I don't really know the best way to start this so here goes nothing.
I've had traditional reading blogs in the past with WordPress and more recently blogger but don't seem to get much interaction there so since I've been browsing tumblr more often these past few months I figured I'd go ahead and give it a shot. The first few posts after this I'm going to basically just give you my most recent blog posts with minor changes due to different formatting and whatnot. Then after that they'll be all new posts. I'm hoping to maybe find a nice little reading community through this because I've been trying to get back into reading more this past couple of years since during lock-down I actually didn't read anything and have been more or less in a bit of a slump. I've still been reading but not nearly as much as I had in the past.
I suppose, though, I should do a bit of an introduction first.
⊹ Name : Mulder
⊹ Age : 28
⊹ Pronouns : they/them
⊹ Location : Midwest, USA
⊹ Other Interests : Writing, Video Games, Space, Weather, Movies, etc.
⊹ Extra : I'm autistic and for me one thing I struggle with a lot is communication and getting my thoughts out so bear with me in these posts, sometimes I can't fully express how I'm feeling about a book but I'm trying to get better at that which is one of the reasons I'm starting a blog back up.
Favourites - > subject to change
⊹ Favourite Genres : Science Fiction, Horror
⊹ Favourite Author(s) : Neal Shusterman, Michael Crichton
⊹ Favourite Books/Series : Arc of a Scythe, Aurora Cycle, Renegades, Prey
I'm really not sure what else I should add to this. If there's something else you want to know feel free to ask in the comments or you can DM me and ask. So, I'll go ahead and leave this here, be on the lookout for new posts soon!
Hello Everyone! Today I'm going to share my TBR for the Reindeer Readathon. It's run by Erik @ Breakeven Books on YouTube and goes through the whole of December. You can watch the announcement for it here. Erik goes over each of the prompts in this video, the hosts for each team and how the points work.
The Teams are; Mistletoe (hosted by Erik), Snowflake (hosted by Steffany and Tina), Nutcracker (hosted by Christine & Mo), Stocking (hosted by Kristin and Ahtiya), Candy Cane (hosted by Hannah and Vanessa).
Without further ado, I'll get into my TBR for this readathon!
TEAM CANDY CANE!
Dasher [10 points] : A book where the combined sum of all the numbers in the page count must be GREATER than 12. For this I chose The Toll - Neal Shusterman, It has 625 page (6 + 2 + 5 = 13). I'm also using this book for the Christmas Carols Bonus [20 points] which is to read an audiobook.
Dancer [20 points] : A book that matches one of the first 5 words found in the word search. I found; Games and trials, romance, school, time travel and science fiction in the word search and chose to read The Inheritance Games - Jennifer Lynn Barnes for this challenge. I'm also using it for the Christmas Elf Bonus [15 points] which is to read a book that's been on your TBR/Shelf for a long time.
Prancer [25 points] : A title that has AT LEAST 7 syllables. I searched my kindle for this one and found Wake Me After the Apocalypse - Jordan Rivet for this one. Which means it will also work for the Christmas Lights Bonus [15 points] to read an ebook.
Vixen [15 points] : Author has an initial in their name. I am reading Vicious by V.E. Schwab for this prompt. I rarely pick up fantasy like this but I'm trying to read more out of my comfort zone and it worked perfectly for this prompt as well as the Christmas Tree Bonus [20 points] to read a book you wouldn't typically go for.
Comet [10 points] : Based on your astrology sign read a book with one of the 3 listed colours as the main colour. I'm Aries and the choices were Red, Green or Yellow and I chose Gleanings - Neal Shusterman for this one.
Cupid [15 points] : Choose your pairing; physical + tranlated, e-book + co-authored, audiobook + multiple narrators. For this I chose a translated book, Room Service - Maren Stoffels which is translated from Dutch. I did actually finish this book on the first of the month as well!
Donner [20 points] : Book cover must have something from the title on it. I'm going to be doing my 6th re-read of Scythe - Neal Shusterman for this one. I've missed this book so much and it's about time to read it again. Plus I need to so I can finally finish the series [:(].
Blitzen [15 points] : Choose three books at least 5 years old and randomly select one of them. I chose; The Eye of Minds - James Dashner, Zodiac - Romina Russell and The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman - Meg Wolitzer and polled it. The Eye of Minds won so I'll be reading that!
Rudolph [10 points] : No eyes on the cover. This one was pretty easy for me to choose for, and I went with Thunderhead - Neal Shusterman. It also worked for Christmas Star Bonus [25 points] which was a book over 500 pages.
Now, after you finish every other prompt INCLUDING the bonus prompts (which have to be used on one of your main prompt books) you can redo one of the prompts for 50 extra points! I haven't yet decided which book, or even prompt, I'll use for this but I do hope I get everything else finished so I can take advantage of the extra 50 points for my team!
If you're also participating in this readathon I wish you good luck and Happy Reading!
Hardest Reading Challenge You'll Ever Do - Round 2
I am so behind on posting here BUT I'm going to get caught up and try to keep up with it better from here. I mentioned in my November TBR that I was joining Hrcyed (Hardest Reading Challenge You'll Ever Do) late this round and I just wanted to chat a bit about it.
I'm still going to go ahead with this rounds schedule even though I started late so I can start Round 3 on time with everyone else. I did, however, backlog the books I read from the beginning of the round until present day (I was given the okay to do that) and am just sort of playing catch up now.
If you don't know, Hrcyed is a year long challenge run from July 7-July 6 and hosted by Qwordy. It's meant to be so hard that you can't do all of it in the year!
I'll give a quick rundown of the squares but if you want more information on the challenge or want to join yourself I'll link the website here.
By the 100s - Read 7 books of varying lengths; 100-199 pages, 300-399 pages, etc.
24 Hour Challenge - Read as many books in 24 hours as you can.
Series Staircase - Start and finish varying series lengths (solo, duo, trio, quad+) [at least 10 books].
Awards - Read books from each level of the competition (winner, finalist, semi-finalist, entrant), 7 books total and at least 1 from each category.
TBR Game - Pick a TBR game, play and read those books.
Last 10 Years - Read books published from 2015-2025 (2026 as bonus)[up to 12 books].
Adaptations - Read/Watch adaptations from different categories (modern classic retelling, musical, play, etc.) [8 books].
Disability Rep - 5 books with protagonists with different disabilities.
Translated Books - 5 books translated from 5 different languages.
Around the World Challenge - Books set in or by an author from each continent (Antarctica as a bonus) [7 total].
Even Bigger Rainbow - Books where 50%+ of the cover is certain colour (red, orange, yellow, green, teal, light blue, blue, purple, pink, black, white, gold/silver, 7+ colours) [13 books].
Make a Quote - Use a quote and read a book with each word in the title. [Mine is a total of 38 words...].
Spooky Creatures - Books with different spooky creatures in them (vampire, shifter, magic user, fae folk, spirit, merfolk, zombie, other creature) [8 books].
Avatar Challenge - Find the 4 elements in covers or titles, both for bonus points. [up to 8 books, at least 4].
Readathon - Participate in another readathon and complete ALL prompts (you can finish the prompts throughout the year if not during the readathon) [I chose Reindeer Readathon, which I will be posting about soon!]
Animals - Books that feature a variety of animals (house pet, exotic pet, farm animal, wild animal, zoo animal) [ 5 books]
Queer Alphabet - Books with characters of different identities (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual / Pansexual, Transgender, Non-binary / Two Spirit, Intersex, Asexual, Polyamorous, Genderfluid) [9 books]
HRCYED 1 - Choose a prompt from Hrcyed 1 to redo [mine is 4 books].
BIPOC Authors - Read 10 books by 10 different authors from background different from your own.
New Releases - Read new releases within 60 days of their release. [12 books]
Personal Challenge - Make your own goal. [Mine is 9 books]
Non-fiction - Read 5 nonfiction books with 5 different topics/subgenres.
Qs Recs - Read a recommendation from each type of video Q makes (Cozy Mini Review, Full Reading Vlog, TikTok/Reel/Short) [3 books].
As you can see, that is a LOT. In total it's around 200+ books to read. However, you can double up which means each book you read can count for 2 different prompts. Which helps a TON.
Reminder, if you want to learn more about this readathon or join up, the website is here.
As of today I've only fully finished one square, but am pretty close to finishing a few others hopefully this month.
If you've got any suggestions for the squares, please let me know in the comments! If you're also participating in this challenge I wish you luck and Happy Reading!
I'm going to start off by finishing It, I've only got around 300 pages or so left. Then I'll move on to the others which are subject to change, especially as I've decided to jump into HRCYED 2. I'll post about that on a little while!
Symbiote - Michael Nayak
Clown in a Cornfield - Adam Cesare
The Tusks of Extinction - Ray Nayler
The Gunslinger - Stephen King
As for an October wrap up, I decided I'll do October November and December at the end of the year along with an end of year wrap up post!
Yes this has two of the books from my September TBR, but that is because for some reason I did that post super late in the month, so there's a bit of overlap.
The Last Murder at the End of the World - Stuart Turton (current)
The Bachman Books (The Running Man) - Stephen King
IT - Stephen King (doing this one as a buddy read with my mom!)
Today I'm going to do a little reading wrap-up from this summer [June-August]. It wasn't a lot of reading but it was more than I've been reading which is an improvement.
I also read 'Playground: Child of Divorce' by Aron Beauregard but I'm not sure we can spoiler photos so I didn't want to pop that one in there.
I'm going to try to keep major spoilers out of these mini-reviews because again, I'm not sure we can spoiler tag other than in the actual tags.
Let's just go ahead and get into it now.
Stranded - P.D. Michaelson 2.75/5 6/7-6/14
I've read all three of P.D. Michaelson's books now and this is the lowest rated for me. It was still a good story but I just didn't vibe with it as much as I did the other two.
The Only Light Left Burning - Erik J. Brown 5/5 5/18-6/25
I loved this book (You're probably going to hear that a lot), the post apocalyptic vibes along with LGBT MC's was really nice. The beginning started out crazy almost immediately and I took a bit of a break after it but overall the book was so good. I honestly think I prefer this over the first book, but I wish there was more.
The Future is Yours - Dan Frey 4.5/5 6/26-6/28
I really enjoyed reading this. It was very fast paced and kept me at the edge of my seat most of the time. I loved the format it was told in, with emails, texts, blog posts, etc. (I'm going to pop some spoilers for this one at the very end).
Maggot Moon - Sally Gardner 4/5 6/30-7/2
I got this one from a library book sale this year and didn't really know anything about it before I picked it up. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would though, honestly. It followed Standish who is uncovering a secret with his new friend Hector about their Motherland. It was super fast paced and kept me wanting more.
Aurora Rising - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff 4/5 7/2-7/19
As you know, this was my second TBR Wheel pick and the one that sort of stopped the Wheel in its tracks. I had started it years ago and then didn't finish it. Now that I've read it I don't know why I ever stopped reading it because I loved it so much! I ended up supplementing with the audiobook and I think that was the right decision. I'd previously done the same with Illuminae and I just love the full cast so everyone has a totally different voice actor, it just helps a lot with immersion.
The Prince & The Apocalypse - Kara McDowell 4.5/5 7/20-7/23
This I picked up at a bookstore many years ago because I'd had a gift card and thought it sounded interesting. And I was NOT disappointed. I typically say that I don't do romance books but I'm realizing that there are scenarios where I do like it in a book, and in the middle of an apocalypse is apparently one of those scenarios.
Butcher & Blackbird - Brynne Weaver 3.5/5 8/25-9/8
This was very hype on tiktok and might still be and all I'd really heard about it was that it was a serial killer/serial killer romance. I didn't really pick up on the people saying that it had a lot of spice in it. Now, I did like the story, the spice scenes were...spicy...
I wasn't the biggest fan of their dynamic the whole time and how quickly he fell for her and I'm not sure how much of their relationship I actually liked. I was mostly in it for the serial killers and the 'game' that they played together rather than the sex/romance. I do think I'll read the other books though because now I'm curious, especially since we know the characters who main in the next book and it's more of enemies to lovers.
Aurora Burning - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff 5/5 8/6-9/11
I...I really liked this book. The relationships were really nice and I honestly just love the squad and their dynamic together. I don't know what to say about this honestly. This book really cemented this series in my top 3 favourites. I almost took a break between this book and the third/final BUT I knew that if I did I'd keep putting it off for longer because I just didn't want it to end.
Playground: Child of Divorce - Aron Beauregard 3/5 9/11-9/17
Now this is the one I didn't put the cover up for because of the graphic nature of it, and it being a child. This is extreme horror-splatterpunk and definitely not a book for everyone. I gave it a solid 3, same as I did Playground (of which this is the prequel to). I have a hard time rating these and saying they're 'good' books just because of the gore for the sake of gore and the fact that it involves children. But just, be sure you read trigger warnings/content warnings before you go into this genre.
Aurora's End - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff 5/5 9/11-9/20
I really don't have words for this. It was, in my opinion, such a nice conclusion to this series. I'm really sad that it's over though and wish that we could have more stories with Squad 312. I'm more than likely going to re-read this multiple more times just to be able to see all of them again!
And that is all. 10 books within the three months of summer (3 books a month) is pretty good for me at this point in time. I'm hoping to keep that pace, or better, throughout the rest of this year. As well as that, I want to do wrap-ups for each month moving forward. If there are months where I don't finish anything I'll just move onto the next month, because I want this to stay a fun hobby and not feel like a chore.
If you have any ideas for posts or book recommendations please feel free to let me know! I'll be back soon for a September TBR!
Happy Reading,
SPOILERS FOR END OF 'THE FUTURE IS YOURS' BY DAN FREY BELOW
I want to know how Past Ben reacts to Future Adhi's document, does he listen to it or does he think it's fake/do it still for the large amount of money it'll get them. Maybe thinks he can do it differently and have a different outcome.
I'd also like to see how/what Adhi does now that he's stuck in this timeline and what happens in the timeline he came from.
I really liked how at the end we see what we read is what Adhi printed out near the end of the story and how a lot of the little annoyances were actually caused by him trying to make sure this future wasn't the true one in the end.
It's been a bit here but I ended up taking a small break in the middle of reading Aurora Rising. I am finished with it now and am here to say I'm already pausing the TBR Wheel for a little bit. I know, I know, only 2 posts and I'm already pausing it but I promise it's for good reason.
I loved Aurora Rising and couldn't bring myself to not read more in the series. Now, I had to wait a little bit to be able to go to the library and get the last two books so in the mean time I ended up reading;
The Prince & The Apocalypse!
What would you do if the world was ending?
Wren Wheeler has flown eight thousand kilometres across the ocean to discover she's the worst kind of tourist: the kind who just wants to go home. Her senior-year trip to London was supposed to be life-changing, but Wren's perfectly planned itinerary is in tatters.
Then she meets a very cute boy with a posh accent who looks remarkably like Prince Theo, the British Crown Prince.
With news of a catastrophic comet hurtling towards Earth, Wren and the Prince are forced into the highest-stakes journey of them all as Wren tries to race home - before the end of the world.
A heart-stopping story of royalty, romance and the most frenetic race across the world.
I ended up really liking this one as well and am planning on picking up the second book sometime either from the bookstore or ordering it online as my library doesn't have it.
It's time again to spin the wheel of TBR! I did actually spin the wheel a couple of days ago, but didn't post right away because I had just uploaded TBR Wheel #1.
I actually did finish Maggot Moon the day I posted about spinning it, and decided instead of doing individual review posts I'd rather do a summer reading wrap-up, so look for that near the end of August/early September.
I'll go ahead now and just get to the pick, which I actually have a screen grab of this time.
Aurora Rising - Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch…
A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates
A smart-ass techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder
An alien warrior with anger management issues
A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering
And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.
They're not the heroes we deserve. They're just the ones we could find. Nobody panic.
I actually started this one a long time ago and got a little under 200 pages in before stopping. Not sure why I stopped though because I do remember enjoying the story. And I have read Illuminae by them as well and really liked that one, (speaking of...that's another series I'd like to continue reading).
I'm currently around 150 pages in and really liking it so I'm sure I'll be through it within the next few days or so. With that, I'll go ahead and leave you and see you when it's time for another spin!
I have so many books on my physical TBR, 264 to be exact, and I'm hoping to get that number a bit lower this year. Now, there are so many fun ways to go about doing this; TBR jar, TBR wheel, Bookopoly, blind date with a book, etc. In the past I've tried a TBR jar and Bookopoly, neither of which worked for me at that time.
So today...well actually a couple of days ago, I sat and added 208 of those books into a wheel. The other 56 books included some non-fiction that I don't want on the wheel as well as books that are further along in a series.
This wheel looks crazy with so many options on it, but I'm hoping doing it this way will work better for me than what I've done in the past.
Unfortunately I didn't get a screen grab of the first pick when I spun the other day, BUT I will be sure to for the upcoming spins.
Without further ado, the first book from the TBR Wheel was…..
Maggot Moon - Sally Gardner
What if the football hadn't gone over the wall. On the other side of the wall there is a dark secret. And the devil. And the Moon Man. And the Motherland doesn't want anyone to know. But Standish Treadwell -- who has different-colored eyes, who can't read, can't write, Standish Treadwell isn't bright -- sees things differently than the rest of the "train-track thinkers." So when Standish and his only friend and neighbor, Hector, make their way to the other side of the wall, they see what the Motherland has been hiding. And it's big...One hundred very short chapters, told in an utterly original first-person voice, propel readers through a narrative that is by turns gripping and darkly humorous, bleak and chilling, tender and transporting.
I got this in April at our local library's annual book sale. I didn't know much about it when I first picked it up but was hooked when I started reading it. I'm now only around 87 pages from finishing it and I'm sure these last pages will go by quickly. I may post a review of it here when I'm finished but if I don't I'll be back soon with a new TBR Wheel update!
