The T.S Eliot Revelation

For years I’ve heard people talking about this amazing poet and writer and smiled and nodded when people talked about him and said that I would prioritise reading his work so that I could share the joy of loving him. Recently I decided it was time to actually read some of his work. I’ve just finished reading ‘The Waste Land and other poems’ and I can honestly say I’m shocked by how much I like his work. It was entirely different to what I expected and strangely easy to read and relate to which is completely unlike most of the poetry I’ve read. The obscure subject matters and references in his work make it fun and interesting to read. It’s the kind of poetry that you can imagine being read aloud as you read it, and I’ve found that taking the advice of my sister and reading his work aloud actually makes even better.

The thing I love most about T.S Eliot is the totally random things that come in to his poems, a prime example being my new favourite quote “For I have known them all already, known them all – have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, I have measured out my life in coffee spoons” you have to admit it’s brilliant. Is it bad that I kind of want to try and measure my life in coffee spoons now? I’m not even entirely sure how you’d go about doing that but I’m sure I could challenge myself to find a way, what do you think? Is it worth it? It reminds me of a line from the song Seasons of Love from the musical ‘Rent’, “how do you measure, measure a year, in daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee.” This idea of measuring things in coffee seems to be a running theme. Maybe it’s a hint. Maybe I should give up on normality and begin measuring my life in coffee. I think it’s a challenge worthy of my attention. You see what happens when you read T.S Eliot? This is the kind of strange thoughts he inspires and if for no other reason this is why his work is genius. 

Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2012

I know I haven't blogged in ages, but I've been following my sisters brilliant blog anarmchairbythesea and I thought it was about time I started blogging properly. I read her blog on this reading challenge and thought it sounded epic, as for years I've been compulsively buying books and have only managed to read about a quarter of them. This seems like the perfect challenge to change that and it will hopefully also help me to stop spending money i don't have on books I shouldn't really be buying. The challenge is hosted by myreadersblock and basically what you do is pick a level and then go through and read that many of the books you already own but haven't read yet. The levels are:


Pike's Peak: 12 books from your TBR pile


Mt. Vancouver: 25 books from your TBR pile


Mt. Ararat: 40 books from your TBR pile


Mt. Kilimanjaro: 50 books from your TBR pile


El Toro: 75 books from your TBR pile


Mt. Everest: 100 books from your TBR pile

I'm going to go for Mt. Vancouver as it sounds enough like a challenge but at the same time is also vaguely achievable. Once you've signed up for this challenge you have to read at least that number of books so Mt. Vancouver seemed like a good bet as it's a decent challenge but hopefully isn't going to stress me out. By the end of 2012 i think i'll have read about 2/3 of my TBR pile which would be a major achievement for me and will allow me to justify buying more books, which is always a good thing :) I thought the easiest way to keep myself on track for this challenge would be by making a list of the books i intend to read. Here are the 25 books carfully selected from my TBR pile:

1. American Gods - Neil Gaiman

2. The Three Musketeers - Alexander Dumas

3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

4. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

5. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

6. Blue Beard's Egg - Margret Atwood

7. Wise Children - Angela Carter

8. The Other Land - Chris Cleave

9. Easy Rider, Raging Bull - Peter Biskind

10. The Summer We Read Gatsby - Danielle Ganet

11. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky

12. Choke - Chuck Palahniuk

13. Moby-Dick - Herman Mellvile

14. The Problem of Pain - C.S Lewis

15. Heroes and Villians - Angela Carter

16. Oryx and Crake - Margret Atwood

17. The Scarlett Letter - Hawthorne

18. Seeing is Believing - Peter Biskind

19. Reading Lolita in Jehran - Azar Nafisi

20. Biko - Donald Woods

21. Cash - Johnny Cash

22. Atonement - Ian McEwan

23. Ben Hur - Nelson Doubleday

24. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

25. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

These are the minimum books i aim to read but depending on how long it takes me to get through them i hope to add to this list.

Disaster and discovery

Several interesting discoveries were made last night, the first of which was heels combined with stairs and alcohol cause you to miss the step and throw the alcohol at the person in front of you.
The second of which is, pretending to be sophisticated women from the 60's is very fun especially when cocktails are involved.
Last night i went to a Mad Men themed birthday party and everyone had to dress up in formal 60's dress. So basically an excuse to over dress, wear dramatic amounts of make up and drink lots, which i think is exactly how it should always be.
Anyway despite the alcohol i learnt a lot from this party, like doing shots of Bacardi cause people to steal cats and growl at them.
I now know that Bacardi straight is disgusting.
That being a farm girl is apparently a good look for me, and that Ben & Jerry's with most kinds of alcohol (especially Smirnoff ice) is really really nice.
And after all that the even more interesting thing is that i managed not to get seriously drunk even though i drank quite a lot, and i also have no hangover :)

So today is looking good, i love to say the sun is shining but this is England. The sky is grey, the world is dull and depressing but the upside is at least its not raining....yet.

Taking the Plunge

Today I've finally managed to scrounge up the time and courage to put my blog to use.

I dunno what the world expects from bloggers, or even what bloggers expect from bloggers which is partly why it's taken me this long to post anything.
Is there a specific thing a blog should be used for? ... I have no idea
I am nobody and I know that my life is uneventful as sadly I am the one living it, therefore I don't see the point in pouring my heart out over the internet as i'm 99.9% certain that no one cares.....if I were you I wouldn't care.

right now i can't remember why i made this blog, and at present i have no idea what i'll do with it but at least now the balling is rolling and i'm gonna role with it an see what happens.