A Hundred Imaginary Worlds

Earthquakes, snow blizzards, first week back at uni - it's all been a bit too exciting for me after sitting at home for six weeks in bed binge-watching Ugly Betty. Okay, so I exaggerate. The earthquake was a slight tremor that half of the Midlands didn't even feel (seriously though guys, how did you not feel the house rock?!) and it snowed for like, five minutes yesterday afternoon before the rain washed it away, but still. Uni, I am pleased to say is more bearable this semester; the cancer module is arguably one of the best modules I've studied (I'm basing this on two lectures we've had so far so that opinion is subject to change) and the integration of biochemistry & disease is a lot more interesting than anything we studied first semester so fingers crossed! My dissertation is coming along...not at all? I've kinda hit a writer's block where I write a paragraph or two and then I feel like I'm on the completely wrong track so I backspace all of it, then re-start, and the same thing happens. I've been dealing with that for the last two weeks. I need to catch a break.

So in-between all of that I've been trying to read. The last book(s) I read were the Divergent trilogy that I finished at Christmas time and I figured it was time for me to get round to reading some of the titles I've been meaning to for a while. I then stumbled upon the Goodreads 2015 Reading Challenge and I thought it'd be awesome to go for it and set myself a target number of books to read and see how far I get.

I've pledged myself to 100 books which I'm excited to meet (and hopefully exceed...?). My recent reads include:

Eleanor & Park

- by Rainbow Rowell

3.0/5.0 stars

~

I don't know how many of you are aware of this book but it's one of those that's currently being hyped up on social media and if I'm not mistaken, its movie production is in the works. I'll be honest, I went in with ridiculously high expectations for this book. Probably because I read so many reviews that it looked like a promising heart-wrenching read. It disappointed bitterly.

The format is different, it flicks back and forth between narratives that are barely a page long but that wasn't my problem. My problem was with the story line and its gaping plot holes that the author never filled. It has so much potential...the love story that it encapsulates is that sweet, innocent, first love that's very unconventional and a breath of fresh air from modern love stories. And going beyond that, the individual back-stories of the main characters and the issues the author tries to tackle could have been developed into a pretty amazing novel. But it wasn't. There wasn't enough time to emotionally connect with the story and by the time the ending drew near, she threw the plot into an unrealistic direction and it just ends. There's no closure, it sure as hell isn't an accurate representation of the bitter-sweet nature of first love, and she didn't even attempt to tie up the loose ends. Suffice to say, I was pissed off.

If I stay

- by Gayle Forman

Note : spoilers ahead so please don't carry on reading if you intend on reading the book and/or watching the movie

I'm sure you've all heard of this one - the movie was released a few months ago and I almost watched it online over Christmas break but I thought nah, let me read the book first. It was...meh. Literally the best word I could use to describe it. It's neither here nor there. It wasn't bad but it wasn't fantastic either. It was too predictable for my liking. It's the classic story of a girl with the perfect family, girl and family are involved in a car accident, girl loses family, girl enters coma, girl views life via an out-of-body experience, girl's boyfriend visits her, girl wakes up. That is honest to God the A-Z of the book. It's cheesy with a foreseeable ending that I called from the second she entered that damn coma. And it didn't make me a feel a thing. Despite all the tragedy that's crammed into one book and the life-death choice that's core to the story, there was no emotional response to it. And my God am I the most sensitive person in the world. Am I in a rush to read the sequel? No. Will I? Yes. I feel like I'm obliged to. If you start a series, you read all the books. It's the unspoken rule.

So I guess all in all, I was not impressed by my latest pick-ups. My definition of a good book is one that:

a) makes me emotionally connect with the characters to a degree that I consume it and when I put the book down, I can't stop thinking about it; I replay all the scenes in my head, I've subconsciously memorised its lines, and I'll lose sleep over it

b) I would recommend the book to a fellow bookworm

c) I would go out and buy the paperback despite having it on my kindle

If it doesn't do at least one of these things, it's just not my cup of tea. Here's hoping that the next book isn't one of sheer mediocrity. I'll be sure to keep you updated.

You can follow my reading challenge progress on the right hand-side where you can check out the books I've read since starting and what I've rated them. I'll also be posting up my reviews on Goodreads when I'm more familiar with it so look out for those. And lastly, you can check out my bookshelf also on the right-hand panel which is just a few of the very many books I've read in my two decades if you're looking for something to lose yourself in. If you're a book fiend like me, I'd recommend signing up to the website; it's useful for looking at reviews, finding new reads, and keeping tabs on books you want to read in the near future. And who wouldn't want to do a reading challenge?!

If you do sign up, you can keep up with my reviews and the updates of my reading world by following me :)