The Most Relevant Book of my University Life

I rediscovered this book when rifling through my book box in the porch some nights ago.





I was fed up with my small bookshelf being filled with books that I never read; the seven 'Harry Potter' books and the 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' books (thirteen in total) taking up the entire shelf, and so I sought my university book box from in hope to find some hidden treasures. 

Inside holds an array of over 120 notes collected by O'Hagan, through what means she got them I am unsure, all from different people during their time living together. The notes range from the lovey dovey; shared between couples living together (clearly during the honeymoon stage of their relationship), to the dirty, unhygenic routines, onto the cut-throat furious! 

Anyone who has ever lived with someone, be it your best friend, loved one, or a complete stranger will  know that sooner or later that person will start to grate on them, and vice versa, and the only way of venting frustrations to one another is in note form. So many of these notes made me laugh when thinking back to my time at university; during class my friends and I would go through a small packet of post-its a day just talking to each other or drawing pictures (my favourite was Emma's Starfish story which I will find and scan in soon) and only ever occasionally being used to take the notes we thought were essentially needed in order to pass. As well as my three years living in student halls, with all the stupid notes my housemate and I would pass between each other, though scarcely ever heated I'm sure we got on each others nerves from time to time.
My favourites being:

• 'I hate you more than life itself' - A TAD overdramatic but still hilarious.
• 'I needed that ham, I really needed it.' - Never used this one directly but I think anyone who has shared a flat/house can relate to finally having some decent food in only to discover someone has eaten it and left you with toast again. 
• 'Get off the phone, you are talking pap!' - Brilliant one that reminds me of all of the surreal times my flatmate and I helped each other send flirty, or witty texts. 
• 'Everyday shopping list: Beer, Beer, More Beer, Ciggies  and if there's any money left; Wine for the Oddballs' - this list pretty much sums up mine and the flatmates three years in student halls. I will never forget the month I ate nothing but 10p noodles because I spent my money going out with my friends.

And many, many more but you will have to see for yourself! It is definitely worth a flick through, it is guaranteed to leave any reader smiling. I will finish off by leaving you with a 'note' that I discovered one day after yelling at my friends to be 'bloody quiet!!'

Menaces.

World Book Night, How I Love You

What a fantastic day/night! Brilliant! 10/10! 

So Monday the 23rd of April I headed out into the streets of Manchester in order to spread some word joy - some literary love! - basically give people, at random, a free book. Admittedly I was a tad nervous; after being so excited for the best part of two months, I now found myself somewhat hesistant to approach people - just say they proclaimed a seething hatred for books, or shunned me? But then I realised; so what! It's their loss! 

With that in mind I started offering my books to people, I got such a wide range of reactions; one person actually yelled 'GO AWAY' at me, like I'd just asked them - knife in hand - for a kidney. I was so shocked, it's a book! Take it! Read it! Love it! After a few too many negative reactions I started to get a bit sad, until, at last, a lovely old lady took a book from me (HOORAY!) she said she wasn't a big reader but she'd have a look and then pass it on to her neighbour! Success! After that the books seemed to fly out of my hands and straight into loving homes I hope! 

After a while my friend Ben came to keep me company (and to swindle a book from me) so it was inevitable that we ended up in a pub, this time on business though! I managed to give away five books, to majoritively positively people, which I thought was a raging success, considering! One couple told me when they were leaving that they give away their own books when they've finished reading them. FANTASTIC! Also that they lived, literally, down the road from me; very odd, but fantastic all the same. HURRAH! 

Onwards to Waterstones on Deansgate, Manchester for their WBN event, which I must say; I thoroughly enjoyed. Never in my life did I think I'd be drunk in a bookshop, surrounded by authors and fellow book lovers! (Nor have I ever seen my friends move so fast until the words '£1 Shots' were uttered.) Joe Stretch was forced up to the microphone first and read out a poem, either called or about, Rain from 20th Century French Poetry which was beautifully intoxicating. I have endeavoured to find this book ever since and found a copy for 50p! Without sounding like a complete suck up, I must admit that Joe was one of my favourite readers of the night; even if he claimed to hate being up there; he was very comical which helped to bring down the wall between spectator and performer, even when he picked on the audience (that'll teach me to sit on the front row). Other readers that I loved included Sam Mills, Chris Killen, and Simon Savidge who did a lovely reading of 'Rebecca' by Daphne Du Maurier (also the book he was giving out for WBN) that definitely took me back to my second year of uni, unfortunately I cannot recall what prose/poetry they all chose to read. I really should have taken better notes at the event, alas, I too was too busy revelling in beautiful words, cheap alcohol, and a wonderful day.


P.S. Since the big night I have actually received two pictures of the books I handed out! One from Rodge Glass from Glasgow:


And one from Mikaela Balder all the way from Gothenburg in Sweden!

Many thanks to you both for the pictures and I hope there are many more to come! x

Final Preparations For The Big Day

World Book Night is FINALLY on the horizon! Only one more sleep (who am I kidding; there's no way I'll be sleeping tonight) until the big day! 

Having written in and inserted my extra note into all of the books, and re-read a copy of one of them so I can confidently suggest my favourite story to new potential readers tomorrow, I decided that I wanted to test my rubbish art skills yet again in order to grab peoples attention. As such, my new t-shirt was born:




Where it might not look like much to anyone else, I couldn't be happier with how the t-shirt has turned out. So to anyone wandering around Manchester City Centre tomorrow; if you see me wearing this then, dear lord, come over and say hello! You might even get a book out of it! I'm keeping my fingers well and truly crossed that I meet a lot of new and lovely literary enthusiasts and even manage to create a few new ones.

I'll be ending the day at the Deansgate Waterstones for their World Book Night event that includes readings, of their favourite books/stories, from variety of authors such as; Sam Mills, Rodge Glass, Chris Killen, Joe Stretch, Socrates Adams, Simon Savidge, and poets; Carola Luther, Evan Jones, Grevel Lindop and Helen Tookey. It's free to attend and starts at half past six. 

See you all tomorrow, have a wonderful World Book Night!