So, I finally went to go see The Hunger Games - A movie review that 
kinda turns into a review of the books

So I went to see it last night. I've had a while to think about it and put my thoughts into order, lets see how I do.

I'm really not a huge fan of the Mockingjay pin design, mainly because the bird
looks like neither a Mockingbird or a Jay.

Ok, first of all, I need to stress how much I absolutely adore this series. I will never truly be able to convey with words what they mean to me, and how they made me feel. I was literally blown away by the depth of the emotions portrayed, the nerve jangling authenticity that Suzanne Collins managed to create an entirely fictional and futuristic setting, and the astounding realism that she was able to capture in her characters. Katniss will forever be one of my favourite leads, mainly for her constant conflicts with herself, against what was right and what was necessary. I love her for a flaws, her honesty and her humanity.  She isn't a hero. It is her actions that are heroic.

It's safe to say then, that the movie had a lot to live up to.  The burning question was, did it? The answer?  Yes and no. It succeed in being an adaptation of a high standard. It was slick, it was cool and it most certainly held my attention. I do not want to give away any spoilers for those that haven't seen it or read the books, but there is a certain scene in this movie that will stay with me for a long time, involving Katniss and a sign of solidarity she makes after a particularly moving event.  That completely and utterly ruined me and I blubbed like a baby.  So it's safe to say they managed to capture some of the raw emotion that the books have in abundance.  It also accurately conveyed the fear and desperation of all involved and the depravity and cruelness of those in control. 

What I was most afraid however, was not necessarily that the film would be bad; the sheer amount of positive reviews told me that this wasn't going to be another catastrophic book adaptation.  It was rather that I would no longer feel the same about the book series. That my feelings towards them would be forever tainted. I am pleased to report however, that the opposite is true. Because I could see how much they were not able to include, it made me love the books even more for the simple fact that you can feel so much closer to Katniss and all her fellow characters. You can explore better the relationships she has with Gail, Peeta, Rue and Haymitch, all of which I feel were not developed fully in the films. Trying to read anything now will be struggle as all I want to do is pick them up and immerse myself in the story once again and rediscover them in their awe inspiring brilliance.

If you are reading this, I am assuming you are a book lover and therefore will have read The Hunger Games series. If by chance, you haven't, then what are you waiting for? 

I envy all those who are reading these books for the first time. A part of me wishes I could wipe them from my memory, so that I could re-live, and re-love them all over again.

Thank you for reading >.<

The Tale of the Never Ending Epic


So, as with all (or at least most) self professed book-nerds, I am undertaking the writing of a novel, that seems increasingly likely to be an epic of perhaps three parts.  This had not been my intention at the beginning, yet as I stumble over my 121,515th word and begin my 24th chapter, I would roughly gestimate that I am perhaps a mere 20% into the story.  The main bit, where all the adventury, actiony stuff has only really just started.  This is where I ask myself, what the bleedin' heck have I been waffling on about for the last 100,000 or so words?

I have been writing the thing for about seven years, though if you count how long I've spent actually writing in those years, it probably only equates to a couple of months or so.  I would read a fabulous book, get inspired, sit at my desk to pick up where I left many moons ago, only to find that I had no idea where I was in the story, what was going on, or what needed to happen.  I would then have to read the thing from the beginning.  But of course I wouldn't just read it would I? I would have to tweak it, and add bits and remove bits, so much so, that by the time I got to the point where I could get some fresh stuff down, I'd have got bored, or distracted, usually by someone else's book.  And once again my own poor novel would sit on my computer, gathering virtual dust until the next time I should feel inclined to have another crack at it, at which point I would have to start the process all over again.  It was not an overly productive way of going about it.

It's only in the last year or so that I have decided to get serious with it.  Whether that means serious enough that upon completion (if that day ever arrives) I would try to inflict my work on an innocent and unsuspecting public, I still don't know. I wouldbe lying if I said that I hadn't at least entertained the idea of being a published author, what book lover hasn't at some point, but I think I maintain some level of reality that I don't think it's very likely...but still a girl can dream!! The aim rather, is just to get it finished. To be able to say, 'I may not have accomplished much in my life, but I was able to write an entire novel'.  Ok, yeah, it would sound better if I were able to say 'I published a frickin' book people, now worship my awesomeness', but I would settle for something with a beginning, a middle and an end. I even went so far as to try and cut back on the amount of books I read. Ha, what a fool!! Like that was going to happen.

I guess I had better start getting to the point of this post.  Basically, what all the above means is (and I wonder how I've written over 1000,000 and not really started my story!!!) that if I can't cut back on my reading, then I am going to have to sacrifice something else. I have already all but abandoned my artsy fartsy stuff, limiting anything I draw, paint or sculpt to being related to my own books. I don;t really watch that much TV, and releases of video games that I actually want to play are few and far between. So the only thing I could think of, was my Youtube reviews. Now, I am not saying I am giving up on it completely, they're just to fun to do for me to go cold turkey, but I am going to have to change the kind of reviews I do, and obviously how many I upload. As yet I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to do it.  At the moment I'm thinking of doing a haul type video every month or so, then a round up video, quickly reviewing all the books I managed to read.  I would have done this before, but I don't particularly work well with deadlines and routines.  I find that things stop being fun and I lose interest. So, yeah, uploads are going to be pretty sporadic, so I apologise for that.

But that does mean I can get my book written FINALLY. And who knows, maybe I could upload some chapters, though only once they've been tweaked, and that's only when I've completed it so...it might be a while.

I'll still be lurking about on a regular basis on twitter and I will do my upmost to make sure I keep my reviews on Goodreads up to date, and try to keep the blog going.

Wowzers


I have just stumbled upon two absolutely STUNNING songs, both inspired and taken from The Hunger Games books. Seriously, click, then just close your eyes and imagine....

A Bookcase Tour - After/Updated


So here it be, the final instalment of my bookshelf tour trilogy. This one is a look at my bookcase as it is now.




If you are interested in any of the books shown in the above video, then please feel free to ask me by leaving a comment here on the blog, or on youtube!! I will be delighted to answer, I can assure you!! >.<

A Bookcase Tour - During 


If you've read my previous post, you'll know all about my bookcase shenanigans. So without further ado, here's the next video, A Bookshelf Tour - During

A Bookcase Tour - Before

So I decided it was high time that a rearranged my bookcase, as it was looking a bit tired and I had lots of spangly new titles to add.

I also thought it would be jolly spiffing if I should record the whole endeavour...and I have.  There are to be three videos, the Before, where I go through the old books that have been on the bookscase for ages. The During, a silly video where I strip everything off, get in a fight with my tripod and re-jiggle all my books.  Lastly there's the After, and that one is a tour of the new, improved bookcase.

So here's the first one...

I am really weird!!!

A Salute to the General Awesomeness of Books


So yes, this is the kind of crap I think about before I go to sleep, but I knew for a fact that if I didn't get this written down now, it would be lost forever to the deepest and darkest regions of my brain-void.

On to the theme/topic/thing then...

There are many ways in which books kick-everything-else's-ass.  In this blog post I am just describing (really badly) one of them.

I read The Fault In Our Stars by John Green (see previous posts for a review) a little while ago. It was my first John Green book.  I was not really aware of him before, and though I had a couple of his titles in my section at work, I had not picked one up. I'm not really sure what drew me to TFIOS, but I read it, loved it and spent ages trying to sum up my feelings of it (though I ultimately failed on an epic scale). There is something special about this book, and I think it affects everyone in their own, private way.  But, not only did I get to experience the novel itself, oh no...

This then led me to want find out more about the author. I looked him up and found that he not only writes, but also is one half of a very successful youtube channel. I started watching their videos.  Through them, I discovered Nerdfighters and Nerdfighteria, an epic network of people all over the globe celebrating nerdiness. They're also people who are passionate about the same things, and actively try to make the world a better place by defeating the suck that makes the world suck ginormous balls.  Not lame things, but stuff that actually, really matters. Without TFIOS I would never had known this phenomena existed.

Sometimes there are people in the wide, wide world that you see and hear about and you think 'man, I would really love to know them in real life because they exude an aura of major awesomeness and I want to bask in it'.  For me, I want to know John and Hank Green. Their life just seems so amazingly fun and cool and hip and groovy (wow, really channelling my inner stalker now) and they have achieved so much. Plus, they seem like really fun and cool  and hip and groovy people. You know what I mean right (please, or right now I just sound like a crazy person)?  I am really not making sense, mainly because I have no idea how to say what it is I am trying to say. Ok, the other day, I was going to use the word 'retard', and once upon a time, I would have.  But I stopped, and this is ridiculously true and lame sounding, but I stopped myself because I thought, 'I bet neither John nor Hank Green would say retard'. I did that because I didn't want people that I don't know, and will never know, thinking badly of me!!!!! I don't even know if  they would use the word retard or not, that doesn't matter...OMFG, WHAT AM I TRYING TO SAY?!!!!!! This is what happens when you decide to write a blog post at 12:20am. You make no sense brain!!! Basically the vlogbrother's have changed the way I think about certain things. It's like, I want to be a person that they would approve of...or something and if I met them, it would be devastating if they didn't like me (wow, I am really reaching new and unnerving levels of oddness).  I watch their videos, and wish I was like them too. That I could see the world as they do and comment on it in a way that was as entertaining and generally clever sounding, the way they manage to come across with what seems like very little effort. I am content though just to view, enjoy and learn (coz yeah, they teach you stuff too).  I guess what I'm saying is that they have inspired me in a lot of ways but if I hadn't read TFIOS, none of the craziness above would be possible.

So thank you John and Hank Green, for giving yourselves to the world.

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And all this comes from just reading one book.  JUST. ONE. BOOK!!!!!! The best part? There are like a million more floating about out there, all of which may lead us to new things and may, for at least a little while, change the way we think.

That is one of the many ways in which books are awesome!!!! And I realise I have said awesome A LOT, but in my defence, it's 12:45am and my minds gone all gooey.

I am weird!!!

A Brief Hello From Ginger













Hello



Hahahahaha, I'm HILARIOUS!!!! No really, greetings to all wayward souls that have wandered into the realms of my strange and ramblish mind!!! Lets begin with some fun facts about me...

• Gingerbouf is not my real name.
• I am a serial tea drinker (what self respecting Brit isn't?).
• I read LOTS of books.
• I do NOT know the Queen (nor would I ever want to).
• My head explodes if I try too do Maths and
• I never intended to write a blog as I am doubtful as to whether I will actually bother to update it.

So yeah, concerning the last point, I really had no intention of starting one of these things.  I think it's down to the simple fact that I just don't have anything of real interest to say (though I'm guessing you've figured that out for yourselves anyway!!) and I barely have enough time to fit all the things I want to do around sleeping work and sitting down, as it is. I literally just wanted an easy way to keep up with a couple of blogs that I was interested in. Then POOF, the next thing I know I've spent an entire evening scrathching my head, trying to make my page look all pretty(ish). Case and point my first blog post,

Err...I don't really do blogs. I just wanted to follow other people!!

With that in mind, I am still very much a noob at all this, so it's all going to be very basic.  In regards to the  blog header pic...thing, Scary Ginger Lady will have to do until I get round to doing making new one (just in case you're interested she is actually the main character from the book I'm almost writing).

In terms of content, I have had a couple of ideas for regular features that will I probably do for a few months then just give up on as something shiny will catch my attention. One that I REALLY want to do is a feature on book covers as, being an artist myself (ha, yeah, just about) I love dribbling over pretty book jackets, old and new. So, hopefully I can get that started soon. There are obviously going to be reviews, though I am going to cheat and just paste them from Goodreads >.< I will also shove my Youtube vids in here too and there will probably be random posts too, most about book related stuffage, but some not. The one thing about Twitter that frustrates me is the 140 character limit (which I know is the point, but still...annoying), so it will be quite nice to have a place where I can ramble on and on and on and on...



...and on and on and on...

And finally, thank you kind person, for reading. Please feel free to comment below. As I have, at this minute 0 followers, it's more than likely that I will reply.

Toodley pip!!!