Review: Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

We started this month not at the start of the month, so this first one's going to be a little shorter than the rest. This challenge will end tomorrow, and a new challenge shall be posted on Saturday once I've come up with one (though it's a choice between two at this point).

Also there's a new poll up on the left hand side, just for some info, you know :)

Send me your reviews so I can post them and we can get some book recommendations going. Click the tab and use the google questionnaire. 


Title: Northern Lights
Author: Philip Pullman
How long did it take to read: 14-21 days
Rating: 10 - definitely recommend
Review: This is a book I've been recommended since I was young, but I'm glad I read it now instead of when I was 11. It's the sort of book that moves slowly to start put picks up pace very quickly. Pullman's world is fantastical and sparks my imagination in a way not many books really manage.
Lyra is brilliant. She's such a precocious little girl, with such odd knowledge hot-spots. She's brave and excitable, and the relationship between her and Pan is heart-breakingly beautiful. The friends she makes and the people she meets are just as full and real as she is. I feel I knew her after reading this book.
This book made me feel...good. In a strange way. I'm dying to read the next one!

Poll Results

Thank you to everyone who voted in the poll. The votes are now closed and I think it's fairly obvious what genres won.

So I've been thinking of some challenges for the upcoming months. Let me know what you think of them (also know that these are likely to change)

• Books that have been converted into films
• Classic that you really should read
• Recommended from a friend
• Book you've had unread on your shelves since 2010
• The last book you bought

They're just a few, but I think that way we should be able to fit in all the young adult that everyone clearly wants to read lol.

19 Days to Go

So we're just over a week into the first 'challenge', and how are we all going?

I'm ~150 pages in to Northern Lights and I'm loving it! It's the sort of book I would have read when I was 11, but probably not liked because I didn't quite understand it, it also doesn't move nearly as fast as my 11 year old self would have wanted. But now I'm twice that, it's perfect. so much intrigue and mystery, and I love Lyra, she's my kind of girl. I've seen the film adaptation - The Golden Compass - but remember nothing about it, so this is all going very well so far.

I bought another book today - I know, I have a problem - Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. I've heard good things about it, so no doubt there'll be a sci-fi challenge.

Glad to see so many people following this blog! And I hope you all participate, looking forward to seeing some reviews coming in.

Have you finished your book for the month already? If so remember to send me a review through the tab above once you've finished a book :). If not, share your goodreads progress, and your username so we can all follow you :D

Book for the Month

I've decided what I'm going to read! Seeing as though I spoiled it by reading Perks too quickly.

 Goodreads Summary: When Lyra's friend Roger disappears, she and her dæmon, (pronounced 'demon') Pantalaimon, determine to find him. The ensuing quest leads them to the bleak splendour of the North, where armoured bears rule the ice and witch-queens fly through the frozen skies - and where a team of scientists is conducting experiments too horrible to be spoken about.

Lyra overcomes these strange terrors, only to find something yet more perilous waiting for her - something with consequences which may even reach beyond the Northern Lights...

I've never read this, and it's been sat on my shelf for two years now. My dad's read this though, and he really liked it, which is funny because he was 33 when this came out (but I'm 22 and still read young adult, just don't expect it of my dad lol).

I'm looking forward to reading this, if only because I've heard such good things about it so far.

From the poll it's looking like everyone's interested in young adult haha, but I'm not sure I have enough young adult books on my shelf! Reckon I'm going to have to get creative with the genres :).

How this is going to work...

Right, I've done some messing with the blog, created a spreadsheet thingy and I figured I should do a post about how this is hopefully going to work :).

Please comment below on which book you're reading, and I shall add it to the Goodreads bookshelf which can be found to your right. Then, in about 4(ish) weeks time, I'll make another post and we can talk about what we thought of the book and such.

Also, when you finish the book, click on the 'Send a Review' tab above and leave a review :D and I'll post them as and when I get around to them :).

Would you please respond to the poll on the left hand side, have a look on your shelf and have a think what sort of book you'd like to read.

There'll obviously be other posts as we go through, so we can talk about how we're going with the books we've chosen, and if any reviews come in of course :).

It's all very informal, there's no sign up sheet or anything, you can come and go as you please - so long as you're enjoying yourself.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

During summer I devour books, I literally eat them for breakfast. This is because, during summer, I'm not at uni. I'm generally not stressed out about the gazillion assignments I have to do, and with doing a science degree I'm left with little time to read books, and the time I do have I chose to do other things (like knit and write).

So when we thought of this book club, Ashleigh and I, we said one book a month. We're both at uni (Ashleigh's in her final year of her English and Creative Writing degree), and therefore have often better things to do with our time than read - although we wish this weren't true. But one book a month made sense. Ashleigh can read a book in a day, while I can take months to complete a tome.

You can imagine my surprise, then, when after starting The Perks of Being a Wallflower yesterday, I finished it this morning.

First Challenge

Today I went shopping. I needed more of my Rocky Horror costume and a book for my dad. But Waterstones have this stamp card thing, and if I bought another book I'd get two stamps instead of just one - so I had to do it!

I recently saw Perks of Being a Wallflower, and I really wanted to read it, so I bought that.

Goodreads summary: Charlie is a freshman.
And while he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his year yet socially awkward,he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it.

Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mix tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But he can't stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.

So this is the book I'm going to be reading this month :) It's only short, and it looks to be an easy read. *cross fingers* I'll finish it.

This month pick a book on your shelf, preferably that you haven't read yet or even one that you have, that is perhaps young adult, coming of age, sort of a book. 

Or, better still, if you have Perks, read that, and then I have people to talk about it with :)

Book Club

Hello :)

I'm not sure how many other people will see this, but if you do then welcome.

Me and my friend Ashleigh were talking, and we both had stacks and stacks of books to read, and we just keep buying more, which isn't good. So we decided to start a bookclub, but a very informal one.

Basically it's for those of us who've had books sitting on our shelves for ages, books that you want to read, you're just never in the mood for.

The plan is that every month there'll be a category, or maybe a particular book even, and you have to chose a book from your shelf and read it in the month. Then at the end of the month there'll be a post about what book you read and what you thought of it. That way, hopefully we'll all be reading different books, we'll work through the endless stacks on our shelves, but also get some helpful recommendations for new books to read.

That's the theory anyway, whether it'll work, we have yet to see :)