75 Books...More or Less! discussion
Archive (2023 GR Completed)
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Shelby’s 2023 Reads
Heading into 2023 with 250 Guild Points for the Magical Readathon. There’s a new yearly Choose-Your-Own-Adventure challenge that was just announced so I’ll be tracking that here. 😊January: Turn Left (Start a series) -
February: Go Towards a Lake (Water on the cover) -
March: Fight a Giant (Book over 500 pages) -
May: Travel to Kerador (Book finishes on an odd page number) -
June: Visit a Wizard Tower (Book with a prologue) -
July: Pocket a Scroll of Light Summons (Read when it's light) -
September: Sign up for Advanced Inscription Class (Read a dark academia book) -
October: Inspect a New Glyph (Chapters are only numbers) -
November: Apply Odd Glyph to Your Conduit (Random number generator) -
December: The Glyph Lights Up (Fox on the cover/title) -
Guild Points: 400 - DONE
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Sounds fun!
I've had my eye on this series since late last year and had the feeling I might want to binge it, so I decided to wait until I was on holidays before picking these up. These four are the only volumes available in book form right now (read on Webtoon) and while I easily could've kept going I thought this would be a good place to stop for now anyway.
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..."I've purchased each one as they've been released. I hope I like them...! lol. I haven't read any of them yet. I want to know how many volumes there will be first!
Elyse wrote: "Shelby wrote: " [bookcover:Lore Olympus: Volume Four|61094..."There’s 225 episodes out as of December and the fourth ended at 102. The series is ongoing as far as I know. I’ll probably let it stack up again.
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Ahhhh so lots left to publish in volumes! No wonder they're coming out so fast, they're already done just need to be printed and bound!
Elyse wrote: "Shelby wrote: "There’s 225 episodes out as of December and the fourth ended at 102. The series is ongoing as far as I know. I’ll probably let it stack up again..."Ahhhh so lots left to publish in..."
Apparently there’s some bonuses in the book versions but the original is free on Webtoon, which is nice.
I dnfed this one way back when the 2017 movie was coming out. I wanted to give it another chance because it’s the other most famous Christie novel besides And Then There Were None, which I really enjoyed. I was spoiled for the ending when I was a kid, but I didn’t know the particulars. Overall I can see why it’s popular.
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Never saw this one, but I only recently found out it was a book first. I liked it, but the timeline was hard to keep track of and I don’t know why it what purpose it served. I was also expecting a character that was introduced early on to matter, but unless I’m mistaken, that was the one setup that never paid off.
Catching up from yesterday:
This was alright. I had a high hopes because of the cover but it went somewhere else.
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Another Lovecraftian horror. This was sitting on my tbr forever and I wasn’t sure what to expect, but this was very interesting.
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I've had ..."
I want to read that series so badly but I am on a self-imposed book-buying ban until after I moved across the country in March. And I definitely need to own these!
Juli wrote: "Shelby wrote: " [bookcover:Lore Olympus: Volume Four|62698..."You can read them digitally through webtoon!
A high-octane horror novel that's always moving from the first sentence to the very end. I was never bored. Reader beware: there are some gruesome scenes before all is said and done.
And that's the first of my reading goals crossed off. It was fine.
I was in my rare mood for something lighter so I picked this up. This was a very good middle grade and I’m glad I read it. If you have a kid in your life looking for contemporary coming-of-age books to read, I’d say this is one to check out.
I’ve been wanting to read these two for ages. I definitely preferred War of the Worlds. I thought there was some great, creepy stuff here. It was wild reading this knowing that the First World War hadn’t even happened yet. It’s an alien invasion story and they don’t even have cars yet!
As for the Time Machine, I guess I’d always assumed that the Time Traveller went to both the past and the future in this book, but it’s just the future. I kinda thought it was gonna be a chapter-a-place thing but it really wasn’t. This future is more interesting than it first appears, but I’m not sure I liked it enough to recommend.
Shelby wrote: "I’ve been wanting to read these two for ages. I definitely preferred War of the Worlds. I thought there was some great, creepy stuff h..."
I love both of those stories though I'll admit to liking War of the Worlds the most. It's got more of an immediacy and emotional impact IMO.
Stacie wrote: "Shelby wrote: "I’ve been wanting to read these two for ages. I definitely preferred War of the Worlds. I thought there was some great,..."
Agreed! I knew roughly what the resolution to War of the Worlds was, but I still thought HG Wells did a really great job of placing you in the crowd waiting for the Martians to show up and everything turning to chaos when they do.
I was surprised we never hear about the main character’s brother again in the last section. His story is about a quarter of this book and then we never hear from him again.
First buddy read of the year! This was a reread for me. I buddy read House of Leaves with Elyse last year and it put me in such a mood to revisit this. Lots of fun going through these and refreshing my memory.
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So even though I’ve been making a goal of reading at least one nonfiction every year, the ones I do somehow always end up being for research and self-education purposes while the ones on my tbr just because they interest me just…stay there. Even though this is the first year I’m not setting a challenge of reading nonfiction books, I’d still really like to cross some of these off, starting with this one. It fit quite nicely for the February prompt for my Magical Readathon character’s adventure too.
This is much more about the life of this woman living in the early 1900s as she worked as a ship stewardess for several decades. We don’t get to the Titanic until about 50%. That said, it was interesting to read about her experiences in this time period. She actually worked on both of Titanic’s sister ships too, Olympic and Britannic. And she survived the two that sank.
This has been on my radar for a long time, but I hadn’t read or watched until now. As a dense deconstruction of comic books and superheroes, this was fantastic. The writing is so good that even though almost everyone in this book is terrible, I’m still invested. Simply put, this is a masterpiece. It’s one of those books that’s so skillfully done, I’m a little mad about it.
In comparison, the movie was okay. It certainly did not capture the point the way the book did.
5 Stars
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This was not a great Slappy story, but it was the next instalment, so there we are.
To be honest, I wasn't a big fan of this one. It pulled itself together for me in the final act, but if I didn't need to read it this month for the Magical Readathon, I probably would've DNFed. Don't know if I'll be committing to the rest of the trilogy.
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I ended up enjoying this more than I expected. So much so, I'm planning to try a retelling next month for the Magical Readathon.
Adding my notes for this year's Magical Readathon: Orilium! First semester starts next month!So last year my character, AJ, passed all her courses for Spellsword, so she's reached the first level in that career. I was initially intending to go for Spellsword again and reach the second level this year, but this year the books I wanted to read didn't fit the prompts, so instead we're going for the Archmage career, which is exclusive to her guild and one of the more challenging ones. I may alternate between Spellsword and Archmage as we go or create a new character next year, but for this Spring Equinox I need to read prompts for the following classes:
Alchemy: Metal in the name (gold, silver, etc)
Inscription: Book from your top shelf
Artificery: Start your read with a snack
Spells & Incantations:
Art of Illusion: Match clothes colour to cover colour
Conjuration: Recommended by a friend
My current gild level is 280 since I've been keeping up with the quests during the year so far. As of 200, I can exchange one prompt with any book I want per semester (which I plan to do with Spells & Incantations).
QUESTS
1 - Word "night" in the title or night time on the cover -
END OF APRIL
2 - Read majority of the book with the Alchemy Theatre Ambience room in the background -
3 - A book from your bottom shelf
4 - A book you were recommended on an app
5 - Reread a favourite
6 - Book with plants on the cover
7 - Book from a middle shelf
8 - Author's name has a letter Z
9 - Read a thriller
10 - Book that has furniture on the cover
11 - Book with a 4 word title
12 - Use a colour wheel to find your next read
Current Points: 400 - DONE
Artwork and writing from trans teens describing their perspective. Read for the Trans Rights Readathon.
Wanted to get this one done before the spring equinox Readathon. There’s a book shop I follow on IG that does limited edition covers and edges of popular books and if there’s something coming up that I might be interested in, I try to read it beforehand to see if I want a copy. I’m undecided, but this was a very good book.
5 Stars
The IG shop: https://instagram.com/dazzlingbookish...
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Elyse wrote: "I got the L&L SE from The Broken Binding and I love it!! I just tagged you in their last post showing it ☺️"Thank you! I sent you Dazzling Books announcement!
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Lightning Round April Wrap-UpI ended up reading some great books for the Spring Equinox of the Magical Readathon, but none that quite made it to favourite status like I was hoping.
Read this graphic novel for a quest prompt. I read two other companions to this in previous years, and while this was good, those did hit me harder.
Quest 1 - Word "night" in the title or night time on the cover
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Absolutely fantastic memoir from the perspective of indigenous people in this country. Highly recommend. Brilliantly written and gut-wrenching. Trigger warnings for SA, racism, sexism, child neglect, alcoholism, drug addiction, depression, suicide.
5 Stars
Artificery: Start your read with a snack
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This was alright. Whenever I'm planning to read a retelling, I like to at least be familiar with the source material first, so I grouped this book together with A Clash of Steel and Travelers Along the Way. For a book with only one POV, the second half of this was hard to follow. I ended up reading the Sparknotes summaries of a few chapters to straighten everything out in my head before I went back to listening. Usually that only happens to me if there's a bunch of characters thrown in at once, such as in And Then There Were None.
Inscription: Book from your top shelf (This was one of the oldest books on my TBR)
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This was an automatic add-to-TBR for me when I found out it was an own-voices high fantasy YA where the main character uses a wheelchair.
No surprise, the disability representation was well done. Tonally, though, I thought it was a bit of an odd mix. The main romance is very sweet, while everything the antagonist does is surprisingly gruesome and horrifying in this otherwise cozy story. I really like how the author used the elder tree magic in the book and Hazel was my favourite character.
Art of Illusion: Match clothes colour to cover colour
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I've been wanting to read something by C.B. Lee for a while. I've tried reading Not Your Sidekick a few times, but I just couldn't get into it. I do love a retelling, though, so I added this to my TBR as soon as I found out about it. And then it sat there. And sat there. What if I couldn't get into this one either? I couldn't read it yet, of course, seeing as I needed to read Treasure Island first, and who KNEW when I would get to that?
Then this prompt came up for the readathon, and this was one of the books on my list that could fit it. Not the only one, of course, but certainly a notable option. I'd have to read Treasure Island first, so I'd have to make that a priority for the readathon too. Also, I just read The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood last month and really enjoyed it. Did this series have a retelling for that one, too? Oh. It did. Well, what if I read all three together? A Robin Hood retelling because I was in the mood for it, and Treasure Island, and then I could also dedicate some time to getting this off my TBR too. Perfect.
That's how I finally picked this up when I easily could've left it sitting on my TBR where it could continue to intimidate me.
Spoiler alert, both of these retellings were fantastic re-imaginings of their source material.
This one is a much slower burn than I expected, considering how fast Treasure Island flies. There's a lot of setup and world-building to get out of the way, and I loved reading more of the history. The actual Treasure Island part only really started about 30% of the way in, but once it got there, I really liked it.
5 Stars
Alchemy: Metal in the name (gold, silver, etc)
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If I had to pick a favourite of the readathon, it would be this one. So many smart changes, and I really enjoyed the characters. I think I finally found a version of Robin Hood I love. As much as I enjoyed it, I really wanted it to be a new favourite and it never quite got there. I'm really glad this exists as a different POV about the crusades from what we usually see here in the west.
5 Stars
Spells & Incantations:
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I've really been wanting to get into Japanese horror, but I prefer to read horror over watching it so I'm glad I got this recommendation from the YouTube channel TheShadesofOrange. This is a horror manga about a town being plagued by spirals, as in the shape, and all of the twisted, messed up ways it manifests. It's really inventive, and a lot of it's body horror. They made a live-action movie based on this back in 2000, but I feel like it would be hard to do this book justice in live action. It seems I'm right, because it doesn't appear to have been well received. Thankfully, there's an anime based on the book that's supposed to be coming out this year. If you love horror and you're looking for something different, check out Uzumaki.
Conjuration: Recommended by a friend
One more I read in April. Last year I read 2001: A Space Odyssey, but this is the short story that served as the basis for the novel and the movie.
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Elyse wrote: "I love the stream-of-consciousness paragraph for A Clash of Steel. 😊"I thought it was the only organic way to explain my thought processes. 😂
Just wanted to update here that I have a couple of drabbles published in the new anthology
Read in preparation for the Disney movie. I thought the first book was fine, but the second book pleasantly surprised me. Looking forward to checking out the rest of the series!
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At LAST I've crossed this second book in the series off my list! At over 500 pages, this is a chonker for a play. I was originally planning to read this for the March prompt for the Magical Readathon adventure, but I ended up going with something less dense. This was just sitting on my TBR and I couldn't move forward with the rest of the series, so because the quests this year have no time limit, I decided that the next prompt this could count for, I would read this book, and that came fairly quickly. Planning to read Henry V and Richard III during the Autumn Equinox in August.
Quest 2 - Read majority of the book with the Alchemy Theatre Ambience room in the background
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Read in preparation for the Disney movie. I thought the first book was fine, but the second book pleasantly surprised me...."
That's probably why they made the second one a movie!
Elyse wrote: "Shelby wrote: " Read in preparation for the Disney movie. I thought the first book was fine, but the second book pleasantl..."
I think it’s because the cauldron storyline takes place over two books. After watching the movie again last night, I wouldn’t say they did a good job with what made the second book better. 😂
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Read in preparation for the Disney movie. I thought the first book was fine, but the second ..."
lol. I haven't read the books and haven't seen TBC since I was like 8. lol
Needing something quicker and easier. It's gonna be a long wait for volume 6. Of course, I could just keep going online . . .
Quest 3 - A book from your bottom shelf
I’d seen this book around Goodreads for ages, but I always assumed it was a drama about a suicidal person. Finding out it’s a trippy psychological horror changed everything. I’ve had this author’s second book on my TBR for ages and I’ve bumped it up my list. Gonna try and read that this year too.
This was okay. I wanted to love it, but I just didn’t. Interested to see how the movie compares.
I haven't updated here in ages. Lightning round!
I'm continuing to really enjoy this series. I could've read the fourth book for another prompt, but I decided to take a break for now for when I'm in the right mood.
Quest 4 - A book you were recommended on an app
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Yes, this is the summer I reread the Divergent trilogy with This Film is Lit. I'm really excited for the discussions for the whole trilogy, but less so about reading these. There's a lot of right-leaning stuff in here that stood out painfully in this post-pandemic reread, and it put me in a sour mood. Next up, Insurgent. Yay.
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I watched this movie as a kid, but I remember very little. Some of this book was familiar, but there's a lot of things I don't think they ended up using in the movie. Interested to revisit the film.
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I was in the mood for a summery thriller, and the first choice I made wasn't at all what I was hoping it would be, so I read this one instead. It was fine. Harder than I expected to find a book with a prologue for this prompt.
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I’d seen this book around Goodreads for ages, but I always assumed it was a drama about a suicidal person. Finding out it’s a trippy psychologica..."
I enjoyed this one. I also have Foe on my TBR
Juli wrote: "Shelby wrote: "I’d seen this book around Goodreads for ages, but I always assumed it was a drama about a suicidal person. Finding out it’s a trip..."
I really enjoyed the movie! Planning to read Foe in August for the Magical Readathon in case you want to buddy read?
The other collection I'm featured in this year is out now. Check out
! I'm very excited to read what everyone else wrote for this anthology and I'm so glad my favourite work of mine to-date is out in the world at last!
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! I'm very excited to read what everyone else wrote for this anthology and I..."Congrats Shelby!
Elyse wrote: "Shelby wrote: "The other collection I'm featured in this year is out now. Check out ! I'm very excited to read what everyone else wrote for this ..."Thank you Elyse!
Forgot to share that the ebook for
is half off-on the Smashwords store until July 31! https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
Another catch-up post! Lots of rereads this time.
The summer series continues. This was better than I remembered, and honestly some of it made me nostalgic for the books I used to be working on, but have since shelved - just theme-wise. It's interesting approaching it knowing what the author wanted to say in this series and follow the trope she wanted to use, but that's about it.
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Another reread! It was a bit weird going back and revisiting this after reading Dune Messiah last year, but I promised I'd refresh my memory before the next movie comes out so I can compare them better.
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My Magical Readathon adventure pic for July. I've been following Julian's progress writing these for a while, and I've been excited to read. Quick review:
Fun and addicting. The aspec community is so starved for queerplatonic representation that I often feel like I'm getting away with blasphemy when I find it.
I will say that the book never uses that word, and the level of commitment feels up for debate in this first installment. Maybe we're building to that later in the sequels. Or maybe this is where Maeve and Valentine are comfortable, I don't know. Guess I'll have to wait and see.
I really liked the political structure built out of the magic system, and the villains in this book felt like the a-hole main characters you might see in other adult fantasy.
The adventuring was fun too. I can't remember the last time I read about characters navigating traps while searching for treasure.
Ready for book 2!
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Yup, I read ahead for the summer series because August is the Magical Readathon. April and August are sacred to me now, because those are the months I just read books I've been excited to get to, books I've been meaning to get to, and a few assorted others that fit prompts. I didn't want Allegiant up in here spoiling the vibe. So here it is. Great to be done the books, and I'm VERY excited for the podcast episode of This Film Is Lit.
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Never read this one before. Would you believe that I hadn't really heard of it until the movie was coming out? It just wasn't on my radar. It is a pretty good Seuss book. Not my favourite, but still solid.
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Elyse wrote: "You're not alone with never reading or hearing of The Lorax until the movie! lol. I have since seen the movie once but still haven't read the book!"I saw it back when it came out, and I just rewatched it the other day. It's certainly a movie lol.
I've got a bit of time now, so I'm going to make a post for Autumn Equinox of the Magical Readathon starting this weekend! Can you believe August is almost here? Ugh. I feel like summer just started and I've been cramming to get things done this whole time.Anyway, I passed my Spring Equinox classes for the Archmage career (Might create a new character next year. Not sure.), so now I'm ready to complete the more challenging Autumn Equinox classes. My character has maxed out guild points, so I've unlocked all the bonuses, but it turns out I'm only using the one-book-swap out of the four bonuses again.
The courses and grades I need this month:
Artificery:
O -
Alchemy:
O - Stone to Copper: First in a series
Q - Copper to Silver: Continuing a series
D - Silver to Gold: Last in a series
Spells & Incantations:
O - Charm - Short trip: Read a manga/comic/graphic novel
Q - Incantation - Black flame: Black cover or fire on the cover
Inscription:
O - Glyph - Tidy: Book from your end of the year TBR
Q - Wards and Shields: Shield on the cover or 'shield' in the title
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I'll probably continue to track my quests on the Spring Equinox post. Not that I'm planning on reading any of those during August.
75 Books...More or Less!
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Now available!
Ready to join in on another great reading year!
I had so much fun with my RYABC Challenge last year that I’m doing it again this year. Otherwise I’m changing things up in 2023. Instead of my usual reading goal where I plan to read at least one classic, one nonfiction, and one Shakespeare, I have 4 specific books I want to read this year: the four books from Shakespeare’s War of the Roses that have been translated into No Fear Shakespeare editions by Sparknotes (Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, and Richard III. It’s a bit of a bigger commitment I’ve been meaning to get to for a while, so I’m dedicating 2023 to crossing them off.
War of the Roses:
All Books Read in 2023: