Guest Post: 8 Words You’ll Never Believe Shakespeare Invented!

Hello everyone, hope you’re well! I have a guest post for you today from the company Playster, who are here to talk about Shakespeare and the English language. I have to say, reading this post, I was shocked at some of the words that originally came from Shakespeare! Hope you enjoy. 🙂

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Playster.com is a great source for all things Shakespeare. We’ve got tons of material on the bard, from books, to collections of his sonnets and copies of his greatest plays, to music inspired by the magical worlds he created. Have you ever thought about what a huge impact William Shakespeare had on the English language? Check out these 8 words you’ll never believe he invented!

“Radiance” – All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 1 Scene 1

Attending my first bookish event: YALC 2015!

A couple of weekends ago I found myself waking up at 6am, and dragging my zombie like body to the train station in the name of books.

YALC is the UK’s first ever young adult literature convention. It was set up last year and attached to London Film and Comic Con as it was felt books should be seen alongside other popular media. I had never been to a convention before, but I have to say it is one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. There was so much positivity and enthusiasm in one place and a real sense of community, and I kind of felt like I wanted to grab a sleeping bag, set up camp and stay there forever!

I’m going to YALC!

Hello everyone!

Today I wanted to highlight a bookish event going on in the UK. This is only the second year it has run so it’s a very new thing. While I saw many bloggers post about this event last year suggesting it’s widely known about, I thought I would mention it here just in case because I wouldn’t want anyone to miss out!

YALC is the UK’s first young adult literature convention and is held in London over three days with 40+ authors in attendance. It gives readers the chance to have books signed by their favourite authors, visit panels about bookish subjects and even take part in workshops and more!

Insurgent Film Review: A Case of Action over Substance

The Insurgent film release really snuck up on me, with life keeping me busy and university work in full swing, I probably would have completely missed out on seeing it in the cinema if it weren’t for a good friend of mine who reminded me! In a way, I kind of liked going without having been sucked into any of the hype, it meant that I could sit back, relax and enjoy without any preconceived ideas of how good it would be or how it would compare with the novel. I’m just a tad late with this review, but better late than never, eh?!

The Maze Runner Film Review

Having recently read and enjoyed the fast paced dystopian adventure that was The Maze Runner, I was looking forward to the release of it’s film adaptation with impatient enthusiasm (and secretly scowling jealously at the American bloggers who were able to see it earlier than the UK). So a couple of weeks ago I snoozed through my early lectures, met my friend and we raced for the train, just managing to catch it in time to allow us to make the midday showing with an overflowing bucket of popcorn. So, did The Maze Runner live up to my expectations? Hmm….well… *puffs out cheeks with air* yes, but it wasn’t quite what I was expecting.
Side Note: I’ve tried to write this so it will make sense to people who both have and haven’t read the book but I will, inevitably be making a few comparisons. 🙂

Thoughts On The Isle of Wight Festival!

Hello bloggers! Some of you may have noticed my lack of internet presence for the past week or so, and some of you may have had far more interesting things to do and therefore not noticed at all. Either way this absence occurred because a friend and I decided to go on a mini adventure!

Way back in April, we both applied for voluntary work at the Isle of Wight Festival on a work for your ticket basis. As poor students we couldn’t exactly afford a ticket, so this was a great way of still getting the festival experience without the cost and with the bonus of something extra to pad out our CVs. We were both offered positions as back bar staff and then thought little more about it. But before we knew it summer arrived and we found ourselves packing our bags and taking the ferry over to the island. 

Sick-Lit The New Trend? YA Books That May Harm Your Kids ‘Apparently’

Do you recognize any of the popular titles above?
I personally haven’t read all of them, but I have it on good authority that they are excellent books.
Well watch out, because this genre is now being labeled ‘sick-lit’.
This post is a reaction to this article which you many want to check out.

Sick-lit is being defined as novels that deal with complex issues relating to death and disease, so cancer, depression, eating disorders and many other important issues relevant to modern society that have formed some great contemporary books. Yet I can’t help but feel the term ‘sick-lit’ is trying to sound derogatory somehow, giving the genre a negative slant. I mean, it’s not exactly a tasteful sounding label is it?

Like every book that becomes uber popular, moral panic will ensue. Cue the release of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars capturing the hearts of teenagers everywhere and you’re bound to find a crowd of concerned onlookers close behind.

Junk Food, Childhood Dreams and Movie Preferences.

Hey, how y’all doin’? 😀

(Sorry, occasionally I feel the need to use a southern accent, it just kind of pops out.)

Firstly I would like to thank you all for the great writing advise you gave me in a past post, it was really helpful and encouraging. I now have nearly 650 words drafted out, and I’m pretty excited about where this short story is going to go. 🙂

So moving on, yours truly has been tagged for the Liebester blogging award again twice by some fellow bloggers! I’ve already received these before so I feel like it would kind of be cheating to tag a load more bloggers again, but I thought that I’d answer the questions anyway, especially as there are some interesting ones. 🙂

If your feeling social, pop over to their sites and check these guys out!

Breaking Dawn Part 2 Film Review

Ohhh my freaking god. What did I just witness? *cue crazy eyed look*
As a person with a love hate relationship with The Twilight Saga, I was pleasantly surprised by how good Breaking Dawn Part 1 was. Unfortunately this time I was pleasantly horrified, and well….a little bored to be honest.
Still, it’s weird to think that this was REALLY the last film in the series. As one of my friends put it ‘Wow, when we walk out of this cinema Twilight is over, our teenage fangirling years are over’.
There are a lot of great memories I have in relation to Twilight. Friendships formed, endless laughs and inside jokes, and a lot of traditions, but I am definitely ready to move on from it.

Plot
So we left the last film with Bella (Kristen Stewart) giving birth and being turned in to a vampire. Shock! Horror! What a cliffhanger! (Actually sarcasm aside I have to give it to them, it was good.)
We begin part 2 with Bella reveling in her pale immortal awesomeness and fake eyelashes. Edward (Robert Pattinson) gets super excited that they’re the same temperature now, and they head out for Bella’s first hunt. 

The Hobbit News: Film to be Split into Three not Two!!!

This is just a quick post, but an important one nonetheless. I have been keeping a close eye on all things Hobbit for some time. So I got extremely excited a couple of days ago when I received a Tweet through my phone.

I held my breath. No! Could it really be?! I followed the link (which you can read here if you wish) but to summarize it in short; Peter Jackson and several others got the chance to watch back a lot of the footage and realized that they potentially had enough material to extend it into three films instead of the expected two fans have been looking forward to. By doing this they might also be able to include extra’s from the Lord of the Rings appendixes padding out our favourite world into even more rich detail. However, they still needed the go ahead from actors, studio’s etc.

Well, today I got this through my phone:

And this statement was released on the film’s Facebook page:

Peter Jackson:
“It is only at the end of a shoot that you finally get the chance to sit down and have a look at the film you have made.

Upcoming Book to Film Adaptions – Who’s excited? I am!

There has never been a more exciting time to be a bookworm.

Films and books have always had a close relationship, and in the last decade they have grown even closer. I’m sure the popularity of films like Harry Potter and Twilight have contributed to this. It seems as if the film industry has finally cottoned on to the fact that book adaptions are gold dust.

Popular books have enormous fan bases from various ages, and if there’s one thing us bookworms are known for, it’s our dedication.

While book to film adaptions for some can be cause for great excitement and celebration, for others it can be looked on with terror as we contemplate all the horrible ways in which they could ruin our favourite book. I’m personally one of those people who gets excited about adaptions, even though I know sometimes they can desecrate something I love dearly, I choose to remain optimistic. 🙂

Over the pass couple of months I have been noticing so many upcoming book to film adaptions that I decided I needed to post about them. A bibliophile cannot ignore these things! Below I’ve listed all the adaptions I have found so far, accompanied by a trailer, poster, or a bit of information if none of the former are available.

Snow White and the Huntsman Film Review 5/5

One of my favourite aspects of going to the cinema is seeing the adverts. Many people find this strange; but I love the build up, the anticipation. As you sit there shuffling in your seat, you begin to wonder with a twinge of nervousness if the film will be any good. I’m always the one saying ‘hurry up we’ll miss the start’ people reply ‘it’s alright, we’ll only miss the adverts’ to which I whine ‘but I LIKE the adverts!’
When I went to see The Hunger Games with my friends we got there early so we saw every advert. And amongst the mix of Orange Network, Haribo and War Horse was a theatrical trailer for Snow White and the Huntsman which immediately caught my attention. Well that advert stuck with me, and here we are three months later. See; cinema adverts RULE 😉

The Plot
Once upon a time, in the middle of winter there was a Queen walking in the castle gardens. While admiring a rose she pricked her finger and three drops of blood fell on the snow. The red looked so beautiful on the white that she thought to herself:
If only I had a child with skin as white as snow.
Lips red as blood.
And hair black as ebony.
– The Brothers Grimm
When Snow White’s (Kristen Stewart) mother passes away the kingdom mourns in sorrow. But when King Magnus saves a beautiful woman named Ravenna (Charlize Theron) from a dark army he falls in love once again, and decides to marry. The kingdom rejoices in celebration of his happiness. However all is not well,

Calling all Edgar Allan Poe fans: The Raven adapted for the Big Screen!

Like most new film releases I mention, I’m never sure whether I somehow missed the original wave of knowledge, or if I’m about to bestow some amazing kick ass info on you guys that will have you squealing in excitement, or sighing in exasperation. But either way, it was only yesterday I discovered that there was a film to be released called The Raven based on Edgar Allan Poe’s work starring John Cusack.

My first reaction was huh? How can they possibly come up with a two hour film based on a poem? I was immediately inspired to do some digging and discovered that

Stephenie Meyer’s The Host to be adapted for the big screen?!?

Is anyone else internally cringing?

I don’t really know if this is common knowledge. Maybe I’m just out of the loop but I hadn’t heard anything about this until 2 minutes ago browsing the Culture section on in The Guardian newspaper. For those of you who don’t know Stephenie Meyer’s The Host was released early 2008. A science fiction romance novel about parasites, I guess you would call them, that invade the body and take over the human race.
Feel free to take a look at the blurb:

Season of the Witch Film Review

Every year when the winter rolls around, my family branches out and adds Sky Movies  to our TV package. Guess what that means? More movie reviews! (Hopefully that’s a good thing?) One of the premier films this week is Season of the Witch, therefore this will be the film I’m reviewing for you lovely people. 🙂

The Plot
This film is set in the 14th century. It starts off by following two soldiers fighting in the crusades in ‘the name of God’. However during one of the battles Behmen (Nicholas Cage) accidentally kills an innocent woman and sees many other innocent people massacred. This makes him and his fellow soldier Felson (Ron Perlmen) think that the battles there engaging in are wrong, and that surely God can’t want the slaughter of so many people. On realizing this, they desert the army and return to Germany. However when they reach their destination they are given the task of transporting a girl who has been declared a witch, and is being blamed for causing the plague spreading across the land.