Hi folks, this is my Updates Post for round 3 of Tome Topple. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, please do refer to my TBR post which has all the information. Basically, there’s a readathon happening for the next fortnight where you have to read tomes (i.e. books over 500 pages), and I’m going to try to not suck at it. This post will be updated at a regular intervals and is mainly my way of keeping myself accountable and hopefully reading more than I ordinarily would. Let’s see how that goes, shall we?
Day One – 7th April
10am – I couldn’t stay up until midnight yesterday in order to start reading for Tome Topple as soon as it started. But, by utilising my lunch break and my train journey to/from work, I’m hoping to finish off my current read, Matt Haig’s How to Stop Time (absolutely amazing by the way, a review will be coming closer to publication), so that I can move onto my Tome Topple reads later today.
6pm – Well, after a day at work, I managed to finish How to Stop Time this afternoon. Now time for a little break because we’re (well Liz is) making curry for tea and Friends is definitely on the cards.
9.30pm – Just participated in my first sprint of the readathon (just a short 20-minute-r) and managed to read 25 pages of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It definitely helps my reading speed that this is a re-read. I’m also starting to seriously reconsider this being my favourite Harry Potter book; it was always close between this and Prisoner of Azkaban but I’m just not as into the last, say, third of this book. Shame, really.
11.00pm – Finished off Order of the Phoenix and now to choose another read from my TBR stack – choices, choices. I’m going to read a little bit before bed I think…
Day Two – 8th April
8.00am – Well I ended up starting on The Name of the Wind last night a little before I fell asleep. I’m annoyingly awake early on a weekend and I’m not sure why but I plan to make pancakes for breakfast so the day is sure to get better from here.
12.00pm – Pancakes were very good choice and I’ve read a little (though not a lot) of The Name of the Wind. As it’s a strangely hot day we’ve decided to go to a local park to have a wander and maybe read a little and basically just get out of the house so we don’t go stir crazy. Just making some lunch to take with us and then heading off.
5.00pm – Well we successfully went outside to the park and it was lovely and everyone was enjoying the pleasant sunshine whilst it lasted. I really hope to do this more spontaneously as the weather gets nicer as it would be a shame not to capitalise on the English weather being good for once. Plus it’s nice to read outside every once in a while. Note to self though – next time bring a coat or picnic blanket as sitting on grass is a little damp sometimes!
11.00pm – Tbh I haven’t done much more reading since getting home from the park but that’s ok! Instead me and Liz made risotto for tea and caught up with like three of the last Only Connect episodes and then we ended up watching Sherlock Holmes because I’m a sucker for that film (and the score is wonderful) and Liz fancied watching it. Then we watched an episode of Police Interceptors because we are trash for that TV show. Now I’m cosy in bed with a cup of tea and The Name of the Wind and I plan to read until I feel sleepy.
11.50pm- Right I’ve made it to 90 pages and I’m mostly tired so gonna sleep now.
Day Three – 9th April
11.00pm – I forgot to update mostly – my bad. I did a couple of Twitter reading sprints this afternoon. Seriously guys, if you wanna read more, join in on a sprint – sure fire way to rack up that page count. Having the book I’m reading in multiple formats is really helping along the readathon because it means I can (nearly) always pick it up somehow i.e. I was listening to the audiobook whilst I put my laundry out to dry and whilst I cooked bolognese for tea. Once Liz got home and we settled down with tea we ended up watching Friends because… because. So no more reading shall be done tonight, although I did hope to get to page 250 by the end of the weekend – I think I’ll just about make it before I fall asleep.
Day Four – 10th April
10.00am – Read a little bit more of The Name of the Wind on my journey into work – handily, whilst I was on the train, I read the paperback copy I have and then when I had to do my usual 20-minute walk from the station to the office I switched over to the audiobook. Talk about maximising potential reading time, huh?
2.00 pm – Well I read a little more of the book during my lunch break and I’m now just shy of page 300 I think. I’m actually starting to really enjoy the book now which, considering I once DNFed this book, is a small miracle. I know it’s a slower-paced fantasy but something about the narrative style used to bother me. I think listening to the audiobook has helped me get past that though because Rupert Degas is an excellent narrator. I just don’t know what my issue with this book was before, something just wasn’t quite clicking with me… on reflection I think maybe I didn’t like adult Kvothe because I was sick of being told he was oh so enigmatic and interesting rather than being shown his deeds and deciding it for myself? Like I said, I don’t know, but it made me conflicted about this book, but now that young Kvothe is enrolled at the University, I’m genuinely really, really enjoying the book. Quelle surprise, right?
10.00pm – Did a sprint or two, read some more. Same old, same old. You’re going to get sick of these daily updates, aren’t you? And, to think, we’re only on day four!
Day Five – 11th April
10.00am – As usual I read a little of The Name of the Wind on my train to work this morning. I was even a little bit lazy and decided to get the bus from the train station instead of walking – it did mean that I could sneak in an extra 15 minutes or so of reading though. And I’ll make up for that lack of walking this afternoon in the gym, I’m sure. (Mildly concerned that the gym might kill me because I haven’t been in a few weeks – cross your fingers that I don’t wheeze and splutter too much?)
7.00pm – Well I didn’t die at the gym, but I also didn’t end up listening to my audiobook for the full hour as intended. Turns out the music they blast out at the gym is too loud to hear audiobooks over completely; Audible’s volume won’t go high enough to block out background noise! I’ll probably try to sneak in a sprint or two and try to read a little before bed but I’m pretty tired.
11.00pm – I lied. Me and Liz ended up continuing our Friends rewatch marathon. In our defence we’re on season 6 and it’s a pretty damn good season…
Day Six – 12th April
5.00pm – I didn’t read much today. As Liz very kindly dropped me off at work this morning, I didn’t have that train journey in which to read (not that I’m at all sad about that fact, let’s be real here), and I ended up spending my lunch with my coworkers so I didn’t read then either. I’d like to think I’ll get a little bit read before I go to sleep tonight but I still have a Top 5 Wednesday post to write before it gets too late and I need to make some kind of food for tea.
10.30pm – I finished my Top 5 Wednesday post (which I really enjoyed writing, this week’s topic about books as video games ended up being brilliant!). I wound up having tuna on toast because I couldn’t be bothered to cook. I also failed to read anything more. However, I’m heading to bed marginally earlier that I usually do so perhaps I’ll read a chapter or two before I fall asleep.
Day Seven – 13th April
9.00am – It was some kind of miracle – I managed to get a seat on the train this morning. For some reason it had extra carriages so it was much less packed than usual and I got a seat and everything, with no one sitting next to me – practically luxury, to be honest. So needless to say I read a chapter or two on my train to work. Work is very very quiet this week, both in terms of the amount of people around campus and in terms of volume since the TVs in the foyer area outside my office are still broken. As I’m on my own today I might pop on Spotify whilst I’m doing my work or, hey, maybe I’ll try putting the audiobook of The Name of the Wind on in the background. Not sure if that will require too much concentration though… we’ll see.
Day Eight – 14th April
9.00am – As it’s Good Friday I’m off from work and huzzah so is Liz! We’re planning to go into town and pop into various shops for bits and bobs so I don’t particularly foresee that much reading getting done.
7.00 pm – We ended up spending way much more time in town that we thought we might. And we accidentally went into Waterstone’s… oops! I did finally buy a nice copy of Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman and I am so happy to own a nice copy because my little mass market paperback copy was getting worse for wear.
Day Nine – 15th April
12.00pm – As Liz is in work this morning but we plan on being extremely middle-aged and popping to Liverpool Food and Drink Festival this afternoon with her parents, I decided to squeeze in some reading this morning and huzzah! I finished The Name of the Wind. And I might have pre-emptively ordered the second book, The Wise Man’s Fear, so I’ll pop to the Amazon locker to pick that up soon. But first – food festival time.
7.00pm – We bought way too much food at the Food Festival, including a savoury roll which was, as Liz so brilliantly described, roughly the size of a baby. It was damn good though. Now we’ve decided to watch a film but we’re agonising over which film to watch.
10.00pm – We ended up watching National Treasure because I’d never seen it. It was ridiculous and I loved it for that.
Day Ten – 16th April
2.00pm – I haven’t read anything yet – quelle surprise – because I was trying to catch up with Youtube videos. I did not succeed on that front so maybe I should switch to actually reading, you know, given that this is a readathon.
Day Eleven – 17th April
12.00pm – Something tells me I’m running out of steam now I’ve finished one tome in its entirety. And yet The Wise Man’s Fear is sat waiting for me to read it… it’s 12pm and I’ve been up for the best part of 4 hours without doing much of anything. I think I’m about to word vomit out a blog post though so… that’s… something??
7.00pm – So I wrote that blog post I mentioned (you can read it here if you’re curious) but I’ve read nothing and now we’re making fajitas and getting ready to watch National Treasure 2 which Liz assures me is as ridiculous (if not more so) than the first film so I’m sure a fun time will be had by all. Not much reading on the horizon though.
Day Twelve – 18th April
9.00am – I didn’t have room to pack my lunch and my book in my bag for work and (for once) lunch won over having something to read, which I may quickly come to regret since work is set to be a quiet one yet again and I could have definitely got a chunk of reading time in during lunch. Ah well. One thing I have realised is that I should probably have taken this opportunity to read American Gods by Neil Gaiman since the TV show is airing a lot sooner than I realised. I may very well switch to that tome instead of reading the second Kingkiller Chronicles book.
Day Thirteen – 19th April
5.00pm – I lied. For some unknown reason (and also because it was the only one I could find on Overdrive) I had a yen to pick up A Feast for Crows. I’m not going to lie, most of that decision was fuelled by Liz finishing it and being confused as to why I didn’t like it when I first tried to read it last year – it should be very much my thing, I agree with her, so I decided to check it out from the library via Overdrive so I could read some at work whilst it was quiet today. I ended up reading about 100 pages so… that says how quiet work was probably? I’m home now though and I’m going to watch a couple of YouTube videos and maybe start cooking chilli and maybe read some more of A Feast for Crows whilst I do it.
The Terror of Knowing 
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[…] volume A Feast For Crows. I am actually buddy reading this with Emma (you can see her progress here) so I am hoping that combing forces will help me get through this. I sound like I don’t enjoy […]
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