Daily Shenanigans, 06/02/2014: Goodreads First Reads winner!

Spent most of the day acting as a Taxi service for various members of my family due to the terrible weather. Honestly, it hasn't stopped raining since yesterday evening and I'm going to have to catch the train to Uni tomorrow because a lot of roads are flooded. Other than that, most of my day was filled with  the usual list of bits and bobs to do.

The most exciting part of my day was logging onto my Goodreads account and finding out that I had won a book from the numerous giveaways that they do! I was not expecting it at all, so many people enter them and I can't wait for it to arrive so that I can get stuck into it. The book is called 'Wolves' by Simon Ings, it was only released a month ago(ish) and I haven't heard many reviews about it so it should be interesting to read and of course I'll be reviewing it for you guys! 

I know this is a short post but I really don't have much more to say. I have basically finished 'It' and so a review of that will be up in the next couple of days. I'm off to Uni, then lunch, then seeing Mat (my boyfriend) tomorrow so there will be a lot more to talk about!

Daily Shenanigans, 05/02/2014: Up and coming opportunities?

It's that time of day (well night actually) again readers. My daily update. I had originally planned to have a little more to talk about this time, what with Uni and all. But I got an email last night telling me that my lecture had been cancelled (my lecturer is ill). Although I was pleased to have more time to get things done, I was a little disappointed that this meant another day of doing not an awful lot but work. Thankfully, as promised, I did get some done. I have stayed off the reading today (though I'll probably do a bit now before bed) so that I could focus more so I'm not much further through 'It'.

I did get some exciting news tonight. In an email sent a few days ago (which I haven't properly read until now) we were told that Strangeface Theatre Company are visiting our Uni and performing their newest production 'Shooting The Moon' for us! Having watched their re-imagining of 'Pinocchio' last year, there is absolutely no way I can miss this! It was charming, funny and a very original piece of work and I loved it. Reading up on this show, it looks to be equally as exciting, based around the life of Georges Méliès. I honestly cannot wait for this, I love the Theatre and would happily go every day if I could. Obviously, I shall post a full review in a weeks time after I have watched it. After tweeting about it, my Uni lecturer then informed me that I would in fact be helping to rig the lights for it. I'm very excited about this prospect, to even be part in some small way of this production would be an incredible thing to do.

Other than having the 'Frozen' Soundtrack stuck in my head all day, there's not an awful lot more to tell. I have signed up to the Masterclass Newsletter (worth doing for anyone interested in Theatre, both on and offstage) because I am considering pitching a play for them when they open for entries. This is at the moment a thought and depends how it will fit into the rest of my year but it's one I'm definitely thinking hard about. I will be off to bed now for a quick read before sleep, as I did not do so too well last night. The wind and rain were ridiculous last night and kept me awake until the early hours of this morning.

Daily Shenanigans, 04/02/2014: Being productive and facing fears!

I am on a roll with this promise keeping thing, I managed to be far more productive than I was yesterday. I got up early, drove my Mum to work, then came back and began my busy day of doing as much as I possibly could. This included a little Uni work (though not nearly as much as I should have done), emails etc. but as well as this I got a very decent amount of reading done. I'm now about three quarters of the way through 'It' so could have a review of that for you much sooner than anticipated. Speaking of reviews, a good majority of my morning consisted of writing book reviews (and entering a lot of Giveaways in hope) on Goodreads, for books that were on my 'read' list that I haven't (until today) managed to do anything for except rate them out of five. I feel so much better for doing this as it gave a definite fresh perspective on what my next few titles to read will be and allowed me to revisit fond memories of some of my favourite books. So, after 'It' I will be reading: 'Pure' by Andrew Miller, followed by Patrick Rothfuss' 'A Wise Man's Fear', the second book from the 'Kingkiller Chronicle' series, and after that I will finally get to read the fourth and final installment of 'The Inheritance Trilogy' by Christopher Paolini, 'Inheritance'. To check out my reviews of the others in the series, I suggest you take a look at my Goodreads account as I probably won't be revisiting them in the near future to give a full length review on here.

It is so nice to have some sort of plan to this, and I feel rather proud of myself for getting my act together a little more. I have got a list of the books afterwards and I think I have an order, but I know me and it will probably change, so I will give you all those titles as definite promises and get back to you on the next lot after I've made good headway through those. Another achievement of mine today is that I have upgraded my Cineworld Unlimited card (it needed renewing) into a Premium card. This means another year of films for me with some added perks! I felt this particularly needed mentioning as it involved me having to ring them up, an act that always leaves me shaking and in tears whenever I have to do it. I have no idea why but speaking on phones, particularly to strangers or companies has always frightened me and I was proud of my achievement today as it's a fear I am desperate to get over.

As far as tomorrow goes, I have Uni in the morning till early afternoon and then I desperately need to work on my script for my end of year project. I must remember that as much as I enjoy browsing the internet, updating my Goodreads account and writing this blog, I do have to actually do some work too. I probably, therefore, won't have an awful lot to report in terms of reading done but I may find some time after I have really worked to my own satisfaction. There you go, that's another promise I now must keep. It's worked so far, so I'm going to keep using this method as it seems to ward off my procrastination problem quite nicely.

Daily Shenanigans, 03/02/2014: Lazy day.

Today has definitely been one of my more unproductive days. I spent a good majority of the morning in just my pyjamas, catching up on some YouTube videos that I have missed over the last few days from my subscriptions (Namely Markiplier, if you are fond of Gaming Channels as I am, particularly Horror Games, then check him out. He's fantastic and does a lot of stuff for charity!) Upon realising that I had to leave for work in the next couple of hours, I hauled myself from the sofa and got ready to go. An uneventful drive, followed by an uneventful work shift makes for a very boring blog post unfortunately. But I told myself I would write these every day and I will keep that promise. This evening has mostly consisted of being lazy again, watching the TV ('QI' to be exact, seriously Stephen Fry just makes me so happy) and trying to think about what I would write about tonight.

So I have decided to try and be more productive and interesting tomorrow, in order to make the related blog post a little more worth reading. I'll be getting up early to drop my Mum off at work (such a good daughter, seeing as it's my day off) and I'll have most of the day to myself. I have a few things to do for Uni (naturally, when would I ever have a break from that?) then some major working on my Goodreads account and reading to be getting on with. I'm really getting back into 'It' very quickly so I am going to keep at that one for a while and see how I go. If progress is slow, I may post a review or two of previously read books so that I can really get a bit more variety into this blog. I hope also to start participating in a few challenges just to get things up and running! On Goodreads, I have pledged to read 35 books (aiming high...) this year in the 2014 book challenge and I'm already 1 book behind schedule. A lot of my planned reads are long, I may have to pick a few short ones to bump up that figure.

Hopefully I'll have a more interesting post tomorrow! I did score a personal best of 22 on 'Flappy Bird'. So I suppose that's something.

Daily Shenanigans, 02/02/2014: I've got a Golden Ticket!

Not had a hugely eventful day today readers! The main news of the day is that I finally managed to finish 'Cloud Atlas' and I have posted the promised review earlier this afternoon. Do have a read of that if you're interested! I'm quite proud of myself to be perfectly honest, I made a blogging promise and I managed to keep it! Go me! As well as this I finally got round to sending a few emails and doing some work that I had been putting off for a little while (seriously, procrastination is a serious affliction and the sooner they find some kind of cure, the better). I am still halfway through Stephen King's 'It' and I feel this one is going to take me a while. I am undecided on whether to wait until I've finished it or read something short alongside it to keep the reviews flowing. I'll let you know!

My evening was spent being a kid again, watching a film that I haven't watched in a long time. 'Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory'. Seriously, I have always loved this film, of course I have, it's a classic! But as it's been a while, it was nice to sit down with the family and sing along and remember the lines. I had almost forgotten just how good Gene Wilder is in that film. Mistake acknowledged. It won't happen again. It was then announced straight after that the next TV Film would be 'Arachnophobia'. Needless to say I didn't watch that one considering that spiders are definitely something I don't handle well. The television went off and I returned to playing 'Flappy Bird'. A game that I discovered only today and am already hopelessly addicted to.

Finally, I did also hear some very sad news this evening, that Philip Seymour Hoffman (an actor that I admire greatly) has passed away at the age of 46. I find this incredibly sad, considering as well that he had three young children, and my thoughts are with his family and friends. May he rest in peace.

Book Review: Cloud Atlas; David Mitchell

I have just finished reading this book, and as promised, here is my review for David Mitchell's 'Cloud Atlas'. There will be some minor spoilers here.

SOURCE: Bought
TYPE: Paperback

TITLE: Cloud Atlas
AUTHOR: David Mitchell
SERIES: --
PUBLISHER: Sceptre
PAGES: 529
GENRE: Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Dystopian, Science Fiction

RATING: 4/5 Stars

Blurb:
'Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies...'

Six interlocking lives - one amazing adventure. In a narrative that circles the globe and reaches from the 19th century to a post-apocalyptic future, David Mitchell erases the boundaries of time, genre and language to offer an enthralling vision of humanity's will to power, and where it will lead us.

What I Liked:

• Mitchell has certainly shown exceptional talent for writing across genres, time periods and styles. Three of his mini-stories are set in the past, and for each, a lot of thought has gone into the social, political and historical context of the time. The final two stories, for me, were the most impressive though, as they allowed Mitchell to fully reveal his talent as a writer. What I liked about these two stories in particular was that Mitchell had put so much thought into these imagined futures, both very different, and how one might fall into the other.
• I enjoyed every story. Despite the obvious way each one differed, I was gripped by them all. As well as this, I cared about the fates of each lead of the story, which surprised me, as I thought there would be at least one that irritated me to the point of boredom.

What I Disliked:

• If I had one qualm about the book it would be the way in which the stories were laid out. The best way to describe it would be that each story was found 'inside' the one before, so they were constantly being interrupted. I found that I had forgotten the relevance and importance of particular characters and events and this was particularly the case with the tale that was the first to be started and the last to be finished. It is, for this reason, a book that may require more than one read, perhaps reading the tales individually.

Overall Conclusion:
'Cloud Atlas' is beautifully delivered and a book that I would thoroughly recommend. I feel that dependent on a reader's individual tastes, they will each enjoy different aspects and sections of the book due to its very nature. It is one that is best experienced rather than relying on the experience of others.

Daily Shenanigans, 01/02/2014: 'Out Of The Furnace'

Well I'm going to keep this pretty short and sweet because It's quite late, and not an awful lot happened today. In fact, most of my day involved me making some massive headway with 'Cloud Atlas' (review will be up tomorrow) and waiting for my partner to finish work. When he had, that's where the interesting part of my day really kicked in. Firstly, his family have decided that they might be getting a dog. They picked a lovely Springer Spaniel up today named Bella and I think they are rather taken with her. She's very energetic (to be expected, she's only seven months old and in a new place with new people) but very lovely. My boyfriend is head over heels and I really do hope they decide to keep her because she is so so sweet!

After a quick visit to the new dog, we had dinner and then headed out to the cinema to watch 'Out Of The Furnace', in a deluxe screen no less! There will be spoilers here so don't read if you haven't seen it yet and want to wait until you have. Admittedly the trailer never really appealed to me (except for the song they used. I spent so long trying to find it, Heart Of Gold - Demarest) but I heard many good reviews, particularly for the acting and so I gave in and decided to give it a go. The film itself I found to be a strange experience, and I came out not quite knowing where I stood. The story centres around two brothers. Rodney (Casey Affleck), who constantly gets himself in a lot of trouble, and Russell (Christian Bale) who is honest and hard-working and is desperately trying to make his brother see reason. In some strange and cruel irony, Russell seems to have the worst of luck as tragedy after tragedy seems to strike and I felt deeply sorry for him.

I was completely blown away, I would like to note, by Christian Bale's acting. I had read many a review stating that it was his best so far and honestly I can say those comments are justified. Affleck too took me by surprise, and the relationship between Rodney and Russell was just perfect, they hit the nail on the head wonderfully. Of course, what would a film be without a good villain, and let me tell you Woody Harrelson as the evil Harlan DeGroat was fantastic! He gave me such shudders with his unwavering cruelty that, without giving too much away, his end was well deserved. I came away feeling strangely empty though, totally unsure of how I should feel. On the one hand, justice had prevailed. On the other hand our poor hero was left with quite literally nothing and no one. The final shot described the feeling perfectly, showing clearly Russell sat in a dimly lit room, vacant and speechless. It was a haunting image to leave the cinema with. Overall, an emotionally harrowing film filled with a lot of violence (watch out if you don't deal well with a lot of blood) and a lot of beauty at times. I am glad that I did see the film in the end, despite it not normally being something I would watch. It was worth it just to see Bale do that. If you're a fan of his work then this is a must see.

I'm off to bed now as I'm tired and a little grumpy. I got the car back today and had a bit of a faff trying to park so I think I need to sleep before I have a fit.