Where did summer go? |Dreams That Glitter

Well, I seemed to have taken an unintentional break from blogging for the past week or so, I really didn’t mean to, I thought I was back on track with getting those stats up, but clearly not. This is actually what happened last year too, I blogged a lot in July/August time and slowly drifted back out of the loop… this time I blame the fact that I had to delete the WordPress app on my iPod because I didn’t have any space for it to stay. 

I’d say I’ve been busy, but I’m not really sure I have to be honest… I guess I have sort of. Last Monday I went on a boat trip with my family, we got up a bit too early for my liking and spent the whole day on a boat (don’t ask my what kind of boat it was, all I can tell you is that it had an engine and went about 4mph) so that was quite fun. We just sat in the sun, occasionally getting up to change the locks. 

I’ve been working a few shifts in the library volunteering too (I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before but you’re going to hear it again). Basically I had to sit behind a desk with a bright green lanyard round my neck while children came up to the desk and told me about all the books they’ve read, and in return I gave them stamps and rewards. Oh and at the end of it (I did about 20 hours over the six weeks I think) I got a little goody bag which included a couple of books, chocolate, a pen, and a voucher to get out a dvd/audio book from the library for free. 

On Friday I went shopping in Milton Keynes with my friends and had a lovely day, I can’t wait to do something like that again soon. We’re planning a mass sleepover with all our internet friends soon, it’ll be epic… 

 

Friday’s only purchase (other than coffee)… can’t wait to start reading this, I’ve heard it’s the best one in the series

 

New schools shoes I got today… I also managed to find some leggings for dance that aren’t completely see through too, which is quite an achievement

 

On Saturday after I went to a step class I worked in the Coffee Pot from 1-5, my friend worked there for work experience and got a saturday job there, and they needed extra help so she called on me. £20 later, I’m hoping they’ll call on me again some time. 

I’ll admit first of all that I’m a real wimp when it comes to theme parks, and on Sunday I went to Thorpe Park with my family. It was an ok day, I mean considering I didn’t go on much it wasn’t that bad (I may or may not have spent a few hours reading fanfiction whilst the others went on big roller coasters, sshhh). The biggest thing I went on was the log flume, because I don’t mind water rides… I would feel guilty if mum had paid for me to go in because it’s like £30+ entry, but luckily I have a blue peter badge which means I get in free so that’s not an issue! Otherwise I’d probably have stayed at home. 

I can’t believe it’s September already, I go back to school on Thursday, boo! Still haven’t touched my homework, oops… I only have dance and there’s a competition in textiles I was planning on entering but I haven’t done any work on it so… (I just want to go to the clothes show). I should probably learn some spanish vocab as well but I don’t have the concentration for that. Oh and I’ve got to read Jekyll and Hyde for english, oh the joys… Speaking of reading, I finally finished Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix yesterday, I only started it in like January… I just kept getting distracted and reading other books instead – shameful I know. So I‘m aiming to finish the series by the end of the year at least. I think I’m gonna read Looking For Alaska next though. 

I guess I’ll try and blog at least once or twice a week from now on, I don’t think I’ll have enough to blog about to make it every day, let alone the time when school starts back, and I might actually have to revise and stuff this year as it’s my GCSE year, I probably should stop winging it and put in a little more effort. I should get my ballet exam results back next week too, eeeek! I’m kinda nervous, I’m not sure if I even want to know what I got oh god. Ok that’s it for now, you’re all updated with my post of excuses for lack of blogging. 

 

Film Review: City Of Bones |Dreams That Glitter

Okay, so yesterday I went to see The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones. If you’ve been reading my recent posts you’ll know I’ve been excited about seeing it after getting completely stuck into the book last week. (I’m going to stick in here that the second book isn’t nearly as good, I was quite disappointed with it really – rather than droning on for a whole post. However, I’ve been told the third book of the series, City Of Glass is the best one, so I’m forced to continue on.) Anyway. The film.

I’m going to keep this short and mention here that there won’t be any spoilers in this review. That way, I’ll keep it simple and short. If I go into too much detail and include bits that spoil the film/book if you haven’t seen/read it, then this shall end up a really really long blog post and I can’t really be bothered to write that much now.

So. Here we all were, me and my two friends, and my mum on either side of me. We were all really looking forward to it, having all read the book fairly recently and loved it, even my mum. The film started. We watched in anticipation as we waited for our favourite scenes of the book to come up. It started in a different place to the book, and a lot of the scenes were in a completely different order to the book and things were revealed much earlier on than they were in the book which I think took away the ending a bit.

The casting wasn’t too bad, the character for Clary and her mum was ok, Jace was good, Simon wasn’t geeky enough… my mum even thought that Simon struck her immediately as hotter than Jace although that’s not how the story is meant to go. Simon is supposed to be Clary’s typical geeky best friend, not at all attractive. Luke wasn’t at all how I pictured him in my head, and Valentine was completely wrong.

And then they started bringing in part of City Of Ashes into it and that threw us all. Some of the action took place in the wrong setting too, and everything was just so unbelievably different it was just so far away from the book I’ve never seen a film like that.

Now despite all that, the film was actually amazing! Like, after me saying all that, you’d expect the film to be bad, but no, it was actually really good. Anyone that hadn’t read the book would’ve probably thoroughly enjoyed the film and wouldn’t have known any better, and then there was us four at the back talking through the majority of it and trying to work out if anything had actually stayed the same. I don’t think much did… There was a couple of bits that just completely confused us, so maybe they got some of the other books (there are five in the series) in there too, who knows? And since they messed this one up a bit, I’m wondering if they’ll get to do any other films to follow. There was too many stupid little things that just weren’t right and ah… It’s conflicting because it wasn’t a bad film it was just too different and I don’t really know how to feel about it. Any other opinions? Has anyone read the book and seen the film and agrees/disagrees with everything here? Please share what you thought!

Book Review: City Of Bones |Dreams That Glitter

City Of Bones is Cassandra Clare’s first novel and its popularity is ever increasing with the upcoming film release (which I’m excited to see). It was published in 2007, and I wish I’d read it sooner. I did get it out of the library last year or possibly the year before, but for whatever reason I didn’t get around to reading all of it, I read maybe a chapter or two. After my book spree on Thursday I was happy to finally be able to read it properly because my friend was urging me to read it after I told her about it the first time I came across it.

This is the first book in The Mortal Instruments series written for young adults. It is set in New York City and the novel begins as 15 year old  Clarissa Fray (mostly known as Clary) witnesses a murder of a blue haired boy in a nightclub where she is accompanied by her best friend Simon. But no one else can see what she can.

Things get stranger and stranger in her life as her mother disappears with no explanation and she finds a demon taking over their apartment. She ends up crossing paths with an attractive teenage boy names Jace (who murdered the demon) who she becomes quite attached with after they meet in the nightclub after Clary’s first sighting. He introduces her to the hidden world of Shadowhunters after he realises that she is one of his kind also. It’s a lot for a person to take in to suddenly find out that most of your life has been a lie and that vampires, werewolves and warlocks roam the towns around her, but her mother was trying to keep it all hidden from her in order to protect her daughter.

The book is written in third person, mostly in the perspective of Clary. It revolves around the relationships between Clary and Simon, and the other Shadowhunters who are willing to help do what they can to help Clary be reunited with her mother.

I really enjoyed this book, I started it on Thursday evening and stayed up until 2am this morning to finish it… it is action packed and although I think it’s a bit slow in places the general pace is quite quick, and there are lots of unexpected plot twists that I enjoyed, even though a couple of the ‘twists’ were slightly predictable as you approached them. I’m going to see the movie next Saturday so I shall post a review of that after in which will compare the film adaptation to Cassie’s original story. I get a bit scared going to see a film adaptation of a really good book as often it can ruin the original intentions of the book. I’m now swiftly moving onto the next book in the series, City Of Ashes…

Book Haul|Dreams That Glitter

Today I went to the cinema to see The Lone Ranger (it was quite good, a little confusing in the middle but over all pretty good, even if my nana did fall asleep for over an hour of it, but ssh don’t tell anyone about that ;)) and afterwards we popped into town and went to The Works and WHSmiths, where I bought Wicked, The Perks of Being A Wallflower, City of Bones, City of Ashes, The Fault In Our Stars, Looking For Alaska and The Devil Wears Prada. If you haven’t seen or read Perks, then I suggest you do, right now. If you’ve never read a John Green book I suggest you do that too (I’ve only read TFIOS so far but it’s amazing so). And if you’ve never even seen The Devil Wears Prada (Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep are fabulous) you need to go watch that. Meanwhile, I have enough reading material to last me a couple of months! Put your book recommendations below please…