Movies – Page 3 – that lemon life

I have no words

Hola everyone.

Beware, the title is no understatement. I really have no words. I’m speechless because of the new Infinity War trailer that came out today. I’ve watched it a few times now and I still can’t fully process it. I would have never thought that a movie would once get me this hyped up. I think I’ve never before wanted to see a movie as bad at this one. The wait is nearly killing me.

But on the other hand, I am not sure if I really want to experience everything that is waiting for me in that movie. After watching this new trailer, my panic and worries about Tony / Iron Man have increased by a thousand. But before I ramble on and on, let’s take a look at the trailer and once again summarize everything we know so far. Here are the two trailers for you to check out:

First of all, let me just say that the trailer is freaking epic and that Marvel is literally the biggest movie maker studio ever. They are the kings and queens of the cinematic world. They are the leaders. And don’t even try denying it. Just take a look at those two trailers and tell the truth – they are freaking amazing and this movie is going to break all the records out there. It’s going to be a movie nobody will ever be able to forget again, it’s going to be history. Ten years and eighteen movies and so many stories and so many characters all packed in one big movie. I. Can’t. Wait.

Okay, this had to be said. Let’s now really talk about the trailer. I have to say that in my opinion this trailer gives a little bit more information about that story of the movie. We see Thanos in a lot more scenes and Gamora, who essentially is his daughter, tells the world his plan about wiping out half of the universe with the help of the infinity stones – nice plan by the way. And then the trailer just goes into full action mode and we already get to see different scenes of fights and our heroes meeting each other and getting together. I think what’s most important here is that after watching both trailers, you can roughly tell which characters are going to fight together and at which places and when.

Like I already mentioned in my post/review of the first trailer (click here), I think that the movie will start off right at the end of the last Thor movie, where Thor kind of crashes into Thanos spaceship, which he will certainly fight and certainly fail. And that’s how he will meet the Guardians, as he will crash into their spaceship after meeting Thanos. Hulk, on the other hand, will fall straight down to earth and will coincidentally land in Doctor Strange’s headquarters in New York. As we all know, our beloved Spidey and my hero Tony both live in the same city, so Tony will kind of meet Hulk and Strange at the headquarters. And this brings us to the scene in NY with Spiderman climbing out of his school bus and seeing a spaceship in the sky, which of course belongs to Thanos, as he now knows where all the infinity stones are – and as Tony states in the trailer, they are with our heroes, so Thanos will fight to get them all, one after another.

I think, this strange-looking, round spaceship, that lands in New York, will somehow then move back to another planet, together with Tony, Spidey and as we now know from the trailer, Strange and the Guardians. And this is also the part of the movie that I’m scared of the most. Because you can see Iron Man and Spidey fighting Thanos and then we see Iron Man missing most of his suit, looking pretty devastated, and that’s the last scene we see Spidey in. Which reinforces my theory of Peter dying at this part and Doctor Strange bringing him back to life with the time stone later on (the whole bringing people back to life part is essential in the comics). And speaking of Strange, it looks like Thanos will also get his hands on him, which is also a completely new information to me. Let’s just say I was pretty shocked.

And the second biggest part of the movie then has to be the huge fight in Wakanda – where, as we now know, the soul stone is hidden, the last freaking stone. Oh my god guys, I nearly lost it at that part. I knew it was there, I freaking knew it. This is also why Thanos leads all of his forces and his armies to Wakanda, to find the last and most important, most powerful stone. And to find most of our heroes already waiting for him there – Cap, Bucky, the Black Panther and his badass crew, Iron Man in his big suit called the The Hulkbuster (which I hope he really is in), War Machine, Black Widow, The Falcon and so many more. Am I the only one already freaking out about this? Like all of them fighting together? Holy moly.

What happens after that is left for speculation, but I think they will keep the end for The Avengers 4. But I so goddamn hope that they won’t make an open end for Infinity War, because I might freak out completely then. Please don’t do this to us, Marvel. That’s like torture, no joke.

But I think if you know some backstories and just focus on all the different aspects of the trailers, some things do become clearer. Loki will indeed give the space stone to Thanos to safe his own life – which will probably mean the death of his brother Thor and himself too. Because let’s be honest, Thanos isn’t the guy to leave witnesses behind. I’m not sure what will happen to both Vision and Strange. It’s pretty much obvious that Thanos will get both the time and the mind stone, so I don’t know whether they will survive that or not.

And I seriously have no idea what will happen to Tony and Cap. I mean, both of their contracts will end after Avengers 4, Chris Evans wants to start working as a director and Robert Downey Jr. already said that he has some other movies planned (like Sherlock 3, which I’m seriously hoping will come true). So it’s pretty fixed that we won’t see them again as Iron Man and Captain America after Avengers 4. And yes, this is making me so damn sad… But let me just say one thing – if Marvel really kills Tony, I may or may not cry my eyes out and walk out of the cinema during the movie. I mean, I’ll of course get back in after one second, but it’s the thought here that’s important. I won’t be able to deal with Tony being killed. I was a wreck after Gwen died in the last Amazing Spiderman movie. But that was Gwen. And this is Iron Man. My Iron Man. My favorite hero. The hero that welcomed me into this whole Marvel cinematic universe. He’s the reason I started watching Marvel. I can’t loose him. They can’t just kill the one guy it all started with. That would be just cruel.

Besides that, I think we will get to know a lot more about Thanos, his backstory and so on, which I am also excited for – although I pretty much hate him for what he’s doing to my beloved heroes. And let’s be honest, the movie overall will be a crazy rollercoaster of fights, action scenes, funny jokes and a huge amount of emotions. I also just read an article that said that the whole movie was shot with IMAX cameras, which is like the highest quality you can get. Imagine what the whole movie is going to look like if just the two trainers look this good. I’ve already fixed the plan with my friend that we’re going to watch the movie the first day it’s out (April 26th) at our local IMAX cinema. It has to be IMAX. Everything else just isn’t good enough for this epic piece of a movie.

Well, I think this is everything I can say for now. When I watched the trailer for the first time today, I remember getting goosebumps literally everywhere. Like I said, I seriously have never been this excited for a movie. And I hope by sharing all of my theories and thoughts with you guys, I could also transfer some of this excitement to you. Also, please don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts down below, as I would really love to hear your opinions and theories. And until then I wish you all an amazing weekend and hope you’re all doing good. And, as always, thanks for reading. x

Journalism matters

Hola everyone.

As you all know, it is my dream to become a journalist, preferably a music journalist. I love writing, researching stuff, getting to know more people because of my work or a new article. And this dream is also a reason why I love movies about journalism. But let’s start at the beginning.

Yesterday was my very last exam day. That means that from today on I’ll have no exams until late June and oh my god guys, you have no idea how relieved I am. I mean, I know that I passed all of the four exam I’ve had during the last week and I’m so so happy that I finally get to relax again, focus on my hobbies, write more, photograph more and all that stuff. I’m already so looking forward to it.

Oh, and it also was international women’s day yesterday and I’m more than happy that I got to spend it with the most important woman in my life – my mum. So after the exam I met up with her and we went out for dinner. We visited this vegan asian style restaurant and it was really really fantastic. I stuffed my body with endless amounts of sushi, I don’t even know how many pieces I ate. All I can say that I was food-pregnant after that – sushi-pregnant.

And after that wonderful dinner we strolled through the city and then went to the cinema and watched The Post. And this is exactly what I wanted to talk to you about today. This movie is freaking fantastic. Seriously. I mean, it was Oscar nominated, so of course it has to be good, but this one is really really good. Here’s a little summary of the story from Rotten Tomatoes:

Steven Spielberg directs Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks in The Post, a thrilling drama about the unlikely partnership between The Washington Post’s Katharine Graham, the first female publisher of a major American newspaper, and editor Ben Bradlee, as they race to catch up with The New York Times to expose a massive cover-up of government secrets that spanned three decades and four U.S. Presidents. The two must overcome their differences as they risk their careers – and their very freedom – to help bring long-buried truths to light.

So, as you can read, the movie is about journalism and politics and about the freedom of press. This incident was one of the important and very first situations where the public started to question the government. The whole story of course comes from true events, so all of that really happened, which makes the movie even better.

Apart from the acting and of course the directing (it’s Steven Spielberg, what do you expect?), the movie really is an incredible piece of a movie. Because it shows how important journalism like this one is. I mean, the public would have never known about the government telling lies without journalism. This really is so so so important. And I’m so thankful that movies like this one exist and tell those stories, because I would never know about it otherwise.

So guys, I can really just recommend you this movie. It really is a fantastic one and I’m super glad that I got to see it. Oh and if any of you have already seen it, please don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts down below. And yeah, I hope you’re all doing good and wish you a nice weekend. And, as always, thanks for reading. x

Welcome to 2018 and Happy Anniversary

Hola everyone.

And welcome to a new year. I seriously can’t believe it’s 2018. Time is just flying by, it’s crazy.

You’re probably wondering where I’ve been the past week – at least I hope so – and I’d really really love to tell you that I spent my days watching movies, going out, meeting friends and family and basically just chilling, but unfortunately I can’t. I mean, of course I did all of these things, but today has only been the first day of uni and I’d really be up for a good holiday, what do you think? If there is one thing I haven’t been doing the past three weeks, it’s chilling and relaxing. I had one day I did nothing for uni and that was christmas eve. Apart from that, uni has been running and overtaking my mind day after day and I. CAN’T. STAND. IT. ANY. MORE.

I know, I know, stop whining Laura. Actually, I do have a reason to be happy, because in less than a month, I’ll be sitting at home, having completed and hopefully nailed all of my exams and finished my bachelor thesis. You can’t even imagine how much I’m looking forward to the 1st of February. The first day of semester break. I can’t wait.

But enough of that. What has been going on in your life? I have to say, as much as I had to work and study for uni, there actually happened quite a lot the past weeks. I am currently about to finish my application for uni (wish me luck guys), my first ever bachelor thesis finished alway through (yey), I’ve had the best christmas in years and new year’s eve was amazing too. I spent both events with my parents and my family, but I’ll tell you more about that in further posts. I of course have some pictures in my pockets, so stay tuned.

To be honest, I am actually so excited for this year. There is so much on my list, it’s nearly overwhelming. The concert season starts next month and if I’m not mistaken, I seriously have at least one concert scheduled for every single month until August – expect for May and June, but I’m more than positive that there is still more to come. I can’t believe I’ll be seeing two of my favorite people again this year – Martijn and Ed. It will be the third time seeing my favorite ginger and actually the fourth time seeing the cutest DJ on earth. I am so excited, I don’t even know how to articulate it. And holy moly, in March I’ll fly to London with my parents to see Fall Out Boy. So crazy. So awesome.

And there are so many amazing movies coming up. The first Infinity War movie – I’m already so excited. And Oscar season. And so many horror movies. And so many more. And oh my god, so many albums are coming up. Fall Out Boy, The Wombats and and and. I’m just really really excited.

And let’s not forget that I may or may not be moving to the UK in September. But honestly, if I start thinking about it I may get a panic attack and start to cry, so I’ll stop talking about it right now. Isn’t it crazy how a thing can both light up and break your heart?

So yeah guys, that’s just a little update from me. Here’s to 2018. Oh and guys, tomorrow is a really exciting date – it will be the two-year anniversary of this blog. It makes me so speechless. And I don’t even know how to thank you all enough. I mean, these past two years on here have been two of the best years of my life. And I got to share it all with you guys. You can’t imagine how happy this all makes me and how much this on here means to me. Seriously. Thank you all so much. And happy anniversary.

As always, I hope you’re all doing good and that 2018 has been good to you so far. I wish you all an awesome week and please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or thought down below. And, as always, thanks for reading. x

My New Years Resolutions

Hola everyone.

The new year is literally just around the corner and in prospect of this I’ve been thinking pretty much about 2017 and what I achieved and what I’d like 2018 to be like and what my goals are.

I have to say that 2017 has been a pretty crazy year for me. I mean, I started off the year with my last month of living in Berlin and then I got back and continued university and recently I found this amazing university course in the UK and just an hour ago I started applying for it. I mean, how crazy is that? And I flew to Zürich to see Ed and then to Amsterdam to see Martijn. And I got to visit three new cities in the UK – Liverpool, Blackpool and Manchester – and flew to Paris with my mum and got a new, unbelievably beautiful tattoo there. I just started writing my first Bachelor thesis and I’ve just got this semester until February and then the last one and then I’ll be already finished with my Bachelor in Vienna. I seriously can’t believe how fast the time has flown by. And apart from all these huge things, I accomplished so much more and made so many more experiences and and and. I met new people, started new friendships, had quite an amount of exams, attended looots of concerts and started a job as a magazine journalist. I cried a lot but laughed even more. Went on many adventures and got out of my comfort zone. And when I look back at it, I don’t think I’d change anything (apart from all the bad stuff that happened and is happening in the world right now, but let’s not get started on that).

But there is a new year coming up and I want it to be a new start, a new beginning. A new year to meet goals, turn dreams into reality and so so much more. So I thought why not make a list of my personal new years resolutions? Let’s go.

I really want to stay the optimist I am – it doesn’t work all the times, but sometimes it’s the only thing that brightens up a shitty day
I want to dive even deeper into the topic of my heart – music.
I want to experience more, learn more, see more, hear more, feel more.
I want to meet new people, new cities, new cultures.
I want to get even more out of my comfort zone. Of course it’s scary, but those are the moments life turns from good to exciting.
I want to stay healthy.
I want laugh louder, cry harder and live every moment to its fullest.
I want to show the people around me that I love them and that they literally mean the world to me, because they all deserve it.
I want to go to as many concerts/festivals as I can – those are my happy places and I’m kind of addicted, so…
I want to read even more books, listen to even more songs and bands and watch even more movies.
I want to meet up with my friends and family as often as I can. I know it’s hard, because we all have our own lives and own tasks and jobs and so on, but when I look back I don’t remember the hours I spent scrolling through twitter on my phone, I remember the evenings I spent with my friends, drinking a Chai Latte and laughing about stories of when we were young.
I want to stop pressuring myself so much. I know I’m a perfectionist and that’s actually something I like about myself, but that changes when I start treating myself badly.
I want to continue working as hard as I do now or even harder (I know this kind of doesn’t go with the resolution above, but I’m sure there is a way to combine those two things).
I want to cuddle even more with my family and my pets.
I want to take even more pictures, cook more meals and maybe find a new fascinating hobby I can be passionate about.
I want to try out new things and new activities, maybe some kind of sport or something like that.
I want to try and start being punctual – this is actually the toughest aspect of this list, I am literally never punctual.
I want to go to sleep earlier and change my sleeping schedule – it’s slightly getting out of hand right now.
I want to be nicer to the people I love, I want to forgive more and stop freaking out because of little, stupid things I will probably have forgotten about an hour later.
I want to finish my Bachelor and try to get the best grades possible.
I want to nail my two Bachelor theses.
I want to keep faith and believe in myself, even when the times are hard and I feel like everything is getting too much (like now, when my to-do-list is literally far too long – I can do it and I know it).
I want to get into BIMM (the university in the UK) and find the cutest little flat ever.
I want to continue being this curious and childish and easily excited and funny.
I want to love more.
I want to continue writing this blog, as I love it so much that I can’t even describe it.

So guys, there you go. Those are my new years resolutions or let’s say those that I can think of right now. I’m pretty sure I could come up with about a hundred more if I had more time. But I want to try and make every single one of them and stick to them. Mostly because they all mean quite a lot to me. And I think this way 2018 can’t be anything but another amazing year.

But guys, what are your new years resolutions? Do you even have some? And do you stick to them? This is actually my very first time of writing them down like this, so wish me luck. And guys, I wish you all a happy new year and I hope you’re all doing good. I wish you all the best. Thank you so much for 2017. It’s been an amazing year and I’m more than thankful that I could spend and share it with all of you. Thank you. And, as always, thanks for reading. Here’s to 2018. x

He’s coming

Hola everyone.

I know. Where the hell have I been? Honestly, I can’t even tell. I don’t really know why I just didn’t post anything the past week, somehow I just never found the right amount of time for it. I’m really sorry guys. But now I’m back and holy moly, I have so much to tell you guys, no joke.

First things first – the IELTS exam. To be honest, I think it went really really well. Especially the reading part was really easy for me and I’m already so damn excited to get the results this Friday. I hope I passed the 6.5 mark in every part, so I can start applying for the universities in London. Wish me luck guys. I’ll of course keep you updated.

Okay, and now the cinematic highlight of the past week – the trailer for Avengers – Infinity War. Oh my god guys, I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was for this trailer. I’ve been waiting for this for months and the day they told the world the trailer would come the next day, I was already at the edge. I remember counting down the hours and updating my Twitter search every few minutes in the hope of some news. And then, finally, there was it. God, was I excited. I mean, you guys know how much the MCU means to me. And as the last Captain America movie left me with quite some question marks and worries about the whole Avengers team, I was especially curious to see what my favorite heroes would be up to in the next movie. So, without further ado, here it is, the trailer for the cinematic highlight of the upcoming year:

Actually, I don’t even know where to start, there’s just too much to take in. Also, just to warn you guys, there are quite a lot of spoilers coming up, so please be aware of that. So, we all know that Thanos, the big, lilac guy, is on the hunt for the six Infinity Stones and is of course willing to kill anyone who tries to stop him from doing exactly that. We know that the movie will be playing in Wakanda, which we will get to know further in the upcoming Black Panther movie, in New York and somewhere in the galaxy. I think the movie will start off with Thor and Co. crashing into Thanos spaceship – which was hinted in the post-credit scene of Thor: Ragnarok. This of course won’t probably go well, so I guess that’s when Thor crashes into the spaceship of our beloved Guardians and Hulk into the headquarters of Doctor Strange in New York.

It can also be seen that Thanos is able to collect two Infinity Stones, the power stone, which we saw in the first Guardians movie, and the space stone, which is located in the tesseract, which Loki stole at the end of Thor: Ragnarok. In the trailer we can see him holding the tesseract and I’m guessing that he willingly hands over the stone to Thanos in order to save himself. I’m not quite sure whether this will truly save him or not, but we’ll see.

What especially shocked me was seeing Vision in his human form, which is like a completely new concept and a total surprise. That he and Wanda apparently are a couple now not so much, but that part really did surprise me. And then seeing him lying on the ground, someone trying to pull the stone out of his head. At that part it was kind of an obvious idea for me that he’d die, but I think that Vision will be one of the new Avengers, so killing him wouldn’t really work.

Oh and speaking about deaths – I think we really all have to buckle up for some cruel, shocking deaths that are coming up. And trust me, I’m probably more frightened than you are, especially as Robert Downey Jr.’s contract with Marvel is ending with the second part of Infinity War and, honestly, if they kill Tony, I might as well walk out of the cinema and cry for a week. Seriously, Marvel can’t do that to me. I would be completely devastated.

And apart from that I think that this movie will be a total rollercoaster. Because, as we all know, Doctor Strange has the time stone, so they can actually kill off whoever they want as long as they just have Strange to take them back. I’ll be totally done after watching that movie, I can already tell. But that doesn’t of course stop me from watching it the moment it is out here in my country, which is at the end of April 2018 to be exact.

But actually, I don’t think they’ll kill anyone “important” in the movie. I mean, they will probably “save” that for the second movie, after the Avengers have fought against Thanos altogether. As the MCU as we all know and love it will be over after this – but before you now get a heart attack, there will still be a MCU, just mostly with different and new characters -, I think they will come up with the whole team first to celebrate the past years and movies and stories.

Overall, I am so damn excited for Infinity War, I can’t even put it into words. Especially as I know that Marvel always comes up with the biggest surprises ever and I’m just so up for it. Can I please watch the movie next week? That would be amazing, thank you.

So guys, there you go. That’s one of the crazy things that happened last week, but I of course have so much more in store, so stay tuned. And please don’t forget to share your thoughts about the trailer. It is now the most-watched trailer with over 230 million clicks in 24 hours, so I guess some of you have probably already seen it themselves and I’m really curious about your thoughts and opinions. And until then I wish you all an amazing week. Oh and also a happy start of this years December. Christmas is literally just around the corner but so far I haven’t really been able to wrap my head around that, but I can already feel the christmassy feeling coming up. The snow helps. Oh, and, of course, as always, I hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for reading. x

Why I love Marvel so much

Hola everyone.

Marvel. Oh yes. I’m letting the geek out today. Yes I am. Embrace the geek I say.

So, Marvel. I don’t really know where to start, but today I’d like to discuss this very important topic with you guys and tell you why I love it so freaking much. I mean, I have already reviewed Marvel movies on here, but let’s start right at beginning, shall we? The very first contact I had with the MCU (= the Marvel Cinematic Universe) was when I turned on the TV and the first Iron Man movie was playing. And without knowing anything about it all, I just watched it and oh my god, I fell for it. Since then Marvel has wrapped me around its finger. No joke. And I think this was also on free TV, so there were already other Marvel movies out too. I mean, I wasn’t late, but also not the earliest. But since then I am, I can tell you.

That was also the moment I became #TeamIronMan. Yes, I am in that team. I have already had quite some discussions with #TeamCap members and no argument could ever change my mind. I just think that Tony Stark is literally the coolest guy ever. I mean, yes he was quite a douche in the first movie, but if you have seen every movie, you could really see his personality develop throughout the stories. Of course I don’t want to spoil anything for you guys, but just to warn you, there might be some spoilers. Like right now. I mean, in the last movie, Captain America: Civil War, he really shows his sensitive side. I know, I’ve told you all about that (here is the link), so I’ll not repeat myself all over again.

So, that’s the story about my favorite Marvel character. But apart from that, the MCU means just so much more to me. I mean, I don’t read the comics, so I’m not a pro when it comes to all the different stories and details you don’t get to see in the movies, but I don’t even mind at all. Because the MCU on its own is just a big freaking amazing universe that gets me every single time I watch one of its movies. I mean, Marvel movies are the kind of films that keep me on the edge of my seat through the whole time. I remember watching Captain America: Civil War and not only that I cried, but that towards the end my whole body was tensed and shaking. And I’m not joking right now, I was indeed really shaking. And no, I wasn’t cold. I mean, how freaky is that? I was so into the story and everything was just so exciting and thrilling that I couldn’t even calm myself down anymore.

But what I probably love about the movies the most is how they are all connected with each other in some special ways. That means, that if you want to watch a Marvel movie and Iron Man 3 is playing right now and you’re thinking like “well, I guess I’ll just watch this one” and you do that before having seen any of the movies before, you’re basically screwed. That’s how you know that those people next to you in the cinema are true fans, because you can’t watch one of the new movies without having seen the past ones. And that’s what makes it so exciting, because throughout every story there are so many references to other movies and other stories which you really only get if you have seen this particular movie and I think that’s so cool.

Oh and of course Marvel basically trains their fans. I mean, we don’t just have to watch all the movies to be up-to-date. No no no no. You also have to stay until the very last second of the movie, as there are always some post-credit scenes and sometimes those few seconds are one of the most important ones of the whole movie. Sometimes they tease an upcoming movie, sometimes they show what happens to another character and so on. And that’s so funny when you’re sitting in the cinema and the lights go on and after the big post-credit scene, which comes up a few seconds after the movie has ended, all the other people just leave and you’re left with about ten other people in the room, all desperately waiting for the end to see what’s Marvels next big thing or next secret to be revealed. I always say that that’s the moment you really see who’s a die hard Marvel or MCU fan and who isn’t.

And last but not least, the movies themselves are just freaking mind-blowing. Every single one of them. I mean, the stories are amazing, the actors are incredible, the characters are so damn cool, even the evil guys are awesome, all the details and the performances are so well done and it just looks so real. Like, Groot, from the Guardians of the Galaxy. He’s basically a tree and he looks so damn real. That’s crazy. And somehow they always perfect the mix of both thrilling action and funny humor. Because you get this totally serious scene, people are battling, some are dying and one of the heroes comes into the shot and is about to save everything and then he suddenly runs into something or falls off or something like that. And that just lightens up the whole moment and makes you laugh, but then you get back to the action and it’s just such an amazing rollercoaster of emotions. And onto that I just love that Stan Lee, the genius of a writer that wrote all the stories, has a part in every single movie. I’m always waiting for him to show up at some point. In the last Thor movie (spoilers ahead) he was the one who cut Thor’s hair and I mean, how funny is that? I just love it.

So guys, there you go. That’s my love for Marvel and the MCU in a nutshell. I really have to say that I’m truly a huge fan of this incredible cinematic universe. I’m looking forward to every single movie and I love the characters and I’m already so excited for all the upcoming movies and I just love that I get to experience them all. But what about you guys? Are you also as deep in love with Marvel as I am? And who’s your favorite hero? Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment down below, I’m really curious. And until then I wish you all an amazing week and hope that you enjoyed this post. And, as always, thanks for reading. x