In which Demi reminisces and reads.

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It's funny how the strangest, most insignificant things can have a massive impact on you. This game, or rather its original form, is one of them. I cannot recommend this game highly enough, as I'm sure anyone else who has played it does. It is a work of sheer genius. And yet so simple and pure in concept.

When I was about seven years old, my cousin was heading off to University, and offered us his well-loved Nintendo 64 console and a handful of games, since he wouldn't have the time to play them. Ocarina of Time was one of them. Me and my brother were too young to be able to play it properly, and so every afternoon after school we would sit and direct our mum into running around, solving the puzzles and screaming encouragement as she wildly hacked in the boss fights.

It helped to form a tight bond between us. My younger sister was only about 4 at the time, and so doesn't remember these many, many afternoons, but we completed that game as a team. And years later, I find myself sat, peering over my mum's shoulder as she awkwardly manipulates my sister's DS with the new version, guiding her through the same temples that are so ingrained into mine and my brother's memory, but she has long forgotten the details of.

It made me love fantasy and adventure. It made me want to read of worlds unlike our own, to write countless (dreadful) stories involving princesses and heroes and villainous villains. And even now, years later, I like to indulge my geeky side and read something different. My latest buy was 'The Hero and the Crown' by Robin McKinley, which was sweeping and beautiful and emotional.

My current read is the Millenium series by Stieg Larsson, which could not be further away from the mythical, dragon-filled world of 'The Hero and the Crown', but is equally compelling, and I am coming to understand the hype surrounding these books.


I've just spent a healthy £40 on 9 novels for just one of my modules next year, all of which I'm hoping to read before the start of the new year. I'm excited again by reading books, rather than coming to dread it, as I was at the end of term. I always find it extremely theraputic to read something different, far from the highly regarded canon of literature, over the summer to let my mind free up and be ready for more intensive books for September time.


I'm off to tuck up in bed with my book and my sister's DS. Saving the world calls. xo.