My MiddleEarthAThon TBR!

The wonderful Lizzie from Lizzieiself is hosting the MiddleEarthAThon from the 26th August until the 2nd September to celebrate the new Lord of the Rings TV show releasing! She asked me to cohost and I’ve been placed as the team leader for the Dwarves 😊⚒

Our others hosts are: The Bookworms Feast for Team Hobbit (who also has a book blog), Imena Ginac for Team Elf, Stuff Celine Does for Team Men, and LadetteM for Team Witch King!

Come and check out the MiddleEarthAThon twitter and instagram too for updates and mini sprints!

I published a recommendations video for the Dwarf prompts a while ago, as well as a video and a blog post for my overall August tbr. But I’ve also done a standalone video for my MiddleEarthAThon tbr so I thought I should do a blog post too!

First up is the prompt: “That still only counts as one” – reading an anthology or a collection of short stories. For this one I’m going with The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle… I know it’s huge but it’s literally the only one I have! This is over 1100 pages and I’m going to be trying to read it, and two 500+ page books, in just a week. Why do I do this to myself?

The second prompt is: “Thranduil” – a book with a shiny cover. Demon Road by Derek Landy is my choice for this one. A YA urban fantasy based in the US by the same author who wrote the Skulduggery Pleasant series. I’ve heard some… not so positive reviews of this one? But I want to try it for myself regardless and I’m hoping that this’ll be a quick read like the Skulduggery books are for me.

The final dwarfish prompt is: “Durin’s sons” – the book that has been on your tbr the longest. For me this is pretty hard to judge, so I just went with one I know is pretty old (since 2016) and that’s All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, a historical fiction based in WWII. I’ve not been having much luck with historical fictions lately, but it’s been a while since I’ve read one based during WWII (which used to be my favourite period) so I’m holding out hope.

Now whilst that’s all the prompts, the Dwarves do also get one special power and that is to swap out any book for a shorter one if needed. And oh boy do I intend to use this if I need it!

For the anthology prompt I have two different options. One is to just read one of the bindups that lives within the Sherlock book itself. The full book of The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes. This is a lot more manageable so I’m going to start the readalong with this and then see if I can manage more. Another possibility was given to me by the wonderful Hannah from Ladette M, who reminded me my Waypoint Books order would be coming through soon with my copy of Armageddon Outta Here by Derek Landy the revised edition. This is a collection of Skulduggery short stories and would be a much easier read 😂

For the shiny book prompt I’ve given myself the backup book of The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa which is a translated Japanese cat book. I whip through these super quick (I actually force myself to spread them over a few days) and so if Demon Road doesn’t work out I can squeeze this in at the end.

And for the oldest on my tbr prompt, I realised that I actually have a book I know has been on my tbr longer! And that’s The Witchfinder’s Sister by Beth Underdown. This is a historical fiction which only clocks 300 pages rather than the 600 for All The Light and could save my guts by the end of the month 😅

I will say I’m slightly worried that I might end up trying to read all of these books… in a week… so someone needs to stop me from doing that please and thank you.

Are you taking part in the MiddleEarthAThon? If you’ve not signed up yet I’ve linked the Spreadsheet, Google Form to submit the books you’ve read for your team, and the form to tell us the team you’ve picked so you can sign up and have some fun with us! Having read/watched Lord of the Rings not required (I only just read the first LotR book last month and I’ve still not watched them!)

If you are taking part tell me which team you’re joining and make sure to follow all of the other lovely hosts!!

August Readathons?

Guys. Tell me. What readathons do you know about in August? There are already three on my radar which I’m crafting my tbr around, but I’m curious to know which ones are out there!

Of course I’m still taking part in the Dead Famous Readalong hosted by Hannah from LadetteM to read Skulduggery Pleasant. We’re simply reading each book each month, so there’s no specific prompts for this other than “read the book”. But if you’d like to check out the announcement video then here it is for your viewing pleasure!

Then we have the Mary Shelley-a-thon hosted by Caitlyn from Mad Cheshire Rabbit where all of the prompts relate to the woman who created her favourite book, Frankenstein.

The prompts for this readathon are:

1. Read a book by Mary Shelley

2. Read a poetry collection or a book by a poet

3. Read a book that was published in 1818/1831 or a book by an author who was born in either of those years (+/- 5 years)

4. Read a book you keep saying you will get to but still haven’t

5. Read a book set in the late 1700s or the early 1800s

6. Read a book in a country the author was not from/a book that features travel

7. Read a horror/gothic

Becca from Thebeccafowell is co-hosting The Royal Readathon: Sidekicks which is all based around Disney side characters which is so cute!

The prompt for this readathon are:

Olaf – A book under 300 pages

Mushu – A book with a dragon

Sebastian – A book with music

Gus Gus – A cheesy book

Chip – A Middle Grade or a children’s book

Hei Hei – A book with comedy

Pascal – A book with a colourful front cover

Abu – A book with greed

Ray – A book with death

Pegasus – A book with mythology

And lastly but never least, Olivia is co-hosting a Shakespeare themed readathon named All the World’s a Page which I’m super excited to take part in! It’s round two of this readathon after it went so well last year and even though I don’t have any Shakespeare related books to read, I’m pretty sure I can squeeze the prompts to fit on my tbr books! You can do as many of as few of the prompts as you like so don’t be put off by how many there are!

The prompts for this readathon are:

Character Tropes:

You Have a Twin, I Guess? – Read a book in a duology.

The Inevitable Cross-Dressing – Read a queer book.

Villain Monologue – Read a book focusing on a villain, antagonist, or antihero, OR one you think will have a dramatic character arc (positive or negative.)

The Fool With All The Wisdom – Take a chance on a book you’re unsure about.

Band of Brothers – Read a book with multiple points of view or an ensemble cast.

Underrated Female Character Outshines the Main Character – Read a book by a BIPOC female author

Lavinia Speaks – Read a book by a disabled author.

Story Tropes:

Fake Your Own Death Because That Will Definitely Solve This Problem – Give a book or author “a second chance at life” – a book you’ve DNFed, a second chance author, etc.

It’s a Problem Play So Your Punishment is Marriage – Read a book with a romance element in it.

Even Instalove Sounds Beautiful When You Write It, Will – Read a book with pretty writing AND/OR a writing style you love.

Definitely Not Set in England, I Promise – Read a book set in a country you don’t live in. History,

But Add Even More Drama – Read a book that blends historical fiction + another genre: fantasy, romance, etc.

Does This Play NEED Three Parts? – Read a book in a series.

You Just Missed the Character You Really Needed To Talk To – Read a book you’ve been meaning to read for a while.

Surprise! Magic Actually Exists for Plot Convenience – Read a book with magic in it.

I’ve Been Dying for the Last 50 Lines: Read a big book (can decide what ‘big’ means).

There is a 99.999% chance I won’t be doing all of the prompt’s for Olivia’s readathon but I’m looking forward to fulfilling some of them! So come on, let me know what other readathons there are for August! Or if you know some for the other months in 2021 let me know so I can get prepared now!!!

The Mary Shelley-a-Thon!

The amazing and wonderful Caitlyn from Mad Cheshire Rabbit is hosting the Mary Shelley-a-thon once again in 2021! Her favourite book is Frankenstein but she also loves the rest of Shelley’s works and wants to promote more people to read them! But you can read modern books to fit most of the prompts!

I definitely recommend checking out Caitlyn’s video below, but I’ll post the prompts below that and the books I’m thinking of reading!

Here are the prompts!!!

1. Read a book by Mary Shelley

2. Read a poetry collection or a book by a poet

3. Read a book that was published in 1818/1831 or a book by an author who was born in either of those years (+/- 5 years)

4. Read a book you keep saying you will get to but still haven’t

5. Read a book set in the late 1700s or the early 1800s

6. Read a book in a country the author was not from/a book that features travel

7. Read a horror/gothic

Now the only one I’m going to struggle with is to read a book by Mary Shelley, cause the only one I own is Frankenstein and I read that earlier in 2021! So I may just have to reread it…. hmmm

I don’t have any books by poets on my shelves as well, but I would love to listen to more by Elizabeth Acevedo after loving The Poet X in 2020!

For a book that was published within those years, Caitlyn gifted me Wuthering Heights cause she loves that book and wants me to read it, and that would work so I’m probably going to pick that up! And I think it’ll work for prompt 5 too!

I’ll pick any tbr vet for prompt 4, that’s probably the easiest for me to get to!

The last two prompts are a little more difficult for me, I think I have a good option for travel but I want to check more of my books. And I don’t think I have any horror or gothic books! Look I’ve been trying not to add to my tbr! I’ll have to ask Caitlyn for some recommendations!

Are you going to join in with the Mary Shelley-a-thon? Have you read any of her books? Let me know!!