Home.

Welcome to our bookish nook of the internet! We are Beth Knight and Hannah Brown and put simply we enjoy nothing better than a very good book. Particularly those with the pretty covers... Yes, yes, yes I know, don't judge a book by its cover, we don't, it's just nice when they look good too.

Despite both having fallen prey to the eBook menace, and the demon of the one click buy kindle store, we can more often not be found soothing our screaming debit cards in our local book shop, as we try desperately to pretend we have the money and the space for the six books we just put on the counter, not to mention the time spare to read them.

We are two very different people and have very different tastes in books, and two very different approaches to reading.

I'll let us speak for ourselves.

Beth: Welcome to Planet Beth. Lets be straight, I'm 3 inches too tall, own an excessive amount of white millinery, have the worlds weirdest music collection, have no volume control, and according to Hannah "the manliest film collection known to belong to a woman", and book collection that, to my shame includes twilight, but otherwise features a lot of badass women being awesome in whatever way available to them. I have a YA sci-fi/fantasy problem but have never read GoT or LotR, The Hobbit I read many eons ago and in my foolishness thought terrible as there simply weren't enough girls in it. 10 year old's make many sweeping generalisations; large numbers of them fallacious. I don't read what's trendy, I read what appeals to me. I like books that leave me crying with laughter, any book that makes me weep, you know salty excretions from the eye area, is a rare beast and probably has to do with it having kept me up half the night as I try to stay awake and finish it.
I cannot tolerate characters doing excessively stupid things. It ramps up the tension too high and gets too predictable and I have to put the book down and do something like aggressively chopping onions until I am sufficiently calmed. Spine Cracking is a mortal sin. Dog-earing pages is punishable by death and creasing covers will make me suicidal. If I lend you a book I really love and trust you. If not, the only book you deserve is the big board book of Spot's Big Adventure. In my head from the words on the page, to the binding on it back of it, the book is a work of art and a symbol of human ingenuity and creativity, and it needs respecting. But please don't tell my copy of The Hitch-hikers Guide that. It spent much of its life in my school bag and bears its scars with pride. My favourite book like everyone else's, is my most abused book. 30 reads later and I still get cramp from laughter. I've read far and wide, and despite a brief period when my head decided it wasn't going to be friends with me any more, I read way too much. I will walk in to street furniture whilst reading, or you or any other hapless pedestrian that gets in my path. I'd be embarrassed if I was paying attention.
Other facts about me:
I speak German. Lots of it. I read it too, when I feel like a challenge. And occasionally I remember I'm paying £1000's to study it each year and do that too. I also speak french, but I had enough of their grammatical finickiness and bade it adieu. My Franglais is now used only for the use of private conversation in public spaces.
I'm a bargain queen, and to prove it I threw in 2 subjects for the price of one! I study English Language too, my favourite thing is words, etymology, words glorious words!
New Look should make me a shareholder.
Ditto Waterstones and Amazon.
I sing a lot. Sometimes unintentionally in public. Sometimes intentionally.
I own lots of high heels, its fun because everyone looks reeeeeaaally short.
My bed and I have a very unhealthy relationship. Its like overly attached to me and wont let me get out of it, it has this really grabby super warm duvet.
I like running. Usually in the opposite direction to whatever I'm supposed to be doing.

And that's me, just as whackadoodle as everyone else. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some grade A procrastination to do.

Hannah: Pop culture maven, twilight snob, adorer of Benedict Cumberbatch (aren't most people?) and lover of the arty farty, I am the cheese to Bethy's toast, the chocolate to her cookies ( Beth makes excellent cookies), we are the strawberries AND the cream. In other words, we work as one (albeit chaotic) literary library of goodness. Known for my sassy witticisms and bohemian attire (Jessie J's stylist need not apply, I hath not the tolerance for anything remotely neon, nor would I ever be seen dead in skintight leather pants), I also enjoy the strong independent females of fiction, music and film, from the Bennet girls to Beyoncé via Etta James, the Lady Eowyn and the badass ladies of Ancient Greece and Rome, (more on them when I feel in an especially 'culture-y' mood). As is evident, I've read LotR, The Hobbit and am slowly inching my way through the GoT series (not got round to any of the series yet, much to my shame- am culturally not up on the latest epic thing to hit the small screen).
Reasons for my slow progress in the GoT may be surmised when I say that in studying English Literature, you essentially give up all your recreational reading time to... non-recreational reading time. Don't get me wrong, it's really interesting to be studying the entire works of Shakespeare, or discussing the European-centric patriarchal bias of the literary canon and deciding that whilst Freud was a weirdo, the idea of having a conscience is  kind of important, it can mean that you actually end up reading stuff you have to read, rather than the stuff you want to.
Unlike Beth, I am doing English Lit only, but that's quite enough for me, thank you. As resident culture vulture, lit nerd, and publishing insider, I'll be bringing something different to the blog (with the required amount of sarcasm and sass for someone also known as The SassPatch- see my own blog for more witty wonders and alliteration).

Other Facts about me:
Me and Beth should have equal shares in New Look. Student discount ahoy!
I unfortunately only know a small amount of German, leading to many a German-led text convo between me and Beth resulting in 'Errrr...?'
I also sing a lot. Me and Beth tend to embarrass not only each other but all our friends as well. I believe the last time we sang in public we ended up breaking out into song on the bus, quickly followed by "We're singing now aren't we? We'll stop now."
I am not great at talking about myself online without a couple of quippy jokes along the way.
I favour purple. All forms of purple (except lilac).
My Disney character is Edna Mode. No capes!
I hate running and deem the treadmill to be a strange instrument of torture.

Talking about myself online is odd, so this post has been a bit weird to do, so I hope that gives a little insight into what Beth and I are about. Now, excuse me whilst I go read feminist undertones into...probably most of my texts set for this week.
Toodlepip xx

Read All About It!

Or rather us...

Here Be Blogs:

www.planetbeth91.blogspot.com - should you want it, the inner workings of my thought process are available here. 

http://hanhanbrown.blogspot.co.uk/ - and the musings of a culture vulture.