I’ve been dreading the day I had to sit down and write this update. I’m not giving up if that’s what you’re thinking, I’ve just made some progress… in the opposite direction. This summer, the TBR grew bigger, and I’m trying my hardest to clean up that mess! But what would you do if you saw some books become homeless? Wouldn’t you help them? Those poor things were shivering! It broke my heart. I couldn’t send them away… So I opened my shelves… They look so cosy and happy now! And I hope they can make me feel like that as well. June It all started on a warm sunny day in June. The doorbell rings with the mailman bringing a package with fresh new books. The second volume of Les Misérables by Victor Hugo – I can now start planning to read that – The Seven Deaths of Evelyn …
How often do you reread books? How often do you read the books you love again? I asked these questions recently, and the answer was rarely. Last year, I only reread 1 book, and the year before, I reread 5 books. In 2022, I reread only 3 books. In 2021, I reread 2 books. And in 2020, none. In total, in these 4 years, I read 193 books, from audiobooks to ebooks and not forgetting comic books. From almost 200 books, I only reread 11. But this isn’t a problem. It’s not written anywhere you have to reread books. You don’t even need to reread a book in a series to continue it. Rereading is a choice based on the type of consumer you are. And I love revisiting stories I like, so why don’t I do it more often? I’ve already realised that I love to rewatch shows and …
This post will be a little different. Usually, I keep my updates of the project TBR Zero separate from the monthly update of HRCYED. However, since I’m changing my approach to the readathon and don’t have much of an update for January, I believe it’s best to join the two. Firstly, time to look back on my progress on the TBR Zero project. October 2024 With Becca and The Books announcing the last Spookoplathon (not set in stone), I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to join. I can’t resist a readathon. I’ve been over this. Readathon exists. I join. On my first roll, the dice were in my favour and gave me The Stranger by Harlan Coben to read. I didn’t waste much time with it and quickly finished the book. I was familiar with the story since I saw the mini-series on Netflix. And while I prefer the …
I’ve been promising a post exploring my thoughts on readathons for a while. I’m a serial readathon starter. If I find one, I’ll likely participate in it. If I finish it tough, that’s another story. But first, a brief explanation of what a readathon is for those who might not be familiar with this communal part of reading. A readathon (like the name suggests) is a reading marathon. The objective is to read as much as you can for a set time, for example, 24 or 48 hours, a week, a month, or a year. Usually, a readathon has a theme. It can be based on genre, diversity, age range, a book series or a single book. Readathons became quite popular online since they are a collective effort. You can do one on your own, although it can be very motivating to do it with others. Suddenly, what is a …
Last year, I went through my annual reading slump. Although it hit harder than usual. And since I’m in the middle of what I call Project TBR Zero, where I try to read all the books I own, I was aware of how bad it was. My reading slump lasted from April to October. I still managed to read a book here and there, but I was never excited to read. I would much rather be doing something else. How it started A year ago, I started January reading only one book at a time. This is not normal for me. Since I’m a mood reader, I tend to pick up whatever is on my mind. Usually, I’m in the middle of two to three books. But I was trying something new to see if I would enjoy reading this way. Short answer: no. I reread A Game of Thrones …
My bookshelves always bothered me for one reason: they are too deep. And lately, with the growth of my book collection, I found myself thinking of putting the books in double rows. Although which books will go in the back? They will be out of sight and hard to reach, so I need to think carefully about which one will be in the back. While scrolling through Pinterest, I saw an ad for a shelf riser for manga collections. And that was the answer I needed all along. A shelf riser, or as I prefer to call it, a shelf shelf is a structure to elevate the books that will be placed on the back row. So, I grabbed a pencil and paper and began to draw. I wanted something simple and cheap. Cardboard. Although for it to sustain such weight, it had to have a structure underneath that could …
In 2022, I read 62 books. Although, I actually didn’t. I only read 49 books out of the 52 I was aiming for. But then, where do 13 books come from? Thin air? Ghosts? They actually come from everything I read last year. I’m just counting them differently. Last May, I published a post where I tried for a month to track how many words I was reading instead of pages or books. The main reason was how much pressure I felt to finish books and keep on track with my Goodreads challenge. I found tracking by reading progress through books alone wasn’t fair. Not all books are made the same, so why should they be quantified the same? And so it began my word-tracking adventure. At the time, I really enjoyed the experience and was renovating my motivation to read. So, I kept doing it for the rest of …
I need to start by clarifying that reading is not a competition or that I think it should be. Reading is a hobby, a source of entertainment, therefore, should never be a competition. And in the golden age of online sharing, I know it can be hard to avoid comparing our reading with others, especially when some are capable of hitting double digits every month. But this post isn’t about reading more than other people. Every time I mention competition or competing, I’m talking about doing it against myself, challenging myself, and pushing myself as a reader, not comparing myself with others. Keep in mind this is purely an experiment to get even more enjoyment of reading. To be completely honest, I decided to make this post on a whim. I had a couple of ideas left for reading experiments to do this year when I came across a video …
Some readers don’t care about tracking books and keeping tabs on everything they read. But I am not one of those. And I’m guessing you aren’t either. For that reason, I bring you three mobile apps you can use to track your everyday reading! I’ve been tracking my reading for a few years now. It started with Goodreads and has been getting more and more specific over time. What every reader wants to track can be a lot different. Maybe you just want to know how much time takes you to read each book. Or maybe you want to keep track of the genres you read most often. Or you just want a place where you can store all the quotes, thoughts and highlights while reading. No matter what you want, I’m going over the features, what I liked and didn’t like on each app, so you can see if …
Summer has come early this year, and while I’m sweating over here, I might just sit down with some ice-cold tea and write about every book I read in May. Wrap-Up I was expecting to finish A Game of Thrones by George R R Martin in the first week, but no. I left it there on my nightstand, judging me, while I was happily doing a puzzle and listening to The Final Six by Alexandra Monir. Although the audiobook wasn’t long enough so I could finish the puzzle, and ended up listening to the sequel The Life Below as well. By then, I had completed the puzzle, and I could go back and finish GoT before doing anything else. The Final Six is a sci-fi dystopian story about a group of teenagers selected to go to space training camp. Earth is dying and Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, might be …
How is it possible that April is already over? March felt it had 365 days and April had like two weeks? What is happening? We are one month away from the middle of the year and from a new Sims 4 Expansion Pack – sorry to plug that in, but I just found out the news! But before I start to care about what is yet to come, I better take a step back and talk about everything I read last month. Wrap-up If you didn’t know, April was the month of the OWLs, part of the Magical Readathon. I’m not going to explain again what this readathon is all about, for that read my TBR post where I explain everything (or almost everything). To start the readathon in full swing, I read The Beauty volume 1 by Jeremy Haun, the shortest book of my TBR. As much as I …
Another week of reading books for the OWLs 2020 is done. It wasn’t as productive as the first one, but I’m still reading and that’s all that matter. Wednesday, 8th April 2020 Last night, I entered the third and last part of Pachinko. The book is divided into three parts, each one sort of following each generation, and now I’m in the final round. This part is going to focus mostly on male perspectives, and I’m not excited about it. The characters that I’ve been loving are going to stay in the back and the ones that are being pushed forward I’m not as connected with. I hope this doesn’t affect my enjoyment. And day three of yoga complete. I have to say that it’s a challenge to try and do yoga or any other type of exercise with a bunny hopping around, jumping on top of you, and sniffing …
