I like big books and I cannot lie (but short books are convenient for reaching goals)

So I've been trying to complete the 50 books challenge this year, too. The only hitch? I've been in full time education, including a summer course... I am currently at 38 books, but I have a plan. I have short and easy books lined up for the holidays (now that I finally have them). So although I like big books, short books are convenient for reaching goals.

The books I plan on reading this holiday.

Although, I might need to change the wording of that a bit. I like good books, not necessarily big (as in thick) books. As some of you remember, I have been reading Les Misérables for the past year, and I am really stalling now. I have also given up on reading The Casual Vacancy - the stories were quite heavy emotionally. It's not that I don't like those two books, but they are hard to get through.

So the grand plan is to read Of Mice and Men, Romeo & Juliet, The Chronicles of Pern, Let it Snow, and Miss Peregrine's House for Peculiar Children. And then to read the whole Narnia series, because I read one of those books in an evening. That will add up to a total of twelve books, which is just enough to complete the 50 books challenge! Now I just need to find the time to read - maybe I should take that out of my internet time?

I will go and pack now. It will be a challenge, fitting all the books and the presents in, but I'm sure I can manage. After all, I don't need to bring the Narnia books, since we have a copy of those at home. I am looking forward to sitting on the train home, reading, knitting and looking out at the beautiful winter scenery.

Have a lovely holiday, everyone! Merry Christmas!

27. The truth resists simplicity

That is a quote from vlogbrother John Green. I think it is very appropriate at this time (or any time, for that matter). The truth of how I am feeling right now, and how my life is, is difficult to explain. It's even difficult to fathom for me, peering into the depths of myself. There is always a mixture of happiness and sadness, joy and pain, depression and elatedness, craziness and sanity, and all the things in between. Sometimes I feel like my inner self is a pair of scales which are fluctuating all the time. One moment the 'happy' side is the heaviest, the next the 'sad/depressed' side is the heaviest. I'm not saying I'm always having these huge shifts, but they occur every once in a while.

I think it is difficult to understand others completely because all people are immensely complex. The truth about a person resists simplicity. Even for the person itself. We can never know exactly how a person experiences something - we can only know our own story. As Aslan says to Shasta in The Horse and His Boy (by C. S. Lewis): "I tell no one any story but their own." That is the only story we have the right to know, even though some pieces in the puzzle may be hidden well.

When talking of quotes, I want to share a site with you that you might want to keep an eye on: 52 quotes. It posts visualisations of great quotes. The most recent one is from J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" (said by Albus Dumbledore) Just ponder that one for a moment.

In parting, I have a recently discovered quote from a goodbye. It's from Nation by Terry Pratchett: "No more words. We know them all, all the words that should not be said. But you have made my world more perfect."

Books read: 18
Pages read: 4852

Dreams

Dreams are strange things. Sometimes you wake up feeling utterly confused by the movies that have played in your head while you were sleeping. Other times, you battle through your dreams all night long, and wake up exhausted even though you don't remember what you dreamt. And sometimes your dreams stick with you long after you dreamt them even though you only dreamt them once. Some dreams come again and again, night after night, while others just come and go as swiftly as the wind. When I was younger, I would frequently wake up and cry from a nightmare. Sometimes the dream would be so scary that I would totter into my parents' room and lie in their bed for a while till I thought I could manage to go to bed again. Now, my nightmares aren't that scary. I quite often find myself in a dream contemplating whether it is enough of a nightmare to wake myself up for. Quite often, I find that the answer is no. It is quite weird to have those kinds of dreams.

When I think of dreams, I often think of the book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis (which has recently been made a film, see my blog post about it). In the book, they visit the Island where Dreams come true. They rescue someone from it who tells them what the island is called. The men on board think that their daydreams will come true on this island, but, as the rescued man explains to them, they are mistaken. The Island where Dreams come true is an island where your real dreams come true - the ones you dream in the night! And think of living in that weird and changeable world that is your dreams! Even if you are not experiencing a nightmare, it would be scary. I often dream that my surroundings change and that my dream companions change appearance from real people to Disney characters and back again. Think of that actually happening! The thought makes me shudder. I guess I am really happy that my dreams aren't my real life.

I have recently bought a beautiful edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling, and therefore I decided to read it again. Do you think I should count in my 30 books project even though I have read it before? I know I said I would only read new books, but I want to ask you this time. Should it count in my 'books read' and 'pages read' count? Please leave a comment below telling me what you think.

Books read: 8
Pages read: 2357 (+145 in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)

PS: I have now read a quarter of all the books on BBC's Big Read List! Hooray!

Narnia and 2010 ending

Sooo....I'm realising that this blogging thing might turn out to be harder than I thought. But I will continue trying, and if you have any tips for improvements, please leave them in the comments.

A film I have been looking forward to a very long time came out on Christmas day: The Chronicles of Narnia - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I went to see it yesterday, and I liked it very much. Plenty of action and suspense, and quite fast-paced. They kept and evolved the important themes, but they left out possibly my favourite scene in the whole series. That was kind of a let down, but I understand why they did it. All in all, a good adaptation of my favourite book in The Chronicles of Narnia. I definitely recommend seeing it.

The end of another year is right around the corner now. Many people use the time now to reflect upon the past year and make plans for the coming one. I wonder why they are called resolutions. I just think it is a strange word. All the same, I have made some as well. My plan is to read at least 30 books between this Christmas and Christmas 2011, and blog about them. I might as well start the second part, as I have already had a great start on the first. I have completed The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It was full of fast-paced action and a bit scary. It is especially scary if you see all the connections to today's society, and think that similar things actually happen in the world these days. We follow a girl in the future North America who has to fight to the death against 23 other teenagers while everything is televised live in the whole country. It is a good story, and I recommend it if you want a read with a lot of suspense that you will read till 4 AM. It is not packed with literary gems, but it is fun and easy to read.

I hope I will complete the challenge I have set myself for 2011. I am looking forward to finding out of this new medium, and learning and reading a lot of new things. And, by the way, all the 30 books I will read in 2011 are books I have never read before. Happy New Year! May you reach all the goals you set for 2011 (if you dare to set any at all).

Since I am going to do this reading challenge, I think I will have a counting thing at the end of each blogpost from now on. So here it is:
Number of books read: 1