New laptop & 2015’s reading goals.

My 8-years-old laptop was a pain in the ass lately, for that reason I got a new one for Christmas 😀 (well, actually the 6th of January), this means that now I will be able to write more and use more this blog. That laptop has been a faithful friend all these years but at the end it was quite slow, loud, and unreliable.

I am sorry that this Christmas I have not updated the blog but I have not really read a lot and I have not gotten many new books D: My boyfriend gave me as a gift the book that the TV series «Orange is the new black» is based on.

yep, that’s Amsterdam’s flag.

Sorry, it is in Spanish (I do not normally read in Spanish though) but the title in English is Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison a memoir by Piper Kerman. She tells her story of drug trafficking and the year that she spent in a women’s prison. I have had not time to start reading it but I really enjoy the TV series so I think that I will probably enjoy it (I do not know how but I did not know anything about the book [!!!]).

Right now I am currently finishing How to kill a Mockingbird and I have fixed a reading goal for this 2015, I will try to read 50 books this year, I think that is totally plausible and if I overtake it I can always extend it. If you want to see my reading progress you can add my to Goodreads! I will try to include some books of the Rory Gilmore’s reading list but I will talk about that in another entry.

Moreover I have added some new books to my Kindle with the hope of being able of reading them soon. I have added some YA novels (like Fangirl, Landline and, Attachments) and some classics like Anne of Green Gables, Les Miserables, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

I have probably already told you about that but I finished The Diviners by Libba Bray and I totally love it BUT I thought that the next book was already out and it is not, I hate thaaaat now I have to wait until is published and ashsdgjgh I want to read it asap. From what I know it will be called The Lair of Dreams and I have to confess that I do not really like the cover of the sequel. Come on, I love the style of The Diviners’ cover and the cover of the sequel is so different…

I am not saying that it is ugly or anything, it is just that, for me, it clashes with the previous one. Anyway, I am sure that I will love the novel so no problem.

Well sorry about all the rambling, I hope that you have enjoyed this new entry 😀 I will probably write a new one soon about fanfiction or about Rory Gilmore’s reading list. See you soon!

Listening: Elastic heart – Sia
Drinking: Apple and maple syrup tea.

Mar i cel

I have to confess that another of my passions is musical theater and wherever I can (and I have money) I try to go to the theater to enjoy a good play.

Mar i cel (Sea and Sky) is a play written by Angel Guimerà in 1888 and it was adapted to a musical in 1980s by Dagoll Dagom. On Thursday I had the opportunity to enjoy their show and I totally fell in love. I loved everything about the play, since the story, the characters, to their way of singing and the ship <3. (I only hated the old women that were sitting behind me that would not stop speaking AAAARG learn to be quiet before going to the theater please hahaha).

Mar i cel narrates the story of Saïd and Blanca, a Muslim pirate and a Christian girl that fell in love in the 17th century after the Muslims were expelled from Spain.

If you want you can listen to the songs in the Dagoll Dagom’s spotify profile and if you happen to be in Barcelona I totally recommend you to attend to their show and you will also fell in love with them  like me, if you want you can get your tickets here.

M.

Saïd el amor que ens ha salvat ens uneix més que abans encara.

El mar i el cel com tu i jo són, són com dos punts que mai es troben.

El mar i el cel, al horitzó són dos que es troben i es confonen, sempre esperant una altre nit.

Aquella nit que els ulls et tanca.

Per retrobar-te a tu Saïd.

Per retrobar l’amor de Blanca.

Per respirar amb el teu alé.

Comiat.

Book haul? and this month I am reading…

I love binge-reading, it is probably one of my favourite activities but right now I am reading mostly in the train to school/home because I am studying and I do not have that much time for reading 😦

Right now though I am particularly interested on reading books by female writers, it is not because anything in particular but I feel like it. First of all I have finished The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, nook that I had on my to-read list for a long time and I have to say that I love it, and I have also finished Jane Eyre (yep I know, I should have read these books a long time ago). I feel in love with a quotation of  Jane Eyre a long time ago and finally I have its context.

Yesterday in my way to class I started reading The Diviners by Libba Bray, it is not a classic like the previous books that I have been reading lately but since A Great and Terrible Beauty I am in love with her work and, although it is difficult, I think that I am going to like The Diviners as mush as The Gemma Doyle Trilogy.

Another thing that I love is The Book Depository, books in English for a reasonable price with free shipping? I love it. I have just received an order from TBD and I am really happy, it arrived quite fast and as always it came with a couple of cute bookmarks.

As you can see I have bought The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer (I am a Twin Peaks freak I must admit) and To Kill a Mockinbird (Yep, another classic that I should have read a loooong time ago. I promise that I will make a new post just about The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, I hope that I can read it soon, (I also want the book about Agent Cooper but it was more expensive :__ )

I hope that I can write again soon 🙂

Regards,

M.

Drinking: Black tea with milk
Listening: Marina & the Diamons – Froot

«I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will.»

Jane Eyre. 

Addictive and wonderful : the experience of reading the Harry Potter series & Charming and bewitching : considering the Harry Potter series.

This last semester I took a course about the Harry Potter Series at university, it was called «Cultural Studies in English: The Harry Potter Series». First of all we focused on general theory about cultural studies and after that we started talking about Harry Potter. In this course we dealt with topics as interesting as the construction of the hero, gender issues, racism in the wizarding world, social prejudice, … and we even dealt with fan-fiction and the copyright issues. I have to say that I consider this course one of the most interest ones that I have taken in my degree (at least while I studied in Barcelona).

One of the assignments that we had to do was writing about our experience reading the series for the first time (in most cases it was when we were around 7-9 years old but not all of us shared the same situations), with these papers our professor edited an e-book called «Addictive and wonderful: the experience of reading the Harry Potter series«, that if you want you can download it for free here. Don’t worry it is in English, in order to download the document you just have to click on the cover of the e-book. The final result is a really emotive read where we all share our situation reading the books, our first impressions, fears, obsessions, and so on. 

Our final paper for the course was writing an academic article about different subjects regarding the series. In my case I had to write about whether or not was Harry Potter appropriate for children but there are also articles about xenophobia, Albus Dumbledore as a manipulator, slavery, heroism, power structures, discrimination, etc. This volume is called «Charming and bewitching : considering the Harry Potter series» and if you want you can download it  for free here. 

I hope that you enjoy these volumes if you download and read them.

The links again: The first volume and the second one. 

«The stories we love best do live in us forever.
So, whether you come back by page or by the big screen,
Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.»

J. K. Rowling.

That’s my first entry (yep, I’m really original).

I have spent some time thinking about starting a literature blog and finally I have done it. I think that I should introduce myself a little bit. I am a student of English Studies (also known as English Philology) and I am (finally!) close to finishing my degree, moreover this year I am taking a short course to be a flight assistant (yep, quite different studies). Since I was a little kid I have always enjoyed reading, well, to be more accurate I should say that I have been always a massive bookworm obsessed with books. I read anything and everything, I love YA adult literature, but of course, I also love reading classics. Well, my friends consider that I do not just read, they say that I devour books.

I also really like dystopias for that reason for my final dissertation I wrote about 1984 and Brave New World, and I compared and talked about their different ways of dealing with sexuality.

As the title of this blog indicates besides from books I also love tea, and cats (as I’ve said I am not really original but…). Well, I also love travelling, baking, and photography, but these things have nothing to do with the topic of my blog 🙂

I hope you enjoy my blog and you are really welcome if you want to leave any comment.

Drinking: ‘White Melone’ infusion from Tea Shop.
Listening: Janet Devlin – Wonderful.