 I kept upping up my speed on the audiobook, just to get through it quicker. The worst reading slump known to man. I've never been in this bad of a reading slump before and like I frankly have had enough of it, like I just want to fix it. Usually this year I've been averaging between 11 and 13 books a month which is like a pretty good number, I'm pretty happy with that. August I read seven books. One of them was a 70 page graphic novel. Actually it was 28 pages ha ha ha I hate myself. And one was a two hour audiobook. It was an awful reading month. I've gone five videos without a reading vlog and I've just had enough. I just want to read books that will get me out of this slump and like get me going back in my habit of reading again. And so I posted some pictures of all of my physical TBR and I got you guys to vote on which books you think will get me out of my reading slump. And the three of the most votes are the books I'm going to be reading in this video. So like if I don't get out of my reading slump it's your fault. Like it's it's all your fault. Okay my apologies miss girl. Miss fool? There was one book that without a shadow of doubt pulled ahead of all the other books with 33 votes. It is With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo. I think this is because it was like the only contemporary on my shelf. And also Elizabeth Acevedo's books are so readable. I have already read Clap For New Land and The Poe X. All her books have been like four to 4.5 stars for me and I think a big reason for that is because they're told in verse. They're very short and quick and I've always just wanted a little bit more from the books. Like I've always just felt the plot wasn't fully there. But this is not told in verse. It's told like a traditional book. So I feel like this could be my first five star from Elizabeth Acevedo. So I'm very happy you picked this. I trust you completely with this one. I've been really excited to get to this. Next with 22 votes was The Wicked King by Kate Encromb. So this was sent to me by the lovely Nicole. We should go subscribe to her if you haven't already. I've heard so so so many good things about this. Everyone who recommended this to me told me it's so readable. It's less than 300 pages. It's also kind of multimedia. Like you have pages like this with receipts on them or CDs on them and stuff like that. And as the mental health of one of our main characters deteriorates, the page colour deteriorates as well. I've just heard it's an incredibly readable book. Very hard hitting and I've wanted to get into Kate Encromb's book for like the longest time. So I'm really, this was the one book I was hoping you would pick. Like I was like come on, vote for The Wicked King please. I'm so happy. I'm so happy that you voted for this. This was the one that I was hoping for. And then lastly with 19 votes, this surprised me so much. You voted for Skyward by Brandon Sanderson. It's over 500 pages. I'm like why are you picking an over 500 page book to rid me of my reading slump? But loads of you are telling me you've read this in a day. I've had this book for longer than I've had my channel. So over a year now and I still haven't read it. And I've never read any Brandon Sanderson. I want to get into all of his more like traditional fantasy books but I guess I'm starting with this one. And I've really been wanting to read some sci-fi lately. I've really been in the mood. I love the Illuminae files but I haven't read a whole lot of other sci-fi. So I'm really excited to get to this. Although I'm scared I'm like why the fuck have you picked me such a long book? We all make choices but that was a choice. I'm not going to read these in the order that you voted for them. I think I'm going to start with the wicker king because it is the one I'm most excited to get to and the one that kind of intrigues me the most. So I'm going to start with this and I'll update you when I have some more thoughts on it. Two pages into the wicker king. I'm really enjoying this. Firstly those who recommended that this would be the perfect thing to get me out of a reading slump are very very much correct because I read a hundred pages in about 40 minutes which is just insanity. So this is such a page earner so quick to read. You have some pages that are we had quite a lot of like mixed tapes for all the different characters that we met so like we got to know them through the music that they liked. That makes it a quick reading experience but also some chapters that only like half a page or a page long. Yes! Yes! One of our characters Jack. It appears that he's suffering from some kind of like hallucinatory disorder where he can see things in the world that shouldn't be there. So like giant birds or like medieval knights or can interact with people and animals that aren't actually there. And August who is his friend, his friend from childhood is kind of trying to help him through that. I really like the characters. I really like Jack and August and their relationship. I think it's going to get a bit gay. I'm really hoping it's going to get a bit gay. I feel like someone said in one of the reviews I watched that it is LGBT but I'm not sure if I'm just manifesting that and like imagining it because that's what I want to believe. I haven't heard any of my gay friends use this phrase. I've never heard this from any gay person. No. Okay I'm shutting my window. I just broke a light bulb. Girl. A shitty mess. There's a lot of hints that their relationship is going to go in that way and that they're gonna have some kind of like romantic relationship situation kind of thing. I really like all the side characters we've met as well and I love how weird it is. It's like like weird. It's weird because you don't, you can't fully grasp what's going on. Like you can't fully understand the situation if that if that makes any kind of sense. No thoughts heard empty. Me and Tom have got a bit addicted to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. We have just started season three. We're kind of watching that every night which would usually be when I read. So like that is a bit of an issue but I think I could like at the very minimum easily get to page 200 today if not finish this book. So that's what I'm gonna go do. I'm now 200 pages into The Wicked King. I am enjoying it but I don't love it yet and I think what I'm thinking is I thought this was a few books. I thought this would clap a new land as well by Elizabeth Acevedo is when a book is told in a kind of like it's very short it's told in these fragmented quick bursts. I love the idea of that. I love the concept but I don't necessarily love it in terms of the actual book. Like I don't feel like I can fully connect the characters in the way that I want to. I don't know I feel like almost it works better with an ensemble cast whereas with this you've just got those two boys as your two main characters who I want to be really attached to but I'm not. That's so upsetting. I'm sad about that fact. Maybe I will do it's such a short book and so kind of like volatile that I feel like my opinion on it could change at any moment. I think it works better that kind of fragmented storytelling with an ensemble cast where you're not expecting to be super attached to them all whereas when it's like these two characters I like I just want a bit more. I just want to know them a bit better. I'm just about to go out for lunch and see a friend which is like my first time doing that in six months so it just feels wrong but I just got an Amazon delivery and I was like completely not expecting anything. I was like Tom have you ordered something on Amazon? Like what is going on? And it was from Molly for my booktube birthday which it will have just been I think like literally will have just happened in the past couple days when you're seeing this. It's my first year first full year on booktube and she got me the Midnight Library by Matt Hague which is a new release so I'm just completely shocked that she got it for me. Molly I says all the time she needs to stop buying me books like she needs to just reserve her money for herself but I'm so blessed that she she sends me books so often and I'm so excited to read this. I've heard so many good things about this like the bookstores waterstones keep selling out of it so I can't wait to get to it so thank you so much my love. I have finished The Wicker King for a long time it was like that 3.75 but I think I am just going to give it a straight for. I didn't love it as much as I wanted to I didn't cry like I didn't feel as attached to the characters I wanted to but I really love what this story stands for. The whole time you read it you feel uncomfortable with the way that August is handling Jack's situation, you feel uncomfortable with how maybe they enable each other but you just want them to be okay. Once I got to the end you know you realize that they're not doing anything wrong they've just been dealt this shithand and so many young kids, three people are dealt this shithand and have to make their best with it and that's what I feel like August and Jack doing this yeah they're doing the best with what they have they're both neglected they're both shunned by their parents in different ways and I love the multimedia aspects of this you know I love seeing medical forms and the mixed tapes and little notes people have written each other I think that just adds this brilliant dimension to it and you know what whoa she fell she fell hard bitch oh my god she fell she fell I feel like I'm getting out of my reading slump those of you that voted for this as the thing that would get me out of my reading slump I think it's actually working like this was such a quick read I feel really engaged and motivated to read more the more I think about this book the more I love it it's almost like I love it more in retrospection than when reading it if that makes sense I'm now going to move on to the book that had the most votes which was with the fire on high by Elizabeth Azevedo this is about a teen mum I think she feels pregnant at like 14 and she wants to be a chef but it's like her trying to get through high school and take care of her daughter and like try not to spread herself too thin while still trying to achieve her dream it could be a five star like the emotional punch the family dynamics everything that Elizabeth Azevedo does is so good I'm gonna go read a bit of it and then I'll tell you what I think sound good sounds good to me okay I hate myself I don't actually love myself this much I just act like I do pages into with the fire on high and I'm loving it every time I start to love a book I'm like will this be my first five star read since June who knows but I'm really really loving this so we're following Imani as she tries to never get high school and like being a teenager whilst still being a mum to her her two-year-old daughter the topics oh god Elizabeth Azevedo does something to me I've read both Clap on Newland and The Poet X by Elizabeth Azevedo which had two other books and they are told in verse as much as I love them I've always just wanted a bit longer with the characters and that is what I'm getting with this her writing is just as beautiful and poetic and lyrical in a more traditional format as it is in verse I think I love it even more because I'm just getting to spend longer with Imani the topics it's the exploring of childhood and teenager being a teenager and like blackness and relationships with parents that aren't ideal just finding oneself is just incredible and Elizabeth Azevedo just knows how to write and I love the relationship with food and this you know Imani wants to be a chef and her love of food and the way she communicates through food is wonderful like I'm just loving this book so much I think this is gonna be my favorite Elizabeth Azevedo when I feel like it's the least talked about maybe of all of the three although it deals with serious themes you know family is the best thing that the Elizabeth Azevedo does family is at the core of all of her stories all of all of her YA stories which I love I often feel like my favorite YA often either has like real family dynamics or found family is a big theme in it and kind of like that scooby gang vibes and I just feel like I need that in my YA YA without family being a big part of the teenager's life be it a good or bad part often just feels a bit unrealistic to me if it doesn't have that to me it needs the found family element and so I love how central family is to Elizabeth Azevedo's books oh my god I'm loving it so much I'm really happy today yeah this is for all of us and it's such a quick read such an easy read you fly through it and her love of her daughter is so pure and I just love being in her head I'm loving it so much I'm having a great reading time I finally feel like I'm getting out of my slump like I feel like I'm starting to get back into my groove of reading reading is coming back boys the reading vlogs are gonna be back every weekend I'm not gonna go like three weeks without uploading a reading vlog ever again I promise you I promise you that's not true okay so I am now 230 pages into with the fur on high and I'm still loving it so much just getting to see her so happy and achieve things and work through all the kind of obstacles and difficulties that she has in her life I'm just obsessed like I'm just enjoying it so much she's just a normal girl figuring things out I sometimes think with contemporaries like this there's too much of an emphasis on like the the protagonist be perfect and like always knows the right answer and like never makes little mistakes you know maybe makes a big mistake that is the reason for the way the plot goes but like they never make small mistakes which is that's what imoni does not even mistakes but just like small things that make her life difficult that wouldn't make someone else's life difficult because she has a child and because she has this added extra responsibility so I don't I don't want to call it mistakes but like faces setbacks because of her actions that she shouldn't be facing just seeing her achieve stuff I feel like a proud mom like I just feel so proud I am so proud of her I could cry and here we go all of you are right like the majority of you voted for this and you are right I've got to like I'm having a productive day I'm filming a lot of videos today before I go back to uni but honestly all I want to be doing is sitting down and reading this and it makes me want to read contemporary like why a contemporary much more so if you have any why a contemporary recommendations that are similar to Elizabeth Acevedo's writing let me know I also really like Renee Watson's books I want to read more Renee Watson I cannot wait I'll put the cover here of Renee Watson next book I think when is that coming out I think it's February 2021 I'm obsessed with this cover and I cannot wait to read this book Renee Watson is just an icon like I can't wait so if you have any why a contemporary recommendation like this like I like you should see me in the crown like any of those let a go know because I'm in the mood okay so last night I finished with the fire on high and I'm giving it five stars I finally have another five star read after two months of not having one and the thing is that is very different about this five star which is quite interesting is usually when I give a book five star it's like this overwhelming love of a book like this book is incredible oh my god I can't believe someone could write this I need to get everyone to read this oh my god this is genius but with this it just feels like a bit of a softer love like this book just felt so comfortable and nurturing and soft and gentle and I really appreciated that I don't think I felt that way about a book in a long time I love Imani's relationship with her grandmother I love the relationships that she has with her friends I love the relationship with her daughter the end section this is really special I don't want to like spoil it what happens but she goes on a journey that I just love I love being able to see her go through and being able to see her experience I loved it I loved it so much I just think it was such a special book such a lovely book I would really recommend reading this if you have read one of part of the book even if you haven't this is my favorite I would rank this above the poet X and clap upon you land I'm so happy that you guys got me to read this five stars well we're really we're really a good place in life aren't we going to read the final book that you guys voted for which is skyward by brandon sanderson and honestly I'm shitting bricks like I'm really nervous I just like this is really long it's like a big book I'm a bit terrified by it like I'm like how does this break a rooting slump although I think I am out of my reading slump now I'm feeling much more in the zone here's my first brandon sanderson my dad owns like all the brandon sanderson books he loves him I have them all next door if I wanted to read them but this is what I'm starting with and people were telling me when they voted that like it took them only a day to read this book so I'm hoping for good things I mean this weird stage where I've only got three days left at home it's currently wednesday I'm moving back up to uni on saturday this vlog is coming out on sunday so I need to edit it like today and tomorrow I kind of like feel like I've got a lot of time to read but I also don't it'll be okay it'll be okay I've only read 60 pages if I'm honest I'm struggling to read it like I'm struggling to want to read it this is exactly what I was afraid of I was talking to Nicole from Nicole and her books about it and she really likes brandon sanderson and she was like straight away was like you're not enjoying the writing style are you and I was like no not at all I think I like pretty and flowery writing and that's not what this is this is very straight to the point it's just throwing me for a loop I'm like what the hell is this I cannot remember the last time I read something this I don't say dry I don't I don't want to say dry but dry but today I'm moving back to uni I'm moving back to my uni flat I'm all packed up we're about to leave so I have to go say bye bye to the cats my best friends it's like four hours to uni so I'm hoping I'll be able to get through like a really really good chunk of this on the car right up there I've really been struggling to get into it which isn't the objective of this video anyway I'm gonna go I'm gonna go finish packing and get on my way it feels good to be back and I'll flat actually I realize a lot of you haven't seen this since I was last here my channel has gone from about 2,200 maybe if I had to guess what it is now so I'm like most of you have never been here but for me I feel like the most crazy stuff on my channel like when I hit 1 and 2k happened here welcome if you're new I'll show you around probably another video we just want this video to end I am now since yesterday I'm on page 331 of skyward and I've had an interesting relationship with this book I'm posting this video today I've edited up edited up to the end of with the far on high so like I've only got what I'm saying now to edit when I was reading this in the car yesterday I had the really long car ride I barely read any of this I was like I'm gonna do an effort I'm just not enjoying it it wasn't like I was hating it I was just I just felt so ambivalent towards it I was like you know like I just was not bothered don't care don't care don't care still don't care I don't care I don't I don't care I've since read from last night I read from like page 180 to 330 and I'm enjoying it a bit more I actually downloaded the audiobook this morning just to help me get through it quicker and I'm actually really liking the audiobook so I may carry on listening to the audiobook throughout the day so I haven't really told you what this is about listen out Spencer humans have had to go to this new planet and they're like having to live underground in caverns because they're being attacked by these aliens being a pilot is the most important thing because aliens attack fairly often and so the pilots in the society are the only thing keeping everyone else from dying Spencer really wants to be a pilot however her dad was one of like the main main pilots who fought in the biggest battle they've ever had but he was a coward and tried to run away from battle and so they killed him his fellow pilots killed him in battle they don't want her to get into the pilot academy she does I don't think that's a spoiler that happens like right near the beginning that she's really having to battle against the system those in power not wanting her to succeed so much in this book is them just doing training battles with their teacher and I just I just get a bit bored it's just training thing after training thing I just thought there's not really that much plot it's probably gonna be three three point five stars I'm thinking I mean I don't hate it and I'm getting more and more interested in it but at the same time I don't get the hype yeah I'm not loving it so like maybe you guys have been successful with two out of three I don't think this is the kind of thing that would get me out of my slump I'm just kind of having to push myself through it to do this video I really think the problem is Brandon Sanderson's writing style for me I just don't think we vibe and I honestly think writing style is often more important than like character or plot in terms of your immediate enjoyment of the book because it's the first thing it's the first thing you encounter and if you constantly are like this writing style ain't really for me you're never gonna fully get into the story it just feels kind of dry I don't know if that's me as someone who doesn't read a lot of sci-fi I struggle to visualize stuff and I just sometimes feel like it's not described well enough or in a like beautiful way or in like a really captivating way that I engage with so sorry my guy hopefully I'll like the other stuff more than this I'm like a hundred pages from the end and I don't understand where this story is going there's certain plot lines that have tension but it doesn't feel like I it's not building towards anything there's kind of been stagnant tension I feel like throughout the past couple hundred pages but it doesn't feel like the book is building towards an ending like a big climactic ending it just feels like we're just plodding along still and we're a hundred pages from the end so like can we get there soon please I am hearing the same conversation three stars I did not love this at all I felt really underwhelmed I felt like there was so much in this that was very convenient very unrealistic very unexplained things just happened we were supposed to be okay with it I honestly think I would not have gotten through this without the audiobook a lot of the time I was reading it physically alongside the audiobook there were so many times I just let myself gaze off to space gaze off into space and just barely listen because I it was just too much effort to actually read it getting tired now though to me in the beginning I was like okay it's cool huh I'm really sad because this is such a popular book it's such a hyped up book but it just really was not for me there were so many times when I would read a sentence said in a certain way and the audiobook would say it in a completely different inflection with completely different meanings behind it and I'd be like that is not what I thought they meant you know like maybe if I thought based on the context of the scene a character would be saying something in a timid way the audiobook would say it in a really aggressive way and I just think that it meant that the writing wasn't clear enough the characters I didn't think were very well fleshed out I don't really feel like any of our characters in this any of them not even really them while the main character probably but other than the main character none of the characters felt fleshed out realistic I struggled to remember who was who they were all very much stereotypes character chores and I feel like the whole purpose of this book was character because not really much happened so I just felt like he was lacking in character plot and writing but it wasn't terrible like I didn't dislike it it just felt lacking it just felt disappointing that's why I'm giving it a three star I'm sad this is my first introduction to Brandon Sanderson's writing because I I really thought his writing would be something I enjoyed maybe he's like more traditional fantasy stuff is stuff that I will enjoy but this just I'm just glad it's over I'm just glad it's over I kept upping up my speed on the audiobook just to get through it quicker you guys did do a good job there there were too many g's and d's in that sentence I couldn't really pronounce it too out of those books really got me out of my reading slump and I feel really excited to read now so like on the whole you did well this last book was just a bit of a failure but like it's not your fault I I don't blame you and yeah if you're reading slump now I hope you get out of it I I am hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel and yeah thank you very much for watching and I will see you very soon bye