#Dachang Island

[takingontheworld55]

 We are taking a weekend trip out to the islands nearby, staying on a resort and I am so excited. We have to take a train to the ferry to take a taxi to the resort. I am so ready to be there but it’s gonna be a long ride.

[rqs902]

[TRANSLATION] MR-X (@MR-X官博) weibo update 05.23.18

#LuoZheng #Fall_In_Love

After much preparation, little chestnut 🌰 gege [t/n: referring to Luo Zheng] is finally going to meet you all as an actor~ @LuoZheng_LZ After leaving DaChang, his first work “Fall in love” was officially announced in Ningbo today 🎤 Guess what kind of role this chestnut will play in for this web drama 🤭 A bright and cheerful brother? Or a rebellious and handsome student? We have to keep you waiting in anticipation 😏 But in order to compensate for your waiting time, here are three photos from their island vacation~

[u-wll-rmmbr-me-fr-centuries]

At last-minute I decided I was going to take part in Booktube-a-thon, and so I went into making my TBR list with no idea really of what I was going to read. I wasn’t prepared. And to top it all off, I kept switching around books as I felt it didn’t quite work. But now I am happy to announce my final book TBR for the readathon!

Before;

Before we go into this I do need to say that I’ve already started two of these books from the 24in48 Readathon. But I don’t like reading a million books all at once, and they do fit into these categories, so it doesn’t really hurt anyone.

Read a book with a person on the cover

For this I chose The Last of Us by Rob Ewing. There’s two people on the cover and I’ve been intrigued by this for a while now but haven’t got round to reading it yet.

When a pandemic wipes out the entire population of a remote Scottish island, only a small group of children survive. How will they fend for themselves?

Since the last adult died, sensible Elizabeth has been the group leader, testing for a radio signal, playing teacher and keeping an eye on Alex, the littlest, whose insulin can only last so long.

There is ‘shopping’ to do in the houses they haven’t yet searched and wrong smells to avoid. For eight-year-old Rona each day brings fresh hope that someone will come back for them, tempered by the reality of their dwindling supplies.

With no adults to rebel against, squabbles threaten the fragile family they have formed. And when brothers Calum Ian and Duncan attempt to thwart Elizabeth’s leadership, it prompts a chain of events that will endanger Alex’s life and test them all in unimaginable ways.

Read a hyped book

I chose The Hobbit as I had already started reading it for 24in48 Readathon and I would prefer to finish it before starting more books. That’s just not my style. So as it is one of the biggest hyped books to ever exist, I decided to include it as this challenge.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

Written for J.R.R. Tolkien’s own children, The Hobbit met with instant critical acclaim when it was first published in 1937. Now recognized as a timeless classic, this introduction to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the spectacular world of Middle-earth recounts of the adventures of a reluctant hero, a powerful and dangerous ring, and the cruel dragon Smaug the Magnificent.

Finish a book in one day

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them (The original screenplay). As I was able to read The Cursed Child in one day, I figured this would also be another quick and easy read due to it being a screenplay.

J.K. Rowling’s screenwriting debut is captured in this exciting hardcover edition of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them screenplay.

When Magizoologist Newt Scamander arrives in New York, he intends his stay to be just a brief stopover. However, when his magical case is misplaced and some of Newt’s fantastic beasts escape, it spells trouble for everyone…

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them marks the screenwriting debut of J.K. Rowling, author of the beloved and internationally bestselling Harry Potter books. Featuring a cast of remarkable characters, this is epic, adventure-packed storytelling at its very best.

Whether an existing fan or new to the wizarding world, this is a perfect addition to any reader’s bookshelf.

Read about a character that’s very different to you

I thought Memoirs of a Geisha fit perfectly into this slot. It’s set in Japan and follows the life of a Geisha, from when she was a little girl to when she’s much older. It’s fictional but at the beginning there’s a fake translators note which gives it more character. I also started this book for 24in48 Readathon. 

A literary sensation and runaway bestseller, this brilliant debut novel presents with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions of one of Japan’s most celebrated geisha.

In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl’s virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction – at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful – and completely unforgettable.

Read a whole book outdoors

Lets be honest – the outdoors isn’t always our best friend. And as I dwell in this place called England, the outside can be wet, cold and plain miserable. So, I decided to go with another short and sweet book, Alice Through The Looking Glass. The copy I have, has both Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through The Looking Glass in one, but I’ve already read the first.

In 1865, English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898), aka Lewis Carroll, wrote a fantastical adventure story for the young daughters of a friend. The adventures of Alice—named for one of the little girls to whom the book was dedicated—who journeys down a rabbit hole and into a whimsical underworld realm instantly struck a chord with the British public, and then with readers around the world. In 1872, in reaction to the universal acclaim *Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland* received, Dodgson published this sequel. Nothing is quite what it seems once Alice journeys through the looking-glass, and Dodgson’s wit is infectious as he explores concepts of mirror imagery, time running backward, and strategies of chess-all wrapped up in the exploits of a spirited young girl who parries with the Red Queen, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and other unlikely characters. In many ways, this sequel has had an even greater impact on today’s pop culture than the first book.

Read a book you bought because of the cover

The Diabolic. Yes. A million times yes. Technically though, I didn’t buy it as I actually won it. But I was thinking about buying it anyway, so it counts in my eyes.

Nemesis is a Diabolic. Created to protect a galactic Senator’s daughter, Sidonia. There’s no one Nemesis wouldn’t kill to keep her safe. But when the power-mad Emperor summons Sidonia to the galactic court as a hostage, there is only one way for Nemesis to protect Sidonia.

She must become her.

Now one of the galaxy’s most dangerous weapons is masquerading in a world of corruption and Nemesis has to hide her true abilities or risk everything. As the Empire begins to fracture and rebellion looms closer, Nemesis learns that there is something stronger than her deadly force: the one thing she’s been told she doesn’t have – humanity. And, amidst all the danger, action and intrigue, her humanity might be the only thing that can save her, Sidonia and the entire Empire…

Read seven books

What’s the one thing this list is missing? That’s right – zombies! World War Z would make another perfect book as I anticipate it will be fast paced and full of suspense. I originally watched the film for Film Studies in my first year of college (and I loved it, sue me), when I saw it on the bookshelves in a charity store I had to have it.

The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. “World War Z” is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.

Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War.

Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, “By excluding the human factor, aren’t we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn’t the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as ‘the living dead’?”

Weekly post

I’m going to write a long post (like I did with 24in48 Readathon) where I will have each day’s update and progress. Hopefully it will be posted on the Sunday night if everything goes to plan and we’ll see at how many of these reading challenges I have completed.

Booktube-a-thon 2017 TBR At last-minute I decided I was going to take part in Booktube-a-thon, and so I went into making my TBR list with no idea really of what I was going to read.