Reading Tips

A degree in English Literature brings along with it a heck of a lot of reading and over the past year I have developed a way to make sure that I am reading continuously. I thought today I would share with you my tips.

1. Set goals and deadlines

Even with book I am reading for pleasure I always set a deadline for how long I want the book to take. It helps to keep up the number of books getting read and helps motivate the speed of reading. This stops big gaps of not reading. In terms of uni reading it is good finish reading books in plenty of time for the lecture on them and deadlines mean that I have always read the text that is needed before the lecture.

2. Set a specific time to read each day

This changes depending on whether I am at uni or not. I like to read on my commute as I often cannot get wifi so I can't get distracted as easily. It also helps to pass the time and means that I feel as though I am doing something productive with my time. It's slightly harder for me when I am not at uni and that is why I choose to read at a specific day, which is normally before I go to bed. Again, it helps to keep up the amount I am reading.

3. Split the book equally over days

I choose how long I want the book to take to read and then split the book into an equal number of pages. Normally, depending on the number of pages, I split the book into 3-4 days if I am at home and 5 days if I am at uni.

4. Always read for pleasure

I believe it is important even during the busiest of times to read for pleasure. Even when assignments are on top of me I always find the time on my commute to read a good piece of young adult fiction to take my mind off it. I find that now I read so much for my course, I enjoy reading for pleasure so much more than I use to.

5. Read everything

Although I read a lot of books from the same genre, I try not to limit myself to always reading the same thing. If my degree has taught me anything, it is that I sometimes enjoy the books that I would never normally consider reading and as a result I enjoy them so much more because of that. For example Room by Emma Donoghue is a book with a very disturbing real life story. However, I found it such a fascinating read.

Thanks For Stopping By! :)

Father's Day Cupcakes!

It has become a bit of a tradition for me to bake something for every occasion; birthdays, christmas, holidays etc. So I decided to share the recipe I used to make my dad some cakes for Father's Day.

Ingredients

For cupcakes:

100g butter
100g caster sugar
100g self-raising flour
2 medium eggs

For icing:

50g butter
1tsp vanilla extract
125g icing sugar
Food colouring

Step 1

Preheat oven to 190 degrees (170 fan oven) and place cases into cupcake tin.

Step 2

Beat butter and sugar together for around 5 minutes.

Step 3

Gradually add flour and eggs to mixture until fully combined.

Step 4

Spoon the mixture into cake cases and place in oven for 10-12 minutes. Then remove from the oven and allow to cool while you make the icing.

Step 5

For the icing, beat butter and vanilla extract together. Then gradually add the icing sugar and finally add food colouring.

Step 6

Spoon the icing into a piping bag and pipe onto the top of the cakes.

Step 7

Add whatever topping you want. My dad loves snooker so I tried to make something that looks slightly like snooker balls.

Then enjoy!

Thanks For Stopping By! :)

Weekend in Southwold!

A few weeks ago I went with my family to Suffolk for the weekend. While I was there I took some photos of Southwold on my birthday.

We had a lovely walk with Poppy and went down to Gun Hill to have some breakfast. Of course Poppy, the attention seeker that she is, wanted to talk to everybody!

Then we took a walk down by the sea, which was lovely. Then later we went to have some food at the  Red Lion, a lovely pub in the centre of Southwold.

Also you would not believe how long it took to take this photo! Seriously, every time I went to take it, it would suddenly turn its head away!

All in all I had a lovely weekend there and can't wait to go again in the future.

Thanks for Stopping By! :)

May 2016 Books

Hi Guys!

This month I had a long period where I didn't read at all after I finished 1st year of uni, but then towards the end of the month I worked my way through re-reading the Gallagher Girl series by Ally Carter.

Geek Girl Picture Perfect - Holly Smale
2nd May - 4th May

The thing I enjoy about this series is that each book is equally as good as all the others. Also it is a nice easy read during a period where I was busy with assignments.

Insurgent - Veronica Roth
4th May - 8th May

It is the second in the divergent series. Like with the first book it is a lot better than the film as it includes a lot more detail.

Allegiant - Veronica Roth
9th May - 13th May

I enjoyed Insurgent so much that I start reading Allegiant straight after. It was different to the first two books as it alternated between Tris and Tobias's point of view. At times I did feel slightly confused about who was talking, but overall I enjoyed learning what Tobias was thinking. Also the ending shocked me a lot.

Gallagher Girl Series (Books 2-6)
26th May - 31st May

I re-read this series in just under a week and I have to say I think it is still by favourite young adult series that I've read. I missed out the first book in the series though as I don't enjoy it as much and don't think it fits as well with the rest of the series. However, I do still recommend reading it when reading the series the first time through.

Thanks for Stopping By! :)