reading for TWO HOURS EVERY DAY for a WEEK! 📖 tbr200 ep12

Hello, my name is Megan and I need to get my reading back into some sort of routine. As most of you know, I have just moved and my reading has been so sporadic. I will read for five hours one day and then I won't read for a week. I won't read for a week. So what I thought we'd do, I need to get back into some sort of reading routine. And so for a week, I'm going to read for two hours every day. I know that doesn't sound to some people like a challenge, but for me right now, that feels scary because I have sometimes gone like five, six days without reading a single thing. But I want to get back into some sort of routine. I don't want it to be this kind of like all or nothing kind of vibe that my reading has been. So I wonder how many books will read. I reckon probably about three or four because I will do a mix of like reading physically and reading with an audio whilst I do other things. And I read a book slower when I do that. So it's going to be a mix. But yeah, come with me to see whether I can stay consistent. I have to, I guess. And read for two hours every single day. I just realised I forgot to say this is an episode of TBR200. I am going to be reading from my TBR in this video. And my TBR is starting on 301 books in this video. I did my math wrong at the end of the last video. I said 302. It seems it should have been, I think if my math is now right, it should have been 301. So we are starting on 301 books. So hopefully we are going to get under the 300 again in this video. But you know, whatever. Okay, let's get into the video. Hello, hello. It's actually Friday and I'm going to be starting the vlog tomorrow. But I wanted to come in and talk to you guys about an amazing offer I have. Because I want as many of you to hear about this as possible. Because I genuinely think it's such a good offer for you guys. So I know that a lot of you are wanting to be getting more into crafting. Because I want to get more into crafting. One of my, I have on like, I made a bingo board for goals recently. And like, I'm doing new crafting hobbies on there. I'd also love to join a pottery class. But nowhere near me does pottery classes. Obviously pottery, you need to do it a place, you know. And also, I've been doing crafting nights on my Patreon. Oh, where is my, oh it's there. Okay, hang on. Let me show you this. Because I've been wanting to get more into crafting, I've been doing crafting nights on my Patreon for the past couple months. And on there, I've been doing paint by numbers. And this is my paint by numbers so far. It's supposed to be the Coliseum. This is what it's supposed to look like. Hang on, that's upside down. But that's what mine looks like so far. And if, like me, you're wanting to get more into doing crafts, I have an amazing offer for you guys with Craftsy. So Craftsy is this amazing online resource for all things creative. I am a complete beginner when it comes to most crafts. I have never knitted. I have never crocheted. I never quilted. I'm a complete beginner. And Craftsy is this amazing online resource with classes for all these different types of crafts. So I've been particularly wanting to get into crocheting. I feel like crocheting seems like a more accessible, a little bit less intimidating than some other crafts. And so I've started with the class on there, crocheting accessories. This is run by Valeria Torres. And in the classes there, it's taught me. We've been like crocheting baskets, pen holders, coasters. So with the coasters, I learned how to make this thing called a magic ring and then crochet from in there in the magic ring. And I had to keep the coaster flat, because obviously you want your coaster to be flat. You don't want it to be curved up at the edges. But on Craftsy, there are so many classes. New classes are being added all the time. There is classes on every category you can imagine. Like I say, if you want to get into quilting, if you want to get into painting, baking, anything you can imagine that's a craft, they have classes on there run by experts. I also feel like there's a great mix of levels of abilities of the classes. So like if you're a beginner like me, you'll find stuff on there to teach you how to begin. But if you're advanced, let me tell you, there's some incredibly advanced classes for all different types of crafts on there as well. So I think it's really just a great resource to anyone. And I said I had an amazing offer for you guys. Listen to this offer. The first 1000 of you watching this video who scan the QR code on screen or click the link in the description will get one year of Craftsy Premium for only $1.49. A whole year. A whole year of access to these classes for $1.49. Excuse me. What an amazing offer that is. This offer is available for new members only. But yeah, I can't recommend it enough. I want to try out all the different classes on there. I want to get in my crafting era this year in my new home. So yeah, go check it out. Go check it out. Either scan the QR code or click the link in description. I cannot recommend it enough. It's honestly such an amazing resource that I feel like more people need to know about. Hello, happy Saturday. It's time to start the vlog. How are we all doing? Ignore my laundry that I need to put over there. Not had the best start to my Saturday. I went to the hospital for a hospital appointment that I thought was today and is actually in a month. It was Saturday the 14th of March. You sound rather stupid to me, you know. You know, your sort of person. If you had a brain, you'd be dangerous, dear. I just assumed because when I looked on my calendar, usually if all the dates line up, it's the correct month. February is 28 days. So like next month is the same date for all the days. And I made that mistake. So, and that was, it was like a 40 minute trip each way. So that was a nice hour and a half of my morning. Completely wasted. Okay, here's the situation today. Today and tomorrow, I need to read A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith for my patron book club. And I looked it up and the audio book at my like physically reading speed is three and a half hours. So I probably will try and finish this today and tomorrow and mostly just physically read it. I may do some audio book reading, like just audio book. And that might, we might read a little bit more than two hours a day today and tomorrow, but that's fine. That's fine. More than two hours a day is fine. It's more, we want to get at least two hours. Other days this week in the week, we'll probably only do two hours where I've got to do other work. But I basically just need to do this vlog. Hello, baby. And read this book today and tomorrow. So the plan today, we have to fit a garden fence. We last night found spots of very high moisture on our bedroom wall slash ceiling. So that's really fun. We have to try and figure out what's going on with the hat. Honestly, we've just found mould in the front room. It never ends guys. She's like, why did we do this? I have been pushed to the limit with this. But yeah, the plan today, we need to fit this garden fence and then Peter's eating. Sorry, her food is in this room. So excuse her. Also her litter tray is. I don't know if you can see it, but hopefully you can't really. Yeah, plan is to do that. And then me and Tom will probably go for a walk. But I want to get some good reading of this done. This is my Patreon book club book for the month. And it's a murder mystery. It's a murder mystery. It was a murder mystery I was very excited about. There has been mixed reviews on the Patreon so far. So we're going to see how it goes. But yeah, my aim is probably to get about halfway through this today with two hours of reading. So I will chat to you maybe this evening when I'm halfway through. I feel like the weekends, it's easier to get two hours of reading done. It's the weekdays that this will be a challenge because I haven't got too much work this week. I've got two live shows tomorrow, but one is the book club live for this. And I've edited most of Sunday's video, not all of it. So we will see. We will see. But yeah, I'll let you know my thoughts when I'm a bit of a ways through. Good evening, friends. Apologies for anything. I went to like check, you know, my face before I filmed. It's very late. And I went to go check and I was like, I'm just maybe a little bit smudging under my eyes with mascara. Like black raccoon eyes. So I didn't have much. I just kind of wiped it away. I hope I look vaguely presentable. I've read for over two hours today, as evidenced by the fact that I am about 150 pages into a case of murder. So yeah, this is my patron book club for the month. And we're basically following a barrister, Gabriel. We're in 1901. And the Lord just the chief, the Lord Chief Justice of England is murdered on his doorstep, basically. And he gets recruited in to try and solve the murder. And here's the thing. I agree with a lot of what my patrons are saying about this. Firstly, on my reading sprint last night, one of them told me like, there are 10 words where there only needs to be two. Everything is kind of over described and not in a particularly like beautifully written way. Just very, very, very descriptive. Like the author was like, let me describe the ---- out of this book. And every little thing, every movement someone makes, the way someone looks or something looks. That's very true. And then a lot of them were saying like, this should be a book that I love. This should be a book that I'm obsessed with. It's got all the markings of a book I'd love. Murder Mystery, 1900s England, I love. An interesting kind of like eccentric main character. He's very like, up to now has been very isolated in his life and kind of like focus on himself and his work. And this is forcing him to get out. And he's got very interesting character, like as interesting subplot to this children's book, this religious children's book that's been published. So there's all of that, right? But I'm not, whoa, calm down. I'm not feeling it. Do you guys ever read a book where everything feels half formed and like it's not gonna be memorable, right? There's books that are bad out there that are like fully formed and fully memorable. I feel like I already have forgotten this book. I feel like I already don't remember anything that's happened, anything about the characters. Like everything feels an arm's distance away. Everything feels a bit blurry, which for something that's so described, I don't think anything should feel blurry. So that's kind of where I'm at. It's a fine book. I'm having a fine time reading it. I feel like it's probably at three right now, but I'm very disappointed because I thought this had pretty good reviews and I thought it was gonna be a new murder mystery series for me to get into, but like I'm already, I already think I'm not gonna continue this series. But here's the thing, I am so picky when it comes to murder mysteries, right? I recognize that in myself. Like I'm probably pickiest when it comes to murder mysteries, but I just really thought this was gonna be something I would enjoy. I really thought, like I remember, oh, was it Manon, Mystery Manon? Yes, who recommended this? I trust her recommendations so much. What am I not getting about this? What is not clicking? What's not clicking? So yeah, I mean, it's very late. I will try and check in earlier tomorrow. But I've got to do some video editing tomorrow, but I'm tired now. It's bedtime. It's X-Files time. It's time to watch an episode of the X-Files. So yeah, I'll let you know my thoughts on a little bit more, no, when I'm finished probably tomorrow, because that'll be my two hours tomorrow. Yeah, it's just okay. It's just okay. Hello. It is late. Whoa, what is that lighting doing? How are we all doing? It's late. I haven't had dinner yet. I just wrapped the live show for A Case of My Smurder by Sally Smith. I've had a bit of a crazy day. I had to edit a lot of a video and got that uploaded. Then I had a Zoom call with some of my Patreons, and then I really had to race to finish this book in my two hours for today. And I just had the live show for that. Here's the thing. The first half of this book was not loving. It was sitting at like a low three star. It was like, oh, I'm definitely not continuing with the series then. I was disappointed. I thought this was going to be like a new murder mystery series for me. However, the second half of this really picked up for me. The second half I got a lot more invested in. And so I actually am debating picking up the second in the series. The second one has got really good reviews. And so I think I'm actually now converted. Especially I need a more cozy mystery in my life because Lady Hardcastle, I'm up to date and that's really sad. And we just discovered I forgot to put the new Lady Hardcastle on my most anticipated release of the year video. And that's like, I said, remove me from the cult. Like I actually might banish myself from the Lady Hardcastle cult. Like it's so serious. Like how could I forget Lady Hardcastle and Flo? Like what the heck? But yeah, I'm ending this on a 3.5 because the second half was a four. The first half was a three. A 3.5 feels right to me. But I just felt like I could really sense this author growing as an author throughout the course of the book. Like the writing got better. The pacing got better. The reveal of clues and storylines was just so much tighter in the second half. I will say there's a court setting for maybe like three, four chapters around the middle. Won me over. A court setting is a way to win me over. I love a court setting in a book. And I just felt like it was done in a very interesting way. It was to do with... Did I tell you that storyline? I must have told you the storyline. I can't remember anything I said to you about this book. But there's like this book called Millie the Mouse that is like used to teach children about like behaving in church and stuff. That's become super popular. And there's like a court case about that our protagonist is the lawyer for... He's a lawyer for the defendant. There's a woman who's claiming to be the author of the book and the defendant is the publisher. Anyways, there was just some great moments. There was a great like, you know, great lawyering. I love good lawyering. That was a great lawyering moment. I really enjoyed. So yeah, I had a great time with the second half of this. I just felt like you could tell. I think it's a debut novel. And I haven't really had this in a long time, a debut novel, but like there was wording at the beginning that felt clunky. The start felt very slow. I felt very disconnected from the characters. I felt like everything was murky and then everything became very clear in the second half. I feel like she literally like grew as an author overnight. And I know things have been edited, but still that first, the first couple chapters could have been some of the first stuff she wrote for the book and it stayed, you know, somewhat in its kind of original form. And so I feel like you could really, really feel that in this book. So yeah, I've come to an interesting place with this where I feel like I would kind of recommend it. I will also be ending. We had some discussions about this. I feel like the last 60 pages is very strong with pacing. Like I said, this clue leading to this clue and this clue leading to this clue and this reveal. And so the way we got to the end reveal, I found very satisfying. But in terms of like that character behaving in way A and way B and way C, that like, you know, all of these actions, certain actions are kind of contributed to them by the end. I'm not sure makes total sense for the character that we got told that they have. If that, does that? Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. I don't doubt myself. So yeah, I mean two hours of reading done today. I feel like weekend is pretty easy. And then the week I could get a bit murky. We may switch to some like just audiobook reading for two hours whilst I do stuff, like whilst I cook something or, you know, we'll see how it goes. We'll see how many mother books we read. But first one, I'm kind of ending on a success and ending on, whoa, my laptop light just went out. Ending on probably wanting to continue this series, which I think is a win. Okay, we got a yap quickly because my camera is running out of battery. I don't know where the lead is. Hello. It is Tuesday morning, but this is technically when Monday nights check in because I finished the two hours. I'll show you. I read for two hours. That's the timer. Last night, but I was cozy and dead and I didn't want to get up to them. But I started The Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood. I did basically all just audiobook reading. So I have not read any of it physically. So I didn't read a ton in two hours. I'm on page 120 actually, which I suppose isn't too bad. Like that's like a page a minute on the audio. So this is a very much like a rom-com. It opens up with our main character. Tom's making pancakes. It opens up with our main character dying. She like chokes on a burger and she goes to the afterlife and meets like her guardian angel. Okay. There was no way that the battery is going to last long enough. For me to say anything other than two words. So I've got a portable charger that the camera is plugged into. Yeah. So she goes to the afterlife and she meets this guy and she is like in love with him. Like they have a connection that she's never felt before. She's lived quite a isolated, sad life. She hasn't had a lot of friends. She's never had a boyfriend. But the guy isn't supposed to be there. He's there by mistake. He's been like put under general aesthetic for an operation. The wires have been crossed. But the guardian angel's like, I'm going to send you back to earth and you've got 10 days for him to fall in love with you and to kiss you. And if you do that, you can stay on earth basically is the challenge that she sets her. And here's the thing. This is a very different book than I would usually read. It's not for me, Mark. I feel terribly ill all of a sudden. This is not my kind of book. It's a very British rom-com romance, like very Bridget Jones. I feel like in its humor and it's kind of like unlucky, bumbling protagonist. I don't read a lot of British romances, actually. I don't, do I? Because I really love Ali and Abby and they're American. But yeah, it's just very different tonally. And there are moments where the humor could be cringe. I'm not hating it. And at the moment, I think I lean more towards not cringe, but it's a knife edge. We're on a cringe knife edge. But you know, I'm having a nice time reading it. Again, I feel like I'm not looking at the moment for anything super like catabasic. Do you know what I mean? I'm not looking for like anything super intellectually taxing. And so I'm having a nice time reading it, but I don't think it's going to stick with me because of that knife edge of humor. Like there's moments where I'm like... It was a bit of a laugh. It's tongue in cheek, Daniel. It's tongue in cheek. It's funny. And it's very, it does that thing that some rom-coms do that I don't love, where it's very referential. It keeps referencing pop culture things, particularly like other books. It'll be like that coupling One Day in December by Josie Silver. And I'm like, what's going on? And I think that can age a book and really stick it in a place in time. And I don't always love that when things are referential. But I am suspicious that, and I don't know if this is a spoiler. Sue me, I'm 120 pages in. Do you know what I mean? I don't think this could be a spoiler. But I'm getting suspicious that the guy she's been sent back to fall in love with is not who the romance is going to actually be with. It's going to be with her annoying neighbour. So I decided to go and investigate it. Who they have like a love-hate relationship. I think it's going to be him. And I don't know how I feel about that. I kind of wanted her to go back. I wanted the synopsis of the book to be true, like her to go back into the world and find her true love. I don't know how I feel about it being the neighbour, the kind of stuck-up neighbour. I don't know. But yeah, I'm going to keep reading this today. We'll see how much I get through. I was like, I'd really like to get my reading done earlier in the day today rather than being last minute. But then I remembered I do have reading sprints tonight between 7 and 9 with my patrons. So we're probably going to do two sprints of 40 minutes in that live. So I need to get 40 minutes of reading done beforehand. And then I'll probably be audiobook reading. And then I'm going to read physically in the live show. So yeah, I'll check in tonight after my live show. But it's fine. It's just very, it's just very different than what my usual reading taste is. Let's be honest. I just want to film the pancake setup for pancake day. The pancake maker extraordinaire is tall. Where's the pancake? I don't know where she got. The other balls there. Hello, hello. Good evening. It's late. I want to go to bed. A brief check in. Oh, I've left the timer going, but it's it's over two hours. Can you focus? There she is. I'm up to page 250 ish. Maybe a little bit more. 260 ish of the love of my afterlife by Cassie Greenwood. I'm at a crossroads in this book, hence why I don't have much to say. I'm at a crossroads where I'm like, is this about to win me over? And when I say win me over, it's probably the difference between a 3.5 and a 4, but that's quite a marked difference. I'd say in my rating, the most variation comes between a 3.5 and a 4 of like emotion and feeling. I'm, I'm, I'm close to being won over. This book is ridiculous, right? It's ridiculous. It's like over the top. It's got a main character that I understand some people couldn't like. She's like very in her head, in her emotions. She's got a lot going on and the humour is very, uh, what's the word I'm looking for here? Uh, distinct? It's a certain flavour of humour that I wasn't sure if it would be for me, but I am kind of having fun. I am kind of having fun. Do I think this is peak literature? No, I don't. I don't. But am I having a nice time reading it? Yes. Do I think like when I compare it Is that a better romance book? Yes. But I'm not having a bad time. That's what I really have to say. I'm going to see you tomorrow when I've finished it because I definitely will finish this tomorrow. But I'm, yeah, I'm kind of being won over. I think it might get me. Let's see how it does in the last like 130 pages or so. But I think, I think perhaps it's got me, Your Honour. It might have got me. Hello, hello. It is Thursday. So Wednesday, I did do my two hours of reading of Love and My Afterlife and I was going to check in last night, check in on the day, but I finished reading late as I have been doing. I had to time in to like finish my two hours earlier in the day this time. And I wasn't going to film that evening, but then we found a leak from our upstairs bathroom to our downstairs bathroom through a ceiling light. So that was fun. So I said, I'm not filming tonight. I couldn't wait till tomorrow. Anyways, I finished the Love and My Afterlife by Carissa Greenwood. I am very proud of myself for finally finishing one of my in-person book club books, this is my first time. So I'm glad I've done that at least. But yeah, I'm giving it a 3.5. I think this is probably a good version of what it's trying to do. But is that my kind of thing? No, no, no, it's fine. Like it plays with tropes of romance is a very fun way. Like there's moments where you're like, this is very clearly enemies to lovers or playing with the only one bed trope or like, you know, I enjoyed that. I enjoyed somewhat the humor. I enjoyed somewhat the main character. But in the end, I don't think it did completely win me over. And at the end of the day, I think there's so many romances I would recommend over this. You know, my galleys, Ali, Abby, Emily, but even like Tali Hibbert. I love Tali Hibbert's romances, but she hasn't had like a new adult romance in a while, I feel like. Has she got one coming out soon? Oh no, someone let me know, please. Yeah, there's just a lot I would recommend over this. I don't think this is going to stick with me. I don't think I'm going to particularly remember it. But this is like a tale of two halves. I did like the kind of speculative element and like she's got 10 days to kiss her true love or she's going to die. Like I did enjoy the kind of supernatural, ghostly element of this. It's a fun time, right? I don't think many people will read. Well, no, no, no, here's the thing. Here's the thing. I think some people read this and completely vibe with the humor and have a great time and like think it's so Bridget Jones-y. Like, yeah, I think it's a really fun time. Some people will find the main character insufferable. I was going to say, I don't think anyone could pick this up and not have a fun time, but some people will find the main character insufferable. She is a very interesting main character. She's definitely been beaten down by life, but that means she's kind of like, this is not my... The book is portraying her as like what society might view as a loser, right? I don't and I have, you know, when you're reading it, you've compassion for her, but she doesn't kind of go out. She lives a very solitary lifestyle, doesn't really have anyone in her life and kind of doesn't, until the kind of turning point in the book, almost doesn't see a problem with that. And the book is kind of her getting her out of her shell, but she is kind of like very like negative in a weird way. And I can understand some people just like DNFing the book and not being able to get through it because they don't like her. But yeah, I don't know. I'm interested to see what everyone thinks about it at the book club. I feel like it's going to have some mixed opinions. And I'm going to be like, it was fine at 3.5. I can imagine someone at the book club giving it a one, but other people giving it a four and saying they had a nice time, you know? So that's where I'm ending up. Now we have two days left, Thursday and Friday left to read. I think I am going to pick up I thought about this when I hauled it. I think I'm going to read For Against and Breakfast by Travis Poudry. This is literally two of the books in this vlog have just been added to my TBR. But you know, it is what it is. And I think this is the perfect book for right now. I would really love to read this right now. And I think it will probably take me about four hours of reading. I'm not going to get the audiobook for this. I'm going to read it with my eyeballs, which I don't think I've done yet this year. So we're adding an extra little challenge because it feels like a challenge. And at the end, no audiobook, just eyeball reading. I love this series so much. We'll talk about the plot of this once I've read some today, but I'm mostly just going to be editing today. So probably not many fun B-roll of the life. I'm literally going to sit down and edit as much of this video as I can. But I love this series. I love Travis Poudry's writing. Nobody does cozy fantasy for me like he does. So yeah, I'll let you know my thoughts when I've read for my two hours of the day. But I feel like this is probably something I can fly through pretty quickly. Okay, we are about to go out for dinner. I have read for 37... Oh, ignore me watching Kimberly T. Baker. 37 minutes I've read for already today. I have some thoughts. We're going to talk about that. I'm going to come back and read for the rest of the time after dinner. But I promised you guys in the last vlog we would talk about the X-Files, about how much I'm loving the X-Files. We need this. This is essential. This is a crisis. And I feel like it's time. I feel like I need to, at least in this vlog, talk about my obsession with the X-Files. Actually, I'm going to go get Tom and we're going to talk about it together because we watch it together. So hang on one sec. All right. We're going to tell him about our love for the X-Files. Why do we love the X-Files? Is that what they've asked for? They want to know just our love, how good the X-Files is. If anyone hasn't watched it, the X-Files is the greatest TV show ever created. I don't think we can so qualify that because we don't watch a lot of TV. I certainly don't. But we do like murder mystery. We like spooky stuff. So we watch, like our whole relationship, we watch Buzzfeed Unsolved and then Watcher and like Ghost Files, Mystery Files. So we watch a lot of Ghost Files and that kind of thing. And then just one night you were like, should we put on the X-Files? I didn't even know really what the X-Files was. Why did you suggest we watch it? I just knew it was a bit of a revolutionary bit of television. I'm into the 90s. I like history. And so I knew it was influential on society. And I just really like it. I like the fact that it looks of its time. Like you could watch a modern version of this show. Yeah and it wouldn't be as good. It'd be ---- because it feels authentic. It feels really good. Should we explain what the X-Files is? No. No, no, no, let's explain. Okay, you've got Mulder and Scully who are FBI agents and they are tasked with working on the X-Files. Particularly like Mulder wants to be supernatural. They investigate the existence of aliens and conspiracy and cover-ups and that sort of thing. She's the sceptic and he believes. It's like 40 minutes long. You've got like a monster of the week. It's basically like Scooby-Doo for adults. And we love Scooby-Doo. We love Scooby-Doo. We even coloured a bedroom Scooby-Doo. But you don't know that yet. You haven't seen that but we have a Scooby-Doo coloured bedroom. It's like 40 minutes, monster of the week and then there's this underlying plot around the deep state and all that kind of stuff. There's a mix of monster of the week episodes and then more like this ongoing plot episode. It's like 50-50. But for someone who doesn't really read a lot of fiction or doesn't really do TV, I think generally there's an obstacle in both books and fiction for me is when characters do things that just don't make any ******* sense. You watch a horror film and someone just does something that no human being is ever going to do. For me, I just can't work. I can't get past that. And with that being said, I think these characters are genuinely really, really good and I'm not particularly that kind of person but the engagement between the two of them, their relationship is really, really good. It's really good. The chemistry between the two and basically the whole show you're like, will they, won't they? There's something there but are they good? I think I remember watching the first episode and I said to you, how long before these two kissed do you think? And you were like, seven episodes and I was like, I don't think so. So we started mid-December, the start of December we started watching the show. It's a good show for the winter as well. We're four seasons in. If you're like me and you like foggy rain. Yeah, foggy, dark, moody. It's pretty dope. It's just so good. Trees. Beautiful piece of television. So good. But genuinely, we've moved on from it too quick. The chemistry and the dynamic between Scully and Mulder is some of the best. And they're genuinely like really good actors as well. Yeah, they are, yeah. Like it kind of makes modern TV like a bit ridiculous. Yeah, but we say, you say you don't like it when characters, you don't understand their motivation doing things but Scully is still somehow a skeptic. Yeah, they don't even know that. Like in four seasons. She just seems to like to selectively forget all the time. But yeah, we're obsessed with The X-Files. I've not been doing enough reading because every night we watch at least one episode of The X-Files if not two. I think you guys will really like it. I think they'd all really like The X-Files. If you like murder mystery sort of stuff like Megan has. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But Supernatural as well. Fantasy element. Aliens. Often like you can actually figure out what's going on in the episode as well. Oh, you always call it. Like half the episode. But I always fall asleep. It's an ongoing issue, me falling asleep. But yeah. I think it's Tom Cruise. I don't watch a lot of stuff. We don't watch anything. I think it's pretty ******* good. All we've ever watched is ******* Ghost Files and Scooby-Doo. Yeah, it's set in the 90s. It's got a good vibe to it. Set in the 90s. They've got big suits. They've got stupid looking cars. Oh, and they pull the phone out. They have to pull the phone out. Stupid phones. There's pictures of Bill Clinton everywhere. Given what's going on, it just feels really in keeping. Tom, wait. We haven't told them the most important thing. Which is? I don't know if you know Deidre. But I don't know what you're talking about. Skinner, baby. So Tom, get rid of your notifications. The Tom's lock screen is usually me. A lovely picture of me. It's not focused. Yeah. Oh, it's fine. It went dark. They saw it. But on my birthday, Tom changed it to someone else. Skinner, baby. You won't really understand, but this dude is sexy. It's gone dark. People at work ask me all the time, who is this dude? We both think this man... Can I say we both? Do you objectively think he's sexy? He's so sexy, bro. He's been nerfed. He's been given the shittest haircut. He's been given the worst haircut. And he's so hench. He's so sexy. And he's got this lovely leathery skin. He's always really quite oily and greased up. But when he, you know, glows for some while... Yeah, he's really aggressive. He's also a lovely man. He's just so sexy. We love Skinner. He's got forearms like a baseball bat. But yeah, I think that's really the most important part. Look up Skinner. I mean, everyone thinks Mulder's sexy. Mulder is objectively kind of sexy as well. In his own way. But Skinner's sexy. If you want the sun, I want the bed. Okay. All right, that's it. We're gonna go out for dinner now. And I gotta read afterwards. Bye. Oh my god, okay. I need to be honest. Yesterday, the 37 minutes I told you I'd read. You realize that hasn't changed. I didn't read any more yesterday. I'll tell you how I'm doing. Not well, bitch. We failed at the final hurdle. I mean, yeah, here's the sitch. We went out for dinner and came back. We had to do the food shop, did that. And it was just time to get in bed and watch The X-Files. I could lie to you, you know. I could lie, but I can't lie. I'm not a liar. I don't think I've ever lied about anything in my life. Or at least I'm very bad at it. So yeah, today I'm now gonna try and read for that time. Plus today's two hours. Which does stress me out a little bit. Because it's already one o'clock. I have an hour Zoom call now. And then I do want to go for a run this evening as well. So I'm not quite sure what's gonna go down. But we need to read for like three hours and 20 minutes. So I'll probably check in with you. I've literally got a Zoom call in four minutes. But I'll probably check in with you once I've read yesterday's amount. Because I do already have thoughts about Brigands and Breadknives that I want to chat to you about. So I'll probably go read for an hour-ish. Then come check in with you again. Then read for another two hours. I don't know how I'm gonna have time for that day. Well, I've already edited. I spent this morning editing this video. But I only got up to like Monday, Tuesday. And I wanted to get like it all edited. I think I'm going to have to accept the L and edit some of it this weekend. I can't believe I failed at the last hurdle. I'm so sorry. It is what it is. It was late. I was tired. It was time to get in bed and watch the X-Files. Anyways, I will see you in a bit with some thoughts. Hello, hello. I have read for yesterday's two hours. Here we go. Hang on. For one hour and 58 minutes. But I just got to the end of a chapter. And I figured now would be a good time to check in. Thomas here. He's playing on his Switch behind the camera. If you hear the little buttons playing away. Okay, let me tell you the plot of this quickly. And then we will get into everything. All of my thoughts that I have. This book, we are following Fern who is a bookseller that we met in the previous book, Bookshops and Bone Dust. So you have Legends and Lattes where we meet Viv. And that's the story of Viv making her coffee shop. Then Bookshops and Bone Dust is a prequel. So it happens quite a long time before Legends and Lattes. Where Viv meets Fern. And Fern is a bookshop owner. And then in this book, Fern, right at the start of the book, is travelling to go and be with Viv. And to set up a bookshop next to her coffee shop in the town. So she's moving all of her belongings with Pot Roast who is her pet. I don't know quite what animal he is. Some sort of like bird thing? I don't know. I don't know. So very quickly on. Fern is overwhelmed with life and with responsibilities. And she kind of ends up fleeing in the night, drunkenly. And ending up in the car of this really well-known... What's the right word? A legendary warrior. A car of this like thousand-year-old legendary warrior that she's heard so many stories about. And ends up kind of on this adventure. Now, here's the thing. In two hours, I've only read 100 pages of what is usually a very fast read for me. I am finding reading without an audiobook hard. I'm a little bit concerned. And here's the thing. I'd rather come to this conclusion sooner than later because I don't want that to happen, right? I like using audiobooks for my reading. I feel like in this challenge, part of what scuppered me yesterday was not having an audiobook. And particularly like reading for two hours every day. Having an audiobook is helpful because it means you can read whilst cooking or cleaning or whatever. I think audiobooks are a useful, fun tool to have in reading. However, I don't want to become dependent on them. And I feel like with how crazy everything's been and in the kind of mental state I've been in, audiobooks have been very useful. However, maybe I have become a bit reliant on them. And so yeah, I'm finding reading this with my eyeballs a bit hard. But I think that's me. I don't think that necessarily is the book's fault. I'm enjoying the book a lot. I don't know if I'm necessarily enjoying it as much as the other books though. And I don't know if that's my fault. Boy, I have seen some reviews, people saying that this is out of the three, their least favourite so far. But there's moments where I'm noticing like, okay, this is me. Like I'm struggling to read. But I am still enjoying it for the most part. I think Travis Bowdrey has this wit and charm that is so rare. And I've read so many cosy fantasies at this point. I keep trying them. I keep reading cosy fantasies again and again and again. And not many do for me what he does. He's very good at like, a moment. A moment. I feel like I'm Amanda from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. If anyone's watching a new series of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, she's like, let's have a matcha moment. Anyone want to have a caviar moment? Oh, this is such a manifestation moment for me. But Travis Bowdrey is very good at like, a scene will be happening and then there'll be something that kind of changes the course of it or just adds humour or adds like a sideways glance to something that I think is quite unique. I love his writing. I'm sad that we were with like, we were with the gang. We were with Thimble. I freaking love Thimble the baker. I love Thimble so much. And we were with him and then we've been torn away from him. But I'm enjoying the characters that we're with on this journey. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how I'm feeling about it. I don't know. It's fine. I'm not getting five star feeling, which I was hoping after like two 3.5s in this vlog, I was hoping for a five star. And this was like really up there for me as a five star fiction because the other two have been five stars. But it's feeling like a strong four at the moment. But I'm going to get cosy, hopefully read quite a bit more this evening. I'll probably check in with you tomorrow morning when... I want to check in with you when I finish the book. So I'm going to read for another two hours tonight. We'll see if that means I finish it or not. But then I'm going to finish whatever is left of the book tomorrow. And also I'd rather, you know, check in with you bright eyed in the morning than like 10pm tonight wishing I was watching The X-Files. So I'll check in with you in the morning when I finish the book. It's an interesting... Yeah, it's interesting being so conscious that I've become a bit reliant on audiobooks. But I think it's good to nip it in the bud now. And this is the kind of book that is best for me to do it with. A book series that I always read physically, that I love, that I love the writing, I'm familiar with the writing. So I will say that also having to sit and read with my eyeballs has felt intimidating. But also like I've had moments where I'm like, OK, I've missed this. I've missed just sitting and reading. I've been doing a lot of my reading, kind of... I've been sitting and reading in little chunks, but not for hours, just sitting and reading. I was doing a lot of my reading this week, kind of broken up. And it's nice to just sit and curl up with a book and read it. So yeah, I'll check in with you in the morning with my thoughts. I'm torn. I'm kind of in two minds at the moment. Enjoying it, but not as much as the other two books in the series. Hello, hello. It's actually Sunday. Let me explain. So on Friday, I read for the extra two hours. And then over today and yesterday, I actually ended up having to read for like another hour and 45 minutes. It took me almost four hours to finish the book. It took me a while. It took me a while to read this book. And I finished it. I'm going to be giving it 3.5 stars. Which is devastating on many levels. Firstly, it means all three of the books in this vlog were 3.5, which is so boring. Like that's the most boring result for a reading vlog ever. I want my reading vlogs to at least, if not have like all great reads, have light and shade to them. 3.5 is just so boring. And obviously, this is one of my favorite series ever. I gave the first books both top five stars. And this one just didn't do it for me, unfortunately. Now, here's the thing. I don't know where the problems with me end and my issues with this book begin. My number one issue with this was I found it hard to read. I found it hard to keep track of the words on the page. And that might be a me problem, right? I got a lot of thoughts in my brain at the moment. Not afraid to admit that. There's a lot going on up here. And I've been very reliant on audiobooks. And I wonder whether part of that is me. And that's my problem. You know, reading this physically, I wonder whether I would have had a different experience with this had I listened to the audiobook. And now I'm kind of regretting that. But I do feel like I need to get off of the audiobook dependency at some point. Because it's the thing, I love Travis Bowdrey's writing, right? I love it in these two books. I love his writing. But there was just something about it in this that I struggled to keep track of. And I just didn't love the story as much as the previous two books. I think this book has a lot of value. And that's why I feel- I'm going to round up to a four on Goodreads. And I feel tentative. Like part of me feels like I should be giving it a four. Because I think this has a lot of great things to say. Travis Bowdrey's books always do. And this one is really focusing kind of like- I'm focusing on like almost like a midlife crisis. And how it's okay to change your life when the one you're living in no longer fits you and no longer suits you. And I think there was a lot of beauty in that. And I enjoyed a lot of our characters. I loved Zell as a character. I really liked Asterix. I- yeah, I enjoyed a lot of what this book was doing. I do feel like there was not really anything driving the story forward. Which I think is okay. With that really cozy vibe that Legends of Lattes and Books of Mondust do. Because you're kind of just like in this low stakes, you know, slice of life storyline with kind of inner characters motivations. But when you have what really turns into like an adventure book. This book is really an adventure journey book. I personally feel like it does need something propelling the story on. Giving it momentum. And I didn't really feel like this had that. So I'm very sad. I'm very sad. You know, I'm gonna pick up anything Travis Bowdrey writes. I hope that this was just a blip for us and maybe me. Um, I feel like I'm gonna read a graphic novel next. Physically, obviously. A graphic novel. It's quite a long one. You're not gonna see that video for a long, long, long, long, long time. So I'm hoping that might be like a good thing to help me get back into reading physically. But yeah, I- this- I heard going into this that some people hadn't loved this one as much. And I thought I'm gonna be immune to that. Like, good for you or bad for you. But that ain't gonna be me. Turns out it is a little bit. I think there's a lot to be gained from this. And I would still recommend you pick this up if you've enjoyed the series. It just feels like a slightly less successful entry in it, you know? So yeah, I don't- I don't want to talk about it. It's very sad to me. Like, this should have been five stars. I'm yet to have a five star this year. I've had two 4.5s, but no five. And I want it. I want a five star. I really want a five star. But yeah, that's where we are. It's very sad. So there we have it, friends. We're ending the episode of TBR 200 with 298 books on my physical TBR. Which I feel like is not bad. We're gonna- we're back under 300. I'm not gonna make a big deal out of it. But we're never going above 300 again. No, I just touched my nose. Is that a sign of a lie? I'm never going above 300 again. I promise you. I'm not gonna make a big deal out of this time. It's gonna be understated. This is understated right now. I'm actually gonna be probably making some good progress on TBR in some videos I've got coming up that aren't technically TBR 200 episodes. Because I'm reading a mix of stuff that is already on my TBR and stuff I've had to buy for the videos. So that number will go down even more before our next TBR 200 ep. And yeah, I hope you enjoyed this video. And I guess for the whole challenge of reading for two hours every day, I feel like it really has helped me get back into the habit of reading. I feel like now I'm getting back into it. I'm getting back used to reading. Even though these books weren't necessarily wins. They weren't bad. 3.5 isn't bad. But you know, it has got me back into the habit. It has helped me find points in my day for my current kind of work-life balance and schedule that reading works for me. So on the whole, I think this was a success. And I'm actually excited to maybe even... I'm probably not gonna read some more tonight because I'm gonna announce a new game stream with my patrons. But I'm excited to pick up my next book and I like want to do that. So yeah. Anyways, thank you so much for watching this video. I think that's it. I'll see you very soon with another one. Bye!