"Avatar The Last Airbender - The Rift" || Comic Book Review

Hello friends,

so if you've read my blog even once before it should come as no surprise that I'm a big ATLA fan and since I'm currently reading the comics and exploring the whole world, it seems like I have to share my thoughts and opinions about them with you! If you'd like to see what I thought about the previous story in the series ("The Search") you can check out my full review here. 

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Today we're talking about the next addition to the series, "The Rift"! Comparing "The rift" to "The search" and "The promise", it is not nearly as powerful and capturing. It is a nice story overall but not as good as the previous ones. Neither the premise nor the writing lives up to you the high expectations set by the previous two comic books in the series. Still, it is a nice read a very okay addition to the whole, and helps you pass your time very pleasantly.

My first thought about this trilogy is that the first book really cannot stand up to the other two as it was very slow and boring. Books two and three were more interesting and engaging. Book 2 starts to pick up slowly and the tension builds very slowly at first and then gradually faster and by the third book it rises skyward really fast and becomes interesting. A few spirits, quite a bit of action, great character dynamics and development, nice themes and messages sprinkled into them and yes Books 2 and 3 really remind the ATLA we know and love. Book three was my favorite of the three and book two was a good connection between the 1st and 3rd books. 

One of the elements I liked was the connection between Toph and Satoru; it was so cute and sweet and I think they are nice for each other. They really seem to have something going on there and I would be interested to see a bit more of it in the future they really seem to have some connection and chemistry and they seem nice for each other.

I really missed uncle Iroh and I was really happy to see him again after all this time! He was funny and his character was a fun addition.

There is one thing I really dislike about the comic books in general even the previous ones which I really loved and this is the portrayal of Sokka. They've really done our boy dirty, making him just a comic relief when we know he is more than that! He is intelligent, creative and resourceful! You don't really get to see anything of him anymore in the comics and it's irritating.

I liked the conflict between Toph and Aang and the philosophical dilemma it showed of tradition versus fresh ideas, past versus future, preserving versus creating. ATLA has a unique way of handling various serious subjects and making them a part of the world convincingly as well as passing numerous messages. And I love how the solution always lies in the balance one way or the other which after all is what the Avatar is all about.

To sum it up, "The Rift" was a nice and I had fun reading it, but I wasn't thrilled with it. I rated the 1st part 3* as it was the weakest of the three. Parts 2 and 3 I rated 4*, but none of them quite reached the 5* in my opinion. Nevertheless, very nice and enjoyable.

Thank you for reading once more! 

How to get out of a reading slump || My tips

A reading slump is one of us bookworms' worst nightmares. Suddenly, you cannot read more than a couple of pages without getting tired, bored, or distracted. Up until recently, you could devour a whole book in one sitting and now you're struggling to get through 1 book in a year. I have been there and I have been through the struggle and I know how horrible it is and how much you hate it. I was in a reading slump that lasted about 2 years. In these two years, I must have read only a handful of books and even those with difficulty. I finally managed to get out of this slump 3 years ago and to get back on my reading track, with fewer books at first and more as time passes. Not only did I get back closer to my original reading rhythm - though not to its fullest, I'm not at my zenith, but at a very good point nevertheless - but the enjoyment also came back to me. My love for books never quite left, but I did lose some of the interest and enjoyment for the procedure, but since I got back to it, I have been enjoying it more every single day, maybe even more than before! So, my friends, I'm here to share with you my small tips to help you get out of this unpleasant situation you're facing... Let's go!

• Make reading a habit. Try to read a little bit every day even if it's just a couple of pages it's still good and you're still making progress! This is my number one tip because it has helped me a great deal a few times. I start by requiring myself to read 2 pages every day. It is a small and easy task and it doesn't feel like a stressful burden and soon I find myself reading 3-4 pages without realizing and soon even more.
• Try different places and ways to read. Go to your bedroom or to the sitting room, maybe you can try reading outside at a park or a Cafe. You can try reading with music while drinking a beverage or maybe you can read while on the bus or a train to try to make your usual daily trips to work or uni less boring. The options are endless! Try something new and shake things up from what you usually do.
• Try different kinds of books to get you out of your comfort zone or on the other hand you can reread one of the books that made you fall in love with reading in the first place! Either of the two could rekindle your love for reading depending on your preference and mood.
• Try to set daily or weekly goals for yourself and see if it works for you. Tracking your progress however small could encourage you to get back on track. I find that once I've made some progress and see it written down into numbers, this makes me feel proud of myself and keeps me going.
• On the other hand, if you have been setting reading goals in the past but now you find yourself stuck, you should probably refrain from it for a while and just read without stressing yourself out about your count.  So, maybe you don't work well under pressure, maybe constantly setting goals stresses you out and is counterproductive. Reading is a wonderful pastime and more than anything else it's supposed to be fun, so relax and just enjoy it, without stressing too much about goals and word counts. (I've been in both places in the past and I found that both of these tips worked depending on my overall mood and situation in life.)
• Try to find people to talk about books! It could be your friends, it could be a book club, it could be people from social media, whatever it is give it a try see if it works!
• Finally, if nothing else seems to help, just take a break from it, do other things that you like. Just enjoy yourself and don't feel guilty for not reading! There's nothing wrong with getting a break and enjoying other activities as well. When your brain will have had its rest, I believe it will just automatically want to get back and do some reading again.

Whatever you do in the end, and however you decide to tackle this situation, it's up to you and you don't need to get frustrated. If you have any other ideas to add, new tips to suggest, feel free to comment below, I would love to read your own opinions and experiences!

Thank you for reading! Until the next time!

"Brida" by Paolo Coelho || Book Review

Going into this book I suspected I probably wouldn't like it, since it's not my usual type of book, but I still read it. Finally it's over! Now, why did I keep reading even though I disliked it from the first paragraphs? I honestly have no idea, maybe it's because I wanted to torture myself, maybe I felt guilty of DNFing a book, whatever it was I just felt I had to go through with it once I started.

And the conclusion is... I didn't like it! It gave me a hard time, I didn't enjoy it and I had to speed-read it at multiple occasions, because I desperately needed it to be over. It was mind-numbingly boring, repetitive, predictable and generally disappointing. But thankfully it's finally over and I can move on... Before I move on however, here are some of my thoughts on it...

First of all, the book is too big for its story! It needed far fewer pages to make sense, about half of it was generic and pointless rumbling that should have been cut out and leave the actual important parts do their work.

This book is the proof that a collection of beautiful and meaningful quotes - which is the only nice thing I thought this book had and that I actually enjoyed - are not enough to make a book good. The meaning of any book cannot get through to the reader simply by inspirational quotes, the story and characters have to carry it forward as well. I understand that this is not supposed to be your typical novel, but it still needs some basic elements of storytelling to work. 

Moving on, what was all this rumbling about God, why all the prayers, all the talking about Adam and Eve and what on earth where they doing in a story about witches, rituals, magical visions, reincarnation and pagan rituals??? Do they believe in a deity and which one? Does it have anything to do with their "Gifts"? Is this supposed to be the writer's attempt to say that there is only one universal higher power for everyone despite how each culture interprets it depending on their civilization and traditions? Maybe.... I cannot really tell... It tries to discuss certain philosophical matters, but I don't think it does it successfully. On the contrary, it kind of leaves you with several wtf's hanging over you...

I found myself wondering would this book even be published if it wasn't Coelho's? I doubt it. It's weak and pointless. I feel I didn't gain anything out of it and I wouldn't have missed anything if I had never read it. If anything I felt relief to finally be over with it. For all the reasons I mentioned I cannot give this book more than 1* and if I want to be honest even that feels a bit much - I would give it half a star if that was possible. 

Thanks for reading!