Book A Day | #19 and #20

Day 19 - Travelling Home Reading This

Although this picture was clearly not taking whilst travelling, I did read this as I came home from uni a couple of weeks ago, ready for the festivities to kick in. Check out my review of the book here

Day 20 - Set Where I live

I don't have a picture for this one, but I do have a poem for you guys:

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!

It isn't fit for humans now, 

There isn't grass to graze a cow. 

Swarm over, Death!

Come, bombs and blow to smithereens

Those air -conditioned, bright canteens, 

Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans, 

Tinned minds, tinned breath.

Mess up the mess they call a town-

A house for ninety-seven down

And once a week a half a crown 

For twenty years.

And get that man with double chin

Who'll always cheat and always win, 

Who washes his repulsive skin 

In women's tears:

And smash his desk of polished oak

And smash his hands so used to stroke

And stop his boring dirty joke

And make him yell.

But spare the bald young clerks who add

The profits of the stinking cad;

It's not their fault that they are mad, 

They've tasted Hell.

It's not their fault they do not know 

The birdsong from the radio, 

It's not their fault they often go 

To Maidenhead

And talk of sport and makes of cars

In various bogus-Tudor bars 

And daren't look up and see the stars

But belch instead.

In labour-saving homes, with care

Their wives frizz out peroxide hair

And dry it in synthetic air

And paint their nails.

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough

To get it ready for the plough.

The cabbages are coming now;

The earth exhales.

Pleasant, I know. But let's be realistic, this little town on the edge of London still isn't the nicest of places, though Betjeman may have been a tad extreme here.

What were your choices?

Steph

Book a Day | Day 18 Massive Tome

Let's be real, I haven't read this. BUT it is sat on my bookshelf every day, glaring at me and has been doing so for years. I will get to it, one day. 

The massive tome I really wanted to use was Bleak House, but I seem to have left my copy of it at uni. Check out my brief look into crime in Bleak House here

What's your choice?

Steph

Book A Day catch Up Pt 2 | Days 13-17

Day 13 | Stocking Filler

So, once again I've fallen behind - this time for a better reason though. I've been up to my neck in hectic essay writing!

This is one of my favourite copies of a text - it's a second hand Twelfth Night I picked up in The Paperback Exchange in Bognor Regis. As my smallest book, this would be a brilliant stocking filler (you'd have to be seriously in my good books though!).

Day 14 | Read at School

This is probably the only school text that I actually own! But it is also one of my faves. Despite my housemate and fellow English Lit student abhorring its existence, I love Fitzgerald's writing.

Day 15 | Favourite Colour Cover

Okay, you might not be able to see a great deal of the colour of this cover, BUT it is my favourite. 

Day 16 | For Someone I Love

Cue a tonne of n'awwws, but I'd give this to my nan. Despite my best efforts, neither my boyfriend, nor my immediate family particularly enjoy reading, or at least see the point in it in a similar way to me. Apart from nan who loves historical fiction. As this is my nicest copy of a Philippa Gregory book, I think I'd give this to her.

Day 17 | Something Funny

Let's be real, is anyone surprised that I chose this? Check out my review of this hilarious novel here. It's got pretty much everything you need for a witty tale of love and loss.

What were your choices?

Steph

Book-A-Day #11 & #12 | Christmas Classic and Book of Poems

So, I've already failed in keeping up with doing this everyday, whoops! I had a bit of a hectic day trying to do research for an essay (and watching What Happens in Vegas with pizza). But, I'm making up for it today!

Harry Potter will probably always be my most Christmassy of reads. I don't think anybody can read them and not remember the hideous jumpers that the Weasleys receive every year out of the kindness of their mother's heart. Or Harry's invisibility cloak. I also don't think you can read them without wanting to spend a Christmas at Hogwarts. Their Yule Ball and atmosphere is just so lovely. Plus, y'know, the films are always on here in the UK over this period.

Now, Hardy's poems are one of very few books of poems I own, though he's far from my favourite poet. Donne takes that title. I'm gonna leave you guys with my favourite ever poem here, cause I think it's something everyone should get the chance to read. And, if you want to check out something a bit raunchy for a 17th Century poem, go to his "The Flea", or the majority of his short poems!

The Broken Heart

He is stark mad, whoever says,
    That he hath been in love an hour,
Yet not that love so soon decays,
    But that it can ten in less space devour ;
Who will believe me, if I swear
That I have had the plague a year?
    Who would not laugh at me, if I should say
    I saw a flash of powder burn a day?

Ah, what a trifle is a heart,
    If once into love's hands it come !
All other griefs allow a part
    To other griefs, and ask themselves but some ;
They come to us, but us love draws ;
He swallows us and never chaws ;
    By him, as by chain'd shot, whole ranks do die ;
    He is the tyrant pike, our hearts the fry.

If 'twere not so, what did become
    Of my heart when I first saw thee?
I brought a heart into the room,
    But from the room I carried none with me.
If it had gone to thee, I know
Mine would have taught thine heart to show
    More pity unto me ; but Love, alas !
    At one first blow did shiver it as glass.

Yet nothing can to nothing fall,
    Nor any place be empty quite ;
Therefore I think my breast hath all
    Those pieces still, though they be not unite ;
And now, as broken glasses show
A hundred lesser faces, so
    My rags of heart can like, wish, and adore,
    But after one such love, can love no more.

What would your choices have been?

Steph