lifestyle and creativity
Hello! I just realized I haven’t written anything on this blog for months.. Last year! Oh my.
I have mentioned this before, but the reason I no longer write on here is simply because I have no storage and at the moment, I can’t pay to get more storage for photos.. Which is why I have made a new blog!
If you are interested in following me and my, not so exciting – but trying, life, please go follow and read and support me there!
THANK YOU! LOVE YOU ALL
It’s not just that I have been a little lazy the last month – I have actually been having some problems with my health (nothing too serious) and because of that, I haven’t been paying to much attention to the blog.
Plus, I have actually been thinking about changing platform: I don’t have the opportunity to spend money on the blog to get a bigger storage, and as of now, I don’t have much more storage left for photos and so on. Also, even though I do enjoy wordpress, I have been looking for another platform to use! (I’ll let you know when I get there!)
Yesterday me and a friend decided to pack our backpacks with some food, wood and a little surprise dessert and head into the woods and grill some food and just enjoy the outdoors.
We were outside for 3,5-4 hours and I have to say, it was very relaxing!
What have you been up to the last month?
Hello!
*Ps, I wrote this on Sunday, aka yesterday, but forgot to post it when I got back home… whoops…
Tomorrow is the Parlimentary election here in Norway and this is the first time I can vote! I’m honestly a little nervous because I have never done it before. I’m a little nervous because I’m voting and have a little piece of how things are going to happen, but I think I’m more nervous about the practical things like how do I actually vote?!
By the time this post is up, I’ll already have voted, so hopefully it will have gone well. The voting thing is open today, too, so I’m going with a couple of friends (who have also never voted before).
But I’m really excited to vote. I think it’s important to vote, if you have a vote. It’s never been a question if I’m going to vote; mostly just who should I vote for.
I have never really been interested in politics, but after the presidential election over in the US last year, my opinions has grown bigger and I have realized what is important for me. Of course, I’m not electing a president here in Norway (luckily) but I’m electing a group of people (in a way).
To be honest, I have pretty much known whom I’m voting on ever since I realized I can vote this election, but I decided that I needed to read about all the different political parties; what their most important things are, what they want to achieve and so on, so I can vote for the one that I believe will be “best”. This Friday I sat at home, watching the long, last debate. It’s the only one I have seen (because I forgot the previous ones) and even though that debate didn’t really give me any new facts that changed my choice of who I’m voting for, it did make me realize who I’m defiantly not voting for. It was funny, honestly.
This t-shirt doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the election, but I like the saying (though, it’s a little cheesy): Don’t look back, you’re not going that way.
And yes, I had a little photoshoot with myself… because why not?
Have you ever voted?
Autumn is finally here, and I wanted to share the books I read this summer!
I managed to reach my Goodreads goal, so early on in the year!!! I also had my best reading month this year this August!
Or, draft 1 I suppose, but the title “I’m finishing the first draft of my novel” is a bit too long in my opinion!
In the beginning of July I set myself a goal and a “plan” to finish (finally) the first draft of the novel I’m currently writing. I have been wanting to write it for a long time, but I just haven’t been able to sit down and write the words down. So in July, I decided that on September 1st (or before) I was going to start writing and finishing the first draft by the end of 2017.
I gave myself July and August to plan and outline and plot and all those fun things, and then when September came I was going to write, write and write some more!
And today is the day I start. September 1st. 4 months till the end of the year and I actually believe I can do it. I’m motivated. I might lose some motivation as the days goes by, but so far, i’m really excited and motivated!…. I might change my mind in a few weeks :D heheh
I found an online word count tracker, which was really nice and just for fun, really. But on there I put my total word count goal to 50 000 words. I’m thinking more words for the final novel, but because this is draft one and I don’t have everything mapped out and so on, I decided to keep it at 50k and not 80k.
Which means that I have to write 410 words every day. So far today I have written 770 words which I’m pleased with. I would like to reach 1000 words today (or more) but I’ll have to see… You see, I have to clean my room…. (save me, please)
If you are interested in seeing my progress (other than the blog posts I’m planning on doing) I will link the word count tracker here :)
http://writetrack.davidsgale.com/pls/apex/f?p=228:BANNER:::::KEY:5821CF42390C1FBFE0530100007FC688
Hello, and happy Friday!
Because I’m going to be home the next year with little to do, I decided that I wanted to focus on my youtube channel, and I have finally decided what I wanted to do on it: book related videos. You know, book tube!
I have done a few book videos in the past, but ended up putting them on private because I wasn’t happy with them. I also realized that books are the one thing I can constantly talk about and make videos about! Plus, I just love watching book tube.
I have also decided to make two videos a week: Tuesday and Friday! And because today is Friday, I uploaded earlier today and would love if you could go and check it out :D
Thank you! :)
Warning!!! This is a long post!
I haven’t been writing a lot here on the blog, and I have been missing it. I just haven’t been sure what to write about. But today, I decided to grab all the books I have read so far this year, and stack them in a stack and take a photo. Because, why not, right?
So far I have read 24 books, 1 away from my Goodreads goal (you can find me here). All though, with that being said, my actual goal is 31. If I manage to read 31 books, that means I have read more than last year, which is my goal, I suppose. Though, I will be happy if I read more than 25 only!
I found Books and Lala on youtube last week and subscribed to her. She does book tube, and I just really loved her wrap up were she does the statistic so I decided I wanted to do a blog post with the statistic “half way” into the year. I’m a little late, but better late than never, right?
Anyway, I wanted to see the statistics of amount of pages, publication years, genre, my star rating and the gender of the authors!
Let’s start with ALL the books. Also, I do have three books that isn’t here because one was a library book (had to read for school..), one was a book of poems I borrowed from my sister and the last was the first audiobook I have finished!! Those three were Pan by Knut Hamsun, a collection of poems by Arnulf Øverland and the last, the audiobook, was Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz.
Oh, by the way, this photo was taken on my iPhone whilst the others were taken with my camera!
note: if there is a * after a book, it means that it’s in Norwegian and doesn’t have an english translation (there isn’t many), but those that is norwegian without the * has an english translation!
So far, I have read 9407 pages according to Goodreads.
Here we have, mostly, my non fiction books and my three that aren’t:
A mix of everything, really:
I love big books and I cannot lie!
Bigger books!
So, from here, since I have already mentioned every single book, I’m not going to write the names on every single one. If you are interested in any of the books, look at the photo or at the names over :D
I divided this into three because I wasn’t going to do every single year:
(in no particular order by the way. I just stacked them so they wouldn’t look like crap..)
Ok, so I have realized that I really don’t read varied in the genre department, so I only have four: fantasy, historical fiction, non fiction and others.
I don’t think The glittering court is fantasy, but I just added it here…
They are all world war 2, and three of them are resistance related and the last one has to do with the king.. (which by the way, check out the trailer for one of my favourite movies thats “based” on the book: The King’s Choice!)
Not that it really matters, but I do want to read varied, AND I have now realized that I haven’t really when it comes to gender… And of course, I’m not assuming anyones genders, I’m just going by the name ;)
… because this is tiny
… and then, last but not least:
I want to point out that I might have given some of these books 3,5, 4,5 and so on!
Let’s start from the bottom, shall we?
I don’t have any 1 stars, so:
I was contemplating wether or not I should show this, but hey, I didn’t particularly like it, so I’m telling you so.
For me, 3 stars are when the good books comes, so 3 stars doesn’t mean I didn’t like them, because I really enjoyed these books, but a few things “forced” me to not give it better.
I have read so many great books so far this year!
Ok, that was that, really. It’s interesting to see. I’m not sure what I’ll do with the information, but maybe I’ll try to read a little more diverse, and not just read fantasy and historical fiction? All though, I’m going to read what I want to read and not force myself to read anything just because I feel like I have to!
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? What books have you read so far this year and which were your favourites?
Thank you for reading! :D
I have been home from Spain for a week now and I feel like my days have been filled with stuff to do. I’m still cleaning my room, and working on that. I’m still trying to write and read as much as possible. And I have been hanging out with friends and family before everyone goes off for school and work and whatever else.
Before we left for Spain, my friend and I drove to Ikea and I bought some Billy bookshelves. I have wanted them for a while, and I finally decided to buy them. And oh my god, I am in love. They look so much better than my last bookshelf which I had to use tape and a couple of my belts to keep my books from falling out on the sides. I have thrown away so much crap and I still find more to throw away everywhere I look. Its both extremely liberating and terrifying at the same time – I get emotionally attached to practically everything…
(I’m going to add a few photos from my trip to Spain)
I bought paint to paint my desk to a dark green colour. I finished it last night and I love it. It’s a deep green, and I just think it looks gorgeous! I think I’m in love…
So far in 2017 I have managed to read 17 books and I am very happy with it. I managed to read 4 books during my trip to Spain. 2 of which was 600+ pages, 1 was 400+ pages and the last one 270 (ish) pages! And you know what, I’m proud of myself!
I have also managed to write a decent amount during these past few weeks. While we were in Spain, towards the last few days, I got this craving to write and I wrote a chapter of this story that I really want to write and publish on wattpad. I have also been working on and plotting and outlining another novel and I’m also working on another one… My problem isn’t that I don’t have enough ideas, but rather the opposite… I have so many ideas (some terrible, and some decent) that I want to write on and it makes me frustrated because I want to write them all!
(defiantly one of my favourite books of 2017! + I’ve already bought the next book)
But I have a goal: I want to finish outlining my world war 2 novel, and possibly write and finish draft 1. I want to write and finish another “historical fiction” novel’s first draft. And then, lastly (for now), my wattpad story – I want to write draft one, possibly start draft 2 before the end of the year…. Though, the story I’m prioritizing is the world war 2 historical fiction because I’m really motivated to write it and I think – if I’m allowed to say so – it has potential.
I don’t have much to do this upcoming year: hopefully I’ll get a job and work a few times a week, but other than that… I don’t have much to do. I want to focus on my fitness and health and my youtube channel (where I want to do mainly book related videos and possibly a few bullet journal and so on videos). And then write. And write. And write! Oh, and read enough books to fill my room… Not really, but I would like to read 40 or more books!
But even though I am super excited about writing these books, I’m also nervous. I want and love to write, but I’m self-conscious about it. I try to tell myself that I won’t get better if I don’t start writing more, but… I don’t know. I’m scared it’s going to turn out like shit. Which it might. But just the first draft. And then I can fix it!
We’ll see, I guess.
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed. I’ll be writing a read-a-thon post soon, I just need to figure it out…
I’m leaving for a holiday to Spain with my family in a few days, and one of the things I have preplanned days, even weeks, before we actually leave is the list of books I’m bringing with me.
We were in Spain in 2015 too and that time I only brought three books, which isn’t a small amount, but for me, it wasn’t enough. All I do on these holidays is spending half of my time in the pool and the rest in the shadow with a book. So I have a lot of time to read books.
Therefore, I have learned from my mistakes, and I’m bringing five books this time. Maybe six, I’m not actually hundred precent sure yet. I’ll show you five books now, because I don’t know if I’m bringing a sixth, and which one might be my sixth book.
A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES by Sarah J. Maas
My sister bought this for me when she was on a summer trip to England a few weeks ago. I have wanted to read this one for a while, but have been a little hesitant, because this is (as far as my knowledge goes) a retelling of beauty and the beast, and I don’t think I’m a big fan of retellings. I might be though, but I don’t like the idea of it. I’m not sure why, though. But I’m willing to give it a shot. (I should warn you, I might be wrong.) Apparently this book is a little more mature then her Throne of Glass series, so I’m interested too see it.
EMPIRE OF STORMS by Sarah J. Maas
Can you tell I like Sarah J. Maas? Well, if not, I do. Every single time I read one of her books I have just fell in love with the story. I have only read the Throne of glass series, and this is the fifth one in the series. I won’t spoil the series obviously, so I’ll tell you what the first book is about: A female assassin is taken out of captivity and given an opportunity to fight in a tournament and be free. And it goes from there. Even though the books are just getting longer and longer, I fly through them. They are just so darn good!
ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE by Anthony Doerr (mine is the norwegian version)
First off, can I just tell you one of my book pet peeves? When the effing stickers doesn’t go off!!! Anyways, this book is a historical fiction set during world war 2. It’s about a blind, french girl and an orphaned, german boy, and how their stories, somehow, intertwines. I have heard this book is amazing. And I have wanted to read this for so long and I have had the english edition for a while, but I wanted to read it in Norwegian, so now I’m excited to read this!
THE BOY WHO TRICKED GESTAPO by Harald Utter (Gutten som lurte Gestapo)
I would be surprised if this book actually exists in english, so I’m sorry about that. But this book is a non fiction book about a norwegian resistance man who was 16 years old when he started a resistance cell with his friends and a teacher. It sounds SO good, and I can’t wait to read this soon.
PARIS by Edward Rutherfurd
I just bought this book. It was on sale and it sounded very interesting. It follows seven families over the period of seven hundred years! Just that sounds so… I don’t know. All I know is that I couldn’t leave the store without this one, so it’s going with me to Spain! It’s a long one, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to read the entire thing!
My problem now is to chose which one I want to read first…..
Have you read any of these books? What books are you reading this summer?
Thank you for reading! xx
edit: I have missed filming book videos on youtube so I decided to film one yesterday, and I posted it today. I would love if you would go and watch it :D
I participated in my first ever read-a-thon a few days ago. It was called duodecathon, and even though I have noe clue why it’s called that, I decided to participate because it was the first one to start.
Duodecathon is a read a then that happens 12 times a year, once a month. It’s usually in the end of the month. It also has 12 challenges so you can do one each month. However, I personally didn’t try to do one of the challenges, as I just wanted a time and date to follow. I did consider trying to reach for the 1200 pages, but decided against it.
The read a thon started on June 24th and ended on June 30th. So, 7 days!
Even though I didn’t choose one of the premade challenges, I did have a challenge. My challenge was to finish as many as possible of my started books. So books I have stopped reading after reading 50 or more pages (or less, but none of mine were less than 50).
I was also sick the first few days of the read-a-thon, so all I did was to read, and read, and read more. Which was great!
I decided to start “Etiquette and Espionage” by Gail Carriger. I had already read 106 pages off it, and seeing that it wasn’t the thickest book, I easily finished it by the end of the day. The reason I had stopped reading this book a few months ago when I startet it, was for a few reason. 1, being because exams were coming up and I couldn’t focus on what I was reading, and 2 being because it just wasn’t an interesting enough book in my opinion. By the end of the day, when I only had about fifty pages left, I really wanted to give up on the book, but I knew that if I didn’t finish it before I went to bed, I would not want to start the next day because I would feel obligated to finish this book. But I did. I gave this book 2 stars. I think one of the reasons why I didn’t like it was because it felt so young. Yes, the character was 15, but the way it was written.
Total pages read: 201
Books read: 1
I wasn’t sure what book I wanted to pick up this day, but after looking at my bookshelf for ten minutes, I finally decided for “The girl on the train” by Paula Hawkins. I got this book for christmas and had read 53 pages of it a couple of months before my exams. Though, I didn’t stop reading this because of exams, but because I recived a book in the post that I really wanted to read. But those 53 pages were really interesting, and I was excited to dive back into it. I rarely read crime (this is crime, right?), but this book was amazing. A little creepy and made me believe love isn’t real for a second, but amazing. Even though this book had more pages than the last one, this one took me less time, and I finished it at 21.40 (or 9.40) in the evening. I gave it 5 stars!
Total pages read: 480
Books read: 2
This was the day I started to feel a lot better, so I didn’t read as much because I had other things I wanted to do too. I picked up “The lost symbol” by Dan Brown which I started sometime late last year, or early this year. I really like the “Robert Langdon” series, and am planning on reading the next (and the next?). I had read 179 pages when I started it, and I managed to read 103 pages, which isn’t bad!
Total pages read: 583
Books read: 2
(I read The Girl on the Train and The Lost Symbol in Norwegian. Piken på toget and Det tapte symbol)
This was my worst day, I think. I only read 3 pages. But that’s ok. This was the first day I felt good enough to be with friends, so me and two friends went to the mall and played cards pretty much the entire day.
Total pages read: 585
Books read: 2
I went outside and read. I even wore shorts which is a first for me this year. I managed to read 101 pages – my goals was 100 – so I was pretty happy with the progress.
Total pages read: 686
Books read: 2
Ok, so day 6 and 7 was sort of a blur. I didn’t write down what I read on day 6, though I read a little, and on day 7 I was away from 11 in the morning till nine in the evening. When I came home I read a little just as a last try to read more. I still didn’t finish the book.
Total pages read: 736
Books read: 2
Total pages were (as written already) 736 pages and I managed to finish 2 (and a half) books, which is more than I thought I would manage, so I am pretty pleased with what I did. I really enjoyed my first read-a-thon, and I’ll defiantly do more in the future.
the books:
Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger.
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.
Total pages read: 736
Books read: 2 (and a half)
So, as I said, I am pretty pleased with how much I managed to read. I managed to finish 2, almost 3 (finished with that one now), but the most important thing that I got out of this read-a-thon was me getting out of the damn reading slump I have been in for a while now. And I am so happy!
Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave your read-a-thon accomplishments in the comments if you participated in this one, or another one. I would love to read. If you have any tips when it comes to read-a-thons, please let me know!
Have you read any of these books?
the thea edition 