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.

My FIRST TBR Video!!! 7,000+ Pages and Reindeer Games Readathon -- LET'S GO DECEMBER 2020!

What's up everybody?

How y'all doing out there?

I hope this video is finding you well.

Welcome back to my channel.

I am Andrew for those of you who do not know.

If you are not new here, you might not recognize me anyway, because now that No Shave November is all done, this is about as far as I got in trimming up my beard.

Wanted to see how it looks so let me know if you like this or not.

Gonna try out a mustache afterward, cuz why not?

Today I'm super excited because I am filming my very first TBR video!

Oh, my gosh, I have seen so many of these over the last couple of months and I am so excited to finally be able to have one of these of my own.

And just in case you are out there and you have no idea what TBR means, that is just "to be read," and this month I am taking place and the Reindeer Games Readathon over at the Shelf Space Discord, which I will link there down in the description box.

And while there's a lot of fun smack talk going on in that Discord over there, I'm going to leave all of that out of this video today and offer up a genuine thank you to all of the team captains who have put together these prompts and the teams and all of the effort and time they have put into this.

Because I sincerely think that this is a super fun way to end out and otherwise not so great year.

I have never taken place in a readathon or anything like this.

So, if anything, I am just here to challenge myself and see how far I can get because I've never had a TBR like this one way or the other.

So these are the books that I am going to attempt to get through to help out team Kevin McCallister.

So without further ado, let's get write on in.

All right, so I do actually have 16 books on this month's TBR.

Only 12 of them will be able to be used for that readathon.

The other four I have slated to do reviews.

I already don't necessarily think I'll be getting through those books, because when I do reviews, I keep chapter by chapter analyses that I include with the reviews on my website.

So we'll just see how that goes.

The first prompt is called Christmas Tree and it is to read a book set in a forest.

Now, I am getting through this readathon by the grace of and Amazon 3-for-2 sale, a Target 3-for-2 sale, a Scribd trial, an Audible trial, a Kindle Unlimited trial, and all of the books that I've already had that are gonna be on this list.

So, thanks to that Amazon 3-for-2 sale, I found The Last Unicorn, which, so did Jessi over at The Bookish Mom, so did a bunch of people, because I'm pretty sure we were all on that Amazon sale together.

Jessi and I are each going to be doing a book-to-movie comparison from this.

I've never read this book.

Allen from The Library of Allenxandria says it's pretty good, so I guess keep an eye out to see what we think of this later on.

The next prompt is Santa's Elves, and that is to read a book with elves or fae or other magical beings.

And yah boy here, you know I had to go with The NeverEnding Story.

Oh, my gosh, I love this book so much.

I read it in one sitting the only time I read it.

I let someone borrow it, they gave it back to me and I lost it.

I have no idea how.

I've been so sad about this for a really really long time.

And this was part of that Amazon 3-for-2 sale.

So this was my freebie.

I love this book.

I cannot wait to get back into this book.

I think it's awesome that the Bastian text is in green, which you can't really see there.

But then the Fantasia text is in purple.

I, just, this book is amazing.

If you do read this, just know that the first half of the book is the movie.

So if it feels like it's moving kind of fast, that's why.

But I will also be doing a book-to-movie comparison of this at the end of this adventure.

Moving on.

Christmas Lights.

So this is to read a book with a red or a green cover.

I went with Jade City because… I have no idea what this book is about.

Everybody loves this, so it's one of those that I've just kind of, like, blocked off all information because I'm trying to go in blind.

So, we'll see what I think.

But Jade City is my choice for that prompt.

Moving on.

Naughty List, read a book with an unlikable protagonist.

So…

This one and Checking it Twice, which is the prompt for something that you've previously read or have not finished, I kind of have two that I can't really decide which one I'm putting in which.

But I will talk about both of them.

Anyway.

The first is one that I have read before, and it is with a very unlikable protagonist by the name of Tucker Max in I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.

I needed some sort of funny crap, on this because there's a lot of darkness coming up here on this.

So, Tucker Max is a terrible person.

This is a terrible book.

But just like the New York Times here says on the front, it is highly entertaining and thoroughly reprehensible, and I could not think of anything better to say for this book.

It's terrible, but it's funny.

So I don't know.

The other choice is one that I did previously DNF, which is "did not finish" for those of you who don't know acronyms, and that is going to be Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.

This one is going to be part of my Scribd trial.

I'm very interested to see what this book is like.

The movie is super, super weird.

If you haven't seen it, long story short, this guy has a crazy nose and he's trying to make perfume out of women.

I tried to read this book once,, I got about five pages in…

I was still on the same paragraph five pages in and I got really stressed out.

So I'm interested to see how the audiobook fares, because I would really like to know how this book is different from the movie, because I have a lot of questions, and I'm just wondering if those questions can be answered or not.

And if anybody has any interest in me doing a book-to-movie comparison for this one as well, you let me know, because I might.

Because I'm definitely interested, at least, to see what this book is like.

So next up is Christmas Caroling, and that is to read and Own Voices novel.

I went with The Poppy War.

Same as Jade City, I have no idea what this is really about.

I think it's some sort of historical-fictiony kind of book.

It was first recommended to me by Liz over at Galactic Reads, who has nothing to do with any of this readathon, but as soon as she mentioned it, I've seemed to see it everywhere.

Everyone loves this.

I'm mostly just in it for the 45 minute Allenxandria video on the history of this book.

I'll let y'all know what I think.

Moving on.

Family Holiday Time: Participate in a Shelf Space buddy read.

So for this one, by the grace of the Scribd trial, I'm going to be doing Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan.

It's the only one I didn't have to pay for out of all the buddy reads.

I kind of feel bad saying that, but it's pandemic life.

Free fit the budget.

I'm in -- I've always actually wanted to read Michael J. Sullivan, and I've never had an opportunity, so I'm here for this, but I have zero idea what this book is about.

So I'll let you know as soon as I do.

So the next prompt is Homemade Present and that is to read a self-published book.

I am going with a book called Path of Stone by RL King.

It is the 11th book in the Alistair Stone Chronicles.

I love this series.

I was on an indie author panel with the author RL King, which is how I met her and discovered this series in the first place.

I picked up her first book at that event.

Now I'm on book 11.

So I'm excited.

I don't know what this next one's about.

But for the series in general, if you're a fan of Dresden Files, I would recommend for you to check this out, because I think you'd like it.

Moving on.

Stocking Stuffer: Read a novella or short story collection.

So for this one I went with Everything's Eventual, or 1408 by Stephen King.

I bought this when the movie came out.

I've never read it.

Now I have a reason to.

Moving on.

He Sees You When You're Sleeping: read a horror thriller or suspense book.

For this one, I actually went with Monstre by Duncan Swan, because when I first discovered BookTube, Lezlie at The Nerdy Narrative was one of the first channels that I came across, and when I was first getting to know her videos, this was a book that she was reading.

I watched all of her weekly updates on it, I watched her review on it.

I have since wiped my memory of anything that she said about it, because now that I'm going to read it, I kind of want to go in blind.

One thing I remember her mentioning was that the price point felt a little bit high, so since this one was part of the Kindle Unlimited trial, I thought I'd give it a go so I could discuss it with her when I was done.

Moving on.

We Three Kings: read a book with a crown on the cover or in the title.

So this one I kind of… I searched for books that I had, I was kind of looking online for books that I might be interested in.

Long story short, I just ended up with The Magician's Nephew.

The crown is -- she's wearing it right there.

When I read Piranesi a few months ago, which is the first book review that I have on this channel, I mentioned that I was really excited that she quoted this so I'm just excited to reread it.

It's been a really long time.

It's really short.

It's the only short one I have.

If I make it through everything, I have Clash of Kings on deck, so I might be able to add more points, but I'm I'm already stressed out and I'm not even done.

So we'll see.

So for now, Magician's Nephew.

Moving on.

This is the last of the prompts before I move into my four extras, but this is Under the Mistletoe, which is to read a book with romance in it.

When I was asking for recommendations, someone recommended The Princess Bride, and I was like, "Hey, I'm already reading Neverending Story and Last Unicorn, I should totally read Princess Bride and see what that's about.

And then I can have three 1980s fantasy book-to-movie comparisons."

(If people are interested.)

So I went and The Princess Bride was part of the Amazon 3-for-2 sale, and what I was not expecting was for this book to show up, because it was only $17.

I think it's on sale today and it was only $12.

But this is, like, a $40 book with, like, full color in here.

Like, these beautiful text pages, it -- it just smells so good.

Oh, my gosh.

And they've got all of these cool drawings though.

I was not expecting that for this one at the $17 price point in which I purchased this book.

I was expecting something more like this, you know.

It was like a little bit like… this is what I was expecting for $17.

But this is crazy.

The second thing I was not expecting from this book was once I started flipping through it, I realized I've read it before.

I did not remember reading this book.

I read it a year ago, and I gave it a four on Goodreads, I don't know.

But now that I remember reading it, I actually remember not liking it that much.

So I'm interested to see what's going to happen.

But one way or the other, I'm here for this Collector's Edition, because it is beautiful.

Moving on to the books that I will be reviewing.

Like I've said, I'm not sure if I'll be finishing these this month.

These 12 that I've just gone through definitely have priority.

But the first book that I will be going through as far as reviewing is going to be Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson.

And if I do manage to finish this, I'm going to kick off one of the other books and use this in the prompt as well, because this is a 1300 page book.

I know I can kind of use it one way or the other, but I don't want to count books unless I finish them for this readathon.

So I guess we'll just see how that goes.

I haven't started this yet.

I'm really excited to, I love the Stormlight Archive.

I have heard kind of mixed reviews about this, so we'll see how it goes.

But there it is.

Next up, I have got The Invisible Life of Addy LaRue, because Abby at Abby Salter, Jessi at Bookish Mom with her Schwabtober fest stuff, like everybody has been talking about this book.

As with Jade City and The Poppy War, I'm really not too sure what it's about.

I think it's about a girl selling her soul to the devil or something like that.

So we'll see how it goes.

Next up is also technically kind of an unofficial buddy read, and that's going to be the Eye of the World.

It is the first book of the Wheel of Time series.

I had wanted to read this series, I had already set it as a 2021 goal, and I was out kind of looking for buddies to read this with me when I first started on BookTube.

I was having a hard time finding people who hadn't already read it the kajillion times and didn't really want to go through it again.

So, thankfully, Jade at Bedtime Bookworm is going to be hosting a little chat on a Discord for this.

I don't think she's set this up yet, but I will be joining and I'm just gonna be kind of going through this.

I don't know if I'll finish this this month or not.

This is actually the only book of the Wheel of Time series that I have read.

So that's another reason I was kind of all right with doing it now in December instead of starting out in January.

So now I have a kickstart for the Wheel of Time moving into 2021.

Okay, ugh.

Last, but not least, and if you're still here, and your name is Jessi at The Bookish Mom or Kate at LoveStory or Lezlie or potentially my team captain Jeff or a bunch of other people all of a sudden out in the world who decided to read this piece of shit book called Immortality Awaits written by me when I was much younger.

I don't know how I feel about this book.

I haven't read this book since I published it seven years ago.

I'm hoping that I don't hate it as much as I do right now.

I feel bad for anyone who is suffering through this book.

Jessi started this, so blame her if you get through this and it's awful.

I don't know, Lezlie wants me to vlog my experience reading this book, so I probably will.

I don't know if that'll be coming out this month or not.

But I will be reading this.

Fine.

Whatever.

Here it is.

Immortality Awaits, by yours truly.

And although it is only available in Kindle right now, let me know if you want me to make the hardcopy available again, because I can do that very easily.

Okay, I don't know how I'm going to do this.

But this is my December TBR, hopefully,

I'm going to now make an attempt to make one of those really cool thumbnails where you guys hold these books all up, but I just need a minute to make them all work out.

Okay,

just…

Okay.

Can I fit them all there?

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, wait.

Ah, is that all of it, right?

Yeah, what am I doing?

And just in case you have made it this far in this video, I'm gonna do something else to really embarrass myself.

Liz over a Galactic Reads asked me what else I'm going to be doing on this channel since I have now danced and been drunk and cried and I told her that I was going to sing in my December TBR.

This is not going to be a good thing.

I'm just doing it so I get it out of the way.

But this is a little ditty that I've been humming to myself all during National Novel Writing Month and one that I'm hoping will help me get through this readathon, so.

I wanna be Where the BookTubers are

Face in a book

And just smilin

Readin

Runnin around in those

What did you call them?

Libraries

Turning that page

Reading those words

Living in stories

That I never wrote

Please accept me

Please let me be

Part of that book

Well, now that I've gotten that out of the way, I'm super embarrassed.

It's fine.

Actually, I don't really care if that was good or bad, whatever. I have sang and I have been drunk and I have danced and I've done all sorts of stuff on this channel.

So I will let you all know how I carry on… reading?

See you next time.