#visual Wodehouse

[davidpwilson2564]

Bloglet

Sunday, December 17, 2023

Dental work has left me with a recurring pain in my jaw. Dammit.

I walk to the corner to hand my son the check I picked up for him at the Koch Theater. He is in an enormous white truck. Meeting him on Central Park West makes things easier. He says he is going to try to get everything done before the storm hits. (Torrential rains are creeping up the East Coast.) My son, the busiest guy in town.

Monday, December 18, 2023

The wind and rain didn't punish "the city" so much but really hit Jersey, and the outerlying boroughs. Christmas decorations blown away. That sort of thing. Very bad.

The Holidays are closing in. Soon Christmas will be at our throats (a line from P G Wodehouse).

After more than twenty years I have begun rereading Proust's massive "Search." Don't know how far I'll get but am resolved to try again tomorrow. Note: Shelby Foote, in an interview, said he was a fan of "Search" and now and again "treated himself" to a rereading of the opus (can you imagine such a thing?). He said, in that interview, he'd read it six or seven times. Now and again some Proust imagry (striking visual descriptions, etc.) shows up in Foote's "Civil War."

to be continued

[wotwotleigh-prime]

Some assorted Wooster-relevant images:

1) Lester DePester and Betty from C. A. Voight’s comic strip, Betty. Bertie compares Gussie Finknottle to Mr. DePester in The Mating Season.

2) Jessie Matthews, who may have been Wodehouse’s visual reference for Stiffy Byng.

3) Gertrude Lawrence, one of the inspirations for Cora “Corky” Pirbright.

4) Jack Buchanan getting his trousers ogled. Not directly relevant, but it embodies the Wooster spirit.

[thebirdandhersong]

Trying to imagine a period drama miniseries (BBC-style) of The Stars Hold No Part In This............. 

[katy-133]

I'm trying to figure out what Aziraphale's opinions are with modern technology.

On the one hand, he clearly likes 1930s aesthetics (because he dresses like a PG Wodehouse character), but on the other hand, he was the first angel to own (and actually use) a computer in the 90s. And on top of that, he's been on Earth for 6,000 years, which means he was around back when certain Greek philosophers were getting mad at the invention of scrolls and books, saying that it was going to make people lazy (which means that Aziraphale has repeatedly, throughout generations, watched new inventions come and go), which must have effected his opinion on technology. And on top of that, to go on a more para-textural level, Terry Pratchett very much enjoyed things like video games before they became as mainstream as they are now.

So is Aziraphale just highly against anything that came out recently, and has to wait X amount of years before he'll use it, or is he like me where he loves some modern tech like Scrivener, but hates some modern tech like mobile phones?

What I'm basically asking is: Would Aziraphale be okay with ebooks and visual novels?

[yourfandomfriend]

Cozy and Pleasant || J&B Meta

I've been meaning to write this for a while, but someone was good enough to put Jeeves and Wooster on my dash a little while ago and gave me the bug. It can't be helped.

There are two definitive versions of the Jeeves and Wooster dynamic as far as I'm concerned: the original text and the tv series with Fry & Laurie in the starring roles. But as much as the series tried to stay true to the source material, they inevitably imparted something of their own style and dynamic not to mention the influence of the visual medium.

It couldn't be helped, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

**SPOILERS** For the Jeeves series **SPOILERS**

There are obvious things, but the least obvious is what the actual nature of the relationship really is. Let's begin with the beginning, and I feel I'd have to make this a two-parter, as it's running long in the edit.

Part One: The Printed Word

I was tempted not to bother with a spoiler warning for the Jeeves series, as the joy of Wodehouse's work is that nothing important ever really happens in these stories. They're lovely slice of comfort and joy, the firstest of First World Problems, mostly of the “could be solve by saying ‘no thanks’ off the bat” variety, always ending on a high note. 

They began being published in 1915 and stopped all the way in 1974, though they really never progress into WWII, as such a time was hardly conducive to the aimless frolic of upper-class English twits.

a.) The Bertram

Nearly every story is told from the perspective of Bertie Wooster, a wealthy, trendy, spineless dumbass in his early-to-mid twenties, inconspicuously orphaned and incapable of boiling water on his own.

Instead of having someone parental to help shepherd this hapless doof, Bertie is instead set on all sides by a cadre of bullying aunts and uncles who -- through means of intimidation or blackmail -- keep him jumping through hoops like a trained poodle.

The worst of these is his fearsome Aunt Agatha. She wants him to get married and have children, but she very precisely loathes him. As such, she insists on marrying him off to his worst nightmare: a respectable lady, someone she believes will iron him over or at least cancel him out.

"The family, especially my Aunt Agatha, who has savaged me incessantly from childhood up, have always rather made a point of the fact that mine is a wasted life, and that, since I won the prize at my first school for the best collection of wild flowers made during the summer holidays, I haven’t done a dam’ thing to land me on the nation’s scroll of fame." -- Bertie

As nasty as Agatha is, her reasoning wasn't unsound -- in lieu of a caring blood relative, Bertie does need a stalwart and upright personage to take the reins and put his house in order, save him from ruin and lead him through rough terrain. It's only the idea that such a person can't have Bertie's own happiness and comfort in mind that Wodehouse seems to object to. Enter Jeeves.

Reginald Jeeves, (a brilliant, vaguely older fellow) is a career valet. Smart by every definition of the word, steady, and formidable, with none but the highest standards in regard to propriety, down to the color of one's socks. 

You would think that would clash spectacularly with his frivolous employer, but while their temperaments are directly oppositional, they happen to share the same goals. In a manner of speaking.

Jeeves and Bertie both love the simple, jolly, carefree life of a dimwitted, wealthy bachelor and his gently domineering valet, and it suits both of their best interests if Bertie never becomes a husband, father, or gainfully employed. But that says nothing of the fond dynamic between the two. 

Bertie shows Jeeves an enormous amount of deference for a guy he pays to do his buttons up, and Jeeves does everything he can to make that worth the trouble. And even more than mere loyalty or respect, or shared interests, the two maintain a personal affection for each other beyond anything either would express in regard to family or friends.

"The moment I saw the man standing there, registering respectful attention, a weight seemed to roll off my mind. I felt like a lost child who spots his father in the offing." -- Bertie

No, Bertie has a boatload of friends and more aunts than any one man can manage, and a lot of other people besides that he'd do anything for. But no one who'd do a thing for him. Let alone anyone so competent, compassionate, steady, or truly caring, whose presence alone brings him relief, hope, or reassurance. No one like Jeeves.

b.)  A Gentleman's Personal Gentleman

On several occasions, valet and young employer would butt heads over some smallish point (usually Bertie would spend too much time with his idiot friends and come home dressed like Justin Bieber) and when Jeeves let his displeasure be known in ways both subtle and un, Bertie would get the idea to pull rank on him. After all, Jeeves isn't the boss here, not on the books.

But Jeeves isn't a lot of things on the books, so whenever Bertie got sassy enough to throw the pecking order in his face, Jeeves would hit back by withdrawing his help and emotional support, to say the least.

He often strikes Bertie as an overly-sensitive fellow in his complaints, and he can be occasionally -- 

“I suppose there’s a chink in everyone’s armor, and young Bingo found Jeeves’s right at the drop of the flag when he breezed in with six inches or so of brown beard hanging on to his chin. I had forgotten to warn Jeeves about the beard, and it came on him absolutely out of a blue sky. I saw the man’s jaw drop, and he clutched at the table for support.”

-- but largely, he comes off to this reader as calmly hardcore. In the best of times, Jeeves was like a guardian angel, but in the worst of times shared much in common with a cursed idol, one that required regular sacrifices of Alpine hats and banjoleles. If The Bertram got too big a head for his shirts, Jeeves would be sure to put him right in a way that would leave a raised mark.

Get to the ending of What Ho, Jeeves to see what I mean. The novel begins with Bertie determined to prove who wears the pants and ends with Jeeves contriving the necessity for him to take an eighteen-mile bike ride through the English countryside after midnight, with no lamp.

Bertie learns nine miles in that it was not only all for nothing but that Jeeves had done him dirty in front of his good aunt. Sure, everybody gets what they want eventually, but still. Jeeves didn't have to come up with a plan that involved his boss being mildly tortured... he just did it for himself. As a treat.

To make matters worse, he felt the need to impart a cute little tale of vehicular homicide directly beforehand:

"According to my Uncle Cyril, two men named Nicholls and Jackson set out to ride to Brighton on a tandem bicycle, and were so unfortunate as to come into collision with a brewer's van. And when the rescue party arrived on the scene of the accident, it was discovered that they had been hurled together with such force that it was impossible to sort them out at all adequately.

“The keenest eye could not discern which portion of the fragments was Nicholls and which Jackson. So they collected as much as they could, and called it Nixon. I remember laughing very much at that story when I was a child, sir."

The moral of this little story?

DO NOT FUCK WITH JEEVES.

But anyway, it wasn't often a power-struggle like that. Firm-handed though he might've been at times, Jeeves was a godsend to those in his good books, Bertie especially, who knew enough to defer to him in most matters.

The relationship, on the face of it, appears to be nothing but the upper-class fantasy of servants actually loving their employers like family, familiar for one like Wodehouse, as he himself grew up closer to the help than his own kin. Indeed, the crafting of Jeeves into less of a servant and more of a paternal figure was clearly influenced by the experience of being raised by butlers and cooks.

“He came in a little later to remove the debris, and I asked him if he had had a good time at Brinkley.

'Extremely pleasant, thank you, sir.'

'More than I had in your absence. I felt like a child of tender years deprived of its Nannie. If you don't mind me calling you a Nannie.'

'Not at all, sir.' ”

Still, I feel like that's putting too fine a point on it. While Jeeves occasionally crossed the line and always manipulated events to his advantage, he prided himself on his professionalism and sense of propriety otherwise. 

You would never catch him having tea with Bertie or letting himself go in conversation. And it wasn't because it wasn't in Jeeves' nature to be so with anyone, as he did have more casual and intimate acquaintances in his life.

If anything, I'd say Jeeves in the original text was a surrogate to Bertie only for what he had to offer that no one else in Bertie's life could -- nothing more, nothing less. But those things were still so much, Bertie had no other way of coming by them, and they were such a comfort to him that once he'd gotten a taste of them, there was no real joy in his life without them. 

But a lot of people don't like to go there, or can’t even see it. Because it's vague, difficult, and not the usual thing. People like easy and obvious and same as always -- you can’t make a point too fine for some. 

And it is in that vein that I regret to inform the reader, few attempts have been made to put into words what it is Bertie could possibly have to offer Jeeves in exchange for his miraculous service beyond wild assumptions. Devotion means exactly nothing else to most people but that which dare not speak it’s name in front of aunts.

While earthly delights can, indeed, have entered into the scenario easily, there’s also more to regard than busting the proverbial nut. Indeed, I’ve heard tell of such men as can b. the n. without forming emotional attachments to blithering idiots. But if it was not merely “dat ass” which kept Reggie coming back, many are thoroughly and contentedly ignorant as to what could.

Because they don’t actually like Bertie, and can’t imagine why anyone else would. Not unless he was prime real estate in a purely unsentimental way.

There’s nothing in the books which suggests Bertie was above average, but even if he was, I can’t imagine Jeeves dooming himself to an eternity of slaving after a moron with nothing to offer but a Christmas bonus one might chip a tooth on -- if he was so shallow, he’d just trade up for a new Sir every few years. So exact nature of the thing be damned, the question still remains. Why Bertie?

Besides that, to so many (increasingly with the changing times) it seems a shame that someone with so much potential would do that job at all, regardless of the Sir. Even Bertie doesn't quite understand why Jeeves is a valet.

"It beats me sometimes why a man with his genius is satisfied to hang around pressing my clothes and what-not. If I had half Jeeves’s brain, I should have a stab at being Prime Minister or something." --Bertie

It wasn't as if no one else appreciated Jeeves, he was very popular with Bertie's friends and family and he was constantly getting good offers to leave his service. And it wasn't simply that Bertie was easy to push around because Jeeves could pull just about anyone's strings. No, I get the impression that Jeeves liked Bertie for the same reason anyone else might: he was a nice young man. Not just a very good paycheck, but a very good person. In addition to the paycheck.

**To get personal a moment, I'm in the service industry and, in a vacuum, it's good work. I'm suited to it, but people of the "higher education" set sometimes can't believe it. I've been told I should be an author, or teach something. A psychiatrist once told me I really should be a psychiatrist. 

Regardless, server is all I have the formal education for. It’s honest work and my needs are few. When people aren't dicks, I get a lot out of it. I know the job and I like my bosses. Speaking from experience, I prefer a small paycheck from a nice person to double the pay from a wide-awake nightmare.

So when people wonder, "Why would anyone one smart and capable serve anyone who wasn’t?" I don't follow.**

Even in his worst moods, Bertie is easy to get along with, which, in the case of upper-class bosses from the interbellum "it's so hard to find good help these days" era? Is rare as fuck. Bertie is kind, generous, easy going, asks little of the people around him, goes out of his way for family and friends, and his worst habits are usually easy for someone like Jeeves to... shall we say, remove.

Jeeves likes Bertie because he's easy to like.

It's also useful in this case to do as Jeeves would've done and look at the "psychology of the individual". He is a man of a certain disposition: firmly and creatively indirect in his machinations. That is to say, a trickster. Jeeves has the intelligence to see the world as it is and people as they are, and to get what he wants from them with all the skill of a pickpocket.

But he lacks ambition, which is best for everyone, as he would undoubtedly be a devil to all who stood in his path. In fact, like certain devils that come to mind, he’s a stickler for the letter of the law without any concern for it's spirit. He does what propriety would bind him in doing. But were he unbound, I'd fear for us all.

c.) A Connection So Pleasant

And what kind of a boss would a man like him prefer? On the face of it, I'd guess someone who made it easy to go about his business. Someone who -- were they to get in his way -- would be easily dealt with. Jeeves was the type to say of the arrangement, "employers are like horses; they require managing" and "in an employer, brains are not desirable."

I'm reminded, also, of a remark by Shaw in regard to the protagonists of Pygmalion, their fan-preferred ship, and why he didn't agree that the now-formidable Eliza Doolittle would prefer the over-bearing Henry Higgins to the flimsy Freddy Hill:

"The man or woman who feels strong enough for two seeks for every other quality in a partner than strength." -- Shaw

But more than that, Jeeves prefers to be a backseat driver. He's best at (and seems to enjoy most) making things pleasant and orderly. He doesn't have much of an ego, although it clearly means a lot to him to be appreciated. He seems contented with his homemaking role, but understandably doesn't like a lot of mess and nuisance. He likes things "just so".

Also, there's a line in Bertie Changes His Mind -- the only of the Jeeves stories to be told from Jeeves' perspective -- that I always found deliciously ironic. It was that time Bertie (who is very susceptible to suggestion) saw a play where a guy had a daughter and it was fun , so Bertie decided that he wanted a daughter. 

He just believed that, out of the blue, he was lonesome and his routine was boring and friends are no good and life was empty, and only a daughter could fix it. And then he had the nerve to fire off this bullshit at Jeeves:

"Something to look after, if you know what I mean."

Meanwhile, Jeeves is vexed. He's pretty sure the conclusion of this line of thinking is Bertie getting married and having children, or at least throwing their arrangement into some havoc.

"I had no desire to sever a connection so pleasant in every respect as his and mine had been, and my experience is that when the wife comes in at the front door the valet of bachelor days goes out at the back." -- Jeeves.

But rather than come right out and say he's worried, or tell Bertie his idea is bad and he should feel bad, Jeeves chooses to extract this notion from Bertie's head via operant conditioning: 

He contrives a situation wherein Bertie must speak at a girls school to show him what fiendish little brutes they really are. A sort of "smoke the whole pack" approach to ridding Bertie of this new fancy. At one point, this had Jeeves nearly breaking character at seeing the torment he was wreaking on poor Bertram.

"I am fond of Mr. Wooster, and I admit I came very near to melting as I looked at his face. He was staring at me in a sort of dumb despair that would have touched anybody." -- Jeeves

It's insanely interesting to get a story from Jeeves' perspective. Free as the narrator to explain himself, he admits he doesn't want to lose his current position, not because of any financial or professional reason, but because he's fond of his boss, and he's willing to all but destroy Bertie because of it.

Again, the moral of the story is, do not fuck with Jeeves, but the irony in it (intentional or not) is glaring to me. That is to say, while he won't allow it to displace his happy home, Jeeves more than understands the instinct panging Bertie for "something to look after."

(Part Two: The Adaption)

[conchobarbarian]

I’m not saying that gay people are inherently more artistic or profound, but I am saying that like 80% of all pre-20th c writers & artists you’ve ever heard of weren’t straight

[teabooksandsweets]

To my own astonishment, I have found out today that I now have over a thousand followers. This is very surprising, delightful, and confusing.

And because of that, I would like to say something: My name is Chiara. I am an adult, if that’s of any importance to you, and I am not a native English speaker, which is why some of my texts might seem odd in their phrasing (or even their grammar and spelling, I fear). I am a writer, and also sort-of an illustrator. I love animals and nature, and I live in the countryside. My interests (aside from writing and drawing and painting) include reading, learning (yes, learning, just for my own pleasure), embroidery, and cooking and baking. Oh, and watching really good television and listening to music. If you have any questions, you can of course ask them, and unless it is a question that should find somehow inappropriate, I should be glad to answer.

I try to tag properly, although I used to have a short phase of not-tagging, and at some point I changed the tags for some things, which is why it isn’t all perfectly clear. I have some personally phrased tags: “beautiful work” is for all sorts of visual arts, “bright and beautiful” means nature and animals, “cosy things” is for anything cosy and homely and warm, “frosty wind made moan” means winter scenery and snow, and “shining morning light” is difficult to explain, but includes churches, sunlight, and some aspects of my faith, “sublime country” is specifically Yorkshire. Otherwise, I usually just tag things what they are, with the exception of a few specifically fandom or interest related tags that only make sense in context.

I can get very defensive about the things I care about, and I have very strong opinions on things and on people that only exist within fictional works.

I really, really dislike historical misinformation and stereotypes, and I have a good deal of issues with the terminology often used here on tumblr, especially when it comes to literature, history, or religion, even if it’s meant well.

I love what is usually dismissed as early 20th century “middle-brow” literature, children’s books, books that are too obscure to be classics and too old to be popular, and overly specific non-fiction. I also really like poetry and art of the kinds that are considered to be much too pretty to be really intellectual.

I have very many feelings about the Inklings. I can’t help extolling Elizabeth Goudge. I am a Stratfordian, and sincerely hope that all anti-Stratfordians will soon see the error of their ways, and I am glad that this is one of the things I can actually agree on with the tumblr-majority. P. G. Wodehouse was a genius. Arthuriana is not fan-fiction but people can and should have fun with it.

I have the following sideblogs: @oldsolidbooks (for literature and art) @teachinglogic (for Narnia and for Aslan) @sublimecountry (James Herriot’s books and BBC All Creatures Great and Small) @shiningmorninglight (nature and countryside and cosy things) @thelongbowman (Robert Hardy) and @twofoolsiknow (romance, tenderness...)

[v-thinks-on]

Plum’s Birthday Jeeves Prompt Exchange

For Wodehouse’s upcoming birthday on October 15th, we’re holding a Jeevesian prompt exchange! All art forms (visual, written, musical, etc...) welcome! Spread the word!

All you have to do is fill out this form with a prompt for someone else and provide a few parameters for what sort of prompt you’d like to receive, and then, on October 15th, you’ll receive a prompt, to be filled any time - for minimum stress!

[isfjmel-phleg]

Psmith Pseptember: Week 1 Prompts

Welcome to Psmith Pseptember, the month in which we appreciate P. G. Wodehouse’s Psmith series. We’ll be looking at one of the four books of the series each week, with two days left over for bonus topics.

Feel free to engage however you like: with creative contributions, meta, general flailing, however you prefer to express it. The following prompts are a general suggestion to give you ideas, but they’re not rigid. You don’t exclusively have to deal with a given topic on a day if you don’t feel like it. You’re under no obligation to post every day, or at all. This is supposed to be fun, so have at it!

Starting on September 1, a week from today, we will be looking at Mike and Psmith (aka The Lost Lambs, the second half of Mike, or Enter Psmith). This is Psmith’s first appearance and the book that would bridge Wodehouse’s school stories with the humorous novels for which he would become better known.

Tuesday, 9/1: major character(s)

Wednesday, 9/2: supporting/minor character(s)

Thursday, 9/3: setting

Friday, 9/4: relationships (platonic, antagonistic)

Saturday, 9/5: headcanons/theories

Sunday, 9/6: illustrations/visual interpretations

Monday, 9/7: something fun

[douchebagbrainwaves]

OK, I'LL TELL YOU YOU ABOUT BULWARK

Indeed, one of the sort that relies on pushing a few visual buttons really hard to temporarily overwhelm the viewer. Look at the people around you and ask yourself which you'd like to work with. It makes me self-conscious to write about it.1 Of course it matters to do a good job.2 That makes Wodehouse doubly impressive, because it meant that to write as he wanted to seem aristocratic; she was afraid she wasn't smart enough.3 There is no one single force driving this trend. He worked on big things, at least for part of his life. We've kept the program shape—all of us having dinner together once a week turns out to be a waste of time.4 How much you like the work. But by the modern era such questions were answered as well as implementation. He was doing something quite different from their own; and its very uselessness made it function like white gloves as a social bulwark. And there was the mystery of the so-called real world.

An essay is not a reference work. No one uses pen as a verb in spoken English.5 But schools change slower than scholarship: the study of literature. Other players were more famous: Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Lynn Swann. I'm in debt. For illustrative purposes I've left the abandoned branch as a footnote. Indeed, English classes may even be harmful. It won't come to that; investors or acquirers or if you're so lucky underwriters will nail you first. The melon seed model is that the concept of users is missing from most college programming classes.6 Most students don't realize how incompetent they are.

Notes

A good programming language ought to be staying at a Demo Day pitch, the way to fight. Abstract-sounding nonsense seems to be able to claim that companies like Google and Facebook are driven by the financial controls of World War II, must have had a killed portraiture as a cold email.

I preferred to work like casual conversation. The problem is not a promising lead and should therefore get low priority, but I'm not saying that good paintings must have seemed an outlying data point that could evolve into a de facto chosen by human editors.

It's much easier to say because most of the word I meant. I knew, there is money.

There's probably also the fashion leaders.

Then Josh Wilson came in to pick a date, because any story that makes it onto the frontpage is the most important things VCs fail by choosing startups run by people trying to make a conscious effort to make peace with Spain, and can negotiate on the one hand they take a meeting with a product, just harder.

Particularly since many causes of failure would be to say for sure a social network for x instead of hiring them. Actually, someone did, once. There's a variant of compound bug where one bug, the 2005 summer founders, if they did that in fact they don't make their money if they do now. One of Europe's advantages was that professionalism had replaced money as a cause for optimism: American graduates have more money.

[helloamhere]

get to know me tag

Thank you for tagging me in this @hazzabeeforlou, I am sitting on a train with surprisingly good wifi so this is a nice way to pass the time!! :) 

Name: 

Zodiac sign: Gemini and I never, ever identify with a single thing about what people say w.r.t. this sign unless it’s Madame Clairvoyant who writes things that are useful for all and I globally recommend her for a little bit of internet therapy. But seriously, all the stereotypical things people say about Geminis, I just feel no agreement with. Maybe I’m passionate, but Geminis are supposed to be buckwild no inhibition party machines or something and I don’t think I’m being self-deluding when I say that’s not and has never been me! 

Height: 5′3.5″? I think? It’s been inconsistently measured and let me tell you inconsistent measurements is a big pet peeve of mine re: all of modern medicine. Fun fact I have long arms for my height, my arm to height ratio is like that of a pro swimmer (as with my siblings)

Hobbies: so many. too many. I write some music sometimes, obviously writing fiction but I also write poetry, I’m very into scifi and fantasy and comedy tv and movies, I have a number of active kind of hobbies like I do a lot of rock climbing and hiking and aerial silks, I am actually enough into makeup that I’d call it a hobby, I also do some artsy craftsy things sometimes like costume making--I used to sew for a job--and lately I’ve been learning more data visualization and some graphics code stuff sort of as half-hobby half work. I swim in the ocean but I’m kind of crap at it but I do make it part of my routine. Oh, and photography! I’m pretty into photography when I feel like schlepping my DSLR around. And I weight lift! 

Favorite color: RED no contest 

Favorite book: obviously this is an IMPOSSIBLE QUESTION for us all but some forever faves are The Once and Future King (TH White), The Wind in the Willows (K Grahame), How I Became Stupid (M Page), Angelmaker (N Harkaway), The Girl with All the Gifts (MR Carey), Cold Magic (K Elliott), the Lynburn Legacy (SR Brennan), all the Redwall books (B Jacques), Thief of Time (T Pratchett), all of the Psmith series (PG Wodehouse), The Worst Journey in the World (Cherry-Gerrard), everything by Lewis Thomas, Endurance (Lansing) and The Ghost Map (S Johnson) haha that was too many idc

Last song I listened to: Cross My Mind by ARIZONA  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Last movie I watched: hahah Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol and I watched it with my suuuuuuper hilarious, always-unfiltered very ASD aunt running commentary on it the WHOLE time and now I want to watch action flicks with her always

Inspiration/Muse: long periods of quiet and space. This is key for creative cognition!!! Knowing people who are different from me. My girl, who is brave and quiet and deep, like a miraculously folded piece of perfect origami. My two youngest brothers, who are goofy and wonderful and alive and who have never once, in their entire lives, not been supportive of me. Interaction effects, quirky strange nonfiction stories, people who are better than I am, music, going to the theater, having good food and good rest, staring into space.

Dream Job: Oh lord I have to admit it’s a fulltime writer probably. Like a crazy successful movie-selling writer, not a “fulltime churning out many books trying to pay bills” writer. :D Isn’t the dream job to not have to work that much?? But I like what I do now, and I am suspicious and want to interrogate the notion of a dream job anyway.

Reason behind my username: oh not a lot of reason lol. I had to make a new username on ao3 to post my Generally Secret and Classified Fanfic and I enjoy mundane three word phrases and it just sounded right somehow and now I even think of myself as Hello on here, so that worked out!! 

if anyone feels like a tag?? @lululawrence @ham-palpert @jacaranda-bloom @allwaswell16 anyone who wants!! 

[wotwotleigh-prime]

Good job, Bertie, you finally did it. You broke Jeeves.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Uchitama 1 - 2 | Hatena 1 - 2 | Ankoku Hakaishin 1 - 2 | Infinite Dendrogram 1 | Hanako-kun 2 | In/Spectre 1 | ARP Backstage Pass 1 | A3 1

Rolled out one tag. I got pretty far behind, so I’ll catch up in the next few posts.

Uchitama 1

Ume and Shirai here.

I would assume this kid with the tiger on his shirt is called Tora, because I vaguely remember a “Tora” in the promotional material.

The sakura aesthetic is nice.

This switch between boy and cat forms is a bit…”weird” is the first word that came to mind, but “random” was the next.

Tora = Shirai and Ume is a character called Kuro, who we haven’t seen yet. (Had to google which roles they had.)

LOL, I like Beh already. A sleepyhead like him is perfect!

I just noticed, but Beh sometimes has a cleft palate (that little dent in the mouth).

Ume’s character isn’t too bad-looking, y’know. He’s a clumsy one though, so he doesn’t quite seem like the sort of character I’d gravitate to.

Seeing boys and girls act like cats and dogs makes me LOL.

Huh? Is cat-dog romance like your standard opposites attract romance…?

Hmm…thank goodness the mother cat wasn’t “made human”…

I’m used to Nora being a woman (see Noragami plus the Western general usage of the name “Nora”)…so this one being a guy (with nice eyes, to boot) is a bit disorienting.

Turns out the Tosa is a huge dog with a face like a pitbull.

I find this Momo-Bull romance just a bit weird still.

I got spoilt on this from the reviews, but Waiha = Hawaii.

That flash of Nora’s owner (?) was interesting!

Other notes: The narration seems to be done by the voice of Tama. Ume sounds like Ume, but it doesn’t feel like Ume because he’s playing against his normal type of character. Shirai doesn’t sound like Shirai though…it’s a completely different character to the types I’ve heard him do before (Ramuda and Io don’t sound like Tora, but Vino sounds similar to En because a lot of Ume characters are done in his usual, suave voice…Ramuda is Shirai doing a falsetto though so he’s hard to compare).

Hatena 1

This one got alright reviews, but I get the feeling I’m not going to like it, so lt’s get this over and done with.

Why is Kana the only one with the black hair…?

This OP is rather low budget compared to the others…

I fully expect Kana to go “It’s bitter…” and make a face when drinking the coff-yep. Thought so. Why do people think black coffee is the mark of a distinguished adult anyway? I don’t even like coffee, so I don’t get it at all.

The sentence in Japanese went something like “Makoto’s always been good”, so I don’t get why the word “egg” had to be introduced into the subs.

There’s an onigiri sale in the back, LOL.

The gates were fairly CGId…

The butler’s name is literally Jeeves Wodehouse, LOL.

Oh, Yumemi is blonde because of Maeve and Kana is brunette/black (?) haired because of Mamoru. Yumemi = dream seeing and Mamoru = protect.

Kana’s voice is annoying! That’s why I thought I wouldn’t like this.

Kana’s such a tsundere now that she knows Makoto is a boy, it’s annoying. I already knew such a detail from the reviews, so I’m not miffed at all.

I find it vaguely amusing that there were 3 different types of animation of a person popping their head into the attic.

Ema’s just a bit evil…Update: Nup, she just ships Kana x Makoto, that’s all.

The hardsubs weren’t encoded correctly on this episode, so they’re all blurry now. Still readable but blurry.

The pun is that the ka in Kana can be read hate in other cases.

More CG doors.

Why is Kana wearing the scarf, even after her bath in a towel???

This reminds me of Hayate the Combat Butler…

Maeve is foreign...that’s why she’s blonde. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh. (<- partially sarcastic)

Hmm…the fact you can’t tell what is and isn’t real is an interesting factor. However, the production values and the bog-standard romance being set up undercut that.

Magical girl transformation, eh? Reminds me of DN Angel or Magic Kaito, but also Phantom Thief Jeanne or something of the sort.

Hatena 2

I’m still trying to see if this is something to kick out…

This “scarf punches guy” business is getting old…I never got used to it in the old-school harems. I don’t know why it’s become a “classic” thing in anime.

This is meant to be for a boy’s perspective, so…I don’t get it. Okay, I’m dropping this.

Infinite Dendrogram 1

An isekai…oh, goody. (sarcastic) Then again, if I liked this I could try a new publisher out, so it’s win-win for me and the companies I go through to get there.

*the exposition rolls in about virtual reality* Oh great (sarcastic)…this is SAO all over again, isn’t it???

I saw HOTZIPANG in the credits list…now I’m really wary. HOTZIPANG were in the credits for Africa Salaryman and their animation production isn’t the best.

1st person cam…you suck, you know that?!

No. 13 (unlucky number)…Cheshire (Alice in Wonderland)…

Ray for Reiji makes sense, but…(consults Google-sensei) mukudori does mean “starling”, after all.

Yo…does Ray have to be blonde…? Is this some commentary on how having blonde hair is better than black hair, or am I thinking about this too much? (It’s my belief that Asians want to look European and vice versa – just look at their beauty standards! - so that’s where that comes from.)

Box? Looks like a bag to me.

Welp, just grabbing the kanji for mukudori via Wikipedia revealed the Embryo is a sword to me…*shrugs* No surprise there – as TV Tropes would say, heroes love swords (and redheads!).

So you can commit murder in Infinite Dendrogram??? (I’m joking partially, but Cheshire did say “you can do anything”…right?)

…and of course Ray drops into Altea from the sky. It’s been a cliché since No Game No Life.

“This is a game?” – Actually, I thought the same thing when I entered the website and game of TERA. Then again, this is basically trying to be SAO through and through, so I guess spouting that line is a prerequisite here.

How does anyone break both arms from running into someone…?

Well, at least this show looks nice. It’s doing its job on that front.

I was going to ask what a tian was, but the show answered it for me. Good job, show!

*Googles “dendrogram”* - “a tree diagram, especially one showing taxonomic relationships.” – Oh, so that’s why it’s called Infinite Dendrogram! (Y’know, it reminds me of studying about dendrites, which have the same appearance as a dendrogram...hence the shared origins of the words.)

Normally characters don’t jump into virtual worlds with thir brother…they’d do it with their cousin or crush or something…Hmm.

I was about to think you die in real life if you die in the game, but thank goodness this one is nowhere near as bad.

CGI bugs…of course…

That one still shot revealed a crack in this show’s visuals. I almost thought I could select it on the basis of the excellent visuals alone, but nope.

“…that…leaves a bad taste in my mouth!” – Not again, Ray…stop saying that line…

Again? I just told you in the last note not to!

Of course Ray gets the girl. I should’ve known…well she’s a sword but also a girl…?

The sentence ending -grizz is –kuma in Japanese.

I felt something special in my gut when the sword appeared, even though I’m complaining about this being like SAO, so I think it’s worth continuing.

A3 1

A3 is based on a mobile game so it looks a lot like those idol games, but it’s actually about acting according to the full name of Act! Addict! Actors!.

This kid’s eyes freak me out!

Considering this involves – according to the synopsis – a Mankai (full bloom) Company and this is called “spring and summer”, plus the metaphors from earlier, it makes sense the kiddo’s jumper says “spring” on it.

I thought the kid was singing, but turns out he’s reciting Shakespeare. I don’t know how popular the ol’ Shakie is in Japan, but I’ll take it.

Veludo Way = Broadway, apparently.

It should be Biro-do or Verodo, but not “Vedulo” like the subs say.

*sees a woman* - Oh great, so now this turns into an otome game…or, like i7’s Tsumugi, she’s an audience insert.

Someone encoded the video funny again…*sigh*

I bet the demolition guy is going to join the theatre, based on his looks. Update: According to the wiki, yes he does (as part of the Autumn troupe)! One of his hobbies is bubble wrap, which I can relate to immensely…and apparently he’s a yakuza…?

Masumi’s voice…is that Kaito Ishikawa? Update: No! It’s Shirai! I’m so surprised…it’s a very Io-sounding voice, though, so I guess I shouldn’t.

Masumi is one of those needy types who could easily fall into yandere territory…I don’t like him. I don’t like Sakuya either, though…

I know this from my recent experience, but hard work hardly works, Sakuya. Staying somewhere one year or ten years does diddly squat if you don’t have what other people are looking for. *tries not to cry*

I’m sorry guys, but even with the attack to the heart, I don’t give a s*** about you all. The troupe was just arguing to delay their deadlines and Furuichi (the demolition guy) has a point – the guys didn’t really prove themselves outside a brief but unimpressive stint from Sakuya.

ARP Backstage Pass 1

Hopefully this show is actually good, y’know? A3 just bombed…

Okayyyyyyyyyyy…from the one minute or so that I’ve seen, it looks like a Coldplay concert but with bishonen (good) and bad music (which is…uh, bad). That does not bode well for this show…also, the stage names are pretty obviously that. I mean, who cals their kid “Rage”? It’s probably Reiji (again, considring Infinite Dendrogram).

The cars from above almost look like Frogger…LOL.

Oh f*** me and my on-the-ball instincts! I guessed correctly again (Rage = Reiji)…and that’s bad news.

Wait, why is Shinji staring into space…?

There’s a kettle noisily going on in the background, so I can’t really tell what’s so awesome about this show without the music…I guess I’ll have to abort this mission until later…

Okay, so I listened to the piano bit thrice and couldn’t tell if there was a piano noise…That’s bad news. Update: Yep, listened to it again and there is no piano sound during the piano scene.

The rock music was…unexpected.

Wait, you mean the dude’s name is actually Daiya??? What???

Oh my gosh, these guys are hilarious! I know that’s dark considering they’re starving, but…LOL.

Idolmaster Side M taught me that career changes are actually pretty interesting when combined with idol anime and…this may be a band or something, but it sure works the same way.

That transition to Leon was terrible.

This appears to be Yokohama (Chinatown) and Hakone (the pirate ship).

Well, the show’s case would be helped if they had music in the right places, rather than music videos interspersed throughout.

Geesh this one is tough…some of the music is actually pretty good and the episode does get better when Rebel Cross appear (but Shinji is kinda boring, even though I thought I’d like him the most, and Leon’s singing was downright terrible), but the animation is terrible and I found myself going “But why should I care?!” multiple times in my head during the first half. The group do seem to have quite good synergy at the end and are generally entertaining, too.

Ankoku Hakaishin 1

I’ve ben calling this “Destructive God” or “Ankoku Haishin”, so this is A Destructive God Sits Next to Me. Update: It should be Hakaishin…actually.

Ooh, Natsuko Takahashi. This show’s in good hands.

Very Seki-kun.

Black Mouse Land, LOL.

“This is war!” – The word here is shoubu, which literally means “victory or defeat”, so it makes sense to change it to a more commonly used phrase.

“RIP Koyuki” – The grave said “Koyuki’s grave”…which isn’t that funny to be honest, so again, I get the decision to change it.

Hanadori still had the dog…?

“Things I Want to Forget” – Literally, the words on the page mean “black history”, which I think is funnier.

Oh, I bet Koyuki will plan the class trip…

“[T]he jerk in the next class over” – Does he have a name…?

I bet Koyuki has the worst grades in math of the trio.

Koyuki is deliberately designed like a cat, it seems.

You can see the broken window from earlier…LOL.

It’s Animal Crossing! On DS! (But what’s up with that rabbit with the fishnet stockings…?) Update: Do Japanese kids even use DSs these days? DSs must be cheap in comparison to their newfangled gaming laptops and Switches…

Is Tsukimiya Mamoru Miyano or something…? Update: Nup, Kimura. I seem to get those two confused quite a bit.

The “Muney” (sic) thing is because he (Hanadori) wrote the hyou in mokuhyou (aim, goal) wrong. By the way, Hanadori put an eyepatch on one of his banknotes.

That ending was actually kind of cute. I always prefer heartwarming comedies like these over mean-spirited ones (Osomatsu-san, Konosuba), so…yep, it’s in my wheelhouse!

I predicted the ending but the galactic reaction I got was…awesome!

In/Spectre 1

Why does this have so many names? In/Spectre, Kyokou Suiri , Inverted Reasoning (or was it Inverted Interface)…? Update: Inverted Inference. That’s the name on the manga covers.

Ooh, Saki is pretty classy-looking.

This is being framed like a romance, huh? I know this series is supernatural, but I’m not really here for the romance.

What’s the age gap? 17 (Kotoko) – 23 (Kuro)?

Lel, Harlequin novels. Those seem to be exclusive to the Western world (specifically the USA and its English-speaking country buddies), so it’s probably just romance novels in the original words. Update: I found Harlequin novels for Japan, but still, they’d be nowhere near as ubiquitous as they are elsewhere. Update 2: I kept thinking about it, so now I have an entire post with my findings. Turns out Japan does have and know about Harlequin novels (which do look like the one the samurai was holding), but they probably couldn’t state the name because of potential lawsuits or something. 

Oh gosh, Potato-kun (Kuro) – yes, I think of him much like a normal harem lead – getting your hand chomped off to the arm is a bit stupid, y’know?

Whoa! Wht a crazy cliffhanger!

Whoo! This OP (? Or is this an ED?) is crazy cool. Kinda like low-budget Kekkai Sensen.

Well, this show is kinda losing me with the romance elements, but the supernatural part is great.

Hanako-kun 2

What’s Hakujoudai? Those will o wisps? Update: Seems so.

The explanation of Yousei-san has a voice like it’s coming across a radio…interesting.

The towel…I bet it’s the one from Senpai one of the students mntioned earlier.

The subbers spelt “brooch” wrong.

This new boy – which I thought was Minamoto at first (LOL?)…he has a traffic omamori as an earring and a staff/umbrella, so he’s probably an exorcist. Either that or a massive chuunibyou.

LOL, Castle in the Sky much? (Or is that Nausicaa?)

Nene is reading from a magazine called G Cinema.

The comedy is this is slowly getting better. That’s a good sign for this, but bad for Ankoku Hakaishin…

Seagull High????? (Kamome = seagull.)

Wait, Minamoto??? You mean Nene’s former love is an exorcist??? Update: Oops, that’s (Nene’s crush is) Kou’s older bro…but that’s spoilers.

“Kou” is written with the character for hikari, or in this case “Yorimitsu”.

The action scenes are pretty good in this…I guess I kind of took them for granted in ep. 1.

Oh, I guess I should’ve known that seal on Hanako’s face…there were more of them in his possession. Also, there’s an extra V in the subs for some reason.

The stairs remind me of Muzan’s “universe” near the end of Demon Slayer’s first season.

Oh, the events of this episode tell you why Nene does the next episode stuff.

The ED visuals remind me of Ranpo Kitan’s, and I love Ranpo Kitan’s.

Ankoku Hakaishin 2

Why is Koyuki eating with his teacher anyway? I thought he was the guy from the class next door until he started talking about kids.

“Miguel Whatever” makes me laugh every time.

The cat ears on Koyuki’s phone are cute.

Sumiso reminds me of Aikatsu girls…

Uchitama 2

Bull is an “ore-sama”, huh?

I didn’t think they would continue with the “Solitary King of Destruction” thing.

Bull as a chuunibyou ham is so entertaining, but when they try to play the Momo romance hand again…I start to lose my patience...

LOL, Petstagram…

…and now it’s a (reverse) HAREM!

“[M]ad dog”, LOL, what a turn of phrase.

Okayyyyyyyyy subbers, own up! Who put a dog pun in Bull’s talk?! (I’m referring to the “doggone it!”.)

*points at dog puns*- You didn’t, subbers! You’re still adding dog puns!

Wait, Bull’s singing?! This I didn’t expect!

Well…this decision is hard. Bull’s become greater than ever…but only in relation to his romance with Momo!

Aww…seeing Bull dejected makes me sad inside too.

Oh yeah! There we go! That intro landed its gag purrfectly…to use an intentional cat pun.

Why did I take to Bull so much? Well, if he weren’t a dog, I’d find him completely romanceable, even if he were a massive chuuni.

Oh, the pun is ippai (full). Then you unintentionally switch it to oppai (boobs).

What? Wow, I never thought I’d get Ume talking about cat and dog nipples. (That’s not a sentence I’m going to be able to match any time soon.)

Okayyyyyyyyy…that one segment was a massive weird non-sequitur. I have no idea how they’d represent that with cat and dog forms.

Oh, Petstagram! We actually get to see it!

This series is more prone to “mood swings” than Ankoku Hakaishin or even Hanako-kun…yikes.

No, no, no! Who is this guy??? Haven’t you heard of “stranger danger”?!

…Oh, so the guy was Tome, huh?

The ED! This aesthetic is too good!

ARGH! Okay, okay, Uchitama! You win! I was going to pick Ankoku Hakaishin because that’s more consistent in landing its laughs and Hanako-kun would’ve been a better choice because its aesthetic is more consistently there plus it has interesting ideas with its apparitions, but Ankoku Hakaishin is fairly interchangeable with Iruma-kun…basically, if Eizouken or Magia Record don’t work out, I can loo forward to switching in one or the other, but I’m going to stick with Uchitama because *gestures wildly at screen* just look at this manservice! Even if it’s actually for a dog, I cannot deny the manservice!

[rosecorcoranwrites]

Books as Verbal Storytelling

Books are worth your while, and are a unique form of storytelling. I probably don't have to convince most of you of that, since you're probably following this blog as someone into writing. Also, I'd wager that most people think that books are important. But what makes them unique? Why read—or write—a book instead of watching a movie or playing a video game?

Lets begin with the basics. Books—and I'm going to include novels, book series, and even short stories under this umbrella—use verbal storytelling. They are the only medium to be completely without a visual component. This means that the author must choose his words carefully in order to convey what the characters, scenes, or actions look like to the audience. At the same time, there is a natural disconnect between what the author sees in his mind's eye and what the reader will imagine. This is a good thing. Each reader will have a somewhat unique experience of the book, while still getting most of what the author intended.

This non-visual-ness also means that the author can choose what details are important to a scene. While different stories might both take place in the same city, one author might choose to include descriptions of the smell of the rained-on sidewalks and the color of the cloudy sunset on buildings, giving the reader a pleasant feeling of the place. A different author might talk about the jostling crowds and the cigarette butts steeping in dirty puddles, making the scene feel more grody. Still another might bypass descriptions of the place itself, and instead say, "He walked the three blocks from work to his apartment, hands stuffed into his pocked and eyes gazing at his own feet," which hides what's around the character since he's probably ignoring it himself.

Clever authors can also use our inability to see what's happening to surprise the audience. For example, in the dystopian novel The Giver, the main character begins to think something might be wrong with him because he was tossing an apple in the air and it "changed". At first, we the audience don't know what that means, as he himself has a hard time describing it to other people. Only later do we realize that the "change" was the apple turning from grey to green because, as it turns out, people in this society have lost the ability to see colors! It really hit home the idea that there was something off about society but we—the characters and the audience—weren't aware of it. That blew my mind when I first read that book, and there is no way you could do the same thing in a visual medium.

Similarly, I read a mystery (can't tell you which one, because even that would be a spoiler) where the twist at the end was entirely precipitated on the fact that we, the readers, could not see what one of the detectives actually looked like. And the writer knew it. He basically led the readers by the nose, knowing what assumptions they would make going into the story, then pulled the rug out from under them at the end. It was marvelous!

Another aspect of books is the telling, rather than the showing of the story. That is, aside from what's needed to convey something visual to the reader's mind, narration and narrative voice can also be used to enhance the non-visual parts of the story. Narrators can give their opinions—reliable or otherwise—about what's happening in the plot, give lively exposition, or go off on tangents that have little to do with what's actually going on. First-person narrators like the fiery, feral Lina Inverse of the Slayers series or the hapless Bertie Wooster of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster books tell their stories with such gusto that it feels like talking with a real person, rather than reading a book.

In some cases, the narrator might not even be a character, but can have such personality that it feels like one. The dryly comedic narration in Douglas Adams's Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy series is just as, if not more memorable than, the plot. The narrator of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series is calm and gentle, obliged to repeat well-known details of the characters' lives, since it's an episodic cozy mystery, but in such a charming way that it feels like chatting with an old friend.

And that is why books are unique and worthwhile. As much flak as I gave bookworms in my last post, books actually do harken back to the oldest forms of storytelling: poetry, song, even myth. Humans are verbal creatures--the only ones, in fact. The ability to understand the world in language, in abstractions, is a large part of what makes us human. Books and textual storytelling is a way of recording that language for future people to access down the line. Some stories can be told best in this way, with words and not pictures. Some stories can—should—be told in words only, because visual mediums can't always do what this solely verbal medium can.

And those, dear readers, are my thoughts on books.

[theopenbookwigtown]

Hello! We are Lydia and Mark. Both book lovers (obviously), we feel very lucky to be here!

Lydia: I read mostly fiction, often fantasy or historical. I am midway through ‘The Crimson Petal and the White’ and also brought the Neapolitan series by Elena Ferrante with me. I work at the Royal Opera House but know embarrassingly little about either ballet or opera. A novice knitter, I’m hoping to make my first jumper while I’m here.

Mark is a visual effects artist, currently reading Wodehouse’s ‘Summer Lightning’ and using quiet times in the shop to learn Unity and C#, the language - not the note.

Sunday

We arrived late Saturday night - up from London after a stopover in the lake-district for a walk and some Grasmere gingerbread. We were greeted by George who let us in, showed us around and accepted a gingerbread gift before a lively night at Craft, a local pub/restaurant. The band covered classics by Fleetwood Mac, Dolly Parton... Coldplay. Sunday’s hangover brought us a fun 10am opening. We had 9 visitors (in 3 groups) and sold 5 books. We’re not sure if this is a quiet day or a massive success.

The Open Book has a large collection of Western pulp novels (mostly Zane Grey). We’ve reduced them all to 50p and expect they’ll be flying off the shelves.

Ruth from Well Read Books next door came to welcome us. We popped back after closing for tea and book-selling/opera-loving wisdom. Her shop is well laid out with a very comfy sofa. We were both surprised to hear all her books are second-hand too (though in hindsight the clue is in the name).

Number of visitors: 9 Books sold: 5

Monday

We’ve since added to and re-sorted the fiction section - a delaying tactic before beginning the vast and terrifying birds section. If you need to know anything at all about birds, the Open Book is clearly the place to be.

New books arrived! Which led inevitably to re-organising the history section, an ongoing task. We have a lot of books on Churchill, if you’re interested.

We also read up about Lucia di Lammermoor and Rosemary - the flat-manager - showed us where it all went down, just 5 minutes from here. There’s a beautiful ruined castle (well, wall) that is all that remains of where she died.

Number of visitors: 7 Number of visitors who were not part of the festival team: 1 Books sold: 1 Books sold to visitors who were not part of the festival team: 0

[sabelladunne]

24 Hour Readathon - End of Hour 23

Very close to the end of the readathon now! and we plow on with Pepperharrow and the anxiety that it induces. I won’t finish it before the end of the readathon as I’m only a bit more than half way through, however I think I might continue with it for the rest of today as I really want to make sure that all my darlings survive to the end.

The story that I would want to be made into a series: I think that the Wayward Children series would look splendid in a visual medium, they’re really vivid worlds.

Currently Reading

The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley - page 260 (started page 60)

Summer Lightning by P.G. Wodehouse - 5%

Finished Reads

Before We Disappear by Shawn David Hutchinson - 501 pages

Chef’s Kiss by Jarrett Melendez - 125 pages

The Ties That Bind by P.G. Wodehouse - 192 pages