What To Do When You're In A Reading Slump

Do you ever find yourself in one of those situations where the book you're currently reading is so slow and you don't want to finish it? You eventually end up throwing it down on your bedside table and ignoring it for 2 months because it's having that affect on you. And you don't want to start another book, because you still have that damn bedside-table-book to finish first. Well here's what I want you to do:

Self Publishing and Kindles: The Ever Changing Market

The other day I dragged my friend along to a talk on Self Publishing and E-books by historical novelist Freda Lightfoot as part of the Purbeck Literary Festival. Freda is known as a 'hybrid' author, having had novels published traditionally and then gone on to self publish other novels.

The talk was mainly based on self publishing and the many pros and cons that follow it. However, she also talked about the challenges of promotion when self publishing, e-book formatting, and editing. (Also, fan fiction had a brief passing motion which was particularly entertaining as most people in the room appeared to be rather confused as to what that entailed)

Boys Don't Knit by T.S. Easton | Book Review

Boys Don't Knit by T.S. Easton was published by Hot Key Books in January 2014.

I won my copy through a twitter nail art competition (Thanks Hot key Books!) so that was pretty awesome. I'd added it to my wishlist a while back, initially because of the bright cover which drew me in with the yellow and pretty patterns (I'm a sucker for patterns!)

Boys Don't Knit follows the story of Ben Fletcher, an average teenage boy from Southern England who gets caught up in an incident with his friends involving a lollipop lady and a bottle of Martini Rosso. Ben is therefore put on probation and as part of his 'giving something back' scheme, he is made to join a knitting class at the local community college. Being from the South of England, I particularly enjoyed the Corfe Castle reference as I actually work in that village (so that entertained me, and my Gran when I told her!)

Red Flowers | Nail Art

So whilst watching repeats of The Office on Netflix yesterday, I decided to paint my nails (really just to give me an excuse to continue watching The Office). Anyway, I ended up creating these red flowers with a little bit of green at the tip moonlighting as grass. I quite like them and they were pretty simple to do.

 I would tell you what colours I used and everything but it's really just the cheapest nail varnish I can find. The red, yellow and green are all Barry M. I mixed the green with a bit of black (also Barry M) to create a darker shade of green for the stem and for shading. the white is just a normal white. It' was £1.89 (I like to spend big haha). I also put a slightly glittery top coat on for shimmer and shits and gigs. And that's about it. I quite like this design, feel free to use it!

best wishes, and dftba

Wonder by R.J.Palacio | Book Review

Wonder by R.J. Palacio was published by Knopf in January 2012

Wonder  tells the story of August, or 'Auggie' who is a ten year old kid who is obsessed with Star Wars, laughs at the word butt, and loves his dog. However, he was born with an abnormality on his face which has caused him to undergo many surgeries all throughout his childhood. Because of this, he never attended school. The novel starts at a point where his mum thinks he should be enrolled into Middle School.

I originally picked this up because it kept getting placed next to The Fault in Our Stars in bookshops because of the blue and white feel, you know? And I kept looking at it because that cover is oh so intriguing and so, one day, I just threw my stuff down and bought it. That was the best decision I've ever made.

Well, this is new

New blog, new times etc etc

Hey there! I'm Jaz and i'm currently writing this entry in between making my dinner. And that about sums me up.

This blog is mainly going to consist of book reviews/talks and nail art. I like books. I like nails. The logical thing to do, therefore, is to slam them together for your enjoyment. However, there may also be mentions of whatever else i'm doing - like knitting for example. (Knitting is really fun, who knew?)

So, that's that.

Stick around if you like

best wishes, and dftba