#24in48: Starting and TBR

I'm doing the #24in48 readathon once again. It's the readathon where the goal is to read for 24 hours in a 48 hours timeframe.

So here's my TBR. I'm ready to read, eat candy and drink caffeinated beverages. And have lots of fun!

Are you doing this readathon too? What's on your TBR? Let me know in the comments!

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February blog fail

It's been a while since last blog post. And I was supposed to get better at this, and update my reading progress weekly. Well, this happens. Right?

I didn't plan this reading month well enough, and have been lagging behind on my TBR all month. This was due to planning my TBR before I knew what readathons I would be joining, and then adding readathon reads on top of that. And well, after my all-read-January my boyfriend has demanded some fun-time too. Because of this, I've had to decide between reading and trying to catch up on my TBR - or blogging. I thought I could catch up on reading and then blog, but I'm still way behind.

So, what I'll do is: make blog posts back in time, making the weekly reading posts and hopefully some reviews long due. And then I'll get back to reading and hopefully get back to updating my blog regularly.

It's not easy juggling between reading and blogging - knowing when to do what.

How have you been? Done anything exciting recently? Let me know in the comments!
/menenia

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Week 7 and OwlCrateAThon: Read

I hadn't planned any readathon other than #AYearAThon and #Duodecathon this month, but then all of a sudden OwlCrate made their readathon happening this month as well. And I really wanted to join in on that, because one of my goals this year is to finish my OwlCrate backlist. So, I put my February TBR on hold and did the OwllCrateAThon.

For this readathon there was some challenges:

• Read the oldest unread OwlCrate book you own
• Read two OwlCrate books
• Read two different genres

So, I started with Three Dark Crowns which was my oldest unread one. And why haven't I read this before? It was so good! Wow. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and need to read the rest of the books in this series! The next book I read had to differ in genre, so I found a contemporary one, Eliza and Her Monsters. This was also a really enjoyable book. So, two really good books from OwlCrate read and finished this week. And I finished all the challenges! Yay!

This week's happy mail.

I got around to reading a graphic novel this week as well. I'm supposed to read one every week, but some weeks I read more than one, and some weeks I don't read any. This week's graphic novel was Archie vol. 2, and I don't think I like this series. Need to try one more to find out.

On Sunday I started reading The Color Purple by Alice Walker for the #Duodecathon challenge "A book with a great first line". 

Books read:

• Kendare Blake: Three Dark Crowns (Three Dark Crowns, #1)
• Francesca Zappia: Eliza and Her Monsters
• Archie vol. 2

Total pages read this week: 978
Books read: 3

Which book subscription box do you think is the best? Let me know in the comments!
/menenia

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Week 6 and #AYearAThon: Read

So, six whole days of headaches is really not fun. First three days of I'm-not-sleeping-well headache. This was manageable. Just a slight headache. I was functioning. But then, three days of migraines following that? I slept through these three days! Bad bad head!

I was supposed to read a whole lot on Monday and Tuesday, but headache told me not to. Especially on Tuesday was a stop-the-reading kinda day from my head - the headache decided to sit right behind my left eye and throb when I tried focusing my eyes on the words.

February TBR status.

This week was the February #AYearAThon. The theme was "New to you authors" which is the easiest challenge ever. I could pick anything almost, as there are so many new to me authors. So this time I could just go on reading my TBR.

A lot of the reading time this week was spent reading a Norwegian adult novel which I really loved, called De Usynlige, but I was reading it so slowly I had to take a break from it and read something easy. I chose American Panda for this purpose, and that was a quick and enjoyable read! I had to hurry the reading of American Panda because I wanted to lend it to a friend I was meeting for cinema on Sunday, and I barely made it in time. Sunday night I started a new book, Three Dark Crowns - and I'm hooked already!

Books read:

• Tor Arve Røssland: Glimt
• Gloria Chao: American Panda

Total pages read this week: 617
Books read: 2

Have you read any 2018 releases yet? What's your favorite so far?
/menenia


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Claire Kann: Let's Talk About Love

When I read the blurb of this book I knew I had to read it. I'm really interested in reading and trying to understand all the different sexualities that didn't have a name when I grew up. And this one was my first book with an asexual main character.

Let's Talk About Love is the story about Alice. Alice is in a relationship, and she's happy. Unfortunately her girlfriend is not that happy, because there's something missing - intimacy and sex, and because she thinks Alice doesn't love her enough she ends the relationship. Alice on the other hand is asexual, but still very much romantically and emotionally involved.

This is a story about accepting yourself, opening up to others - both as an individual and for the prospect of love, and it's about love in a different matter than most people accept as love in today's society. It's an important story to tell, and I think it can help a lot of young people finding themselves and accepting who they are. And maybe get some tips and tricks on how to come out as asexual and finding love in a way they can accept and thrive in.

Alice is a likeable girl, and the story includes love and friendship and family and heartache and heartbreak and cuteness and fluff and all the ingredients a good contemporary novel should have. But I think Alice might've been a bit too bland or boring for me? I don't want to say this, but I feel that she didn't shine, if you know what I mean.

The diversity in this novel was amazing, and it felt natural - as it should be!

It's a good story, and it's important, and I enjoyed this book, but it's not as good as I hoped. I was let down by this, but I don't really know why, maybe I just had set my hopes too high? It's good, but I wanted awesomeness. Still, a good read, and so easy and quick, and definitely worth the time!

/menenia

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Week 5: Read

This week was not the best one. Still suffering from winter blues, and feeling stuck at home because of all the snow - and thus feeling really bad about not doing anything or getting any exercise. The week ended really good tho. My boyfriend found a way to get me out of the house - and to a place devout of snow. It felt awesome walking on the bare ground (asphalt, but still) again.

Shopping in Copenhagen.

There wasn't any readathons going this week, I'm waiting for #AYearAThon next week. And even tho I haven't really done anything this week, I haven't gotten much reading done either. I read Daughter of the Pirate King, and even tho I spent "forever" reading it, I did enjoy it.

I was going to do a lot of reading on Sunday, but headache made me read real slow. I still got 123 pages read in a Norwegian YA horror novel and I read the newest volume of Saga. And was this the best volume of Saga or is it just my opinion?

Books read:

• Tricia Levenseller: Daughter of the Pirate King (Daughter of the Pirate King, #1)
• Saga vol. 8

 
Total pages read this week: 578
Books read: 2


Do you have any addicting collecting habits other than books? Let me know in the comments!
/menenia

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February TBR

New month, new TBR. Hopefully I will be just as good at following this as I was in January.

This month I'm hoping to join my library book club. I was supposed to in January as well, but I'm having some winter blues and I'm so so so sick and tired of all that damn snow. Maybe this month will be better. At least I get to read some books I would've never picked up myself - and thus reading more adult novels.

My two pre-orders of the month is:
SFF: The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
Contemporary: American Panda by Gloria Chao

I'm especially happy about getting American Panda, but The Belles looks intriguing as well.

I'm going to do the #Ayearathon and #Duodecathon readathons which I do every month. For the #Duodecathon I will be doing the "A book with a great first line" and I've chosen The Color Purple by Alice Walker - which goes nicely with February being black history month.

And OwlCrate is doing a readathon this month, which I'm really happy about. One of my reading goals this year is to read all my OwlCrate backlogs, which is/was 12 (I think). So, I'll be reading two books from past OwlCrates for this readathon.

I don't know of any more readathons this month, which might be good because my boyfriend misses his board game companion, and it's Oscar month (we have to watch all the nominated movies before the show) which means less time for reading.

What will you be reading this month? Havee you pre-ordered any nice books? Let me know in the comments!
/menenia

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January wrap-up

My January TBR consisted of 8 books (as my monthly TBRs will probably be every month this year). Specifically 8 novels. Plus my goal about one graphic novel every week, and a manga every other week. Which in normal months will be 4 graphic novels and 2 mangas. This January i participated in so many readathons, and was totally antisocial and nursing my introvertness, so I read quite a bit more than planned.

I ended up reading:

• 13 novels
• 4 graphic novels
• 2 mangas
• 1 comic strips collection
• 1 audio book.

I'm so proud of this! So many books, so many pages, so many words! And I've enjoyed most of them.

And I even kept to my TBR, allowing myself to read other books when done with those. I missed out on two of my TBR simply because of slow mail to Norway... January OwlCrate has still not arrived.

Best book: The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli
Worst book: Zenith by Sasha Alsberg & Lindsay Cummings (DNF)

Only 5 of these books were of male authors (one was co-written with a female author) and a surprisingly 16 were female authors.

I've visited USA, UK, Norway, Chile and Japan this month. I'm looking forward to visiting Finland (and hopefully more countries) in February.

I have calculated the pages for week 1-4 (leaving a few days of January, but I think it better this way), so in January I read a total of 4835 pages. Woop! That is incredible! I'm so happy!

What was the best book you read in January? And the worst? Let me know in the comments!
/menenia

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Jason Segel & Kirsten Miller: Otherworld

I hadn't heard about this before joining the Biannual Bibliothon, were this novel was the group read. So, I ordered it from my library and read it. It was right up my alley, so I'm happy about the discovery.

Otherworld is a virtual reality game concept. It's in the start-phase, and only 2000 special VR glasses are made. And it's supposedly incredible realistic. When Simon finds himself with access he sees it as a way of getting back in touch with a childhood friend. She on the other hand is doing everything in her power to keep him out of her life - in order to save his. Because Otherworld is not what it seems.

I feel that Otherworld has managed to make a really good backstory for these two young adults, a really interesting and sweet and complicated history. This makes me want to read more about them, and follow their story. I feel I got a great view of their worlds - two very different and interesting ones.

The world building is good; Otherworld feels like an awesome place to be - you can be anything you want to be (well, as long as it's somewhat human) and do exactly what you want to do. It's world is vast and exciting. The different types of NPC's they meet in this world is interesting too.

The real world is seen from a really rich kid, but he's got a good head on his shoulders. He's smart and nice, and doesn't really care about money. He cares about his childhood friend, the only love he has in his life (his parents being rich and absent). I care about what happens to him, and want him to get his friend back.

I really enjoyed this book, it's not a new favorite or even a 5-stars, but it's a really enjoyable and entertaining read. I'm looking forward to the sequel.

/menenia

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Jennifer Niven: Holding Up the Universe

I'm so slow at reading the books I buy or get as presents. This was a Christmas gift I got in 2016. Yeah, about time I read it! Thank you my sweetest boyfriend for getting me this!

Holding Up the Universe is about Libby - (previously) America's fattest teen, and Jack - the cool kid who can't remember faces. When Libby starts school again after being home schooled a few years, she becomes the big laugh at school and the victim of a cruel game. Jack, trying his best to fit in and not let anyone know about his handicap, turns out to be the cruelest of them all. But these two misfits gets to know each other and turns to each other for help.

This. Was. So. Sad. And. So. Good! Yes. Just read it!

Some might find this book to be a bit over the top? Maybe? Because of the "America's fattest teen storyline - she actually gets stuck in bed until the rescuers have to tear down part of her house to get her out - you know the story from television. There is a lot of fat-shaming going on, but that is actually how reality is, and that's kinda why Niven has written this book. But it's told in a really great way, and she actually gets better and the way Niven has described her she's a person, not just America's fattest teen. She's a really cool girl, with hopes and dreams and the motivation and stubbornness to go for it.

Jack is good on the inside, but in order to hide his shortcomings he acts out and becomes this shithead to be "one of the guys". It was really interesting to read about prosopagnosia (face blindness)  and learning more about this disability. I've never really given it any thought, and now I know more about it, which is great!

The main storyline is pretty simple, and as mentioned maybe a bit over the top, but it gives the characters room to grow and shine. I read this book in one day, because I couldn't put it down.

Discuss this book with me in the comments if you have read it!
/menenia

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Week 4: read

This previous week was an extraordinaire week for me. I participated in both the Biannual Bibliothon reading 7 books in one week, and #24in48 readathon reading for 24 hours in two days. So I've read so much this week, it was amazing!

I read 6 novels, 2 graphic novels, 2 mangas as well as finishing All the Crooked Saints and starting Zenith. Oh, and reading the final few pages of a Norwegian comic strips collection. So many books!

I will write reviews on several of these reads, but it will take some time to get through it all. I enjoyed so many of these, even tho none of them are new favorites.

Books read:

• Jason Segel & Kirsten Miller: Otherworld (Otherworld #1)
• Alejandro Zambra: Bonsai
• Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird
• Maggie Stiefvater: All the Crooked Saints
• Claire Kann: Let's Talk About Love
• Cecelia Ahern: Perfect (Flawed #2)
• Thomas Enger: Killerinstinkt
• Vampire Knight 16
• Vampire Knight 17
• Archie vol. 1
• Moonshine vol. 1
• Nemi book 13

Total pages read this week: 2089
Books read: 12

How many books is your record in one week? Let me know in the comments!
/menenia


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