Tag: Currently Reading

Every time I have to write an update for the Hardest Reading Challenge You’ve Ever Done, I get so excited. I would lie if I said it was so easy and that I’m not starting to question my life choices… BUT! I’m enjoying to see the progress. The books of September After the flop of A Study in Charlotte last month, I was missing a 4+ book series to read. The next one on the list was Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco. Now, this is the book I was looking for. I don’t care if any part of the book is historically accurate because it was what I wanted from a mystery set in the late 1800s. I loved the characters. I loved the banter. I loved the mystery, even though there isn’t much hands-on investigation. I wanted to read this book for a long time, and I’m …

It has been two years. Two years since I decided to tackle my TBR and reduce it to zero. Am I closer to that number than I was when I started? I like to think that I’m crushing it! Although I’ve only managed to cut it down to about 20 books. So, 10 books read per year. At this rhythm, it will take me a decade. At best! Looking back, the project was structured to force me to read the books I already own. That has changed completely. I ended book-buying bans, went through reading slumps, and thought about ending the challenge altogether. But life continues, and I’m still determined to see this through. I imagine I’m just taking a stroll, enjoying the view, and sizing down my TBR in the meantime. February I was still feeling the high of finally being out of the reading slump, and I got …

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 …

The title is very self-explanatory. I decided to experiment for a month to track words instead of books. Yes, I’ve managed to complicate something so simple. Although, I have a good reason. I am a slow reader, as in I usually read at a speed of 180 words per minute. And my original idea for this experiment was to keep me motivated to read, possibly to read bigger books. Every time I look at a book with more than 400 pages, my first thought is how many weeks or even months it will take me to finish it. And that discourages me. So I was on the hunt for a way to allow me to fall in love with reading, no matter the size of the book. How the idea came to be One day in February, I found a YouTube video about reading 30 books in 30 days and, …

OWLs 2020 is officially over – it has been over for 4 days already – and I decided to compile the last two weeks into one post. After the second week, it started to get a little complicated to keep the momentum. These are some exceptional times we are living in, and not every day is a good day. Also not having a book like Pachinko that would give me a lot to think of and to share, didn’t help. But now it’s time to conclude the OWLs and turn the page to start a new month. Wednesday, 15th April 2020 Well, there goes my posting schedule! I haven’t done anything today other than resolve tech issues. First, I was trying to understand how some memory cards work in a Wifi IP camera and others don’t. Having all that figured out took me hours, not even counting testing time. Then, …

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 …

Back in 2017, I did a little readathon of my own to countdown the days until Christmas, and I was posting updates of my reading regularly. And last month, when Noura from the blog The Perks of Being Noura did a reading blog where she documented her weekend while she was reading Chain of Gold by Cassandra Claire, she got me thinking that maybe I could do something like that for the OWLs. When I started writing this, I wasn’t too sure about this idea – and I’m still not sure. What am I going to write about? Will I have anything to say? But I kept on doing it day after day, pouring out the thoughts I was having at the moment about the book I was reading, about tv series, about my day. So here it is the first week of the OWLs 2020: Wednesday, 1st April 2020 …

September was a fairly good reading month for me, and that gives me a reason to write a monthly wrap-up. I skipped doing this post in August because I barely read anything. It was one hell of an exhausting month and trying to read was a challenge on its own. I couldn’t read more than 3 pages without start closing my eyes. It was amazing that I even managed to finish anything. August On the first days of the month, I finished The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Tailor Jenkins Reid that I had started in Jully. I had a great time reading it. Evelyn is one of my favourite characters of all time, and you can know all about it on my review. I loved Evelyn, but I didn’t love the book as much as I did love her. I thought this book was over-hyped, although it’s still …

May it’s finally over and that means it’s time to talk about all the books I read and bought this month. I purposefully skipped April’s wrap-up because I wasn’t in the mood to write about books. I usually can’t shut up about them, but lately, things have changed. I’m in the worst reading slump, and it’s getting quite hard to get out. Please send help! On these two months combined, I read 2 books and 2 comic books, which isn’t much for me. In April, I read Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart which was great but not as amazing and surprising as We Were Liars (you can read my review here). While in May, I read Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami that was… strange. I didn’t get fully immersed in the story because I need to learn more about Japanese culture, especially why they act in certain ways …