Ruby Granger #5 Counting Her Ad Money With Closed, Grateful Eyes

[Ilaariaa]

I read Hermione as a character who was initially supposed to be exasperating, making Ron and Harry feel less clever, less prepared, etc. She grows up though and proves herself to be competent and a strong team player. She leaves the arrogance behind, instead she uses her wit and academic strengths for good, rather than reveling in how long she's spent reading.

Hermione also grows up to become more of a rebel? Like in the first book (as far as I remember) she follows the rules more strictly and being punished for breaking them is like the worst thing that could happen to her. But then in the following books out of the main trio she's the one constantly bending the rules and breaking them to do what she feels is right.

I feel like Ruby doesn't really get Hermione's character. Which is odd considering this is a children's book and it's pretty straightforward. Like Hermione literally spells out her character arc in the first book when she says that there are more important things than books.

 

[shoshannadreyfus]

I never watched her old videos so I just watched the 'study like Hermione' one. She literally says 'if you don't understand something, don't ask a teacher, figure it out yourself. Even if this takes an extra hour, it's more like what Hermione would do'. IS IT???? WHY would you waste an hour of your life when you could get the answer in 5 minutes? I know she was young when she made this video but Jesus christ I hope no one took that advice. I seriously doubt there are many teachers out there who would rather you struggle for hours instead of just asking for help. It's not impressive, it doesn't make you look smart. Ruby truly needs to take note of the saying 'don't work hard, work smart'. Her time management skills are awful.

 

[Ilaariaa]

I never watched her old videos so I just watched the 'study like Hermione' one. She literally says 'if you don't understand something, don't ask a teacher, figure it out yourself. Even if this takes an extra hour, it's more like what Hermione would do'. IS IT???? WHY would you waste an hour of your life when you could get the answer in 5 minutes? I know she was young when she made this video but Jesus christ I hope no one took that advice. I seriously doubt there are many teachers out there who would rather you struggle for hours instead of just asking for help. It's not impressive, it doesn't make you look smart. Ruby truly needs to take note of the saying 'don't work hard, work smart'. Her time management skills are awful.

It's so dumb. Like even if it was something Hermione would do that wouldn't necessarily make it good or healthy lmao.
Asking for help doesn't make you any less smart. It's literally what teachers are paid to do. And everyone needs help in something. It's such an unhealthy and obsessive mindset to have and I really hope Ruby has grown out of it.

 

[n8459]

I started reading The Secret History last night and although I'm only around 100 pages in it's so obvious how much of herself Ruby bases on this book, I can see why she loves it so much

Side note - I'm having a hard time not getting annoyed at the characters and how pretentious and irritable they can be. Is it worth keeping going? I've heard so many good things about this book I almost feel as if I should like it, and I'm not sure if I'm just having trouble getting into this book at first

 

[Lola123]

It's so dumb. Like even if it was something Hermione would do that wouldn't necessarily make it good or healthy lmao.
Asking for help doesn't make you any less smart. It's literally what teachers are paid to do. And everyone needs help in something. It's such an unhealthy and obsessive mindset to have and I really hope Ruby has grown out of it.

Well considering how much time she sucks out of her lecturers I would suggest she must be asking for help or else what’s she going for?

 

[shoshannadreyfus]

Well considering how much time she sucks out of her lecturers I would suggest she must be asking for help or else what’s she going for?

Idk, to talk about how great she is? To ask them about their holidays in Cambodia? Who knows.

 

[MGB01]

I started reading The Secret History last night and although I'm only around 100 pages in it's so obvious how much of herself Ruby bases on this book, I can see why she loves it so much

Side note - I'm having a hard time not getting annoyed at the characters and how pretentious and irritable they can be. Is it worth keeping going? I've heard so many good things about this book I almost feel as if I should like it, and I'm not sure if I'm just having trouble getting into this book at first

It took me so long to read this book, it's a bit of a slow starter but once I got over the fact the characters are all meant to be pretentious and unlikeable I enjoyed it a lot more, it's a good book but not as amazing as everyone says honestly if it wasn't seen as this dark academia bible I don't think it would be getting the hype it currently has. It's a bit odd people are modelling themselves on the characters though, I thought they were meant to show that money and power corrupts.
I'm surprised Ruby has read it though its quite graphic not something I'd have thought was her cup of tea. Does anybody know what she rated it?

 

[n8459]

It took me so long to read this book, it's a bit of a slow starter but once I got over the fact the characters are all meant to be pretentious and unlikeable I enjoyed it a lot more, it's a good book but not as amazing as everyone says honestly if it wasn't seen as this dark academia bible I don't think it would be getting the hype it currently has. It's a bit odd people are modelling themselves on the characters though, I thought they were meant to show that money and power corrupts.
I'm surprised Ruby has read it though its quite graphic not something I'd have thought was her cup of tea. Does anybody know what she rated it?

This makes a lot of sense - I’m definitely going to try to get through it, I like Donna Tart’s writing but this one is just taking a while

I wasn’t sure if they were being deliberately written as irritating and pretentious- good to know that’s the case!

Ruby has it listed as “want to read” on GoodReads, I can never bear to watch her book videos so I’m not sure if she’s mentioned it in one

 

[Magallanes]

Has anyone pointed out that Ruby was originally trying to study English at Oxford which is exactly what Emma Watson did?

I also believe in some of her early videos she had a Kit Kittredge American Girl Doll which is the 1930s doll which appears to be the era she has based her current fashion choices on?

I don't think she knows who she is. She comes across as a surface-level amalgamation of the people and characters she likes despite the fact that they are no longer age appropriate.

actually, i realised that ruby followed the same path as jk rowling, trying to be admitted into oxford but then got rejected and got into exeter
maybe she thinks this is a magic formula to become a well-known author?

 

[CalatheaLater]

I started reading The Secret History last night and although I'm only around 100 pages in it's so obvious how much of herself Ruby bases on this book, I can see why she loves it so much

Side note - I'm having a hard time not getting annoyed at the characters and how pretentious and irritable they can be. Is it worth keeping going? I've heard so many good things about this book I almost feel as if I should like it, and I'm not sure if I'm just having trouble getting into this book at first

For me it was a book that I couldn't stop reading becuase I had to find out what happened. With Donna Tartt's other book, The Goldfinch, I found the main character pretty unlikable but it was still a good book in the end. Likewise with The Secret History I would say it's worth reading a bit longer. I wouldn't say it's something you shouldn't force yourself to read just becuase it's so popular though!

I think Ruby read maybe the first half of the book, liked the dark setting at a small uni and the idea of being in a small clique of people studying something archaic, but actually didn't care about the story so stopped reading

 

[GoinDowntown]

It took me so long to read this book, it's a bit of a slow starter but once I got over the fact the characters are all meant to be pretentious and unlikeable I enjoyed it a lot more, it's a good book but not as amazing as everyone says honestly if it wasn't seen as this dark academia bible I don't think it would be getting the hype it currently has. It's a bit odd people are modelling themselves on the characters though, I thought they were meant to show that money and power corrupts.
I'm surprised Ruby has read it though its quite graphic not something I'd have thought was her cup of tea. Does anybody know what she rated it?

I don't think she ever finished it

 

[buflesse]

I started reading The Secret History last night and although I'm only around 100 pages in it's so obvious how much of herself Ruby bases on this book, I can see why she loves it so much

Side note - I'm having a hard time not getting annoyed at the characters and how pretentious and irritable they can be. Is it worth keeping going? I've heard so many good things about this book I almost feel as if I should like it, and I'm not sure if I'm just having trouble getting into this book at first

The characters are all awful in some way, but they are also really compelling. It's a slow burner - definitely worth persevering.

 

[Amyleinchen]

I started reading The Secret History last night and although I'm only around 100 pages in it's so obvious how much of herself Ruby bases on this book, I can see why she loves it so much

Side note - I'm having a hard time not getting annoyed at the characters and how pretentious and irritable they can be. Is it worth keeping going? I've heard so many good things about this book I almost feel as if I should like it, and I'm not sure if I'm just having trouble getting into this book at first

I hate that book so much. Even though it took me ages I forced myself to finish it and I hated every second. I adore Donna Tart’s writing style and she does a great job of portraying the different atmospheres, the feeling of the university campus and long summers etc. but the characters were completely unlikable and unrelatable. That being said, I know a lot of people enjoyed the book so I’d say continue to read it and if you still don’t enjoy it after the first 200 pages then drop it.

 

[lizzie2707]

Yeah she mentioned she was reading it at some point, but I don't think she ever finished it - she definitely didn't give it a rating, and it wasn't on her end of year video on all the books she read. I can't imagine her liking it at all - it's the OG dark academia book, and let's face it the sex/drugs in the book is absolutely not going to appeal to someone like her. I would guess she started it thinking it would be wonderfully romanticised, Classics students at a historic university how lovely, and then realised that "dark academia" does, funnily enough, involve some actual darkness, and stopped.

 

[Satisfying Click]

Spoiler: Erimentha Parker's to do list, Chapter 13

Erimentha is off to the retirement village to see Grandmama. (You didn't think she was going to refer to her as something as perverse as Nan, did you?) - she says the family rarely accompanies her.

Grandmama is a bookworm and a polyglot. It's the kind of wholesome and warm retirement home you'd find in American Christmas movies. Erimentha hopes her children will send her to a similar one (by the time our generation is infirm, Erimentha, we'll be given vouchers for the 'Twilight Village' and it's a brief one-way journey)

They go for a walk, they talk Shakespeare. Erimentha asks Grandmama if she has any friends. Nope, acquaintances, "True friends are a stack of books and a loving family." I'd want to be a fly on the wall during family therapy.

Grandmama mentions she hasn't always lived a morally perfect life - I wanted tea spilled on Grandmama's corrupt youth, but it goes as far as pinching her sister. They pick pinecones.

 

[missmina]

They pick pinecones.

Dear god.

 

[Welshgal]

Grandmama? Is it pronounced like the mama in Bridgerton? Never heard of it but then I‘m just a peasant who calls her grandma Nan

 

[lizzie2707]

Spoiler: Erimentha Parker's to do list, Chapter 13

Erimentha is off to the retirement village to see Grandmama.

Grandmama...Jesus wept Ruby, we know you don't call your Gran "grandmama", why are you trying to sound even more upper class than you already are??? When I was at school it was fashionable for people to try to sound less posh than they actually were by trying to speak like people from Essex, which was...fairly terrible...but wow going too far the other way is just as bad.

Spoiler: Erimentha Parker's to do list, Chapter 13

(by the time our generation is infirm, Erimentha, we'll be given vouchers for the 'Twilight Village' and it's a brief one-way journey)

Hahahaha this actually made me spit water on my keyboard, you should honestly be a comedy writer

Spoiler: Erimentha Parker's to do list, Chapter 13

Erimentha asks Grandmama if she has any friends. Nope, acquaintances, "True friends are a stack of books and a loving family." I'd want to be a fly on the wall during family therapy.

Yikes...Ruby was what, 16 when she wrote this? That's so so unhealthy (also once again missing the point of HP, friendship is such a crucial theme of the books my god). I get the sense she doesn't really think like this now thankfully - she and Blakeney seem to be genuinely good friends, which is reassuring. I do think she has matured since she wrote this, but I also think she's maintained some of the most problematic aspects of Erimentha - total inflexibility, refusal to admit her shortcomings - hence her most recent duck-up.

 

[Ilaariaa]

They go for a walk, they talk Shakespeare. Erimentha asks Grandmama if she has any friends. Nope, acquaintances, "True friends are a stack of books and a loving family."

I guess friends are on the same level as makeup, pop music and boyfriends

Grandmama? Is it pronounced like the mama in Bridgerton? Never heard of it but then I‘m just a peasant who calls her grandma Nan

I actually expected Erimentha to address her as My Lady Grandmother

 

[GoinDowntown]

So basically... Grandmama says it's ok not to have any friends as long as you read a lot. Because books are better than people? Or because people who read are better than people who don't read, and who wants to be friends with boring real people anyway when you can read about fictional people instead?
Except if you met many of those characters in real life you wouldn't like them. Fictional characers are great because you don't have to interact with them. You know their motivations and inner thoughts - you don't get that with a real person, when there is no narrator to help you understand their point of view or guide you to put yourself in their position or justify their actions.

It's ok if nobody likes you beause they are jealous of your intellectual prowess (and inability to keep it to yourself).
Who wants to fit in if you can be special? Why should you care if those plebs like you, if you're so much better than them? In fact you should be proud you don't fit in. It means you're above them.

As long as you have a loving family who praises you and tells you how special and amazing you are of course.