Last read of the year probably!
I really liked this, even though it was repetitive at times and I found the whole colonising space bit slightly alienating. Hawking is great at breaking down super complicated things into chewable portions and made me really excited about space and black holes! The afterword by his daughter was very emotional and made me appreciate the book even more.
All in all a great way to finish this year!

Well, this was a weird read.
The first 150 pages or so were very classic Gothic Novel, slow pace, eerie setting, creepy characters, but nothing outright scary. Think The Castle of Otranto. And then, just when I was getting bored, it suddenly really picked up pace. The ending felt rushed in comparison with the slow beginning, though, and it was too heavy on the sexual violence for my liking. Nice twist on the Gothic genre, but not really my thing.

Trying an audiobook next! I've been wanting to read this one for a while and decided to just listen to the audio version instead of waiting to buy the print book. It's read by the author herself, so it's a very intimate listening experience so far.

Finally read this wonderfully weird comic and loving it!

So, apparently I have read all of 16 books this year so far. I am striving to make it 20, but all in all this was not a great reading year ... Hopefully, the slump will end soon!

Hello friends! Sorry for my lengthy absence, I barely read anything this year with the looming apocalypse and all.
But I just created an account on The StoryGraph in an attempt to motivate myself to get back to my books, feel free to follow me there (username: scripturient)!

Ugh, this was way too middle-grade-y for me ... I abandoned it after the third chapter or something because I just could NOT with the writing style. Had some kind of a bad fanfic vibe for me, idk. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood.

Just sprinted through issues 1-6 of Once & Future today and I'm in love with this grandma! Questionable morals and swords? Sign me up! The story was a bit fast for me to make a definite decision as to the overall quality but I'll be looking out for future issues.

Stuck at home due to social distancing, so I charged my tablet for the first time in years & got a free subscription for Scribd. Currently giving Gideon the Ninth a listen, but I'm not too impressed so far ... I'm also still working through Ducks, Newburyport, hopefully I'll be done by the time I'm allowed back to university, it's so long! Hope everyone is doing okay in these apocalyptic times!
[Currently listening to: Civil War by Guns N' Roses]

This semester's term paper is about coherence in comics so I've decided to take another (academic) look at my love-hate-relationship with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Wish me luck!
[Currently listening to: Don't Forget to Breathe by Stormzy & Yebba]

What a book! Finally got around to reading it after seeing it everywhere for like a year. Enjoyed it a lot, even though I found the ending a bit abrupt. Now I'm off to listening to a lot of 60s/70s rock.

“We don‘t fight for our own happy endings. We fight to say you can‘t. We fight for accountability. We fight to establish precedent. We fight because we pray we‘ll be the last ones to feel this kind of pain.“

It has been a long while since I used so many bookmarks on a book that I wasn't reading for university. It just resonated with something in me so deeply, many of the things sounding like they came straight out of my own mouth. Powerful.

Merry Christmas, you guys!! ✨ Got these three as gifts off my wishlist this year.

Didn't get any reading done this weekend (forgot my book at the students' apartment, yay me), but I restrung my guitar after it viciously attacked me with a broken string and cleaned my laptop, so it was a productive weekend after all.

I have moved (yet again ...) this weekend and now I only have room for books on one half of a shelf. I'm so glad this is temporary. University degree no. 4 - here I come. At least I have 15 books to read before I run out :D

Man, that book made me laugh so hard, then broke my heart into a million pieces. Took me two chapters to get in, but then I read the whole thing in a day (good thing I'm sick in bed and have nothing better to do). I want more! The twists and turns where amazingly done, you never knew what was coming and albeit some of the surprises were a bit unbelievable, it was never too over the top to throw me out of the story. That ending tho ... 🙈 😭

It's embarrassing how long it takes me to pick up sequels in a series, but I'm finally getting around to reading this. Now I'm just wondering if I should re-read Six of Crows first, since I can barely remember anything besides the names ...
[Currently listening to: Blood // Water by grandson]

Littens, it is done!! I handed in my master's thesis yesterday!! 🙌🎉
Excuse me while I go play the entirety of Skyrim all over again, because I finally have ten days off. (Hopefully, I'll also be way more active on here, now that I don't have to spend all of my time reading scholarly literature on translation.)

I'm a bit late with this, but happy new school year at Hogwarts, everyone!!
I usually re-read my HP books almost every September, but this year I just can't find the time. Have some photos, though!
Which book is your favourite? Mine has always been The Prisoner of Azkaban and I love the illustrated edition!

This might just be the last book for the thesis. Four weeks to go. I can't wait to be done with all of this.
[Currently listening to: Dying In A Hot Tub by Palaye Royale]

The writing was mediocre, sometimes cheesy, and I found Matthew impossible. Are we just going to let it slide that he continuously drugs his girlfriend against her will/ without her knowledge? What? The book also could have easily done with 250 pages less, there was so much unnecessary detail & description ... But somehow, despite all its problems, the story still pulled me in. It's a great premise, the execution just leaves much to be desired.

Next up in the world of master's theses: The Argonauts/ Die Argonauten.
[Currently listening to: Heart-Shaped Box by Nirvana]

This somehow made me think of the Bad Wolf Speech from Doctor Who:

“I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here. [...] I want you safe, my Doctor. Protected from the false god. [...] You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom of your existence, and I divide them. [...] Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies. The Time War ends.“

Did I mention that procrastination is one of my biggest talents? Started reading this yesterday to distract myself from the thesis. Not sure what to think of it yet, but it's completely different from what I'm reading for academia, so hopefully, it's just what I need right now.
[Currently listening to: Get Better by Nothing but Thieves]

Back at work. Two months to go.
[Currently listening to: Leave Me Alone by NF]

My evening read for the thesis. The semester is almost over and I'm getting nervous.
[Currently listening to: Pocahontas by AnnenMayKantereit]

Held the final presentation for my thesis yesterday and took the rest of the day off to relax. Now I'm back at work!
[Currently listening to: My Heart Needs to Breathe by The Faim]

Pancakes, flowers, and books - is that a thing? Anyway, I'm immensely enjoying the food!
[Currently listening to: Death From Above by Thrice]

“From the ground, we stand. From our ships, we live. By the stars, we hope.“

I really don't know what to do with this one. I started it, left it sitting on my desk for a whole month and probably wouldn't have picked it up again if I didn't need it for my thesis. But once I got into it again, it was quite enjoyable. I think the problem for me was the lack of plot. It was more a social study in space than anything else.

I have always been struggling with Woolf - just can't get into her writing. But I promised my thesis advisor to try again, so ... here goes nothing.
[Currently listening to: Crown by Stormzy]

Haven't been reading for fun in weeks. Can't wait to get back to books that are not 900 pages on media theory :D
[Currently listening to: Let You Go by Machine Gun Kelly]

Happy Pride Month!! ❤ Have a picture of all the queer lit I'm using for my master's thesis.

Well, nothing can go wrong when the soundtrack starts with Bohemian Rhapsody!! Quite enjoying this so far.

What an incredibly terrible cover for a great book 🤦🏻‍♀

Feel ya, Tessa.

Looking forward to starting this one tonight. Though I'm already a bit sad that it's going to be the last one in the series ...

Finally finished it!
I didn't love it, even though I desperately wanted to. I think it's a book you need to read at least twice before you can fully appreciate it. I quite enjoyed the first half, then it got somewhat confusing, maybe because the character's motivations weren't all that clear to me. But it's a fascinating rewrite of history that reminds its readers that history may well not be as cis, white, and male as they think. Would recommend!

Back on my thesis bullshit. Oh, how I wish for one weekend with absolutely nothing to do ...

A bit overzealous with the references to genitalia? This book?? Why'd you think that? Though I have to say I enjoy the footnotes (maybe not these in particular ...) a lot more than I expected to. Gives the whole thing this weird and somewhat parodistic academic vibe. Right up my alley.

Working on a translation for my thesis, although I'm absolutely not feeling like it today. Translations from the 1960s are just exhausting.

I'm (sadly) not very good with audiobooks/ podcasts, because I tend to zone out completely after some time, but I manage to listen to an episode of Welcome to Night Vale every once in a while. Still lagging behind by about five years, but I'm slowly making process. All hail the Glow Cloud!

Next up! I kind of love the cover, although I don't quite get it (yet?). I'm hoping to use this for a translation project at uni and so far it's looking good!

I was a tiny little bit sad that I didn't get to read about the Wayfarer again, but I still adored this book! The multiple perspectives weren't too confusing, I loved learning more about Pepper's life before and her life outside of the Wayfarer. This is a great sequel, it made me laugh & cry several times and it somehow manages to explore what it means to be “human“ (sapient? it's so confusing) through the eyes of an AI without being too heavy.

This is cracking me up to no end.

I could never quite get into Tolkien's writing (I know, I know, I'll try again), but I do love my edition of the series!

As someone with a lot of tattoos, that really spoke to me. What a wonderful concept.

I'm starting my journey on Litsy with A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers! I'm not very far in yet, but I'm quite enjoying it (just like the first in the series).