November TBR! [To Be Read]

At the beginning of October, I decided to start reading books more. I made a plan to read certain books by the end of the month. Did I achieve that goal. Hell no! Last month I read 3 (and a half) books. I did plan on reading The Shining and Outlander, but everything else I picked up on a whim.

Due to the fact that I bought a big haul of books from Book Outlet that recently came in, I’m going to be a little more strict about which books I plan on reading. At the same time, I don’t want to read a bunch of books in a row from the same genre, considering a lot of my books from Book Outlet were young adult fantasy. I’ve also thrown in other types of books, like the genre called “I can’t believe I haven’t read this yet.”

The first book for November that I plan on reading is a Star Wars book – Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn. This is the first book in the Thrawn Trilogy. I’m actually almost done with it, since this is the half book I read in October and I’ve been reading it pretty religiously over the past few days. I was told this was a good starting point for the Star Wars expanded universe. Unfortunately, this book and many others are no longer considered canon since Disney acquired Lucas Films. It’s still a good story anyway and takes place 5 years after the end of Return of the Jedi.

The List

1. Heir to the Empire – Timothy Zahn (to be finished today!)
2. City of Bones – Cassandra Clare
3. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
4. Fangirl – Rainbow Rowell
5. Six of Crows – Leigh Bardugo

I figured since I’m almost done with my first book early, I would aspire to read one more book than I did last month. I’m trying to bust up the Young Adult genre with some Sci-fi. City of Bones and Fangirl were from Book Outlet, Six of Crows from Books a Million, and Hitchhiker’s Guide I ordered from Amazon for 20 cents but it hasn’t come in yet.

What books do you plan to read in November?

 

 

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October Book Wrap-Up

Almost two years ago, I wrote a post about wanting to get back into reading books more often. What I meant by this was non-comic books without pictures. Since I’m nearly 8 months pregnant now, I find it really hard to sit up at my desk to play games, so I’ve been reading books as a hobby more often. I started at the beginning of October and by the end of the month, I was able to finish 3 books. The first one was The Shining by Stephen King, then Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, and the final one was Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas.

The Shining

This is a book I’ve been meaning to read for a very long time. Most people know about The Shining. It’s one of Stephen King’s most popular books and it’s probably the most beloved movie based on any of his books. I’ve seen the movie millions of times over the years and I was interested to see what the differences between the book and movie would be. The book goes into greater detail about the different ghosts in the hotel, such as the twins in the hallway and what happened in room 237. Stephen King, as always, paints a very gruesome portrait of these characters that just can’t be translated to screen. I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars. I would have probably rated it 5 out of 5 had I not seen the movie so many times before. Having Stanley Kubrick as a director and Jack Nicholson as the main actor makes the book hard to beat the movie.

Outlander

I watched the first episode of this series while I was recovering from surgery a few months ago and I decided it was good enough to read the book instead and come back to the show later. At 560 pages, this book occupied the majority of October for me. This is a timey-wimey historical romance novel and I couldn’t help but hope for the Doctor to show up and explain the science behind this book. The book takes place towards the end of World War II where a field nurse (Claire) and her husband are reuniting in Scotland after having been apart for 6 years. They stumble upon some villagers performing an ancient druid ritual one night. The next day, Claire decides to investigate the circle of stones where the ritual took place and is instead transported to 1700’s Scotland in the middle of a skirmish between the British and the McKenzie clan. She meets the wounded Jamie and patches him back up. The McKenzie clan is so impressed with her “healing” powers (which is really just modern medical knowledge) that they take her in. This book was a little hard to stomach at times because I went into it thinking this was going to be a generic romance novel. When you break down the characters, they are very realistic. I was disappointed by their actions quite often, which made me put down the book a lot. Then I realized this is how real people are – unpredictable. Once I started reading Outlander with that in mind, I got really into the book. I would give it 4 out of 5 stars. My biggest complaint is that the time travel part is never really explained. Perhaps I’m just too spoiled by Doctor Who.

Throne of Glass

This book is all over Instagram, so I figured I would give it a try. This is a young adult fantasy and contrasts greatly to Outlander in that all the characters are fairly consistent in their actions and you don’t really see much character growth. However, I think the book was worth a read. Throne of Glass immerses you in a fantasy world and makes you forget your real life. For someone like me, that is invaluable. The book follows Celaena, an assassin paying her penance in salt mines and is selected to battle it out with other trained assassins to become the King’s champion – hopefully winning her freedom in the end. Like all young adult novels, there is a love triangle. Prince Dorian is her sponsor and Chaol is the captain of the royal guard and also her trainer. Of course they are best friends going after the same girl. Of course. Even though these types of stories have been overdone, I still enjoyed reading the book. The fight scenes are highly well written and almost make you think you are reading Game of Thrones. I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars, mainly because it was a book you could get lost in. I also plan on reading the other 3 books in the series.

 

 

Learning to Chill All Over Again

I used to be a positive person. I used to love video games and comic books and writing about them and making YouTube videos. Then I got pregnant, had emergency surgery for internal bleeding, and changed jobs to something that was way more stressful than what I thought. Now, I’m 31 weeks pregnant, have next to nothing ready for the baby, and low on money because I had to drop down to one shift a week at work because I can’t handle my job. I guess you could say I have perinatal depression.

I’m no stranger to depression, but not quite a champ at it either. I stayed depressed throughout high school and I suffered through 2007 along with Britney, but other than that, my adult life has been pretty chill. For the past 2 and a half years before I got pregnant, I was living the good life as a bachelorette psych nurse – doing what I want, when I want and spending money on whatever I wanted.

I had coping skills galore and always kept my shit together. All my coworkers would come to me to calm them down or help them through a stressful situation. That’s all shot to hell. I’m just like everyone else now.

I used to write. Not about anything really personal, but one summer I got into my head that I really wanted to go to E3. However, E3 is invitation only for video game journalists. I started a blog and got a pretty good following on social media. I was writing news articles and game reviews and also wrote about any geek culture topic. I even started writing for another website, which helped me become a more legit journalist. I never got accepted to E3, but my crowning achievement was getting a press pass to the first installment of PAX South this past January. I still have my pass sitting on my computer.

I could really go on and on about all the things I used to like but can no longer bring myself to do. However, I really can’t live with dwelling on the past. I know I’m really stressed out over the baby and I’m not sure what I’ll be able to do when the baby comes. I don’t really even know what kind of support I’m going to have. This is enough stress and doubt to make me lie in bed all day and stare at the ceiling.

But deep down, I am a psych nurse and I must psych nurse myself back to equilibrium (I really love that word). So, what would I tell a patient to do?

1. Look at the positives

Consider what you’ve accomplished in life – anything counts. Although I don’t have any interest in doing it anymore, I did go from a blogger with no skills to a legit member of the media for a video game convention that was almost as big as E3.

2. Relax

Don’t run around like a crackhead. I’ve been restless for months, cleaning things in my house over and over. One day I vacuumed my house twice! The best thing to do is make a cozy area of your house (I chose my bed) and make it a place to relax. I recently got back into reading regular books (not comics), so I read in bed or watch movies on my laptop in order to relax. I also take plenty of hot baths which do wonders for all the pregnancy aches and pains.

3. Find a new hobby

Depression can make you hate the stuff you like. So find something else to like. I previously mentioned that I recently (as of October 1st) started reading books. I’ve been a lifelong reader, but when you play a lot of video games and read a lot of comics, reading books without pictures becomes an afterthought. I read in bed and have my bookshelf (which I’m working on making pretty) in my bedroom. So far I’ve finished two books this month.

Writing used to always help me let off steam, but as I’ve changed interests, I have to change what I write about. In comes this blog. I named it The Literate Nerd, because I’m still nerdy as hell, but I’ve changed my focus to the written word. So stick around, or not. I’m sure my posts will eventually evolve from sad bastard whining to an actual blog about reading books!