11 Things

Continuing on with my slightly slack Reverb10 posts:

December 11 –What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life? (Author: Sam Davidson)

1. Stress over little, stupid and inconsequential things…

Solution: I really need to find a way of getting out all my frustration. In College, I used to use drama and theatre – but now with work I have so few spare hours for stuff like that. Running helped for the three weeks I did it. I used to go to a great dance class as well – but work has screwed that up too! Bingo! I need to find TIME to de-stress.

2. Worry about the future

Solution: Things have worked out well so far, so I need to stop living in the future and enjoy the present.

3. All those magazines I’ve been saving

Solution: Just throw them out. They sit in the corner, not even looking that pretty. I feel like I might need them someday…but that’s kind of unrealistic.

4. Any sort of paranoia about my weight

Solution: Exercise more. And come to the realisation that yes, I love food. And yes, I am unwilling to sacrifice what I love. So therefore, I must get off my arse more often.

5. Microwaveable Meals

Solution: I’m often working late at night and in an office without a real kitchen. So, I run to Dunnes and grab something to stick in the microwave. Not only are those meals terrible for you – but they taste pretty mediocre and are expensive. I need to start cooking more stuff I can bring in with me!

6. Selfishness

Solution: This is really an attitude change. Being a bit of a drama queen – I tend to think the world revolves around whatever stressful situation I find myself in. So, I need to think of others more often. I also want to undertake some charity work in 2011 – I’m not sure what yet – but I’m looking to help in some way!

7. Being too serious

Solution: They say the best medicine is laughter and I really agree! Sometimes I go a whole week without a proper belly laugh – and that’s just wrong. So I need to make more time to see those people that make me laugh uncontrollably!

8. The reliance on my iPhone and laptop

Solution: I love, love, love to read. But since I started relying on my laptop and iPhone on the bus, in bed, on the train etc – my book list has gone out the window. I need to make more time to pick up a physical book and read instead of facebooking, tweeting and watching episodes of the West Wing.

9. Writing procrastination

Solution: I had this big plan over the summer to start a new writing project. I knew it would take a really long time – but I was really excited about it. I even made the first moves towards my ultimate goal. Those moves have now fallen by the wayside. I need to set more writing goals and work towards this new project. It’s a dream of mine – and I will see it happen!

10. Wreckless spending

Solution: In fairness, I worry a lot about money and I don’t really need to. I save, I don’t spend all the time and if I ever needed help, it’s there for me. But…when I do spend money, I often feel guilty about it. Realistically, I need to plan everything in advance, watch what I’m spending money on and keep it in check. My lateness for instance, results in me getting taxis instead of buses. That’s an overspend of about €9 per trip. Ridiculous. No more taxis!

11. My fear of new things

Solution: I’m lucky enough to have a boyfriend who loves trying new things. Before I met him, I had never tried so many different types of food that normal people think are just part of everyday eating. I had never hiked. I had never joined a public speaking club. I had never gone for a run. I had never been to a jazz club. All these things were brilliant experiences and in order to get over my fear of new things – I need to put my trust in others to recommend things!

How will eliminating these things change my life?

Well for starters, I’d have more time for getting my head in order. More time to get out the frustrations and stress of work. I wouldn’t worry as much, and that’s good for your overall health. I’d probably be fitter and healthier – minus the microwave meals and plus the exercise. I’d be one step closer to achieving my goals as well. I’d have more money and therefore more security – which in turn would lead me to worry less. I’d also laugh much more and help others.

Getting rid of these 11 things would make me happier and healthier. Overall, a much more well rounded person.

Curiouser and Curiouser

When I look back on all the amazing books I’ve read over the last two decades – I can’t help but fondly remember the children’s books that have shaped my literary appetite as it is today.

I guess the first book to stand out is CS Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which I was given by my cousin Joe. The copy I own has been read so many times that the cover looks like it’s been through a tsunami. I loved the fantasy world that it transported me to and that in the end, ordinary children could be warriors, Kings and Queens. the fact that one of the characters was called Susan really delighted me even though I always secretly wished that Susan was as exciting a character as Lucy!. I read the book over and over and enjoyed it without ever needing an explanation. Then, when I was in Junior year of high school we did the book in class. Suddenly, there was all this religious symbolism attached to the classic book of my childhood. Fascinating as it was, it was totally unnecessary for me. I love the book whether it has one level of meaning or fifty.

From a very young age, Lewis Carroll’s  Alice in Wonderland really got me dreaming. The book appeared before the Disney version for me – and as a result, I never really quite got what Disney was getting at. The Lewis Carroll version is so much grittier, more frightening and funnier! When I was a child my mum used to leave me in a main street book shop while she did her food shopping next door. It was during one of these sessions that I discovered Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts and the Dodo. I still have my hardback copy bought from that very shop in Bray.

Sometimes called the greatest children’s author of all time, Roald Dahl will always hold a special place in my heart. Like the Carroll version of “Alice”, Dahl gave kids a look at fantasy in a slightly grimier way. In a world where you’re small and powerless, Dahl provided a resistance to authority and it was the kids that always triumphed. The Witches was always my favourite, followed closely by Matilda – but I have almost all his books and they’re all cello-taped together or missing pages! I still buy Roald Dahl’s books for my little nephews.

Truly wonderful children’s literature is timeless. You can read it as an adult and it still transports you, endears you and frightens you. Harry Potter did this for me as a young adult and I’m already looking forward to re-reading all seven books with new eyes! Can’t believe I almost forgot to mention Phillip Pullman’s Dark Materials trilogy – children’s books that I couldn’t put down for a minute.

Another book, written as a children’s story but definitely for adults is Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder. It took me about six months to finish, but my god was it worth it. It’s a history of philosophy through the eyes of a young girl and takes you from ancient times right up until the present-day. Accompanying the course is a magical tale of confusion and fairy tale fantasies that make you question your own existence and place in the world. I would highly recommend it for anyone who’s looking for something thought-provoking.

So, grab a cup of tea – get out your favourite childhood read and remember how amazing it was.

I’ll be attempting a children’s story here in the next week or two. Wish me luck!!

100 Books

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up? Share with your fellow reader friends.

So far, I’ve read 37 out of 100 – but this list is a really good go-to collection of stuff I still want to read!

Copy, edit and paste into a note of your own.

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen – yes
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien- no
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte- yes
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling – yes
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee- yes
6 The Bible – yes
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte- no
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell- yes (MY FAVE)
9 His Dark Materials – yes
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens- yes
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott- yes
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy- no
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller – no
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare- not all of it!
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier- no
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien- no
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk- no
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger- yes
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger-  yes
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot- no
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell- no
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald- no
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens- no
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy- no
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – yes
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh- no
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky- no
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck- no
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll- yes
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame- yes
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy- no
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens- no
33 Chronicles of Narnia Series – CS Lewis- some of them
34 Emma – Jane Austen- no
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen- no
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis- yes
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini- yes
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres Mais- no
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden- no
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne- yes
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell- yes
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown- yes
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez- no
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving- no
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins- no
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery- yes
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy- no
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood- no
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding- no
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan- no
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel- yes
52 Dune – Frank Herbert- no
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons- no
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen- yes
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth- no
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon- no
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens- no
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley- yes
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time- yes
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez- no
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck- yes
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov- no
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt- yes
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold- yes
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas- no
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac- no
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy- no
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding- no
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie- no
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville- no
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens-no
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker- yes
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett- yes
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson- no
75 Ulysses – James Joyce- no
76 The Inferno – Dante- no
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome- no
78 Germinal – Emile Zola- no
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray- no
80 Possession – AS Byatt- no
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens- yes
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell- no
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker- no
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro- no
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert- no
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry- no
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White- yes
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom- yes
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle- yes
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton- no
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad- no
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery- yes
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks- no
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams- yes
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole- no
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute- no
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas- no
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare- yes
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl- yes
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo- no

Off With Her Head!

Meet the newest addition to my growing collection of Disney DVDs! I haven’t seen Alice in Wonderland in years – but has always been one of my favourite stories of all time.

When I was seven, my mum used to do her food shopping and leave me in a little book shop in Bray while I waited. Every day I’d pick up Alice, the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts and after a few weeks I had it finished! My mum bought me a lovely hardback edition of the book – and I consider it the first real piece of my library.

The story has also inspired many other art forms including some gorgeous trends in fashion. I think the creepy fantasy element to the book is what fascinates people – the white rabbit, growing and shrinking, the Dodo and a tea party. It’s Lewis Carroll’s strange and wonderful descriptions that have caused Alice to permeate into so many other areas.

I’m not sure the Disney film brought quite as much magic with it – but it definitely made a good effort! I can’t wait to re-watch it.

PS. the DVD says: Virtual Tea Party Included. Wanna join?