The Scorch Trials - a movie review

Okay. I just got back from watching this, and I have to get some thoughts down before I forget. I'll try not to spoil anything, but do keep in mind this is a sequel so I might not make any sense because of that.

I'm re-reading the book at the moment, which is the biggest mistake I could have made concerning this series. I mean, I knew from the trailer that this was going to be a lot different, but I really had a hard time focusing on the movie as its own story because the book is so fresh in my mind. But after I got over that, and the really laughable Finnish translations, this was a lot better.

I'm not going to get into the story that much, just that it's the characters running from baddies. That's basically it. This is the biggest change from the book. To put it very vaguely. I'm not sure how I feel about that just yet.

I loved the music. I liked the cinematography, most of the time. The 'cut-to-blacks' were a little too often to work as a way to keep the suspense up. I adored the acting, well, mostly, but like damn Dylan O'Brien, how do you do that. I liked how badass this movie was, and how action-packed it was. Actually, it was phased really nicely, the quiet -er moments were really well placed. I loved how I laughed and how funny it was, and how I also almost cried a couple of times. I did laugh at some moments that weren't that great, but I'd like to keep this review more on the positive side.

I'm still a little confused if I liked the story. And I will be until I get the dvd and have distanced myself from the book properly. But that's okay. I did like how it had a clear ending and a way to continue the story to the next one, though I think the name 'Scorch Trials' was a little non-fitting. 

I didn't like Brenda. At all. I don't like her in the book, I didn't like her in the movie. I surprisingly liked Teresa more in the movie than I do in the books, I think. And of course I love Newt, Minho and Thomas, in that order. I didn't like the Cranks. (Not gonna elaborate, it'd be spoilers.) I didn't like how Jorge and Brenda were included in the story. I liked Harriet and Sonya, didn't like Aris. I didn't like what Wicked was doing with the kids. I didn't like Ava Page. I actually didn't really like the start of this, but that might be because it was so different from what I had just read a couple of days ago from the book.

I'm being very vague, I'm sorry, but I really don't want to say too much. 

All in all, I'm very confused. At one point I really was thinking I'd come out of the movie saying "I really wanted to like it, but..." but it got better towards the end. And I actually think it was good. I'm going to need to see it again, but yeah, I like what Wes Ball has done with this series, and am kind of getting excited to see what the final movie will be like.

The Historian - a review

Just a heads up, I really did not like this book, and have nothing good to say.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is about a young-ish girl who finds a weird book in her father's study and then he starts to tell her the story of how he got it. That's really just the backstory, the main story line is really the father's life, from when he got the strange book to until the story related to that comes to an end. At the same time, there are small snippets of the main girl's -whose name I can't remember- story. And that's the first thing I hated about this book. Also there's Dracula and his history, as that is the thing the father is investigating. (I'm saying this very vaguely to avoid spoilers, though I don't know who would want to read this, but just in case.)

I hated how the story was written; it was mostly in letters. And someone telling a story. Which would have been okay, if there had been a difference in how the letters were written and how the "real" story was told. But there was nothing to differentiate the two, I totally mixed the girl and her father sometimes. And, absolutely no one can write letters from memory many years later like that - I don't even write in my diary in that much detail. It was so unrealistic I wanted to scream.

I didn't like the writing. Can't really tell what it was about it, I just didn't like it at all. Everything was told the long way, the chapters just went on and on and on. A lot of the times there were really long, boring, unnecessary parts from some historical text that was supposed to be relevant. And yeah, I get it, there was information, but I feel like it could have been told in a much more interesting way.  The writing was also really slow to read. And the book was like 700 pages which was like 400 pages too much or something. Could have been okay-ish if it had been shorter.

This book was predictable and cliché, and it tried way too hard to be good and funny and interesting, and ended up being anything but. Everything that could have been interesting was just mentioned once, shortly, and then forgotten. This was just bad. At parts I laughed because it was so bad.

So, I don't recommend this to anybody, not even my worst enemies. Do not waste your time reading this. I only read this because I can't not finish a book, and that was a problem. I could have ended after the first few chapters.

One star. If I could give negative stars, I would. This is possibly the worst book I have ever read, and that's including Fifty Shades of Grey.

Why I won't be doing book hauls anymore

Hello. Yes, I am in fact still here, I just needed a little bit of a break. I won't promise new things even every week from now on, just here and there, and we'll see how it goes and how I have inspiration to write here. But, I did make a decision about book hauls just the other day, and I want to share that decision.

Book hauls. Oh, the book hauls. You buy books, you tell people about the books. You haven't read most, if any, of the books, but you still talk or write about them. Or maybe you just show a picture of the books you got. You tell how 'excited you are about them.' How 'pretty they will look on your shelves.' And then you forget. And buy more. And the pile of unread books on your shelf just grows and grows, until one day you decide to go through the books and decide which you want to get rid of because you don't think you'll ever read some of them.

I don't want to end up like that. I don't want to have a hundred books that I haven't read yet on my shelf, collecting dust, sad and so full of potential but forgotten. I want to be excited about the books I read, and I want to have read all of my books. Book hauls, for me, have the potential to become something I feel like I have to do, that I have to buy books to show that I have bought books, and that scares me a little, to be honest. I want to be a person who only buys books when they have read the previous ones they bought, if not all then at leas almost. With the exception of sequels, I think.

I discovered booktube on Youtube last year. And while I started maybe buying more books, I also started reading more books because of it. And both of those numbers have gone up this year, but as long as I don't buy more than I read, I'm happy. I have tried to use common sense - not to imply that booktubers don't have that - and only buy books I really want to read, books that I will continue to be excited about, books that even if it takes me two years to get to them, I'll be excited to read them.

So, I won't be doing book hauls anymore. I don't want to make it seem like one has to buy a lot of books. I don't want others to think like that, but most of all I don't want myself to think like that. I want to focus more on writing about the books I have read, and have something to say about. Because that's why I started this blog, to write about the books I read. Not to show how many books I bought. It just took me a little while to realize that.

Recently watched #2

Interstellar

This was surprisingly good! I didn't expect to like this, possibly at all, but in the end I really enjoyed this. There were some parts that were really slow and a little bit boring, and the movie feels just as long as it is and at times seemed to never end. Some parts really surprising, but not enough to make me gasp. More of the 'oh? really?' -variety. I really liked the ending as well.

I love space things, but some of the science stuff went over my head. Didn't really change how much I enjoyed it, though. Some stuff I felt a little 'meh' about, but as a whole, I really liked this movie. Now, one more thing; please don't make a sequel.

The Imitation Game

Brilliant, amazing, and a little bit heart-breaking. Deserves every bit of the praise it has got. The acting performances are brilliant, and when the story starts going, the time jumps really make sense, after the initial thought of 'why?' I found the movie and story really interesting, and didn't feel bored or like my mind was wandering. I didn't think I would like it this much, because if I had known, I would have gone to see this in the cinema. But back then it didn't seem to be that great, don't ask me why. I was always interested in it, but just not enough I guess.

I'm going to watch it again some day, possibly soon, to really understand everything. And because it was just that good.

The Book Thief

The book was so much better. That was what kept coming to my mind since the beginning of the movie. I kind of wanted to stop watching, but decided to keep going just in case it got better. It didn't.

It probably would have been an okay-ish movie if I hadn't read the book. I don't know; I can't know. I didn't like how sometimes they spoke German, sometimes not, but English with an accent and with und, ja, and nein. The focus of the story was different, and the voice-over was weird and oddly placed. And it's probably entirely because I really really liked the book that I didn't enjoy the movie so much.

The First Watch

There's nothing quite like seeing a movie in the cinema for the first time. It never feels the same after. I don't know if it's because you know the story, you know the ending. And even if you have forgotten, some of it might come back while watching. The movie feels exactly as long as it is, seeing everything for the first time. Yes, you miss some details, but you can always watch it again for those. I think it's the story, the plot, the twists and turns that make it so special. Because you have no idea what's going to come next, even if it's a movie based on a book. You can never know for sure, on the first watch.

I love watching my favourites again and again. Some I watch about once a year, some even on a specific date. (V for Vendetta on the 5th of November, for example.) Sometimes I discover an older movie again and just have to see it again, like happened with Inception this spring. I had seen it multiple times, and for some reason decided that I needed to see it again. So I watched it, and loved it as much as before.

Sometimes, after a long time, it feels different as well, but, as I said, not quite as special as on The First Watch. I discover new actors all the time, and watch their work again focusing more on them, and that makes it a bit different than the previous times. But, I think I don't do this on the first watch. (And I say think, because I've never thought about that before.) I just watch the movie as it is, and then the second time I can focus on my favourite scenes and actors and things like that. And like, the costumes and sets and everything.

There are some movies you just have to see on the big screen. Whether it's the acting, the music, anything, somehow it just doesn't feel the same if you watch it on tv. And I think that's one part why the first watch is so special. Because it's such a big screen, with loud enough noises that you can really hear everything, and see more details that you would on tv or on your computer screen. The quality is super high, everything is just made perfect for you to enjoy the film.

So yeah, there is nothing quite like seeing a movie in the cinema for the first time.

Mad Max: Fury Road and how awesome I think it was

Sometimes you go see movies by yourself because you don't have anyone to go with. Sometimes it's an almost empty movie theater, sometimes it's full and you feel a little anxious being there. Sometimes the movie is just okay. And sometimes you come home screaming internally because the movie was so good and you have no one to talk about it with, so you write a review less than an hour from when the movie ended.

Mad Max: Fury Road was so good that I kind of want to see it again right away. (I just realized, I could have. The next showing was like 20 minutes after mine ended. Hmm.) Here is the trailer.

It's basically about a chase through a desert, with awesome cars and stunts and kick-ass female characters. And Tom Hardy. I've not seen the previous Mad Max movies, and to be honest I don't know if I ever will. This worked on its own perfectly.

I wanted to see this because everyone seemed to like it, a lot. And because it was said to be feminist, and I can see that. And it was awesome. Some men have been upset about that, but from what I heard as I left the theater, many groups of guys were saying how awesome it was. And yeah, I kind of felt like shouting a giant "hell yeah" when it ended. Also I want more.

It's a beautiful movie. Some shots were just gorgeous, and the colours were really beautiful. The cars were super cool, the stunts insane. And knowing that they were really real people that did that made it so much better. I love that it was so real, in an age when it would have been easy just to create everything on computers. You can tell it was real, or more like, you can tell when something isn't. The music was awesome. The acting was awesome.

I don't know what to say anymore, other than just that it was really fucking great. Go see it if you like action even a little bit. And even if you don't, you might like it anyway. One of the reasons I went to see this was Tom Hardy because I kind of fell in love with him this spring. It happens.

Okay I'll probably come read this again tomorrow and facepalm, but in the meantime, here, have my immediate reaction to Mad Max; Fury Road. It was so awesome.

Ooops.

The Penultimate Peril, part 12 in A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. The latter is about a man whose father dies and turns out to have been a god. And the main character finds out that he has a brother as well, who shows up, and things just go on from there. I don't know more, I don't need to know more, it's my favourite author, I'm going to buy every single one of his books if I come across them.

Please don't let me anywhere near where books are sold for a while, please. I have more than enough and can't buy new shelves until maybe next month.

#crushyourtbr wrap up

Sorry it took me this long to write this wrap up, I've been ill since Sunday and am only today feeling good enough to write this. If I do write something that doesn't make sense, blame the sickness. :)

Okay. My goal on Friday was to just finish George Orwell's 1984, which I did. I read the last 93 pages I had left of that book. Then for the rest of the weekend, I just focused on reading Resurrection by Steve Alten. I didn't feel the need to read something else to break it up a little bit, so I read almost the whole book during the read-a-thon. On Saturday, I read to page 134. On Sunday, I read 324 pages.

And the thing that annoys me the most is that I finished the book 15 minutes past midnight. I only had about 15 pages left, but, the read-a-thon ended at midnight, so I'm not counting those 15 in my total page count. Which is 552. I think I did okay. I had a small enough tbr for the weekend, and I read what I had planned to read. I feel like I could have read a little more, but I don't ever want to force myself to read. It's supposed to be fun, and I want to keep it that way.

1948 was really good, I gave it 5 out of 5 stars. I might write a review for this later this week, or maybe next week, so stay tuned for that.

Resurrection was not that good. It was okay, and good enough that I read it in about two days, but not great or anything. There was too much going on, and it tried a little too much. The surprises weren't that surprising, and the cliffhangers were mostly just stupid. The idea for the story was good, but I really didn't enjoy how it was written. 2 out of 5 stars.

It was a very interesting first read-a-thon, one really great book and one not so great. Next time, maybe I'll do a week-long one.

#crushyourtbr read-a-thon

A read-a-thon is a set amount of time when you read as much as you can. It can be 24 hours, three days, a week, or maybe something else. There can be contests and challenges during the read-a-thon as well. There are many during the year, and this one for example happens monthly. (If you want to know more, you can just write read-a-thon on Youtube, there will be a lot of videos explaining it a little better than I just did.)

And the one I'm going to talk about today is #crushyourtbr read-a-thon. It is hosted on twitter by two people, and lasts three days. The idea is to read the books in your tbr, I think it could be about the set tbr for the month, or all the books you own but haven't read. For me, it's the latter, since I don't do 'to be reads' monthly. This read-a-thon is going right now, it started at midnight on Friday and it ends at midnight between Sunday and Monday. Three days of reading.

I have never participated in a read-a-thon before, so I thought this would be a nice one to start with. The week-long ones scare me a little, to be honest, and right now I'm kind of in the middle of studying so trying to read a lot during the week wouldn't be very smart. So I'm just doing this one. :)

I just wanted to share my tbr for this read-a-thon, so here we go. First, I'd like to finish George Orwell's 1984, I have about a third of the book left. Then, during the weekend, I'd like to read as much as possible of Steve Alten's Resurrection, which I picked from my tbr-jar this month. And third, if I feel like reading something else, I'll pick up a Jane Austen book, either Mansfield Park or Northanger Abbey.

I'll be back in the beginning of next week to let you know how it went, now I have to start reading.

Red Rising - a review

I kind of made a rule for myself and this blog, and that is to review every book I give 5 stars to. Because if the book is that good, I want more people to know about it. The same would go to books that I give only 1 star. There haven't been a lot of those, but the same goes; if it's that bad, people should know why I think it is that bad. Does that make sense? I will try to review other books as well, because let's face it, there can't be too many five star books in one year, or I'd start to question my ability to rate them.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown is about a teenager called Darrow, who lives on Mars. He is of the lower class called Reds, and he thinks they are working to make Mars habitable for humans. Turns out there have been humans on Mars for a long time, and the Reds are lowest of the low in the society. After some happenings I will not spoil, Darrow finds himself with a group of rebels who help him disguise himself as a Gold, the highest class in the society. Then it just goes on from there. I don't want to write too much about the plot, and that is basically what it says in the summary anyway.

This book is brilliant. Just utterly brilliant. I loved just about everything in and about this one. The writing is just beautiful, and I kind of wanted to underline page after page of it sometimes. It's easy to read, not necessarily fast but the writing flows nicely. Everything about the world is interesting, from the history to how things are in the present. I loved how it was explained little by little, not all in a big chunk.

The characters are interesting and scary and brilliant and lovely and horrible. Even if you can't remember the names, you can recognize them by how they talk or move. Darrow is a brilliant character as well, and I kind of grew to love him by the end. The characters are human, as in they make mistakes and just try to make it in this crazy world.

The plot is interesting, surprising, and gripping. I couldn't put the book down easily, I just had to read more and more. I have mentioned earlier how I'm hard to surprise, right? Well, this book did it, and not just once. I don't remember crying during this, but I sure gasped out loud very often, and smiled or laughed when something funny happened. And I was afraid and anxious, because this is that kind of a book.

I don't know if I'd say this is a dystopian novel, but more of a fantasy or science fiction book. And even if Darrow is a teenager and the book could be a young adult novel, don't let that fool you; I think adults would enjoy this just the same. Hell, I'm 22 and loved this.

The sequel, Golden Son, came out in January, so now I'm just waiting until it gets a little cheaper and then I want it. 

Used books - a haul

Me and my friend went on a quest to find a lot of cheap books yesterday, and ended up with seven for the price of one new book. Five of those seven were for me, and two for my friend. I'd say it was a pretty good day. All of these books are in Finnish, but I'm going to go through them from top to bottom with the English titles.

Angels by Marian Keyes is about a woman who catches her husband having an affair and gets fired from her job, and decides to go visit her friend in Los Angeles. This seemed like a fun, summery read, and I do like to read some chick lit every now and then. I have read one Marian Keyes novel before, and it was okay, so I hope I can get to this soon.

The next book is the Carnivorous Carnival by Lemony Snicket, part nine in the Series of Unforturnate Events. I have been slowly but surely collecting these books since I was a child, and I'd really like to have them all and finish reading the series. I think I have read about the first ten, but I don't know for sure. This series is about three orphans, Violet, Klaus and Sunny, who go from family to family, distant relative to another, just trying to find a place to stay safe.

Then the books I'm probably most excited for as Jane Austen is one of my favourite authors, and I'd like to read all of her books. Northanger Abbey is about a young girl who visits Northanger Abbey. I don't really know anything else, I don't really want or need to know anything else. It's Austen, of course I want to read it and own it.

The second Jane Austen book is Mansfield Park, and it is about a girl, Fanny, who is brought up with her rich cousins. Then some people arrive to the neighbourhood and charm everyone but Fanny, who is very suspicious. Again, I don't know a lot of the story, but I don't want to know a lot. I really want to read both of these as soon as possible.

And last, the Water Horse by Dick King-Smith. This is about two kids who find an egg on the beach and bring it home. A creature hatches and the family keeps it, but as it grows bigger and bigger, they soon have to find a better place for it. This is a lovely story about how the Loch Ness Monster came to be, and as I love this book and the movie as well, I had to buy this.

Those are all the books I bought yesterday, and will be all I'm going to buy for a while. Next investment has to be a bigger bookshelf, so I'm saving money for that. No new books until I have a new shelf, it seems.

All the Bright Places - a review

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven is about a boy called Finch and a girl called Violet. Finch is a little different from everyone else, and is struggling with depression and other issues, and thinks about suicide quite a lot. Violet has lost her sister in an accident, and has a hard time moving on with her life and recovering from that loss. They meet on the ledge of their school's bell tower, and that's where everything starts.

I read this in two sittings, in two days. It is a long book, but it didn't really feel like that. At first I didn't really like this, but I wasn't going to stop reading, so I just kept on going. Then at some point it started to get better and better, and in the end I liked it. It was never going to be a favourite, but I did like it. The last few dozen pages felt a little long or slow, but given what happens, it didn't really bother me. And well, maybe it was just me who felt that way, anyways. It did end the story, and the book would have felt incomplete without those pages.

The story was very realistic, and true. There were funny parts, and sad parts. Some passages I really really liked, and some made me cry, just because I could really recognize the feelings and relate to some of the things that happened. In the end, I felt very emotionally drained. And at the same time, there were really adorable and sweet parts. I laughed, and I cried. Not just once, but a few times.

I had a love/hate relationship with some of the characters, most of all Finch. I really liked him at some parts, but sometimes he just felt very fake, pretentious, and like he was trying way too hard. But I have to say, that got better the more I read. I really liked Violet and her story. The book is written in two points of view, and I liked to read more from Violet than from Finch. Some characters I felt a little 'meh' about, but then they said something or did something that made me like them.

I gave this book 4 stars, but I feel like that is a little bit too high a rating. 3 is too low, though, so I'm just going to stick with 4. I would also like to add that there is a lot of things about suicide that could be triggering. This book deals with it really nicely, and ten points for that, but still. Think before reading.

Violet creates a web magazine in the book, which is actually a real thing. You can click here to check it out, if you like.

Kind of a spring book haul

I know it's not even May yet, but I'm still going to call this haul a spring one, partly because I don't think I'm going to buy more books before summer. And partly because it's kind of snowing here in Finland right now. I have bought only four books since my birthday in January, which I'm really happy about actually.

I bought the Fifth Wave and All the Bright Places in March, because I had a couple of gift cards and my local bookstore had 15% off of everything. So yeah, I got books, that I didn't really have to pay for at all. Happy days.

The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey is a science fiction novel about Earth after I'd presume aliens have invaded it and killed almost all of humanity. The only way to survive is to trust no one, which is what Cassie is trying to do. Then she meets Evan, and has to decide whether she'll trust him to help her find her lost little brother or not. This is all I really know of this book, in addition to the 4,16 average rating on Goodreads, and was all I really had to know to want to read this. It seems interesting, and it was cheap, so I thought I'd give it a try.

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven is about a boy called Finch and a girl called Violet, who meet on the ledge of their school's bell tower, and save each other from jumping. This is a love story, but that's all I want to know. I'd rather see for myself what this is about. A lot of people have been buying this book lately, and I really want to read it soon because of that.

And then, today I went to see if I could use the last 6 euros on my gift card and buy perhaps two books. I actually had a different one I was going to buy than those I ended up buying, because when I found George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (or 1984), I had to get it instead. I've tried to find this for a while, not too actively searching, but still searching, because I haven't read it and I really want to. It's about a man who lives in a totalitarian world, where everything you do is controlled and watched, Big Brother style.

Then I also got the Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman, which is the reason why I was at the bookstore today. I saw this a while ago when I was just browsing, and went to get it today. It's about a spy, who works for a mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. The main character, Irene, goes to alternative London, but the book she's after has already been stolen, and she has to find it. I don't know, for some reason this seemed really interesting to me. And the cover's really pretty.

And last, do you want an update on how my annotating books has been going? Well, I'm loving it. I'm currently reading the last Harry Potter book and Red Rising, and underlining and commenting has been so much fun. I'd really recommend for everyone to at least give it a try, because it really makes your books your books. With your comments and thoughts. It's amazing. Though, I know it's not for everybody, and if even the thought of writing in your book gives you anxiety, I'm not going to say you have to do it. :)

The pictures will be unedited for a little while, because my laptop is living its last moments and I had to remove everything from it to get it to work, so I don't have an editing program at the moment. I am planning on getting a new one maybe next summer, though, so it won't be like this for too long I hope.

Make them yours

This is a kind of a response post to the video below, so you might want to watch  that first.

I had a bit of an epiphany while watching that video just some minutes ago; why should I not annotate my books while reading? Why shouldn't I, when my philosophy with books is that they can and should look read. I love when my books are not perfect, why couldn't I for example underline my favourite quotes or comment if something is really great or really bad?

I like the idea of annotating, though I wouldn't go as far as Ariel does in that video. She writes over the paragraphs, and dog-ears the pages, which are things I couldn't do. But little comments, underlining? It would make the book personal, and it would make it my version, just like Ariel says. And maybe, some day, someone would be delighted to find out that I had made little comments in a book they have borrowed. I think I would be. It would feel like you weren't reading the book alone, but with someone else.

So maybe from now on, I might annotate some of my books, Maybe. I can't say for sure, but this video really got me thinking about that. Because sometimes I have read a passage so amazing and perfect, that I have had to write it down, when I could have just underlined it. 

Interesting. 

And now I have the urge to read all of my favourite books again as soon as possible and annotate them.

As an end note, though, I would like to say that please do not annotate borrowed books without permission. I wouldn't like it, and I feel I'm in the majority with this one.

Recently watched #1

Recently watched is going to be an on-going series of short reviews and my thoughts on movies I have seen lately, but of which I don't feel like writing longer reviews, a few movies at a time.

The Theory of Everything

There should be no boundaries to human endeavor. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope.

This movie was really good, and Eddie Redmayne totally deserved his Oscar. He was absolutely brilliant. I find the whole story of Stephen Hawking really inspiring, and it was very interesting to learn more about him. This was a very lovely movie, lovely and a little sad as well. Beautifully made. I wanted to cry a few times, and when the above quote was said, it was almost impossible to not start sobbing. I just really liked this one, that's all I have to say.

The Hunger Games

I wasn't supposed to watch any of the Hunger Games movies until the last one was out, but when I had the chance to borrow the first three from a friend, I decided to watch them. I like the books, and have never really wanted to see the films, based on the trailers and other people's opinions.

The first one was bad. I hated the camera work, especially in the beginning. The second one, Catching Fire, was better, and in fact my favourite of the three. But that isn't really that surprising, as the second book is my favourite as well. The third one, Mockingjay part 1, felt incomplete. Stuff happened, yes, but it just felt like there should have been a little something more. There wasn't one bigger event, just a steady flow of stuff. But, as it is part 1 of 2, I think that can be forgiven.

All in all, these movies were okay. I like the books a lot more, but the movies did have their moments. I still won't be going to the cinema to watch the last one though.

127 hours

I had wanted to see 127 hours since it came out, but never managed to do that for whatever reason. I borrowed this from a friend at the same time as the Hunger Games movies, finally. It was okay. A little weird, with all the cuts and camera work and editing. That actually bothered me a little, and I think the movie would have been better without all those weird psychedelic scenes. But on the other hand, I can totally see why this was nominated for the Best Picture at the Oscars. It's a little strange and different, of course it was nominated.

There is a bit that I just couldn't watch, I had to look away. I'm usually okay with, like, hospital shows and stuff like that, but when you have to do something to yourself... it was too much for me. The whole situation and all, I just couldn't watch. Also I almost cried a few times, and especially in the end. I might have cried if I had watched this alone, but I was watching it with my mother so I tried to hold my tears in a little bit more than usually.

January wrap up

January was so long, it feels like it was way longer than 31 days. I had a goal to read every day, and only missed a couple of days. Meaning I got a lot of reading done in one month, and if I continued like that, I would be able to read, like, a hundred books this year. I'll try to keep these reviews / comments short.

The Bane Chronicles is a collection of short stories about Magnus Bane, and the fact that there were three writers really kind of shows. Some stories were great and lovely, some interesting, some really stupid and just bad. 3 out of 5 stars.

Around the same time I read Sudenmarja by Reidar Palmgren, which is the book I picked from my tbr jar. It's about a woman who works in a park and is a little different than anyone else. That's really all I knew of this before I started reading it, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was better than I thought it would be. The story was surprising, the characters good, and I thought this was an okay read. 3 out of 5 stars, though I was debating between 3 and 4 stars for a while.

Then I picked up Looking for Alaska by John Green. I had no idea what to expect, other than a boarding school and teenagers. This was really good, better than I thought it would be actually. I really like how John Green writes teenagers, and the story was really good. I gave this one 4 stars.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein is written from a dog's point of view, and is him looking back on his life as an old dog. This was really good, which totally surprised me. I cried, because as a dog person, this hit where it hurts, hard. 4 stars.

Then I read Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix, which is about a haunted Ikea-like store called Orsk, where some of the employees decide to spend the night, to find out what is going on. I totally forgot to show this in my book haul, but this is the book I was originally meant to get for Christmas. This was so good! And scary. I don't like horror movies, so almost everything could potentially scare me, and this was one scary moment after another. I had to take breaks after some chapters, because whoa. 4 stars.

After that I needed something happy and not scary, so I started reading the Harry Potter books again, by J.K. Rowling. I read the Philosopher's Stone and the Chamber of Secrets pretty much back to back, and they are both so lovely. Still, after 15 years. I felt like these were even better now, but it has been years since I last read them, so I can't be sure. Just, lovely books and lovely characters. Both of these have 4 stars. I think I don't have to go into plot with these books, everyone and their mother knows what these are about.

Next I read the Song of Achilles, which I have a review of over here. Loved this book, 5 out of 5 stars, definitely January's favourite.

Then is my favourite Potter book, the Prisoner of Azkaban. I don't really know what to say, I love everything about this book. The characters, the plot, everything. 5 stars.

Aaaand last but not least, I read Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. This is about a girl with an eating disorder, and how she's struggling with relapse and recovery after her friend dies. I found this very true and real, and quite liked this. I liked the writing style a lot, which flowed like the main character's thoughts. A very fast read, too. I gave this 4 out of 5 stars. And I feel like I have to say it again, could be very triggering, so if you have any history with eating disorders, self harm, or the likes, think before you read this. I'm serious.

I also want to share the brilliance that is Pride. I absolutely loved this movie. It's basically about a group of gays and lesbians who start collecting money for the miners that are on strike. It was just lovely, and left me smiling.

Presents! - a book haul

 First, books. I got a gift card to a bookstore for Christmas from my brother, with which I ordered three books. The money on the gift card almost got me the three books, I think I had to pay only like three euros myself. Then I got one book for myself, but after a series of events I'll explain later, the book I got isn't from the same place as the one I originally ordered.

So, first. the Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I'm not going to talk about this too much, as I just did a review over here a few days ago. Read that if you want to know more about it. :)

Red Rising by Pierce Brown is the one I mentioned. I ordered this from the same place as the other books in this haul, then got a message that they didn't have it anymore. I shrugged, and ordered it from another place. Then came another e-mail, telling me I would be getting the book from the place I originally wanted after all, when I had already bought the book, cheaper, from the other place. Needless to say I returned the first one, and kept the cheaper one. (The other one was a large print edition as well, and I didn't like it at all. So it turned out okay in the end.)

This book is about people on Mars, the main character being a miner with a mission to get the planet habitable for humans. Then he finds out that there have been people living on Mars for generations, and that he is in fact one of the lower-class citizens, and decides to try to change things. I don't really know or want to know too much about this book, it just seemed interesting enough that I wanted to give it a try. It is a first of three, the second book came out just a little while ago.

Then, the Kill Order by James Dashner. Have I talked too much about the Maze Runner trilogy yet? This is the prequel to the series, set before the events of the trilogy. I can't really say too much without spoiling things. For a review of the Maze Runner, click here.

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a girl with an eating disorder whose friend dies, and she is left to deal with that, at the same time struggling with her body image and recovery / relapse. I was interested in this, because of my own experiences with body image and all that. Finished reading it today, and one thing I have to say right now, is that it could be very triggering if you have any issues with eating disorders, self harm, or things along those lines. I'll review this a little better in my wrap up I'm planning on doing in the end of the month.

I also had to buy these two movies when I was ordering Red Rising. How to Train Your Dragon 2 was really really good and I didn't get it for Christmas or my birthday, so I bought it myself. As you can guess from the name, it's about dragons. I love the first movie, of course I had to get the second one as well. Duh. It's brilliant and great and awesome and I love it and saw it in the cinema twice. (Also I would really like my own dragon about right now. Thanks.)

Pacific Rim is about people in giant robots fighting giant monsters. Watch this video, it's what really made me want to see this movie, some time after it came out. I've been wanting to buy this for ages, ever since I saw it, and finally I got it. It's just a great movie, I love it.

One other thing I must mention; I got a reading lamp that can be attached to a book from my friend! It's totally awesome.

The Song of Achilles - a review

or alternatively titled: This Book Broke Me You Should Totally Read It.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. This book is about the epic (love) story between Achilles and Patroclus in ancient Greece, in a time of heroes. The book is told from Patroclus' point of view, starting when he was a young boy. He and Achilles meet, become friends and grow up together, their bond deepening as they get older. Then comes news that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, and Achilles has to go to war in Troy, and Patroclus goes with him. This is all I'm going to write about the plot, and is basically what it says on the back of the book. It's not all there is, of course, but I want to leave some things as surprise.

(And when I say (love) story, I really mean love story.)

I loved this. I couldn't stop reading once I started, and ended up reading the whole book within 12 hours. Finished at 3 am (and felt like crying again half an hour later) but it was so worth it. I wanted to read it again the next day, at least the best parts, but I think I have to wait a little before reading it again.

The writing was lovely, and worked really well especially when Patroclus was a young boy or a teenager. It wasn't as good with him being an adult, but didn't take anything from the story, it was just something that I noticed. More like the writing style, and kind of Patroclus' thoughts, stayed the same, even when he was supposed to be older. The plot was wonderful and interesting, and even though it was partly about a war, it had more than just descriptions of fights.

I picked this up because I had seen a lot of people love this on the internet, and was interested. And it did not disappoint. It was captivating, wonderful, lovely and hot. And I mean the sexy kind of hot. Like, damn. You don't really need any knowledge of Greek mythology if you want to read it. I don't know much, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's a good story without the knowledge of gods and goddesses, the Trojan war and other things, and I think it might even be better if you don't know too much. That way you can enjoy the book as it is, a version of the story.

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars and moved it to my favourites shelf immediately. Because it was that good.

Most owned authors

My most owned authors, of the books I have in my flat. I'm pretty sure I own like 15+ books by Merja Jalo, but they're in boxes in my family's house. Horse books, because that's basically all I read when I was young. Horse books and Harry Potter.

...Here is the top 5, with three authors in the fifth place.

1. J.K. Rowling with 22 books. The complete Harry Potter series in Finnish and English, and the first four in German, and the school books. And the Casual Vacancy. I grew up with Harry Potter, and I believe it was Harry Potter that got me into reading. And these were the first ever books I read in English back when I was like 13-14.

2. Cassandra Clare with 10 books. The complete Mortal Instruments and the Infernal Devices series. And the Bane Chronicles.

3. Lemony Snicket with 9 books. A Series of Unfortunate Events, books 1-7, 11, and 13. Last one in English as I bought it when I was in London in 2008. Still haven't read it, I think I've read like the first ten or something, but I'm not sure. I really need to read these again, and preferably try to find the missing ones and buy those to complete my collection.

4. Stephenie Meyer with 7 books. Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse in Finnish, Twilight, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn in English. And the Host (in English), which is one of my favourite books ever. Way better than Twilight. I didn't get the last one in Finnish because the translation in Eclipse was really bad, and because the book sucked, so I didn't want to spend money on a book I knew was bad.

5. Christopher Paolini, Cecelia Ahern and Neil Gaiman with 6 books. And look, three of my favourite authors, together! The Inheritance Cycle by Paolini is another series I kind of grew up with. I have the complete series in English, and the first two in Finnish. Then I have six random books by Cecelia Ahern and Neil Gaiman, who are like my top two faves, with Gaiman on the top. Oh, one book by Ahern is in two languages, as I own it in Finnish and in German. Other than that, I own books in English and in Finnish. Neil Gaiman I do prefer to read in English, but I have Stardust in Finnish because it was cheap.

So, that's about it. I really like the photo, I'm so happy it turned out okay. I had a vision of how I wanted to the picture to look like, and it turned out just like I wanted, with a massive pile of books for J.K. Rowling in the first place. ;) And even better, most of these authors are actually my favourites.

Warning: these covers do not match

There. All of my series that have non-matching books. That's about half of my series. And I don't careee~

There are many ways the books might not match. The most common one is that some of the books are paperback, some hardcover. That already makes a difference in height and size, and sometimes even the cover changes. I have a lot of these, as you can see. Then there are differences in sizes within paperbacks and within hardcovers. Small paperbacks, tall paperbacks, and then some of my books are of a third height, and might not even match within that "third height." Different editions and cover changes are also common. Some publishers change the cover designs in the middle of publishing a series, some publish the series again with the new covers. Sometimes the changes are small, sometimes a little bigger.

There are many ways these and other things might anger people, who care about having matching books on their shelves. I only get a little angry if something happens, like for example, my hardcover gets destroyed, because my family's dog got the book out from my mother's bag and ate it, and my mother bought me a paperback to replace my beautiful hardcover. (Eragon in Finnish, if you were wondering.) I get books as gifts, so I can't complain if I get a different edition than the other books I have. We don't get all the editions of books written in English, so I can't be picky when buying those.

It's totally fine wanting matching books, I'm not saying that it's not. I might think it's a little stupid to keep buying multiple copies of the same book just because it doesn't match and there's no way to tell if it will when ordering it online, but it doesn't matter what I think. If you have the money and really want to get the matching book, go for it. I will shake my head and be happy with my non-matching covers, because for me it doesn't really matter what my books look like. I just want to be able to enjoy reading them, and the picture on the cover or the height of the paperback doesn't change the reading experience.

Read one; buy one

(The picture has nothing to do with the text, sorry about that. But it was so lovely outside today and I had to go play photographer even if it was really cold, but I just love Finland and winter and together they are just perfection.)

Last year I decided to restrict my book buying, and came up with a rule of 'read one book you haven't read yet, and then you can buy one book.' Simple. It worked well, and I was originally going to continue with the same list this year, meaning I would have been able to buy six books at the start of this year. However, I changed my mind about this. I'm going to start all over again.

My birthday is in a week, and I usually get books for Christmas, so this time of the year it isn't really "necessary" for me to buy books, as I have a lot to read anyway. After I have read those books, I will be able to buy more again, and that sounds just fine for me. I have limited space on my bookshelf, because I don't have money to buy another one, nor do I really have the space for it in my room. I don't want to be one of those people who buy ten books every month, because my goal is to have read all / most of my books at some point in life.

I haven't been counting the books I get as gifts, only the ones I buy with my own money, because that's what this really is about; saving money / not spending all of my money on books when I do really need to eat too. It's a really easy way to control my book buying, and it doesn't feel too forced or too big like a total book buying ban would be. This way I still get to go to the bookstore and buy books, get new stories on my shelves to be excited about, instead of just having to avoid bookstores. I'd never be able to keep to my book buying ban, I'd break it after a couple of months I'm sure.

This one is really good if you want to change it at some point. For example, if I read a lot of unread books, I might make the rule 'read two; buy one.' Easy. I don't know if I'd even need the rule, but I do like having something like that to remind me to not buy everything I find even remotely interesting.

So yeah, read one; buy one. I liked it so much last year, that I think this will continue on in my life for a long time. :)

(Oh, by the way, I changed my reading challenge to 35 unread books, and the total in my mind to 50. Because I've already finished two books.)

Reader Problems Tag

1. You have 20,000 books on your TBR. How in the world do you decide what to read next?
Mood, feeling. I pick what I want to read next, I don't really think about it too much. Well, I do want to read the books I haven't read that I own before moving to my flatmate's bookshelf... I also have the tbr jar, from which I read one book every month. The books in the jar are books I wouldn't maybe read at all, but that I own. I want to read more different stuff, so the tbr jar is really helping me with that.
2. You’re halfway through a book and you’re just not loving it. Do you quit or are you committed?
I usually try my hardest to not quit. I've only ever stopped reading a few books in my life, because I couldn't get into the story and it was taking me so long to read them that I began to forget what had happened in the beginning. Not loving a book is not a problem for me, I think you have to sometimes read bad books as well as good and great books.
3. The end of the year is coming and you’re so close, but so far away on your Goodreads reading challenge. Do you try to catch up and how?
I make my challenges easy. I'd much rather win the challenge many months before the end of the year, because I stress about stuff a lot anyway without the added stress from reading "enough".
4. The covers of a series you love do. not. match. How do you cope?
I don't care. Most of my series don't have matching books, and I don't give a shit. I'll be writing more about this sometime soon, because a lot of people get crazy over this stuff and I just don't care.
5. Every one and their mother loves a book you really don’t like. Who do you bond with over shared feelings?
I don't, really. I move on. I rate it, maybe review it, and move on. Sometimes I do complain to my friends, but not that much I think...
6. You’re reading a book and you are about to start crying in public. How do you deal?
I just realized I don't really read in public. Probably because I get motion sickness from just reading the signs by the road when in a car, so I really can't read anywhere that moves. Car, bus, train, nope. And at school our breaks were never really that long... I think I'd just let it go, or stop reading and get back to the book when I get home. I don't know, really.
7. A sequel of a book you loved just came out, but you've forgotten a lot from the prior novel. Will you re-read the book? Skip the sequel? Try to find a synopsis on Goodreads? Cry in frustration?!?!?!?
Reread. If I even remotely liked the book, I'll reread. I love rereading books. (Last summer I read the five previous books of the Mortal Instruments series just because I couldn't remember what had happenend in books four and five, before reading the last book in the series. So yeah, reread.)
8. You do not want anyone. ANYONE. borrowing your books. How do you politely tell people nope when they ask?
I'm kind of okay with people borrowing my books, if they have been good to them in the past. And like, my flatmate lives with me, so the books never even have to leave the apartment. My mother borrowed one without really asking, but, like, she's my mother. Half-strangers, on the other hand... No. You have to be a close friend. And preferably read the book without taking it with you because I can never be sure how you treat it if you take it away with you. So, I'm weird with this one. Close friends okay, others... not so much. The biggest problem I have is that I can't be sure to get the book back, not necessarily the condition of the book. (Books are supposed to look read, is what I think.)
9. Reading ADD. You've picked up and put down 5 books in the last month. How do you get over your reading slump?
I don't even get that far. If I don't feel like reading, I don't read. I trust that my want to read will come back eventually, maybe I get a new book I'm excited about and read that, and that's it, maybe someone really liked a book I have on my shelf, I don't really know. I just take a break, there's no use in trying to force myself to read. Reading is supposed to be fun, guys!
10. There are so many new books coming out that you’re dying to read! How many do you actually buy?
Well. I live in Finland. We don't get all the books I see people on booktube getting excited about, and I don't really ever follow the new releases. I discover new books by seeing reviews and wanting to read them based on that, and then I have to order a lot of them online if I want to read them, because I like to read books in English if they were originally written in English. New Finnish books I find when they are already published and sitting on the shelves in my local bookstore when I go there.
11. After you've bought the new books you can’t wait to get to, how long do they sit on your shelf before you get to them?
If I'm really excited about a book, I want to read is as soon as possible. I might start them right away, I might just wait until I've finished some book I'm reading first. I don't have trouble reading multiple books at once, so if I'm really really excited to read a book I just bought, I will read it.

This tag was started over here, and it was really fun to do.

2014 book haul, part 2

The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner; the Maze Runner, the Scorch Trials, the Death Cure. I have a review for them over here, and I'll just say, once again, that I love this trilogy. I bought the Maze Runner when I had a little money and wanted to buy books, and found that, and the next book I'm going to tell you about in a sec. Read it, loved it, had to order the next two, and loved them almost as much. (Do I talk about this too much? I feel like I've been mentioning this a lot since I read it...) The first and the second book 5 out of 5 stars, the third one 4 stars.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan is a story about two teenage boys with the same name, who meet by accident and the story goes on from there. Every other chapter is written by Green, ever other by Levithan, and they both write about their own Will Grayson. I liked the different writing styles, after the initial shock of it changing in chapter two, and it worked really well with the story. I really liked this book, it was lovely, great, and brilliant. The ending was a little 'meh' for me, it felt like it should have continued a little bit after that. 4 out of 5 stars.

This next one is a little bit embarrassing, and I don't really know why. The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson. Yes, I was being a fangirl, but I had to buy the stories about Magnus Bane's life. He's a character from the Mortal Instruments and the Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare, and he might just be my favourite character. I had to, okay. I saw a few of these in my local bookstore and I just couldn't leave without buying it. It's the last Clare book I'll buy, and I just might tell you why some time later.

And because I felt like it, I threw in a Christmas present from my mother. Looking for Alaska by John Green. I got this because the book I originally wanted hadn't arrived by Christmas, and my mother wanted me to at least get some book. I've never bought this myself, it has never seemed like something I'd really want to spend money on, but I'm not complaining because now I have it anyway. This is about a boy who meets a girl at a boarding school, and that's kind of all I know? I don't know, okay, I haven't read this one yet and the blurb in the back is really really vague.

I like these shorter book hauls more than the monster of my previous one, so I'll try to do these a bit more often than twice a year.