My last 5 books: Horror, YA, and a classic

1. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. I had heard a lot about this book, mostly about how horrible all the events in it were. I didn't really like it, though. Could be that my Swedish translation messed it up for me, but this book didn't speak to me. I'm not protesting that the events in it were horrible, because they were, but to me there was nothing revolutionary about this book. Maybe when it was released in the 60s it was revolutionary, but for me in 2017 this is a theme I have seen over and over and over so many times in so many different contexts. I didn't really like any of the characters; all of them, even the "good" ones were too stubborn for their own good. I don't hate this book, but it felt bland.


2. The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux. Oh, how I've wanted to read this book since I first saw the musical. Especially since I kept reading online that all the girls who kept romanticising the Phantom should read the book to find out how truly horrible he was and stop doing it. Well, yes he was horrible, but I knew that from the musical. But the book didn't change the fact that I simply felt sorry for him. Circumstance made him a psychopath, if he hadn't been born with a misshapen face he would've simply been a genius. Probably renowned for his work. Instead he was shunned all his life. The way people treated him because of his looks made him into a psychopath. Idiotic, short-sighted people were to blame for how he turned out. That's what I got from the musical, and that's also what I got from the book. In the book it was revealed that all the Phantom wanted was a normal house on a normal street with a normal wife and a normal life, just like everybody else. He was sick of being the Ghost, sick of hiding under the streets of Paris, he just wanted to be normal. And he wanted it so much that when Christine touched his face and kissed him on his forehead without being afraid he was so happy that he felt he could die happy, even if he never saw her again. I can't do anything but feel sorry for the Phantom.

3. Every Day, by David Levithan. This book was recommended me by a friend, and I loved it (most of the time). I couldn't stop reading it and it wasn't until I was finished and put it down that I realised how repetitive it really was. The story was unique, and I loved the whole idea, but the setting became repetitive. Today I woke up as... I'm this far away from Rhiannon... Let's screw this person's life up and go see her... I loved how the author showed life from every different aspect. Boy, girl, rich, poor, gay, straight, knowing someone for only a day vs. knowing someone for most of your life... Exploring the different aspects of life was amazing to read. I wanted more, though. I wanted to find out more about these others that are like A. I can only hope that there'll be proper sequel where A deals with these others more, even if he decided that he wants nothing to do with them I still want to find out more about them. And I want to read more about A and his life, despite how repetitive it becomes.

4. Kaninhjärta, by Christin Ljungqvist. Young adult fiction set in Sweden. I liked the language of this book, how it was written, but I didn't like any of the characters. While reading it, I thought the story was quite likeable, but a few days after finishing it I could hardly remember what it was about. Most of what I remember are angsty teenagers and adults with questionable judgement. Could be that the angsty teenager part hit a bit too close to home (Mary isn't too far from how I was ten years ago). But honestly, I liked this book much more while reading it, than I did reflecting over it afterwards.




5. Necroscope, by Brian Lumley. A few years ago I found a BuzzFeed list called Top 20 Vampires in Books, and I decided it was time to get through that list. The Necroscope series is mentioned on that list, so picking it up I naturally expected a vampire experience. While there are vampires in this book, it's not the main element. The story takes place during the 1970s (the book was written in the 80s) and feature a super secret Soviet spy organization that houses the necromancer Boris Dragosani. Circumstances lead him to Britain where we have the necroscope himself; Harry Keogh. Harry can talk to the dead and they like him, while they fear Dragosani and his forceful necromantic methods of getting what he wants. For years Dragosani nurtures an old, trapped vampire and after Dragosani becomes a vampire himself, the final battle between the necromancer and the necroscope are at hand. I love the twist at the end. And I love how this isn't a vampire story in the romantic, sexy sense, but in the sense that vampires are actual monsters that should be exterminated. This is the first book in a literay universe of sixteen, and I'm really curious to see what comes next.

Elder Scrolls Online: Jester's Festival and Second Anniversary event

This post was originally meant to be only about the Jester's Festival, but as time passed it also became about the Second Anniversary event, which ends today.

The Jester's Festival was the first event that I didn't fully participate in or for which I didn't complete all the achievements. Partly because work got in the way, and partly because I didn't feel it was as much fun as the other two events (Witches Festival & New Life Festival).

For the Jester's Festival you could purchase the free quest starter scroll from the crown store and then follow the directions to the starting point, which is always the first zone of your home alliance. I started outside Vulkhel Guard in Auridon of the Summerset Isles. The other two places were outside Daggerfall in High Rock and outside Ebonheart in Stonefalls, Morrowind. At these places you talk to NPCs dressed as jesters who pretend to be one of the three alliance leaders (Queen Ayrenn, High King Emeric or Jorunn Skald-King). They give you quests to liven up the people in the cities and cause some mayhem.

In Auridon it was all about throwing flower petals on people so they got flower crowns above their heads. In Daggerfall you had to go through two delves to collect a couple of ingredients needed to make fireworks and then fire off fireworks at certain places in the city. In Ebonheart you had to steal some apples to feed to a pig and then steal the pig from under the butcher's nose and bring the pig safely to the Jester without being spotted by the butcher.

After every completed quest you got a container reward in which you could find collectables, new recipes, and some new housing items. To get some extra achievements you could throw flower petals on other players to give them flower crowns, use a total of 50 fireworks, and also fire off some fireworks at each of the Undaunted Enclaves. There was also a pie of misrule memento that you could use during the festival for an XP boost.

The Second Anniversary event started on the same day the Jester's Festival concluded on April 4th. It's an odd name for the event. It's ESO's third anniversary, but since it's only the second event to celebrate it's anniversary, then that's what you get ;) It was basically the same as the last event, which means buy the free scroll from the crown store - go talk to the chef - get the ingredients - get the cake. The cake became a memento just like last year and using it gave you a 100% XP boost for 2 hours, at which point you could eat some more cake and get some more boost. A new thing for this year was that the daily and weekly quests gave you one extra reward in the shape of a container. In this container you could find most anything; crafting items, household items, recipes and crafting motifs. I had a lot more fun combining my daily crafting writs with these reward boxes and finding out what was in them than I had with the Jester's Festival.

The fact that the anniversary event was almost exactly the same this year as it was last year is a little bit of a hint that the old festivals from last year are going to come back in mostly the same form later this year, which I'm actually looking forward to!

March favourites 2017

Books: Four books + one manga (in Japanese) in March. Really good work tbh. Favourite has to be Barnbruden (The Child Bride), because even now, weeks later, the plot still sticks in my mind and I find myself thinking about it at the most random times.

Music:
• Dark Sarah - "Dance With the Dragon" & Abney Park - "The Derelict"

• Aerosmith - "Dude (Looks Like A Lady)" & Black Veil Brides - "Die For You"

• Bowling For Soup - "Don't Be A Dick" & brentalfloss - "Donkey Kong Country"

• Buono! - "Early Bird" & CNBLUE - "Diamond Girl"

• Cold - "A Different Kind of Pain" & Cradle of Filth - "The Death of Love"


Games: ESO, Civ 6, Mystic Messenger and Pokémon Go. Favourite spot goes to Mystic Messenger this time :)

TV shows: So many. But favourite spot goes to The Vampire Diaries. The show finalised this month and I loved how they brought back everything from the earliest seasons for the series finale.

Other: Well... it's been a pretty quiet month. Not much out of the ordinary.