Hey everyone, it’s been a hot minute since I created a blog post. Something that I want to try and change so I am actively trying to make a point of uploading a blog post at least once a week, some months maybe a couple a week and others a blog post each day, but I will explain all of that below.
Firstly, I created, well I say created I didn’t actually create, a new TBR game. I have over 800 books on my TBR and I am officially putting myself on a book buying ban until that is down to 650, it might seem like a challenge but I am certainly willing to give it a go.
So basically I decided to let Google pick my TBR each month. How I do this is two ways. I will firstly ask Google to pick a number between 1 and however many books I have on my TBR (they are all in a spreadsheet on my Laptop) and I have to read the book that corresponds to that number. If the book is a book in a series that I am not up to date with the I have to read the first book in that series that I can, of that makes sense. The second way is I have a list of 200 prompts (always looking for more ideas) and ask Google to pick a number in the same way and I have to pick a book that fits the prompt.
Usually I average on about 7 or 8 a month so starting May, yes May as I wanted to test the game out and not take it to seriously for the first month to see how it goes, I asked Google to pick four numbers for books from my TBR and then four from the prompts. This will make sense when I play it properly next month and hopefully get a blog post written up for it.
As for punishment I decided that if I don’t finish my TBR then I have to roll a D12 or D20 not decided yet and if I roll a six or lower then I have to roll a D6 and add that many books to my TBR using the list of TBR books and not prompts so I get no say in the books.
If I manage to read all the books in a month then the following month I am allowed to double up across TBR books and Book Prompts. It all makes sense to me at least. Hopefully it will make more sense to all of you when I play it here each month.
As for future plans I want to try and attempt Blogtober this year and I am planning a fee readathona but not sure when they will be ready so stay tuned for that and basically that is it.
This might at first seem strange but please hear me out as this is something that both me and a lot of British Holiday goers feel really passionate about.
Haven has made huge changes to our beloved Seaside Squad and it is devestating. I might be 31 but I broke down into tears when I saw what they have done to them.
I like so many people in the UK grew up with these characters and I can’t speak for anyone else but I feel like my childhood has just been ripped away from me. So many childhood memories are just all crumpled and ruined just knowing that this change has been made.
What gets me the most about all this is that they totally removed Bradley Bear and instead brought in his niece, Rory the Tiger now looks more like the cheetah in the Cheeto’s adverts, Anxious is now called Annie, because apprently he being called Anxious was offensive and the same with Greedy the Gorilla, he is now apprently the same character but he is now to be known as George the Monkey. Polly the lifeguard and Ned the DJ have been totally removed.
None of it makes sense. There are multiple petitions around to stop this change from happening. One of them you can find here https://chng.it/wL6V9p6KyH
So many children have been in tears over this change and as I said above I can join those children in being tears. Explain how these are the same characters as the ones above.
I am sure that I will never get over this. Call me dramatic but I am not the only one who is calling to Haven and begging them not to do this. It’s just devestating.
I will expect to see them at my next meeting with the Job Centre
If you read this or a agree with it or even both then post it around. Send it everywhere and let it be known that me and so many others are not happy.
Novels are the best way to get lost in your own world.
I just wanted to say that Readathons that have prompts that specifically require you to read an audiobook are starting to get more frequent. I am not going to name or call any out but I have noticed it happening in maybe 1 in 4 or 5 Readathons that I have looked at, am currently a part of and it isn’t exactly fair. The reasons listed below.
Firstly the last thing that I want to do is cause any arguments so please take this with a pinch of salt and understand that I have nothing against audiobooks or people who read them. You are more than welcome to read audiobooks if that is what you want and are able to do.
Number One: Not everyone can, or is able, to read audiobooks. I know that I for one can’t. I have to concentrate more on them as I have to listen and when I read I need silence or I just can’t focus. Listening to audio makes me have to focus more and as a result gives me really bad migraines. It’s happened every time I read audiobooks and so now I don’t read them and Readathons that say you have to listen to an audiobook to complete a prompt mean that I just no longer take part or am forced to skip that part of the Readathon and in some cases can’t complete certain prompts at all.
Number Two: It isn’t always easy to get access to audiobooks. I don’t have a Kindle or anything other than my phone that is able to get audiobooks. So listening to them literally drains my phone battery and if I get a message or phone call then it pauses the audio or I have to try and manually stop it to answer the call and then go back a page because the ringtone stopped me hearing what was said.
Number Three: This sort of ties into number one in that audiobooks give me, and I know a few other people in the book community, headaches and in my case that headache can come in the form of a mind crippling migraine. The reasons for this include, but are not limited to, having noise constantly in your ear and having to actively listen to what is being said, focusing more as you don’t always have access to the words and therefore have to pay more attention
I know that for some people none of the above is the case and they eat up audiobooks for breakfast, some people even read nothing but audiobooks.
However, there are those of us who can’t read audio for either the reasons listed above or for other reasons like they are deaf, have hearing difficulties or any number more reasons.
Therefore it isn’t fair for anyone hosting a Readathon to force anyone into reading a specific format. There are multiple ways to get around this and prompts could instead be worded differently. Here are a few that I thought of, yes it might be implied that you read audio but having the option to bend that needs to be made a thing, to take people’s health and abilities into consideration
Read a book that includes audio/audio format – This could mean a book that is literally an audio book, it could be a fictional book that includes bands, music or musical instruments as part of the plotline. It could also be a biography or autobiography of a singer or songwriter.
Read a book (or part of) out loud – I will argue through my teeth that this counts as an audiobook. It can be literally heard and there are multiple children’s books that take five minutes to just read out loud to yourself or to someone else.
Read a book in a format you are not familiar with – That can mean if you exclusively usually read novels maybe try a manga or graphic novel.
Listen to a book/ chapter of a book read by a friend or family member – Again it fills the prompt and doesn’t force you into having to listen to an audiobook but it has the aspects of audio in it.
Of course there are more ways you can word the prompts. I am sorry this got a little ranty in part but it does just really annoy me when I am forced to read an audiobook and then end up having to battle with a migraine for the next 24 or more hours.
A little thought and consideration goes a long way and even a few people will respect you so much for it. Again sorry for the rant it’s just a small topic that really does grind my gears so much.
Okay so I have pretty much been absent from my blog for some time now and J don’t really have any excuse for it. It just haven’t been in the mood to write up a blog post and if I am honest just don’t really have many ideas for what I want to write. I could always do a book tag but I can never find one that I really like so instead I just stopped posting and that needs to change. I just need to find some inspiration again.
I know it will come to me eventually but I just wanted to at least write something and this is what this blog post is, just a check in to let you know my plans for the next few months, not that I have much but stay tuned for a couple of what I think are rather exciting annouments.
Reading Plans for the next three months:
So I am in the middle of, or have just started, way to many series so in the months of May and June I want to try and focus on getting up to date with ones that are yet to be completed and also actually finishing out ones that are.
Exactly how well that will go I am not sure but there are a few that I want to prioritise so I am making myself accountable and posting them right underneath here. I think I am going to with a few series that I want to get to finishing ASAP.
So I only actually need to complete the second Volume of Wires and Nerve graphic novel, as far as I am aware there is only two but I will have to check up on that one.I think it’s volume 3 I am up to in this although I might just binge the whole series in June because I am not sure and it’s been a while since I picked one up. At least it’s manga and that makes it a pretty quick read.Such a fun middle grade series where Disney villains are school teachers, of course there is much more to it than that but it’s a fun time and I do want to finish out the series.I think this is more a companion novel, but I still really want to get to it just to finish the series and be done with another one. I adore Reichs in this. I love the humour and the darkness it entails. Overall I am enjoying this series but I do want to get it finished, although if it went on forever I would never complain.A cozy middle grade, that I really have no excuse to not get read soon, been putting it off for ages and not sure why. I need to bite the bullet and read it. I know I am going to love it and wait way to long for the next book in the seriesFinally for series I want to finish I have been working my way through the collectors Editions of Pokemon Manga and currently there are 10 out in the UK, not sure if more are going to be published or not but I am up to volume 7.I have been loving this series and again not sure why I haven’t finished it yet but it’s so much fun and the twists and turns are just perfect.
And that is it for series I want to get finished for now. Of course there are also series that I really want to start, but hopefully I can at least wait until I finish a series before I begin a new one, of course we know that won’t happen. So just going to post a couple of series and trilogies I want to get to as well, no captions for these just a few front covers.
Of course there is more there is always more but I would be here forever if I listed them all so these are just the ones that I am most excited about starting and of course the ones that I want to finish as soon as I can.
Now if you are still here it is time for the most exciting part. Me and my sister are planning a year long Readathon. It’s going to be based around Lilo and Stitch. .
There will be a Discord and it will involve recruiting characters to help you collect up all the known experiments and we might even create a few of our own for good measure. But it’s going to be a blast and I hope you can join us. The plan is to begin on July 15 and run until July 15 but we shall see.
Until next time, hopefully it won’t be too long this time.
Recently I read The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller and I loved it. I knew how it would end because I know the Myth and yet I was still hoping I was wrong.
I knew it would break my heart into a million pieces, but didn’t expect it to bury those pieces and just leave them to disintegrate over and over into nothing.
Which leads me onto the title of this blog. I have become obessed with Achilles myths. I mean be that retellings like Song of Achilles or the actual myth itself. I just can’t get enough and know that I need to read more and despite just finishing The Song of Achilles last month I know I need to re read it again as soon as possible. It has easily become my all time favourite book. I just loved it so much.
Other than books I have become obsessed with Pokémon Arceus. I have never had so much fun playing a Pokémon game. Do you play Pokemon Arceus? If you do have you found a shiny Pokemon yet? What was it? What was your first ever shiny Pokemon in and what was your first Pokemon Arceus shiny?
Mine was a shiny Zubat way back in Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire and I had no pokeballs to catch it. The first shiny I found in Pokémon Arceus was Electabuzz.
Of course I am also obessed with anything to do with Legend of Zelda. I love it so much and am one of the few who really loves Revali. But any way I am obessed with it. Love the manga and the games. I get way to into them and sure most of them get on my nerves mainly because Link is an idiot but still it’s addictive.
I decided to jump on the bandwagon and do this. I have no idea how this will go. But come the end of the year I will see what I have read and what I haven’t.
Yes it is almost the end of January, so might re visit this at the end of January 2023 and see then, but you never know.
The Books decided to list them rather than just put the covers on. Simply because I want to get back into actually writing blogs.
1. Silence of The Girls – Pat Barker
2. A Deadly Education – Naomi Novick
3. The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting – Evanna Lynch.
4. All of Us Villains – Amanda Foody and Catherine Lynn Herman
5. The Extraordinares – TJ Klune
6. Helen of Troy – Margaret George
7. To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before – Jenny Han
8. Fall of Giants – Ken Follett
9. The God Game – Danny Tobey
10. Girl A – Abigail Dean
11. The Girl in the Blue Coat – Monica Hesse
12. Phantom Limb – Lucinda Berry
13. Red Dragon – Thomas Harris
14. Ponti – Sharlene Te’o
15. House of Furies – Madeline Roux
16. A Little Life – Hanya Yanigahara
17. How To Stop Time – Matt Haig
18. The Vanishing Half – Brit Benett
19. The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister – Anne Lister
20. The Holiday – T.M.Logan
21. The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep – H.G. Parry
22. Troy – Stephen Fry
And there we have it. I will check back in a year and see what I have actually read from this list.
How many do you reckon? I am going to go with 15. I know some of them I am desperate to get to. So really hope I do.
A while ago I made a blog post about if I could only keep 30 books. Now I thought I would try it again as my tastes have changed and I am not the same person I was when I made that post. Although I would like to change it up a bit and sort of put my own spin on it. So I incorporated three rules that I will have to abide by. Now it’s not just 30 books but an additional two things. It will make sense as you read on I promise.
Rules were made to be broken.
Rule Number 1: I can chose three authors whose books I don’t have to count in my 30 books.
Rule Number 2: In addition to rule one I can chose three series to keep, that can include any future books in that series that are yet to be released.
Rule Number 3: Apart from when it clashes with the above two rules I can only have one book by each author.
Does that make sense? Hopefully if it does it will as we go on. This is going to be difficult. I can already tell that.
Three Authors.
Anyone who knows me could probably skip this part as they will automatically know my three authors. I will buy anything they ever write without question. Do you know them yet?
Alice Oseman – There is nothing that anyone can say that will change how I feel about Alice’s books.
Marissa Meyer – It’s only recently, this year in fact, that I fell in love with her writing. Now I will buy anything she writes.
Carlos Ruiz Zafon – I love his books. Slowly working my way through them and not a single one so far has got less that 4 stars.
How many did you guess correctly? Did I surprise you with that last one? Bet it wasn’t what you thought it would be. Well let me tell you a secret. It wasn’t what I thought it would be either.
Three Series
Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children – I did think about putting Random Riggs in authors but went with series due to him only having this series out.
Pages And Co – I didn’t expect to love this series as much as I have so far but it’s just so wholesome and I always love falling into a new story.
Villains Series – Not sure what this series is called but it’s the origin stories of Villains by Serena Valentino and its so good. I need more books in it.
Now we come to the part of this blog I have been dreading. Time to pick the 30 books. Got a feeling I am going to wish I could have more than 30. But let’s get into it.
Number 1:
This was the first book I read on my own and I knew I had to include it.
Number 2:
This is a fast favourite. I read it in one sitting I just couldn’t put it down.
Number 3:
This books is so uplifting and Toff is the sweetest person.
Number 4:
I loved this book. It has such an interesting premice and I could never get rid of it.
Number 5:
This book is always going to be a favourite of mine. I loved it and found myself gripped from the start.
Number 6:
I have so many fond memories of this book, maybe one day I will do a blog post about it.
Number 7:
This book made me laugh and cry and totally broke me before lifting me up again. I loved it.
Number 8:
How could I not include a book of one of my favourite films ever.
Number 9
I have yet to read this book but I get the feeling I am going to be both broken and enjoy it.
Number 10:
I read this book just a couple of months ago and it was just amazing. It totally broke me but I loved it.
Number 11:
I loved this book so much more than I expected to. It made me go out and buy every Matt Haig Book currently out.
Number 12:
Again this is a book I have yet to read this book but it reminds me of Nerve and I really enjoyed that film.
Number 13:
Two words are needed to explain why I need to keep this book -Rumplestiltkin Retelling
Number 14:
I just love Captain Hook retellings and origin stories. Captain Hook is the love of my life.
Number 15:
Pretty much the same as the one above. I just love Captain Hook
Number 16
For so long this was my favourite book. I loved it. I still love it and really need to read it again.
Number 17:
This is just so funny. If you have read it you will know what I mean and I dare you to keep a straight face when I say the turkey
Number 18:
Another Rumplestilkin retelling. I haven’t read this one but I am so intrigued by it.
Number 19:
Something I have never seen before is a Labyrinth retelling or origin story and that is exactly what this is. It’s a slow read but amazing.
Number 20
Again it’s a Captain Hook retelling but not like one I have read before the love interest is interesting
Number 21
I did think about picking Lost Boy for this author but Girl in Red was just that little bit more unerving
Number 22
Cinderella is always going to be one of my biggest loves. So of course I loved this
Number 23
Beauty and the Beast is my favourite Disney film and so when I realised I could include this as it’s a different author to So This Is Love and so it’s here.
Number 24
There was no way I was going to turn down having this cover on my shelf
Number 25
I am not a fan of Science Fiction but I really enjoyed this so much. It’s due a reread.
Number 26:
After loving Frankenstein so much I knew I had to try this and when I finally did I was gripped from page one
Number 27
My love of the Beatles means that I would never forgive myself if I got rid of this one.
Number 28
The final twisted tale I can include on here and not a popular choice but one of my favourites
Number 29
I love ghost stories and so this just seemed like a good idea to keep this one. Never read Edgar Allen Poe, but really want to
Number 30
It was a toss up between this and a few other Barnes and Noble bind ups and I went with this due to the cover.
And there we have it. That was so hard. I realised just how many books I wanted to keep. What books would you keep if you had to follow my rules? I would love to know.
Recently the discusting thing that is cyberbulliying has come to my attention, I am not saying any names in this blog post and will refuse to name anyone who has been the inspiration for this post as in my opinion it will only give them the fuel to continue and I will get dozens of people trying to defend them
The people that I am talking about in this post will know exactly who they are and that is enough for me.
Before I get into anything else I just want everyone who had ever been made to feel worthless due to bullies be that online or face to face you are worth so much. You are valued and loved and don’t let any bullies tell you otherwise. I know from experience that bullies can make you feel as though you are worth nothing. I have been there. So again remember you are worth something. You are important and someone will only bully you due to jealousy or to make themselves feel like they are important.
In the next few paragraphs I will share with you some the experiences that I have had and that I have had with bullies and how they made me feel. Trigger warnings for talk about depression and anxiety.
My first experience with it was all through Primary School and most of secondary school. During this time I was pushed both down and up stairs at school, pushed into the road in front of cars walking home from school, had my hair pulled, homework ripped up, called names and worthless and so much more. The teachers were never bothered despite me begging for their help. Eventually we had to get the police involved and it was only then that the bullies stopped.
But the whole ordeal left me feeling like maybe I wasn’t worth anything. I was 15 and having been bullied from the age of 6 I realised that I didn’t know what to do without the bullies. In a way it felt like something was missing in my life because I felt miserable and useless despite not being told that I was worthless and being told that I should kill myself everyday. If all that was gone why did I feel like that.
I tried to take my own life, yes you heard that correctly, I took about 15 Ibrprophen before my mum caught me and took me to hospital, where obviously I was okay, but I was diagnosed with depression. Something that for years nobody except me and my mum knew. She was my rock and I was hers when we were together nothing could stop us and nothing bothered me anymore because I knew that she had my back and she helped me to fight my depression and over the next few years and by the time I was 19 I had it under control. Yes there were bad days but I fought through them.
Yet when I was 21 I lost my mum and my depression returned. I couldn’t figure out what to do with my life. I was back to feeling like I had nobody again, all I can say is I am so glad I had my sister to help me. She never gives up on me and when I am feeling at my worst and can’t get out of bed she lies next to me and just hugs me or just lets me sit and cry next to her. She is amazing.
But enough about that it’s time to move onto the cyberbullies that have targeted me and the people I care about over the last few years.
Someone who I thought was my friend bullied me off Facebook, it all started when everyone was posting about Lucifer being taken off air and I posted a simple post saying something like ‘So sick of seeing everyone talk about Lucifer, going on about it isn’t going to bring it back if it’s going to return it will’
The things that she said to me about that were just horrible she started spreading stuff about me and tries to stop my best friend from talking to me and actually in the end the bullying from her just made me not want to go on Facebook anymore so I deleted it. But not before she had managed to alienate me from everyone. I once again felt like crap.
This next paragraph contains racism, or at least someone being racist. Bullies name has been changed but my step sister’s is the same due to needing it for context
Last year Claire made my step sister cry after she mentioned that she didn’t notice something racist in a book that she read aged 11 that recently came out as racist. Claire’ response to her amongst other things was “She isn’t a woman of colour so she doesn’t get to decide who/what is racist” (When she assumed that just due to her name which is Rebecca she wasn’t of colour, the best way to describe my step sisters skin is like Megan Markle, so she is a woman of colour) something that my step sister said to her and her response to that was ‘Whatever, if you were a person of colour then your name would reflect that. I would suggest you stop trying to earn yourself respect by playing at being a woman of colour. Then a few weeks later she accused her of being ableist when she mentioned she didn’t have the ability to learn sign language due to her dyslexia, she aid he would love to learn but didn’t feel like she as able to do it and and would worry that she was saying something offensensive and then accused me of the same when I stuck up for her. But she was really rude about it. It may just have been the way we took things but she then lied about what we had said to her after she deleted our comments and spread around that we had been trying to boycott her and her readathon, she did this after blocking us, something I only found out days later as I have another Twitter account other than my main.)
Then only recently, a few weeks back now someone tried to call me out for being rude because I posted that I was allergic to something and therefore couldn’t have some flowers that had been sent to me. I said I had to throw them away or was thinking about giving them to a neighbor. They proceeded to say that I was being rude and ignorant for posting about it, I won’t share with you the messages that were sent over Twitter Dam’s bit they said some really horrible things and suggested that I delete my post or she will get me blocked from Twitter, plus other things.
Someone told me I was trying to cry for help, which is not the case. I just wanted to make people aware. If you feel as though you are being bullied then speak out. Get something done. It might seem hard but there will be someone out there who will help you get through it.
I for one will no longer stand for bullies. That is the reason I wrote this post. I no longer care what people think of me. It’s easy to bully someone but it takes a much stronger person to stand up and call out that person.
Bullying can cause people to feel the worst things about themselves. So before you say anything or do anything be that in person or from behind a screen just stop for ten seconds and think about how it would make you feel if someone said or did that to you. If it would make you feel anything other than happiness, love or just that you are worth something then maybe don’t say it.
Don’t be that person that tips someone over the edge and forces them to cause themselves pain. The odds are they are worth so much and you prevented them from reaching their true potential.
It’s finally here. There is going to actual real people taking part in a Frozen themed Readathon and I am so excited to be hosting it. I will be most active on the Discord but if you don’t have Discord of course you can still take part. There is no points system for this it’s just a nice way to have some.fun reading in the month of December.
The Rock Trolls couldn’t be in the picture as it took all of them to take the picture.
So here we go all the information you need is right here. Any questions just ask me
I have included blank copies of each Team’s Prompt Boards incase you want to use them over on the Discord or Twitter, if using Twitter use the Hashtag #DoYoWantToBuildASnowman
Obviously the second rule may have to be bent a little if you are using some Teams Perks.
Also just to clarify you can only use the perk for your own team and not others, plus you can only use your team perk for your teams prompts.
Okay so I decided to read a book for each day of November in November, yes I might be crazy as my birthday is in November and so not expecting to be able to read every day and I have tickets to go and see Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella, which my sister bought me for my birthday and the new Pokémon Game comes out so I know I will be addicted to playing that but I have a lot of books to get through before the end of the year, not books I need to get through just books that I want to read. So splitting all that up with manga, graphic novels and actual novels I am going to see how far I get.
Nothing on this list is totally set in stone as it might change if I get some of them read in October. I will be doing an update post at end of November or beginning of December to document how well I did or how well I didn’t do.
Wish me luck.
1. Pokémon Collection 01 2. Pokémon Collection 02 3. Pokémon Collection 03 4. Pokémon Collection 04 5. Pokémon Collection 05 6. Pokémon Collection 06 7. Pokémon Collection 07 8. Pokémon Collection 08 9. Pokémon Collection 09 10. Shadowblack 11. Ash 12. Get A Life Chloe Brown 13. Take A Hint Dani Brown 14. Act Your Age Eve Brown 15.The Colour Purple 16. Finding Audrey 17. Shadowsong 18. We Are Okay 19. Cemetery Boys 20. The Book Smugglers 21. Sanctuary 22. Court of Miracles 23. Unbirthday 24. One True Loves 25. Peter and the Starcatchers 26. Annie 27. Children of Blood and Bone 28. Cold Hearted 29. Looking Glass 30. Cress
Book Club of the North 