Manhattan, Neighbourgoods and new jeans

I love the fit of these jeans. Not too loose and not to tight.

I find myself loving the perfect accessory more and more. Jewelry has a way of completely changing an outfit

This is a blog about all my adventures this weekend.

It started with a day shopping with a friend of mine. I am a fussy shopper and so didn’t end up buying much however I finally decided to give in and buy these incredible jeans from Topshop. They are quite pricey and now sit as one of the most expensive items in my cupboard but totally worth it. They are washed out ‘Mom’ jeans. They are high-waisted and fit like a glove. I feel great in them. I find it quite difficult to find a good pair of jeans that fits me nicely but I must admit that Topshop knows how to make jeans. I have been looking for a nice pair of high-waisted jeans and I am so glad I found them. Lets just say I am suffering from a little crush on this item of clothing.

My friends and I had been planning to go to the Manhattan Club that evening and I was all too happy to slip into my jeans for the occasion. I don’t usually wear crop tops but in these jeans I felt like a new person and so decided to wear a tight black crop top with it. It felt quite unusual for me because I’m usually dressed in quite a girly or mature colourful style and this look was definitely not that. I felt like a rocker and it felt good. I wore a friend of mines necklace. I loved how the long jewelery complemented the short shirt. I also wore a mix of different styled rings adding up to a total of 8. Yes I may have gone overboard but I love rings too much for my own good. I finished it off with my hiking boots. They are the only shoes I own that go with the hard-core look.

The reason we were going to the club was that I recently turned 18 and this is the legal age to party in South Africa. I don’t drink but I still felt that at the age of 18 I had to go to a club at some point. It’s almost a right of passage.

What did I think?

Well it was fun to begin with. We danced and partied and the atmosphere was one of excitement and joy. It was interesting observing the club lifestyle: the way people dress, what people drink, how they dance and act and the layout of the club itself was interesting to me who  obviously hasn’t done this very much.

So it was fun to a point and then I got over it very quickly. At about 12 after being there for 4 hours already I started to feel claustrophobic. My friends were drunk and I wasn’t, there were too many people and all the fumes from cigarettes, alcohol and I don’t want to guess what else were giving me a head ache and making me woozy. My temper was shortening and the guys. Trust me boys, when you are drunk in clubs your pick-up lines are awful.

I convinced my very drunk friend that we should go home and we left at about 1 which was probably a good thing because if we had left much later I would have ended up hating it.

On the way home my friend insisted on getting McDonald’s. I had a McFlurry as that is the only thing I can stand eating from the place. I took  a vow against McDonald’s a long time ago and smelling her burger in the car at 1 in the morning didn’t make me regret it.

I was very happy to see my bed when we eventually got home.

What does any sane person do after a night clubbing? Not what we did. We decided to go to the Neighbourgoods Market in town. If you live in Joburg or if you one day come to Joburg… You have to check this out. It is every saturday and it is a market which is filled with the most incredible sights and sounds and most importantly food. Waffles, Burgers, pies and everything else you can think of and it all tastes amazing. A lot of people from Joburg are scared of going into ‘town’ because it has a reputation of being dangerous. To this I tell you to get over yourselves. Stop cowering in your ‘picket-fence’ houses and go, run screaming with joy because this place is amazing and shop by shop it is lifting up the area. It’s a revolution which you should be proud to have an oportunity to take part in.

We spent a few hours of the late morning there. The weather wasnt great but the place was as amazing as ever. I love going there. I love watching the people and tasting the food.

I did not however feel so good when I got home. I think the partying the night before, the late night and the rich food didn’t make a good combination for me. I obviously don’t have a very good stamina for this kind of thing. I felt awful and went to bed at 5 O’clock in the afternoon and only woke this morning.

But it was worth the fun I had on the weekend.

New Coat for Hard Rock Café

I’m sorry for the distinct lack of blog posts lately. It seems that the only device on which I can access my blog in an iPad and this is an unsatisfactory device on which to type. The soft fleshy thumps my finger make, make them feel fat and I miss the tick of a keyboard (who would have thought right?)

But anyway ’tis the season for 18th birthdays and a couple of days ago I had the pleasure of going to the Hard Rock Café for dinner. It was friends of mine, twins, birthday and they were paying. It was great. It’s the first time I’ve been and although it is extremely overpriced the food is amazing and the atmosphere is brilliant. It really had a unique vibe, well at least unique to what I’m used to, it’s old fashioned American diner meets modern class. The waiter was enthusiastic (maybe slightly too enthusiastic for some people) and the night was enjoyable. I ate a large burger which was probably too big but I finished it anyway. It had some long name with the word hickery and barbecue some where. It was a beef burger and I’m not a big fan of beef but I decided to go for it and was pleasantly surprise, as I said I ate the whole thing. The birthday girls ordered a host of desserts but I was too full to try any but they looked great.

I rarely get to where heels and after a long term of school my friends felt the same so we decided to over dress slightly and make it a semi-formal event. I was so excited. I wore my favourite blue wedges (easier to walk in) and A new dress I got. I wore the heels to a dance I went to so I have the most incredible bag that goes with it which I wore as well. And  the most important piece if the outfit? The coat! I love coats and for my birthday I got money to buy a new one. I like the chunkiness of this one as it compliments my style and I have a soft spot for oversized coats. I was so excited to wear it and I think it went well. The cherry on the top was that my friend gave me a beautiful ring with a black stone that is more formal than most of my other rings. It just bought the whole look together.

Anyone in Joburg who us looking to treat themselves, go to the Hard Rock Café. It’s pricey so only good for a treat but what an amazing treat it will be!

Here you can see how the matching bag and shoes tie the outfit together plus how amazing is that coat.

This close up shows the beautiful ring and bag

I think nobody’s feet can look bad in the right pair of heels

 

Birthday Blog

Happy, happy birthday to me!

On Monday it was my 18^th birthday (finally) and surprisingly I do feel quite grown up. I feel terrified about the future but also huge excitement because now everything is truly at my finger tips.

 

I guess the big question is… what did I do to celebrate?

I didn’t go out and get drunk but rather on Saturday I had a lunch with all my girl friends (I go to an all girls school so I have more girl friends than guy friends). I personally feel that a lunch is far more intimate and celebratory than watching 100 of your closest fake friends get drunk and vomit on your carpet. I don’t see how a) this is fun, b) this celebrates the host’s birthday or c) is any different from a regular house party. Plus I think that neither my parents nor my house would have survived a hectic party anyway.

 

I was born in winter but I always wanted to be a spring baby, there always seemed to be something elitist about the title, and so the theme for my lunch was spring. Luckily the cold days stayed away on Saturday and although it wasn’t as warm as spring the sun was shining and we could wear bright floral patterned dresses.

As soon as people found out about my theme they wanted to help which I was really grateful for. We borrowed chairs and tables from my neighbours and my family and a woman who had done a similar theme for her daughter’s birthday gave us table cloths and rows and rows of buntings which we hung around our house and completely transformed the place. I have found a new love for buntings. I’m not sure why I think rows of triangle shaped pieces of fabric are so beautiful but I do.

For other decorations my sister and I collected jars (mostly coffee and mayonnaise jars – don’t worry we don’t eat these two things together but w do go through a lot of both) out our glass recycling bin and my mother filled them with beautiful flowers while others were filled with colourful sweets.

For food we decided on bread and coronation chicken as well as lots of different types of salads and quiches (thanks mommy for all your hard work making these). I found a great (and easy) Martha Stewart recipe for pink lemonade which I made and surprisingly it tasted pretty good – I say surprising not because I have little faith in Ms Stewart but rather in myself. We also made fruit infused water which just tasted like lemon and mint in the end but was still good.

I was also spoilt rotten by a dear friend of mine who made me a cake but I didn’t know what it looked like till she arrived at my doorstep with an incredible two tiered cake covered in meringue icing (yes this exists and you have to taste it) and homemade macaroons which tasted amazing.

The beauty of the theme, the colours and the flowers started the day off with an amazing positive atmosphere and all my friends were happy which made the day even more pleasant for me. I had an incredible day and I would lik to thank everyone who was involved.

May the next year be a good one for me and you.

 

An early spring

We had a day of sunshine yesterday. These days are rare at the moment however they are getting more common as we get closer to spring. I decided to wear one of my favourite shirts. I love it because I think the pattern is beautiful and I am a sucker for button up shirts. The skirt I must admit is my sisters but I do lend her clothes so we have a mutual agreement going on. My shoes are filthy dirty as I took them to dusty maths camp and haven’t had a moment to clean them but if you get away with dirty shoes it has to be sneakers so I figure I was okay. Then the accessories: I go through stages of caring about accessories but at the moment I am in love with rings. I have on in this outfit: 2 fingertip rings and 2 other rings. It took me a while to get used to fingertip rings but I now like the extra layer they give to your look. The other accessory to note are the sunglasses. I love sunglasses and I have more pairs than I need and this is my favourite pair right now. As I love bargains and am quite a cheap skate I managed to get these on sale for only R50 from Cotton On. Yes I did fall for the round-glasses trend but I am not sorry as I love them too much. I am lucky that I have the face for the glasses.

Anyway I enjoyed the sunshine yesterday and this is what I wore to enjoy it

Maths Camp… Yes, really!

So I haven’t written lately because I’ve been bogged down with work but also because I spent the entire weekend on camp. Specifically Maths Camp. Yes my school really sends us in our last school weeks of our last year on a compulsory camp solely dedicated to maths. It took place on a miserable little piece of land just outside of Johannesburg, although it felt like it was out in the middle of nowhere. The little grey farm is called “wag ‘n biejtie” which is Afrikaans for ‘wait a bit’. It was freezing cold. I don’t know the exact temperature as I had no means of finding it out due to the lack of internet and signal but it was probably the coldest I’ve felt all year. The food was mediocre but okay except for the one lunch which was a burger and to quote the person who was in front of me in the line for food “it looks like it was cut out of the road we drove here on”. I must admit this was made slightly better by the consistent flow of junk-food. The dorms were also average. They were small 8 person rooms (4 bunk beds) with a plug point (thank goodness) and 4cm thin mattresses. The bathrooms were terrible with minimal hot water before you had to share it with 90-something of your closest peers. We did manage to find some new bathrooms tucked around the back of the place by the end of the camp which we decided to keep our little secret.

Every day (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) we would wrap ourselves in every item of clothing we had brought along with blankets and trudge up to the halls for sets of 2 hour lectures (up to four a day). With 15 minutes in between each. If the teachers remembered we had a break. They did kindly give us the one evening off but anyone doing Additional Programme Maths has to stay for their lecture (yes this included me) and ‘ like we could leave or do anything exciting.

This camp achieved one thing and that wasn’t a love for maths or a new bond formed with my peers but rather a mass dislike of the subject maths. Just walking into maths classes makes me feel miserable and cold now.

Choosing sides – An alternate view on the Palestine-Israel conflict

Here is my comment on the current situation in Palestine and Israel. A controversial topic I do realise but definitely one that needs addressing. Basically this is a war over land between two nations who have at various times in history owned all to none of it. The conflict that arose out of this has now escalated to be about more than just land. Obviously the problem/conflict/whatever-you-think-is-a-liable-term-for-two-nations-liberally-trying-to-destroy-each-other is extremely complicated and has run on for years on a tit-for-tat fighting relationship with increasing aggression. A simplified version is needed when the conflict itself is older than even my parents.

The reason I am now more fully aware of and writing about the situation, is that it has recently escalated beyond all proportion. The bombing and killing which occurs between these two nations has made its way to the centre of the world stage (next to Putin vs Ukraine which is an issue for another day) and I, as a young, up and coming person, am forced to face these problems.

What I have found is that people feel compelled to pick sides. They pick sides because of religion, race, past war experiences, personal moral decisions, pride, bias, manipulation by their own countries’ bias, along with a myriad of other personal or national prejudices. My question is why? Why pick a side?

I myself have been asked such questions as ‘who do I believe is right’ and ‘who do I support’ and, although I generally try to stick up for the underdog, which in this case I do feel is Palestine, I have decided not to pick one. I don’t think any of us should. Not as people, organisations, communities or countries. If you are not a fan of the idea of ‘fence-sitting’ then picture it as picking the side of peace. I feel that by supporting one of these countries you are supporting what that particular nation is doing and in both cases that means that you advocate violence. At the moment the simple way of putting it is that both sides are trying to cause harm to each other (and yes I do realise that they each have their own reasons but I will get to that).

And it isn’t just you and me at grassroots level. It is also the big shots, the countries and their leaders who have chosen to support either Palestine or Israel. I don’t see how the great USA supplying weapons to Israel is helping peace be achieved. I see no freedom that they greatly claim to understand. I just see more reasons to fight and the more they fight the bigger the support seems to become. The conflict has been named the middle-eastern Apartheid and if this is true surely we should learn from the past. Something which made a huge impact on the National Party government’s decision to end Apartheid in South Africa was sanctions imposed by other countries which (unsurprisingly) America and Britain joined in with quite late, but as soon as they did things started to change and although there were other forces at play sanctions and boycotts made a huge difference. So I propose that we all sanction sports and boycott goods from Israel. And this includes no longer selling weapons to Israel which means the USA has to decide whether they choose wealth over morals once more. Yes you may notice that I only said Israel and that is not me being hypocritical but Palestine doesn’t really have anything to boycott. The country is currently in appalling conditions and I think they have bigger worries right now whereas Israel has created an image of strength and built themselves up quite well and so boycotts would make a bigger impact but still let us not send weapons to either country.

Now I do understand that some people will use the excuse that they have to support a specific country because they have religious affiliations with it. This is an inadequate excuse. With that logic every Christian in the world should have supported Hitler. Besides don’t you think by sending bombs into another country they are putting negative connotations with those religions? Again it doesn’t help save lives or achieve peace when Muslim and Jewish people are fighting worldwide.

A friend of mine asked me if either country was justified in what they are doing. To that I say no and yes. Yes because justification as a term is quite flexible and is personal to an individual system so I am assuming and hoping that both sides of this conflict, the Israeli military or the Palestine rebels do at least think they are justified and obviously both sides have had some terrible things done to them, by each other and outside forces, however I think we’ve gone beyond this to a point where each side has done enough wrong to each other for them both to be unjustified. It has gone past the point of justification. The violence, the ‘justified’ violence, isn’t solving anything and the problems which have led to this violence could just as easily justify a peace talk and compromise.

Children have died in this conflict. The people in charge have said that it was a tragic outcome and it was tragic but it was also a foreseeable outcome. As a human race we have gone into no war in our history which uses modern warfare and children haven’t been killed. Children are innocent. They have no control over their bias and in no world is it fair or justified to kill them. When enough people have died these two countries will have to talk or one will be gone.

If one country is gone, will that be a good legacy for the other country? Will it be honourable that forever they will be known for annihilating an entire nation? Will it be worth it? I don’t think so. And if they both survive and after they have killed too many people for the world to finally force peace what will have been the point of those deaths and the foreseeable death of more children? So why not cut to the peace talks now?

Jewish people do deserve a homeland but the Palestinians do not deserve to be kicked out of their own homes to achieve this. Somewhere between trying to settle roots and protecting their people Israel managed to do the exact same thing they were running away from to the people who took them in and from there it escalated. Both the Israeli and the Palestinian people are fighting for a safe ground, for a place they can call home where nobody is going to persecute them. They want the same thing so it needs to be asked… Why are they fighting?

 

(For anyone who, like me, didn’t fully understand what on earth was going on in the conflict you can watch this video https://org.salsalabs.com/o/301/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=7203. I believe it explains the issue simply enough without pointing fingers too dramatically at one side – although it isn’t without bias.)

The little black Coat

Being this age is great. Everything is a celebration. We are constantly celebrating lasts and first which means that there are parties all the time! Okay I am over exaggerating I am a bit of dork so I am not at parties all the time but I am attending substantially more than I ever have before which means that I get to dress up. Unfortunately and fortunately it is winter at the moment. This sucks because sometimes a beautiful outfit looks really rubbish with a jersey but otherwise winter fashion is fun and suits my style quite well so I enjoy it. I went to a recent 18th, it was a dinner (not too formal but not too casual) so I dressed in a-skirt-and-stockings look (one of my favourite combinations of winter). I don’t like wearing too much black so I grabbed an olive-green skirt instead of a black one although I think black would go just as well. I had to add my splash of colour with the scarf which tied the beanie into the outfit. Beanies and Scarves… what would winter fashion be without them.

I finished off the whole look with a short black coat. This, I have to admit, is my sister’s but I often borrow it. I think that having a good coat especially a black one is as key to having a nice winter wardrobe as the little black dress is key to style as a whole. This one is not so long but not so short that it should be called a jacket and it went well with the skirt and stockings.

Over all I felt warm and I think it turned out looking quite well. What do you think?

A big scarf is great in winter.

Beanies don’t always have to be extremely casual.

Maybe the brown shoes didnt go so well.

Rings can always add that extra element that you were looking for.

Dr Seuss Speech – Anecdote

The difficulty which comes when writing blogs is finding time to write them and when you are in your last year of school and for no logical reason you take a dozen extra things it is particularly difficult to fit blogging in. I’ve been sick lately. A ghastly bit of flu which I was bound to get when I spend so many hours of the day in confined classrooms with at least one sick person. Along with this I had the biggest and last English Oral of my high school career as well as a History preprelim (a pre pre final exam – yes it is a bit over the top) and so I have been running around, or more walking as flu slows one down slightly, like a headless chicken trying to prepare. But now today is over so I can blog but inspiration combined with laziness struck me so I thought “Why not just use the piece of writing you’ve been working on all week?”. I know pure indolent genius.

So I have decided to give you my speech. We were given no topic which posed difficulties. I mean you want to end on bang but not a flop so I in the end decided to talk about a person who I admire.

From now on pretend this is being read to you by an almost 18-year-old girl with a slightly posh (or at least my friends call me posh in speeches) South African accent of medium frequency with a slight nasal backdrop and if you really want authenticity imagine a cough here or there.

When given absolutely no speech topic at all it becomes quite difficult to shift through all the things worth talking about, all the things that one loves to find a singular topic that is speech worthy. So I did what I always do and decided to fall back on the author and poet that keeps me going through everything… good old funky and fantastic Dr Seuss.

Dr Seuss was born in 1902 and no his surname is not Seuss and his first name isn’t Dr. He was born as Theodor Geisel but how did he become the famous Seuss? Well he, as most aspiring young literature lovers do, worked as a student journalist for a college magazine called Jack-o-lantern. One day however he and some friends were bust drinking which was quite a bad thing at the time considering that alcohol was prohibited by law so he got kicked off the magazine but he was after all in the making of becoming the incredible writer we know today and whoever ran the magazine noticed this and so he allowed Theodor Geisel to still write but under a pseudonym and Geisel chose his middle name Seuss.

This was the start of an incredible career of writing through which Mr Geisel decided to stick with the pen name rather than his own.

I won’t tell you every detail of his career except that it took him a while to find himself both as a writer and of course an illustrator and to gather the momentum that his fame has today but at around the end of world war two his career started really moving and he started publishing children’s books. He did some incredible things. One of his most famous books and a turning point in his career was the publication of The Cat In the Hat. He wrote this in response to an article that criticised children’s reading levels. This book was written with over 220 different words to help improve children’s vocabulary. After this he took a new more educational approach to writing to try and help children while entertaining them.

A book that always stuck out for me and that even today I find myself reaching to when I feel over worked or underappreciated is If I ran the circus. Seuss wrote it for his father and I used to make my own dad read it to me almost every week. It is about a boy who wants to start a circus, the Circus McGurkus. He spends the whole book dreaming of it starting from where he will put it to what it will contain and as you turn the pages the acts get crazier and the animals get weirder and it gets more and more stoo-pendous. The stuff that he has displayed, the “many surprises, You’d never see half it if you had forty eyses”. What a circus it was. And in true Seuss fashion every page was chocabloc full of incredible illustrations. I used to sit wide eyed and fascinated. Before I could read I would just open the book and take in the pictures. That alone was enough to inspire a little girl’s imagination. I think today the fact that I read so much and always have this itch in my very soul to be creative is due to this remarkable writer.

In Oh the Places you’ll go he writes “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…” Dr Seuss strove to inspire children and in this quote and in fact the book it comes from he challenges readers to take their own initiative and move forward. There are hundreds of brilliant authors out there but I for one would never be able to appreciate any of them if Dr Seuss had not laid the ground work.

Children’s authors are the creators of readers. Whether they be Raold Dahll or Beatrice Potter but for me it was Dr Seuss and it always will be. No matter where I go, where I live or how the big book shelf in my house is I will always own at least one Dr Seuss.

(Still not quite sure how referencing works here so the header picture is from http://desmoinesparent.com/celebrate-dr-seusss-birthday/)

 

Short hair IS for everyone.

I have had short hair for a while in fact most of my life and hair has never been something that I have been emotionally connected to it was always just hair. When I was younger, although I occasionally grew it to shoulder length, I lived most of my life with a bob. Now I have mixed feelings about this. I am grateful for the fact that today I can cut my hair and be adventurous with new styles because I am so used to short hair that I am not afraid of it but I also am slightly ashamed because I only figured out that I really don’t suit bobs when I was about 15. That’s a lot of my life time and a lot of embarrassingly ugly photos that I can’t throwback to. So at about the age of 15 I decided to grow my hair really long and I did. It took me just over a year to grow my hair from shoulder length to where it sat comfortably at my lower back (yes my hair grows very quickly). During this time my hair changed from being thin and straight to being thicker and curlier and it had (and still has) a great deal of volume to it. I loved it, I loved having long hair and how it looked both up and down but clearly short hair is connected to my soul because after that year and a half I got bored, I missed the feeling of running my hands through short hair (I am adamant that this is one of the best most simple experiences ever) and as I watched every other girl in my grade compare the lengths of their pony tails I realised how little individuality long hair had and that the only reason I had long hair was because everybody else had it. So I made the decision and off came the hair. There was literally more hair on the ground than on my head. I didn’t get a bob though. I decided for the first time in my life to get a chunky layered look which (luckily for me) worked quite well with my slightly curly wavy hair. It felt great. I’ve always felt that when cutting a lot of hair off (and that time was a huge amount of hair) that it made me lighter. Not really physically lighter as hair isn’t nearly heavy enough but emotionally lighter. Short hair contains a freedom to it. When you cut your hair it feels like you can do anything. Obviously this is a bit of an illogical connection but it does work I swear.

Now I know that it was and always will be easier for me to just chop my hair off without a second thought because I am used to it and my hair grows exceptionally fast but I still think that every woman should try short hair at least once in her life time and don’t use that excuse “it won’t suit my face”, just do a bit of research. Trust me there is a short hair style for you. You may have to do a bit of experimenting to find it but it is out there waiting for you. I am not saying that everyone should have short hair but life gets a little boring when everyone has long hair. Don’t you get bored? Don’t you wish for the excitement of something new? Your hair will grow back don’t get emotionally connected with your hair. It is there to play with. It is an extension of your personality like your sense of fashion! (Also please don’t cut your hair just because it’s a trend I mean you can but I am a sucker for individuality).

What are you waiting for? Start looking for your perfect short hair do!

The Fault in Our Stars.

This is a review but not a book review per say rather a review of a movements which has followed a story in this case the huge success which has come from The Fault in Our Stars, both the movie and the book. Now I have read the book last December and I enjoyed it. I read it in a couple of hours while curled up in a camping chair in the middle of the Kruger National Park. I thought it was sweet and reasonable as far as a story goes but that was it. It didn’t make a lasting impression on me. It was just a book. Now this may be that I am cold-hearted but I think it might be because I have quite an extensive reading history and so it’s not that John Green isn’t a fantastic writer but rather that I have been exposed to such a variety or incredible writing and fascinating stories that The Fault in Our Stars just came a little bit late (plus my heart has never swooned at idealistic teenage romance – which does help in this kind of book).

About two months after I had read it (and I’m sure many others noticed this) the book really hit off steam in South Africa. It could be seen in the hands of even people who don’t enjoy reading (yes there sadly are people who don’t understand the pleasure of being lost in a good book) and I must applaud John Green for he re-enlightened my teenager fellows, even if it was just for a moment, into the love of reading (the last time this happened was Twilight and The Fault in Our Stars is definitely a step up)

Of course when the movie came out we had to watch it. Some of my friends hadn’t read the book and so were curious of what the big fuss was about. We watched. By the end of the movie I was handing out tissues to all four of my 18/almost 18-year-old friends who had come to watch. Me? I didn’t shed a tear. Some people don’t believe me. But I’m not a romantic and I’d already read the book (plus we had a bet about crying which I had to win). I’m not cruel or evil or cold-hearted I just found it hard to believe. I found it hard to believe that these children had come so close to death and were now travelling the world and seriously? their relationship is not realistic at all. The movie was well made and the actors were decent but I couldn’t connect with them. It was sensationalized and kind of obvious… (this is probably because I’ve read the book though). It was just a movie.

I have mixed feelings when it comes to the huge fandom which now exists for this book. Now I am not saying that Mr Green does not deserve it (although I wish that Markus Zusak or Khaled Hosseini received this kind of support from people my age) but it always makes me feel sad when people support books just because it’s popular and not because they love it. I am an idealist when it comes to reading and I always hoped (yes in a slightly snobbish manner) that reading was above that following-the-crowd nonsense but alas that is not true and one way or another I will have to deal with this. Another thing which disappoints me slightly is the view which many readers of the book have. Now I do realise that I am going to sound full of my self and hypocritical with what I say and please understand that I do believe that everyone’s opinion matters and everyone has a different experience when reading a book but it is far too much of common trend between teenage girls to ignore and this trend is: to only look at the Romance of the book. Now obviously it is a major part but there is depth beyond that to the book. The romance is idealistic, unrealistic and a bit over the top (although much better than the usual teenage romance and I must admit if I found a boy like Augustus Waters I wouldn’t ever let go) but the point is the romance is the thing with the least depth of the whole book and that’s what the majority of teenage fault-in-our-stars-fangirls talk about. I mean just go ahead and embrace the stereotype! I wish that with this new-found book-love came some bookish features. The least they could do is focus on how Augustus and Hazel bond over a love of reading rather than Champaighn-that-tastes-like-stars. But maybe I am asking too much. Maybe I just need to wait and if I’m lucky a generation of book worms will blossom.

I know this is unlikely but a girl can hope.