Sunday 27 July 2014

My Holiday Reads

I'm off on my summer hols in just 12 days, and so I've bought some books to keep me company on my travels. Going away is a wonderful excuse to buy some books, as I won't be able to get to my library for six weeks [that will be the longest I've ever gone without visiting a library since I was about four!] I've only bought three, which probably won't be enough to last me much longer than a fortnight, since they're all relatively quick reads and I've aleady started reading one of them [oops.] Oh well, if I do finish them quickly, it will give me the excuse to visit some foreign bookshops [in the hope that they'll have some English language books knocking around] which will hopefully make for nice excursions and interesting blog posts. Here's what I bought:

 1. Can't Stand up For Sitting Down by Jo Brand

This one was a surprising purchase for me as I don't find Jo Brand particulary funny - I certainly don't expect to laugh out loud when reading this. I do however find her warm and pragmatic, and after scanning a few pages found I liked her writing style. I've read several autobiographies by comedians including Graham Norton, Alan Carr and Michael Mcintyre, and I think I'm drawn to their stories because I so admire what they do. Even though I don't mind public speaking, standing up in front of hundreds of people trying to make them laugh would be incredibly daunting for me,and I always find it interesting to hear about this experience from the comedian's point of view. It also interesting to hear about the comedian's struggles to get to the top, and the hecklers and the stony silences they had to endure along the way. I've read a few chapters, and already I'm intrigued by the tales Brand has to tell. 




2. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them by J.K Rowling or [Newt Scamander]

There was a time in the not so distant past where every summer was spent reading the latest Harry Potter. Sadly that time has now ended, so as a way of re-entering a world that I love so much, I bought this. It's basically J.K Rowling's imagining of a wizard's text book - a guide to the mythical beasts that litter Harry Potter's universe.This book should prove to be a fun read, not least because Rowling has written this from an eccentric wizard's point of view.




3. How to Build A Girl by Caitlin Moran

Caitlin Moran is what I want to be when I grow up - confifdent, balsy, infinitely talented and my absolute favourite journalist ever. Her first book How to be a Woman is excessively wonderful - you just can't argue with her beautiful logic, and after reading that, I vowed to purchase every book she wrote after. So, in keeping with that vow, I bought her latest work today; a fictional story of a teenager's growing pains set against the backdrop of Wolverhampton in the 1990s. It closely resembles Moran's own teenage years, and that is precisely why I want to read it - because Moran's childhood was so very different from my own. This is the book I am most excited about reading on my hols!



    





 
  

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