddens me and a quick google search of 'why aren't people reading anymore' wields the views of many others that agree with me. I don't know if it's because, in this technology driven world which we live in there is just so many more exciting(?) things to do or if people have just forgotten, how to imagine.
A good book can take you further than any movie, using your own imagination and the words of an amazing (or sometimes even mediocre) writer, you can create worlds, people, situations and emotions that last alot longer than the 120minutes of a standard run time movie. A book can make you laugh, cry, hang your head in despair, get angry, cheer up, whatever feeling you want to feel, pick the right book and you can feel it.
Im going to show you some of my favourite books, over the next few months, i'll review them and I highly suggest you read them, or even just read more in general, it wont hurt to try.
Thanks for Reading
Amanda-jaied
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