May Life Update; Books and More Books!

Hi readers, 

So I've now finished all the Harry Potters and I will get around to writing about them soon. I really need to get better at writing on here but I've just been busy and ill again and the whole job hunting is just a never ending spiral. Then when I think I should write on here, it's either gone past Monday or like today; I just didn't have time. 

Well, tonight I'm staying up a bit to listen to the new Five Finger Death Punch album and it seemed a good time just to catch up on here. (Though, I have my doubts if anyone actually reads this blog anyway. But it's been my corner of the internet for awhile now, so I just carry on anyway!) 

Take a look at the photo above! That stack of 24 books is my current to read pile! Not counting the 8 DeathNote mangas I have left in the series read and I hope I can review that at some point too. Yeah, so that pile should see me till the end of the year. I also have 9 books on amazon of which about two are out now and the rest on pre-order for autumn time and because some of those books I really want to read, I'll be pushing my pile further down when October comes! 

The book aren't actually in my 'to read' order, yeah I do actually have one of those! So if you are interested here's my plan; 

1. Rumblefish - actually finished last night! 

2 and 3. The Outsiders and That Was Then And This Is Now - currently reading. 

4. Fool Moon - 2nd Harry Desden, a surprise cheer up gift from boyfriend. 

5. Wuthering Heights - had cravings for some English Lit classics. 

6. Neverwhere -one of my favorite books. 

7. American Gods - taking on holiday to Cornwall in July. 

8. Dracula - Classic vampire novel! 

9. Frankenstein - Everyone needs to read the true original novel. 

10. The Monk - written in 1796! A true Gothic novel which I studied at uni. 

11. The Handmaid's Tale - dystopia from one of the best writers on the genre.  

12. Fight Club - 'the first rule of fight club is we don't talk about it!'

13. All Quiet On The Western Front - World War 1 was just as bad for the Germans. 

14. Empire Of the Sun - surviving WW2 in Japan. 

15. Alan Shaw - new steampunk fantasy story by an writer I'm supporting. 

16. The Haunting - ghost story for Halloween 

17. Dolly - creepy haunted doll. 

18. The Small Hand - carry on being scared. 

19. The Man In The Picture - last of the set. 

20. Haunted Nights - An anthology of ghost stories. 

22. Viking Myths and Sagas - Meant to be one of the best collections of Norse stories.

23. The Hero Of Ages - the 2nd in a fantasy trilogy, read the 1st last year. 

24. The Well Of Ascension - 3rd one. 

Of course, this list might change but that' a rough plan. At the moment the first 4 books are certain and so are 6 and 7, I guess it depends how much time I've before I go on holiday for Wuthering Heights as it might take me awhile to get back in to it. Shall see. 

I really need to starting doing more book reviews on here. I've read some good books lately, including one that still haunts me! Plus, some of the books (about 13) in the list above I'm re-reading for like the 3rd or 4th time as part of my plan to re-read books I read at uni/ college/ high school. That was meant to be the whole idea this year because I was on a book buying ban, but I just can't help it. Books are my drug and I find my favorite writers publishing new ones and books I like the sound of and then people buy me them too and it's so hard not to give in. At least it's healthy, right? 

I'll have to keep this list updated now and that'll probably happen on Goodreads which is my record of books now. https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/10477493/ My goal this year was to read 50 books and I've read 29 so far. Though, I might end up reading more then that but not 100 again, that was too much for me! 

The other thing I wanted to share tonight is this;

My mum has been knitting elephants for the past few months and not because of some weird craze but because I want one for a friend of mine. The rainbow one was too small and so cute that I wanted to keep her anyway. The pink and white one is made of squares that took my mum ages to do, so she decided she wanted to keep her, (I'm currently pressing for an 'Elmer'  multi-colored one like this!) Then grey one is the one for my friend because that turned out as I wanted and the two smaller ones were free in mum's knitting magazine this month. 

I still hope that one day I can knit something like this but my brain finds it hard. I've been knitting a play cube, booties and mittens though and they've turned out fine. My next challenge is to knit a baby jacket in a single piece and get to grips with more decreasing and increasing! I'll share that one here if I get it right. 

The album is almost over and it's just turned midnight so it's time for bed now. I'll have to come back soon to do my Harry Potter review. 

Till then readers, goodnight. 

April Life Update; Being Anemic.

Hi readers,

This is a quick post today. So, I've not been feeling great these past few weeks, I've had a bad head cold and then in infection in my leg. I've been blaming my tiredness and lack of motivation on those. Plus, my addiction to reading Harry Potter as also meant I've had little wanting to do anything else. 

Yesterday, I had my 4 monthly hospital appointment for my long term health condition and though all my blood results looked good, my iron level didn't. It's something I've struggled with over the years and normally the doctor puts me on a course of iron tablets and that helps. 

I've started to notice the signs myself over the last few years; the feeling of having a cold that never really develops, being tried and having no energy even after an okay night's sleep, not wanting to do much or not being able to decided what I want to do then just giving up on everything. then I take a few iron and multi-vitamin tablets and I improve again.

This time though it's super low, boarding on the worst it's been. So, the doctor said I had to have an iron transfusion. Which should help and then I can stop feeling so tried and unmotivated. I have to go into hospital to have it done. I have a fear that's a boarder line phobia of everything to do with hospitals. I don't like tablets or needles but it's not a phobia of them, I just think it's because I've only had a few good experiences of being in hospitals and all those bad experiences make me very nervous. 

Hopefully, I can have it done at another hospital where I've had good experiences and the nurses there are much nicer. In any case, it's just another thing I've to get through. 

On another note, I still have two book reviews I want to write at some point and of course my overall review of the Harry Potter books. I just finished book 4, so got another 3 to go. I'm really flying through them, so should have them all read by the end of the month now. It's just good to have something, easy to read and get swept into right now!

That's all I can write for the moment. Thanks for reading and hopefully, I'll be back to normal soon.  

March Life Update: White Scar Cave.

Hi readers,

I've been meaning to write for the past few weeks and then just not getting around to it! I've like three books I want to review on here too, so I really need to start that. Plus, I'm still job hunting and getting no where, though I'm sure you are all tried of hearing about that! Today, I thought I'd share with you my trip to a cave that I took with my boyfriend. He's really into them but it's been awhile since either of us visited any!

White Scar Cave is in the Yorkshire Dales next to a village called Ingleton. It was just over an hour's drive from my boyfriend's house in the Preston area. I was the driver for the day as he's not had any motorway experience yet but it was mostly countryside roads anyway which I've had nearly any experience off, whilst he - because he actually lives in the countryside, is kinda use to it. I was little scared but I did okay! Even when the SatNav took us along this single track, farmer's road and I almost ran over a dog that was sat on top of a hill on a blind bend!

We made it fine to the caves and back again though! And I got some more driving experience though, I really could do with some more countryside driving now! Sounds like some more trips to Yorkshire might be in the planning for the months ahead then. 

White Scar Cave has guided tours every hour, so you can't access the caves by yourself. I don't think you'd want to anyway, not because it's easy to get lost - it's a one track trail, but because the ceiling is really low and the sections of the cave do flood. You follow a natural fast flowing small river though the caves which was how it was first discovered. Walking above the river, you first go down then up into a really large area. You have to wear a helmet at all times due to the low and pointy ceiling. Here's my boyfriend and I modeling these nice red ones!

The tour is an hour and 20 minutes with the walk a mile and bit. There are a few different chambers to enter and lots of things to see. They had labeled some of the most interesting stalagmites and stalactites as well as other features. Here's a photo of the information map.    

The first thing we saw in the cave was this really loud waterfall! I've always liked waterfalls and this one was really cool. 

The Witch's Fingers and the Judge's Head below were pretty interesting to look at. It's weird to think there's are naturally created over time. 

This was the second free flowing waterfall further inside the caves. There was only a small spot at the side to walk passed if you didn't want to get wet! All the other waterfalls were going down the sides of the cave and not over like this one and the first one. 

This feature is called the Devil's Tongue. Water was dripping off it and there was little choice but to try and walk under without getting wet! The guide said if you did get dripped on it was seven years bad luck! We just about avoided it, I think.

After almost crawling though a really low section and going up almost 100 steps we made it the Battlefield cavern. Here there were a lot of stalactites, an ice age rockfall and a prehistoric mud floor. 

Just past that was this huge and really tall area. There were changing lights along the walls which made it so pretty. The guide said that cave explores had been in this area looking for another way into the cave as there's only one so far and it would be good to have another. It's also one of the deepest points underground too. At Christmas time, they have a Santa sitting here who gives out presents to the kids. - Sounds a really strange way to see Santa to me!

This is one of the upper tunnels which has been explored. People say they can see the outline of a woman's face on the left side of the image. The guide said she was know as The Witch. Below her at the bottom is the shape of her cat. 

We had a great time exploring White Scar caves and there was a lot to wow over. Afterwards we visited the cafe and had lunch. Then we went to the shop which was packed full of cool things. I brought some postcards, crystal animals, a piece of amethyst and an eraser for my collection. My boyfriend surprised me with a cute wooden bat keyring he'd brought whilst I wasn't looking! I'd not even seen those key rings, so it made it even more of a surprise!

If you are in the are then these caves are with the visit!


Since I've not blogged in awhile, I wanted to share two more things today. Firstly, there's been a lot of snowy weather in England recently. It does snow here, but it's been awhile since it's been this bad! I've not been enjoying it that much due to ill health. But I do love that magic feel snow can create. This is a photo of my back gardening, showing how much snow we had over one night. 

Then these are awesome icicles hanging off the kitchen window. Been an age since I last saw anything like this! They were really big too. 

And this is my dog, Patch. It's taken her sometime to get use to the snow but now she loves running and playing in it. 

Best though, she loves coming home and getting all warm and snuggled in her jumper and bed! I totally agree with her there.

I'm glad it spring has finally arrived now and I was hoping we'd seen an end to the snow. But it looks like we might get some more over Easter now! so maybe winter isn't just finished yet.

On another note, I'm currently reading the Harry Potter books again! It's been ages since I last read them. Probably, when the last book came out 2007 but then I might have read the third on again a few years later - that's always been my favorite! From my memory though, I've only read the last three books once. The other 4 I've read at least 3 or 4 times. It'll also be interesting to read them one after the other too.

Last night, I finished the first and started the second! I'm not sure if I'll do a review of them yet. Perhaps, I'll do one of the all together when I'm done.   

Thanks for much reading. Here's hoping I can get those book reviews up soon!

Please check out my other blog; https://thestoryfiles.wordpress.com/ I'm taking part in the A-Z Challenge next week!

(Please note; all photos belong to me. Please don't use them.)

Book Review; Mostly Void, Partially Stars; Welcome to Night Vale Episodes 1

Hi readers and welcome to Night Vale! 

I've been a fan of the Night Vale podcast for sometime now. I've written about it before but if you don't know about it; Night Vale is a desert town which weird things happen, the normal becomes scary and nothing is ever as it seems. The stories are narrative in the form of a radio show which I think just adds to the mysterious and creepiness! 

About two years ago, I reviewed the first Night Vale novel which I totally enjoyed and have linked below. I read the second novel - It Devours! Last year and loved that too, though I must have missed out reviewing it on here. Today we are looking the third book but not an actual novel from the Night Vale creators because this is actually the first volume of the podcast scripts! 

Unlike with the novels, I strongly recommended listening to Night Vale before reading this book. There is so much more 'weight' to hearing aloud the scripts then reading them. There are events that come across so much better and stir emotions. Plus, the weather is a music piece which of course you can't listen to in the book! 

This book was really brought out of the fans. There are introduction to each podcast which gives a small insight into how that one came about and I always liking learning that kind of stuff. It's not written like a lot of scripts I've read before and I guess that's because it's mainly one character. Though there are some stage directions and other characters do come in. 

Cecil Palmer is the host of the show and I love is almost monotone voice. It's so calming and he just gives this natural feel to everything that's happening - though it's mostly unnatural and often scary! My favorite character is The Faceless Old Woman, maybe it's just because she's voiced by Mara Wilson, but I love the idea of her character - she lives in every home, is everywhere else and watching everyone and all the happenings of Night Vale all the time. She's an interesting, supernatural being.  

Reading the podcasts actually showed me how much I'd not taken in from listening to them the first time around! I think because Night Vale has now developed more, it's strange to look back at the beginning when it wasn't so whole and defied. The little side stories and characters that appear and then don't come back until something bigger happens, it was interesting for me to see the seed of those ideas. The narrative isn't a consent flow and can't really be read in a novel form way. So, it's hard to talk about the plot. There's just a lot of things going on and some of those things become more important and others get lost. 

For me, I did find reading the podcasts easier then listening to them because I have to force myself not to do anything whilst listening because I'm easily distracted by multi-tasking and then I realise that I've missed whatever has just been said. I need to make time to get back into Night Vale and catch up! I have the second volume of scripts to read next, so maybe after that I'll try and set some time aside in the evenings. I might not do a review of that book though, got some other stuff I want to write about, including; a series of manga I've been reading for the last few months, a few novels I read last year that are worth talking about and possibly reviewing the Harry Potter books which I plan to re-read all of for maybe the second or third time. I've re-read some of the book individual but not the whole set.

Overall, if you are a Night Vale fan and fancy seeing how the podcast scripts are created and/or you fancy some nostalgia of the desert town, then this is a good book to flip through. If you've not hear of Night Vale then give it ago. It's surprisingly gripping! 

Thanks for reading, until next week. Goodnight, Night Vale, Goodnight!

Links;

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29634931-mostly-void-partially-stars

http://www.welcometonightvale.com/

http://hailscrazyblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/book-review-welcome-to-night-vale-novel.html

January 2018 Life Update; Job Hunting Fail.

Dear readers,

Today's post is going to be brief because I'm not in a writing mood and I'm putting off switching out PCs. - My boyfriend give me his old computer and now the hard drive is full on mine, I've decided the time has come to say goodbye my computer and hello his. Hopefully, it'll all go fine!

On Friday, I had an interview of a job I really wanted - lead receptionist at a soon to be opening youth center. It's 40 minutes drive away and it was 30 hours a week. But the hours were going to be mostly evening and weekend which wasn't what I wanted but still it would have been good for me.

I thought the interview went well and my experience coming from another youth center and being able to train others to do the reception job was a bonus. There was room for improvement of course - firstly, I left my jacket at home and admitted that, when I shouldn't have done and I should've double checked I'd picked up everything before I left home! Secondly, there were some questions I should have answered in more detail and clearer, but sometimes it's hard when you feel on the spot to answer correctly and your brain goes and hides in a corner! Thirdly and this is always hard, I should have created a better impression at the beginning and end of the interview.

I know everyone judges each other all the time and first impressions account for everything but with me, I'm not good at first meetings. I've never been great socially. I love being alone and not having many friends, I guess because I've just had so many problems with friends in the past that for me I'm happy with my own company and realise that I'm better off that way. Saying all that though, I do have a habit of talking to strangers to make comments or suggestions. I think that comes from my mum though. I'm chatty to those I know and even more talkative to those I like. That's why I can pull off being a receptionist.

Appearance is also important and I know for a fact that people always get the wrong idea about me when they see me and mostly acted in a negative way. Only after you've gotten to know me do things get clearer here. And that's something you can't get across in an hour or two of meeting someone / being interviewed. I tried hard to always look good at interview - I never were jeans or trainers, low cut clothes. I wear black or red or blue skirts, with matching jackets, white or cream or blue blouses with black or blue boots. I hear some people just turn up in whatever and don't try to wear a suit! 

Anyway, I got a phone call two hours later and the overall result from my interview was that I didn't have enough experience and they'd had a few people who had more experience and did better at the interview then I did. It was a total blow to hear that because I was a few months back and partly still now, doing the job! So how come there were more experienced people? I get they were better in interview, but I just find it hard to believe that they weren't even going to reflect on things longer. Did I do that badly? They wouldn't tell me - too busy.

This is now the third job interview where I've been told someone with more experience then me has gotten the job. I'm struggling to determine how to change that. Having YEARS of experience will always win over someone who's had months or only a year, that's a fact but how can I get years if no one will give me a chance? The other issue I've got is that my high level of education, so when I apply for level 1 jobs I'm over looked because of that. Which sucks because I still need to start off some place!

I try not to be too picky about applying for jobs but due to a number of things - disabilities, health issues, my pride, I won't apply for just any old job. There's no way I can work in a call center or sales. I tried being a charity street worker and that wasn't me, I've ruled out teaching and not just because I'll have to get the right qualifications, it's not for me. I can do retail but I'd have to find a place that understands my issues and is like a quiet shop to work in. I don't want to do a lot of traveling and I'd like to stay in one place. So, admin, receptionist, office jobs etc, have been my main go to. there's lost of jobs out there like this and lots of people applying, so it's harder. But I don't know what else to do.

If I could go back to college or uni to take a course which would then get me a job, I would do. But I can't offered that. So I'm trapped in a limbo and not sure how to get out. Everyone says to keep on going, you'll find something soon or realise what you could do instead. I guess that's what I have to do but it seems pointless to be chasing around a stick with no carrot on it.

Today is one of those days where I wish things were totally different. I hope that I find something soon.     

Book Review; Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Hi readers,

Here's my first book review of the year! When I read that a new Neil Gaiman book was coming out I knew I had to read it. He is one of my favourite authors and I've now read all but three of his books. Then I found out that this book wasn't going to be a normal fiction novel but Gaiman's re-telling of Norse myths. 

That made me more interested to read this book. I like myths and legends though the stories and characters don't often stick correctly with me! In addition to this, I'm into the Marvel superheroes movies and Thor and Loki are two of my favourite heroes. So, learning about their origin stories also applied to me.

Having never really read any Norse myths before and having just a basic knowledge of them means I can't compare this book to other collections. Though I do have another book called Viking Myths and Sagas; retold from ancient Norse texts which was recommended to me at a party, so as soon as I've read that I can look at seeing how good or bad Gaiman's take on Norse myths is. For now, though my feels about this book are pretty positive.

I found the myths easy to read, maybe because of Gaiman's style of writing, but maybe because these myths were originally written in a simplistic way so that they could be remembered and re-told? There wasn't much description of characters or backgrounds and I would have liked a bit more of both of these as I'm sure my little knowledge and imagination got some of the scenes I pictured wrong. The myths were easy to understand with basic plots, mostly the same characters and meaningful endings. Though there was a lot of repetition about magical items, animals, backgrounds of things which did slightly bug me.

The flow of the myths has this overall start, middle and ending feel and it reminded me of Bible stories. Firstly, there is the creation of all things and how things became like they are. Then there's the development of the Gods, other super beings and humans; they go on adventures and learn from their mistakes or get revenge over monsters and enemies. At the end, there is the death of the god Balder, the final punishment of Loki and Ragnarok - The End Of The World. 

The main characters who appear or are mentioned in each myth are Odin - The All Father, Thor - his son, God of Thunder and Loki - The Trickster. (Who is often mistaken for a God but it actual a giant). As I read the stories, I realised that Marvel's impressions of the characters were influencing my overall thoughts about them. Mostly, these characters have been well represented by the comics and movies, though I was surprise to learn that Thor isn't that intelligent and Loki committed a lot of bad things - including killing gods or causing the deaths of others through his 'tricks.'

Some of the myths are about other Gods, giants and dwarfs which helps to give a deeper understanding. Though according to Gaiman, most of the Norse myths have been lost. So though, lesser Gods and Goddess etc appear, we don't know of any of their deeds and adventures. Gaiman attributes this to the growth of Christianity and that fact that many Norse myths were not written down.           

One of the first reviews I saw about this book was questioning the audience because the reader found the text so simply written that they believed this was a children's book. However, the content is older teen and adult due to the violence, murders, sex and drinking that goes on. I don't think that children would enjoy or fully understand some of these myths. I believe this book is aimed at people coming to these myths for the first time and Gaiman does have a simplistic writing style. Also, he seems to have wanted to re-tell the myths as close as possible to their original format which was possibly kept basic.     

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Norse Mythology. I found this a good starting point to the world of the Norse Gods. I was worried that my dyslexic brain might find it too complicated but with Gaiman's simple style of writing, the myths were easy to understand. I'm looking forward to reading more now and learning about some of the other Gods.         

Thanks for reading!

Please check out my other blog; https://thestoryfiles.wordpress.com/
I write a new short story every day!

Links;

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30831912-norse-mythology

http://norse-mythology.net/

https://pixabay.com

January 2018 Life Update; I read 100 books in 2017 BUT I cheated!

Hi readers,

This is my first post of 2018! Happy New Year to you all!

I've been thinking about writing this post since I realised at the start of September 2017 that I wasn't going to reach my goal of reading 100 books in a year. To be honest, it was a lot to ask of myself due to being dyslexic, picky about the books I read and having goal committed issues. I wanted to prove I could do it though but in the end I just put too much pressure on myself and found that it was affecting my reading enjoyment. 

So, I ended up cheating by reading a lot of manga and children's books, plus putting an end date on two books I hadn't finished reading, so that my GoodReads 2017 reading challenge page says 100 books; https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/7287580.

I did it because the idea of not reaching what seemed to me an easy goal was frustrating. Plus, I also realised that if I'd just had a little more time I could have achieved 100 books without having to change the dates. The feeling of being disappointed over this would have made me miserable too and I just wanted to say that I could do it.

Some people would say that a book is a book no matter what and I didn't make it an added goal of only reading a certain type. It doesn't matter what I read but the fact that I did read. That's a good thing in the present world as most people say they don't read because of lack of time. Though, books are so much easier to access then ever before and everyone surely has a few minutes at some point in their day to read.

I recall a news report about a man who read 200 books in 2017, but I can't find the actual report now. It was that story that got me thinking about how much time people spend doing other stuff - sometimes meaningless. I wanted to try and change then, to read more instead of scrolling through social media pages which hadn't changed in hours or just watching re-runs of TV shows. 

A quick Google search comes up with things like this;

http://observer.com/2017/01/the-simple-truth-behind-reading-200-books-a-year/ 

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/rosie-leizrowice/the-secrets-to-reading-mo_b_14315860.html

I have no plans this year to aim for 200 books! Instead, I'm back to 50, though if I read more then that's good too. Really that's what this post is all about it, it doesn't matter what or how much you read as long as you do so and enjoy it.

Thanks for reading and please check out my other blog; https://thestoryfiles.wordpress.com/