A List Of Books I’ve Read And Loved

As many of you probably do as well, I’m always looking for new books to read. I’m constantly putting more and more books on my Amazon wishlist and I hope that one day, I will have read them all, although that will be a tough task. And not to mention all the unread books I still have on my shelves. But I think that one can never have enough books and I’m not satisfied with the 700 and more I already have.

I thought I would put together a list of books that I’ve read and loved for people who are looking for new things to read. My list includes a variety of genres and that’s just what I like to read – a little bit of everything. I came across a lot of these during my time at university and I’m so glad that my field of study required reading lots and lots of interesting books. I read stories I probably wouldn’t have read if it hadn’t been a class requirement and this showed me that I should not be too focussed on a specific genre or on what I think I like to read. I’ve hardly ever read a book I found terrible and there are so many more good ones waiting for me.

If a title sounds interesting, just go for it and don’t think about it, too much. And please leave me a comment with some of your absolute favorites. I’m always looking for reading inspiration and I would love to put together more of these lists. And just thinking about it reminds me that I should get back to reading more instead of watching Netflix, all the time.

Great books to read

01. Alice Walker – Everyday Use
02. Ann M. Martin – Babysitters Club
03. Art Spiegelman – MAUS
04. Charlotte Perkins Gilman – The Yellow Wallpaper
05. Cheryl Strayed – Wild
06. E. L. James – 50 Shades of Grey
07. Emily Bronte – Wuthering Heights
08. George Bernard Shaw – Pygmalion
09. Gillian Flynn – Gone Girl
10. Ildikó von Kürthy – Mondscheintarif
11. J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter
12. Kathryn Stockett – The Help
13. Leandra Medine – Man Repeller
14. Lewis Caroll – Alice in Wonderland
15. Lisi Harrison – The Clique
16. Liz Tuccillo – How To Be Single
17. Liza Mundy – Michelle Obama: A Biography
18. Michael Lewis – Blind Side: Evolution of a Game
19. Moazzam Begg – Enemy Combatant
20. Nicholas Sparks – The Last Song
21. Nicholas Sparks – The Notebook
22. Oscar Wilde – The Importance of Being Earnest
23. Philip Gourevitch – We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families
24. Philip Roth – The Human Stain
25. Shonda Rhimes – Year of Yes
26. Stephen Chbosky – The Perks of Being a Wallflower
27. Stephenie Meyer – Twilight
28. Stieg Larsson – Millenium Trilogy
29. Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games
30. Waris Dirie – Desert Flower

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When In Agrabah – Tag

I always love being tagged in posts and asked to answer questions because sometimes, I just don’t know what to write about and it’s a nice change for my blog. They’re fun and give the reader another peek into my life and thoughts. The lovely Danielle from Underland to Wonderland came up with another fun Disney tag and this time, it’s all about Aladdin. It was the first movie I watched at the theatre and I think it’s one of the best. I would love to tag people but I feel like when I did that in the past, most people were not really much into these kind of posts and I don’t want anyone to feel obliged to do it. So if you’re into tags and love Disney, please just go for it and answer these questions.

Aladdin Agrabah

Are you more a Street Rat or a Princess/Sultan?
I’d love to say street rat but I’ve always been more on the princess side. I don’t need others to do everything for me, but I do like to sleep in a comfy bed, eat regularly and take nice showers. But like Jasmine, I wouldn’t want to be kept inside a palace 24/7 and totally sneak out for some adventures. I just know that I really wouldn’t survive living on the streets.

Would you rather have a pet Tiger, Parrot or Monkey?
A monkey for sure cause I always wanted one. Not that I would get one because they’re not supposed to be kept as pets, but I’m a huge fan of chimpanzees and I find them completely fascinating. I’d also like a white tiger because they’re so incredibly beautiful. I actually have small figures of both these animals because I love them. I’m totally not a bird person, except maybe peacocks. But a chimpanzee, a white tiger and peacocks would be a bit much, right?

You have 3 wishes from the Genie himself, choose wisely…
Oh man, this is tough one.
1. I wish to visit the whole world.
2. I wish for all the craziness in this world to stop.
3. I wish that my mom gets three wishes, as well.

Aladdin

Where would you go if you could go on a one-night magic carpet ride?
First of all, I think that the scene is one of the greatest dates I’ve ever seen in movies. It’s adventurous, romantic and just really unique. Definitely good qualities in a man plus he’s cute. (I know, still a liar though.) I would just want to see as many places as possible because the world looks amazing, at night. Some big cities with lots of lights would be great.

How would you deal with Jafar?
I would try to come up with a way to trick him because I don’t just let bad people have their way. He’s an arrogant male bully who only want to have power over others. It sounds so familiar and I just don’t accept these things. And when someone endangers my family, he better run anyway.

Who would be your perfect Prince/Princess?
I don’t believe there is such thing but of course there are some qualities I look for in a guy. He should be confident enough to handle me, be passionate and not just a puppet, he needs to be open-minded, humorous, honest and if all that comes with a nice face and a tall body, I’d be delighted.

Arabian nights or Arabian days?
I’ve always been a night owl so definitely Arabian nights. I really tried to be a daytime person many times but it’s just not my thing. I’ve always worked a lot better when everyone else was asleep. That’s how I worked my way all through university. My brain and body just work a lot better in the middle of the night.

Aladdin

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Reminiscing About My Days As A Partygirl

I became a partygirl when I was a young teenager. I was probably around 13 when I started partying with my friends and it just got more and more wild from there. You may be shocked by how young I was, but I was always a bit beyond my years and I had lots of friends who were older than me. I grew up in small villages, where there is just not much to do. You just hung out with people and of course the older ones drank alcohol and were into parties and you just went along with it. But before you totally freak out, I had personal boundaries and I never did absolutely terrible things. I was never brought home by the police or had to be taken to the hospital because I drank too much. I didn’t sleep around either or did anything super illegal. Yeah, underage drinking but you know what I mean. I just had fun with people I liked.

When I got a little older, I went everywhere from clubs to festivals or local concerts. Back then, the legal age to enter a club was 16. You were allowed to stay until midnight, unless your parents filled out a form that somebody over 18 was with you and took responsibility. Well, I never really stuck to any of it before I was actually old enough. I always looked a bit older and totally perfected the “oh no, I forgot my ID” tactic. It was just so easy, so I partied and drank a lot during my teenage years. On my 16th birthday, the bouncer from the club I constantly went to actually bought me a beer. He totally new that I was alway too young to actually be let inside but nobody really cared. I didn’t cause any trouble, after all.

party

My mom had to drive me around all the time and I am very grateful she did, also for trusting me. The worst thing I probably did was dance on counters and tables because it was just so damn fun. Or maybe the hitchhiking, here and there, but never alone and always with phone in hand. Me and one of my friends also loved to get super dolled up and make sure random guys bought us drinks and then, we would walk out on them. We just didn’t have a care in the world. It was also ok to walk home for miles, in the middle of the night, sometimes just us two girls, sometimes as a group. And yes, once I played strip poker with a bunch of my male friends and you can guess that it wasn’t my smartest move. I am forever grateful that I didn’t grow up with smartphones around. But it was just all fun and games and I never once actually felt like being in danger.

Sure, thinking about all of it now, I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone, but when I was young, it just didn’t matter. You don’t overthink, you just do it. Call it reckless, but it’s just a part of growing up and you learn from mistakes. Furthermore, I do feel like it was just very different from today because a lot has changed and the world is a much more dangerous place than it was growing up. I wouldn’t do any of it today. The world is full of so much crime and I definitely don’t want to be the victim of it. I am definitely a lot more careful, today.

My greatest memories are from when I was around 16/17. I had switched schools and ended up getting together a clique of girls that you could just have an incredibly good time with. Some of them are my best friends, until today. We went everywhere, all the time and it was just so much fun. When you’re young, it’s just so easy not to take life too seriously. Basically all you had was school and sometimes, it just wasn’t the priority. Ok, almost never but we had a blast and that’s all we cared about. (We did all graduate though.) Some of us were 18 and were able to drive, so it was just perfect. We never even considered the fact that maybe they wouldn’t let us in somewhere for being too young. It just always worked and when police suddenly showed up, you just hid in a bathroom.

I also enjoyed to throw house parties, whenever there was something to celebrate or when my parents where out of town. Some where pretty crazy and I never told my mom the actual number of people. Sorry mom. And I mean, when people come and go and come and go, who can really count anyway, right? I once missed like half of my party because I had too much tequila and I couldn’t stop hugging our toilet. But hey, that’s just how it goes, sometimes. When I turned 18, I even had my own DJ. He was friend of mine and for once, I didn’t have to put together tons of mixtapes. Man, did I feel cool. I didn’t know anyone else who had their own DJ playing a set in their living room.

In general, I was always the one who had people over, no matter if big or small gatherings. Some of my favorite memories happened in my house. Also, the one where somebody thought it was funny to poor alcohol into our fish tank and killed them. Not such a fun one but something I will never forget.

Party

When I sit together with my friends, we often talk about the good old days and reminisce about all the crazy things we experienced. The millions of parties we went to, all the people we met and also all the moments we’re not so terribly proud of will never be forgotten.

The day we sat on a bus that took us to an electronic music festival and after five minutes on the road, everyone around us started whipping out their drugs. Also, when it was seven in the morning and after already partying all night, we got to see one of our favorite DJ’s play, at the break of dawn. All those times when one of us made out with a totally embarrassing guy and we just laughed our butts off the next day. The mornings we woke up next to each other, still raving about how fun a party was. That moment, when my best friend thought it was fun to poor beer over her head after dying her hair black that day. My 22nd birthday, when we just had the night of our lives, which included me taking a terrible fall, thinking it was hilarious and waking up the next morning with a black and blue leg and still laughing about it. All the alcohol the carpet in my room drank over the course of over ten years. When we thought it was totally cool to attend a rock concert at our school, dressed like the Plastics, and got a lot of hate for it. When I graduated from school and partied for two weeks straight. I could write books about all the craziness we experienced and thinking about every single one of those moments makes me incredibly happy.

Sometimes, I wish I would’ve taken this madness to university, but once I was there, I focused on more important things. I was more the anti-social student who was only focused on studying and work. I hardly visited any party or joined any campus action. I think it’s because I started going out at such a young age, I was just over it. I had already seen it all. For me, going to university didn’t mean sudden freedom, away from school and parents, for me it meant growing up.

Now I’m 28 and pretty much all of my friends are around 30 and those party days are completely gone. Nobody has the time and energy anymore to party like a rockstar. Sometimes it makes me sad that nobody even tries to just go crazy again. You should see their reaction when I bring up a party. And even if I can get them out of the house, it’s just not the same. Everybody is too responsible now to just get wasted and let go. And trust me, I know that I’m not 16 anymore but sometimes, I would just like to pretend. But unless I can get everyone to stop thinking about how annoying they find the people, the music, the whole party and just enjoy the moment with their friends, it’s probably never going to happen again. I have to accept that we’ve grown out of it. The fact that almost everyone but me has been in a relationship for years, has a job and plans things like building houses and having babies, doesn’t really help, either. The thing is, I couldn’t imagine going through all the craziness again, either, but I just think that once in a while, it may actually be fun.

But I still love my girls and the memories will always stay very close to my heart. And a little bar-dancing, boy-kissing, vodka-drinking partygirl will always be a part of me, and I wouldn’t want to miss it for the world.

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Mixtape #17 – 2000s Flashback

Mixtape 2000s Flashback

Even though I am such a 90s girl and absolutely adore 90s music, I must say that the 2000s had some pretty good tunes, as well. I could’ve just made list, after list, after list. But 30 songs will just have to do for now. I don’t think I could pick a favorite, but I do share a lot of great memories with some of these songs. Prepare to feel like going through your old CD’s and having a dance party.

01. Eminem – Without Me
02. Rihanna feat. Jay-Z – Umbrella
03. Jennifer Lopez – Love Don’t Cost A Thing
04. Destiny’s Child – Bootylicious
05. Flo Rida feat. T-Pain – Low
06. Plain White T’s – Hey There Delilah
07. Nelly Furtado – Try
08. Evanescence – Bring Me To Life
09. Limp Bizkit – Rollin’
10. Justin Timberlake – Cry Me A River
11. Kelis – Milkshake
12. Gwen Stefani – Hey Baby
13. Blink 182 – All The Small Things
14. Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
15. Sean Paul – Get Busy
16. Crazytown – Butterfly
17. Fall Out Boy – Thnks Fr Th Mmrs
18. Avril Lavigne – Sk8er Boi
19. Emiliana Torrini – Jungle Drum
20. Lady Gaga – Pokerface
21. White Stripes – Seven Nation Army
22. Nelly feat. Kelly Rowland – Dilemma
23. Britney Spears – Oops…I Did It Again
24. Blue Cantrell feat. Sean Paul – Breathe
25. Madonna – Hung Up
26. Bon Jovi – It’s My Life
27. HIM – Join Me In Death
28. Shakira feat. Wyclef Jean – Hips Don’t Lie
29. Michelle Branch – All You Wanted
30. Delta Goodrem – Lost Without You

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Photography: Los Angeles

It’s actually been a while since I’ve visited Los Angeles but I thought, I would post some pictures from my two visits. (Yeah, yeah, and I was also too uninspired to actually write up a post.) I admit that it’s definitely not my favorite city in the world, which is a pretty unpopular opinion, but I honestly think it’s completely overrated and just hyped because of all the celebs and the usually fantastic weather. Sure, there are some fun places but I’ve just seen so many nicer cities. Still, almost every place has great things to see and I did have a good time. I love the Santa Monica Pier because I’m a total sucker for that kind of fun and visiting the original Charmed house was super cool. My 90s girl heart jumped up and down.

These are definitely not my best photos but I want to share them, anyway. We didn’t always have the best weather and both trips were a little rushed. I hardly had time to really explore everything and get a good look, but that’s just how it is, sometimes. If you’ve been to LA, let me know what you enjoyed the most.

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