THE BEST AUTHOR EXPERIENCE EVER?! ✨ validate me by charly cox review + reading vlog

You're a hero Hello, oh Just put my hair in my face. Hello It's Megan from the future here because I just realized when sitting down to edit this I never actually filmed an intro But quickly before I actually get into what the video is about I just wanted to let you all know that I am doing a poll over on my Twitter for what I should do for my 1k celebration when we eventually reach that the mind boggles like I Really can't believe I'm even anything close to that number But yeah I wanted you all to have a say in what I do So the link will be down below in the bio if you wanted to check that out and go have a vote Now in today's video we have a really special experience when I meet Charlie Cox who is a British pirate She is one of my favorite poets ever her first poetry collection She must be mad was one of my favorite books this year so far And I've mentioned it a few times on my channel and in the studio I had an opportunity to go to a book signing and a poetry reading for her next collection, which is out now which is validate me and Yeah, it was really really great. So I just wanted to share that in a video for you guys So yeah, go vote down below and I hope you enjoy the rest of this video So I'm just about to leave for the event I think I'll have filmed like a little bit before this explaining to you, but I've got my copy. I'm in a time rush No one says that but yeah Which is why? Panicking and look at that. Oh my god. No, I can't even go. I can't even go out in public looking like this I've got no time it's because I had to put more makeup on top of my really existing makeup, but I do have time coming from you need to do my whole makeup again and So embarrassing that's so embarrassing I can't I can't anyway, we're gonna sign Went to a very expensive hotel every morning and nursed a cup of coffee for about eight hours Constantly refilling up with drinks. I had in my bag So they just assumed that I'd reordered and they haven't noticed and it got to a point where I just sort of felt like a Local I'd really convinced myself beyond the realms of lying, but maybe it was true One particular day. I was really sad really really sad Sort of bypassed everyone there I thought you know I'm just gonna go and sit in the smoking area all day and keep the curtain closed and try and work out And then someone ruined it but also You can't walk the bar and head for the screen take off your sunglasses a sigh of relief Just mumbles of others a curtain between Sat entirely alone unmasked with huge swollen eyes feeling uncomfortably alive feeling finally seen By no one, but you a sigh of relief finally seen it's grim and it's snotty It reeks of sweat and of sleep It curdles within you a rotten green pang and then from out of the barrier a stranger puts out his hand You shrug off reluctant. He's killing your moment, but actually there. He's properly showing you it London his voice swells you must be an actress not quite you reply though This is definitely acting but your beauty that accent. What's your success? I guess today. I finally got out of bed That's all there is everything else is a mess Kid he says look this guy's pulled straight from a film. You've got yourself here I saw you come over to hide head bowed as you walked. I know that stride you needed to talk And I'll give it to you straight You don't need to smile for the room, but put one on your face because what you feel inside is the best art That you'll make it's all yours to keep but it's getting you down because you've been giving it out instead of giving it chance to ruminate I'm so glad I wasn't growing up in the digital age because I've learned that it's all much too easy to fade When you're forced to dine out on gesture giving meals for those who weren't meant to take You look like fun Come to my house You're a hero So I just got home She was so lovely. The event was incredible. I'm so excited to read this tomorrow I think I'm just gonna like read the whole thing tomorrow because all the poems I was just like Wow, yeah, she was lovely. She was so lovely and we spoke for ages She said I was like a bullet Just like I know it's like she looked when when she was reading stuff out like not in like a Bit like I just felt like I was trying to be like encouraging, you know We spoke about Ariel because she's in Ariel's documentary about poetry if you've seen that that's how I found out about her It says Megan. You're a total babe of brilliance and deliciousness. All my love Charlie. Isn't she just I Just I feel like I haven't expressed to you how great it was meeting her and how kind she was and how Like just great. It was talking to her And I can't fight with her at the end That's definitely a step up from my main Jess Phillips because I didn't do well there but Charlie was just like we just got each other, you know, we just Well, that was so cool that was so cool Okay, bye it's the next day and I tweeted when I last night that I wanted to read it all in one sitting today, but My schedule doesn't want that so I've only had time today to read the first section it's split into four sections which are Objectify me love me suffocate me validate me and so my thinking is I'm essentially gonna check in with you after each of those tell you which was my favorite poem in the Section and then we'll do like a final Wrap up at the end. I've read the first section Which was objectify me. I'm really enjoyed it I really love her prose section so it's a mix of so there's just like the poems poems poems and then there's like these little little Just couple liners on those grey pages Some of the ones on grey pages are a bit longer than that That is one of the shorter ones then we've got poems that take up like two pages instead of the one Have a bigger header. I don't know why that is, but then we have prose sections That I kind of you know, like written like a mini story I really enjoyed the walk-in center, which is a piece of prose I feel like I related to it because she was talking about like being convinced something's wrong with you health-wise and That was something I struggled a lot with During first year of uni and I'm like trying to make sure it doesn't happen again But in terms of my favorite poem from the piece it would probably be Hashtag spawn which is the second-to-last poem in the piece and it's essentially about How sexuality and advertising used to be a lot more over I guess and obvious with page three with the you know TV adverts stuff like that, but now it's all hidden in the Instagram sponsorships the the protein powders the Skinny cheese, you know that kind of thing. I'm gonna read it out for you quickly. I hope she doesn't mind I'm not gonna do it as good a job reading it as she did reading her own poems last night Are we ready sit down relax? It used to be tits nestled in headlines a break from the crude flip to page three Check out the nude it used to be lips sucking on flakes want a dose of arousal skip to the ad breaks It used to be legs on bonnets of cars should only be seen on the right arm It used to be trashy demeaning and brutal. It all seems so brazen so obvious so futile. We gained it all back I felt so empowered until I realized sexual cells, but this time to me young girls Vitamins and whey powder clothes that don't fit on the bodies. They sit cinched in and smoothed Hungry eye glares removed just sexy and tiny sexy and tiny soft life and shiny It's really good it's really good I was worried that You know, it wasn't gonna live up to the first one It always worried that with any author after reading a piece of their work that you love so much whether it be fiction Whether it be nonfiction or whether it be poetry always feel that fear But also meeting her and having such a great experience meeting her. I felt like that doubled I felt I Felt like oh, I have to love this now because this was so lovely. So the next section is Love me, so I will let you know what I think I'll let you know what I think of that once I've read it and So it's the next day I just finished the second section which is love me parts this just broke my heart I mean, she's been through a lot of like romantic situations that she writes about that I've never been through so like I can't relate but it still is really upsetting you really really Like feel for her but also like feel for they're pretty common experiences So it makes me really feel for everyone else has to go through that ---- in terms of my favorite poem from this section Hey, let me let me have a think. Oh, I really liked glowing So Are we glowing glowing is kind of just sort of an idea of how it's set out like the format of it the first couple lines are Aligned like on the right of the page and then the rest are aligned just on the left when you wake your eyes are drawn to The screen and I imagine all the people before us who didn't have these things Who'd have lazed and lounged and gazed touched and smiled and yawned and snaked. I don't need your hand in the street I don't need our parents to meet. I don't need six months as a feat I just want to know all that's between us beneath the sheets in your eyes and mine our legs intertwined Instead of waking up to you on your sodding phone One thing I like about Charlie Cox's poetry is that she's really funny Amidst all the kind of really tough topics that she tackles. I really like Humor in poetry and she really does that so so well I haven't really encountered another poet that does it as well as she does. So I think that poems like a good Demonstration of how she tackles these difficult topics while still being humorous and funny So I'm gonna go out to a seminar now And then I'm gonna come home and read the last two sections and give you my final thoughts on this But I am just loving it so far So I finished it I know I was supposed to be checking in like every section, but I just didn't stop reading So I just read it all I gave it five stars. I Think if I was to recommend Charlie's poetry to you, it would be to explain essentially it's all about love relationships friendships mental health relations with yourself and in this one particularly the relationship with online and How that's affected so many of us as I was saying before I love the prose Sections so much. I love so many of the poems. I thought this one was laid out really well It was laid out in a bit of a different way for the last one and you could definitely see there's like a step-up Made there as well But the poetry is just so beautiful and it really is for like the modern young person I feel like I think there's a lot of poetry writing about experience of the young person particularly in the UK but worldwide as well the pressures that you feel and Even if they're pressures that you necessarily go through yourself, for example, like when she was talking about Difficulty in like kind of transient relationships as a young person like that's something I relate to yesterday, but It makes you understand a lot more the people around you and the kind of society that you're in So it's such an important read and if you're into poetry or wanting to get more into poetry I'd really recommend picking this up as always. I just wanna say a big thank you for coming here and supporting my channel and Yeah, I just feel so so lucky to be getting to talk to you about different kinds of books and just general books Well, I don't know what I'm saying. But thank you. Thank you thank you as always for being here subscribe if you're new if you haven't before and Yeah, hopefully I will see you soon with another video. Bye You