Happy World Book Day!

I love books, always have done, ever since I was a small kid. I was lucky enough to be brought up by a Mum who is a true bookworm, and so was always being read to, and reading by myself. It was to a point where I was reading on twenty minute car journey's (without feeling sick, might I add), and I ran out of room on my shelves, so had to get rid of a load (which hurt, a lot). I read so much that by the time I was ten, I had run out of children's books to read and so started on Kathy Reiches - and I'm really not joking on that one either. At ten, I was reading Kathy Reiches' Bones series.
As a high schooler, I read nearly the entire Angus, Thongs, And Perfect Snogging books in two weeks, which inspired several more trips to Waterstones to pick up book-to-film/film-to-book adaptions. I had to slow down a bit for my GCSE's and A levels (and to start writing too, of course), but I still kept at it really quite diligently.
Even now, I'm a big fan of books, I want to be an author when I graduate, so of course I love books. As I write this, I'm listening to a song called Boys In Books Are Better by Carrie Hope Fletcher, because I relate to it so much. If you haven't heard that song, here's the link:

But what is it about books that I love so much? Well, that's a hard question, because there's so much. 

There's the escapism element, for a start. I love getting lost in a story line, being completely and utterly swept up in it all. I tend to read teen fiction and things about the supernatural, I love getting so lost in it, I forget that vampires/werewolves/whichever mythical creature is involved isn't real. 

Falling for the characters is another reason, because as Carrie above says, boys in books really are better. Who wants a real guy when you can read about Finnick Odair or Draco Malfoy? (I'm a Slytherin, what can I say?) Nobody! Fictional men may not be perfect, they may have their flaws, but damn it I love them anyway (even when most of them are dead... and not coming back). 

Finding strength in characters too, I have always looked up to strong female characters. So while I fall for Kili, Draco and Shane Collins, I'm also looking up to Katniss, Eve Rosser and Valkyrie Cain. I love to read about these brilliant outcasts, who come in and save the world. Sometimes I like to imagine that I'd be as amazing as them in the same situation, even when I know that I'd die within five minutes. It's fun to pretend for a little while, after all. 

Before I spend the next six years telling you all the reasons why I love books, I should probably wrap this up. Basically, I love it all. Books are an incredible thing. They provide hours of entertainment, introduce us to new concepts, inspire us, and so much more. And all of it with just words, just 26 letters, rearranged again and again, to make sentences, which make paragraphs, which makes stories. Honestly, where would we be without stories? Without Harry Potter, without Bilbo Baggins, without Skullduggery Pleasant? Nowhere, we would be bored, we wouldn't know what adventure and bravery was. 

But with books, we can sail the high seas, fight the Capital, stop Valentine. We fall in love, solve mysteries and crimes, travel to far off places - some of which don't even exist. We can do all of that and more. For someone like me, who's socially awkward and doesn't like to leave the house all too often, a book is a godsend. 

So what is it that I love about books? Everything, really. I love it all. Books are magical things, and if everybody spent more time reading them, I think we would all be that little bit more magical ourselves. 

Get To Know My Reading Habits!

Well hey there, it's been a while! Christmas and New Years wiped me out, and then I had a tonne of essays and assignments to do. But as of last Monday, they're all over now, or at least they are until March, so I thought I'd make another blog post.
Now as I said in my latest video, which you can watch here:

I want to make more blog posts about writing, and not just reviews. I would start with some writing tips, but my brain has fallen out of my ears thanks to my assignments, so I thought I'd do a tag I found on readerwriterzoe's blog. It's about reading and books, so it counts... Mostly... Don't judge me, I'm TIRED! I'll be back with proper writing blogs soon.

Do you remember how you developed a love for reading?
I can't remember because I was too young, but apparently I was talking before I was walking because I had health problems as a child. I spent a lot of time in hospital, not walking around, instead listening to everyone around me talking, so I picked up words very quickly. That soon descended into my falling for words and all things literary, and because I come from a family of big readers, I was fed books my entire childhood, and I loved it! 

Where do you usually read?
In my chair in my front room, and on the bus and train journey's to uni. Though journey reading is generally saved for things I need to read for whatever lecture I'm having that day. At home it's almost purely for enjoyment, though I have also been known to read fiction for fun on long car journey's too. 

Do you prefer to read one book at a time or several at once?
Weirdly, both. If I'm reading a book/ebook, only one at a time. I get confused far too easily otherwise. But if we're talking fan fiction, I can easily jump all over the place, even when it's all in the same fandom. Don't ask why I can't do that with more traditional books, but I can't!

What is your favourite genre?
Oh, that's tough. I like most genre's, though I am fond of Young Adult and a bit of sci-fi. 

What genre will you not read?
I'm really, really not fond of anything that's Victorian, I've been completely put off thanks to reading and analysing Dickens etc for uni. I'm not fond of romance either. 

Do you have a favourite book?
That's like choosing your favourite child! I love The Hogfather by Terry Pratchett (if you hadn't guessed by me talking about it constantly, and I really like Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, I'm so like Kath it's actually physically painful at times. 

What is the worst book you've ever read?
Jesus, that's tough. Most recently, I really did not enjoy Wide Sargasso Sea, but I think the worst, and please don't kill me for this, but Alice In Wonderland. I read it for English A Level and wanted to slap Alice for most of the book, I know she's a small child, but I really cannot stand characters who cry at everything and accept everything so easily without questioning it. 

What is the biggest book you've ever read?
Er... I have absolutely no idea. I've read some quite thick ones in the past but I can't think of anything that big right now. Ask me some other day, I may remember! 

What was the last book you bought?
Nocturnes At Nohant - The Decade Of Chopin And Sand by Helen Farrish. I had to buy it for part of my uni course, and I wish I could say I've bought a book recently for my own reading pleasure, but I simply haven't had the time as of late! My best friend did get my a Doctor Who trivia book for Christmas though if that counts?

Which do you prefer? Library books or buying books?
BUYING! I love libraries too, but there is nothing better than staring at all the books you have bought and feeling incredibly proud that you have read them all. It's like a badge of honour, or several walls of them. 

What are you reading now?
Unfortunately, nothing at the moment! I'm too busy to read! If I had time, I would be either finishing Fangirl, working my way further through the Discworld or finishing off the Buffy The Vampire Slayer comics. Or starting on the Marvel comic universe, because I want to know EVERYTHING these films are going to give me in the future!

What are the disadvantages of being a book-lover?
Having absolutely no money thanks to books, running out of space on kindle/bookshelves and bad movie adaptations ruining perfectly good stories with bad casting choices/leaving out important details.

The Liebster Award

I'm horribly late doing this, but Cameron didn't tell me he'd tagged me in this until yesterday!
Thanks to him for tagging me in this, and here we go:

1. What’s your favourite movie/tv series?

• Are you sure you're ready for this answer? Currently I'm loving How To Get Away With Murder and Agents Of SHIELD, but my main ones have to be BBC Sherlock, Marvel, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer! 

1. Do you love reading? If yes, what is your favourite book?

• Hell yes! I'm always reading! Well currently I'm loving All I Know Now by Carrie Hope Fletcher, but the book I'm REALLY loving is Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell 

1. How would you describe yourself in 5 words?

• Writer, Vlogger, fangirl, tired and... nerdy 

1. Who’s your favourite band/artist?

• MCFLY! I adore McFly and McBusted! They got me into writing and I adore their music! 

1. If you could have 3 wishes, what would they be?

• To make a success book, to be able to own my own house, and to help people with their writing through my channel! 

1. If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

• Ohhhh, superspeed I think! It would save me a tonne of money in travel costs, and help me to not be late all the time!

1. What’s your all-time favourite food?

• Toad in the hole (I'm eating some now) or Chinese chicken balls, I could live on either! 

1. Where’s your favourite place to shop?

• Anywhere that sells geeky things, like redbubble, amazon, geektown, anywhere like that!

1. What’s your favourite colour?

• Black!

1. What is your future plan?

• See above wishes, with added moving in with my best friend and making our super awesome house! :)

1. Who do you admire most?

• Joss Whedon for writing, McFly for general life strength, Carrie Hope Fletcher for general life strength again, Benedict Cumberbatch for again life strength, the list goes on!

Hey guys, so this is slightly strange, I’m not used to your normal blogging types, I’m barely used to making videos yet!

Anyway, I’d thought I’d use this blog as a way to tell you about myself a bit more. You may have seen my 7 facts about me video, which is here:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RH5byXFJxw

But other than that, I haven’t really said much about me. So here goes:

I’m 17, was born in March, and was born with a thing called hip dysplasia. It just means that I was born with a dislocated leg, that wasn’t diagnosed properly for a few months, so I had to have five operations in two years to fix it. I guess it helped shape me as a person now, as I couldn’t wear skirts or dresses while I was in plaster after the operations, so I was permanently in trousers. Then, when I finally got out of plaster, aged two, my mum tried to put a dress on me, and I refused to wear it, and any other dress she ever tried to put me in. This has continued throughout my life, and I’m still as tomboyish as ever, the girliest thing I do is actually paint my nails. I don’t wear makeup, or skirts, or dresses. In fact, it took me until about two years ago to wear skinny jeans!

I love to read books. I seriously love reading, I’ve got two book cases filled with books, and my bedside table is filled with yet more books to read as well. But if there’s one thing I love more than reading, its writing. I adore writing things. Whether it be books, fan fictions, (blogs too hopefully) youtube video scripts. I love writing it all, and I love writing many different genres too. Angst is probably my favourite,  I’m not sure why, maybe because I enjoy writing peoples emotions. But I do love writing vampiric things too, because I adore the whole vampire genre. I take a lot of inspiration from Buffy The Vampire Slayer, because I feel like Joss wrote vampires properly in that show. He wrote them to have souls, and without, showing the full spectrum of human emotions with them. He had me hooked for thirteen seasons in total, and has me hooked on the comic series too. One of my main goals in life is to write a successful book, and I feel like Joss has inspired me to write the vampire genre in a proper, well constructed way.

On another note, I love science, and love all the murder shows that focus on science. Things like Bones, NCIS, and Criminal Minds, if you count psychology as a science. I take both at A Level at the moment, and have the exams coming up in the next three weeks (hence why this post is being written now, so I don’t have to face a chemistry book). I also take English Literature and Language, and am hoping to go onto either an English or Creative Writing degree.

Well, that is actually all I can think of right now, so I better go and actually do some practice psych questions, and start praying for the least amount of Freud possible on the exam. I hope I can come up with some better topics to blog about in the future, but for now, bye!