Rogan Shannon

Video: https://youtu.be/CLEZ8RxJnhY

Quick note: I didn’t edit this much, it’s essentially a direct transcript of the linked video, so if some things don’t make sense, that’s why.

Hello, I’m Rogan and welcome. If you read the title, you know what this is about. My Sbooktactular Reading Adventure! I made it! I finished my whole TBR and with time to spare! I will be going in the order that I read the books. I normally will read 1, 2, 3, 4 books at the same time but for this week, I decided that I’d read one at a time. So that makes it a little bit easier for me to go through.

The first book was a graphic novel: Black Panther – Book One. I read this for the Read in a Day challenge. It was, yeah, okay. I’m not really into comics, so… It was actually a little nice because it has more information about the Black Panther if you don’t really know his world. But also, you kind of have to already know a little bit of his background, and not just go into it knowing nothing about it. This version has the original appearance of Black Panther in the comics from way back, years ago. That was cool to see, the original look.

Funny thing, a lot of the books that I got had extra introductions, or history of the book, or bits from the original (like Black Panther).

The next one: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. I read this for the Graphic Novel challenge. This has an original comic as well. This is really interesting because it’s basically teenage witch Sabrina, but with a dark twist. So this is just the story of Sabrina but has a very dark twist.

I actually read both Black Panther and Sabrina in the same day. And I finished We in under 24 hours. And that takes us to the next book! I picked We for Dystopian Novel challenge. When I read the introduction of this one, it said that this is the forefather to pretty much every dystopian novel ever, including Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World. After reading this… Yep. YEP. It’s very clear that 1984 takes a lot of inspiration from this. It’s basically about a world in the future that no one has a name, just numbers. Letters and numbers. They live in a perfect, clean world. This novel focuses on one guy who starts to question his world, his place in life, and if this is really everything. It’s pretty good. It’s good for an old book. The writing style is a little hard to understand sometimes, but I enjoyed it. I liked it.

This book, Fahrenheit 451, I read for the Set in the Future challenge. In my TBR video, I said that I wanted to re-read this because I wanted to see if I still like it now or what. The answer is: Yes, I do still like it. Another thing I like about this copy is that it’s the 60th anniversary edition, so they added a foreword, added a large section of “History, Context, and Criticism.” If you don’t know what this book is about, where have you been? It’s set in a future where books are illegal. And firemen don’t put out fires, they start them. If anyone is caught with a book, they get the person out of the house then burn the whole house. People aren’t allowed to think, pretty much. The book focuses on one guy, Guy Montag. He’s a fireman. And it’s about him trying to figure out what books are, and realizing that this is not he wants, that this is wrong. It’s really good. I can’t really tell you too much about the book without ruining it, so I’m going to shut up now.

Next book! 2001 – A Space Odyssey. I chose this one for Black Cover challenge. If the name is not familiar to you at all… Who are you? This book was written in 1968, right when the Space Race was taking off, people were all gaga about space. This predicts what will happen in 2001… Clearly that future didn’t happen. But there are a lot of things that happened in the book that were kind of predicted that would happen. Even now, this still feels like it’s set in the future. Which is odd. That also makes you realize that, wow, we really don’t know what is coming. 1968 seemed like it would explode, and we’d be traveling in space, been to Jupiter, Saturn, by 2001. But now, it’s 2017. We’re not even close to touching Mars. If you don’t know even the basic story, it’s about a crew who were selected to go on a trip to Saturn. It was originally to Jupiter, but was changed to Saturn for unknown reasons. And that ship is run by a computer, HAL9000. And then–most people know this–the computer freaks out and tries to take over, kill the crew, and whatever. If you haven’t read or even seen the movie, do it.

Next book: The Lovely Bones. This is for the Dead Narrator challenge. I actually really enjoyed myself reading this, even though it’s really sad. I enjoyed myself reading this. It was different than what I’m used to. It’s a really interesting perspective on death and life. The dead watching the living, the living trying to go through without the dead. It’s really good, really good. And that’s really impressive for a first-time author. If you haven’t already read this, read it. Okay! The story is about a girl who’s 14 years old who was murdered by her neighbor. That is told right off the bat. Then the rest of the story is her narrating, telling about her watching her family, her family trying to deal with that absence, how the whole dynamics change, how they deal with that. I’m afraid that if I keep going, I will give away some major details so I’m going to stop now.

Last but not least, Horrorstör, for the Read Any Book challenge. Oh… I’m so happy I saved this for last. I started reading this, this morning at like 10:30. I finished it in three hours. I was just sucked in. Oh…so good! The store in this is called Orsk. Inside the cover, it has the floor plan. Basically–the book says this–Orsk is an American rip-off of IKEA. So it’s all the same concept. IKEA furniture that you have to build yourself with IKEA’s special tools, all of that. The same idea, but it’s an American company. It’s a horror story set in Orsk. Now… I want to emphasize this. If you have NEVER been to IKEA, I really recommend you go to IKEA, experience IKEA first before you read this. If you have experienced IKEA, at least once, you will understand this book much better. You will understand the experience in this book much better, you will enjoy the book better that way anyway. The other thing that I love about this is that each chapter starts with a piece of furniture. It even makes up all the names of furniture and stuff. It’s hilarious, it’s fantastic, I love it. The story is that they’re puzzled that Orsk keeps having things broken when the first shift comes in. Three employees stay the night. They “volunteered” for a night shift. Staying inside, keeping an eye out, patrolling, with the lights dimmed and whatever. That’s when the horror starts. Obviously. But oh, it’s so good. I– I don’t want to say any more because you really need to read this. But remember! IKEA first, go to IKEA first and then read this.

That’s it for my Sbooktactular Reading Adventure! I am ready to get back to my other books, especially The Card Catalog.I read through half of it the night before this challenge started. So… I probably will finish it pretty quick. Maybe even today? Anyway. If you’ve read any of these books, let me know what you thought of them in the comments below. And if you want to read any of these. Any recommendations. (Not that I need anymore, but I’m always open to more recommendations.) And I guess that’s it.

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