hello happy monday welcome to a whole
new week here on the vlog
i'm excited i'm looking forward to this
week it's going to be good i'm
determined for it to be
last week was weirdly tiring uh and the
vlog was a little bit lackluster so
let's make a
lusterful vlog it's gonna be great i had a
lovely weekend
uh seeing friends on both days uh as you
know i think it was in the vlog
some clips from the visit we did on  saturday
and then on sunday we went to see
asha and justine and various spouses
socially distanced in the park it was
absolutely lovely got to see the baby it
was very very nice
but i didn't get much reading done and i
did get a little bit caught by the sun
because foolish times wear sun cream
it's not difficult i don't know what's
wrong with me
um but i did have a lovely time i didn't
therefore read very much and when i got
back i was like
i'm dying because sun so instead i
listened to the rest of the hero at the
fall audio book
uh again when audiobooks are short you
can do them in a day
weird um so i have finished a book
and that i'm pleased with uh which means
i'm now
one book into my july tbr
never mind it's fine because i'm also
gonna abandon it even more
basically i'm not excited for anything
on my tbr right this second and it's
sending me slumpwards and that's really
miserable
and i did receive some books
borrowed from justine at the weekend
that i would really like to read and i'm
hoping this will re-energize my reading
i'm going to try and read a little bit
of tbr alongside because they're not
long
but let's make them the focus of this
vlog i am talking of course about
the murderbot series by
martha wells these are well known oh
they make a
horrible noise i'm not a big fan of the
noise yeah katie's read these justine's
read these she really loves them i would like
to read them
and then i don't have a copy of the
novel but let's see how we go with four
novellas in this week i think it'll be
very easy
so yeah welcome to judith reads
murderbot diaries the vlog
but first things first i am going to
just
again as i do almost every monday just
reset this room a little bit because
it's looking
just a bit chaotic and i think that
lends itself to chaotic living
so let's reset the room i will see you
tomorrow
hey it is monday afternoon i know it is
not in fact tomorrow
i thought i would just drop in i'm
trying to stay motivated today
and this is how i'm planning on doing it
um
it is afternoon/end of the day basically
it's the end of the working day it's lovely and gray
outside it's really looking very
miserable but without raining i love the
rain so i'm kind of bummed
but it has been a good working day i've
also managed to in my lunch break and
other
various working break times finished
some reviews which is good so do go
check out the blog they will be
up what i've started doing is all the
books that are kind of like
i don't need to write a whole review for
this owned tbr
middle of the road i don't usually
recommend it there's not a lot to talk
about books i've just been writing mini
reviews for them and it's
honestly taking such a huge weight off
my mind i'm really appreciating it
but i have also finished two little
novellas
i finished all systems red which is the
first one
and artificial condition which is the
second book in the murderbot diaries
i really enjoyed them they were really
really good i think i definitely needed
to chuck out my tbr and just
read something that i wanted to read uh
which is really good and hopefully it's
reinvigorated me i think i'm gonna try
and pick up
mayday as my like next book after i
finish these because i'm excited about
that and i want to
i want to read it and i want to talk to
josie about it and i'm excited about that so
trying to stay with things that are
interesting me and not get completely
bogged down in all the other stuff
i'm going to try and do lots and lots of
reading this week that's what i want
it's what i want out of the day
the other thing i'm a little bit bummed
about other than the lack of rain is
that i was meant to be getting tea
delivered
today well it was it's one of those it's
in the post and i don't know when the
post will come
but our post comes very very late in the
afternoon
uh but alas it has not come today i
think we're just not getting post on
mondays at the moment
which is a bummer so this vlog is now
not only murderbot diaries vlog
but also tea-watch 2020.
but i should probably talk about these
um so if you don't know
murderbot is the main character of this
and is kind of a
security unit yeah security android
murderbot has hacked its own governor
module and basically just wants to watch
tv that's all it wants to do and ends
up getting sucked into these various
adventures and
other things and that's what this is
there are four novellas and a novel
i have all of the novellas borrowed from
the lovely justine thank you justine
after the weekend of sunburn and then i
will probably do the novel separately
but yeah it's just like good fun sci-fi
so far it's been quite casual i don't
know if they get
more emotional and darker but yeah i'm
really loving them so far this has been
bonus content with me
largely just complaining about the lack
of tea
i'm hoping it will come tomorrow if not
i'll be very sad because also i'm almost
out of tea and that is a travesty
hello i don't think i've vlogged this
morning
i'm gonna say probably not it is tuesday
evening
i'm back in this jumper because it is
chilly outside
and i've been doing a little bit of
reading not a huge amount it's been a
busy day i
have finished i don't know if i
mentioned i was reading fahrenheit 451
but i finished that it was an audio book
it was very good
it was a dramatization i don't know how
much they count
but i'm counting it because it's my
decision and i looked up the plot and
they were very close
so it's probably fine um but yeah i
really enjoyed that i thought it was
interesting
um i can see why a lot of people have
read it like it a lot
i will at some point seek out the proper
actually written down book version
it is not that day today but it was good
uh and then i read probably another five
percent also of the declaration of the
rights of magicians
i'm liking it well enough i did a
majority of what i've read at the moment
has been
pitt the younger and william wilberforce
but pre pitt the younger being
prime minister and uh i know enough
about that period of history
to get where it's coming from but not
enough to be able to say whether it's
truthful
how much of its fantasy and how much of
it isn't i'm kind of coming down on
i think this is an interesting world an
interesting take on this period in time
i think i would prefer if it were
completely
parallel universe different names of
people so
we still have a very young prime
minister but maybe not making it pit
and wilberforce but maybe that's more
important i don't know
i'd say i'm only about 10%  in so i don't
really know i haven't read any more
murderbot
yet today uh i think i'm gonna
plow ahead with declaration of the
rights magicians while it's still
in my head because that is the review
copy i have that is already out i think
Mayday is out fairly soon though so i
must get to that
but yeah that's the one i really want to
focus on because that's what i'm
technically behind
on so we shall see but uh to do that i
must sign off the vlog and keep reading
hello happy thursday yeah skipped wednesday
again
the whole day i was like i shouldn't
skip wednesday i should film later and
then it got to the end of the day and
i haven't so hello again uh plant has
been watered
at some point i will give you an update
on the plant but honestly it looks
pretty much the same
could it be a fake plant? i don't think so
reading update
do i have much to update you on i want
to have a vague talk about
uh what's it called declaration of the
rights of magicians i'm about a third of
the way through now
and i can't work out what this book is
meant to be so the
bulk of the plot at the moment i would
say i think it will probably shift in
the balance but there's kind of three
segments we have
england france and haiti and the bulk of
stuff at the moment has been in england
with
pitt the younger and william wilberforce
who are real people who existed
and because of the film the biopic
amazing grace i know quite a lot about
william wilberforce's
life story uh and also going to catholic
school that's kind of one of the people
you learn about
and this book is currently his life
story and his work in the abolition of
the slave trade in the uk
but why why is it also magic
and is that okay yeah i'm trying to work
out
and i don't 100%  know and i think the
only way to know is actually gonna have
to be to read the whole thing
uh but it's very slow going i think
because my brain is constantly going
but why are we talking about why are
they now
hunting evil things in an abbey when
five minutes ago they were meeting with
a group of abolitionists
i don't understand so that's where i'm
at with that now
if you've read it comment below with
what you're thinking because i genuinely
don't know how i feel
uh and i'm also 50 pages through
rogue protocol which is the third muderbot
book i don't think i actually
talked enough about the fact that i had
read books one and two
or that i'd finished um hero at the fall
at the weekend but there we go
i was out of practice talking about
reading because i didn't do any last
week
yeah i'm really enjoying these books one
and two were good i think book two was
stronger than book one
because it brought in new characters for
murderbot to interact
with this one the first 50 pages
have been good i... with novellas it takes
quite a lot to get the setup
done and we're not quite through that
yet so i don't know where it's going
100 % but i'm looking forward to reading
that and then i have the fourth one
on deck ready to go um i'm woefully
behind on my actual tbr like
it's there's no mincing words about it
just woefully behind
i'm kind of not fussed at the moment
like i'm so behind now that it kind of
doesn't matter
but let's try and catch up i'm going to
do my best i'm going to
keep going with declaration of the rights
of magicians today i'm going to keep
going with
murderbot and then we'll see where we
get to after that
i'm also going through the process of
adding closed captions to my videos
so i'm gonna work on that as well and i
have monday's video
filmed so i did film yesterday just not a
vlog clip monday's video is filmed
so that's ready to upload so while that
uploads ready to be subtitled i'm gonna
finish this
and then it's work and then it's the
rest of the day i will be back tomorrow
to tell you that i've read another 12
pages or something ludicrous
hello and welcome to what is probably
too bright of a vlog segment
but perhaps life is helping me and the
sun is going behind a cloud ah hello
it is friday night yeah i didn't vlog
most of today again same like wednesday
i just kept thinking oh i must do that
at some point and then haven't done
but unlike wednesday i've actually
pulled the camera out and i'm filming
um the camera's been kind of everywhere
around the room today i've been taking
new photos for bookstagram
uh i also haven't edited the vlog which
i normally do on a friday so that's
probably my job for this evening so i
shall go make myself a cup of tea
in just a moment i have
two reading updates for you
no three i three reading updates for you
i think
if it turns out that it's two i'll just
edit this one out i finished rogue
protocol i can't remember if i talked
about this
yesterday i can't remember what day i
finished this third murderbot book
third murderbot book really enjoyed it
thought it was good my favorite of all
of them so far
um i think i had the most sense of what
was
going on in this book and kind of the
wider stuff
so yeah very good don't have a huge
amount more to say on this i think i'm
gonna do
a wrap-up kind of segment when i've read
all four
i'm not gonna talk about the novel
because i haven't read it yet again
holding up my kindle i don't know why
uh finished declaration of the rights of
magicians
and also wrote my review for it so that
is now up on the blog i will link that
below if i remember
um verdict on that one
jury's out to be honest i don't know so
i read the
acknowledgement/ author's note uh and she
talks about how it's a
mythologization mythology
mythologization
probably that one of the history of
france
england and haiti in the 18th century
which is what it is that that's
valid but i suppose my question is
should we be mythologizing the the
elements that she focuses on like the
haitian revolution which
i didn't know a lot about should a
fantasy novel be where i'm learning
about that and that's not necessarily a
criticism of her
maybe it's a criticism of the english
education system but
just question posing it to you what are
your opinions on where we draw the line
in historical fantasy what's fair game
to change to be magical what's fair game - 
what's not fair game
interesting um so yeah i've opted
to just sort of not give that a star
rating because i genuinely can't make up
my mind how i feel about it
the actual writing was fine the plot was
fairly interesting it's
difficult to say uh i know the english
side of the story
very well i know about william wilberforce
for various reasons i just know a lot
about that period i found that the most
jarring in terms of where it would
suddenly become magical
i don't know if the same would be true
if i knew a lot about robespierre which
i just don't
um or indeed the haitian revolution
again i just don't and the sun is back
out again
i'm just gonna do the rest of the vlog
segment like this there's not much more
to say it's fine
um i then finished
i can use it to shelter myself in the
sun no i then finished mayday by josie
jaffrey
i really love this i thought it was
really good this is an arc copy
uh but i assume the finished copy will
look fairly similar um
this is now out and available you can go
and buy yourself a copy i really think
you should
obvious disclaimer i do know josie
personally but
this actually i really knocked my socks off
of all of her books i've read i've read
three other josie books and one
short story
uh and this has been my absolute
favorite so far i don't know if it's the
setting
or the characters or what but this was
just really great and it's lovely bi
representation
uh a romance where people actually talk
to each other about what's going on
instead of keeping it secret and causing
problems later on
a miracle you know i really really
enjoyed this i think this is well worth
a read especially if you know and love
oxford it's good fun to kind of
pick bits out in there um yeah totally
solid would recommend
so yeah that's what i've been reading uh
i think next
i'm gonna pick up
oh i don't know that's a lie i do know
i'm gonna pick up the fourth murderbot
book because i'd like to finish that
and wrap that tomorrow so that this vlog
can officially have been i read all the
murderbot novellas that exist currently
um so that'll be what i pick up next
after i've done whatever marathon editing
i'm about to have to do
yeah i'll see you tomorrow for hopefully
i read some more time i don't know
welcome to sun saturday morning
yeah welcome to saturday morning uh and
the very green lighting that is first
thing in the morning in this bedroom
uh i've just been out for a rollerblade
because i can do that now
um i went around the block i went like
outside of my back garden for the first
time which is very very exciting
turns out a lot easier to rollerblade on
the road than it is
on really uneven concrete in your back
garden
who'da thunk it uh right let's close out
this weekly reading vlog how has it been
it's been a good week
i think um i have read a couple of
things off my tbr i think two things off
my tbr so that's good
and i've also read all four murderbot
diaries books so it's been pretty good
reading week
uh just my tbr is way behind but that's
what this weekend is for i do have a
review i want to film
but i'll probably film that tomorrow
because i look a bit of a mess today but
other than that
i'm going to read so that'll be really
nice uh let's chat about what i finished
yesterday i know i vlogged literally
less than 12 hours ago um so i had
talked about mayday that was already
done
and then in the evening i finished exit
strategy which is the final murderbot
diaries book
i really like this one as well i think
overall
this is the third one i need like which
number they are
on them somewhere i think rogue protocol
which is the third one was my absolute
favorite i think i just connected to it
the most
i liked the plot line the most it felt
the most coherent to me they are all
very good
i think now that you can read all four
plus the novel i mean i don't know about
the novel i'm going to read that when i
can
uh i'm going to get round to it
basically that's what i'm saying i think
that'll be a next month read
um if you can read all four of them do
just because i think that
you need the character progression and
the kind of questions it is kind of
more like four segments of a book i
suppose but a very disparate one so yeah
it's good to have that progression i
just think three make the most sense for
me i know other people like other ones
so
who knows i wasn't as mad about this as
i know other people have been
and i don't know if it's because i
wasn't waiting for the next one or
not you know talking about it with other
people i thought they were really good
don't get me wrong really enjoyed them
but
they didn't kind of spark something oh
this is phenomenal in my head and i
don't know if that was because of my
high expectations
i don't know if that's because i'm not
novella brained so yeah i really really
really enjoyed them just they weren't
five star reads for me i think
three could be but it's more like a very
high four
um that's kind of where i'm at and yeah
that's all i read yesterday evening i
did start an
audiobook of i've been trying to use my
library's online ebook service a bit
more because i'm trying to
i'm trying to not have to subscribe to
scribd when i run out of books is
basically what i'm saying
um so i'm trying to use that more and my
hold came in
for is it called the red pyramid i can't
remember it's
the first book in the magnus kane and
the kane
books by rick riordan um which i've been
wanting to read for ages
and they happen to be there and i'm kind
of trying to read all of that
universe stuff at some point in life and
this seemed as good a time as any so
that's going
all right i'm about a third of the way
through that enjoying that fairly well
uh continuing my theme of reading
anything but what's on my tbr
but in an attempt to fix that uh next
book i'm gonna pick up is cinderella
is dead which i'm really looking forward
to reading so those are my plans for
this weekend
but we'll see i will see you again next
sunday and you'll find out how
next week went while you're here if
you're watching if you haven't already
please do subscribe it makes me feel
loved and appreciated and also
validates me in a way that i wish it
didn't you can also comment below how
was your week
what have you been up to what have you
been reading am ia fool for going
straight to these Kane books
i haven't read the intervening ones like
the ones where the roman gods come in
i think it should be fine i think that's
everything uh
go and follow me on my social media you
can find out when i'm doing stuff and i
will see you in the next one
travesty
