My Best Books of 2014!!

I meant to do this at least a week ago but I was a bit preoccupied by getting my Creative Writing assignment done.

I made a vlog of my Favourite books of 2014 earlier today which I'll embed below with the full list of books & authors mentioned. I also talk through the stats for my reading including the woeful lack of non-fiction books and the domination of YA in my reading (which is by no means a bad thing). The list isn't in any particular order but I rated them all as 5 Stars.



My Top Reads in 2014
The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa (Blood of Eden #3)
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan (Lynburn Legacy #3)
Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas (Throne of Glass #3)
Isla & the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins
City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare (Mortal Instruments #6)
Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor (DoSaB #3)
Half Bad by Sally Green (Half Bad #1)
Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me #3)
Taste of Darkness by Maria V. Snyder (Avry of Kazan #3)

Honourable Mentions
Cress by Marissa Meyer (Lunar Chronicles #3)
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini
It's not you it's me by Mhairi McFarlane
Half Wild by Sally Green (Half Bad #2)

The above list is only a fraction of the really amazing books I read in 2014, there are loads of books that I read that I rated 4 & 4.5 stars which I would recommend but these happen to be my 5 Star Reads. The Full list of books that I read in 2014 can be accessed from the bar below the header.

Were any of these in your list of Top Books from 2014? Are you planning on reading some of these in 2015? Should I be looking out for certain books to read soon?

I shall hopefully blog again soon about... something, I don't know what yet. I have a worrying amount of work to do for my Open University modules over the next few months so I shall have to focus myself on those.

Happy Reading until next time!
Ray

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Writing Ray - an Adventure for 2014

So what most people probably don't know about me is that in addition to being a reading junkie I also like to write. Words are generally what I'm good at except when I go through phases of being utterly incapable of stringing them together for certain purposes (see the lack of reviews I've written these past two years).

Now I wouldn't call myself a writer by any stretch of the imagination since I've never actually finished writing a story; but I do spend a fair amount of time thinking and day-dreaming about stories and plotting out scenes in my head. I have loads of notebooks half-filled with scene snippets, character profiles, and other notes relating to five or six different story ideas yet to date I've not completed or even properly drafted one of them.

However I would like 2014 to be different. This year I want to finish *one* story. I don't want to give myself a super-strict time limit like with Nanowrimo since that might put me under so much pressure on top of what other work commitments I have at any given time that I will probably end up losing my motivation entirely. But I do want to at least finish something for once. Whether that just be an horrific first draft or something more revised and edited- anything is better than half-started nothings.

I should make it clear that I don't necessarily want to finish a story *just* to get it published. While that would be fucking awesome I have enough of sense of reality that I can't expect that to just happen. I want to finish this story for ME so that I can have that sense of pride in myself - like "Fuck Yea I wrote a book, it's probably pretty shitty right now but dammit I love my characters and I finished it!"

Too often I've started a project all fired up only to get disheartened after a month and stick it in a drawer and forget about it. I need to see this through. THE WHOLE FUCKING WAY. That means even if I have days when I can't write for shit and I want to jack it all in I just have to let it breathe for a few days, listen to some more music and come back to it with fresh eyes.

So far I'm doing pretty good with it - I've written something like 10,000 words in just the past two weeks and I have a reasonable idea as to where this story is going. Obviously I'm a looooong way off being done, there's whole swathes of the story that I haven't worked out yet and I'm getting rather fixated on writing one my MC's POV over the other.

I gotta be careful that I don't the same thing as I did with my Nanowrimo story back in 2010 when I basically put writing over everything including my Uni work which effectively was the tipping point towards me dropping out altogether. I have two different qualifications on the go at the moment plus a full-time job and my boyfriend who has to live with me so I can't sink too far into writing that I forget everything everything else.

Well that's about it for now, if anyone is interested in what I'm working on then please leave a comment  and I may post bits or waffle about my characters for you. If you follow me on Twitter you're likely to get lots of spam about my writing shenanigans and my on-going infatuation with the Frozen soundtrack as my writing music (it's already getting out of hand and I only bought it two days ago).

Laters,
Ray

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Surprise Top 13 of 2013 and 2014 Reading Goals

Surprise Bitches, bet you thought you'd seen the last of me...

Yes well I know it's not unheard of for me to just vanish into the aether and then not reappear for 2 years but I think that just adds to my charm n'est pas?

So I return in the New Year with a plan to slowly reintegrate myself into a more active participatory role in the book community and this time I have Gifs! (gods all bless Tumblr).

Top 13 Reads of 2013
Since no one has any idea what I read last year (except those few whom I actually communicate with through other mediums) I thought I'd start with a list of my favourite reads of 2013. This list won't include any re-reads or multiple books by the same author. Also in no order of favouritism.

Angelfall by Susan Ee 

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell  

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Unravel Me - Tahereh Mafi

Clockwork Princess - Cassandra Clare

Etiquette and Espionage - Gail Carriger

Just One Day - Gayle Forman

This Song will Save your Life - Leila Sales

Siege and Storm - Leigh Bardugo

Untold - Sarah Rees Brennan

Battle Magic - Tamora Pierce

The 5th Wave - Rick Yancey

1Q84 - Haruki Murakami

Reading Goals for 2014

I kinda failed with some of my goals from last year so hopefully I can succeed with this year's.

1. Read at least 150 books

2. Read at least 1 non-fiction book a month

3. Read at least 1 classic book a month

4. Read more from my TBR pile than re-reads

5. Get back into the habit of filling my reading journal properly

6. Try to get back into book community (see already trying with this one!)

What goals are all you lovely folk setting for yourselves in 2014? 

Hopefully y'all will see more from me soon - alas now I have to go be domestic, ironing calls!

Ray

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