#b-100

B-006.5  ❃ Mary Shelly  ❃ July 7-10, 2020

When I was younger, my mother had me read some stories out of the Junior Classic book series-- essentially, they're some classic stories like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde simplified down for children in second grade to understand...ish. I knew what I was reading but I never cared so none of the information was ever retained. There were some things I was able to predict, but I don't know if that was residual memory of the fact that the book was that predictable. I feel like it was a mixture of both. However, it's not really the ending that we tend to look for in a story. It's more so how we get to the end. Anyways, my teacher gave me a copy of the adult classic Frankenstein that had an amazing comic book style cover and I thought to give it ago. Besides, I was thinking about a Code: Realize-- amazing visual novel, check it out-- and I kinda wanted to get the original Victor Frankenstein's story before looking into his route again. So, after downloading the audio-book to help me focus, I jumped in.

To me-- I feel that it's important to clarify-- Frankenstein is a story of unchecked selfishness. The book sets up a cycle of anguish between the creator (Victor Frankenstein) and the created (the wretch). Each manages to set goals detrimental to the other and those around them, ultimately inciting horror in and greater pain upon themselves. There are also themes of parent/offspring relationships gone wrong because of abandonment; treatment of people who are "ugly," have "deformities," or are born looking some way they can't change regardless of the content of their character; nature vs. nurture, and a whole slew of other things. I can definitely see why this book is read and discussed in schools so often even though I've never had to study it.

Generally, I think this was a nice read. I wouldn't be opposed to reading it again but I also likely won't. I'd recommend reading this one outside of class, if only to grasp the basic understanding of the story then go back later for notes and annotations. Perhaps you'll pick up on more symbolism?

I did read this as a Junior Classic, but since it's not the same book, I didn't fully remember what happened, and it's a harder read, I'll make it count towards my total book count. That means I'm up to 6.5 books in the B-100. I think I'm making good progress, sprouts! I'm kinda proud of myself.

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Books Read So Far

Google: *recommends dark academia aesthetic everywhere I turn*

B-017 ❃ Josephine Cameron ❃ January 18-22, 2021

This is the third time I’ve written this. So now, I’m not gonna write as much. I HATE this new Word paste thing that Tumblr is doing. It’s stupid and I wish you could at least toggle it on and off.

*ahem*

Yes. I did finish reading this book in mid-January and I’m only posting it now. Winter Break was long but I still wanted to spend some time working on my channel and catching up on sleep (I caught up too well). When I finally got the time and motivation to sit down and read again, I cracked open Maybe a Mermaid.  This was one of two books I acquired from the campus store before I left to go on break. I saw the spine and immediately picked it up cuz we all know we judge books by their covers. Otherwise, we’d never pick any of them up. This particular one had a mermaid tale on it and no questions were asked beyond that. I’d spent 15 minutes pacing around the Alumni Author section and the old white lady behind the counter was eyeing me since I stepped into the store. I quickly chose what other book I wanted, paid, and left.

Thankfully, I was pretty happy with what I purchased. This is a cute story about the trouble of making and maintaining friendships when someone moves around a lot and accepting when things don’t fully go according to plan. The book follows a young, 12 year old girl named Anthoni as she tries to find a “True Blue” friend that will actually remember her when she leaves the Showboat Inn. The subplot to this friendship quest is the growing frustration and worry that Anthoni has in relation to her mother and their financial situation.

This book gets a lot of things right where I tend to see middle grade books kind of fail (even when I was within the target audience). For one thing, it practices subtlety. A lot of it. It is made abundantly clear that the author understands when and when not to “metagame.” I also liked that ageism was addressed without it not really being a big problem (thankfully). I also LOVE that the mother in this story is actually alive, present, and has a good relationship with her daughter. It seems to be rare in the mermaid middle-grade subcategory, and I greatly appreciate it! Other small things about the story made me really happy with it, but those were the biggest.

I will say though, I’m hesitant to go back in to look for more Alumni books. I really don’t like going into the campus store when I get stared at. It’s not something I’m used to and I don’t want to get used to it. I don’t even think it’s my self consciousness talking since I’ve never felt like that in any store at home in NOLA.

B-0013.5 ❃ Emily Henry ❃ November 25 - November 30, 2020

Originally, I was going to listen to the audiobook for Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Waterdancer. I got three chapters in and realized that not only is it not a book one should just listen to the audio for, but it’s also one that requires a great deal of time off to understand and process. So much happened within the span of three chapters and the diction makes it hard to keep track of all that was said. Besides, though the narrator of the audiobook was good, reading Waterdancer with the book in my hands feels like the better option. Eventually, I’ll get around to buying it. In the meantime, I wanted to make progress on the B-100 Challenge as working on my bucket list gives me great satisfaction. I’m happy I chose to do a lot of long term projects instead of mini ones I’ll probably never do. Anyways, I picked up Beach Read because I judged a book by its cover-- it was a bright, sunny yellow and so obviously a romance. Since I haven’t read a contemporary romance novel, I thought I’d give one a go. Beach Read is a story of two writers with writer’s block (after this year, I can relate... hard). One of them, January (yes the female protagonist’s name is a month), is a writer of all things bright nights and sickeningly sweet romances. The other, Gus, deserves to have trigger warnings on his novels in bold red ink cuz they are daaaaarrrkkk. Like why would you subject yourself to this daaaaarrrkkk. But literally have ZERO room to judge on that front cuz I’d probably read them (lol). Anyways, they make a deal. Miss sunshine will pen a sob story while Mister Macabre would spin a romance. there’s a bunch of stupid chemistry between the two could’ve-been-high-school-sweethearts that makes for excellent banter and I found myself laughing multiple times throughout. It was a great book to listen to while I worked on Christmas videos for December (despite the summery feeling it gave)!

This novel wasn’t the most riveting romance I’ve ever read-- that title goes to some fanfiction or other, likely an A/B/O. However, I found out a lot about what I like in a romance story line beyond fanfic. Particularly, that though I live for a good misunderstanding and make up, I’m not so much a fan of it going on for too long. My views on the importance of communication have ruined so much and strengthened the same amount. Also, it humanized some people more than other books-- and most definitely fanfic-- doesn’t. That’s always appreciated! I like to have multiple perspectives and better understand others’ motives and though processes for their actions.

Overall, I would recommend Beach Read as a good book. There are some mentions of cults, kidnappings, and other macabre material on Gus’ end (plus a bit of hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog) but other than that it’s safe. A safe read. And one can always skip over those parts. 17 books in total and 13.50 for the challenge! Geez, I don’t know if this is slow going or not. I know I’d be slowing down while in college but still... Whatever. I bought two more books from the campus store and plan on reading those at some point. Though I dunno if they’ll be the very next books I pick up.

B-0012.75 ❃ William Golding ❃ October 15 - November 2, 2020

I got this book a few weeks into college from a local bookstore. I'd been meaning to read it since seventh grade-- the Neverland lost boys gone horribly wrong vibe was too strong for me to ignore. So, seeing the novel list for $1 was essentially a no brainer. That said, I started school in August. While I had to finish the Harry Potter books, which admittedly took time, it took me even more to finish this book. Not because it is a long read, but rather because I simply didn't have a whole lot of room in my schedule. I'd probably still be trying to read it if I hadn't gone the last bit of the final stretch with an audiobook.

This was a story of a gang of boys, young and old, who get stuck on an island after a plane crash (I think; it's been a while since I started). While on the island, they have to work together to keep themselves alive and work out a way to eventually get rescued. But things slowly start to go awry as these are kids who really should be playing in the sand like many of them want to do rather than figuring out how to build a sound shelter. I think that the book could have elaborated on this part more-- how would these kids even know how to do some things-- but I digress. It wasn't needed. Mostly because the main focus of the book's themes revolve around loss of civilization and increased animalization. I almost feel like the book should have a trigger warning in the front of it for some things. I was already spoiled before actually reading the book, but I knew I would have cried at some points if I hadn't been.

Overall, this was a good read. Though I can see where this would be tedious and less enjoyable when read for school. I'm not sure what my next book will be. Perhaps I'll return to my favorite childhood series that I never got to finish: My Sister the Vampire. That book series got me into the MikuMiku Dance community, ya know. In fact, it got me into a lot of things including Wattpad and fanbases in general. I'll forever be thankful to Sienna Mercer.

Currently at 16 books, technically, and 12.75 according to the challenge. I really need to pick up the pace over Winter Break. 

B-0011.75 ❃ J.K. Rowling ❃ September 29, 2020 - October 5, 2020

I have a lot of feelings I'm not going to voice because spoilers. Instead, enjoy this highly relatable quote from Dumbledore that I had to pause and preserve for posterirty:

“...perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.”

Anyways, I FINISHED THE HP SERIES AT LAST!!! I should now be able to binge watch the movies without a problem and understand memes. I've also earned my right to get Hogwarts and Ravenclaw merch. Especially for Luna; I low key, high key love the girl.

I can't remember if I said this before, but I'll be taking a really short break in between series books to go through some of the ones at my school (in as little time I'm allowed to read them, I might say). Wisheth me luck on that!

B-0011 ❃ J.K. Rowling ❃ September ???-19, 2020 Second to last book of the series, Buds! Let's go!

But seriously I have no idea what I'm supposed to be thinking or feeling now, after this book. I feel like it was more of a transition between the Order of the Phoenix and Deathly Hollows. At least, it felt that way since I barely remember most of it save a few parts. This one is probably the weakest out of the series, in my opinion, though it did pick up at the end. My goddess did it pick up at the end.

So, I'm going into my second tenth of my B-100 challenge. Though I'm not rolling as strong as I was over the summer, I'm still doing relatively good given the amount of free time I have in between college work and learning MMD. I'm internally crying over how little time I've gotten to read fanfiction because of everything on my plate, but it gives me some piece of mind to know that, when I return, the stock will have piled up. I only have one more book left from the Harry Potter series! After this series, I'll take a short break as I plan to finish a book I recieved from a local bookstore before hopping into another book series I began but never finished.