We moved!

Hi, we jumped ship and went to wordpress: https://thecatstalebookclub.wordpress.com/

Taleathon 2016: 6-8 May!

Last year, the first weekend of May we ran our little readathon. It had a grand total of 2 participants (you guessed it, they were both us). There are no prizes, no competition, no rules, no requirements to participate outside "read something". The idea is just to read more than you would normally, but we have a few challenges if you (like us) like to check things off a list to feel like your are making progress!

We want you to finish that book you've been reading forever, but keep putting down for other things, try a new genre or a new format, broaden your reading life a little bit, try a new author, and move outside your comfort zone a little bit!

Entirely optional challenges:

Read a graphic novel or comic (The first Saturday of May is "Free Comic Book Day", so we encourage you to read one then!)
Read something translated
Read something by an author who is not European or from North America.
Read something by a LGBTQIA+ author
Read a different text type/format than you normally read (ie. if you read novels normally you might try a poem, short story, essay or non-fiction of some kind).

We want to challenge ourselves to read more, more stories, more diversely, more types of writing. If you want to count what you're reading then we recommend counting works, so that a poem and a novel are equal and/or time spent, but really you can count however you want.

We will be present here on the blog and on our twitter account, where we will be using the hashtag #Taleathon because why not? Feel free to use it too and keep us from talking to ourselves all the time! Our twitter: https://twitter.com/cats_tale

We're GMT +2 hours (Central European Summer Time be damned!) and will start reading at 12:00 (noon!) May 6, and end at 23:59 May 8, but you are welcome to start according to your timezone.

Kristine's Taleathon TBR

Okay, so I have a lot of book that should be no this TBR, but I decided to keep it simple, mostly due to the giant book in the pile:

I want to finish Max, Mischa & Tetoffensiven by Johan Harstad, I'm over the halfway point, but have 400 or so pages to go. Then I've got Prudence by Gail Carriger, which I'm also in the middle of. Then I've got Woolf's A Room o One's Own, because I should have read this years ago, and also in April. Rivers of London is the comic book verson of Ben Aaronovtich's Peter Grant and I'm so exited. After that? I don't know. These only tick a few boxes in the challenge and I do want to tick all of them, but I've got some other things in mind if I still have time or decide to take a break from one of these,

Taleathon 2016 - Kats TBR

So, I've made myself a little tbr for the upcoming readathon that we're hosting, from the 6th to the 8th of May.

We have some challenges to try to read a bit more diversly than usual, which are entirly optinal and you can read more about them in the info post about the Taleathon. Read it here

This is the books I'm going to try and get through next weekend.

- Exquisite Corps by Poppy Z. Brite (A book by a LGBTQIA+ author)
- Rat Queens volume 1: Sass and Sorcwery by Kurtis J. Wiebe (Graphic novel)
- Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami (Book by an author from that isn't from Europe or North America and a translated book, which I will read in norwegian)
- Some poems from my book The Poetry of Emily Dickinson or Blood Sugar by Nicole Blackman (to read a format I don't usually read)

What are you gonna read?

Happy reading
Kat

Cat's Tale Book discussion of Hounded by Kevin Hearne

April book - House of Small Shadows by Adam Nevill

In april we will be reading House of Small Shadows by Adam Nevill. Why? Because I really love horror and this author and it was my turn to pick this month.

Before I tell you what the book is about, I want to let you know that we did make a video about Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer, but it was such a mess, so we won't be posting it here.

Catherine's last job ended badly. Corporate bullying at a top television production company saw her fired and forced to leave London, but she was determined to get her life back. A new job and now things look much brighter. Especially when a challenging new project presents itself -- to catalogue the late M H Mason's wildly eccentric cache of antique dolls and puppets. Rarest of all, she'll get to examine his elaborate displays of posed, costumed and preserved animals, depicting scenes from World War I. When Mason's elderly niece invites her to stay at the Red House itself, where she maintains the collection, Catherine can't believe her luck. Until his niece exposes her to the dark message behind her uncle's 'Art'. Catherine tries to concentrate on the job, but M H Mason's damaged visions raise dark shadows from her own past. Shadows she'd hoped had finally been erased. Soon the barriers between reality, sanity and memory start to merge. And some truths seem too terrible to be real ...

Happy reading! 

Kat

Kristine's thoughs on Shadowshaper

The first book I read this year (that I hadn't started in 2015) was Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older. I'd been meaning to read his books since early 2015, but kept reading other stuff, so I decided to just get on with it already, and I do not regret it.

Paint a mural. Start a battle. Change the world.

Shadowshaper has the best tagline, and a beautiful vibrant cover that really fits the story. The girl with the curls, the colors, the city skyline. This story is about Sierra who is spending her summer painting a mural and hanging out with her friends, but then already dead people start coming after her and the murals around town start to change. Sierra starts looking into things and discover shadowshaping "a thrilling magic that infuses ancestral spirits into paintings, music, and stories." (Goodreads) an art that has deep ties in her family. As if that wasn't enough someone is after her.

I loved this book, I listened to it on audio and it was great. Sierra is a complex and recognizable character who is stubborn, smart and barrels on even though she feels like breaking down. She stands up for herself, loves her friends and is both unsure and confident at once. This is her experience of uncovering the truth, battling an elusive enemy and the business of just being alive.

There are quite a lot of characters here, and they all manage to stand out as individuals. Which I appreciate as a large supporting  cast often can feel like there's just two or three other characters that happen to have five different names. Not the case here, I never had any trouble remembering anyone, though of course there also wasn't that much room for character development here (though this also plays out over a relatively short time span, and there is limits to how much there is to be revealed).

This story is set in New York, a city that I don't know. It's big, full og people and it shows up on TV and in movies a lot. That's it. I have read a few books set there, but it is not familiar to me, and while the city (or mostly Brooklyn) is a presence (and maybe a character of its own in a way if you are familiar with it, but I can't really tell). Sierra has an ordinary life, she's a teenager who struggles with identity, family, self-image and then, as if out of the blue, she discovers this whole other aspect of the world, magic, and it has deep ties with her family and ancestry. It adds dimensions to the world, yet normalcy is still everywhere. I love that.

Sometimes the plot felt a bit convenient, other times I reacted to things that were either foreshadowing or red herrings that just pulled me a little out of the story. The ending was also a bit too neat for my tastes, though I appreciate that friendships were made stronger, forgiveness dealt and new relationships were formed. I would have liked a bit more.

Another "complaint" I have is that this isn't a movie or graphic novel, because I bet the visuals would be both stunning and terrifying.

February readalong: The Swords of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard)

Remember when Kat and I used to read a book a month on here? That is literally why we started this blog, and stopped because of life reasons, and now we wanted to read something together for February! We decided on Rick Riordan's new series about Magnus Chase The Sword of Summer (affiliate link).

Here's what Goodreads has to say about the book:

Magnus Chase has always been a troubled kid. Since his mother’s mysterious death, he’s lived alone on the streets of Boston, surviving by his wits, keeping one step ahead of the police and the truant officers.

One day, he’s tracked down by a man he’s never met—a man his mother claimed was dangerous. The man tells him an impossible secret: Magnus is the son of a Norse god.

The Viking myths are true. The gods of Asgard are preparing for war. Trolls, giants and worse monsters are stirring for doomsday. To prevent Ragnarok, Magnus must search the Nine Worlds for a weapon that has been lost for thousands of years.

When an attack by fire giants forces him to choose between his own safety and the lives of hundreds of innocents, Magnus makes a fatal decision.

Sometimes, the only way to start a new life is to die

I (Kristine) have never read a Riordan book, but I do know that his other books are well loved and I have a pretty good idea about what rests within their covers, this seems to be in the same vein as his other works, but the mythology at play here is norse. This appeals to both of us since we are Scandis and have both had at least one period of our lives were we were obsessed with norse mythology (so much weirdness to be found there). So we're interested in seeing how it is handled here. This is a middle grade novel.

If you want to read with us we have a (somewhat dormant) Goodreads group: The Cat's Tale
Or you can leave a comment here until the end of the month when we will be wrapping up!

Edit: As some of us (erm, Kat) is very bad at managing her time, we have decided to extend our reading of this book until the 15th of March, and then we will try to wrap up with either a liveshow or a video where we discuss the book. Happy reading!

My 2015 in books!

In 2015 I kept a spreadsheet of all the books that I read, and I tracked a lot of things (the sheet ran all the way to Q), and most of it is barely interesting, or can be gleaned easily from just looking at my Goodreads, but I wanted to go through a few stats anyway. I started the sheet to examine my reading habits, not change them, and while I aim for a few changes this year I'll still mostly be reading with my gut.

I read 54 books total (over 17k pages), so that is the number too keep in mind when looking at percentages. I'm mostly interested in diversifying my reading in various ways, I want to read outside my genre norm for instance, and I want diverse authors, old and new books etc.

I'm starting with language:

Most of the books I read in 2015 were in English, only 5.6% were in my mother tongue, Norwegian. Shame on me. I hope that when I do this next year I'll find that raised to at least 10%, preferably more, but that at least is manageable. 

Gender, is something I don't think about when I choose books, but that I find interesting to look at in hindsight. I read more women than men. The "Other" is just an umbrella for mixed gender books (anthologies, writing duos etc) trans and non-binary people, which means there are both men and women in that category as well (mostly those really). I'm have no desire to change this pie, it fluctuates a lot, though I'd love to read some more from those who aren't gendered. 

Format is interesting, it shows that I read mostly digitally. Ebooks and Audiobooks make up more 60% of my reading. This is mostly because I've resolved not to do mindless book shopping. I'll buy something if I want to read it now, and if I really do want to read something immediately the internet is closer than my local bookstore (that for most of my reads don't have what I need anyway) or the library. I'm happy with these stats too, they're mostly just for logging my habits. Format doesn't matter to me.  

All those dots represent the year the books I read were published, as you can see I read 10 books from 2015 and the same for 2014. Most of the books I've read have been published in the past 5 years (almost a quarter of the books), and only 4 were published prior to 2000. I want to change this a little. I have a lot of older books I want to read, so I'm aiming for 10 pre-2000 and then I'll read at will everything else. 

Finally I wanted a look at the nationality of the writers. Too many people from the US compared to the UK and Norway. I'm not surprised by the fact that I've only read 7.8% Norwegians seeing as I've hardly read any books in the language, but I am surprised by the fact that I've read so many books by people from the US this year, especially in comparison to the UK number, and I'm also sad that no other nationalities turned up. I know that there might be some hidden in the sea of blue that is the US in my chart, as I'm fairly certain some of the authors are immigrants (based on info I found about them), but I don't know what their passports says etc. In those instances I put down where they've been living the past few years. Most info comes from the authors or their publishing houses (the author bio usually mentions where someone is from). I have also been tracking ethnicity/race, but those stats are super incomplete as I haven't found a sorting system that works for me. I can say that non-hispanic caucasians are in abundance, but also that I don't have a clue about a good percentage of the authors, which is why I can't and won't include a chart, but it's safe to say about 87% percent are for sure caucasian. So I'd like try and lower that to about 80%.

Finally I'd like to talk about genre. I have no charts for this as most books that I read fit into more than one category, but I read speculative fiction the most, and within that again urban fantasy. I read about 50/50 young adult and stuff not labeled as such. I've also been reading quite a few memoirs. I think in 2016 I'll try to find a better way to sort this stuff so that I have a better idea of what exactly I'm reading.

2016 Mount TBR Reading Challenge (Masterpost)

I want to do the 2016 Mount TBR Reading Challenge, and I aim only to climb Pike's Peak, which is 12 books. I should be possible considering how many books I read per year (50-60), but I think it will be challenge enough. I failed miserably at last years TBR Challenge. I read 4 out of 12 books on that list. This year I am doing things a little different, as I'm not writing a TBR. Simply because I've been dreading those recently. I also want to read more new books, more Norwegian books, more high fantasy, more urban fantasy (like I don't already read tons of that), more poetry, more more more more more. I want to diversify my reading in new ways (which is why I'm doing Book Riot's Read Harder challenge as well) as well as just go where my mind wants to. I thin that's more than I can chew.

That is the current state of my unread books. Two giant piles. I really want to reduce them to one, some books I think I can just throw out, but most of them I still intend to read, or at least keep on my shelves. I think having up to 20 unread books is fine, but more than that and I feel (pointless) book guilt.

*list of books I've read will appear here*

TBRDEC: The end is nigh

The month is almost over, and so is my challenge. For me it has turned into a A Clash of Kings readathon instead. I've been reading a little bit every day and then I've been all read out. I'm hoping that when 2016 comes around I'll be done with the ting. I'm really liking it so far, the characters that I didn't like in the previous book are better this time around, mostly because everyone we follow are scattered around, and not mostly clumped together in King's Landing and Winterfell. They're everywhere and so we get something new in every part, not just a rehashing of what happened with the added perspectives of the current character. I still like following some characters less or more than others, but I am less likely to put the book down when someone I don't like turn up.

What have you been reading this week?

- Kristine

All the books I have not read and what my reading life will look like in 2016

The end of 2015 is nigh, and later I'll be going through my statistics, but mostly I feel like I haven't been doing anything I should this year (despite having read over the 50 books I set my sights on). I don't know if it is because I've been listening to most of the books I've read and thus it feels different than reading with my eyes, or if the books that I chose to read weren't what I needed, the ones I've chosen not to read.

My pile(s) of unread books is well known around these parts, and while I've tamed it down to two piles again (instead of the three I operated with earlier) I keep not reading most of them. I think I just need to cut my losses and cull them for 2016. Get rid of those books that I know I won't read, I know myself well enough to know that I won't be reading some of them, ever, and that if I should want to, years down the line I can get them again.

I feel like I haven't read enough, even though I've read some really good books. I've read some not so great ones as well, but no terrible ones (I've stopped reading a couple, because they were not good/not to my tastes). I have read, yet I feel like I have not.

I am reading now though, I'm reading a big fantasy book I've been putting off, I grew tired of high fantasy and escaped it. Now I'm enjoying it again. It is the rise and fall of the reading tide. I started 2015 with high hopes in all areas of my life, and those hopes have all been crushed (and quite frankly if 2016 doesn't turn out better I will quit). I want to do all the things, but I am very bad at doing them. So for 2016 I will join one or two reading challenges, and I'll set my goodreads challenge to 50 books, but I won't be so hard on myself about the books I don't read. I don't need imaginary guilt hanging over me. Those books don't care if I read them or not. They're printed paper, and while some of them may very well change how I feel or think forever, most of them won't, and what I don't know I can't miss.

So for 2016 I will be doing Book Riot's Read Harder challenge. I want to read more varied, they encourage me. I want to read what I want when I want to, and rid myself of the monthly TBR that I've been working with for the past few years, it does not serve me anymore.  That said I'm not ready to abandon the quest to get down to less than 20 unread books in my (physical) possession so I am also joining  2016 Mount TBR Reading Challenge, I'll be aiming no higher than Pike's Peak (12 books from my TBR) in my sign up (coming soon), though secretly hoping for Mount Blanc... I won't be writing a TBR there either, because that did not work out for me this year (with the TBR challenge I did tried to do).

Anyone else feel like 2015 didn't work out, reading wise? Or maybe it was a most excellent reading year?
-Kristine

TBRDEC: Another week

I forgot to update Sunday (and it's now been Tuesday for 11 minutes), but that's only because I was deep into my most recent read A Clash of Kings by a certain George R.R. Martin. I've read 70 pages or so already. I hope to read another 50 tonight, but I have been listening to Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind on audio as well (I've got about 7 hours left, so closing in on the end). AND then I'm reading The Good, the Bad and the Undead by Kim Harrison, the second in her Hollows series. This is technically a reread for me, but I gave up on this series the first time around. Now I'm really enjoying it.



My stats:
Books finished: 0.5*
Pages read: 469 + ? I haven't tallied, more than 100, less than last week. I'll get back to you. Right now I have a book to get back to.


Have you read anything this week and was it any good?

TBRDEC: Sunday catch up

Hello. Hi. It's me. I've read something every single day this week. I've read for anything between ten minutes and three hours and I love it. I barely read anything on Saturday because there was family, food and Dreamfall Chapters. I read a little before going to sleep though, so that's something.



I've finished Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray. It was pretty good. I have a lot of feelings right now as it's been only an hour since I shut it. I might write about it later. I don't know. I just really likSo e the Diviners series. The bad guy was not as cool/terrifying as in The Diviners, but I didn't expect that, this book was much sadder and emotional and not just about the dreams we have at night, but very much about the ones we have in real life, and about them breaking or coming true and losing their glamour. I loved it.

As to what I'll read next I have no idea. I made no TBR for this month, I just want to read what I want to read. There are several books I'm itching to start - or finish.

My stats:
Books finished: 0.5*
Pages read: 469

Have you read anything this week and was it any good?

*Books that I started before December count as 1/2 a book (regardless of how far I had come, unless it was under 30 pages in which case I count it as a whole).

TBRDEC15: Kill Your TBR December is a go!

Kill Your TBR December

1. Read more than you did in November.
2. Don't buy new books, read the ones you've got.

That's it. 

Real simple and fun right? The picture up there is the current state of my unread books, and then there's a few digital books as well. If you want to get real fancy you can alter rule #1 to "read more than your monthly average for 2015" in case you keep a spreadsheet too...

I will posting updates here every Sunday (6,13,20,27) and at the first day of 2016, otherwise I recommend following us on twitter, because that will be full of mini updates as we go along.

#TBRDEC15 if you're on social media.

Kill your TBR December (challenge + links to other challenges because the more the merrier!)

Hi, my name is Kristine and I'm here to complain about my TBR again. This year I have been trying to read consistently from my physical stash of books  in the TBR challenge, but that did not work out for me. I did well in January and February and after that nothing... Good intentions get us nowhere. I have not been reading much since October either, part slump, part NaNoWriMo insanity, part me feeling meh. So last night I went online and searched for readathons and challenges for December, I know I'm not the only one playing catch up at the end of the year, all those Goodreads  challenges that people will be scrambling to read, and the fact that there isn't much new happening this month in publishing, plus holidays for a lot of people (which could mean more or less time time to read).

There is a myriad of groups to join on Goodreads (of course), like this one: Hooked on Books, which I'm not familiar with (but someone I'm friends with say it's helpful), and they have readathons all the time. Such as 6-13 December, or if you just want a weekend 19-20 December, or a 24 hour one for December 26. So many options in just one group and the tracking seems really easy and no-nonsense (just a post that you update with your stats).  I found some more just browsing the groups (or searching for challenges or readathons), but that one seemed to offer the most while being relatively "calm" it that makes sense. A lot of challenges and rules are fun sometimes, but not what I wanted right now, though if I there is a BookTubeathon coming up I might just join that fun. There is also BookNerdaThon that I just discovered and seems based at YouTube, but whoever can read a long, they have ten challenges you can do (or not). If I feel like it I might participate in it. I am undecided.

I found The Witchy Readathon (Dec. 13-19) for those with that inclination (though you don't have to read witchy things, you can read whatever). Over on tumbler there is the Not-so-national book reading month, which is probably one that fits me most of all since it's for the whole month, and the rules are basically "read." That's what I wanted, almost.

So that's some stuff you can do, or you can stick with me because I decided that I'd do my own thing too. It's essentially just "read" as well, but I thought I could use a couple of rules. Since I'm always going on about my TBR and now also that I haven't been reading this is my challenge:

Kill Your TBR December

1. Read more than you did in November.
2. Don't buy new books, read the ones you've got.

That's it. Real simple and fun right? The picture up there is the current state of my unread books, and then there's a few digital books as well...

If you want to join me in reading all the things in December, following my two very simple rules (or just ditching them and reading as you please) feel free to do so, sign up below so I can see!

#TBRDEC15 if you're on social media. 

Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right, a review of Vicious by V.E Schwab

 I read Vicious in three sittings. It was fast paced and entertaining, well worth the time spent reading it, but I'm not compelled to rave about it with quite as much enthusiasm as others have.

Victor and Eli were interesting nemeses, both ambitious assholes from the start, and when resurrected both lacking something that they might not really have had in the first place, that is empathy, kindness and any sense of healthy boundaries. We know from the start that this is a story about revenge as we are introduced to the characters (Victor in particular), and that these guys did some unethical science to get themselves some extra powers. In short, they became ExtraOrdinary (EO's for short). Ambition and a sort of competitive hunger drove them into this discovery, and testing it out on themselves without more than theories beforehand, and then it tore them apart. They came out on the other side of that experience different, with abilities they didn't have before and an apparent absence of kindness or empathy, that the lines of right and wrong had been erased.

I liked reading about the two men as they worked their way towards each other, trying to get the advantage, while unraveling their history and how they came to their abilities (and how they work). I was equally interested in the other EO's that showed up during the story. In the end though I was also irritated by Victor and Eli, their lack of insight into their own behaviors (it's the point, I know, but it was too much for my enjoyment, I know others think differently) and disregard for other people. I liked the sisters more, having a different kind of relationship, but similar, mirroring that of Victor and Eli to an extent (but then diverging on others). I love the depiction of close relationships that aren't healthy nor always mutually appreciated/equal (One sister trying very hard to be like the charismatic other, two roommates where one bests the other in certain ways etc). These things I like a lot.

That said the storytelling itself didn't always appeal to me, I felt no real engagement with the characters (good nor bad), I just didn't care, and while not telling everything is a great trick, I felt like I never got enough information to feel satisfied. I know there will be a sequel and I'll be reading it mostly to figure out the EO thing, and perhaps see if I can learn more about other aspects (like the police angle) etc. Not so much because I care what happens next, which would have been preferable. It is a decent story, and I liked more of it than I disliked.

- Kristine

TBR Book Tag

I came across this tag over at It's All About the Books last weekend as I was catching up on my unread blog posts (two weeks afk! Wow that acronym dated me huh?). Anyway, I used to be all about my to be read, so I thought this would be fun.

How do you keep track of your TBR pile?
It's a mess, I have one physical pile (well 3) and then a bunch of lists online, I have one on goodreads, one on Scribd, as well as wishlists and unread books on amazon and other ebook services. It's a mess and outside of my physical pile it's also often changing all the time.

Is your TBR mostly print or eBook?
Neither, if we're talking books I want to read, as I don't own most of them and I'll choose format by mood/price/availability when the time comes. Print dominates the list of books that I already own, primarily because I don't buy digital books unless I know I'll read them soon (there are exceptions of course, if something I'm interested shows up at a big discount). My reading statistics suggest that I read mostly digitally (this includes audio). The pie chart below contains the format of all the books (50) I've read so far this year:

How do you determine which book from your TBR to read next?
Mood, co-reading with other people (aka a deadline), or if I'm unsure I have a TBR jar, though I don't use it very often, and I haven't updated it in a while. I also keep stuff on my nightstand when I need to or want to read it soon (borrowed books, new books etc)

A book that’s been on your TBR list the longest?

I have no idea, I own a lot of books that I've had for a decade, but never read, so probably one of those, but no idea which one, possibly Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. I've strated it about a million times since I was about 13, and never actually gotten past the start because everytime I start I feel like I don't have the time right then to get properly into it. I should just sit down with it next time I've got two hours of nothing ahead of me. 

 A book you recently added to your TBR?
White Trash Zombie Gone Wild by Diana Rowland. It came out oct 6 and I bought it the day before, and after that I haven't really come across anything I've wanted to read (mostly because I've been actively not looking...)

A book on your TBR strictly because of it’s beautiful cover?
Nope, I've definitely done that in the past, but there's nothing there right now.

A book on your TBR that you never plan on reading?
No, then I remove it, that of course, does not mean that I'll end up reading everything currently on my list.

An unpublished book on your TBR that you’re excited for?
Not at the moment. I'm not very good at keeping on top of what is coming out. I've got plenty with what's already out there, though I know a Welcome to Nightvale novel is imminent and I'll have to get that won't I?

A book on your TBR that everyone has read but you?
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss and Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I feel like I just needed to get some time between me and the hype, and I have both available to me at the moment, so I should probably get on that.

A book on your TBR that everyone recommends to you?
None, people don't recommend stuff to me a lot, the exeption being Kat and I'm pretty sure I got half my TBR from her anyway.

A book on your TBR that you’re dying to read?
White Trash Zombie Gone Wild because it is my newest purchase, and the latest in a series that is very funt. I'm also waiting to get to Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, but right now is not the time (I'm sick and unfocused).

How many books are on your Goodreads TBR shelf?
Right now 100 (nice round number!), but it needs an update, and I've got 42 on a "maybe" shelf. And if you're reading this in the future (which you are) it's probably alread changed.

Thanks for reading! If you've done this tag leave a link below, and if you want to do it come back with the link once you've done it. It was really fun to do, and forced me to consider my TBR a little harder than usual. I've been neglecting it since I stopped with the TBR posts that I used to do (I quit a year ago, accidentally really). If anyone wants me to start them up again let me know, I just might!

Bout of Books 14

Well. It seems that all I do is readathons these days... This is not entirely true, but they give my otherwise meanigless life a point. So here we go again. Bout of Books 14.

For those who do not know 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

My #1 goal, and the only one that really matters is: READ AS MUCH AS I WANT TO!

Of curse I have to have additional ones:

• Like last time I want to finish (almost) everything I'm currently reading. Again I've got a lot. I found last time that it was really helpful, so I'm doing it agian. Allowing myself to have two books ongoing by the end (because that's my bare minimum you guys). This time none of the books were started in 2013 (one in 2014 though... Yep, still reading The Bone Clocks it is going to be top priority)
• Read at least two hours a day (on average), that's 14 hours total.
• Read a 1000 pages (which should line up with my time goal)
• Be an active participant (update the blog, tweet, do challenges, comment etc.)

The last one is really vague, but in essence: Do something every day, preferably something that communicates with others and isn't just shouting into the void.

I'll be giving you the daily updates in this post (in order to not bore everyone who subscribes to the blog to death with my page count):

MONDAY
Books finished: You're Never Weird on the Internet (almost) by Felicia Day

Books read in/started: Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

time spent reading: 2 hours

Pages read: N/A because  I listened to audio for the most part, probably around 150 pages though. 

TUESDAY
Books finished: Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson,
The Boyfriend List: 15 Guys, 11 Shrink Appointments, 4 Ceramic Frogs and Me, Ruby Oliver (Ruby Oliver #1) by E. Lockhart

Books read in/started:

time spent reading: 5 hours

Pages read: 542

       

WEDNESDAY
Books finished: -

Books read in/started: Death on Demand by Carolyn G. Hart

time spent reading: 4 hours

Pages read: 120

THURSDAY
Books finished: Death on Demand by Carolyn G. Hart

Books read in/started: The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

time spent reading: 3 hours

Pages read: 101

FRIDAY
Books finished:

Books read in/started: The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

time spent reading: 30 minutes

Pages read: 20

SATURDAY
Books finished:

Books read in/started: The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

time spent reading: 2 hours

Pages read: 88

Road Trip Challenge:
London: Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.
Paris: Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
Amsterdam: Postcards From No Man's Land by Aidan Chambers (Set in & around Amsterdam)
Berlin: The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr. Norris/Goodbye To Berlin by Christopher Isherwood

SUNDAY

Books finished: The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell, Vicious by V.E Schwab.

time spent reading: 3.5 hours

Pages read: 365

What to read next challenge:
1. My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland. Perhpas not great literature, but certainly very entertaining zombie fiction! I really loved this book and the main character.
2. The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay. A lovely piece of standalone fantasy. The only book I've read from this author (so far), and I absolutely loved it. About love and war, in Spain-like lands, between several groups of people who want to take over.
3. How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran. Don't read this if you are offended by teenage sexuality, also don't assume it's all about that after the opening passage. It's not about  finding yourself, but about creating yourself, and my copy is full of tabs of things that rang so true I had to remember them or that were just beautifully written. It's funny and angsty, and if while it's a bit slow some parts stick with it. It is a decent coming of age story.

TOTALS:
Books finished: 5

time spent reading: 20 hours

Pages read: 1386

How I feel it went:
I read way less than I could due to a Leverage shaped hole in my time. I should have had someone I trust take my Netflix password away from me for the week... Next time (nah, never gonna happen).

I didn't participate in most challenges. I normally love the scavenger hunt one, so that was weird. I'm a bit lethargic recently, or you know, lazy as other people call it. That's probably it. I did do a few rounds on blogs (where I left comments), and I participated in the Saturday chat (so intense, but so fun) using our twitter account. So I wasn't entirely unsocial. So that's good too.

I'm so happy I finished The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. I've been reading that since Oct/Nov 2014! Definitely time to get it off my "currently reading" list.

2015 TBR-Challenge half-way update! (and some general musings about my reading life right now)

I've read 2 out of 12 books. So I'm falling further and further behind, but I've been putting off starting big books as I have been reading The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell and I've been at it all year. Not because it's slow, or bad or even that long (it is about 600 pages I think), but because it is a novel composed of smaller parts that are like novellas that are interconnected and I keep stopping for a month between each one, and I don't feel like starting another big or heavy read while I'm in the middle of that one, and I've been somewhat ambitious with some of the titles on my list. I have also been reading other books, and in May I was reading 7 books at once and needed to finish some of those, by June I was down to 4 (one of which I stared in May, because self-control is not something I don't have). Of course now, I'm back up at 5 (the moral of that story is that you should always have two of the books you are currently reading available in more than one format, as my phone was rapidly approaching comatose as I had an hour to kill and had planned on listening to an audiobook, but obviously couldn't. The library was right there and well, you know the rest). The good news is that I have read 28 books this year and that finishing 15 more shouldn't be a problem...

I've read a lot of fun, light (but often somewhat depressing) urban fantasy this year (like last year) and those books are always good to have alongside other reads, and I have only read a two books I didn't like very much, but a few more books that I'd best describe as "meh" than I expected. That said I've also had a lot of fun with some of the things that I've read. I feel like I'm in a bit of a slump right now, even though I've read something every day I haven't finished anything in two weeks. I'm just slugging along. Video games and light (humorous drama) TV-series seem more my cup of tea recently, and that's fine too, but I don't have goals to reach there...