Tag: reading

Attack On Titan – WOW!!!

Recently I was introduced to anime/manga and hasn’t it surprised me, I didn’t know what to expect and it literally shook me. Ordinarily I would have rubbished anime as for Japanese weibos and creeps but having now tried it, its the opposite. Since May I have slowly been watching the anime Attack On Titan and my goodness what a show! Everything I thought or expected has been turned upside down.

To expand on a point made above I always expected anime to be child orientated or aimed at the forever alone viewer who’s contact with females come in the form of pillows and Dead or Alive Volleyball video games. Some of the art work and covers of anime show me right in this thought, lots of thickness and titties but as they say you can’t judge a book by its cover and the same is true for anime.

As a child I was into Pokémon but I never classed that as an anime, I always looked at it as a cartoon, so I guess I had sort of got into it. But never progressed beyond that initial craze. There was only 151 of them and the last Pokémon game I played was Yellow on my Gameboy Colour.

Well Attack On Titan is no Pokémon or Spirited Away (have since seen this too). Initially for the first 10-15 minutes I was a bit blasé about it, I have a pet peeve of kids in media. The characters get on my nerves and their voices and being is just not my cup of tea (see Tim in Jurassic Park, Gavroche in Les Misérables). Early impression was meh with the child Eren, Mikasa and Armin and their nonsense.

THEN IT HAPPENED.

A Titan! Not just any Titan but a giant steaming hulk of bone and muscle. This grabbed my attention and all that followed. Since that point I haven’t looked back. Although it is animation, the images and gore lingers in your mind and it is very visceral. Starting with Eren’s mother getting eaten. That bit and the face of the Titan stuck in my mind, especially their mouth and teeth.

Needless to say I am well and truly hooked and I am loving the show so far. So many twists and turns and it is a very deep show. It often leaves me feeling completely confused and shocked. I like googling but I’m trying not to so I don’t spoil things for myself.

I’m already on the early episodes of Season 3 and I’m excited to see what is coming, I’m so enthralled, confused and excited. To me this is one of the best things I have ever watched. So much so that I have even started to read the manga on my kindle and noticing foreshadowing and bits I missed whilst watching, it certainly enriches the experience (though it did take me 20 minutes to realise manga is read opposite to a western book).

I have even subscribed to Crunchyroll and will explore other anime shows too, but right now my focus is on Attack on Titan. Make up for lots of media I have been missing out on.

As I say every time I post I do plan to blog quite often about Titan and my thoughts, maybe not episode by episode but I might do that. I started watching an English dub and whilst I enjoy it some voices annoy me. I would like to go back and watch it in Japanese with subtitles. Perhaps when I do I’ll blog Episode by Episode. Like with the manga going back will be an enriching experience.

We will see if I post or as usual forget ha!

Reading Fatigue

Its been a very lean month so far for me in terms of my reading. I’m normally 3 or 4 books deep by now but this month I haven’t been feeling it yet. I don’t think there is a specific reason though maybe I’m watching more TV or playing video games. I don’t feel as though I am but since BST (British Summer Time) I have barely read.

I think also losing my Kindle Reading Streak affected it, I was trying to maintain it and one day it didn’t register my reading and it pissed me off no end. I almost got to 200 consecutive days. I was devastated lol. I nurtured that like a newborn chick and was super pissed because I had read and it wasn’t logged. Fucking Amazon servers!

I do intend to read and I have read but barely made a dent in anything. Could be fatigue or just having a break and reset. I do hope I can kindle the reading flame again, I do miss it greatly. Hopefully it picks up for the rest of the month.

It hasn’t stopped me buying books, though I have found less of interest recently in the kindle deals. I used to find one almost daily, recently though I barely buy 4 a month from the Daily Deal.

I just wanted a little rant to keep this blog ongoing or else I will neglect it again.

Showstopper (Peter Diamond #21) by Peter Lovesey

Having just finished my 22nd book of the year (of the month) it seems a nice time to start my regular posts.

Since last year I have been reading a detective fiction series by the British author Peter Lovesey, the series in named after the main character DCI Peter Diamond. It is set in Bath and the surrounding areas and luckily they are places I have been to quite often so an added bonus is that I can picture the scenes and find myself realising I have sat in the exact same spot as our fictional detective. First time in detective fiction that has happened to me, most of my fiction is translated.

The book I just finished is called Showstopper and is the 21st and as of now final entry in the series. I do hope there is more to come as on the whole it is very enjoyable series. Some of the more recent books were not up to par but generally they are usually 4/5 to me.

This one follows the filming of a television series and so-called jinx where several persons involved have come to sticky ends. A very interesting case and plenty of red herrings and misdirection – I do wonder how someone could think of some of the plots and goings on, its beyond me!

The characters and locations are the true stars of the books, they bring the book to life and as I said above Bath is described that you are there (may even have been there too) and the characters are a mixed bunch with the old school boss who is no nonsense, the assistant who is is right hand man and various other foils who add to the depth.

No book in the series is the same, they are all unique and different and I would say can be read as stand-alone but some events are referred to as the series progresses, most notably diamond’s marital status.

I am happy to have read this book, but also sad I have finished the series at the time of writing this. Here’s hoping there is more Peter Diamond to come, thankfully there is plenty of works by Peter Lovesey to get into.

Been a While

I was laying awake in bed this morning and it struck me I had a blog on WordPress that I always fancied keeping up to date but somehow forgot about it. Luckily I had the username and password saved in the browser and well here it is.

I think i will certainly try my best to keep it updated more going forward and despite the username being ValleyReading, I would also like to get back into my hobby and interest of shaving things which I am a lapsed poster on Instagram of my Shave of The Day’s or SOTD. It was good fun to set up the photos and share my shave with other like minded people. It must be a year or so since I posted one. I really should get back into it.

Back to here and I should keep my reading up to date here, despite my laziness I do religiously keep my goodreads page up to date and as of right now have read 21 books out of 50 for my 2023 Reading Challenge. I just choose 50 as a nominal number and I know it will be exceeded to about 90 or even 100. I’m not a reader who will pad it out either with comics or short books, though I did read the entire Maigret series on 75 books, roughly 200 pages each. That was an enjoyable 4 years dipping in and out of them.

So if I remember and aren’t too lazy I will regularly update here with both my reading and shaving goings on.

My

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/8797999

Shaving IG https://www.instagram.com/valleyshaving/