#2023 reading diary

[backlogbooks]

Weekly Reading Update 6

Good reading week! Most of it was for class, but the fun class! I read The Last Cuentista and oh. my. god. that book. Please read it, it’s a middle grade sci fi that made me cry and the audiobook is Perfect

Today was my saturday off so I got to spend the day reading—I finished Clown in a Cornfield (Such a good slasher!) and started How To Sell a Haunted House because i havent yet read enough horror (and likely never will). Also had the fun experience of multiple people being like “hey what are you reading also why do you have a book at a musical?” The answer being that I got there an hour and a half early because parking is always Nuts and I wanted something to do while I waited for it to start lmao. (the play was Moulin Rouge btw and it was so much fun)

Library books checked out: 22

Currently reading: Path of Daggers, How to Sell a Haunted House, and The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For

Posts this week: Monday quote, Wednesday quote, Thursday book picture

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2023: ARTIFICIAL CONDITION and NETWORK EFFECT by Martha Wells.

Speedrunning a (selective) Murderbot reread so I can do SYSTEM COLLAPSE next!!! ART, my beloved!!

[spotted-owl-sketches]

Volotober days 14-16!

Yeah this was just fun to do. Look at this lil guy he's precious and wholesome. This is also the closest he's ever getting to Arceus lmao

featuring Koki and Riko, I've done a few playthroughs of PLA with diff charas cause its fun♡

[smokefalls]

Absence not only softens the tender feelings toward the belovéd other, it also provides the benefit of perspective, that renders the object of affection so much more precious and beautified.

Paterson Joseph, The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho

[swampsiren-piratefairy]

I’m all caught up on murderbot diaries and I didn’t put reviews for each of the books in 2023 my reading post yet, because I read them so fast they all blur together into a single review/opinion of “good, enjoyable” but I’m going back and reading them all immediately so maybe it’s more of a “VERY good, VERY enjoyable” sort of review.

[libertyreads]

Book Review #114 of 2023--

System Collapse by Martha Wells. Rating: 4 stars.

Read from September 6th to 8th.

Before I get into the review, a quick thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers over at Tor giving me access to one of my most anticipated releases of the year in exchange for an honest review. If you've been here for any length of time then you already know about the Murderbot Diaries, but let me give you a quick series synopsis. In the series, we follow a Security Unit (SecUnit) who has hacked their governor module and all it wants now is to do its job while watching its shows. But SecUnit finds itself getting attached to humans as it travels the universe which inevitably leads to more danger and drama and dealing with more Corporation Rim companies than it would like. In this one, we follow SecUnit and its 'friend' ART who must protect their humans and some how prevent a company from seizing a colony of humans for their own selfish reasons. If only SecUnit wasn't starting to malfunction. This is the seventh in the series and it comes out on November 14th. Available for preorder now.

Discussing Murderbot with people who haven't read the series is hard, especially now that we're on number seven in the series. But we all know the basic premise, right? A SecUnit has gone rogue because it wants to not be controlled by a system that can kill it for disobeying. Oh, and so it can watch its shows. I will always enjoy getting back into this world. I think the author does such a great job with both the human characters and the constructs that always draws me in. This one actually made me like Ratthi way more than I did before which came as a huge surprise and showed me just how good of an author Martha Wells really is. At times I hated that something was wrong with Murderbot and that they weren't on top of their game the way they usually are. But we also got to see how trauma has impacted them and what happens when trauma just keeps getting compounded without any sort of treatment. The thing that I LOVED about this one was that we got both Murderbot and ART while also getting all of their humans. I love that the teams were mixed together based on task and ability instead of who came from where. And I loved that by the end Murderbot found itself attached to all the humans not just the ones it knew before meeting ART.

There were a few moments that felt unclear in the action. There is usually a decent amount of fight sequences/action scenes in this series and usually I can follow them pretty well, but in this one it felt more muddled. I think it might actually be me and not the book. I have a lot of real life stress going on at the moment so I feel like my focus has been pretty split. I'm willing to say it might not be the book's fault here. Just my attention span at the moment. I also wasn't 100% sure where this fit timeline wise for the series. It seems like it would fit after Network Effect and not the latest novella which is Fugitive Telemetry. Please correct me if I'm wrong here.

Overall, it's Murderbot and you cannot go wrong with reading some Murderbot. I will always sing this series' praises. Probably not my favorite but up there for sure.

[mortellanarts]

2023 go bye bye

[luxuryandlilacs]

I actually met my reading goal of 50 books! It’s such an accomplishment for me especially since I only read 15 books last year! Next year, I want to hit 60 books. I already have at least 30 unread books on my shelves.

[clove-pinks]

The other night I logged into my school drive and re-read a paper that I wrote about Fort Meigs, over a year ago. It was an interesting experience to revisit the beginning of my obsession about the War of 1812 in the old northwest, and contrast it with my current understandings.

Overall, I think that what I wrote held up well. I chose the memoir of Shadrach Byfield to represent the perspective of the 41st Regiment of Foot, on the British side, and the account of Private Nathaniel Vernon of the Pittsburgh Blues for the Americans. Between Byfield and Vernon, you can clearly track the events of the first and second siege of Fort Meigs in 1813. I am now aware of many additional primary sources—but still no first-person accounts from any of the numerous Indigenous warriors involved (not including quotes from Tecumseh).

[wishblown]

It was all so sad. But it was all so beautiful, too.

— Kurt Vonnegut; The Sirens of Titan

May Reads!

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice — 3.5/5: mixed feelings about this one. beautiful prose imo but parts of this just drag on and on and Louis’ background in the book is not properly addressed for what it is imo, like he’s a product of his time (I guess? idk) but the way it’s written and portrayed even as ‘time moves on’ from a contemporary author is kinda yikes at times and not super well handled I think.

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk — 4.75/5: such a fun read!!!! I’d watched the movie before reading the book so I knew the twist already but that didn’t really take away from the experience. big fan of Palahniuk’s style as well. changed me a lil tbh

Illness as Metaphor & AIDS and Its Metaphors by Susan Sontag — 5/5: no surprise this is cited so often, the opening paragraph (illness as the nightside of life that we all hold dual citizenship to etc) is already so memorable and eye-opening, setting the tone for the rest of the novel. a really informative thought-provocating read. made me confront some of my own prejudices and preconceptions as well that I didn't even know I held previously. Sontag's writing isn't always "easy" to untangle imo especially if you’re not a native speaker or super familiar with the subject but it’s so worth it to intentionally go over what shes saying to try and really understand it, to really try and engage with the text.

The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut — 5/5: loved this one sm I had to write a whole personal essay about it, like this book would not let me go. I’m officially a Vonnegut stan now, sorry. I’m down bad. He just gets it, and I get what he gets and is trying to tell us. Like, we’re in this together. Reading reviews of his books (especially Sirens) and just shaking my head bc they’re all so wrong. He’s inside my brain and I’m just relaying to everyone what we’re both thinking when I review and analyse his books. I know I’m obnoxious and annoying and whatever but it is what it is. Vonnegut is mine now.

[rabbitindisguise]

I know we make jokes about tumblr affecting our brains but apparently tumblr has altered my understanding of friendship entirely. I had to ask someone how to tell if you were friends irl because I had some problems and they were like "do you share interests?" as a baseline and that gave me pause because like

share interests with potential friends?? here?

I'm lucky if my interests are in the same zip code anymore with my mutuals, nevermind friends I have outside of tumblr. The closer we are the less they seem to line up at the same time even if we met through a shared fandom

and here I am like a fool trying to make friends on vibes alone on the assumption that it doesn't matter if we like totally different things irl smh

[spotted-owl-sketches]

Wooo it's the end of the year already, damn! Luckily I seemed to do at least one piece a month (minus November because I caught covid on my bday (Ｔ▽Ｔ) )

What's really cool is my bro @garrus and I collab'd on three of these pieces, and they all lined up! April, August, and December he did the line work and I colored it in

I'm also excited at how much traditional art I did this year, that feels pretty good. I made a lot of cool props too like a space helmet for my bro on halloween (๑>ᴗ<๑)

So ya maybe not all my favourite pieces ever, but I feel like I had a good year. Here's to 2024!

[bekah-reading]

61/120

5/5

The 6th book of The Murderbot Diaries finally came out on Kindle Unlimited. I am so happy to be able to get back to Murderbot and this series. This one certainly gets a special place in my heart and library.

“They don’t want me. (Hey, I don’t want me, either, but I’m stuck with me.)”

Lines like that are placed all throughout the series, and it’s coming back to it and still getting these moments that make this series feel like home. Reading this book definitely felt like I was coming back home. I loved being able to see how much Murderbot has grown, and how much he hasn’t in some ways, throughout not only the series but this book as well. I do think that this instalment is my favourite out of the series.

[samireads]

June reads 😗✌🏻

[andreai04]

“As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.”

[presaugust]

Short and sweet: a certain Murderbot bestows the most honorable prize to the most deserving human.