Donate Blood

An interesting experience, the NZ Blood Service staff are all friendly and caring and all want to help. It was good to see others who all want to help those who need blood and you get to enjoy a drink and biscuits afterwards.

Boarder Town: A Novel by Shen Congwen (Reading List #34)

Boarder Town: A Novel by Shen Congwen

First published in 1934, Shen Congwen had released a brilliant story about a girl making her own mark on the world and choosing what she thought she wanted. It was sad and sweet with a bittersweet ending. The story of Cuicui and her grandfather is one of love and something to be admired. 

The Bucket List

I have been contemplating and putting a list together that i would 100% be happy with to complete for my bucket list, things i wanted to do.. these things are to complete where possible
the list is as follows:

1. Go to a wine tasting tour
   
2. Write a book
   
3. Jump off the sky tower (25/11/15)
   
4. Get a Tattoo
   
5. Finish my reading list
   
6. Stay at a fancy hotel
   
7. Get a Brazilian wax (completed 7/11/14)
   
8. Have a shopping spree
   
9. Join a Gym
   
10. Go to Hobbiton
    
11. Go to a comedy show
    
12. Ride in a limo
    
13. Eat at a fancy restaurant
    
14. Buy a nice underwear set
    
15. Go to the symphony
    
16. Color my Hair Blue
    
17. Give Blood (Completed 29/10/14)
    
18. Go back to blonde
    
19. Go in a hot air balloon
    
20. Go Horse riding
    
21. Get a facial.
    
22. Go to a sports game
    
23. Go to a theme park
    
24. Auckland’s sky screamer
    
25. Visit Waiheke Island
    
26. Visit Auckland Museum
    
27. Visit the Zoo
    
28. Use a fake name at Starbucks
    
29. Visit the UK and Ireland
    
30. Experience the Harry Potter World
    
31. Go to the Sherlock Holmes museum
    
32. Go to the Doctor Who Experience
    

and like the reading list (which is on this list to complete) I will complete each number i will update and review my experience.

The Reading List

I have compiled a list of 80 books to read, some of which i have read but am keen to read again and the others i have not read at all. The plan is to read them review them and hopefully gain a little more insight into the workings of the world, as it has been said that books have the power to change us n ways we cannot fathom. Over the weeks  will write my review and opinions on each book.

The list:

1. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
2. Paper Towns by John Green
3. A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams
4. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
5. Another Day in Paradise by Eddie Little
6. Speed by William Burroughs Jr.
7. Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue by Eugene Richardson
8. Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines by Nic Scheff
9. White Girls by Hilton Als
10. Necessary Errors by Caleb Crain
11. Pride and Prejudice By Jane Austin
12. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
13. Gone With the Wind by Margret Mitchell
14. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
15. 1984 by George Orwell (completed 1/12/14)
16. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graeme
17. The complete stories of Sherlock Holmes
18. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
19. Dancing Jaxs (First in Series)
20. Dancing Jaxs: Freax and Rejex (Second in Series)
21. Dancing Jaxs: Fighting Pax (Third in series)
22. Nazi Germany and the Jews: The Years of Extermination, 1939-1945 by Saul Friedländer
23. The Social Contract by  Jean-Jacques Rousseau
24. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 
25. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
26. The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White
27. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
28. Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
29. THE ENGLISH GIRL' BY DANIEL SILVA
30. Atonement – Ian McEwan
31. The Invisible Man – H.G. Wells
32. Snobs by Julian Fellowes
33. Forever a Stranger by Hella Haasse
34. Border Town: A Novel by Shen Congwen
35. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
36. This Is Where We Live, by Janelle Brown
37. Villages, by John Updike
38. What Was She Thinking?, by Zoë Heller
39. The Farm by Tom Rob Smith
40. The Girl who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson
41. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
42. EVERYTHING IS PERFECT WHEN YOU’RE A LIAR BY KELLY OXFORD
43. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE BY EDITH WHARTON
44. A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND BY FLANNERY O’CONNOR
45. The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson
46. Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
47. Blue is the Warmest Color by Julie Maroh
48. Stay Up With Me by Tom Barbash
49. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
50. The Art of Fiction by Henry James
51. The Art of War by Sun Tzu 25/2/15
52. Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
53. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
54. Entering the Circle: Ancient Secrets of Siberian Wisdom Discovered by a Russian Psychiatrist
55. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
56. This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor  by Susan Wicklund
57. Looking for Alaska by John Green
58. The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbaith
59. The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling (Completed 9/12/14)
60. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone
61. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
62. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban
63. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
64. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
65. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
66. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
67. Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
68. Crime and Punishment By Joseph Frank
69. My Secret Life by Henry Spencer Ashbee
70. Story of O by Pauline Réage
71. I’d Rather Be Short by Becky Murphy
72. All the President's Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
73. Diary of a Nobody  by George Grossmith
74. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
75. Religion and Society in Early Modern England: A Sourcebook - David Cressy
76. Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography - John Toland
77. Lying About Hitler - Richard J. Evans
78. The English Civil Wars: 1640-1660 - Blair Worden
79. War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust (Critical Issues in World and International History) - Doris L. Bergen
80. All Things Bright and Beautiful - James Herriot
    

I hope you all will my list and experiences on each book

The Nerd is Home

Hello, my name is Tara and I am 23 and currently live in Auckland, New Zealand and I love reading, writing and am afraid to try new things which I am on the process to change.

So with the help of a reading list and a bucket list which I intend to review after completing each number on those lists.