 It's a paradox. It really is. You need to read a lot if you want to be a decent writer, but spending a lot of time reading is a lot of time that you could have spent writing. What's shaking book two? My name's Cam. Welcome back to another video. I haven't read a lot this year, but it's okay because I don't care. I have read slash listened to about five books, although one was an anthology. So technically many store I've I've read many story. The first book was The Toll by Sherry Priest, which was advertised to me as a horror. Personally, I think it was at most a supernatural thriller or mystery. And I'm not just saying that because one of the main characters names was Cameron, and he was a total creep. Thanks for that. A man and his wife go on a bit of a road trip for their anniversary, I think it was, and they come upon a mysterious bridge. Something happens there that's a bit hard to describe and the man wakes up and his wife is she's gone. She's gone. The story from then on is, you know, it's creepy. It's mysterious. This is aided especially by the town that the guy ends up having to go to. It's a really small town. All of the people there are pretty creepy. The whole vibe is very sinister because they're all obviously hiding a secret. But the story really steps into the realm of actually being scary or definitely not in any way horrifying. Look with all that said, the Toll wasn't that bad, but it wasn't particularly memorable either. I'll give it three stars. Next up was a nonfiction book called Humanology. Yes, I read nonfiction because I am in fact a smart. Humanology quite literally explains everything about life as we know it. And I know that sounds like an absurd claim, but trust me, I don't know how else to explain it. Humanology takes you from the creation of the universe to the death of it and explains in scientific detail almost everything in between. Everything from, you know, the rising of a civilization to how and why we're attracted to people on a chemical level. And I know what you're thinking. You're probably thinking that sounds like the most interesting and somehow most boring thing you've ever heard of. I know, but trust me, it's pretty engaging. The author, Luke O'Neill, makes it pretty fun. If you want to know more about life in general and why things work the way they do or how they do, or if you just want to get into a more sciencey book in general, I would highly recommend Humanology. It's a great entry level like science, nonfiction. Five stars, Prince of Thorns, book one. I've been really wanting to get into another fantasy series for quite a long while. I haven't like read a fantasy series that I hadn't already read in just ages. And you know, I was intimidated by a lot of the series that people were telling me I should read because there was like 10 or so books and each book was like 600 pages long. It's just I didn't know if I could commit to that, at least right now at this point in time when I've got so much other stuff going on. But someone recommended Prince of Thorns and it looks like a pretty easy trilogy to get into. So I thought, Frick it. It. It seemed like an easy way to ease back into a full fantasy series. Please be gentle with me, bro. We have a young somewhat unlikeable protagonist who is leading a band of rogues or band of bandits on a bit of a revenge tour, let's call it. And through the course of the story, you know, you learn more about the kids past and the role he has in the big political conflict that's happening through this series. To be honest, I really liked it. I did. I really enjoyed this first book and I'll obviously be continuing on with the rest of the series. But with that said, I can't help but feel like not a lot happened for the length that the book is. Like looking back on it, I only remember there being like a handful of major events that were integral to the story. When the pace picked up, it was exciting, but at a lot of points in the story, it also kind of dragged its feet. You know, I'll still majorly entertained and I'm eager for more. So four stars seems pretty fair. So I read Lord of the Flies, you know, the classic about the bunch of posh kids stuck on an island. And look, I considered making a long video going, you know, in depth about how through the lens of children, this story presents thematic commentary on the primal nature of man and how once stripped of the material world, we inherently descend into archaic and disgusting violence and power struggles. But to be honest, there's already a million other people who have already done that. So what can I say? It's a great book. It starts off feeling like a lot like a Disney show, and then it very quickly becomes a terrifying, raw and almost violating read. It's great. I can see why it's a classic. Five stars. If you're not sick of hearing me say this by now, I love horror anthologies. I really do. It's like one of my favorite things in the whole world. And what I like to do sometimes is find like lesser known horror anthologies from either self-published or independent authors or maybe traditionally that just never quite blew up, because that happens quite a lot with horror as a genre. There's a lot of horror authors that just go completely under the radar, despite being fabulously talented. Anyway, I love listening to horror anthologies on audible, audible. Sign up now and get your first m- nah, I'm just kidding. It'd be nice though. Isn't it weird how you don't really see like much audible sponsorships on booktube in particular? It's weird. Anyway, I listened to horror anthologies via audible while I work, and I found one really good one that I feel has gone completely under the radar called Spider Season. It's by Billy Hansen and it was fantastic. The stories ranged from like basic short and very simple horror to more psychological horror slash thriller. And what I found was that most of them took a like common and expected horror trope and spun it a bit, made it a bit more unique, you know, just twisted the dial a little bit. I really do recommend checking it out. Like I said, it's on audible so you can listen to it while you do other things. It's very creepy and very easy to get through it very quickly. My favorite short story from there was probably music from the gun room, which is weird to me in retrospect. Like if you explained what all of the short stories were about, I would not have picked this one as being my favorite. But it was and it was because it was terrifying in a very unique way. I've seen very few stories, both long and short, do suspense and tension. Tension is the word I'm looking for. I've seen very few stories do tension the way that music from the gun room does. Another good one is the clearing. I want to really mess with your head a bit. By the end of the clearing, you'll probably be questioning whether what you read was actually reality or not. I have to give this one five stars. I have to. Billy deserves way more credit. You get one clap, my good man. Nice. So there it is, ladies and gentlemen, five books in four months. What can I say, bruh? Call me reader man. If you saw my last video, my direct last video, you'll know that I've been putting pretty much all of my time and my focus into my writing at the moment. But as far as reading goes, I am hoping to finish seven Blades in Black soon. I've got like just a couple of chapters left in that one. And also the growing things horror anthology by Paul Tremblay. That's it guys. Thanks for watching. Catch you.