November Currently Reading!

Happy November! I’m currently 17k words into Nanowrimo, so my reading has taken a bit of a dip as a result. But, I am reading a few books between writing!

 

Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw – This is my current audio book, and it’s by the guy who does the Zero Punctuation videos if you’ve heard of them. He also narrates his own book so it’s that same deadpan delivery, and I think it really fits.

This is a book about a student at a magic school who gets killed right at the beginning of the book, and then is revived as undead and is pissed about it. It’s hilarious and so far I’m really enjoying it.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner – In fairness I haven’t touched this in a couple weeks, and I probably won’t until Nanowrimo is over. Out of the three books I’m reading, it’s the lowest priority for sure.

But so far, it’s not bad. I’ve heard mixed things about it, so we’ll see how it goes.

Renegade’s Magic by Robin Hobb – This is the last Hobb novel I have left, and after this I’m going to need to find something to fill the void. Like with the majority of all the other Hobb novels, I’m buddy reading this with Zezee @Zezeewithbooks.

So far, I have no idea where this plot is going, but I also felt that way in the second book and ended up loving it, so I really hope this one ends well. I tend to like Hobb’s endings, so my hopes are high.

And that’s it! Like I said, my reading is currently a bit slow. It’ll pick up at the end of November – I’m ahead in Nano, so hopefully I stay that way and can finish early.

Lemme know if you’ve read any of the above! Happy reading!

October Currently Reading! ’20

Happy Halloween Eve*26! Today’s post will be about the books I am currently reading!

Hotel Africa vol 2 by Hee Jung Park – this is the second volume in this really great manhwa I picked up last year. I reread vol 1 last month in preparation for this and loved it. So far I’m liking this one just as much.

Armada by Ernest Cline – So I did a thing recently: in addition to giving myself a book buying ban, I’ve also done a purge. I have the purge books divided into two sections: books I’m definitely getting rid of and books that might still go if they don’t hook me fairly quickly. This book is in section two. So if it doesn’t strike me as something great soon here I’m gonna dnf it (and the same for all the books in section two of my purge, which is about 30 books). So far it’s ok. The plot is interesting enough but the main character is driving me nuts. I’m gonna give it another 50 pages.

Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko – This is a buddy read I’ve started with Katy @bookbinderway and another buddy! Honestly I haven’t actually started this yet, but it’s during the current ‘read this far’ window soooo.

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux – This is my latest audio book and I’m really, really liking it. It’s so haunting and lilting and unexpectedly funny. It’s surprised me with how much I’m liking it!

And that’s it! Four books currently – I have twenty eight books to go before reaching my 2020 TBR goal, so wish me luck! Happy reading!

January Currently Reading! ’20

GUESS WHO’S DUMB. It’s me. Apparently I’ve had the comments turned off on my posts for weeks and never noticed. No idea it was like that. But they’re on now. Please if you notice my comments off, poke me on IG or twitter and tell me because it’s 100% because I did it by accident and then went off in my own little world. :”D

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Three more days, and I’m done with blogmas! After that I’ll be resuming a regular posting schedule, and currently I’m thinking it’ll be Saturday, Monday, Thursday. But we’ll see I suppose.

This is what I’m currently reading!

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The Wolf by Leo Carew – I received this as a Christmas gift from my buddy Ashley! I didn’t get it ’til yesterday though, so that’s why it wasn’t in my December haul. But you know that photo thing that’s been going around on facebook? This one:

I’m not from Iceland, so I have no idea if this is actually a thing or not (if you’re an Icelander, please tell me) but me and Ashley thought it was neat so we kinda-sorta adopted it. I went to her house yesterday, we exchanged books, and we spent all day in her living room reading them. We were both busy Christmas eve so couldn’t do it then, but Saturday the 4th was still nice. We plan to keep up the tradition next year too!

Paradise Kiss by Ai Yazawa – I picked this up a few days ago and I’m about half way through it. It’s over 850 pages! It’s pretty good so far though and I’m enjoying it.

Bloodwitch by Susan Dennard – Third book, still reading it. I’ll get there, I’ll get there.

Caliban’s War James S. A. Corey – I’ll finish this this month, dammit.

The Blood Mirror by Brent Weeks – I’ll… I’ll get there. One day.

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And that’s it! That’s what I’m reading!

December Currently Reading! | ’19

Happy December! I’m switching today’s and tomorrow’s post around because I haven’t taken pictures of my books for this month yet. 😛 Cry.

This is what I’m currently reading!

Bloodwitch by Susan Dennard – This is my current audio book, and I’m rather digging it. After the novella, which in my opinion dragged, this is nice change of pace.

Deathless by Catherynne M Valente – I’m pretty sure this was on last month’s currently reading too… I’m still liking it, it’s just been a busy month and I haven’t had much time to sit down with it.

Caliban’s War by James S. A. Corey – What reading I did do last month was in this book – I’m about half way through it now, and I’m really liking it. I hope to finish it soon!

The Blood Mirror by Brent Weeks – One day I’ll finish this book. ONE DAY.

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And that’s it! So instead of this post tomorrow, tomorrow will be my November Book Haul. Happy reading!

August Currently Reading | ’19

Hi! I’m currently in NYC so this is being pre-written! I’m gonna list the books I took with me… aaaaaas they’ll be the ones I’m reading when this post goes up. Yes? Yes.

During the first week of August while I’m away on my trip, I’ll be attempting to complete my Transfiguration NEWT, for which I need an Outstanding. So in order I’m (this week) reading:

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare – This fulfills the A level of ‘read a book with lgbt rep’. I read the first one of these ages ago and was luke warm to it. I own the whole series though so I want to give it another chance or two before deciding whether or not they’re actually for me.

Delicious in Dungeon vol 3 by Ryoko Kui – This fulfills my E level, ‘Read a sequel’. The first two volumes of this series I rather enjoyed, so I’m hoping I’ll like this one too.

Empire of Storms by Sarah J Mass – This chunker will fulfill my O level, ‘Read a book over 500 pages’, which by the way, is a rather evil prompt for a readathon. I’m hoping to buzz through this though like I tend to do with Mass books.

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These are all the books I’m ‘currently’ reading, though there are others I’m in the middle of that I’m setting aside during my Newts:

Back-burner books

The Blood Mirror by Brent Weeks – I was hoping to have this done by now but it hasn’t happened. As we speak, I’m about 320 pages into it. Gotta finish it in September!

Windwitch by Susan Dennard – As much as I don’t want to set this aside, I might have to. I need to read an audiobook for one of my Newts but it has to be one I haven’t started yet. I’m tempted to finish this one and read the sequel as the prompt though. We’ll see.

Sweet Filthy Boy by Christina Lauren – Weird title aside, this is a weirdly wholesome romance. I mean, totally full of sex scenes, don’t get me wrong. But also wholesome. I rather like it so far.

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And that’s it it! If I somehow manage to finish the main three books while on the trip (highly doubtful) and don’t have anything else to read, I’ll make a point to finish Windwitch so I can pick up the next book for my Newts. Happy reading!

Tome Infinity And Beyond Readathon| January Currently Reading ’18

Hello! There are a lot of things happening this month! Let’s start with the readathon.

Tome Infinity and Beyond Round 2

Tome Infinity has started! It actually began back on January 1st, but since I haven’t completed any books yet this month, I figured it’s not too late to hop on the bandwagon. This is a readathon where you traverse the solar system, looking for a habitable home. To get to a new planet, you must read a book fitting a prompt. At the end of the last round, I settled on Mercury. Round two introduces the process of settling on the planet – finding basic necessities such as food, water and shelter, and then slowly growing your civilization into a flourishing society.

This readathon runs from January 1st through the 31st, so it’s not too late if you’d like to join! If you didn’t participate in Round 1 and want to do Round 2, you can do so! Check out my original post on Round 1, where I link the account that runs the thing, the rules, etc. Basically, you’ll start as if you were in Round 1, settle on a planet you want, and then move into the Round 2 settling prompts. Here is the Goodreads group and the Twitter account where everything is organized, and here is the google doc with all the prompts!

For this readathon, instead of making a strict TBR, I’m just going to wing it – I plan to finish City of Dragons by Robin Hobb, which I know will fulfill some of the basic necessities prompts, and then I’ll just… go from there. I’ll either continue with the other books I’m already reading, or I’ll pick up new ones as I find out what prompts I still need to fulfill.

In that google docs link, there are also Instagram challenges, which I’ll be participating in here. I probably won’t do every one, but it’s always nice to have an excuse to pull books off the shelves and look at them. If you are participating in this readathon, let me know!

Now onto the books I’m currently reading!

City of Dragons by Robin Hobb

As mentioned above, currently reading this with Zezee @Zezeewithbooks. Augh I’m adoring it. At the time of writing this (Friday night) I wanna finish it tonight. Will I? Maybe. We’ll see. If not tonight, definitely tomorrow.

 

 

Blood of Tyrants by Naomi Novik

This is the eighth book in the Temeraire series. I finally got over my mental block about it and scooped it up on audio. The narrator is helping me deal with the trope I’m not crazy about. The book overall is weirdly handling the trope well though, so fingers crossed!

 

 

Back-burner books

This list gets bigger every month, people! These are all the books I’m currently ‘reading’ but aren’t the focus at the moment. I really wanna hop back to, well, all of them. I’ll get to them, I’ll get to them. None of them will I DNF – I definitely wanna get to the end of them all. Wish me luck. And I say this, with the readathon going on and potentially new books being picked up. (I’m also going to do Bout of Books 24 starting Monday, but that’s a post for tomorrow. :”D). So, it might be a bit, but I will read them. Huff.

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And that’s it! Are you participating in the readathon? Have you read any of the above? Lemme know! Happy reading!

December Currently Reading | ’18

I have made the resolution to myself to stop going ‘hey this month flew! How is it (insert month here already)!’ because the more I pay attention to the passage of time, the faster it’s gonna go. So I’m just gonna ignore it. Pbtbtbt.

Anyways, this is what I’m currently reading:

The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

Last month I was rereading the first book in this series in preparation for this. So far, I am absolutely smitten. I’m taking it slow though, both since Nanowrimo was happening and because this book is one you have to digest a bite at a time, not one you can buzz through and expect to pick up all the subtleties (well, at least I can’t). I am absolutely adoring it so far though.

 

 

 

 

 

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

The trailer coming out for the movie inspired me to pick this up. I know next to nothing about it – I watched the first half of the trailer and shut it off for fear of trailers doing what they typically do and give away the whole plot. So I’m (mostly) blind. I’m reading this as a buddy read with Katy @Bookbinderway, aaaand I’m really liking it so far. I’m so hesitant though – I’ve read one chapter and I feel like it’ll be a book I’ll binge. I need to make sure I have the time to sit for four hours to read before I read more.

 

 

 

 

Back-burner Books

Six of them, right now, I’m ‘reading’ but aren’t my focus. The Halo book, I recently picked up on audio instead of reading the physical copy, so I’m hoping that’ll help me with it. And Gray House I will likely DNF… Parts of it are good, but mostly it seems like a meandering plot… 100 pages in. I know it’s a book that people who love it really really love, but I don’t see it, yet. I’ll give it a bit more and if it doesn’t snag me I’ll likely set it aside.

The others I’m enjoying, just haven’t gotten to recently, specifically the Brent Weeks one. I wanna get back to that one soon.

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I also have a bit of a TBR planned, which is unusual for me. I plan on picking up City of Dragons by Robin Hobb with Zezee on December 10th, and I would like to read at least one Christmasy book before Christmas. I’m not sure which though – there are a few I could do. We’ll see.

And that’s it! If you’ve read or are planning to read any of these, lemme know! Happy reading!

July Currently Reading | ’18

I’ve added a fourth weekly post! Well, at least for a few weeks – we’ll see how long I can get content put together for four posts. My reading speed has picked up, so I’m hoping it’ll last at least a couple months.

Today’s post is what I’m currently reading as of today – for those unfamiliar with my blog, I don’t write TBR posts because I’m rather awful at sticking to them. Instead, at the beginning of every month, I make a post about what I’m tackling at the moment.

Anyways, these are the books that I’m nose-deep in:

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Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik

I’ve been rereading all of the Temeraire series in prep for reading the last three books – I’m enjoying this just as much as I did when I read it back in high school. This is my current audiobook and the narration is being done by Simon Vance, my absolute fave ❤ This series, if you haven’t picked it up, you totally should. It’s a historical fantasy about dragon warfare during the Napoleonic era. It’s so, so so good. As of right now, I’m about 25% through of it.

The Blood Mirror by Brent Weeks

This book’s been on my ‘currently reading’ the longest, but that doesn’t mean I’m not enjoying it. I just keep getting distracted. The fourth book in Weeks’ Lightbringer series, I’m loving it just as much as I did the first three. It’s become one of my all-time favorite series. Here is a link to the blurb of the first one, should you be interested.

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu

This one I originally picked up as an audiobook, but I’ve since switched over to reading it physically and am enjoying so much more. I can see why this one has gotten the hype it has. I’m hoping I end up liking it the whole way through – I’m on a few chapters in so far. I really like the setting – the fantasy its set in is based on various Asian cultures instead of your typical medieval european ones. It’s pretty neato.

Twelve Kings in Sharakhai by Bradley P Beaulieu

This one I originally hadn’t intended on picking up so soon, but when I mentioned I was doing the Tome Topple readathon and said I didn’t have any reading buddies, one of my friendos contacted me and said she had this book as well if we wanted to buddy read it. So here we are. 😀 So far I’m digging the plot and the setting, but I’m a tad iffy on the main character. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt until she gets some opportunity for character growth though.

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And that’s it! For now, my posting schedule will be Tues-Wed-Sat-Sun. Wish me luck. Happy reading!

May Currently Reading | ’18

Happy May! I’m currently reading a lot of books at the same time. All of them I’m digging.

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The Blood Mirror by Brent Weeks

This is the fourth and most recent book in Weeks’ Lightbringer quintet – the fifth and final book comes out late next year and you can bet your butt I’m buying that on release day. I picked up this series on a whim last year and it’s quickly become one of my all-time favorite series. I can’t get enough of it, it’s just so great.

A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape From North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa

I picked this up from Amazon’s world book day, where they were giving out free ebooks of various genres from authors all over the world. I tried my hardest to just not grab all of them but I couldn’t resist this one. This is the third memoir that I’ve read written by a North Korean defector. With all the news about the country lately, I thought it was fitting to pick up right away.

Halo: The Flood by William C. Dietz

Following up from The Fall of Reach that I read this past month, I picked up this book, which is the second in the Halo prequel trilogy. From what I’ve been told though, this book actually goes through the events of the first Halo game. I’m rather enjoying it so far. Seriously, I’m ending up a huge fan of the game without having actually ever playing the game.

Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik

Continuing my audio book reread of Novik’s Temeraire series in prep for finishing the thing out, I’m just shy of half way through this. Simon Vance is narrating and yet again he’s doing an absolutely fantastic job. I love his narrations, man. And I’m loving this book just as much as I did the first time I read it about a decade ago.

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

This is by far the most slow-going read for me. I’m enjoying it but it’s one of those books I can only read a few pages at a time before my brain gets burned out. I’ll finish it eventually.

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And that’s it! I know I’ll be starting a buddy read or two pretty soon, so another book will likely be added to this list.

If you’re reading any of these or have read them, let me know! Happy reading!

March Currently Reading | 18

Hello! Since my last post where I said I was in a slump, I read an entire book! So that’s neat. Hopefully this is a sign the slump is on its way to over!

Otherwise, this is what I’m currently reading:

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House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

I think this book is the cause of my slump. But at the same time, I’m liking it so far. It’s just so dense and hard for me to read in large chunks. When I read, I tend to read whatever buddy reads I have, then an audiobook, and then one other physical book at a time. This is my ‘other physical book’ and I was telling myself not to start anything else. Struggling through a book + not starting anything else = perfect recipe for a slump. Whop. Eventually I decided to just ignore my rule and hey now I’m reading again. Weeeeird.

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

This is my first Sanderson book, and I decided to go with his first published work because of it. This is my current audiobook and so far I’m digging it. It’s a tad slow but the world building is pretty neat.

 

 

 

 

Golden Fool by Robin Hobb

This is one of my buddy reads for this month! I’m reading it with Zezee and I’m digging it so far (but at the time of writing this, I’m not caught up yet for this week – that happens next, heeh).

As always with Hobb books, it’s like going home when reading them. I adore her and her books.

 

 

 

The Beauty of Darkness by Mary E Pearson

This is my other buddy read for the month! This one I’m reading with Meredith and another buddy – so far I’m rather enjoying it. This book can get a bit tropey though, but overall it’s not too, too bad. It’s neato. It’s definitely getting better – each book is stronger than the previous 😀

 

 

 

King’s Rising by C. S. Pacat

This series is my slump-breaker. I picked up the second book in this series a couple days ago and blew through it. Now I’m on this one, the third and final. This series is not for the feint of heart, and it definitely has it’s problems, but I’m absolutely smitten. Sue me I love it 😀

 

 

 

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And that’s it! Happy reading!