I'm here with some updates!

 

I've been reading... but most of the books I read this year are surely from flower-picking trips and the library. Damn. Didn't think I would be doing that much audiobook-listening in my life but here we are. I'm in my audiobook era, apparently. It's a very irresistible method when you dread opening a physical (& digital!) books but still want to do some reading. I still won't touch those heavy ones but the ones that's easy to follow and maybe a book I've read before are very much welcome. I usually listen to one while playing a game that doesn't demand my full attention or when doing the dishes. I got peer-pressured (something like this XD) into reading two audiobooks but it's okay, I would just return early if I don't plan to spend time reading them. A couple of audiobooks are just to accompany my slow physical reading journey...

Oh yeah, one of the audiobooks I finished was "Real Ghost Stories of Borneo 1". I never heard about this series before but it looks like the Borneo's version of TSGS so I thought that was cool! One of the stories talked about their experience in KK and described the hotel they went to as a white castle.. Jeez, I wonder which hotel is that? :P
But seriously though, I consider that place to be old (I went there when I was little) so I wouldn't be surprised if some stuff happened there.

I had a brief silly moment few weeks ago where I almost buy a second copy of "The Labyrinth House Murders"... totally saved by my LibraryThing (which is where I mainly catalogue books I own). I think it was partially me misremembering that what I meant to get is the one I got here. Highly recommend the site to anyone who has similar problems (or wants to avoid this) to use LT. I just started using it again back in 2020 when I realised I have a lifetime account (it used to have a limit on number of books you can add, if I'm not mistaken)... but then couple months later in the same year, they became free (no fees, no limits).  

Great news~ I'm kind of out of the watching slump? I guess that's thanks to Tondemo Skill S2! I've re-watched the whole S1 and still enjoyed it (most of the time with food). But I'm so rusty with my I-know-that-seiyuu game XD. It was a pleasant surprise to know that Elrand is voiced by Namikawa Daisuke, it's so fitting! I wish we can meet Gonji soon but I guess that would be in the next season. Even in the WN, if I remember correctly, there's a big time gap between Dora and Gonji. At least Dora is here! I really need to catch up with the WN... I might need to start from the beginning again...

NAAAHHH I'm just afraid of reading what's ahead I guess... I'm worried that something bad will happen (though it's already implied that from the beginning duh!) Ahhh this author always write stories like these...! I am reading two of her other stories that also have this "danger lurking behind" feeling to it... [& without shame] I ate it all up. Can't help it, my kind of story :P

In the end, I think I would read the web novel anyway... Out of fervent curiosity (unfortunately)... and fear of missing out. I need to know as much as I can...  

Been having problems with the Libby app these past two months. It's so annoying. One library card said my account is expired (it isn't), so I couldn't login since March.  The other card, they couldn't verify for some reason... although there's no problem when I tried it on desktop today. Both problems have already been resolved (for now) but I can't stop thinking about it being a disadvantage for using e-books. Minor problems(?) of course... *haaah* I think... I just feel like complaining about it a bit in my blog today.

Well, erm, ...it's here.

bye bye ヾ(；ω；) bye bye

First: I finally applied for membership [again] for my local library~ My mother had some business near her old workplace so we stopped by the library headquarters. I actually filled the form online but their card-making machine(?) is broken so I could only do the payment and stuff there. Decided to go to the Tanjung Aru branch to get the card made. Glad I asked the person there about their overdrive because they still have to register my card. 

Already checked the books available there... I'm actually excited...? Interestingly, they have many of those popular ones in their collection. Also found some that I'm interested in. Their lending period is longer than 7 days (14 days and 21 days!).

Second: "Princess in the Mirror" !!!!! Woke up to Voltage's tweet about this game! 

SIMIAN~♡

So... the theme for this post will be "late".

♪

Few days ago, I suddenly had the urge to listen to Kurosagi's movie soundtrack. Tried looking for it on Spotify and I found one. The soundtrack for the dorama. This year's dorama. 

That's how I knew there's a new version of Kurosagi [live action] this year. 

♫
Barely made any progress on my two remaining jar books. *siiiigggh*

Also, haven't done anything related to my "new" jar. No updates done whatsoever. 

♪♫
It's funny how having the piano tuner over few days ago had actually made me clean the area around the piano much faster than planned(?). It was really the case of "You can do it if you really try" or something similar :P.

Unfortunately, I feel exhausted just by thinking about it and now I don't want to deal with the pile of things I have in my room anymore...

♫♫
Oh yeah. "The Sirens of Titan" is the 100th book I finished reading this year. It happened on Dec 7th. That means I've completed my Goodreads reading challenge this year~! 

I don't really need to update that here lol but it fits the "late" theme so I'll just include it in this post.

♪♫♫

I finally get to borrow a book again from the library yesterday! This is the first time I placed a hold and waited for the book to be available. It took me a few weeks. Apparently the hold "elapsed" early this month. So I guess that meant I forgot to borrow it in time...? I continued reading the book today but I kind of forgot who is who anymore XD *oh well*

...Jay Chou songs sound perfect for today. Been putting his songs to queue in between my usual playlist on Spotify.

Did overwhelm myself with too many books end of 2021 to early this year. Got that sorted out after I started using the reading schedule generator. It actually pairs really well with planned to-be-read book lists (not saying that I have one but I've tried "planning" with 2 or 3 books. It works). I still can get overwhelmed at times but so far, it's under control. I think.

Sometimes I do think about returning to reading one book at a time... but it seems like I don't want to anymore. Within a year, I've gotten used to reading multiple books at the same time. But hey, sometimes I do focus reading on one book (from the many books) so that's like a mini version of that... maybe?

I do try not to depend too much on reading schedules. That's why I don't use it for some books that I know I will read properly.

Interestingly, I can't really do that with e-books. Since I already dread reading them on the phone, I usually want to focus on one only. Although audiobook is a different story - I only borrow the ones I already read for sleeping purposes XD. It's like someone telling you stories while you go to sleep. BTW.. weirdly, it's so much easier to DNF e-books I borrowed from the library. Maybe because I did the same in the past with physical library books.

Anyway. I finished "The Metamorphosis" today. Borrowed it through Libby so I kept forgetting I have not finish reading it. It was weird as expected. Actually I'm still digesting what I just read this morning. I don't know why I thought it was a fly although it's never really stated what it is really. Was wondering throughout if he's just some normal-sized insect or a human-sized insect. So, it's kind of fun looking for confirmation (or something close) for that. Can't help thinking if it's like symbolism for mental disorders (like depression) or disabilities. 

It's funny how I readily accept the weirdness lol. I've watched an old movie before where people started turning into a rhinoceros (like it's some kind of disease, if I remember correctly). I've played games with insect-like humanoid creatures. So I'm beyond being surprised really. 

Anyway. This one. The last story, "The Mystery of the Faceless Bride" gave me chills. It's not horror of course but... that.. that could (or already) happen in our time now. That was so horrible and scary to think about. *shivers*

Also, found "The Metamorphosis" on the national library's overdrive. Never thought of looking for the book there. I just planned buying via Bookxcess/BBW if they ever get it in stock again. 

Let me just remind you again that this is a personal blog and not a book/reading blog lol. A personal blog that posts more about books recently. I need the distraction from current news.

Haven't been watching much newer anime series. Still have not finished with Moriarty. I think the only one I'm following for this season is the continuation of "That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime" (S2). I've been watching  a bit of "The Detective is Already Dead" too but let's see how long I'll last until I can't stand certain characters there. *sigh* So many things irritate me randomly nowadays. I have to stop reading or watching or listening before I decide to hate them out of nowhere. Man, escaping is the answer here. I don't want to say something that I'll regret in the future when I'm... like this. 

"Ossan Idol!". Saw this available for borrowing and spent a small portion of the evening reading it. A pity that the national library doesn't have that much manga on their overdrive library. 

Kinda a meh day to me... until I read the manga lol. But still meh after that. I don't even know why it's meh. 

Meh.

Might finish reading "Mansfield Park" soon. Definitely this week. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow.  

Purchased more books today. Sigh. Also one of my weaknesses. Finish reading one book, buy five more books to stock up my small library. I really need to start reading some of them especially authors that I never read any of their books before. What if I don't like the way they write? I might regret buying their other books. 

Thought about getting a library card from the local library again. But going out is such a hassle so I decided not to do it now. I really hope they'll make online registration a thing. 

Oh yeah, been seeing this posted in Whatsapp since yesterday:

I don't know why I don't like hearing that term wilayah (maybe because I'm used to the  term wilayah persekutuan). But it's very much still an uwasa as of now. Also don't like the Gaya thing if that's going to be it

I registered online for u-pustaka last Saturday. Wanted to try borrowing their e-books via overdrive. Although I don't think I'm going to do it often because I don't usually read books on PC and mobile phone... if I'm using them, I rather do other things on the computer/phone so... 

Anyway, just want to mention how I tried days to login into their overdrive. Apparently, I'm supposed to use my u-pustaka username instead of my ID number. I don't know why I thought otherwise last Saturday. Today, had the idea to use the username and finally got in. Phew. 

I also want to register (again, my card expired years ago) for my local library but it doesn't look like I can do that online. They are still closed for the moment. It's their e-library that I used recently to read something I mistakenly thought was light. The books available there seems good for school students - there are reference books too (up to SPM level I think). But the book I borrowed for the first time was terrible. I'm talking about the ebook formatting. Already talked about the book in yesterday's post. The font was so small and there are large spaces between sentences. It was so hard to read. The e-sentral app do have the settings for you to change to make it bigger but oh gosh the spaces - they haunt me.  

By the way, I finished Hugh Laurie's "The Gun Seller" last night.. erm.. early morning. It's a reread actually but I forgot how witty it is. I just love the way he writes. I want to write like that.