The 30 Day Song Challenge - copied from my facebook, but without the videos so its not annoying!

Day 01 – Your favorite song - Dominion / Mother Russia by The Sisters of Mercy, The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails, and Lovesong by Jack Off Jill

Day 02 – Your least favorite song - Hey Ya by Outkast, You're Beautiful by James Blunt, and Sweet Child O'Mine by Guns N Roses

Day 03 – A song that makes you happy - Military Fashion Show by And One

Day 04 – A song that makes you sad - Inverse Midas / Anti-Everything by Mansun

Day 05 – A song that reminds you of someone - Papa by Span (Jamie!)

Day 06 – A song that reminds of you of somewhere - Pretty When You Cry by Vast (The Goth Night!)

Day 07 – A song that reminds you of a certain event - Monster by The Automatic (Kt's Parties!)

Day 08 – A song that you know all the words to - Capital G by Nine Inch Nails

Day 09 – A song that you can dance to - Exterminate, Annihilate, Destroy by Rotersand

Day 10 – A song that makes you fall asleep - La Mer by Nine Inch Nails

Day 11 – A song from your favorite band - We're in This Together Now - Nine Inch Nails, and When You Don't See Me - Sisters of Mercy

Day 12 – A song from a band you hate - I Wish I Had An Angel by Nightwish

Day 13 – A song that is a guilty pleasure - Toxic by Britany Spears (its actually great!)

Day 14 – A song that no one would expect you to love - Eleanore by The Turtles (one of the best lyrics ever - "You're my pride and joy, etc..." :D )

Day 15 – A song that describes you -changed to "A song that's stuck in head as I fear might be true - History of a Boring town by Less than Jake

Day 16 – A song that you used to love but now hate - Crazy by Buckcherry (reminds me of the Hemel Rock Nights...eugh!)

Day 17 – A song that you hear often on the radio - Kidz by Take That (and its great, haha)

Day 18 – A song that you wish you heard on the radio - Lightbringer by Covenant (one of my current favourite songs!)

Day 19 – A song from your favorite album - Flood 1 from Floodland by the Sisters of Mercy

Day 20 – A song that you listen to when you’re angry - Somewhat Damaged by Nine Inch Nails (amazing lyrics!)

Day 21 – A song that you listen to when you’re happy - Under the Cross by Uberbyte

Day 22 – A song that you listen to when you’re sad - The whole of The Fragile album by Nine Inch Nails

Day 23 – A song that you want to play at your wedding - Unexpected Song from Tell Me On A Sunday, sung by Marti Webb, Just like Heaven by The Cure, Here Comes The Sun by The Beatles

Day 24 – A song that you want to play at your funeral - Lovesong by the Cure (just to remind everyone!)

Day 25 – A song that makes you laugh - "the ultimate song about loneliness, love and loss" by Bill Bailey

Day 26 – A song that you can play on an instrument - Walking In The Air from The Snowman, on piano!

Day 27 – A song that you wish you could play - Hurt, either Nine Inch Nails or Johnny Cash - although I could probably work it out if I really tried.

Day 28 – A song that makes you feel guilty - Poison by Alice Cooper - it was so long ago, but this song still makes my stomach feel funny every time I hear it - I was so horrible :(

Day 29 – A song from your childhood - No Milk Today by Herman's Hermits - no Milk today, and Bus Stop by The Hollies - I don't know why, but they just remind me of when I was little! :)

Day 30 – Your favorite song at this time last year - I'm going to miss this one out as I have absolutely no idea!!

( Book Three - The Suitcase Kid / The Story of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson )

( Book Four - The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters )

( Book Five - Esio Trot by Roald Dahl and Mary Poppins by PL Travers )

5 / 120 books. 4% done!

Currently reading a really boring book, and watching a really boring film...will probably come back tomorrow to review them!

day 14 → a non-fictional book

This will be combined with:

Book Ninety Eight - Read my Heart by Jane Dunn

This book tells the true story of Dorothy Osbourne and William Temple, who fell in love and married in the 17th Century. The story is told through their letters to each other, and through Willam's essays and writings. What is interesting about the story from the beginning is that before they married they were apart for some years, and their marriage was frowned upon by both of their families. It must have been incredibly hard for them in a time without the modern instant communications that we have now, but their love survived and stayed strong throughout their marriage. The book also illustrates the life they lived and the world they lived in through writings from other people about the time, for example Pepys (which reminds me I really want to either read his diaries or read a book about him!), and by relating their story to the historical events of the time, which William was involved with in a few ways due to him being the the representative of the King in Brussels for a while. I found this book good as I didn't really know much about the 17th century generally, although I know the main events such as Cromwell's rule, the Great Fire of London, the Plague etc, and the book gave a more general idea of the life people lived. I did think it was bit too long though, and some of the quotes used were simplified a bit too much - like, in some of them you needed a few words added to make sense of the meaning in modern language, but I think this was overused. Overall though, the book was good for one which I bought from the Poundshop!! :) 6 / 10

( the rest of the days )

day 17 → an art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)

I wasn't really sure what to put for this one - I couldn't think of anything which really jumped out at me as an amazing piece of art. But I was sure there were some things which I really liked, and then I thought - it doesn't have to be a painting, so I present to you a selection of my sister's work :) These are some costumes that she's done for her university and college courses. She is just so inventive, and has such good ideas - you can give her a description of what you want, and then an hour later its either made or at least designed! :) ( Click here for photos! )

Book Ninety Seven - Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho

This book is brilliant. It tells the story of Veronika, who decides one morning that she wants to kill herself. She takes some pills, and lies down to die. She then wakes up in hospital, having been resucitated (took me ages to work out how to spell that and now I'm still not sure I've got it right!). She is then told that she is ok for now, but the drugs she has taken have weakened her heart and hse only has a week to live. She is sent to a "mental hospital", where she meets the other patients there, and the book is good in that for a couple of them it goes into their stories too. It describes how while Veronica is there she begins to think differently about her life, and is able to affect the lives of the other patients there, specifically one man with schizophrenia. Its written in such a way which makes you think about your own life as well, which is good. And then as the book builds towards the ending it gets better and better! I won't spoil it for you, but just to say the ending is great! 10 / 10

I've also recently reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, which I enjoyed. I have read one other of his books (The Devil and Miss Prym), which was ok but not as good as the other two I've read. I think I will look up more by him though :)

( the rest of the days )

I had a really lovely evening last night, at the first meeting of a book club I've joined :) I really like talking about books and all the people were really nice, so it was great! Luckily the first book was one that I'd wanted to read for ages (The House of Special Purpose), so I really enjoyed it...and plus it (the book club) gives me an excuse to buy more books :D I can get them from the local library, but I do love buying books so I like to use any excuse! It made me think differently about the book as well, which was good. Its interesting how some people pick up on certain things in books which I didn't even think of...and I appeared to be the only person who didn't get the twist at the end!! But then again I am usually quite slow to pick up on those things - I described the book to Katie and she got it straight away, without even reading it, haha. Although in my defence I must say that the twist was extremely historically innaccurate, so what it turned out to be didn't even cross my mind. But it was still a really great book, I hope the next one we're reading is as good!

I'm getting a bit behind on a few things - silly things like the challenge days on here, and also serious things like my OU course! Well strictly speaking I'm not behind *yet* - as I was ahead by a couple of weeks anyway, but for a while I haven't really done any work on it! I think its due to me going away for the weekend and not doing anything then, and this week I have been out every evening, which is unusual for me. I have a quiet weekend coming up though, so I'll try and get lots of it done then. Its really interesting so I'm a bit frustrated with myself for not doing it!

Going back to the "challenge" days, I'm going to miss out the "non-fiction book" one for now, and go on to the next one, as I'm reading a non-fiction book at the moment so when I've finished that I'll use that review for it! I'm not so sure about the day I've got to do next though...see below for my thoughts on it!!

( day 15 → a fanfic )

( the rest of the days )

I've also planning to write a review of Whitby - with photos, as I don't post enough photos on here! And I've got another brilliant book to review...but I'll maybe do that tomorrow. I'm planning to go see Burke and Hare at the weekend as well, so that should be interesting - I've read some bad reviews, but I hope its not as bad as everyone is saying!

day 12 → whatever tickles your fancy

I just thought I'd post some things which make me giggle :D

"Storm" - Tim Minchin - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujUQn0HhGEk

A Song about Love - Bill Bailey - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js4GepPNQro

And a just amazing animation :D http://www.endofworld.net/

( the rest of the days! )

I know I won't be able to go on here at the weekend, so I'm going to do two days today and two tomorrow!

( day 08 → a photo that makes you angry/sad )

( day 09 → a photo you took )

( the rest of the days! )

( day 06 → whatever tickles your fancy )

( the rest of the days! )

( day 02 → your favourite movie )

As I know I'm not going to be able to go on the internet tomorrow...here is day 3!

( day 03 → your favourite television program )

( the rest of the days! )