Week One Wrap-Up December 2020 Reindeer Games Readathon: 1800 Pages Down!

What's up everybody?

How y'all doing out there?

I hope this video is finding you well!

Welcome back to my channel.

If this is your first time here, my name is Andrew.

If this is not your first time here, welcome back.

I'm rocking my little ugly sweater from my job last year -- shout out to my friend Kellie for helping me put this together -- but I wanted to be a little festive today as I go over my weekly reading update.

This is the first time I've ever gotten a weekly reading update like this.

If you saw my TBR video from last week, you will know that I am taking place in the Reindeer Games Readathon over on the Shelf Space Discord, which I will link down there in that description box.

I am on Team Kevin McCallister, and as of the recording of this video, I don't really know how the team rankings stand, but from what I've been told, we're at least not in last.

So I'm at least gonna let you all know what my contribution to Team Kevin has been from this last week, as well as go over what I've got planned for this next week.

So, with all of that out of the way, without further ado, let's get Write On In.

I actually had a pretty decent reading week this last week.

I was able to get a quarter of the way through Rhythm of War here, so I'm on about page 300.

I calculated that if I read 39.2 pages of this every day of December, I would have it done by the end, and I'm currently 20 pages ahead, so I'm on track for that.

The first book that I finished this week it was Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.

I don't even know where to start with that.

First of all, if you have seen that movie, I highly recommend you read that book.

Second of all, the last time I was that shocked by something that I read was when I read "Guts" by Chuck Palahniuk.

And if you have read "Guts" by Chuck Palahniuk, you have read "Guts" by Chuck Palahniuk.

I posted a review of this on my blog, it's linked down there in the description box.

I'm still more than happy to do a book to movie comparison for anybody who might be interested.

But if you are a fan of descriptive horror that's not really gory, but is still just as like gasp, then I highly recommend this book for sure.

Especially with the fact that this was a English translation from a German book, I was surprised at just how descriptive it all was.

And this was 100% a 5/5 read for me.

The next book that I finished this week was The Last Unicorn.

I'm not going to say too much right now because I am going to be doing the book-to-movie comparison video, as well as Jessi from The Bookish Mom once she finishes up with this.

Overall, I'm pretty sure I gave this a 4/5, but I might round it down to a three.

It was good.

It was just as weird as the movie.

I guess I could say like that.

Like, it was just as like yeah, okay, like this is this is kind of strange, but it was pretty well written.

There was definitely some good parts in here that I enjoyed.

But overall, I was a little bit let down.

I thought I was gonna enjoy it a little bit more.

But I'll talk about that more whenever I end up doing my little book to movie review.

The next book that I finished up was the Everything's Eventual short stories book by Stephen King, which features "1408."

So, this was the first time that I've ever listened to an audiobook while reading along with a physical copy.

I had tried that once before when I didn't know that you could listen to audiobooks faster than one speed.

So I did it two speed with this and it was the best reading experience.

I really enjoy listening to an audiobook at a faster speed while I read along.

It helps a lot with my retention.

I was talking about this with my team captain Jeff, who is linked down there in the description box with all my other team Kevin McCallister members, and we were talking about how having the audiobook while reading is basically like having the mental capacity of watching a TV show with subtitles.

I loved it.

I didn't love every story in this book.

But I did enjoy most of this and this was definitely a really fun read for the short story prompt that it filled.

The fourth book that I finished, and the next one that will also be a book-to-movie comparison -- I'm actually really into the idea book to movie comparisons…

So I have the three that have been requested, I'm more than happy to do that Perfume one.

But this one is going to be for the Neverending Story, which, same as the first time I read this book, one sitting.

Absolutely loved it.

5/5.

I recommend -- especially to writers, I recommend any writer of fantasy to read this book.

I cannot say enough good things about it.

I can't really wait to do my book to movie comparison, except for the second half of the book.

I said this in my TBR video the second half of the book is not in the movie, and for what the movie did, it's definitely very close.

But there's so much that happens to Bastion in the second part of this book that would have been cool to see in a movie, because the Neverending Story two and three movies that came out were nothing… like, it was not good.

But this was a really really solid read.

I absolutely love this book.

One thing I did say also in my TBR video was that it's "Fantasia," but it's called "Fantastica" in this book.

But this was another 5/5 for me.

And 4/5 for me here, I didn't give the ranking, but…

So we had two 5/5's this week, then, with Perfume and The Neverending Story, both of which I think is actually kind of ironic, since both of these were originally written in German.

And the English translations still came out as 5/5 for me, and I'm German.

So I don't know, maybe that's why.

Maybe it's just hitting some part of my heritage in here that I just didn't know about until I read this.

But then the 3/5 for this, 4/5 for this and currently, like a 3.5 on this.

But I mean, we'll see how it goes.

I just finished up Part One and things are definitely starting to look up.

But this is definitely at the moment has not been my favorite of the Stormlight Archive.

Next week, I will be carrying on with the next part of this.

So hopefully I will be able to get halfway.

I will also be reading Jade City, The Poppy War, and Monstre, all of which I don't really know anything about as of right now on purpose, because I kind of want to go into those blind.

I will also be knocking out this one called Immortality Awaits, written by me.

And I am doing everything in my beautiful power to stop bashing this book.

I haven't read this book in seven years.

Kate, from LoveStory, just read it, she gave it her honest review, I was hoping that when I came out of this reading experience, I was going to be giving this a solid three.

That's what she gave it.

So I guess after all this time, I still have hope that maybe it's just a solid three, which I'll take.

But I will be vlogging this experience, I just don't know when I will be releasing said vlog.

But I am hoping to just knock this one out of the way this week, because then my little self-reflection that I did last month will be at an end, as well, and I'll just get it out of the way.

So one more quick little update as well is that Miss Abby over at Abby Salter has challenged me to read 1000 pages in a day.

And you know what?

I accepted.

So I'm going to be replacing my Magician's Nephew from the crown prompt and putting in the Clash of Kings, which is 970 pages before you get to the appendices, and I might just read the appendices just to actually get to page 1000.

But since I discovered that you could listen to audiobooks not only at to speed, but as of this morning of recording this video, I discovered that you can read it all the way up to 3.5 speed.

So I will be knocking out this book in one day.

And, well, if I do it at three speed, it'll take me 12 hours.

If I do it at 3.5 speed, it'll take me about 10.

But either way: Challenge accepted, Abby.

I don't know when, I just have to do this by the end of the month.

But that is the only current update/change that I have in my TBR is that Abby, you just added 800 pages.

So I don't know, hopefully that just helps team Kevin McCallister.

Thanks.

Also, I feel kind of awkward about this, but I have had a couple of requests to start putting my wish list down in my description box.

I'm weird about receiving gifts.

This year is going to be just kind of weird for me in general, because of COVID.

I don't want to talk too much about that.

It's been a hard year for everybody.

But the reason I'm bringing it up right now is that in that wish list, I also have gifts that I would really like to be able to get for other people.

So, for those of you who might consider buying me something off of that, if you see toys or jewelry or things like that, that's going to be for my nephew or my niece or sister mom, etc.

And just gifts that will help me out, I guess, with Christmas.

I don't know.

This is a weird year.

I've been requested to put it down there.

It's down there.

It's not just stuff for me.

But there it is.

Anyway, thank you all so much for joining me in my little ugly sweater party today.

I don't think this will be coming out again, but maybe.

I want to get another one.

But I don't know, I -- maybe I'll put one in my wish list.

I don't know.

Next week, I will let you all know where I'm at on this massive TBR that I'm doing.

I'm 1800 pages down.

I've got 6200 pages left.

I also just added 800 pages.

So I've got 7000 pages left.

That's cool.

But I've just discovered audio books at three speeds, so, team Kevin McAllister for the win.

See you all next week.