 vlog, except I'm starting it late on the weekend and it might go into early next week. So like I'm starting this at 2.30 on Saturday and my birthday is on Monday, but I have an exam on Tuesday. So I'm kind of thinking of going through to Monday slash Tuesday-ish for this week's vlog video. And normally when I do vlogs it's however length of time for whatever book I am reading, but I've decided I'm just gonna do a chunk of time and whatever books I read, which is generally what other people do. But the reason I'm doing it is because I am participating in the Desertathon this month in the month of May and so I'm kind of just, I'm finally getting back into my reading as I'm almost done with exams. So I want to be reading as fast as possible, but then that's not always very interesting vlog content. So the first book if you watched my Desert TBR, Desertathon TBR, which will be linked down below in case you didn't watch it. The first book that I am reading for it is The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna and I actually have done quite a bit of reading of this this morning. I started it last Saturday when it was very beginning of May because there was a reading sprint happening so I started it then, but because it's been exam week I haven't picked it up at all since. So today I did some more reading sprints and I'm actually on page 130, which is about one-third of the way through the book. And theoretically there shouldn't be, didn't really a reason why I shouldn't finish it today other than the fact of like, I don't know if I can slash will finish it today. There are only a couple things that I need slash want to do today and they're not very time consuming. So like I don't have a good reason not to finish it today, but I'm only a third of the way through and it's like 400 pages, which back when I was younger and like was reading all the time I didn't have near as much homework or life responsibilities, not a problem, but like nowadays we'll see. So I'm going to start off reading this and I'm going to keep going through my TBR for the Desertathon. I am also listening to an audiobook, something else to note. I am listening to the Labyrinth Lost, which made an appearance in my Cinco de Mayo recommendation video that came out like two weeks ago now. So that will also be linked up here and probably down below for you to check out. And I am under halfway, but like more than a third of the way through that audiobook. And I am enjoying it a lot as well. I'm enjoying both books so far. I will be able to vlog me doing things while listening to it because I do film on my phone, but that's also how I listen to audiobooks. But I will most likely be doing a lot of listening in the car because this coming um Sunday, tomorrow, tomorrow, we are going to go to Chicago to celebrate my birthday. Don't worry, we're all fully vaccinated and we are still going to be responsible wearing masks and social distancing and whatnot. But so I hopefully, it's a six hour drive, so I will hopefully be listening to my audiobook during that time. So I'll keep you updated on that as well, but for now I'm gonna go do a couple things and then I will sit down and get some reading done finally. I'm so excited. I'm still behind on my Goodreads goal. Like I am incredibly behind on my Goodreads goal because I've just been so swamped with school. So I think it'll be really exciting for me to hopefully do some catching up this summer, if not getting ahead this summer to account for what will most likely be a busy fall. Here we go. Awesome triggers for like they kind of die over and over again. It's very interesting reading about the religion that they follow. There are so many lines and quotes from the infinite wisdom, that's what they refer to it as, that I sit there and I'm like this sounds a lot like stereotypes that some people have against some religions. Like I can see roots of extremism in their religion that are stereotypical extremisms of other religions that we actually have in our real world. So I thought it's been very interesting reading it in this fantastical context and coming from like someone who does believe in it and fully trusts and goes along with the religion, especially when it's super oppressive towards women and she is a woman. So it's very interesting to read her and how devout she is to the infinite wisdom when coming from our world we see that A it's terrible towards women and B it just sounds like it has connections to extremisms or stereotypes of other religions. So I think that's very interesting and I'm really, I mean obviously there's going to be character growth where she like no longer believes in it and defies it and is like no women should be allowed to run and be independent of a man and bloodity, but that's probably going to happen. I mean that's just kind of how YA goes but I'm also really liking the found family in this. It feels, I don't, it doesn't like necessarily feel forced. It just feels like you know these women are being ripped from their homes and the first people they see are the ones that they are clinging to and I, it's very, I don't quite know if I like just how easily they came together rather than being cautious or scared but at the same time I understand that you want to be connected with other people who are in the same situation as you but yeah no I'm enjoying the found family. I'm going to keep reading some more probably after I do a couple things but I've been doing the readings for us for the Desert of Thon and that's what they're currently doing so I am enjoying it thus far. Wait hold up, so we're doing a Veggie Tale silly song ranking and we're listening to a little bit of each song as we are driving to Chicago. So uh the next one is the Madame Blueberry. Madame Blueberry. Madame Blueberry. All right. I think let's do Manatee, Barber Manatee. Now let's do Barber Manatee. And we'll judge it not by if it's a bop but like what it's supposed to be you know a sappy kind of. So we're judging them based off of if they're a bop, if they're silly kind of fun and then what was the other one? That was it. Yeah, that was it. How's that? And there's going to be a lot of nostalgia too. Yeah, first off, do not remember the orchestra. We joined that because it follows the tragic saga of Barber Manatee. It's a daytime drama. I love House. Be glad it wasn't a deal breaker for me sweetie because that was IT's ITT drive. Barber also the soap opera joke like that. It's a soap opera. It's just completely. It just seems like it was just a silly song about the manatee. It's divine. So that's probably going to be a two one. Okay, I think I just I think the instrumental and the dramatics. Manatee, it's but it's not dramatic than still. It's a dramatic. It's a tier one. If we if by some miracle of like some serious like office energy. Yeah, you dragon. I need that coffee right about now. They're not in the books. They're reading the books. Now your husband's stripping. I'm not monetized in the first place. That's for your patreon. What? In front of obviously I did film with them a little bit like you see them in the clips but like me talking into a camera and so so I didn't I didn't do a lot of filming. I really didn't do a lot of reading either because well I had a lot of fun on my birthday weekend. I was not expecting to read a lot physically anyway but I didn't get to listen to my audiobook at all because I couldn't find my headphone converter for my phone and I couldn't find my Bluetooth headphones right before we left. So I I the only way I was going to listen to my audiobook was out loud and no one wants to sit in a car for 10 hours while I am halfway through an audiobook like yeah that's something that I did with my parents all the time. My parents would be reading a book they'd be halfway through and we'd listen to it on a drive but that's not something that I can do with my husband and friends who are not big readers. So I did not get any reading done this weekend and this vlog is probably going to go up late because this is Thursday morning. So we are back home from Chicago. I had a blast as you could probably see and tell. I guess that was just a weekend vlog or weekend vlog that didn't really have much to do with reading. I hope you guys still somewhat enjoyed it but I promise we'll get back to some reading because now that I am done with school officially I will be able to read in the mornings before I go to work. So yeah so if you like if you actually did like this video click the thumbs up or if you want more reading vlogs in general you know ones that have to do with actual reading also give the video a thumbs up or comment down below like what kind of videos you want to see um or comment down below just what you're reading or a book that took you a long time to get through. I'm not it's not that the gilded ones is taking me a long time because I'm not enjoying it it's I've actually just been so busy so hopefully I can do a lot more reading of that today um but yeah subscribe if you have not subscribed to the channel I post videos every Thursday um and hit the bell and the notification icon so you know exactly when I post on Thursdays but until I see you all in the next video I wish you a happy reading.