Ren the Ghost

1. I am, and have been for a while now, sick! I'm just not sick enough to do anything about it---look, my immune system is all topsyturvy and I forgot I'm not supposed to take my meds when I'm sick, so... that didn't help (my meds aren't great for my immune system, either). But I have remembered! So no meds for a while. We'll see what happens.

2. Season 2 of Elsbeth is out and I am very excited! I just finished rewatching season 1 <3

3. I watched Jack & Joker: U Steal My Heart!, a BL thai drama and had a good time! The mains have really good chemistry and I thought the acting was really good. And I loved the slow burn of the romance, how clear it was they cared about each other before they ever said anything.

4. I had to default on highadrenaline, which I feel doubly horrible about because I have a gift from it. But I set a deadline on which I had to default if I hadn't gotten to X point and that passed days ago and I'm not any nearer (and wouldn't be even with an extension) so I bit the bullet and hit the button. Ugh. And I was excited about it :(

5. Boosting kindreadspirits. "This is a chat and fanworks community centred around making the most of the gay subtext abundant in a lot of vintage horror and classic ghost stories, namely of the Victorian through the Edwardian era and towards the middle of the 20th Century."

6. Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint (the novel) is getting an official release from Yen Press starting in August and I read 'Dokja Kim' in the blurb and my soul died. Why must Yen Press keep doing this to me?

7. I'm reading The Hobbit for the first time. I must have bought it ages ago; it has the cover from the Jackson movies, but I've never touched it. (I have so many books I bought and then didn't touch again...) I'm about halfway through and greatly enjoying it this far!

8. Related, I've barely read anything so far this year (lots of fanfiction, of course); only finished two books so far: Lout of Count's Family vol 2 (which I adore!) and Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (which was fun!)

9. I'm in my 'clearing out my books' feels again. I now have a pile of books on my floor because my executive function ended there. ...I'll get to it eventually.

10. I have a guestbook on my fanfic site now, which is super cool!

Okay, so a couple of months back I followed this guide by anehan to purchasing danmei novels from Rosmei at ATOM Comics (it's in Poland). And then I promptly forgot about it, LOL. Like, I've bought stuff from Via Lactea before; my expectations for time between purchasing the book and actually getting it is like... a year.

Amongst the things I forgot was both the number of books I bought and which books I bought. It turns out I bought four! :D I now have the first volumes of the following:

• Everyone Loves the Cannon Fodder
• Don't You Like Me
• Kaleidoscope of Death
• Coins of Destiny

My biggest concern was it would get caught by customs and I'd have to pay even more money. It did not! That's great, because shipping was already 100 zł (shipping for just one book was already at 80 which is the reason I bought so many at once; it's just not worth it unless I'm bulk ordering).

My second biggest concern was that the package/books would be damaged. They're not! :D The package was wrapped in plastic, and the books in bubble wrap, and then the individual books in plastic. The merch was inside the plastic with the books, too. I now have two very pretty bookmarks, as well <3

I just got them so I haven't read them yet, but I so badly want to buy even more (because books make me happy). I am containing myself purely because I actually want to fully read one of them before I buy any more from Rosmei, just to make sure I vibe with the translations, I guess. And nothing from there is on sale on ATOM Comics right now (sometimes they are, which can be worth keeping in mind. Because the books are pretty expensive, too; like 30 USD a pop amd quality-vise they're not exceptional or anything).

Anyway, so far I'm pretty pleased! :D

My reviews for the 2024 October Review-a-Thon on booknook! :DDD I signed up for five (whyyy?) and oh boy did I deliver <3

Read 'em and weep <333

( Lout of Count's Family, Vol. 1 by Yu Ryeo-Han )
( Crimson Halo by Daniel May )
( Skeletons in the Closet by Nicky James )
( Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett )
( Izzy and the Right Answer by R. Cooper )

I'm reading Biggles and the Camels are Coming, and I just got to the part where Algy goes on a flower-bombing revenge spree, and it is absolutely hilarious to me.

Also, I accidentally deleted everything in my entire inbox again o(〒﹏〒)o

Sign-ups are now open for October's Review-a-Thon over on booknook!

The 10,000-word big bang for small fandoms is coming soon!
Author Sign-Ups Open Sept 1 | Artist Sign-Ups Open Nov 1

In other news, I posted an interest check for a Review-athon over on booknook and am delighted by the response! On further consideration, I currently plan for the Review-athon to 1) definitely happen :D and 2) take place in October, because school starts in September and I am so nervous.

Hopefully, I'll get a sign-up post going in a week or so! :D

I have now bought The Complete Smoke Trilogy for myself (I'll remove it from my wishlist when I find my password again) because damn it, I am sick and if I want something fun, I'm getting myself something fun. And you know what, I've been doing really well managing to keep my budget under control this year! Last year's was... oof. Things got out of hand. I put together a much prettier spreadsheet for this year though, so not gonna lie, that might be part of it. I just like using it. Spreadsheets are weirdly fun.

Anyway, I poked around DAW's website and found the book, so I'm pretty sure it's legit at least. I'm thinking, though, that DAW might not have the rights anymore? That the paperback might be going out of circulation or something and that's why I couldn't find it anywhere else? Because I saw the first 2 books in the trilogy pop up on Kobo now, published by Jabberwocky. They cost like 10 bucks each though, and the Complete Trilogy paperback was like 18 bucks, so hence I scurried and got that instead. (When ebooks cost toward that range, I mutter "betrayal" and peace out. There's limits to my budget, LOL.)

the friending meme is now live on booknook

Well, well, well, my old enemy, we meet again:

Too many books, too little shelf-space.

Counting the three books I received via my wishlist (which I am, because while they got here awhile ago, I didn't get home to them until after Christmas, LOL), I have gotten 17 books this Christmas! XD Needless to say, I am utterly delighted with my haul. Also, I don't have space for them all, LMAO. I'm gonna have to go through my books again and toss some old stuff out. I've already ejected around 30-50 books this last year (I wasn't counting) so I'm basically a pro at this point.

Still. 'Tis a sacrfice I am willing to make *pumps fist* I have so many new sci-fi books now and now I only gotta get around to reading them.

Also! Thank you profiterole_reads for recommending me The Darkness Outside Us and thusly reminding me that hey, I own that book. Maybe I should... actually read it? I devoured it in two days; absolutely phenomenal, I had a great time. (The other book on that list you reminded me I own is Winter's Orbit. Maybe... I'll read that too? Someday? I've got so many books I haven't read, LOL.)

It was Stuff Your Kindle over on romancebookworms.com a few days ago and I snagged over a hundred books, so that dilemma has only gotten worse. And yesterday there was a huge sale on a bunch of fantasy books so my budget took another beating. Some of them might still be on sale according to the post, but I don't have it in me to go through that many books again. I was already very nearly vanquished by the Stuff Your Kindle thing. It took so long to nab the books just due to the sheer volume, sigh.

All in all I've had a lovely Christmas. Met up with family, won the first game of Yahtzee I've played in like 15+ years without even knowing the rules, eaten a lot of chocolate goodies. (All that time with family did definitely knock out a lot of my Conversation Energy, though.)

I've had a good time XD

So! I rummaged through my books yesterday and tossed out (read: donated) about... I'm gonna guess maybe 20 books? I wasn't counting. But among them were all my HP books because I finally managed to defeat my FOMO (read: fear of needing them one day for fic writing purposes, though I don't know what for when the hp lexicon exists). But with them ditched I've got more space for new books. Already bought some XD and am very excited.

Speaking of books, it's almost time for smashwords' sale... and I have actually remembered to budget for it this time! I'm nearly vibrating with excitement! Gonna buy so many books!

I've apparently read 8 books this month (according to my bookwyrm page). I liked them all (except 1) to varying degrees, though my favorites were Bad Dogs by Riley Nash and Egotistical Puckboy by Eden Finley & Saxon James.

In non-book related things, I went to the gym today! My arms are weeping now. I've started playing the Ace Attorney trilogy and like it so far though I can't play for very long at a time because I run out of patience, LOL. I'm also putting together tinyfandomflash which I'm too shy to properly promote.

Hmm. Hmm. I feel like there was something else I was gonna write but I've forgotten. Oh well...