Quotes to live by

Quotes, quotes, quotes! You can find them everywhere, whether it’s in a book, a movie or a song. There are quotes about everything, such as, best friend quotes, humour quotes, art quotes, inspirational quotes and many more! People use quotes to describe how they feel or to put it as a caption under their picture. Some even write quotes to express themselves. I, personally, like quotes because they have so much meaning in them and can be interpreted in so many different ways!

I’m going to share with you guys some of my favourite quotes and some quotes that have inspired me!

•        “Just remember who you are... The world will try to change you into someone else. Don't let them. That's the best advice anyone can give you.” ― Cinda Williams Chima, The Warrior Heir ¹

It truly is the best advice anyone can give you! The world will try and make you like everyone else, but you have to challenge yourself to stay who you are. It’s always best to stay true to who you are. In the end, you can’t impress everyone because nobody‘s perfect. Don’t try and change yourself so others can notice you, because even if they did, you will not live a happy life. You will live your life pretending to be someone you’re not and you will lose the people that actually care about you. It’s always better to have a few close friends who like you for who you are, than to have a whole group of friends that like you for who you’re not.

• “You don’t forget the face of the person who was your last hope.” ― Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games ²

This quote applies to so many fantasy books that I read. When the person who helped them, guided them and gave them all the answers is no longer there, life becomes hard. They don’t know what to do or where to go. They lose hope, but they have to try and regain it and continue life on their own.

This can also apply to many of us! When the person you look up to the most (whether it’s a family member, a friend or a celebrity) is gone, your life changes. There is no one to tell your secrets to, no one to help you through a hard time and no one to make you smile when you’re down. That’s when we have to become more independent and take everything that we've learned from that person and use it to help us continue our journey in life.

The picture is from here!

•  I always save the bests for last! This quote is my favourite one out of them all! It's 100% true and it describes us all. We all make bad choices sometimes, but it doesn't make us bad people. It's just that we all use our dark side every once in a while. We have the ability to choose between being good and bad and the one we choose shows who we truly are, that's what's most important!

To sum up, I love quotes! They can be your motto, something that you live by or just a sentence that you like. I have showed you guys a few of my favourite quotes. If any of you have some quotes that you would like to share, comment below! 

1- http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/fantasy-fiction

2- http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2792775-the-hunger-games

One of my favourites!

When it comes to reading books, I usually go for fantasies. I like to get out of the real world and see a different world in which wizards, vampires, werewolves and other fictional characters live in. Even though sometimes they just live on earth, I like to see their perspective of things, how they live, and what they think of humans. When I read a book and I love the way the story is written or I fall in love with one of the characters, then that book becomes one of my favourites. I’m sure many of you have read a book, whether at home or in class, and suddenly thought that this book could be one of your favourites. I’m going to talk to you about one of my favourite books! Well, one of my favourite series.

First three books in the series.
Picture taken from here

One of my favourite series is the Lorien Legacies, a series of books written by James Frey and Jobie Hughes. Many of you may know the movie that was based on the first book, “I am Number Four”. I loved the books so far, they always leave me wanting to read more! In brief, there’s a planet called Lorien that has been invaded by mogadorians (the bad people). Only nine children and their guardians have lived and they came to earth. Each child is named after their number and they have their own legacies (powers). They discover those legacies as they grow up. Their guardians are training them in order to get back what was once theirs. The mogadorians have followed them to earth and are trying to kill them before they grow stronger. They killed the first three of the nine, and the other six are trying to find each other to train and gain as much strength to defeat the mogadorians. I’m not sure how many books there are in the series because they are not done being written. I finished reading the fourth book a few weeks ago, which was released on August 27, 2013. There’s usually a year interval between each book publication. I don’t like the fact that I’m going to have to wait a year before reading the next book, especially because they ended the fourth book with a cliff hanger.

Alex Pettyfer plays number four or John
in the movie. This pictures was taken
from here

What I loved most about this book was the characters, mostly the six kids that are left. They may seem just like normal kids, but they have such strong characters. They were all so different from each other, from their personalities to their style of clothing. Despite their differences, they get along very well and there is a lot of teamwork involved.

I also loved the setting! They went to so many different places around the world and the way it was described made it seem amazing! Also, they talk a lot about Lorien, the world they lived in and the scenery seems so beautiful from everything written about it. I hope they win this war and go back to Lorien so I can find out more about it!

The story gets me every time. There is always something new, always added obstacles that prevent them from either training or finding each other. It always keeps me wondering what’s going to happen next. There are times where those obstacles take them into another obstacle which makes is harder to get out of it.

All in all, I loved every second of every book and I recommend it to many people that are into action and fantasy. I hope you enjoyed this week’s blog! That’s all for today!

Also, if you would like to find out which legacy you have, you can click here! If you would like to know more information about the characters and author then click here! Enjoy!

How much do you really know about witches?

This picture was taken from here

What comes to mind when you think of witches? Old women with green faces, a pointy hat and a broomstick or old women stirring up some potions in a cauldron? When reading a story about witches, no one really stops and thinks: “Hmm, where do witches come from? I wonder what their history is.” To most people, it’s just a fictional story.

Although, witches have originated from somewhere and believe it or not, it originated with the human civilization itself¹. Witches have their own religion called witchcraft, which dates back to about 40,000 years ago! They would help people solve their problems. “The witches prayed to the higher powers or the spirits for help and guidance in resolving the problem by performing certain rituals and the whole process was called witchcraft.”¹

Who would have ever thought that witchcraft was a religion practised by many people? Nowadays, most witches are perceived as mean and evil beings. In the fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel, the story proves this theory by showing us how the witch took in the kids to try and fatten up Hansel and eat him. For those of you who don’t know the story, I’ll put a video below that will show it to you. 

More picture can be found here

In the University of Alberta, they've found a book about witches that is almost 550 years old! ² That’s pretty old for a book if you ask me. If you’d like to find out more about the book and see more pictures then you can click here! Many books have been written about witches and witchcraft in the past. One of those books includes The Crucible by Arthur Miller. It’s a book that’s been written based on the Salem witch trials in which many people were accused of using witchcraft. Back then, witchcraft was known as the devil’s magic. It’s a very interesting book, so go check it out!

The modern version of witches is quite different than the witches in the past. There are good ones and there are bad ones. In J. K. Rowling’s famous Harry Potter series, most witches are good, but others have decided to join the dark side. One of my favourite book series which include witches is the Beautiful Creatures series, written by Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia³. Witches are referred to as casters. There are light casters and the dark ones. It’s a typical love story between a human named Ethan and a caster named Lena. They face so many different obstacles and the plot line is excellent! I loved every second of it and I’ll gladly read them over and over again!

I hope you all learned something new today about witches, because I know I did. If there is any other fantasy characters you would like to learn more about, please let me know in the comments below!

¹ http://www.witchcraft.com.au/origin-of-witchcraft.html

2 http://ualberta.tumblr.com/post/50360610704/its-witchcraft

3 http://beautifulcreaturesauthors.com/