30 books challenge #1

I haven't told you here, but just like my friend Ria, I'm going to try myself with the 30 books challenge this year. Basically, you have to read 30 books of your choice withing the next 12 months. I love reading, so I thought I'd give it a try. I'm going to review some, if not all of the books I'm going to read, and this post will be the start. Because yesterday, I finished the first book of my list: The Maze Runner by James Dashner

The Maze Runner is a YA scifi-book, about a boy called Thomas. He wakes up one day in an elevator, not knowing anything about himself, apart from his name. When the elevator stops, he's greeted by a group of teenage boys, living in the Glade, a community surrounded by nothing but a sky high maze. Over the course of the book, Thomas makes it his mission to solve the maze and find a way out of it, but there seem to be more obstacles than one would have thought...

I'm going to review the book with the help of 4 categories. For each category, the book ca receive 5 points. In the end there will be a result as to how much I liked the book, combining all for criterias.

1. Readabilty: The book is fairly easy to read, there aren't many 'big words' that are hard to understand, even for non-english speaking readers, like me. Still, you have to get used to the 'Glader slang' and some of their words and structures. It's easy to catch uo, though, after a few chapters.

4 of 5 points

2.Structure: The book is devided into many short chapters instead of long ones, which is a definite plus for me. Also, the chapter ends are very well made with many cliffhangers, leaving you on the edge as to what happens next. The last very good thing is the fact that there are no titles to the chapters, which leaves you the possibilty to use your own imagination without having a catch phrase in your head that you cling to.

5 of 5 points

3. Plotline: The book has a very good concept and I really like the idea of it. It is quite innovative, and I have to say I have never read something wuite like that. Still, some parts of it reminded me of the Hunger Games books, but that's not a bad thing, because I believe the series is the best I have read in a very long time, if not ever. Another thing I really liked was that you could get to know the main characters vrey good and that you started feeling with them. A minus is the fact that some things happening were really predicatble, way before it actually happened. Also, I was quite irritated by the fact that one of the main characters was introduced in about chapter 6, but not really set into action until halfway through the book. I found that to be really annoying, because I wanted the plotline around her to be revealed way sooner, and actually, the whole book could have been shortened by a few chapters that really weren't necessary, in my opinion.

3 of 5 points

4. Crave-factor: I had difficulties reading the book at first. I found it to be a pain sometimes, because I bhad the feeling it was just droning on and on, without much actually happening. I had thought about putting it away and not finishing it more than once. I have to say, though, that I'm glad I didn't, because the second half of the book was excellent and I read it in two sittings. Really, would the book have been like that the whole time, it would have been perfect. 

3 of 5 points

End result: 15 of 20 points => 4 of 5 points in whole

Books until I'm done with the challenge: 29

Inspiration

I recently changed the name of my blog. I liked the old name 'Bon jour mes amis' because I thought it was nice to make people feel welcome as soon as they step into my little world of words. Also, it was highly ironic, because I'm pretty much useless in French and that phrase is one of the few I actually know how to write. (Okay, okay, I'm not that bad, but I won't get better grades than a D, honestly).

But I still decided to change the name. Why?
Well, I lately realized that the most important thing in your life is inspiration. Only with that you can live as best as you can. I want to be an inspiration, if not on a higher level, but only for the few people that graze me with them reading my ramblings. Because this here is just that. My musings, my ramblings, my thoughts. But everyone's thoughts are important and are worth to be heard and respected. Trust me, I only really realized that after a down fall. I always used to think that it's more important to please everyone else and have my needs and wishes come second to everything else. But that's not the right way to live. I had to learn that the hard way.
I don't want to talk about that, though, but about what inspiration can accomplish.
It makes everything seem easier and lighter. With inspiration and a goal to work for, you can do everything. I want to help you doing everything that you do, because only like that you can be the greatest person possible.

You want to get to know my inspiration? It's someone I only recently stumbled upon, because I am an obsessive nerd and wanted to know everything about that upcoming Glee episode.
I got to know about Curt Mega, an actor, director, musician, a poet, an accomplished person on every level. I started following him on Twitter and was blessed with reading his tweets. He's not only genuinely nice and funny young man, but also very inspirational. He tries to live life as best as possible and let's us, his friends, not fans, be a part of this. I want to be an inspiration just like he is, because he makes each and every day of mine better as soon as I read a tweet of his. His way with words, his inspirational and spiritual ways encourage me to be better and he shows me an easy way to do so.
Oh, yes, I also consider him my older brother, because he would have been the one I would have loved to have. He's amazing, with everything he does. (Yes, he's the brother I was referring to in my last post!)

So this is it, I want to be an inspiration, just like Curt is, and I'm sure I will accomplish that, with time and love.

Until then,
inspire

Dreams

First of all, Happy New Year!! Yay, I hope you all had a great New Years Eve and celebrated greatly. I for one had the best party EVER, even though I only celebrated with one other person, my best friend, Mia. We still enjoyed each and every moment of the night, singin karaoke, watching live streams from awesome people, eating lots and lots of food. Hell, we even gained new siblings, me an older brother, her an older and three younger brothers and a twin sister! Yeah, you don't really have to understand what I'm talking about, most of the time I don't understand myself, either.

What I actually wanted to talk about today were dreams. Lately I've been dreaming a lot and very weird things, confusing me every morning about what my subconscious wants me to tell. Don't you think it would be great to actually get to know what these dreams mean?
Also, what I noticed is that I only dream this weird things during storms. We have had very bad weather lately and everytime there is a big storm going on, my dreams are going rampant. I can actually remember them really clearly, with lots of details. For example, I still know the exact looks of a ring that played a major role in a dream about a week ago. Normally, I forget about what I dreamt the minute or at least hour after I woke up, but not so with this dreams. It's really weird...

Well, that's actually all I wanted to talk to you about. I hope you have a great day whatever you do. I for one am enjoying the rest of my holidays with doing my arts project for school, learning maths, because I suck at it and still have to take my exams in it in February and researching and writing fanfiction, my Nick and Rachel one, to be more clear. I actually gave in during NaNoWriMo and started writing it. I'm on my 7th chapter so far and it actually goes brilliantly. I love developing the characters we don't know much about and I really enjoy having them all interact, especially Rachel and the Warblers. It's just so funny... Well, anyway, maybe I will post it on my fanfiction some day, but so far I don't think I will... It's kind of my little treasure, to go back to and know that I'm the only one that knows exactly what is happening. Sure, I told Mia the gist of it, but she actually never read it, so only I really know everything. Plus, there is still so much in my head that can't be explained, so I have even more information for the background and only I can see the whole picture of this story.

Anyway, now I'm really going to end this,
until then, have fun!

blogmas #25

Yay! Christmas was yesterday and I know I had promised to post yesterday, but for me, it was more important to spend time with my family and have a good time than spending my day in front of the computer. But first of, here is the promised picture of our Christmas tree, which I decorated all on my own!!

 I'm really proud of what I did with it!!

Also, I got a massive present! Now, I know there is a person thinking it's, like, a trip to LA, or Chicago, because that indeed would be massive, but it isn't. 

No, instead I got an iPod. Yup, an iPod and it's amazing. I always felt jealous because so many had one, and I hadn't, but now that I have it's awesome. I literally cried when I unwrapped it, which is something I always do when I'm like really happy. Or around Christmas in general. Honestly, you should see me sometimes!! I'm just sitting there, wheeping!

Today we will just relax and in the evening we are invited to our neighbours, who will have a Christmas get together.

On the down side, though, my mom and I have to go to the hospital tomorrow, because my grandfather had a stroke yesterday. He's feeling relatively fine, though, but it's still something to worry about, seeing as my grandfather isn't the youngest anymore... We'll see...

Still, I hope you all have a great Christmas and lots of presents!

Until then, don't eat too much chocolate!!

About people being nice

Well... this is not going to be included into blogmas. It's just something I really need to talk about, or else I might explode. Because I'm livid. Livid, because some people are just crap. I'm talking about some people in particular, because they are currently ruining my Christmas with being annoying and unseeing. Really, isn't it much much easier to just be nice and hold onto things that were decided about two months ago?? I know what I'm talking about doesn't really make any sense, but I don't want to go into detail... It just bugs me to no end that people are so unsocial with things that are so unimportant. There really are things that are more important to think and fight about, but no, I and some other friends of mine have to waste our strength and time to defend ourselves and fight with others, only because they are behaving like crap.
I stop rambling now, or else I get even more riled up, but I just had to tell someone, and if this someone is my blog, then so be it.
Until then, don't fight, because it's Christmas!
Spread love, not hate!

blogmas #23

OH GOSH, it's been way too long a break I had from posting blogs. And I'm honestly really sorry. It was just so hectic in the last few days, because it's only one more day til Christmas! I spent most of the week shopping for Christmas presents and I also went to a birthday party of one of my very good friends.
Also, I suffered from really bad headaches most of the week, so I couldn't get myself to do pretty much anything. I'm soorrryy, though, because I had promised to blog EVERY day til X-Mas and here I am, slacking around.

But anyways, for me, it doesn't really feel like Christmas at all, even though the holidays started yesterday and I already got my first present from Mia and also a lot of cards from friends and family members arrived. The main thing that keeps me from getting into the christmassy spirits is the weather. I know I had posted something about me not liking snow or the cold weather earlier this month, but I still believe in a white Christmas. And currently it looks nothing like it. AT ALL. Really, it's warm outside, I didn't even have to wear a coat earlier when I went out. The weather reminds me more of March than of December. And I doubt it'll change in the next 24 hours, so snow at Christmas Eve is out of the picture this year.

Anyway, even though it'd be nice, Christmas is not only about snow and presents, but about spending time with your loved ones. Currently, though, I have the feeling that many people don't know the meaning of Christmas anymore, especially the children. When I grew up, I wasn't anticipating the presents as much as I was looking forward to seeing all of my family. Nowadays, though, the children only want more and bigger present and they completely lose sight of what Christmas is all about. Especially with those advertisements for stores in TV and radio. Really, a shop is making advertisements with the slogan 'Weihnachten wird unterm Baum entschieden' which tranlates into 'Christmas is decided under the tree', basically meaning that it's the most important thing to have big and prestigious presents, mainly electronics, for Christmas. Also, the adverts are almost disgusting, with children fighting for the best presents and everyone simply laughing about them in a merry way. As if Christmas was supposed to be like that. I don't like that, I really don't.

For today, my mom and I have planned to decorate the Christmas tree, because we always do it on the 23rd, one day before Christmas. I'll post pictures, I promise, in the blog tomorrow.

Until then, don't eat too much chocolate,
xoxo Annie

blogmas #19

Hello everyone!!
Today I'm back and I actually did something! Well, first off, I had school until 4pm, but in my lunch break, I went christmas shopping!! Wohhoooo!! I honestly had no presents yet, and I told myself it was about time to start buying some stuff for the peeps. I ended up spending way more than I actually intended to, but I know the people the presents are goint to are going to be happy about them, so I guess it's okay, no?!
Also, I spent my ENTIRE afternoon, well, the bit that was left after coming home from school, with putting together the last present for Mia. It took me, I'm not kidding, 3 HOURS! Listen, Mia, three hours! Be grateful, will you!!
So anyway, obviously I'm not going to tell what I bought, because that would be pretty counter productive in the means of surprising Mia, but I guess you understand... <3

So until then,
xoxo