Top Ten Book Quotes

1. “I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race - that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant... I am haunted by humans.”- Death in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

2. "What I'm feeling, I think, is joy. And it's been some time since I've felt that blinkered rush of happiness. This might be one of those rare events that lasts, one that'll be remembered and recalled as months and years wind and ravel. One of those sweet, significant moments that leaves a footprint in your mind. A photograph couldn't ever tell its story. It's like something you have to live to understand. One of those freak collisions of fizzing meteors and looming celestial bodies and floating debris and one single beautiful red ball that bursts into your life and through your body like an enormous firework. Where things shift into focus for a moment, and everything makes sense. And it becomes one of those things inside you, a pearl among sludge, one of those big exaggerated memories you can invoke at any moment to peel away a little layer of how you felt, like a lick of ice cream. The flavour of grace." - Charlie in Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

3. "If you stop to think about it, you’ll have to admit that all the stories in the world consist essentially of twenty-six letters. The letters are always the same, only the arrangement varies. From letters words are formed, from words sentences, from sentences chapters, and from chapters stories." - The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

4. “And this, really, is the story-within-the-story, because if you do not believe that hearts can bloom suddenly bigger, and that love can open like a flower out of even the hardest places, then I am afraid that for you the world will be long and brown and barren, and you will have trouble finding the light.
But if you do believe, then you already know all about magic.” - Liesl and Po by Lauren Oliver

5. “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o’clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.” - David Copperfield in David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

6. “I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was.” - Jacob in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

7. “I have for the first time found what I can truly love–I have found you. You are my sympathy–my better self–my good angel–I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my centre and spring of life, wrap my existence about you–and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one.” Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

8.  “My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die.
I counted.
It happened on the Jellicoe Road. The prettiest road I’d ever seen, where trees made breezy canopies like a tunnel to Shangri-La. We were going to the ocean, hundreds of miles away, because I wanted to see the ocean and my father said that it was about time the four of us made that journey. I remember asking, 'What’s the difference between a trip and a journey?' and my father said, 'Narnie, my love, when we get there, you’ll understand,' and that was the last thing he ever said.” - Narnie in On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

9.   “The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone... she was no longer the careless color of sea foam, but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night.” - The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

10.  "You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own, than when you almost broke it eight years and a half ago." - Captain Wentworth in Persuasion by Jane Austen

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

Mag Monday: Cleo and Vogue October Editions

Cleo, October 2012

• I really don't like the cover. It looks like a pap shot, and Miranda isn't even looking at the camera. I also have zero interest in "friendship secrets from The Shire" and rolled my eyes at the "Fifty Shades of Grey sex challenge". Ugh.
• I was surprised to see the 50 Shades feature on page 26 - the sexy stuff is usually towards the middle of the mag. Then I realised it wasn't the sex challenge mentioned on the cover, but "50 Shades of Greed: Here's how to write your own erotic masterpiece. How hard can it really be?!" Despite inwardly groaning about the fact that there's already been two 50 Shades references and I'm only on page 26, the feature is pretty funny - basically taking the piss out of E.L. James and the characters she stole created.
• "Can you buy your dream life?" has deputy ed Tania Gomez trialling the celeb life for a week. It's a great feature, but sigh, I wish I was rich and could live like that. 
• "Dairy-free milk decoded" is a really useful piece on the pros and cons of the different milk alternatives. Apparently you have to be careful to get brands with no additives. It seems like quinoa is the way to go if you can afford it, while oat milk is the closest you can get in texture/taste to dairy skim milk.
• I totally want to try Dirty Dancing Aerobics after reading about it in the "Everbody dance now" feature. Xtende Barre also sounds interesting but a little intimidating. I ain't going anywhere near Konga - it sounds worse than Zumba, and I was way too scared to try that.
• So, the Fifty Shades of Grey sex challenge is actually one very brave writer trialling different sex scenes from the book with her even braver new boyfriend, which is interesting to say the least. Apparently, the nipple-tweaking that gives Ana her first orgasm results in nothing but frustration and sore nipples for two days; the silk tie scene is hot but the guy feels like he's getting, um, the raw end of the deal; the spanking is OK as a one-off; and doing it in a hotel room bath (minus the whole period/tampon removal part) is amazing. Righteo...
• "Choose your own adventure" is a fun travel feature, with suggested locations broken down into different priorities like food, pampering, shopping, relaxing and so on. I wish I was travelling right now...
• Fashion includes crop tops (so can't go there), "luxe" track pants (ditto), shorts (double ditto, sadface), a spring racing carnival style feature, neon (love) and Cleo's very own range of swimmers with Billabong.

Vogue, October 2012

• LOOOOVE the cover, which my crappy photography doesn't do justice to. Beautiful shot, lovely colours and a gold foil to top it off. The photo shoot of Lana Del Rey inside is simply stunning, too.
• "Affirmation nation" is an insightful feature about the potential harm of positive self-talk. Research has shown that while affirmations slightly help those who already have high self-esteem, they can make people with low self-esteem feel worse. The feature outlines the importance of having a realistic frame of reference, taking into account both positive and negative aspects in life, and to use "moderate" affirmations to reassure yourself, rather than positive ones that can make you feel like a failure.
• There's a really beautiful shoot with the leading ladies of the Legally Blonde musical (which I saw a couple of weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised by how awesome and fun it was). 
• "The female lead" is an entertaining and interesting opinion piece by Christine Jackman on whether women make better leaders than men. Spoiler alert: The conclusion is no - sure, women can be great leaders, but they can also be terrible leaders - just like men. That's equality.
• "Sweet serenade" is another gorgeous photoshoot featuring up-and-coming Aussie female singers like Jessica Mauboy, Kimbra and Washington.
• The fashion is completely unattainable, as always - but I guess that's kinda the point with Vogue.

 

Friday Link Dump: Banned Books, Cute Animals and Zac Efron

 
A very talented teenager created these cool covers for Hogwarts textbooks. Kids these days...

This collection of photographs of the real-life people who inspired famous literary characters is fascinating. My favourite is the "real" Dorian Gray. He is very pretty.

Read famous authors' responses to their books being banned. It will make you smile and/or clap.

Did you know you can get Game of Thrones cons? They're pretty ugly. Much cuter merch can be found here. Ahem.
 
This piece on hate blogs is really fascinating, especially in light of recent book blogging dramz.

Everyone needs some Daily Animals in their life. Especially because, according to Science, looking at baby animals boosts your productivity. And makes your heart burst with squee. This website has taken the idea and run with it. You get a new cute kitteh picture for every hundred words you write. They should totally make a Ryan Gosling version. Forget Nanowrimo, I'd get that shit done in a day.

This genie IS a web genius. He guessed every single person I was thinking of. It's like he was IN MY MIND.

I'm totally addicted to making sound buttons. Here's one I prepared earlier.

This is what happens if you try to visit Dawson's actual creek. Eek.

This piece on Jezebel about a real-life baby beauty pageant experience is simultaneously hilarious and horrifying. Much like Toddlers and Tiaras, but more self-aware.

This real-life anime girl is kind of mind-blowing. Not necessarily in a good way.

This is the prettiest cheesecake I have ever seen. Mmm, cheesecake...
  
YouTube Clip of the Week
So adorable. Elmo ain't bad either.

 

Bookish Buys: Happy Banned Books Week!

Tote from Ban Book Banners

Button from Point Blank Progressive

Tee from Bookmans

Tote from Bibliogifts

Tee from Admin

Tee from Stupid Lamb Designs

 

Bracelet from ALA

Earrings from The Book Life

Earrings from Designs by Annette

Magnets by Tippy Tumble

Top Ten: Books You Shouldn't Forget About

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week, the topic is: Top Ten "Older" Books You Don't Want People To Forget About (you can define older however you wish. Basically just backlisted books you think are great. Basically the point is to share books that could be forgotten about in the midst of all the new releases).

This was a toughie, because I wasn't sure where to draw the line at "older". I decided to focus on the "forgetting" part, and came up with some books I think people have a tendency to overlook. So, in no particular order...

1. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. Such a stunning book that not enough people read.

2. The Baby-Sitters Club by Ann M. Martin. This series was such a major part of my childhood, but I fear it's kinda daggy now, which makes me sad. I know they tried to rejig and relaunch it a few years ago, but it didn't seem to really take off. BSC for life!

3. Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene. Like the BSC, I loved the Nancy Drew novels growing up, and I really hope people are reading them for generations to come. They're totally dated, of course, but that's part of their charm.

4. Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta. The Queen of YA has produced some amazing books in the past ten years, and she says herself Alibrandi is her "weakest" work - but even her weakest is absolutely brilliant. I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for what was, for a long time, the only Marchetta available.

5. Evelina by Fanny Burney. OK, I'm going really old-school for this one - Evelina came out in the 1700s! The epistolary novel isn't perfect, but it's entertaining enough, and more importantly it paved the way for female novelists like Jane Austen and the Brontes.

6. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell. I feel like Gaskell is overlooked too often in general, but North and South is undoubtedly the most popular of her novels, followed closely by Wives and Daughters. Mary Barton was her first novel, which she started writing to help move on from her grief over losing her son. It's tinged with darkness and sorrow, but is still a remarkable and lovely read.

7. The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy. This is another 'classic' author that I think gets overlooked quite frequently, but I adore The Forsyte Saga. Unlike many modern "sagas", this actually is one, spanning multiple generations in the Forsyte family and tracking the many dramas the clan attracts.

8. The Children of Men by P.D. James. Dystopia is (a little too) hot at the moment, but many of the new YA series being churned out just don't hold a candle to some of the older stuff - like The Children of Men, one of my favourite dystopias of all time. Chilling reading.

9. Checkers by John Marsden. This novella is probably one of Marsden's least-read works, but I still remember the first time I read it, when I was about 12. It shattered me.

10. The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time by Mark Haddon. I didn't know what to expect from this book about an autistic teenager when I read it for a book club a couple of years ago, but I was absolutely blown away. I recommend it to pretty much everyone.

Mini Review: Harry Potter, The Prequel by J. K. Rowling

I was so excited when I saw this on Goodreads. I think a Harry Potter prequel focusing on the adventures of the previous generation when they were at Hogwarts would be amazeballs. Sadly, that's not what this is. This is a brief scene that could take place if such a prequel were to exist. It follows James and Sirius as they speed around on their magical motorbike and taunt Muggle police. I think their cheekiness is supposed to be charming, but they came off a bit beastly, if you ask me. I'm inclined to agree with Snape's impression of the boys as buttheads. It doesn't help that there's absolutely no context for this scene - we have no idea why they're doing what they're doing, or why we should care (other than the fact they're Harry's father and godfather, of course). If an actual prequel is ever written, I do hope it focuses on Lily or Snape's perspective. J.K. Rowling, forget the adult stuff, we want moar magic!*

Rating: 3/5

*I haven't actually read The Casual Vacancy yet. But based on the summary I don't know that I'd bother if it wasn't J.K. Rowling. I'm just curious - like many others I'm sure - to see what her work is like outside of the Potter-verse.

September and October TV Addict Challenge Links

Because I am terrible and forgot to do a post for September, you can post your 2012 TV Addict Reading Challenge links for September AND October here!

Mag Monday: Zac Efron in BlackBook Oct/Nov 2012

Zac Efron with cute baby animals? I gotta get my hands on this magazine.

"Why yes, that is a bunny in my pocket."

"Did someone say fox? Oh, I brought an animal along too."

I have nothing remotely clever to say about this. It's too cute for words.

I will not say anything dirty. Definitely nothing about trouser snakes. Ahem.

Review: Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

This was the creepiest book I've ever read in my life.

I was expecting it to be moderately creepy. I've seen the American movie adaptation, Let Me In, and it had a couple of spooky moments but overall it didn't really make me jump. I liked the friendship that blossomed between a lonely, isolated boy and the vampire girl that had moved in next door. Aside from, you know, the bleeding from every orifice and the killing and all that, it was actually kind of a sweet story. I thought the book would be pretty much the same. It wasn't. It really, really wasn't. Forget making me jump - it practically made my hair turn white.

The story about the loner boy and vamp girl is still there, of course, but each character is definitely more creepy than their movie counterparts. Oscar, who is severely bullied, wears a sponge in his pants to soak up urine as he's constantly wetting his pants, and you feel sorry for him until he reveals his scrapbook of serial killers and starts fantasising about hacking up other kids. OK, they're his bullies but... he's one creepy little boy. No wonder he and Eli, the little vampire, get along so well. Eli, of course, is even creepier, with the ability to sprout not only fangs but wings and claws. Not to mention she's a perpetually prepubescent bloodsucker with a paedophile in tow.

Oh yes, the creepiest of the creepy - Eli's "father figure" isn't a little boy who followed her and got old, as in the movie - he's a paedophile who bribes her for sex with blood. It made me feel physically sick. But that's before things got really messed up... Cue a string of murders, people being accidentally turned into vampires, and an "accident" involving acid and attempted suicide, followed by one of the most violent attacks I've ever had the discomfort of reading, and this book makes for a painful, sickening and incredibly terrifying read.

As a horror, it works wonderfully. It's compelling and masterfully told. It contains probably the most bloodcurdling baddie I've ever come across (and I'm not talking Eli), and vividly gruesome imagery that stays in your mind for a long time. But it is not enjoyable at all. I like horror, I really do, but so much of this book made me cringe (read: hide under the covers). I still don't really know what to think of it or how I feel about it. It was a good book, but left me so deeply disturbed. Frankly, I'd rather not really think about it at all, ever again...

Rating: 4/5

Bookish (And Other Awesome) Links: The BSC, Mr Darcy and Trolls

Awful Library Books: the place where terrible books go to live.

These videos about the history of certain words, told in animation using paper cuttings, are awesome.

Only one of these facts about The Baby-Sitters Club blew my mind (Kirsten Dunst was a cover model for Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls!), but it's still a fun list.

Three words: Darcy paper doll. Go now. Lizzie is there too.

The story of how one man confronted his online troll. You'll never guess who it was. Intense reading. On a lighter note, this parody video about trolls made me chuckle.

As if my obsession with Joseph Gordon-Levitt wasn't already intense enough, Buzzfeed handily compiled a list of every gif from his Magic Mike dance you will ever need. And oh, will you need them.

The greatest moments in Australian history - Lego-fied. Not surprising that it's heavily sports-oriented, though I appreciate the The Castle inclusion.

The 50 most romantic photos of all time are as lovely as they sound.

Speaking of lovely, the gallery of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward will renew your faith in celebrity love. Plus Paul Newman was a total fox.

While we're on that subject - Alec Baldwin was, like, such a Baldwin when he was younger. 

I was obsessed with the Little Giants as a kid, so this kind of destroyed my childhood memories.

Have you ever seen Flamingos do their mating dance? Move over, Swan Lake...

Random YouTube clip of the week