Big Brother is Watching You.

Hands down, Nineteen Eighty-Four is my favourite book - and, in my opinion, George Orwell is by far the best novelist of the 20th Century. Animal Farm is a close second on my list, and was actually the first Orwell book that I read. Unfortunately I have fallen victim to the curse of lending books to friends and I haven't seen it for a couple of years now (although this morning, I finally ordered myself a snazzy new Penguin edition - which only cost me four pounds. I'm extremely grateful for the anniversary of Orwell's death occurring last week because all of the publishers are discounting all of his finest - a perfect opportunity to spend a bit of money). I also recently bought one of Orwell's essays (Such, Such Were the Joys - from which my journal name has been borrowed) for £0.99 in my local Waterstones and it is the best thing I've ever spent a pound on. It's very underrated compared to his more popular essay: Politics and the English Language, but I'm enjoying it so much, I'm having to ration the chapters for fear of reading it too fast. I suggest that you read it.

I'm so glad that I discovered Orwell at a younger age - the themes and situations that he incorporates, I think, are mainly relevant to the younger generations - and if it weren't for the some of the actions in the stories, I would readily recommend them to everyone capable of understanding the distopian genre that Orwell is so famous for. Funnily enough though, I've never been a big fan of H.G. Wells despite my love for Orwell. I tried reading The Time Machine earlier this year and I struggled to get past the first few chapters. Perhaps I'm too narrow minded about which novels will appeal to me - I might try again later.

I was struggling to decide which quotation to use in today's blip; so I'm going to finish with the alternative (which is the quotation which has always resonated with me, ever since I first read 1984): 'To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another - to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone.'