Vintage Sci-fi and Fantasy book haul

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I've been collecting vintage science fiction and fantasy paperbacks for about four years now, so I thought I would do a video about my entire collection—please note that a week after I filmed this back in February, I found a Fantasy book that I forgot to include! I'll show you at some point.

Gaming saved my life...kind of

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Back in late 2021 to early 2022 (around three months in total), I had something of a breakdown.

I became a nervous wreck, having panic attacks left, right and centre about death and the inevitability of it all - perhaps rather embarrassingly, this came about because I binge-watched a space documentary series by Prof Brian Cox, and it scared the shit out of me.

My sister and I now have a running joke about the whole thing, and recently, I bought a book about Black Holes by him, which she found baffling and highly amusing, given the nature of my Brian Cox-induced mental breakdown!

But enough about Prof Cox and space, where does gaming fit into all this, and how did it kinda save my life? Well, in February 2022, I decided I needed to find something to distract myself from the very negative and frightful thoughts flowing non-stop through my brain. And in my teenage years, I had loved playing games, from Sims to GTA to Halo. I was a bit of a console addict, and I’d get told off for spending too much time playing games.

So, as I got older, I decided that gaming was for kids and that I had to grow up - wrong on both accounts. And it was only when I was struggling to get through a day without crying or panicking that I decided to play a game again, and the game was World of Warcraft. As a fan of fantasy and the nature of it being an MMORPG, I thought that I wouldn’t feel so intimidated by the gameplay. So I decided to give it a go.

It’s safe to say that I was hooked after downloading the game and playing the free trial up to level 20. The game took my mind away from the real world to a fantasy landscape of elves, orcs, and so many possibilities. As I got more and more immersed in the game I felt my existential dread start to dissolve over the next few months that followed.

2 years have now passed, and I’m still playing WOW (I’ve also been sucked into the Baldur’s Gate 3 hype train recently - and loving it!). I am so glad that I came back to gaming, as it has honestly been one of the best things for my mental health.

Is it true that games have saved my life, possibly as I don’t know what would have happened if I’d continued to have so many panic attacks and obsessive thoughts about death?

Hobonichi Stationery Haul

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Writing a diary is like a promise for the future. A promise that you’ll note down the good, the bad and the utterly mundane so that you, 10 or 50 years later can flick through that year of your life allowing the memories to flood back and envelope you in a warm hug.

It’s a romantic notion for sure but what can I say I am a romantic at heart.

To help me document my 2024 I have invested in the Hobonich Techo, a diary from a renowned Japanese brand that is both beautiful and versatile which is exactly what I need as a seriel diary buyer who never quite gets into the grove of keeping one for the whole year.