I'm writing this blog post for a number of reasons. One, I'm losing steam with reading a bit- I've returned to university, although term doesn't start until next week, and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with my reading list. Two, you reading this may find some recommendations in a few different genres here. Three, I want to hold myself accountable and return to this list in a couple of months, so I can finish these books before the end of the year. It's yet another reminder to myself to prioritise reading for fun, not just for my course. So let's dive in- I'm only including five books here, although I aim to read more for fun and will need to read even more for university. 1) Turtles All The Way Down by John GreenIf you're a John Green fan or even just a Young Adult Fiction fan you're probably aware of this book. Green's new novel has been highly anticipated in the five years since his last, the wildly popular The Fault In Our Stars, and it will be released into the world next Tuesday 10/10/17. It centres on teenage protagonist Aza Holmes and her search for a fugitive billionaire, as well as her obsessive compulsive disorder. This is an illness Green himself deals with, so I'm looking forward to seeing an 'own voices' portrayal of this. I'm a big fan of Green's from both his previous novels and his YouTube channel vlogbrothers which he created with his brother Hank, so I've preordered Turtles to pick up at my local Waterstones, and will be reading it in probably very few sittings over a couple of days. 2) Life Moves Pretty Fast by Hadley FreemanI've actually already started this book, but because of its nature I've been dipping in and out of it. The tagline of this book is 'The lessons we learned from eighties movies (& why we don't learn them from movies any more)', and it's structured with an introduction, an epilogue, and in between many different chapters focusing on different eighties movies and different themes, from Dirty Dancing and abortion to Ghostbusters and masculinity to Ferris Bueller's Day Off and social class. The vast majority of my favourite films were made in the eighties: Back to the Future, Ferris Bueller..., The Blues Brothers, The Princess Bride and more, with my all-time favourite film Pride and old favourite The History Boys also set in the decade. My approach to this book has been watch the film/s, read the chapter, in order, which is why it's been taking me a while. The tone of this book is delightfully enthusiastic and friendly. I'm learning to further appreciate films I already love, and I'm hopefully going to discover some great eighties classics I haven't seen and will love. 3) As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes and Joe LaydenSpeaking of eighties films I love, The Princess Bride is one of my favourite films. I recently had to 'pitch' it to a couple of friends for us to watch, and had a really hard time because it's difficult to explain why exactly it's so good without going on a massive rant. My pitch ended up being simply 'romance, sword-fights, funny', which sold them (and they loved the film.) So when I found out there was a book written by Westley himself about the making of the cult classic, I knew I had to read it. I've read that it describes an unusually harmonious filmmaking experience- whether that was the case or not remains to be seen- so I won't be basing my perception of the film industry off it too much, but I'm excited to read it. I think it'll be interesting. 4) Heart of Darkness by Joseph ConradI will hold my hands up and admit that I should have read this already. It was a text on my university course last year, but for a number of reasons (got bored, didn't see the need to finish it after the lecture, overwhelmed by reading list) only read half of it. However, it has cropped up on one of my modules this year (my favourite one) in comparison with the film based on it, Apocalypse Now. So I figured the universe was telling me I needed to give it another shot. Heart of Darkness was written in 1899, and features a frame narrative around the story of a journey up the Congo River. It's discussed a lot in terms of race and postcolonialism. 5) Save the Cat!I've just finished the first draft of my first feature-length screenplay. Now it's time to breathe and completely ignore it for a month, after which I'll go back to it and edit with a fresh mind. During this month, however, I want to learn as much as I can about the craft of screenwriting, which means reading as many screenplays as I can, reading online articles, and reading this book. Snyder knows the industry well, is a successful spec screenwriter, and focuses not just on how to make your work good but how to make it marketable. I've read a chapter and I've already learned so much! Really looking forward to this one, I've read great things about it online. Have you read any of these? Are you looking forward to Turtles All The Way Down? Let me know.
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