TAG: Reading Habits

1. Do you have a certain place at home for reading?
My bed is my number 1 place for reading. Whether it’s sitting up or laying down before bed, I’m at my most comfortable there which means I can get lost in the book easier.

2. Bookmark or random piece of paper?
Usually it’s a bookmark. My best friend bought me a beautiful motivational one that I use on occasion. I also have a metal bookmark with 50 books to read before you die on it which I love using. At the moment, however, I’m using a press release as a bookmark because I keep forgetting to swap to my bookmark.

3. Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop after a chapter or certain number of pages?
If I’m at home, I won’t stop mid-chapter… I HAVE to reach the next one. If I’m on the tube, that’s a whole different story though because I can’t really stay on extra stops until I’ve finished that particular chapter.

4. Do you eat or drink when reading?
I’ve always got a bottle of water near me so I usually sip on that. There are times I’ll read whilst eating dinner but that very much depends on what I’m eating, if it’s remotely messy I wouldn’t dare!

5. Do you watch TV or listen to music when reading?
If I’m reading on the way to/from work, I’ll have my iPod on and my TV is usually on in the background at home.

6. One book at a time or several at once?
One book at a time. I don’t know how people read more than one book – I’d get confused between the stories and characters, etc. I wish I could read more than one at a time though, my ‘to-read’ list wouldn’t be as long then.

7. Reading at home or everywhere?
I’ll read everywhere, I’m not fussed. Except cars/buses/coaches – but that’s only because I get travel sickness on them. If I’m on a train/tube/in bed/at a friend’s house/anywhere else, I’m happy to read.

8. Reading out loud or silently in your head?
In my head, for sure.

9. Do you ever read ahead or skip pages?
When I start nearing the end of a book, I have to use all of my self-restraint to not skip forward and see if it’s going to end how I thought. There are times when that doesn’t work out so well, I’ll be honest.

10. Breaking the spine or keeping it like new?
I’m not particularly bothered either way. What I will say is if I lend out a book that I’ve not read yet and it comes back with a broken spine, I get a bit miffed. If it’s me, I don’t mind what happens – a broken spine is often a sign of a well-read book so that’s never a bad thing.

11. Do you write in your books?
Sacrilege! I would never. Even during my educational years, I never wrote in my books – no matter how many times teachers would tell me it would be useful for revision.

I tag everyone who enjoys reading!

BOOK REVIEW: Jennifer Joyce - A Beginners Guide To Salad

"Ruth loves nothing more than curling up in front of the telly with a family-sized bar of chocolate. She doesn’t do diets and she certainly doesn’t do exercise. But all that changes when she’s invited to her school reunion.
Bullied at school for being overweight, Ruth’s first reaction is to rip the invitation into a million pieces. But then Ruth hatches a plan. She’ll lose the weight and arrive at the reunion looking gorgeous and glamorous, leaving her old classmates in awe. Especially her former crush, Zack O’Connell.
With the help of her friends and a new, unbelievably hot colleague, Ruth begins her transformation. With six months until the reunion, losing weight will be a piece of cake, right?"

 I was lucky enough to win this book but, let me start by saying, I would happily have paid full price for this and would recommend it to anybody. It’s one of those fantastic books whereby you’re fairly certain you know exactly what’s going to happen but every now and then a little twist rears its little head and makes you question things.

It follows the life of Ruth as she embarks on a mission to lose weight so she can attend her school reunion with her head held high and show her former bullies that she’s not the person she was, that she’s over what they did and all the hurtful things they said. There’s two problems with this; she’s awful with diets and she’s not really over it at all.

Along the way, we meet the people in Ruth’s life that matter most – her best friend and flatmate, Billy, her work colleague and friend, Erin, her other flatmate, Theo, and her newest colleague, Jared. What I loved most about this book (if I HAD to pick one thing) would be that each chapter is written the view point of a character, be in Ruth (1st person) or any of the others (3rd person). It really helps you to get a rounded view of what’s happening and how everything affects them all. Better still, there are times when they recap things from a different point of view (I’m describing this so terribly, I’m sorry!) – so if Ruth and Billy are in a scene together and it’s first told to us through Ruth’s point of view, it’s then recapped from Billy’s; it’s a great way to see that people misinterpret things or see things in a different way.

The relationships in this book are fantastic. There was, perhaps, one point in the book where I found myself questioning where Billy has disappeared to but, oddly enough, the next chapter was his and he had just got into a relationship so, as in reality, he’d clearly gone a little M.I.A. whilst getting to know his lovely lady. The interactions are brilliant and true to life and the relationships are complex and comforting.

The characters are realistic, as are the struggles they go through. Jared and Ruth are dealing with their own demons and helping each other through, although they don’t necessarily realise it at the time – lots of misinterpretations and the like. Billy is Ruth’s older brother, Stephen’s best friend and Ruth’s best friend too. He’s there for her as a shoulder to cry on and a support whenever she needs it. Erin is the slightly promiscuous but kind-hearted friend who is on her own little journey that runs in the background of the story. Theo is a male Erin but without the journey – he is what he is and we love or hate him for it.

There’s humour, romance, and tragedy all wrapped up within this wonderfully written story. I was captivated from start to finish and was a bit gutted when I’d finished it, if I’m honest.

As I said at the start of this book, you think you know where it’s going to go but little things keep happening that make you question how sure you are about it and so you change your opinion, only for something else to pop up. It’s this writing style and structure that keeps you absolutely hooked – I had hoped for an early night last night but, nope, I had to stay up and finish it because I couldn’t bear to put it down.

It’s nice to read a book where, although there’s a happy end, it doesn’t entirely work out for the main character – she didn’t end up in the place she’d hoped but she’s happy and that’s such a life lesson to us all… You can’t plan for life but you can be happy with what you’ve got, even if it’s not what you expected. I loved it – it’s as simple as that.

Available to buy on Amazon

BOOK HAUL: Super Tiny but Super Exciting

I love book shopping. I'm a bit of an addict, some might say. I'm constantly browsing the web for cheap deals, new books, or the latest releases. Yesterday, I bought two books on my lunch break from the charity shop nearest to my office. Is there anything better than finding little treasures hidden in the book section of a charity shop? I also got a delivery of some books that I've been wanting for ages but had just never got round to buying - story of my life, really. Now, obviously I can't link to charity shops but what I can do is link to Amazon/Waterstones/various other book selling places so that you can check them out too!

Granted that's the worst picture in the world but what can ya do?

The first three I bought from The Book People recently and the order came through a matter of days later. I've wanted to read Ben Aaronovitch's 'Rivers of London' series for the longest time because I've heard so many people talk about it and it sounds like something that's right up my street so when I was it was just £4.50 on the website, I HAD to buy it. Now I just need to find the time to get my teeth into them.

I also (clearly) bought Stef Penney's 'The Tenderness of Wolves'. The blurb sounded amazing so I would have got it anyway but I'm sure that I've heard somebody say this is a really good book on more than one occasion. I, at the very least, remember somebody talking about it to some extent, ha. Plus, it was only £1.50, how could I say no?!

Finally, I bought Jane Fallon's 'Got You Back' - I'm SO excited to read this. It sounds amazing and it was an absolute steal at just £1! 

What books have you bought recently and do you have any suggestions for me?

BOOK REVIEW: Nicola Doherty – If I Could Turn Back Time

“What if you found The One, then lost him again?
Or not so much lost him as became the neurotic, needy girlfriend from hell. The girl who tried to make him choose between her and his job, and got seriously paranoid about his relationship with his best female friend...
Zoe knows she doesn't deserve another chance with David. But if there's the tiniest possibility of making things right, she'll snatch it. Even if it means breaking the laws of physics to do so...”

 The story starts with a character waking up the morning after with the hangover from hell. She doesn’t really know where she is or how she got that – all she knows is last night was a mental one, by anybody’s standards, and that, wherever she is, it’s ridiculously hot considering it’s winter. It turns out she’s in David’s room which, from the blurb, we can guess is her ex-boyfriend. Is this just a terrible hangover or something more..?

We’re then taken back 12 hours to when the events of the night start to unfold and we’re given the opportunity to learn about the narrator – we learn she’s called Zoé and that she’s clearly hung up on her ex. After a long day at work (she works in retail), she decides to follow a tradition a customer told her about; making a wish in the shop window.

We then follow her journey as she pieces together what’s happened and tries to correct her previous mistakes in order to change the outcome – and not necessarily just to do with her relationship with David.

There’s a little bit of a love triangle and, though the characters involved might not be a surprise, the outcome and the relationships that unfold are an absolute delight to read about. Let’s face it, most of us, at some point, have been dumped by somebody and spent months moping about and wanting them back, saying we’d do anything to get them back or we’ve at least known someone like that. Either way, it helps to make this book all the more enjoyable.

The characters are well-written and the relationships/friendships are well explored and well developed. The way that they interact with each other is exactly how I’ve known people in this situation to behave so it’s very much like reading about friends in this situation – just with a bit of added time travel!

I like that there’s a bit of a moral to the book – that even if you could go back and change things, it doesn’t mean they will go as you plan because you can’t really plan for life. Things happen, people come and go, and it’s all about how you react to certain things.

We watch as Zoe rebuilds (or doesn’t, depending how you look at it) her relationship with David but also how she cheats her way into the job she’s always wanted after having been denied it before she jumped back in time. She has the upper hand in a lot of the situations but that doesn’t necessarily mean she gets what she wants out of it. She learns that maybe some things don’t work out for a reason in life and love.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and could have spent forever reading about it and watching relationships develop and fall apart. The structure was lovely, the language used was spot on, and it was incredibly light and easy reading.

This is Nicola’s second novel and, after reading this, I’ll definitely be checking out her first -  The Out of Office Girl.

eBooks/Kindle: The Book People | Amazon | Waterstones

Paperback: The Book People | Amazon | Waterstones

*I was lucky enough to be sent this via BookBridgr so thank you BookBridgr and Frances Gough!