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Monthly To Be Read List: August 2018

I’m having a hard time believing it’s already August. There’s less than a month until I’m back at work!! I saw an image on Instagram this morning by @letterfolk with a quote that said:

“How is it already August…
Tomorrow is basically September.
It’s already 2019.
Happy New Year.”

That pretty much sums up how I’m feeling. Time flies! I had a fantastic reading month in July, and I’m hoping to do the same this month, before work gets going again and I start my Master’s.

So, without further ado, here’s my August TBR.

A Court of Mist and Fury – Sarah J. Maas
How They Met – David Levithan
A Man Called Ove – Fredrik Backman
The Sky is Everywhere – Jandy Nelson
The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo – Amy Schumer
Fierce Kingdom – Gin Phillips
The Boat People – Sharon Bala
Precious Cargo – Craig Davidson
Tarzan of the Apes – Edgar Rice Burroughs
A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
Hollow City – Ransom Riggs (I accidentally put Library of Souls, book 3, in the photo, but I haven’t read book 2 yet)
Lion – Saroo Brierley
P.S. I Still Love You – Jenny Han
The Fledgling – Jane Langton (The Hall Family Chronicles #4)
The Fragile Flag – Jane Langton (The Hall Family Chronicles #5)
The Time Bike – Jane Langton (The Hall Family Chronicles #6)
A Dance with Dragons – George R. R. Martin

How I chose

I decided to go for a huge stack so that I could mood read from it this month. Mood reading worked really well for me last month, even though I didn’t officially choose a TBR. I also wanted to diversify my list a bit more and read some Canadian Literature (CanLit).

Where I’m at, and what I’m looking forward to!

I started reading The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo on the last day of July, and I’m almost done. Andrew and I are heading to Seattle to see the Jays-Mariners series today, so I don’t know how much reading I’ll get done, but we’ll see!

I think I’m most excited to read the CanLit (The Boat People, Precious Cargo) and the diverse reads (A Thousand Splendid Suns, Lion) on this list.

My classic choice for the month

Since March, I’ve attempted to read one classic per month. This month I’ve chosen Tarzan of the Apes! Should be fun!

Even though it’s a purposely big TBR for mood reading…

I still think I have a pretty good chance of finishing these because I’m still off work for summer!

Time to finish my packing and choose my weekend book list!

Happy reading, book badgers!

– Paperback Patronus

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Monthly To Be Read List: March 2018

It’s the third month of the @theunreadshelf Project 2018, and my reading month has started out… slowly. Especially considering that I read 13 books in February and 23 books in January. So far in March I’ve finished two books. Two. I’m not kidding. It’s the 12th.

This is partly why I’ve decided to still post my March TBR even though we’re already a third of the way through the month. I’m hoping it will give me some motivation to get out of my reading slump.

However, there is some good reason for my drastic slowdown:

  • report cards
  • report cards
  • report cards
  • report cards

You get the gist.

Also, I’ve committed to a couple of different reading challenges this month which I think are actually slowing me down and not keeping me motivated. The first is part of the Unread Shelf Project 2018 – Whitney, the creator, sets a challenge each month. This month, she challenged project participants to read a book that’s been on their unread shelf for a really long time, and if you don’t finish it by March 31st, you have to give it away.

I chose Robinson Crusoe for the March challenge.

I got it from my Mom as part of my 18th birthday gift of tons of books she loved alongside a bunch of classics. I’ve meant to read it for ages, so I figured no was as good a time as ever. However, it’s taking me a really long time to get into it, and I’m now about 50 pages in, so I’m fifty pages behind (my edition is ~300 pages and March is 31 days long).

I also decided to take part in my first readalong.

@theperksofbeingnoura is doing a March readalong for City of Bones, the first book in Cassandra Clare’s “The Mortal Instruments” series. I have meant to try this series for a while now, and I serendipitously picked it up at a used book store early in March and then saw the announcement about the readalong. It was perfect! The pace of the readathon is about 1 chapter per day, and as it’s YA, I can easily keep up with that.

However, between reading City of Bones and trying to keep up with Robinson Crusoe, I haven’t been reading anything else, except briefly reading The Bad Beginning, which didn’t take very long as it’s children’s lit. I find that I read a lot slower if I have to divide my attention between more than one book at once. Anyone else feel like that?

Hopefully, now that report cards are complete (good riddance!), I think I can get back on track. Plus, I’m going to Cuba with my mom for the last week of March and that’s pretty much going to be sand, sun, ocean, and reading!

So, without further ado, here’s my March TBR.

 

Where I’m at, and what I’m looking forward to!

The one book I’ve finished so far this month is The Sisters Brothers. It was the Breakfast Book Club pick for February, and we met on the first weekend of this month to talk about it. I really loved it!

I think I’m most excited to read Furiously Happy and The Female of the Species this month. Also, my most anticipated 2018 release, Obsidio,  comes out this month. It’s the last installment in the Illuminae trilogy. Oh, and by this month, I mean the 13th, TOMORROW! It’s so close I can taste it!

I highly doubt I’ll finish all these books, but…

I’ve really been enjoying setting huge TBRs and picking from them based on my mood. We’ll see how it goes moving forward!

Time to get cracking on some more reading and blogging!

Happy reading, book badgers!

– Paperback Patronus