Book Quote of the Day

“A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”

— Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

I’ve never read it. I am an English student. Don’t judge me.

Cover of Lord of the Flies, Educational Edition

Sometimes i find myself feeling really thick in terms of my literary education. Especially while watching BBC 2′s “University Challenge”. I don’t understand how people of the same age as me can know SO MUCH!

They can just easily answer a question about Jane Austen, or T.S. Elliot, and i’m like, i probably knew that but only after the answer has been produced do i actually remember it!

I feel very stupid when it comes to questions about classic novels and authors and my parents look at me expecting me to know the answer. If i don’t know the answer (more often than not), i just think “i should know that” or “i spent 3 years getting into all that student debt and i don’t even know the answer to that question which should be easy for a graduate of literature and language”. Oh dear.

I also feel bad when people discuss certain typical school English lesson novels which everyone learns about, which i haven’t! Ok, so at school i did a lot of Shakespeare, like Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, etc. However, I didn’t do Hamlet, Twelfth Night or some of the others. I did A Catcher in the Rye and Wuthering Heights, but i didn’t do Of Mice and Men, or To kill a Mockingbird, or Lord of the Flies. Of course, i know it’s not possible to study them all at school or university but i could have at least read them in my spare time maybe?

I’m afraid i generally prefer the more contemporary and modern novels. A bit of sci-fi, a tiny bit of chick lit, a large dose of fantasy, and a bit of thriller and crime. I also like to try out a bit of translated fiction. But in order to be a “proper” English student, i feel i should be more acquainted with the classics, the essential backbone of literature.

I therefore plan to read a lot more classics. I also want to read more into the critical and analytical side of literature and these authors. I have a few such books in my possession from university and yet i haven’t read all of them. The main problem is that many of those textbooks are not cheap. But since getting a Kindle, it brings a new way to get hold of these books, and sometimes at a cheaper price.

I need to read more Dickens, having only read a few of his shorter works or bits and pieces of the longer ones. I intend to read A Christmas Carol soon as i’ve only really watched the film versions. I will also attempt to read the rest of Jane Austen’s novels, as i borrowed my mum’s anthology of her works and have currently read Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Pride and Prejudice, and i would like to read the others.

Then there is a huge list of others i would like to read, and a bunch i want to re-read! Just so little time and too many books on the list!

Do you have anything you feel you ought to read? Do you feel like there is something you have missed out on?

My Book Status – July 2012

1. The last book I’ve read is … “Zeina” by Nawal el Saadawi

2. The book(s) I’m currently reading… “H10N1″ by M.R. Cornelius, and “The Queen’s English” by Bernard C. Lamb

3. The last bestseller I’ve read is… “Fifty Shades of Grey” by E. L. James

4. The last book I’ve bought/received is… “Starcrossed: Dreamless” by Josephine Angelini (ebook)

5. The book(s) I’ll be buying soon is/are… “Moranthology” by Caitlin Moran

6. My favorite children’s book is … “The Valley of Adventure” by Enid Blyton

7. My favorite Shakespeare piece is… “Romeo and Juliet”

8. Best period of literature: … The Victorian era

9. Emily Brönte or Jane Austen?… Jane Austen

10. My favorite poet(s) is/are… Gerard Manley Hopkins

11. My favorite literature character is… Cassandra Mortmain from “I Capture the Castle” by Dodie Smith

12. A book I could reread a thousand times is… The Harry Potter series!

13. A book I hated is… Never really hated a book, it’s more the characters!

14. If my life were a book, it would be… “Little Women” by Lousia May Alcott

15. My ritual when reading a book is… find a quiet corner and read it

16. Best places to buy books: Waterstones and Amazon.

17. The language(s) I read most of my books is… English.

18. Do you write? If so, what?: Occasionally, mainly poems, but sometimes stories.

19. Recommend a book: “Replica” by Lexi Revellian

Book quote of the day

“A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment.”

- Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Book quote of the day

“Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken.” 
― Jane Austen, Emma

Book quote of the day

“It was badly done, indeed! You, whom she had known from an infant, whom she had seen grow up from a period when her notice was an honour, to have you now, in thoughtless spirits, and the pride of the moment, laugh at her, humble her–and before her niece, too–and before others, many of whom (certainly some,) would be entirely guided by your treatment of her.–This is not pleasant to you, Emma–and it is very far from pleasant to me; but I must, I will,–I will tell you truths while I can.”

- Mr Knightley, “Emma” by Jane Austen

Book Review: Sense and Sensibility

Image via Wikipedia

I have finally finished reading “Sense and Sensibility” by Jane Austen, having spent the last 9 days trying to get through it.

I discovered that my mum has the complete collection of Jane Austen’s works so i decided, because i have only read “Pride and Prejudice” (and that was a while ago and i know it better from seeing the Keira Knightley film version), that i would attempt to read all her books, starting with “Sense and Sensibility”.

I wasn’t sure whether i could write a book review on Jane Austen’s works as it’s a classic and you can’t say much more about it that people don’t already know, so i thought i would just share my thoughts on reading it (a warning for those of you who haven’t read it, there are spoilers!):

1) I wanted to shake Marianne at times because she is just so young and foolish, and not refine and controlled like her sister Elinor.

2) Willoughby? What a plonker!

3) The whole Edward-is-engaged-to-one-woman-and-is-disowned-by-everyone-and-then-suddenly-is-no-longer-supposedly-married-to-her-and-is-now-free-to-marry-Elinor thing just seems a little ridiculous: i was convinced that Edward was off the market for good and that Elinor was going to end up alone or with someone else as it was only in the penultimate chapter that everything suddenly changed. It’s like Austen decided to give Elinor a second chance and killed off Edward’s seemingly concrete prior engagement to someone he seemed to love for someone he didn’t seem to love. Very confusing.

4) I thought Elinor would end up with Colonel Brandon, not her sister.

5) Having not read a novel with this sort of old-language and grammar for a good few years, it was difficult to get my head back into reading it, but it was oddly refreshing to read something so different to modern novels, proof of its status as a classic.

6) It makes you think just how different today’s society is to that in the book, with the women being all elegant, prim, and proper, and how the things they consider immoral are almost commonplace and widely acceptable in our own society. Maybe the world would be a better place if we had the threat of being disinherited and ostracised by the rest of society if we committed these “crimes”?

7) After literally forcing myself to read it (and having little else to do while my internet was playing up this afternoon), i am glad i can say i read it, but i doubt i would read it again because it really isn’t my thing at all!

That said, i’m still going to read the rest of Austen’s novels, although maybe not in quick succession as this one took so much effort to focus on it!

Can i give it a mark out of 10? Because its a classic, i can’t, although it is well written and it has some unexpected twists in the plot, it did my head in a bit because its not really my genre of book!

New Year’s Resolutions (or, I’ll Have Forgotten These By February)

New Year’s Resolutions.

Where do you begin?

As everyone else seems to have blogged about theirs, i thought i would share mine with you! (Even though its 9th January already!)

I was ambitious last year and wrote about 15 of them on my list! Needless to say i managed to fulfill just 2 of them! I have the usual ones on this year: Get fitter, eat less junk and so on.

But i figured i needed a special list dedicated to my bookish side, especially as i write this blog. So here’s the list:

• Read more books – Last year i managed 27 books, so the target is for  2012 is now 50!
• Blog a little more frequently – Couldn’t help it last year as i was studying and working all the time, but now i have more time to blog!
• Try to read more classics – Read more Shakespeare, Jane Austen, etc
• Try to actually finish one of the few stories i write – I do actually do a little writing when i feel like it (or rather when ideas pop into my head), but i rarely finish any of them.

So there you go, my resolutions!

Hardly original, but i guess these are more reasonable than expecting myself to go to the gym instead of being sat on my bum reading all the time!