wrap it up [3]

Here I am, wrapping up the last week of March, and rounding off the whole month. There’s just too many posts that I want to write to justify splitting things up.

Another pretty good week of home-cooked meals. I am actually so good at cooking. I didn’t get around to baking the battenberg cake though because I’m lazy and the cupcakes lasted way longer than expected. Apparently I’m the only one in the house who enjoys the taste of marzipan.

Even better though were the places that I went to this weekend. As my mom was visiting for her birthday we went all out. I had so much good vegan junk food!

• Hummingbird Bakery – I got the vegan vanilla because it was topped with sprinkles and I haven’t had sprinkles in years because they’re almost always coated in beeswax. This was the ideal treat during the intermission at 9 to 5! Also, on Friday’s if you say ‘Treat a Friend‘ you can get a second cupcake for free.
• by Chloe. – A healthy take on fast food. We visited the branch in Covent Garden and thanks to google maps it took us three times as long as it should have to get there. It was a little overpriced at almost £15 for a meatball sub and fries, but it tasted so damn good!
• The Diner – I love a good vegan hotdog and oh boy did they deliver. The menu isn’t just vegan, but the vegan menu is h u g e. I got a hot dog, cheezy chips and onion rings and I already can’t wait to take Matt on a date there to try out other items! We also had the nicest server known to man.

It’s not been a very progressive week for me. I’ve been slowly working my way through this across my commutes, and due to a few busy evenings and a packed weekend I haven’t had the chance to get through much.

Right now I’m on page 481 of 707 so hopefully I’ll have finished it by the end of the week. Saying that though, Fraser’s written style makes me want to only read histories written by her for the rest of time.

I really do love the the scathing take downs of inaccurate sources.

• 

• 

• 

Images soured from Goodreads

I’m definitely going to pick The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs up next, which will be followed by Queens of the Conquest as ideally I want all my current library books to be returned next Friday before we go to Paris. That’s a good thousand pages of reading but I can definitely do it if I waste a little less time. Postcards from the Edge and Alan Turing will probably be put back on my shelf for the time being.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Images soured from Goodreads

I realised that I left off Fateless in my earlier wrap up. I actually read it in the middle of the month before I went home to see my family.

Eleven books across the month is pretty good going considering the amount of breakdowns that March has contained. I’m gonna give myself a pat on the back.

• 

• 

• 

Images soured from Wikipedia

LEGO Batman Movie – I watched this on Amazon Prime, or more accurately I watched about 70% before I fell asleep and forgot I’d started it until now. It was alright, definitely not the best LEGO movie, but I will finish it.

Get Out – In preparation for seeing Us I finally watched Get Out. I’d put it off as I’d seen the majority of the movie in snippets that I’d watched whilst working at a cinema (read: watched when I should have been doing other things). I’m not sure enjoyable is the way to describe the experience, but it was certainly a masterpiece within the horror genre.

Us – A different experience to Get Out, being far less obvious in its commentary. There were moments that felt a little off, and at times it felt a little too drawn out but that may have been because I’d been up since five that morning and went to a late show. Peele in undoubtedly talented and I’m stoked to see what he delivers next.

• Decrease my TBR: I mean I read a fair few books, but I did also buy a lot and take more out of the library than I can realistically handle.
• Be more involved: I definitely read more blog posts, I tried to read a couple a day on my lunch break at work but I mostly just realised that I don’t follow enough people to have a constant feed of posts to read. So, feel free to shamelessly self promote your best posts in the comments!
• Design some graphics: I did! They’re a million times better than the ones on my last monthly wrap up. I’m still not 100% there but for now, they’ll do.

Catch up with reviews – I need to stop starting a new book as soon as I finish one. I should take a hot minute to reflect and write up the review or analysis.

Read and return my library books – I’ve got tons of stuff to do from mid-April onward so I cannot have them around or I’m going to end up with a ton of fines.

Reset my routine – Right now I’m going to bed around 9 pm and waking up at 7:30 am. It’s not good for me and is the result of Matt having to get up at 5 for work and disturbing me so then I drift in and out of sleep. I need to get up at the same time as him, create a routine and reclaim the hours I’ve been losing out on. Only have two me hours a day is not enough, especially when I have to squeeze dinner into the small time frame.

a trip to the library (one small haul)

the word is murder : a review

happy world book day!

my glorious return

wrap it up [2]

i cannot stop acquiring books

3 books by trans authors that i think you should read

Did anyone else struggle to complete their goals for the month? Or, was March a complete success for you? Let me know!

my glorious return

it’s me, i’m back again. hopefully for real this time. my mental health is still whack but i’m not actively trying to harm myself anymore. so, let’s dive into what i’ve been reading in my moments of clarity.

• 

• 

• 

postcards from the edge – carrie fisher. i started this after dnf’ing the dante trap. i left it downstairs on the trunk and i am still yet to claim it.

a handful of ghosts – barbara ker wilson. ghost stories written by australians. i started this a day or so ago and there’s a pretty good mix so far!

alan turing: the enigma – andrew hodges. i started this at the beginning of march and got through around 100 pages. it’s not a bad read, but it is slow due to the heavy focus on the breakdown of the mathematics that turing was studying. i love maths but it’s been so long since i’ve studied it that i keep taking breaks to do some research.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

i also read a biography on leonardo davinci from the early 19th century but i cannot find evidence of it existing online and it’s not with me at the minute to take a photo of, but it’s definitely the coolest book i’ve bought recently.

i’ll get some reviews of these up over the coming days/weeks. i got through quite a few books so i’m going to be playing catch up for a while! there’s also still a few reviews from feb which i didn’t finish, plus the write up of the horowitz talk.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

foundation – peter ackroyd and tudors. i figured if i was dnf’ing foundation i might as well get rid of tudors too. there was no way i’d be able to cope with his style even for my faves. i was tempted to finish foundation and give it a scathing review but you know what, i don’t need that sort of negativity in my life. i hope someone gets some enjoyment out of these.

nothing but grass – will cohu . this had such a promising plot, but it was poorly executed. in the second chapter i was thrown into the past with abysmal prose. i couldn’t do it. i deserve better.

spilt milk – lana citron. i was fairly excited to read this. it promised a modern romance in an original and rambling style. unfortunately, for me, it did not deliver. perhaps i’m just not in the place to read romance, all i know is that i wasn’t engaged.

the assistant – bernard malamud. i picked this book up on a whim and i just didn’t connect with the story. i got through fifty or so pages across a few days and it didn’t quite sit right with me. i think if i came back to it in a few years i might be more compelled to finish it. i’m gonna stick it in my cupboard and hope that it’s an exciting discovery the next time i stumble across it.

the dante trap – arnaud delalande. if you know me you probably know dante is up there as one of my favourite historical figures. putting his name on this was a mistake. also imagine calling your chapters cantos. the word literally fuckin means song or singing, and is applied to poems. this was not a poem.

i hope that the last week of march has less dnf’s.

i’ve got a couple more posts drafted and i’m gonna aim to post one every few days to try and get back on track! also, hello to anyone that joined whilst i was away.

p.s. this post is in a cool calm lower case. should i continue with this as i find it much easier to type posts this way, or is it best to put the money i spent on a degree to use and invest in some capitals.

p.p.s. who likes these new dividers. do i look like a blogger who has their life together?