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What a strange book, it started strong for me but then it slipped into something that left me perplexed. I have no idea what was happening which considering the psychotic episode of the main character is understood. A lot of the book felt wasted to me.
This was a book I started a year or two back and came back to this week. Happy to have finally finished it, but not one I would read again.
Something a little different today. A few weeks ago I did a post here about converting an old PS VITA to be an emulator for playing roms of retro consoles like Gameboy Colour etc. It worked well but I had a problem with the charging cable, it being a proprietary cable and not easy to source unlike a USB C or Micro USB cable. I had always been curious about emulators and with my birthday a few weeks ago I treated myself to an emulator. The emulator I purchased was Anbernic RG35XX Plus.
I have been using it for a few weeks now and I love it. It emulates consoles up to PS1 and Nintendo N64, essentially anything before the use of analogue sticks. You can buy emulators that have them but for this first purchase I played it safe. It looks like a classic Gameboy console and has the added bonus of the R1,R2,L1,L2 buttons on the back. It is smaller to a Gameboy original so more like the Colour but chunkier. Very comfortable with the added buttons on the back. The sound is not Dolby Atmos quality but it is a nostalgia hit similar to the Gameboy and retro handhelds. The screen is excellent too and the games look great on it.
In terms of emulators and emulation it is perfect, I am mostly using it for Gameboy Colour, Mega Drive, NES and PS1 games and not had a problem at all. It is very easy to upload and add roms to the memory cards.
You can purchase it online from many retailers but I purchased mine from UK retro console refurbisher and modern emulator seller called Retrolize. What I like about the purchase was it came with a case and the included memory cards were replaced from generic Chinese ones to more reliable SanDisk ones. The price was cheaper than Amazon too, for more product and better cards.
At the moment I am enjoying getting lost (literally) in Pokémon Yellow, its a nice addition to my EDC and with a long trip coming up shortly it along with Kindle will help alleviate boredom.
A New Year and new beginnings and promises. I’d like to start with wishing all who read this a Happy New Year and hope health, happiness and prosperity finds them.
For me this year I’m hoping to keep this updated more regularly (famous last words) and maybe diversify the content here. Though the name is ValleyReading It won’t just be a book or reading blog. I will also post stuff from my other interests such as wet shaving Shave of The Days (SotD) and a new interest of mine anime and manga, mostly Attack On Titan which I love.
For shaving I’m starting the year growing a bit of a beard, though I may shave it soon as I have a slight breakout of excema so I may shave this week to sort that and enjoy the use of one of my recent razors (Rockwell T2 Stainless Steel or Tatara Masamune).
In terms of anime I’m looking forward to watching Attack On Titan again, I enjoyed it immensely from start to finish and I would like to watch the English dub of the final episode which is coming out this weekend (7th January). I would also like to watch more of One Punch Man which I am enjoying very much as well as Death Note. I have several others lined up to watch and the Attack On Titan manga which I’m 5 books into out of 34.
Finally my reading flagged last year when I discovered Attack On Titan and it is no lie that I was and am completely consumed by it and its lore, fan theories etc. So my reading took a hit. I was on about 35 or 38 books when I discovered it and I was flagging on my reading goal of 50 books until the end of November (I would have smashed it by June if I didn’t discover AoT). I finished the year with 61 books thanks to my Christmas reading, which I always make time for and enjoy very much.
This year my goal is set at 25 which is easily accomplished and just merely used as a placeholder. My true goal remains to read daily whether its a short book, a chapter or a page. It all counts. I also wish to read longer books. I started reading The World by Simon Sebag Montefiore (1350 pages) 18 months ago and been dipping in and out of it. I hope to finish it this year! As a challenge I would like to read Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce too.
My first book of the year will be a short one and a humourous one. The Diary of A Nobody by George Grossmith. I have read it before and thoroughly enjoyed it. Seemed a nice choice to start the year with, though usually I start with a Yasunari Kawabata novel either Thousand Cranes, Beauty & Sadness or Snow Country.
So that’s my plans for this bit of internet over the next year. Let’s see how we get on!
Valley Reviews 