Bout of Books 24 – Goals and Updates

I am so very excited about participating in Bout of Books 24! So I thought I would write down my reading goals and a tentative TBR for the coming week. As always, new books may flutter into my hands and take over any plans I have made… you know how it is. This post will remain a sticky throughout the week and I’ll try to update daily. Happy reading, fellow read-a-thoners!

Reading goals:

• Finish  three books
• Review two of them
• Participate in one challenge

TBR:

• R. F. Kuang – The Poppy War finished on Tuesday
• Maggie Stiefvater – The Scorpio Races finished on Thursday
• Natasha Ngan – Girls of Paper and Fire
• Susan Dennard – Windwitch
• C.S.E. Cooney – The Breaker Queen
• Aliette de Bodard – In the Vanisher’s Palace

I am almost done with A Conjuring of Light and I have a third of The Poppy War left. The Cooney and Bodard books are both very slim so I’m thinking I might manage both of them. But we’ll see how the week goes (considering I caught some kind of a stomach bug and spent the last two days mostly sleeping) and I won’t be disappointed if I don’t manage all of these.

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OVERALL STATS

Books read: 3
Pages read: ~ 801
Challenges:
Titles read:

• R. F. Kuang – The Poppy War (4/5)
• Maggie Stiefvater – The Scorpio Races (5/5)

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MONDAY

Total books read:  0
Pages read today: ~ 160
Books I’m reading:

• R.F. Kuang – The Poppy War
• Maggie Stiefvater – The Scorpio Races

Notes:

I finished A Conjuring of Light yesterday, so that’s off my read-a-thon TBR. It was a bit underwhelming and some story lines really disappointed me in their conclusion. All things considered, the first book is still my favorite, the third book had some excellent ideas but the characters grew weaker and weaker as the story went along.
Quite by coincidence, The Scorpio Races fell into my hands. I’ve been meaning to read this for a while, I just looked at the prologue a little bit and – whoops – now I’m reading the book.

I read a fair bit in The Poppy War today and dipped my toes into the terrifying waters of The Scorpio Races. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THOSE HORSES???

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TUESDAY

Total books read:  1
Pages read today: ~ 172
Books I’m reading:

• Maggie Stiefvater – The Scorpio Races
• R.F. Kuang – The Poppy War  finished today, it was SOOO good!
  

Notes:

I’m almost certain I can finish The Poppy War today although I’m not at all sure how it will end. The sequel is on my wishlist though. Whatever happens, I’ll need to know what happens next.

The Scorpio Races is something else. Because I trust the name Maggie Stiefvater ever since she blew me away with the Raven Trilogy, I didn’t do much research about this book. Killer horses that come from the sea? Let’s just say it’s very hard to believe but I’m willing to go along with it. The two protagonists are certainly intriguing enough to enjoy the book.

Also, I realized that today The Winter of the Witch comes out which may change all my reading plans for the week. Let’s see how long my pre-order takes to arrive. Until then, it’s back to the crazy horses for me.

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WEDNESDAY

Total books read:  1
Pages read today: ~ 146
Challenges:
Books I’m reading:

• Maggie Stiefvater – The Scorpio Races
• Natasha Ngan – Girls of Paper and Fire

Notes:

Since I finished The Poppy War yesterday and will probably race through The Scorpio Races in a couple of days, I get to start a new book. So today, glorious read-a-thon day, I get to spend time picking what to read next. Sure, there’s a TBR right on top of this page, but let’s be honest, the real TBR is about 1000 books long so I have a lot to choose from. This will be fun!

Of course I picked a completely different book from my TBR than expected but it’s not my fault when an introduction and opening chapter are that gripping. So it’s Natasha Ngan’s Girls of Paper and Fire which not only starts great but also has the most gorgeous cover! Look at the colors. Look at them!

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THURSDAY

Total books read:  2
Pages read today: ~ 323
Books I’m reading:

• Maggie Stiefvater – The Scorpio Races finished today, holy shit, all the stars!
• Natasha Ngan – Girls of Paper and Fire
• Aliette de Bodard – In the Vanishers’ Palace

Notes:

So, I finished The Scorpio Races while my boyfriend was watching The Godfather. This book! It had a really slow start but once I got into it, I was in it! I don’t think I put the book down for the entire second half. I took it with me to the bathroom and read while brushing my teeth because even though it has next to no plot, it was so damn thrilling. The ending tore my heart out and now I don’t quite no what to do with myself…

Girls of Paper and Fire continues to be exciting as well but I’ve got a bit of a book hangover now and may have to push in a lighter, shorter book to recover. Also, tomorrow will be review day. I have read a lot of great books in the last few months and still need to catch up on posting reviews for them.

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FRIDAY

Total books read:  2
Pages read today: ~ 148
Books I’m reading:

• Natasha Ngan – Girls of Paper and Fire
• Aliette de Bodard – In the Vanishers’ Palace Finished today, it was alright.

Notes:

I’ve started In the Vanishers’ Palace by Aliette de Bodard and it is a strange little book, part retelling of Beauty and the Beast, part post-apocalyptic (?) story with Vietnamese influences. As it’s also a very short book, I’ll probably finish it today but I have no idea what to expect or what the ending could be. The writing is beautiful but I find the world building rather challenging.

And I’m still hung up on The Scorpio Races. If I didn’t have 1000 books on my TBR, I’d re-read it immediately.

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SATURDAY

Total books read:  3
Pages read today: ~ 35
Books I’m reading:

• Natasha Ngan – Girls of Paper and Fire
• Leigh Bardugo – Siege and Storm

Notes:

Today, I didn’t read much because the boyfriend and I went to visit friends who just adopted a dog. We went for a long walk and then decided to have pizza. So while it was an amazing day, it was not a day filled with reading.

I did finish In the Vanishers’ Palace yesterday (wasn’t as crazy about it as many others, but it was okay) and I started Leigh Bardugo’s Siege and Storm today. Not only because of the announcement that there will be a TV show based on the Grishaverse but also because I need to get on with this series. I liked the first book, I adored Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, so it’s about time I finished the original Grisha trilogy.

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SUNDAY

Total books read:  3
Pages read today: ~
Challenges: Stretch Goal
Books I’m reading:

• Natasha Ngan – Girls of Paper and Fire
• Leigh Bardugo – Siege and Storm

Notes:

It’s the last day of the read-a-thon and I am making up for yesterday’s lack of reading. I’m almost halfway through Siege & Storm and I already like it much better than the first book in the trilogy. Girls of Paper and Fire is still there, but I’m only reading bits of it at a time because I want to make it last a bit longer.

I have no idea how much I read on Sunday.  I finished Siege & Storm and loved it! I jumped straight into The Language of Thorns which I finished on Monday, and I have no intention of getting out of the Grishaverse soon. It was an excellent read-a-thon for me and I managed to kick-start the year with some great reads, a handful of reviews, and a headstart at my reading challenges. YAY!

Challenges:

Well, today’s challenge comes in very handy because it is to review our goals,  change them or set ourselves a new one just for today. As one of my goals was to participate in one challenge, this is the one I’m going for. My mini-goal for today is to read to the 70% mark in Siege & Storm. Let’s see if I can manage that. I have no other plans today but the book is not exactly slim.

 

Bout of Books 24 – Sign-Up

What better way to revive this blog than with a read-a-thon? Bout of Books is one of my favorites and I happen to have some time on my hands while the read-a-thon is happening, so this is my official sign-up post.

The 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, January 7th and runs through Sunday, January 13th 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 24 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

I am not going to set myself goals just yet. There are still a few days left before Bout of Books starts and I don’t know what books I’ll finish or start until then. But I definitely have some books that I want to get to very soon, so I’ll post my goals on the first day of the read-a-thon.

 

Bout of Books 17 – Updates

It’s time for another bout of books. I actually did really well last week with catching up on some books (reviews are coming), but hey, Bout of Books is always a fun challenge. Plus, 2016 has been a very good year with lots of interesting titles coming out and I haven’t even read half the new publications I wanted to.

As I mentioned in my sign-up post, I will be doing things differently this time. Instead of daily updates I will simply update whenever I have time or something to say.  I’m curious to see how that goes but I think it will take some pressure off and give me more time to concentrate on the books. Speaking of books: I said I’d probably read Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo but I kind of finished that book yesterday. Here’s some books I might be reading this week:

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Number of books read: 1
Challenges done:

Books read:

• Marissa Meyer – Stars Above

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Here is the general update area where I will post my thoughts on current reads, challenges, the Twitter chat and anything else to do with Bout of Books. This post will remain a sticky until Bout of Book is over.

Monday

I’m reading Marissa Meyer’s Stars Above and while it’s nothing groundbreaking, this is just a nice world to flee into when reality is too depressing. I am halfway done with this book, but I admit I skipped the stories that I had previously read – some of them were available for free online or in Meyer’s newsletter. If anyone’s interested, I talked about them here.

Tuesday

I was just tired. All day, whenever you asked me, I could have fallen asleep on the spot. So I almost finished Stars Above but there’s still a few pages left. However, I also started another book – An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. So far, it was pretty good – a harsh and cruel beginning to what I hope will turn out to be a great story.

Wednesday

I’m really liking An Ember in the Ashes. Maybe since the Hunger Games, YA authors dare to write about darker stuff. The beginning was pretty grimdark. Stars Above continues to be fun and fluffy, just how I expected. A wedding is about to happen and the characters all behave pretty much exactly as they should. If I manage to finish this book today (and as I’m not as tired as yesterday I’m pretty sure I will) then I have to pick a new book. Aaaaaah, exciting!

Friday

I’m so excited!! Okay, first the book stuff. I finished Stars Above and, surprisingly, my favorite new story was the one about young Scarlet and her grandmother. That one actually got to me emotionally. The wedding story (not telling whose wedding) made me giggle, but overall it wasn’t very good. Kind of exactly what I expected and I would have preferred to be surprised. But oh well, it was fun. An Ember in the Ashes is still pretty good, although I didn’t read very much yesterday or today.

In non-bookish info (or only slightly book-related, at least), I got my very first subscription boxes this week. If I have time to take nice pictures, I may write a post or two about them, but in general, I love the idea of surprise boxes. I got The Bookish Box by Appraising pages and Nerdy Bookworm Box – both were filled with excellen things. A T-shirt, a Peter Pan necklace which I adore (it’s a thimble and an acorn that represent the “kisses” Peter Pan and Wendy give each other), a mug, wax melts that smell wonderfully like the outdoors, a Hunger Games themed coffee, adorable magnetic bookmarks… you see, I’m in book-lover heaven.

As it’s finally weekend, I can now properly dive into An Ember in the Ashes and read more than a couple of chapters per day. I have also picked my next/parallel read and, surprising probably nobody, it’s none of the books I planned on reading. It is Vigil by the inimitable, wonderful, original Angela Slatter. More on that tomorrow.

SUNDAY

So okay, An Ember in the Ashes has taken over. I loved the beginning of Vigil, but I need to read that other book first. There is now spying involved. I haven’t done any challenges this week (although I loved the idea of the headlines challenge), because – and I think that’s a good thing – I was reading most of the time.

I will use the rest of this Sunday to finish the second part in An Ember in the Ashes, and then call it a day. Since my goals for this read-a-thon were very modest, I am happy with the way it went. I finished one book, got way into another one, started a third, and I have some reviews in the pipeline. I already look forward to the next Bout of Books and I hope it will happen during a week where I don’t have to work. Then I can really set myself some ambitious goals. 🙂

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Bout of Books 17 – Sign-Up and Goals

It’s been very quiet around here. I’ve been reading some big books, and then some devastating books, and then some audiobooks – all of which were (and still are) hard to review. But it’s time to get back on track. My Goodreads page tells me I’m way behind on the reading challenge and my spreadsheet makes me do the shame-walk from Game of Thrones every time I check up on my stats. So it’s time for Bout of Books again.

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

I am in again, ever the optimist, hoping to catch up both on reading books as well as reviewing some. As always, I look forward to the twitter chats and the challenges and being jealous of how fast some of you people read. 🙂

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Goals

I’ll be a bit more modest with my goals this time. The way I’ve lagged behind on… pretty much everything, I’ll be glad to read one book and write a couple of reviews. I’ll also change my update posts’ format, because writing those up every day takes away precious reading time, and sometimes I just don’t have anything to say.

• finish current read
• read one more book
• review both
• if there’s time, throw in a comic book

That’s it. These are my goals for the read-a-thon. I won’t specify a page number or pick the books I’m going to read ahead of time. I do have a feeling that Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone will be one of the books I read because I’ve been eyeing it for a while now and I’m really in the mood. But we’ll see how things go. Wish me luck and click the link above if you want to sign up also. It’s a lot of fun, I promise.

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Bout of Books 16 – Updates

I’ve had all levels of success with the Bout of Books read-a-thon but even when I barely finish one book, I still enjoy this event so much that I can’t resist joining in. The Twitter chats are epic, the challenges a lot of fun, there are always new people to meet and blogs to follow. How could I say no to that?

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

Since I boasted about sticking to my goals and reading only the books I picked yesterday, I hope I won’t get distracted by all the new books on my shelves. My read-a-thon books are all choices I think I will love, so sticking to them shouldn’t be a problem. Now it’s all about reading as much as I can. May the read-a-thon begin!

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MONDAY

Total books read: 
Total pages read:  ~ 250
Pages read today: ~ 250
Books finished: 
Books I’m reading:

• V.E. Schwab – A Gathering of Shadows
• Bill Willingham – Fables Deluxe Edition: Volume 11
  

Notes:

I read last night before going to sleep and I’m counting that towards my pages for today (just because :)). The first 200 pages of Fables were pretty good, although it took me a while to remember all the things that happened previously. Still, I love seeing where this idea of fairy tale characters living in the real world has gone. After many, many issues, this is a whole new universe full of fairy tale awesome.

I’m now past the halfway point of A Gathering of Shadows and the plot is still slowly meandering. We’re building up to the big magic tournament but, so far, very little has actually happened. I enjoy reading about these characters but I’d seriously like stuff to happen soon.

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TUESDAY

Total books read: 
Total pages read:  ~ 373
Pages read today: ~ 123
Books finished:  0
Books I’m reading:

• V.E. Schwab – A Gathering of Shadows
• Bill Willingham – Fables Deluxe Edition: Volume 11
  

Notes:

What a stressful day! I was at work rathr long today and I’m afraid Wednesday will be the same. But, I managed to read Fables in the morning with my coffee and A Gathering of Shadows before sleep again.

In Fables, I am currently in the middle of a flashback about Snow White and Rose Red, which is fantastic. I feel like a child again, reading this old tale. And, to my delight, A Gathering of Shadows finally found its footing, the magical tournament has started and it is not very exciting. Taking more than half of a book to catch up and remind the readers of what happened previously is a bit long, mind you, but now that the action has begun, I’m quite happy.

I had no time for challenges today and if the week continues the way it started, I think I’ll have to postpone all challenges to the weekend.

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WEDNESDAY

Total books read: 
Total pages read:  ~ 425
Pages read today: ~ 52
Books finished: 
Books I’m reading:

• V.E. Schwab – A Gathering of Shadows

Notes:

Today was an exhausting day at work. I got home later than planned and was too tired to read much. I mostly focused on A Gathering of Shadows because it got really good and I can’t stop reading.

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THURSDAY

Total books read: 
Total pages read:  ~ 437
Pages read today: ~ 12
Books finished: 
Books I’m reading:

• V.E. Schwab – A Gathering of Shadows
• Bill Willingham – Fables Deluxe Edition: Volume 11
  

Notes:

Another even more exhausting day at work. I am totally beat. I’ll crawl to the couch, fall down on it, and hope I can stay awake long enough to read a few pages. I have already started The Raven King on audiobook but I’m much too tired to concentrate properly. So I’ll definitely be doing most of my reading on the weekend. At my current pace, I’ll have a lot to catch up on.

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FRIDAY

Total books read: 
Total pages read:  ~ 594
Pages read today: ~ 157
Books finished: 
Books I’m reading:

• V.E. Schwab – A Gathering of Shadows
• Bill Willingham – Fables Deluxe Edition: Volume 11
  
• Bill Willingham – Jack of Fables: The End (Volume 9)

Notes:

So yesterday, I read almost nothing. That sucks but I am really happy I got that sleep. It was desperately needed. Today is Friday, however (yay!) and if nothing bad happens at work – fingers crossed – then I can leave earlier and finally start into the weekend with some reading.

Aaaand I’m back on track. I’ve read the next big chapter in Fables, dealing with Rose Red and her past. Rose Red and Snow White were enemies when the series started but only now did I find out just exactly what happened between them. It was a beautiful, sad, disturbing tale that only made Red feel more real. A Gathering of Shadows is also taking its toll. My blood pressure suffered a lot this morning on the commute. This magical tournament that’s finally started is really something. Every scene is so thrilling that I keep holding my breath (not a good idea), so I’m saving the next chapters for later this evening. But I’m confident that I’ll finish these two books – the comic and the current novel – during the read-a-thon. The Raven King also shouldn’t be a problem and I hope to fit Helen Oyeyemi’s collection in there somewhere.

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SATURDAY

Total books read:  0
Total pages read:  ~ 727
Pages read today: ~ 130
Books finished: 
Books I’m reading:

• Bill Willingham – Jack of Fables: The End (Volume 9)
• V.E. Schwab – A Gathering of Shadows

Notes:

Good morning! While our breakfast was frying in the pan, I continued reading, because hey, only two days left in this read-a-thon. Now it’s time to eat, and then I’ll be off into the world of Fables and Fulminate Blades and Dragonslaying once more.

So, I still haven’t finished a book but I’m getting to the end of most of them. Jack and his comic continues to be hilarious and I kind of don’t want his spin-off comics to end. But I am also so very curious how the entire Fables series will end.

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SUNDAY

Total books read:  2
Total pages read:  ~ 917
Pages read today: ~ 190
Books finished: 

• Bill Willingham – Jack of Fables: The End
• Bill Willingham – Fables, the Deluxe Edition: Volume 11

Books I’m reading:

• V. E. Schwab – A Gathering of Shadows
• Helen Oyeyemi – What is Not Yours is Not Yours

Notes:

Alright, I have finally finished both the last instalment in the Jack of Fables series (which ended… Shakespearan) and the Deluxe Edition of Fables Volume 11. I particularly loved that, after the story, the creators answered fan questions with little comics. In this case, the questions came from celebrity fans and were all things I’d wanted to know as well. Lots of points for this bonus content, I really enjoyed it.

Now back to V. E. Schwab and on to the first story in Helen Oyeyemi’s collection. It’s already Sunday but well, I gotta get started sometime.

Aaaand this concludes the read-a-thon. As expected, work makes it hard to read a lot. But I did catch up on my current book (almost finished), am in the middle of The Raven King audiobook and finished two graphic novels. That’s not a lot, but it is something. On to the next one!

 

Bout of Books 16 – Goals and Books

It’s time for Bout of Books and I am so ready to catch up on my reading. I did pretty well during the first few months of the year but what with my inability to say no to a challenge, I do have a lot of books to finish.

Seeing as I was all big-mouthed and said I would decide on the books to read and then stick to that plan, here are my goals and the books I’ve picked:

• Read one comic book/graphic novel
• Finish whichever current book I’m reading
• Finish one other book that is part of a reading challenge
• Start listening to one new audiobook

My graphic novel of choice is Fables: The Deluxe Edition Volume 11. I’m still enjoying the Fables series a lot, although I’ve noticed that the deluxe collected volumes got bigger and bigger. This volume is almost 450 pages thick. PLUS, in order to read all of this graphic novel, I need to take a quick side-trip into the Jack of Fables comics. That’s another 200 to 300 pages. And yes, there are pictures and all that but Fables can be pretty dense stories. Anyway, I look forward to catching up.

The audiobook is easy to pick. It will be The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater. Although I ordered the hardcover to sit on my shelf next to all the other beautiful Raven Cycle books, I also got myself the audiobook version which I’ve been kind of avoiding because I don’t want the series to end.

My current read – and I don’t understand why I took such a long break from the book – is A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab. I loved the first book A Darker Shade of Magic, but this one took a long time to get started and I guess I just wasn’t in the right mood. But it’s really time to pick it up again and finish it.

Aaaaaaand for my last goal, I will pick a book that is part of one of my reading challenges. There is a lot to choose from, mind you, because I’m an idiot who thinks she can read a billion books a year. But I’ve narrowed it down to a challenge (reading more authors of color) and even a book: Helen Oyeyemi – What is Not Yours is Not Yours. I’ve read two of Oyeyemi’s books and I adore her style. Maybe I should have tried an author that is new to me, but for this read-a-thon, I thought a collection of short fiction would be better because I can read one story per evening or ideally even a story per train ride to and from work.

The big post of pages/books read and mini-challenges and other stuff will be posted tomorrow. By the way, there’s still time to join the read-a-thon if you feel like it. Just go here and sign up.

Bout of Books 16 – Sign-Up

I’m doing it again.  The Bout of Books read-a-thon is one of the most fun things a reader can do on the internet. This time, it falls on a regular work week for me, so I won’t be reading thousands of pages. But catching up a little on challenges, reading a sequel or two, and a comic book for good measure – that sounds perfectly doable.

 

Don’t know what the hell I’m talking about? Here’s some info:

 

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 even going to set myself some loose goals right away. The weekend before the read-a-thon I’ll pick which books exactly I’m going to read and (trying a new thing here) I will actually only read those books and not be distracted by shiny covers or cool stuff my friends recommend. For one week, I will stick to a plan. Booyah!

 

So. Goals.

• Read one comic book/graphic novel
• Finish whichever current book I’m reading
• Finish one other book that is part of a reading challenge
• Start listening to one new audiobook

That’s pretty ambitious for a 40 hour work week during which I also have to feed myself, spend time with my boyfriend, and watch at least the most necessary amount of TV. But I’m excited and motivated and look forward to the Twitter chats.

If you want to join the fun, there’s still time until  May 10th to sign-up. Trust me, you do not want to miss it.

Bout of Books 14.0 – Challenges

To keep my updates post from being too crowded and long, I decided to collect all the Bout of Books challenges I participate in here.

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 MONDAY

Today’s challenge is very much up my alley. Between Library Shelves is hosting the Fictional World Travel challenge.

To participate, I could simply point to my Read Around the World page where I’m doing just that – reading books set in all sorts of places (or alternate versions thereof). But that wouldn’t be fun, so I decided to choose my favorite books set in countries other than my own:

• Terry Pratchett – Nation
  Set in the Pelagic Ocean (alternate Pacific Ocean) on a small island.
• Naomi Novik – Uprooted
  Set in an alternate version of Poland, heavily influenced by its folklore and mythology.
• Catherynne M. Valente – Deathless
  Set in two Russias. One is the real one during wartime, the other is its fairytale counterpart.
• Guy Gavriel Kay – Tigana
  Set in an alternate Italy. Despite being fantasy, this felt like a real historical novel.
• Nalo Hopkinson – Midnight Robber
  Set in an alternate Caribbean-influenced world.
• Alaya Dawn Johnson – The Summer Prince
  Set in futuristic Brazil.

Regardless of their setting, I adored all of these books and highly recommend you check them out. For those interested in books set in Austria, I recommend the crime writer Wolf Haas. His Brenner books are hilarious and very, very Austrian, although I don’t know if his particular style makes it through the translation process.

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THURSDAY

Due to lack of sleep, I didn’t read much during the last two days, much less thought about doing any challenges. But my body got some much-needed rest and I’m motivated to participate again. Plus, today’s challenge is a really nice idea (if you love playing around with book covers).

Kimberly Faye Reads is hosting the Four Seasons in Book Covers Challenge. The challenge is: Find four covers/books that represent the four seasons. Whether you use colors, titles, author names or something else is up to you.

And because I can’t keep it to four covers only, have four each for every season:

WINTER

SPRING

SUMMER

AUTUMN

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SATURDAY

Today, Steph in Wonderland asked us to plan a road trip. Either we find books set in places that we want to visit or by authors from those places. For this road trip I only chose books I haven’t read yet and, with the exception of Paris, places I’ve never been to:

• NEW ZEALAND: Tina Makereti – Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa
  Makereti is a New Zealander, plus this book is set in New Zealand and playing with its mythology.
• FRANCE: Aliette de Bodard – The House of Shattered Wings
  A book set in Paris by a French-American author. I look forward to discovering this alternate Paris.
• PORTUGAL: J. Kathleen Cheney – The Golden City
  The book is set in Portugal and made it onto my TBR despite the typical YA-ish cover.
• AUSTRALIA: Angela Slatter – Of Sorrows and Such
  Slatter is Australian and I can’t wait to read her short stories and this upcoming novella!

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SUNDAY

Bout of Books 14.0 – Updates

Bout of Books is here and I am in desperate need of it. My reading challenges are nowhere near finished, I’m drowning in review copies, and I feel like I’m still missing out on all the new books coming out this year. This post is where I’ll keep track of how the read-a-thon is going for me, what I’m reading, the challenges I’m participating in, and so on. Maybe I’ll add a special bonus bullet point for how ungodly hot it is outside…

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 23th 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. – From the Bout of Books team

Let’s get started! I have a lot of books to get through.

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OVERALL STATS

Books read:
Terry Pratchett – Soul Music
Bill Willingham – Fables: The Deluxe Edition, Vol. 10
Fran Wilde – Updraft
Pages read: ~  715
Challenges: 3
Twitter chats:

 

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MONDAY

Total books read:  0
Total pages read: ~ 165
Pages read today: ~ 165
Challenges: Fictional World Travel
Books I’m reading:

• Fran Wilde – Updraft
• Terry Pratchett – Soul Music

Notes:

I had started both Updraft and Soul Music before the read-a-thon so finishing those two shouldn’t take too long.
Updraft is a gripping and fast read, although I do think it’s getting a bit silly. I have enormous trouble suspending my disbelief about the world-building and at the same time appreciate the original ideas. A city in the sky, people living on structures of growing bone, flying around with attachable wings… it sounds really good but you really can’t think about it too much or it all falls apart.

Also: IT’S BEEN RAINING ALL NIGHT! Ladies and gentlemen, we have weather again. The days of blazing heat and sleepless nights seem to be over. For someone who’s normally always cold, I now know that 38°C is just too damn hot.

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TUESDAY

Total books read: 
Total pages read: ~
Pages read today: I don’t know, 5?
Books I’m reading:

• Fran Wilde – Updraft
• Terry Pratchett – Soul Music

Notes:

I couldn’t sleep at all last night and feel like a cast member of The Walking Dead (not one of the ones with speaking parts, mind you).  Thanks to my spontaneous insomnia, I almost finished my Terry Pratchett book, however. A few more pages today, and a review shall follow soon. Soul Music was fun, funny, and – as every Death novel – a little bit heartbreaking.

Updraft is also getting more and more interesting. I still have trouble with the world-building but it’s gotten better. I generally dislike when an entire society of people doesn’t question the status quo, but Fran Wilde took care that there are people who wonder what those in power plan and if it’s really for the greater good. I officially want to know All The Secrets!

This turned out to be one of the worst work days ever. I was completely sleep-deprived and several shots of coffee didn’t really help. Even on enough sleep, this would have been a horrible day. Instead of reading, I went shopping with a friend (which was wonderful!), ordered food, and went straight to bed. Better luck tomorrow, I hope.

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WEDNESDAY

Total books read:  1
Total pages read:  ~ 210
Pages read today: ~ 40
Books finished:  Terry Pratchett – Soul Music
Books I’m reading:

• Fran Wilde – Updraft

Notes:

Still trying to catch up on sleep, so not much reading today. Audiobooks, however, worked beautifully – although I had to go back and re-listen a lot because I fell asleep pretty randomly. I am now starting to put all my hope into the weekend as I suspect the rest of my work week will be just as awful.

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THURSDAY

Total books read:  1
Total pages read: ~ 225
Pages read today: ~ 15
Challenges: Four Seasons in Book Covers
Books I’m reading:

• Fran Wilde – Updraft

Notes:

The tired overcame me again. I’m putting all my money on the weekend now. Now time to read during the week, and if I did have time, I was so exhausted that I couldn’t. I may start another audiobook tonight…

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FRIDAY

Total books read:  2
Total pages read: ~ 609
Pages read today: ~ 384
Books finished: Bill Willingham – Fables Deluxe, Vol. 10
Books I’m reading:

• Fran Wilde – Updraft

Notes:

IT’S FRIDAY!!! Thank the gods for weekends. I finally had some time to just sit down and curl up with my book. Updraft will be finished today and I’m not sure yet what book I’ll start next. There are so many that look intriguing…

I also noticed I completely forgot to mention that I read Fables: The Deluxe Edition Vol. 10. Spread out over the week, I nibbled at this comic book every day. I’ll put that one in today’s stats, but please note that I’m not made of magic and couldn’t actually read that much in a day. 🙂

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SATURDAY

Total books read:  3
Total pages read: ~ 715
Pages read today: ~ 106
Books finished: Fran Wilde – Updraft
Challenges: Road Trip Challenge
Books I’m reading:

• Rosamund Hodge – Gilded Ashes

Notes:

I slept all morning (seriously, I properly got up around 1pm) and finally, I feel rested. I finished Updraft and must now dive into my huge TBR pile to find my next read. Reviews of all books read during this week will follow of course. But only next week when I’ve had time to mull them over a bit.

Alright, I’ve made my decision. I picked a very short book because then I might squeeze another one in tomorrow. After reading the first paragraph of Gilded Ashes, I knew I had to continue. Cinderella retold in the Cruel Beauty universe? That sounds awesome. And the first chapter already offers up plenty of spins on the Grimms’ tale. Yes, I am happy with this. Now, let’s read.

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SUNDAY

Total books read:  4
Total pages read: ~ 826
Pages read today: ~ 111
Books finished: Rosamund Hodge – Gilded Ashes
Books I’m reading:

• ??

Notes:

The Hugo Awards are over and I am so happy! My favorite novel (The Goblin Emperor) didn’t win but in almost all other categories, my number one votes got the rocket. The discussions on Twitter are ugly (and the Puppies’ conspiracy theories more and more out of this world) but I don’t care. I’m already making a list of great books to nominate next year and I hope that all the new voters will do the same and nominate their favorites. I want to read some good stuff again next year!

Back to the read-a-thon though, Gilded Ashes by Rosamunde Hodge was a lot of fun. The romance started developing slowly, then took an insta-love turn, but it did some really amazing thing with the female characters. Maia and her stepsisters have more layers than you’d expect from a 100-page story based on a fairy tale. I am impressed.

Now back to the TBR pile for my next read. There’s so much stuff that looks amazing.

Bout of Books 14.0 – Let’s do this… again

It feels like the last Bout of Books read-a-thon just happened last week – where has all this time gone?  Since this is the only read-a-thon that I’m able to participate in without massive amounts of sleep deprivation or having to quit my job, I’m joining again. I’ve got some review copies lying around that need to be read anyway.

As always, for the unintiated, here’s what Bout of Books is all about:

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. – From the Bout of Books team

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Reading goals:

I wasn’t very ambitious last time because it’s difficult to read a lot during a work week. But then I did better than expected, so I’ll up my game this time. If I manage to read 100 pages every day, I’ll be more than happy.

• Finish current book
  • whatever is current at the time
• Read 3 books
  • Fran Wilde – Updraft
  • Elizabeth Bear – Karen Memory
  • N.K. Jemisin – The Fifth Season
• Listen to 1 audiobook
  • Terry Pratchett – Soul Music
• Participate in 1 Twitter chat
• Continue (or finish) reading:
  • Stephen King – Wolves of the Calla (57% read)

There are many other books I feel like reading now, but the read-a-thon is still a few weeks away. The main goals will remain, but I may change around the books I plan to read, especially because I don’t know how much longer I can stay away from them. But I will try to focus on review copies or books that I want to read for next year’s Hugo nominations.
For my one audiobook, I figured I can’t go wrong with Pratchett. And Stephen King’s Dark Tower has been dreadfully neglected by me for a while now. I don’t have the ambition to finish this book but reading a few chapters to get back into it is doable.

Apart from reading these awesome books, I look forward to the challenges (something with covers, please something with covers) and the epic twitter chats as well as meeting tons of other book bloggers and booktubers. I’ll probably use the next few weeks to rearrange my list above, change my goals a billion times, pick a whole set of completely different books to read, discard that idea and go back to my original goals. It’s fun to be a book nerd sometimes…