books

After not being able to decide for a very long time, I have finally bought a kindle Paperwhite back in January. I've wanted one for a while, but I wasn't so sure if I'd actually like it. The book itself is simply such a huge part of the reading experience. 

I've had if for a while now and I have to say it's super convenient. I mainly thought about buying an e-reader because my bus ride home take quite some time. Always carrying around books on top of the stuff I actually need is just way too heavy. The kindle is really light and still contains dozens of books. I also have access to the Internet and can access my cloud anywhere and at any moment or just buy new books online.

The thing I was worried most before buying the kindle was its effect on my eyes. Reading on my macbook just gives me headaches after a while. The kindle, however, is really easy on the eyes. Light intensity, font and font size are easily adjustable and the screen is kinda dull. I've spend hours reading on my kindle and still felt fine afterwards.

Many of you might also know that reading a lot can turn out quite expensive. Of course, I could just borrow books in a library. I really like having books at home, however, and the library probably wouldn't have half of what I want to read. So a kindle is actually a relatively cheap alternative. E-books are cheaper in general. Also, if you are a member of Amazon Prime you can borrow ebooks over amazon for free. 

A kindle is also really convenient if you want to read in a language other than your mother tongue. Firstly, there is a bigger range of foreign books than in local book stores. Of course, there are foreign books available in bookstores. The selection of languages and books is quite limited, however. It might not be that hard to find a book in English, French or Spanish in Austria. If you wanted a book in Portuguese, you would definitely have to order it online, which usually takes up to a few weeks.Secondly, foreign books are quite expensive in local book stores. I once payed over 20€ for a book that would have cost nine in Italy. E-book are always relatively cheap – no matter in which language. Lastly, there are dictionaries installed on the e-reader. By tapping a word either a definition or translation of that word will show up. A feat especially convenient when you're not that familiar with a language yet.

I'm also really happy with the service. My kindle froze a while ago. It just didn't react anymore. So I went to the store where I had bought it and they just exchanged it for a new one. I was really impressed by how quickly and without inconvenience it all worked out.

Naturally, there are a few downsides as well. My main complaint is the "lack of book". You can't really estimate how thick an e-book would be in reality. This also affects your perception of your reading progress. Usually, you can see and feel how many pages you have read. On the kindle, there are usually no page indications. They wouldn't make sense as you can change the font size. There is a indicator in percent, but obviously that isn't the same. Personally I also prefer it when I can put a book in my bookshelf. I could put my there but it's most likely tucked away inside my bag. My third and last complaint is that you don't see any signs of use. There's a certain charm to books that look used and read. Even though it's such a sappy though, it always makes me think about where they have already been.

My last advice: If you don't want to buy a kindle but still use Onebooks, you could just download the kindle app or any other e-reader app for your phone. Since my kindle broke down in the middle of Stardust, I've been using the app to finish it. It actually works quite well. The only downside is that you spend a lot of battery. 

So, that's all I had to say about my experience with e-readers. If you think about buying one, I can definitely recommend it. See you!

Miss Granny

There's not that much time left until the end of this semester. I'm pretty sure all of us can feel the exams getting closer and closer. That also means that I should be studying right now (or sleeping considering how late it is), but there's just one huge problem: Procrastination. So, instead of studying I have been watching a movie for the past two hours. That's also why I'm going to write a post about said movie now, just to create a false sense of productivity. Basically just to make myself believe that I didn't just waste away 2 hours on the internet.

Source: wikipedia.org

What's it about?

Miss Granny is a South Korean movie that was released in January 2014. It tells the story of a 70-something year old woman, who magically turns into her twenty-year-old self after getting her picture taken in a mysterious photo studio.

Oh Mal-soon is an old and bitter widow, who lives with her son and his family. She really isn't happy about her age and tends to nag at about anybody, especially her daughter in law. After said woman had suffered a heart attack Mal-soon walked around the city and finds a photo studio with a picture of Audrey Hepburn in the window. She spontaneously decides to get her picture taken and finds herself in the body of a twenty-year-old afterwards. Now she obviously can't go home anymore, so she just changes her name and decided to pursue a career as a singer – a dream of her she never had the chance to persue. Now going by Oh Doo Ri, which sounds similar to Audrey, she joins the band of her grandson Ji Ha. They even get casted to perform on a big music program despite Oh Doo Ri acting like the elderly woman she actually is. Even so, she still ends up in a love... square between Ji Ha, who doesn't know that she's his granny, a music producer and her neighbor, an elderly man who has been crushing on her since the last millenium. I'm not going to tell you how this all is going to resolve. That you have to find out yourself.

The movie has been doing remarkably well in the box office last year. Not only  thanks to features such as B1A4's Jung Jin Young as Ji Ha or a cameo by Kim Soo Hyun, even though that certainly didn't hurt. It did so well, that the Chinese took notice of it. On January 8th, 2015 a Chinese remake featuring former EXO member Lu Han was released.

What did I think of it?

The movie got suggested to me earlier today by a friend of mine. I'm usually a bit cautious when it comes to Asian pictures. The movies are normally not that bad, but if you've ever watched a K-drama, you'll know how unbelievably dramatic they can be. I'm glad, however, that I trusted my friend's judgement. Miss Granny rarely involved any drama at all and built all of its comedy on Oh Doo Ri's conspicuous behavior. She simply acts like a grandmother, patting her grandson's butt, scolding him or telling him to eat properly. This of course seems really funny when she's in the body of a young girl. She is also really bold and says her opinion out loud ,which of course often leaves everybody around her dumbfounded. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed watching the movie. It was consistently funny, but showed some serious scenes as well. It's a movie that can make you laugh and cry while not getting boring for the whole two hours.

Good blog? What?

We were supposed to think about what a good blog looks like. So I thought of a few things that make a blog a good blog in my opinion. Check them out below.

Source: www.blogher.com

legibility and layout

The layout of the blog is one of its most important features. Even though it does not really say anything about its content, it is responsible for giving the first impression. It's the first thing the potential reader notices, when they browse the blog for the first time and could very well decide if they want to keep reading it or not. 

One of the most important parts of the layout is the font. No matter how good a blog is written, it won't count for anything if it's impossible to read. The colour of the text should should not conflict with the background and the fond chosen should preferably not be too curly or adorned. To all the bloggers out there: Choose something that's easy on the reader's eyes. Reading on screen is bad enough as it is, you should not make things worse by making your blog look like its from the eighties.

being interested in what you blog about and blogging about what you are interested in

I don't really think one's interest in the topics is a good way to judge a blog. Me not being interested in certain issues does not deem the blog a bad blog. What really affects its value, however, is the blogger's own interest in the topics. The reader totally notices if somebody is passionate about a subject or if they were prompted to write about it. Real enthusiasm simply shines through everyone's writing. So, even if it's just by an average writer, their enthusiasm makes reading your post much more enjoyable.  It's a bit like watching your friends talk about their favourite book or person – just incredibly cute.

pictures

Adding a few pictures to your posts immediately helps to increase its appeal. Just those plain blocks of words often seem kind of boring. I wouldn't really want to start reading that. A well chosen picture, however, supports your text perfectly. Sometimes a picture simply does say more than a thousand words. They  are also like little sneak peaks and often manage to capture the reader's interest. They split up long texts and make them seem more bearable. Their position should be considered carefully, though and too many pictures might seem to clustered. So, the pictures and their position should be well chosen.

revealing a bit about themselves

Letting the readers know something about themselves instantly increases the blogger's appeal. It doesn't have to be their deepest secret. Just giving away a few little bits and pieces about who they are and what they like is enough: their favourite book, their knack for chick flicks, how they always wanted to travel to India, anything really. That was always one of the things I liked about my favourite blogs. Learning something about the blogger. Getting to know the person behind the blog. Becoming acquainted with the person you have been following for a while. It's almost like making a new friend and one that does not talk back at that. I guess, everybody wants to know something about the person writing the blog that they love. Satisfying this need only works in the blogger's favour.

language and grammar

I couldn't really decide whether I should list this for a pretty long time. While I do think that good language skills increase the posts' value immensely, it is the content that counts. Most of the English blogs on the internet are not run by native English speakers. English is simply the language you can reach out to the biggest number of people with. If you want to have a vast international audience, you will have to at least provide English translations to the posts in your mother tongue. It is, however, a much better experience to read a blog by a blogger possessing at least basic grammar skills and a sufficient range of vocabulary. You just can't forget: Even though good grammar and vocabulary are appreciated, they cannot save a boring blog post.

I also had a look at the blogs of last year's students. The blogs listed below immediately managed to capture my attention and remain the focus of my interest. Josepha wrote a lot about traveling and the other two have a wide range of topics. Enjoy!

http://theresast94.blogspot.co.at
http://sarahleins-english-world.blogspot.co.at
http://itsjosephasblog.blogspot.co.at

The Lover's Dictionary

As promised, I'm back and this time with a book recommendation/review. I stumbled across one of my old books while cleaning up and decided to reread it. So, let's talk about The Lover's Dictionary.

Source: www.goodreads.com

The Book

The Lover's dictionary is the first novel aimed at adults by David Levithan. It is a love story told entirely through dictionary entries. The entries are arranged alphabetically and therefore in no chronological order. They are, however, linked and tell a quite realistic modern age love story. Each of the entries contains a short comment or scene told from the narrator's point of view.

The Lover's Dictionary is written in the second person. The reader gets adressed with "you", which makes it a lot easier to get absorbed in the story. It also makes it easier for the author to keep the novel gender neutral. Neither the gender of the narrator nor of his/her beloved gets revealed. In the whole book, there is no clear indication for their names, genders, appearances or sexual preferences. It could tell the story of a straight couple as well as two men or women. Which leads me to my next point: Levithan's works usually deal with the topic of sexual identity and homosexuality. He himself admitted to being gay and he is a strong advocate of gay right.

As the books only consists of short, loosely connected entries there are many parts of the story left open. This still leaves a lot for the reader's own imagination. Not to mention that almost everybody can picture themselves as part of the book as there is so little given away about the characters backgrounds.

Source: randombookishramblings.blogspot.co.at

The Author

David Levithan is a popular American author of young-adult fiction. His most famous work must be Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, which was also made into a film, although his other works are mostly well known as well. His books usually revolve around one or more gay characters or he simply does not give away their gender at all.

Most of his books deal with the topic of homosexuality as it concerns him directly. As already stated above, he himself is gay and strongly advocates gay rights. In his books, he usually wants to show the reader that love is just love without regard to anybody's gender. In Every Day for example, the main character is a bodiless being that borrows other peoples' bodies for a day. One day, he/she falls in love with the girlfriend of one of the borrowed bodies. So, he/she tries to find her again every day in that day's body: be it a girl or a boy or anything in between. The message of that book is obviously that true love has no boundaries and knowns no gender, age or appearance.

My Opinion on the Book

I only picked up The Lover's Dictionary because I saw it on a pile of books for sale while browsing a store a while ago. I had already heard of the book before but I hadn't really had the intention to read it. I bought it anyways and was surprised by how good it was. David Levithan actually manages to tell the story of a relationship with many ups and downs while only giving away minimal information about the couple. 

I was a bit skeptical in the beginning because telling a story while basically having the reader read between the lines throughout the whole books seems like a really hard task to archive. I can't even be content with what I'm writing and that's just normal prose. So naturally, I had my doubts. It turned out as a positive surprise though. Now, it's one of my favourite books. 

The only thing that fools you is the thickness of the book. The Lover's Dictionary is actually a pretty quick read. Sure, it does have over 200 pages, but there is hardly ever more than of the page filled. Sometimes, it's even just a few words.

Source: djamesauthor.blogspot.co.at

If you want to find out more about David Levithan or his work, I'll put some links below.
Click here to get to his website.
This link will lead you to his twitter.


So, I hope you enjoyed today's post. I'm off to bed. Bye!

The Answer Is 42

A new year has just begun and I'm about to write my first post of it. It would have probably been nice to start off with a long post about New Year's traditions in Austria or the uselessness of New Year's resolutions but here I am writing about poetry. Or rather, people who read to much into it. Something that happens not only with poetry, which purpose is to be interpreted in a way, but also paintings and books and everything even just faintly creative. Run as long as you still can, there's a rather long rant coming up!

First of all, I kinda have a thing for poetry. I'm in no way an expert, I'm just interested in it. I have a pile of poetry books at home and I just like to open them and read a few pages once in a while. There is, however, one thing that really irritates me: Why do people always have to overinterpret them? 

Sure, one of the main purposes of poetry is to be interpreted, but at some point some people just need to stop, take a deep breath and find a new hobby because they obviously have too much time on their hands. No every single word in coming from a poet's mouth (or pen) has to mean something. Sometimes, they just need it for a rhyme or the flow. Merely placing one metaphor after another usually does not make a great poem. Also, believe it or not, sometimes a poet might just really want to express that somebody's eyes are green. No deeper meaning intended.

The great vulnerability to being over-interpreted is something you will probably also stumble upon quite often when it comes to books or art. One of the best examples for the issue of people reading too much in something is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'm sure you know the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. The answer is 42! Fans all over the world developed a number of different theories why the answer is exactly 42. Several of these theories involved binary representations, Tibetan  monks, office spreadsheets or the base thirteen. While all of these theories are really interesting, – and it's seriously impressing how people come up with all of this – that's what Douglas Adams, the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy, had to say about this:

"The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought '42 will do'. I typed it out. End of story."

And let's be real here, if some of the old famous poets were still alive, the would have to do that all the time as well. If Richard Siken writes "He had green eyes, so I wanted to sleep with him", that does not have to represent the hope he saw in that guy or whatever. He probably just likes green eyes, maybe the guy he wrote that poem about simply had green eyes. Not everything a poet has to say, has to be deep and meaningful. Some people just have to get that in their heads!

So, sorry for the rant. I'll be back with new and interesting things next time. Toodles