Diary of a Bibliophagist

Loneliness is and always has been the central and inevitable experience of every man. - Thomas Wolfe I am not alone, I will address that first and foremost. I have an incredible boyfriend whom I live with and he supports me fully in everything I do. However, not being physically alone does not mean I cannot feel the same crippling loneliness as any other person. Lately Adam has been busier with friends at work, golfing and other activities which do not involve me, this does not bother me, if anything I am so pleased that he is able to be sociable and surrounded by people besides me for some of his time. I do not want to be a couple who are so emotionally dependent on each other they aren't able to spend time apart and we are not like that, we have never been that way inclined.  I am lonely because I have been made redundant after six months for the second time since moving to the West County, I have only made one true friend since moving here who has her own friends...

Hi there If you are reading this I am going to assume you have not already read the book therefore this post will not have any spoilers. So here are a few of my thoughts on it in case you are thinking of picking it up... The book is essentially a bibliography which contains 5 sections;  Love & Sex, Body, Friendship, Work and The Big Picture. These sections generally include essays written on the subject area riddled with Lena's real life experiences and examples. Lena has a very particular writing style; at times her written voice can come across as pretentious, which actually was not a turn off in any way because she acknowledges fully in her book that people tend to view her as such in person. It actually leans towards charming, her written voice really is a reflection of her passion and knowledge on the things she writes about. She never claims to know it all, or that she is the expert on the area being discussed in the essay, she simply gives her perspective in a w...

Hello Today I thought I would post this tag to give you a bit of an insight into my reading journey; this kind of explains how I became a reader and why reading is so important to me. Stephen King 1. Choose one word that describes being a reader Consuming; I find reading to be an all consuming activity, when I read I am dead to the world, the apocalypse could start and I would still be fully engrossed in my book. 2. What’s the very first book you fell in love with I don’t know if it’s the first book I feel in love with but I vividly remember the book being one I read a lot as a kid; The Tiger Came to Tea by Judith Kerr. I think it is probably one of the first books I learned to read independently. 3. Hardcover or paperback Paperback, always. I can’t hold a hardcover book, it hurts my hand and I always drop them on my face. 4. How has reading shaped your identity I am an introvert; this is something I have come to terms with and I no longer think of it as a flaw. ...

Hi, my name is Charley and I have an alcohol problem. Okay so it’s not what you are thinking but I do have an alcohol issue; I am a naturally anxious person, this stems from my personality type but it has been fuelled by the things I have encountered in my short time on this planet thus far. People who deal with anxiety may also deal with the problem most commonly known as Hangover Anxiety. If I drink heavily, as in get past tipsy and in to drunk, I tend to wake up the next morning with an unequivocal sense of dread and well impending doom. I run everything that happened through my head on a loop, picking out all the moments where I made a fool of myself and irritated everyone around me. This is probably not that strange for your average post drinking life reflection, the abnormal thing in my case is that this feeling can last for up to 7 days after the night. It’s not your typical “God I was an idiot last night” moment, it is a crippling sense of self-doubt which can completel...

I don't know about you but lately I have noticed some very tiresome tropes reassuring in modern novels, which leave me ultimately disappointed in the outcome of a novel. Now I am not saying that when executed well some of these things can't be entertaining and effective, but for the most part they feel like lazy tactics to flesh out an otherwise perfectly fine plot. 1.  Love triangles I thought it would be best to get the obvious one out of the way first, I think we are all a bit sick and tired of seeing this trope in contemporary romance. I am not sure many readers really liked it in Twilight but we dealt with it and now it seems to be a common theme in romance. I don't think I need to explain this explicitly, it is just boring to read a character flip flop between love interests for no real reason and it usually makes me find the protagonist really irritating. However, I do think this was executed well in Beating Ruby by Camilla Monk, the second book in the  Spotless...

I thought my first post should be a tag of some description to give you a good idea what my general taste in books is, however I take eclectic to a whole new level with books and music so I am not sure this will be much help. I really love this tag, I have read a few other bloggers' posts and I just think it's a good'un, props to whoever came up with this one. BLACK: NAME A SERIES THAT’S TOUGH TO GET INTO BUT HAS HARDCORE FANS. I don't have a series per say but I do have a book which I have wanted to read forever but I just can't get myself through the first chapter; The Life of Pi. I know this book really is a classic at this point and my Dad has been nagging me to read it for years but I just find it kind of boring, I know that once I eventually get past the first few pages I will love it but until then... PEPPERMINT MOCHA: NAME A BOOK THAT GETS MORE POPULAR DURING THE WINTER OR A FESTIVE TIME OF YEAR. I don't know if it gets more popular dur...