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ship tag game
tagged by @just-barrow, who has great taste in ships.
Rules: Without naming them, post a gif of ten of your favorite ships (any media), then tag the same number of people to do the same.
tagging: @roseszirnheld @davidstirlings @noeavoiding @feydrautha @duesternis @leftenantjopson @leftoversl1ce @almost-a-class-act @pastexistence @holographiccs
18 and 20 😃😃😃
18. How many books did you buy?
Ok. So. You gotta understand that I do have a charity shop near me, and that charity shop sells three paperbacks for £1 and there was a period of time that it had a bunch of war books in there, anyway scene set I am normal about this. Let's go look.
Ok, tracking back online purchases and ones I took photos of, it's at least 145 that I can definitely see. But I know for a fact that there are others I bought just because they looked fun and cool, so probably the real number is more like 160 ish?
:) so yeah about that TBR...
20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?
Surprising NOBODY it's Reg Seekings: The True Story of an SAS Original, an incredibly charming biography that I was so happy to get to be at the launch for, with some of the Seekings family in attendance too. It's not the most indepth biography out there, but it gets into the heart of who Reg was and is full of interesting detail and character. I did love it.
ask me about my 2024 reading
getting to know your mutuals
tagged by @can-asta and @emma-ofnormandy - thank you!
1. origins of your blog’s name:
derry-rain - it's a line in IT, "it rained a lot in derry". IIRC, this blog in the most ancient of times was set up when I was on an IT kick, and was only intended as a subsidiary account to my main tumblr account. which doesn't exist anymore.
2. my ‘i’ll always order this food’:
calamari. it is my absolute always go to starter, and while i'm not too picky about eating calamari, i'm very picky about what i'd conside good calamari. i like squid.
3. overused emoji:
💕
4. current comfort movie, show, and book:
ooh, current. hm. It's probably IT Chapter 1 and 2 again actually, coincidentally. I rewatched them both last month and there's something about them that hits just right. My current show... maybe Stranger Things, maybe Justified. I yearn for rewatching Justified. For books... I am currently listening to a book called Muckle Flugga, which is about a teenager and his father living on a remote lighthouse, and the boarder that arrives to disrupt their lives. It's poetic and intimate and sad and so stunningly queer in a way that is hard to describe. 10/10 would recommend.
5. song on repeat:
good boy by paris paloma. i'm really into it right now.
6. my current hyperfixation:
i think i'm between hyperfixations actually. i'm very sleepy.
7. oddly specific thing that brings me joy:
i was gifted a tiny squishy gale cleven recently. he squeaks. i love him.
8. what smell makes me happy:
smokey incense. it's like. home.
9. something I loved as a kid and secretly still do:
i don't believe in this kind of stuff. it's like "guilty pleasure", man who has time. i loved the book the owl service as a kid, i still do now, and i reread it recently because it's perfection.
10. phone wallpaper right now:
my kitten being a menace.
11. are you an early bird or a night owl:
i'm an insomniac, lol
12. If you work, what is your profession and do you like it:
i work for an archive. it's good.
tagging, no pressure: @bosky-wisp @noeavoiding @nomilkinmyteaplease @itookyoudown maybe? i genuinely don't know who's a mutual on this blog or one of my many sideblogs oops.
Eight Authors Tag:
tagged by the ever wonderful @roseszirnheld
Rules: list eight of some of your favorite authors. (If you like, you can list your favourite book by them as well)
in no order:
1. Michelle Paver - Dark Matter
2. Andrew Michael Hurley - Devil's Day
3. Koji Suzuki - Dark Water (short story collection)
4. Victor Hugo - Les Misérables
5. Alma Katsu - The Hunger
6. Charles Dickens - Our Mutual Friend
7. Stephen Graham Jones - The Only Good Indians
8. Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Tagging (no pressure): @zan77 @ecoustsaintmein @emilykaldwen @thoughpoppiesblow
hiya 🫶🏻 6, 9, and 11 for the end-of-year book asks, please!
6. Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?
This is basically my life. I buy so many things I intend to read immediately and then just don't do that. I fully intended to read Brandon Sanderson's The Final Empire immediately. Nope. Alan Hoe's biog of David Stirling? Also nope. I will though. One out of three David Stirling biographies has got to be good*. Got to be. Surely.
*Cowles' biography is only good as an exercise in Stirling spin and Mortimer's is only good as a doorstop or possibly paperweight.
9. Did you get into any new genres?
I can't think of new genres as a whole, but I did read something totally out of my wheelhouse after seeing the play Punch, which was the book it was based on, Right from Wrong by Jacob Dunne. It's a memoir from a young man who killed another by throwing a single punch, and was convicted for manslaughter. The book about his life leading up to the moment and how he turned his life around following it. Incredible story.
(11 already answered).
2 and 11?
2. Did you reread anything? What?
I haven't done too much rereading this year, but one book I reread every single year and have done since I was a child is The Owl Service by Alan Garner. It is, imo, one of the most exquisite books ever written, powerful and magical and heartwrenchingly real, for all its fantasy. I love it. I don't think I'll ever tire of it.
11. What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?
I've read quite a lot of books that have been out for A While, but I did start the Shardlake series and have been really enjoying that. Matthew Shardlake is such an interesting character, it's so good to be spending so much more time with him.
End of year book asks: 4, 5, 18, and 25!
4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?
Katie Daysh! I've had Leeward sitting on my Kindle for an age, and I finally started reading it on a commute. Within another 48 hours I'd finished both it and its sequel, The Devil to Pay. They're Age of Sail adventure novels, in the style of Hornblower, with a beautiful older gentleman captain and his kind and dashing lieutenant as the leads. Beautifully written, great plot, wonderful characters, queer romance and relationships of many kinds, I can't wait for the next in the series - due out in March.
5. What genre did you read the most of?
Almost certainly nonfiction, WW2. I did quite a bit of reading about the 8th Air Force once MotA came out, and I'm always doing quite a lot of reading about the SAS and related stories. Fictionwise, definitely horror. I read A.M. Shine's sequel to The Watchers recently, which was fun, and Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley was another good one. The Watchers and Starve Acre actually both got movies this year too, though I found that out after reading lol.
(answering 18. How many books did you buy in another post)
25. What reading goals do you have for next year?
When I answer 18, this one is certainly going to become clear: I need to read at least 24 books on my current TBR pile. Not before buying new ones, necessarily, but at least one if I am going to buy a new book. I acquire books at a rate a little too fast for true progress. I also have a goal of listening to 4 audiobooks and reading 5 romance novels, as that's a genre I haven't really gotten into and I'd like to try.
ask me about my reading habits!
ps. (sorry merc, i reblogged to the wrong blog first and you are wonderfully quick!)
so i was tagged in this by @winniemaywebber and i think a very similiar one by @feydrautha, so thank you both. putting this on the main blog as there's more of you - though i think @bobparkhurst is catching up. no i don't know what "suits my vibe" means either.
rules: choose 4 of ur fav characters from 4 pieces of media as options and let your tumblr pals decide which one most suits your vibe
(ok i am doing five because for some reason, four is itching my brain in the wrong way, but i feel it doesn't materially change much).
who suits my vibe?
nynaeve al'meara (the wheel of time)
paddy mayne (sas rogue heroes)
sebastian vael (dragon age)
louisa guy (slow horses)
don malarkey (band of brothers)
tagging: @orchiddingme @nedwardlittle @duesternis @ginabaker1666
