Reading 27 Billion Books: Reading Update 3.25
Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog!
First off, I hope that you all are healthy and safe and are staying at home if you can. I know that this is a really tumultuous time for pretty much everyone so I want to thank everyone who is either working to eradicate this virus or working to help comfort those affected by it, and everyone else.
So my anxiety has been ~awful~ the past few weeks because, well, why wouldn't it be at a time like this. I haven't left my house in over three weeks, school is now all online and it's possible that this semester just won't even count toward my degree, and the only person-to-person conversations I've had for a month now have been with my parents.
However one bright side to look at with all this, is that I've had a ton of free time to read. I've been reading basically nonstop, just flying through book after book.
Aside from my series binge of Attack on Titan, I'm in the middle of like, four different books at the moment. I also just got a little haul, and I have several books on hold with Libby (once again, not sponsored by I just love Libby and use it literally every day).
So, let's talk about the books that I'm reading.
First off, I'm about 100 pages into Dragonslayer by Duncan M. Hamilton. It's the first in a high fantasy series that came out last (?) year and is about a land that has been living in peace for the past 1000 years after they seemingly destroyed all of the dragons, but unfortunately for them they missed one that wakes up and, seeing his race exterminated, begins to seek vengeance on the humans. I am really enjoying it but I just haven't been in a big epic fantasy mood recently so it's been put on the backburner for now.
I'm also reading Anna K: A Love Story by Jenny Lee, which is a modern retelling of Anna Karenina that came out in February. I was not expecting this to be satire, but holy hell that's what it is. I haven't read Anna Karenina yet so I can't entirely speak on the retelling aspect of it, but from what I know of the original story, it's pretty accurate. I will say that I don't think Anna K will be a book that will age well, simply because it's very clearly set around the political, environmental, and social issues of 2019/2020. It's similar to Red, White and Royal Blue in that aspect, where its like this story wouldn't make sense if it was in a different place or time setting. You very much need the intimate knowledge that only experience can give for this book. It is specifically catered to young adults living right now. All that being said, it's hilarious and honestly just the right amount of distracting that I need right now. There's something about rich New York socialites that is just so fascinating. If you like Gossip Girl or Sex and the City, I think you would like this book.
A couple of days ago I decided to pick up an old favorite of mine, the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull. Fablehaven is a middle grade 5-book series similar to The Spiderwick Chronicles, about a magical preserve full of fairy tale creatures that are potentially harmful to humans. The first book came out in 2005 I think, so it's been a hot minute. I was completely obsessed with these books growing up. Brandon Mull always came to my city for book signings at Borders (Borders! Doesn't that just take you back) so all of my copies are signed and personalized to me. I had posters, t-shirts, canvas bags all for this series. It was the first true fandom I was a part of that was mine and mine alone; I tend not to count Harry Potter because it was my sister that really got me into it as a kid.
Currently I'm on book two of the series, The Rise of the Evening Star. It's so nice to dive back into this world. I never really reread these books as opposed to Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, so I hardly remember anything from them. It feels good to be a kid sometimes, doesn't it?
The last book I'm working on at the moment I just started today, and that is Dead Voices by Katherine Arden, the sequel to Small Spaces. It's another middle grade (I guess I'm in a mood?) and it's a horror series. The first actually really freaked me out. For some reason, I feel like horror meant for middle grade is scarier than adult horror. Don't ask me why, because I can't really explain it. And this is specifically books too, because you all know I can't handle any kind of horror movie. But I read Small Spaces in about four hours, in the middle of a bright sunny day and I was legitimately shivering in fright. I feel like it would make a great movie, a la Hocus Pocus. I know I've said all this before, but I still stand by it! I hope Dead Voices lives up to its predecessors name.
Real quick I'll talk about the books I recently purchased. I've been so good this year so far, not buying any novels and really focusing on expanding my manga collection, but I had to buy a couple books for school and decided what the hell, let's get some others on my wishlist. The books for class I bought were Maus by Art Spiegelman and Barefoot Gen, vol. 1 by Keiji Nakazawa. My cultural and literary theory class has a graphic novel section and these are the two we're focusing on. They're both autobiographical narratives about WWII, one from a Polish man about the Nazi occupation and the concentration camps, and another about a Japanese boy after Hiroshima.
The books I got for fun were all on my amazon wishlist, one I've read and two are series continuations on my TBR. I picked up Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno, a magical realism f/f romance (5 stars, absolutely would recommend, trigger warning for rape/sexual assault); Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden which is the third and final book in her Winternight trilogy, an epic fantasy set in Russia, I've only read the first one but now I have the last two; and Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson, the third and final book in her Truly Devious series, a dual-timeline murder mystery. I've read the first two books and now I just need to finish it off!
Alright, I think that's all I have for this update. How are you guys doing with the isolation? It's mandatory here and it's driving my boyfriend nuts that I'm following it (he's not the kind of guy that takes these things seriously and it bugs me but I think it's finally getting through to him that this is the real deal). What are you ways to cope with stress and boredom? Let me know either in the comments, or tweet at me!
Until next time!
First off, I hope that you all are healthy and safe and are staying at home if you can. I know that this is a really tumultuous time for pretty much everyone so I want to thank everyone who is either working to eradicate this virus or working to help comfort those affected by it, and everyone else.
So my anxiety has been ~awful~ the past few weeks because, well, why wouldn't it be at a time like this. I haven't left my house in over three weeks, school is now all online and it's possible that this semester just won't even count toward my degree, and the only person-to-person conversations I've had for a month now have been with my parents.
However one bright side to look at with all this, is that I've had a ton of free time to read. I've been reading basically nonstop, just flying through book after book.
Aside from my series binge of Attack on Titan, I'm in the middle of like, four different books at the moment. I also just got a little haul, and I have several books on hold with Libby (once again, not sponsored by I just love Libby and use it literally every day).
So, let's talk about the books that I'm reading.
First off, I'm about 100 pages into Dragonslayer by Duncan M. Hamilton. It's the first in a high fantasy series that came out last (?) year and is about a land that has been living in peace for the past 1000 years after they seemingly destroyed all of the dragons, but unfortunately for them they missed one that wakes up and, seeing his race exterminated, begins to seek vengeance on the humans. I am really enjoying it but I just haven't been in a big epic fantasy mood recently so it's been put on the backburner for now.
I'm also reading Anna K: A Love Story by Jenny Lee, which is a modern retelling of Anna Karenina that came out in February. I was not expecting this to be satire, but holy hell that's what it is. I haven't read Anna Karenina yet so I can't entirely speak on the retelling aspect of it, but from what I know of the original story, it's pretty accurate. I will say that I don't think Anna K will be a book that will age well, simply because it's very clearly set around the political, environmental, and social issues of 2019/2020. It's similar to Red, White and Royal Blue in that aspect, where its like this story wouldn't make sense if it was in a different place or time setting. You very much need the intimate knowledge that only experience can give for this book. It is specifically catered to young adults living right now. All that being said, it's hilarious and honestly just the right amount of distracting that I need right now. There's something about rich New York socialites that is just so fascinating. If you like Gossip Girl or Sex and the City, I think you would like this book.
A couple of days ago I decided to pick up an old favorite of mine, the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull. Fablehaven is a middle grade 5-book series similar to The Spiderwick Chronicles, about a magical preserve full of fairy tale creatures that are potentially harmful to humans. The first book came out in 2005 I think, so it's been a hot minute. I was completely obsessed with these books growing up. Brandon Mull always came to my city for book signings at Borders (Borders! Doesn't that just take you back) so all of my copies are signed and personalized to me. I had posters, t-shirts, canvas bags all for this series. It was the first true fandom I was a part of that was mine and mine alone; I tend not to count Harry Potter because it was my sister that really got me into it as a kid.
Currently I'm on book two of the series, The Rise of the Evening Star. It's so nice to dive back into this world. I never really reread these books as opposed to Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, so I hardly remember anything from them. It feels good to be a kid sometimes, doesn't it?
The last book I'm working on at the moment I just started today, and that is Dead Voices by Katherine Arden, the sequel to Small Spaces. It's another middle grade (I guess I'm in a mood?) and it's a horror series. The first actually really freaked me out. For some reason, I feel like horror meant for middle grade is scarier than adult horror. Don't ask me why, because I can't really explain it. And this is specifically books too, because you all know I can't handle any kind of horror movie. But I read Small Spaces in about four hours, in the middle of a bright sunny day and I was legitimately shivering in fright. I feel like it would make a great movie, a la Hocus Pocus. I know I've said all this before, but I still stand by it! I hope Dead Voices lives up to its predecessors name.
Real quick I'll talk about the books I recently purchased. I've been so good this year so far, not buying any novels and really focusing on expanding my manga collection, but I had to buy a couple books for school and decided what the hell, let's get some others on my wishlist. The books for class I bought were Maus by Art Spiegelman and Barefoot Gen, vol. 1 by Keiji Nakazawa. My cultural and literary theory class has a graphic novel section and these are the two we're focusing on. They're both autobiographical narratives about WWII, one from a Polish man about the Nazi occupation and the concentration camps, and another about a Japanese boy after Hiroshima.
The books I got for fun were all on my amazon wishlist, one I've read and two are series continuations on my TBR. I picked up Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno, a magical realism f/f romance (5 stars, absolutely would recommend, trigger warning for rape/sexual assault); Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden which is the third and final book in her Winternight trilogy, an epic fantasy set in Russia, I've only read the first one but now I have the last two; and Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson, the third and final book in her Truly Devious series, a dual-timeline murder mystery. I've read the first two books and now I just need to finish it off!
Alright, I think that's all I have for this update. How are you guys doing with the isolation? It's mandatory here and it's driving my boyfriend nuts that I'm following it (he's not the kind of guy that takes these things seriously and it bugs me but I think it's finally getting through to him that this is the real deal). What are you ways to cope with stress and boredom? Let me know either in the comments, or tweet at me!
Until next time!
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