As you might have been able to tell from the utter lack of posts since last week, the weekend and start of the week was… interesting, to say the least. The weather was what they euphemistically call “inclement”. For me that meant a mildly sleepless Saturday and Sunday night whilst the wind howled outside, for elsewhere in the North, however, it meant flooding. Lancaster flooded a little, it turns out, the electricity substation was under water and so electricity was off. The University campus was evacuated, with students told to go home a week early with all lectures/coursework cancelled for the upcoming/final week of term. Being in Teesside, this didn’t directly affect me, but I did know people still studying/living in Lancaster so there was naturally a bit of concern going on.
Also my postgraduate graduation ceremony was allegedly taking place on Wednesday and, as it stood on the Sunday night, it was still scheduled to go ahead even though I couldn’t see how considering the students still left on campus were having to sleep on the floor in the LICA building. However, somehow, with a lot of people working relentlessly behind the scenes, it did go ahead successfully, with the only sign of any problems being the huge generators which buzzed away in the car park. I’m still astounded at how much Lancaster managed to rally, to be honest, since it seemed business as usual by the time Thursday rolled around. But anyhow this was my long-winded way of saying that blogging wasn’t my top priority this week, with the uncertainty of my plans involving Lancaster. Anyhow, I’m back, and all graduated, so I’m officially and ceremoniously now a Master of Arts, for what it’s worth (worth the opportunity to yet again don a slightly ridiculous robe and cap, for one)!
But, just like Lancaster, it is business as usual so now we return to the entire point of this post – a little Friday Reads for 11th December!
I’ve been taking full advantage of the library lately in order to try out some fantasy reads which I wasn’t sure about whether I would enjoy or not. It was a bit of a swing and miss with Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind last month but I’m getting along with Brandon Sanderon’s Mistborn trilogy quite nicely. As intended, I finished the first book, The Final Empire, at the start of this week and now I’ve had a chance to pop to the library I intend to delve into the second, The Well of Ascension, as soon as I’ve finished writing this post, in fact!
(One vague spoiler which sums up my thoughts about the previous book: I’m not over Kelsier, I’m not, don’t talk to me about Kelsier.)
Likewise, I’d been hearing a lot of things about Marie Lu’s dystopian trilogy, the first book being Legend. As yet another on a long list of YA dystopians I had to get around to reading there was nothing particularly pushing me to pick up this book over any others, until I heard it was a retelling of Les Misérables. I have to say, I’m about 60 pages in and I’m not at all convinced about the alleged retelling aspect; it seems to be inspired by the plot of Les Misérables rather than at all a retelling, but I suppose marketing it as such was the publisher’s decision so I shouldn’t hold it against the book itself.
Not pictured, I’m also reliving the joy that is Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on audiobook via Stephen Fry’s wonderful narration. It’s a great way to re-read an old favourite; it brings a whole new perspective to a story you already know so well, as does the new illustrated edition which I might swap in at some points during this re-read – who knows! I’m also leisurely reading Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret because it’s a half-novel, half-graphic novel so I’m enjoying taking my time with it to properly and appropriately appreciate the art within it.
So that’s what my reading will hopefully look like this weekend and into next week. I will undoubtedly start to look back over my 2015 reading goals and various reading challenges, realise I’m about to fail them and only have a few short weeks to correct this, and start blogging like crazy about TBRs and reading intentions… so expect that at some point soon. In the meantime – what are you reading this weekend? Any seasonal or festive reads? Let’s chat in the comments below!
The Terror of Knowing 