The Eve of New Happenings

I spent December 31st with two things on my mind:
1) The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies
2) Death

The movie was showing. And my instagram account is piled high with the promise of books, fantasy and fiction. But as I sat there in the dark, alone, I kept thinking “I could die right now”. Yes, morbid but the raw thoughts of mankind is rarely tied with a bow! So I wondered what my family was doing; I had left the house in need of a breather from the storm of nieces and nephews that huddle in during the Christmas break.

I watched multiple deaths on that screen. I watched Arrogance and Strength war with each other. And still my fingers began to tingle in the not-so-nice-or-jazz way. The picks like icicles on all fronts of my hands. I sat stunned. I wanted it to end. I had only eaten breakfast that morning I must be hungry.

I don’t know when it ended. I do know that as I sat on the bus watching the remnants of the setting sun from the wrong side of the bus (the right), I thought about needing to finish Golden Son by Pierce Brown (at the time the huge hardback had been strategically squashed into an old camera side bag). But hauling the tomb out in public is easier said than done. So I took some photos of the book and the 75th Anniversary edition of The Hobbit I had just purchased on a whim. The debris of thought and air swirling in my pits. I looked at my books.

Three hours later my mother got a phone call. I was oblivious in bed and the kids running around screeching in mirth and mayhem while clad in glittering masquerade masks. My father’s little sister and the closest my mum had to a best friend has passed away.

I was named after her.
She had never shown any symptoms.
She had left behind six kids.

And so midnight closed in. 2015 in all its glory and promise was prime to glide over the world. But around me was silence and the curious and confused stares of little faces. The masks dropped forgotten as new minds tried to sleep comprehending existence turned to nothing. If even that.

I wonder if they realised that even the ‘big people’ wrestled with nothingness too.

I believe in an afterlife. I believe in the unseen. I believe in fate.

I wonder what difference my belief makes if I don’t listen to it.

Here’s to 2015 because our past is a lesson and the remainder of our breath a challenge we must continue to solve.

Fantasy Bucket List (Sci-Fi, Epic and Action)

My personal hardback section of fantasy fiction.

This is a genre I love delving into. Call it being mindless to the reality that surrounds us or a subconscious need for adventure but the world of the unknown plays a huge role in my world. And for humans to put pen to paper and create epic new continents, creatures and characters is something of a miracle.

I don’t care what you say, IMAGINATION is magic. (This is true in both beautiful and horrific ways.)

Here goes: (AN: If I want to read a series I simply list the first book.)

1. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
2. Enders Game by Orson Scott Card
3. Leviathan Wakes by James. S. A. Corey
4. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
5. Golden Son by Pierce Brown (Release date in 2015)
6. Emperor: The Gates of Rome by Conn Iggulden
7. Wolf of the Plains by Conn Iggulden
8. Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
9. Wool by Hugh Howey
10. The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
11. Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
12. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
13. The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman
14. The Time Machine by HG Wells
15. The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Also, if there are any books that you really enjoyed then please do recommend them! Thanks x

Poetry and Play Bucket List

A section of my growing personal poetry collection.

The thing with my reading of poetry is that I do not have fixed readings. My ideal poetry book is a sickly thin paperback written (and at time self published) by unrecognisable poets and play writes. Those slim volumes that amount to no mass attention, yet often speak is the most brilliant of ways to me. I find that they often give the term hidden gem a whole world of tangible meaning.

However, until I find more “gems”, here are a list of poems and plays I look forward to reading one day…

1. Howl by Allen Ginsberg
2. The Complete Collected Poems by Maya Angelou
3. Beowulf: A New Translation by Seamus Heaney
4. Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth
5. Mojo by Jez Butterworth
6. The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder
7. The History Boys by Alan Bennet
8. The Last Night of the Earth Poems by Charles Bukowski
9. Cuckoo Calling: A Book of Verse for Youthful People by E.V.Rieu
10. The Flattered Flying Fish and Other Poems by E.V.Rieu
11. Love & Misadventure by Lang Leav
12. The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
13. Collected Poems by Sylvia Plath

And I cannot express how desperately I want to own, hold and devour Beat Poets by Carmela Cuirara.

Book Bucket List [Classics and Early Century Novels)

My ever ready and oh so helpful book lists, kept at hand since I was a teen.

Yes, some are not classics but surely they’re a far cry from my YA, NA and Epic Fantasy reads? Therefore, according to the taxonomy of bH, they go in this list:

1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. Beloved – Toni Morrison
3. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stellenson
4. Franny and Zooey by J.D.Salinger
5. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
6. Ulysses by James Joyce
7. Animal Farm by George Orwell
8. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
9. Factotum by Charles Bukowski
10. Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Bronte
11. Slaughterhouse – Five by Kurt Vonnegut
12. Washington Square by Henry James
13. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
14. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
15. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway