A discussion with P.E. and Mari.

P.E.: I watch so much tv nowadays. More than I ever used to. I would say this is common for most college students, if the number of yaks praising Netflix are accurate. What would you say Mari?

MARI: #NETFLIXISLIFE and I understand why. With all the textbook reading it's no wonder there are not many braincells left that are willing to read; even for fun. Netflix kicks in at this point and offers fun without the use of brain. Nevertheless, I'm always pleasantly surprised on my bus rides to school where I see a great many people reading, digitally or using a hard copy book. Readers are a small community and we always go back to reading despite pit stops on Netflix and youtube.  On the other side of the spectrum, there are many more college students who have never picked up a book for fun and so to me that explains the yaks.

Gimme Netflix

P.E.: I think the fact that my commute is walking kills my time to read, because now I'm constantly going from campus to rez. And c'mon, these are college students. Have some faith. For me, it's really like you said. I  just read seventy pages of political science readings. I can't look at another word on the page. I can't. I need my brain to shut down. 

I'm starting to miss books though, like you said, to the point where I'm considering trying just ten minutes before bed. Having that other world to be excited about is so important for who I am. 

MARI: On the bright side, I don't think it's all sadness and dying kittens (I like puppies). People find other passions in university. I wouldn't pick up an economics book if you were to hit me over the head with one before I took economics. But now I find that I am fascinated with the subject and would appreciate reading more about it.

Similarly, I think you've come to find some academic reads that you enjoy. As long as your reading, I don't think it matters what your reading.

P.E.: You are seriously missing out. I did like 1/4 of a unit on monetary relations and now I feel like the shit when I read an article about currency and what that means for exports/imports/capital controls/interest rates and stuff. It's one of those things that is so easily applicable to day-to-day life. /end of P.E.'s economics love rant

And I disagree. Academic reading is different. I never realized how stylistically dry it was until I read an academic text that had metaphors and imagery and fun word play. Goddamn it academia, make your writing more interesting! I think fictional books that you pick for yourself are just so nice. School is making them novel, like little treats too, and I'm so psyched for next week when I get back home and raid the library.

Mari: Rein it in there buddy. My experiences have not been so terrible and I read books to procrastinate still :) I have experienced only two super dry textbook and those were both university custom edition. Overall, I understand others' struggle. I'll keep you in my mind when I go back to reading Mortal Heart by Robin Lafevers! (It's so good!)

Has College put a damper on your reading? 

and most importantly 

What, if anything, are you reading?

We here at The Sirenic Codex are hard hitters. We cover all the most essential issues pertaining to your reading needs. But it has come to P.E.'s attention lately that we have faltered, leaving our poor readership without the answer to a significant question. What is the best snack to eat while reading?

Now, snacks are messy, food don't go with books, blah blah blah, nope. As busy people, we need to multitask as much as possible, which means we always eat and read. But what is the best food that complements a book? Let us delve into this age-old mystery.

Chocolate Covered Almonds

What is life?

These delicacies are P.E.'s current favourite thing, and this is no exaggeration. P.E. has written a (terrible) poem about how yummy they are.

Dark ovals

Round plump

Elegant

Cream and almond

Sweet and rich

Yum, youre mine

One for fingers

Two for taste

Obsession

Infinite loops

Quarter more

I don't care 

It's a food! Can you not feel the passion? These dark chocolate almonds are the PB to the a book's jam. They snack sized, not too messy, unless you leave them out in the sun then drop them on your bed, and utterly addictive. 

Hot Chocolate

The wind is howling, the snow is falling, and you are curled up in bed, with a lovely soft blanket, about to begin your book. What could make this scene better? Hot chocolate! Hot cocoa has to be a book lover favourite. It's warm and toasty, and it's only really comparable to tea in terms of how awesome it is. Plus, it's chocolate, and if you can't tell already, this post is written by P.E. the chocoholic. 

Chips

So what if you don't want something rich and sweet? Maybe you're into cheesy, spicy, salty, crunchy goodness. Maybe chips float your boat. In any case, chips are some of the most eatable foods. They come in a handy bag, which is super easy to open and prop on your bed/counter. They win for convenience, plus they're super cheap with billions of flavours. P.E.'s favourite has to be the super spicy black-bagged Doritos. But maybe you're more of a Lays gal. The choice is yours!

Yoghurt

Maybe you're like me, buying dairy products to appease your parents because you never drink milk. Or maybe some people genuinely like yoghurt, it's tough to know. But it is snack sized, and like a lesser version of a smoothie, so it has to have some sort of appeal...

Milk n Cookies

The classic. I indulge in milk and cookies quite often. In fact, milk and cookies/cake/muffins are pretty much the only thing I buy at grocery stores. Milk and cookies bring healthy refreshment to reading. They're fun, easy to acquire, and they always taste good. 

Now that you have your choices, it's time to vote! Which snack is the best with a book? Vote, or if you have another idea, choose 'other' and share your thought!

This is easy! Done.

Kidding... Kind of :)

Thank you Ariella from Secrets of Words for tagging us! I can't wait to share with you guys some of the best books in history!

I'm one of those people who has a very strong memory of books. Sadly, this talent doesn't extend to textbooks so I'm not sure how useful it is for life but heck is it fun to reminisce of favourite books.

In order of when I read them. These books have effected my life and my tastes in books.

I cheated with only eight books (10 books tag), but each and everyone of these books hold a special place in my heart. 

1. Harry Potter ignited my love for reading.
2. Perfect Chemistry introduced me to YA romance.
3. Fire blew my mind with the creativity and richness of Fantasy. 
4. Last Sacrifice, was the book I pinned for the longest, it was my first fangirl experience. 
5. The DUFF gave me a taste of brutal honesty and the beauty of friendship. 
6. Eona brought back my love for Mulan and strong females. 
7. Where She Went shattered by heart and then walked on it with spiky boots. 
8. The Bronze Horseman reminded me of my love for travel, history and true love.

And now I tag:

... whomever wishes to do this tag. I love you all (really, I take such declarations seriously).

-MARI

You guys should know by now that P.E. and I adore the amazing creation that is gifs! So, it was quite a no brainer when I passed by Mel @ TheDailyProphet's tag post. The original creator is unknown at least to my knowledge but Mel was tagged by Reviews From A Bookworm.

Here goes!

Leigh Bardugo - Shadow and Bone

I haven't read this series yet (don't worry it's really high up there) and the only thing I can think of was Russian fur hats. But also, Anastasia. I love the fact that there are some books set in Russia, it's a fascinating country and culture and I'm super excited to learn more. My latest addiction, ever since I watched a documentary in the 5th grade, has been the Romanov family and their youngest daughter Anastasia. Too bad, the mystery seems to have been squashed though, Anastasia is indeed dead and has been since 1918.

Marissa Meyer - Cinder

Here goes another Disney gif. I actually had a really hard time with this book and after two consecutive failed attempts at getting past the first 100 pages, I've deferred this one to another time. On the fairy tale side, Cinderella was the very first book I ever read and it's quite dear to my heart. As for the Disney adaptation, I haven't seen it.

Markus Zusak - The Book Thief

I always compare the narrator of his book Death with that introduced in The Deathly Hollows.

This is a book that I credit to being amazing because I heard as much repeated a million times but I also have to say that I will probably not read it. It is not my cup of tea. The movie however, I plan to see because I feel the story is still worth knowing and probably very powerful.

Rae Carson - The Girl of Fire and Thorns

Oh Shaggie

Another series I kind of gave up on after the first book. I just couldn't connect with the world and the main character. Although, I initially enjoyed the book and probably wrote a colourful review, now I feel like the author tried too hard to make the character seem average to the point that it kind of offended me in my average body image. 

Robin LaFevers - Grave Mercy

Oh my goodness!! Get on this one people. I am a super fan of assassins and assassin nuns cannot be any cooler. I really enjoyed this one to the point of finishing all 500 pages in one day which is uncommon for me. Ever since I've been a devout fan of the series and the author so I feel it is my duty to direct you all to this amazing series! Advertisement done. 

INTERESTING FACT! Grave Mercy is set in Brittany around the time they lost their sovereignty to France and Assassins Creed Unity for which I have the gif is set in France during the Revolution!

Kristin Cashore - Graceling

Read it, dude with the tail is pointing at you!

Another absolute favourite and probably where I got my love for fantasy thing and Eon. The thing that I still remember is that this book taught be about heterochromia, the condition in which both eyes are not the same colour which I find fascinating.

Maggie Stiefvater - The Raven Boys

I was very much planning on getting a raven gif but since I'm terrified of birds in general I'm staying away. This series is not something that has garnered my attention. Despite many recommendations, the synopsis just doesn't call for me. Sorry!

Julie Kagawa - The Immortal Rules

One Piece - Nami kicking butt

Another one I tried, got confused and left for later. All I can think of from the bit I read and the synopsis is kickass.

Marie Rutkoski - The Winner's Curse.

Squeals of joy.  Gosh do I love the protagonist of this book and think she is as amazing as my favourite female pirate, Elizabeth Swann! I had a hard time choosing but this gif sure personifies who Kestrel is at the moment but I have a feeling she will be the pirate (not literally) that Elizabeth Swann grew to be.

Laini Taylor - Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Gotta love them Pirates!

I have no idea what this one is about despite having wanted to read since the time it came out. One day...

Now for the book I tag:

Twilight - Stephanie Meyers

Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling

Eon - Allison Goodman

City of Bones - Cassandra Clare

Divergent - Veronica Roth

I Hunt Killers - Barry Lyga

Poison Study - Maria V. Snyder

Cruel Beauty - Rosamund Hodge

Prisoner of Smoke and Fog

This was super fun and I hope you guys enjoyed it. I tag everyone who read this and wants to do it! One special tag  goes to P.E. I want to see your answers :)

Hope Ya'll Enjoyed!

-MARI

Stacking the Shelves is a book haul meme that comes from the lovely Tynga at Tynga's Reviews.

I don't really do Stacking the Shelves all that often, but Mari and I have started an Instagram account in our attempt to be more creative when it comes to media (follow us at thesireniccodex), and I thought I'd share some of the books I checked out from the library this week.

As a sidenote, Instagram, I would totally embed your posts but they don't show up on my blog. So if anyone has a solution to that, I would love it. 

YEAH! Looks so pretty and I really don't know what this story is about, but I've heard good things.

I've wanted to read this book for so long. I have a really good feeling about it. I've heard it's like The Hunger Games but better, and the last book that got that kind of praise that I read was Red Rising!

Ballerinas! I now this book is very dark, so it's the type of contemporary I end up enjoying. 

I have wanted this book for a very long time. It sounds like this awesome mix of action, and great storytelling. It sounds like a scary book, but I've heard so many good things that I'm excited to give it a try. 

I'm pretty excited about this book haul. All the books were found in my awesome local library. So which one should I read next? ;)

Happy reading, 
-P.E.

Bree Despain had some interesting tweets the other day about being a slow reader. This one in particular stood out.

I always want to ask people who read multiple books in a day if they really "get" what they read. Some don't even remember story days later.
— Bree Despain (@breedespain) December 28, 2013

I tried to respond on Twitter, but 140 characters is impossible to convey meaning. I'm a fast reader. I read books in a few hours in one sitting. Sometimes when you do something, the thought of doing it differently doesn't even come to mind. That's why I was surprised to see her tweet.

I read fast. It's weird because I've done those tests that have you read a page in your head and they time you, and I've gotten normal, even low scores. When it comes to books or long text in general I can read very fast. Some people ask whether you can truly understand what you're reading if you're doing it so fast.

I'd like to say yes. My ego would enjoy that, but the truth is that I forget the books I read. I've written about my book amnesia before and it's a little embarrassing to forget even the books that I love. It's just a side effect of the way I read.

I'm great at focusing on only one thing. I can put all my passion and attention and focus single mindedly on one thing. I can read in any environment, no matter how loud it is or how much I'm moving. So when I read, all my attention is put on a book.

I get lost in the book. The words don't matter. They blur by. Not even consciously, during action scenes, I find myself almost skimming the words as the action takes place in my head in real time. However, I'm not a visual reader. I don't imagine things as they look like a movie, I imagine the sense of it. The details are so important to some people, and sometimes details are important to me too, but only to give me a sense of the story. It's a little hard to explain.

If for example, I read about someone punching someone else, it's not a fist flying that I see but the emotions, the anger, the pain, the confusion, and the hysteria. And when I sum it up, I won't remember it as someone punching someone else. I remember that a fight happened.

So it's really the essence of what happened that matters to me, and when I slow down and focus on the details, it kills the overall. You know when you're in school and you have to find the theme or thesis of something? I'm awesome at that because it's always what happens overall that I pick out. The day-to-day details don't stick.

When I'm reading, it's like I'm in the world. I'm the characters going through the crap they go through and I don't process what's happening, it's more like I experience it. When a story is good, I connect with it to the point where for a few hours, I don't even think about me. It's like I'm dreaming but I'm awake. And when I finish the book after such a blistering pace, the story is done with me and it feels like I woke up. Like I've been sleeping or gone to another world and I've finally reappeared.

When people try to call me when I'm reading a book, it usually takes a few tries for them to get to me. There's also that feeling after being sucked out of the story where I wonder what I'm doing. When I don't finish the book, it burns inside me, especially when it's a good book. Everything I do, everywhere I go, all I think about is that I'm not done. The book hasn't released me from its hold and I'm in a kind of in between state.

I can't read two books at once and commit myself to both of them. I always end up treating one like a textbook while the other is like another life. I'm just so into whatever I read.

I resent it being thought that I don't 'get' a book because I read it fast. I experience it differently. The words honestly don't matter to me because it's the characters and plot that truly reign supreme in my view. Maybe I understand the story differently because I only analyze it when it's done and I look at the sum rather than the parts. That's the way I am. I look at the forest more often than the trees.

It's like my heart stops when I'm so engrossed with something and I do it until it's done and finally I can take a break and life goes on. It's the same when I write. Reading fast is just a part of me and they way I do things. What about you?

-P.E.

I don't know about you but I always get asked things like: 

• How do you have time to read? 
• Isn't reading boring? 
• Why do you read so much? 

Other times I get told outright, "Reading is boring!"

To be honest, this cracks me up but my answer is "OK! That's fair, it's your opinion. Now listen to mine."

1. I make time for reading. It's like everything else in life; you don't have time unless you make time for something. 
2. Sure, if you think reading stories written by people of all ages around the world, in thousands of different languages, translated to your language is boring, than yes. But, if you're like me and you think that is fascinating, then join the bandwagon. We love reading.
3. Mostly because I'm bored! 

Ha I know, you thought books were boring.

There are so many reasons as to why I love to read and it's hard to write them all without ending up with a long three page essay/rant. Nevertheless, I will try.

TO ESCAPE: 

Life sucks, let's face it. There are fun times but they tend to be followed by long periods of boredom. That's fine, I am not complaining because those long periods of boredom are the reason why humans have created a beautiful thing called ENTERTAINMENT. I don't know about you but I love entertainment. Some music, movies or hey, BOOKS! They are all one and the same as they all serve the same purpose: to take you out of your reality for a little while, and let you live vicariously; to see things that you probably wouldn't see in your own life.

TO LEARN: 

I value education to the next century. It is something that I feel is really important. But, like most things, school and learning can get boring. Yes, 'boring'. (Please excuse my lack of adjectives but I think boring is going to be a key word in this post.) Books are educative; from them, one can learn better literature/English. You see phrases, words, sentence structures and you become familiar with them to the point that you start to understand things that you've never been taught directly. And that's not all! Authors are amazing people. They are creative and they are intelligent. I've learnt more about people, history, and science just by reading their stories and listening to their characters. What's better than learning without knowing you're learning?

TO TRAVEL: 

One of my life goals is to travel and being 17 and broke limits these dreams, but lucky for me I have books to distract me. When I read Anna and the French Kiss or Just One Day, I could almost see myself in Paris eating macarons waiting for Etienne or Willem to show up. Those books are great because they ignite the flame of curiosity inside me. I want to see Paris, I want to see all these places and they educate me on them, their history, etc. 

Then there are books that feature places that you can't stand up and go to with a measly plane ticket, like Hogwarts. Yes, I know there is a World of Harry Potter but the taste that I got from those books make me crave the whole thing; the real thing. This thirst can not be quenched by a quick trip to Florida. I want to go to Hogwarts, I want to get sorted by the sorting hat (GO SLYTHERIN!). Sadly, I will never get my wish but through the books I can live and relive the beautiful story and world numerous times. Darn, I want some butterbeer right now!

TO LIVE: 

Books are another life. They are removed from your immediate reality and therefore have the power to immerse you into another's reality, may it be fictional or not. I can't tell you how many time I wished I was a fly on someone's wall. We, human being, are fascinating. In books we get the chance to hop right out of our busy schedules or boring days and jump into someone else's. You can be 14, tall and red headed, worrying about your first day of high school or 65 and thinking about how best to throw your retirement party. The point is you get to live and taste things that you wouldn't otherwise. You get to enjoy things that you wouldn't otherwise and what is life if we're not enjoying it?

Behold, my essay on why I love books. It is now 12 am on a school night and I'm going to hop right back into my boring life but I'm a little bit happier because I got to rant about why I do what I do best. After all it is that thing what has lead me to be here on this beautiful website with my favourite co-blogger P.E., who is brilliant and all you wonderful readers! 

On that note, Why Do You Read?

-MARI

I enjoy listening to music like most people. There are some books I link to the songs I listen to. They're linked based on music or atmosphere, or tone. Sometimes, the connection is all kinds of ridiculous, but everyone's different. Here are some books and songs that accompany them in my mind.

Love this song. Whenever I see this book, it plays in my head. They're not the same story, but I feel like some of the mood is the same.



This is another one that doesn't need to be explained. I can just imagine Eva feeling like this- neglected, alone, forgotten.

This song I feel is so energetic and slightly angry, (maybe manic too) which totally fits Crash and Burn. Also, damn it's catchy.  I feel like grabbing the matches from the cover of the book and lighting them all up!

Any songs you automatically associate to books? Or the other way around? 

-P.E.