Graduation!!

A bit of a departure from the bookish topics today because I’M FINALLY GETTING MY GRADUATION!!! I finished my MSc thesis back on the 4th October 2019. We begged for a winter graduation but the uni refused, and then the BIG P WORD came along and we weren’t able to go to the 2020 summer graduation. Well finally summer of 2021 has rolled around and although it’s very different to a usual graduation, I’m finally getting to walk the stage for my MSc!

I did my Masters at the University of Portsmouth in Geological and Environmental Hazards. The course kicked my butt, and I’m super proud of myself for passing! I actually had my ceremony at 10am today (don’t worry, I’m not writing this today, I pre-scheduled it), we wore masks, we social distanced, and not all of my friends from my course could make it. Especially my international friends.

But my partner was there, and my mother watched the livestream. And I’m in the sunshine in my second uni city, with the man I love and my friends. So all in all? Today is a good day.

I’m back!!

My thesis is DONE!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my sweet soul that took forever! But it’s done, it’s handed in, I’m proud of it and hopefully it’ll get me a good mark!! And now I can go back to being a normal human being again, woohoo!

I’ve been applying to jobs, seeing friends, spending time with my parents, starting back on Duolingo, but most importantly…. I’ve been reading again! Not a lot mind you, I’ve only read 2 books, however, I’ll take what little I can get after so long without reading haha. It’s been genuinely so enjoyable to be able to relax into a book and I’m looking forward to getting through a few more books on my giant tbr.

Sadly, there’s still gunna be a bit of a wait for my YouTube channel to come back, as my laptop is completely broken and it’s gunna take a while for it to get repaired 😥 Which is really sad as I love making videos. I do have access to my dad’s laptop so I might try installing my editing software on there but I don’t know if it has enough processing power. We’ll see.

Either way, the blogs are back (hopefully) and my insta and twitter are coming alive again. I’m so happy about it and so excited to be back within the community!

Now I’ve just got to catch up on all those YouTube videos…….. that’ll take me a while!

Too Bloody Busy

So… I did read books in March. I read 4 books, but I honestly have not had the time to write reviews for them. Not even little ones (apart from one… but that was sent promotionally sooo)

Yeah basically my life is a mess rn, I had two presentations in 7 days which both were marked and counted for part of my masters and one presentation also had a poster with it which required modelling of lava flows and I had maaannyy late nights. Luckily my assignment that was due tomorrow has been pushed back by a month cause of Brexit mucking everything up royally, meaning I can actually take a few days to breath, relax and maybe even try and read.

But onto the books I read, no pretty pictures this month:

• First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde. I listened to this on audiobook and these books are always so much fun! I’ll be sad when I reach the end of this series
• Spare and Found Parts by Sarah Maria Griffin. I’m so happy that I’ve finally read this beautiful work of literature, I 100% recommend if you’re a human being
• The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman. Another book I recommend if you’re a human, actually have a full review of this one so check it out here!
• The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom. Last book of the month, enjoyable and a quick read. Glad I picked it up.

 

I’m not making any concrete plans for April, but I am attempting the magical readathon and trying to do my O.W.L.’s so fingers crossed for that. I also have loads of assignments due at the end of April but maybe if I manage to keep track of my time I can be less stressed and keep on top of things? (That’ll never happen but I can still dream!!)

Thank you for putting up with me while I’ve been so MIA everywhere. The books I review will be less frequently posted soon as I run out of my backlogged reviews, but I promise to keep trying to post things. I just need to prioritise my masters’ rn. If you’ve got any questions about anything please do ask in the comments!

Making the best of it

Honestly, I used to assume that people who struggled with reading whilst at university or at other stages of education just read slower than me. My problems had been finding the motivation more than anything. However, now I’m doing my Masters and things have picked up. I’m ridiculously busy, and stressed, and it feels like it’s never going to end and oh wow I suddenly am actually experiencing higher education. My undergraduate degree was on the “easy” side in terms of the amount of workload and this change has been genuinely very difficult for me. I’m glad that it happened later in my time in academia though as it allowed me to return back to my love of reading (after my end of high-school [6th form for you UK peeps] took it away from me) and get an understanding of what works for me, meaning that I can still get through books!

I am struggling though, there is so much to do since 2019 started and I was behind anyways because of a heart operation I had on the 7th January meaning THREE assignments were delayed for me, but obviously the other ones are still due at the same time and I feel like I’m not going to get any form of relaxation time until I graduate. I even had to do work in the week my boyfriends was here!! Unacceptable! Okay, I’m aware it’s common but it was also annoying cause I literally handed in an assignment 2 hours before his train got into my city.

This extra workload is also having a negative impact on my mental health, and I feel similar to how I did when I was doing my A Levels (16-18 exam period in the UK), which was possibly the worst time in my life for my mental health. So obviously alarm bells are ringing, but there’s nothing much I can do about it, I’ve gotten halfway through the year and I’m gunna finish. But it also means I don’t always want to read, that’s why I had a reading slump at this age and it just generally makes it all that little bit harder.

By this time last year, I had read FORTY-SIX BOOKS…. 46?!?!?!?! (I did NOT know this and just went and counted through my Goodreads to check it out). So far this year, I’ve read 20 books, which is less than half – 43.48% to be precise. But honestly, I’m still happy with this. I’m on track for my goal of 50 books for the year and I expect to pass it around halfway through the year. I did just make it quite low so I didn’t feel extra pressure on top of my masters, but either way.

This was quite a long ramble, but essentially, my reading is suffering and I’m gunna have to learn to deal with it. Thanks for reading my rambly thoughts!

Books I’m taking to University| 2018

I’ve gone on about it enough, but if you’re new to my content… I’m off to do a Masters this September in Geological and Environmental Hazards! The University I’m going to is different than my undergrad one, and a lot further away, and also the course is going to be much harder. All of this means that I won’t be taking as many books away with me as I would like, so let’s get into this sadly small list.

First things first, I will be taking my Kindle, so I’ll have my eBooks and eARCs with me on top of these physical reads.

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin (Game of Thrones #1)

I started reading my dad’s copy of this a couple years ago, but never got around to finishing it. Fingers crossed, taking this large book as one of my few should encourage me to finish it (you’ll see this as a theme in this list).

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Again, another book that I have started previously and another one that is intimidatingly large! I’m only 60 odd pages into it, so not very far in this 950 odd page book!

 

A finally, yes – finally

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett (The Century Trilogy #1)

Yet another huuuuge book! And I have this in hardback so it looks even worse! I’ve not actually started this one, but I’m looking forward to getting into it.

 

And that’s it! I’m only taking 3! Part of that is because they’re so big, I’m hoping that by having a limited selection of physical books I might finally tackle these intimidatingly large tomes that I’ve been putting off. Also, as I said, a Masters is (obviously) more difficult than an undergraduate degree and I imagine I’ll have a lot less free time so at the start I don’t know how much I will be able to read.

I will also have my kindle, and there are a few libraries within the city that I’m moving to so I’m definitely going to sign up there and take some books out if I have the time! I’ve never been to this city before so I don’t know where the bookshops are… so I need to go exploring! And I’m sure I’ll end up buying some books when I do this so I shouldn’t take too many with me!

I’ll be heading back home for Christmas so if I end up finishing these three then I can swap them out for some more then, and seeing as they’re so big I can take more, smaller books! So I’m hoping I have it all sorted out and that I’ll be able to read a lot more than I’m expecting to! But if not then I’ll have to suffer through for the year and focus on my education, I’m sure I’ll survive!