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I’ve started a YouTube channel to talk about daily life and science.

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Hi Sam!

Thanks for taking the time to read this letter. As fellow YouTubers, we have much respect for others who put so much hard work into building their channel. It’s not easy, and you should be proud! That said, we’ve noticed that in your success, there has been a lack of respect in...

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So excited. I went to visit my parents and Mum gave me this present. Every time I enter a shop I always ask if they have Phantom of the Opera but I've always been unsuccessful. Finally I can read the book behind the musical! Side note: perhaps I should be getting my books from libraries again anyway. I keep buying but not reading. The deadline for book return might help...

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I just got back from a little holiday to Melbourne. I plan to write something about my adventure here, especially considering how many bookish things I had the pleasure of indulging in.

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I love the joy in this song!

"The tougher circumstances I'd been through were now making it easier for me to truly appreciate all the great things in my life. I lived in a house that I loved being in, had some good friends and was able to actually make a living doing what I love and have to do. How often do people really get to be in that position?" --E in Things the Grandchildren Should Know

Hey, Man! Now I'm really living!

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I don't know what happens when you die and I don't expect to find out until I die. Probably nothing, but you never know. For now, I'm still alive, and I've come to realize that some of the most horrible moments of my life have led to some of the best, so I'm not one for eating up people's melodrama. Just another day to me.

Mark Oliver Everett in Things the Grandchildren Should Know

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Things the Grandchildren Should Know (Mark Oliver Everett)

My boyfriend introduced me to the band Eels and suggested I read the autobiography of the man behind it, Mark Oliver Everett. I have to say that I was really impressed by this book and by the author who wrote it. Mark Oliver Everett, or "E", wrote this autobiography based on a friend's suggestion. There was solid reasoning for his friend's insistence, too; E has lived a pretty miraculous life.

E experienced an unsteady upbringing, never really feeling close to his parents and being caught up with his older sister's rough friends. He apparently always had a musical talent, however. Even as his father, sister and mother (as well as other friends and family) all passed away around him throughout his life, he continued to write music for the love of it.

What I liked about reading E's perspective though, was that despite the tragedy that constantly seemed to find him, he never associated his musical success with the cliched idea that "it would never have been so good if these bad things hadn't happened." He just loves music, was always good at it, and music acted as a form of therapy for him at times too. But mostly, he treats his music as works of art. He is constantly changing his style between records and live tours because he doesn't believe in giving people what they expect. He wants to make the music that he likes and feels perfect to him at that stage in his life. I really came to respect him for this reason.

I'm not usually one for reading biographies but E is a very eloquent writer. I read Things the Grandchildren Should Know with ease and enjoyed it every step of the way. I felt sadness as he described each loss, I felt uncomfortable when he described difficult life stages and I felt a swelling kind of happiness when he experienced his highs. Through music he could accept grief while appreciating and valuing life. He has an ironic sense of humour that makes for occasionally cringey reading too, which also helps you to know the real, awkward person that he is. 

This is a book that's worth reading.

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The first Eels song I was exposed to knowingly. Turns out I'd heard plenty, though, through movie soundtracks. Novocaine for the Soul is wonderful every time I hear it.

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I'm thinking about how I never had a plan, so it didn't really matter if life didn't go according to one. But I had to admit that, for someone who had no plan, all things considered, things had turned out pretty well at this moment.

Mark Oliver Everett in Things the Grandchildren Should Know

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World Without End (Ken Follett)

Well, it finally happened. I finished reading World Without End. It was a long time coming... I first started reading it around January last year! As might be obvious for such a lengthy reading process, I never could get into it. I'd let it sit aside for a few months, read a few chapters, then leave it again. After watching the Pillars of the Earth miniseries (twice!) I felt I had to try finishing it again.

The novel begins 157 years after the events of Pillars of the Earth and much of the plot revolves around the comings and goings of The Black Death. Merthin is part of Jack and Aliena's bloodline. Thus he shares the same red hair and inspiration for building, which expresses itself especially through new engineering concepts. He has an on and off again relationship over the years with Caris, the daughter of the Kingsbridge alderman. Merthin is also privy to a secret; the burying of a letter which was only to be revealed when the knight who buried it dies. All sorts of events take place throughout the novel, many of which precipitate due to the pride of Caris's cousin, Godwyn, who is appointed prior.

So why did it take such a long time to read this novel? I attribute it very much to the characters and what felt like a lack of cohesion in the storyline.

Unfortunately throughout World Without End I felt no real connection to any of the characters. My favourite character, Lady Phillipa, merely had a side role. She was a strong woman who believed in love and I found I respected her every time she made an appearance. Alas, she only revealed herself occasionally.

I felt frustrated by Caris and Merthin's relationship. As mentioned above, they seemed to love each other completely for a few months, then suddenly their love would be thrown into shambles again by whatever events took place around them. Merthin, though intelligent, was ignorant of Caris's ambition and assumed she would be content to be a mother though he loved her wit and pride. Caris often came across as jealous and selfish, expecting Merthin to wait for her while she achieved her own goals. Both such intelligent characters yet a little emotionally stunted at times. I understand that they were human, and they were flawed, but I eventually grew tired of their ultimatums and couldn't quite understand what moral was trying to be conveyed.

I could talk about the other major characters of the novel (Ralph, Gwenda and Godwyn) however I'm conscious of the length of this post. Although I do wish to mention my disappointment that any child born during the novel seemed to act more as a plot device than as a character. Events happened which involved them yet they never seemed to be developed and felt rather distant. Even being inside the protagonist's heads, I felt they thought about their own children sparingly and fleetingly.

This further reflects upon the difficulty I had connecting with the characters throughout. They generally seemed to be narrated as pawns in an action sequence (x did y then z happened), rather than as real people. Emotions were described as fleeting moments that were quickly discarded so the character could do something else and while I observed their progress over something like 20 years, they could sometimes feel shallow for this reason.

As for the events of the novel, while the secret letter served as some thread throughout, much of the book felt loosely woven. I therefore wasn't swept up by a story. I sometimes felt as though Follett desired to make a sequel so that he could share more of the research he gathered while writing Pillars of the Earth. Whereas the first in the duology used the building of the Kingsbridge cathedral as a solid foundation for all that happened, World Without End lacked this consistency. Perhaps as evidence of the changing times, characters often travelled to faraway places. While this may have been some reflection on history, it made the novel difficult to read. Characters which had once known each other and been involved in one another's lives at the beginning were so independent by the end that they only seemed to come together to keep the plot ball rolling. It essentially felt like I was reading a series of unfortunate events rather than a cohesive story.

I hate to be so severe on this novel but perhaps some of my disappointment is due to the ill-fitting shoes it wore as a sequel to Pillars of the Earth. Just as when I was reading its predecessor, I loved learning about the culture of medieval England. It felt like some small education. I've never been much of a history buff but after reading Follett's novels I'm tempted to learn more. That is a feat in itself! I also respect that the characters were human in their inadequacies and brilliant in their career-based successes. Furthermore, it hasn't deterred me from wanting to reading some of his more recent historical novels. Perhaps when I've finished my degree and have a little more time on my hands I'll embark upon the next Follett epic.

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Things could change so entirely, in a heart-beat; the world could be made entirely anew, because someone was kind.

James Smith in Longbourn by Jo Baker

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Even to her long-accustomed gaze, Elizabeth was genuinely compelling; if she was in the room, you knew you were wasting your time if you looked anywhere else but at her.

Sarah on Elizabeth Bennet in Longbourn by Jo Baker

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For the first three days of uni study week I was quite sick so I got to do some reading for pleasure, something I haven't done for a long time. I finally finished reading World Without End by Ken Follett (about time!). I also read the autobiography of Mark Oliver Everett, or E, of the band Eels (Things the Grandchildren Should Know). I plan to write reviews for both books once I've got through exam block. In the meantime, here is the Eels song I currently have stuck in my head most days.

E wrote this song after he returned home from his sister's funeral and the neighbour told him she saw a ghost enter his home. It's from his album Electro-Shock Blues, which has a general theme of living life even when surrounded by grief.

Enjoy!

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Human beings have within them something that prevents them from doing such things [as rape, torture, or murder]. It is the ability... No, the compulsion to feel another's pain. We can't help it. ... One who lacks the faculty to feel another's pain is not a man, even though he may walk on two legs and speak English.

Lady Philippa in World Without End by Ken Follett

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