Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Bout of Books: Update post

Monday
Reading: Female Masculinity by Judith Halberstam, The Charioteer by Mary Renault, Nana by Emile Zola, Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk
Pages read: 3+92+55+18= 168
Total pages read: 168
Books finished; Nana
Total books finished: 1

Pretty strong start, if I say so myself. (Okay, so TECHNICALLY this includes books I read after midnight on Sunday before I went to bed, and books read after midnight on Monday so it's more than 24 hours. But, technicalities.)

The Charioteer is really good, so I've been powering through that easily. I also finally got my head down and finished Nana, hurray! I'm so glad. It's the last book I had to read for my degree so now in theory I'm free to write essays and revise.

Beautiful You is pretty good so far, despite my misgivings.


Tuesday
Reading: Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk, The Charioteer by Mary Renault
Pages read: 82+5= 87
Total pages read: 245
Books finished; None
Total books finished: 1

9.50pm
Pages read so far: 71

My head is pretty much fried. Final year, guys. It's crazy. I've been working on essays and revising for my oral exam next Monday and freaking out about the MA I want to do (how do you do an MA and not become homeless or give up eating for a year. HOW.) So, yes. It's time for a break and some crazy Chuck Palahniuk.

This book is seriously weird. I think I like it. I'm not sure. Basically, it's about this woman, Penny, who is randomly asked out by this super wealthy billionaire, who then proceeds to... pleasure her, shall we say, obsessively. She's his test subject for a line of ridiculously effective sex toys, which will take over the world, or something. So far, so Chuck Palahniuk.

I'm not sure what he's trying to say or if he is trying to say anything at all, but I'm having a fun time figuring it out. I don't think the hints of Fifty Shades of Grey are unintentional, which is pretty funny.

Wednesday
Reading: The Charioteer by Mary Renault
Pages read: 39
Total pages read: 284
Books finished; None
Total books finished: 1

So tonight we had a (ill-advised?) get together with some people from my course, with Cards Against Humanity and general giggles. I haven't hung out with anyone in so long, so that was actually awesome. Sometimes even when you're impossibly bogged down with essays and revision, you still need something to make yourself feel a bit... saner.

This is what my view looks like 99% of the time these days.


So, not much on the reading front done today. But The Charioteer is still good.


Thursday
Reading: The Charioteer by Mary Renault
Pages read: 28
Total pages read: 312
Books finished; None
Total books finished: 1

9.50pm
Pages read so far: 10

Hey look! I'm still in essay hell!


But oddly enough I'm not quite as stressed as I have been over the past few days. Maybe it's the restorative powers of last night, I don't know, but I've managed to get past the planning stages of both my essays and onto actually writing the damn things, which actually feels so much better. I'm nearly a third through my French and I've finally settled on texts for my English, so it's all good.

As far as reading...? Well, I've read a grand total of 10 pages today so far, which is pretty feeble even by non-Bout of Books standards... I'm having a brief study break now so I'll read a bit, then do some coursework until about midnight or so and hopefully get more read before I fall asleep.

The Charioteer is still good. It's so subtle in some ways and so daring in others. Things are getting interesting and I'm holding my breath that things aren't going to go horribly wrong for certain characters.


Friday

Reading: The Charioteer by Mary Renault, Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk
Pages read: 38+110= 148
Total pages read: 460
Books finished; None
Total books finished: 1

9.40pm
Pages read so far: 125

Today was my last day of classes for my undergrad. It was weird. I don't think it's really sunk in yet- that and the fact that I'm hopefully doing a Master's in October in the same university, so it's not really like I'm leaving. But still. I hated school and hated the year I spent in France teaching-assistanting, so Belfast and uni is kind of the only place I've been truly happy.



But then, when I got on the bus to go home for the weekend, I realised that I didn't have any uni reading to do. For like, the first time since September. So I got a good chunk of Beautiful You read, and it was fabulous.

I'm enjoying Beautiful You quite a bit more than I expected, actually. Things have got so ridiculous it's very entertaining and I'm interested to see how it all pans out. It's a book about sex toys that destroy civilisation. I mean, come on. How could I not like it? I'm about thirty pages from the end so I'd love to get it finished before I go to bed, provided essay writing doesn't exhaust me too much.


Saturday
Reading: Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk, The Charioteer by Mary Renault,
Pages read: 12+32= 44
Total pages read: 504
Books finished; Beautiful You
Total books finished: 2

10.00pm
Pages read so far: 44

Normally I work from 12 to about 10 or even later on a Saturday, but it was quiet so I got home at half 8. Yay! In that time, admittedly, I haven't done much except eat large quantities of naan bread and tinker with my music, but it's still something to be celebrated.

I finished Beautiful You this morning. I've actually been at the stage with my reading lately where finishing a book is a big achievement, sigh. I can only think longingly of the days when finishing a book was an everyday occurrence, and not having finished a book in a few days was just weird. Oh well, there's always summer.


The Charioteer is also still good. I'm hoping to read more of it tonight, though I've got essays and revision awaiting me as always. Depends how much willpower I have at the end of it all!

Sunday
Reading: The Charioteer by Mary Renault, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Pages read: 61+78= 139
Total pages read: 643
Books finished; None
Total books finished: 2

I'm writing this up super late, but circumstances were against me. On Sunday all my overwork caught up with me and I got sick in that niggling, annoying sort of way- I was exhausted, couldn't face food and my throat was sore. So I ended up spending most of the day in bed. Not what I wanted or needed with an oral exam the next day and two essays that desperately needed writing, but sometimes you have to listen to your body. That said, I actually managed to read more than I thought I did and picked up The Woman in White as it's a Kindle book and therefore easier to read while flat out in bed. God, I love it so much. I'm kind of glad I don't really remember what happens in it, it keeps things surprising.

Round-up
Total pages read: 643
Books finished: Nana by Emile Zola, Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk
Other books read from: The Charioteer by Mary Renault, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. Plus a teeny tiny bit of Female Masculinity by Judith Halberstam.

Well, it's over! 643 pages isn't a lot by most standards, but it's definitely more than I would have read usually this week, and that's the whole point, isn't it? I finished one of my urgent library books and read most of the over, finally finished Nana and got stuck into The Woman in White. I've had a blast.


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