Wednesday, 14 January 2015

Bookworm Wednesday


What are your favourite books that you received as a gift?

It is officially the first Bookworm Wednesday ever and I thought I'd start with a festive-ish kind of start because it has been Christmas and etc. in the last month so I assume you may have got books for presents; I know I did at least because my friends and family know I'm such a bibliophile or I asked for certain books so here are some of my favourite books that I have received.  On this list, I have also included some books I was given as a gift years ago because they were, and still are some of my favourite gifts.

On the day of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released, I was at my dad's house and as a surprise when he came back from the shops, I was handed the final Harry Potter book which I was ecstatic about because I wasn't expecting to get it until later on.  This is by far one of my favourite books that I received as a gift, especially from my dad, because while the series came to an end, the book holds happy memories because my dad actually remembered how much I liked Harry Potter and for that I will always love this book.

Years and years ago, I was given Love You to Death and the rest of the Mediator series by Meg Cabot from my mother randomly, or maybe when I had gotten a good grade at school, and I have read them multiple times over the years and intend to reread them sometime in the future along with the new one which will be out in 2016 apparently.  I have been given many books over the years from my parents as a reward for good schoolwork instead of chocolate and such which I think is a great thing and if I have children in the future, I intend to do the same for them because it encourages them to read for pleasure and not just for educational purposes.

Fantasy books are some of my favourite books and once again, this one was a gift from my mum because of school, yes, I was a good student and my mum was happy to reward me for this.  Poison Study was one of the first books I read by Maria V. Snyder and I have read many since then but it will always be my favourite Snyder book and possibly favourite book of all-time though that one is hard to pin down.  Books are always a wonderful gift in my opinion and I will always treasure Poison Study like I do Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Along with general literature, I enjoy reading manga and graphic novels and upon a recommendation ages ago from a friend, my mum, yet again, bought me the entire series of Fruits Basket over the course of a few months.  They are a wonderful contribution to my ever expanding and varying library because the artwork is lovely and the story is wonderful.  I love the characters and their relationships and how Takaya has interpreted the Chinese zodiac as it is a concept I find interesting; there are so many emotions that Takaya puts into her story - happiness, love, heartbreak, and intrigue to name a few - that no matter how many times I read this series, I will go through every emotion with her characters.

When I was at university, I went through a phase of making ice cream because I liked to experiment with different recipes so for my birthday, one of my housemates gave me Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book which was incredible because I love Ben & Jerry's ice cream and being able to reproduce, or make my own variations of it, at home intrigued me.  While it took me a while to make anything out of it because I didn't have an ice cream machine, I was thrilled when I was able to make something.  It was a wonderful, random gift and I will love my old housemate for it.  I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to have a go at making their own ice cream.

It may have come to your attention if you do read my blog that I have a fondness for animated films because of the artwork and how they are animated; I find behind-the-scenes of animated films fascinating and was pleased when I received several Art of... books from my grandmother last year for my birthday and Christmas (which are a few weeks apart.  One of which was The Art of Rise of the Guardians, one of my favourite films because of the story and the design of each of the characters.  It is interesting to see what the character designs went through over the process and how certain voice actors affected the look of the character, Hugh Jackman for example.

One of the other books my grandmother bought me for Christmas was The Art of How to Train Your Dragon 2 which is one of my favourite films of all-time even if it is relatively new because how they designed all of the dragons is fascinating because they are inspired by different types of animals and weapons.  It is also interesting to see how they have expanded a world they have already established and while we are able to watch documentaries and such on the matter, having it in a book is something that appeals to me because I can sit and admire the pictures then read the information at my own speed.

My grandmother is a wonderful human being and I never expected that when I gave her a list of books that I wanted that I would get half of them, it was a fairly long list but yet again another one of my favourite books I received as a gift for Christmas was The Art of Frozen which tells you about what the team behind Frozen thought about and how they turned The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson into this story about two sisters.  It's interesting to find out the thought process behind Elsa's character and how she went from being evil to misunderstood, as all great characters are.  Along with every other The Art of... book, I will treasure this one because animated films are something me and my grandmother both enjoy as she used to watch them with me when I was a child and they are still some of my favourite memories.

Weird and wonderful books are my thing and I am thankful that I was given Raven's Gate as a teenager because it was one of my favourite series during my teens because I literally grew up with it.  While more horror than my normal books, I recommend it to anyone who likes adventure/action books and I think I will save it for my own children someday and give it to them as my mum gave it to me.

A year has gone by since my mum bought me the Song of Ice and Fire boxset for my birthday and at the beginning of December, I started reading A Game of Thrones and is wonderful and is by far my favourite gift ever at the minute because A Game of Thrones is so engaging and even though it's taking me ages to get through it because I am trying to catch up on old reviews and I get distracted with work and stuff, I aim to read it straight once I have caught up with everything and I shall hopefully be back on track.

Thank you to my wonderful family who have provided me with these books and encouraging me to read as a child.

Bookworm out!

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