Migraines, Tea, and Reading

 ~~~ i have been reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for 17 days now and i am almost finished. As i have said before this is my least favorite of the series. Please do not get me wrong it is a great story, as all the books in the series are. i just do not enjoy it as much. To me the characters just seem a little more passive in this book. i know it is only the second book in the series and the characters are young as well as the author being a young writer.  There is a fine balance when writing in how your characters develop and grow. i love the series and how this book fits in to the series truly.  i have this book several times before and am still finding new things that i did not catch the other time or may have forgotten and that is always nice. 

~~~ i am 83% done with the book i just have not had a lot of time to post on here as i have been reading the book. i have been fighting my migraines again and trying to get the other things that i need to do as well. i have been drinking Teavana's, Chocolate Bananas Foster herbal tea. i have to be very careful and not drink too much of this tea at a time or too often as it has rose hips peels and i am allergic to roses if i am smelling them, eating them, or drinking something with them in it. This tea is very sweet and a great dessert tea. As i am trying not to eat a lot of sweets this tea is great but as i said i can not have a lot of it because of the rose hip peels but i also have to be careful because i cannot have too much chocolate or bananas because they trigger migraines for me. i know this is not what has been giving the migraines though because i have had them on the days i have had this before i drank this tea.

HP:SS Complete

~~~ i finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone last night. As i have said before i am re-reading this whole series. It is like visiting old friends that i have not seen for a long time. This time however i am reading them on my Kindle Fire and one of the nice things about that is i can highlight my favorite lines without marring my First Editions. i will not write in a book, even in my school books. i will copy everything i need by hand into a notebook before i will write or highlight in a book. 

~~~ Okay, before i start ranting about people writing in books back to Harry Potter ..... 

SPOILERS WARNING for any who have not yet read the book....

Favorite Quotes:
1) He'll be famous - a legend - I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter Day in the future - there will be books written about Harry - every child in our world will know his name. - McGonagall
2) I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter. . . . .After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things - terrible, yes, but great things. - Ollivander
3) I hope you're please with yourselves. We could all have been killed - or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed." - Hermione
4) It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that. - Dumbledore
5) I believe your friends Misters Fred and George Weasley were responsible for trying to send you a toilet seat. - Dumbledore
6)To one as young as you, I'm sure it seems incredible, but to Nicolas and Perenelle, it really is like going to bed after a very, very long day. After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. - Dumbledore
7) You know, the Stone was really not such a wonderful thing. As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all - the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them. - Dumbledore
8) Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself. - Dumbledore
9) The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution. - Dumbledore
10) There are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. - Dumbledore

~~~ One of my favorite things in this book that is not a quote but a puzzle that i just adore is the Mirror of Erised. Around the top of the frame it says "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi" . . . . .  which is "I show not your face but your hearts desire" written backwards and spaced differently.  This mirror is the key to getting the Sorcerer's Stone at the end of the book.  

~~~ Now i am reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, of all of the books i think this one is probably  my least favorite but i will read it as i am re-reading the whole series in order.  i did start this one late last night after i finished the first but did not have a cup of tea with me as i was trying to fall asleep. Though right now i am thinking i will go and spend some time reading and enjoying a nice cup of tea before i got with a friend this afternoon. Maybe a cup of mint tea that my friend gave me to try. 

The Best Answer

~~~ When people see me reading my kindle i usually get asked if i am reading the Fifty Shades of Gray Series. Now i freely admit i have read them, i have no problem admitting that, it just annoys me that it is automatically assumed that when i am reading an e-reader that i must be reading erotica. When i tell them that i am reading the Harry Potter Series i usually get a comment about how they read them when they came out. And when i tell them i did too that i have a hard cover first edition copy of every book, as well as a paperback copy of every book, and the books both on my Kindle and my Nook i get strange looks, and asked why "again"?  i love these books and the world that J.K. Rowling created in them and re-reading is like visiting old friends. 

 ~~~ Right now Harry and Ron have just been sorted and are going to their first day of classes.  i have been busy and not been able to read so i am not as far along as i would like to be and i have not blogged about my reading as much as i would like to. Right now i am going to make myself a cup of tea and enjoy my Kindle and the candle i have burning right now. i think i am going to have Teavana's My Morning Mate Tea. i love chocolate and orange together but do not like oranges on their own. Even my orange juice has to be pulp free and ice cold.

~~~ i got the "eat. sleep. stitch." mug at my local cross stitch store as that is something else i love to do (see my projects blog). It is a huge mug that is a good size to be a soup bowl also, as it hold about 4 cups of tea (about 32oz.)

A Relaxing Morning

~~~ i hate cleaning and would much rather spend my day reading than do just about anything else besides my cross stitch. i love escaping this world into that of one of my books and just relaxing and letting all the stress and drama go. That is why i try to find some time every day to read.

~~~ As i said in one of my other posts i am re-reading the Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling. However this time i am reading them on my Kindle rather than the physical copies of the books that i have. The reason i am doing this is i can highlight on my Kindle and not mark up my physical books. i HATE when people write in books it makes me sick. i know it is called marginalia and that some of the best and most famous authors and thinkers have done / do it but i cannot stand it. Like "dog earing" and breaking spines i think it ruins the book. 


~~~ All of that being said, i am now to Chapter Five, Diagon Alley, i have yet to make my morning cup of tea but i am thinking of making myself a Thai Iced Tea but i am not going to add the ice.  In the winter i love the drink hot. It is made with a Thai Tea blend lose leaf tea, that my friend gave me (i am not sure where she got it but i found some on Tea Haven that i have ordered and if it is good i will link it), sugar (as this is a sweet drink), and dairy of some kind (i have used whole milk and liquid coffee creamers this time i am trying heavy whipping cream). The milk is supposed to float on top of the tea when served and be mixed in by the drinker. 

~~~ Today on top of having the tea i think i am going to light one of my candles and turn on some soft relaxing music as i read. Give myself the treat of a truly relaxing morning to start my busy day off with.

Harry Potter

~~~ i have read all the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling before but it has been a long time since i read them and i have been feeling a pull to read them again. Even though i own first editions of all seven books i am reading them on my Kindle this time so that i can highlight things that i want to be able to turn back to quickly. i will NEVER write in a book even in my text books for school. To me that is tantamount to vandalism and is sacrilege.

~~~ i have just started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for i think the 8th time. When the books came out i would re-read the whole series before every release of the next book. Now i am going to read through all of them this year as well as whatever other books i have the urge to read or re-read.

~~~ When i first read the books it is because of an acquaintance of mine who shared a mutual friend. We were going to help this mutual friend do some yard work at his grandparents cabin and the acquaintance was reading this book on the drive to the cabin. Being an avid reader myself i asked him about the book and he had just started reading it being on in the third chapter there is was not much of the story known yet. But he told me that he heard about it for a passenger on one of his flights, he was an airline steward, and that he picked it up because the pope at the time wanted to ban the books because they dealt with magic. That right there made me pick up the book and give it a try. And i fell in love with the story and was on the reserve list for the release of every book in the series and there the day they came out to pick up my copy.

~~~ While reading this book and writing this blog tonight i am drinking Pumpkin Spice Brulee tea from Teavanna. A bountiful harvest of sweetness and spice, this warming oolong is an impeccable accompaniment to crisp autumn days. A balanced swirl of rich pumpkin and flavors of caramel, toffee, butterscotch, and creamy vanilla, this rich and smooth cup is a sublime indulgence for the body and mind any time of day. Richly sweet and creamy white and dark chocolate meets sweet pumpkin and toffee flavors, with an undertone of sweet spice and mocha.  Being as i am reading a book about magic that brings to mind fall and Halloween i thought this tea would be perfect right now.  This is a new tea to my collection and am i am truly enjoying it. 

~~~ A good cup of tea is always perfection with a good book and a great way to relax.

Hello

~~~ i know i have a lot of blogs going and i could put them all into one thing but i have found that i like keeping things separate and themed.  It makes things easier and this way if you want to know only about the books then you can look here, my religion then you can look at Pagan and Proud, my life is Forever In Search of my Muse, and my crafts are at lady ice's Projects, while my life in pictures shows pictures of what i see around my daily life, and my FLYing Blog is my attempt to control CHAOS.

~~~ i love to read and i always take a book or an e-reader with me anywhere i go. i own two Kindles and a Nook as well as hundreds of books. And as this blog says a good book and a good cup of tea are all i need. i am not a coffee drinker, in fact i hate the taste of coffee and cannot eat or drink anything that i can taste coffee in. However i LOVE tea and will drink several cups a day. i am very picky about what teas i drink they have to be of good quality, Lipton does not cut it. i have a hutch full of teas from Elmwood Inn and Teavanna. Yes, they are expensive but in tea as well as other things you can taste the difference. 

~~~ As i read a good book i will have a cup tea with me most times and though it may take me a long time to get through a book i will post at random about what book i am reading and what i am drinking at that time. WARNING THERE WILL BE SPOILERS though i will try not to give away the ending of the book. i am one who will read a book even if i know how it ends and what happens in because i want to experience it for myself. i will also re-read books many times revisiting old friends and finding new things.