Reading Vlog?...Basically Just A Classics Book Haul!! || February 2020

hey guys and welcome back to another weekly reading vlog today is February 21st right am i right yes today is February 21st and it's Friday I just uploaded my last weekly reading vlog this morning and so that's up obviously it would have it will be up for probably about a week now um and that is when I went to the New York Public Library with my amazing friend Emma and I rearranged my bookshelves and I talked about the books that I was reading so yeah that was such a lovely video to edit I had so much fun just like putting the clips together and everything from the library and so I hope you guys enjoyed that if you did see it anyway so this week I have work in I have to leave for work in ten minutes so we're gonna talk right through this um so I just wanted to start this reading vlog off and get you guys updated so I forgot to tell you last night when I was wrapping up my last reading vlog that I did finish the Dutch house by Jen Pratchett and it was the audiobook narrated by Tom Hanks which was incredible so I would give the narration and the performance by Tom Hanks a 10 out of 10 5 stars because he just did such a great job it felt like I was listening to one of his films it was so captivating and just really beautiful and the way that he the way that he performs dialoguing in movie is the same way that he performed it for the audiobook so he's just such an amazing job and I really loved it the story the first half of it I was kind of like where is this story going like it was kind of a meandering plot like there was a central focus it mainly focused on the character and an incredible sibling relationship and so basically what the story is about is that this sibling relationships and the main character it's in his point of view his name's Danny and his sister's name is Maeve and when they were young his father and well their father went from poverty to wealth and he is a very kind of loveless man like he doesn't really show compassion or he loved to his children and this is what it almost seems like he's the same way with his wife but a little bit less and and then when the kids were young their what their mom actually left them to help the homeless in India so they were abandoned by their mother not really taken care of by their father and kind of left to form their own bond and grow together and so Maeve is the older sister so she really helped Danny grow and it's mainly just about their lives and how they are always drawn back to the Dutch house it's the house that they grew up in the house that his father bought for his mother and it's all very not gothic but it almost felt a little I don't know it the way that the Dutch house was astir described it was like very a very grand beautiful architectural gorgeous house but a house that they never really felt like home in it was just really really wonderful and towards the end it really picked up and I was getting so intrigued and when it was over I was so sad that it was over I was so surprised because for a while I was kind of like I don't know if I'm loving this and it's kind of meandering and you know where's this going with the plot kind of just said it seemed a little like aimless but when you like hit that halfway point it really picked up and I just absolutely loved the end I actually got pretty emotional and I was surprised I wasn't expecting to feel emotional towards the end and I did so I really was so happy that I felt that way so yeah I gave it three stars just because half of the book I really enjoyed but then the other half it was kind of like the beginning half kind of just felt a little bit like below the mark so three stars really really enjoy that we definitely recommend it I think it's a wonderful book definitely recommend the audiobook because Tom Hanks his voice his performance is just so beautiful and yeah ok so now I'm like running low on time I am going to start Emma by Jane Austen I was telling you guys on my last reading vlog that my wonderful Emma who I went to the New York Public Library with her Instagram or her books to Graham is at Emma read what and she is my real-life best friend and also my Instagram best bestie so we are going to be reading and my by Jane Austen together because well it's also her name is Emma this book is name is Emma and then I found these sticky notes these sticky tabs that we are going to annotate with and they are from the Emma book so this is Emma George Harriet and Frank and we are going to tab as we read I think we yeah we settled on three chapters a day so I'm so excited to start reading today and I can't wait and then we're gonna go see the adaptation together so I'm so excited yeah so I'm going to start reading this I'm still reading a single man but Christopher Isherwood this little handsome fella and really enjoying it I haven't read any more than when I last updated you updated you in my last reading vlog so I will keep you updated I am also listening to the tattoos dvash wits on script and really enjoying it Richard Armitage who plays the main character in North and South the miniseries narrates the audiobook gorgeous amazing amazing amazing gorgeous I could listen to him talk all day so beautiful does an amazing job I'm really liking the book I'm really really liking it it seems a little bit overdramatic like I hate to say that because it's based on World War two the Holocaust and obviously that's not overdramatic because it happened but what I mean by overdramatic is like the writing style the way that it's presented and written yes it's so beautiful and I'm loving it and you know I feel like Outlander also could be kind of considered overdramatic but it's just like the stakes are so high and then the love interest that's involved I think it's just like it had like definite insta-love and as much as like I can understand that that could happen especially when you're in a position of dire stress and trauma but I don't know like I'm really really enjoying it it's just the like corny cheesy parts even though I love a corny and cheesy parts they're like kind of not bothering me but just like you know tapping at me a little bit and I'm like hmm but I don't know I felt like could it couldn't have been done a different way or is it done in the next wet I don't know I'm having this like mixed feelings maybe my opinion will change but I'm really liking it so far the only thing is just like oh I love the love aspect I'm just like I don't know if that's completely realistic just because especially there are certain scenes where they are not intimate but they have like cute intimate moments and it's like I don't I don't know obviously we don't know but like is that even possible I feel like in a lot of the research that I have done for World War two history and the Holocaust and the concentration camps it's like you're always being watched there's never a time when you aren't being watched and so they are having these moments of not I mean passion but they're just like you know they're like kissing sometimes against like different buildings and I'm like how is that even know what like is that plausible I know so anyway I should just stop like trying to think is it plausible or not and just enjoy the fact that they have a beautiful love story so yeah anyway those are my three books that I'm currently reading right now so buddy read and then reading by myself and then my audiobook of the tattoo sebastio wits which I'm really really enjoying I'm really enjoying well I haven't started this one but I'm really enjoying those two so yeah I will see you guys [Music] hey guys and happy Thursday I know it's it's Thursday it is February 27th man am I tired man am I tired this has been the longest week of my entire life okay that's being dramatic this week has been long and I haven't filmed anything since what was it Sunday or sometime this past weekend I don't even know this week I got bombarded bombarded with a ridiculous amount of work and my professors just really didn't like me this week um yeah so really really crazy week at uni and just so many assignments were due in a very short span of time so I just kind of put vlogging to the side and I'm picking it back up now because I have some reading updates and I actually have an exciting package to open so this is going to be kind of a weird reading vlog not really a week more like just a two day reading blog um so yeah I hope you guys don't mind that so I'll start with my reading updates I am currently reading and loving Emma by Jane Austen this is amazing so far I'm on page and on page 62 and these are the little tabs that I got for my friend Emma and I who I am reading the book with and we're gonna go see the new adaptation I have heard that people are loving the adaptation so that's making me so excited and the fact that I'm really loving the book is making me even more excited to see the new film so I'm so happy and I'm really loving this I am up to the part where Emma and mr. Knightley are having their discussion about Harriet's love life and her her choices her marital choices and so good like I can already sense where the story is going I've actually never seen in that updation of Emma I don't really know how it ends which is really exciting cut in kind of rare for a Jane Austen book because I feel like since it's so well known and so old that it's like everybody knows Pride and Prejudice like who ends up together I mean if you don't then that's amazing but yeah so super super excited really really really loving this and I can't wait to keep reading I was reading this on a train home from the city this evening and I didn't want to put it down I was getting to my stuff and I was like oh no I want to keep reading so that's amazing and audiobooks have been my best friends recently I've never really been an audiobook person but with this week and especially this year going into my bachelor's program and my second semester in my bachelor's program I've been doing so much drawing so much painting so much schoolwork in projects that I have no time to physically read and when I do then I just read like a very little bit amount a very little amount but I'm spending all this time drawing and drawing and painting when like I'll even listen to music or I will watch youtube videos or something if I'm home but I was thinking like that's such a valuable time that I could be putting into reading books and listening to audiobooks instead of like music or anything so I downloaded Scribd and this is not sponsored by script but they are incredible like just like the way that it's set up I did dabble with audible but I don't know like audible I wasn't really meshing with the way that they structured their software I like you only get one credit a month and I feel like if if you finish that one book in the span of a few days then you have to wait a whole month or buy a new book so Scribd it's just a monthly fee and then you could read on whatever or listen to whatever audiobooks are available which I just like yeah they don't have every book available to you but they have so many to choose from so whichever audio service that you like but I currently am reading script using script and then I'll tell you guys the books that I've been reading so one I did finish the tattoos dvash wits and I really loved it I think I said to you guys that I thought that it was a bit unrealistic or like a bit dramatic with the love story but I take that back I'm having this like mixed feelings maybe my opinion will changed because actually based off of a true a true man's life like a mule ouch wits survivor and he was a tattooist so it's based off of a true story so the fact that it's based on true events and the and the author sat down with the main character of the story and just retold it through whatever fabrications she had to come up with because of course when you're when you're telling somebody's story and it is technically fiction based on true events you do have to fabricate certain elements so just the fact that it was based off of a real man's story really made me appreciate those aspects a lot more like the the passion and the love between these between the two main characters was so beautiful and the fact that it was based off of to real people and it was just so amazing so I gave that book four stars the only thing that I didn't care for too much was the writing style I wanted a bit more from it and I feel like the more I read and the more classics I read the more I want specific things from writing I don't know if that makes any sense but I feel like I expect more out of writers the more that I read and be being a being an aspiring writer myself I I got this great advice from one of my professors and he said that to be a to be a great writer you have to do two things you have to read a lot and you have to write a lot and when you read a lot you have to read the authors that are renowned and that are your betters because that will help you become better so that's kind of what I'm feeling is the more that I'm reading the more that I'm getting pickier the more that I realized that I rather read certain books over others anyway so this is my big tangent basically I just wanted a bit more from the writing and then the second audiobook the other audiobook that I listened to is this side of paradise by f scott Fitzgerald I have only read the Great Gatsby from F scott Fitzgerald and the short story the Curious Case of Benjamin Button and really loved both of those this side of paradise I really enjoy and I gave it three stars but it seemed a little flat for me like I feel like that's also kind of Fitzgerald's writing style like this was a very quintessential F scott Fitzgerald book so it's about a main character named Amory Blaine which is a wonderful name and it's basically how he is he's kind of like a Dorian Gray kind of character where he is very arrogant and vain and um from not prestige but he's he just expects a lot from other people and he is very pretentious I guess and and it's basically him going to Princeton University loving literature and there are actually a lot of references with authors that I really love like toast away which are you kidding me if you reference Tolstoy you have my heart also um Charles Dana Gibson who is an incredible illustrator that I love so much he is the creator of the Gibson Girl and there was a reference to that and there were references to a bunch of great and timely authors and writers and authors and writers not authors and illustrators and artists so I really loved that aspect of the book it just the storyline kind of like it wasn't gripping I wasn't like dying to know what would happen I just enjoyed it and that's okay that's kind of what I expected out of it especially with an audiobook I feel like you can only get so much out of it or so much out of certain books I feel like I don't know if my thoughts would be different if I read it physically but basically it was a very quintessential f scott Fitzgerald book about this very vain young man and how he is surrounded by a life full of vanity and greed and knowledge and kind of the the sticky aspects of love I guess or just I don't know what the proper way to describe it is but not like not like the best situations for a love life I don't know if that makes sense I'm still reading a single man but I kind of put that to the side because we want to read Emma so that we can see the adaptation when it's in theaters and I think that that's all that I have to update on so I am going to open write targets I think you guys need know what this is I talked about it in a recent reading blog it is the rest this one came early which is amazing so you guys know because I talked about in one of my vlogs I did a pretty large book depository order which I was planning on doing for one specific book and you guys know what that specific book is I'm pretty sure if you do a good job um this book actually came first though so Book Depository for some reason sent this one earth early and the rest came now so that's fine because this is the one that I needed first so perfect and so this one is also with this order so technically this is part of the haul and then we're going to get I'm so excited there are so many editions in here that I've been wanting for so long and I've been putting it off because they're a bit pricier but I rewarded myself for a specific reason which I already talked about but I'm gonna have it be a suprise [Music] oh my goodness oh my gosh well they're even more beautiful in person Oh oh wow where do I even begin it's in my hands and it's a perfect moment of silence so this is the main reason why I did this book depository order because whenever I have a favorite book a favorite classic then I always get it in the clothbound editions I have Jane Eyre withering Heights and testing the d'Urbervilles which was um gifted to me by my cousin so I haven't read this one yet but I have a feeling that I'm going to love it and it's gonna be a favorite so it's just perfect but I always splurge a little bit and get the clock band editions in my favorite editions because I always get the English library books in books that I haven't read yet just in case I don't enjoy them as much then I'm not spending as much money on them but I do owe like I think I'm going to oh my god get all of my favorites in the cloth bounds and it's gorgeous last night my roommate and I after a very stressful week we needed a movie night and we haven't had a movie night since um the semester started actually and we loved like just sitting down relaxing and snuggling up and watching a movie and we she actually saw she's never had the book and she's never seen Anna Karenina but we watched the the adaptation the film and she loved it she said that it was like so tragic and she hated she didn't hate the ending but she was like so like struck by the ending I struck very good word to describe that book or the movie - and now that it's here I have the book in my hands this is my third edition of it now and guys I know I've said this so many times and you have come on this journey of reading Anna Karenina with me but this is like I can say it confidently now I love Jane Eyre with my whole heart and it'll always be one of my favorite books but if I had to rank it this is my number one favorite book probably like that's like a crazy feeling because as a reader I think it's so hard to say that because we read so many incredible books and to say that only one book is your favorite book I think is really hard and but it's not hard at all because I like so much confidence in this book and looking back on what February no January 9th I started it when I was so scared I like looked back on that video and I was thinking like little did you know Carolyn this is gonna be your favorite book ever it's so oh my god it's so beautiful and I'm never gonna stop looking at it oh my god I'm so much and just like the way that Corley Bigford Smith designs the covers like how she picks one element and how she makes that element the central focus of the cover and the repetition of the design and I love how she squares each one off and how it doesn't just let go off the go off the page or off the book and the I cuz like a lot of the book if you guys don't know a lot of the book is set during um like they go do with the Opera or they go to the races or they go and see something and they always use the opera glasses so the fact that she chose that element I think is so brilliant and when you see the adaptation there is a bunch of scenes with when they use the opera glasses and I was like I just wanted to be like Corley thank you so much thank you thank you perfect so ah I don't want to put it down I just want to keep looking at it okay I'm putting it down yeah it's gonna go next to my other day oh it looks so pretty okay okay Carolyn focus the next one is okay we're gonna do this one is Santa ten by jane austen this i'm if this is weight thinner than I expected actually I'm very shocked but oh my god I love that cover so this is one of Jane Austen's shorter works and it is written in the last month of Jane Austen's life I actually don't really know what this is about I know that there was a new miniseries that came out of this and I kind of want to go into it without seeing the miniseries and not really knowing what it's about from what I can tell it's like it's set on the seaside and it's Jane Austen so I'm sure it's some kind of romance but I love the cover if you guys can't tell I don't know if you can tell because it's like not really I didn't intentionally do this but a lot of the English library editions that I have our blue and blue is like my favorite color as a colour but green is my favorite color like overall um but like my entire life blue has always been my favorite color this is such a tangent I'm very sorry if you don't care but I like I love green my green sweater my green chair green is like my favorite color because I think green and blue they're such natural colors like blue the sky the sea clowns different things like that and then grass and trees and green flowers and plants and leaves and so I just love any kinds of colors that really signifying nature and I think green and blue are like those main colors anyway total rant tangent not really rant more like a tangent um really love this so excited to read it and very excited to figure out what the story's about I'm very eager oh my gosh guys my stack is really growing my collection is so exciting okay the next one is staring at me in the face it's Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen in the English Library Edition because these are the additions that I really want to no tape and I wanna highlight and put a bunch of tabs in and it's so I love the colors and I love how they did the peacocks because the first edition of Jane Austen ever printed had the green I think was green with peacocks all over the cover and I love how she also included that with the flowers that's so beautiful so yeah I have been dying to do a Pride and Prejudice reread actually and I kind of want to read it through audiobook because I haven't listened to it before and then maybe while I listen to the audiobook if I read a favorite passage or a favorite line I can just bring the book with me and highlight it as I listen to it I feel like that would be really fun so I'm so excited and I'm so glad that I now have the English Library Edition so that I can annotate like crazy because this book is going to just be full of my scribbles and a lot of hearts because whenever I love something I always draw like a little heart so this is gonna be covered in hearts and then okay guys you're gonna laugh at me it's pretty prejudiced in the compound edition so as I was saying I want to get my favorite books in the clock banned editions and like I can't have Anna Karenina and Jane Eyre and withering Heights entice the d'Urbervilles even though I haven't read it yet and not have Pride and Prejudice in clothbound it's just it can't happen like I needed it so you know I'm a book collector that's what I always tell myself that I am a book that's just me trying to justify my decisions anyway again love the design so much the color if he about the color it I think I like it a lot more in person than I was expecting to um don't really know why it was chosen I feel like I don't know I feel like it could have been a pink or a purple or a red or something I don't know I mean I do like this color very much but my friend Kiara and I from sweet imaginings was talking about the color choice for the clothbound edition of Pride and Prejudice and we did not like she didn't really like it and I'm kind of iffy about it but I don't know I kind of liked it more in person but maybe that's just it's just so beautiful I love it so much the design is gorgeous and the fact that it's quad band I love quad band it looks so much yeah oh my gosh oh I'm gonna have to like move my frame or something because I'm not gonna have much room left which is yeah it's like hitting my friend we shall put it here for now so beautiful okay my next one is Wow well there's a trend here do you know what the trend is if you guessed Jane Austen you're correct this is Mansfield Park by Jane Austen and I have been on a Jane Austen kick lately you guys can probably tell um this is so much more beautiful in person Wow see I feel like whenever I see books and videos or in pictures they're so much more beautiful when I like hold them in my hands and see them with my own eyes Wow because I didn't know that this was pink I thought this was gray for some reason and it's like a very light pink that's so beautiful the UM like the edges and some of the chains so excited again a mental bookmark don't really know what it's about actually and kind of don't want to know because I feel like that's very rare for classics not really knowing too much about them so I'm so excited this one's definitely more of a lengthier Jane Austen so more towards the the length that I was expecting I am surprised that Santa tennis is quite small but yeah okay my next book is not Jane Austen it is a room with a view by Ian Foster I read and adored Howards End last year yeah at the end of 2019 and a room of a view is one of Teresa from Risa reads one of my very close friends this is one of her favorite books ever and on her favorite movie adaptations with Helena Bonham Carter and I haven't read the story before I have seen the film a very long time ago so I don't remember too much about it but it's a very short book and I'm so excited to read it I think I'm gonna read it pretty soon just because with school short books are like my best friends and I love the cover it's so beautiful the flowers and the design of it's gorgeous I really love the color choice for this one too so so beautiful and of course anything with like natural elements to it I will just adore so excited oh my gosh guys my stack it's hit the top it's at the top it's a monumental moment is this gonna fit oh my god it barely it just fits all the way I've reached my stacks at full height and we still have this one oh my goodness that's so exciting okay last book it's it's on the trend but it's not the Jane Austen trend it's a clothbound trend okay this is white Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys Reggie yeah Jean Rhys Jean Rhys Jean Rhys this is gorgeous first of all wow this is the retelling or companion novel to Jane Eyre and this is a more feminist take on one of the characters that is talked about but not really given a voice in Jane Eyre and she is actually one of the characters in Jane Eyre that I am most intrigued to learn more about and there's this amazing Jane Eyre lecture that I talk a lot about in my fault and in my videos and vlogs which I've got to link in my last video but I'll link it in this one and it is talking about this book and how it relates to Jane Eyre obviously and the way that Jean Rhys combated these different elements that weren't part of Jane Eyre I'm just so excited to read this so much especially because Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books of all time and the fact that it has a beautiful cloth bound edition I'm so excited normally I don't read from the clothbound oh wow look at that red Oh significant see this is an amazing color choice because it like really relates to the story and the main characters plotline I'm so excited for this oh my gosh yeah so this is basically taking one of the main characters from not one of the main characters one of the side characters from Jane Eyre and telling her story a story that was very controversial I don't want to say too much about this book because I don't want to give too much away if you haven't read Jane Eyre but obviously I recommend reading Jane Eyre before you read this book if you're doing it for fun obviously I feel like in order to understand this character completely then the reading Jane Eyre is quite you know necessary or not necessary but I feel like it's just good if you read Jane Eyre first this is just oh my gosh I love it so much I'm so excited to read it oh and it has a nice introduction see that's what I love about these additions to is the English library and the clock bonds have great introductions and great textual notes and there's the scene yeah I have so many more books that I want to read yes so that is the last book from my book depository haul I'm gonna see oh it's really not gonna fit now so I'm gonna put it on top oh my goodness so beautiful so beautiful ah see now I have so many choices now this is my thing I was talking to it with Chiara that like I always or sometimes I feel bad for having so many books especially books that I haven't read yet that I own that I haven't read but the way that I look at my TBR and I was talking to this with her is that your TBR and your bookshelves are your own curated library you are picking out each book to go on your shelf and you're picking them up because you know you're you have some kind of interest in them and if you have every book on your shelf that you've read already then you can only be read books or you have to buy a new one but when you have a selection of books you haven't read yet that you're excited about that you're interested in that you know curated yourself it's so exciting and so I know that there is a lot of talk with consumerism and and not having too many books like Maria Marie Kondo talks about having 30 books I'm like okay sure I'm not gonna have just 30 books that's like impossible um but yeah it's your library it's it's your curated library and that's what I get so excited about is that I have so many books that I haven't read yet that I can't wait to read I'm looking at all of my beautiful books right now and it's just it's such a great way to because when I didn't have many books when I was still growing my library a few years ago I would come and walk into my room and I would look at my bookshelves and I would think oh well you know I don't really want to read that one I don't really want to meet that one cuz I'm not in the mood oh there is that one book that I saw on someone's video but I don't own it so I'll have to go out and buy it or I'll have to get it from the library or Beauvoir and when you know that book and you do get it or you get it from the library and you have it you can just read it right away so this is my little spiel on what my thoughts of consumerism and TBR's and and having like unread books on your shelves I feel like it's up to you whichever you like I think for me personally we were also talking about this is that when I'm uncertain about a book then I will usually either listen to the audiobook or get it from the library because I don't want to obviously spend my money on a book that I'm not certain about so that's what I did with song of Achilles and Cersei but I actually ended up loving them so much I have it right here but I got this beautiful to addition of some Achilles and I still don't have a copy of Cersei but I definitely want to get one so yeah my thing and my philosophy is to you know get the books that you want if you are able to and obviously like if if you have the means and and the passion and the desire to read all these books and I don't know if I'm like making any sense I know that this is somewhat of like a touchy subject but I just wanted to talk about it because I feel like what calls are getting a little not getting a little like if he to do but sometimes I feel like weird showing the books that I get also I work at a bookstore and get an amazing discount so yeah basically my whole thing is is that if I don't know if I like a book then I will ascend to the audiobook or get it from the library and if I do know that I'm good I'm most likely going to love it let jane austen's and a room with of you and they're highly recommended and people think that i'm going to love them then I feel very comfortable spending my own money on getting them and yeah so that's kind of my spiel I love having a bunch of unread books it doesn't really bother me and I actually kind of love it I feel like if I have every book I read on my shelf I would be kind of sad um so yeah I don't know if that makes sense let me know if you guys have it agree and I think I'm gonna close off the vlog here just I know that this is like a super weird vlog this week but hopefully I will be uploading a normal video like it just to sit down not vlog style video just because I didn't expect vlogs to kind of take over my channel as much as I'm really loving them and you guys are loving them too which I'm so happy about and it makes my life a lot easier because of school and my workload and having your job on the side in Boca so thank you guys so much for sticking around if you want to follow me on is to Graham and Goodreads it'll be linked down below and subscribe if you aren't already to become part of my little but ever-growing family and I hope you guys are having an amazing day and reading some amazing books please tell me what you're reading tell me if you've read any of the books that I've been talking about in this video and I hope you guys are just having a lovely day and and stress-free I'm feeling a lot better so I'm so excited that I'm getting my workload under control and I'm glad that I have you guys to talk to you and to keep me company and to keep me motivated and yes so thank you guys so much for being here and for watching and I will see you guys in a new video so happy reading [Music]

Channel: CarolynMarieReads

Views: 7,265

Rating: 4.9690723 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: thn7iJzNviY

Length: 39min 0sec (2340 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 28 2020