The Terror of Knowing

It’s that time again – it’s Tome Topple! Apparently this is my fourth Tome Topple?!? Where does the time go? Seriously though, guys, where does it go? And how did I manage to participate (loosely) in all three previous rounds of Tome Topple? Yay for consistency!

If you don’t know already, Tome Topple is a fortnight-long readathon created by Sam aka Thoughts on Tomes and this round of the readathon is taking place from midnight in your timezone on 4th August until 11:59pm on 17th August. The aim of this readathon is to read big books aka books over 500 pages aka “tomes”. What is unique about this readathon is that it’s all about the number of pages read rather than the number of books read – this is something that greatly appeals to me as I don’t tend to have small books to read, as are favoured by a lot of other readathons. What is brilliant about Tome Topple is that there’s an incredibly supportive community all getting together at the same time to read and cheer each other on as we make our way through intimidating books. Because we all know big books can seem a chore sometime, but it feels so much better if people are recognising your efforts and cheering you on to finish that tome that’s taking you so many weeks to read. It’s so great, you guys!

If you haven’t been around these parts long enough to see my previous forays into the readathon, with varying levels of success, then please do check out my Tome Topple tag to see my previous successes/failures! Likewise, if you need more info, you can watch Sam’s announcement video or check out the readathon Twitter page and/or the Goodreads group. If you’re considering doing the readathon, I’d definitely recommend you give it a go, what have you got to lose?

Challenges

1. Read more than 1 tome
2. Read a graphic novel (still over 500 pages!) (sadly, I won’t be doing this challenge as I don’t want to have to buy a graphic novel just for the sake of a readathon)
3. Read a tome that is part of a series
4. Buddy read a tome
5. Read an adult novel

Now, I’m kind of cheating with some of the reading that I’m completely going to count for this readathon – I’m 400+ pages deep into Tolstoy’s War and Peace and I’m doing a readalong so I’m definitely counting anything of that that I happen to read since I have like, what, 800+ pages of it left and it’s practically 3 tomes in 1. If this against the rules then that’s a rule I will not be following because otherwise I’d lose my mind. I’m taking Barbossa’s approach here, guys…

However, I will try my best to not only stick to the other “rules” but also to do better overall at this readathon. With that in mind, here’s my TBR, from which I will undoubtedly deviate but best laid plans…?

TBR

• Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
  = 536 pages – I picked this up on release day and haven’t got to it yet, MUST READ!
  = challenge 1, challenge 3
• The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
  = 513 pages – so excited, I’ll be audiobooking this one!
  = challenge 1, challenge 3
• A Dance with Dragons: Part 1 by George R.R. Martin
  = 624 pages – if I don’t start reading this soon I’ll have forgotten the previous 4 books
  = challenge 1, challenge 3, challenge 4, challenge 5
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
  = 1392 pages – I’m cheating but hear me out: I’m taking part in a readalong (War and Peace Newbies) and I’m counting the number of pages I need to read for this in that fortnight, otherwise I won’t be incentivised enough to do readathon AND readalong!
  = challenge 1, challenge 4 (kinda), challenge 5

Well, that’s all I’m aiming for, folks. (“all”, ha!)

I probably won’t be doing a daily updates blog post on here since that format hasn’t really worked for me in previous rounds but, in all likelihood, I will start a Twitter thread with my daily progress so please do follow me on Twitter and/or Goodreads if you’re in this for those downright obsessive page count updates! Failing that, please could you just wish me luck? I think I’m going to need it!

Are you participating in this round of Tome Topple? Please do leave me a comment below and we can cheer each other on during the readathon – yay!

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