Les Misérables (Penguin Classics Edition) – Victor Hugo

I am really sorry about the lack of posts recently (or for half a year) but this blog will probably be updated every two weeks from now on.

Let’s get down to the review.

A Game of Thrones – George R R Martin

A Game of Thrones – George R R Martin

After Snuff, I moved onto slightly less comic fantasy, and this was the other book I bought. I’d read about the TV series and the books on Tumblr, and so I decided to read the first one.

Snuff – Terry Pratchett

Snuff – Terry Pratchett

I bought a copy of this book a few days ago. I enjoy reading Terry Pratchett for both his humour and some of the issues he addresses, and this one in particular is good.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Part One

I had work experience at the town library recently, just over a week ago, and at the end of it, renewed my library card and borrowed two books which had intrigued me. The first was Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and the second was Unseen Academicals, one by Susanna Clarke, and the other by Terry Pratchett.

Rather than reading the Terry Pratchett first, as I was often thinking of doing, as he represents an author who I’m more familiar with, i.e. read his work, I went for the bigger and unknown variable in my reading; Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.

The book is split into three volumes, and written in the style of Victorian novels, and details the story of two magicians, in order of appearance, Mr Norrell and Jonathan Strange. Each magician has one novel, and the last is the climax of the book and the story of a rivalry between them which leads to more sorts of magic than they can fathom.

The premise of the story is that magic already exists in England, and has done so for a number of years – the only difference is that it is close to dying out and there is a difference between magic in theory and magic in practice. Many who call themselves magicians only are versed in the theory, but do not practice, as they believe it is not a form of respectable behaviour.

A review of the book shall come soon, but I decided to show some thoughts on the main characters, the first of which will be Mr Norrell.

Any recommendations?

This is a blog about, out of some things, reading, and I think maybe there should be more input on which books I choose : are there any reading options you would like me to choose?

Notice: or system restart

I have an announcement to make: from now, this blog will be mainly about books, anime/manga, and music. There will also be attempts to interview, and also writing about problems which concern me.

 Wait, I hear you say. Isn’t this what this blog was about already?

Yes, but now it will be more structured, and I will try and write at least once a week, or have a rota. On certain days, you will get books, on another day, other topics, so I can keep the material fresh. Most of my school life is on here, so I’ll lessen it. Before I completely change this, although, there is a comment I would like to make about it.

 The school has raised the printing prices, and anybody who follows my blog (one), will know how annoying it is. It costs 9.7 pence to print in black and white, and 14, I think, for colour. Printing credit expense flows like a river downstream, finishing in a sea of “not able to print.”

 Maybe in the future, they’ll ponder decreasing the price.

Private Eye, or, hoping that I’ve managed not to break an injunction

In conjunction with the post I made about writing, I thought I would also make another, more serious one, which I thought would be of interest, if only to a few. So far, there have been anonymous witnesses to my cries of outrage on internet bills and lessons and the brief vent about Spanish.

It’s often said that blogs should be about what people find interesting, but there are so many things, it’s hard to do one. In an interview with a prospective student looking forward to entering investigative journalism, Samira Ahmed, previously of Channel 4 News said that one of the worries about blogging regarding journalism, which is one of the jobs I’m interested in (writing is a thing which I enjoy), was that it does not pay, and in a sense that is true.

Books, trying to write them, and having a plan

The third blog post, and I’m sorry if the first two seemed like a rant (they were) but it was sort of cathartic. You’ll probably only get those occasionally, and so today I thought I’d talk about what happened since that last unhappy post.

I’m writing this post partially for a friend, who wasn’t feeling in spirits earlier, and I decided to choose a topic I like and I think she’d enjoy.

When I first started to try and write a book, a few years ago, I’d been under the impression that authors just started typing and came up with the story as they went along. I’d never been so wrong (touch wood); the book is the product of a watertight plan. Then I learned about other things which happen, such as character development, and movement of the story, and if you were to read my first attempt, bordering on around sixty pages, it would be an extremely big ramble. The main character was an eleven year old boy who went on a quest to find the “*********,” or translated as, the secret unknown.

There was a cousin, a sister, two enigmatic people to help him and plenty of kidnapping and betrayal, coupled with a slight hint of magic. The problem was, there were too many characters and not enough of a storyline. There was romance, and there was the magical power of friends, but what I found was difficult was the onset of this. I was inspired mostly by Doctor Who. The plot never moved forward, and I never managed to finish it.

Now, I have a plan, and it may be too long, but I’m going to write it, and see what happens. The characters aren’t two dimensional, the people aren’t just props, and I have people above the age of fifteen in it, which I think is an achievement. When I was younger, I tended to write people my age.

In November, I take part in the NaNoWriMo, I never complete it, but I do know where I’m going, and I hope it’s good. Maybe I’ll post some of it on the blog.

Spanish

I’m currently working on my Spanish controlled assessment, and there is only one quetion: why is it so hard to match up the words?

Then again, Spanish isn’t exactly the best subject for me.

Latin, exams, but mainly Latin

Prussia, from Hetalia. Near to Italy, and makes things awesome.

Fun Fact 1: I was called socially awkward. Apparently socially awkward people set up blogs. I really think that’s the first time I’ve been called that. It’s not insulting or anything, but it amuses me.