Looking for Alaska, The Perks of being a Wallflower, Paper Towns.
I don't read a lot of real-world YA novels, preferring the foreign lands of high fantasy, but anytime I read this sort of book I get a strange sense of nostalgia and foreboding. It's nostalgia for my lost teenage years that I'll never again get back as well as foreboding for the regret I fear I'll feel in ten years for wasting my youth studying.
The thing is, I'm sixteen years old and the characters in these books are roughly my age but I can't seem to relate my own life to them at all. I'm consumed by exams and study stress whereas their lives are full of excitement and adventure. These books are full of teens who run away from home, go to indie music concerts, road-trips, play pranks, smoke, date, do drugs and generally just enjoy life. I realise that these are such stereotypical teenage things to do and that smoking and doing drugs are not advisable ways to live but there is still a yearning inside of me to live the life of a criminal and a vandal. These kids live their lives with very little regard for the rest of the world, they have fun and they make memories with the people they love. I don't feel like I have done any of these things that I have so far listed.
I've never disobeyed my parents (at least in nothing bigger than staying up half the night online when I was told to go to bed), I've never been to any kind of concert, I'm too young to drive, the biggest prank I pulled was on April first when I was ten and stuffed my bed so it looked like I was still asleep, I hate the smell of tobacco smoke, I go to an all-girls school and only have a casual acquaintance with a few male beings and I have never tried drugs. I constantly feel like I'm not achieving anything with my life and tell myself that when I finish school my life will begin but in my heart I know that it already has and I'm just not doing anything with it.
I suppose this is why I get such a peculiar feeling when I read books by John Green and Stephen Chbosky. It's a feeling of longing to go out and live a crazy life with my friends and forget for a few hours what the consequences might be. And I suppose this is partly the Gryffindor within me that wants to let my hair flow in the wind as I ride through the glen, firing arrows into the sunset. But hey, anything is possible if you have confidence and a focused mind right? (I'm adopting that as my life motto now.)
So maybe I'm wasting my youth and maybe I'll regret it in the future. But how can I know I wouldn't regret it more if I skipped school and failed my exams? Maybe it's not possible to live a life free of regretful things and maybe we should all try to be Zen. Or maybe we just wish for a life more exciting than our own because we can never be satisfied with the one we have.
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Wednesday, 28 August 2013
Saturday, 10 August 2013
Book Tag
My friend, Danielle, made a book tag so that's what I'm doing today.
1. Which book universe would you most like to live in?
There's always a part of me that desperately wants to go to Middle Earth and live my life in the picturesque Shire in a little cosy hobbit hole and never have to worry about a single problem. Just eat good food, drink good drink and smoke a pipe all day long. But unless I had Gandalf turning up on my doorstep to go on adventures every now and again I think I'd grow restless in that quiet place too quickly.
I'd think I'd most like to live on the island kingdom of Lienid from the Graceling universe because the King and Queen are so kind there and everyone appears at peace with each other. It seems like the most idyllic society and even those with Graces are treated with such respect despite being feared and enslaved in every other part of the world.
2. If you could be any character in any book, who would you be?
I'd like to be Sherlock Holmes for a while just to see the world through his eyes. I think it would be amazingly interesting but I wouldn't choose to be him forever. He may have incredible talents but he does not have an enviable lifestyle, with his drug abuse and his near delirious reactions when not occupied with a case.
I'd love to be Albus Dumbledore, if I'm honest. I know he has had a terrible past and a really difficult life but he still manages to enjoy what he has. They may think he's batty but he cares about his students and teachers and everything he does is in their best interest. He still fights evil where a lesser person would have given up and gone into retirement. He knows his duty as a headmaster and an idol to many witches and wizards. So yeah, I'd really like to be Dumbledore.
Or alternatively Luna Lovegood. She's so unconcerned with other peoples opinions of her and I really admire that.
3. Which fictional family from any book would you join?
My first instinct is to say the Weasley family because of how lovable and close they all are. Their house and their car and everything about them, to me is exactly how a family should be.
But I also really like the family in The Mysterious Benedict Society, because they aren't related by blood but they've bonded so profoundly and they might just love each other more than any other family. They are at least more aware of their love.
4. If you could have any character in any book as a best friend, who would it be?
Ron Weasley. I love his sense of humour and his sudden outburst. I just think he's a really cool character. Also Margo Roth Spiegelman. I realise she prefers to do all her adventures on her own but together we would come up with even crazier plans and break rule you didn't even know existed.
5. Which character from any book would be your nemesis?
Quite possibly Stuart 'Fats' Wall from The Casual Vacancy. He describes so much that I dislike in a person. His habit of making a distasteful comment on every fault and failure that anyone has ever had, his belief that he is somehow better than everyone else because he seeks an 'authentic' life, his hypocritical attitude, his targeting of the weak, how he uses people for his own pleasure and gives them nothing back, I could go on. He would be my nemesis.
6. Which character from any book would you want to be your mentor?
Tori, the tattoo artist in Divergent. She's really knowledgeable and reassuring. And a super cool person
7. If you could have any occupation from any fictional book, what would you be?
Consulting Detective. Hands-down that's my dream job. Whatever world I'm in.
8. You have a clique. You can choose any character from any book to be in on your clique. Who would you choose?
This is my gang: Sherlock Holmes, Ron Weasley, Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire. And perhaps Bellatrix Lestrange, just for a bit of diversity.
9. You can ask any character from any book one question. What would it be?
Lemony Snicket: WHAT THE FUCK WAS IN THE SUGAR BOWL AND WHERE IS IT NOW?
10. Who do you tag?
You! If you're reading this you're obliged to do this tag. Then comment below telling what your blog is so I can read it. So I'll be expecting the same amount of comments and responses as views. Ha you didn't know what you were signing up for when you read this post!
1. Which book universe would you most like to live in?
There's always a part of me that desperately wants to go to Middle Earth and live my life in the picturesque Shire in a little cosy hobbit hole and never have to worry about a single problem. Just eat good food, drink good drink and smoke a pipe all day long. But unless I had Gandalf turning up on my doorstep to go on adventures every now and again I think I'd grow restless in that quiet place too quickly.
I'd think I'd most like to live on the island kingdom of Lienid from the Graceling universe because the King and Queen are so kind there and everyone appears at peace with each other. It seems like the most idyllic society and even those with Graces are treated with such respect despite being feared and enslaved in every other part of the world.
2. If you could be any character in any book, who would you be?
I'd like to be Sherlock Holmes for a while just to see the world through his eyes. I think it would be amazingly interesting but I wouldn't choose to be him forever. He may have incredible talents but he does not have an enviable lifestyle, with his drug abuse and his near delirious reactions when not occupied with a case.
I'd love to be Albus Dumbledore, if I'm honest. I know he has had a terrible past and a really difficult life but he still manages to enjoy what he has. They may think he's batty but he cares about his students and teachers and everything he does is in their best interest. He still fights evil where a lesser person would have given up and gone into retirement. He knows his duty as a headmaster and an idol to many witches and wizards. So yeah, I'd really like to be Dumbledore.
Or alternatively Luna Lovegood. She's so unconcerned with other peoples opinions of her and I really admire that.
3. Which fictional family from any book would you join?
My first instinct is to say the Weasley family because of how lovable and close they all are. Their house and their car and everything about them, to me is exactly how a family should be.
But I also really like the family in The Mysterious Benedict Society, because they aren't related by blood but they've bonded so profoundly and they might just love each other more than any other family. They are at least more aware of their love.
4. If you could have any character in any book as a best friend, who would it be?
Ron Weasley. I love his sense of humour and his sudden outburst. I just think he's a really cool character. Also Margo Roth Spiegelman. I realise she prefers to do all her adventures on her own but together we would come up with even crazier plans and break rule you didn't even know existed.
5. Which character from any book would be your nemesis?
Quite possibly Stuart 'Fats' Wall from The Casual Vacancy. He describes so much that I dislike in a person. His habit of making a distasteful comment on every fault and failure that anyone has ever had, his belief that he is somehow better than everyone else because he seeks an 'authentic' life, his hypocritical attitude, his targeting of the weak, how he uses people for his own pleasure and gives them nothing back, I could go on. He would be my nemesis.
6. Which character from any book would you want to be your mentor?
Tori, the tattoo artist in Divergent. She's really knowledgeable and reassuring. And a super cool person
7. If you could have any occupation from any fictional book, what would you be?
Consulting Detective. Hands-down that's my dream job. Whatever world I'm in.
8. You have a clique. You can choose any character from any book to be in on your clique. Who would you choose?
This is my gang: Sherlock Holmes, Ron Weasley, Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire. And perhaps Bellatrix Lestrange, just for a bit of diversity.
9. You can ask any character from any book one question. What would it be?
Lemony Snicket: WHAT THE FUCK WAS IN THE SUGAR BOWL AND WHERE IS IT NOW?
10. Who do you tag?
You! If you're reading this you're obliged to do this tag. Then comment below telling what your blog is so I can read it. So I'll be expecting the same amount of comments and responses as views. Ha you didn't know what you were signing up for when you read this post!
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