Hi! So it's Tuesday afternoon. I better start this reading vlog. There are two
physical books that I'm primarily trying to read this week and the first is the
Skies of Pern, which is the 16th book in the Dragons of Pern series. I'm about 150
pages into this. So far this book is all about these Dragons of Pern. The Dragons
protect the world from this thread that comes down and eats everything away but
in a book before this some things have happened that mean that soon the Dragons
won't need to do that anymore and there's also a lot of new technology and
just new knowledge that the world is starting to use. There's also some people
who really don't want to use that technology. They're very traditional and
they want to keep with the traditional way of doing things, even if it's
definitely worse for everyone. And they're getting very destructive towards
the new technology. I will say, I don't particularly enjoy the writing style of
these books. Also, I keep thinking we're going to focus on a particular character
and then we just move on because it's more a story about society rather than a
story about particular characters. So even when we touch on issues that
particular characters are having it's really only dealt with in terms of how
it's affecting society. So it's much more of a broad story and it doesn't really
get into a detailed plot. Anyway, I want to try and read this in the next couple
of days so I'm going to try and do that. Although I have just gotten a job
interview on Friday and while part of me is glad that means I have a few days to
prepare, another part of me is a bit annoyed because it means that I've got a
few days to be nervous and stressed about it. And I know that if I'm nervous
and stressed about it, it'll be hard for me to focus on my reading. So... and I
mean also all the other stuff that I'm supposed to be doing other than reading
because one of my reading goals is to not let my reading disrupt my normal
life and obviously job interviews are priority over...
reading books. Sadly! Anyway, I also want to really finish that so that I can move
on to Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson. This is a short story set in the Stormlight
Archives world, between the second book and the third book in the series. I
recently read the second book which is called the Way of Kings...
is the Way of Kings the first one? Or the second one? Words of Radiance? I never
remember which way around they go. Anyway! It's in between the second and third
books so I'm up to reading it. It's only little and short and I know I'm gonna
love it so I'm super excited to get to it.
Also audiobooks! I am listening to the Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White and
it's really making me want to get more into the world of Arthur and Camelot,
especially after having read the Cathedral of Myth and Burn by Kat Howard
last month, which has the short story which is an Arthur retelling. So I think
I'm going to dig out the 1998 Merlin miniseries because I have this vague
memory of watching it when I was younger and I feel like it's a retelling that's
fairly close to the original source material. Though I believe the original
source material is like very varied and lots of different versions of the story.
Anyway, I think I'm going to dig that out and try and watch that. But I also have
this job interview to prep for and a couple of other jobs that I really should be
applying for even though I know that if I get this one that I'm interviewing for
on Friday I'll take those and not the other ones
so then should I even apply for the other ones yet? I don't know. It's very
annoying applying for jobs instead of just magically being given them. But
that's the realities of life! Otherwise I don't think much else is going on this
week. You never know what will happen! So let's see!
Good afternoon! So I've just been filming some TBR videos for the readathons that
are coming up next week and they were kind of silly so I hope you guys enjoy
that. And I thought I'd just give you an reading update. So I have been reading
Skise of Pern. I'm going pretty slow but I think I might have read another 70
pages... maybe? I really want to finish this today just so that I can tick it off but
I don't know that it's going to happen because I'm trying to do a job interview
prep as well as getting my videos out for the week. I don't know how I'm even
going to have time to actually have a job but we'll work that out I guess.
This a natural disaster just happened and it's been really interesting seeing
how they use the dragons in handling that disaster. There's also and this is
slight spoilers so if you care, skip a little bit, but the dragons at some point
in the series learn the ability to jump through time as well as through space
and so they're able to use that time jumping ability to help them deal with
the disaster in there like a really timely fashion. So that's cool.
But as I said, the actual writing, not that great. The other thing that I
have been reading is the Guinevere Deception and honestly, I really need to
watch that Merlin show. I almost watched some last night but I forgot to take my
iPad with me into the bath, which is where I usually watch TV shows. Honestly,
watching TV shows in the bath is far superior to watching TV shows on the
sofa. But anyway, I've only got an hour and a half left of the Guinevere
Deception. I will say I love the change that was made to the character Lancealot.
But I'm not sure about a certain plot point is happening at the momen,t
whether that's in any of the original myth or whether it's been added. But
regardless, I don't like it and I wish it wasn't happening.
Also there was kind of like this big twist that happened to Guinevere herself,
not so much of a twist for the reader I don't think but definitely it was
shocking to Guinevere and I was surprised that she didn't have more of a reaction
to that. And I'm still really not enjoying the narration style of this
particular audiobook. Anyway, an hour and a half to go so I'm excited to see how
it's going to end. I'll go for a walk later this afternoon with my mum and my
sister and her dog and we'll probably finish this off while I'm on that walk. I
think that's all for now so see you in a moment.
Hi! So I've just spent like the last hour or more practicing interview questions
talking to myself. I feel like I'm going a little bit crazy now so I thought I
would update you guys instead of talking to myself anymore
cause bleh. So last night I did finish off the Guinevere Deception when I was
walking home. I did think it was pretty good. There were some twists of the and
where I actually had to pause the audio book just to think about the family tree
in my head and work out that certain things weren't true. It was a bit
confusing but in the end I thought it was pretty good.
I'm probably only gonna give it three stars cause I just thought it was like
okay YA fantasy. Not necessarily anything amazing but it's still a fun,
enjoyable read if you don't want anything too mind-blowing. I imagine that
a lot of people will enjoy it. I know I did enjoy my reading experience for sure.
So after I finished that I started the One by John Marrs. This is all about a
future where people can get a genetic test to hook them up with their soulmate
and it's just a bunch of different people in different circumstances
meeting their soul mates or not meeting their soul mates as the case is.
My favorite character is definitely the one who is a serial killer and just kind of
put it in as a joke to see who his soulmate was and now the experience is
not what he expected. But I do think it's a little bit confusing keeping track of
the different characters. Some of them are quite similar and it makes me wonder
whether this would almost be better told as like a short story anthology with just
each of the stories told separately rather than being interleaved. Because at
least so far the stories don't interrelate in any way so there's no
reason why they need to be told in this way. I guess we'll see whether when I get
further through if things start to relate a bit more but at the moment, not
really. Also today I did go and buy some little post-it notes tabs and I've
stuck them in the back of Edgedancer because I've decided I'm gonna try and
like mark the bits that I like. Even though it's a library book so I have to
take them all out. But I just thought it might help me
to gather my thoughts at the end. I don't know, we're gonna try that. Also last night I did
start watching the Merlin miniseries and I'm quite enjoying it. There were
definitely some bits that I thought were hilarious.
And I because I've been preparing for this job interview, I've got like
software development stuff in my head and so there's this part where this evil
king is trying to build this tower and it's not going well and there were just
so many scenes that I felt sometimes really relate to like a software
development environment. Maybe it's just me but I yeah, they definitely made me
laugh thinking about it in that way. "it's a fine position for a new castle."
"It will be impregnable your majesty.
No army will take it."
"How does it go?" "Fine sire, fine"
"Run for your lives!!!"
"Tell me what happened?" " ummmm...
"Guards! Take him away!" "It shouldn't have done that!"
"Get me a different architect!"
"Why won't it stand? "I'm a soothsayer sir. Not an architect."
"If you are a soothsayer, you should know"
"Tell me why every time I try to rebuild the tower, it collapses."
"Ummmm... you think I should know that?
"Well I'll read the stones!"
"why is it I surround myself with a bunch of incompetent fools?"
"It seems to be holding up this time your majesty"
"Never fear! The foundations are as solid...
"You were saying?"
"Your majesty! I found him!"
"Your Majesty is in danger of seeming a little stupid"
Hello! So it's Sunday now. I was gonna update you sooner after my job interview
but my brain was not behaving. Last night the "funnest" thing was that I realized
that one of my answers to the interview questions wasn't very good and my brain
came up with a better answer and it decided to keep telling me the better
answer, even though, like I agree it's a better answer. I'll take that on board for
next time, you know. But I can't go back in time and give the better answer! So
anyway, overall I think that interview went okay but we'll just have to see whether
I'm what they are looking for. You never know right?
Hopefully they won't take too long to get back to me. So reading update, I have
been listening to the one and I'm actually getting quite near the end now
and I may have decided that it's okay the way that it's until interleaved the
stories rather than just doing them as short stories because something did
happen in one of the stories that maybe then has an impact on the others.
Although maybe it'd be fine if that was still the last story in the short story
anthology. It would have made you want to go back and reread all the other ones.
Anyway, I am enjoying it. Pretty much all the stories have like lots of twists
and turns and just unexpected things happening and things you would never
have thought of questioning when you meet your soulmate. Yeah, I'm really
enjoying it. One thing though. There is a character from New Zealand, which I'm
from New Zealand! And then I was listening to it like, let's let's listen,
Maybe I will listen to it on 1.5x because that's how I'm listening to it. When I
heard that I was like, what kind of accent is that? It's not a New Zealand
accent! And then I then I was like New Zealand... New Zealand... oh my goodness we do
just say New Zealand like that. People would always take the piss of how New
Zealanders say New Zealand but like we do say it that way! Terrible, terrible.
Anyway it's nice to have a New Zealand character in there even if they're not a
super main character. Always got to have some New Zealand representation, right?
But I'm honestly still reading the Skies of Pern and I'm questioning my life
choices but I'm gonna try really hard to finish it today. Today I'm also trying to
finish some video stuff out that I was supposed to have already done and some
a million other things that I was supposed to already done and I haven't
done them. But this I'm gonna finish. I'm a bit annoyed that I'm probably not
gonna get to Edgedancer this week but I mean, maybe, we'll see.
Hi so it's Monday the next day and I've been meaning to finish up this vlog
all day and I have been not doing that. What have I been doing?
Hmm I'm not really sure? Anyway. Let's wrap up this vlog. So last night I tried
to finish off Skies of Pern and I didn't quite make it. I was 20 pages
short but I was so tired so I fell asleep and then this morning I did
finish it off though. And I think I did enjoy the end more than I enjoyed the
beginning. I think the problem with this book is that for a lot of the book it's
pretending to be a book about these abominator, which are people that are
against this new technology. But actually that's not really the focus of the book.
And all of the stuff in the book about that is a distraction and it's not
really resolved within this book. It sort of is but not really. What this is
really about it is this natural disaster that happens and then the Dragons
helping out with their and the Dragons and the Dragon rRders figuring out how
they're gonna be valuable once they're no longer chasing thread
because thread only falls semi- regularly and some changes are coming.
There's also a romance in this but it got so little air time for most of the
book and then the end was pretty much just about that couple and how they
played into the events that were happening. I don't know. Overall I just
think this was a bit unfocused and of course the writing is kind of quite
matter of fact and not detailed. So I don't know. I almost liked the end but
overall I think I'm gonna go 2 stars. So that's that. At least it's done. I can
keep heading towards the books where Todd McCaffrey helped with the writing. I
don't know if I'm gonna make it but I'm gonna try. Also this week I did read
two audiobooks: the Guinevere Deception, which I quite liked. I did give it three
stars. It was just good. But I do think the characters were perhaps lacking a
little bit of depth. Then I also read the One, which I gave 4 stars and I debated
with myself whether it actually deserves five stars but I think not quite. But I
do think it's a book that a lot of people are gonna really enjoy. So I'm
glad I read it. So overall three things this week. I think that's alright
considering I had other things going on. So that's all for now. As always thank
you so much for hanging out with me this week. I hope you're having a really
wonderful day and I will see you next time :)