Summer holidays

Yay! The summer holidays have started! I've had final exam and the last corrections made to last essay handed in yesterday. Today it was warm and sunny so I decided to take the day off and engage in some of my favourite activities.

I have only two weeks of summer holidays so I'd better enjoy every minute of them. I sat in front of tv and watched some of my favourite daytime tv-shows like Rachael Ray, Oprah, Dr Phil and Ellen. Yes, I do like them and I admit I do watch them. Not every day. I don't have time to sit down every day to watch tv all day long, but sometimes I just let the tv run all day long. And please don't bother me with that old "you need to be outside when it's sunny"-garbage. No I do NOT need to be outside, in fact, I could stay indoors all summer long if it suits me. I'll go outside when it pleases me.

I was good today though. Read a bit in new course book. I did tell you I'm taking a class in the summertime too right? That's why my summer holidays are just two weeks. Next class starts in mid-June. So I started to read Edith Wharton's "The Age of Innocense". So far it is a very good novel. And cheap. Lord knows all books bought for uni studies are outrageously expensive but this one wasn't. I was thrilled! I love books! I would love to live in a library! Don't get me started on that subject...

Anyway, so far I like the novel. The language itself is enough to keep me reading. You know me, grammar geek no 1. It's almost poetry. Very fitting for the setting of the novel. It was just like "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon that we read in another class. The language itself is such a crucial part of the story. I guess most people doesn't realize this. I know I didn't pay any attention to this before taking my classes in English. Now I will pay more attention to it when writing my own. I've talked to a lot of talented authors and a lot of people in the writing community and the single most important piece of advice they give is to find my own voice and style of writing. However, the voice of the author cannot override the voice of the story. It would be seriouly strange if one of, let's say, Jane Austen's characters would suddenly say "yo dude!" right? Or if a rap star suddenly thee-d and thou-d everyone.

So that is what I learned today. And what the word "accrued" means. Thanks Pet!

I did realize something too. I'm very fond of the word "however" suddenly. Please don't be annoyed with me. It's just a phase.

Ta ta for now!

Nina