Mythothon Round 4 Sign-Up and TBR

Aaaaah, it’s readathon time! As I’ve spent the beginning of the year with many a chunky book, and I picked some other books that simply take me longer to read (Harry Potter in Spanish may be fun, but with my rusty language skills, 200 pages can last me a long time :)). So I really look forward to planning a month of reading as many books as I can, catching up with all the books that had to wait.

So I’m joining Mythothon 4 hosted by the wonderful Louise at Foxes & Fairy Tales. The readathon will run throughout the month of April in your time zone.

The Rules

As with most readathons, there are teams to join and prompts to fulfill. The readathon theme may be inspired by Arthurian legend, but the books don’t have to be mythology-basedor retellings of King Arthur. They just have to fulfill the prompts. You can even double up on prompts (reading one book that fits two prompts would fulfill both).
However, I’ve always enjoyed making things difficult for myself so I will forbid myself to double up on prompts. One prompt, one book is the way I’m going.

For Twitter updates, use the hashtag #mythothon.
I don’t know about you but I always love browsing people’s updates and TBR posts during a readathon. I have so much fun cheering on my team (and, let’s be honest, the other teams as well) and seeing what everyone is reading. It also helps me find inspiration when I’m struggling to find a book for a certain prompt.

The teams

There are three teams to choose from and each comes with its very own first reading prompt. Initially, I wanted to join Team Morgan le Fay, but all the books which fit the prompt are 800 pages long (not a good idea for a readathon!), and I have one book that I’m crazy looking forward to which fits the Nimue prompt perfectly. So although I want to give some love to Morgan le Fay and morally grey characters, I’m joining Team Nimue.

NIMUE — Read a book set at sea.
A. G. Slatter – All the Murmering Bones

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MERLIN— Read a book with a witch or wizard.

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MORGAN LE FAY — Read a story about a villainous, misunderstood or morally grey character.

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The prompts + my tbr

The prompts are, of course, inspired by the Knights of the Round Table. There is a total of 12 prompts plus the final one to end the quest, the Camelot prompt.

I have quite a few books to choose from as my TBR is beyond ridiculous, but that just means more fun and choices for all of these prompts.

KING ARTHUR — Read a book featuring royalty.
Theodora Goss – Snow White Learns Witchcraft (Snow White is a princess and I’m sure there will be more royalty in the fairy tale retellings and poems of this collection)

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SIR LANCELOT (Arthur’s greatest companion) — Read a book from a favourite author.
Catherynne M. Valente – Under in Mere (Arthurian legend told by my favourite author, what could be more perfect for this prompt?)

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SIR GAWAIN (Known as the Green Knight) — Read a book with the colour green on the cover or in the title.
Joanna Ruth Meyer – Into the Heartless Wood (as green a cover as you’ll find)

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SIR PERCIVAL (the original hero in the quest for the Grail) — Read a book with a shiny cover.
Nicole Givens Kurtz  – Kill Three Birds, Jaida Jones & Dani Bennett – Master of One (I only have e-books of both of these but they look like they’ve got shiny covers)

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SIR BORS (Arthur’s successor) — Read a sequel.
Amie Kaufmann & Jay Kristoff – Memento (Illuminae #0.5), Tamora Pierce – In the Hand of the Goddess (The Song of the Lioness #2)

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SIR LAMORAK (one of the best knights but overlooked in the chivalric romance genre) — Read a book you think is under-hyped.
Katherine Arden – Small Spaces (very beloved by people who’ve read it but I don’t hear a lot of people talk about Arden’s children’s books)

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SIR KAY (Arthur’s foster brother) — Read a book with a significant sibling relationship.
Rena Rossner – The Sisters of the Winter Wood (titular sisters), Tamora Pierce – Alanna: The First Adventure (brother and sister protagonists)

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SIR GARETH (the youngest knight) — Read a recent addition to your TBR.
Sarah Gailey – The Echo Wife, P. Djèlí Clark – A Dead Djinn in Cairo

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SIR BEDIVERE (returns Excalibur to Nimue) — Read a book with something pointy on the cover.
Andrzej Sapkowski – Time of Contempt (pointy sword and lots of teeth)

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SIR GALAHAD (“the most perfect of all knights”) — Read a book with a title that starts with a “G”.
Roshanki Chokshi – The Gilded Wolves, Carolyn Turgeon – Godmother

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SIR TRISTAN (falls in love with Isolde) — Read a book with a romance that should be legendary.
Chloe Gong – These Violent Delights (Romeo and Juliet retelling, so bound to be rather epic), Maria V. Snyder – Poison Study (found this on recommendation lists, probably heavy on the romance)

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SIR GAHERIS (“the least well spoken of all his peers”) — Listen to an audiobook or read part of a story aloud.
Whichever audiobook I’m starting in April. Not making plans for this one at the moment.

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CAMELOT — Read a book set in a place you’ve never visited. 
Nnedi Okorafor – Ikenga (set in Nigeria)

The Group Read

The group read isn’t compulsory but I have been interested in this book for a while, so I hope I can join and read along with the other participants.

The book is Legendborn by Tracy Deonn, a modern spin on King Arthur. I’ve heard interesting things about this one, but most reviews agree that there are a lot of twists and the plot is fast-paced. So even though I’m not a huge Urban Fantasy fan (nor a big fan of King Arthur), I think this will be a fun ride.

So this is my rough TBR for the month of April. As you can see, I’ve picked more than one book for many of the prompts because I just need that little bit of freedom to decide what to read when the time comes. Depending on how well I do at the beginning of the readathon, I may go for the shorter or two possible books, and depending on my mood I may choose one over the other.

That said, I’m looking forward to all of the books I’ve picked and I am super excited for my first readathon of 2021. Once April is over, all I’ll be doing is  reading Hugo-nominated works, so this is a great opportunity for catching up on other things before I have to focus on award reading again.