just for fun

November Wrap-Up/December TBR

~ megs14malloy

Happy December 1st Geeks & Gals! ‘Tis the season for bookish goodness…but isn’t that all year round, really? Today I thought I would quickly go through my November Wrap-Up and let you know my December reading plans and TBR.

For November I successfully completed 11 books, which although still great, is down from an epic 16 books completed in October. I believe I reviewed all of the books I completed in November previously so I will just go through a quick run-down with star ratings:

  1. Abandoned (Max Revere series)                              4 stars
  2. The Lying Woods (ARC)                                              5 stars
  3. A Study in Charlotte (audio)                                     3 stars
  4. Winterhouse (middle grade ARC)                           4.5 stars
  5. My Sister, the Serial Killer (ARC)                             3.5 stars
  6. Wolves of the Calla (Dark Tower series)                5 stars
  7. This is Our Story                                                          5 stars
  8. Strange Grace                                                               4 stars
  9. The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (ARC)      5 stars
  10. Love a’la Mode (ARC)                                                  5 stars
  11. The Lying Game (audio)                                             4 stars

As you can tell by the star ratings listed above, I had a pretty stellar reading month. There were no books that I did not enjoy. The lowest star rating of 3, A Study in Charlotte, was still a fun book it just didn’t WOW me like some of the others. The book I would say that had the largest impact on me for the month of November was probably, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. It was just such a unique Adult Mystery/Thriller. I had never read anything like it before. It was so confusing, pretty much the whole way through, but so insanely addicting, I had to keep reading!

Moving on to December – I have big plans this month. Firstly, I am participating in two readalongs this month with book friends from Instagram. The first is the #manxcarpooltochristmasland where I will be rereading Joe Hill’s fantastic Holiday Horror novel, NOS4A2. I read NOS4A2 for the first time last December and loved it soooooo much that I even bought a copy of it for my sister for Christmas. Initially I read it on my kindle but have since bought a hard copy for myself and the plan is to annotate it this time round. Really looking forward to jumping back into that twisted tale!

Second, I am participating in the #ChristmasinZephyr readalong where we will be reading Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon. This is a coming-of-age story that follows young, Cory Mackenson, and his friends and family living in the small town of Zephyr, Alabama. I have heard so many wonderful things about this book, in fact it is a few of my book friends all-time favorite novels, so I am really excited to check it out. I have also heard it compared to Stephen King’s short story, The Body, which I love so I have a strong feeling this will be a 5-star book for me. *Side Note: The Body was adapted into a fabulous movie called, Stand By Me, which if you haven’t watched it yet, you should.

In addition to the two readalongs, I am not overloading myself with too many other commitments. I would like to get at least halfway through, Song of Susannah, which is the sixth book in King’s Dark Tower series. I want to stretch it out a bit because I only have one book left after this one. The last thing I want to focus on is a techy scifi book called, Killing Adam, that was sent to me by the author, Earik Beann. He was so gracious to send me a copy in exchange for an honest review. The premise sounds very interesting and I can’t wait to get started with it. It is fairly short so I don’t think I should have a problem getting through it by the New Year release date.

Currently, I have read 128 books for the year. I would be VERY happy if I could get to 135. That would feel like a HUGE victory for me, considering my initial goal was 62 which I then bumped to 72 and again bumped to 92. I have definitely exceeded my expectations.

I do have a lot of great plans for 2019, which include hopefully finally starting by BookTube channel! I just need to do some more research, studying, learning how to edit, etc., before I get going with that. I will do a 2019 Goals post closer to the end of the year so stay tuned for that. What books are you hoping to finish before the end of the year? Have you already set your reading goals for 2019? I want to hear about it! Leave a comment below or contact me through any of my social media links.

Cheers & Happy Reading!

 

Tag Tuesday: Bookish Questions

~ megs14malloy

I was tagged on bookstagram (the bookie subculture of Instagram) by one of my best book buds for the Bookish Questions tag the other day and figured it may be fun to implement a new ‘Tag Tuesday’ element to my blog. I don’t finish books every day so need to start blogging more than just reviews and hey, I’m just not that creative, so require a little help coming up with ideas. Tags are great because they make you think about the books you have read, want to read, bookish habits, likes/dislikes, etc. So, without further ado, here we go:

1. Do you read one book at a time?  Absolutely not! I generally read six to ten books at a time. If I read just one at a time, I feel like I would get bored too easily and end up in a slump – every bookworms worst nightmare. I try not to read multiples of the same genre though, particularly true for fantasy, as I find that can get confusing. Below is a photo of the current books I am reading from my Goodreads bookshelf:

As you can see, if you can read the above, I have the following genres: nonfiction, high adult fantasy, post-apocalyptic, horror, ya fantasy and then three adult thrillers. I find thrillers the least complicated to read multiples of – the plots are generally pretty easy to follow.

2. Where do you read?   I have three prime reading spots in my house depending on the time of day. At night, I read in bed for at least an hour prior to going to sleep. During other times of the day I can most often be found on my couch in the living room or sitting up at the bar in the kitchen. In reality though, I always have a book with me so will read essentially anywhere!

3. Do you read the book or watch the movie first?  I am actually one of those super rare birds who prefers to watch the movie or television show prior to reading the book (if possible). That way I know how to pronounce all the names correctly and I am not often disappointed. I think it is generally understood that the books are pretty much always better. If I read the book first, I feel like I would never enjoy a movie or television show based on them (exceptions being Harry Potter, The Hunger Games and Lord of the Rings) – but if you watch first, the books are always an added bonus! Honestly, I don’t know why more people don’t do it this way!

4. Do you have a reading habit?  I have a couple I would call habits. One is that I always remove the dust jacket of my hard covers while reading and then put it back on when I put the book back on my ‘current reads’ pile. Secondly, I always update Goodreads ever single day with my reading progress/page locations, etc. My last ‘habit’, or what is becoming a habit, is my bullet journal which I just bought a couple of months ago. I keep track each month of my tbr list, book haul, read-alongs/buddy reads and wrap-up.

5. Do you stop reading mid-chapter?  Yes, I do this very frequently. Oftentimes, I will read the very first page of a chapter and then stop. Those pages are usually half pages so add more pages read per day on my Goodreads count if I just get them in…and that my friends, is the true sign of a nerd!

What would be your answers to these questions! Let me know with a comment or message – Cheers!