A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, Xiaolu Guo

A very interesting read, especially if you have ever been an immigrant or have taught English as a second language. It gives the reader an insight into Chinese culture and their differing beliefs and values of that of the 'west'. Wish I had read this book two years ago when I was living in Japan.

3/5

NB: Entered into the Hogwarts Reading Challenge 2012 under Muggle Studies for two reasons. The first being that it didn't fit anywhere else, but the second and most important, is that the heroine in the story has to understand a completely different culture other than her own, and this book, or diary, is her way of doing that. I thought it fit quite well into the subject of Muggle Studies, which is a subject which deals with understanding a different culture other than your own (in the Hogwarts' world of course!)

It's-a me, Maaario!

I can't remember how I thought of making this keyring, but it's one of the few things I've designed and made myself, so I'm pretty proud of it. I made a few of these at the time, customizing and selling them on. I like them anyway :)

Mort, Terry Pratchett

This book has some really interesting writing techniques which I enjoyed a lot, but for me the story just wasn't up to scratch compared to the earlier 3 I have read. I still enjoyed it, but I didn't really connect with any of the characters. I read the first 3 books in 2 days, it took me 5 days to read this one, so that says it all really.

3/5

NB: Entered into the Hogwarts Reading Challenge 2012 under Care of Magical Creatures, as the book is about Death, who is the ultimate supernatural being.

The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins

I've wanted to read this book for years but just hadn't got round to it. It didn't disappoint, it was a really good book and it has some really good "can't put the book down got to know what happens next" parts in it. However for me, the ending lagged a bit, I felt that it explained everything too much and could have easily been about 100 pages shorter.

I recommend it to the mystery fan, but if you're looking for a ghost story you may be disappointed because its not really.

I gave it 4/5 because I really enjoyed the book - the story is intriguing, the structure of the story is different and refreshing, the solution is satisfactory. It was just the ending that let it down for me.

NB: Entered into the Hogwarts Reading Challenge 2012 under Defence Against the Dark Arts, as the book is hailed as one of the first mystery novels, and it does deal with a murder mystery, although it does happen towards the end of the book.

Moral of the story: Do not buy Viao laptops

Bad start to the year as my laptop has pretty much died on me. I managed to get most of my important documents and photos, except for a couple of folders, but I'm really bad at deleting photos so I do still have them on various memory cards, so it's not all doom and gloom.

The silver lining is that there are less distractions available to me, so I'm able to read more, yay! I'm slowly trudging through The Woman in White, almost at the last stretch now. By using the Blogger app I can create new posts, but I think that's about it. So for now, I'll update my progress here:

The Woman in White - 560/619 pages read - 90%

Nay x

Happy ♥ Happy

I bought this cross stitch set in Shanghai, China, but it is from Korea. It is supposed to be some sort of card holder, but I was afraid of getting it mucky, so at the moment it is in an old picture frame. I plan to do something with it in the future, I just don't know what yet!

**Happy New Year**

I ended 2011 reading the 3rd book in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, Equal Rites. It was good, but nowhere near as good as The Light Fantastic. I thought the end felt a bit rushed, but then again I did finish it at about half 4 in the morning after a few NYE bevvies!

So now we are firmly in 2012, and with it brings all new reading challenges! I will yet again try to read 50 books in a year (my previous attempts have been abysmal - 39, 33, and only 29 last year!!), so my realistic goal is 30-34. I'm also going to finish off my A-Z of author's first names, and contemplate starting an A-Z of Book Titles (not sure about starting another A-Z just yet).

I'm getting married this year, so I'm going to do a Wedding Challenge, which uses the old poem "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue". I'm going to do it in order, which is a shame, because the editon of 'The Woman in White' that I'm starting soon is bright blue.

I'm also going to keep a count of how many pages I read in the year, which I'm really excited and intrigued about (wow, I *am* sad!). And finally I'm taking part in Bunnita's Hogwarts Challenge and her mini challenges that go along with it. I'm not 100% sure on how it works yet, but I'm sure I'll pick it up quickly!

And that's about it I think for 2012! Oh and I'll also be making things as well, but apart from a couple of new projects I have in mind, I'll pretty much be working on big projects I started in 2011.

Nay x