March Readathons

Hello there. I thought, after watching a video about putting up more content on one's channel, that I would actually do the thing. Sort of? I haven't a BookTube channel that I actually post on because I'm still very screen-shy. However! I do have a bookish blog. With that in mind, let's get into our new post. 

As you could see from the title, this one is about two readathons that I have found that I want to try to take part in in March, Backlist Readathon and Spring into Reading Readathon from BookTube. I'll go over each one individually here. 

Backlist Readathon

From what I understand based on the description from Mel to the Any on Booktube, this readathon is about reading your backlist books. What does "backlist" even mean? It's a term used to describe earlier books written by an author. Example, Tithe by Holly Black would be backlist because she's written many books since then, but Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo wouldn't because it's the most recent release from the author. There needs to be at least one book published after a book picked for the challenge for it to actually count. This particular reading challenge takes place from 09 to 15 March 2020. 

Here are the challenges for the Backlist Readathon: 

1) Read the Shortest Book You Own - For this challenge, I've chosen the shortest book I know I own, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. It comes in at an impressive 124 pages long. I think I could even finish this in a single day.

2) Read a Book that Intimidates You - I chose Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas because it's one of the books that I've had on my TBR for a while, and in recent years it had a huge following. The hype has recently died down a bit with her other books coming out, but she still has a very strong fan base and I'm rather nervous about reading it. Especially since I'm not really all that impressed by A Court of Thorns and Roses. 

3) Read a Book Recommended by a Friend - I had a few choices for this, but I eventually went with one that a friend lent me while we were helping him move house. Schrödinger's Cat by Robert Anton Wilson, a book that seems quite out of the ordinary. I've no idea what to expect, but it looks pretty good and I'm interested in reading it. 

4) Read a Book You are Excited for - I've been all about Chinese history, myth, and culture lately, so for this challenge I picked one of the books from an author I have read before. I chose Wild Swans by Jung Chang. I have already read her biography of the Dowager Empress Cixi and quite enjoyed it. This is the story of her family going back three generations. It looks very interesting.

5) Read a Diverse Book - This one also ended up coming from Chinese. I picked up what I think is another memoir. Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian. This is a tale of his travels after being diagnosed with lung cancer. It is definitely diverse for me, because at least the last time I checked I was not a older Chinese man with lung cancer. I want to know. 

6) Read a Book with Blue on the Cover - This one actually sparked an "fight" (I actually hissed at one person and got in a tug-of-war with another). I saw the book on the shelf at That Coffee Place and I just had to have it. For this challenge, I have chosen a book that is almost entirely blue with a splash of black and grey-silver, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. 

Spring into Reading Readathon

I found this one via Completely Melanie (yes, someone else from Mel to the Any), and this is just a fun little readathon to help boost one's reading during the year. This challenge takes place from 19 to 29 March 2020. From what I understand there are actually a few other seasonal challenges that they do. I'll see about doing the Summer, Autumn, and Winter reading challenges if they have them. Let's get on to the challenge list! 

1) "Spring Cleaning" Read a Book that Has Been Gathering Dust - For this, I went for what is technically (I got rid of it from the shelves and then added it again) the oldest book on my Goodreads. That's just been around forever. Dracula by Bram Stoker. I want to read it, I really do. I just never seem to actually get around to it. 

2) "It's Time for a Vacay" Read a Book that Features Vacations or Travel - I feel silly. I was struggling with this one and then it hit me while I was doing some household chores (because part of it puts me in the library) that I have a book set in one of my favorite places that involves a vacation. China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan. I read the first book in the series last year and I completely forgot about it. 

3) "Love Is In the Air" Read a Book Featuring Love or Friendship - I'm not much of a romance fan personally, so I actually took the literal route and picked Love and Friendship by Jane Austen, a book featuring both words from the prompt in the title. I believe it's a collection of short stories written when the author was a teen, making fun of the gentry. There are love and friendship stories in it. 

4) "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" Read a Book with Pink or Yellow on the Cover - I struggled for about 0.4 seconds on this. I wasn't sure I had books that fit the bill, then I remembered a sequel I want to read this year. Autumn Princess, Dragon Child by Lian Hearn...which has an almost entirely yellow cover. I've a brain, and it works, I promise. 

5) "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" Read a Classic Fairy Tale or Retelling - Couldn't even begin to tell you why, but the book that jumped to the forefront of my mind was Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. I have to go dig through my library to find it, but I was just automatically sure that that was the one I wanted to read for this challenge.

6) "Women's March" Read a Book Featuring a Strong Female Character - I went with a mentally and emotionally strong female character for this one over a physically strong. I chose Ashes of Roses by M.J. Auch, which follows the tale of a girl who has to learn to survive in a new country after tragedy befalls her and her sister. Looked interesting and I had to grab it.

7) "Spring Break Bash" Read the Group Book - For this, I kind of had no choice but to pick If I'm Being Honest by Emily Wibberly and August Siegmund-Broka. I have no idea if I am going to get to it or not, since it's far outside my standard genre preference, but I will try. I'll see if my local library has it or if I can get it cheap on Kindle or something. I don't know. If there's a paperback, maybe I'll see about picking it up before the readathon.

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