new to the blog? hello and welcome (& a few highlights)

Hello and welcome if you're a new (or relatively new) reader of Paper Lovestory :) I've been blogging on here for over five years now and to read five years' of blog posts is a little scary. Therefore, I thought I'd do a mini re-introduction of myself and feature a few blog posts that help explain what this blog is about.

A Little Bit About The Author
So, hello there! I'm Angela and I'm a 25 year old medical student. I took the long route to medschool by doing a degree in Biochemistry first. Exams permitting, I'm now just under two years to becoming a doctor and I've been showing this journey from second year of Biochemistry, up until now. My aim is to continue doing so :)

I've chosen a few blog post highlights that are my particular favourites from the different things I blog about.

* A favourite topic of mine is stationery. I once suggested twenty-two ideas for notebook usage and lately, I've really gotten to appreciate and love fountain pens.

* As a university student, I also like sharing study-related posts and images. One of my favourite university-related posts is this one, where I talk about categorising and condensing huge topics. For other posts from the same category, click here for the university tag, and here for the studyblr tag. The difference between the two tags is that the studyblr one is usually more pictorial.

* Since April 2012, I've featured my weekly planner pages every Sunday. A particular favourite of mine is this one from week #157.

* One other thing I like doing is try and be creative in as many ways as possible - though I'm not the most creative person in the world, I don't see this as a barrier. One of these ways I try and be creative is in my diary or in my study notes. These next two posts are going back in time a bit now so the photo quality isn't as good:

1. keeping creative diary pages
2. more ways to be creative in your planner

* Finally, I'm a complete and utter bookworm (I'm someone who prefers to curl up in bed, in my PJs, with a good book rather than spend it frittering away money in a sweaty club where strangers don't understand the concept of personal space and grind against others... However, I'm partial to a nice pub with a lovely beer garden!). On here, you'll find regular book reviews - at the moment, they are every two months or so but they may be upgraded to monthly if time allows/I read enough to warrant more regular posts!

Two favourite books of mine that I read this year are: My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga and Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.

So, this is what Paper Lovestory is about in a nutshell. Are there any topics you'd like me to cover in the future? :) Feel free to tweet me @paperlovestory too - I'm not overly active on Twitter but I do try! One of my aims this year was to make a Youtube video but I'm just too camera shy to have the courage to do that so maybe next year (when I grow a pair)?

my week #190

How on earth is it already December?! Instead of a conventional advent calendar this year, I'm reading The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder and The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. The Christmas Mystery lends itself well as an alternative to a chocolate advent calendar as it is split into one chapter a day from the 1st to the 24th of December.

I started my five-week block of paediatrics this week and I must confess that I'm not overly excited by it all. It's all interesting and I'm learning a lot but this is a specialty that just isn't for me.

what's in my bag #17: clinical placement edition

The last time I did a what's in my bag whilst on placement was a year ago and a fair bit has changed since.

Contents (top left clockwise): some cash, a snack, a small A6 Iconic notebook, a Bkr bottle (more on this soon!), iPhone, stethoscope, Caudalie lip balm, mints, a cheap black gel pen and my Lamy Safari.

This year, I'm on placement for 40 weeks in total (with the rest made up of lecture weeks or exams). I'm really feeling like medschool has ramped up a level: gone are the half days where we have lectures in the morning and an afternoon off or vice versa! Though I guess this is just preparation for those twelve hour days (or more) that I'll be working in the future (are such long hours ever safe? That's a debate for another time.).

Another thing I've done this year is adjust my bag on the pretence that I won't be leaving the ward for at least four hours hence the presence of a snack (and also because, long ward rounds). This ensures that I don't hit the floor due to a low blood sugar and that I also have something to look forward to at the end!

I try and ensure that I wear clothes with pockets (why do so few dresses and skirts have pockets?! Women need them too!). These pockets are usually crammed with more equipment such as a pen torch, some neurotips, cotton wool, medical tape and another pen or two. I've already stopped carrying the Oxford Handbook around on a daily basis (it still comes with me to clinic though!) due to its weight and the lack of space available for it in the tiny bag.

If you do a course where you're on placements, what do you carry around with you?

rifle paper co x classic novels = a pretty bookshelf

Earlier this summer, I dug out my original Harry Potter books to see that they were all falling apart - due to an extortionate amount of use rather than poor storage - and so, I ordered some replacements (but still keeping the old ones just because). This got me thinking: what other books do I want to have on my bookshelf? What are some classics that I know I will read time and time again? This led me to purchase the following four books: Little Women, Heidi, A Little Princess and Anne of Green Gables. Partially influenced by the fact they came in a 'set' where all four have covers designed by Rifle Paper Co, I succumbed and entered my credit card details whilst vowing not to spend needlessly next year to compensate for this spree!

I first read Little Women in my early teens and I remember loving it. Looking at it, I can't believe I had an attention span that kept reading a book this long! Although I vaguely remember bits and pieces of the plot, I'll have to read this again in the near future as a refresher.

Anne of Green Gables was another classic that I read but for the life of me, I can't remember a single thing about it! This needs to rectified and quickly. And it's a good job that this edition has a wonderfully illustrated cover - one that will look pretty on my bedside table where it will entice me to read a chapter or two before sleep comes knocking.

A Little Princess is another book I can't remember much about! Recently, I put together a spreadsheet of all the books I've read since mid-2012 (with some gaps as I didn't keep a proper record in 2012) and I've read 130 but that's no excuse for forgetting a book's plot. However, it gives me a reason to read A Little Princess again and with a cover like this, it's likely that I'll read it over and over again.

When I first read Heidi, I remember having a vivid imagination about the mountains and the goat. I remember trying to imagine the taste of goat's milk - I hadn't tried it before at this point and imagined it to be quite sweet - and also the smell of fresh mountain air. At the time, the air wasn't hard to imagine as we lived in the Highlands of Scotland where we were surrounded by green fields. I think this was the book that made me fall in love with reading because it was the one that got my imagination whirring. It was a hard read for me but I persevered and the end result was worth it.

My 'to be read' pile is outrageous at the moment and adding these to it surely won't help. However, I'm hoping that these cute covers will keep me from the temptation of buying other classic novels in pretty editions. I might even have to adopt a 'one in, one out' policy just to ensure I get through this pile!

Do you get influenced by beautiful covers? What's your favourite book design?