words, words, words

     I have been pitifully absent from the blogging world lately.

(this isn't an apology, because I have had nothing to write about and would likely have caused you to cluck your tongue and hit the 'unfollow' button had I actually posted any of the half-hearted ideas that popped into my head in a desperate attempt to pretend that I was full of inspiration, which would have been a lie because I have not been even half way full of inspiration since March. Hence why I am not apologizing for not having posted, because in actuality I have done you a great favour. I'm a very noble person, can'tcha tell.)

(also, just as a note, I am in the middle of re-reading The Princess Bride, hence the plethora of parenthesis.)

(in case you haven't read the Princess Bride, which you definitely should do, like, now, I thought I should inform you that the author uses a lot of parenthesis. Just so we can all be on the same page.)

(hah! just realized that we will all LITERALLY be on the same page if you pick up Princess Bride and start reading immediately. Please do so before continuing.)

So, what have I been doing with my life while I've been away from my blog? I'M GLAD YOU ASKED.

I have been doing a lot of things, but most of them are not that exciting and therefore I shall fast-forward to one of the highlights for my month of April - BOOKS. I have actively been seeking out good reads, and hurray! -I have been successful. Here are just a few of the titles I've been loving (and highly recommend.)

1. Hamlet! (hence the title to this post.)
We're reading this play by Shakespeare right now in English class, and at the start of this unit I was really upset, because up until this point in time I had hated Hamlet. (this probably had more to do with the fact that the first and only time I read the play, I did so in grade 9, in a single afternoon, without really understanding anything. I just wanted the bragging rights.) Maybe I'm a little more mature than I was then (although I doubt it,) or maybe it's just the fact that I'm reading it more slowly, but I am really enjoying it so far. I actually understand the funny parts, I connect with the characters (some of them, anyways. Let's not get carried away) and the words that Shakespeare uses to describe things! I am starting to understand why he's still relevant, why we still study him hundreds of years later. It's very exciting.

source
actually 100% how the play goes
 

2. The Princess Bride
I'm currently re-reading this book! (this was another one of those books that I read in grade 9, probably for bragging rights - bad me! - although to my credit I remember liking it a lot more than I did Hamlet.) Right now I'm only on page 65, and I'm hesitant to say too much about it for fear that my memory is faulty and you'll go running to your libraries to devour it only to find that I have led you horribly astray and you are doomed to disappointment. Which would obviously be very disappointing for everyone concerned. But I will tell you this! So far it is just as hilarious and heartwarming as I remember.

source

 

 

3. The Good Braider

I love books written entirely in free-verse poetry, which is why I started reading the Good Braider. In it, we follow the story of Viola, a young Sudanese girl who takes us through her journey away from her homeland to America, where she must juggle this new way of life in juxtaposition with the old. TGB is full of contradictions; it is sweet but not light, sad but not depressing, raw without being agonizing, and honest without being bleak. The author navigates war and other dark topics with respect and frailty, something that you don't see very often anymore. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

 

 

 

 

4. Paper Towns

Sometimes I feel like the inside of my head is an ocean, full to the brim of thoughts and ideas and even the suggestion of exploring and keeping track of all of the EVERYTHING that I have buried between my ears is, frankly, exhausting. And also very lonely, because while most people are suntanning on the beach, I'm deep-sea diving in search of lost pearls, or doing something equally lonely and almost as futile. But occasionally, in my deep-sea diving adventures, I meet another diver who is looking for pearls, too, and we have the moment of "hey. I'm not the only one."

 

Reading Paper Towns was like that.

As to the actual plot and storyline and all the details that normal people care about....I'm lazy, so I'll leave you a link to the movie trailer. click here to watch the afore-mentioned movie trailer.

 

 

And that's what I've been up to! Kinda. I apologize for my general unsettled-ness in this post, I had a cup of coffee at 7am this morning and 12 hours later, it's finally starting to kick in.

(at least, that's what I'm telling myself.)

 

What have you been reading this April?

 

xx

Olivia