As I said in my Sunday Rundown yesterday, I’ve been struggling with reading so far this month. I’ve got loads of great books to read and I’m really looking forward to starting them. The only problem is, I just can’t seem to sit down and concentrate. Every night last week, I tried to read but I always started really late. It’s partly to do with the month I think. January is the worst month of the year. It feels so long. I’m sure time slows down. We’re all tired after Christmas and all of the food is weighing us down. The weather is miserable and there’s nothing going on. All around us, people are preaching about their new gym lifestyles by posting endless selfies (even though we all know it will last all of 3 weeks). People are going vegan or alcohol-free and feel the need to rub it in our faces every 5 minutes. January is a bad month, so forgive me if I’m not quite in the swing of reading yet. But I do have a plan. I’m going to binge audiobooks all month until I feel ready to read physical books again. That way, I don’t fall into a dreaded slump and fuck up my whole year.
Tag: Neil Gaiman
Throwback Thursday – Coraline (2009)
During my second or third year of university, Coraline was playing at our campus cinema. I say cinema. What I’m actually talking about is a lecture hall that had a huge projector in the back and really uncomfortable seats. Don’t get me wrong, it was really useful to have somewhere that showed films on campus but it was hardly a comfortable experience. But I still went with some of my flatmates. On the bus on the way home, we were sat in front of a group of people who’d also been there. One member of the group was loudly and confidently saying “you can tell it’s directed by Tim Burton. It was so similar to The Nightmare Before Christmas.” It certainly took all of my self-control to not turn around call him an idiot. I feel bad for Henry Selick. He’s been responsible for so many great films but he so rarely gets the credit. The fact that The Nightmare Before Christmas is also called Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas is a bit crazy. I guess it was a marketing strategy and, if it was, it bloody worked. But it does mean Selick gets forgotten about.
Book Review – Coraline by Neil Gaiman
As you’ll know if you read my last Sunday Rundown, I’ve decided that I’m going to try and listen to an audiobook ever weekend. This means I’ll hopefully be able to keep up with two reviews a week. It also means that I’ll get through more books a week. I don’t think listening to them at work as I did with The Diary of a Bookseller. It was fine for a non-fiction book but I don’t think I can keep track of the narrative of a story. Most of my job involves writing and researching. It’s not the kind of thing you can do and still pay attention to a book. But, I can try and get one finished when I have a free weekend. Stick one on as I tidy or take photos for the upcoming week. Then, if I’ve nothing else to do, I can just lie in bed and relax for a bit. This week, I had an urge to revisit an old favourite. The fact that’s it was also read by Neil Gaiman himself was just an added bonus.
