Reading Journal #2

Ellie at Musings of a Bookshop Girl is trying out a new feature and it sounded so great that I thought I'd hop on the train. Choo choo!

She's calling it her Reading Journal - we all have times when we're too busy, exhausted or fed-up to write lengthy, coherent reviews, so what better way to keep up with blogging than to write a few (or more) sentences every day about what you've been doing/reading/whatever you like.

It's win-win! Your readers get to know you a little better, and you get to feel like you're still up-to-date with your blog. God knows I could do with that feeling sometimes...

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Okay, so this week makes me want to die. In a fortnight, we have three exams. The week after we have two exams. The week after that we have the two biggest exams, two days apart, for both of which we have to know the entire universe of law. The week after that, we have two exams.

And have classes stopped? Study leave? Ohhhh no.

Monday

I spent thirteen hours at the Law School today. I arrived at 8:30am for a class and then went straight into training for a new court volunteer scheme at 10:30am. That went right through to a mooting competition I was running until 8pm, after which I went to the library and made a start on tomorrow's classwork.

This is ridiculous. I know the Bar is hard - of course I do. We literally and genuinely had to sign a health warning during the induction day. It just feels like you're underwater and doggy paddling, but you're exhausted and have to keep thrashing around else you'll sink and die. Over-dramatic perhaps, but still.

The pro-bono supervising solicitor came to find me today - apparently our Law School has been put forward for an award, the only Law School in the running. She told me that the pro bono projects this year basically wouldn't have gotten off the ground without my input, so would I like a ticket to go to the awards ceremony in THE HOUSE OF FUCKING COMMONS. Free ticket to London, free hotel, free meals and most importantly, fodder to be used at interviews. But no. Because I have an exam.

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Reading-wise (because I am aware this is not a Law-rant blog), I'm actually doing okay. I'm not usually a huge rereader, as much as I'd like to be, but I'm now on my third Discworld book in a row. I haven't read them in ages and I was in one of those moods where I wanted to read, but nothing that I had to expend a whole lot of effort on. Hence Discworld :)

I've read them all before and adore them, but they're fun to go back to. I'm on Jingo right now, but I'm fancying Carpe Jugulum...

Thursday

I left the Law School at 8:20pm and half the people of my course are still in the library... 

It's amazing how much my day can be improved by a lie-in however. I've had my arse in a library chair by 8:30am every day this week but today I decided not to go in while later. It felt amazing. Due to my various conditions, I need more sleep than normal people but I actually end up getting less. Sometimes getting out of bed in the morning feels like crawling through mud. Therefore once in a while I need to sleep until my body wakes up naturally and today was that day.

Managed to get a revision bundle together for one topic though (out of 42, but never mind...). So I made a colourful diagram out of my classwork, then collected the sample questions from the two mock papers, my folder and my question book and wrote out the answers, then stapled it together in one happy bundle. Everything I need for that topic! 

This is my library chair. Note the piles of paper that extend far to either side and actually include the floor.

Then I had a meeting at 6pm to organise a Street Law school visit we're going on next week. We had to rehearse a mock trial we're performing, hindered by the fact that none of the witness statements matched any of the others. So after rewriting accounts and scheduling in 50 million new appointments, I walked out the door about an hour later than expected.

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I don't know what's with my Terry Pratchett phase right now, but I'm loving it. Figures it'd happen the year after I joined the Discworld Reading Challenge, but never mind.

Since last Saturday I've finished Maskerade (my favourite), Jingo and The Fifth Elephant. I'm enjoying them so much - it's rare I read four books in a row by the same author, even if they're in a series. LibraryThing tells me I haven't read the latter two since 2008, so they were clearly due for a reread.

They're just so much fun and you don't have to concentrate on (or worry about reviewing!) them. Carpe Jugulum (and a whole load of boring textbooks) next, I think!