The Update - March 8 2023

 

Welcome back to The Update

Yeah, you know I have plenty of random shit to share.

        Welcome, readers, whoever you may be. I am back again this week with another little update from you, sparked by my need to do something productive while I sit and "listen" to my International Politics professor drone on and on. I have been doing lots of reading this week, so I have some general thoughts I wanted to share. First off, though, I wanted to talk a bit about e-books. Now, I am kind of an e-book hater. I just love a good book I can hold in my hands. Lately, though, I have been really into the whole e-book scene. It started when I was reading that arc I talked about (and if you noticed, I did post a review for it, so you should like check it out or whatever), and I realized that having a book on my phone keeps me off of like tik tok, which is like a major time suck for me. So I have been challenging myself to keep one book on my phone and one IRL so that when I wake up in the morning, I don't just scroll; rather, I do something productive, like reading. 

    My most recent e-book was a library book (which is a perk e-book reading, meaning I don't have to haul ass to a library and can choose right from my phone, lol), and I am so glad it was a library book because I HATED it, and like would hate to have bought it. The book was Boy Parts by Eliza Clark, and maybe I just did not know what I was getting into, but I found it gross. It is definitely one of those pseudo-horror novels about an unhinged young woman, and while I typically don't mind those types of books, honestly, I find them angsty, but like they usually make some good points, this one was just gross. Sure, it was unhinged, but at what cost. The main character, Irina, is a rude volatile, coked-up sociopath, and while I am sure the point was to be uncomfortable and for her to be unlikeable, it just did not have the desired effect. This book made me extremely uncomfortable, and I don't think a well-executed critique of society existed. It was a train wreck for sure in the sense that I could not stop reading, but when I finally made it through, I was DISTURBED. 

    There was a character in that book who was the less problematic punching bag for the narrator's best friend, and she had this blog, and it was chaotic, and writing this now made me think of her. It was very stream of consciousness, and she would like to totally name-drop all her friends when discussing their problems. She would always post about the main character and how worried she was and then share all the personal information about her, like on the internet for everyone to see, and it was like a diary but like in blog form, and everyone could read it. The worst part was that the main character knew she was doing it, and like that's how we saw the blog because she was reading it. God, this book was so messy and not like in a fun-to-read messy way, in a bad way. It really made me glad that my "blog," if you can even call it that, is *mostly* about books. 

    I have been working on lots of book playlists to post here as of late, which I actually enjoy very much. I always love a good playlist, and it's fun to just kind of think about how I want to make one for a book and then share my thoughts. Honestly, there are a few ways in which I go about making these. Sometimes they are just based on like vibes, so songs that are cohesive and really represent the atmosphere of the book. Other, which honestly I do most often, are songs that remind me of the book, have similar meanings, or really make sense for the characters. Most recently, I have been doing one for Evelyn Hugo because it was very good, but everyone already knows that and so I wanted to post about it, but like I don't think I have anything to say about it that has not already been said. I am sure that many a person has also made their own playlists for the book, but I find that different people have different music tastes, so what I put into my playlist probably will at least be a little different. So like, look for that very soon because I will talk a bit about my song choices and post the playlist on this very blog.

    Ok, bear with me here, but I have one last little thing to share. So I am currently reading Georgie All Along by Kate Clayborn, and while I have not been reading it too much because I have been reading that sociopathic dumpster fire of a book, I am a couple chapters in, and I can just tell it's going to be great. I love that feeling, don't you? When you pick up a book, you can just tell right off the bat. It will be good and like totally worth your while. Anyway, just a thought. 

    Ok, well, I guess that's my little update for now. As always, thank you for reading, and stay tuned and all that fun stuff. Until next time dear readers!

XoXo,

Emma