Bout of Books is here!

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 22nd and runs through Sunday, August 28th 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 17 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Yep, hot on the heels of the re-readathon, I'm jumping straight into Bout of Books. I'm enjoying just chilling out and reading these days. It seems to be just what I need right now. I'm also aware that I'm going back to uni in a few weeks, so it's good practice to get back into reading (I'm a post-grad lit student, and my lecturers regularly assign us 2+ books a week, per class.) So, this is not just me finding an excuse to lie about and read and eat sweets. This is me preparing for my future.

Um, yeah.

Anyway. I don't have a specific book pile, just the books I'm currently reading and some vague ideas if I finish these.

         

First up, I've got Ghost Story by Peter Straub, which Stephen King called one of the finest horror stories of the 20th century. I'm not really sure what to make of it yet. Basically, I read the first 50 pages and then my library e-book expired, and I've only just got it back a month later. Actually, since the re-readathon got in the way I might only have a few days left on my loan... oops. Anyway. We'll see how this goes.

Then there's Different Seasons by Stephen King, which is a collection of four novellas, most of which I believe were adapted into movies I have never seen. I'm about halfway through the second novella, "Apt Pupil". Stephen King tends to be a bit hit or miss for me, but I'm enjoying this so far.

I also want to finish Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which I started during the re-readathon. What can I say, it's Harry Potter, it's awesome, and I may end up reading the rest of this in one sitting.

After this, I'm thinking of Shirley by Charlotte Bronte, and then raiding whatever e-books my library has to offer. We'll see how the week goes :)

Bout of Books 16

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th 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 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I'm late to the party because I totally forgot this was happening. But hey, I'm in essay hell and it's been a bit quiet around the blog lately so I might as well take part!

I'm hoping to finish four books, including the two I'm currently reading. That might be optimistic, but we'll see how the week goes! I'll try to update this every day with my progress, work schedule and essay deadlines permitting.


Monday and Tuesday

 

Reading: Women Who Did: Stories by Men and Women, 1890-1914; The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee
Pages read; 142

Thoughts: Not a bad start! Monday I was in work and doing uni work, but managed to squeeze in some reading in the park as the weather was glorious. Tuesday was a bit less productive as my girlfriend was over, but I still got a good chunk read.

Women Who Did is pretty self-explanatory from the title- it's a collection of stories about women at turn of the century. It's actually some belated uni reading that I'm doing after the semester has finished, whoops. There's big names like Edith Wharton and Virginia Woolf as well as lesser known ones, including (so far) an African American and a Native American, which is unusual given the time period and nice to see.

The Expatriates is one of the books I won from Bex during the last re-readathon, and even though it's something I probably wouldn't have picked up on my own accord, I'm really enjoying it. It's about a group of- you guessed it- expatriates living in Hong Kong, with their lives intermingling and some interesting stuff about local vs. expat dynamics.


Wednesday

 

Reading: Women Who Did: Stories by Men and Women, 1890-1914; The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee
Pages read; 182
Books finished: Women Who Did
Total pages read: 324

Thoughts: I was off work today so as usual I tried to get as much uni work done as physically possible. And mostly succeeded! I finished Women Who Did, meaning I've finally finished my assigned reading for the year. All in all a pretty good book to finish the academic year with. As with all collections, some stories are better than others- but I've finally read some Kate Chopin and some Charlotte Perkins Gilman and enjoyed them just as much as everybody told me I would, so it's all good.

The Expatriates is also going swimmingly. You know sometimes you read a book about something you've never thought much about before but the author just makes it seem so interesting? Yeah, expat life in Hong Kong is surprisingly interesting. There's all this stuff about how everyone sticks together in groups by nationality and the underlying sexism where so many of the wives become stay at home mothers because they've followed their husbands half way around the world. So, yeah. I'm enjoying it a lot, and should finish it tomorrow if I keep going at this rate.


Thursday

 

Reading: The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee, Possession by A. S. Byatt
Pages read; 165
Books finished: The Expatriates
Total pages read: 489
Total books finished: 2

Thoughts: Work was long and exhausting today, so when I came home I basically decided to skip the uni work and relax with a book all night instead. I was successful for the most part, though I ended up falling asleep about two hours before my usual time. Like I said, exhausted!

I finished The Expatriates! I'm feeling satisfied in the way that happens when a book you didn't have any expectations about turned out to be actually really good.

I've stared Possession now, which has probably sabotaged my vague goals of finishing four books this week- it's pretty chunky- but I'm not that bothered. I've heard amazing things about this book and so far so good!


Friday and Saturday

Aaaaand then it all went to hell. I won't bother with stats for these two days, because I read two pages. Total. I had a family emergency on Friday night and had to go home, missing work and everything. Everyone's alive and more or less well, don't worry- but yeah. One of those rubbish complicated family drama things. So, I basically spent two days flicking about on Reddit and Tumblr, not really able to focus on anything. Bit of a wash out, really.

Things have mostly resolved themselves now though (as much as they can...) so fingers crossed I'll read more than one page on Sunday!


Sunday

Reading: Possession by A. S. Byatt
Pages read; 20
Total pages read: 511
Total books finished: 2

Thoughts: Hey look, I read more than one page! Seriously though, today I was really busy with uni work. It's that time of year. I had a deadline for something that really should not have taken as long as it did, so there's that. Honestly, it's a miracle I read 20 pages.

I'm enjoying Possession. As a lit student there's an awful lot to relate to... though perhaps not the best book to dip into when I'm trying to take a break from all that!


Round up
Well, I didn't reach my admittedly ambitious goal of four books finished, but I did finish two and start another, so that's not too bad. I was doing pretty well at the start of the week, but personal issues got in the way and I wasn't really able to recover that. Still, I don't think I did too badly!

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon: Update post

Hours 1-13 (1pm-2am)
Reading: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Pages read: 76
Total pages read: 76
Snacks: Quorn bacon and egg sandwich, Special K bar, gum and Wham bars

I'm late to the party, but I'm finally here! I stayed at my parents' house last night so with driving back up to Belfast and stopping for groceries (and the requisite read-a-thon snacks) on the way I only got home at about 2, squeezed in an hour of reading and then headed to work. Got home from work at 1 am, made some food and now I'm hoping to get in an hour or two of reading before I fall asleep :)


Hours 14-22 (2am-11am)
Reading: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Pages read: 38
Total pages read: 114
Snacks: Nothing, just blissful sleep...

You know how some nights you make an actual effort to go to sleep, and then on others sleep just comes for you?

Actual footage of me around 3 am last night

I think I was exhausted from work. But there's two hours left of the readathon and I'm determined to make them count! The plan is to stay in bed with my book and some breakfast until the end- hopefully I'll get some serious pages in before then!

Hours 23-24 (11am-1pm)
Reading: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Pages read: 88
Total pages read: 202
Snacks: Coffee and disappointing cornflakes (Asda Price ones literally taste like paper. Weird and annoying because Tesco Value ones are the same price and are delicious!)

Well, that's it folks! I wish I could have read for longer but with work and sleep and all that I only managed a bit less than four hours out of 24. Even so, I succeeded in making a fairly decent dent in The Goldfinch- I'm past the halfway point!- and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Thank you to the hosts for giving me an excuse to do nothing but read for an evening and a morning, and congratulations to everyone on some seriously impressive page counts I've seen! :)

Did someone say read-a-thon?

I love the 24 Hour Read-a-Thon. There's something about the sheer scale of the thing and the number of people participating that really motivates me. That said, I'm participating slightly... oddly this year.

1. Every single year, I tell myself "Oh, Dewey's read-a-thon is coming up, better book it off work!" Every single year I fail to do so. This year is no different. I'm working Saturday evening, but that still leaves me a couple of hours before work and all Sunday morning!

2. I will not be sacrificing sleep. As someone who balances working nights with morning classes, I never miss out on an opportunity for eight hours of sleep in a row.

3. I love seeing the book piles everyone makes. Love them! I love making book piles myself! But this year there's no book pile, as I'm just planning on reading as much of my current read as possible- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I'm less than halfway through so I doubt I'll get it finished- it's quite the doorstopper- but if I can make a good dent in it that'd be awesome!

4. I'm aware that conventional readathon wisdom advises against reading just one book for the whole 'thon, so I might pick up Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure at some point, as I'm only about a quarter way through it and I need to have it finished for class on Thursday. Actually, considering that, I probably should pick it up at some point.

Weirdness aside, I can't wait! See y'all tomorrow!

Re-readathon, yay!

I'm so happy Bex at An Armchair By The Sea is hosting another re-readathon- I really enjoyed the last two. I've had a bit of a hectic start to the month so I'm looking forward to getting stuck into some old favourites :)

So here's my provisional to-read pile!

First up we have Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson, which is long overdue for a re-read- I think it's been five years? Re-reading her wonderful memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? recently has reminded me of what a travesty this situation is. So, definitely want to get to this one.

Next priority is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, because I started re-reading the series a while back (I think it was actually during one of these re-readathons) and I've sort of stalled on it. Plus it's Goblet of Fire and we all know it's one of the best in the series.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell-  I loved this book and was hoping to re-read it soon anyway, but I recently read Carry On- set in the fictional fantasy universe Fangirl's main character writes fanfiction for- and that's just made me want to read it even more.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt- I've been meaning to re-read this for ages, and I even shortlisted it for the last re-readathon- but I just haven't got around to it. It's one of those books I think will be interesting on a re-read- knowing about the characters what I do now and all that. That's as much as I can say without spoiling it for anyone who hasn't read it yet!

 A Game of Thrones by George R R Martin- I recently started re-watching the TV series and it's really made me want to go back to the books- I've already read them twice but there's so much in them you really do need to read them a few times. I wasn't planning on re-reading them until we had a release date for The Winds of Winter, the sixth book in the series, so that I had a nice new one to read at the end of it- but it seems that could be a while away yet, and I can't wait. I'm not totally sure if I'll read this during the re-readathon- if I do it'll probably take up the whole time- but I might make a start on it, at least.

Sandman: Doll's House by Neil Gaiman- I started re-reading the Sandman series during one of the other re-readathons... and promptly forgot about them. This was actually the first one in the series I ever read, so I'm quite fond of it for that reason. Also, graphic novels are great for boosting your page count ;)

So that's my current book pile! Of course it could all change with bits and pieces on my kindle but we'll see what I feel like on Monday. I can't wait!

Bout of Books 14: Saturday, Sunday and Wrap-up, with bonus cat pictures

Saturday
Reading: The Blind Assassin
Pages read: 25
Total pages read: 329

Hey, it's better than yesterday! I don't think I did too badly today. I worked from 10.30 to 8.30, read for a bit, and then managed to doze off :P I've been really tired lately, between the early starts and starting a new job and all that. Oh well, it's the effort that counts in these things, right? :)



Sunday
Reading: The Blind Assassin
Pages read: 80
Total pages read: 409


11.23pm 
Pages read so far: 69

Today was my last day at my old job, which was... actually surprisingly sad. I did love working there; but pizza delivery pays under minimum wage, I wasn't getting enough hours and coming back to Armagh all the time was doing my head in. Onwards and upwards.

So as well as saying goodbye to my old job, I actually managed to get some reading done today, yay! I'm getting into The Blind Assassin properly now. I really like the style of it, even if it is a bit confusing at the start: all the different narratives, newspaper articles, excerpts from a novel one of the characters wrote... it's interesting. I think I have the potential to become a very big fan of Margaret Atwood- this is the fourth book I've read from her, and they've all been great so far.



Wrap up
Books read from: NOS4R2 by Joe Hill, The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Books finished: none
Total pages read: 409

So, this week didn't exactly go to plan- I had to work 43 hours instead of my estimated 24-ish, and the craziness of starting a new job pretty much exhausted me. Also, I had to deal with these two:

Cat on the right gave birth to kitten on the left three weeks ago, and kitten is now old enough to run around the house and basically cause mischief and be cute. So they're just the biggest distraction of all. (Note my sadly neglected The Blind Assassin in the second picture.)

Still, it wasn't all that bad. I got a good chunk of NOS4R2 read and will hopefully finish it today, at long last. What I've read of The Blind Assassin was great too, so I'm looking forward to reading that too.

Until next time then! It's been great.

Bout of Books 14: Thursday and Friday

Thursday
Reading: NOS4R2
Pages read: 49
Total pages read: 304

7.54pm
My girlfriend came up yesterday so the rest of the day was dedicated to Forbidden Planet and watching The Great British Bake Off before retiring early for my 7am shift this morning (bleh). After work we went to see Paper Towns, which was actually really good, and I'm pretty much only home and settled now. So yeah, absolutely no reading has been going on, I'm sad to say. Still, I'm going to get a wee bit of NOS4R2 in before I go to bed, as I have another early start tomorrow morning. I'm not a morning person and never will be. What can I say? I like being awake in the evening. Mornings are over-rated, I say.

Hopefully some more reading will be going on tomorrow! I get out of work at 3, so that should give me a nice long afternoon of reading. Right? ...right?


Friday
Reading: Nada, unless you count fanfiction...
Pages read: Big fat zero
Total pages read: 304

Hahaha, no. So today was a total no-goer on the reading front. I was up early for another 7am start at work, got home about 3 totally exhausted and just lay on my bed reading fanfiction on my kindle, then I made dinner and had to drive back to Armagh for my other job at 10.30 the next morning, and basically spent the evening watching The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice, reading fanfic, and awwing over my kitten before going to bed embarrassingly early. So, yes. That was my day. I suppose I did read a fair bit of fanfic at least... sometimes I just go on a big binge with it.

Tomorrow I'll read, I swear!

Bout of Books 14: Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday
Reading: I'm planing on reading some of The Blind Assassin later, if that counts
Pages read today: zilch, so far Later: 19
Total pages read: 195

11.07pm
Today was really warm and sunny, so of course sod's law meant I was stuck in work for ten hours, driving around and standing in front of a hot pizza oven. I also found out that my new job, which I was supposed to start on Monday, wants me in for two shifts this week, so there goes all my free time this week! Oh well, I need the money so I can't complain.

So, no reading done today so far unfortunately. I got home from work about an hour ago so I've just made dinner and watched some BBC iPlayer, but I'll be getting stuck in to The Blind Assassin before bed hopefully :)


Wednesday
Reading: NOS4R2 
Pages read today: 60
Total pages read: 255


11.16am
Goood morning! I'm off today, which of course means it's raining. Oh well. I read a good 50 pages of NOS4R2 over a lazy breakfast. I always find in readathons that I read much better when I read a chunk all in one go, instead of little bits here and there like how I read the rest of the time. NOS4R2 is great and I'm really hoping to get it finished this week, if nothing else.

Bout of Books 14- Opening Post and Monday

Bout of Books is upon us again! I have to say, it kind of crept up on me and I nearly forgot about it. But for once it's actually fallen on a good week for me- my last week of only working part-time- so I'm hoping to get some serious reading done!

For the uninitiated, from the blog:
The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 17th and runs through Sunday, August 23rd 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 14 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.

The Books & Goals

Here's my initial book pile, with bonus Wee Cat:

From top to bottom:
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
The Pale King by David Foster Wallace
NOS4R2 by Joe Hill


Ideally I'd like to finish all of these this week- I'm already more than halfway through NOS4R2 so it's doable, I hope! I'll see how the week pans out though. 


Monday

Reading: NOS4R2 by Joe Hill, The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Pages read: 105+71= 176

10.28pm
I'm off work today and like most days off I'm not really sure where the time's gone! I had to bring my car up to the garage to get new brake pads which cost me almost all my weekend's wages, boo. I've also been distracted by cats- a cat we feed had a kitten in our back garden a couple of weeks ago, and he's seriously the biggest distraction ever. Those little blue eyes! I'll try to get a picture up this week, if the mama allows me. She's very protective.

But on the reading front! I have read a good bit more today than I have been reading lately. I made a good dent in NOS4R2, which is good but seriously fucked up in places. There's a villain called Charlie Manx who kidnaps children in his 1938 Rolls Royce Wraith and takes them to 'Christmasland' and he's just kidnapped the protagonist's son, so, shit has hit the fan, pretty much. It's a great read and I really want to find out what happens, but it is very dark so it's hard to keep reading sometimes.

 I started The Blind Assassin as a reprieve. It's an odd one so far, darting about all over the place even from the very start but it seems promising so far. 

Re-readathon: Wednesday and Thursday, plus Re-readathon challenge

Wednesday
Reading: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, Persuasion by Jane Austen, Nana by Emile Zola
Pages read: 176
Total pages read: 479
Books finished: Persuasion by Jane Austen

11.00pm
Pages read so far: 149

Why is it days off always seem to be the busiest? I have no classes on Wednesdays, so I always think I'm going to have an easy time of it but it never quite works out that way. I had to get groceries this morning, then go to an essay writing workshop and then drive home so I can vote tomorrow, and I've been pretty much studying all night. So I've actually had less time to do my own thing than yesterday. I'm sort of up to date with my uni reading though now, which is great.


I finished Persuasion today- only a day after I was supposed to, hurray! It's an odd one. I can't quite figure out how I feel about it. I think it's probably second-last to Mansfield Park in my mental ranking of favourite Austens. but there's something about it I like. The fact that the heroine is considerably older than usual, and her relationship takes so much longer to figure out- it feels more realistic somehow.

Nana is... still Nana. I like it, but it's not easy going at all. It's in French, nineteenth-century French on top of that, and it's so long. The chapters are all like forty pages too, and since I'm reading it for uni I'm thinking about themes and imagery and metaphors and historical context and.... 

Bleh.

On the Actual Reading For Fun side, I was totally intending to start on How to Be a Woman last night but I ended up picking up The Woman in White instead. God, it's so good. I forgot how delightful it is. It's so Victorian and the characters are so vivid and Marion is just the best, isn't she?

Back to Nana now for a bit, then I'm getting into bed with Wilkie Collins.

... Not in that way.


Thursday
Reading: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran, Nana by Emile Zola
Pages read: 161
Total pages read: 640

4.50pm
Pages read so far: 38

Another busy day off here. I went voting this morning and to the library to return a book- and for once I actually left the library without checking any books out! Seriously, that's a big thing for me. Then I got the bus back up to uni. Sometimes I can read on the bus, sometimes I can't, and today was a definite no. Which was a shame, because I really could have done with that time to read more of Nana...

Anyway. Read a bit of The Woman in White over breakfast, then made a tiny start on How to be a Woman. I'm really looking forward to reading more of it later on, when I get bored of all this uni work.

Re-readathon Challenge

Bex wants to know what book we read over and over. I'm going to be fantastically unoriginal here: mine is definitely the Harry Potter series!

I was planning on taking a picture of my full collection of HP books before I came back up to uni- but nope. So, settle for the only one I have with me, my old, well-read, slightly-battered copy of Philosopher's Stone.

Actually, it was originally my brother's- he got the first three (then the only ones released) for his tenth birthday. I was a book-hungry six year old and I read them straight after he did. I loved them, and have loved them ever since. I don't know how many times I've reread the series- but on average probably about once a year. I grew up with them- I was fourteen when Deathly Hallows was released and, not to sound clichéd, but they were my childhood. They still make me laugh and cry every time. I've definitely reached for them in bad times. I'm hopefully getting 'expecto patronum' tattooed on my arm in a few weeks, as a tribute to how books and positive thinking have got me past my own Dementors. Just... Harry Potter, forever.

Re-readathon: Monday and Tuesday

Monday
Reading: The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman
Pages read: 47


So, not a lot of reading went on today. Saturday was my girlfriend's birthday, so Monday was our day doing birthday things. We went to the zoo, because that's what Mature Adults do on birthdays. It was awesome, mostly because it actually stayed dry the entire time! Then we went out for dinner and back to mine for Monopoly DC Comics edition (which is a thing) and Game of Thrones. So, all in all a really nice day, but not one for reading.

I read a bit of Preludes & Nocturnes in the morning and I'm thankful to graphic novels for making my page count look bigger than it is... I forgot how damn good these books are. Just, everything about them, all the different layers, mixing myth and religion and DC comics and the art is gorgeous and... I'm probably going to keep reading the rest of the series now that I've started.


Tuesday
Reading: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman, Persuasion by Jane Austen, Nana by Emile Zola, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Pages read: 256
Total pages read: 303


12.30pm
Pages read so far: 90

I've got a full day of classes today, it's very much back to business. Ugh, final year. On the plus side, I managed to read a fair chunk of Preludes & Nocturnes this morning while getting ready- anyone else read while not only eating breakfast, but also brushing their teeth and drying their hair? Just me? :P Also, so totally not the reason I was a bit late to class this morning. Nope, not at all.

I'm going to read a bit more over lunch now, before I go back into class for the rest of the afternoon. I'm wondering if I can get this book finished today...


10.50pm
Pages read so far: 242


I finished Preludes & Nocturnes! I forgot how much I love these books. I definitely want to keep rereading the series- whether that happens this week remains to be seen...

So damn good.

I've also managed to read a little of Persuasion and Nana for uni. Persuasion was technically supposed to be read before today's seminar, but if I've read it before, after all. Even if I remember... not all that much about it. It's an interesting one though.

Nana is... such a weird book, oh my god. I'm seriously behind on my reading for that as well (you know, along with everything else- it is the second last week of the semester after all) but I remember it pretty well since I only read it a year ago, so it's all good. 

I'm going to make a start now on How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran, which should be fun if it's as good as I remember.

Rereadathon!

It's finally here! Bex's Re-Readathon starts tomorrow and I'm super excited. This week is my second last week as an undergraduate and the pressure is seriously on- so it'll be great to escape with some old favourites.

This is my to-read pile:

From top to bottom:

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J K Rowling: 

I don't really need to introduce this, do I? I've read it almost once a year since I was six. I'm surprised I don't have it memorised, to be honest. I've been feeling lately it's time to reread the Harry Potter books once again.

Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

 I last read this four odd years ago, and remember loving it- but I don't remember much about it! What I do remember is that it's a surprisingly funny, very autobiographical story about a girl growing up in a deeply religious home who discovers her sexuality- and there's a lot of wonder Winterson-y oddness too. I've been meaning to re-read this since I read Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, Winterson's autobiography- which was itself nearly three years ago... So it's long overdue!

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Last read December 2012. Since I'm nearly at the end of my university life (as an undergrad, at least) I figure I should reread this. It's a scholarly sort of thriller and there's a murder in it, the circumstances of which I can't quite remember.

Among Others by Jo Walton

Some day I may dedicate a whole post to this book- I read it last January and it hit me hard. You know when sometimes the right book comes along at just the right time? I reread it pretty quickly after that, but haven't looked at it since, though the characters and places have been ticking over in my head ever since. It's about a girl at a horrible boarding school in the 1970s, reading lots of science fiction and using books to escape. And there are fairies.

How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran

Last read in 2010, this is a sort of memoir/introduction to feminism that had me laughing so much I had to put it away, struggling to keep a straight face, on the train. I read Moran's other two books- the collection of essays Moranthology and her coming of age novel How to Build a Girl- quite recently and they've made me remember how awesome this book was. So I can't wait to read it again!

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Sometimes I feel like this book was written just for me, because it ticks so many of my boxes. About books? Check. Lesbians? Check. Coming of age? Check. Lesbians? Check. Dysfunctional family? Check. That said, I'm a bit shaky on remembering exactly what went down in it. Plus it recently got made into a Broadway musical, which is something I definitely need to check out.

Preludes & Nocturnes (The Sandman #1) by Neil Gaiman

I read The Sandman books at a very young age- probably too young, I think I was between eleven and fourteen... thank my older brother for that. I'm always banging on about how good they are but I haven't read the series all the way through since then (and I actually haven't read The Kindly Ones at all- for some reason it was the only one the library didn't have, and graphic novels were prohibitively expensive when I was a teen...) So, yes, I really, really need to fix that.


On the Kindle:

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
I'm kind of torn on this, because I really do want to reread it but it's so long! Like, if I read nothing but this I probably still won't finish it in a week. Oh well, I've added it to the list anyway. This is another book that ticks so many of my personal boxes- Victorian! Family secrets! Mysterious characters! I read it in 2011 so it deserves a reread.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman
It's difficult to know how to describe this book. It tends to get branded 'Harry Potter for grown-ups!' a lot, which is... sort of true, sort of not true. I've also heard it described as if Bret Easton Ellis wrote Harry Potter, which is probably a better description in my mind. Basically, the characters discover that the setting of their childhood favourite books (which is so-totally-not-Narnia) is real and they go to school to learn magic, but to me, it's a lot more about the experience of being an intense fan of fantasy novels than actually being a fantasy novel in itself. Or something. Anyway, I read and loved this and the sequel a while back, and the third book in the trilogy came out recently so I need reread the first two, as I'm a bit sketchy on the details.


As far as goals, I'm hoping to read about 100 pages a day, or read about 2-3 of these. Uni permitting...

Also, it's occurred to me that the books I'm reading for uni at the moment, Persuasion by Jane Austen and Nana by Emile Zola are both rereads, so I can totally count those towards my page total. Huzzah!

Readathons readathons readathons!

I love readathons. I used to do the 24-hour ones on LibraryThing back in the day, and I've been 'reading along at home' to a lot of the week long ones like Bout of Books, but I haven't done any in forever- mostly because with uni, work and trying to have a life and other interests I often don't have the time. But I'm determined to make time, and by fortuitous coincidence three readathons are coming up in the next few weeks, just as I've finally started my blog to take part in them!

First up is Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon, which I've done a few times over the years but I've missed the last couple. It's on the 25th April, and you can find out all about it here. I won't be able to participate for the full twenty-four hours, because 1) I work on Saturdays, 2) I sacrifice my sleep for nobody and nothing, and 3) I have coursework due the following week. It'll probably be a spectacular failure, but I'm going to take part anyway and see how much I can read even under the circumstances.

Next up, Bex at An Armchair By The Sea has had the wonderful idea of a re-readathon, a week dedicated to rereading old favourites. I love rereading books and actively judge those who say they don't, but with my big pile of unread books and library books it's hard to get around to doing it sometimes. I've got loads of possibilities already in my head and I'm really looking forward to it.

Some books that I'm considering:

Honestly, there's so many books I want to reread, I could completely diverge from this list, but these are the main ones.

Last but definitely not least, the following week is Bout of Books. From the blog itself:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 11th and runs through Sunday, May 17th 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. 

Since the week before will be dedicated to rereading, I'm hoping to use Bout of Books to focus on my library books. I have a library addiction that has frankly spiraled out of control as of late, so it'll be good to focus on that.

So! Tell me, are you participating in any of these readathons? :)