My Changing Attitude to Classics

As I’m sure a fair few of you know, I just graduated with a degree in English Literature. That means that I’ve been made to read classic literature for around ten years now; that’s a long time to be made to read things that you don’t want to read and don’t like reading. I know you’re probably thinking, then why on earth did you pay thousands of pounds to spend three years doing just that?! Well, because I wanted to like them and I do genuinely enjoy studying them. That actually sounds really strange when put into words...

So, yes. For the last ten or so years when I’ve been made to read classics I’ve resented it. Now I’ve graduated, I want to read them and I’ve enjoyed the ones I’ve read so far. My brain is an inconvenient so-and-so. There are a fair few novels, classics and modern classics, that never came up on my reading lists that everyone else seems to have read and I felt a little hard done by. So I invented a new feature, Blast From the Past, and declared I would read something that I should have read years and years ago once a month at least. 

There are of course a few that slipped through the net and I ended up enjoying, but only a few considering how many of them I’ve read and studied. I immediately loved Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein which I studied for my A-levels; after reading The Island of Doctor Moreau by HG Wells several times I began to like it; Virginia Woolf’s feminist treatise A Room of One’s Own struck a chord; I loved Antony and Cleopatra and The Picture of Dorian Gray was good fun. And yet it’s my violent hatred for Great Expectations (with the exception of Miss Havisham and one speeh Pip gives her); Samuel Richardson’s behemoth, Clarissa; Samuel Beckett’s plays and Virginia Woolf’s novels that sticks in my mind when I think of classics. So I’m glad my mind is slowly changing about that.

When it comes to classics classics I’ve read The Great Gatsby, The Hobbit and To Kill a Mockingbird (well, I will have when this goes live!) and I loved Gatsby and thoroughly enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird and The Hobbit. I’m continuously surprised by that. I have a huge list of books that I planned to read over the next few years that contains novels from Anna Karenina and Wuthering Heights to I Capture the Castle and The Giver. 

For the not quite-classics-but-will-be books I’ve read - Howl’s Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones and Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson – they’re brilliant. And there are so many of them! The children’s classics I missed when I was a little girl, the popular and essential novelsand series’ I passed over in my early teens.

Next up for me is The Book Thief by Markuz Zusak and The Road by Cormac McCarthy and I’m genuinely excited to discover both of them.

What classics did you read and love/hate at school or university? Do you read them now? Any you think I should prioritise?

Sophie

Hurt - Tabitha Suzuma

Pages: 403

Publisher: Definitions

Release Date: 5^th September 2013

Edition: UK hardback, review copy

Other Titles by this Author: A Note of Madness, From Where I Stand, A Voice in the Distance, Without Looking Back, Forbidden

He takes a step forward, losing his breath in the ransacked room.

    Fear, like a pinball, bounces against his heart, his head, his throat, until finally settling in his gut, hard and cold. His chest churns with unspecified, wretched thoughts. He wants to hurt someone for all the hurt he is feeling right now... What the hell happened?

At seventeen, Matheo Walsh is Britain’s most promising diving champion. He is wealthy, popular – and there’s Lola, the girlfriend of his dreams.

But then there was that weekend. A weekend he cannot bring himself to remember. All he knows is that whatever happened then has changed him forever.

Matheo is faced with the most devastating choice of his life. Keep his secret, and put those closest to him in danger. Or confess, and lose Lola completely...

After having my heart shattered and heart stomped on by Forbidden in 2010, I was simultaneously excited and nervous about reading Hurt.

Once again, I was blown away by the emotion in Tabitha Suzuma’s writing. It’s the vivid and visceral kind of emotion that punches in the stomach and pulls at your heart. I was immediately pulled into Mattie’s world and the pain he felt was heart-breaking. I went through so many different situations that he could have experienced to result in such a thoroughly messed up guy. Suzuma created such an atmosphere and I became enveloped in Mattie’s world.

His slide from normality to obsessive sadness was awful, especially when compared with a few chapters from before that night in Brighton. His times with Lola were full of light, love and vitality and saved him from the coldness of his home life. His house was clinical, his parents absent and every second of his time controlled and scheduled. I realise that he was preparing for the Olympics and that that takes endless training and dedication, but he’s still a teenager who needs a life and the pressure was overwhelming. It made me angry on his behalf. The change to a foggy but fierce existence where everything was tarnished was fascinating.

All of the violent emotions and changes between them as well as a few things Mattie let slip led me to guess what happened in Brighton. I was right which I was a little disappointed about; I wanted to be shocked and horrified. I didn’t guess all of it correctly however, and when that was revealed my hand flew to my mouth and I made kind of a strangled noise in the middle of the food court while eating my lunch... It completely changed the game and the reasons behind the severity of Mattie’s reaction became so, so clear.

Hurt threw up some really interesting questions by tackling such a sensitive and untalked-about issue. Mattie confided in Lola and it took a lot for him to do so and after a particular event, Lola told their two best friends, Hugo and Isabel, as she was worried about them. Was she right? Was she justified in doing so? It was out of love, but she also betrayed his trust. I’m still torn. I also realised that in the two Tabitha Suzuma novels a fair few of her characters seem to get themselves out of dealing with what they’ve done, learned or suffered through. They don’t continue and face the music or the aftermath, and though that broke my heart in Forbidden and I think it made the novel perfect, it grated slightly in Hurt. I don’t know why as I have no idea how I would react in such a situation and I hope I never, ever, ever find out.

Though I didn't enjoy Hurt nearly as much as I did Forbidden and I didn't sob like I was expecting to, it made me think and I love Tabitha Suzuma’s writing.

For my 2013 YA Contemporary Challenge and 2013 British Books Reading Challenge

Thanks to RHCP for sending me a copy for review.

Sophie

Out and About: Harry Potter Studio Tour

What: Harry Potter Studio Tour

Where: Warner Bros Studio, Watford

When: Sunday 1^st September

Ticket price: £29

What is it?

I highly doubt this needs any introduction at all in the blogosphere, but the Harry Potter Studio Tour is exactly what it sounds like! You can visit all of the sets, props and costumes used over the course of the eight Harry Potter films, including Diagon Alley, The Great Hall, the Knight Bus, the Triwizard Cup and the Harry’s first year robes.

How much did I love it? (Hint: A LOT)

As me and Sara (my old uni housemate and resident bestie) can’t drive, she came to mine on the Saturday and we public transport-ed it to the Studios on the Sunday. It was quite a mission really. You have to get to Watford Junction train station (we have to go to Victoria first, then Euston, the Watford Junction) and a shuttle bus runs from the station to the Studio for a £2 return every 15-30 minutes. It’s a really, really good idea and we would have been stuck otherwise!

It was rather busy when we went - as I assume it is most days! – so we had to queue to go into the exhibition. In the queue we got to see Harry’s cupboard under the stairs. You then go into a small room where you’re introduced the Harry potter phenomenon and then move onto a cinema where Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint introduce the tour. After that, the tour starts in earnest. That moment leads ou into the Great Hall and a gasp of wonder hit everyone. It was magical. From the Great Hall you go into a large exhibition hall filled with everything you can imagine would be there and more.

Along the way you can watch short films from the cast and crew who explain bits of movie magic and facts of interest. There a small murmur of awe from everyone constantly, with sighs of happiness and excited expulsions thrown in for good measure. I mean, you can go into Dumbledore’s office...

About two-thirds through the tour you come outside where there is a refreshment cabin and a Butterbeer one with picnic tables and some of the outside sets to explore. I tasted frozen Butterbeer in Harry potter World at Universal and I loved it, but I didn’t enjoy it this time. I’m not sure why! It is quite expensive, so be prepared to pay £2.95 for at least, increasing to around £5 for a souvenir tumbler and £6.95 for a tankard.

The entire visit was surreal. I couldn’t believe that it was real, especially when it came to the Great Hall and Diagon Alley. It’s mindblowing. The care, detail and passion of everyone involved was astounding and I couldn’t believe all of the little extras that were made and used for things that weren’t even seen in the film purely for authenticity. No wonder they’re so involving and magical! It was worth every penny of the ticket price and I’d go again tomorrow. 

Tips for your visit:

- Book a time slot as early as you can. Mine was 4:30-5pm and we stayed for a good four hours; it was a late one.

- Set yourself a budget for the gift shop. You will want everything and it’s ridiculously expensive.

- Take a camera. Seriously.

Verdict: 10/10

I highly recommend going to visit the Studios, especially if you’ve grown up with the books and films of have kids who are still in the heart of the magic. Also, the surprise at the end? Worth the £29 alone.

Website/Twitter

Sophie

Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception - Eoin Colfer

Pages: 343

Publisher: Puffin

Release Date: 1^st April 2011

Edition: UK paperback, purchased

Other Titles in this Series: Artemis Fowl, The Arctic Incident, The Eternity Code, The Lost Colony, The Time Paradox, The Atlantis Complex, The Last Guardian

Arch criminal Artemis Fowl’s mind has been wiped. Now someone wants him dead.

Artemis Fowl is the only boy ever to have discovered an armed and dangerous fairy race living below ground. He just can’t remember any of it.

But Artemis needs his memory back – and fast – because a power-crazed pixie is out for revenge, secretly scheming to overthrow the Lower Elements Police. If only Artemis’s one fairy ally, Captain Holly Short, wasn’t on the run. Everyone is depending on him.

And with Holly gone, Artemis is depending on a flatulent dwarf. Things are about to explode.

I was so pleased to be back in the magical world of Captain Holly Short, Artemis and Butler in Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception. This series is just so much fun.

 
Even having his memory wiped by advanced fairy technology doesn’t stop Artemis from being dragged into helping clear Holly’s name and save the fairy world again. I really loved that even though Artemis couldn’t remember the things that had happened to him and the friends he had made over the past two years, he still felt the stirrings of change. He had a partial conscience and felt guilt. It was especially brilliant as he was so confused by his own feelings!

With each novel we get to learn more and more about Haven and all of the many, many ways that put us to shame. We really are Mud Men in comparison to fairies! The idea that they’re making fun of the things that are a proud point of our culture and history, such as the Seven Wonders of the World, made me chuckle. They had to go and one up and change it to eleven and make a theme park of them!

Having Opal Koboi back on top form and wreaking havoc of the evil genius variety. She’s such a fabulous villain and I love to hate her. The fact that Artemis, Holly, Butler and Mulch couldn’t defeat her without some casualties made Opal all the more terrifying as a children’s villain.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this series is so much fun! I really enjoyed Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception and I’m looking forward to getting my hands on Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony.  

Sophie