Friday Memes and 'Nyctophobia' by Christopher Fowler

It's Friday (Friday, gotta get down on.... ok) and I have the day off to spend it blogging, so I can't wait to visit everyone else's blog. Next week Friday it's my birthday so who knows how active I'll be then, probably a lot since I don't really have a life, but I'm going to enjoy today! So let's kick this post off. Follow Friday is hosted by Alison Can Read and Parajunkee. This week's question is:
Are you also a writer and what genre or did you ever consider writing?


This is so weird because I actually just posted a short story of my own yesterday! Hop over here, it's called The Mermaid, if you want to waste some time. I'm an aspiring writer, which can be both good and bad. Reading is a major benefit because it introduces you to so many different styles of writing and using words, but it can also be majorly depressing when you see how skilled some people are with words. I tend to write short stories but I've just got an idea for a novel about dragons. If only it was as easy to write it as it is to imagine it in your head, we could all be authors! As you may have guessed I tend to write a lot of fantasy, or fantastical, fiction, but there are a lot of realistic touches to it.


Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Billy over at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. This week's question was submitted by Elizabeth over at Silver's Reviews.
How many bookcases do you have, and are they all in one room or different rooms?

Since I'm currently moving quite frequently my books are all over the place. I currently have two bookcases in my room, below are the pictures, and these hold my "important" books, i.e. the ones I always want to have with me and the ones I need for university.

On the left is a tiny bookcase which stands on my floor which has all the Oxford Universiy Press books which I have been reading, while the one on the right are two shelves on my wall where I save my "antique" books. They're not all technically antique but overall each of them is at least three times older than me and I'm twenty. Next to that I also have books stored in two drawers under my bed back in London. I might actually have to dig into those when I'm back next week because I'm missing some books.

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion over at Rose City Reader and Friday 56 is hosted by Freda over at Freda's Voice. This week I am using Nyctophobia by Christopher Fowler because I'm currently completely obsessed by it. I'm writing this on Thursday, a third into the book, but who knows where I'll be at on Friday! It's a really interesting story so far and it's even catering to my architecture kink!

An original thriller from bestselling author Christopher Fowler that reinventing the haunted house story.

There are two things you need to know about haunted houses. One, there's never been an actual authenticated haunted house. Two, it's not the house that's haunted, but the person. 

Callie is a young architectural student who marries Mateo, a wine importer, and moves to a grand old house in Southern Spain. Hyperion House is flooded with light, it also has a mute gardener, a sinister housekeeper and a sealed, dark servants' quarters that nobody has the keys for. And although initially happy, and taking care of Mateo's daughter, Callie can't help being drawn to the dark empty rooms at the back of the house, and becomes convinced that someone is living in there. 

Uncovering the house's history, she discovers the shocking truth. As Callie's fear of the darkness returns, she comes to understand the true nature of evil.

A lot of my favourite movies are thrillers and so far Nyctophobia has all the right ingredients to raise my hairs, in a good way.

BB:

'The taxi driver spoke no English, but was kind enough to be unhappy about dropping me off in the middle of nowhere. He had the most sunburned face I'd ever seen, walnut-covered, with a chap white sailor's cap perched on top, more like a Greek sailor than a Spaniard. 

I looked out and saw the road, rocks shimmering in the heat haze, a dense dry row of gnarled olive trees. It looked like we'd driven into the middle of a spaghetti western. I half-expected to see buzzards circling the cliffs.' p.1

I really love how descriptive Fowler is. You can just see him setting up the scene, the abandoned landscape, the strange people, the lone heroine. But she's not as alone as she thinks...


F56:

'Celestia was a tall, elegant Englishwoman, a former artist's agent in her early seventies who had passed most of her life in Marylebone. She had moved here to Gaucia because of a divorce, a devotion to bullfights and a passion for chain-smoking cigarillos. She knew everyone in town, including the man who had once robbed her house. She have his children money to show that he had been forgiven, and her displays of largesse brought a certain amount of distant grave respect. She told me she did not miss Marylebone in the slightest, because who in their right mind would, but she did on occasion miss England.' p.56

I know this is technically too long but I didn't want to cut the brilliant character description short. I am, quite seriously, falling in love with this book. Celestia sounds like an amazing character and I can't wait to read more about her.


So, that was my post for today. I can't wait to see all your book shelves!