The Nerd List - February 2015

February, you have possibly been the least productive month I’ve ever had to suffer through. And I suppose I can’t really blame my total lack of reading, writing and working on my matric dance, but I’m going to anyway. There are still traces of emotional trauma and exhaustion (as well as excitement, I suppose) swimming around in my bloodstream, and I swear I’m still finding glitter in my hair – although I’m not entirely sure how it got there.

Books

Books I’ve Read:

Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee (Goodreads)

A History of Loneliness by John Boyne (Goodreads)

Book of the month

This book is so important. I could go on for ages about how incredible Boyne’s writing is and how the UN needs to recruit him to educate a couple of people in power. Seriously, every singe person on earth needs to read A History of Loneliness – it is so powerful and meaningful, plus it has a whole load of controversial commentary on the Catholic church, so if you like drama (as I do), you’ll love it to bits.

Character of the month

I hated every single character in Disgrace, and couldn’t understand a single one of their actions. And A History of Loneliness doesn’t exactly have many role-model-worthy characters deserving of this award… So I’m going to be extra pretentious and refuse to award character of the month to a character from a book, and instead I’ll give it to Agent Carter (from the TV series) because she’s my ultimate role model at the moment and gives me hope for the world.

Quote of the month

“All you have to do, I tell myself, is keep your mouth shut and look stupid. It shouldn't be that hard.”

― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale

Moments

Fangirl/Facepalm moment of the month

Because February is such a special month (not really) and I’ve already broken one tradition in this Nerd List already, I’ve merged the fangirl and facepalm moments. Truth be told, my matric dance was ultimately both immensely exciting and lovely, and horrifically stressful. It was a night of total contradictions: I looked and felt pretty, but I felt too dolled up to be entirely myself; I had an incredible time, but my dress was annoying and my shoes hurt my feet; I didn’t want it to end because I was having fun, but I was tired and longed for the comfort of my bed. I’m still trying to figure out all my mixed emotions about the evening, but I would be lying if I said the night wasn’t pretty magical.

Music

Album of the month

Ella Henderson’s Chapter One is such an incredible album. It’s so melodious and soothing and catchy all at once – perfect easy listening that will never fail to put me in a good mood. Every time I listen to it I want to go sit down at my piano and sing – and then I realize I can’t sing so I just settle for playing Ella Henderson’s album so loud I can’t hear my own voice…

Song of the month

I’m A Mess - Ed Sheeran.

Lyric of the month

“Don’t let the fear keep you from climbing.”

- Ella Henderson, Giants