Where I've Been and Where I'll Go

So.

Hello.

It's been a while.

What a long time ago it was when I began this blog! I started it in, what, June? And it is now February.

It has been 8 months.

See, when I started this blog, I had time. It was summer, I was free, time was plenty.

But then school happened, that horrid leech, and sucked me right out of books.

Believe me, I have been reading. I have a queue of book reviews to write as long as the Nile. I am so weighed down by the weight of the world that I wonder why my back is not yet bent like that of Atlas. Fandoms have engulfed me in their rainbow splendor. I haven't had time to actually be productive with the books I read.

So be warned! My queue has about 70 books on it. I'll be reviewing like crazy.

Just for the sake of curiosity...

What fandoms are you all a part of?

I am a Hetalia, Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who, Ouran HSHC, Black Butler, Interwebs, Big Bang Theory, Homestuck, Sherlock, Supernatural, and COUNTLESS number-of-smaller-book-fandoms fangirl. I cannot be alone on this empty plane.

I release you now from the bond of my words. Go now! Do something amazing!

Delirium (Delirium #1)

Delirium by Lauren Oliver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In this book, love is a disease that scientists have developed a cure for. There are the occasional revolters, but this society tries to eradicate them as much as possible.

Lena Halloway is just a normal teenage girl living in the walls of this society, cared for by her aunt and very obedient. After her mother (view spoiler)[ supposedly (hide spoiler)] died years and years ago, Lena has been a strict adherent to the path set out for her.

All is well and good for little Lena, till she meets a boy.

And like in all YA fiction, it's downhill from there.

Is it possible to love a book even if you dislike the protagonist? I'm here to say, yes , it is incredibly possible, and this book is my proof.

Let's start with the negative, and then redeem the book at the end.

Lena is...
INFURIATING.

I am an advocate for strong female characters that fight for what they believe in, kick ass when they have to, and never give up.

How many of you agree?

*Counts hands*

All of you! Wonderful, we're on the same page.

But Lena, Lena...

is just so weak .

I suppose Oliver was simply trying for a new female protagonist personality, because all of them are so cliché,

But honestly, the damsel-in-distress DOES NOT WORK WITH DYSTOPIA.

Lena is content just to sit back and watch the events in front of her unfold, trying not to get her hands dirty. Until she gets some completely illogical, suicidal notion that almost kills everyone and ruins everything.

How the hell did Alex fall for her?

Alex seems like the type of guy that would go for a kick-ass, steel corset, dagger-taped-to-inner-thigh kind of girl (at least to me, he does), but Lena has none of these attributes!

I don't want to leave this review off on a bad note. I actually really liked the book.

The concept of love being a disease is a new, fresh take on the basic love story that we all are oh so familiar with, and have grown to relatively despise. In the world of dystopia, with everyone scrambling to grab the newest "corrupt-society idea", this one definitely has earned it's place.

The characters I like:

Hana
Alex
Lena's Mother

Characters I dislike:

(view spoiler)[ everyone else (hide spoiler)]

I absolutely love Hana. In my opinion, she should of been the heroine, she should've gotten the guy, she (view spoiler)[ should've escaped the society (hide spoiler)].

But that didn't happen. If you read her short story, (cleverly names "Hana") you'd know what really happened to her. (view spoiler)[ she got cured. (hide spoiler)]

Hana is headstrong and passionate; she doesn't need a boy to show her the joys of life and tell her how to enjoy herself. This is how the main character should've been.

Hana aside, I love how Oliver continuously calls "love" the deliria throughout the book, keeping the concept of it being forbidden but yet, overcome.

Don't even get me started on Pandemonium.

READ THIS BOOK. You'll love it. Ignore the negatives; focus on the positives. I'm just being picky. It's my thing.

This review is also on Goodreads.

2 Days

A Poem:

The paper turns beneath a finger—

Thin and flimsy,

Unaware of it's affect on your being.

The words run across the page—

Ice eyes melted by them,

And they end with the smallest of dots.

Frantically the search for more words—

The page yields nothing,

It's pale gaze unwavering.

All at once—

The story is ripped away,

And left is an empty hole the shape of its finality.

Frantically the search for a supplement—

And with it comes a price near unbearable to pay,

The cost of patience.

Quietly emotions fade—

In the background,

As if they never wracked your body.

The fruit of your patience—

Comes sudden, unexpected,

Yet gladly received.

And in it, you revel.

~

I KNOW IT'S CRAP.

IT'S LATE NIGHT AND I'M TRYING TO WRITE SOMETHING PROFOUND.

IT'S NOT WORKING.

I haven't posted in FOREVER. Since the beginning of September!

And guess what?

My dreams are coming true!

REACHED by Ally Condie comes out in TWO DAYS

TWO

TO 

TOO

2.

*Enough twos for you?*

I think it's enough for me.

Lately I've been immersing myself into classics, and boy, are they awesome. No wonder people call them awesome!

Like someone said once, "Those who think Shakespeare is boring, don't understand him." 

Les Miserables, The Odyssey, Dante's Inferno, and The Iliad serve to prove this person ^ right.

God, so many reviews to write.

So little will to do so.

Reached (Matched #3)

Reached by Ally Condie


Time flys by. When I first finished Crossed, November 12th seemed so, incredibly, riDONKulously far in the future.

And now it's only 66 days away!





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I CAN'T EVEN

i'll shut up now.


This review is also on Goodreads.

Pet Names, Life, and Update

Why hello my little owlets! Is it okay if I call you owlets? My favorite animals are owls and all different types of birds of prey.... hence the name, BirdsAndPoetry. So, my new pet name for you all is "owlets."

I'm writing this post to assure you that I'm still alive. :) I know I haven't been posting lately.... actually, I haven't posted at all! But with all the obstructions that prevent me from humoring you all (mainly, life), this [blog] is not incredibly high on my to-do list. But I haven't quit reading! I'm actually quite the opposite. I have 5 book reviews to write, but frankly, I'm a bit too lazy to do so. Well, lazy is a bad replacement. I'd say... a severe case of procrastination.

For future reference, and for your benefit, I'll tell you what books I have yet to review.

The Girl in the Clockwork Collar
Arise
The Burning Bridge
The Illiad
Sapphique
Night of the Soul Stealer

And I think that's it. Books that I'm planning to read, in the near future:

Divergent
The Hobbit (and the rest of the LoTR series...and the Silmarillion)
The Hunter's Moon
Rapture
Cinder


Books that I'm currently reading:

The Tempest
The Illiad
Witch and Wizard
Attack of the Fiend
The Icebound Land

So this is really more of an update. One thing that downs me is the fact that my crazy life yields me no relief. Many a sleepless night I have spent searching for a comfortable position to read in. And I end up reading 10 pages.

*Sigh*. And then there's the perpetual issue of the apocalypse.

Songs I'm Currently Obsessed With:

"Radioactive" - Imagine Dragons
"Divenire" - Ludovico Einauldi (I recently discovered this classical composer...BEST DISCOVERY EVER)
All Types of Flamenco
"Stairway to Heaven" - Led Zepplin

If you're worldly and observant, you would recognize that both Radioactive and Divenire are from their respective Olympic commercials. I guess the Olympics really are good for something.

Thought of the Day: Why aren't there Intellectual Olympics?

Pondering of the Day: "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." ~Oscar Wilde

Following

Hedgehogs

I want. A. Hedgehog.

Just look at these pictures and try to tell me that you don't want one too.

I've looked up having hedgehogs as a pet on Hedgies and they seem relatively easy to care for, even if you have to make sure they don't get lost or not hold them if their quills are raised. I don't know when I even started thinking about hedgehogs. I just randomly typed in "porcupine," but after learning that porcupines are dangerous, and hedgehogs are cuter, I settled on a hedgie.

So, yeah. Go hedgehogs!