New books, dragons, bones and more...

Today has been a slow reading day. Well everyday lately has been. I think its all down the fact that I've chosen a book jam-packed with very very very detailed text to begin the new year and the fact that studying texts for essays and exams have completely made me almost (I said almost!) hate reading right now. I love reading, there is nothing better, and I do enjoy studying texts to a point but when you have to study a text that you really don't like, that is something that you are so not interested in, it really takes the fun out of it all! Like I studied Charles Dickens and Virginia Woolf (who is also creeping into my syllabus this term grrr!) over and over for weeks and they are really not my style of book. On the other hand I studied Chaucer, Marie de France for my medieval module which I enjoy lotslotslots. As much as I love university it does really dampen the spirit of reading. Oh, and I had my reading list for this term. Joy. NOT. My compulsory modules this term are Modernism and Modernity (bore.snore) and Medieval Encounters (hmmm I likey). My lists consists of: Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness; Virgnia Woolf, To the Lighthouse; James Joyce, Ulysses; T.S Eliot, The Waste Land (can I get a big groan pleaaaase?!) but some more Chaucer popping up in my Medieval lectures yay but other than that this will be me all over when I start lectures in a few weeks time:

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Enough moaning for now (!) and on to more upbeat comments about books, reading and all that jazz. I found three great reads in my local charity shop today (yay,yay,yay). My grandma who volunteers there treated me to them (even bigger YAY) and they have now been added to my veryveryvery long list of books that really need to be read in this lifetime. This list is only going to grow bigger and I'm not suprised if I only read a third of these in my life. So much to read, and so little time! Anywhoo, here are the product descriptions found on goodreads;

Madame Tussaud - Michelle Moran

When Marie moves from her family's waxwork museum into the palace of Versailles, her whole life is set to change...When Marie Tussaud learns the exciting news the royal family will be visiting her famed wax museum, the Salon de Cire, she never dreams that the king's sister will request her presence at Versailles: as a royal tutor in wax sculpting. As Marie familiarizes herself with Princess Elisabeth and begins to know Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, she witnesses the glamorous life of court, a very different world from her home on the Boulevard du Temple of Paris where bread can only be had on the black market and men sell their teeth to put food on the their tables. The year is 1788 and men like Desmoulins, Marat, and Robespierre are meeting in the salons of Paris speaking against the monarchy; there's whispered talk of revolution. Spanning five years from budding revolution to the Reign of Terror, Madame Tussaud brings us into the world of an incredible heroine whose talent for wax moulding saved her life and preserved the faces of a vanished kingdom.

The Red Queen - Philipa Gregory

The second book in Philippa's stunning new trilogy, The Cousins War, brings to life the story of Margaret Beaufort, a shadowy and mysterious character in the first book of the series - The White Queen - but who now takes centre stage in the bitter struggle of The War of the Roses. The Red Queen tells the story of the child-bride of Edmund Tudor, who, although widowed in her early teens, uses her determination of character and wily plotting to infiltrate the house of York under the guise of loyal friend and servant, undermine the support for Richard III and ultimately ensure that her only son, Henry Tudor, triumphs as King of England. Through collaboration with the dowager Queen Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret agrees a betrothal between Henry and Elizabeth's daughter, thereby uniting the families and resolving the Cousins War once and for all by founding of the Tudor dynasty.

 Sourcery: A Discworld Novel - Terry Pratchett

There was an eighth son of an eighth son. He was, quite naturally, a wizard. And there it should have ended. However (for reasons we'd better not go into), he had seven sons. And then he had an eighth son... a wizard squared...a source of magic...a Sourcerer.

SOURCERY SEES THE RETURN OF RINCEWIND AND THE LUGGAGE AS THE DISCWORLD FACES ITS GREATEST - AND FUNNIEST - CHALLENGE YET.

What do you think? Well worth adding to the TBR pile? They will both do great for my 2012 Reading Challenges that I'm participating in and I've only ever read the Hogfather by Terry Pratchett so far and for someone who loves adventure and fantasy novels I think I'd better dive right in! I loved Michelle Moran's novels Cleopatra's Daughter and Nefertiti; the past was really brought to life, so detailed and the characters so believable and real. I'm not really into history after a certain point (the tudor/stuart age) so not quite sure what I'll make of one set in the French Revolution, but we'll see, we'll see. Reviews to come on everything I read (I feel that they're even worth typing about!).

Other than spending the day pulling books off the shelves to inspect if they're worth buying, I slayed a few dragons (like you do!), spent the day journeying around the land, questing and mingling with the natives. Obviously this isn't an everyday occurence in my little town, but many hours and hours spent playing on the game Skyrim. Yes. It's true. I am a ps3 geeeeek. It is my baby. I love it. And I love Skyrim. The perfect game for someone like me who wishes they could escape to some imaginary world like Middle Earth. So I've literally spent 6 hours (oh, what a geek I am) playing this game. Hell, I've spent weeks and weeks studying for stupid exams and writing boring essays so I think wasting my time on this is a preeeetty good pastime. When my swordarm started to tire and I felt that a good rest was needed before any more slaying of dragons, I hopped into bed and watched a few episodes of the tv series Bones. My lovely boyfriend bought me the complete boxset (series 1-6) for Christmas and I loooove it. So does Lottie, my spider monkey of a kitten:

She actually sat like this for ages, her head bobbing back and for as she watched. She is insane. So not a kitten, like I said a spider monkey. Anyway, I love Bones. I find CSI just a bit to flash for me. I prefer witty, funny series like Bones and NCIS (the original!) and Greys Anatomy (sososo funny) and all the characters are so greatly potrayed that you so empathise with them. 

Right I think I've babbled enough for now, still not quite sure what to write but I'm sure once I get into the swing of things reading wise I'll have plenty to say :) Becca x