Day 29 – A book that makes you cry and Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time
They’re the same book so now I’m a day ahead on my schedule! Persuasion by Jane Austen never fails to make me cry with happiness at the end, and also is a book I can constantly go back to, over and over.

For the uninitiated, who are too lazy to go back and read Day 10, where I talk about this book, it’s the story of Anne Elliot, the middle daughter of a widowed baronet, Sir Walter Elliot. When she was young, her mother died and she was left to the care of her father and her mother’s best friend, Lady Russell. Her elder sister Elizabeth is a spinster and has taken her mother’s place in the household, looking down on the sweet and gentle Anne at every opportunity, while her younger sister Mary is married to Charles Musgrove, who once proposed to Anne himself. When she was 19, she fell in love with a sailor, Frederick Wentworth, and they were briefly engaged before Lady Russell counselled her to break the engagement. The story begins eight years on from that event, with the still-single Anne and her family being forced to let their house because they are in debt. By chance, they let it to Wentworth’s sister, a Mrs Croft, and her admiral husband. Thus, Wentworth and Anne are thrown into each others’ company again, but his pride is still wounded.

Even if you’re not a fan of Jane Austen, this is a masterpiece of a novel - a true study of human nature and the meaning of love.

Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde has been on my list ever since I read The Eyre Affair, but I just haven’t found the chance to do it so far. It’s actually sitting on my nightstand as I type this and I’m about to start a new book…so maybe today is the day!

Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read
The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry. I haven’t come across anyone else who’s read it (except for one person who read it on my recommendation, so that doesn’t count). It’s definitely a weird book, but I really enjoy it and (luckily for me) I can’t remember too much about it, so I can re-read it without always thinking of the ending. I hate my memory sometimes because it means I will probably never re-read Agatha Christie’s novels because I remember the end as soon as I read the blurb on the back of the book!

Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
I think for this, I would have to say Katherine Grey from the novel The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie. The novel begins with Katherine’s employer dying and leaving her enough money to be considered very wealthy. While people are eager to befriend her on account of her money, she keeps her wits about her and, apart from ill-fated love interests, she manages to stay alive, sensible and out of trouble.

Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Maye this is a good time to talk about Monster Love by Carol Topolski, where it proves books can really be terrifying. Set in a small town, and told through varying viewpoints, it’s the story of a couple with a seemingly perfect life. However, behind closed doors, horrible things emerge and then are slowly trickled out into the open. If you’re interested in psychological books of a sort, then this might just be up your alley.

Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
I am going to cop out here and say that I NEVER spoil books for others! So this goes against basically all I stand for.

Day 28 – Favourite title
Love & Other Near Death Experiences is the name of the novel penned by the author of the Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About (hilarious if you haven’t read it) - Mil Millington. It’s basically the story of a guy who works in radio going through a mid-life crisis. A funny little novel with a few twists thrown in - definitely one if you like a laugh!

Day 22 – The book that made you fall in love with reading
I honestly can’t remember a time that I didn’t love reading. My grandmother taught me to read at two and a half, and in my childhood, I read anything I could get my hands on. But maybe I should talk about the book that propelled me from strictly fiction and mostly kids novels to the definitively adult world, and that is Jeffrey Steingarten’s The Man Who Ate Everything.

Those of you who are fans of Iron Chef America will know him as the white-haired and outspoken food critic, but for the rest of you, here’s a little background. A lawyer by trade, Steingarten decided one day to become heavily involved with food, on the critic side of things. This novel, with one whole chapter devoted to bottled water, is an interesting glance at the journey of a man who wanted to eat everything and overcame his food phobias to do so.

This was the precursor to my love for Anthony Bourdain, and it finally let me see what my mum (a chef by trade) and her work friends used to swoon over - food, glorious food!

Day 19 – Favourite book turned into a movie
I actually saw the movie of Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer before I read the book, and I have to say, the movie was better. It cut out a lot of unneeded waffling, keeping only the best bits of the film, and the art direction was absolutely stunning. Elijah Wood was extraordinary as a shy young man who comes to Eastern Europe to find the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis, and the ‘translator’ who helps him is just quite simply HILARIOUS.

I also really enjoyed Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden - Ziyi Zhang was a very convincing shy young girl who became a celebrated geisha and Ken Watanabe a lovely contrast to all the other characters as the sympathetic and anonymous benefactor who makes sure that she isn’t left penniless.

Day 20 – Book turned into a movie and completely desecrated
There are so many, unfortunately, but the one that gets at me the most was the 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. Where do I begin? Keira Knightley is fairly wooden as Elizabeth Bennet and the Bennet family apparently raise LIVESTOCK. There is unnecessary waffling and romanticising of certain points and it just doesn’t sit right with me. Grr!

Day 21 – Favourite book from your childhood
This is an EASY one, simply because I’ve been thinking about what book I would want to introduce to my littlest cousin when she gets a bit older (she’s two) and I came across The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch. Written in the early 80s, it’s a charming tale about a princess who is destined to marry a prince until a dragon comes along and burns down her castle (as well as her wardrobe) and kidnaps the prince. She dons a paper bag and sets out after the dragon, to rescue the prince so they can live happily ever after. Long story short - she slays the dragon and the prince looks at her (dirty, wearing a paper bag) and basically says he wouldn’t want to marry her like that. So she walks off into the sunset, knowing he’s stupid and that now she’s free to do whatever she pleases and meet someone more worthwhile.

Day 17 – Favourite quote from your favourite book
I’m going to go off my list of ‘favourite book by favourite author’ list here - it makes things a little easier…

The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry: “The world is unkind to the shoeless and frolicsome.”

Persuasion by Jane Austen: “You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight and a half years ago. Dare not say that a man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant.”

Soulless by Gail Carriger: “Miss Tarabotti was not one of life’s milk-water misses—in fact, quite the opposite. Many a gentleman had likened his first meeting with her to downing a very strong cognac when one was expecting to imbibe fruit juice—that is to say, startling and apt to leave one with a distinct burning sensation.”

So Long & Thanks For All The Fish by Douglas Adams: “The last ever dolphin message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double-backwards-somersault through a hoop whilst whistling the ‘Star Spangled Banner’, but in fact the message was this: So long and thanks for all the fish.”

Eragon by Christopher Paolini: “Do not dwell on what once was, but rather look forward and ponder how you can make the future brighter.”

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides: “Emotions, in my experience, aren’t covered by single words. I don’t believe in “sadness,” “joy,” or “regret.” Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling. I’d like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic train-car constructions like, say, “the happiness that attends disaster.” Or: “the disappointment of sleeping with one’s fantasy.” I’d like to show how “intimations of mortality brought on by aging family members” connects with “the hatred of mirrors that begins in middle age.” I’d like to have a word for “the sadness inspired by failing restaurants” as well as for “the excitement of getting a room with a minibar.” I’ve never had the right words to describe my life, and now that I’ve entered my story, I need them more than ever.”

Day 18 – A book that disappointed you
The book that disappointed me the most was The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. (Unpopular opinion here:) As much as everyone raves on about how wonderful it is, I just couldn’t connect with the characters, or with the story itself. I won’t deny that it is well-written but it is obviously just not for me. Maybe I should re-read it and see if I feel differently from when I first read it (it may have been too soon after I lost my parents to read about these sorts of things).

These were actually the hardest two days so far, simply because I’d never thought of either of these as subjects for recommendation…

Day 15 – Book that should be on high school/college required reading list
This is actually a tricky one, because I can’t remember off the top of my head what I read back in high school that was actually high school appropriate. I guess I’d have to say that PostSecret by Frank Warren would be my choice. Because of the highly personal nature of the secrets within, as well as the wide range, this would be a good book to let high schoolers and college students alike know that they are not completely alone.

Day 16 – A book you would recommend to an ignorant/close-minded/racist person
Another really tricky one, but I’d probably go with either To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, or The Help by Kathryn Stockett, since these are the two clearest books I can remember reading specifically to do with race. While each deals with the subject matter in a very different way to the other, I think the solemn tone of To Kill a Mockingbird played against the light-hearted one of The Help might allow for some close-minded people to be able to broaden their sense of humanity and maybe allow their mindset to be shifted in a different direction.

Day 14 – Favourite book of your favourite writer

Well, since I gave a shortlist of my favourite writers yesterday, I’ll now give my favourite book from each of them!

• Jedediah Berry - The Manual of Detection (his only book so far - go out and read it NOW!)
• Jane Austen - Persuasion
• Gail Carriger - Soulless
• Douglas Adams - So Long & Thanks for All the Fish
• Christopher Paolini- Eragon
• Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex

Day 13 – Your favourite writer

This is a tricky one. I read so widely that I rarely read more than one thing by any given author, unless whatever I read was outstanding.

So here’s my shortlist (in no particular order):

• Jedediah Berry
• Jane Austen
• Gail Carriger
• Douglas Adams
• Christopher Paolini
• Jeffrey Eugenides

Day 11 – A book you hated
For school, in Year 11, we had to read William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Maybe it was the fact that it was a new school, or that my teacher looked like a goat (no, really, ask Alex!) and was an absolute pedant about imagery and symbolism, or even that I believe in equality in all things and this was really, like Catcher in the Rye (another book I loathe), “a boys book”. Whatever it was, I don’t think I can ever read this book again. Luckily, we never had to buy a copy (our school rented out textbooks), otherwise there would have been a bonfire the day the exam was over.


Day 12 – The first novel you remember reading
This is an easy one. Like many children growing up in the 1990s, I was an avid reader of Roald Dahl and the first proper novel that I remember reading was Matilda. Like me, Matilda read everything she could get her hands on, and I loved reading about someone who shared my love of books (even if she was fictional). This makes me want to buy the Roald Dahl collection and re-read them all!

Playing catch up now, work and life have gotten in the way!

Day 08 – Most overrated book
Palo Alto by James Franco takes the prize for the recently read. I was really excited about reading a collection of intertwining short stories by him, thinking it would be in a similar style to Salinger’s stories of the Glass family, but I just ended up being disappointed. It’s like Franco wanted to show the absolute worst of teenage life through these stories of death, drunkenness, sex, humiliation and petty emotions. Definitely not a book I would recommend to anyone, even though it is well-written once you look past the subject matter. I hope he writes another book and learns from the mistakes he made in this one.

Day 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
This definitely would have to be Eragon by Christopher Paolini, the story of a young boy who lives in a small town, in a country ruled over by a harsh and powerful dictator, and who finds and hatches a dragon’s egg. From there, he becomes a warrior for the side of good, while bonding with his beautiful (and very amusing) dragon, Saphira. I’m not really into fantasy, so when my grandmother bought me the book (purely because he was a very young writer and it was a “you can do it too” moment from her), I was skeptical, to say the least. Surprise, surprise, I now own ALL the series and am currently ploughing through the last one (no mean feat when you consider it’s around 800 pages!).

Day 10 – Favourite classic book
Persuasion by Jane Austen takes this category hands down. For those of you who haven’t read it, it’s the story of Anne Elliot, a woman in her late 20s and the daughter of a silly and vain widowed baronet. Eight years before the story begins, she allowed herself to be persuaded by her mother’s closest friend and her father that the man she loved, Captain Frederick Wentworth, was an imprudent match, thus she broke off the engagement and he left to make his fortune on the high seas. At the opening of the novel, the Elliot family are in debt and decide to rent out their house and go to Bath (Anne HATES Bath). Who should they rent to but Wentworth’s sister and her husband. Eventually Frederick himself turns up and they are thrown into each others’ paths. His feelings were hurt enough for him to flirt with girls far younger than she in front of her, and she realises that she could have been truly happy with him, if she had not been a coward. An absolutely beautiful story of love lost, one that never fails to make me feel happy after reading it. There’s even a quote from Captain Wentworth that I considered getting as a tattoo - ‘[I am] half agony, half hope’.