Currently Reading #19 [01-05 October 2024]

Currently Reading

- Fall, or Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson [25%]

- Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah [15%]

- Hellenistic Astrology by Chris Brennan [02%] 

- Don't Let the Forest In by C.G. Drews [01%]

- The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix [21%]

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Yearly Goal

61/72

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I think it's fair to say that I am absolute shite at remembering to post these. I'm happy for anyone at all who is still reading anything I put up on the blog and I encourage you to leave me comments calling me out for my horrendous memory. Remind me on Friday and Saturday that I have to actually post the thing on Sunday! Or I probably won't do it and then we are all missing out on another week of me rambling (likely enough to just myself). 

Anyway! Let's start this blog by talking about the Orilium Magical Readathon and how that went. Which was amazing by the way. I plowed right through my reading goal and ended up finishing the whole thing on September 21st. An entire nine days before the end of the actual reading challenge. I did enjoy the books that I read. Though some were more difficult to read than others. It was a good month. 

I did change my reading goal back to the original 72. Puts less pressure on me to read 8-10 books a month. I know I can average about 5-7. and with an actual goal of 6....that makes life so much easier. I'm even going back to TBRs starting in October, which you can see here. This way I can work my way through the end of my reading for the year. I may even start working on making up my TBRs for the rest of the year. I do have to remember to include my Year in Aeldia books. I think October is....King of the Rising by Kacen Callendar. I'll definitely have to check....I don't remember. 

Yep, it would be "The Faewild! Quickly hide and be stealthy to avoid being seen" (not heard people talk about recently) and I'm pretty sure I've never heard anyone talking about King of the Rising. Queen of the Conquered, yes. Never the sequel. 

I'm going to skip the Haul, Wrap-Up, and Unhaul for September, since I don't actually remember what all books I managed to acquire in the month and I'm pretty sure at least one person will have gifted me a book/giftcard on my birthday (which has just recently passed) and I'm a definite hoarder of books. (None of that happened. I got a pair of earrings, a coloring book, and a dust buster). 

A friend and I have been watching Firefly Lane on Netflix and I have since picked up a copy of the book that I have decided I wanted to begin on October 1st and read only one chapter of every night. It will take me just over a month to read the book unless I do two-three chapters in any single sitting. There are thirty-seven, I think? So like six weeks. Should be no issue to get through it in that time. Knowing myself, I'll end up doing many many double to triple reads. 

I did try the Cawpile method and realized it just didn't work for me. It made it next to impossble to rate any book a five-star. So I'm going to go back to the 1-5 vibes kind of rating which is as follows: 

• 0 Star - This will be reserved for just Wrap-Ups if I should discuss any DNF'd books from that month. A book given no stars is one that I have not finished. 
• 1 Star - I didn't like it at all. There was something about the book that just rubbed me the wrong way and I am more than likely to unhaul it at the next opportunity. Not to say that the book is bad to everyone, like what you like. It was just not for me. 
• 2 Star - The book was meh at best. I didn't necessarily hate it, but it wasn't something that I enjoyed at all. It is on the chopping block to be unhauled and I will likely enough not have nice things to say about it.
• 3 Star - It was okay. Not good or bad. It's unlikely I will reread it in the future, but I will keep it in case the mood should strike. Sort of middle of the road books. A lot of nonfiction will fall into the 3 Star category. 
• 4 Star - It was good. I enjoyed the either the plot or the characters and could foresee myself rereading it in the future. 
• 5 Star - I was in love the entire time. Something in the book really spoke to my soul and there is a high chance that I will want to reread it. 

That looks decent for now. It may change at the start of the new year, who knows. Certainly not me. I never know what I'm going to do. 

I've unfortunately had to remove two books that I received for free from the author and I feel bad about it. I got the first and third book in her series and I absolutely just could not get past the first twenty pages of book 1. It hurts my soul that I can't keep reading it. It had such promise but it felt like we were watching a weird docudrama with flat characters. I don't know. I just didn't...I didn't like it at all.