Exclusive Books winter sale

Exclusive books winter sale just finished, and this year I did not enter the competition to win the dash, but next year I shall!

I managed to get ‘ Pearl of China’ by Anchee Min for R48 and ‘ Dali and I ‘ by Stan Lauryssens for R56. I was captured by the stories and look forward to discovering new authors and new societies in China and the art world of Salvador Dali.

I completed ‘Vanity fair’ this past weekend and it was so worth the weight. I shall miss Thackeray’s style of writing , so I will be on the lookout for his earlier pieces. I loved his referencing to historical facts and events as well as how he made fun of society at the time. He is truly a classic storyteller. 

Books for Life .... Stephen King

These are my 4 King must reads 

Christine:

 A teenage boy gets is first car and it is his first love, but first love can be devastating if travelled down the road of obsession and  no return. It is  a true story of teenage angst and the cool factor. When I read it I was driving for a while and the story brought back memories of when I got my first car and that feeling of freedom and independence. I think it is a coming of age story which is essential reading for first time car owners. It is a long novel but so worth it as the story integrates itself into your psyche and experience of driving.

From a Buick 8: 

This story from King was interesting as it somehow seemed ‘ un-King’ to me. I think I need to re-read it.  I am not sure what it was but the car concept did done for me in Christine. I might not have been in the right frame of mind when I started the book.

The Shining :

 This is probably one of the most recognised King novels, due to the Jack Nicholson movie and the creepy little kid whose face was so perfectly innocent at the beginning of the story. I read the book before watching the movie and they did match up quite nicely.  The actual novel is one of only a few which had me reading into the late hours of the night just to get to a non-scary part before bedtime.  It is a quintessential King novel for any fan, to own and re-read when needing a shift back into classic King.

Carrie: 

The first novel from King that was published. I had watched the original movie with Sissy Spaceck  and it was also peppered with a quite entertaining performance from John Travolta. I loved the movie and was intrigued into reading the book.  It is a short novel dealing with the simple idea that  a bullied outcast young girl has telekinetic powers which get better and stronger the more angry and put down she gets.  I loved simplicity of his language in this story and how he somehow managed to get into the mind of a young teenage girl. It fascinates me how he manages to get into the various characters minds and so convincingly speaks from their point of view. This book was the beginning of the King takeover and worthy of being a book to read at least once in your life. It will take you an afternoon , 3 cups of coffee and some finger snacks. You will not regret it. Also look out for the movie remake starring Chloe Moretz.

Reading for studying is fun

This past week I had a test to study for. I am training to become a volunteer guide at Ushaka Marine World, in their Education Centre. I am seriously loving it and the experience thus far has been great. 

This test was the last before our assessments and covered quite a bit of information. I studied using a method I used through high school and university. The mind mapping technique. I guess I picked it up somewhere and it has just worked for me.

But I missed out on my reading for pleasure as I was spending three days reading about fish families, mangroves and rocky shores.

 Needless to say mindmaps were bountiful on my table. When I got the test, the other people and I compared study notes and they had just read things over and over again. I guess that works if you if you are memorizing a poem or speech but to actually learn something I need to reinterpret information in my own way and then see it in my own handwriting. And then I read those notes....over and over again

The information which came to me in the test was precise and what I needed. I mean there were about 5 marks which I guessed as I really did not know the answers. But I guess I did ok anyway. My point about reading for studying purposes is that you end up  , or rather, I get tired of the types notes, I need colour an excitement... This is also why I trace drawings to my notes. Of course none of those extra things were asked in the test   but they shall prove their usefulness when someone asks me one of those questions on a guiding 

I am glad to be able to get back to Vanity Fair and a little of Latin dictionary ( for fun, I like to know the Latin origin of words ) 

Am also wanting to get back to ‘ The Legend of Colton Bryant’ , a book about cowboys which is quite interesting so far. He has a horse named Cocoa ; I like that.