About Me
At just 21 years old I have accomplished an overwhelming amount of nothing, so if this blog brightens even one persons day I’d be stoked. In my normal, not-on-the-internet life I frequent my university where I’m studying a double degree in Arts and IT. I spend way too little time doing coursework, so writing random blog posts provides an entertaining way to procrastinate, and given the Coronapocalypse that’s going on as I’m writing this it’s also providing a useful distraction from the world.
On this blog you’ll find reviews of every kind as well as occasional nonsense. I love reading and sharing reviews of perhaps lesser known books and authors, so if you’re looking to get acquainted with something new I hope you’ll find it here. If you enjoy a post please drop a comment so that I know you exist (it would be a great comfort to know the zombie apocalypse hasn’t started without me noticing.)
Languages
I currently have some level of reading proficiency in four languages, with my native English being the best. However, I do also read in French, Spanish and Esperanto, and below have included some information about my proficiency in those languages to give context to any reviews I put out about books read in those languages.
- French: Starting in High School in 2014, I’ve since attained an upper intermediate level of French. I can hold fairly fluid conversations, listen to podcasts, watch TV and read without too much difficulty. I’ve read at least a dozen books in French thus far, but am always looking to up that number. In 2021, I passed the DELF B2 exam. Check here for French reccommendations.
- Spanish: Started as a 2023 New Years resolution, I have a weak lower-intermediate level of Spanish. Reading is pretty much the only skill with any useful competence right now. However, I have been solidly binging Grey’s Anatomy. Thus far, I’ve finished one book in Spanish (which you can catch the review of here.) My understanding of Spanish is significantly supplemented by my French at this point, so you won’t be catching any written Spanish any time soon.
- Esperanto: Studying on and off for a decade, I’m an ’eterna komencanto’ (enternal beginner) in this amazing constructed language. My grammar isn’t too bad, but I’m lacking in vocab. Sed iun tagon, mi esperas, ke mia retejo estos parto de Esperantujo.
Rating System
While ratings can’t paint the full picture on my experience of a book, they are pretty universally used across commercial book review sites and online stores. The following table shows my general rating guideline. However, in full disclosure, I do tend to rate self-pulished work a little more favourably than traditionally published work since a negative review disproportionately affects these authors. This may mean rounding up over down on a half star mind-rating, or could mean I refrain from publishing the rating on commercial sites.
| Stars | Explanation |
|---|---|
| * | I didn’t like it and had several major issues. |
| ** | Not the worst, but I had at least one major issue. |
| *** | It was either nothing special, or had some minor issues. |
| **** | Very good but there’s room for improvement. |
| ***** | Incredible and I can’t stop thinking about it. |
Comments and Privacy
The coments are powered by Cactus Chat, which is a “federated open-source comment system for the web, based on the Matrix protocol.” I’ve chosen this system because I believe it is the most privacy-focused chat protocol I could find. It’s compatible with any Matrix client, but you can also leave anonymous comments. I won’t be going for a newsletter system unless I can make it privacy-centered as well.