2015 READING CHALLENGE: JULY ROUND-UP

In July I read 7 books, meaning that I have read 38 books so far in 2015, and am 76% through my reading challenge.

For the past few months I've been in a bit of a mini reading slump. Until now. June was a pretty good month for me but in July I suddenly found loads of books I was dying to read (that's not happened for a while) and I read masses (which also hasn't happened for a while).

Books Read:

1. 'Magonia'- Maria Dahvana Headley
I was desperate to read Magonia, the cover is beyond beautiful and the story sounded amazing. However, it definitely wasn't what I thought it was going to be. I expected something beautiful and poetic and, though I really enjoyed it, I felt slightly let down by it. Saying that, I thought it was a great read and I would highly recommend it, I think my view was slightly clouded by my initial expectations.

2. 'Animal Farm'- George Orwell 
I started reading Animal Farm years ago but never finished it, which is ludicrous considering the fact that it's only slightly over 100 pages long. Despite the misleading name, Animal Farm is not a happy children's book about nice animals living on a nice farm. The story itself is really interesting in that it's about communism, with the different animals playing different important characters in the development of the communist movement. It's an interesting and informative read that I would recommend.

3. 'Red Queen'- Victoria Aveyard 
Red Queen has been criticised by many for being too similar to a lot of other dystopian books merged into one. This didn't bother me though, as it's been called a mix of some books that I really loved, and in my eyes that was a great thing. Like Magonia, I was really excited to read this book and, like Magonia again, I was a bit disappointed. I'd heard mixed reviews but it just wasn't as good as I thought it would be. I liked the story and I liked the mystery, but it could've been so much more.

4. 'Paper Towns'- John Green
Paper Towns is a book that I've had at the bottom of my TBR pile for about three years now and one that I was 90% sure I was going to give away without ever having read. The story itself didn't appeal to me and I've fallen out of love and into annoyance with John Green, so I wasn't really going to bother. In the end, I only read this because it was made the Booksplosion book of the month and I thought I might as well since I already owned it. This book though, I'm such a hypocrite but I absolutely loved it. I've read all of John Green's books (minus Will Grayson, Will Grayson) and this one is definitely the best by far. It wasn't what I thought it was going to be, I thought the first third of the book was the whole story, but that didn't bother me. I loved the road trip bit so much that it's really put me in the mood to read more road trip books. The film trailer looks good and I think Q and Margo are well cast. I loved this book. I can't believe I wasn't going to read it ever.

5. 'The Dream Thieves'- Maggie Stiefvater 
This book. Ohmygod this book. I fell in love with the Raven Boys in May and I've been desperately trying to hold off reading the next two published books until my holidays. This book has thrown me right back in there and I am obsessed. The second book is most often the weakest one in a series, but I actually think I loved this one even more than the first one. This book focused a lot more on Ronan and I have basically fallen in love with him. This series is one of my most favourite series ever, the covers are beautiful and, after I read the third one, I don't know how I'm going to be able to wait till 2016 for the final one. Highly, highly, highly recommend. Also would recommend following Maggie Stiefvater on twitter, she's brilliant.

6. 'Second Chance Summer'- Morgan Matson 
I'd never read a Morgan Matson book before this one, but I was in the mood for a summer contemporary set at the beach and this one seemed perfect. Overall I enjoyed this book, it's quite slow at first but it gets a lot better towards the end. It's very, very sad, and though you're prepared from the beginning for what's going to happen, it doesn't make the ending any less painful. I liked Morgan Matson's writing, and I'm looking forward to reading Amy and Roger's Epic Detour during the rest of the summer.

7. 'Heir of Fire'- Sarah J. Maas
This is the third book in the immensely popular Throne of Glass series, and I have now achieved my goal of reading all the currently published books before the fourth one, Queen of Shadows, comes out in September (I believe). I set myself a mini goal of reading this 560 page book before I went on holiday, aiming to start it on Sunday and finishing it on Thursday. I've always found the Throne of Glass books to be very enjoyable but very slow reads, partially due to the fairly small print, so I power read this book in order to achieve my goal, and managed to bash through the whole thing in my set goal time, mostly by reading around 100 pages a day, which is not how I normally read. I'd heard that Heir of Fire is the best book in the series so far and I completely agree. I really loved this one, a lot more than the others, and I'm really excited for the next book. I found this one to be not as slow paced as the others. It's worth reading the series just to read this one.

BOOK DEBATE #1: KINDLE VS. PHYSICAL BOOKS

It's an ongoing debate these days about whether ebooks or physical books are better. I'm planning a couple of book debates, starting with this one. In this case, physical books refers to both hardback and paperback, and kindle books refers to those read on either an actual Kindle on the Kindle app for Apple products. I have read books in all of these formats.

I'd also like to make a quick note here to say that there are some books actually available for reading on Goodreads. I first discovered this through the app, but you can actually read whole books on both the app and on www.goodreads.com/ebooks which I think is pretty cool. I haven't looked into it much yet, though I am planning to, but I'm pretty sure that some books you pay for but a lot are also free.

Sorry for the poor quality photo, my current read and the contents of my Kindle app, ft. Ikea duvet

I thought I'd start this argument with a pros and cons of each book format, before giving my personal opinion on the whole thing. Starting with kindle books, the main pro is that they are very often cheaper than buying an actual book. Saying that, I do only buy the books that cost £2 or less or are free. Another major perk of kindle books is that they are so much more portable. You can carry hundreds of books around in a kindle or on the kindle app, and it's so much smaller and lighter than carrying even one book. The cons I have found with kindle books are that they're so sensitive, the slightest tap and the page will change or the font size will change or the page will turn sideways, it does annoy me. My biggest problem with them, however, is the fact that you never know how many pages there are in the book or how many pages in the chapter you're reading. As someone who reads books in blocks of chapters, I like to know how long my chapter is before I start it.

Obviously for me, the main pro to physical books is that I just love, love, love them. I love paperbacks, I love being surrounded by paperbacks, I like the way physical books smell, I love holding a brand new book and being excited about it. To me, there's something infinitely satisfying about holding and reading a physical book. Another pro for me personally is just having books, I like the way they look together on my shelves and I like looking at them and that's just something you can't get on an e-reader. There are also cons to physical books, though. Accessibility being one of them. By this I mean that, with some books, you can't get them in your local book store or library, making life a whole lot more difficult, especially if you have to resort to online ordering. With kindle books, you can just go onto Amazon, click download, and the book is there on your kindle immediately. Simple as. The other major cons with physical books are ones that I have mentioned briefly in the pros of kindle books. Namely, money and space. Books, especially hardback books, are not cheap, £7/£8 for a paperback is not the nicest price, especially when many kindle books cost under £5. And space, there's just not enough room to keep all the physical books, no matter how nice they look.

Overall, I do see the plus side to both book formats. My mum loves her Kindle and I love my Kindle app (which is free on the app store, by the way), and Kindles are just so practical and useful that you can't fail to appreciate them. However, I'd have to say my loyalties lie with physical books. Though I love the Kindle prices sometimes, I will always choose a paperback over an e-reader any day, and you just can't beat the feel of a brand new or well loved physical book.

THE CONCEALER COMPARISON

I've been using the Collection Lasting Perfection concealer in Shade 1 for about a year now, but recently I've been wanting to try something new. I made a list of various concealers I was interested in from brands including Rimmel, Bourjois and L'Oreal. After trying them all out in Superdrug, I settled on the Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer in the shade Ivory, a cult favourite that I hadn't really considered until now. In my opinion, Rimmel is one of the best highstreet makeup brands.

I've heard that the Collection Lasting Perfection concealer is quite drying on your skin, I've always had dry skin, but I've been wondering lately if using the Collection concealer has anything to do with making it worse. I can't report back on whether or not the Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer is drying, however I have noticed that it's smoother and can be blended in so much better than the Collection concealer, without leaving noticable, slightly flakey makeup patches in its wake.

Another thing I've found that makes Rimmel Wake Me Up so much better than Collection Lasting Perfection is the colour matching. The Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer in Ivory is a much, much better match for my skin colour, so much so that I can't actually see it when it's on my skin. The Collection Lasting Perfection concealer in Shade 1 seems noticably way too light for my skin, whereas the Shade 2 is far too orange.

Don't get me wrong, I have been pleased with the Collection Lasting Perfection concealer, I think it's a bit thicker than the Rimmel Wake Me Up one, meaning that it gives spots slightly better coverage. It's just far too noticable and drying on my skin, whereas the Rimmel one appears to be much better suited to my skin type and much more subtle.

MY SUMMER HOLIDAY TBR

For those who don't know, TBR stands for 'To Be Read'. This is just going to be a quick post of the books I definitely, definitely want to read over the course of the summer holidays, a.k.a July and August.

1. 'The Dream Thieves'- Maggie Stiefvater
This is probably my most anticipated book of the summer, I read the first book in the Raven Boys series in May, and I absolutely loved it. I've been excited for months to read the second book, but I've been desperately trying to hold off until my holidays. I'm beyond excited to read this.

2. 'Blue Lily, Lily Blue'- Maggie Stiefvater
This is the third book in the Raven Boys series, and obviously I can't not read it. The cover for this book is beyond beautiful, I don't know how I'm possibly going to be able to wait till 2016 for the fourth and last book in the series to come out.

3. 'The Invasion of the Tearling'- Erika Johansen
I read the first book in this trilogy, 'The Queen of the Tearling', in the early months of this year, and the second one is coming out tomorrow, 16th July. I loved the first book and I'm really excited to see where the series is going.

4. 'Hier of Fire'- Sarah J. Maas
This is the third book in the Throne of Glass series, and basically I'm tyring to read the whole series so far before the fourth book comes out in September/October. This is going to be a six book fantasy series, plus one book of five novellas, it's very popular and I'd highly recommend.

5. 'The Kiss of Deception'- Mary E. Pearson
I've heard incredible things about this book, I've heard it has one of the biggest and most amazing plot twists and I've been dying to read this book for months. It finally comes out in paperback in August and I'm so excited.

6. 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' (trilogy)- Jenny Han
I've been really in the mood for a summer contemporary recently, I'm thinking something along the lines of 'We Were Liars', being set on the beach with romance and beach houses, etc., you know what I mean. I've heard good things about this trilogy, it sounds exactly like what I've been looking for, and I'm planning to read the entire trilogy over the summer months.

7. 'Second Chance Summer'- Morgan Matson
Another summer contemporary with the same kind of beach themes as 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' trilogy. The summer is the most perfect time for contemporary reads, and I've been really in the mood for them recently. I've never read a Morgan Matson books before but I've heard really good things about her.

8. 'Amy and Roger's Epic Detour'- Morgan Matson 
I'm really in the mood for a road trip book after reading 'Paper Towns', and this sounded the perfect mix of road trip and summer contemporary. This book is exactly what I'm in the mood for.

SCENE AND HEARD

I'm writing something a bit different today, but it is something that I think is very important. One of my very close family friends works for a charity called Scene and Heard, who work with children in Somers Town in Camden, many of whom come from very deprived backgrounds. Scene and Heard work with these children to help them write their own plays, which are then performed by professional actors. Scene and Heard is mostly run on a volunteer basis, with all the actors also being volunteers. 

Last night I was lucky enough to be able to see my first ever Scene and Heard show, 'Walking on Eggshells- the Sensitive Plays'. Each show is made up of mini plays written by the children, this one included 10 plays written by children aged 9-10. I can't quite remember the age at which children typically start Scene and Heard, which they are able to attend for free, but they often stay until the ages of 15-16. Each child works one-to-one with a volunteer 'Dramaturg' (as they call them), who helps the child write their play; the child has control of all aspects of their play, including the auditioning and choosing of their actors. One of my most favourtite things about Scene and Heard is the amazing creativity and imagination of the children. Favourite characters of mine from last night include Jeff the Toilet Paper, Tarty Glenson- a piece of tar from the road, and a bottle of Aloe Vera who wanted to be a doctor but couldn't, purely because you have to own a scalpel to be a doctor. 

Scene and Heard are a fantastic charity, and it's hard to do it justice without seeing it for yourself. 'Walking on Eggshells- the Sensitive Plays' are being performed until Sunday 12th July, and I encourage you all to contact the box office on 020 7388 9008 and see if you can come along and watch. Tickets are free, though audiences are encouraged to make donations if they can. Scene and Heard is so important, and I am so excited for my next show. I will link the website below.

http://www.sceneandheard.org/

Rosie 

SUMMER HOLIDAY GOALS

I haven't done a goals post in a good few months, potentially not since December. I always enjoyed writing goals posts so, since I've officially been on my summer holidays for around a week now, I thought I'd do a goals posts for the next two months of my holiday break.

1. Redecorate my Room
This is probably my number one goal for the summer (hence it being number one on the list). I've been planning on redecorating my bedroom for about two summers now, and (I know I say this every year) but this is definitely the year. I've begun the processes of going through all my clutter and getting rid of things I don't want or no longer have any use for, and so far it's going very well. The bedroom decoration is 101% happening.

2. 'The Novel Goal' (as I Like to Call it)
For as long as I can remember I've written books/stories/poems for myself. I haven't written anything for ages, and it's always been a personal goal of mine to write a whole novel (not to do anything with, just to have a whole one written), and I've decided that that's one of the things I want to do this summer. I have so many ideas and I'm excited to get started.

3. Get Back Into my Blogging Groove
It's no secret that I've not got back into my blogging groove since Blogmas way back in December. I always find getting back into blogging in the New Year to be slow going, but this year its been awful. I've been so so busy, but I've also just not been feeling motivated and I've been forgetting to post. I want to change this, and I'm hoping these next two empty months will help me get my blogging mojo back.

4. Driving Things
Basically this means that I want to restart my driving lessons this summer and do my theory test. I'd say that the theory test bit is the most important section of this goal, as passing it during the summer gives me one less thing to worry about next academic year. I also want to restart my driving lessons in the holidays as I will (hopefully) be going to uni in September 2016, and so I want to be able to drive before I go.

5. Take More Photos
Basically I want to document my life more this summer and have pictures of me and my friends just because they make me happy.

6. Carrying on Eating Healthily  
Basically I've been trying to eat healthily and I want to carrying on eating more healthily. That is all.

7. Start Exercising 
This is one of my New Years Resolutions that I have yet to start. I need to get fit. I want to exercise on a regular basis. That's all.