I’ve moved blogs!

For various reasons I have moved blogs! You can now find me at lettersoflydia.

On the slim chance that you’re interested in knowing why I have moved, I shall list some of the reasons here!

• Whilst I like this url I found that it was constricting me in terms of posts, as I felt that all my posts had to be about books and reading. I still plan to do posts on that topic, but I want to feel free to do other types of posts as well.
• I’ve also never really gotten into using this blog properly and it feels strange to me. I’ve got actual plans (nothing fancy!) for my new blog and sometimes I need a fresh start in order to get things moving.
• I’ve made some other changes in my life and starting a new blog feels like a good way to start afresh in other ways as well.
• It was a good method of procrastination to make a new blog.

Well, there you go, I hope you join me if you wish to!

My first post will be up tonight (unless something goes drastically wrong for some unknown reason!), but there are just a couple of posts that I liked that I’ve re-uploaded (:

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

If you wish to see my full review of this book, here’s the video.

I recently finished reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Even though I wasn’t a huge fan of this book, I was won over by Dickens’ writing. So I’ve decided to compile just a few of my favourite quotes from this book.

…but, except these things, and the shudder of the dying day in every blade of grass, there was no break in the bleak stillness of the marshes.

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlaying our hard hearts.

I should have felt that she held my heart in her hand because she willfully chose to do it, and not because it would have wrung any tenderness in her, to crush it and throw it way.”

…[the trees] own allotted places in the great procession of the dead were not far off, and they would soon drop into them and fo the silent way of the rest.

If the green and yellow growth of weed in the chinks of the old wall had been the most precious flowers that ever blew, it could not have been more cherished in my remembrance.

In a word, I saw in this, Miss Havisham as I  had her then and there before my eyes, and always had had her before my eyes; and I saw in this, the distinct shadow of the darkened and unhealthy house in which her life was hidden from the sun.

When I had lain awake a little while, those extraordinary voices with which silence teems, began to make themselves audible.

Why I had hoarded up this last wretched little rag of the robe of hope that was rent and given to the winds, how do I know!

And could I look upon her without compassion, seeing her punishment in the ruin she was, in her profound unfitness for this earth on which she was placed, in the vanity of sorrow which had become a master mania, like the vanity of penitence, the vanity of remorse, the vanity of unworthiness, and other monstrous vanities that have been curses in this world?

“The Lord of the Rings” Re-Read

I saw this boxset at work the other day and had about a five-minute internal debate as to whether or not I should buy it. It didn’t take long to convince myself to purchase it. With a bookseller’s discount, how could I resist?

I’ve never owned The Lord of the Rings myself, as I read my dad’s copies of those books. They’re amongst my favourite books of all time though, so owning them for myself was essential. And although I own The Hobbit, I don’t have a paperback version.

Purchase justified!

I just adore these covers.

Now that I own this boxset, I’ve decided to re-read this  “trilogy”. I re-read The Hobbit last year and The Lord of the Rings has been calling to me for a while now, so I’m finally giving in.

I’m going to take my time with it and I don’t care how many months it takes. I feel like The Lord of the Rings deserves to be read slowly and I just love fully immersing myself in Middle-Earth.

I’m a few chapters into The Fellowship of the Ring at the time of writing this and I’m already enjoying this re-read immensely. It just feels great to be back in Tolkien’s world again!

Book Review || Red Dragon by Thomas Harris

Date finished: 15-October-2013

Rating: ★★★

Red Dragon is the first book in the Hannibal Lecter series by Thomas Harris, and the book that first introduced the world to this fascinating and infamous cannibal. It beings with FBI agent Jack Crawford persuading Will Graham to come out of his early retirement, to help the FBI with a case involving a serial killer, nicknamed the “Tooth Fairy”, who has already murdered two families. Will reluctantly leaves Florida, where he had been settled with his wife and her son, to try to catch the “Tooth Fairy” before he kills again.

The “Tooth Fairy”, we discover before long, is a certain Francis Dolarhyde. He is a disturbed individual, and obsessed with a William Blake painting of The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun. His violent and sexual urges have caused him to commit these horrific murders, in the hopes of both appeasing and ‘becoming’ the “Great Red Dragon”, which appears to be an alternate personality.

The story is a third-person narrative told from several characters’ perspectives. I always appreciate being allowed to read different characters’ points of view, as it allows not only for a fuller picture of the story, but also for a more complete picture of each character. I am able to understand each character as a complex and real person.

The journalist, Freddy Lounds, would be entirely reviled if we only heard the story from Will’s perspective, but because of those sections from Freddy’s point of view, it is possible to understand his actions. Whilst he never became a likeable person to me, I did understand and occasionally empathise with his actions. There were even moments when Harris was able to put me in the uncomfortable position of feeling sympathy for Francis Dolarhyde in spite of his atrocious crimes. The multiple perspectives made the story more interesting, and really made me battle with my own opinions.

Now, if you’re reading this book just for the character of Hannibal Lecter, you’re going to be disappointed. Red Dragon is set three years after the Lecter’s attack on Will Graham and his subsequent arrest and imprisonment. Whilst he does play a crucial role in helping Will catch Dolarhyde, he does not get a huge amount of page time. When he is featured though, he is an enthralling character. Intelligent, witty and sensual, Lecter is an engaging individual who manipulates everyone around him – including the reader. You can’t help but be attracted (note that I do not mean this in a strictly romantic or sexual way) to him. Lecter both fascinates and repulses.

In spite of these positive aspects, this book did not particularly stand out to me. Whilst I found all the characters multi-dimensional and interesting, I was not heavily emotionally attached to any one. The plot should have been gripping, but I did not find it a page-turner. In fact, it only really started to interest me during the final one-third of the book, when the pace seemed to pick up a bit.

What it was about this book that fell flat for me, I’m not quite sure. It was not poorly written, although Harris’s writing is by no means the best I have ever read, and the storyline is undoubtedly brilliant. I just could not get into it. This could have been because I already knew the storyline (having watched and loved the 2002 film adaptation), or because I generally prefer a more poetic prose style, but I’m not certain. I’ll definitely be reading The Silence of the Lambs and, probably, Hannibal at some point, but my expectations are not high and I won’t be rushing to read them.

A good enough read, and I’d definitely recommend anyone who has watched any of the adaptations to read the story in its original form, but it is not one that will stay with me.

Book Review || Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

Date finished: 29-September-2013

Rating: ★★★

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, first published in 1865 and 1872 respectively, are two delightful tales that follow the adventures of seven-year-old Alice as she wanders through Wonderland and the Looking Glass kingdom. She meets an array of fascinating characters, such as a white rabbit in a waistcoat, kings and queens, talking flowers, and animated playing cards. She swims through an ocean of tears, plays her way across a giant chessboard, and partakes in the most unusual game of croquet.

These tales are punctuated throughout with poems and songs, which recount short, nonsensical stories of their own. The poem of the Jabberwocky comprises of a large proportion of words invented by Lewis Carroll himself, which plays testament to this man’s incredible imagination.

In this Penguin English Library edition, the text is accompanied by forty-two illustrations by John Tenniel. These beautiful depictions of Carroll’s humourous and ofttimes disturbing world really help to bring the whole story to life.

I was able to read the majority of each story in one sitting each (unfortunately, life prevented me from being able to read the entirety of each book in one sitting), and I really feel that a book such as this benefits from being read in one go. Being quite short, my edition is 243 pages, and relatively easy to read, this is definitely accomplishable. At the very least it is possible to read the large majority of each story in one go, as I was able to do. Doing so really enables you to journey through Wonderland with Alice and to become completely emersed in her dreams and imagination.

Both stories run in a dreamlike fashion, flitting from place to place without logic or explanation. It seems clear that Alice’s adventures take place in her dreams and in her imaginations (though Carroll never explicitly states this, making it all the more fantastical) and Carroll perfectly encapsulates the random and confusing manner in which dreams so often progress.

I thoroughly enjoyed this children’s classic and if you haven’t read it yet, I implore you to give it a go. It was outlandish and fun; a joy to read.

Book Review || Wish Her Safe At Home by Stephen Benatar

Date Finished: 7-September-2013
Rating: ★½

Wish Her Safe at Home is a first-person narrative told from the viewpoint of Rachel Waring, a single, middle-aged woman living in London who appears somewhat dissatisfied with her life as a whole. She receives an unexpected notice that her great-aunt has died and left her mansion in Bristol to Rachel, despite them having not been in contact since Rachel was 10 years old. Because of this windfall Rachel leaves London behind to move into her aunt’s old house. As Rachel settles into her new life with joy and vivacity she appears to become more manic than happy and her grip on reality becomes increasingly lax.

Whilst Benatar’s exploration of mental illness was an interesting and brave endeavour, I found that his writing style let him down. The plot had great potential, but the prose just didn’t flow for me. I frequently found myself confused as to what was going on or who was being spoken about. Whilst the disjointed and jumpy nature of the text sometimes was appropriate to Rachel’s confused and delusional mind, more often than not it just felt awkward and jarring.

There were also several cases where characters acted in ways that seemed entirely unrealistic. Benatar did do a good job of making it clear when it was Rachel’s interpretation of a character’s reaction that was off, as opposed to the character acting strangely, but unfortunately this made it stand out even more when a character acted or reacted entirely unrealistically. In a novel that is based so firmly within this universe and that appears to be trying to explore a brutally realistic storyline, these unbelievable actions seemed like cheap storytelling.

Whilst I appreciate what Benatar tried to accomplish with this novel, I feel that the awkward prose let down what had the potential to be an interesting plot. The last few pages were the most well-written of the book, so I was glad that at least I finished the story with a more positive view, but altogether a disappointing read.

Classical Literature and Me

I have an invested interest in the ancient Mediterranean world that, combined with my recently completed Ancient History BA and my soon-to-be-started Ancient History MA, means I read a fair amount of classical literature.

I have, however, fallen into the rather bad habit of reading only extracts from ancient works, instead of the completed product. I can attribute this to nothing except pure laziness on my part. Classical literature is often dense and more challenging to read than your average modern day novel, it has been much easier for me to curl up with a modern bestseller than to delve into Herodotus!

This summer though I decided to change my reading habits and read some ancient works from cover to cover. The holidays are the perfect time for me to do this, because I’m not swamped and mentally exhausted by university work.

As I write this I have, so far this summer, completed Homer’s The Odyssey, Aristophanes’ Birds and Lysistrata, and am a little over halfway through Herodotus’ The Histories. This may not sound like a huge amount, but it’s an accomplishment for me and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying it!

I’m hoping to finish Herodotus, read Aristotle’s Politics, and read two more of Aristophanes plays before my Masters begins in October. If all goes well I’ll also read some other ancient woks, but I haven’t picked which ones yet!

When my Masters course starts I shall then dive back into some more modern fiction that I’ve been itching to read!

Harry Potter

I have loved the Harry Potter series since I was a young child.

I borrowed The Philosopher’s Stone from my elder sister to take on a camping holiday with me when I was seven years old. I devoured the book over that weekend and fell head first into the wizarding world.

The Goblet of Fire was the first book in the series that I had to wait for to be published and I vividly remember the excitement and anticipation leading up to its, and every subsequent book’s, release. I’ll also always have distinct memories of shutting myself off from the outside world until I had finished the newly released book – spoilers had to be avoided! A friend of mine spoiled a character death in The Order of the Phoenix for me and I’ve never let her forget (you know who you are!).

I’m a proud Hufflepuff and will always passionately defend my house. Great characters like Cedric Diggory and Nymphadora Tonks were Hufflepuffs, don’t mess with us! I was ecstatic when Pottermore sorted me into this house that I already felt I belonged to.

Harry Potter is, and always will be, so much more than a book series to me. Harry and his friends have been there with me throughout my childhood and they’re still here with me in adulthood. Harry Potter is what I turn to when I’m down and it never fails to help pick me up again. In the words of Albus Dumbledore:

Of course it is happening inside your head… but why on eath should that mean that it is not real?

The series may have long since ended, but, for me at least, Harry Potter lives on.

Book Review || The Shining by Stephen King

Date finished: 22-June-2013
Rating: ★★★★★

I delved into The Shining not knowing a single thing about the storyline. Despite the numerous references to this book, and its film adaptation, in modern popular culture, all I really knew was that it was in the horror genre and it seemed to have a supernatural element. Upon purchasing it I decided that I wouldn’t even read the blurb, as I came to be excited at the prospect of reading with no idea of where the plot would go.

The Shining begins with Jack Torrance being interviewed for a job at the Overlook Hotel, which would require Jack to be caretaker of the hotel over the winter months. The only residents of the hotel for those months would be Jack, his wife, Wendy, and his five year old son, Danny. After successfully acquiring the job, Jack moves into the hotel with Wendy and Danny.

Danny, we can tell from the off, is special. He has an extensive vocabulary and is well-spoken for a child of only five. He also has what appears to be some form of psychic powers, which another character, Dick Halloran, names the “shining”. Danny can see images of past events, gets premonitions of future events, and can read other’s thoughts.

The Overlook Hotel has a bloody past, and ghosts and memories seem to haunt the rooms. Amongst such forces, Danny’s shining develops and the spirits seem to become stronger and more vivid. Jack also becomes more reclusive and his urge to drink increases. As they all begin to sense that something is very wrong with the hotel, and are cut off from the rest of the world by annual blizzards and heavy snowfall, how safe can they be inside the walls of the Overlook? How far are the ghosts mere memories? And how far are they a very real danger to the Torrance family?

The characters in The Shining were all extremely complex and well thought out, making them all the more believable. Jack is a recovering alcoholic with violent tendencies, seeming to stem from an abusive past, which led to him losing his job as a teacher. This unemployment is the very reason he takes on such an un-ideal job. His wife Wendy has her own traumatic past, but is desperately trying to salvage her marriage and keep her family together. Jack and Wendy’s pasts are both explored in just the right amount of detail to explain their characters, without detracting from the plot or speed of the novel. Whilst King succeeds in helping the reader understand why they are the way they are, he does not use their back stories to excuse any bad actions or decisions they may carry out.

Danny is an endearing character and King’s writing enabled you to empathise with him. His knowledge and perception of other people’s feelings and actions, possible because of his psychic ability, also come with a childlike naivety. This added to the connection I felt with him, as despite his mature understanding of the world and the people in it, I never once forgot that he was a boy of only five years old.

King’s writing style was easy to get in to and it was a real page-turner. I confess that I did not expect the writing to be of this high a quality. In spite of the fact that he is a best-selling author of dozens of novels and widely regarded as one of the greats, for some reason I did not expect the writing to be of a high calibre. I think it was something to do with the horror genre. I’m a big fan of horror films, but am well aware that the quality of those films’ writing and production is often of a more basic standard – which I think I find part of the appeal. The Shining however was beautifully written. It never failed to keep my attention and the gradual build-up of tension and suspense throughout the book was subtly and well done.

Regarding The Shining’s fear factor, I’d say it scared me about as much as I can imagine a book could! Whilst I would say that my fear was more a case of me being scared for the characters, as opposed to fear in general, I definitely found myself nervous to carry on reading at times, or sometimes reading furiously because the sequence was so intense. I don’t think a book could ever scare me in the same way that a film could (and trust me when I say that I scare easily when it comes to horror films!), but I can’t imagine a book doing a much better job than this. And during the time I was reading this book I did find myself with that feeling of anxiety if I had to get up in the middle night!

I found The Shining to be a fantastic introduction to the horror genre and it has sparked my interest to explore it further. I’ve also become keen to read more of Stephen King’s novels, because his writing style was right up my alley. I’ve already ordered The Stand, which has been highly recommended to me by a friend, and am looking forward to reading more of King’s work!

So I decided to start a blog

I’ve enjoyed making videos about books for my YouTube channel so much that I decided I wanted to make a book blog as well.

I’m hoping to use this blog to write reviews for books that I have read and consequently improve my reviewing skills (which I feel are rather poor at the moment) – so please bear with me whilst I learn my way around this book reviewing affair!

I haven’t really delved into the blogging aspect of the internet before, so this venture seems rather daunting. But hopefully I shall follow through with the plan, become more used to it, and begin to participate in even more discussions about books and reading.

My first review should be up soon, if all goes to plan!