Tag: Readathon

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 …

New Year, same challenge. It’s the Hardest Reading Challenge! December wasn’t as packed with reading as I was anticipating. It’s that time of year that quickly slips through the cracks, and once we realise it, it’s Christmas, then New Year, and December is over. It also doesn’t help when these holidays fall in the middle of the week. It was a very confusing time. But we are now in a new year, which means there is a lot more reading to do. The Books Towards the middle of the month, before all the mayhem started with the holidays, I did the 24-hour challenge. The hardest part was to read the 300-page book. I started with one by a Portuguese author é urgente amar (it’s urgent to love) by Pedro Chagas Freitas, and I was not enjoying it. I thought about dropping it and trying to read something else. However, I …

November seems to me like a month full of books, although I didn’t read much. It was the month I read the least so far. However, I’m planning a big reading month for December, so I’m not sad this will be a shorter post. Sometimes, we need to slow down and let things be. The Books I started so many books, and yet I finished barely anything. From Flowers for Algernon, The Voice Upstairs, The Cruise Ship Lost My Daughter and a reread of Annihilation. I can’t promise I’ll finish them all in December, but eventually I will. Of the books I did finish, one was by a local author, Nem Todas as Baleias Voam by Afonso Cruz. While this book isn’t translated into English, I’ll try to tell you what it’s about. I didn’t know much about it when I picked it up. It was recommended by a friend …

I want to keep these updates monthly and neat… And I’m doing a terrible job! I swear I’m not taking this long to read the books. Once again, I bring you another late update for the Hardest Reading Challenge You’ve Ever Done. Please don’t be confused. I know we are at the end of September, but this post is about the books I read in August. I’m already writing the next update, so it will be on time. Before I get ahead of myself, let’s travel back to the 7th of August. The books of August I started the month reading The Bachelorette Party by Sandra Block. I received an ARC to review closer to its September release date. It’s a thriller quite fast and intense, verging on horror. I already have a review here on the blog if you are interested to know more about it. Sadly, I couldn’t …

Please note: This is the 2024- 2025 edition of this challenge, not the HRCYED 2.0 for 2025-2026. Often, I spill here and there about a readathon I’m excited about. I can’t resist. I see a readathon, I see a challenge, I’m in. And the hardest, the better. Now, do I finish the readathons I started? No. So far, I’ve only had one completed readathon, but that doesn’t push me away to keep trying. When I saw on my YouTuber feed, in big bold letters, The Hardest Reading Challenge You’ll Ever Do, I knew I was in even before hitting the play button. Qwordy is a channel I’ve never seen before, but that didn’t push me away from this challenge. And to be honest, I need to spend a little more time browsing the interwebs because there are so many reading challenges and readathons for every taste that comes from small …

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 …

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 …

April is just around the corner, which means the Magical Readathon is about to start. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, the Magical Readathon is run by G from the YouTube channel BookRoast during the entire month of April. The marathon is themed around the O.W.L.s (Ordinary Wizarding Level) and N.E.W.T.s (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests) held at Hogwarts. There is a Wizarding Career Guide with all the different careers available, and each one has different classes that you need to take to graduate. And this year, it was added a list of courses and seminars for extra credit. Despite everything about this readathon being related to Harry Potter, it’s possible to read any genre. For a muggle like me, this is the cherry on top of the cake. I’m not a Harry Potter fan, but everything was so well created that it’s a shame not to participate. I …