Reading Review: April 2021

Welcome to my Monthly Reading Review.
This post is my attempt to keep track of how I’m doing with my reading challenges and resolutions.

BOOKS I’VE READ

The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower #3) by Stephen King

Total Library Books Read This Month: 0
Total Own Books Read This Month: 1
Overall Total Books Read This Month: 1

Total Library Books Read 2021: 0
Total Own Books Read 2021: 7
Overall Total Books Read 2021: 7

MY READ OF THE MONTH

The Waste Lands by Stephen King. Not only was it the only book that I actually finished this month, it was a really exciting read, even second time around, and that ending means I doubt it will be very long before I’m starting the next book in the Tower series.

BEAT THE BACKLIST

My total for this challenge is currently 6 books.   So far I’ve read:

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King
Open Season (Joe Pickett #1) by C. J. Box
The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower #2) by Stephen King
The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower #3) by Stephen King

Beat the Backlist Bingo is making another appearance this year. I have no idea how many categories I’ll manage to complete but it’s a little extra to add to my challenge.

      

Standalone – The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

A book with illustrations – NOS4A2 by Joe Hill – There is an illustration of the Christmasland advert that first attracts Bing Partridge’s attention, and it also has Vic’s various bikes and Manx’s Wraith between paragraphs. I could also have used this for the ‘map’ prompt as there’s the United Inscapes of America map as well.

Kept you up late reading (definitely not a book you can easily put down) – The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King

Genre you never/rarely read (there has to be at least one genre you don’t usually pick up) – Open Season (Joe Pickett #1) by C. J. Box

Black and white – The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower #3) by Stephen King

From the 52 Prompts List…

You can find the complete prompts list here.

       

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow – Standalone

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill – A book with illustrations

The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King – Kept you up late reading

Open Season (Joe Pickett #1) by C. J. Box – Genre you never/rarely read

The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower #2) by Stephen King – Author has a book releasing in 2021

The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower #3) by Stephen King – Black and white

GOODREADS

I’ve read 7 books so far this year.

GOALS

• My Dark Tower reread is ongoing. Next up is Wizard and Glass.
• My Beat the Backlist challenge continues and this month’s read counts towards the challenge.
• I’m continuing my monthly update posts to record my reading and any challenge progress.

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So concludes April’s Reading Review. See you again next month.

Reading Review: March 2021

Welcome to my Monthly Reading Review.
This post is my attempt to keep track of how I’m doing with my reading challenges and resolutions.

BOOKS I’VE READ

Open Season (Joe Pickett #1) by C. J. Box

The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower #2) by Stephen King

Total Library Books Read This Month: 0
Total Own Books Read This Month: 2
Overall Total Books Read This Month: 2

Total Library Books Read 2021: 0
Total Own Books Read 2021: 6
Overall Total Books Read 2021: 6

MY READ OF THE MONTH

The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King. I couldn’t wait to get back to the world and the characters and continue with my series reread and I enjoyed reading this just as much the second time around. I don’t think it will be long before I start The Waste Lands.

BEAT THE BACKLIST

My total for this challenge is currently 5 books.   So far I’ve read:

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King
Open Season (Joe Pickett #1) by C. J. Box
The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower #2) by Stephen King

Beat the Backlist Bingo is making another appearance this year. I have no idea how many categories I’ll manage to complete but it’s a little extra to add to my challenge.

Standalone – The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

A book with illustrations – NOS4A2 by Joe Hill – There is an illustration of the Christmasland advert that first attracts Bing Partridge’s attention, and it also has Vic’s various bikes and Manx’s Wraith between paragraphs. I could also have used this for the ‘map’ prompt as there’s the United Inscapes of America map as well.

Kept you up late reading (definitely not a book you can easily put down) – The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King

Genre you never/rarely read (there has to be at least one genre you don’t usually pick up) – Open Season (Joe Pickett #1) by C. J. Box

From the 52 Prompts List…

You can find the complete prompts list here.

       

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow – Standalone

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill – A book with illustrations

The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King – Kept you up late reading

Open Season (Joe Pickett #1) by C. J. Box – Genre you never/rarely read

The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower #2) by Stephen King – Author has a book releasing in 2021

GOODREADS

I’ve read 6 books so far this year.

GOALS

• My Dark Tower reread continues. I don’t think it will be long before I start The Waste Lands.
• Discovered a new-to-me author when I read the first book in the Joe Pickett series.
• My Beat the Backlist challenge continues and both of my reads this month have counted towards the challenge.
• I’m continuing my monthly update posts to record my reading and any challenge progress.

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So concludes March’s Reading Review. See you again next month.

Reading Review: February 2021

Welcome to my Monthly Reading Review.
This post is my attempt to keep track of how I’m doing with my reading challenges and resolutions.

BOOKS I’VE READ

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King

An Eye for an Eye (DI Kate Young #1) by Carol Wyer

Total Library Books Read This Month: 0
Total Own Books Read This Month: 3
Overall Total Books Read This Month: 3

Total Library Books Read 2021: 0
Total Own Books Read 2021: 4
Overall Total Books Read 2021: 4

MY READ OF THE MONTH

It’s very close, having to choose between NOS4A2 and The Gunslinger, but I’m going for NOS4A2. The conflict between Vic McQueen and Charlie Manx, the creepy Christmasland, the whole idea of the inscapes, all of this made NOS4A2 a great read.

BEAT THE BACKLIST

My total for this challenge is currently 3 books.   So far I’ve read:

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King

Beat the Backlist Bingo is making another appearance this year. I have no idea how many categories I’ll manage to complete but it’s a little extra to add to my challenge.

Standalone – The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

A book with illustrations – NOS4A2 by Joe Hill – There is an illustration of the Christmasland advert that first attracts Bing Partridge’s attention, and it also has Vic’s various bikes and Manx’s Wraith between paragraphs. I could also have used this for the ‘map’ prompt as there’s the United Inscapes of America map as well.

Kept you up late reading (definitely not a book you can easily put down) – The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King

From the 52 Prompts List…

You can find the complete prompts list here.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow – Standalone

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill – A book with illustrations

The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King – Kept you up late reading

GOODREADS

I’ve read 4 books so far this year.

GOALS

• I’ve read a book that I’ve owned for absolutely ages in NOS4A2 by Joe Hill and can’t believe that I waited so long to finally pick it up.
• I went for a bit of mood reading in picking up the first of the Dark Tower books, The Gunslinger by Stephen King. I’ve talked for a while about wanting to reread this series and I was in the mood for something a little Weird West-ish so thought I’d begin.
• My Beat the Backlist challenge continues and both of the books mentioned above count towards this challenge and I‘ve managed to find bingo categories for them too.
• I’m continuing my monthly update posts to record my reading and any challenge progress.

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So concludes February’s Reading Review. See you again next month.

Reading Review: January 2021

Welcome to my Monthly Reading Review.
This post is my attempt to keep track of how I’m doing with my reading challenges and resolutions.

BOOKS I’VE READ

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

Total Library Books Read This Month: 0
Total Own Books Read This Month: 1
Overall Total Books Read This Month: 1

Total Library Books Read 2021: 0
Total Own Books Read 2021: 1
Overall Total Books Read 2021: 1

MY READ OF THE MONTH

I’ve only managed to finish one book this month so it’s probably no surprise that The Ten Thousand Doors of January is my Read of the Month. In truth it’s a book I enjoyed so much that there’s a fair chance it would have appeared here anyway. I can’t believe I waited so long to read it, and am very much looking forward to reading The Once and Future Witches by the same author.

BEAT THE BACKLIST

My total for this challenge is currently 1 book.   So far I’ve read:

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

Beat the Backlist Bingo is making another appearance this year. I have no idea how many categories I’ll manage to complete but it’s a little extra to add to my challenge.

Standalone – The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

From the 52 Prompts List…

You can find the complete prompts list here.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow – Standalone

GOODREADS

My target for 2020 is initially 20 books, which has become a regular starting point for this challenge. I always set a low target as my love for long books means it takes a while for me to complete a book, and I like to take my time with a good book.
This month I read 1 book, so a target of 20 feels about right.

GOALS

• My first read of the year was one of my own books, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, and after that I picked up another book I already own, NOS4A2 by Joe Hill.
• Discovered another new-to-me author in Alix E. Harrow.
• I’ve (mostly) kept up with writing reviews.
• My Beat the Backlist challenge has begun. I’ve read 1 book so far and found a category in the Beat the Backlist Bingo for it too.
• I’m continuing my monthly update posts to record my reading and any challenge progress.

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So concludes January’s Reading Review. See you again next month.

Beat The Backlist 2021

Overview

A new year, a new TBR pile, and a new set of readers tackling their backlist!

Welcome to Beat the Backlist (the 2021 edition)!
The Beat the Backlist reading challenge is designed to help you tackle all the books you keep meaning to read and still haven’t. Head over to Novelknight for full details.

Guidelines

The guidelines are simple:

The book must be published in the previous year or earlier (for the 2021 challenge, anything published in 2020 or earlier counts).

You have to start and finish the book in 2021.

And that’s it!

Any format, any genre.

Re-reads count, and you don’t have to own the book.

It’s open for the entire year so whenever you feel like jumping in, you can!

BEAT THE BACKLIST BINGO

It’s back! I enjoyed Beat the Backlist Reading Bingo last year, and for 2021 Bingo is back, with a card packed full of reading prompts. This year, there are two bingo cards available and you can find both over at Novelknight.

It’s an additional element to the challenge and finding books to meet each category is fun. I’ll mainly be using the 24-prompt card, but some of the prompts on the 52-prompt list are just irresistible, so this year I’ll be adding that list to my challenge post as well. There’s no way I’ll reach the target, I didn’t read that many books in total last year, but I want to add it for reference, just to see how many prompts I can complete. My main focus will still be the 24-prompt card.

Potential Reads

2021 marks my fifth time participating in Beat the Backlist. As I did last year, I’ll set an initial target of 10 books to read, but hopefully will be able to manage more. My TBR pile is HUGE so there’s no shortage of books to choose from! Here is just a short selection of potential reads for this challenge…

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton
Stoker’s Wilde West by Steven Hopstaken and Melissa Prusi
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin
The Book of Koli by M. R. Carey
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

There are so many more books I could have mentioned above, so I look forward to seeing how many books I manage to read for Beat the Backlist.

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Monthly Progress

January

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

February

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King

March

Open Season (Joe Pickett #1) by C. J. Box

The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower #2) by Stephen King

Beat The Backlist Bingo Progress

This year Bingo is back with a great collection of prompts.  While my main focus is the 24-prompt card I may choose a few from the 52-prompt list as well.  Here is a collection of covers that fulfill a prompt on either of the lists featured above:

       

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow – Standalone

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill – A book with illustrations

The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King – Kept you up late reading

Open Season (Joe Pickett #1) by C. J. Box – Genre you never/rarely read

The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower #2) by Stephen King – Author has a book releasing in 2021