Wrapping Up October 2018

Yesterday was Halloween, so it’s that time again where I share what I read and posted this month as well as spotlighting other bloggers’ posts.

To start this off, I wrote four Halloween-related posts. The first is “Make Halloweentown Better by Bringing Kal Back,” which ends in plot bunnies for Halloweentown fanfiction. The next is a list of books where characters literally confront their fears. The third post is for the I Heart Characters! Meme, and it is called “Metztlitototl is plagued by the Gods of Death and Night.” Metztlitototl is the central character of the webcomic Behind the Obsidian Mirror by DaughterOfOwls. The last Halloween-related post is the Harry Potter Honoring the Dead Book Tag since yesterday was the anniversary of three characters’ deaths.

Another book tag I participated in was The Entertainer Book Tag, which changes questions with every iteration of it. It was fun to answer these questions.

 

I also wrote four more posts that focused on four specific books. The first three were book reviews. The Cruel Prince, by Holly Black, is first in a new series about a human girl who has grown up in the High Court of Faerie and her dreams of belonging to the cruel world that raised her. Let’s Play (Ch. 1-45), by Mongié, is a popular webcomic about how the fanbase of a ViewTuber can ruin a woman’s dreams of becoming an indie game designer and how they deal with each other in person. Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman is an okay audiobook with the author narrating, but I had too many technical issues while reading to ever finish it. The fourth book I focused on was Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, and I made a list of 9 reasons why you should read the novel right now.

It’s been a while since I updated by progress with my reading challenges. I completed five reading challenges: the Fanfiction Reading Challenge, the Goodreads Reading Challenge (31/30 books), the Graphic Novel and Manga Reading Challenge (15/12 graphic novels), the Platypire Diversity Challenge (17/11 diverse books), and the YA Reading Challenge (18/10 YA and NA books). I’m two books short on finishing the Library Love Challenge. As for the Les Mis Readalong, I’m very far behind, but I think I could finish Les Mis before the year is out if I set my mind to it. I’m also a couple of discussion posts behind on the Book Blog Discussion Challenge, and I will sure I will meet my goal. I don’t think I will complete the Eurolinguiste Language Learning Challenge, which I only completed 1 of the 4 months I planned to participate in.

As for right now, I’m reading Last Leaves Falling by Fox Benwell and Wolf Children: Ame & Yuki by Mamoru Hosoda and illustrated by Yuu.

Interesting Finds

Pamela @ Reverie Society wrote a post on how she started reading in English. Her essay is intriguing to me as someone who likes to learn languages, though I still only speak one language fluently. She talks about her history with reading books in translation and then resigning herself to reading one she really wanted to read in its original English.

Eline @ Lovely Audiobooks wrote a discussion post where she asked, “Do you care about your favourite authors’ political views?” Her post and the many comments on it show an interesting mix of how those views may or may not play in to reading choices.

Lex @ Hope and Whispers wrote a detailed essay on whether Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are socially/morally conservative or progressive. It’s a fascinating read with its consideration of the Victorian era and the author’s history. The article makes me miss the discussions and scholarly essays of academic English literature.

Holly @ Nut Free Nerd wrote a post for Feminist Fridays, called “Masturbation Madness.” She was assigned to read Philip Roth’s Portnay’s Complaint, and she shares how problematic the book is.

The Orangutan Librarian wrote about “The Need for Darkness in Books.” I agree with this post. We need darkness in books, but you are free to avoid it if it bothers you.

Let’s shift gears a little and talk about the anime and manga community. Joey, the Anime Man, once surveyed the international anime community to learn what the top 100 anime of all time. This year he has done the same with the Top 100 Manga of All Time, according to the Internet. He allowed more than strictly Japanese manga, like Korean manhwa and webtoons. I’m happy to see some of my favorites on the list.

Soul made a video in September where he shared why Light Yagami’s laugh is brilliant in the anime adaptation of Death Note. I hadn’t realized it was underrated until Soul brought it up, but it is actually amazing for Light’s character development.

>^..^<

That’s it for this month. I’ll be back with another post on Monday. Thank you, as always, for reading, liking, commenting on and sharing my posts.