Monday, October 19, 2015

October 12th | Weekly Wrap Up #25

I went another two weeks without doing one of these and now I'm trying to finish typing this up while I'm completely exhausted from Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon (my wrap up of that), but I love that read-a-thon, always such a blast.

Anyway, this is everything I've read the last two weeks and also what I've been up to media wise, which honestly really isn't much. I've been sleeping a regular amount (which is honestly a little shocking), but I haven't been up to much, in all honesty.

Reading: (finished this week and actively currently-reading)
Captain America: White #2 by Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale (5/5)
So this comic series had made me tear up 2/2 at this point. Both times there's been a point within the first about five/ten pages where it's just like - oh no. Basically, I'm really love it and cannot wait for more.

Wolf #3 by Ales Kot, Matt Taylor (3/5)
I'm loving this series - the first one blew me away and then #2 and this one haven't been as whoa, but this one had more going on again. I just can't kind of wait to see where the hell this is going.

Black Canary #4 by Brenden Fletcher, Annie Wu (4/5)
This series is awesome and also adorable, and I'm also slightly concerned. But excited for the next issue!

The Wicked and the Divine #14 by Kiernon Gillen, Jamie McKelvie (5/5)
The last few have felt a little wavering and it was confusing - but this one kind of showed some of what the hell is going on.

The Alloy of Law (Mistborn #4, Wax and Wayne #1) by Brandon Sanderson (5/5)
It was good as hell to get back into this world. And I love all the characters and I'm so damn curious to trying to figure out what's going on with the world and everything. So good, though. So good.

Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson (5/5)
How this book wrapped up was something I completely did not expect, and seeing some old friends is always good. (Well, old friend). I seriously highly recommend all things Sanderson, and I also got to meet him this last week (more on that below).

Virgil by Steve Orlando, J.D. Faith (5/5)
I don't know what i expected from this, but I really enjoyed what I got? It was like an intense, high body count action movie (pretty much here for) but with the main character being a guy whose guy and being ridiculed for that - and his boyfriend is taken and he wants him back (okay, I'm so here for that, someone needs to make it a movie). I really, realy enjoyed this, and the art style was something I was surprised how much I enjoyed it, but I think it's gorgeous

Locke and Key, Volume One: Welcome To Lovecraft  through to Volume Six: Alpha & Omega by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez (5/5)
Yup, you read that right, I read all six volumes of this series, pretty much in one day (readathon, remember?). Volumes 1-3 were rereads but I realized how truly little I remembered from them so I'm glad I reread them. Either way - this was incredible, it seriously blew me away, and discovering about new keys was so damn interesting. I highly recommend this series and cannot wait to get to read something else by Joe Hill (I haven't actually read any of his novels yet, or short stories).

All New Hawkeye #4 by Jeff Lemire, Ramon Perez (3/5)
I have no idea what happened here, but I think we might get old man Barton? Shockingly here for that?

Nameless #5 by Grant Morrison Chris Burnham (2/5)
I don't know what this comic is, what this series it. But I'm still reading it in the hope sit all comes together and makes sense - hasn't really done that for me yet.

Stuff:
Wasn't feeling good most of the last week, and the week before I started watching Arrow (on the 10th, I think), also watched the first episode of Flash, just because it was there. I'm now well into season two of Arrow, really enjoying it and going to try and watch the rest of them pretty lined up because cameos are fun.

Also this past Wednesday, the 14th, Brandon Sanderson was in Boston. And so obviously I couldn't miss that for the life of me. And I was no disappointed, it was kind of just like low grade fangirling the whole time, but I don't think anyone noticed. Also I might have stared a little too hard as some cosplayers dressed as Wax and Wayne but only because they looked awesome.

Besides that - life has been pretty boring, busy, but boring. I mean, all of my appliances are breaking on me and I'm so behind on YouTube that I will never catch up anyway. Also still crocheting - was I crocheting the last time I posted one of these? I think I was... yes, I just checked, had been for like over a week.

Let me know what's going on with you! Your favorite recent read, or what's going on personally, anything at all!

On the blog:

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Dewey's readathon | Wrap Up

I didn't end up reading for as long as I wanted, but I did complete one of my goals that I didn't actually mention anywhere (ah yes, one of those goals that you're like - I can probably finish this. But if I say it out loud, I probably won't do it. Why? Because brains suck.

The goal was to finish the Locke and Key series, all six volumes, and I did it! I'd read volumes 1-3 over a year ago and I was planning on rereading them and continuing with the rest, which I'm really glad I did because the amount I remembered from those was really just barely the skeletal part of it. (My memory is really awful).

Anyway - I finished that and some of other things. Like what I was currently reading, being Shadows of Self, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Before i get to my full stats. I just want to say something first.

I really love this read-a-thon. It's a ton of fun, and it's always just so exciting to think of everything starting to read at exactly the same time, and then seeing everyones updates and what people are reading and such. I kind of wish I could do this more often, just push everything aside and read Considering the nap I took turend into more a sleep, I probably could get done what I did during a normal day, if I just read, but whatever. It's not the same without a read-a-thon!

If you haven't been participating - or are just hearing about Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon - then I highly suggest you click that link and check it out, they have events twice a year (the next is in April, and then October again). It's a ton of fun.


Books:
Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson
Virgil by Steve Orlando, J.D. Faith
Locke and Key, Volume One: Welcome To Lovecraft by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez
All New Hawkeye #4 by Jeff Lemire, Ramon Perez
Locke and Key, Volume Two: Head Games by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez
Locke and Key, Volume Three: Crown of Shadows by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez
Locke and Key, Volume Four: Keys to the Kingdom by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriquez
Nameless #5 by Grant Morrison Chris Burnham
Locke and Key, Volume 5: Clockworks by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez
Locke and Key, Volume 6: Alpha & Omega by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez

Total # Pages Read: 1, 387

Total # Books Read: 8

Total Time Spent Reading: 7 hours, 25 minutes

Not even 8 hours of reading, but I did get an amount done I feel pretty good about. Let me know how you did down below, I'd love to hear, I really would. Now, I just hope I'm still sleeping when this is posted.

Sign Up
Kick Off
Dewey's readathon | Update | 8am - 12pm
Dewey's readathon | Update | 12pm - 4pm
Dewey's readathon | Update | 12am - 4am

Dewey's readathon | Update | 12am - 4am

Alright, so if you're not following me on social media you might not know that I meant to take a quick nap - an hour, two at most - and then accidentally slept from like 9 - 1 and that was after not getting any reading done since four.

But I woke up with new found strength to read! And I made tea, caffeine! (Caffeine that is slightly nicer on my stomach then coffee, huzzah)

Books:
Locke and Key, Volume 4: Keys to the Kingdom by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez (finished - 64 pages)
Nameless #5 by Grant Morrison Chris Burnham (started and finished - 32 pages)
Locke and Key, Volume 5: Clockworks by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez (started and finished - 160 pages)
Locke and Key, Volume 6: Alpha & Omega by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez (started and finished - 192 pages)

# of Pages Read: 448

# of Books Read: 3

Time Spent Reading: 2 hours, 5 minutes

Total # Pages Read: 1, 387

Total # Books Read: 8

Total Time Spent Reading: 7 hours, 25 minutes

Notes:
Can we just talk about Locke and Key? Why did I wait so damn long to finish up this series? It turned into my goal of this read-a-thon, because I knew I wouldn't unless I read them all back to back, and I really needed to reread the first few, too.

Basically, completely spoiler free, just fucking read it. This series is incredible, funny at points, but also ripped my heart out. I want to read more because I'm awake now, but I have to process that a little first. So we'll see how that goes.

Anyway - besides me gushing about Locke and Key (and sobbing) and the fact that I slept a good few hours without meaning to: what are you reading? Still awake? Or heading off to bed? Let me know what you just finished, currently reading, any and either way!

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Dewey's readathon | Update | 12pm - 4pm

Whew, this is going up a little late because I stopped to write down stuff and then decided to just finish the graphic novel I was currently reading before doing this. It was definitely a successful few hours, I didn't do much else but read. I did get a shit ton of that done, though.

Books:
Virgil by Steve Orlando, J.D. Faith (started and finished - 104 pages)
Locke and Key, Volume One: Welcome To Lovecraft by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez (started and finished - 168 pages)
All New Hawkeye #4 by Jeff Lemire, Ramon Perez (started and finished - 25 pages)
Locke and Key, Volume Two: Head Games by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez (started and finished - 160 pages)
Locke and Key, Volume Three: Crown of Shadows by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez (started and finished - 152 pages)
Locke and Key, Volume Four: Keys to the Kingdom by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriquez (started - 88 pages)

# of Pages Read: 697

# of Books Read: 4

Time Spent Reading: 2 hours, 50 minutes

Total # Pages Read: 939

Total # Books Read: 5

Total Time Spent Reading: 5 hours, 20 minutes

Notes:
Whew, I think I need a little break before continuing. Volumes 1 - 3 of Locke and Key were rereads, but rereading them I realized how very little I remembered (so little, holy shit), and it's so damn good. I can't wait to get to volumes five and six after a break, a well deserved break that was a lot of reading back to back. Virgil was fantastic, as well, though - so much good comic reading just happened. I might need a nap or just something not reading, though, maybe I'll save the nap for later

Dewey's readathon | Update | 8am - 12pm

Update number one, which means we are four hours into this thing. I hope everyones reading is going well and, if not, I hope your day is going well.

I started not at exactly 8, still trying to do some things on the computer - writing a few words and commenting on a few blogs before closing it until I had to write this update. I still think it was definitely a successful few hours, though.

Books:
Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson (finished - 242 pages)

# of Pages Read: 242

# of Books Read: 1

Time Spent Reading: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Notes:
Shadows of Self was the only book I'd been reading before the read-a-thon started, so I wanted to polish it off first so I could get into other things. I'm definitely going to have to go back and connect things and probably look up stuff on the 17th Shard - I need a few minutes to process and then graphic novels, maybe a single issue or two, and starting another book!

What are you reading?

Dewey's 24 hour readathon | Kick Off (8am Eastern)

This is scheduled to go up so I hope I'm actually awake - I'll be super annoyed if the one morning I want to be awake before 8, I'm not. That isn't the point of this post, the point of this post is oh my god the Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon is starting!!

If you're confused, or downright have no idea what I'm talking about - readathon blog, check it out. 24 hour read-a-thon, everyone starts at the same exactly time around the world (example: 8 eastern, 7 central, and so on), and you read for 24 hours. There's mini challenge type things, you can win prizes - but really my favorite part, and I feel comfortable saying I think most peoples favorite part... is the people.

Reading with hundreds of people and then talking to those hundreds of people on the internet. Cheering people on to read more or stay up, or promising people that if they don't have time it's okay. It's a read-a-thon, but life happens.

I have no idea how this is going to go for me this year - I'm not really in a reading mood, but I want to be? I haven't been reading, but there are so many things I want to be reading. Well, want to have read. So I have a feeling that the morning of (right now) I'll just post a picture of the books I pulled out before bed, probably a ridiculously huge stack, and I'll just start reading something.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to start the read-a-thon by finished Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson, but after that - who knows? I certainly don't!

For my updates - social media: TwitterInstagramgoodreads - and I'll be posting four hour update posts here, separate posts. So one will go up at noon, then 4pm, then 8pm, and so on until it's over or I pass out. And then - probably after a few hours of sleep - I'll write and post a wrap up of everything I read, if I did any challenges, and I also tend to gush about how awesome everyone is.

If you're participating please, please comment down below with your blog or twitter or whatever so I can go check it out and cheer you on I've never signed up to be a cheerleader, but I do try to comment on peoples posts and chat with people. So let me know! And if you have any idea of what you're going to read, I'd love to hear!

Now - read! And have fun, no stress just books.

Edit: I'm going to add the Introductory Meme here just so my updates can mostly be just updates, we'll see how that works. This is basically just answering questions, so lets see how that goes:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Rhode Island, the tinniest tiny state. (It's still new to say that, I'm so use to saying MA)

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Oh god, I don't know. I didn't make a very big stack, just pretty much what I've been wanting to read and not getting to. I'm into Shadows of Self (which I'm loving) but also very excited to finally get to 4-6 of Locke and Key, after rereading the first 3 because I don't remember really anything. Also - the first Magnus Chase book. They're all pretty excitable really.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
You know, this year I didn't really go out and buy snacks, but I'll probably break out chocolate and cookies at some point, which I don't normally let myself do. Also probably a lot of tea, it looks to be a chilly day.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
Well, I really love reading and I've been having a super hard time of doing that recently. Just haven't been able to focus because of so much stress, so I'm really glad that this read-a-thon comes around when it does.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
I think this is my third or fourth, but I'm not sure anymore, and I think what I'm hoping to do differently then the last time is stay up later. I have before, but last time I passed out at like midnight. Unacceptable! 8 hours of lost reading time. Though, I don't I'll stay up that much later, but I can live with 2 or 4.

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon | Sign Up (October 17th)

It's that time of year again! I always love participating in this read-a-thon, it's such a compressed amount of time and everyone is awesome and all the stuff happening on peoples blogs and social media - I love making a stack to choose from and getting to have fun with it.

Dewey's 24 hour readathon is on that starts at a specific time and, for a good few time zones, mostly going off mine which is how I think of it, will go from the 17th - 18th of October. I'm going to link the page they have of start times down below so you can figure out yours.

I think this read-a-thon is pretty self explanatory - readathon, 24 hours. However, if you can't read you can always cheerlead (still need free time/computer access), I'll also link the post about that at the bottom. Or you can always just randomly jump on the hashtag on Twitter or whatever, or just push your friends.

It's a fantastic experience and so much fun. I'll post stuff closer, probably do updates in four hour chunks like I've done in the past. I'll do a kick off post with, hopefully, a picture of my stack the day before so, if you're participating, you can tell me what you're planning on reading. Alright, that's more then enough useless chatter.

24 hours. Reading. Join. Links just below.

To Sign Up Yourself
FAQ
Start Times
Cheerleader post

Monday, October 5, 2015

October 5th | Weekly Wrap Up #24

I skipped a week because I literally finished one book and one single issue that week, because my mom started moving and I was very, very anxious (stressed because of that but also anxious because anxiety is an asshole). And we had one slightly chilly day so I started crocheting (you crochet? you might be asking - yes, I do as of the Tuesday before last. I know how to knit, have known for years, but I think I like crocheting better? (Don't tell knitting, shhh).

Anyway - this is a book blog, I think, i've been a little stressed and scattered, but I think that's still what this is, right?

Reading: (finished this week and actively currently-reading)
Captain America: White #1 by Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale (4/5)
I haven't read any of the other color series that they've done, but I'm here for this one? I haven't gotten to into comic Steve pre-modern time (mostly I've read some of Brubaker's run, want to read more, but that's pretty modern with some flashbacks). This is pretty much all flashback, also it almost made me cry two pages in, so there's that.

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (5/5)
It took me almost a month to read this, but it was so damn good. There was so much I loved of this book, that I just felt so deeply. It's so very stark and honest feeling, and the way he talks about storytelling might be one of my favorite things ever. And I'm glad as hell I picked this up.

Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between by Jennifer E. Smith (3/5)
So adorable. It was just so adorable and also painful, she captured that feeling really well, that 'we're leaving for college' feeling.

Driven to Distraction (Hollywood Heat #2) by Ashleigh Raine (2/5)
I didn't read the first one, this one seemed more interesting. And it was - fine. It wasn't strictly bad but it definitely wasn't really good either? But it was kind of what I expected - minimal plot, fun characters, like 80% sex. So it was fun, that's it.

Legion (Legion #1) by Brandon Sanderson (4/5)
I first read this by listening to it on audio and I don't remember when that was (September 2013, wow what a good I did, reading it exactly two years later). And I enjoyed it, it definitely kind of feels like a set up thing and too short, but I really love this idea and I think it could be super interesting and intense.

Stuff:
So stuff hasn't really been happening. I've been watching mostly peoples monthly wrap ups and not a whole hell of a lot else. I've been anxious and crocheting and mostly failing at reading - if I haven't read in like two days it still feels like failing to me for some reason. And I've just been kind of very anxious on top of everything with everything going on - it's been insane since I moved, it hasn't really let up. And I really cannot wait until it's all over and we're both settled (and I have god damn heat. It was so damn cold the last few days, legally we're suppose to have it by October 15th, we'll see how that goes), but hopefully then I'll be able to take a few days to decompress and breathe.

Until then - I'm sorry to say blogging stuff is going to be pretty spotty and probably a little underlining thing of (ahhhhhhhhhhh). Hopefully by the end of the month that'll mostly be over, but we'll see.

On the blog:

Friday, October 2, 2015

September 2015 | Monthly Wrap Up

We're trying a slightly different format for the book and such part of the wrap up, I'm splitting it up into books (as in novels and the like) and then trades (trades and graphic novels and anything that'd fall into that area, like manga), rounding it out with single issues, which I think is pretty self explanatory. It just feels slightly more organized then just plain the order in which I read them (they're still in that order, just in their own lists now).

It was a good reading month, which I was slightly surprised to learn because it hadn't felt like a good one, but I got through a good number of things. Also a good number of really good things. I ended up reading 9 books, 2 trades/such, and 7 single issues. So it wasn't amazing, comparing it to some months in the past, but I'm really pleased with it. I've been trying to get back into reading regularly but not pushing myself to read ALL THE BOOKS, which is hard, but I've been so busy and also started doing other things with my down time (crocheting takes up time). Also, I've been trying to figure out my goals for reading by week, and looking back on this month, I definitely met the idea of reading 2 books a week, on average.

Now - before I get more distracted - the books:

Books:
Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King (3/5)
Uprooted by Naomi Novik (4/5)
Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle #3) by Maggie Stiefvate (5/5)
Justice Calling by Annie Bellet (2/5)
A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano (4/5)
The Marvels by Brian Selznick (5/5)
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (5/5)
Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between by Jennifer E. Smith (3/5)
Driven to Distraction (Hollywood Heat #2) by Ashleigh Raine (2/5)
Legion (Legion #1) by Brandon Sanderson (4/5)

Trades/Graphic Novels:
War-Fix by David Axe, Steven Olexa (2/5)
Lady Killer, Volume One by JoĆ«lle Jones, Jamie S. Rich (5/5) 

Single Issues:
Injection #4 by Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey (5/5)
Descender #6 by Jeff Lemire, Dustin Nguyen (4/5)
Black Canary #3 by Brenden Fletcher, Annie Wu (4/5)
Wolf #2 by Ales Kot, Matt Taylor (4/5)
Injection #5 by Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey (5/5)
Planet Hulk #5 by Sam Humphries (2/5)
Captain America: White #1 by Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale (4/5)

Some really good stuff this month - I finally got around to Blue Lily, Lily Blue (which didn't disappoint) and I also finished The Marvels (a new release and incredible) and The Things They Carried (which I'm pretty sure I'll be thinking about for a while). And that's just the books - Lady Killer, Volume One was incredible and I think I'll read in single issues instead of waiting for the next volume. Injection is also something I am totally into right now, it's definitely captured and been holding my attention.

What did you read this month? Link me to your wrap up, whatever format it is, or just let me know in the comments!

(Note: I'm hoping to film a monthly wrap up and give some individual thoughts on everything, but it's suppose to be raining for the next week here and you can't hear a thing over the noise on camera. Yes, that's how loud the rain is).

On The Blog: