Hi people out there currently on my blog!
Summer vacation is finally here! Which means more time to read stuff, write stuff, and also actually have a good night’s sleep for once. And what better way is there to get ready for nine weeks of essentially doing nothing than buy books? LOTS OF BOOKS. Because now, you’re finally allowed to not be productive and do math all the time. In my school we actually don’t have any mandatory reading for thirteen year olds, but I asked the two English teachers in my school to borrow me their copy of books they want their students to read. One list is for fourteen year olds which I turned this June, and the other list is for secondary three to four, so the equivalent of sixteen to seventeen year olds. As soon as I got my hands on the list I rushed to the bookstore closest to my house, (which is still pretty far as I live in a village with no bookstores) while my parents were buying necessary, boring commodities such as sun lotion and toilet paper. So the first list is about two pages long while the second one is around four. That’s right, four pages of book recommendations written in Times New Roman 11pt. I know it’s amazing, it’s basically like this good book cheat sheet for whenever you can’t control yourself and step into a bookstore to spend all your life savings! I am however lucky enough to have an amazing family that supports my hobbies, so since my grandparents were visiting for my birthday they actually got me a couple of books from the list, and I payed for the rest.
Disclaimer: I did not actually buy all of these books in one day (as the nonexistent rules of a book haul state), however they were bought within three days of each other, more or less at least… I did buy one of these online from www.bookdepository.com which is my go-to site for buying books not available in Eastern Central Europe, however I bought all the rest of them in the same store. Basically the first day (when my grandparents were there) I ended up buying four books and three days later I was in the same mall and saw them unpack some of the books on my list, so after an (unsuccessful) moment of looking for them myself, the lady working there was nice enough to approach me and help me find three more which I also bought. Altogether that’s 8 books, plus the two books I got for my Name’s Day. I had a couple of friends from the U.S. in school who told me they don’t , that is really a lot. Anyways here’s a list of some of the books that I bought and the reason why they grabbed my attention while going through the list.
The Martian by Andy Weir I have (obviously) heard about the movie which came out (this year?), but I haven’t seen it since I’m the kind of person that either sees four movies in one month or none at all.This was the week I wasn’t going to the cinema and now I’m really delighted that past me didn’t go as the pleasure of reading the book wouldn’t be as strong. I’m actually nearly done reading it today (40 pages to go) and hopefully a review will be up soon. However reader be aware that there is a lot of complicated Physics and Math stuff going on. The book is basically complicated Physics and Math stuff voiced over by a smart ass character who is admittedly really funny but the Math is just… no…. like no… The whole reason of me reading is avoiding math.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald I just realized and this is really random, but it’s weird how I have two books here that both have movie adaptations and the leading actors who played in them competed with each other for an Oscar for the best male leading actor. Can you guess who they are? (Answer: Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon from the before mentioned book: The Martian.) Anyways, as for the Great Gatsby itself, everyone kind of has that movie that they feel is just so comforting. Like whenever you have a bad day at school or a bad day in general you just feel like watching it twice in a row while eating Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter cups ice cream. The Great Gatsby is just this movie that essentially get’s better whenever I re-watch it (if that’s believable). Since I loved the movie so much, the book being on the list finally gave me an excuse to at last read it. This is in point of fact the book I bought online, and when it comes to books I just can’t resist finding a good price for a book I’ve been looking for forever. This version cost like 3 euro something, yet I panicked when it finally came in the mail because it was wafer thin (only 120 or 130 pages) when in reality I have already seen a The Great Gatsby book and it was around 300 pages. I really despise accidentally buying condensed versions of books, and although it did say it was unabridged (so it should be the full version) I still don’t see how they got it from 300 pages to a 100… I just don’t trust those types of things. That’s what I get for being a cheap skate (sighs).
The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchet Phew, I’m finally going to read a Terry Pratchet book! I feel like every bookworm has like a list of books that have to read at some point and Terry Pratchet is nearly always present. I feel that people either love or hate him, and he has books that you just find sold in like random airplane bookstores and train stations by the magazines, so I thought I might finally give him a try. Admittedly one of the problems to buying my first Terry Pratchet book was that I didn’t know where to start? He just has so many books, which are divided into sub series, but somehow the order doesn’t matter? I don’t know. What really helped me and came in handy was this chart from Epic Reads which had a pretty cool graph on how to get into Terry Pratchet. Inserts link somewhere here:
All the Light we cannot See by Anthony Doerr I don’t know a whole lot about this book except that it won best (something) genre for the year 2015 and since it already was on my reading list before I thought I would try it.
Perfume by Patrick Suskind Murderer? Perfume? Innocent women? Famous? Paris? That’s about everything I need to know and since we’re going to France this year for summer vacation, and we might see Paris for a day or two I’m leaving this book for then, plus it’s small so I can carry it around when we bike or sight see.
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert Recommend to me by my mom as well as my English teacher, worth a read. Also can we talk about how pretty the cover is? At least my edition which I’m sure will soon appear on my Instagram is!
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Classic. I legit don’t know anything about this book except that it’s supposedly one of the first real dystopian books. Maybe like divergent?
The Circle by Dave Eggers Retelling of Brave New World but a little more modern?
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne A puritan woman commits adultery in a the strict puritan society and has a child. She is made to wear a scarlet colored letter “A” on all her clothing to tell everyone she meets she’s an adulterer.
Persepolis (both book 1 and 2 edition) by Marjane Satrapi For anyone who does not know Persepolis, just please find it on Amazon and read the first six pages. Like right now and return to this post when you’re ready for the amazingness that is Marjane Satrapi’s work. Her work is similar to Malala Yousefzai’s in means of speaking up for what she believes is right with the exception of instead of a book, being a graphic novel. It’s so honest and raw discussing themes like parents, education, identity, drugs, first love, growing up, and doing what you love no matter what. It’s sounds so close to home yet it was written by a woman who grew up during the Muslim revolution in Iran, under circumstances so different from my own. If anything it shows how much teens feel alike no matter the culture or circumstances they grew up in it’s this very book. And while I know many people have this weird bias against graphic novels “because they’re like comics” I can’t imagine this book in any other format but with beautiful minimalist black and white images drawn by Satrapi herself depicting her childhood in Iran and Vienna.
There it is! I hope you guys are having an amazing vacay (and have lots to read) in the comments down below tell me what book you want to read during summer vacation!
Stay Awesome,
Nina
The Teen Page Turner
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