Hello ladies & gentlemen,
The month has come to an end and it’s time to do a quick wrap-up of what has been done.
Reading Breakdown.
Novels read: 5 (-).
Comic books read: 5 (–).
Manga volumes read: 10 (↓).
BOOK REVIEWS
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami.
Legacy of Ash by Matthew Ward.
The Ranger of Marzanna by Jon Skovron.
Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells.
Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson.
COMIC BOOK REVIEWS
Batman: Last Knight on Earth by Scott Snyder.
Fight Club 3 by Chuck Palahniuk.
Batman (Vol. 12): City of Bane Part 1 by Tom King.
Global Frequency by Warren Ellis.
Superman: Up in the Sky by Tom King.
TV SERIES/MOVIE REVIEW
MISCELLANEOUS POSTS
What is Your Bookworm Dystopia Like?
TOP BOOK
This was a read that was a long time coming. Praised by many avid fantasy readers, I just knew that it was mandatory reading if I was to acquire my knighthood amongst SFF readers! 😛 It did not disappoint and it was a challenge that I was craving AND looking forward to.
Check out my review for more on my thoughts!
LEAST FAVOURITE BOOK
I went into this one with no expectations whatsoever and was disappointed by what I got by the end of it. I didn’t know it was possible to pick up something like this when there are countless other SFF books being released nowadays that make you think that every new author has something to offer!
Check out my review for more on my thoughts!
TOP TV SERIES/MOVIES
This is the month where I discovered director Mel Brook’s movies and among those that I’ve seen so far, Young Frankenstein (1974) was the best one! It was a hilarious parody of Frankenstein filled with simple yet efficient jokes and solid performances by a perfect limited cast.
4 ½ stars outta 5.
These are all the movies I watched/rewatched this month.
Special mention to Better Call Saul Season 5 that came to an end this month as well! I am both excited and sad that this fantastic spin-off is coming to an end with season 6.
CURRENTLY READING
After his Book of the Ancestor trilogy completely seduced me, it is now time to check out his latest project!
PERSONAL LIFE
I assume that today marks the day where we officially went through a whole month of confinement and survived (?) the experience. I can’t say that it’s easy on the psyche to be stripped of social contact, especially with all your loved ones, whether it’s family or friends, but I think we’ve gotten used to it quite quickly to this rhythm of life. Out here, the government is slowly organizing themselves for a progressive reinstatement of certain activities but we all know that this fight with the virus is far from over. I just have a feeling that we’ll be going through a cycle (stay in, go out, contaminate, go back in, rinse and repeat).
This month also saw the beginning of a new reading habit that I’ve always wanted to test out and will probably continue to develop over time, which is to write journal entries for all the books I read. Without getting into any details (I’ll probably write about it at some point in the future), I wanted to take notes on characters, worlds, plot points, and thoughts as I progress through books. Obviously, this kills some of the “read for fun” type of reading, but I’m gaining a lot more in this new way of reading, so I’m not complaining!
As always, I’ll just keep up my experimental routines to see if I can optimize my time even more than usual just so I can squeeze more things within the time I’m awake!
Thank you all for checking out my monthly wrap-up and don’t forget to check out any posts that might interest you or that you might have missed out on!
Stayed tuned for my Monthly Anticipation post coming out soon. 😉
So what’s going on with y’all? What have you discovered this month? What are your thoughts on the books/TV series/movies I’ve checked out?
Yours truly,
Roars and Echoes 
Hurray for Space Balls! If you really enjoyed it, I recommend the animated series. It’s relatively short and pretty funny too. My next favorite Brooks film is Blazing Saddles. Never fails to get a good laugh out of me.
Congrats on starting your Malazan journey. And once you are done this 10 book monstrosity, you have Esslemont’s “Empire of Malaz” 6 book series to look forward too 😀 Then even more, hahahahahahaa! You probably have years worth of reading to look forward too 🙂
I hope your new formula for taking notes works for you. I trust you’ll refine the process until it fits you perfectly. Best of luck!
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I have The Twelve Chairs and Blazing Saddles queued up as my next Mel Brooks movies hahaha I look forward to them.
Yep. One helluva universe to explore among others that I still need to finally plunge into and continue on hahaha
Thanks, man. Looking forward to learning as I move forward too. 😀
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Oh, Mel Brooks! I do have fond memories of both his Robin Hood and Space Balls 😀
Good luck with your new routine, I am quite curious of your journal entries – hope you’ll be willing to share some on the blog! 🙂
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I was a bit surprised when I realized that I had never seen any of his movies till now. He has some truly magnificent movies in his career!
I’ll definitely talk about it as I get a hang of a strategy that works well for me! 😀 Maybe I’ll end up dumping the idea too in the end. To be determined. 😛
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I would love to read THE GIRL AND THE STARS ♡
Your journal entries seem an interesting idea. I am a fan of annotations and supposedly it is a good habit to engage in active reading. This may sound strange, but it is a very personal and enjoyable experience for the mind to me.
Though some of your numbers are down, I still consider it a decent reading month.
Happy Reading in May and stay well, Lashaan 🙂
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I just know that Mark Lawrence has never disappointed me, so maybe you should definitely check out some of his books if you haven’t already! 😉
Yep, I was always curious about active reading but knew that it had its cons. I’ll see what I can do to make it something that I enjoy more than hate and share it with you guys later in the year! 😀
Take care as well, Scarlett! Happy reading! 😀
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When I did a clean up during this quarantine period I found my past reading journal that I didn’t even remember making 😀 It’s been a while, but I enjoyed rereading my notes so I will also pick up this habit again.
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Ohhh, that’s so cool! I really do love the idea and wish I had some kind of super hot writing style to make me appreciate this even more but I guess I’ll have to do it one step at a time hahaha Hope you enjoy your time re-writing notes! 😀
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I definitely think you’re right about going through cycles with this flipping virus. Our Government is going to announcing how and when it’s going to relax lockdown rules which will be interesting. I love the osund of your journal idea and would love to see a post in the future.
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Right? I think it’s inevitable until they industrialized a vaccin. I just hope that it won’t unnecessarily kill more people in the process…
I’ll definitely try and share my journey with this whole journal thing. So far it has been quite fun and I hope I’ll find a structure that I love with it soon to share it all with you guys! 😀
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I haven’t seen a Mel Brooks film in ages. Young Frankenstein is definately a great one. I look forward to hearing what you think of The Girl and the Stars. I like the descriptions of his books but I’ve yet to try one.
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It has been fun discovering Mel Brooks’s movies so far. Some are far better than other but still plenty of stuff to laugh out loud at!
I’ve only read one trilogy by him and I really enjoyed it. Hope to give you an idea in the near future as to which one you’d want to give a try though!
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Ah, Mel Brooks’ movies! I still have fond memories of Young Frankestein, The Producers and The Twelve Chairs, although it’s been some time and I might need a refresher course – which might be exactly what the doctor ordered given the current situation… 😉
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I’m checking out The Twelve Chairs next myself! And then Blazing Saddles. So much fun with his movies and I hope you get the chance to revisit them. Those that you mentioned are my favourites so far! 😀
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I’d be very curious to hear about this journaling-while-reading habit your are developing? I can’t ever seem to come up with any notes I even really want to take, but then I also often don’t have anything to write with nearby haha stay safe and healthy!
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I’ll definitely remember to share it with you guys. It has always been something I wanted to do but just never took the time to try it out. It does demand much more “mental energy” to actually do though, that’s for sure hahaha 😀 Stay safe and healthy as well, Kat!
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Blucher!
Somebody mentioned the other day how Marty Feldman and I favour…
‘The Producers’ is fantastic. ‘Blazing Saddles’ is an all-time fave. Harvey Korman is precious.
Tiny correction, if I may…
‘Young Frankenstein’ is a parody of ‘Son of Frankenstein’, NOT ‘Frankenstein’. Gene Wilder is doing a Basil Rathbone imitation. The story, the sets, and the characters follow the latter film.
Icky the Killjoy.
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***does horse noises***
Hahaha not sure if that’s a compliment or not but at least he’s absolutely hilarious in Young Frankenstein! I’ll be checking out The Twelves Chairs and Blazing Saddles next. 😀
Ohhh, thanks for the correction. I’ve only seen the 1931 Frankenstein movie and could only spot a couple of references to it (e.g. the monster and the little girl sequence, for example) but it does make much more sense that it’s closer to a parody of Son of Frankenstein though.
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I have also thought of journal entries but I am so lazy that this idea never lives a long life LOL
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Hahahahah it’s definitely not something I’d recommend to everyone, that’s for sure! 😛
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Looking forward to a post about your journal entries!
Happy reading and take care.
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I’ll try and do that as soon as I feel confident about a way of taking notes! 😛 Happy reading to you too, Nadine!
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Indeed. We made it through the month and I ended it with too much energy and deep urge to go partying or club hopping or some other inadvisable thing, lol.
The journal thing is pretty cool. Are you doing it for every book you read?
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Hahahahaha wait till that weather gets better and better every day throughout May. Let’s see how well you’re going to resist that urge to party hard then. 😛
I am currently trying it out for everything I read, whether it’s a comic, a novella or full-length novel. It’s slowly becoming effortless for me but I continue to adapt and change certain things as I read. 😀
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Oh man! It will be so much harder then.
That’s really cool and it is a great exercise. I try to do that with my blog because I review everything I read on there. I think doing such reflections help me notice things I didn’t realize while reading. It also helps me better remember the story years later.
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Ooh, it sounds ambitious to write a journal. I do think, it would take out some of the fun of reading and perhaps start to feel a bit like school work. On the other hand, it is great to have to look back to and I am sure it would enhance the quality of one’s reviews as well! Excited to see what you come up with.
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I think that making it closer to school work hurts less to me considering that I’m so used to it and still am in academic context as I’m pursuing my PhD at this instant hahaaha
I’ll definitely share my thoughts on this whole journal thing once I get a certain methodology for it. 😛
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I’m so happy you watched some of my favourite movies and discovered Mel Brooks! 😍 I can’t wait to watch the next ones with you! 😘 Also, I love your new reading habit I think I would never have enough patience to take notes while reading! But whenever I’ll forget something about a book we read together, you’ll be able to tell me everything thanks to your notes 😇
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Thank YOU for making me discover them hahahah They’re mostly very fun BECAUSE I’m watching them with you too hahah Ohh noooo, I don’t even know if I’ll ever reread my notes in the future though! 😛 Hopefully I do and I realize how useful it is hahah 😀
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How are you finding the Girl and the Stars?
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I was glad to discover (more like remember) that it’s set in the same universe as the Book of the Ancestors trilogy but I’m not completely sold by the story yet, feeling a bit letdown by story. Still loads of fun though!
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I reviewed it a little while back and felt very let down. Not sure how it got so many 5 star rave reviews.
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I’ll drop by to read it as soon as I’m done with it myself then. Honestly, I think I could totally understand the let down too but I’ll see where it goes by the end of the book before judging this new series.
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Really want to get to The Girl and The Stars soon too! I loved the Book of the Ancestor series!
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If you loved the Book of the Ancestors series, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ll enjoy this one too. 😉
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