#reading

43 Maneras de soltarse el pelo ~ Elvira Sastre
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#elvirasastre
#43manerasdesoltarseelpelo
#libros
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#frases
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#librosenespañol
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#readersofinstagram
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#librosymaslibros
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#amorporlalectura
#librosrecomendados
#leermola
#convertir
#existir
#huir
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd8G8cNj7i9/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

43 Maneras de soltarse el pelo ~ Elvira Sastre
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#elvirasastre
#43manerasdesoltarseelpelo
#libros
#lectura
#books
#reading
#bookstagram
#lecturarecomendada
#librosrecomendados
#frases
#textos
#escritos
#letras
#librosenespañol
#lectura
#leeresvida
#readersofinstagram
#readingaddict
#lectoras
#bookstagramespaña
#booklover
#bookstagrammer
#librosymaslibros
#cementeriodelibros
#amorporlalectura
#librosrecomendados
#leermola
#sentir
#alguien
#ser
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd8G5kljl_c/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

43 Maneras de soltarse el pelo ~ Elvira Sastre
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#elvirasastre
#43manerasdesoltarseelpelo
#libros
#lectura
#books
#reading
#bookstagram
#lecturarecomendada
#librosrecomendados
#frases
#textos
#escritos
#letras
#librosenespañol
#lectura
#leeresvida
#readersofinstagram
#readingaddict
#lectoras
#bookstagramespaña
#booklover
#bookstagrammer
#librosymaslibros
#cementeriodelibros
#amorporlalectura
#librosrecomendados
#leermola
#ser
#cualquiera
#facil
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd8G2a6DdYU/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Read my guide to getting into reading Agatha Christie!

This is the story of my life at the moment…
A new illustration that I’ll soon be adding to my Etsy shop!

At the end of January, after going to see the RSC’s Cycle of Kings at the Barbican I decided I wanted to complete a sketchbook and a large scale illustration inspired by Shakespeare’s plays Richard II, Henry IV part 1 & 2, and Henry V. This is a (very geeky) extract from my blog about the whole process - which you can read in full here!

Firstly, I needed to choose which animal was going to represent each King. Richard II’s emblem was the White Hart and I think the image of a Stag suits Richard – tall, slight, stately, rather decorative. And importantly, the Deer is a prey animal, something that was hunted and killed.
The choice for Henry V was obviously always going to be a lion. It was too famous an association to ignore, and it’s an image all over his flags/armour usually.
“Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth
Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,
As did the former lions of your blood.”
Henry IV was the one I had the most trouble with. He needed to be something practical, something fairly solid, but not too regal (that was my feeling anyway). In the end I chose a Bloodhound, as these were traditionally used in the hunting of stags, and had that slightly uncompromising, military aspect.

Very early in the play, Richard II, the Duchess of Gloucester makes a passionate speech to John of Gaunt and uses the metaphor of a tree to link the royal family together.
“Edward’s seven sons, whereof thyself art one,
Were as seven vials of his sacred blood,
Or seven fair branches springing from one root”
I really liked this image – and really it’s quite pivotal to the idea of who everybody is, how they’re all related, and later the Wars of the Roses – so I tried to bring it into my ideas. There are seven tines to Richard’s antlers, and a silhouetted tree with seven branches forms the background of the illustration.

The contrast between the three Kings was also important to me. Richard alone wears a crown. I wanted the ‘usurper’ King Henry and his son to remain bare-headed to reflect their questionable claim to the throne, their lack of ‘divine right’, and to reference the quote “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown” from Henry IV part 2. Richard is also depicted holding a mirror, rather than sword or sceptre, to reflect his vanity and lack of military success, as well as his preoccupation with the idea of what makes him a King rather than an ordinary man.
“For there it is, cracked in an hundred shivers.”

The idea of contrasting levels, high and low, (mentioned a lot throughout the tetralogy) was also something I wanted to include. Richard is sitting upon the ground, partly in reference to the famous “for God’s sake let us sit upon the ground” moment, but also because of the way he refers to Bolingbroke (Henry IV) ascending as he himself is brought down, be it the metaphor of the buckets in a well, or the cares that come with the crown.
“That bucket down and full of tears am I,
Drinking my griefs whilst you mount up on high.”
I wanted Henry IV to be sat upon the throne himself. I hoped to convey the feeling that once he’d won it, he would be loathe to ever leave it again, for fear someone would steal it away from him once more (as indeed Hotspur and his band of rebels try to do in part one). He lectures Hal about the dangers of being seen too much by the common people and I see Henry IV as a King who would shut himself up in the throne room for days at a time, very concerned that his conduct was always judged to be that of a King.

Finally, Henry V stands upright on the field of battle, clearly a warrior as well as a King. However, a dead crow lies at his feet alongside the skull of a Deer. One of my favourite little moments of Henry V is when he says;
“Not today, O Lord, O not today, think not upon the fault
My Father made in compassing the crown!”
The shadow of Richard’s deposition and murder are ever-present in the plays and I tried to show that even Henry V – the ‘star of England‘ – was still haunted by death, and doubts over the validity of his claim to the throne.There’s quite a few other little things in there but I could quite literally ramble on all day, and no one wants that, so I’ll maybe leave some parts unexplained, with an air of ambiguity (it’s nice to try and pretend to be mysterious every once in a while).I really enjoyed working on this project and plan to do three smaller front-facing portraits to go with it, as well as finishing off what’s left of my sketchbook.

Woodland birthday cards.
Available in my Not On The High Streetshop.

Follow me on Instagram! 
I post everyday about books (and my drawings, and often tea and cake.)

“But in truth, we are going nowhere. That, my friend, is the irony of our constant movement.”-Kate DiCamillo

“As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”-John Green

Attention fans of cyberpunk and gay, interspecies dating! The Glamour Thieves by Don Allmon is currently available on Kindle Unlimited. The book is FREE for subscribers until it leaves KU at the end of February. Non-subscribers can snag it for $3.99.

Summary:

JT is an orc on the way up. He’s got his own boutique robotics shop, high-end clientele, and deep-pocketed investors. He’s even mentoring an orc teen who reminds him a bit too much of himself back in the day.

Then Austin shows up, and the elf’s got the same hard body and silver tongue as he did two years ago when they used to be friends and might have been more. He’s also got a stolen car to bribe JT to saying yes to one last scheme: stealing the virtual intelligence called Blue Unicorn.

Soon JT’s up to his tusks in trouble, and it ain’t just zombies and Chinese triads threatening to tear his new life apart. Austin wants a second chance with JT — this time as more than just a friend—and even the Blue Unicorn is trying to play matchmaker. 

Get it on Amazon

Browse Riptide for more LGBTQ books on KU

For a limited time, get these wonderful LGBTQ titles for FREE with Kindle Unlimited. (Non-KU subscribers can still purchase at $3-$5 per book.) Between paranormal and fantasy, sweet romance and bikers, rock stars and firefighters, there’s a lot here to ❤️❤️❤️

Visit Riptide for book details and links

Blind Drunk Reads! // Ben Shapiro’s ‘Short Fiction’ (Part 1)

[reddit comments]

What’s a valuable life lesson you learned from fantasy?