Quiditch Through the Ages - J K Rowling.

Soo on my most recent visit to Warner Bros Studio Harry Potter Tour my lovely mum bought me two new books. One of them being Quidditch Through the Ages written by J K Rowling for Comic Relief.

Quidditch Through the Ages - J K Rowling.

 

 

I loveeeeee books like this!! When The Tales of Beedle the Bard came out I was veryy excited :D Little did I know that Rowling had written two other similar books.

I love books like this as they make Harry Potter feel real!! So if you dont know Quidditch Through the Ages is a book within a book. The characters of Harry Potter read Quidditch for their studies and reference.

 

 

Rowling has done a good job in recreating what this book would have been like. Including everything important in Quidditch, the positions, rules, fouls, players, famous teams, world cup .... which very much makes it like these football annuals that people get! However Quidditch Through the Ages covers everything from the 11th Century! It documents how Quidditch was created and how it has changed and progressed. It also gives you the American counter part which is also popular in Harry Potter!

 

Having books like this makes Harry Potter all the more real but it is also helping raise money for an amazing charity in Comic Relief.

 

Thanks for reading!

See you soon!

Leanne :)x

The Reapers are the Angels - Alden Bell

So this week is my BIRTHDAY so ive taken some time out to read what I want!! So here it is .... my one and only book that I had bought for my birthday!!!

So my Auntie always buys me books and she ALWAYS buys me the most amazing books ... she introduced me to Twilight and The Hunger Games before they were huge!! So when she bought me The Reapers are the Angels and the sequel I couldnt wait to start it!!

 

THE REAPERS ARE THE ANGELS - ALDEN BELL.

 

'Dying is easy - its living thats hard'

The Reapers follows a young girl called Temple, she us 15 years old when the book begins. The world as we know it is gone taken over by what coukd be called Zombies or in the book Slugs or Nightcrawlers. The majority of the American population is gone but if they are alive they exist in little communities living inside all the time. We follow Temple as she leaves her temporary home to travel.

 

Temple first hits one of these communities made up of 4 buildings. They have a school, shopping mall, rescue teams and protection teams. This community if trying to function like it used to. Unfortunately Temple gets herself in a bit if trouble after some sleaze  tries it on! She accidentally kills him! She runs with a bit of help ... but this guys brother us out for revenge.

After thus Temple isnt just running shes running from him! Along the way she meets travellers, a family in denial of what is happening and she picks up a great big 'dummy'. She gets captured by genetically enhanced hillbillies and she lives her life.

 

I wont spoil the rest of the story cos its something you have to read. I know it sounds like just another post apocalypse world but its not! Its a very well written and well executex book that keeps you turning the pages!! The young tough girl has been overdone in recent years (see The Hunger Games) bur I really did love Temple. She still had that but of human about her which just sets her apart. I cant wait to read the sequel cos I know its going to be just as good!!!

 

Look out for that but first .... I went to the Warner Bros Harry Potter Tour in London for my birthday and in the shop there I managed to buy some new books that I dont own!! Fantastical Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quiditch Through the Ages. I have started reading these so look out for thsm too! Ive just bought Philippa Gregory's new book The Kings Curse so also expect that very soon.

 

Thanks for sticking with me :)
See you soon.
Leanne :)

Run up to my 21st - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Hello All :)

So in a week I will be turning 21 :D SO I have been reading for pleasure up until now in order to treat myself!! I have already had some celebrations but my most favourite and exciting one is on my actual birthday my mum is taking me to Harry Potter World in Watford!! I AM SO EXCITED!!! So in the run up to this I decided that I would revisit some of my favourite ever books and re read Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. I will be reading new books and I am hoping to get some nice new ones for my birthday :) I am currently 31 books into my dissertation research! So once I have managed to get through some more and have a plan written I will still be reading so much about Richard I but in doing this I have found that I can read more and I make myself :)


Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K.Rowling

Now Harry Potter books are some of my favourite books of all time but I haven't read them in what feels like forever  soooo I decided in the run up to my birthday treat of Harry Potter World, that I would re read them!! I have to start from the beginning! I am one of those people, I cant just dip into the books in any random order!!!

I can remember the first time I got this book, when it was brand new and there were no films no nothing!! And it was amazing!! I was a little bit young to read this book on my own as it came out in 1997 so I was only 4years old!!! SO my mum used to read the book to me on a night before I went to bed. I used to be horrible at going to bed but when she suggested reading this I loved it!! My mum used to read to me in a monotone voice in the hope that she would put me to sleep so she could also go  to bed .... but instead she used to get me telling her to 'put some expression into it' which I still tell her now :) I remember these books being magical to me when my mum first started reading them to me and over the last 17years they have not lost their magic no matter how many times I re read them!!!

Now I am assuming that everyone has either read Harry Potter or has at least watched a film!! SO I'm not going to go into the story etc.... But I would like to think about why these books capture a child's imagination and run with it. How magical it must have seemed at the age of 4 to be reading about a young boy ... a normal boy ... who goes off to become a Wizard! I have to admit for years I did hope that I would get a letter through the door so that I could go and learn to be a witch. I think it is the fact that Harry is normal up until he is 11 and then suddenly is plunged into a whole new world that means that children love it! There is a prospect of hope which makes that child think at 11 will I get that letter? Needless to say I am still waiting!!!! I love that the first book is so easy to read! With just over 200 pages it only took me 3 hours to get through the book with a dinner break in between!! So it was lovely to revisit this book :)


I think that next I am going to read 'The Gallows Curse - Kate Maitland' when I do get a chance to enjoy some reading!!!!


Again thanks for reading!!
See you soon :)
Leanne x

History, History, History.

Hello Again,

So the reading challenge is not going very well!! However ... I just thought I would do a little bit of an update. I am meant to be reading The Luminaries but I am struggling. My head is so full of Kingship in the Middle Ages, chivalry and masculinity, along with some good old Richard I. So instead I thought to keep myself going with some blog action that I would write a little bit about what I am reading other than my reading challenge. SOme of it is a little bit boring and nearly all of it is HISTORY but really this is to keep me going and to see if anyone else is even remotely interested in history!

Lionheart and Lackland: King Richard, King John and the Wars of Conquest - Frank McLynn.

So as you can tell this is very much a  history book that is related to my area of research for my dissertation (Richard I). However I wanted to write about this book as it is one that is accessible for anyone!! Many historians like to use big words etc.. that make them sound more intelligent and alienate their readers, but Frank McLynn is a history graduate who went into the world of journalism before he decided to write some history books!! I love his writing style as instead of writing like an academic book with subtitled sections to their books, McLynn actually writes in chapters like a normal novel. Which fortunately gives the illusion that you are reading a book and not an academic book!! SO I am progressing with this book really well. My only issue is that McLynn takes a very traditional approach with the good king Richard and bad king John. Even though I am TEAM RICHARD I I still love a historian who challenges this usual stereotype and goes for the opposite opinion. However McLynn does this very well and has a balanced argument unlike many of Richards historians.


The History of the Holy War - Ambroise

Apart from Ambroise referring to himself in third person ALL the time, this can be quite a readable book/poem. Written in the twelfth/thirteenth century Ambroise was a French poet who idolised Richard I and wrote his history. The poem is a little bit more stylised than most of the sources from the Third Crusade which is why it is more readable. Not quite as boring and the other longer accounts Ambroise bigs up Richard, exaggerates many aspects of the crusade  which makes the poem more like a story than real life. Personally I am enjoying this but I am a huge history geek that needs to get a life most of the time :)  But again with it being a poem it is very good and very accessible, even if it was written 800 years ago!!!


BBC History Magazine.

The BBC History Magazine is written by many different authors, journalists, historians etc.... Anyone who can specialise in anything!! I have been getting this magazine for quite a while and it is interesting, as everything that is going on in the world of history is in this magazine. Some obscure articles can sometimes grate and I do tend to miss out the ones that make me yawn just from the title!! But this months issue is very useful, very interesting and so moving! The First World War is one of those events that when I read anything about it or I watch anything about it, it really does make me cry (needless to say when a module was offered on the Great War this year at Uni, I avoided it as I don't think people would appreciate the amount of crying I would do over it!!). Yes I am pretty pathetic but just writing this is making me tear up! But the majority of the Feature parts of this issue are different aspects of the First World War along with many recommendations for books (That can be trusted). Therefore when I get around to finishing this issue off, there will be a lot of tears but a  lot of interest and a lot more reading!! If you have any interest in history or the First World War I would highly recommend the July issue of BBC History Magazine to you.



Sorry if I have bored you out of your brains but I thought I'd share a little bit of everything else that I do with you!!

I do promise that at some point I will actually get around to finishing some normal books so that it is something remotely interesting to read rather than my love for Richard I being professed!! So hopefully I soon will have finished the Luminaries, I have also bought many new books and I have been lent some more Terry Pratchett. SO look out for all these coming soon!!

Thanks for reading and persevering if your reading this part :)
See you soon,
Leanne :)