When I was younger - up till fifth form - I was a really big reader. I had the time to sit down and read whatever I could get my hands on. Since sixth form, however, there just never seemed to be enough time to do much reading, and until last year, I’d maybe read 20 books in 3 years. This is very few, comparatively. Recently, I’ve not been so much into working, so I’ve been reading more. There’s this little thing called an ebook, which allows me to read whenever I want without having to go to the book shop, or to the local library. Anyway, here’s a list of all the things that I have read this year - 2008. Excluding all the text books and journals I have read. (Not in any particular order. Too lazy to even alphabetise. Those that I really enjoyed and would recommend are in bold.)

1. Nina Harper - Succubus in the City
2. Sophia Kinsella - Remember Me
3. Shannon Swendson - Enchanted Inc.
4. Cassandra Clare - City of Bones
5. Cassandra Clare - City of Ashes
6. Melissa Banks - The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing - MADE ME CRY. AMAZING.
7. Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Restoration of Faith - Really liked this series. Not a big fan of crime/mysteries fiction usually, so that says something.
8. Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Storm Front
9. Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Fool Moon
10. Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Grave Peril
11. Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Summer Knight
12. Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Death Masks
13. Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Blood Rites
14. Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Dead Beat (currently reading)
15. Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion (audiobook)
16. Storm Constantine - Wraeththu Trilogy - The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit - this trilogy blew me away with the strange innovative plot, and the ideas! The first book is my favourite though - the narrator is innocent and captivating, well worth exploring.
17. Storm Constantine - Wraeththu Trilogy - The Bewitchments of Love and Hate
18. Storm Constantine - Wraeththu Trilogy - The Fulfilments of Faith and Desire (currently reading)
19. Tom Dolby - The Trouble Boy
20. Lynn Flewelling - Tamir Trilogy - The Bone Doll’s Twin - Just. Everything this person writes is amazing. Really.
21. Lynn Flewelling - Tamir Trilogy - Hidden Warrior
22. Lynn Flewelling - Tamir Trilogy - The Oracle’s Queen
23. Lynn Flewelling - Nightrunner series - Luck in the Shadows
24. Lynn Flewelling - Nightrunner series - Stalking Darkness
25. Lynn Flewelling - Nightrunner series - Traitor’s Moon
26. Orhan Pamuk - My Name is Red (currently reading) - reading this book is an experience. There’s certainly a reason why he won the Nobel Price for literature back in ‘06. Definitely a book and a half, can’t wait to finish it.
27. Russel Brand - My Booky Wook (currently reading) - Unless you really really love Russel Brand, this book may put you off him for life. Just saying.
28. Chuck Palahniuk - Haunted (currently reading)

I’m going to see The Academy Is… in September! I have no money until I get paid some time next week, so I’m hoping my credit card works.

Cobra Starship are playing the week after, but I didn’t find out till this morning and they’ve already sold out! Darn Kings College gig-space for being so stupidly small! The last time they played in London, I had an exam the next day; this time they’re sold out. *sadface* Why only one gig in London, guys?

So I finally got around to replying to everyone’s comments. For some people, it’s been a few months, um. Sorry?

This post has been sitting in my drafts folder for a while. I know it’s so stereotypical, and completely unoriginal, but I kind of love My Chemical Romance’s music, because I think Gerard Way can totally save my life. It’s not so much a secret that I’m slightly screwed up, and music is about the only thing left that I truly find pleasure in.

In the past, I’ve scoffed at MCR; thought that they were emo, punk wannabes, etc etc. To be perfectly honestly, this was purely due to ignorance on my part. I knew of them, but never really gave them any thought. Then, through the gateway drug that is Panic at the Disco, I discovered MCR in bandslash. It sort of gives me the creeps a little that these are real people, so I try not to think about it. And I didn’t want to know about the real people, for the same reason.

Eventually though, I got my hands on the albums: Three Cheers… and The Black Parade. First, I liked maybe 2 songs, so the albums went back to the depths of my iTunes folder. Then, around February/March time, I hit my low, and all I could think about was how crap everything was. Somehow, it occured to me that hey, The Black Parade! All death and depressing things! With my tendency to wallow instead of trying to make myself feel better, I put the album on repeat and fully intended to never feel good again.

Surprisingly, I liked it. Surprisingly, it meant things to me. My initial reaction was: fuck, what is this? Then I thought, if this is emo, I don’t particularly care any more. MCR’s lyrics to me are about growing up, about facing life and all the shit that it throws at you. About not letting it swamp you and take you over. We’re here, and we may not be so happy about it, but we should do everything we can to make it a good place, and live. Living is important.

I’d always laughed at the idea of Gerard Way saving lives, but now I’m all for it. Okay, so, he’s not the only reason why I managed an up slope for a while there, but he definitely contributed. Good music is music that can make me feel, that changes me when I listen to it. The Black Parade certainly changed me. What an album. What a band!

As someone who has spent many happy hours clutching novels that make her heart beat faster and many not-so-great hours reading texts that I firmly believe should never have been published, I can say that story-telling (both as a recipient and a deliverer) is definitely an important part of my life.

When it comes to books, I tend to not really care about reviews and awards that they have received. If it sounds like something I would enjoy, I’ll read it regardless of bad reviews. When it comes to online original fiction, however, I stick religiously to recommendations. When I actually had time on my hands, googling wasn’t such an annoyance, but now, I want results with minimal time wasted. So. When I get asked to rec some more, how could I refuse? Below is the first of a few.

One source of joy for me is the bi-monthly webzine: Shousetsu Bang*Bang. The authors who participate in this are absolutely superb. They make me smile, laugh and cry, on occasion. One particular offering that I loved (coincidentally named after one of my most favourite inventions of all time) is Guitar Hero.

This story is filled with rainbows, seriously. It’s light-hearted and fun, but there’s so much more going on underneath. The main character - Jeremy - is instantly recognisable; he is not-so-loosely based on Brendon Urie. I thought that would put me off, since I find Brendon so irritating, but how wrong I was. It’s a story about love, discovery, and … Greek gods?

• Finn rolled his eyes, like he found this incredibly juvenile. “Oh for the love of- You are not going to die.”
  

“All your other boytoys have!” Jeremy slapped the paper and made air-quotes. ” Accidentally. I’m not even the one doing the quote thing! Wikipedia is doing the quote thing! You and Wikipedia are ironically quoting me to death!”

Once you’re done with this, there are also extra stories that can be found at the author’s livejournal; my personal favourite: Synesthesia Magazine - Issue 89 Nov. 2008.

Go forth, read and enjoy.

It’s been so hectic this past month and a half after exams ended. There’s been a holiday, a big enlightening fight with the parents, and a series of other things, all in between me working my butt off. I was going to post about them, but I guess laziness crept in, and the posts never happened. So.

Today is the last day of the month; halfway through 2008. It’s been not such a good half year in some ways, and a maybe-good one in others. I’ve had a lot to think about up until now, and I think I’ve finally come to terms with certain things about myself. Not entirely happy about it, but hey, I’ll get there eventually. Hopefully. Anyway, let’s hope the next six months are going to get better; I’ll try harder at making myself happy too, instead of just sitting back and wondering why good things were not coming my way. It’s about time I took charge of my own happiness and stopped waiting for other people to do it for me.

I have only one more exam to go before I’m done for second year. My last exam was on Perception, Attention and Action, which went all right - I think. I hope. The problem is that there’s a one week gap between that one and the last one (Cognition and Language). In this one week, I have relaxed completely, because it feels like it’s already over. It doesn’t help either that I’m preparing to move out next weekend, before flying off on holiday on the 29th. It’s so hard to concentrate on how language affects thought when all I can really think about all is the fun I’m going to be having after Tuesday. Ah, well it’s all over soon.

I’m sort of dreading moving back home, even if it is only for a few months. I’ve gotten used to doing my own thing without having to let anyone in on it since I’ve lived by myself. It’s nice. There are days when I love just shutting myself in my room and having an alone day. I don’t have to talk to anyone or look at anyone. That’s not going to be possible at home, if I don’t at least make some sort of appearance, the parents will be worried.

My relationship with the parents have gotten a lot better since I’ve moved out. Or rather, I suppose the lack of arguing may be purely the result of the lack of opportunities? They are still fiercely protective (what I get for being an only child, and one of the female variety), and expect to have a hand in every aspect of my life. Whereas, I’m much happier doing my own thing and relying on myself. I’m going to miss that for the four months that I’m going to be back home.

What I am very grateful for, though, is that growing up seems to have brought me a lot closer to my mother. I was always closer to my dad, because mum got the job of looking after education and discipline, and dad got all the fun bits of being a parent I suppose. Now that I’m older, I find it so much easier to talk to my mother about anything and everything, which is lovely, because we’ve never been able to do that before!

I … really have no idea where I am going with this post, so I’m just going to stop it here, and go back to reading about linguistic cognition. Fun (!).

There’s only so much a person can read about the workings of inner hair cells in the cochlea and Levelt’s monitoring theory before it all turns into gibberish and every stops making sense. Not that it all made any sense in the first place. But. I need to be up in a few hours for the exam, and I feel so completely unprepared. Even though I think I should know it. Every time I look over the notes, I’m pretty sure I know all about attentional processes in vision and hearing, but when I try to write down the models my mind just goes blank. I’m not making much sense myself with all these run on sentences and ramblings; I’m so tired and need to go to bed, but I need to keep reading!

Caffeine has no effect on me any more, I get tired regardless of how much I drink. I’ve gone through an entire 2 litre bottle of Diet Coke in the last two days, and not even a sugar high. I would move on to Coke, but it’s pretty disgusting.

Had Brain and Behaviour this morning. I actually revised about 7/8 topics for this exam, so I thought I’d be pretty safe. Turns out there were only three questions I could do out of the nine, so I didn’t really get a choice. I’m really hoping that it went okay.

I did discover an amazing book on learning. Bouton’s Learning and Behaviour: A Contemporary Synthesis. It was the one recommended by the lecturer, and it’s possibly the first text that I really really enjoyed reading. It goes through all the steps of learning and behaviour acquisition in a really straight forward and quirky narrative. Bouton’s sense of humour really comes through in his writing. I didn’t realise behavioural psychologists could have senses of humour! Anyway, if anyone is even a little bit interested in the topic, you should definitely check it out. It gets a little technical in places, but it’s easy to understand.

Michael Rosenbaum. Leaving Smallville? kajhdjshagljfhg WHAT?

I finally managed to buy my own copy of Charlotte Gainsbourg’s 5:55 today. I’ve not had time to hear it all the way through yet, but gosh, it’s the prettiest thing I’ve subjected my ears to for a while! Her singing is really more like breathy melodic speech, and the music by the Air duo, and lyrics by Jarvis Cocker. My face is totally like while listening to it.

Here’s the video for the title song. Listen to it, and fall in love. Seriously.

Also, my second exam: Developmental Psychology went so much better than clinical. I could do at least 4/5 of the questions! A big step up from usual! So big sigh of relief that at least one of my papers will have some sort of a good mark.