My TBR for this month is packed with thick fantasy and I could not be more excited. Mainly, I am participating in Becca’s (Becca & the Books on YouTube) Bookoplathon. Every month, Becca plays Bookopoly to choose her TBR and is hosting a read-a-thon all around that premise. She created a game board specifically for this read-a-thon and it’s just an all around fun concept, and I couldn’t wait to roll. I initially only wanted to do six rolls, but I had to extend that to eight rolls after I rolled TWO doubles (which, according to her rules, you have to add a roll after every double rolled). Overall, I’m really hyped for my September reading month and hope I can get to every book on this TBR.
Read-a-thon
Make Your Myth Taker Read-a-thon & June TBR | Monthly TBR 2020
Month long read-a-thons may just be the best way for me to read a ton. Last month was by far my best reading month of the year thus far, and a big reason for that has been the motivation that I’ve been getting from the thrill of completing a read-a-thon. It’s giving me a lot of structure in my reading life (especially since real life is everything but structured at this moment) and I’ve been flying through my reads. I hope to keep my momentum up through June.
This month I’m planning on participating in the Make Your Myth Taker Read-a-thon. Created by Ashley (A Frolic Through Fiction on YouTube — check out the announcement video here) and Charlotte (@charkar_ on Twitter), this read-a-thon is super involved and is so incredibly creative; I’m so excited to take part. In a very basic sense, this read-a-thon is all about creating your own mythical character based around various fantasy archetypes. I hope to complete three archetypes: faerie, gladiator, and goddess with faerie being my main priority. (So, basically, anything after the first four books is just icing on the mythical cake.)
Medieval-a-thon TBR | Monthly TBR 2020
Another month, another month long read-a-thon! I took part of the Medieval-a-thon last year, and I really enjoyed it. It’s one of the more creative read-a-thons I’ve particiapted in with it’s theming, and this year they went above and beyond. Hosted by Holly – Holly Hearts Books on Youtube – Medieval-a-thon is a month long read-a-thon where you build your own character through reading prompts (check out her channel and announcement video here). As someone who loves DnD and fantasy, this read-a-thon is right up my alley so I cannot wait to create my character.
I have big plans for my reading this month since I had such a strong April, so hopefully I carry that momentum throughout the month of May.
O.W.L.s Read-a-thon TBR | Monthly TBR 2020
It’s my favorite time of the year: O.W.L.s Magical Read-a-thon time! Every year, I look forward to this wonderful read-a-thon created by G from Book Roast. Last year, she introduced a whole careers system, and this year she expanded it a bit making it better than ever. This month, though I picked prompts for all 12 O.W.L.s, I hope to complete the 5 O.W.L.s needed to complete the Librarian career track and the 1 additional O.W.L. needed for Animagus training (two of the O.W.L.s needed for that are covered in my career track).
November TBR | Monthly TBR 2019
I’ll be completely honest, October was a rough month for me. Due to personal reasons, I took a step back from blogging for a few weeks, but I kept reading throughout the month (though, not as much as I have in the past). The biggest thing, I think, blog wise that has added to my stress and poor mental health is that I feel creatively stunted. But, with the bit of distance I took really helped. I have a few posts that are backlogged from my “break,” but I plan on being better than ever in 2020.
Now that that’s all out of the way, I’m really excited for my whole November TBR. I’m feeling a bit slumpy (a side effect of my poor mental health), but the variety of books that I plan to choose from this month will help keep things fresh and different throughout the entire month. I plan on taking part of two read-a-thons this month — Tome Topple and Buzzword-a-thon — and hope to read a few nonfiction for Nonfiction November. I have high hopes for this month, but we shall see.
1. Read a “Ten to Read in 2019” title
Truthwitch (The Witchlands: 1): Susan Dennard
I’m kind of annoyed with myself that this is still on my TBR. I read a chapter sampler back when Truthwitch was about to be released and I enjoyed what I read, so I’m not entirely sure why I never picked it up. It’s way past time to change that.
N.E.W.T.s Read-a-thon TBR | Monthly TBR 2019
Back in April I took part in the O.W.L.s Magical Read-a-thon hosted by Book Roast on YouTube. Out of the twelve “exams,” I passed eight of them: Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic, Muggle Studies, Potions, and Transfiguration. Which set me up perfectly for this month’s read-a-thon: the N.E.W.T.s! This was my favorite read-a-thon to participate in last year, and G has just made it bigger and better than ever, and I am so glad I can participate in it again this year.
The career framework that I’m using for the N.E.W.T.s is different from the one I used for the O.W.L.s back in April. Though I could still go for a Charms professor at Hogwarts, I’m actually planning on following the criteria path for a Ministry Worker, specifically for the Department of International Magic Cooperation. Which means I only need to get an Outstanding in one subject — History of Magic — and acceptable in five others: Muggle Studies, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Transfiguration, and Charms.
Since I have a bunch of ARCs that I want to get to over the next few months and start posting reviews again, I’m hoping to combine the N.E.W.T.s with ARC August to see just how much of my ARC backlog I can get through. I’m ridiculously excited for all of the books I want to read this month, so hopefully I can get to most, if not all of them (in a perfect world). I am going to the beach for a week at the end of the month, which means prime reading time. Last year, I read four books while I was on vacation, so hopefully I can repeat that this year.
History of Magic
Out of all of my exams for this round of the N.E.W.T.s, History of Magic is the only one that I have to achieve an “Outstanding” to complete my career path. So did I choose easy books to complete it? Of course not! Why would I be kind to myself like that? However, I’m fairly certain that each of these books are going to be five stars, so I’m not too worried.
July TBR – The Book Junkie Trials & Medieval-a-thon| Monthly TBR 2019
July is a busy month for me. Not only do I have quite a bit to do in real life — which includes a bachelorette weekend — but I have big reading plans too. I plan on participating in TWO readathons this month: The Book Junkie Trials and the Medieval-a-thon. Both are RPG-style readathons that are so ridiculously creative I can’t even begin to describe how much I’m in love with both of them. I really pulled myself out of my slump in June, and with my excitement for these readathons, I hope my July is even better reading wise.
The Book Junkie Trials, created by Rachel Marie Book Junkie on Youtube, is a map-based readathon where readers are divided into teams, read for points, and follow a path to glory. Since the trials is the most involved of the two readathons, I organized my TBR around that and fit the Medieval-a-thon prompts around the books I chose. The Medieval-a-thon, created by Holly Hearts Books on Youtube, is a readathon where you create your own character by the books that you read; the number that you read is what caste you’re in and there are different prompts for clothing and weapons.
My goal is to read at least eight books this month, which is doable I think. If I manage to do that, I will complete my team’s path for the trials, finish my own TBR challenges that I have for every month, and end Medieval-a-thon a queen with a crown, cape, bracers, chest plate, boots, and a sword — a very formidable queen, I think.
O.W.L.s Read-a-thon TBR|Monthly TBR 2019
It’s my favorite time of the year! Yes, it is spring in the Northern Hemisphere (which means no more snow), but it’s also O.W.L.s season! (I’m excited, if you couldn’t tell from my excessive use of exclamation points.)
The O.W.L.s Read-a-thon was created by Book Roast on YouTube (check out her announcement video here) last year, and she brought it back again this year even bigger and better than ever. This year, she went above and beyond and created requirements for wizarding careers to help form reader’s TBRs. It’s truly amazing the amount of work she put into this read-a-thon that makes this it truly special.
Personally, I’m going to use the “Hogwarts Professor” requirements as a guide for my reading this month, but I did choose books for every O.W.L. just in case I overachieve.
March & Read-a-thons TBRs | Monthly TBR 2019
Last month, I did pretty okay with actually reading books on my TBR. I knew it was an overambitious TBR from the start (especially with participating in two read-a-thons during the shortest month of the year), but I’m proud with what I accomplished. This month’s TBR is a bit more realistic, especially if I stick to it, and I’m genuinely excited for each and every book. I have a feeling that this is going to be a good reading month.
1. Read a “Ten to Read in 2019” title
Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer: 1): Laini Taylor
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to Strange the Dreamer last month, but I’m not deterred from my self-inflicted challenge. I still really want to read this book, and will get to it this month.
2. Read a sequel
Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows: 2): Leigh Bardugo
I’ve been wanting to finish the Six of Crows duology for a while, but now that King of Scars is finally out, I have to finish it to read that. I’ve heard it’s going to destroy me, so…that’s fun.
February & Read-a-thons TBRs | Monthly TBR 2019
January was a weird month for me. I never posted a TBR because I was still trying to figure out exactly what I was going to do with my TBRs. Last year, I started off pretty well with a themed TBR, but as the year went on I was less and less motivated to read those books. I’m very much a mood reader, but I also like some sort of structure (and also need it since I have some ARCs that should be read before their release dates). So, I’ve come up with a few monthly challenges for myself to structure my thinking a bit. My TBRs are also shorter — only 5 or 6 books — which should also help with the feeling of “failing.” We’ll see how long this lasts, but so far, so good.
Even though February is the shortest month of the year, (and despite what I literally just wrote), my February TBR is a bit long and daunting. BUT! That’s only because there are two read-a-thons I plan on participating in this month: the OwlCrate-a-thon and the contemporary-a-thon. So, even though there are a bunch of books listed here, I’m feeling good.
Journey Into the Shelves 