Weekend Wrap-Up: 17/07/2021
The Weekend Wrap-Up offers a little look at what I’m reading, the new books that came my way, and anything else I may have gotten up to this past week. I will be linking up to Stacking the Shelves, The Sunday Post and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? and hopping around your blogs a little to see what the community has to share too!
My Week
This week I started working on a new project. I’m going to write a book! It isn’t the book I expected to be writing (my epic fantasy, which is still on the cards) but I’m very excited about it, so I began doing some worldbuilding and research and stewing on some ideas and themes, and hopefully once I’ve worked out these parts, the characters and stories will fall into place. I’ve only spent a few hours on it so far but I’m already liking what’s there.
On the sleep front, obviously the fatigue is still there but I’m currently back around to human hours again. This only usually lasts at most a couple weeks, a couple days if I’m unlucky, but it’s really nice to see the morning and sleep when it’s dark and cool! Even if I don’t have the energy to get much done, it finally getting to the mid-20s heat wise doesn’t help, I’m really bad in the heat… I’m lowkey enjoying it for once, though. It forces me to get dressed and I need the Vitamin D.
I put some solid reading time into Artifact Space by Miles Cameron and finished it this week. Really solid science fiction read right there and hoping to have a review for it sometime next week. I then started reading Elantris by Brandon Sanderson, this starts my readthrough (and reread, in some cases) of the Cosmere universe.
The Buffy rewatch continued, reminding me exactly how creepy the Buffy/Angel romance was… she was 16 when they fell in love. Ack! I also started watching Never Have I Ever on Netflix, season 1 got me through a low day yesterday so that was nice.
And then I came across this stunning acoustic cover of ‘As the World Falls Down’ from Labyrinth by Violet Orlandi that I’m a little obsessed with and really needed to share. It’s so beautiful.
On the Blog
Had a fairly productive start to the week! I finally got my City of Glass review out, the extra time to stew on it helped a lot, I think.
I’ll also be taking part in Blaugust next month, a blogging community event run by a friend of mine in the gaming blog community. I’ll do my proper introduction post when we get to August but not too much will change here. I don’t have too much to say about video games right now but I do have some ideas on other topics!
Incoming
Mmmm look, there was a sale on and it was ending and things were cheap or free. Don’t judge me, you do the same!
So I grabbed Tyrant’s Throne (still need to grab the third book but I need to reread this series from the beginning anyway so no rush there) and Reamde in the Amazon sale while that was on. Schooled in Magic and Love in Lockdown just piqued my interest and weren’t too pricey so I yoinked those as well. Devil’s Deal is actually by a friend of mine who had it going for free for a couple days so I had to add that to my pile as well!
In the physical pile, I won a couple books on Twitter that arrived Monday: House of Styx which is about a family living on Venus, that alone instantly intrigues me, I’m fascinated by the surface of Venus. And Anna, a dystopian novel about a near-future that’s not so great for women. These are both books I’ve heard nothing about but they sound super interesting.
Next Week
I doubt I’ll be able to finish Elantris in the next week as it’s a 600-page novel and I’m very slow, but I’ll hopefully get close to finishing it!
I’ve got my Sunday D&D game tomorrow. One of our players seems to be dealing with some personal stuff, and another has life things going on, but we decided to play on and I know exactly how this is going to play out, but I’m saying no more because at least one of them reads the blog.
On the blog, I still need to get that post about the Buffy books “reading order” set up and posted, and the Artifact Space review. It’s going to be a hot one though so let’s hope I’m cognizant enough to manage it!
How have your weeks been? Reading anything good? Got up to anything interesting? Let’s encourage each other in the comments! I’d love to hear what you’re all getting up to!
0 thoughts on “Weekend Wrap-Up: 17/07/2021”
Whee! 😄
Whee! 🤗
Sebastien De Castell’s is criminally underrated. Or rather, I should probably say unknown. Or at least, that USED to be the case. I just had a look at Goodreads again and at some point over the years it’s blown up. 😀
Very well deserved, I think you’ll enjoy the conclusion to the series once you manage to re-read and collect the third book.
Curious to hear what you end up thinking of Elantris too. It’s very clear it’s an earlier Sanderson work, but it’s still a Sanderson work and part of the greater Cosmere. 🙂
Oh really? I read and reviewed the book when it was brand new so that was really my first interaction with the series and then I was out of the reading world for years! Seeing some chatter about it on the fantasy Discords I’ve joined recently! I remember liking it but aside from maybe one plot point at the end I can’t remember much about it.
So far liking it! Only a few pages in though, very interesting premise.
Buffy was 16, Angel was, what, 160? Alec in Shadowhunters is, what, twenty, maybe, when he gets together with Magnus Bane, who is, as far as I can tell, at least seven hundred years old. The Faerie Queen is sometimes about ten, other times a teenager, then in her twenties. I think she’s actually thousands of years old but it’s never explicitly stated. She sleeps with Jonathan, who is, what, in his early twenties?
None of this makes any sense by any real-world moral, ethical or cultural standards because everyone in all these shows always both looks and acts the same age. There’s frequently no behavioural difference between very old people and very young people and they frequently seem to inhabit the exact same emotional and cultural space, regardless of all the reasons they shouldn’t. There are credilbility problems pretty much any direction you look. If you start pulling at any of the threads the whole tapestry falls apart.
Once you have a set-up that includes demons, gods, vampires, werewolves and warlocks, I guess all bets are off.
Oh gosh, I think he said 240, but could have been 160. My memory isn’t great, haha. Alec was 18 and Magnus Bane is over 700, yep.
And very true. I try to just… nod along. But there are moments when you stop and think “yikes, that’s kinda creepy.”
Sales are always a good excuse for buying. 😀 Looks like some fun new books! I need to get round to rereading/finishing that Sebastian de Castell series; I think I only read the first book, or maybe the first two? But it was fun!
Weekly roundup.
Truth! And yeah same. I remember enjoying it a lot.
I’m so glad you’re feeling better and I hope it stays that way for a good long while. That’s so exciting that you’re writing a book, best wishes to you on that.
Thanks!
So exciting that you’re going to write a book!! Best of luck – such an ambitious and special endeavour – as an aspiring author myself, I know the struggle that comes with getting all your brainstorming ON A PAGE COHESIVELY so I hope it works out for you – looking forward to future updates!!! 🙂 also congrats it seems like you’ve had a super productive reading and blogging week🥳
Thank you!
I’d love to see the Buffy books reading order post! Hope you have a good week😁
Good luck with your book! I need to get back to the story I’ve been working on.
Don’t feel guilty about how many books you bought — I bought a ton this week! As you say, there were some good sales on.
Interesting discussion on character ages and relationships, @Hannah and @bhagpuss! I’ll throw in Diana Bishop (witch, in her 30s) and Matthew Clairmont (vampire, born circa 500 AD, so he’s more than 1500 years old) from the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness. That series does deal with the age difference, though.
Thanks! Haha, there sure were.
Oh wow, I need to get on that series, I have a weakness for ancient vampires. xD
You got lots of awesome looking books! I hope you enjoy them! Never really thought about Buffy that way, but I guess it could be a little weird but he was super old so…not sure if that makes it better or worse lol
Have a great week, Hannah! Happy Reading!
😂 Yeah. Aaah fantasy romance!
Anna sounds like a good one. Happy gaming and reading 🙂
Thanks. ^^
Good luck with your writing project. I have been thinking about Buffy the Vampire Slayer recently since references to it have popped up in a couple of my recent reads. I really should plan a rewatch one of these days. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
Thanks! Yeah it’s nice to get a bit of nostalgia once in a while.
I am curious about Love in Lockdown. Enjoy your week, and here are my WEEKLY UPDATES
Aye, it looks really sweet. I saw it on somebody else’s weekly update post and yoinked it myself.
Good luck with your new book project! Hope you have a good week.
Thank you, you too.
Good luck and have fun on the new project! =)
Thank you!
I’ve been following Violet Orlandi on her YouTube channel for over a year. Just yesterday, I bought her album High Priest Daughter.
Oh nice!! I just discovered her this past week and fell in love.