Movies and Books Update

As usual I've been making such great progress on reading and watching movies......

Oops.

I finished a book, a rare thing for me. I loved 'The Maze Runner' eventually and have book number 2 ready to go when I finish 'Pretties'.

Did I not see one single film between March and June? Apparently not! I checked my Instagram and Facebook checkins just to be sure, no movie time. There must be something about summer, I seem to watch the most movies in those months as looking at last year's summer movies list.

Gonna need a miracle to reach my goals in time on these! Wish me luck! ♥

Book: 'Insurgent' by Veronica Roth

I started reading this book in November, probably because I had a couple of London train journies coming up that month and in December as well. I find I read a lot more when travelling, I don't tend to read at home unless I'm completely engrossed in a book - this doesn't happen often. By my standards to finish this book in January is me reading very fast, although I did have some breaks that were weeks long before picking it up again.

All that aside I am so glad I got back into this and read half of the book in less than two weeks because I had to finish it, I had to find out what was going to happen to Tris! I sped through 'Divergent' and probably would've done the same with 'Insurgent' if it weren't for my bad reading habits. Just like 'The Hunger Games' the story is something that could come true in the future of the human race, that just makes it so fascinating! The movie for 'Divergent' is out next year and book three to his trilogy is out in the autumn of 2013 - I can't wait!

Book: 'Fifty Shades of Grey' by EL James

I started reading this on my holiday, read some of it on the plane and finished it when I got home.

I liked it, I suppose that's all we need to know. And I've bought the other two books in the trilogy as well.

Book: 'Divergent' by Veronica Roth

After finishing 'Uglies' I had to carry on the team dystopian book trend with 'Divergent' by Veronica Roth. It was one of those titles that came up in searches and suggestions relating to 'The Hunger Games' which I loved earlier this year.

This book was actually my first choice read for my recent holiday to Spain. I finished it in five days, not as quick as 'The Hunger Games', but I had sunbathing to be doing! Once the momentum of the book picked up and the story really go going in the second half of the book I was completely hooked and could not put it down! I really wished I'd taken 'Insurgent' on holiday with me as well so I could carry on with the story straight away.

My second holiday read was 'Fifty Shades of Grey' by EL James. I've not finished that one yet, but will do soon - more on that later!

Book: 'Uglies' by Scott Westerfeld

After I'd finished reading all three of the 'The Hunger Games' books, I needed something similar to keep me going! After doing some searching online and watching a couple of YouTube videos I decided to buy 'Uglies' by Scott Westerfeld. Some of my friends told me it was more "teeny" than Hunger Games, and they were right, but it doesn't mean you can't enjoy it as an adult.

I'm not sure if I'll order the sequels just yet, but I did get more into the story as I read more into it, the beginning and build up seemed a bit slow so I'm expecting the next few books to carry on with that momentum.

Next up I've got some choices, I could finish another one of the many books I've started reading and not yet finished. Or, I could give 'Divergent' by Veronica Roth and 'The Maze Runner' by James Dashner a turn. I'm going on holiday to Spain on Friday, so I'm going to need lots of good reading material.

Finished! The Hunger Games Trilogy

It's been so long since I last finished a book, keeping this blog for my 101 tells me the last time I'd finished a book was way back in March last year. Fourteen months later and I've read three books in the space of a month! Crazy.
It's 'The Hunger Games' trilogy by Suzanne Collins that has brought on this behaviour. Never before have I read a book before seeing the movie, but with this series I just had to. I'm so glad I did, I love these books!
I've been lending the books to someone at work and she's a fast reader, it's spurred me on to read books two and three really fast so she can have them. 
I now have the amazing urge to Google 'The Hunger Games' and found out everything I can on some sort of dedicated Wiki site! I need to fill the void until the next movie comes out in 2013!

012. [currently reading] 'Catching Fire' by Suzanne Collins

With my current obsession with the The Hunger Games trilogy and finishing one book in about two weeks, I've now started book two - 'Catching Fire'. I'm already about 8 chapters in and desperate to read more! I've got book three, 'Mockingjay' on standby ready for when I'm done with book two.

I've not been this into a book or book series in years - this is quite new for me!

The Hunger Games

I never usually get caught up in book-movie hype, I never did with Harry Potter or with Twilight either. Although the The Hunger Games trilogy is a teen based book just like those, I really couldn't help myself - I had to read it! I knew a bit about the story, what it was all about, but not enough to spoil the plot. I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie, there just seemed to be something about the story that made me want to use my own imagination to create this alternate future and I didn't want the movie to spoil that.

I started reading the book in early May and finally finished it after a couple of days away travelling on trains around London and Leeds. I was so pleased to finally finish it, it's been way to long since I started and finished a book so quickly! I'm really glad to finish it while the movie was still playing in the cinema, it meant that because I finished the book on the Thursday we were able to go and see the movie on Saturday afternoon. 

I think the movie was made so well and really represented the book. A couple of differences, but they're so small that they're not worth mentioning. I'm now on book two and the second movie isn't out for over a year! Never mind, I really love these books at the moment and will probably seek out similar kinds of stories and genres - I've not enjoyed a book like this in years!

012. [currently reading] 'My Last Duchess' by Daisy Goodwin

The summer is made for reading books and today was a real summer day. I bought myself a few new books from Waterstones and 'My Last Duchess' was one of them. It's a book I have lusted after for a while now, I think it was on one of those book club/must read lists for Christmas? Anyway, I made a note of the title here as one of the books I had to read during my 1001 days.

So far I've made it through a chapter, but with James away and the long Bank Holidays I am pretty sure I'll get through a lot of it quite quickly. I have it on my desk right now to take to bed - I've not read a book in bed for years!

021. [currently reading] The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland Paris

It might seem unusual to count a guide book in my list of books I'm going to read, but the Unofficial Guides are much more than that. I first read an Unofficial Guide for Walt Disney World in 2008 and it's one of few books I've read cover-to-cover in so long. I think the whole series is fantastic and I was over the moon when I knew it existed and just had to have it.

James and I are going to Disneyland Paris at the end of March and now the parks' opening hours have been released I am planning our itinerary! The Unofficial Guide will help me with that planning and teach me all the things I need to know to make our trip the best it can be and so we don't waste any time at all.

'Remember Me?' by Sophie Kinsella

I finished a book! I think the last book I read from cover-to-cover was a guide book about Walt Disney World, and that was a few years ago!

Today, on the train journey back from London, I finished 'Remember Me?' by Sophie Kinsella. James said I should do reviews of the books I read, but I don't think I'd be very good at it. So, all I'll say is I enjoyed it and it was definitely something light to get me started on my mission to read 20 books/all the books I already own.

I've started off a reading list to record all that I've read and am currently reading.

021. [currently reading] 'Remember Me?' by Sophie Kinsella

How many books do you own that you've started reading and never finished? If you're like me, then that figure would be high! My book shelf is full of half-read books. Tonight I carried on reading 'Remember Me?' by Sophie Kinsella. This is one of many books I own that I want to finish as part of my 101 in 1001.

I hadn't read this book for well over a year, I bought it at Sanford Airport on my way back from Florida in September 2009. I did really enjoy it and have no idea why I didn't carry on. Tonight I ended up reading more of the book than I did on that flight home!