12/11/2012

The Reading Pile

Hello everyone! Firstly you may notice my blog layout is looking a little bit different, rather messy in truth. I am finally doing a major redesign of my blog's layout & adding in new buttons & the like so it may look a bit jumbled, I do apologise. How gorgeous does my new logo look by the way? Evie did such an amazing job of it!

So now the admin side of things is out of the way today I'll be sharing with you two of the books I've been reading lately. They are both some of the better books I have read in a long time for various reasons. I think this is mainly because I've had more time to read, thank you Summer holidays!

Here's what I've been reading lately...



The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien-This is probably the only fantasy book I've read that isn't written by J.K Rowling. Fantasy isn't a genre I usually embrace, and as I first attempted reading Tolkien's books when I was much younger I wanted to try them again. The first thing you need to know about The Hobbit is that it is a prelude to The Lord of the Rings Trilogy & also that it is supposed to be a children's novel. This meant the writing at times did remind me of Enid Blyton novels, without the boarding school language but this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

As I have only read to the place where 'An Unexpected Journey' finishes I can't comment on the book as a whole yet but I thought what I did read was fantastic. This book is so well written & I think it will translate beautifully to film. The 'Riddles in the Dark' chapter in particular is going to be a good one to watch on screen I think. Would I recommend reading this before you see the movie? Absolutely, even if you only read the first 120 or so pages, as I did.

Styled by Grace Coddington for Vogue, September 2007.


Grace-A Memoir by Grace Coddington-Fashion fans will remember Grace as the heroine from 'The September Issue' a documentary capturing a year behind the scenes at American Vogue, particularly charting Grace's work but also Anna Wintour's. It was because of this documentary that Grace was approached to write her memoirs & legions of fashionistas, myself included are glad she did! This book is a chronological account of Grace's life, how she got her start in Fashion & includes stories of the people she worked with among others. Three standout chapters include one where she writes of happenings from her photoshoots, including an interesting few days with Tim Walker shooting Madonna as well as the chaos surrounding her Alice in Wonderland themed shoot. The others being one about Anna Wintour in which Grace offers a new perspective on The Devil Wears Prada & a chapter solely dedicated to Grace's cats.

A lot of people have complained about how Grace at times tends to not divulge everything about particular stories. I did notice that, but I didn't think it was a fault & to be honest, I think she shared the right amount of information without oversharing. All in all this book is fantastic. I loved how the chapters were broken up with Grace's illustrations & her wit in both the illustrated captions & the stories she told. Fans of Fashion, Vogue, Grace's work or all of the above will love this book. This is definitely one to add to your Christmas list or Summer holiday reading.


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