Hey guys! Welcome to this casual style
kind of video. So today is library loves
day this Saturday the 12th of October
and we are just going to our library to
support our libraries. I went to my
library yesterday just because it's a
weekend today and I did all of the
things so let's talk about what I did,
and then I just wanted to talk to you a
little bit about libraries in general.
And to start off with I go to my library
quite frequently since I've moved here.
It's my main source of getting books
because I don't really have that many
books of my own now that I'm here on
exchange. I only packed like, ten in a
suitcase and although I've gotten a few more review copies the library is
still my biggest resource of how I get
books. And yeah, I just keep going back
for more. I always have a list of books I intend to get out and then I just
browse and end up getting way more than
one. I've totally maxed out on my loans.
I've got ten out now and I wanted to
tell you about the one I got out
yesterday which is one of the challenges
for the library day. And I got Saga
volume two. I read Saga volume one from
the library this month and I really
really loved it. Like, so much! And I didn't
expect to love it so much but I really
did so I just went right ahead and got
volume two out. Another thing that we
had to do was encourage a friend to use a library
and although I didn't do this yesterday
I did do this recently. I went with my
friend -- okay recently is in last month -- I
went with my friend to the library and
we did a great thing where they chose a
book for me to borrow and I chose a book
for them to borrow which was just a lot
of fun because when it comes to buying
books I don't feel like I have the
freedom to do that. To recommend my
friend buy a book and I buy one because
that's just expensive. And if we don't
end up liking the book it's always a bit
of a downer. But I recommended them the
Raven boys and they recommended me the
Vegetarian which was how we did that
exchange. And if you want to hear my
thoughts on The Vegetarian check out my
wrap-up for the month of September. I'll
link it up there. And then another one of
the points was to read a library book
and I'm gonna do that today. I'm gonna be
reading more of The Poppy War by RF Kuang.
I'm halfway through and I'm buddy
reading this on Twitter. I'm... I feel
okay about it. So the main thing is that
it's reading like every other fantasy
novel. This is a problem I've had with
to see lately. Is that I feel like all
the tropes just kind of follow the same
pattern and it's so hard to be unique in
fantasy. I'm reading this and I'm able to
guess everything that's pretty much
going to happen. And then as we read
along I'm totally correct. The things I'm
expecting to happen are happening and
it's not mind-blowing me. And I find it
so hard to find very unique, very
mind-blowing fantasy that has things
happening that I don't expect. So leave
comments down below for fantasy books
that you find unpredictable and frankly
amazing. Because I need more of those. I'm
kind of going off the fantasy genre
lately. So I'm reading this one from the
library and I'll be reading some more
today. I don't think I'm gonna finish it
because I've still got like, I don't know,
a good 200 pages left. So that's not gonna be
finished. But just hop on and tell my
thoughts at the end of the day. I
wanted to talk to you about libraries
and I wanted to share a bit of my
library kind of journey with you guys. And it starts from primary school when I
went to my primary school library. And I
used to spend a lot of time at primary
school because my mom was a primary
school teacher. Which meant we had to be
there early in the morning and we had to
be there for longer after school. Like,
one or two hours. In the beginning I
remember spending those hours in my
mum's classroom. And then I started to go
more and more to the library because I
absolutely loved it. I was an avid reader
since forever and I just flourished in
the library. I read all the books. I was
very good friends with the librarian. She
kind of took a liking to me and we still
email back and forth book
recommendations. She used to say like
I'll read this and I come back in a week
or two and I'd read it. And we could
discuss it and it was just so much fun
reading all the books. I used to read
nonfiction I used to read fiction.
Anything I could get my little hands on
I would read happily happily. Then I grew
up I went to my secondary school
and it was like wow! There's a whole new
world opened to me because there were a
lot more adult fiction books.
And a lot more classics. And in the
primary school library there's just what
present because they weren't
recommended to younger readers. And that
just makes perfect sense to me but it
was like a whole new batch of books and
I was so shook. And I was reading
everything that I possibly could. I read
my first classic which was Jane Eyre.
I fell in love at Twilight. I read just
all the books, all the time. It was great
because those were my main libraries as
I was living in the Netherlands and
other libraries in the Netherlands did
not have such a big English book
collection. But then I went to university
and I fell completely out of love with
my university library there. The
university library just made me feel
like it wasn't about the books. So
because it's one of the only -- not one of the only -- but it's one of the largest
study spaces or a campus. There's a lot
of computers. There's a lot of spaces
where you can study and work and the
bookcases are kind of like, interspersed
with the computers and such. So,
I just felt very uncomfortable browsing
for books when I could see people
studying around me. I just felt like
that's not the main purpose from the
library. I felt like the main purpose
wasn't actually going to find books. I
felt like the main purpose was going to
study and the books were kind of in the
loud spaces more often than not. And I
just felt very uncomfortable and even
though I do an english literature degree
with creative writing, I managed to go to
the library a total of two times. One
time to pick up something and one time
to work on a group project. Not to go
borrow and read books. I think I've only
ever borrowed one or two physical books
from that library. And I just never went
back. So, that library be totally put me off
libraries. I wasn't feeling comfortable. I
didn't think about going to find a
library that wasn't a university library. But then I came to Australia and I told
myself I need to start using my library
because I'm only gonna be able to bring
like ten, or ten or something books with
me. And I want to read books while I'm
here still so obviously I need to join
the library. I joined the University
Library and I joined the library and
they were fantastic, pretty much. They
have so many different types of books. They've got graphic novels, as you've seen with Saga.
They've got poetry, they've got nonfiction and
they've got fiction. They've got so much adult
and young adult. And I was surprised that
they had new releases come in pretty
often and pretty fast. Even obscure new
releases that most people don't know
about. Because I tend to read a lot of random
books? I wouldn't say random but I read a lot
of genres and I read a lot of books
that aren't the heiped main books. But I
enjoy reading those too and they have
them as well. So I was very very
impressed. So, I'm really enjoying using
these two libraries. One of them is a
library which is a study library. And
it's more quiet but they do have bookish
places and the bookcases are kind of
like, the front and foremost. There's some
rooms where it's just books so you can
just browse a lot feel like you're imposing on anybody's study space. There's some
which are a mixture of both and there's some which are just study spaces which i think is
great because if you're someone who
likes to work with books around you can,
and if you're someone who's going
primarily for the books you can also do
that. There's also a lovely cafe
downstairs and it looks really modern
and nice. And then the other library is
like a loud library. There's a TV with a
gaming console so you can go and play
games if you want and then there's loads
of sofas for sitting and chilling. There's a book club there hosted every
week. And of course there's all those
book options. I actually did go to the
library so I'll cut in a video of it.
I went to the library early in the morning
just at opening time because I was a bit
nervous to film with a lot of people
around and I felt like someone was gonna ask
me: like what are you doing? So I decided
to go really early when nobody was there.
And yeah, I just took a couple of clips -
very short. But I feel like that library
just is the one for me. I feel very
comfortable there. I go there to work and
study. And I'm not somebody who goes to
the cafe gets a coffee and sits down and
studies in a public space. I'm always
very aware and anxious about other
people around me. So I feel like if I go
and have a coffee and study somewhere or if
I go have a coffee you read somewhere
like I feel like I need to get out of
the shop as soon as possible. Or
someone's gonna tell me to move and I
know that's not the case but it's in my
head all the time. So going to this
library it's just be like a nice safe space
I guess, where I can just study endlessly and
and yeah. I really really like it. And
when I see all these news about
libraries closing down it just makes me
so sad because it's a free space to get
books and access them and it's like, oh
there it goes, you know! A place that I
know that if I went there I would
probably feel comfortable in reading and
such. So when I go back to the UK I'm
gonna try and find a library again. Not
my library that is the university library
be but a different library that I can
join. Because I really like what I'm
doing where I'm reading loads of books
and if I rate it less than three stars I
know I'm not gonna buy myself a copy. But
if I read it four or five stars and
occasionally a three stars that's a good
three stars, I might end up buying up up
for myself. And I really like that kind
of method because if you watched my
video and I counted my books which I'll
link up there, you'll know that I counted
my books and I found out that I have
quite a lot of books. And I unhauled quite
a lot of books. And the fact that I was
unhauling a lot of the books that I was
buying just goes to show me that there's
a discrepancy there that needs to be
fixed. And I feel like what can help me
fix that discrepancy is definitely,
definitely the libraries. And libraries
are more and more often getting ebooks
and audiobooks as well, so you can do the
online option. And I have done that I've
used some of their ebook systems which
are great. And the audiobooks also just work
really well for me because at least the
library that and that right
now sometimes they get audio books and
eBooks or new books before they get the
physical copy. Which means that you could
just access them faster. I'm not really
an audiobook listener. Like, I do listen
to the occasional one but it takes me
literally forever because I only listen
to audiobooks when I walk to and from
uni which is like 20 minutes only.
I'm not even everyday, like three days a
week. So I don't take advantages of the
audiobook so much but I definitely do
take advantage of the e-book system, I
just wish that more ebooks were mobi
versions because mostly on this -- in the
library they have epub versions which
means I can't access them on my Kindle.
So I have to read on my laptop which I
don't mind doing, I know other people do
it so it'd be nice if there was some
mobi copies. Do I have anything more to
say? I think that's all I have to say
about libraries but I'm very interested...
sorry that this has been such a chill
video. But I'm very interested in hearing
your thoughts on libraries. I'm gonna
give that the space over to future
Olivia to talk a little bit more about
the Poppy War and what she read today.
Hey guys! So reading didn't quite go as
planned and instead I'm going to tell
you about some of the graphic novels I
read instead. So one of the first ones
was Umbrella Academy and this is
volume one. I read it and I didn't
really like it. I was mostly confused
throughout reading it and I think the
reason why I was confused is because
nothing was very clear. I haven't watched
the TV show. And I think it's a graphic
novel that is going to be a lot of a
better experience if you've watched the
TV series first. Then I read Nimona and
that was frankly wonderful. Why would you
not read this? If you like villains and
shapeshifters you're gonna love this one. There's also heroes in it but you know,
the main perspective is the villain's and
the shapeshifter's. Basically talking
about good and bad, and basically a whole
bunch of grey area. Enough to make your
head spin and it is fantastic. Then we have Paper Girls vol 5. I've been
feeling quite mixed about the series and
I feel exactly the same way about this
volume. It was enjoyable to read but at
the same time it's still not the best
graphic novel series I've ever read. I
just keep meeting them because sometimes
I'm trash like that. I just want
something that's quick to read and I
don't hate it but I don't love it either. And last but not least I read Monstress vol 3
which I literally just finished now. And
oh my goodness guys, this was so good. I
just I can't deal I can't deal. This series
is so good and I'm really really loving
it! So that is it this video. Please let
me know in the comment section down
below do you use your library? And if you
don't use your library what is something
that would give you incentive to use
your library more? I would be very
interested in hearing how libraries can
improve and be more approachable to
other people. Please give this video a
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time I have a new video. See you guys the
next one! Goodbye!
