to 2015, about 2014

Heeeey...

[Is it awkward that blogging feels awkward because I very seldom do it? Why do I even have blogs? Seriously, like.]

So yep, I don't blog a lot, but this year has been intense, and I kind of want to wrap it up a bit. Not with a party, no. More like, with a bit of thinking.
Here's a tip, now: the best way to organize your ideas is to verbalize them having in mind as heterogeneous a public as you cat get. Yeah, I mean "the Internet".

Let's go back to the intenseness of this year, so. Umh.

2014 didn't start well for me, my family, or the people I was close to at the time.
And then, it didn't get better.

Generally speaking, I spent the first few months wishing that at the New Years' Eve celebration, somehow, I had been tranported to some shitty parallel reality, from which I'd eventually come back. So maybe I'm still trapped here...
But to be honest, right now I believe that would have been too good. "Good" didn't belong to my 2014.

Because of this, I think that I'm going to make a list and I also think that it will be no easy task. But nice things are there even if we fail to notice them (that wasn't me, it was a mantra thingy. I'm miserable and bitter. Optimism is for tossers. And so on), so I'm going to write down the things that happened during 2014 and which make me feel good.

- Hyuna. All about her.
- Going back to work with kids. They're honest little people.
- Fiding out friends. As in, realising for the first time that a certain individual is a true friend who values me and worries about my wellbeing, and whom I value and about whose wellbeing I worry.
- My Degree End Research Project. Lexical borrowing processes from Old English to the Renaissance, if ay of you want to throw some ideas.
- Seeing again people I'd missed.
- Having money. This is one if the things that has changed most since last Christmas. And it may sound as crappy as you like, but feeling ok about my economic status rather that it keeping me from sleeping- a blessing. And being able to buy things, both for me and for other people, and from other people, nice.
- I've read a lot this year. Highlight: I've discovered Terry Pratchet. Oh, is he good.

That's it.

Now, to this coming year, I'd like to ask one single thing: let us all find out that the decisions we made in 2014 were the right ones.
I've got no resolutions and no promises to make in return for that favour, so the only thing I can offer is the knowledge that, upon taking those decisions, I did the best I could. I hope that's enough and if it's not, then there's nothing I can change anyway.

Meme! Reading Habits

I just read this meme at A Room of One's Own and decided I wanted to play too.

Do you snack while you read? If so,  your favorite reading snack? I sometimes do. Whatever (I'm a heavy snacker). Also, it is good since it keeps me "active" while reading so I can keep my attention longer, if not, I suddenly feel like doing stuff (drawing, writing, sewing...) while reading and the situation turns unconfortable. But it is a problem if the snack ends before the reading is over.

What is your favorite drink while reading? Also whatever. Ideally, tea, but mostly coke.

Do you mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in a book horrify you? The idea of writing in a book horrifies me, but I need to take notes while reading (I've montioned it before) so I keep a noebook by my side. If I don't have a notebook, I pick a piece of paper, a tissue, something, and if there's nothing at reach, then I write on the book. Theese notes are usually artistic. 

If I find notes of previous readers in a book I'm reading, my reaction varies from total horror to delight depending on the quality of the notes and the caligraphy. 

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book half open? Bookmark. Sometimes dog-ears, but I don't like it. I try to keep a bookmark for each book I read.

Fiction, non-fiction, or both? Fiction? But I'm lately reading loads of non-fiction and enjoying it a lot.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of a chapter, or can you stop anywhere? To the end of the chapter. If not, to the end of a scene, if not, to the end of a paragraph. But to the end of a chapter if there's not some superior force impeding it. 

Are you the type of person to throw a book across the the room or on the floor if the author irritates you? Never done it. I normally put the bookmark on place, close he book, have a look at the cover, feel dissapointed, and quietly put the book aside, but on a different place than the books I'm reading (for example, if I'm reading on the bed, I don't leave the book on the side table but on the floor under it).

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away? Depends on how close the dictionary is. If I'm reading on my Kindle, I look it right away, but I'll never move to pick up the dictionary, I would write the word in my notebook and look it up when I'm finished reading.

What are you currently reading? A bunch of things: Jane Eyre, The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, The Bluest Eye, Teoría Lingüística: Métodos, Herramientas y Paradigmas, Introducción a la Literatura Griega, Death Comes to Pemberley, Polygamy, El Marino que Perdió la Gracia del Mar, and some mangas.

What is the last book you bought? A lovely pack from Amazon: Norton Antology of American Literature, A History of the English Language, International English, a Guide to the Varieties of Standard English; Doing Pragmatics, Syntax, a Generative Introduction; and In Other Words, a Coursebook in Translation. All for my next courses classes.

Are you the kind of person that reads one book at a time, or can you read more than one? Unbelievable as it may seem, I prefer to read one book at a time. But there's that much stuff I want to read that I can't do it! Also, I'm a student, so I've got to read more than one thing at a time.

Do you have a favorite time and place to read? I love lazy late mornings on bed, and also insomniac late nights on my desk. Park afternoons when the weather is cool enought for the park to be deserted.

Do you prefer series of books or stand alones? Don't mind. But if it is a book I've loved, than I prefer if it is a series. I tend to miss characters.

Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over? I've been lately recommending "Wicked" because of how it shows the importance of prespective and reliability when you're told a story.

How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.? *looks at her shelves* I once organized my fiction books alphabetically by authors last name and title, but little of that is left now. Mangas are in their own shelf (by series, of course, and by size), and so are guides and monographs (general ones) (by subjects) and then my course textbooks, by subject and size.




I would love to read of your reading habits, so please link back if you take this meme!

I'm finished!

Ayer hice el último examen de este curso, y es probable que lo tenga que repetir en septiembre, pero tal y como tengo la cabeza ni siquiera me importa. No creo que me quede ninguna otra así que dedicaré el verano al alemán (que aprobar aprobaré, pero no tengo ni idea) y a Literatura Clásica, que es la que supongo que me quedará.
Quiero aprovechar y acabar de leer todas esas novelas que tenía que leer para el curso y he dejado a medias: The Bluest Eye, The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, Medea, Moll Flanders, Jane Eyre, Frankenstein...
Y me cogeré los libros de tercero prontito para empezar el curso que viene con el primer vistazo ya echado, así que ya os contaré lo que me parecen.

Aunque todavía no está decidido, supongo que me volverán a coger para la ludoteca, y con eso y el bar, ya tengo curro más que de sobra, pero tengo que sumarle las clases particulares (me quiero centrar en el Inglés, que es lo mío, y ya tengo una candidata: G). Y a ver si mi tío decide repetir en la Feria Ornitológica de Ruthland y me lleva de intérprete.

Cabe la posibilidad de que me escape unos días a Madrid este mes para atender un seminario de Lingüística el 18, pero me viene mal porque tendría que marchar el domingo.

Sigo sin tener ninguna intención de sacarme el carnet de conducir porque no quiero, porque no me parece que sea seguro que yo conduzca un coche y porque no y punto así que espero que nadie me insista demasiado (aunque sé que pasará).

La semana que viene, sin falta, me pondré con los posts que tengo pendientes, e intentaré llevar un ritmo de publicación uniforme y continuado durante todo el verano, ya veremos si lo consigo. Y a ver si se me desembota la cabeza y vuelvo al inglés.

¡Ah! Hoy hemos tenido visita de mi prima y a lo mejor me encarga alguna traducción :)

Y estas son mis perspectivas hasta octubre...

Reto: 30 días de libros. Día 1: tu libro favorito.

Ya explicó Nominatissima lo difícil que es escoger un libro favorito (o un "loqueseaqueteguste" favorito.

Así que no sé. No tengo ni idea!

Me pasé toda la adolescencia diciendo que "El Elfo Oscuro", de R.A. Salvatore, era mi libro favorito. Todavía me encanta, pero el cariño que le tengo (y también el que le tenía entonces) se lo tengo más por ser un símbolo en mi vida que como obra literaria. Lo que sea.

Y eso es lo que pasa con la mayoría de los libros que me encantan. No me encantan por el argumento, los personajes o el lenguaje sino por razones externas, porque los relaciono con experiencias personales, y no me parece que ése sea el método para elegir un libro favorito.

Y para colmo, tengo una cosa especial con los libros que me hace disfrutar de todo lo que leo, o si no, no lo leo, y tengo una estantería llena de libros justo detrás de mi escritorio y miro entre los títulos y ninguno sobresale por haberme gustado más que el resto.

Pero.

El libro que he recomendado a más gente los últimos años es "El Cuento Número Trece" de Diane Setterfield (ojo, que recomiendo la versión original, no creo que a un libro como ése le haya sentado bien el español), así que lo voy a elegir como mi favorito.

Lo que más me gustó fue el lenguaje, la forma en la que está escrito, y el ambiente.

Leo acompañada de una libreta y un boli desde que leí "El Mundo de Sofía" a los 16, y anoto las cosas que me llaman la atención, o las ideas que me vienen a la mente al leer una cierta frase. Anoté toneladas de cosas al leer "El Cuento Número Trece". Me cautivaron las palabras: las imágenes, las metáforas. Me cautivó la tragedia. Me cautivó el hecho de que la historia estuviera aislada de todo y que no echara en falta nada mientras leía.

Cuando lo leí por segunda vez encontré alguna cosilla que no me gustó (sobre todo el tratamiento que se le da al personaje de Adeline) pero la primera vez no hubo nada, nada que rompiera el hechizo. Me empapé del universo Angelfield como no me he empapado de ningún otro.

day 1: your favorite book

Nominatissima already explained how difficultit is to choose a favorite book (or a favorite whatever you’re into-).

So, I don’t know. I ain’t got an idea!

I spent my teen years saying that “The Dark Elf” by R.A. Salvatore was my favorite book. I still love it a lot, but I love (and  loved) it more as a symbol in my life than as a piece of literature. Whatever.

And that’s what happens with most of the books I love. I don’t love them because of the plot and the language but because of external reasons, because I link them with personal experiences and I don’t think that’s the way of choosing a favorite book.

And then, I’ve got a thing for books, so I like and enjoy everything I read or else I don’t read it, and I’ve got a shelf full of books right behind my desk and I’m searching along the titles and none really stands out as one that I liked over the rest.

But.

The book I recomended to more people in the last couple of years is Diane Setterfield’s “The Thirteenth Tale”, so I’ll choose it as my favorite.

I mostly liked the way it was writen, and the atmosphere.

I always have a pen and a notebook when I’m reading (since I read “Sophia’s World” then I was 16) and I note whatever thing that gets my atention or whatever thought I have while reading a certain phrase. I noted tones of things while reading “The Thirteenth Tale”. I loved the language above all, the images, the metaphors. I loved the tragedy. I loved how it was isolated from everything else and how you didn’t miss anything while reading.

When I read it for the 2^nd time I found some things I didn’t like (mostly the treatment given  Adeline’s character) but the fisrt time, there was nothing, nothing, nothing that broke the enchantment. I was into the universe of Angelfiend as I have never been in any other.

Trying to get serious about blogging: 30 day book challenge

I picked this challenge from Nominatissima and she did from amandatheatheist.
I want to get serious about blogging but I can not, because I get lazy and it takes a lot of work to write a good post and all that stuff so I thought a series on a given subject like this one will help me. Also because I'm enjoying a lot Nominatissima's posts on it, I thought it would be fun doing it myself.
And I also want to get into criticism, and don't expect anything serious on that line at least on the first posts of the challenge butjust  maybe by the last ones?
Whatever.

So this is the thing:
Day 1: Favorite book
Day 2: Least favorite book
Day 3: Book that makes you laugh out loud
Day 4: Book that makes you cry
Day 5: Book you wish you could live in
Day 6: Favorite young adult book
Day 7: Book that you can quote/recite
Day 8: Book that scares you
Day 9: Book that makes you
Day 10: Book that changed your
Day 11: Book from your favorite
Day 12: Book that is most like your life
Day 13: Book whose main character is most like you
Day 14: Book whose main character you want to marry
Day 15: First “chapter book” you can remember reading as a child
Day 16: Longest book you’ve read
Day 17: Shortest book you’ve read
Day 18: Book you’re most embarrassed to say you like
Day 19: Book that turned you on
Day 20: Book you’ve read the most number of times
Day 21: Favorite picture book from childhood
Day 22: Book you plan to read next
Day 23: Book you tell people you’ve read, but haven’t (or haven’t actually finished)
Day 24: Book that contains your favorite scene
Day 25: Favorite book you read in school
Day 26: Favorite nonfiction book
Day 27: Favorite fiction book
Day 28: Last book you read
Day 29: Book you’re currently reading
Day 30: Favorite coffee table book

I'll have the first post by tomorrow, and I'll try to have one each weekday (it's not that I don't work on weekends but that I do XD).
I'm also thinking of writing the posts of this series both in English and in Spanish, because my Spanish followers never read my blog? and I'm hoping it is a languague issue. And because I'm losing the ability to think in Spanish myself- creepy.

So!: see you tomorrow :)