December 2009
5 tags
2009 in CONCERTS
2009 was an amazing year for me, concert-wise. I got to see a lot of acts I love. Follow the links for my pictures/comments on the concerts.
The Killers One of the best shows of all time. I’ve seen videos on YouTube of other shows, I bought the “Live at Albert Hall”. Nope. NOTHING rivals the awesomeness that was the Aberdeen show, and all 8,000 of us screaming for 10 minutes...
5 tags
2009 in THEATRE
Theatre I attended this year.
Three Days of Rain In the West End. Starring: James McAvoy, Nigel Harman and Lyndsey Marshal. I saw this while it was in previews, and greatly enjoyed it. It probably helped that I am a huge fan of McAvoy’s. I met the cast afterwards and they were all very gracious, signed things and chatted. There were notes, but I expect that from any play in previews.
The...
4 tags
2009 in MOVIES
All 158 movies I watched this year. Some great, some awful, some decided by me, others forced on me. * = rewatched
The Dark Knight*
Mean Girls
LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring*
LOTR: The Two Towers*
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
The Dutchess
LOTR: Return of the King*
Calender Girls
The Nightmare Before Christmas*
The Jane Austen Book Club
Someone Like You
The Object of My...
Time for my 2009 Lists.
2 tags
3 tags
5 tags
3 tags
I'm making cupcakes today :)
wochet:
(via distantheartbeats)
i’m making a marmelade cake today :)
Pictures tomorrow?
I'm making cupcakes today :)
I cheated on 2666. Several times.
2666bookclub:
I’ve finished four books since I supposedly started 2666. I’m starting a fifth. It’s weird, I enjoyed what I had read so far (of 2666), almost to the point where I felt like I needed it to have my undivided attention. Being back home for the holidays, my nerves are constantly fried with family drama, and I’m constantly distracted by friends, by the revision that I should be doing,...
1 tag
Best Albums of the Decade: Golden Opportunities...
bibliotheque:
Golden Opportunities Mixtape by Okkervil River, 2007
Don’t get your panties in a twist, this is not the only entry by this band, one of my favorites, on this list but I had to include this. This is the best thing to listen to when you’re home by yourself. Covers are so very hit or miss but Okkervil nails every single one from the Nina Simone to the Serge Gainsbourg to the Joni...
4 tags
2 tags
Book Review: How to Read a Novel
WOOO I’M DONE WITH IT. I am so glad that I’m done with it!
You may think I’m being a bit dramatic, considering the book’s only 250 pages, and I spent two days reading it (not even two full days, just free minutes within them), so it’s not like it took me a long time. But it felt like time was dragging when I was reading it.
It’s not a bad book, per se....
3 tags
“Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives...”
– Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer
Today this seems so acutely true.
3 tags
2 tags
2 tags
"San Francisco would suit you."
All of my American friends want me to go work/live there for a little bit. I’ve never been, but they all seem pretty unanimous — they think that of all the cities in America, San Fran is mine. I’ve got to admit, I’m curious as hell. How can twenty people, most of whom have never met each other, agree on something like this?
2 tags
3 tags
“Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people. … The real...”
– Stephen King tells USA Today
THIS is what I’m talking about! Tell ‘em Stephen! (via raisedonrobbery)
Amen. (via walkwhilereading)
I love you Stephen King I love you Stephen King I LOVE YOU! I am so glad someone with some weight behind their name stood up and said this.
2 tags
If you were to get a tattoo, what would you get?
Alternatively, if you’ve got one, what is it?
I’ve been thinking about getting inked for years, and now I think I’m going to finally take the plunge. A while ago, I wrote a prose piece, and the last line was: I’ll swim to the shore, if you’ll only tell me that this is the sea. The thinking being, I’ll pull myself out of whatever situation I’m in right...
2 tags
1 tag
Classics I Should Have Read a Long Time Ago
printedandbound:
Sometimes we miss things. They fall through the net and are kind of forgotten. For instance, I just recently found out that carrots are supposedly good for your eyes. Never knew. I’m 31 years old and I never even accidentally heard that in passing or casual conversation. Seems like every time someone used the anecdote I had just walked out of the room. Another example - I...
3 tags
5 tags
I just had a fresh wave of anger
towards the girl who stole my copy of The Time Traveler’s Wife. I bought it before the craze started, before it was even available in paperback. It’s either a first or second edition. I loved it so much I gave it to my English teacher, who recommended it to the class, most of whom borrowed it from me. Even though normally I am very wary about lending books, I lent this one out...
“Being a writer? Not a bad thing, just a lonely thing. Sometimes the world you...”
– Fenoglio (Inkheart) (via floatingintheblue)
3 tags
I'm home for the holidays.
Home is Bahrain, which is in the Middle East. I go to university in the UK. I got home about a week ago and I head back in just over a week.
Anyway, reason I mention it is: normally I’m only about 4 or 5 hours behind everyone on tumblr. Now, when I post, it’s daytime for me and nighttime for everyone else, and am 8 hours behind.
Also in “real” life, whatever the hell that...
How many books do you own?
I have almost 600 — all accumulated since I was ten. I didn’t inherit any from my parents, I bought them all myself using all my pocket money, or got them as presents (mainly the former).
3 tags
I promised myself I wouldn't buy any more books.
Because, since June of this year, I have bought over 120. I’ve read about 30 of them. I also happen to be a university student with lots of set texts to read, so it’s not like I can rush through the other 90. Regardless, I’m buying:
War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy (a wonderful edition — hardback and in three volumes) A Far Cry from Kensington, Muriel Spark The Brief Wondrous...
2 tags
Book Review: Handle With Care
I’ve read quite a few Jodi Picoult books. This seems to surprise a lot of people, and I’m not sure why. I think it’s because I’m always searching for something written in a really original way, or scouring modern classics and disregarding half of them. I don’t know. Either way, it surprises people that I not only read Picoult, I enjoy it. The Pact remains close to...
I am related to a bunch of assholes.
bibliotheque:
They got me a shit ton (SHIT TON) of books and dvds that I wanted but they wrapped each one individually with TONS of tape, leading to me having to cut open each one with scissors. Then they reminded me how “cutting with scissors” was the only thing I failed on my kindergarten report card.
FA LA FUCKING LA LA LA LA LA.
Hey now. Considering the start of the post began with...
2 tags
I'm over 5,000 words into my short story.
I really like it. I hope everyone else does, too, but I actually don’t care. I do.
Jodi Picoult books are a lot less intriguing if
you know, almost unequivocally, which side you’d be on.
2 tags
3 tags
“A gift of improvising
removes me from revising
I make a daisy chain from...”
– Musicians, Please Take Heed, God Help the Girl
2 tags
“I like songs about drifters, books about the same
They both tend to make me...”
– The World at Large, Modest Mouse
1 tag
Book Review: Heroes
This is going to be a short review, because it was a short book, a mere 100 pages. I loved it though. The reason I read this is funny. I saw it my little brother’s room (he’s 17). He’s not a reader at all, but he had to read it for school, and I just couldn’t look myself in the eye if he had read a single book that I hadn’t (apart from the A Series of Unfortunate...
2 tags
Book Review: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
“Tomas did not realise at the time that metaphors are dangerous. Metaphors are not to be trifled with. A single metaphor can give birth to love,” Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Oh, how to describe this book. Bear with me as I try.
It’s beautiful. It’s prosaic, philosophical and romantic. Romantic not in the sense of relationships — because I...
3 tags
Book Review: Let the Great World Spin.
“So much of her time is spent like this: dreaming up things to say and never quite saying them,” Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin
My love for Colum McCann’s work is limitless, I think. I think he’s one of the most talented writers still producing work today. I think his words are beautiful, touching and sharply written, I think he writes poetry in novels, and I...
2 tags
Book Review: The Princess Bride
This was an interesting book to read. In fact, this was a book I was pushed to through two things: people who reference the movie and tumblr. Well done, tumblr-people.
First let me say how utterly silly I feel that I actually believed the book was an abridgment, and that it was originally written by “Morgenstern” for what was about three-quarters of the book. Then I got on the Net...
2 tags
God, I love my bed at home so much.
I am in it right now, comfortably leaning back with my six pillows and my lovely duvet cover and my laptop balanced on my knee. I love my bed! I know it sounds silly but honestly, it is IMPORTANT to love your bed. Dorm beds told me this.
4 tags
All three books have been chosen :)
aloneinkioto, stillrandom, pejmanpejman — please email me (email’s at the top of my tumblr) with your names and address. The books will be in the post within a week.
Happy holidays :) x
2 tags
“So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book — although...”
– You’ve Got Mail
2 tags
Tumblr - My Holiday present to you.
So, I’ve decided that as a holiday present, I’m going to give away three books. A lot of you are lovely followers, and many followed me because of my constant posts about books, so hopefully this will appeal to someone.
How it works is simple. The titles of the books are below. If you want one, just reblog and tell me which one it is you want. There’s no catch. Only rule is you...
2 tags
4 tags
“When you’re close to tears remember
Someday it’ll all be over
One...”
– High, Lighthouse Family
1 tag
3,500 words into the aforementioned story.
I love my characters and am SO HAPPY.
1 tag
“Evie Diphda was a girl. When she was six, she got her hair cut into a fringe,...”
– Laala Kashef Alghata (aka me).
I wanted to ask a favour of all of you. Can you “like” this if you would read on? These are the opening lines to my latest short story. I don’t normally open like this and was looking for opinions.
1 tag
Being back home, seeing my books,
just makes me so happy. I slept so soundly last night, it was insane.
I’ve also started another book. So currently I am reading three books (which I normally never do, because it makes it harder to let yourself fall into the story):
Heroes, Robert Cormier Handle With Care, Jodi Picoult 2666, Roberto Bolano