Louise's Library

Welcome to my bookshelf, or Louise's Library, as it shall hence forth be known. This is my bookshelf at University and I thought I'd share some of my reading material of late. Some of the books I've been reading lately have been for my course in modernist literature, and I've selected two to show here, however the other of the three is being read for pleasure and out of sheer curiosity.

The three books I'll be talking about in this post are 'Lolita' by Vladimir Nabokov, 'The Good Soldier' by Madox Ford and 'Mrs Dalloway' by Virginia Woolf.

I started reading 'Lolita' out of interest, not due to any required reading list or because I'd seen the film (I've never seen the film), and because I participated in Japanese Lolita Fashion for a number of years. Lolita fashion has absolutely nothing to do with the book, however people were always mentioning the novel when I talked about the fashion and I wanted to know exactly what the plot was so I could actively confirm that the two were not linked. But I fell in love (perhaps a bad choice of words) with the book. It is so lyrically and beautifully written - Nabokov is a true poet - and includes many European, including French and German, references that I could appreciate having studied those languages. The main plot is that Humbert Humbert, the main character and a rather handsome yet perverse man, meets a young girl called Dolores through staying at her mother's house as a lodger. The two form a relationship and I won't ruin the plot any further. It is a captivating and interesting piece of literature, but rather uncomfortable to read at times. There are sexual references, but in my opinion it is a must-read!

'The Good Soldier' is a book I've been slowly working my way through and is required reading for University, however I'm enjoying the scandal of it so far. I'm only about 70 pages in, but I thought I'd say my thoughts on it. The writing is dense and Ford's main character who narrates the novel doesn't matter to be that reliable a narrator... But it's good so far and I'm looking forward to finishing it! Whereas I have finished 'Mrs Dalloway' and although I find Woolf fascinating, the stream of consciousness that is the writing baffles me. It is challenging to read but it's a very interesting book. I love how the story is about something as frivolous as a party but, set on one day, incorporates themes like mental illness and true love. Woolf has a difficult style, but it's worth getting through!

Some other interesting titles in Louise's Library are 'The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde' (a present from my boyfriend, Alex), 'Nineteen-Eighty Four' by George Orwell (my ultimate favourite book) and 'Thus Spake Zarathustra' by Friedrich Nietzsche (my favourite philosopher!).

What have you been reading recently? Care to share? And do you have any modernist or classic recommendations for the hard-working English student? Let me know!

I hope you enjoyed seeing my little library and thank you for reading!

God bless,

Louise <3

Mental Health: 5 Steps to Positivity in Recovery!

As most of you will, most likely, not know, unless you've been following my blog for a couple of years and have witnessed my disappearances before... I suffer from a mental illness, that mental illness being Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder, also known as Borderline Personality Disorder (I also have an eating disorder but that stems from the EUPD).

Recently I've been having a pretty bad time, and spent some time on the local psych ward this week for respite, as I wasn't coping at hope. My illness is episodic and most of the time I can cope with everyday life, but every so often things get too much. So I thought I'd do a post on my thoughts about recovery and how to start recovering from scratch.

1. Forgive yourself straight away if you slip up on the road to recovery.

Recovery isn't easy and you won't necessarily succeed the first time you try to get back on track. For example if you have an addiction to something like self harm, and you slip up and end up doing it again, just remember tomorrow is a new day and you can start again, forgive yourself as you'd forgive a good friend and be kind to yourself! You deserve it!

2. Accept help!

You may need support to guide you back onto the right road if you start to slip, so be prepared to accept professional and familial help during your recovery. I recommend building a relationship with a professional so that you have someone you trust who knows what they're doing so that you can offload knowing that they won't worry overly about you (it is their job to listen after all!).

3. You never go completely back to square one.

Remember that even if you have a bad day, you never return to the way you were before you started recovery. It may be a long journey but you'll always be learning new skills which you can apply to different situations to cope. Every day is a new start if you slip up, but it's never completely fresh, you still have your experiences which you have learnt from!

4. Focus on goals.

Set simple goals, whether it be just to get out of bed one day and brush your teeth, or whether it be to write a poem or call a friend. Do things you enjoy and set big goals to stay focussed on for the future. Mine would be  to get a first in my first year of University!

5. Self care is key!

Remember to look after yourself, and do the simple things. Eating and sleeping are very important during recovery, and also pampering and treating yourself can be useful for positivity. Do things you enjoy and indulge the creative mind, buy a new notebook and pen and write down your thoughts; have a cup of herbal tea to help you sleep or wear your favourite fancy outfit just around the house. It all centres on what makes you as an individual happy!

I've been in and out of recovery for the past five years, and I'm getting there, and I believe that anyone can recover. I've seen people transition from seriously mentally ill to fully able to function and it's amazing. Have someone pray for you if you have faith, anything is possible with God! I'll be praying that this inspires some people to take active steps on the road to recovery.

Thank you for reading,

God bless!

Louise <3

Poet's Corner

Limericks are for:

Lazy would be poets

(save the genial few)

And want the 'all' to know it!

Couldn't you write in proper meter and a longer line?

But no, oh no, you couldn't. You're lacking in the time. 

Haikus are for:

Exotic, yet simplistic artists in the trade, 

whose tender minds can't cope when there's sentences to be made. 

Yet those sculpted, structured words with syllables few

Have been used far too often, time for something new?

Sonnets are for: 

Solemn, downtrodden souls

Whose hearts will only love again

Through memories of old.

When nought else but Shakespeare will soothe the fevered brow, 

And the streets of girls you could have loved mean nothing to you now. 

Poetry is something I've always loved, and for a time I wanted to be buried in Poet's Corner in Westminster where many other poets are buried. So here are three of my latest poetic rambles - they're meant to be quite jokey and sarcastic, I'm not really hating on haikus or limericks or sonnets! This little moleskine journal was a present from my boyfriend's sister, and I'm using it as my January journal, which will have little bits of art, poetry and photography in it from throughout the month.

I hope you enjoyed my poems, and thank you for reading.

God bless!

Louise <3

My Favourite Unique Jewellery Pieces

 Good day everyone! Here I am, writing again, another post, which I hope you'll enjoy. One thing I'd love to do this year, but something I wouldn't exactly call a resolution, is to wear jewellery more, so here are three of my favourite pieces in my (small) collection - one antique, one vintage from the 90s and one handmade. The first, on the left, is my solid silver cross on a silver chain. I love the unusual shape and thick chain. It's a rather long necklace, falling on the mid-chest area and it looks great under collared shirt. I received it from my parents as an 18th birthday present and I simply adore it, and it was a great mark of my Christian faith!

The second piece, is the next necklace, a (fake) gold symbols necklace from the 90s, which I love! It's just so unique, and slightly gangster but with a twist, and it can nineties-ify any outfit. What more could a girl want?

The final piece is this delicate bracelet on the scent bottle (my latest parfumerie purchase! Jaeger - my favourite clothing brand) which reads 'perfect' and is rose gold in colour. I commissioned this piece when I was going through some personal problems and wanted to remind myself that God views me as perfect, and I did not need to strive to be perfect in society's eyes.

 The cross necklace was bought from a local antique jewellery store.

 I found this necklace in the vintage jewellery section of ASOS Marketplace. 

 This braclet was handmade by THAO Designs.

What are your favourite jewellery pieces? Which one is your favourite of mine? Let me know, and feel free to tweet me @wowlouise

God bless, thanks for reading!

Louise <3

New Year. New Hair? - Inspiration Post!

I recently cut and dyed my hair - short and brown, which I love! I've had all manner of hair colours (mainly green and blue) but I do love brown, as it matches my eyebrows and skin tone. But I still get the yearning to do something different with my hair. Here are my inspirations.

I love the short, but full fringe look of the left hand picture, and I think I could pull it off, but perhaps I should stick with having some volume on top like the middle picture? Or maybe I should just chop it all off and do a Winona? Let me know your thoughts! I'd love to hear!!

All these pictures and more can be found on my Pinterest hair board with their sources.

Thanks for reading, God bless!

Louise <3

Playlisting - Simon&Garfunkel ft.others

I always seem to like to tell you when and where I'm writing this, so I shall start with that (as we mean to go on) and let you know I'm currently in my room, at 12.39am, thinking about music and poetry and what to blog about... I'm thinking for this post, to let you know what I've been listening to recently. I'm no stranger to the shrill modernity of music these days, but I do enjoy some of the oldies too.

Ever since I watched one of my favourite films, Girl, Interrupted, for the first time in 2011 with effortlessly beautiful and androgynous Winona Ryder, I've loved Simon & Garfunkel. Their song, 'Bookends' features in the beginning of the film, and is just beautiful. Their music is timeless. I have a few of their other songs to share with you also, as I recently bought a Greatest Hits Compilation from them, and though I love every song, I'll just pick a few favourites...

Here is the playlist (on my Youtube channel, which has a few other videos if you're interested in charity shops and hauls and fashion and vlogs!)

These are the songs:

Bookends
I Am A Rock
Mrs Robinson
The 59th Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
 (all Simon & Garfunkel)
Asleep - The Smiths
Matilda - Alt J
Celestica - Crystal Castles
Tycho - Dive (full album) - you can fall asleep to this one after listening to the rest!

I feel these songs kind of have the same vibes, but from sad to happy to calm in this order.

I hope you've discovered something new, or at least enjoyed the playlist I've put together, and let me know what you think of Simon & Garfunkel and my other musical choices?

Thanks for reading, God bless!

Louise <3