#modestflamboyance

Thanks for tagging me @modestflamboyance ! 😊

This was as lot of fun and quite difficult to narrow down. Also one of these did alter my brain permanently, but given that they are book characters, gif sets are nearly nonexistent. 😄

In no particular order:

(i’m late to it so no tags, but have some jams)

d - Debaser - Pixies

o - Oh Sombra! - Electrelane

m - Money Train - DVS (only on bandcamp; the album is worth it)

i - I’m Just Looking - Dexys Midnight Runners

n - No Luck - Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her

i - Izzy Izzy Ahh - Missy Elliott

p - Pagan Poetry - Björk

o - O Superman - Laurie Anderson

r - Red Sky - Pere Ubu

t - Tired of Being Alive - Danzig

e - Electrolite - R.E.M.

r - River of Sorrow - Antony & The Johnsons (ANOHNI)

Lmao. Only two corny jokes came to mind immediately:

First:

Mickey Mouse went to his divorce lawyer after handing in the paperwork to divorce Minnie Mouse.

The lawyer says, "I'm sorry Mickey, but you can't divorce someone just because they're crazy."

Mickey responds with, "I'm not divorcing her because she's crazy, I'm divorcing her because she's FUCKING GOOFY!"

Second:

What do you call Irish furniture on the front porch? Paddy O' Furniture.

Thanks for the ask! 😊

Street Art, my beloved! I find the transient nature of street art very interesting, so I’m going to tell you something about one of my favourite examples.

There’s a mixed style piece by Wordsmith that has been up for at least twelve years, which is ancient in street art years:

And while the stencilled typewriter is fairly safe from the elements, the pasted poster isn’t.

Instead of letting it go though, Wordsmith came back a few years ago, and left a new typewritten message:

Also “don’t be so hard on yourself come nightfall” will forever live rent free in my head.

This has been a bit of work, because I don’t use any kind of tracking app, so I had to pry things out of Libby. 😅

1. How many books did you read this year?

49 - 22 ebooks, 2 physical books, and 25 audiobooks, because they allow me to garden or knit at the same time.

2. Did you reread anything? What?

The first two Murderbot books by Martha Wells after I watched the series, The Magician’s Guild by Trudi Canavan because I was feeling nostalgic, and Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl - I love her food writing so much.

3. What were your top five books of the year?

I’m choosing books that were new to me, in no certain order:

J.L. Blackhurst - Three Card Murder

Jenny Lawson - Let’s Pretend This Never Happened

Jesse Q. Sutanto - Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

Jennette McCurdy - I’m Glad My Mum Died

Orlando Murrin - Knife Skills for Beginners

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

Jesse Q. Sutanto has a great and funny writing voice that manages to make her overbearing main character actually loveable.

Maxia Derra only missed the top five by an inch, but I need another book where being the a Grim Reaper is an actual corporate job.

5. What genre did you read the most of?

Mysteries! Always been my favourite genre.

6. Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

*looks at her tbr list on Libby* No idea what you are talking about.

7. What was your average book rating? Does it seem accurate?

Ummm… Libby doesn’t offer ratings and I don’t use anything else, so who knows. 😄

8. Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones?

I thought: Hey, let’s try to read/listen to two books a month, that’s 24 books. So many books. And then, somehow…

9. Did you get into any new genres?

Knitting books. So many knitting books. (Didn’t count them in books read though.)

10. Any books that disappointed you?

Murder By Cheesecake - the first Golden Girls mystery novel. I was so much looking forward to it and then I had to stop not even a quarter in, because it just didn’t feel like my beloved TV characters. *sad bat sounds*

11. What books do you want to finish before the year is over?

Richard Osman’s The Impossible Fortune and Valerie Burns’ Murder Is a Piece of Cake.

12. Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women’s Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)? What did you think of them?

I read five Murderbot books, so at least one of them will probably fall under this category. I have to admit though that I have no idea.

13. What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

I don’t think that I read any over-hyped or even just hyped books besides maybe the Murderbot ones, but they deserve the hype. I love my TV show fixated, socially anxious murder machine that just wants to be left alone, but can’t stop caring for others.

14. How many books did you buy?

About 20 maybe? Almost all of them nonfiction, with topics like knitting, wood working, travel, city walks.

I bought a book about travelling by train all over the world today, because I’ll hopefully be in Sri Lanka next year and I’m planning to take the train.

15. Did you use your library?

My library and as many other libraries I can lay my hand on (digitally). I thrive on Libby and my six or seven library cards.

16. What’s the longest book you read?

No idea. 😄

17. What’s the fastest time it took you to read a book?

I mean All Systems Red is just a novella, so that was an entertaining evening read.

18. Did you DNF anything? Why?

Ohhhh, so many things. 😄 Especially with library audiobooks - if I get bored/annoyed by the narrator or the narrative, I’m outies.

19. What reading goals do you have for next year?

I’d like to try and read four books of a genre I normally ignore on top of all the books that automatically catch my eye.

What does the zoom booze no doom thing entail? What are the rules? What is the origin story? Can anyone join?

I love when newer mutuals finally ask about Zoom. 😄

So my main and OTP fandom is Berena - Bernie Wolfe & Serena Campbell in the great *giggles* British hospital soap series Holby City.

Zoom, Booze, no Doom was born as an idea to actually watch Berena scenes together. At the end of 2019 this started as a bit of idle talk about how to actually do this, but you know : time zones, private lives, and so on…

Until, at the start of 2020, we suddenly all had nothing much more to do, but sit at home, watch tv, and worry about Covid.

So in April 2020 a weekly Berena Zoom rewatch started, hosted by a fandom friend. Everyone was welcome to join in. We skipped the doom scenes, which is how the name of our Zoom was born, because there was enough doom for everyone in real life, and finished our rewatch around the end of June, if I remember correctly.

The Zoom was fun! It was great to meet fandom friends at least virtually. It was a space to talk and vent and scream about our beloved on our screens. For me, it was something solid in uncertain times.

After we finished the rewatch, I didn’t want to stop zooming, so I took over as the host. We watched all kinds of media with our favs. The good, the mediocre, and the very, very bad things. We branched out. We had Halloween Zooms and Christmas Zooms. Bat’s belated birthday Zoom. Anniversary Zooms. ESC Zooms and live watch Zooms when Doctor Who or Silent Witness aired.

Covid restrictions became less and less, real life took over more space again, I started working and travelling again, but we’re still meeting up whenever I’m home (and not sick *sighs*).

We chat about our lives - there’s definitely more to tell nowadays - then we watch something together, then we chat some more, and at some point I kick everyone out of the Zoom because I’m getting tired. 😄

Some of us have been doing this since the very first Zoom. Some left, some joined in. Some take part whenever their busy life allows. A lot of us met in real life by now. We’re friends. Some of us went to the theatre together as a group from all over the world. While we all seem to suffer from severe writer’s block somehow these days, while Holby City has stopped airing for quite a while, we still hold on to our tiny, close knitted fandom corner. I feel like the Zoom changed our approach towards our fandom quite a bit.

I wouldn’t have thought that we’d make our first anniversary, but now it seems like we might reach our fifth? Five years, huh. Amazing. I love everyone taking part in this and I’m deeply grateful for the friendships grown from the Zoom.

I’ll stop being soppy now.

The rules are quite simple: Be kind. Bring joy. An interest in whatever we’re watching. A love for Berena and their actresses is a good thing.

If someone joins in for the first time, it’s nice if they chose a Zoom name that’s connected to their Tumblr, so we know who they are. Letting me know in advance is appreciated, because I tend to get anxiety if a new name pops up unexpectedly. 😌

Hope this answers your questions!