Shadowing Practice: books that have been rotting my brain lately - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hi and welcome back to my little corner on the internet.

We're back with another video and today we're just going to be doing a quick little reading catch-up.

I'll talk about some things I have been reading recently

and my sort of whoa and my sort of TBR

that I have set up for myself for this new change of seasons

because southern hemisphere year it's getting colder for us and I'm

so excited because it means it's the perfect vibe to read some dark

and twisted literature which is so exciting

but before we get into it it is a new month

which means new book of the month I am very very

excited to share the new book in their offset collection

which I have talked about many many times before

and this month we are looking at worry doll by laura mcphee brown

which i had to read about it and it sounds very enticing

and it seems like the perfect book for the sort of colder more ominous weather

if you don't know what the offset collection is it just

sort of it's a collection from book of the month where they just prioritize more highbrow sort of literature

if you're interested things that have more depth and complexity and aren't necessarily created for commercial appeal,

this is a perfect collection for you.

These books kind of are introspective and nuanced and kind of signal like a sort of non-performative intellect, if you know what I mean.

Their books are usually sort of unsettling and darkly funny

and very sort of outside of what you usually see in mainstream literature, which is exactly what I love.

So for you guys to get a little idea what this

book is about I'm just gonna give you a little read of the blurb.

On an ordinary day two women meet on a train.

Eloise, the older woman, lives with her boyfriend in Melbourne.

Lacey, the other woman, is from Eotora and studies the clouds.

What follows is anything but ordinary, a passionate affair that will consume them both in mismatched and maddening ways.

Propulsive and lyrical, worried doll examines desire memory

and the delusion of love boy do i know something about delusional love oh my god

but anyways i am so excited to get into this book

if you guys are interested in checking out the offset collection you guys can click the link down below

and you can join book of the month

and get a brand new release

or get one of your offset collection books sent right to your door

and you can get your first book for just 9.99 with the link down below thank you

so much book of the month for supporting this video

and this channel in general make sure you guys go check

them out absolutely love them anyways now let's get into the video first i'm just gonna do a sort of quick

catch up of what i have been reading what i've been stuck on reading

and i said before because nothing is funny anymore okay

so i have somewhat recently finished reading we love you bunny by mona awad

which is essentially the prequel slash sequel to bunny the very beloved bunny book which which we all have heard of before.

I was anticipating this book quite a lot and I finally got around to picking it up.

Look, I have it signed.

That's a flex.

But I was really into it at first.

The first few chapters I was loving.

In fact, I tabbed quite a few pages and I have quite a few passages highlighted because I thought it was so,

like it was very funny and clever and it really stuck to the essence of what appealed, like what was so appealing about Bunny in the first place.

And I was really liking it.

I was really obsessed with it it was

so i was in a trance with it i couldn't stop reading it

but then the thing with this book is

that it the way it's structured is

that it takes on the different perspectives of all the bunnies etc

and i suppose when it came around to the perspective discussing the sort of prequel to

when everything happened and it was focusing on the perspective of the male bunnies i was just kind of like, I don't give a fuck.

Okay.

I was just kind of, I was starting to get a bit irritated

and a bit bored in a sense at first I understood

why she wrote it the way she did it was just to kind of flip the coin on itself

and kind of paint them at as these like dumb stupid guys

but I don't know I think the writing style just got

so irritating to me and it made it hard for me to get through it

and I just didn't want to pick it up

that much as I was progressing through this book which is unfortunate but I was still

sort of clinging on to it out of curiosity because I love a cultish vibe.

You know, I love a weird book

and this is definitely sort of very fever dreamish and it's still kind of funny and a bit absurd either way.

But at the end of the day, I didn't find it entirely necessary as a book.

I think it feels like it was just trying to milk the success of Bunny in a way

and I think that book can just exist as a standalone and this is just kind of redundant in my opinion.

I think towards the end of the last couple of chapters and i mean like literally the last maybe two chapters

it sort of redeemed itself

and it felt more satisfactory in you know how she sort of closed off

and kind of concluded that atmosphere and the tone of it all

but a large part of this book i was just kind of like

when are we gonna wrap this up

because i'm i'm done you know what i mean

so i think i gave this just a solid three stars it's nothing monumental i do think

that overall it's still good

and it's still well written i think there are some interesting points

and ideas in there but i think

because of certain parts of it i was getting irritated

and i had developed somewhat of i guess resentment disdain i don't know

which word to use but you know it was okay nothing crazy

but anyways let's just go through what i've been reading

and let's just address the reality of it all you know what i mean

so this is the book

that i'm telling myself i'm going to finished as you can see there's not much on it

because this is actually an early copy

that got sent to me i got an advanced reader's copy

which i am so honored by but this book comes out actually this month

so it comes out 4th of june so it probably has just come out

when this video is coming out but that is make strange by niam campbell

and essentially it follows this couple Lina and Odran

and their daughter Sunny who has begun revealing that she remembers her death

and dying before and it's a really interesting sort of exploration of motherhood relationships

100

and navigating this sort of very weird and distinct

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and ominous situation with her child and it is quite dark and intense but it's really well written.

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I think the prose it's easy to read

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but it also has this very somewhat like intellectual tone to it

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and it's very reflective and centered in on the sort of complexities of motherhood

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and especially in the context of the supernatural I suppose

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so I've really been enjoying this I'm at the very very end of it

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and I'm excited to finish it off and to see how it concludes

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but yes I've been reading

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that check out I do highly recommend this book even though

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I haven't finished it yet I feel confident in myself to say

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that I do highly recommend it

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and you guys should definitely check it out it's a wonderful

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book next okay these two books these two books have been on my fucking currently reading for the longest time

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but that's okay

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because i have an explanation for it as i always do

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first of all this one's a short story collection los peligros

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de fumar en la cama by mariana enriquez as we all

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know i've read the dangers of smoking in bed years ago

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and i wanted to read it in spanish as well

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so i have this as just kind of like it's sitting on my bedside table for

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when I just want a taste of something

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and I want to practice my Spanish

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so I just I love Enriquez she's great

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and then secondly I have an essay collection by Jean-Paul Sartre

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which is modern times selected non-fiction

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and again I kind of this serves the sort of same purpose

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if I just want a dopamine hit

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or something I feel like that's a good way to put it the same way

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that we go scrolling and we want that dopamine hit this is

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that version but literary form so if i just

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if i don't have much time to sit down

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and read i suppose i'll pick this up

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and i'll just read an essay or two

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and i find him quite interesting oh my gosh do y'all hear

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that it is noisy outside today but anyways we'll move past it i suppose

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and then lastly i've also finally been getting into on the genealogy of morals by frederick nietzsche

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which this was primarily i've been wanting to read this for the sake of I guess interest

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and research I've been working on some writing stuff more specifically a book

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which is crazy it's so weird to think about

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but I love writing morally ambiguous characters

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and I like writing very character-driven things very reflective of the self

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and I thought this would be an interesting read to gain some interesting perspective on such topics

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and I've actually really been liking this I find it very interesting

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and I've actually gotten a fair bit through it's not a very big book i've been going through

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that and just taking some little notes and hopefully taking certain ideas

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and aspects of it to integrate into my writing

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so that's my currently reading nothing too crazy but now

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that i'm getting back into the group of reading i want to discuss my selected tbr for the colder seasons

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because why not this will make me hold myself accountable to start off i'm not going to get into it

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but every year around this time i reread the secret history

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so best believe i will be doing that very very soon

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and anyways next i have been wanting to read this book

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for the longest time i love this writer as we all know

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and i'm really hoping to get into the idiots by theodore dostoevsky kind of matches me today

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but yeah i've been wanting to read this book for the longest time i've heard it's many people's favorites

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so i'll give a little read and summary of the back

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so we all have an idea of what we're going into

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so returning to saint petersburg from a sanatorium the gentle prince

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mishkin known as the idiot pays a visit to his distant relative general the pension

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and proceeds to charm the general and his family

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but his life is done into turmoil

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when he chances on a photograph of the beautiful nastasia philipovna

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nastasia utterly infatuated he soon finds himself caught up in a love triangle

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and drawn into a web of blackmail betrayal

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and finally murder in prince mishkin dostoevsky portrays the purity of a truly beautiful soul

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and explores the perils that innocence

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and goodness face in a corrupt world this sounds amazing every

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dusty of c book i've read i have been completely consumed by how good his writing really is

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when people recommend just they ask they're not just doing it to sound annoying

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or pretentious you know what i mean like they're not doing it

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and just do it it's actually that good okay trust me

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but yes i'm really really excited to get into

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that sure i'm filming anyway these next two are pretty short reads

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but first one being the crucible by arthur miller

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and this is actually a play to my knowledge yes

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but this essentially just follows the mass hysteria that unfolds during the salem witch trials

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I love a witchy book I love anything that has to do with the occult supernatural hysteria,

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delirium whatever it may be I love stories like that perhaps

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because I feel very empathic towards the supernatural and the spiritual realm

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but yeah I love stories like this and this is a classic

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and it's very short and I need to read it I've only heard good things

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and now is the perfect time to get into it And then next, can you see that?

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The reflection is kind of bad.

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The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

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This is also a very, very short classic.

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This edition contains other stories by her as well, but likewise with The Crucible,

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this, the yellow wallpaper specifically follows a woman's descent into pure hysteria

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and her being sort of trapped in this room

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and the yellow wallpaper in the room is her sort of

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only form of stimulus this sounds very endearing very intriguing almost i feel as though it'll feel relatable hopefully not

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but i don't know something about going insane within the constraints of four walls i hate to admit it

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but i kind of get it

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but yeah i've i love reading sort of dark weird stories about hysteria like this

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but i'm really really excited to read

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that i posted about this book on tiktok and

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so many comments were just telling me like oh the yellow wallpaper is

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so good you read it in half an hour it's amazing

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old old i'm gonna read it very very very soon

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and then lastly this book i don't i haven't seen anyone

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talk about it anywhere i found it just by chance one day i think in some random post

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and i have never seen anyone discuss it

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but the post was about the most fucked up books someone's read

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and this was in there so i was as you may know i was intrigued

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so this is gray dog by elliot gish actually fun fact i won this book on a bet playing football

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so thank you but essentially i'll give you a little read of the back

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so we can get an idea but apparently it's really dark

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and really weird and messed up which is so exciting for me

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but anyways the year is a 1901 and ada bird spencer school mom amateur naturalist accept a teaching post in isolated,

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lowery bridge, grateful for the chance to re-establish herself where no one knows her secrets.

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But then Ada begins to witness strange and gristly phenomena, a swarm of dying crickets, a self-mutilating rabbit, a malformed fawn.

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She soon believes that something old and beastly, which she calls the gray dog, is behind these visceral offerings, which both beckon and repel her.

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As her confusion deepens, her grip on what is real, what is delusion, and what is traumatic memory loosens.

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ada takes on the wildness of the woods and begins to wonder

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which is more dangerous the gray dog the uncontainable power of female rage

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or ada herself i am

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so excited to read this this almost gives me similar like a blend between the lamb

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and lapvona almost there was another book as well oh i'm

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blanking right now why am i blanking on the book specifically

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that i'm thinking of right now even books like the hounding

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and i gave you eyes

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and you look towards darkness they all sort of encapsulate this sort of vibe in my opinion

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and i'm just very very keen to get into this

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and see what this is about because i have seen both from finding

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that post i've seen people say

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that they both love this book they thought it was really good

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and then also found it really disgusting and too much

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so i'm excited to see how i'll tolerate it you'll find out in a couple weeks time when i

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make another video but that's my little self-inflicted tbr for the changing seasons i know

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that there are quite a few of you guys in the northern hemisphere

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so if you guys are actually interested in some maybe some recommendations a tbr for the changing seasons for

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when it's getting warmer let me know because i'll film

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that next week or something and i'll get that sort of sorted

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but i think in general i just tend to read sort of dark

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and weird books so it doesn't really matter

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when the season what season it is but

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if you guys are interested in that let me know

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but as you can see i've i've been adopting dark no polish again for the cold seasons but anyways

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that is the video for today i hope you guys enjoyed

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i think i needed to do a sort of verbal spew

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of my reading situation just to get my own head around

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it as well i think it's been very helpful don't forget

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to check the the link down below in the description and grab your first book of the month book for just $9.99.

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It'll be worth it.

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Trust me.

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And follow me on Instagram as per usual.

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If you want more regular content, I'm getting back into the better habit of interacting more on there.

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And yeah, check out my description for all my links, essentially.

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But yeah, thank you guys so much for watching, and I'll see you guys next week in the new video.

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Bye-bye.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 249 sentences and 3056 words to shadow. The speech runs for 16:09. The speaker talks fast, about 189 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

anyways /ˈɛn.iˌweɪz/ (adverb) — Anyway, anyhow, in any case.
bunny /ˈbʌni/ (noun) — A rabbit, especially a juvenile one.
essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/ (adverb) — In essence: by nature.
offset /ˈɔf.sɛt/ (noun) — Anything that acts as counterbalance; a compensating equivalent.
wallpaper /ˈwɔːlˌpeɪpə/ (noun) — Decorative paper-like material used to cover the inner walls of buildings.
gray /ɡɹeɪ/ (adjective) — Of a color between black and white, having neutral hue and intermediate brightness.
vibe /vaɪb/ (noun) — An atmosphere or aura felt to belong to a person, place or thing.
supernatural /ˌsu.pəɹˈnæ.tʃə.ɹəl/ (adjective) — Above nature; beyond or added to nature, often so considered because it is given by a deity or some force beyond that with which humans are born.
tone /ˈtəʊn/ (noun) — A specific pitch.
ordinary /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/ (adjective) — Having regular jurisdiction; now only used in certain phrases.
essay /ˈɛs.eɪ/ (noun) — A written composition of moderate length, exploring a particular issue or subject.
blank /ˈblæŋk/ (noun) — The white spot in the centre of a target; hence (figuratively) the object to which anything is directed or aimed, the range of such aim.
doll /dɑl/ (noun) — A small figure resembling a human being that is used as a toy.
complexity /kəmˈplɛk.sɪ.ti/ (noun) — The state of being complex; intricacy; entanglement.
conclude /kənˈkluːd/ (verb) — To end; to come to an end.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

get into (verb) — To move into (an object), such that one ends up inside it.
come out /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ (verb) — To be discovered; to be revealed.
check out (verb) — To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
book on (verb) — To register (for duty).
go through (verb) — To travel from one end of something to the other.
take on (verb) — To acquire, bring in, or introduce.
talk about (verb) — Used to draw attention to the speaker's characterization of someone or something.
book in (verb) — To check in (to a hotel).

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 78 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I've, I'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: motherhood /ˈmʌðɚˌhʊd/, empathic /ɛmˈpæθɪk/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, fiction /ˈfɪkʃən/, polish /ˈpɑ.lɪʃ/
Long words — get the stress right: essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, supernatural /ˌsu.pəɹˈnæ.tʃə.ɹəl/, ordinary /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/, complexity /kəmˈplɛk.sɪ.ti/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like anyways, bunny, essentially.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	have been reading · i've been reading · I've really been enjoying
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have set · have talked · i've been stuck
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	literature which is · literature, which is · book which is
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	i've been stuck · was intrigued

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: books that have been rotting my brain lately - Learn English Speaking with Video

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