As you know if you read my blog a lot then you will realise that I absolutely love reading. I am always on a constant hunt for books, I love reviewing them and I just like losing myself in the internet looking for books/reading about books and just generally books.
Therefore the best website for me to do this is Goodreads. I created an account absolutely ages ago, but in all honestly with the business of life forgot all about it, until today. SO if you would like to see what I am currently reading, what I have read or what is on my to-read list then head on over to this link HERE.
Showing posts with label teenager. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teenager. Show all posts
Wednesday, 10 July 2013
Sunday, 7 July 2013
Pet peeves of a fiction obsessed sixteen year old
I have probably done plenty of these posts that either tell you more about me or more to the point what annoys me, but this time I'm going to make it more topical. I am going to talk about things in literacy, films and music that irritates me to the end of the earth and back again.
1. When people bend the page of their books and/or bend/break the spine on their books.
Okay, I do think I have a slight OCD when it comes to looking after books and if you look at about 95% of my books in my bookcase, despite having read each book several times, you will not find a single break in the spine or a bend in a page. (Apart from the dreaded initial break that you get just from opening it, but even that one is so faint you can barely see it). Literally whenever I see anyone doing either of those things I just want to slap the book out of their hands and repair the damage immediately. This is also why I very, very rarely lend my books to people unless I know they can be trusted to treat it carefully. This is also another reason why I cannot deal with library books and have never ever read a book from the library because they are always so tatty and broken that it just takes the enjoyment out of reading for me. The care of books is something I do not take lightly, my friend.
2. When there is a misprint or spelling error in a book.
This is just careless on the publishers part; although, granted, its a very rare thing to happen and even more rare with printed books. However, I've noticed especially on E-Books there can be careless mistakes and it takes you a few time to read over the sentence to understand what was trying to be said. It's extremely frustrating because the amount of times that a book is read and re-read and re-re-read before its published silly mistakes should be seen and sorted out.
3.When films based on adaptations just get the casting all wrong.
I know that everyone has their own ideas about what a certain character looks like when they are described in a book. For example, when I read a book I imagine most of my characters as cartoons and so I find it hard to describe a character to another person who is not inside my head. However, sometimes I really do question if the casting people have read the books at all; take the new Divergent movie for example, Shailene Woodley and Theo James look nothing, absolutely nothing like how I would have imagined them (you know if my brain wasn't weird and turned everyone into cartoons) I just feel like its disappointing for the fan of the books. I understand that it would be impossible to find an actor that everyone loves and imagines in the place of their favourite character but at least attempt it. Harry Potter is a fine example of brilliant casting and costume; you can just tell that the casting people took the time to read the books and study the characters with detail. I am just left feeling like that in today's Hollywood, film companies are more interested in whacking out as many films as possible without really investing too much time into them.
p.s I'm sure these actors mentioned above are good, I've yet to see them in anything but this comment is made purely on their looks (vain, I know right).
4.When books could have been finished but the author tries to milk it.
This is extremely frustrating when you find a decent new book series, you read the first few and it seems that all of the events have been rounded off well and nicely, however, then the author keeps writing new books with weaker plots. This makes the series loose its integrity and makes the reader get bored and disengaged with the writing. Authors need to know when its best to put a series to bed: know when to quit, go out on a high. Particular examples of this are The House of Night series and The Mortal Instrument series. The House of Night currently has 10 books in the series when realistically they could have stopped writing them at about book 5/6, I really cannot be bothered to continue reading the rest in the series because it is getting boring and silly. The Mortal Instruments could have been finished on book 3, that would have left the reader wanting more but not really needing it, the 4th book was lacking compared to the others and took me a long time to get through it. What I am trying to say is that if you want to write a successful book series then you need to know when enough is enough, you want the reader to want more but that they don't necessarily need to have any more because the story is strong enough without it.
5.When films change what happens in the books in a very sucky way.
Sucky isn't the most sophisticated adjective but it describes what I am talking about in the best way possible. When a film is based on an adaptation, I understand that somethings have to be changed so that they make it cinematically pleasing but when they completely change the way an event happens in the book to something that to anyone who has read the books just does not make sense, then you know you have a problem. Take Harry Potter (probably the first time I am criticising it on my blog, take note because it wont happen very often, haha) in the last film (Deathly Hallows part 2) Harry snaps the Elder Wand in half and throws it away... however, in the book, Harry uses the Elder Wand to repair his old trusty wand and then returns the Elder Wand back to Dumbledore's grave. According to the film Harry no longer has a wand after he does what he does because it does not show him fixing his previous wand. To any fan of the books this will come as a very large annoyance, it would have taken the film makers literally about 2 minutes to show what happened in the book but instead they decided on a scene that is just stupid.
1. When people bend the page of their books and/or bend/break the spine on their books.
Okay, I do think I have a slight OCD when it comes to looking after books and if you look at about 95% of my books in my bookcase, despite having read each book several times, you will not find a single break in the spine or a bend in a page. (Apart from the dreaded initial break that you get just from opening it, but even that one is so faint you can barely see it). Literally whenever I see anyone doing either of those things I just want to slap the book out of their hands and repair the damage immediately. This is also why I very, very rarely lend my books to people unless I know they can be trusted to treat it carefully. This is also another reason why I cannot deal with library books and have never ever read a book from the library because they are always so tatty and broken that it just takes the enjoyment out of reading for me. The care of books is something I do not take lightly, my friend.
2. When there is a misprint or spelling error in a book.
This is just careless on the publishers part; although, granted, its a very rare thing to happen and even more rare with printed books. However, I've noticed especially on E-Books there can be careless mistakes and it takes you a few time to read over the sentence to understand what was trying to be said. It's extremely frustrating because the amount of times that a book is read and re-read and re-re-read before its published silly mistakes should be seen and sorted out.
3.When films based on adaptations just get the casting all wrong.
I know that everyone has their own ideas about what a certain character looks like when they are described in a book. For example, when I read a book I imagine most of my characters as cartoons and so I find it hard to describe a character to another person who is not inside my head. However, sometimes I really do question if the casting people have read the books at all; take the new Divergent movie for example, Shailene Woodley and Theo James look nothing, absolutely nothing like how I would have imagined them (you know if my brain wasn't weird and turned everyone into cartoons) I just feel like its disappointing for the fan of the books. I understand that it would be impossible to find an actor that everyone loves and imagines in the place of their favourite character but at least attempt it. Harry Potter is a fine example of brilliant casting and costume; you can just tell that the casting people took the time to read the books and study the characters with detail. I am just left feeling like that in today's Hollywood, film companies are more interested in whacking out as many films as possible without really investing too much time into them.
p.s I'm sure these actors mentioned above are good, I've yet to see them in anything but this comment is made purely on their looks (vain, I know right).
4.When books could have been finished but the author tries to milk it.
This is extremely frustrating when you find a decent new book series, you read the first few and it seems that all of the events have been rounded off well and nicely, however, then the author keeps writing new books with weaker plots. This makes the series loose its integrity and makes the reader get bored and disengaged with the writing. Authors need to know when its best to put a series to bed: know when to quit, go out on a high. Particular examples of this are The House of Night series and The Mortal Instrument series. The House of Night currently has 10 books in the series when realistically they could have stopped writing them at about book 5/6, I really cannot be bothered to continue reading the rest in the series because it is getting boring and silly. The Mortal Instruments could have been finished on book 3, that would have left the reader wanting more but not really needing it, the 4th book was lacking compared to the others and took me a long time to get through it. What I am trying to say is that if you want to write a successful book series then you need to know when enough is enough, you want the reader to want more but that they don't necessarily need to have any more because the story is strong enough without it.
5.When films change what happens in the books in a very sucky way.
Sucky isn't the most sophisticated adjective but it describes what I am talking about in the best way possible. When a film is based on an adaptation, I understand that somethings have to be changed so that they make it cinematically pleasing but when they completely change the way an event happens in the book to something that to anyone who has read the books just does not make sense, then you know you have a problem. Take Harry Potter (probably the first time I am criticising it on my blog, take note because it wont happen very often, haha) in the last film (Deathly Hallows part 2) Harry snaps the Elder Wand in half and throws it away... however, in the book, Harry uses the Elder Wand to repair his old trusty wand and then returns the Elder Wand back to Dumbledore's grave. According to the film Harry no longer has a wand after he does what he does because it does not show him fixing his previous wand. To any fan of the books this will come as a very large annoyance, it would have taken the film makers literally about 2 minutes to show what happened in the book but instead they decided on a scene that is just stupid.
Wednesday, 19 June 2013
Teachers and students
Obviously high school is a horrible time for all of us and if you have had or are having a good experience then you my friend are one of the lucky ones. Now, let me paint you a pretty picture of my personality when I am in school; I am extremely shy and quiet when in classrooms with people who are not my friends. I only have a small group of friends and would really rather not venture outside of that confinement, so therefore you can call me an introvert. I am conscientious about homework and school work and in my entire school life I have only missed about three pieces of homework, I get good grades but hardly ever put my hand up in class because of social anxiety: I am what you call a typical nerd. Right, now that's out of the way, I am going to tell you a few experiences I have had in high school.
In year seven (so about 11-12), despite what I said in the first paragraph, in year seven I was confident and had a lot of friends (yep, miss popular over here) and I didn't really care about answering back to teachers. However, this time in science a girl who had some sort of learning difficulty was playing with the splint I used to light the Bunsen burner, as myself and my group were doing the experiment that we were told to do, she was lighting and re-lighting the splint. We ignored it for a while until she dropped it on my foot; so obviously we all told her to stop playing with fire or someone would get hurt. She then cried and went off to her helper, who was literally like Satan in a woman's body, lets call her Mrs B. Mrs B then started shouting at me for telling this girl off then my actual teacher came over and starting tell me off as well. So obviously I was pretty pissed off at the fact that I had done nothing wrong and I was getting screamed at, so I answered back, I think I said something along the lines of "If anyone else was playing with fire and it landed on someone's foot, you'd be having a go at them, but just because its **** you think its okay to have a go at me" he then literally screamed at me to shut up. What was great though was that my entire class started having a go at my science teacher and saying that he was being harsh towards me (real sense of community when teenagers join together to prove teachers wrong). I ended up getting detention because I had proved him wrong and he couldn't take it. I hasten to add that this was my first and my last ever detention I had throughout my school life, so that just shows you how much of an idiot that teacher was being.
Also in year seven, a boy in my form was a complete and utter prat to me. I wouldn't say he bullied me but he wasn't the nicest to me and often remarked on my weight (I hadn't lost my puppy fat then and I was still much shorter than everyone else and so I looked a bit like a gnome), my eyes and how big my nose was and that I got spots, unfortunately I was one of those teenagers that got bad spots early on in puberty (they're not so bad now, thank god) but hardly anyone one else in my classes was going through this stage and so he always made fun of me for it. Although on a side note: karma is a bitch and he ended up getting extremely severe acne a year or so later which was much worse than what I ever had. However, back on point, he carried on with this annoying nitpicking at me for the first term of year seven, the only reason that he stopped was when he saw me talking to my big brother, who at the time was in year 11 and was 6ft2 which was very intimidating to us little year sevens. After he saw me with my brother he never said another bad word to me ever again; it just shows you how ridiculous boys can be at this age, just ignore them and if that doesn't work get your big brother to stand next to you.
Now, after year seven our form got split up and you start getting set, I was in really good sets but that meant that I was with none of my friends, so I had to make new ones and this unfortunately was when I started to become shy and introverted and gradually as I have gotten older its getting worse, which is the most annoying thing in the world. However, this has created some pretty interesting school experiences, but for the benefit of this post not getting to long, they will be shared another day.
In year seven (so about 11-12), despite what I said in the first paragraph, in year seven I was confident and had a lot of friends (yep, miss popular over here) and I didn't really care about answering back to teachers. However, this time in science a girl who had some sort of learning difficulty was playing with the splint I used to light the Bunsen burner, as myself and my group were doing the experiment that we were told to do, she was lighting and re-lighting the splint. We ignored it for a while until she dropped it on my foot; so obviously we all told her to stop playing with fire or someone would get hurt. She then cried and went off to her helper, who was literally like Satan in a woman's body, lets call her Mrs B. Mrs B then started shouting at me for telling this girl off then my actual teacher came over and starting tell me off as well. So obviously I was pretty pissed off at the fact that I had done nothing wrong and I was getting screamed at, so I answered back, I think I said something along the lines of "If anyone else was playing with fire and it landed on someone's foot, you'd be having a go at them, but just because its **** you think its okay to have a go at me" he then literally screamed at me to shut up. What was great though was that my entire class started having a go at my science teacher and saying that he was being harsh towards me (real sense of community when teenagers join together to prove teachers wrong). I ended up getting detention because I had proved him wrong and he couldn't take it. I hasten to add that this was my first and my last ever detention I had throughout my school life, so that just shows you how much of an idiot that teacher was being.
Also in year seven, a boy in my form was a complete and utter prat to me. I wouldn't say he bullied me but he wasn't the nicest to me and often remarked on my weight (I hadn't lost my puppy fat then and I was still much shorter than everyone else and so I looked a bit like a gnome), my eyes and how big my nose was and that I got spots, unfortunately I was one of those teenagers that got bad spots early on in puberty (they're not so bad now, thank god) but hardly anyone one else in my classes was going through this stage and so he always made fun of me for it. Although on a side note: karma is a bitch and he ended up getting extremely severe acne a year or so later which was much worse than what I ever had. However, back on point, he carried on with this annoying nitpicking at me for the first term of year seven, the only reason that he stopped was when he saw me talking to my big brother, who at the time was in year 11 and was 6ft2 which was very intimidating to us little year sevens. After he saw me with my brother he never said another bad word to me ever again; it just shows you how ridiculous boys can be at this age, just ignore them and if that doesn't work get your big brother to stand next to you.
Now, after year seven our form got split up and you start getting set, I was in really good sets but that meant that I was with none of my friends, so I had to make new ones and this unfortunately was when I started to become shy and introverted and gradually as I have gotten older its getting worse, which is the most annoying thing in the world. However, this has created some pretty interesting school experiences, but for the benefit of this post not getting to long, they will be shared another day.
Saturday, 20 April 2013
Thoughts on Revision, Boston, Margaret Thatcher, Cardiff City.
As I'm writing this I am fully aware that I should be revising. In all honesty, I shouldn't even be near a computer but I used the excuse I was using Bitesize (which I have open in a tab but I haven't actually looked at anything yet. But I have written a letter and am slowly working on a report for English, so I'm not totally slacking). I'm not sure if I have said this before but I recently asked my mum to put a password on my computer because I have such a bad attention span; put me near a computer with internet access and I'm gone with the wind. Even so, I have found that because my computer has been semi-inaccessible, I have had far less distractions and have done so much more productive revision, I have also found myself using other forms of entertainment other than the internet to fuel my boredom. By doing things such as delegating that Sunday is my baking day or by 6:30 PM I can stop revision and I can read or watch Merlin or Doctor Who for an hour before bed, I've found it works wonders. I suppose its the little things in life that help you through the tough and boring things.
Throughout this revision period I am currently in I have realised that I cannot follow a timetable to save my life. I don't know why, but since I made my revision timetable on the 8th March I have not actually followed a single slot of what I proposed to do. This isn't to say that I haven't done any revision, because I most certainly have, but its almost as if I have purposely not followed it as if to rebel against myself... The logic? Well there isn't any.
I am absolutely dumbfounded by the Boston explosions that happened on the 15/04/13. It seriously makes me worry about the human race and question what has gone so wrong for people to think that things like this are okay. They most certainly are not, any sane human being would agree with me. To bomb people who are running to give aid to those less fortunate and to have their legs blown off or to be killed, it really makes me wonder where the justice in the world is.
Now, don't scream at me and immediately stop reading over this extremely controversial lady. I just want to pay my respects, and despite your own opinions, let the woman rest in peace. RIP.
On a more positive note, Cardiff City football club played against Charlton Athletic last night (16/04/03) and drew 0-0. However, importantly they secured that all important point to get them automatic promotion. Now, I am not a football fan (at least not any more, I was back in the day) but my dad and brother are extremely passionate about the club and it gave me such pleasure to see how excited they were, they arrived home in fits of tears and even now a whole 24 hours later, my dad cant talk about it without tearing up. My family have been fans of the club for several generations and to see them climb up into the ranks is remarkable. My granddad would have been so happy, and it physically pains me to know that he will never see his team play live in premiership, sometimes life is extremely unfair.
Throughout this revision period I am currently in I have realised that I cannot follow a timetable to save my life. I don't know why, but since I made my revision timetable on the 8th March I have not actually followed a single slot of what I proposed to do. This isn't to say that I haven't done any revision, because I most certainly have, but its almost as if I have purposely not followed it as if to rebel against myself... The logic? Well there isn't any.
I am absolutely dumbfounded by the Boston explosions that happened on the 15/04/13. It seriously makes me worry about the human race and question what has gone so wrong for people to think that things like this are okay. They most certainly are not, any sane human being would agree with me. To bomb people who are running to give aid to those less fortunate and to have their legs blown off or to be killed, it really makes me wonder where the justice in the world is.
Now, don't scream at me and immediately stop reading over this extremely controversial lady. I just want to pay my respects, and despite your own opinions, let the woman rest in peace. RIP.
On a more positive note, Cardiff City football club played against Charlton Athletic last night (16/04/03) and drew 0-0. However, importantly they secured that all important point to get them automatic promotion. Now, I am not a football fan (at least not any more, I was back in the day) but my dad and brother are extremely passionate about the club and it gave me such pleasure to see how excited they were, they arrived home in fits of tears and even now a whole 24 hours later, my dad cant talk about it without tearing up. My family have been fans of the club for several generations and to see them climb up into the ranks is remarkable. My granddad would have been so happy, and it physically pains me to know that he will never see his team play live in premiership, sometimes life is extremely unfair.
Wednesday, 6 February 2013
Universities and the Future
Who ever came up with the idea that we have to chose our entire futures before we are even sixteen was stupid, very, very, very stupid.
I am currently in year 11 and fifteen years old, I most certainly do not feel old enough to be doing GCSEs let alone thinking about what I want to choose for A-Levels and also in short deciding what kind of university course I want to do and how many UCAS points I need to be able to further my studies. It's completely crazy! I'm pretty sure that the majority of teenagers my age go through this exact or similar feeling of feeling like a very small fish in an extremely big pond.
I had a careers interview today and a sixth form parents evening thing last night, seeing all of the information that they threw at us and the options form for the subjects we want to continue with next year was extremely overwhelming and made me panic slightly. It suddenly became very real that in fact I am considered old enough to make these decisions and whether I'm ready or not I will have to decide soon enough what I want to do with my life, and pray that everything will work out and be okay.
But right now I am just going to focus on passing my GCSEs and decide what I want to do on results day.... fun times lie ahead for me.....
Sunday, 6 January 2013
The curse of being a teenager
This Christmas holidays should have seen me spending the majority of my free time revising for my upcoming examinations (English Language and ICT) however, being a normal teenager like myself, I completely ignored that and left everything until the very last day before I go back. This wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have a maths booklet (which I don't even have, but he will still some how expect me to do) due in tomorrow that would usually take me about a week to complete, an English Language exam on Thursday which I have't revised for since I broke up from school two weeks ago and have since completely forgotten what techniques I have to use to answer the questions, and my ICT exam is next Tuesday which I literally haven't even picked up a book for, I also have other homework (probably but I cannot will myself to go and have a look, because if I see it I will have to do it, so I'm playing innocent). But yet despite knowing I have all of this to do I still refuse to except responsibilities and am instead reading blogs and looking through Tumblr and writing this completely pointless blog post, WHY do teenagers do this? I am one myself and I could not tell you the answer for anything (probably because I would be too lazy to tell you, even if I knew.)
Anyway I am off to pretend I am really doing my school work whilst doing everything I shouldn't be doing. Have a lovely day (And if you have no homework/work/revision I envy you with all of my heart)
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