2025 Reading Challenge discussion
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Paul's Spinning (Slightly Slower) Carousel - 180 books in 2017
Book #93
The Vile Village (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #7) by Daniel Handler (writing as Lemony Snicket)
Finished 9th June 2017
280p
Why I read it: The Netflix series was coming soon, so I figured I'd pull these out again, especially as Mark Oshiro is planning on reading them someday (maybe) and I never actually finished the twelfth one.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: General/mystery/thriller, male, white, USA, 2000s, June, familiar, children, series, novel, short, ebook I borrowed, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #94
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Secondary Phase (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Radio Series #2) by Douglas Adams
Finished 10th June 2017
124p
Why I read it: I'd never actually listened to it, and I thought this year was the perfect opportunity to get around to it all.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Sci-fi/humour, male, white, UK/USA, 1980s, June, familiar, adult, series, audio drama, short, audiobook I borrowed.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #95
The Dispatcher by John Scalzi
Finished 10th June 2017
102p
Why I read it: I found out it was free on Audible, and it sounded interesting.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Sci-fi/mystery/thriller, male, white, USA, 2010s, June, new, adult, standalone, novella, short, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear the Shelves
Book #96
Life, the Universe, and Everything (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #3) by Douglas Adams
Finished 12th June 2017
242p
Why I read it: I felt like reading it again.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Sci-fi/humour, male, white, UK/USA, 1980s, June, familiar, adult, series, novel, short, ebook I own, reread
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #97
The Beekeeper's Apprentice (Mary Russell, #1) by Laurie R. King
Finished 16th June 2017
448p
Why I read it: It showed up in the Mark Reads Confirmed List suggestions, and it looked interesting, so when it appeared in a Kindle sale I got it.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Mystery/thriller/historical, female, white, USA, 1990s, June, new, adult, series, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear the Shelves, Randomiser
Book #98
Skeleton Key (Alex Rider, #3) by Anthony Horowitz
Finished 17th June 2017
325p
Why I read it: I felt like reading it again.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Mystery/thriller, male, white, UK, 2000s, June, familiar, children, series, novel, medium, papery book I own, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #99
Event Horizon 2017 by a load of people
Finished 23rd June 2017
1221p
Why I read it: I liked reading Up and Coming 2016 enough that I was looking forward to the edition for this year, if it happened, and hopped on it as soon as I knew it was out!
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Fantasy/sci-fi/speculative fiction/horror, male/female/nonbinary, white/POC, all over the world, 2010s, June, familiar/new, adults, standalone, short story anthology, very long, ebook I own, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear the Shelves, Popsugar (book more than 800 pages long)
Book #100
Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life by Nina Stibbe
Finished 25th June 2017
336p
Why I read it: It was nominated for Waterstones Book of the Year when it came out.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: History/general autobiography, female, white, UK, 2010s, June, new, adults, standalone, nonfiction, medium, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Dewey Decimal Nonfiction (600-699), Clear the Shelves, Book Riot (a book about books)
Book #101
Wizards at War (Young Wizards, #8) by Diane Duane
Finished 26th June 2017
330p
Why I read it: Mark Oshiro was reading it.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Sci-fi/fantasy, female, white, USA/Ireland, 2000s, June, familiar, children, series, novel, medium, audiobook I read online.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #102
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
Finished 29th June 2017
841p
Why I read it: It's Dahl's Chickens!
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Classic, male, white, UK, 19th century, June, familiar, adult, standalone, novel, very long, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar (book with a character's name for the title), Randomiser, Clear the Shelves, Top Ten Challenge
Book #103
On Ordeal: Ronan Nolan Jnr. (Young Wizards #10.7) by Diane Duane
Finished 30th June 2017
156p
Why I read it: It's more Young Wizards, I was never going to be able to resist.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Fantasy/general, female, white, USA/Ireland, 2010s, June, familiar, adult, series, novella, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Book Riot (Read a book within 100 miles of your location.)
June SummaryReading Challenges
Yearly
Overall Reading Challenge: 103/120 (85 5/6 %)
Let's Turn Pages: 25,277/36,500 (69.25%)
Genre Bingo: 21/24 (87.5%)
Popsugar: 39/52 (75%)
Book Riot: 14/13 (107.7%)
Dewey Decimal Challenge: 6/10 (60%)
Languages: 2/5 (40%)
Randomiser: 24/30 (80%)
Colour Challenge: 14/15 (93 1/3 %)
Top Ten Favourites: 8/13 (61.5 %)
A to Z Location: 24/26 (92.3 %)
Quarterly
Clear the Shelves – 43/30 (143 1/3 %)
Monthly
N/A
June’s Stars
★★★★★ 0 books
★★★★ 11 books
★★★ 4 books
★★ 0 books
★ 0 books
Highlights and Lowlights
+ Never Say Die – Alex Rider is back, and even if that doesn’t always feel like a good thing, I’m genuinely pleased for the most part. :D
+ The Great Gatsby – Much better than I remembered! The climax is a little neat and coincidental (which is probably the point and probably adds to the tragedy), but the denouement more than makes up for it. Even if the characters don’t always make sense they’re still good fun to spend time with, and Fitzgerald creates an incredible decadent atmosphere.
+ The Vile Village – Not one of the highlights of the series as it kind of inherits some of the failures of Ersatz and none of its strengths, but it’s still got some very relevant/resonant themes, some absolutely astounding entendres, and a gloriously ludicrous extended metaphor about potatoes. :D
+ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: The Second Phase – A lot better than the Primary Phase, managing to feel both fresh and familiar. It’s also much closer in tone to the Primary Phase and slightly to the first book than it is to Restaurant, which honestly works in its favour more than anything else.
+ Life, the Universe, and Everything – Trillian becomes the smartest person in the room that she was always destined to be, Ford really isn’t that bad this time, H2G2 meets Doctor Who action comedy actually works quite well until it’s time to resolve the plot (there’s still plenty of room for fizzing absurdity thankfully) and while it’s still not as good as the first two for reasons I can’t really work out, I honestly think it’s underrated.
+ Skeleton Key – Slower in general than I was expecting, and probably not as good as Point Blanc in hindsight, but in fairness they are trying to do different things. And I can still respect this one for its attempts (mostly successful) to bring in themes of family and its genuinely sympathetic and (relatively so) complex villain. Who is still pretty awful in fairness.
+ Wizards at War – Not as good as I remember, but still very good. I’m definitely a fan of its focus on characters and people and interpersonal dependency. Or something like that.
+ Nicholas Nickleby – A lot longer than I expected, and horribly drawn out at times, but I did really like the characters and the jokes and the way I could never really predict where it was going.
- Hedge Funds for Dummies – About as good as Mutual Funds for Dummies was, which wasn’t that much. In fairness there’s a lot of genuinely good information here, I think it just suffered from my reading it cover to cover and having honestly no idea for some reason who its target audience was.
- Love, Nina – A nice insight into what it must have been like to live in swinging 80s literary London, but this seems to be more of a book for people who were there, or wish they were there. Gets awfully luvvy sometimes, and some of the jokes and “funny” stories simply fall flat. Though the characters/people here are a lot of fun to spend time most of the time, there’s just not really a whole lot to dig into here. There’s only so much I can take of people being disdainful of the classics while not really going into much detail about them.
Next Month's Plans
- Start seriously focussing on my challenges from the top down, if I can
- Listen to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: The Tertiary Phase
- Read Northern Lights again
- Read Eagle Strike again
- Start reading A Wizard of Mars again
- Finish The Truth and start reading Thief of Time
- Read The Hostile Hospital
- Read For the Many, Not the Few: The Labour Party Manifesto 2017
- Read the Pottermore books, or at least some of them
- Read Sarah Gailey’s Women of Harry Potter series
- Read Slaughterhouse-Five
Book #104
Northern Lights (His Dark Materials, #1) by Philip Pullman
Finished 4th July 2017
416p
Why I read it: Now that The Book of Dust finally has a release date (or one of them at least), I figured it was time to finally give Philip Pullman three more second chances.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Fantasy/speculative fiction, male, white, UK, 1990s, July, familiar, children, series, novel, medium, ebook I borrowed, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar (steampunk novel), A to Z Location (Nova Zembla), Top Ten Favourites
Book #105
For the Many, Not the Few: The Labour Party Manifesto 2017 by the British Labour Party
Finished 6th July 2017
128p
Why I read it: I want to be careful about not lionising the man (he's not a dictator after all, and election campaigns would be nothing without committed volunteers), the results from a month ago basically validated my mild faith in old Jeremy Corbyn, and I wanted to find out more about the policy ideas that helped it happen.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Other nonfiction, male/female, white/POC, UK, 2010s, July, new, adults, standalone, nonfiction, short, something I read online.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar (book with a red spine).
Book #106
The Hostile Hospital (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #8) by Daniel Handler (writing as Lemony Snicket)
Finished 6th July 2017
284p
Why I read it: The Netflix series was coming soon, so I figured I'd pull these out again, especially as Mark Oshiro is planning on reading them someday (maybe) and I never actually finished the twelfth one.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: General/mystery/thriller, male, white, USA, 2000s, July, familiar, children, series, novel, medium, ebook I borrowed, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #107
The Truth (Discworld, #25) by Terry Pratchett
Finished 6th July 2017
453p
Why I read it: Mark Oshiro was reading it.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Fantasy, male, white, UK, 2000s, July, familiar, adult, series, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #108
Dr. Twelfth by Adam Hargreaves (read by Michelle Gomez)
Finished 8th July 2017
32p
Why I read it: One of my Goodreads friends linked it through her feed and I thought, "You know what? That sounds like something I want!"
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Sci-fi, male, white, UK, 2010s, July, familiar/new, children, series, picture book, short, audiobook I read online.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #109
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Finished 9th July 2017
285p
Why I read it: I think I'd heard it was a classic at some point.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Historical/speculative fiction, male, white, USA, 1960s, July, new, adults, standalone, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Book Riot (book about war), Popsugar (story within a story)
Book #110
How to Fall in Love by Cecelia Ahern
Finished 10th July 2017
330p
Why I read it: It was in the house and I thought I'd see what it was like.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Romance/general, female, white, Ireland, 2010s, July, familiar, adults, standalone, novel, medium, papery book I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Genre Bingo (Chick-lit)
Book #111
Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies (Pottermore Presents #1) by J.K. Rowling
Finished 10th July 2017
68p
Why I read it: I was planning on going to LeakyCon (don't know if I'll be able to do that now though), so I thought I'd read these before I go.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Fantasy, female, white, UK, 2010s, July, familiar, adults, series, other, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #112
The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science by Andrea Wulf
Finished 14th July 2017
496p
Why I read it: It won the Costa Award for Biography, and it looked interesting.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Biography/science/history, female, white, India/Germany/UK, 2010s, July, new, adults, standalone, nonfiction, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Genre Bingo (Science nonfiction), A to Z Location (Quito)
Book #113
Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists (Pottermore Presents #2) by J.K. Rowling
Finished 15th July 2017
63p
Why I read it: I was planning on going to LeakyCon (don't know if I'll be able to do that now though), so I thought I'd read these before I go.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Fantasy, female, white, UK, 2010s, July, familiar, adults, series, other, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #114
Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide (Pottermore Presents #3) by J.K. Rowling
Finished 15th July 2017
79p
Why I read it: I was planning on going to LeakyCon (don't know if I'll be able to do that now though), so I thought I'd read these before I go.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Fantasy, female, white, UK, 2010s, July, familiar, adults, series, other, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #115
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Tertiary Phase (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Radio Series #3) by Dirk Maggs after Douglas Adams
Finished 20th July 2017
124p
Why I read it: I'd never actually listened to it, and I thought this year was the perfect opportunity to get around to it all.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Sci-fi/humour, male, white, UK, 2000s, July, new, adult, series, audio drama, short, audiobook I borrowed.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #116
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
Finished 21st July 2017
720p
Why I read it: I'd heard it was a classic since years back.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Biography/memoir/history, female, POC, China/UK, 1990s, July, new, adult, standalone, nonfiction, long, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Genre Bingo (Biography), Dewey Decimal (900-999), Popsugar (family member term), Top Ten Favourites
Book #117
Eagle Strike (Alex Rider, #4) by Anthony Horowitz
Finished 22nd July 2017
329p
Why I read it: I felt like reading it again.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Mystery/thriller, male, white, UK, 2000s, July, familiar, children, series, novel, medium, papery book I own, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #118
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
Finished 25th July 2017
336p
Why I read it: It won the Booker Prize in 1992 (well, shared really).
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Historical, male, POC, Sri Lanka/Canada/UK, 1990s, July, new, adults, standalone, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar (book recommended by librarian)
Book #119
Tor.com Publishing's Summer of Space Opera Sampler by Spencer Ellsworth, Andrew Neil Gray and J.S. Herbison, Dave Hutchinson, Martha Wells, Corey J. White
Finished 25th July 2017
107p
Why I read it: It was mentioned in one of Tor's regular newsletters, and it sounded interesting.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Sci-fi, male/female, white, USA?, 2010s, July, new, adults, standalone, anthology, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar (book with a season in the title)
Book #120
Until Friday Night (The Field Party, #1) by Abbi Glines
Finished 31st July 2017
336p
Why I read it: It was nominated for one of the Goodreads Choice Awards back when I thought they were worth following.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Romance/general, female, white, USA, 2010s, July, new, young adults, series, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar (book with a day of the week in the title)
Why do you feel the GCAs are no longer worth following? =)
It's just kind of a weird personal thing mostly Nik, I've looked back at what's been nominated and not enough of it's really been that much to my tastes. Like don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with people liking them, and I'm sure I'd like a lot of them, but I've gotten to the point where I'd just prefer to hear about them from other people, other places I trust more. My to-read shelf was getting too big, something had to give, and I figured... that would be it. (There are definitely other things that need to give too of course, I just haven't quite decided on them yet.) I also think their acceptance criteria and cutoff points are kinda hazy too.
July SummaryReading Challenges
Yearly
Overall Reading Challenge: 120/150 (80%)
Let's Turn Pages: 29,863/36,500 (81.816%)
Genre Bingo: 24/24 (100%)
Popsugar: 46/52 (75%)
Book Riot: 15/13 (115.4%)
Dewey Decimal Challenge: 7/10 (70%)
Languages: 2/5 (40%)
Randomiser: 24/30 (80%)
Colour Challenge: 14/15 (93 1/3 %)
Top Ten Favourites: 10/13 (76.9%)
A to Z Location: 26/26 (100%)
Quarterly
N/A
Monthly
N/A
July’s Stars
★★★★★ 0 books
★★★★ 11 books
★★★ 6 books
★★ 0 books
★ 0 books
Highlights and Lowlights
+ Northern Lights – Messier, more plodding, and weirder than I remembered, but sometimes that’s in a good way, and it still retains a kind of incredible power. Swerves from steampunk speculative fantasy with odd little knobs on into hard philosophy before culminating in a literally worldshaking revelatory climax. The kind of book that really benefits from being read again many years later, which probably makes it the best kind of children’s book of all. Still great after all this time.
+ For the Many, Not the Few: The Labour Party Manifesto 2017 – Some of it I don’t agree with, some of it I don’t quite understand, and some of it makes me want to read more about things, which is always good. Nevertheless I like it. It’s not quite a revolution, but it feels like a beginning, and right now that’s good enough for me.
+ The Truth – Loses its way slightly in the last third, and does recover with some astounding twists and character development but before that I like it a lot. Engaging characters, a good bit of wackiness, and some very relevant themes (and more) make for another winner.
+ Slaughterhouse-Five – Really a book that makes you think, though it’s not strictly enjoyable in the traditional sense. It’s not as zany as I was expecting (I don’t know why I was expecting it to be zany), and in some ways it’s definitely stranger than I was expecting, and I don’t think the more science-fictional aspects of it actually work that well. As a book *about* science fiction however, it works great! Along with being about war, memory, trauma, and possibly some other things like that. It’s a book that I guess you could say needs a certain mindset to read, but it definitely deserves its status as a classic.
+ The Invention of Nature – Makes the difficult look very easy by synthesising a vast number of sources, even if it doesn’t always seem like it’s doing anything special. Made the old seem new, and jumpstarted my interest in nature again. Let’s just hope it lasts this time.
+ The English Patient – Sensuous and atmospheric, and strangely brilliant. Doesn’t always work – sometimes it’s *too* atmospheric, and sometimes it’s really hard to figure out where the characters are actually coming from – but when it does it’s spectacular, and I like to think it has genuinely interesting things to say about war and memory and removing yourself and other subjects as well. And to think I thought it was just going to be a dolled-up romance novel.
- The Hostile Hospital – Honestly I like a good few things this book does (Olaf through the intercoms, the Baudelaires putting on disguises and disappointing a guardian for the first time), but for some reason right now the bad is overwhelming the good. Like I don’t remember the Snicket file or that there might have been a survivor really going anywhere, so tbh that’s enough for me to send it down the rankings. It really feels like we’re in the doldrums here. Even if Haruki Murakami’s in it.
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Tertiary Phase – Disappointing. Maggs renders a good bit of the narration as expository dialogue, which is fair enough, I’m not sure there was another way of doing it, but it really makes a bunch of the jokes fall flat. I also still think this loses something slightly in pacing and tone when it got turned into a radio series, though Trillian still impresses hugely and it’s really nice to see Arthur get to be happy for once.
Next Month's Plans
- Focus on my challenges some more, if I can
- Read So Long and Thanks For All the Fish again
- Read The Subtle Knife again
- Read Scorpia again
- Finish reading A Wizard of Mars?
- Finish reading Thief of Time maybe?
- Read The Carnivorous Carnival again
- Read Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
- Read Quidditch Through the Ages
- Read Sarah Gailey’s Women of Harry Potter series
Book #121
The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2) by Philip Pullman
Finished 4th August 2017
355p
Why I read it: Preparing for The Book of Dust Volume One.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Fantasy/speculative, male, white, UK, 1990s, August, familiar, children, series, novel, medium, ebook I borrowed, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #122
Serial Season One by Sarah Koenig
Finished 4th August 2017
288p
Why I read it: Now that my iPod is back working I figured it was way past time I finally saw what this was about.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: True crime, female, white, USA, 2010s, August, new, adults, series, audio thing, medium, audiobook I read online.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Whoooooa, I had no idea this (or any, for that matter) podcast had a Goodreads listing! Thanks for that. =)
Nik wrote: "Whoooooa, I had no idea this (or any, for that matter) podcast had a Goodreads listing! Thanks for that. =)"Yeah, I was pretty surprised too when I found out. Think the only reason I checked was because it wasn't an ongoing podcast and I figured it was worth a shot. And it turns out it was!
Book #123
The Carnivorous Carnival (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #9) by Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler)
Finished 7th August 2017
312p
Why I read it: The Netflix series was coming soon, so I figured I'd pull these out again, especially as Mark Oshiro is planning on reading them someday (maybe) and I never actually finished the twelfth one.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: General, male, white, USA, 2000s, August, familiar, children, series, novel, medium, ebook I borrowed, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar (cat on the cover)
Book #124
So Long and Thanks for All the Fish (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #4) by Douglas Adams
Finished 9th August 2017
320p
Why I read it: I felt like reading it again.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Sci-fi/romance/humour, male, white, UK/USA, 1980s, August, familiar, adults, series, novel, medium, ebook I own, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #125
The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
Finished 15th August 2017
420p
Why I read it: I'm not sure. I think it'd been getting a bunch of buzz from some of my friends so when it showed up in a Kindle sale I figured I'd get it.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Mystery/thriller/romance/general, female, white, Australia, 2010s, August, new, adults, standalone, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar (holiday other than Christmas)
Book #126
Quidditch Through the Ages by J.K. Rowling
Finished 15th August 2017
129p
Why I read it: I'd never read it, and I wanted to before I go to LeakyCon next month.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Fantasy, female, white, UK, 2000s, August, familiar, children, standalone, other, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #127
Nora Webster by Colm Toibin (read by Fiona Shaw)
Finished 15th August 2017
384p
Why I read it: I like Colm Toibin more or less, so when this showed up in an audiobook sale I had to have it.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: General/historical, male, white, Ireland/Spain, 2010s, August, familiar, adult, standalone, novel, medium, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #128
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K. Rowling
Finished 16th August 2017
144p
Why I read it: I'd never read it, and I wanted to before I go to LeakyCon next month.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Fantasy, female, white, UK, 2000s/2010s, August, familiar, children, standalone, other, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #129
Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northrup
Finished 20th August 2017
125p
Why I read it: I found out about it thanks to the film, and when a bundle of this and five other slave narratives got discounted to free one time I knew I had to have it.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Autobiography/memoir, male, POC, USA, 19th century, August, new, adult, standalone, nonfiction, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Randomiser, Dewey Decimal
Book #130
Scorpia (Alex Rider, #5) by Anthony Horowitz
Finished 20th August 2017
359p
Why I read it: I felt like reading it again.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Mystery/thriller, male, white, UK, 2000s, August, familiar, children's, series, novel, medium, papery book I own, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #131
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
Finished 21st August 2017
116p
Why I read it: It was in a collection of slave narratives that was discounted to free once.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Autobiography/memoir, male, POC, USA, 19th century, August, new, adult, standalone, nonfiction, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Paul, you've *got* to tell us all about LeakyCon. I'm completely jealous. Have a magical time. =)
Thank you Nik! I'm really looking forward to it, especially now I've taken a look at the schedule and it turns out I like the sound of a lot of it. Almost too much in fact! But that's a problem I'm happy to work with - so long as my luck holds out and nothing happens between then and now. :)Are pictures an acceptable form of telling? There might end up being more pictures than words (not very good ones either)... we'll wait and see though. :D :)
Sure! Whatever you'd like to share. I'm sure there will be plenty of coverage online, but I'd love to hear/see things from your perspective. =)
2025 Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Ninefox Gambit (other topics)Lifeboats: A Tale of the Young Wizards (other topics)
Conservation of Shadows (other topics)
Engraved on the Eye (other topics)
Moonlight (other topics)
More...
Book #92
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Finished 7th June 2017
189p
Why I read it: I felt like reading it again.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Classics/general, male, white, USA, 1920s, June, familiar, adults, standalone, novel, small, ebook I own, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages