Dancing Out of August 2018

In August the weather went up and down. But even so I think it was mostly a good month. I did well during a readathon, I visited the Deventer book market, we went to a zoo, got a new book shelf, and my son had his second birthday. Mostly good things .

The Numbers
# Read 60  200 Books
Read this month: 15
Total: 148/200

1. 1. A Wrinkle in Time (Time Quintet 1) by Madeleine L’Engle – 3 stars
   2. A History of Magic (Harry Potter Exhibition) by British Library – 3 stars
   3. Vicious (Vicious 1) by V.E. Schwab – 3 stars
   4. Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer 1) by Laini Taylor – 3,5 stars
   5. The Cruel Prince (Folk of the Air 1) by Holly Black – 4 stars
   6. Equal Rites (Discworld, Witches 1) by Terry Pratchett – 4 stars
   7. Seafire (Seafire 1) by Natalie C. Parker – 4 stars
   8. Giant Days (Volume 1 & 2) by John Allison – 4,5 stars (Graphic Novel)
   9. Slaughters and Tempest (Numair Chronicles 1) by Tamora Pierce – 2 stars
   10. Strange University (Freaksschool 1) by Flourent Maudoux – 3 stars (Graphic Novel)
   11. Robocity (Heartlands 1) by Marlon Teunissen – 4 stars (Graphic Novel)
   12. The Demon Race by Alexandra Warwick – 4 stars
   13. Twice Dead (Necromancer’s Song 1) by Caitlin Seal – 3 stars
   14. The Caged Queen (Iskari 2) by Kristin Ciccarelli – 3,5 stars
   15. The Art of the Film: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Dermot Powers – 4 stars

Completely random I decided to up my goal to 200 on goodreads, just to see how far I’ll get. I’m 17 books ahead or so, so I’m feeling confident I can do this haha. I surprisingly also read more than I thought I would. The Make Me Read it Readathon really helped with that.

# Unread Books
Total unread books on shelf end of July – 234 minus 1 unhaul = 233
Books read in August (that count) – 8
Books bought/received in August (no ebooks) – 18
Total unread books on shelf end of August – 243

# Unread Ebooks
Total unread ebooks at the end of July  – 24 minus 1+  = 23
Ebooks read in August – 4
Ebooks bought/Received in August – 5
Total unread ebooks end of August – 24
+Ebook read as physical

# Beat the Backlist
Backlist books read in August – 10
Total – 107

# Library Love Challenge
Library books read in August– 3
Total – 56

And the final month to fill the bingo card for this Summer challenge of the facebook group Life & Lit.

Book 1 of a Finished Series – A Wrinkle in Time
A Fave From Your Teens – A History of Magic (Perhaps this is cheating but HP is from the end of my teens so…)
A Book You Dnf’ed Before – Vicious
A Cover You Love – Strange the Dreamer
Book From Your Birthyear – Equal Rites
Witches – Equal Rites
Worth the Hype – Giant Days

In the week of 6th to 12th August I participated in the Make Me Read it Readathon. You can read more about it in my sign up post here. I ended up reading 4 books for this readathon which I am quite pleased about. I read Vicious, Strange the Dreamer and The Cruel Prince in order of the votes. After that I had one more day and I wasn’t feeling The Summoner so I asked twitter to vote between two books that I should read next and Equal Rites came out of it which I finished in one afternoon. I call that a succesful readathon!

⌘ This heat has really kicked my ass at the start of the month. The day after Deventer Book Market I kind of crumpled into a mess, did a nap and still felt terrible after waking up. The heat has just been messing with my sleep and it caught up to me. By the end of the month though it turned more gloomy with more rain and colder temperatures.

⌘ As mentioned, husband and I went to Deventer book market on August 5th. Merijn stayed at home with his aunt. I hauled quite a nice amount as you will have seen in my book haul and it was great to browse the stands. I didn’t manage to visit all stands (over 800) but after a few hours I was just kind of done. Luckily the heat wasn’t too bad in the morning and we left around 1.00pm to go home by train. Which took a bit because the had to wait in Deventer and in Zwolle for our trains so it ook us 90 minutes instead of 40 like on the way there.

⌘ For a change I decided to work on Pinterest for my blog. If you are on pinterest come and give me a follow? I follow back all my blogging buddies. ❤ I actually enjoy creating pinterest graphics I have discovered haha. I wanted to emb the board but wp is being stupid again.

⌘ We took Merijn to the Apenheul. Last year we went to this zoo on his first birthday and we also visited this zoo during my pregnancy. So it only seemed natural to take Merijn there for his second birthday. Since couldn’t do it in his birthday weekend this time we went on a random day free of my husband (who has to work an insane amount this Summer). It was a lot of fun. Compared to last year Merijn really saw the monkeys.

I put most of the funko’s together

 ⌘ I have been tidying up and deciding what things to keep. We sold a few things. And midway through August we got a cabinet and three boxes full of stuff (including unhauled books) picked up and brought to the charity shop. And in place of that I got a new book shelf which I’ll show at some point!

⌘ Merijn’s birthday was on the 26th. My little boy turned two and I still can’t believe it. He got spoiled quite a bit and had lots of cake.

⌘ My parents stayed the last few days of August with us (until Thursday) which was a lot of fun for Merijn. And me since I wasn’t so alone then.

⌘ If anyone ever tells you how much fun kids are, don’t listen. I got head butted twice which resulted in a bruised nose (which I almost went to the doctor for to see if it was broken) and then got hit in the face with one of his new books which left a bruise on my chin…

Reviews

⌘ First & Then by Emma Mills
⌘ The Many Worlds of Albie Bright by Christopher Edge
⌘ A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers 2) by Becky Chambers ⌘ Crown of Witchwood (The Last King of Osten Ard 1) by Tad Williams
⌘ Zoo (Zoo 1) by James Patterson / Compared to season 1 of tv show
⌘ Foundryside (Foundryside 1) by Robert Jackson Bennett
⌘ Vicious (Vicous 1) by V.E. Schwab
⌘ Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer 1) by Laini Taylor

Top Ten Tuesday
Combined Topics I’d Like to Read More/ Book Blogs to Follow! / Ten Releases I Am Looking Forward to for the Last Four Months of 2018 / Titles I Keep Messing or Mixing Up

Other Posts
Book Haul #35 – The One Wherein I Confess My Sins / Unboxing – Letters and Lights Grisha Box / Dancing out of July 2018 / 15 Years of Bartimaeus – A Readalong / Book Stores #5 – Praamstra and the Walstraat (Deventer) / Do I Read the Books I Haul? / My Magical Mutt – 2018 Dog Days of Summer / Fantasy Meet & Fair Coevorden 2018 / Why Monthly TBR’s Work For Me and How I Choose Mine /From Ten To One – The Book Edition /Books Merijn Liked in the Past Year / Book Haul #36 – Deventer Book Market and Some Others

I am sad forever. My provider stopped offering Agents of Shield. I was halfway through season 3. I cry.

⌘ Falling Skies / Season 5 / Ep 7-10 / Finished
We honestly think this is one of the weaker seasons. I think they spend too much time on pope (and I still hate what they did with him) instead of on the aliens, and I don’t think they treated Anthony’s PTSD right.

⌘  Haven / Season 4 / Ep 1 – 13 / Finished
I got this for my birthday last year and I am finally starting it now. I know. Anyway I finished it. It turned creepier and now I need season 5 because, hello, that ending.

⌘ Sleepy Hollow / Season 3 – Ep 1 – 7
We are continuing with Sleepy Hollow. I liked the horsmen things but this is a bit messy so far. Though I do like the romance for our history guy.

⌘ Big Top Scooby-Doo
Hey look, a scooby movie I hadn’t seen yet. It is hard to watch movies with Merijn walking around though so I didn’t catch everything with this movie. 😦

⌘ The Gifted / Season 1 / Ep 1 – 4
The start was a bit difficult. Its a bit dark and gritty but without appealing characters, right away anyway. I’m just a little bored.

⌘ Take Two / Season 1 / Ep 1-3
This is a crime/mystery show with Rachel Bilson. So far it is cute to watch. Not something I would buy on dvd for as right now but it is fun.

⌘ Supernatural / Season 12 / Ep 1-4
I started this as a reward after reorganizing all my book shelves on the last day of the month. It is interesting, I guess.

⌘ Rewatched: A Touch of Frost / Meet the Robinsons / An American Tail / BBC Sherlock Season 2 / Around the World in 80 Days

 

Beat the Backlist Instagram Challenge

I’m having trouble with embing instagram photos again which is why this is so empty this time around. It worked fine until the middle of the week and then poof.

 

Blogs

⌘ Chiara from Delicate Eternity shares her fave queer fantasy books. You can find part 2 here.
⌘ Sammie from The Writerly Way talks about reading with a busy schedule. She also reccommends a few books to try when in a reading slump.
⌘ Greg from Book Haven shares some thoughts about book blogging.
⌘ Chrissireads compiled a list of 10 books to read if you liked The Book Thief. She also shared bookish websites that aid in teaching.
⌘ Aimee from Aimee Always talks about YA reads with Asian rep.
⌘ Krysta from Pages Unbound muses on the definition of clean romance in books. Brianna then talks about if characters in books are individuals or representations of something larger.
⌘ Ayla from Books & Babbles shares her tips and tricks for reviewing.
⌘ AJ from Read All the Things shares why she loves your book blog.
⌘ Angel from Invisible in Ink guest posted at Words Wonders about Arabs and Muslim in YA literature.
⌘ Avery from Red Rocket Panda shares how they met the genre Science-Fiction.
⌘ Ali from The Bandar Blog shares how she takes her bookish photos efficiently.
⌘ Shannon at It Starts at Midnight responded to the TTT back to school prompt with a Teach This, Not That!
⌘ Shealea from That Bookshelf Bitch shared 10 spreadsheet hacks, including a few free templates.

Dutch Blogs

⌘ Liesbet from Zwartraafje unboxed an Anderwereld second- hand mystery box. She also shared inspiration for book bloggers to post.
⌘ Emmy from Zon en Maan shares what it is like to run a webshop. She runs the Dutch bookish web shop Letters and Lights.

⌘ My husband’s 3 week vacation starts September 3rd so I am not expecting to be able to read a lot. I’ll be focusing on The Amulet of Samarkand and my arcs. Other books are going to be extra in thos weeks. After that I hope to be able to read a few backlist titles like the second Tawny Man book.

⌘ For his vacation we are planning some days away and we are most likely heading towards my parents for a small week at the end. Merijn and I will also be meeting up with Liesbet from Zwartraafje in Breda this month.

The Sunday post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. This is a bit of a recap post of the week (or month) where you can link to the posts you made this week, share news and wrap up your reading. I will also link up with Monthly Wrap up from Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction.

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