My 2022 Reading

December 22, 2022December 2, 2022 bookishluna3 Comments

Hello and welcome to a post where I am going to share some books stats from my reading this year! I did not track too much, but I still think it is fun to take a look at. If you want to see the list of books I read this year, you can find that on my Good Reads Challenge Page. Now I will also say I am taking advantage of the data collected by Goodreads to create this post. In the past I tracked my reading a bit more with a google sheet, but this year I just didn’t for one reasons or another.

I read a total of 9,267 pages

I read 32 books

Shortest book read was 18 pages and it was Willie the Weirdo by Stephen King

Longest book read was 607 pages and it was The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami

Average book length was 289 pages

Most popular book read was One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

Least popular book read was Willie the Weirdo by Stephen King

Average rating for a book in 2022 was 3.8 stars

Even though I did not track a lot of other things this year like genre, I am glad to have this data to look at. I am really happy that while I did not read nearly as much as I usually do, I rated books, on average pretty well. On top of that it was kind of fun to see the most and least popular book, based upon how many people have also read the book, not its rating. I am not sure if I am going to track on a goole sheet next year or not yet, but I know for sure I can count on Goodreads at least to give me some fun stats to look at during the end of the year.

Sign Off 2020 — Sign off, thanks for reading!

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Impromptu Personal 24 Hour Readathon Wrap-Up

July 6, 2022May 14, 2023 bookishluna5 Comments

Hello and here is a bit of a Journal of sorts for the 24 hour readathon I decided to do this week! I am actually thrilled with how this went, I read a ton more than I thought I would. In the past few months I have not really been reading, not quite sure why, but that is how my reading has been going. But, this week I feel like something is actually changing and I am hoping my reading mood has actually returned.

Holding knitting project and an open book.

10:00 PM: Started reading The Employees by Olga Ravn

11:12 PM: Competed The Employees by Olga Ravn, 136 pages ,4 stars!

11:14 PM: Started reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

11:57 PM: Read a total of 68 pages of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Time for some sleep!

9:16 AM: Continued reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

12:32 PM: Stopped on page 262 of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, 194 pages read.

Lunch Break and Responsibilities

4:38 PM: Continued reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

5:21 PM: Stopped on page 326, of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, 64 pages read.

Dinner Break

6:13 PM: Continued reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

9:46 PM: Finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, 281 pages, 4 stars!

Stats

Total Number of Books Started: 2

Total Number of Books Completed: 2

Total Number of Pages Read: 743 pages

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Reading Challenges · To Be Read

Impromptu Personal 24 hour Readathon TBR

July 4, 2022July 5, 2022 bookishluna8 Comments

Hello and welcome to a very spontaneous post from me. I finally have some free time this week and I decided that I want to tackle some reading with my free time to get back on track with my reading goals for this year. Hence, a 24 hour readathon where I dedicate my spare time to reading!

My plan is to start at 10:00 PM tonight and go until 10:00 PM tomorrow. Let’s see what happens!

I don’t plan on reading all of the books here on my TBR, but I really wanted to give myself some options.

You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann
The Employees by Olga Ravn
All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami
The Baby is Mine by Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

I am planning to write a little journal post to share at the end of this little readathon, I can’t wait to see how I end up doing and seeing how much I actually read.

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Let's Talk · Reading Challenges

First Goal Check in for 2022!

May 8, 2022April 30, 2022 bookishluna6 Comments

Hello and welcome to my first check in with my 2022 goals! I was planning on doing this check in a bit earlier, but time got away from me. I must also admit I have not looked at any of these goals since writing this post back in December, so this should be interesting!

Reading Goals

Read 6 non-fiction books, I have read a total of 4 non-fiction books! I am well on my way to achieve this goal

Read the International Booker Prize Shortlist, I have read 2 of the 6, so I feel like I am doing well with this goal as well.

At Night All Blood Is Black: A Novel by David Diop
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez (Read)
When We Cease to Understand the World by Labatut Benjamin
The Employees by Olga Ravn
The War of the Poor by Eric Vuillard (Read)
In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova

Get owned TBR under 15 books, I am currently at about 20 books, so I am getting close!

Life Goals

See a new place, I ended up visiting about 4 new yarn shops this year. Not quite what I had in mind for this goal, but technically I did do it.

Teach myself something new, this year I have learned how to do color work, cables, and bobbles! I also took a class relating to researching genealogy and learned a lot in regards to that as well!

Maker Goals

Knit a sweater, achieved! I ended up knitting a Ranunculus which you can see a picture of in my post entitled, Monthly Digest | April 2022. I am really happy with how it came out!

Knit 6 pairs of socks, so far I have created 2 pairs of socks. I am in the middle of my third so I feel like I am making good time with this goal.

Crochet a sweater, I have yet to do this one, but I have plans to crochet one in May 2022. I am crossing my fingers that I actually get the time to do this.

Create 10 things with my hands, as of writing this I have created 6 items. These include; shawls, socks, cowls, and a sweater.

Goal Count

Completed: 3

Not Completed: 6

I have successfully achieved 3 of my 9 goals for this year. This is actually great in my eyes due to the fact we are 1/3 of the way through the year and I completed 1/3 of my goals. As for the goals I have not achieved I seemed to be making good progress to where I don’t feel like I am behind on any of them just yet.

I really hope your 2022 is going well and you are working towards all of your goals!

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Reading Challenges

Reading Challenge | Reading a Shortlist Vol. 2

August 19, 2021August 19, 2021 bookishlunaLeave a comment

Hello and welcome to another check in for one of my reading goals for 2021. Every year I make it a goal to read the International Booker Prize short list, so far this year I have done one update, Reading Challenge | Reading a Shortlist Vol. 1 Update, where I talked about my thoughts on The Memory Police and Hurricane Season. In this update post I am going to be sharing my brief thoughts on Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann.

The Book

Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann

Honestly, this book gave my some serious Loki vibes with the tricker that we follow and hear tales from. There was magic, lore, and a court jester. Following the adventures of Tyll was a very interesting ride that was woven with historical events and was a bit of historical fiction. I have to say, it is hard to pin down what this book is, but I did very much enjoy it. It was fast paced, kept me engaged from page one till the end. I honestly would have kept reading about Tyll if the book went on a few more hundred pages.

Tyll himself was a very interesting character and has a very interesting personal history. I really enjoyed learning about him. From my little research I found that this Tyll is apparently based on a Till Eulenspiegel from German folklore. I want to explore this more, because I feel like it could be really interesting. I have always loved reading folklore from different places around the world.

The only thing I can really see as difficult about this book is the way it jumps around in time. It was an adjustment for me at first, after the first few jumps I was fine.

Overall, I am very happy with how this challenge is shaping up this year. I have read books about places I heard of, but didn’t really know about. This years shortlist involves quite a bit of magical elements, but I feel like even with the fantastical elements of the books I have read so far, they cover serious topics from a life changing events, historical events as well as sharing legends and myths from the authors culture. At this point in time I have few more books to read from this list.

Have you read either of these books? Would you add either of these to your TBR?

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Reading Challenges

Replacing My Screen Time

August 15, 2021August 15, 2021 bookishluna7 Comments

Hello and welcome to a post where I am going to share my experience attempting to replace my screen time with some reading instead. I have been seeing this concept shared by a few booktubers such as The Book Leo and Spoopyhol. I thought it was a really fun idea and would be a great way to put my energy in enjoying my hobbies and not just looking at a screen mindlessly. This really goes hand in hand with me wanting to take a few ideas from my recent read, Thinking Like a Roman Emperor and implementing them. I did a whole review on this book, you can read that here: Reading Taste Test | @jacksepticeye. Anyway, here is what happened throughout my attempt to replace my screen time!

To start off I needed to take a look at my screen time for the previous week and I ended up spending 1h 48min a day on my phone. This is actually better than I thought it would be, but to think of reading that much a day seems like it might be a bit difficult. Also, I am going to be monitoring or tracking my reading using an app called Study Bunny and set it to 110m, which is the equivalent to 1h 50m.

Monday, August 2nd: Read from 13% to 100% of The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar. I ended up reading a total of 2h 15m.

Tuesday, August 3rd: Started reading Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobbs and ended on page 154. I read for 1h 50m.

Wednesday, August 4th: Oops life got in the way. So my time for the day was 0h 0m. I am hoping to make this up before the week is over so I can get the time in.

Thursday, August 5th: Continued reading Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobbs I started on page 154 and ended on page 296. I read for the full 1h 50m.

Friday, August 6th: Continued reading Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobbs I started on page 296 and read until page 398. Following reading my tome for the entire 110m, I ended up reading two short stories, Snow Flakes by Ruth Ware and then Treasure Oyinkan Braithwaite. I read both of these short stories back to back and added another 40m to my reading for a total of 3h 40m.

Saturday, August 7th: The first section of reading was the daily amount of 110 min and I read from pages 398 to 547. Later in the day I decided to read some more. I ended up making it to page 631 and took the days total to 3h 13m.

Sunday, August 8th: The last day of the challenge and I was determined to finish this read to end this challenge with the book, I thought it would be fun. I read from page 631 to page 880. The total time of reading for the day ended up being 3h 19m.

Number of hours of required reading was 12h 50m or 770m. I ended up reading a total of 16 hours and 7 min this past week. I ended up exceeding my goal, even though I missed a day of reading, which I am proud of. I thought I would have a hard time trying to make up the missed day, but it all worked out in the end! I am really glad I ended up taking on this challenge and I hope to try another reading challenge in the future!

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Reading Challenges

2021 Mid-Year Check-In

July 11, 2021June 25, 2021 bookishluna14 Comments

Hello lovely people and welcome to my 2021 mid-year check in for my goals. If you would like to see my origional post you can find that here, Reading Challenge | 2021 Reading Goals. I went kind of easy on myself this year, but to be honest the 2020 was a bit hectic in quite a few ways. I wanted to really tailor my goals to what I truly wanted and not try to compete with anyone.

Use Library Monthly

So far I have stuck to this goal very well. Even if I owned a book I used my local library to read the book digitally when on the go or used the library as my only copy of a book. I am still not comfortable going to borrow a physical copy of books just yet, so I am using their digital services at this point of the year,

Twelve Non-fiction Books

I am actually ahead on this goal, which thrills me honestly. I have read a total of 9 non-fiction books at this point. The books I have read that meet this goal are; A Promised Land by Barack Obama, Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish, The Deepest South of All: True Stories from Natchez, Mississippi by Richard Grant, White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History by Tori Telfer, The Unexpected Joy of the Ordinary by Catherine Gray, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein and Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde.

Read 50 Books

I am excited to say I am also ahead on this goal as well, at the time of writing this I have read a total of 42 books! If you want the most up to date read count for the year you can check out my goodreads challenge page.

This is where my goals kind of take a turn. The past few ones I have been pretty on top of, but from here on out I have made progress in almost each of the goals, but have not quite on track. Ooops.

Read International Booker Prize Shortlist 2020

The good news is I have read two books from this list, you can see a more detailed post talking about Hurricane Season and The Memory Police here: Reading Challenge | Reading a Shortlist Vol. 1 Update. The bad news is I have 4 more to read. I will say, I am glad I have 6 months to read 4 books, that is very doable and I plan on continuing to work towards achieving this goal.

Read The Farseer Trilogy & Liveship Traders Trilogy

Once again, I have read two books towards this goal. I have read the first two books of The Farseer Trilogy, which I really enjoyed so I cannot wait to continue. I do have all the books either physically or digitally to meet this goal and I plan on doing just that.

Reread The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilology

This is where I start to hang my head in shame. I have not attempted to pick up these books at all so far this year. I love them so much, but the mood has not hit me at all the first half of the year. I am hoping that this changes very soon.

Keep TBR under 10 Books

Last year I got my TBR down to 0 books. I wanted to keep my owned TBR under 10 books going forward, but I am at about 30 books as of writing this. I am not totally happy with it being this high, but I am really happy that it is not as high as it once was. This is what happens when you have some holidays, birthdays, and sales.

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Reading Challenges

Reading Challenge | Reading a Shortlist Vol. 1 Update

March 25, 2021February 20, 2021 bookishluna2 Comments

Hello and welcome to my first checkin for one of my largest reading challenges of the year where I read the shortlist for the 2020 International Booker Prize. If you would like a breakdown of my challenge you can do so by reading my post, Reading Challenge | 2021 Reading Goals. Even though it is already February, I have already read 2 of the 6 books on this list so I wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts on these books before too much times has passed and the details begin to get fuzzy. Anway, on to the reviews!

The Books

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am not a huge fan of dystopian novels and have not been for a long time. I read this novel mainly because it was part of my challenge to read the shortlist for the 2020 International Booker Award. I have to say I am thrilled it was on this list because I loved it. It was a dystopian novel, but was more. It had elements of science fiction and fantasy as well. The writing was grand and I give huge credit to the translator because it seems a lot of the magic of this novel remained in the tale.

View all my reviews

Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was an interesting read. The murder of the witch is told through the POV of multiple people. With each perspective you learn more about the past and the murder itself. I liked how it also was a social commentary with a mixture of a thriller.

View all my reviews

Overall, I am feeling very good about the books on this list so far. I enjoyed both of these books and even enjoyed loving one of them. Starting off the list by finding a 5 star read is just phenomenal. Last year, I didn’t have the best start to this challenge so this is a great contrast. I have very high hopes for the rest of these books and I am loving that my enjoying percentage is 100%!

Liked: 2

Hated: 0

Have you read either of these books? Would you add either of these to your TBR?

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Reading Challenges

Reading Challenge | BuzzFeed’s “Which Book Perfectly Matches Your Personality?” Picks My Read

February 21, 2021February 20, 2021 bookishluna4 Comments

Hello and welcome to a post where I let a BuzzFeed Quiz pick one of my reads. This is a cobiination of having some fun, challenging mtself to read a book I didn’t think I would read and how accuraet thtis little quiz could be. I took this quiz in either July or August of 2020, as you can see it took me a little bit to get around to getting the book and reading it, but I did it! Anyway, here is the link to the quiz if you want to take it yourself: Which Book Perfectly Matches Your Personality?. It was a quick and fun quiz for me personally.

The Outcome/The Book

The book the quiz picked for me was Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It mainly picked this due to my imagination and I am fond of exploring. Which, from seeing the animated movie years and years ago I can see how this book could tie into this assumption of me. Now the question is, will I enjoy reading the book? Also, how accurate is this assumption?

Now, this review is just going to be for Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland even though I also read the second book in the series because I had a bind up edition. I have to say, I have watched the movie quite a few times as a child, the 1951 version, and it was still very clear in my head many years later. While reading I was very vividly able to picture what was happening, with the occasional switch up due to the adaptation. I will say, while I was able to imagine everything I still was bored a bit by it.

I think this happened for a combination of things. I think the way the story is told, it was a bit dry even with all this outlandish and silly things happened. I think it did not personally mesh well for me. But, I will say I think this is because it is a classic and it was written for the time. We don’t really talk like we did in 1865 and this novel was written for that time and I feel like it would have been more natural then. I also felt like being so familiar with the plot also added to this. It didn’t have the magic of being totally random and outlandish like the story truly is.

This is not to say that I did not enjoy the adventure. It was fun to see characters I have not seen in year and years. The Mad Hatter and the Rabbit were always my favorites. It was also fun to see if the Cheshire Cat was as terrifying as I remembered. Also, if you really want to be terrified… look at the original illustration for the Cheshire Cat. Obviously, this book is a classic written in 1865, so it has its voice and such reflect that. It is interesting to picture a child reading this book during this time period and comparing it to the books I read as a child myself.

Overall, I ended up giving three stars. I did enjoy it, but it was just an average read. I think if I want this story ever again I will just watch the 1951 film again. I will say, I thought this was a fun experiment to try and I want to give these types of quizzes a try again.

What did you think about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland?

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Reading Challenges

Reading Challenge | Books I Want to Read in 2021

January 7, 2021January 6, 2021 bookishluna21 Comments

Hello and welcome to a list or challenge of sorts. I wanted to share some of the many, many books I want to read in 2021. I thought it would be fun at the end of the year to look back and see if I ended up reading this books or if I ended up liking them. I will be completely honest, there is a reread on this list of one of my favorite books so that one I know I will already love. Anyway, on to the books!

The Books