Tantai Jin Apologist

Books & Film

2026-04-04T10:04:15Z

Went to see Project Hail Mary this week. Twice! It was so good, & very faithful to the book. A few things got cut or condensed for time, or tweaked to work in a visual medium, but overall it was a perfect adaptation. I got a free beanbag afterwards too, similar to the ones seen in the film.

Second time I essentially got my own private screening, as I went to a small independent cinema on a Wednesday afternoon & it's a few weeks into its run, so it was just me. Did nearly get lost in the place, even though it only has 3 screens, because in order to fit within the fairly small building its located in, the layout is odd & the hallways are a maze.

I'm rereading the book now, because it's been a while since I read it.

Speaking of books, I managed to pick up a copy of Ways of Seeing by John Berger from WH Smith (or whatever its calling itself these days) for £1 on clearance. I absolutely was not expecting that. Just went in because I needed stationary & that shop is so overpriced, the clearance section is the best option. I such a good book & I've wanted by own copy for a while, so randomly stumbling on one like this was very nice indeed. There was also a fun art book (Journal With Purpose by Helen Colebrook), that might actually encourage my creativity. Every art guide aimed at beginners is like 'Just draw things! Be creative!' & I'm like OK, but draw what? My mind is as blank as the paper I'm looking at. Or they're step guides on how to draw specific things that I don't necessarily want to draw ('Do you mean step-by-step guides?' No, because they don't have steps. It's like 'Step 1: Draw some circles & then some lines between them. Step 2: Fill in a shitload of detail & you're done!'). This book is full of little motifs & designs to try out doodling in order to add decorative touches to stuff & play around with. This is exactly what I want. I don't have any grand designs on being some skilled artist. I just wanna doodle stuff & have fun with shapes.

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My Husband & I Sleep in a Coffin - a literal book review

2025-10-30T12:08:08Z

So I finally finally got my hands on My Husband & I Sleep in a Coffin volume 1, two whole months after release. I have no idea what was going on but no UK booksellers had it in stock. Blackwells sold it on their website, but noted that delivery cost included delivery to the UK. Forbidden Planet also seemed to sell it, but they had it listed for sale before it was even released without listing it as a pre-order, so I'm thinking their website is just poorly set up. Even Amazon UK didn't have any, so you know it's serious when the bookshop killer can't get a book.

Anyway, I have it now, though I won't be able to read it yet, as I'm in the middle of Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know (which continues to be awesome), & I'm even stalled on that because my free time right now is taken up by Whispers of Fate & Powerwash Simulator 2, & before that it was Horizon Forbidden West taking up my time. My memory is shit & I'm not about to confuse myself by juggling too many sets of characters at once, so any commentary on the quality of the text itself & how it compares to the unofficial translation I'd checked out will have to wait.

But the actual physical book is right there in front of me. I can see it & touch it. And I have some thoughts on the quality & how it compares to previous releases I own. And hoo boy those thoughts are not good.

For reference I am using the 3 MXTX novels (I grabbed the 1st volumes of each for maximum fairness). I also have The Husky & His White Cat Shizun (which I hated, but that's not the point. Since I haven't got around to selling it yet, I have it available).

Cover

The MXTX book covers all have a matte background with glossy characters & foreground details, spine detail, as well as glossy title & author name text (SVSSS also has glossy panels on the back showing key characters). MH&ISiaC has a fully matte cover with just glossy title & author name text, & spine detail. I was ready to shake my head in disappointment, but this was the point where I remembered I still had 2ha stashed away in a box, so I dug that out & found it also only had the glossy effect on the cover text, so it's not a super new thing & I'm guessing 7S did the glossy detailing in an early blaze of enthusiasm before deciding to tone things down a bit. TBH, it's not a big deal & I can see how it was probably a hassle figuring out which details got the emphasis.

What is new & I am going to complain about, is that the cover no longer wraps around the book. The spine is solid black. And considering the blurb is in a box with a solid background, the artwork is way too covered up. (Technically 2ha also has a solid background box for the blurb, but it allowed details of the cover art to encroach into it, wrapping the text around this.) They did still have the full cover art just inside, but still. The cover lacks the little inner flaps too.

Title Font

This isn't necessarily reflective of any overall quality decline, because the various series all have their own title font designs, but this is... A Choice. It's giving shitty steampunk YA fantasy. Additionally this font is also used on the spine, unlike with previous books, where there was a standard font used, which allowed some uniformity in design across the various books while letting them have their own identity in the unique cover art that was visible on the spine.

Also, the pinyin title is no longer visible on the cover, or even on the title page (though that at least includes the title in hanzi). If you want to find what the book is called in Chinese without being able to read Chinese, you have to check the publishing details page. It's also in the pronunciation guide, but it doesn't tell you it's the title. I figured it was as I know this is standard with 7S releases, but I can see a newbie picking this book up in a bookshop out of curiosity & being confused.

Pages

The pages are so damn thin! You can see text, decorative details, & artwork through the page they're printed on! This isn't helped by the decorative details at the beginning of each chapter & at the top corners of each page being super think, elaborate, & printed with extra dark black ink (also printing the title on a blank page in between each chapter, in case you forget what you're reading, even though as with other 7S books, the title is at the top of each left-hand page, with the chapter title on the right), whereas previous books they made the chapter headers grey, kept the page decorations to thin lines. 2ha used little dog icons at the start of each chapter which are quite dark, but they were small, & the paper was decently thick.

And they want 18 bloody quid for this! I was fine paying the cost of the books because they had such a premium feel. This does not feel premium.

I really hope some of the lack of quality (the page thinness) is a side effect of whatever it was that caused supply shortages of this book, & they had to be less choosy about materials used, but I'm not sure I'm that optimistic.

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thispatternismine @ 2025-08-03T17:56:00

2025-08-03T17:09:51Z

Checking out some cnovels that have been licenced by Seven Seas to figure out if they're worth buying, because those things are nearly 20 quid per volume & I got burned by 2ha, which I bought since it sounded right up my alley but I ended up hating.

First up is My Husband & I Sleep in a Coffin (the online translations are called I & My Husband Sleep in a Coffin, but someone at 7S understands how English grammar works & I'm going with the correct version). Only a couple of chapters in & really liking it so far. The LI is delightfully deranged. The first volume comes out in a few weeks, so I probably won't read all of it. Just enough to be sure I like it, then I'll wait for the book, read that, & then read the rest of the unofficial translation.

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Durham Trip

2024-11-28T22:05:42Z

Holy shit Durham is expensive.

I fancied a day out & it apparently has a couple good shops for secondhand books & vintage clothing. I got an early bus & was running a little late, so decided to skip breakfast, figuring I'd grab something when I go there.

Huge mistake. Walked into a random cafe, not even a fancy one, checked the menu, & 8 QUID FOR A SANDWICH????? Sure it was described as a doorstop sandwich. But a sandwich is a sandwich. For that price you better have unicorn meat as a filling. Tried other places & same sort of shit. Even the cafe in the market hall, the sort of place you'd expect to be reasonably priced, was insane. I'm sorry but £7 for a panini?

I've never been so happy to see a Subway. Not exactly quality, but at least it was less than a fiver. Though getting anything there felt like getting blood out of a stone. Can I have a meatball marinara? No sorry meatballs aren't ready yet. Okay guess I'll have tuna. What bread? Oh no we don't have Italian herbs & cheese. Only 3 out of 7 breads available. Spinach leaves? Don't be silly. Your only leafy option is lettuce. Sauces? You have a choice of 3 & one has no visible label. Please I just want food. And it only occurred to me after I'd left & they'd started eating, but they never offered to toast it & I forgot to ask, so the sub was pathetic. And I had to leave to eat it even though it was freezing because inside there was just a single small table & no seating. Sure the place was tiny but they could surely fit a stool in? And the 2 employees seemed awkward at the idea of having customer. Was this a money laundering front or some shit?

Mentioned my frustrations to a woman working in a charity shop & she recommended a place which she swore had reasonable prices, giving me a convoluted series of directions to find it. Which I didn't bother trying to memorise as soon as she mentioned how great its brunch menu was. No place which has a brunch menu is in my budget.

On the plus side I finally found a copy of Tales from Watership Down! And I picked up a christmas present for my mam. So the trip was worth it at least.

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TGCF 8

2023-11-22T14:56:59Z

So many goodies!

Back of the postcards & bookmark:

Lil standee thing (why didn’t we get one of these for wangxian???):

The set:

Complete set of MXTX books (so far, anyway, since the MDZS manhua is still ongoing):

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Today I went to heaven

2023-09-28T18:44:05Z

This is the Book & Film Exchange in Darlington (on Victoria Road, really close to the train station)
I didn't think bookshops like this still existed holy shit. I just googled to see if there were any secondhand bookshops in the town as I was gonna be there today & would have time to kill, & did not expect such a goldmine
And it turns out the guy who runs it ran the market stall selling books that used to be in my hometown years ago. I wondered what happened with that stall & so glad he's still in the bookselling business
( So many books... )

The haul:

Thrilled at finding a copy of Healer's Quest. That one seems to be so obscure even pirates haven't bothered uploading it anywhere as far as I can find so I haven't read it in years. Now I just need the rest of the trilogy.
A little annoyed at myself though as it turned out I already have The Novice. I knew I needed the first book but I assumed I needed that one too as well & didn't bother checking the list I keep in my notes app for just that fucking reason. Oh well, I'll exchange it next time I go there.

EDIT: 2 years later, apparently it has now closed :(

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