Nollaig

So a while ago my tavern wench costume arrived (for the medieval banquet me and partner/friends are going to in London in March). It's hard for me to get costumes that fit as I'm quite a hefty lady, so I was absolutely delighted that this fits pretty well! I need to get a new belt for it, and I'm thinking of getting a beer tankard purse, but overall it's great quality and I'm really happy! I've also got a couple of pages from my ever-evolving gratittude journal. It started out really planned, and I was testing markers and watercolour pencils and stuff, but everything seeps through the pages. I'm also finding I'm not making the time to do the layouts I planned. So instead I'm taking a free and easy approach, just adding drawings whenever I feel like it. The main thing is that I find myself noting things to draw in it more often, which was the point - to be more grateful for even simple things.

Snowing! But only the brief kind that melts immediately. Still!

Hmm, that does make sense r.e. the characters. I've never heard those myths describe such perfect scenery either though! And I completely agree, the world is no worse than it ever was, it's just we have greater global access now. Imagine if social media existed during world war 2!

The Descent of Man sounds itneresting, might add it to the wishlist!

Wow, you've nearly hit my target for the year in one month! Happy reading in 2018

Happy reading in 2018!

OH and I had bacon sammiches for breakfast/lunch

Happy reading in 2018, Andrea!

Just to note Your Name isn't Student Ghibli - it's by Makoto Shinkai. I make the distinction because I've been a fan of his for years, and Your Name is now the highest grossing anime film of all time, surpassing Spirited Away, so the distinction is important (certainly to him!) and also I think for crediting him appropriately. His films are superb, but tend to be lumped in with Studio Ghibli (a huge inspiration for him), but I don't really like Ghibli apart from Totoro and I adore Shinkai. Heartily recommend Five Centimetres Per Second, also by him, and the OVA Voices of a Distant Star, which he animated and did the voice work for at home with his wife. The last film I watched was the new Blade Runner with Ryan Gosling - meh. Before that, Arrival - excellent alien 'invasion' film focusing on attempts at communication using a world expert translator. Had the heart that Interstellar lacked while being pretty epic at the same time!

Happy reading in 2018!

It's cool and bright, meant to be dry for the next few days thankfully!

Hi Trevor! Happy reading in 2018. I don't think there will be much overlap in our reading habits, going by the above books! I love the idea of sci-fi and fantasy but they usually leave me a little cold! That said, there's a couple of exceptions - the fairly soft space opera Radiance by Catherynne Valente. It's really not at all focused on the space elements, they just happen to be the backdrop for a story about disappearance, loss, stories, the search for truth etc. But it's very good.

Well it's great that you're doing that Michelle, a lot of people probably wouldn't bother except under duress! Developing Leadership sounds scary to me, I am a quiet little sheep! Presentations are not fun, I've never liked doing them. Still though, at least it's not a wholly new subject, it's just building on what you already know and have experience of, so hopefully that will help

I was also probably spoiled a bit by the films - in the films I get a sense of Gimli's pride, Legolas's quiet self-assurance (the two of which turn into a death-count-battle in the third film!), Aragorn's nobility, Merry and Pippin's buddy-comedy pairing, Sam's loyalty etc. I got a bit of Sam's loyalty from the book alright, but little of the rest. Also, I love emotions in books, I love dark and scary, psychologically disturbing, heart-wrenching etc, and I still don't feel that was the focus of Fellowship. It's also why a lot of chick-lits don't appeal to me - writing characters that really speak to me is tough. Solace, by Belinda McKeon, is an example of a book that I adored and it was because I just got emotionally attached to the characters. On the flip side of all this, I also love straight up thrills, and will take them even with flat characters and ridiculous endings, like the endless 3-star thrillers I read. They're always 3-star reads, because they're just 'good', but they're so fun at the time!

Good luck with your degree module Michelle, what is it? I'll be back into assignments and study for my Masters soon, so I feel your anxiety!

It depends on the book. For the most part, I usually imagine particular places/scenes. And these will often be different from what is actually described, my brain takes a general cue and goes with it. For example, in a series of books I've read with a character called Stacey, with a particular accent, I imagined Stacey Solomon, the singer from X-Factor, who has what I imagine to be a similar accent. Turns out book-Stacey is actually black. The latest book was based around hate crimes, and as such her colour became a focus and now I have a good mental picture of what she actually probably looks like. She's also pretty kick-ass, I'm glad she got a stronger part in the books. I definitely associate certain names with certain colourings - Vanessas are blonde, for example. I don't know why. Mikeys, Mikes, Mickeys, Michaels etc have dark short hair. (Thinking of examples from recent reads). Bridgets are red-heads, I grew up with a red-head Bridget! Almost no man has a beard unless explicitly stated in the book. I still remember the interiors of houses and landscapes I've imagined from other books. Hills, moors, warm cottagey kitchens and a living room with a wall of pure window/glass. The alleyway behind a row of houses where a murder victim was dragged (allegedly). In a book I finished yesterday, about a wasp nest, an ill baby and weird dreams the baby's older brother has, I can picture the bathroom, the older boy's bedroom window, the position of the nest on the house. The nest is on the right, as you're facing the house, around the corner by the roof, near a tree, and the tree is close to the brown wooden fence bordering the property. None of those details were in the book, just that the nest was under the baby's window. So I picture the baby's window being in the upside-down V the roof creates, and the nest under it, even though I know that's incorrect as there is an unused attic above the windows!

How you doing 29 days in? Happy reading, however many books you read

Belated happy birthday! I really enjoyed Miss Peregrine. Haven't seen the film - they changed a couple of core features, like one of the character's abilities, and that put me off a little. The book is worth it for the photographs, too. Chinese all-you-can-eat sounds great - I've only been to one, in Hamburg, and it was absolutely dire! We don't have much in the way of buffets like that where I live, and I LOVE food, so I was so excited to try it. Everything was dry and lukewarm, tasted like it had been sitting there all day. Hopefully someday I'll get to go to a good one!

Dinner this eve will be a roast of chicken potatoes and winter veg

Yesterday I read The Nest by Kenneth Oppel, a middle-grade psychological horror. I know right?! As if kids that age aren't already suffering from anxiety enough But seriously, it was a really good read. I also finished The Good People by Hannah Kent over the weekend, really enjoyed that too. Now reading The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor, and really enjoying that too! Yay for a run of good books.

Well, that definitely can't have helped! Notably I rate books by how much I enjoyed them, not how objectively good I think they are, because I'm not qualified to do that. Hence a fluff book getting five stars when a literary classic did not. (ETA: When I say things like 'this just isn't very good', I don't always qualify them with 'in my opinion'. Coz that's what reviews are, opinions!) Same with books like The Essex Serpent. I can see the value, but I didn't really enjoy it. I love the intricacy and depth of the world, but that in itself I feel should have given the characters much more depth. For me, the physical journey seemed to take precedence over almost everything. The relationship between Arwen and Aragorn took about three sentences, whereas it could have been explored as it was in the film. I loved the dialogue, the big conversations when they happened, but I just felt it had very little heart. Or, what heart there was was obscured by descriptions of plant life!

Overcast but dry!

Glad you enjoyed Thin Air - I agree, it was good but not as good as Dark Matter.

I quite enjoyed the new season. I agree it probably wasn't as good as past series, but I did enjoy it. I really liked the helicopter parent episode. Watching that season also finally caught my partner's interest, and now we're rewatching all of it together. I'm so glad he's enjoying it!

Middlesex is one I've been putting off for years, and I have no idea why!