DIVERGENT!

This book is unreal! I became so addicted to it and I just couldn't put it down! I'm sure you have heard of it since it has been made into a film which will be released in March. The trailer of the movie looks amazing, I just hope that it does do justice to the book.

You can watch the trailer here

But anyway, this is a blog about books so lets get back to it... Divergent is a type of distopian novel, set in a world where factions, or groups, exist. There are five groups which all value certain personality traits: Amity values kindness, Candor values truth, Dauntless values bravery, Abnegation values selflessness and Erudite values intelligence. On their 16th birthday each child must sit a test to determine which faction they are most suited for and then they must choose to either leave the faction they grew up in, or to stay. The protagonist, Beatrice Prior, is different however. She doesn't just have an affinity for one faction, she is potentiall suited for three. In this dystopian world, such results are rare. People are afraid of those who are divergent and so Beatrice must keep her test results a secret and choose one faction to join. However when war breaks out amongst the factions, it is clear that Beatrice's divergence may have more of an impact in society than she originally thought...

I have to say that I loved Beatrice. She is such a stong female character but she also has a lot of flaws, which makes her even more likable. The novel focusses on Beatrice's development from being a shy, quiet girl into a strong, calculated young lady. That's why I enjoyed the book so much; it never stops being an adventure from page one! There are also a lot of surprises within the plot, things that turn out to be false when you believed them to be true. This adds to the excitement of the novel as a whole. I think that Beatrice has to be one of my favourite female protagonists. I love how she is inteligent and brave and selfless and strong all at the same time, which I guess is the whole point since she is divergent and does not have an affinity for only one character trait. Since the novel is written in first person, from Beatrice's point of view, it is really exciting because we as readers are not able to see the whole picture, we only know what Beatrice knows. It also allows the readers to become emotionally attached to Beatrice because she confides in us and we are able to see how she truly feels and thinks. She can hide things from the other characters but she can't hide them from us.

Here's a quote that a dear friend sent me that I feel really sums up my love for Beatrice:
"When reading, we don't fall in love with the characters' apprearance. We fall in love with their words, their thoughts and their hearts. We fall in love with their souls."

Readers are inspired and encouraged by the characters that they read about in novels and I think that Beatrice definately has the abilty to inspire and encourage young ladies (and gentlemen too of course) out there with the certain positive character traits that she has :)

Within the plot there is also some romance elements, which brings a nice relief to all the violence that goes on. But even though this didn't play a major role in the plot, I am worried that in the next two books their relationship will become more of a focus and it might turn out to be a little Twilight-esque. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

The novel ended on a juicy cliffhanger and I really can't wait to see what the world of Divergent has in store for our heroine. I just hope that the rest of the trilogy is as good as beginning was :)

You can get Divergent from Amazon by following this link

Electronic Books vs Real Books

Last year my mum bought me a Kindle for my birthday. She made sure to ask me if it was something that I really wanted because she knew how dead set against the idea of electronic books I was. When they were first released I turned up my nose to the whole concept. Part of the reading experience is being able to hold a book and turn the pages (also, books smell lovely! And a Kindle...doesn't). Furthermore, I was slightly concerned for the future of 'real' books, I mean, if everyone has an electronic book then people will no longer need real ones and they will stop being made...a real travesty :(

But nevertheless my mum thought that it would be a good thing for me to have, both because I am a book fanatic and the fact that I would be able to get so many books for free! Also it takes up less space and she constantly gets annoyed when I buy more books because my shelves are literally bursting. So before she bought it I decided to have a trial period and use my sister's one for a couple of months to see if I would be able to get used to the idea of reading on a screen.

Even though I much prefer to read 'real' books, I have to say that the Kindle was actually ok to read on. The fact that I can't turn any physical pages doesn't annoy me as much as I thought it would. Also there are so many free books on Amazon that I could download; when I first got it I was like a kid in a sweet shop! As well as all that, it's also very handy to carry around whilst traveling because it's super light. I also haven't stopped acquiring 'real' books, much to my mother's annoyance, but I can't help it, it's a serious addiction :)

In conclusion, I do still really prefer to read 'real' books but I also don't mind reading on my Kindle. I mean, as long as I'm able to read, who cares about the format of the book!

Reading Challenge

In January of 2013 I decided to record all the books that I read within the year, just because I was curious to see how many I would manage to get though, and also because it would be fun to look over the list (well fun for me anyway). In the beginning of 2014 I tallied all the books up and the grand total was 44, which may not seem like that many, but as an extremely busy university student I was rather impressed with myself. So my only New Years resolution for 2014 was to try and beat that total, to try and read more than 44 books by 2015.

Now it's February and I've read three books so far: Dracula by Bram Stoker, Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams and Utopia by Thomas More.

More's Utopia was really very interesting. The book was first published in 1516 and so I was amazed and astounded by how progressive it was. The novel discusses the fictional country of Utopia, a place where there is no poverty or war or crime. It is, as the title suggests, a utopia. The novel itself almost reads like a manual, a 'how to' guide to creating such a place.
There were many concepts within the book that greatly impressed me, considering that it was written in the 16th century. This included: a welfare state with free hospitals, euthanasia permitted by the state, the fact that divorce is allowed and the tolerance of other people's religion. On the other hand, the Utopians seemed like quite limited people without enough free will (in my opinion) as their day to day lives are strictly regimented and structured. As a whole I found the experience of reading Utopia rather eye opening and compelling (even though it doesn't read like a traditional novel). So if you're up for something that will make you think and question the society we currently live in, then I suggest you give it a read.

Mostly Harmless is the last official book in Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. I say 'official' because Eoin Colfer (the amazing author of Artemis Fowl) wrote a sixth book after Adam's death to round off the series. So the sixth book, titled And Another Thing, is part of the Hitchhiker's series but is not actually written by the guy who wrote the rest of the series in the first place. It, like the nature of this delightful collection of books, is all very confusing. Mostly Harmless, like the books that came before it, is absolutely hilarious! It's very fast paced (took me about a day to finish reading it) with a plot that is a random as it is funny. Even though I did prefer the first book in the series (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Mostly Harmless was incredibly entertaining.   

Dracula was also a pleasant surprise. It started off very slowly because nothing much really happens at the beginning. But then it got increasingly better. The whole story is told in the form of diary entries and letters which I thought was a rather interesting literary technique. This definitely helped to pick up the pace of the novel because different characters are able to tell their side of the story in short bursts, and so it begins to flow more nicely. I was mostly surprised by the plot itself. I had heard a lot about the story of Dracula before reading the novel (I mean he is probably the most famous vampire in the world, even more so then that bloody Edward Cullen!) and so I assumed that it would be quite a terrifying read. But it wasn't really. I guess that at the time it was written (1897) readers would have been frightened by the idea of a blood sucking shape shifter, but I wasn't so much. I was more fascinated by the historical significance of the novel. Two of the most interesting concepts for me was the whole vampire legend itself (Stoker pretty much defined the idea of the 'vampire' that we know and love today), and the role that women played within the novel. One of the main characters, Mina Murray,  is not what I would call a typical Victorian woman. She is very clever and resourceful and she has a crucial role in helping to track down and kill Count Dracula. Even though she is often left at home whilst the men do all the 'dirty' work, I still regard her as a progressive character and a strong women, considering that the novel was written in 1897.
However, after all that I did find the ending slightly disappointing as it was rather anti-climactic, thus, a little bit of a let down. Overall, I did really enjoy the book but I don't think I'll be reading it again any time soon.

I hope you didn't find this post too long :) and that it gives you a little bit of an insight to my eclectic reading tastes. 

I made it!

I finally have a blog! After a year of being entertained and educated by other people's blogs (mostly those of my incredibly talented friends) I finally have one to call my own. So to start off this rather exciting (and a little terrifying if I'm being honest) journey, I thought that I should probably stick with what I know and with what I love. Conveniently, there is one thing that fits into both of those categories...books!

I love to read...a lot. I don't particularly have a 'type' of book or genre that I stick to (although I do enjoy sinking my teeth into a good dystopian novel), I just pretty much like to read anything, and everything, I can get my hands on!

Since being at university (I'm half way through my second year already, can you believe it!?) I have developed new literary interests and discovered so much in terms of literature and how amazing it is. This is why I've decided to start a Book Blog; a place filled with (hopefully) interesting and insightful comments and reviews of literature. The aim is, I guess, to share my reading journey with others and to try to inspire more people to pick up a book and read!

So I guess I better get started... :)