Tag: books

readathons

Bout of Books 24

Christy.E.S6 Comments

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 7th and runs through Sunday, January 13th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 24 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team


Bout of Books
Goals:
For this readathon, I won’t set myself a page count goal, because I never really reach them and they usually just make me focus more on the amount I’m reading than what I’m reading. I will still provide updates for my page count, but I won’t be too fussed if it’s not a lot (as it often is).
I want to finish reading The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper and if I can I want to read the other three books in the series as well. I will also be re-reading The Cruel Prince by Holly Black before I start the second book in The Folk of The Air series – The Wicked King – if I can finish all these books by the end of the week it will be a miracle as I’m in work every day except tomorrow, but I’m hoping I can at least make a big dent in all of them!
The only other goals I have are to update on here every day and to take part in at least one of the twitter chats – though one of them is at 2am my time, so that really only leaves one as I will be asleep at 2am, and to spend some time either on blogs or on twitter with other people also doing Bout of Books this time around as I usually get so caught up in the reading that I forget the point of a readathon is to make reading sociable!
I will also try to take part in at least three of the challenges throughout the week.
Monday:
Pages Read: 110
Total Pages Read: 110
Challenge: introduce yourself in six words: Reads when not distracted or working.
Notes: Have found that The Wicked King won’t be being released tomorrow but is now being released next week instead – after the readathon has finished – while this means I won’t be able to read the book as part of the readathon, it does mean I have more of a chance of being able to read the other books in my TBR pile this week and if I can get through all of them this week then I have nothing to stop me from reading The Wicked King when it finally does come out next week!
Tuesday:
Pages Read: 10
Total Pages Read: 120
Notes: Today was probably the day that I will be able to read least, although I am in work all day Thursday and Friday too but am hoping that I will be able to finish The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper tomorrow.
Wednesday:
Pages Read: 120
Total Pages Read: 240
Books Finished: The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
Notes: Have found out that I have the day off work on Saturday so will be able to take part in the twitter chat that is going to be in the middle of the afternoon for me. Finished The Dark is Rising and am thinking of doing a full review of the series when I have finished all five books. I am however, going to be in work earl on Monday morning – so won’t be able to read until midnight on Sunday, so the last bits of my reading will be happening on Saturday.
Thursday:
Pages Read: 41
Total Pages Read: 281
Notes: The Wicked King is now available on my kindle – I think there must just have been a delay in letting me download it. So as I am off work on Saturday, I plan to finish reading The Cruel Prince on Friday night and read The Wicked King on Saturday morning.
Friday:
Pages Read: 76
Total Pages Read: 357
Notes: Won’t have time to finish The Cruel Prince before I get tired and have to go to sleep, but it is a fairly quick book to read, so I do still have time to read it on Saturday. I have to go out in the afternoon, but have Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo as an audiobook so can listen to that while I’m out of the house.

Saturday:

Pages Read: 130

Total Pages Read: 487

Audiobook: 3 hours 39 minutes

Notes: will definitely be able to get up to five hundred Pages Read before the end of the readathon and will hopefully finish the Cruel Prince tomorrow, but won’t ha time to finish Greenwich or start The Wicked King before the end of the readathon.

Sunday:

Pages Read: 24

Total Pages Read: 511

Notes: Only have a few more pages to go of The Cruel Prince but won’t be able to read it before Tuesday now, so will have to finish it then. Over five hundred pages is pretty good going for me during a readathon though, even if it I did only finish one book during the week.

 

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Reading Goals and Not Reaching Them

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On Goodreads it is possible to set yourself a reading goal for the year, previously I have set and succeeded in reading a total of fifty and sixty books in one year. In 2018 I set the goal of reading 35 books and failed. I managed 27 of 35 books which Goodreads tells me is 77% of the way there.

I had wanted to reach the goal but I simply had less time to read in 2018 then I did in the year I read sixty books and even if I had had the time to read I had less disposable income for the majority of the year to spend on reading material.

In 2019 I have set the goal of reading 30 books, this is less than I planned to read last year  as I am unlikely to have any more reading time this year as I am starting a Masters course at the end of January. However, it is still more books than I managed to read because it is supposed to be a challenge after all.

And if I do fail again, the goal of reading thirty will still make me read more books this year than I would be likely to if I set no goal at all.

 

 

TBR's

August Wrap-Up and September TBR

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Books Read in August:

The Island by M.A. Bennett:
3 stars
I did a full review of this book here.
Favourite Quote: “”They cancelled the show. So you never saw the characters getting off the island. In the world of the show, they’re still there, stranded, frozen in TV limbo.””

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson:
4 stars
This is a collection of short stories by Shirley Jackson, as with any collection of short stories, I enjoyed some more than others but the majority of these stories are good and I read the entire book in only a couple of days.
Favourite Quote: “”Reality,” she said, and went out.”

September TBR:

The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All The Way Home by Catherynne M. Valente:
The latest book in the Fairyland series of which I have read all of them. I think this may be the last book in the series and am looking forward to finishing it and am hoping that I enjoy this book enough that I want to spend winter re-reading the entire series!

I don’t have any other books planned to read in September so once I have finished this book I’ll have to choose another!

 

 

 

Book Reviews

Book Review: The Illumination of Ursula Flight (Anna-Marie Crowhurst)

Christy.E.S1 Comment

“there was nothing I liked more than to see my own name drawn out by my own hand, and so I wrote it everywhere I could, including places I knew were forbidden”

The story follows Ursula Flight as she vows while young to become an actress and the twists of fate that must happen for a respectable woman to become an actor in the 17th century.

“”She tried to cure the baker with a toasted toad,” said Mary. “But she only gave him warts.””

The book is well researched and the characters are well rounded making them feel real as you are reading it.
The book is a bit slow considering it is mainly just the story of Ursula’s life and though the pay off at the end is great for Ursula, it doesn’t feel like enough to warrant the build up of all the previous chapters.

“SIBELIAH: I cannot look at the sunset!

URSULA: Plainly you must open your eyes first or you will not see it.”

The writing includes some scripts and lists which make the reading easier and quicker as you go along and the writing style is humorous without ever going anachronistic in it’s style.

Book Reviews

Book Review: The Electrical Venus (Julie Mayhew)

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“Some of us start humble and choose to climb. Then comes the fall, a momentary loss of balance, but we get up, we brush ourselves down, we bathe in dust and we ready our feathers. For soon, I believe, we will sing, bird. In ways quite fantastic, we shall sing.”

This is a book that got better near to the end. Not that it wasn’t good at the beginning, but having seen the characters grow and learn from their mistakes throughout the book it does make the ending more enjoyable.

“‘Will it feel as sure as a punch to the jaw? Like the sting of alcohol upon a wound? Will it be as certain as the teeth of a goose? Or as sound as a beating with a wooden spoon?'”
The book has three perspectives, one a narrator, and the other two the characters Mim and Alex – these two characters perspectives are written as if they are diary entries, but on account of them both being circus performers instead of writing their diary entries down, they speak to the animals in the circus in monologues that would do well to be read aloud – at the back of the book it is stated that the book started life as a radio show which explains the monologues.
“MISS MIM, a Student of Natural Philosophy, Human Nature and Magical Electrickery, and her Partner, MASTER ALEX, a lofty Tumbler, Rope Dancer and Acrobat of some Distinction will demonstrate the accurate Disposition of the Heart via the most extraordinary Means.”

The characters are well written and I found myself truly invested in their stories and characterisation by the end of the book.

Book Reviews

Book Review: To Kill a Kingdom (Alexandra Christo)

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“Technically I’m a murderer, but I like to think that’s one of my better qualities.”

This book is loosely based on The Little Mermaid, but is a darker retelling of the story as instead of a mermaid the main character is a siren turned human for punishment. In order to redeem herself she must take the heart of a prince in her human form.

“Love is a word we scarcely hear in the ocean.”

The book is a joy to read, as both the story and the writing style compliment each other well and it seems that the surface of the world created in the book has barely been scratched, as there are a hundred kingdoms and we only visit a handful.

“Is that what it means to be human? Pushing someone else out of danger and throwing yourself in?”

The book is a standalone so the ending ties everything together well but could have been done over more than a few pages and any other books set in this world, but following different characters, would be interesting to read to find out more about the hundred kingdoms.

“I died once and I haven’t been able to do it again since.”

For a debut novel or for any novel, the story is compelling and the writing style unique, and I will definitely read whatever story Alexandra Christo tells next.

5/5.

 

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How To Get More Books

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“When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.” – Erasmus.

Lovely though this sentiment is, I don’t think I have ever met anyone for whom this quote is true. Even the most dedicated bibliophile would, if the choice came down to it, choose food first; because you can’t read books if you’ve starved.

Yet book reviewers online sometimes seem to be following this quote through, or at least have vast disposable incomes that allow them to buy six new books a month and hardly get around to reading a single one of them.

The answer of course is that they don’t buy all of the books they read. Some are presents, some are offered by publishers and some are bought (after food), but if you are new to book reviewing how do you start being given books before you are able to justify buying them in vast quantities?

Well as I am new to this as well, I have found a few places. The website readersfirst offers a preview of various books on a Monday, if you write a review of the preview then you are entered into a draw to win a copy of the book – the book will arrive before it’s released and all you have to do is read it and give a review of the finished product by the publication day. They say it’s a draw to win the book but so far I have won all three of the books I have previewed, so it’s not rare to win.

Other places include bookbub which can send you emails for daily deals on ebooks. Want to start reading that new series? Well for one day only it’s 99p instead of £7.99! Though the books offered here are e-books rather than physical versions, the writers will all still value reviews.

Author websites also regularly offer books in exchange for honest reviews. And though I am yet to try this so am not sure how it works, some publishers can be contacted directly to ask for copies of books to review. In all the cases the only thing you need to do is review the book once you have finished and if that allows me to gain a new book every month then I am all for it. I don’t even need to make the decision between food or books. Unlike poor Erasmus.

Book Reviews

Book Review: Sunflowers in February by Phyllida Shrimpton

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I was interested to read this book as it seemed to be a YA story about death that took new paths about the subject, it is and it isn’t.

“It is almost as if snow has come in the night, just for my pleasure,”
The main character Lily manages to get a few extra days on earth courtesy of her brother and she uses this time to help her friends start to accept her death. There are a few missed opportunities for storylines in the book and while we have a first person p.o.v. for Lily, every so often there are a few pages in the third person for another character such as her mother or a friend which I feel wasn’t necessary to see things from the other characters p.o.v. as well as Lily’s.

“A bright moon casts a blue light across the room,”
I did enjoy the writing style, feeling that it was close to actual teenage speech and I have read many books where this was not the case. The writing style does make the more obvious themes of the story entertaining to read meaning I wasn’t tempted to skip parts of the book at any point.

“I picture their golden heads waving under the orange African sunshine in a few months’ time,”
The book explores themes of grief, regret and acceptance in a way I have not read before and as this is a debut novel I would be interested in reading more by the author.

3/5

 

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DNF Or Not Finishing Books

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I confess, even though it is not yet the end of January there have been a couple of books I have Not Finished, giving up reading them halfway through, or even only a few pages in. This is rare for me and both the books were ones on my kindle, that I bought at some point last year and had not got around to reading precisely because I had bought them when they were on offer, and wasn’t sure I would actually enjoy them.

Usually if I am going to DNF a book I will know within the first few pages, rarely do I give up a book once I am past the first chapter. This is because my usual reason for not finishing books is the writing – the first book I ever didn’t finish on purpose was a novelisation of Sabrina The Teenage Witch when I was eleven on the basis that I thought I could have written it when I was five years younger. It also took me three goes to finish reading The Lord of The Rings because I got annoyed that I couldn’t read the Elvish, but these books were given up on very early on, the books I have DNF’d this year I have given up much later in the story.

If I get past the first few chapters of a book then by that point even if I am not necessarily enjoying the story, the book may still benefit from being reviewed and you shouldn’t review a book you did not finish. After the first few chapters I am always to some extent invested in the story and characters and at the very least want to keep reading just to see whether everything gets resolved, or any of the characters I have decided to like manage to stay alive until the end.

So if you give up a book halfway or even three quarters through, what happened then that didn’t happen in the first few pages? Well, in my case, the reasons don’t seem to change. If the story is not what I expected, or the story doesn’t involve the one character I liked, or I’m halfway through and the story has not yet started. The book I am currently reading, does not seem to be the same as I imagined before I started, and yet this book I am carrying on reading, because there is still the drive that I want to know what happens in the end, and that is of course down to the writing, so maybe in the end that is the only reason I DNF any books. If the writing does not make the story and characters interesting then either nothing will or the writing needs changing.

On the plus side, not finishing books is a means of decluttering your kindle bookshelf or your real bookshelves and you won’t know a book is going to be one you will not finish until you have tried to finish it.