Stationery Haul!

Since it’s back to school season I thought I would do a bit of a stationery haul of some bits and bobs I’ve collected over the last few months and items that I’ve had for a while.  A lot of the things I have bought to use ready for when I start my masters degree in October. I talk a lot more in depth about what I’ll be studying and how I applied, in this blog post here. But let’s get started with the haul!

I’m going back to uni!

Upon completing my undergraduate degree in English Literature in the summer of 2015, I vowed to myself that I would never go back into education. I hadn’t hated my time at university! I made friends for life and studied texts that I had previously never heard of; some of which are now firm favourites. But, admittedly, I had found the whole experience was very stressful.

I never thought that I would be passionate enough about a subject that would warrant me undertaking that kind of stress and pressure again, yet alone to do a Masters degree on it. Apparently, I was wrong!

February TBR

This month I’m planning on sticking to “one book per week” to keep on top of this year’s reading goal. Here are the books I’m hoping to read in the month of February:

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – J.R.R Tolkien
2. I Am Malala – Malala Yousafzai
3. Nimona – Noelle Stevenson
4. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman – Mary Wollstonecraft

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January Wrap-Up

You may think that an English Literature graduate would be used to reading multiple books in a week. And you would be right! However, the majority of the texts I studied were actually plays, and are of course significantly shorter than your average novel.

So this month I’m really pleased with how many books I have managed to read! It may not sound like a lot to some people, but four books in four weeks really is an accomplishment for me!

I’m aiming to read 40 books this year, and I am hoping that I’ll be able to maintain this reading momentum throughout the year!

Please feel free to comment if you have read any of the following books, or if you have any tips on how to prevent potential reading slumps 🙂

‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’ by Ransom Riggs

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I had first heard about this book on Jesse The Reader’s Youtube channel, since it is such a favourite of his. It was one of those titles which stuck in the back of my mind and kept me thinking “I need to read that book!”.

‘Havisham’ by Ronald Frame

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is one of my favourite novels of all time, and for me the gothic character of Miss Havisham is also probably one its most loved characters. Her mysterious past has always intrigued me, and I always found the scenes at Satis House to be the most engaging. Havisham serves as both a prequel to and an alternative retelling of Great Expectations.

The Martian ★★★★

I had first heard about the book The Martian by Andy Weir a few months before I discovered that it was being made into a film. I knew then that I had to go and see it! The concept of the book intrigued me so much and I felt that it had so much potential to be a great film!

MacBeth ★★★

The tragic story of Macbeth was not new to me, after studying it a number of times both at school and university. I was intrigued to see what this new adaptation of a Shakespearean classic would achieve, especially with the greater opportunities for scope that film offers.

Legend ★★★★★

I had first been introduced to the history of the Kray twins in an episode of the BBC’s Whitechapel. I hadn’t even seen the trailer and I went to the cinema simply knowing that the film was about the Kray twins, and that Tom Hardy had the lead role. What else would I need to know?!