reading my TBR for 24 HOURS?! 📚 ⏰ 24 hour readathon 🏁 TBR200 ep14

Hello, my name is Megan and I have... I actually don't know how many books I have on my TBR. Can you put it behind me? Whoa. That's quite a big number. I need to get some reading done, okay? We need to get this TBR down. We need to read regularly because I think my reading has been very hit or miss, very sporadic. And so today we're going to be doing a reading for 24 hours vlog. I am going to set a 24 hour timer on my phone and we are going to read until we have read for 24 hours in total. I want to get this done pretty quick. That's my challenge to myself. Ideally it would be in the next five days. Today's Monday, Monday to Friday. But that is like five hours of reading every single day. That's a lot. I don't know, I don't know the last time I read for five hours. So worst case, it'll be this whole week from like Monday to Sunday that we're going to read for 24 hours. Who knows? Who knows? Who knows? Who knows? I need to like get reading, like seriously reading. Reading more than I've ever read before. Reading like my life depends on it to get this TBR down. So let's talk about what I may be reading in this vlog because I actually think it's a little bit mood reading. So in terms of books I have to read in this vlog, we have two. We have The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke and we have The Names by Florence Knapp. This I'm co-hosting Booksandlala Kayla's book club. So I have to read this in order to discuss it on there. And this one is my Patreon book club and my in-person book club for May. So I have double reason to read this. So these we have to read in this vlog. But other than that, I guess we can kind of mood read. Isn't that crazy? We can kind of mood read. I mean, who knows what from these shelves I may, I may pick up. I probably have some books that have been on TBR Cluedo in the spring that I still haven't got around to yet. So maybe I should try and get to some of those. But like the wild is our oyster. So come with me to really put my money where my mouth is and like get a lot of reading done. I want to do a lot of reading today. I have reading sprints at four with my patrons but I have a few bits and bobs to do. But I think I'm basically just going to read today. So I think I'm going to start with The Ending Writes Itself. I'm also going to do something controversial. I don't think I'm going to pick up an audio book for this which for this kind of vlog where, you know, every moment counts. And if you can read while cooking, read while doing laundry like that does help the challenge. I will have some audio books in this vlog, I'm sure. But this book, to be honest, both of these books kind of don't feel like audio book books, you know. So I'm just going to read this physically. We'll see how far I get in today. I would like to get pretty far in. Here is the thing, I am nervous about this. This is one of the big mystery releases of the year. It is V.E. Schwab and Kat Clarke co-writing. It is, we'll talk about the synopsis when we get into it but it's like quite a traditional mystery synopsis. And I've heard mixed things. I've heard mixed things, I've heard mixed things. I don't mean to make her nervous that much. So I am trepidatious actually going into this. I'm also very excited because I love A Murder Mystery but I obviously read a lot of them. And I don't know if this is written for people who read a lot of them. So we'll see how it goes. We'll see how it goes. I'm going to start this today. I'm letting all my thoughts move their way through. I'm going to go prep lunches for the week. So come with me. I'm not doing anything like exciting today. I've been to the gym this morning but I'm going to go prep lunches for the rest of the week and get reading and have reading sprints this evening. So that's the plan. And let's start the ending rights itself. So apologies for any mess you can see in my kitchen. You're in my cupboard. Bye. There's some washing up here I need to put away. I need to do the dishwasher. Anyways, I just want to tell you something exciting. That this summer I have decided we really got to get this TBR down. So this summer every single vlog that I do is going to be a TBR 200 vlog. June, July, August. I am only reading books for my TBR and I am trying also not to buy any more books. I believe this is the start of me now and nothing's going to change it. I'm going to go on a book buying ban for the whole summer. I'm only going to read books on the TBR. We're going to get this TBR down. And so I thought I'd give it a name. I'm going to call it TBR Heat Wave. And I want to invite you guys to come along with me and do this journey yourselves if you want to. It's not a read-a-thon per se. There's no reading prompts or whatever. But it's a reading movement. It's a reading movement. So if some of you are also trying to get your TBR down, join me June, July, August to only read books on your TBR and not buy any books. I'm going to try my best on that. It's not like, oh my god, if I buy a book, crucify me like Jesus on the cross. You know what I mean? But I'm really, really, really, really, really going to try not to buy any books. And we are only reading books on the TBR every vlog. And we've got some big vlogs coming, let me tell you. Some big TBR vlogs. We're going to just like scythe our way through this TBR. I'm going to be DNFing. I'm going to be reading like every type of book under the sun. It's really just open. It's like this is an open invitation to you guys to join me. We're getting this TBR down. Like I'm fed up. I'm fed up of it being this big. I'm fed up of not making progress. So TBR heatwave this summer, June, July, August, only vloggers are going to see are me getting the TBR down. Oh my god. Also, I forgot to tell you, I am also going to be hosting a readathon for it on my Patreon in June to kick it off. So listen, if you ever thought about joining my Patreon, why am I doing a data voice? If you ever thought about joining my Patreon, it's going to be a super fun readathon. I host exclusive readathons on my Patreon, be it like, I try and change it up when I do it so that different people can make it cleaner. So it'll either be like a midweek one, like five days or it might be like a weekend, 48 hour readathon or something like that. I haven't decided yet which I'm going to do, but we're going to have our first, we're going to kick off, kick off TBR heatwave in style with a readathon on my Patreon sometime in June. So if you ever thought about joining my Patreon, link is down below. It's pretty fun. Like I got reading spreads tonight with them. We do a lot of stuff. I had crafting night last night. I did a zoom call yesterday. You get video plans. You get a book club. You get life updates. Like it's endless. Nancy Drew streams. Oh my god. I'm just watching a Nancy Drew YouTube video right now. I just love Nancy Drew. I love playing Nancy Drew. Um, there's so much on my Patreon. Listen guys, three pound, three pound a month. You can join and support my videos if you ever like, if you really like my videos, like you watch all my videos, you know what I mean? Like what's three pound? I know we're in a cost of living crisis. I understand that. Three pounds like is not in everyone's budget. I'm not making light of that. But how often do you spend three pound and give it to like Starbucks? Some of you might not go Starbucks. Boycott. Like a coffee shop. How often do you buy a coffee for three pound without thinking of it? If you were to join my Patreon for three pound, do you know you would make my, you'd make my day. It's getting weird. Okay, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go read. But I just realized that was something I was meant to mention. I have not done as much reading at this point in the day as I was hoping I would. I've read for 30 minutes. We need to read for like another four and a half today maybe. So I'm literally 30 pages into the ending rights itself. I'm so happy this edition guys. Ribbon. Ribbon bookmark. I've taken the dust jacket off because I love the hardcover of this. The synopsis of this book is as follows. We have got this reclusive, super famous author and he invites all these other authors from different genres, different styles of writing books to his home and they think they're going to be there for like his famous salons, saloons I was going to say. Salons, his famous salons. But it turns out, and this hasn't happened in where I'm up to yet. This hasn't happened. But it turns out that he's dead and they are going to be tasked with writing the ending to his last famous book. But I think then murderousness ensues very and then there were none is what this is coded. We're on like a secluded island in the middle of God knows where. But yeah, where I'm up to, we've just started meeting the characters. I'm really enjoying. Love them. I love in a murder mystery the archetypal characters, right? This is a huge tradition in murder mystery. Agatha Christie did it a lot. Like the young naive girl or the old Earl of wherever or the studious older woman or like, you know what I mean? There's like certain tropes that she plays on again and again. And then this one, the tropes are the genre that they write. So we've got like this crime husband and wife writing duo. We've got the young adult writer. We've got the young unpublished writer. We've got the romance writer, sci-fi, horror writer. And already they're kind of playing into your expectations of someone who would write that genre and what they'd be like. And I love that. I love that. Listen, that is a murder mystery trope. I feel like we're going to see a lot of murder mystery tropes in this book. We'll see how successful or unsuccessful they turn out to be. That is my concern is that it's trope, trope, trope, trope, trope, trope, trope. And whether they execute that successfully or not, I guess we'll have to wait and see. But this first bit, I'm enjoying meeting the romance writer, the mystery writer, the horror writer and thinking, you know, and the writing has got me in the first half an hour. It's got me. We're hopefully going to do a lot more reading today. I do just want to shout out because as you guys know, I hate reading books and not them being in a reading vlog. But this book was not in a reading vlog and I need to tell you about it. So this is a little intermission for me to tell you about another book that I've read recently that was not in a vlog. And it's a book that I fear all of you are going to have to read. It is Dissection of a Murder by Jo Murray. Take it in, take it in. This just came out in May. This is the thriller mystery release of the year. There, I said it. It is this. Oh, OK. Let me tell you the synopsis and then we'll get into this book. So Lila is a public defender. Is that the right word? I don't really know. I watch so much US court coverage with Emily D. Baker. I'm not very good at knowing the UK word. She is tasked with being the lawyer for this defendant who is like, I only want you. But the case is like the highest profile case you've ever seen because a high court judge has been murdered. And she had previously worked with the guy who's been accused of it. And he's like, I only want her. I don't want anyone else. And another twist in the tale is that the prosecutor is her husband and the guy who taught her all that she knows. He was like her teacher. And then after that, he was a teacher. They got married for three years. Oh wait, excuse me. Did you just say let's talk about the husband? And that's what I really want to tell you. She has to find a way to defend this defendant who also is like, I only want you, but I'm not going to tell you anything. I'm not snitching. Snitches get stitches. I'm not saying anything. You have to figure out what happened by yourself. And my lips are sealed, babe. So that's, I think, all you need to know going into it. And I think this is the kind of thriller, mystery thriller that I can recommend to anyone. If you've literally never read a thriller or mystery book in your life, ever, ever, ever, I think you could pick this up and love it. Conversely, if you've read a lot, I think this has some very interesting twists, some very imaginative ways of subverting what you expect at the last moment that I haven't seen a lot. So I really think this is a book for anyone. Like I say, it just came out in May. All the first editions have these spread edges. Guilty or not guilty, you decide. And it really does feel like you are deciding who you can believe, who you can like, who you can dislike. There's so much nuance. The main character, Layla also, is a very, very interesting main character where as the book goes on, I don't want to spoil anything, but like maybe a third of the way in, she starts doing things. And you're like, ah, babe, I'm not sure about that. But she also has faced so much in her career. Like there's a huge part of this is kind of like misogyny in the law profession and how she's looked down upon. And so you're kind of like weighing everything up and you're in her head. And it's just a very interesting perspective to read from. So I cannot recommend this enough. I will leave a link down below for you guys to check this book out. But I loved it. There's also like a witness X, an anonymous character's perspective who we're reading from throughout, which is really fun. So yeah, I would really recommend this. This video, part of the video was sponsored by Macmillan, but I read this book before I agreed to do a sponsorship because I had to make sure that it was something I wanted to share with you guys. And listen, this is so good. This was on my most anticipated releases list of the year, right? I have been hyped for this book and it delivers. I think everyone can enjoy something from this. I need to read more court case books. I love a court case. I love legal. This has inspired me. It's inspired me to read more legal, legal court case books. So yeah, I'll leave a link down below. I genuinely think this is going to be one of the biggest releases of the year and you all need to read it to like stay locked in on the convo because it was really, really, really, really, really, really good. Okay, let's go do some reading sprints and hopefully get a ton more reading done. Let's go. Hello. Oh, you're really buffing this camera. Are you squaring up to it? What the heck, dudes? Guys, say hi in the chat, please. Because I meant to do it earlier and I kept forgetting. I just got some beautiful Dita. There we go. I'm trying to get everyone singing. Oh, she's, she's pressing buttons. I've never seen something so ridiculous in my life. Are you so beautiful? She really, oh my God, she just knocked. She just went back to the camera. Anyways. Hello, beautiful people. It's Tuesday. Happy Tuesday. The day is briskly and quickly escaping me. I, it is 4.30 p.m. Do you know you have 30 minutes? 30, 30, 30, yeah. I'm only up to three hours and 20. I'm listening to her Jealous Britney podcast. I'm only up to three hours and 20 minutes read total. I've only read for an hour today. Where, where has the day gone? I went for a run this morning and I've been talking about my running quite a bit. I don't really know why, but I did my best run yet. 28 minutes without stopping. And do you know what? I ran a bit. I'm a slow runner. Okay, guys, you see me plodding along. You think she could probably get there as quick walking. I'm running like at best a seven minute kilometer. At worst, like an 8.30. That's where we're at. Okay, let's just get the numbers out there. Let's just rip the band-aid off. But so usually I try and start fast and then I get slow. And the whole run, I'm like, this is horrible. I'm so like out of breath, whatever. I started an eight today, eight minute kilometer. And I stayed pretty much around there for the whole run. And do you know what? I really enjoyed today's run. So just slowing down a little bit meant that I actually like, I'm not afraid to go for a run again this week, which usually I'm afraid. This morning I was afraid. I was like, I don't want to do it. I was trying to find, I was like, Tom, it's raining. And he's like, it's going to stop raining. I can't run. Suddenly I can't run. But yeah, so I went for my run and I really, really enjoyed it. And I didn't feel like I wanted to die the whole time. Like usually, sorry, I need to look here. Usually I need to figure out where to look in the camera now. This is a new camera. I spoke recently in the last video about how I've been getting really bad headaches after my runs. So I got electrolytes. I got FreeSoulz electrolytes. I tried it for the first time today. No headache, baby. No headache today. So that is the secret. So anyways, that was a long update. Let's talk about the book. The ending writes itself. I am 194 pages into this bad boy. You may be thinking, Megan, like you've been reading for three and a half hours and you're only 190 pages in. I'm like, yes, that is like a page a minute, people. Listen, this is not going to be, you know when like some booktubers time, how long it takes them to read books in a vlog, like a vlog like this or anything else. And you watch it and you're like, how do they read that fast? Are they superhuman? Like, how is it possible to read that fast? This is not going to be a video like that. You are not going to be leaving this video going, how did she? I mean, I can read fast. There's been books I've been known to finish in like two hours. This is not one of those. OK, maybe we'll maybe we'll feel like that later. Maybe I'll read a book super fast later. But I am reading this fairly slowly. I am torn when I think of this. I am enjoying. I think there's been lines. There's been moments. There's been touches of something that happens like a little moment that feels like stardust. There's been moments where I'm like, God, that's clever. God, that's genius. Just a character will do something or say something. I feel like a lot of that came when we were in Sienna's point of view. Also, I didn't say in the last clip that we filmed. I loved in my edition. This is the Mind's Eye edition. I loved having the pictures of the characters in the end pages because it meant when they appeared and they were kind of introduced in a fun way, I could go look at them. Anyways, in Sienna's point of view, she's just I really enjoyed spending time in her point of view where we at the start, we were kind of dotting around from chapter to chapter and point of view. And I feel like now we are spending more so like five chapters in someone's point of view, five chapters in another person's point of view. So we're spending longer with them. But yeah, I really enjoyed her point of view. I'm enjoying the way it's playing with the genre. I'm enjoying how it's referential to murder mystery books. I love mystery books. Right. But am I like loving the experience of reading it? No, no, not really. Right. I'm not so excited to pick this book up. Hence why I've only read for three hours and 30 minutes. I need to lock in. I've got to do some serious reading this evening. I am finishing this book today. I'm sitting on this sofa, guys, and I am reading this book and doing nothing else. That is the main point of where I'm at. I'm enjoying the book. I hate to say, because I feel like I said this a lot in my last video, where I read a lot of murder mysteries, that it's going to come down to how it sticks the landing, but it's going to come down to how it sticks the landing because I could see it going a number of ways. At the moment, it's probably feeling like a four. I was nervous going into this. And I think in some ways, I think I felt pressure to be like critical of it. You know, it's the big release of the year in the murder mystery thriller. It's a murder mystery. This is a murder mystery. Well, is it? It's taking a long time for the murder mystery to begin. It's playing with the genre. It hasn't really got crazy yet. I was expecting it to be like one by one or and then there were none. I always say one by one instead of and then there were none. But one by one is a rip off and then there were none. Where the killing starts pretty early. It's like maybe only just begun. Just now. And has it? And that could be explained away what's happened. OK, I'm going to go. I'm reading this book. I'm doing nothing but reading this book. I'm locking in. Sorry, vlog, you're going to suffer. I'm goodbye. Like I am reading this book. I'm enjoying it. It's pleasant. It's good. I think there's a lot that's fun about it. I feel like I can see some of VE Schwab's writing shining through. She is a great, great author. I think she's pretty. And it is like, hey, I know I'm yapping. Dear God, someone shut her up. I've been speaking in this clip for five minutes and I did a clip before. Oh, you know, it is the kind of book that makes you want to write. There's a lot of talk about writing and writers and the craft of writing. And it makes me want to like crack Scrivener open and just ******* get writing. Guys, I have an amazing book idea. And I just never I just I have put off writing. I've had this idea for probably like five years. This book idea. Get your ******* ass up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work these days. And it's changed a little bit and it's morphed a little bit. But it's historical fantasy mad mystery. And I know the ending. That is the one thing. There's a lot of books about the book I don't know. The one thing I know is this ending or like the reveal of whodunit. I will be making the girlies cry if I ever write this book. And it makes me this book is a love letter also to writing and being a writer. And I'm enjoying that element of it. So, yeah, I'm having a good time. But I need to read more. I need to write more that too. I need to read more. I've got verbal diarrhea. Someone shut me the **** up. Goodbye. I need to go read. She's read for three hours. I got to do another 20 and a half hours. Okay, bye. Okay, this is a really tricky book to talk about. Because obviously I really enjoyed my reading experience of this. But the second half of this is by far the weakest. It does not stick the land at all. And there it is. It's funny. I feel very similar to how I felt about Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab, which I read this year. I remember saying this exact thing in that it has very high highs. There's elements of this book that are five stars to me. There's things about it that I love. But it has very low lows. And I felt the same way about that book, which makes it really hard to rate. Because I think there's so much good about this book. But there's also a lot that lets it down. The pacing in that second half is absolutely rotted. It stinks. It ******* stinks. Oh my lord, it's not a good second half. Because I think it gets confused as to whether it wants to be a thriller in that second half or a mystery. And I think it gets caught between the two and doesn't do either of them fascinating. Like it doesn't peel back the layers of the mystery in a way that's satisfying. And it doesn't... I don't know. It doesn't have the pace of like, listen, you know, people are dying. People are dying one by one. And it doesn't keep the pace going in that moment in a way that makes it thriller-y and like page-turning and exciting to read. I should not be 60 pages from the end of this book in a flashback of one of the characters learning about their backstory in their life. Oh, hey, baby. Dita's here. She's very needy today. She's been having a right go at me like all day because I'm not playing. Sorry, I've got to work to keep you in the lifestyle you're accustomed to. And so, yeah, it just is this murky, unsatisfying ending. And it's a shame because I think there's a lot that is good about this book. And also at the end of the day, I mean, I was saying that I loved all of the like murder mystery references. This really is a jigsaw of many different troupes of murder mysteries and styles of writing in murder mysteries. And I think it kind of just has one too many, right? Like there was a section where a character is interviewing, and it's very brief, is interviewing all the other characters trying to figure out who murdered one of them, right? Which reminded me a lot of Murder on the Orient Express. I do kind of feel like she's read Murder on the Orient Express and then there were none. Or they have read it and then they're like, job's done, let's get writing. Because in Murder on the Orient Express, Proro interviews the characters one by one. But in that, the interviews are quite extensive. They each bring up a clue. Like they each, or a piece of information that will be relevant at the end. This wasn't. This was just like two pages per character of them being like, I didn't murder anyone, you know? Like it didn't feel satisfying. So I'm going to land on a 3.5 for this, which is kind of crazy because there is a lot of elements of this I enjoyed. There is a lot of the reading experience of this that I enjoyed. And I can see why it's being pushed so hard. Obviously, you've got the author name recognition. But I can see why it's being pushed so hard. And I can see it maybe being good for beginners of the murder mystery genre. But I've just read so many and, you know, it was OK in the end. It didn't blow my socks off. And I think there's issues with it. But there's also a lot. Like I say, I mean, Dita, you should not be jumping up there. You know, Vita Sharpe is the author of this pairing that I know and love. And she has those stardust moments in her writing that I feel like I could recognise. But yeah, not a 10 out of 10. Not a 10 out of 10. OK, switching to the handheld camera. By the way, I didn't say, but I've read. Sorry, I'm watching stuff about football. Five hours and 40 minutes is where we're up to in reading. We have got less than 20 hours left to read. Got less than 19 hours left to read. It's time to pick what we're reading next. And do you know what that book has really put me in the mood for? A murder mystery done by the Queen herself. So we've got to come over here. Dita obviously knows I'm coming over here to film. Uh, hey, babe. You should not be up here. Oh, big kisses. Thank you so much. Do you know you're the best girl ever? Where is she? Here she is. My next pro-ro. My next pro-ro, I don't even know what number pro-ro I'm up to, but this is murder in Mesopotamia. Do I know the plot? Not really. We'll find out together. I have got quite a bit of editing left to do today and quite a little bit of admin-y bits. So I don't know when I'm going to start reading today, but I am going to whip out the audiobook like whilst I cook. I'm actually going to make lunch. I could start the audiobook whilst I do that. I've got to do laundry, got to sort out clothes washes, but I've got quite a bit of editing to do, so God knows when I'm going to start reading today. Maybe I'll check in with you. I want to get at least halfway through this today. I mean, it's a quick read. Agatha Christie books are quick reads. It's 270 pages, but I love pro-ro and reading that has really put me in the mood to like read it done by the Queen herself. You know, talking of the Queen, guys, we're trying to get Dita a sister. It may be happening sooner rather than later. Who knows? There's a kitten we've put like a request in for because we want a ginger girl and they're very rare. And we found a ginger girl kitten and we've put a request in, but there was a lot of interest. So now I'm just waiting with bated breath because she needs a sister. She's been yelling at you guys. With Tom, she's all like, you know, she's looking at me right now. She's all like girly and ladylike, you know? For me, she's not showing you right now because she's on camera, but she's like... You yell at me, don't you? You yell at your mama. Righty, I will check in with you. Whoa, hello. I will check in with you when I'm halfway through this. Hello, friends. Happy Thursday. I actually went ahead and finished all of Murder in Mesopotamia by Christie because they're super short and they follow a certain formula. They're a lot simpler than like a modern novel and you kind of just have to meet them where they are. Oh, the seagulls are making noise. You know, it's just like a really great distilling down of a murder mystery formula, but it does mean that they are a bit simpler. The characters are written in a bit of a different way than you would expect from a modern novel. I am, let me show you, 10 hours and nine minutes of reading has been done. So this took me about four and a half hours of reading, but I was basically exclusively just listening to the audiobook. I think I picked the book up for like the last 10 minutes, but most of the reading I did whilst like, you know, cooking, doing laundry and stuff like that, which let me tell you makes a big difference. I think we need to prioritise audiobooks for the rest of this vlog. I've already read for three hours today and I think I need to finish this vlog by Saturday, really. Sunday, I'm busy. I won't have time to edit. So I need to finish the vlog by Saturday. So I think I worked out, I need to do like six hours of reading a day. So we're halfway there and it's only like half three. The plot of this one is very simple. We're in Iraq, which is an interesting setting on an archaeological dig site with all the characters who are working on the archaeological dig. And the wife of the guy who's kind of heading up the dig has become convinced that someone's trying to kill her. She's been receiving letters from her dead husband saying like, you were only supposed to be married to me. Like, you belong to me. I'm going to kill you for marrying someone else. And we're reading from an interesting perspective, actually. We're reading from the perspective of a nurse who's been hired by the husband to look after her. But the less has come true and the woman is murdered. And so Proro's drafted in to discover how it happened. Yada, yada, yada. We go from there. I enjoyed this. I'm giving this four stars. I think this was a very enjoyable read from good old Aggie. I will say there's, we're in Iraq. There's some particular, you know, some particular racism of the time. Although I feel like in this instance, it's perhaps used to show something of the character of the narrator. Like her being a bit more old fashioned, a bit more, she kind of describes herself and her writing is a bit more simple. Like I just see, I see, I don't know if that's hopeful on my part, but I do see it as signifying her having slightly old fashioned views. Like she's calling everyone a foreigner and like not liking foreigners, despite the fact she is literally a foreigner right now. You're not in the UK, babe. You're in Iraq. What's not clicking? There's like, she meets Proro. She's like, I distrust him because he's a foreigner. Okay. But with any Agatha book, again, you kind of have to meet it. I mean, you have a choice. You don't have to read them. Right. But like you do, I think people who read them often kind of meet them where they are and just recognize that she has some opinions at the time that weren't good. But yeah, I, I enjoyed this. I enjoyed Proro. I, like I said before, I feel like she's really hit her stride with Proro as a character and his mannerisms and his little eccentricities. And I really liked the setting of being on this archeological dig site. It, listen, I've been watching a lot of this as a tangent. Bear with. I've been watching a lot of Nancy Drew game YouTube content. At the moment, I'm obsessed. Like I'm just so deep in my Nancy Drew game era. I'm playing them with my patrons and we're playing some I've never played before. Playing Phantom of Venice at the moment. We're in Venice. It's very fun. But like, it reminds me of Tomb of the Lost Queen, Nancy Drew game, which I've never played. But I was just really feeling, I was really feeling my Nancy Drew oats in this one. Don't ask me why, but I really was. I felt like I was in a Nancy Drew game while reading a Proro book. Yeah. Anyways, let's actually talk about the book. One thing I will say is the ending. The ending is interesting and it's a choice. It's a choice. Listen, what I do love about Aggie, she takes some swings, you know? I didn't hate it, but it is the kind of ending that you read and you're like, babe, like in what world? In what world do you expect us to believe that? I can imagine it throwing some people off. For me, this just felt like, I felt like it was a safe pair of hands, right? It felt like a really well plotted murder mystery. We had some interesting characters who had interesting dynamics with Proro. Listen, it's not groundbreaking. I'd say Agatha is really like greater than some of her parts with her books and Proro are greater than some of their parts. Like she was pumping out a lot of books a year. Like often it was two books a year, okay? They're not, I mean, some of them are groundbreaking. Murder on the Orient Express is groundbreaking, but this was just a nice time. So I also read the chapter related to it in Proro, the greatest detective in the world. This is not the TBR, everyone. I just had to use it as a reference book and I'm going to read the chapters because it's basically structured for the most part on chapters on each Proro book. Can I just say, like looking back at all the lovely old covers, I hate these editions. No, it's just ugly. There's nothing positive. There's nothing good. There's nothing down the road that's going to be good. I love my hardback editions that I'm collecting. I hate these ones where it's literally just like a black cover and a thing for the Proro books. I just, can they please like go back to the old timey designs of the Proro books? But yeah, it was interesting. I need to go back and read the chapters for all the Proros I've already read. But I am really excited with my next Proro which is Cards on the Table, which I believe is more of a book like, books likewise favourite or one of her favourites. So that fills me with good feelings. Hi baby. Sorry everyone, Dita's woken up. I'm sitting by her tunnel and she was in it. Hi, how are you? It's okay. Do you want a sister? Guys, it's Dita's second birthday tomorrow. It's going to be your birthday. Maybe I'll give you Purr Pops all day long. She is a woman possessed when it comes to Purr Pops. She loves, she's honestly demonic. Anyways, let's go pick out what we're going to read next. Okie dokie. I have to say I've had to move some videos around and so I'm starting a vlog I was going to work on earlier than usual. And so I think I'm going to read the names in that vlog instead because this is my Patreon book club for May and I like to read these close to when our live show is. And our live show is like two weeks away. So if I can read that later, I would prefer to. I know what I want to read. I'm so excited to read it. It's been one of the books that I've most wanted to read this year and I haven't had a chance to yet. Let's get her. There she is, Gumshoe by Brenna Thumler. Oh my god, I'm so excited. I'm so excited. Obviously, I will read this quite quick time-wise so it won't take up a ton of our time but it will be another book off of the TBR. I'm so excited. I love Brenna Thumler's stuff. I can't wait to see what I think of it. I can't wait for all the beautiful illustrations and beautiful colours. So I'm just gonna go ahead and read this now. I'm literally gonna go sit downstairs. I reckon it'll take me 40 minutes, maybe. I have no concept actually how long it will take me. We'll go find out together. But I just can't wait. I can't wait to see what I think of it. Good afternoon, everyone. Actually, it's evening. It's 20 past seven. Good evening, everyone. I am up to 11 hours and 27 minutes read which I guess means that this took me like an hour and a quarter, hour and 20 minutes. Dita's just turned up. She doesn't, yeah, doesn't like me leaving her. Yeah. Let's talk about Gumshoe, shall we? I'm giving this 4.5 stars. I loved it. Oh my gosh, guys. It is just like one of the most stunning, stunning graphic novels you've ever seen. Some of the landscapes and art in this. I mean, just look at this. Oh, my giddy aunt. Hang on. Look at that. Isn't that nice? Dita, can you behave, please? Dita, behave challenge. I'm trying to show them art here. Do you want to just do this thing like this? Does that make you happy? We like to kiss. Okay, goodbye. Goodbye. Let me talk about the plot before it so you actually have some context behind it. So we meet Willa, who lives in this gossipy town in Arizona, and she loves the male. She loves the mailman. She wants nothing more than to be a male woman one day. But she one day is like delivering a letter to him, like expressing her admiration, but then chickens out of it and takes it out of his mailbox. He spots her and thinks that she is two-gum Tilly, who is a male-stealing bandit that is stealing mail and birthday money that's in mail from everyone across town. And so she runs away, and she ends up with this other group of runaway girls who they take the mail so that Tilly can't take the mail, and then they remail the mail, is their thought process. And it's really the story of friendship and her finding herself. And listen, there is some like scooby-doo logic to this. Like the parents aren't really looking that hard for these runaways, and they're just out here having fun and like gallivanting around town. Like the way it's written is a bit suspend your disbelief, but I liked that. It was written with like this ever so slightly warped sense of logic that made it fun. Like it knew that it was fun. The book knows that it's being fun and silly and a bit ridiculous. And it's like about male-stealing bandits. It's just, it was just so fun. I'm having fun. You have no idea. I have so much fun. And I just love the way that Brenna Thumler writes characters. You know, the spatial expressions for me is very important. And like body language that is shown in the drawings. And she does such a wonderful job of that. And it was just such a lovely story. It was just such a heartwarming story. I did like, I had, this was like an absolute Einstein genius manoeuvre from me. I listened to the soundtrack of the Secret of Shadow Ranch Nancy Drew game whilst reading all of this because that is like in the wild, wild west too. And let me tell you, like that was a real synergistic moment there. That was truly outstanding. It bumped the reading experience up. I was just living my Nancy Drew fantasy once again. What can I say? I love Nancy Drew. I really loved the girl, the girl group. I feel like they were really fleshed out characters. There is elements of this. Of course, if you're an adult reading it, they're very predictable. But I think would be really fun reveals if you're a kid reading it. I was immediately thinking of one of Tom's nieces. I think she's like eight, seven. And I'm like, is she old enough to read this? Or is this ages eight to 12? Okay, maybe, maybe soon I can lend this to her. Because it was just so fun. But then I did think would make her want to be a runaway. And like, you're only a kid and you think certain things are cool and funny. And like, like when I was a kid, I wanted to be a farmer's wife. And I'd go and pretend in the garden to be a farmer's wife. Like, I don't know if I was a kid if I'd read this. I'd be like, I'm going to be a runaway. I don't know. But I would recommend this to everyone. And it's so beautiful. The colour palette in this, the blues and pinks and yellows. It's just so stunning. And the way the towns are drawn. Oh, it was so, so, so, so, so, so, so good. So yeah, I loved it. I love Rena Thunber's stuff. I don't know if she's got any back lists that I haven't read other than the sheet series. But I just loved it. It's just incredible. It was incredible. I loved my reading experience with this. In terms of what to read next. Obviously, we're like about halfway there. I want to do another at least hour and a half of reading today. So I'll do that whilst I cook dinner with an audiobook. Listen, audiobooks are the way it's going to be going forward. I think they're essential to this challenge and me completing it. And I am not a mood reader. The idea of mood reading petrifies me. And so I thought, how can I decide my reading for myself? And so I thought, okay, what was on TBR Pluto in the spring? You don't know, I have a TBR game that I do every season. And there were two books on there that I have not got plans to read. So most of them I've got plans to read in certain vlogs that are coming up. But these two, I don't. Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan and And The Truth Crept In by Dawn Kurtigich. We might end up reading both of these. Who knows? But I thought, which one am I more in the mood for? And here's the thing. It is like a heatwave here. It is like the sunniest and hottest it's ever going to be. It's the hottest day of the year tomorrow. And I think I'm in the mood for like the spooky, dark, wintry, cold, cold book. This is set in Texas. So it'd probably be more of the vibe. I mean, I'm so excited to read both of these. But this has been on my TBR for literally forever. Like one of the oldest books on my TBR. It is YA, but like this has been on five star prediction list before, I'm pretty sure. Or like it's been high up there. So yeah, I'm intrigued to see what I think of it. I'm going to start this tonight. I probably won't check in with you again tonight. I'll check in with you maybe tomorrow when I'm halfway. But I mean, I can't believe it's finally time to read this book. Though the real ones, no. This has been here for a long, long, long, long time. It predates her. It's older than her. And she's two tomorrow. Isita's birthday is tomorrow. Wish her happy birthday. She might get like 10 Powerpuffs. I'll see how many I give her. Hello, guys and girlies. Quick check-in. Because I haven't read a ton more. But I'm going to the beach each. Listen, we don't like Nicki Minaj in this house anymore. But I am going to the beach each. Okay, where am I up to? I haven't done a ton more reading. Hello, I'm here. I am up to 13 hours and 1 minute. So I think I... Where was I at last? I've lost track. It was 11 something. 11.40. Have I done an hour and 20 minutes? I'm up to like page 90 in Anna Tree's Crept In. And I always check in now because there's a chance I could even finish this at the beach. Finish. Finish this at the beach. What do we start with? Opinions or plot? Plot very briefly. We're following these two sisters who arrive at their aunt's house and like stuff is off. It's in the middle of these woods. She at first seems to be okay. But then she goes off and like goes up to the attic and won't come down. And all you hear is her pacing up in the attic. There's people in the woods. There's a tall man with no eyes. There's a boy who can seem to be their friend. The trees are creeping in. It's written, you know, there's lots of different ways it's written. There's some letters. Yeah, stuff like this. There's like hidden messages in the book. And I'm listening to the audiobook and when it's those sections, like you hear the part of the big words in bold whispered behind the main part of what she's saying. Okay. Opinion. That's what you need to know. Opinion. I don't know if I've ever been more scared or deeply unsettled to my core by a horror book. And this is a YA horror book. What on God's green earth is going on here? Like it's horrible. It is a horrible reading experience. And I suppose that's a good thing for a horror book. Am I like enjoying it? I'm not necessarily enjoying it. I feel like I'm going insane. Like the audiobook, listen, it's all in some ways a good thing because the audiobook is very high production. We've got voices. We've got sound effects. We've got music. Like this is a full production of an audiobook. But it's all just like, oh, it's a spiral. I feel like we're spiraling. And I don't know. I don't know what to think of it. Obviously, that's what this book is shooting for, right? That's what it's trying to do. But I'm about to go read on the beach and I'm going to be listening to something go creak, creak. And I'm like, oh, hey, baby. Dita's here. Everyone wished you a happy birthday. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to you. Tell them, what was your birthday wish? Nothing. I don't know if I'm loving it. I honestly, I couldn't tell you what rating I'm going to give this. Like, I could reach the end of this book and be like, that was a production. That was layered five stars. I could reach the end of this and be like, two stars. I hated every second of reading that. No, let's go to the beach. Actually, we're going to go. Oh, God. Oh, my God. I think for lunch. I think unless we get there and it's got like a humongous queue and we're like, nope, I think we're going to try a new sandwich shop that's opened up nearby. I want these sandwiches so bad. They're like chicken schnitzel sandwiches. Just look, they look like the best thing you've ever seen in your life. Like, they look so good. So I think we're going to try that out. Then we're going to go to the beach. Wish us luck. I'm aiming to get most of this read. Well, I'm aiming to get all of this read today. And then I honestly have no idea what I'm going to read next. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Okay, good morning, friends. I finished this book last night. I think I left my phone upstairs, but I'm up to like, I'll show you when we go pick our next book, like 17 hours, 50 minutes, maybe something like that. And I finished this last night and I had to take the night to figure out what I was going to say about this book because I'm afraid I did not enjoy this. This is getting a 2.5 from me. And even that was a bit generous. It feels like maybe a 2. And I feel very upset about that because this has been a book that's been on my TBR for so long. And I had such high expectations for, like, I remember back in the day. I mean, this is back in the day. What ratings from like 2019, 2020 do I still stand by? Like, reading tastes change. But I remember Kayla loving this. I remember Riley Marie loving this. And I just didn't get it. I just didn't get it. This book is weird, right? Nothing really happens. There's not really a plot. Everything is confusing and shifting and changing and the rules and the facts that you thought you established one minute change the next. And it does all make sense by the end. The ending is a choice and it's a choice not everyone's going to love. It's a choice that I really loved. I'm not going to spoil anything. But like, it's the kind of choice that when I was in year five and we had created writing, that would be my twist. Which, I mean, genius me for doing it at 10 years old. I'm not sure about it being a published book. I was just so bored. It didn't grab me. And I felt it like, I mean, listen, the audiobook goes there, right? I think if you want to read this, the audiobook is a good way to go. But I found this like deeply uncomfortable, annoying reading. There's also a romance. You know, this is YA. There's a romance between two of the teen couples that is so insta-lovey. And again, that does make sense by the end. But they literally meet and he's like, I love you. What is going on? What is going on here? Yeah, this didn't do it for me. And who knows if I had read this, you know, back when it first came on my TBR, maybe I would feel differently. I think it's a book that kind of exists at a time. You know, this was published, I think, 10 years ago now. And I think that what this is doing, the creative choices it's making are probably very new for the time, very original. But I feel like I've read similar stuff that's just done better. Because it is so like, you feel like you're in a nightmare, the whole book. And it's so confused and shifting. And like, what is real? There was nothing for me propelling the story forward. So yeah, I feel sad about it. I feel sad about it. But I think this is a lesson for me to read books when I add them to the TBR. So that's something I'm trying to do at the moment. Like, for example, I've obviously read two 2026 releases in this video. I only own three. That was two of them. And I think the other one I'm going to read maybe in next week's video. Because I think as well as trying to get my TBR down, I want to prioritise reading books when I hold them and I'm excited about them. Obviously, we need to do a bit of both. But I think maybe my experience, if I've read this in 2019-2020, could have been better. I think maybe I would have enjoyed this more. So yeah, not a win, not a win. Let's go pick our next book, which I feel like might be our last book at the rate I'm reading slowly. I'm basically just reading with an audiobook. So shall we go pick our next, perhaps last? We'll see. But let's go pick our next book. Okay, call me crazy. I'm going to say something so wild. I'm going to say something so wild right now. Are you ready? I think I'm in the mood for a nonfiction next. Can you believe it? No, I can't either. So my nonfiction goes from here through here. I actually have so many nonfiction books I'm excited about. So it's hard to choose. What am I in the mood for? I feel like maybe this stack here is kind of the stuff I'm most in the mood for. What do I want to read? Oh my god, I'm not a good mood reader. You know what I think would be the vibe? Let's go for this one, I think. Oh my god, I've just made that decision. I'm so crazy. I'm so random. Okay, we have got Dead Famous by Greg Jenner. I love pop culture nonfiction. The history of celebrities sounds so interesting. The aim today is to finish this vlog. So I've got just over six hours left to read. I'm going to focus on reading Dead Famous. I'm super excited for this. Hello beautiful people. We just spent the whole day in the garden reading. I didn't film a lot of it but I literally just lay there listening to the audiobook the whole time and it was beautiful. It's so hot today. So just like chilling in the garden was such a vibe. I'm about halfway through Dead Famous by Greg Jenner. And it literally is what it says on the tin, right? It's a history of celebrity and of fame and what makes a celebrity and who throughout our history can be classed as celebrity. You know, can Julius Caesar at the time really be classed as like a celebrity? Was he a celebrity? What is a celebrity? What makes up being a celebrity? That's basically all that is. I mean, there's so many. There's like a new subtopic every three pages. Yeah, a new way we're examining the concept of celebrity. So I couldn't even begin to tell you everything that this book is examining. Here's the thing. Hi baby! It's okay, come here. Where were you? Oh, she's very upset. Am I talking? Okay, that's the problem. Okay, here's the thing. This is good. It's enjoyable but I'm not loving it. There is something about the writing style, I think, that is not clicking for me. And I can simultaneously say that and say like the writing style is very conversational, right? Greg Jenner narrates the audiobook. It's like listening to a podcast. Like I'm enjoying the experience of reading it but I'm not dazzled. And I'm not... There's not much that's sticking with me, you know? When I read other great non-fictions, there's things that are mentioned that I want to go Google and I want to go find out even more about. But there hasn't really been anything yet that's struck me. And so this is... I'm kind of like... It's probably going to be a 3.5. That's what I feel like it is at the moment. It is by no means a quick read. Which for something that is so... Hi baby. That is so conversational. Should be. But yeah, there's just something that's leaving a disconnect for me. There's... Yes, hi. Whoa, you just made it shake baby up in here. Would you like a cuddle? Oh, no cuddling. Do you want a sister? I'm scared. What if she doesn't want a sister? Part of me thinks she really, really, really needs someone to play with. Like she is so active. She likes having fun. So I feel like getting a kitten would be great for her to play with. She's shaking this ----. But part of me thinks she also loves being my baby and loves being my princess. And she won't want to share that title. Do I have anything else to say? Not really. And I love like pop culture, nonfiction. You guys know I love this stuff. Maybe it's the speed at which we're switching between topics. Like I said, there's like a new subtopic every three pages. Like we are processing a lot of information it feels like. It feels like Greg Jenner has a lot to say, which I often like. But there's just... Yeah, I don't know. I know that's not the best review. I have been reading. I mainly just listen to the audiobook quite slowly. I've read a little bit physically. We're now at 21 hours. Can you see that? 21 hours, 38 minutes. So this is definitely gonna be our last book of the vlog. We may even go over 24 hours. That's crazy. I'm gonna try and read it tonight. I have got a little bit reading fatigue today. Like I'm kind of done. I don't really want to read anymore. But we're gonna persevere. We're gonna persevere and finish this. Maybe I'll have more coherent thoughts for you in the morning. Probably when I check in with you, do the final check-in. But I'm gonna try and finish this tonight. Because in the morning I need to edit this video and I've got a fun day planned with Tom's nieces. So no time for reading or editing really. Apart from in the first thing in the morning tomorrow. Okay, that's where we are. Bad check-in. I'll see you in the morning. Hello friends. I am in my swimsuit. We're taking the girls down to the beach to swim. So I got to go. But I did finish this morning Dead Famous. I woke up this morning and I made the error of cancelling my timer. So I have nothing to show you right now. But I did get to like 24 hours last night. And then I did have to read this for like another hour. So in total I've actually read for 25 hours in this vlog. I'm gonna be honest with you. I don't really have anything to say about this. I'm giving it a 3.5. It was fine. I just don't feel like I've learned anything from it. Like I feel like the information has gone in one ear and out the other. And I don't really know why that is. Because I was listening. You know I was laying in the garden with my eyes shut. Just listening to the audiobook. Absorbing it slowly. But for some reason none of it has really stuck with me. But like it was all enjoyable enough. You know I wasn't, I won't say I was bored. I just wasn't like super engaged with what it was saying. But you know if you're into pop culture I think it's an interesting book. I think the history of celebrity is an interesting thing. But like this book says a lot. You know like I say there's a new topic every three pages. And at the same time I don't feel like it said much at all. So not a non-fiction that's gonna stick with me. But honestly I don't have anything to say to you. It was fine. You know what that does mean. That takes us to I think 287 books left on the TBR. Which I'm really happy with the progress we're making. 287. Feels good. Sounds good. And just I mean this vlog. Hang on one sec. I read five books in this vlog. I can't remember the last time I read five books in a week. Like I don't remember the last time that happened was. So this vlog really did remind me of what reading a lot feels like. And the satisfaction of reading a lot of books. And I really enjoyed that feeling. Like it's made me want to read more. I feel like I can keep this momentum going a little bit. However at the end that was not sustainable reading for me every day. I was reading for like six hours every day for like the last three or four days there. And that is just not a sustainable amount for me to read and still live a life. Like all I did this week in terms of work was this vlog. You know like I didn't do anything else. And often other weeks I have other work to do. Or um you know I want to go to the gym more than I did this week. So it's not like completely sustainable. But it did remind me of what it feels like to read you know. And that I really enjoyed. And I felt great about. Like finishing so many books just felt great. So yeah 287 on the TBR. Feels good. Sounds good. And hopefully we're gonna keep getting a lot of books off this summer. So thank you guys so much for watching. I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye!