Tag: challenge

Hauls & Unhauls

Read 5, Buy 1 | April 2020 Haul

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Read 5, Buy 1

Hello and welcome to another check in for my Read 5, Buy 1 challenge. I am happy to report I did a lot better with my challenge this time around! The OWLs Readathon really pushed my reading, which was just wonderful plus a lot of fun. Without further delay, here is my progress of my challenge for April!

The Breakdown

They Will Drown in Their Mothers’ Tears by Johannes Anyuru

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

The Magician King by Lev Grossman

HausMagick: Transform Your Home with Witchcraft by Erica Feldmann

  • The Goddess Year by Skye Alexander

 

How to Read Literature by Terry Eagleton

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Beach Read by Emily Henry

The Widow of Pale Harbor by Hester Fox

  • The Spendid and the Vile by Erik Larson

 

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Salvation Station by Kathryn Schleich

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas 

The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

  • 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak

 

Extra Books

The Canary Keeper by Clare Carson, which was gifted by Adrianna from Romance Book Binge. I was so surprised to see this in my mailbox and was even more excited that I can now read this book. I have heard such great things and the description just sounds promising for me.

Overall, I did very well this month. I read quite a bit more than I usually do and being gifted a book and not buying too much really aided in my getting my TBR this month. This was a huge help because my birthday is in May and well,  always end up getting a few books so my TBR goes up without me doing any buying.

Are any of these books on your TBR?

What is the last book you added to your TBR?

Sign Off 2020

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Reviews

2020 Shakespeare Challenge | March

bookishluna4 Comments

Shakespeare

Hello and welcome to the third installment of the 2020 Shakespeare Challenge, you can find my original post with an explanation here: Blogmas | Goals | 2020 Shakespeare Challenge. I have been really enjoying this challenge more than I thought I would have, but here we are, three months into the challenge and I was looking forward to giving Hamlet a try, something I really didn’t think was going to ever happen. Also, if you want to see what reads are coming up and what books I have read to can check it out in the goodreads group 2020 Shakespeare Challenge. Now, on to Hamlet!

The Book

This month was the very popular play of Hamlet, I feel like this is one of the more popular and referenced plays from my own personal experience. It is also a tragedy, up until this point I have been reading his comedies so, this could be interesting. Anyway, Hamlet was written around 1599.

My Review

While I have read Shakespeare before, I have never read so many so quickly before. I am beginning to notice a few things I am not too keen on. Why is it that Shakespeare always wants to punish a woman for loving? I get it, it is the time period, but isn’t there something else you can try to write about? I know that love and loss are always great plot lines when it comes to plays, but his ideas are becoming a bit too repetitive for my personal liking.

This is a very dramatic play with quite a few deep feelings that many can relate too. The thing with this play is that they are very amplified. There is quite a bit of passion in this story. We have loss, revenge, anger, dishonor and quite a bit more. This truly is a sad play. You watch a young man in grief become more and more erratic and many around him begin to question if he is truly alright.

This is murder and death, accidental and planned. There are plots within plots. This play really has a lot going on. I just wish some of these characters just talked to one another and weren’t so impulsive, a lot could have been avoided. While I know that wouldn’t make such a tragic play, but I think it would have made a better story personally.

Also, without really spoiling anyone I had to reread a few times how the ghost says he dies… that is the most interesting cause of death I have ever heard.

Overall, I don’t regret reading this play. Did I love it? No. Was it my favorite? No. Did I absolutely hate it? No again. I did enjoy the creepiness and the exploration  such deep feelings, even if they were exaggerated for the sake of the play. This was very average in my book.

Next months pick is Macbeth, which I kinda of think will have about the same rating as Hamlet. I don’t know what the outcome will be, but I am very much willing to give this a shot. I just need to keep an open mind and hope that Hamlet doesn’t put a damper on future plays.

What did you think of this play?

Which play should I add to the monthly polls?

Sign Off 2020

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Hauls & Unhauls

Read 5, Buy 1 | January & February 2020

bookishluna4 Comments

Read 5, Buy 1

Hello and welcome to a post that is a mixture of a bookhaul and a challenge update. This time I will be diving a bit into my Read 5, Buy 1 that has been going on so far this year. I will admit, this will not seem like much of a success, but I think it is.

  • Crime and Punishment
  • The Dutch House
  • Widow Weed and Weeping Veils
  • The Morrigan
  • Mythos
    • Quichotte
  • Farmhand 1
  • Farmhand 2
  • The Wicked King
  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream
  • Bonhoffer
    • The Magicians Trilogy
  • Where the Crawdad’s Sing
  • God Country
  • The Langoliers
  • Ducks, Newburyport
  • The Unhoneymooners
    • Prodigal Son
  • No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference
  • Little Children
  • The Starless Sea
  • Othello
  • Cujo
    • Blood of Elves

-All Books Added-

  • The Night Country by Melissa Albert – PreOrder before challenge started.
  • Prodigal Son by Dean Koontz – Buy 1
  • Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
  • One Voice, Two Lives: From Auschwitz Prisoner to Airborne Trooper by David Wisnia – Bought before challenge started
  • Quichotte by Salman Rushdie, Buy 1

  • The Magicians Trilogy – Buy 1
  • Imaginary Friend – Broke Challenge for signed copy

Things in Jars by Jess Kidd – BOTM

The Sundown Motel by Simone St. James – BOTM

Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski – Buy 1

How to Read Literature by Terry Eagleton – Gift

They Will Drown in Their Mothers’ Tears by Johannes Anyuru – Gift

A Matter of Interpretation by Elizabeth  – Won in a giveaway

So, I would have to say overall I am doing pretty darn good. I only broke by Read 5, Buy 1 only once since my BOTM does not count or at least I am not counting it. I decided early on that I am only going to get one book box now, since I limited it to only one book I decided that my BOTM would be a pass. As for my gifts and won giveaway, I can’t really count that because I did not buy the books. Also, I am aware I am cheating a bit when I count a trilogy as one, but it was a single purchase and I am buddy reading the entire series with Reg and Jenna. I can’t not have the books.

As I said, overall I am feeling pretty well about this challenge, I have not been perfect about it, but I feel like my buying has certainly gone down and I am saving money and my owned and unread books are getting a bit more love and attention. If you want to see a list of all my owned and unread books, you can find that here: Bookish Luna’s Owned TBR Shelf.

Anyway, Out of all of these books, which one do you think I should read first?

What is the last book you added to your TBR?

Sign Off 2020

Reviews

2020 Shakespeare Challenge | February

bookishluna6 Comments

Shakespeare

Hello and welcome to the second month of 2020 Shakespeare Challenge, you can find my original post with an explanation here: Blogmas | Goals | 2020 Shakespeare Challenge. The first month went so well, I ended up really loving I also have a goodreads group going if you want to join in on the challenge, 2020 Shakespeare Challenge.

The Book

This months book was Othello, chosen via a poll on my twitter account. This play is thought to be written around 1603. I will say, this is one of the play I am more nervous about this book because I have read this before and I did not enjoy it very much. Going into this I was really hoping that my view on it has changed.

My Review

So, coming into this month I felt both better and a bit worried about reading Othello. I felt a bit more at ease because I really enjoyed a Midsummer Night’s Dream, but I remember reading Othello and really disliking it. So, I really saw things going either way.

I have to say, the start of this book kind of made me feel like The Count of Monte Cristo. It starts off with a man feeling wronged by not being promoted and is newly married. Very much sounded very familiar, which for Othello is a good thing because I loved The Count of Monte Cristo. Another work I made a connection to is A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The father in A Midsummer Night’s Dream was so upset and would not accept his daughter marrying for love and was so dramatic about it. The same happened in this story pretty much, which was kind of annoying. Only two books into this challenge and already recycling characters in a way.

But, with that aside I will say I did enjoy this one more so than I remembered the first time I read it years ago. What I did like about this was how it was organized and how it created such a villain. Even at only about 40 pages in I already hated a character and I wanted him to get lost at sea or something. The fact that I felt so much in that way saved this play in my eyes. If I didn’t dislike that person so much I would have rated it a lot lower honestly. Also, the ending is just so tragic and I felt so horrible for the jerks wife, she knew she was doing wrong, but not as wrong as she actually did. She most likely felt sole responsible for what occurred.

Next months play is going to be Hamlet as voted on by my wonderful twitter followers! If you want to join in with me please do by jumping into the conversation here or over on the goodreads group 2020 Shakespeare Challenge.

What did you think of this play?

What play do you think I should add to the poll for April? 

Sign Off 2020

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Reading Challenges

Blogmas | Goals | 2020 Shakespeare Challenge

bookishluna31 Comments

Reading Goals NEW

Hello and welcome to a little my little chat about one of my goals for 2020. In the past I have been adamant about hating Shakespeare. I never enjoyed any of his plays that I read, I found them dull and just boring honestly. But, the last time I read one of his works, any of this works honestly, I was always told to read them.

Now, I don’t know about you, but even though I am a book lover and avid reader, the fastest way to not get me to read a book is to make it required. I hate being told what to read. In fact, I didn’t read this much until I went to college, high school made me hate reading because they were never anything that interested me. Now, that is an entire other discussion I can get into another time. For now, let’s get back to Shakespeare.

So, I am not sure why, but I want to give Ol’ Shakespeare  another go and see if my tastes have either changed or simply not making his work required changed me view.

While going to my local indie bookstore I was looking at the classics, my go to there for some reason and I saw a bunch of Shakespeare’s plays. For some reason the idea for this challenge hit me. Currently, I think this is a wonderful idea. In the future, past me might be a huge jerk. Only time will tell. So, this is my plan, every month I will read 1 Shakespeare and review it. Nice and simple right? Wrong, I honestly have no idea what plays might be interesting. I picked up the ones pictured above because A Midsummers Night Dream was one I was able to tolerate reading all those moons ago and the second, Twelfth Night I have never even heard of and I thought I would give it a go.

So, there is my year long classics challenge for myself. If you have a favorite play or work by him please comment below the name and why you liked it. I could really use the help!

Also, I will be starting off with reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream, thanks to those who voted for the first month! Also, please feel free to join me in this challenge. It would be a ton of fun to read along with you! In fact, I created a goodreads group so we can all connect and you can see which plays are coming up, you can find that group here: 2020 Shakespeare Challenge Group.

Which one of Shakespeare works did you enjoy reading?

Which one did you detest?

Have you read any of his works?

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Reading Challenges

Revisiting | Short List 2019 Continued and Wrap Up

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revisiting

Hello everyone and welcome to another update on one of my bigger 2019 goals. Reading the entire shortlist of the 2018 Man Booker Prize. If you want some more information on this goal, you can read my first on the topic here: Reading Goals | Reading a Shortlist 2019.

Anyway, this past year I have been slowly reading the 6 books on this short list and I previously shared my reading experience of the first 3 books I read, which were Washington Black by Esi Edugyan, Milkman by Anna Burns, and The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner. You can find my full thoughts on these books on my first update post called; Revisiting | Reading a Shortlist 2019. But, for the abrivated verson I will say I really enjoyed Washington Black, but was not thrilled by Milkman and The Mars Room and I was kinda starting to question this challenge/goal I had for myself. But, since I already owned two more of the books on this list, I decided to continue on. On the to the reviews and reflection!

Everything UnderEverything Under by Daisy Johnson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is going to be a really weird review. I liked the story, but the way it was portrayed irritated me. There are no ” marks, “You” is used so much, the POV was personally aggravating to read. Now all of these are personal preference and does not in any way mean that the book is bad, but it was very much not for me. Also, why do chapters have the same names? I didn’t know these things mattered go much to me until now.

If you read the first chapter of this book or a sample I feel like you will know right away if this book is for you or not.

View all my reviews

The OverstoryThe Overstory by Richard Powers

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a very interesting read for sure, I can see why it has won awards and shortlisted for others. The idea is very thought provoking, involving individuals who have a very strong with nature and more specifically the trees. At first all these stories seem unconnected, more like a short story collection, then slowly they start to come together as the need to protect the forest grows larger.

I have to say, I enjoyed the first half of this book more than the second half. The first half has so much of a personal connection with nature and trees and it was great learning about all of these families and individuals. For me it started to get less interesting when things got mushed together. I am not sure if it is because it seemed to be more “preachy” or the individual stories that drew me in kinda for the most part fell to the side and were only a plot device instead of the story. It seemed to loose the magic and the soul of the story.

With that aside the writing was done very well, I am curious to get into other works of this author.

View all my reviews

The Long TakeThe Long Take by Robin Robertson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have to say that this is one of the better books shortlisted for the Man Book Prize in 2018. I really enjoyed the format being utilized, it really set the feeling of the story for me. This book really talks about a very difficult topic that many have to deal with PTSD and having known someone who suffered with it first hand, I feel like the author did a great job portraying how it can affect some people. PTSD affects many, but can affect each person differently.

This book really had a feel to it that I think sticks to a reader, I feel like I will bee thinking about it for sometime. It is encompassing and consuming in a way. I also like how the author portrays the internal feelings struggles of the main character to the external society/city. It was veery interesting to read. There are many dark topics in this novel/poem, so if PTSD, drug use, and other dark themes are something that can bother you, I would stay away. If that is not the case it is a powerful read for sure.

View all my reviews

-Reflection-

I feel like this second bunch of books from the short list I had a bit more success with over all. My last post I couldn’t even give star ratings to two of the books. I would say that  in this group there are now two books I would recommend to people, The Long Take and The Overstory, but I would have to feel confident in the fact I know their likes and dislikes when it comes to reading. I feel like that is a pretty decent turn around. I find it ironic that I liked the books I put off more than the ones I was excited about.

That being said I would 100% do this challenge again, in fact I already added a lot of the books from the 2019 short list to my TBR and put in a wishlist at my local library. One thing I learned from this challenge is that I should get these books from the library. While  there is no denying that they are well written books, I cannot say that I will enjoy the content every time. So, while I enjoy exploring new things, the library is my friend when it comes to this challenge.

Have or would you read any of these books?

Are you excited about the 2019 Man Booker Shortlisted books?

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Reading Challenges

Challenges | Reading 64 Pages a Day

bookishluna6 Comments

challenges

Hello everyone! Today I wanted to share a little challenge with you that I came across when I fell down the booktube hole instead of being a good bookworm and reading. I started reading Books and Lala’s video where she read the same number of pages each day, based upon her average for the previous month or so. If you would like to watch her video, you can find that here: reading 116 pages every day for a month. If you don’t know her channel, you are missing out she is one of the most creative youtubers I know of. Anyway, I really loved the idea and wanted to give it a try and see if this helps to keep my stress levels down while my life gets more chaotic.

Anyway, I did not want to just steal her number of pages a day, so I decided to do what she did. I looked at the previous month at the time of planning this, July 2019, and saw that I read a total of 1984 pages (hello George Orwell!) then divided it by 31 days, the number of days in that particular month. This simple little equation gave me 64 pages a day. So, I am planning on reading 64 pages a day for the first half of September! I am happy with this number, it is neither too much or too little.

-Reading/Page Log-

♣ = Completed on time,  > = Read more,  < =Read Less

  • ♣1: 1-64 of Tin Man by Sarah Winman
  • ♣2: 65-128 of Tin Man by Sarah Winman
  • ♣3:129-192 of Tin Man by Sarah Winman
  • ♣4: 192-224 of Tin Man by Sarah Winman, 1-32 of The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
  • ♣5: 33-96 of The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
  • ♣6: 1-64 of The Tea Dragon Society byKatie O’Neill 
  • ♣7: 97- 160 of The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
  • ♣8: 161- 224 of The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
  • ♣9: 225-270 of The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, 1-18 of Coffey’s Hands (The Green Mile #3) by Stephen King 
  • ♣10: 19-82 Coffey’s Hands (Green Mile Part 3) by Stephen King 
  • ♣11:83-90 Coffey’s Hands (Green Mile Part 3) by Stephen King, 1-56 of The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix (The Green Mile #4) by Stephen King
  • >12: 1-96…oops I went over my 64 pages a day limit gah! Aquicorn Cove by Katie O’Neill
  • 13:(34) 57- 90 of The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix (The Green Mile #4) by Stephen King, (30) 1-30 of Night Journey(The Green Mile #5) by Stephen King
  • 14: (60) 31-90 Night Journey(The Green Mile #5) by Stephen King,  (4) 1-4 of Coffey on the Mile (The Green Mile #6) by Stephen King
  • 15: (64) 5-68 of Coffey on the Mile (The Green Mile #6) by Stephen King

-Reflection- 

Okay, even though I only did this challenge for half of the month, I feel like I have some interesting things I realized. Some of these were more of an impact than others, but they all were notable things. Some had to do with my sleep, productivity, and readalongs/buddyreads.

The first one was, some nights I had things I needed to get done so reading had to take a back seat. Sadly, this meant I ended up staying up late to do my required reading and I was not happy when I had to wake up early the next morning.  Sometimes I don’t read for a day or so because life gets in the way and even though 64 pages isn’t a ton it feels like it when you start reading at 10 at night.

The second thing that this really affected was my buddy reads. I really had a hard time planning my reading ahead of time so I could read what I wanted to read, but also make sure I was prepared for my discussions and such. So, I kinda got stressed I was not going to be able to fit everything in, but also not read it to far in advance where I would forget everything.

Lastly, I would say it made me feel very productive. It was nice to check something off my check list all day that was a challenge, but kinda easy and very enjoyable at the same time.

I don’t think I would ever read like this again, but it was really interesting to see how I would do with reading my average every day.

Do you ever take part in a reading challenge?

What youtuber or book blogger inspires you?

Would you try a challenge like this?

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Hauls & Unhauls

Read 5, Buy 1 | September 2019 Fail

bookishluna8 Comments

Read 5 Buy 1

Hello and welcome to my admittance of my Read 5, Buy 1 failure. This past month I have read a lot, but I had the itch to buy a bunch of books as well. I felt so bad about this, I actually did a bit of an unhaul so my TBR didn’t grow to much and I might even unhaul some more. I feel like I am in a spot where my reading tastes are changing again so a lot of the things on my shelf are not calling to me quite so much. Anyway, here are the books I read and the books I added to my Owned TBR.

Read 2

 

 

 

Books Added 2

-Gifted-

OWNED TBR COUNT

35 books!

Thankfully, only up 2 books from last month, so not totally horrific. I do think an unhaul is going to be in my near future though. Like I said earlier in the post my reading tastes are shifting and some of the titles are just not doing it for me anymore.

What’s the last book you added to your TBR?

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Bullet Journal & Planning

Bullet Journal | September 2019

bookishluna3 Comments

Recs

Hello everyone! Today I am going to be sharing my bullet journal spreads for the month of September. I am so excited and pumped about this month because I am trying more new spreads and I am in love with my theme. This year I went on vacation to Maine and I fell in love with the state, it is so beautiful and wonderful. I decided I wanted to hold on to those memories and feelings by making Septembers theme Maine!

This has not changed, it really works for me to have a little mini calendar for quick reference at the front of the month. I also decided to doodle a lighthouse that I took a picture of when I was in Maine. I have not drawn in a while so excuse the wonkiness, but I love it!

So, this month I decided to try a new type of habit tracker inspired by journalby.amber on instagram. I really liked how simple and clean it looked and it wasn’t a huge rectangle that took up the whole page. I like how each habit has its own little home. On the other page, which is kinda a little peak into something I am giving a go, you will see a page tracker. This was inspired by BooksandLala on youtube a long time ago. The doodles for these two pages are lobster and buoys. I was tempted to color these in, but I decided to leave this month without color, I don’t want to steal someone else’s color! If you didn’t know the color scheme on a buoy is unique to each fisher.

This month I decided to give my TBR a little bit of a makeover inspired by bookshelves and paperbacks. I loved that she had a bit of an area to check off her progress. I edited them a bit to fit my needs more, but I put S- started, R-read, P-placed. All are pretty self explanatory, but placed means that I placed the mini review in my middle mark or wrap up and marked it in my bujo tbr list. This illustration is of a mountainside. The area in Maine I was in a lot of it was made of granite . So the beaches are all rock and have a lot of steep drops. It is really beautiful to see the pink granite everywhere you look.

The last spread I added was 50 miles in September, which was inspired by The Petite Planner on instagram. If you were not aware this summer I did 2 5Ks and really enjoyed myself and I want to keep up being active. So looking through the internet I found this challenge of sorts and I really wanted to do it. I also loved that it had a spot built in to write my way ins. I kinda hate having to flip to more pages than I need to.

This month my weekly spreads are the same as they were in August, the only difference is I added some doodles since I was feeling inspired. I added a hook because fishing is such a staple in Maine, Blueberries because everyone had a famous blueberry pie or blueberry infused food item, a whale because they are everywhere, and lastly a huge pine tree because I loved the trees by where I was staying so much. They were so tall and sturdy.

Where is your favorite place to visit?

Do you use a habit tracker? What kind of format is it?

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Reading Challenges

Luna’s Weekly Book Photo Challenge | September 2019

bookishluna5 Comments

#lunaseptember19

So, if you could not tell from the title of this post. I wanted to try something new and fun. One thing I always enjoy watching and trying to participate in are book photo challenges.  As I said, I try to, but I am horrible at sticking to them on a daily basis so I thought I would create my own that better fit me. Thus, the birth of Luna’s Weekly Book Photo Challenge!

I decided that I can commit to a weekly photo to post on twitter as well as instagram and I hope some of you could join me by using #lunaseptember19 on both of these platforms. I would really love to see what everyone comes up with.

To help everyone out I decided to make a handy little image you could save on your computer or phone so you could reference it throughout the month. I placed the date, prompt, and the hashtag so it is all together in one handy spot.

Anyway, thanks for reading this not so normal post from me and I hope you will join me!

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