How are we already halfway into January?! We have currently been lockdown for a month, and still haven’t heard anything from work about financial compensation. The lockdown has been extended to the 9th of February, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it will be longer. Also, our government resigned yesterday. So much fun stuff…
But, I do have loads of time to read now. I have already read 10 books (half of which are comics), and in those there has been both a DNF and a 5* read. I find myself in the middle of several books, which are:
I picked up the audiobook of Sky Raiders by Brandon Mull at the end of last year in a 2-for-1 sale, seeing as it is on my list of ’10 books that have been on my TBR the longest’. And I don’t really know what I think of it. I was tempted to DNF it very early on when the main character commented that the girl he has a crush on is pretty even without make-up… Dude, you are 12! I started this on a walk and with nothing better to do I listened on. I do like the concept and the world, just the characters annoy me… in the same way that many (American) teenagers in books annoy me. So I am not sure if I will continue this book. I hurt my foot and leg, so I don’t see myself going for a walk anytime soon… and will leave the decision to continue or DNF till then.
Last week I read a book that felt to me like the Witcher, but with Samurai (review for this will go up in the first week of February)… which made me want to continue the Witcher series. Like the first book this is a collection of shorter stories, although they do feel more connected. I have read 4 of the 6 stories so far, and really enjoyed most of them. Especially the fourth one, which is about mermaids and sea monsters, I really liked and hope they will include in the series. This is a bit of a weird one for me though. There are a lot of tits, and Geralt is quite the slut. Actually, all the characters are sluts. (Which I knew going into it). In any other book this would have really turned me off, and yet here I can forgive it. It is preventing me from giving this a 5* rating, but doesn’t bother me enough to put it down. I hope to pick up the 5th story later today, which I believe is where we meet Ciri so that should be exciting.
The Shark Caller is a middle grade book I received through Netgalley, which is set to come out in the first week of February. Set on Papua New Guinea, we follow a girl, Blue Wing, who lives with the island’s Shark Caller after her parent’s died. When an American researcher comes to the island, Blue Wing is told to keep his daughter company, and what follows is a clash of cultures. I love the writing in this… the island is shown beautifully (with the author’s own upbringing shining through), and the local vocabulary is mixed in very well with the English. I foresee grief becoming a big part of the story, and I feel it will be handled beautifully. I am about a quarter into this book, but it is a fast read so will definitely get through it in the rest of this weekend. And I am very excited!
What’s next? I’m not sure. I am letting myself mood read, and at the moment I feel I will pick up the following books next week:
So that is what my reading looks like at the moment. I know I said I wanted to slow down… and I kinda am. Last year I read 220 books, too many of which I can’t remember much from. So I wanted to change that this year. The comics are really helping for a quick read when I want to kill some time, saving the quality time for my ‘normal’ books so I can give them my full attention. So far (she says after only 2 weeks) I find it works really well for me.
Hoping you are well,
Simply a Book Drunkard 
If you don’t feel like talking about it, no worries, but how does an entire government resign?
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Politics over here works very different than in the US. Basically we have loads of political parties, and they divide up the available seats depending on how many votes they get (so if they get 10% of the votes, they get 10% of the seats). Party with the most votes provides the PM. Then that party tries to get together with other parties to form a majority, and they are the kabinet. The others form the opposition. So the kabinet makes the decisions, the opposition is there to correct them and to make sure all voters feel represented.
So, about 10 years ago because of an error in a computer program about 26.000 people were wrongfully accused of tax fraud. The government has now acknowledged that they fckd up and ruined those people’s lives. Even though most of the current kabinet isn’t directly responsible for what happened, they still felt that they were (at least symbolically). So they did the decent thing and resigned… in the middle of a lockdown.
We already had new elections planned in March, so nothing really happens. They are still responsible till a new coalition is formed, so regarding corona measures it shouldn’t matter too much. They just can’t make massive changes and decisions that aren’t urgent anymore. Apart from that it really is mainly a symbol for them taking their responsibility (most are up for re-election anyway).
It’s all more complicated than that, but that’s the idea.
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Thank you very much. That was a clear and succinct explanation 🙂
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Sounds like some balanced reading! Both in terms of what you’re reading, and how well you liked it. Here’s hoping for an end to lockdowns soon, and some more good reading in the meantime!
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Thank you! The reading has been lovely so far this year! I have had another DNF since I wrote this, and then The Shark Caller was so Amazing, it blew my socks of.
There is a pressconference tomorrow again. I believe we are going to get curfews, but apart from that nothing is known yet. Infection rates are going down, but not very fast. And the British mutation is just getting started here, so I wouldn’t be surprised if lonkdown gets extended again to prevent London situations.
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Well, whatever happens with the lockdown, I hope you can both manage to stay safe and healthy. It’s scary stuff. 😦
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Thank you 😘 You too!!!
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