On a personal front, 2019 started as it meant to go on:  crap.  This is reflected in my year in books, which I'm not even going to review, because I'm 100% sure it's crap.  I didn't come close to my goal, my participation in all the games this year was sub-par, and my participation on BookLikes in general was almost non-existent.

2020 is at least starting on a more positive note.  We're busy beavers here at the funny/animal farm, but we're both in good health and we've had some great news on the business transition front that will make life much more cheerful - or at least, less stressful.  My in-laws have run out of furniture and pictures to give us (I think / hope / pray), and I'm a lot in love with my new camera and itching to book my safari.

However, I'm still feeling down in the slumps, reading-wise.  This might be because we're up to our eyeballs in a home improvement project that has MT and I taking bets as to which of us is going to be the first to lose a kneecap in the middle of the night. I don't want to count on it, so I'm setting my 2020 goal at 150 books, maybe 125.  2019 has me spooked.

Australia is also in the midst of trying to destroy itself; the stats are staggering, and I won't hit you with them here, but every state and territory in the country is on fire in a really, really big way, and where the fire isn't, the smoke is.  I honestly believe it will be a miracle if, by the time it's all over, there's anything but sand and concrete left.  

December 18th was the hottest day ever recorded over the entire country:  the average temperature for the nation (which is roughly the size of the USA) was 107.4 / 41.9C.  That includes Tasmania, whose nearest neighbor is Antartica.  3 days ago (Saturday) an outer suburb of Sydney hit 120 / 48.9C - the hottest place on the planet that day.  Melbourne reached 111 / 44C.  I  mention all this because we haven't had a day over 60 / 16C since Sunday.  My AC is having an identity crisis, and Australian weather is weird.

Meanwhile, we're all fine, but the chickens are complaining about not being able to get the smell of the smoke out of their feathers, and the cats have retired to bed for the foreseeable future; the fish don't understand what the fuss is all about but are requesting someone do something about all the bees stealing their water.  I can't imagine a scenario where we'd be in serious danger, but I catch myself wondering if the car is big enough for 2 cats, 4 chickens, and 2 humans, and how many of each species would come out intact at the end; please God may I never have to find out.

We all have them. I'm definitely in one now. I think it's just I don't want to read the books I have started/need to read right now. Like N0S4A2. Just not in the mood. Maybe I need to read something different to break it up. Not sure what though. It's a conundrum. 

Anyway, I don't think I'll be doing bingo this year. I love it, I just can't even THINK about reading books right now. It's a bummer. 

It's been awhile.

The reason for this is I've been through -this sounds more dramatic really than it was- my biggest reading slump in years over the past couple of months. I was surprised and it took some time for me to realize what was happening. I've been reading steadily for at least the last five years (and although I've tuned down my reading challenge a bit since 2018 what with the PhD and everything) I felt everything was going fine. Also reading wise. Until it didn't.

I guess I was stuck with some books I didn't enjoy reading and it is not in my nature to quit them. I know I can't really complain since I still read six books in the worst month of it. But more than the sheer lack of books being read it was much the feeling that encompassed it. I didn't feel like reading (very weird feeling, would not recommend it ;) ). I am ashamed to say some books (I always read multiple at any given time) took me half a year to finish. But finish them I did and finally saw some light at the end of the reading tunnel.

I'm happy to say the joy of reading has returned to me, and I feel like I've been making up for lost time, slowly trying to catch up with my reading challenge (which I still hope to make by the end of the year). Only 14 books behind (rather than 30), so it's already a win.

However, when I didn't feel like reading I also didn't feel like writing about it, so I haven't spend much time on here lately. I will have to write some reviews to catch up and I hope you can forgive me for my absence.

PS. I plan on taking on the 24-in-48 again, however previous attempts have gone horribly awry (last time my parents decided to bring home a cat, and the reading was done for the weekend) so I'm curious to see where it is going.

I have reached rock bottom and denial is no longer working for me.  The rationalisation that life has been so busy!, no matter how true it might be, no longer holds up when you'd rather stare at your fingernails than pick up your book.

I'm in the mother of all reading slumps.

I've been reading a 160-something page book now for over a week.  It's not the author's best effort, but it certainly isn't that bad.  And I can't blame it on the book either.  I am overflowing with literary ennui.  

It will pass, as all things do, and I certainly do have more than enough happening in RL at the moment to keep me from fretting over the giant pink book slump in the middle of the room.  I long ago hit my book goals for the year, so there's no pressure to read either.  

But it would be nice if that giant pink book slump would haul its carcass out of here sooner rather than later; it's sitting in my favourite chair and hogging all the good light.

I haven't been very interested in sitting down and reading lately, although luckily it doesn't seem to have affected my desire to listen to audiobooks. I'm still doing a good deal of that. I made the mistake of putting multiple audiobooks on hold and, since they all came in at once, I now have an excessive amount to listen to.

I've also drifted back to visual novels (sort of like choose-your-own-adventure style computer games). I'm currently working my way through 428 Shibuya Scramble, one of the few non-romance visual novels in my collection. Judging by reviews, it usually takes people about 40 hours to get through the whole thing, and I just started my 5th hour.

The controls are occasionally a bit annoying (you can't change the text speed or use a mouse, ugh), but the story has one of the most interesting structures I've ever experienced in a visual novel. It starts off focused on a kidnapping: the twin sister of one of the characters has been kidnapped, and the first POV you follow is that of one of the cops watching as she waits to hand off a suitcase of ransom money.

Right from the start, you get one of the bad endings. In order for the story to progress, you must follow hints and switch between various POVs. One character's decision to talk to another (or exterminate or flee from an insect) could determine whether someone else's story continues or not. There are five POVs: Kano, the young cop with fiancee problems; Achi, a street smart young man obsessed with recycling; Osawa, a virologist and the father of the kidnapped girl; Minorikawa, a freelance journalist trying to help out a colleague; and Tama, a girl stuck in a cat mascot suit who is attempting to sell a questionable diet drink. A timeline helps you track each POV and switch between them at various points - all of their stories are going on simultaneously, so it's helpful to know that, say, Achi is doing X at 12:20 PM while Tama is doing Y.

The screenshots made it look like a pain to read, but it's actually been going better than I thought it would. I'm not sure that the basic story would have been that appealing, but it has a lot of energy and great humor.

A couple screenshots from Tama's storyline:

This is somewhat less creepy in context.

The game is riddled with often amusing explanatory notes.