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Marvel-A-Thon | Sign Up & TBR

Emma5 Comments

I know what you’re thinking – Emma, didn’t you just post a monthly June TBR? Why yes, astute reader, I did… but then I learnt from Kelly that the Marvel-A-Thon readathon was a Thing that was happening, and pretty much any TBR plans I had were kicked to the kerb because I love the MCU. I decided it would be pretty poor form to bypass the opportunity to take part in a Marvel-themed reading challenge… so here we are with another TBR post in the space of a few days. But it’s ok, everyone loves a TBR, right? Right!

If you haven’t heard about the Marvel-A-Thon, let me explain: it’s run by Jamieson of Jamishelves and you should pop over to her blog to see the official announcement post with all the relevant details. Put simply, it runs from midnight on 1st June until midnight of 1st July and there are 21 MCU-based reading prompts to try to read books for. These challenges are split into the Phases of the MCU and you must complete a phase before moving onto the next. You’re allowed two skips per phase, and you can carry over any skips you didn’t use in a previous phase. Also, if you buddy read something with a reading pal then you can also ‘give’ one of your reads to your buddy, and vice versa. E.g. if you buddy read something for ‘Hulk’ you can give your buddy the ‘Thor’ challenge, and get the ‘Avengers’ challenge read from them – which is what myself and my buddy are probably going to do!

Sound fun? You in? Well, Avengers Assemble and let’s look at the challenges and what I’ll be reading for them:

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June TBR

Emma6 Comments

As you may have noticed in my May TBR, I am often very ambitious and very fool-hardy when it comes to setting TBRs as I almost never stick to them 100%. If I’m lucky, I stick to them 50%. Not to spoil my May Wrap Up but I’d say this past month has been about 16.66666%, and I’ve stalled on another book I was reading so I can’t even really count it into that percentage calculation. The point is, I am neither a mathematician, nor a strict enough disciplinarian when it comes to TBR lists. So, the focus this upcoming month is to clear out that NetGalley backlog.

I’m trying to be really strict with myself now so if I don’t read any of these eARCs by the end of June, unless I have a really good reason (and I’m meaning like humongous reading slump or illness), I have to DNF them and tell the publisher my reading interests have changed, I’m no longer interested in the ARC so my review wouldn’t do the title justice etc. etc. It’s high time I did this because it’s getting ridiculous now given when some of these titles were actually released. I’ve been a bit better about restraining myself from requesting too many eARCs on NetGalley so I just need to work through this pile as soon as possible… and I’m also trying to quickly get on top of the ones that are released soon!

June TBR

  1. The Summer of Us by Cecilia Vinesse (eARC)
  2. The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green (eARC)
  3. Fragile Lives by Stephen Westaby (eARC)
  4. The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin (eARC)
  5. The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton (eARC)
  6. Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody (eARC)
  7. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
  8. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (I’ve had <300 pages left to read for months, it’s time.)

What books are you planning to read in the month of June?
Are there any new releases you’re really looking forward to picking up this month?
Are there any readathons happening this month that you’re taking part in?
Let me know in the comments section below!

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Bout of Books 22 | Sign Up & TBR

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Oh, look, Emma is back armed with nothing but good intentions and a TBR to foolishly try to participate in yet another readathon even though she kind of sucks at them in terms of productivity! Yep, it’s time for another round of Bout of Books, everyone’s favourite low-key readathon!

For those unaware of the delight that is the Bout of Books readathon, the organisers have a handy blurb available to clue you in:

bob22The 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, May 14th and runs through Sunday, May 20th 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 22 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

So this coming week I will be participating in Bout of Books 22 to the best of my ability. I don’t have too much planned, aside from going to see a comedy gig on Friday night, so I should be able to get some much-needed reading time in after work and (especially) at the weekend. Often with Bout of Books, I end up being really quite overly ambitious with my TBR (for proof: see my previous Bout of Books Sign Up & TBR), and my May TBR is pretty damn optimistic already, so I have tried to be conservative and realistic with what I can achieve this time round when constructing my TBR for the readathon. Without further ado, let’s take a look at it…

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May TBR

Emma5 Comments

Hello folks, I hope you’re all well on what is a rather nice Spring day in England. This past weekend was filled with low-key fun with friends from university who decided to visit me and Liz up in Liverpool and soak up some of that totally unexpected sunshine. We wandered around pretty places, ate a lot of breakfast food, and just generally chatted – it was lovely and exactly what I needed. That meant that my blogging fell by the wayside but rather than bore you with apologies, let’s just get this metaphorical show back on the road with a May TBR post.

You may have seen my recent April Wrap Up and deduced, based on my April TBR post, that I’m not exactly brilliant at sticking to “assigned” books in any given month. That is, I think, the mild way of putting it. However, I am trying. So, to paraphrase Captain Barbossa, the books that appear on these TBRs are more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules… and it is a fun surprise to see how I have fared come the end of the month.

(One thing is for sure – there’s no way I’m getting to all twelve of these books in the month of May unless I develop some wicked speed reading skills… here’s to hoping!)

May TBR

  1. The Dark Days Pact by Alison Goodman
  2. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley
  3. The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar
  4. Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster
  5. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
  6. Cranford by Elisabeth Gaskell
  7. The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven (for Crone Bloggers Book Club)
  8. The Summer of Us by Cecilia Vinesse (eARC)
  9. The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green (eARC)
  10. The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton (eARC)
  11. The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty (eARC)
  12. Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody (eARC)

What books are you planning to read in the month of May?
Are there any new releases you’re really looking forward to picking up this month?
Are there any readathons happening this month that you’re taking part in?
Let me know in the comments section below!

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Spring Cosy Reading Night | TBR

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Hello, folks! I come to you today with a tentative TBR for the upcoming Cosy Reading Night. This is the Spring round of the Cosy Reading Night and will take place during the hours of 7:00-10:00pm GMT on Friday 20th April and I’m really looking forward to going into my weekend by dedicating an evening to getting cosy with a book and a cup of tea. But I’m getting ahead of myself so let me explain for those unaware: Cosy Reading Nights are an evening dedicated to snacks and reading, hosted by the lovely Lauren from Laurenandthebooks from YouTube. You can check out her announcement video here.

This Cosy Reading night comes handily during the OWLs Readathon that I’m currently taking part in, so I’m hoping it will provide a much-needed boost to my reading progress for that. I don’t have huge ambitions for this Cosy Reading Night, I just thought I’ll probably be reading anyway so I might as well make the most of it and participate in this little event. It will make me feel more accountable/less susceptible to getting distracted by watching old episodes of The Great British Bake Off on Netflix (the struggle is real, guys, seriously). So let’s have a gander at what books I plan to read on Friday night, shall we?

TBR

  1. Saga Volume 8 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
  2. Through the Woods by Emily Carroll
  3. The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman

 

 

As you can see, I’m aiming fairly low by choosing to put on my TBR two graphic novels and a book I’ve already started. In fact, it might get to Friday with me already having finished The Dark Days Club and, if that’s the case, I’ll be starting another book from my OWLs Readathon TBR. Regardless of how much (or how little) I end up reading, I’ll be sure to get cosy with a book and my cup of tea which, let’s face it, are the minimum requirements to participate in this lovely low-key readathon.

Are you joining in with the Cosy Reading Night on Friday? Have you participated in a Cosy Reading Night before? Let me know in the comments!

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April TBR

Emma17 Comments

As you may have seen me mention in my March TBR post, I have a tumultuous history with TBRs since I rarely stick to them 100%. As you can see if you compare my March TBR with my recent March Wrap Up post, my monthly TBR never gets fully defeated without something else catching my eye mid-way through the month… I think it’s important to be aware of your reading habits and be realistic. However, since I scribble my TBRs into the monthly spreads of my bullet journal anyway, it makes sense to put my TBR on this blog to hold myself a little bit more accountable. If nothing else, it’s a good snapshot of where my head is at for my reading goals and it admittedly does help me to choose a book if I’m in a funny mood where I finish a book and don’t know what to pick up next. But don’t expect me to ever (god forbid) actually stick to my TBR! So let’s have a look at what I plan to read in the month of April…

img_0368April TBR

    1. The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty [eARC]
    2. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
    3. The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton [eARC]
    4. The Elite by Kiera Cass
    5. The One by Kiera Cass
    6. The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin [eARC]
    7. Almost Love by Louise O’Neill [eARC]
    8. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

8 books seems like enough to be getting on with. I tend to read 6ish books a month but I have literally no idea how busy or not busy April is going to turn out to be. I don’t have any major plans for April in terms of going away or anything and I don’t anticipate anything tumultuous in my “personal” or “professional” life so hopefully it will be plain sailing as far as my reading goes this month.

And, as you can probably surmise, I have quite a few eARCs I need to get through soon to help my NetGalley review ratio look a little healthier so that will be one of my main focuses in April. However, I’m also very consciously trying to maintain a good mix of ebooks and print copies on my TBRs so that when I’m tired of looking at a screen all-day I can take refuge in an actual book instead. It’s quite likely I’ll end up adding another couple of physical books onto this TBR as the month progresses but, for now, these are the books I’m planning to read in April. Wish me luck?

What books are you planning to read in the month of April?
Are there any new releases you’re really looking forward to picking up this month?
Are there any readathons happening this month that you’re taking part in?
Let me know in the comments section below!

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TBR | Easter Weekend Readathon

Emma5 Comments

Hi everyone, it’s Thursday so that means it’s time for… nope, not a Tag Thursday after all! Like a lot of people, I’m officially heading into a 4-day weekend thanks to Easter. I have tomorrow off work (there’s nothing more glorious than a weekday off from work) as well as Monday, and it feels so good to not be in work now until Tuesday – I practically skipped out tonight after setting the out-of-office message on my emails. I was already planning to have a fairly low-key Easter weekend; I’m not a big religious observer of it so I don’t have family plans in that respect (plus my family is, you know, well over 100 miles away). I’m going for food and to the cinema on Saturday but aside from that I was just planning to rest and relax. And also read. I’d really like to just read in lovely long uninterrupted blocks of time. What a handy dandy time for a readathon!

It turns out, Kate from Reading Through Infinity thought much the same and she decided to set up an impromptu readathon which will take place over this coming weekend – you can find her announcement and TBR post here, if you’re curious. It’s very low-key and has simple guidelines – two of my favourite things for a readathon – so I’m definitely participating as much as I can.

For those interested in taking part you can check out Kate’s announcement post for more details but, in a nutshell, the Easter Weekend Readathon starts at midnight in your timezone on 30th March and runs through until midnight on Monday 2nd April but you can take part in as much or as little of that time as you want, depending on your own commitments. I have very few commitments so I should be well-placed to get some serious reading in, providing I don’t end up slumping for no apparent reason. Also, as it’s nearing the end of the month, I’d like to finish up some of these books so that I can start April afresh with a new TBR. Let’s see, shall we?

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Top Ten Tuesday | Books on my Spring TBR

Emma16 Comments

Welcome one, welcome all, to Top Ten Tuesday! For those who are unaware (or who might need a reminder) Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by book bloggers and list lovers, The Broke and the Bookish, and is now hosted fantastically by Jana from That Artsy Girl! Each week a topic is chosen for bloggers to respond to.

This week’s topic is Books On My Spring TBR. This topic is extremely timely as it’s the first day of Spring (allegedly) and the weather has seemed a little brighter and sunnier, even if the bitterly cold winds haven’t completely disappeared. Still, the weather is definitely trying to shake off the wintry weather we’ve been having lately so I’m now looking forwards to Spring and all the books I am planning to read in this transitional period as Winter slowly lets go. Let’s take a look at the top ten books I’ve put on my Spring TBR…

10. The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman

Can you believe I still haven’t read this non-fiction essay collection despite the fact I love Neil Gaiman and I’ve had this for months because I pre-ordered it? No, I can’t quite believe it either, I need to pull my socks up! This is a hefty hardback too, which is possibly why I’ve been able to make excuses for so long because there’s no way I could carry this to/from work for the sake of reading it on my commute. And although I don’t read that much non-fiction, I am trying to be better about it, so I should really try to get to this once and for all.

9. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

This book has been EVERYWHERE as of late – and rightly so. I waited for this to be released in paperback before picking it up recently and I’m really looking forward to reading it. Like, I think a lot of people, I can be guilty of thinking of black history as rooted in the American experience which is ridiculous given that I live in the UK. This has been blurbed by Nikesh Shukla who put together The Good Immigrant collection which I very much appreciated (“enjoyed” seems an odd word to use) so I really ought to have picked this up already as it promises to be “a powerful and provocative argument on the role that race and racism play in modern Britain”.

8. The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

Next up on my list we have a book that I definitely should have already finished because I was lucky enough to get an eARC through NetGalley and it was released early in March, and yet I haven’t read/reviewed it yet because I am a terrible person. Late last year, Stephanie from Adventures of a Bibliophile gave this a rave review and it put the book on my radar – a quick request on NetGalley and I thankfully had a copy. But I’ve yet to read it, despite all these things working in its favour, I really need to fix that.

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March TBR

Emma12 Comments

Sooo I have a fraught relationship with TBRs – I’m generally good at sticking to them if it’s for a short-term thing, i.e. a readathon, but if it’s a month-long or (worse still) year-long, I promptly forget about every single book I wanted to read as soon as I write it down on some form of TBR. Like I said, “fraught” would probably be an apt descriptor.

However, as I’ve been drawing out my monthly bullet journal spreads thus far this year, I’ve happened to include a page for that month’s TBR. Sure, I do add to the page throughout the month if I decide to read something that wasn’t originally on there, but I also still really try to think ahead and plan what I want to read for the upcoming month. So as I was drawing out my fresh spreads for March, I thought if I’m doing this anyway – and, let’s face it, making it quite permanent considering it’s right there, in my bullet journal, in black ink – why not also tell my blog/the internet about it and give myself even more accountability? ‘Why not’ indeed.

Handily, this isn’t just your average March TBR though, it’s also a TBR for a readathon, specifically Zoe’s 24-hour long readathon, aptly named Readathon by Zoe, which is happening this Saturday, 3rd March. Hopefully setting a TBR for both a very short-term goal that is that readathon and for the whole of March will play to my strengths and I’ll manage to actually stick to said TBRs. If I don’t, well, then this post was just a nice indication of what books I felt like reading at this present moment in time, a snapshot of my reading taste at this point in the year, if you will. We shall see…

March TBR

 

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Femmeuary Cosy Reading Night | TBR

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Hello, folks! I come to you today with a tentative TBR for the upcoming Cosy Reading Night. It will take place during the hours of 7:00-10:00pm GMT on Wednesday 21st February and I’m really looking forward to dedicating an evening to getting cosy with a blanket and a book, a cup of tea, and maybe some snacks, whilst I hunker down and get to reading.

For those unaware, Cosy Reading Nights are hosted by the lovely Lauren from Laurenandthebooks from YouTube – you can check out her announcement video here. This Cosy Reading Night takes places during “Femmeuary”, an initiative Lauren is following for the month of February in which she reads, watches, and listens to things created by women. In the spirit of this comes the Femmeuary Cosy Reading Night, and so I’m going to put any male reading on hold for a night whilst I tuck into some writing created by women.

TBR

  1. Carol/The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
  2. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: Illustrated Edition by J.K. Rowling, illustrated by Olivia Lomenech Gill
  3. the sun and her flowers by rupi kaur

As you can see, I’ve tried to be realistic about my TBR this time round, and I’ve chosen a novel, an illustrated book, and a poetry collection so that I can take my pick of whatever medium and genre I feel like reading on the night. Hopefully (fingers crossed!) I will be able to complete at least one of these fully in the three-hour readathon but, if not, I’m sure I’ll complete them soon since they’re all on my existing TBR anyway. It would be really great if I could get to reading The Price of Salt in particular because I really want to watch the film starring Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett (and I need to read the book first, obviously) and the novel also conveniently fulfils the “read an own voices book” for the Around the Year in 52 Books reading challenge – two birds with one stone, eh? But mostly I just hope to enjoy the low-key fun that is Cosy Reading Night.

Are you joining in with the Cosy Reading Night on Wednesday? Have you participated in a Cosy Reading Night before? Let me know in the comments!

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