The Alchemist (review) : summer reading challenge finished

Hello everyone! 

today I just finished the last book in my summer reading challenge list: The Alchemist. I must say that this one was a quick one to read, it was not really difficult, however it has rich content that makes you slow down a bit and reflect on different aspects of life. 

I heard awesome things about this book and about the quit, so of course I had really high expectations that to be honest were not fully met. Do not get me wrong, it is a great book that you can read on a weekend, however I believe it’s not for everyone. I did not do a background check on the author, but from the content and reflections in the story, I dare to say that he is really influenced by his religious beliefs. Personally I do believe in God, that’s why I think it was easy for me to relate and find a deeper meaning in the different thoughts and actions of the main character. However for those out there that might not be religious, well..you might not find it that interesting. 

Despite of what you believe in..or if you don’t this book is good and makes you appreciate life. As I said before is a light reader, so if you have some free time I would encourage you to read it.

At the moment I’m looking for books to read, If you have any suggestions please leave them in a comment down below! 🙂 
Love, 
Lily

The Book Thief

So I just finished reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak about 20 minutes ago and I just had to come and write about it, not only because I want to share my thoughts about the book, but because the book itself is about words and the meaning and power they have in someone’s life.

I’ve wanted to read this book for a long time and I am glad I finally did it. It was long but definitely worth every single page. Since the very beginning I was captivated by the narrator and how at the end both the main character and the narrator interacted with each other. For those out there that think this is just another book related to the WWII, let me tell you it’s more than that. While the story develops in this period of time, it shows something that has always been present in the world and will remain forever. This story manages to show the sad, sometimes heartwarming point of view of a very peculiar character, such as that at the end, your perspective on certain matters might have changed.

I finally read this book and will definitely add it to the list of special ones that have marked my life. Also I am happy to see that I only have 1 book left in my summer reading list!

2 weeks before school starts, 1 book left = LET’S DO IT

For now this is all I have to say. In the next few days I’ll be posting another entry about traveling with great pictures that you can NOT miss 🙂

Love,

Lily

The old man and the sea & Mosquitoland (short review)

Hello everyone,

so I just finished reading 2 books from my summer reading list!! I’m so excited, because I might be able to pull it off and finish all of them 🙂

The first book I finished this week was: The old man and the sea 

I was really excited to read this book because obviously you read amazing comments on the legendary Hemingway everywhere, however I must admit that after reading this book, his style might not be one of my favorites. Don’t get me wrong, the book itself is really good, it shows the place man has in the world in a really metaphorical and beautiful way, but I don’t know, I guess he is really different from everything else I’ve read before. My all means you should read this book; it should be in everybody’s reading list, however if you are not that into the slow-paced event-development thing, then I must warn you. This novel is not to be read in a rush, the story itself forces the reader to slow down and really meditate what is written; only this way will you fully understand what the author portrayed in this book.

The second book I read was: Mosquitoland

This is a relatively new book that caught my attention from the very opening line “I am not okay”

This story is not about superficial things, when you read these words, let me tell you, they really mean something deep. The author shows a girl that at the beginning seems like a sick person, with some quirky facts about her, however as the story develops you begin to question how really sick she is, or if she is sick at all. I think that you can really see the deep internal pain a person can go through and most of all, be able to endure and manage to find the tiniest ray of light that life might give. It is definitely a YA novel, however if you want some light reading then this is definitely something you should consider. Funny, painful, sad and exciting are some of the words I can use to describe Mosquitoland.

If you read these books, please let me know what you think!! 🙂

Love,

Lily

First book finished! Review

Hello everybody,

so I just finished reading my first book from my summer reading list, Demian by Hermann Hesse, and I must say it was a great experience. It took me quite a while to really READ this book, because to be honest I had to re-read a few pages in order to understand everything.

From the very first pages of the book, Hesse manages to captivate the reader with the simple questioning of the true inner-self each man has. And I believe that there is nothing more intriguing to a person than these kind of questions, because we may think we know ourselves perfectly, but the author presents the possibility that we do not know the true desires of the soul, therefore we might not entirely find our true self.

There is one quote that really captivated me when I read it, and it still does amaze me every time I see it

“Nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to take the path that leads to himself”

This quote to me sums up the entire meaning of the book, because it’s not only about a boy growing up that tries to make some sense out of his teenage years, to me this book is way more than that. It’s about letting go, going with your instincts, also about ideals, beliefs, love, religion and much much more. As I read this book, I saw how the author managed to take situations and ideas that we can find everyday, and transform them in order to create a really intriguing story that will for sure leave you thinking about a lot of things.

I personally loved this book and once again Hermann Hesse proved to me why he is one of my favorite writers.I entirely recommend it, it’s not so long, so it is PERFECT to read during the weekend, because believe me, you will not want to put it down until you finish it!

If you have read it I would love to have your opinion, if not I really really encourage you to read it. Tell me what you think in the comments below! 🙂

Love,

Lily

A little summer reading

Hello everyone!

First of all, I have to apologize for the lack of activity on my blog these past weeks, it’s just that I’ve been really really busy with some things, but now, I’ve decided to get myself more organized and actually start using my calendar haha, set dates and follow a planner in order to get more things done.

Anyways, the reason I am actually writing this, is to share with you my to-read list of the summer, and I really really hope to finish it 🙂

1. Demian – Hermann Hesse (currently reading)  This one is in german and is a lot of work to try and tackle this bad boy! I talked about it more in a past post, check it out here
2. The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
3. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
4. The old man and the sea –  Ernest Hemingway
5. Mosquitoland- David Arnold

Please let me know what you think of it, have you read any of these books? Do you have any suggestions, comments, etc?? I would absolutely love to read your opinion.

ALSOOOO you can check out my entire to-read list, not just for the summer, here

Love,

Lily

All set to begin!

Hello everybody! This week I’ve been getting the need to be more productive and therefore decided to do something about it. I began doing some exercise again (thank god! It’s been almost a month since my swimming training ended and I’ve been the laziest person ever!!), enrolled in some online courses AND I began to practice my german. Yeap..you read well…I speak german, and to be honest I’m quite good at it; I mean, I love it and have been studying it for over 6 years now, BUT in a month I have to take an exam, the most difficult one I’ve taken so far, in order to get a certificate. To be honest I’m nervous about it, I NEED to pass this test and obviously the nerd in me wants to get a very good score.

I started reading a book in german, but not just any book, I brought out the big guns and chose Demian from Hermann Hesse, because in order to take my german to the next level before this test, I have to read more advanced stuff. I’m going to be combining this reading with grammar and preparation exercises from different books, but I set the goal of finishing Demian before the exam (fingers-crossed so I can do it!)

As I was reading Demian I obviously realized there were many words that I didn’t know, so I looked for them in the dictionary and continued reading (bad idea). I swore I would remember this words but of course I didn’t haha, I totally suck at memorizing vocabulary; I realized this when I saw words that I remembered seeing in previous chapters but didn’t remember what they meant. But then I got an idea! I took out a notebook, some pens, little post-its and divided the pages of the notebook by letter, just like a dictionary. Then as I was reading I underlined the words I didn’t know, looked for them in the dictionary and wrote them down in the notebook (color coded obviously 🙂 ).  I plan to do this not only with the book but with any other words I might find while studying. Sometimes I get lazy and don’t want to do this, but writing stuff down really helps me to memorize it; also I’m a very visual person, so by having everything written down with different colors, I am the happiest person ever!

Here is a picture of my tools to tackle this book down 😉

Tell me what you think, do you have any tips for me?

Love,

Lily