I just found I signed up for this last year, too, and I’m not sure I really got anywhere — some of the books I still haven’t read. Oops. Anyway, it’s time for another round of ARC August: a whole bunch of us getting together and cracking down on our lists of ARCs.

Because I plan my TBR in advance, I’m reasonably sure of what I’m putting on the list for August, which means I’m fairly sure of what I am determined to read during the month (though there might always be more, since I give myself wildcards — ten wildcards, next month, even). So here’s what I’ll be working on:

1. One-eyed Jack, Elizabeth Bear. I picked this up from the library too, so now I have extra motivation and a slightly less guilty conscience. But it’s still in my Netgalley list, so down it goes.
2. The Palace Job, Patrick Weekes. I don’t want to know how late I am with this one…
3. Seven Forges, James A. Moore. I own this too, but it’s still in my NG backlog. And I keep getting nearly to the end and then getting distracted, which is a shame, because I enjoy it.
4. The Hollow Crown, Dan Jones. Another one I’m grabbing from the library, and not as chronically late as the others, I think. Still late enough — it’s out in paperback now.
5. The Galaxy Game, Karen Lord. Library as well as Netgalley. Which is good, because obviously I don’t have access through NG anymore, and I’m fairly sure it was a DRM protected file.
6. Pacific Fire, Greg van Eekhout. I need to read California Bones first, though.
7. Knight’s Shadow, Sebastien de Castell. I’m not chronically late with this one yet, at least.
8. Fair Play, Josh Lanyon. Another one where I needed to read the first book and didn’t get round to it… but it’s Josh Lanyon, so it should be fun.
9. Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho. I’m hoping to finish this on a wildcard in July’s TBR, but if not, I definitely owe a review for this after begging for a copy.
10. Gretel and the Dark, Eliza Granville. I’ve had this for ages, but only just refound the copy I was sent to review. It’s probably about time.

The last three aren’t strictly on the August TBR (at least so far), so I might replace those later or deprioritise them or something. I just like groups of ten…

Okay, so there’s no progress yet, because there’s still about two hours to go. But this is where I will put all updates on my progress, responses to mini-challenges, etc. My stack is here, but really I’ll be choosing anything from my vast backlog. I’ll start with finishing off Voyage of the Basilisk, by Marie Brennan, and The Secret Museum, by Molly Oldfield, since that will get me off to a flying start and I didn’t quite manage to finish them up yesterday. Reviews will go into the queue, which means you won’t see them until a few weeks into May… sorry!

Looking forward to it! Here’s me and my Captain America bear, still in our jammies for now…

13.45: Nearly finished with my first book, The Secret Museum. Here’s the opening meme:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Cardiff, Wales.
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? All of them? Maybe A Darker Shade of Magic (V.E. Schwab). I’ve wanted to read it for months.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? My sweet n’ salt popcorn!
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I’m 25, and I can’t literally ‘breathe books’, but close enough.
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’m planning to be pretty relaxed about it. Rather than forcing myself to stay awake to read, I’ll just read; if I get too tired, I’ll sleep. But I’ve always found that when I purposefully stay awake to read, I can’t, and when I just pick a book up and get absorbed, I don’t get sleepy at all. We’ll see how it goes!

14.08: First book finished. I’m going to jot down my initial thoughts for a review, and then go see a couple of blogs to say hi!

15.01: I seem to have developed one of my headaches just as soon as it knew it’d be inconvenient for me. Sigh. Anyway, I’m now reading Voyage of the Basilisk; my reading tracker estimates it’ll take me another hour to finish it. I love it.

Oh, and me and Steve-bear are suited up now, including one of my book necklaces (made by Paper Fury!). Do you recognise that cover?

16.40: Just finished Voyage of the Basilisk. Not sure what to go with next — maybe Batgirl, for a change of pace?

17.33: Owww, my head. But I just finished Batgirl: Death of the Family! Crap, I forgot how dark DC comics are.

19.24: Headache somewhat better now. Currently rereading Touch Not The Cat (Mary Stewart), because I felt the need for something familiar. I’ve forgotten the resolution of the mystery entirely…

20.10: ReadMore reckons I’ve got about an hour and a half to go with Touch Not The Cat, and whether it was my anti-anxiety meds or the paracetamol finally kicking in, my headache has abated. Now I’m gonna go check out some blogs again for a little break.

21:44: Still working on Touch Not The Cat, though I have remembered pretty much all the resolution now. 25% to go. I’m pondering having a bath once my partner’s gone to bed and isn’t about to keep me awake anymore.

22.16: Definitely going to bath. Once I’ve finished Touch Not The Cat, I think it’ll be Shades of Milk and Honey (Mary Robinette Kowal) or The Winter Sea (Susanna Kearsley). But we’ll see how my whimsy takes me (which now makes me think I might just read Strong Poison). 

00.54: Bath done! Wow, was I that long in there? Oops. I finished Touch Not the Cat and read all of Shades of Milk and Honey. Not sure what’s next, but I think perhaps Jo Walton’s The Just City while I’m still awake enough to appreciate it.

01.11: Now I’ve caught up on some blogs and stuff, I think I’ll get back to reading, though I am yawning ominously. First, though, the mid-event meme:

1. What are you reading right now? I’ve just finished everything I had on the go, actually.
2. How many books have you read so far? Five.
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? I’m keeping my options open, really. Perhaps The Winter Sea (Susanna Kearsley).
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? I have, but I just took them in my stride. I’ve learnt it’s no use fretting about them, and I certainly get enough read anyway!
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? Nothing, really; I’m an old hand. Perhaps the sheer number of people this time!

02.25: I did start The Just City. I’m a little surprised; I thought it would be a quick read, but ReadMore reckons I’ve got three and a half hours left with it. Oh well; three and a half hours in company with Jo Walton is no bad thing.

03.20: ReadMore is being a little more optimistic now about how long it’ll take me to finish The Just City. But I might get sleepy now; I’m cold, so I’m going to cwtch up in bed with my electric blanket on. I might play a bit of chess too, to keep my brain awake!

04:07: Did play some chess, but kind of zoned out too — I haven’t read anything since my last update. I’m going to get some sleep and try to get up at my usual time (08.30) so I can finish The Just City and also read The Buried Life before the end of the ‘thon. That’ll be just four hours sleep, so it’s a compromise between knowing how much my mental health depends on sleep and how much I want to read!

09.15: I’m now up and I’ve had breakfast, so hopefully I can settle down to read again once I’ve caught up with comments and posts!

09.45: I’m not feeling the reading, so I’m going to do a bit of impromptu cheering and write up my reviews for the five books I did finish. Not bad, even if my brain isn’t cooperating this morning!

11.00: Still writing reviews, wow. Apparently I have lots of thoughts to share!

11.24: There, reviews done. Going to wander through some blogs now and try to say hi/encourage people still going. Or encourage people who need sleep to go ahead and sleep; I’m not so fond of the people urging other people to stay awake when they’re past their tolerance. Social pressure is no fun.

12.36: Time for the end of event meme!

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? None, really. I took it fairly easy this year.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I like having a good mixture, with contrasts between the books; that’s the key for me, rather than a specific book. I enjoy Mary Stewart and Susanna Kearsley’s work when I’m tired and in need of something unchallenging and fun.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? No.
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? I liked the cheerleading a lot more this time; it seemed more substantive and I saw the same people a few times.
5. How many books did you read? Five.
6. What were the names of the books you read? Let’s see: Voyage of the Basilisk, The Secret Museum, Batgirl: Death of the Family, Touch Not The Cat and Shades of Milk & Honey.
7. Which book did you enjoy most? Probably Voyage of the Basilisk, it’s the only one I five-starred.
8. Which did you enjoy least? Probably Batgirl; it was a bit too dark for me.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? I wasn’t. I just randomly wandered and said hi. But my advice is always to engage with the post, rather than just copy/pasting something pre-prepared.
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? I will, and most likely I’ll be a reader, maybe a mini-challenge host, and an informal cheerleader.

Yep, it’s that time again and for some reason I hadn’t got round to properly signing up, offering to run a mini-challenge, or even arranging a stack. Terrible, ain’t it? I’m in the middle of a month where I’m reading female authors only, so I’m assembling a quick list to give me something to grab no matter what — though goodness knows, I’ll grab anything from my backlog if that’s what I happen to be in the mood for.

I don’t know if I’m going to make it the full 24 hours this time; my anxiety tends to spike when I’m tired, I’ve been having a lot of headaches, and I’m just not that great at staying up all night anymore. But we’ll see how it goes.

Reading apparatus: iPad Mini for books on Blloon/Scribd; Kobo Mini for ebooks; dead tree books aplenty. As usual, I’m gonna divide my stack up into a couple of categories and try to read at least one thing from each category.

Backlog:
–A Darker Shade of Magic, V.E. Schwab
–Touch, Claire North
–Batgirl, Gail Simone
–Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
–The Buried Life, Carrie Patel

Rereads:
–Shades of Milk & Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal
–Magic Study, Maria V. Snyder
–Graceling, Kristin Cashore
–Touch Not the Cat, Mary Stewart
–Gifts, Ursula Le Guin

Library:
–Guardian of the Dead, Karen Healey
–Alif the Unseen, G. Willow Wilson
–Karen Memory, Elizabeth Bear
–Curtsies and Conspiracies, Gail Carriger
–The Winter Sea, Susanna Kearsley

ARCs:
–The Lie Tree, Frances Hardinge
–The Burning Land, Victoria Strauss
–The Just City, Jo Walton
–Dark Triumph, Robin LaFevers
–A Court of Thorns & Roses, Sarah J. Maas

Some of these I need to refresh my memory on because oh, how I owe a review.

For this evening, I’m going to play enough Assassin’s Creed III to sate my current obsession with replaying the games, load my ereader, and try to finish Voyage of the Basilisk (Marie Brennan), so I have a fresh slate for tomorrow. I’ll put up a progress post tomorrow afternoon before we start, in lieu of my usual review post. Any regulars on the blog taking part?

Yay! Soon the 24 hour readathon will start. To begin, have a photo of our bunny with some of my stack…

Isn’t she a darling? She’ll be keeping me company throughout, even when my partner abandons me to go shopping.

Anyway, here’s the opening meme:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Belgium.
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? Hmm, not really sure. All of them have their attractions. Maybe the comics? I don’t knooow.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Whenever I let myself have my chocolate with Speculoos!
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! It was my one year anniversary of book blogging yesterday! Normally I live in Wales, and this is the first time I’m doing the readathon while visiting my partner.
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? Last time, I had to sleep. This time, well, I’m insomniac at the moment, most of the time, so I’m thinking I’ll probably stay up for most of it. On the other hand, tomorrow morning we’ll be leaving the civilisation of the internet and going off to a convention, so I probably won’t see the last few hours.

Right, I’m going to assemble the rest of my stack and get comfortable, ready for the start!

15.07: It is occurring to me at this point that I might like to get dressed, on the grounds that I’d be warmer like that. Ah well, we’ll see. I’m nearly finished with Galapagos (Kurt Vonnegut), which I’ve read about 150 pages of.

15.38: Finished reading Galapagos. Gonna go update the books read database and then curl up with something else. What? I’m not sure yet. Maybe Loki: Agent of Asgard.

16.16: Yup, read Loki: Agent of Asgard. Also had some chocolate. In terms of the shelfie challenge, my whole webpage is one since my top banner has a rotation of three or four different views of my bookshelves.

17.18: My mini-challenge is up, and I’m battling a tide of comments to approve while also reading Shards of Honour, by Lois McMaster Bujold.

18.21: Current fuel: cola and candy bracelets. Still reading Shards of Honour. Amazed by the number of comments on my mini-challenge! Can’t take part in this hour’s challenge since most of the books I have here are ebooks.

19.02: Just finished Shards of Honour. It was a reread for me, and I liked it a lot more than I did the first time. Might have to wait until after the ‘thon to find the words to review it, though I normally review as I go. For the name-your-readathon challenge, hmm: Agents of Honour and The Old Ways. Because why not?

20.30: I’m now reading The Old Ways, by Robert MacFarlane, since I don’t think I want to be reading non-fiction much later in the ‘thon! My partner’s been napping, already, tsk. Can’t do this hour’s challenge, as I have no physical books here, and I don’t want to mess up my partner’s books or the library books, or expose them to the dangers of the bunny. Even if it is the bunny’s naptime.

21.37: Paused for dinner, which was nachos and cheese and chilli and noms. Partner’s cooking always the best except maybe my dad’s. Still on The Old Ways. Bunny still napping. Here’s my signed book picture for the mini-challenge — Lifelode, by Jo Walton. Among Others is marginally more precious to me, but Lifelode is signed to me and my partner, which is why I took a picture of it to show her after spending the day with Jo out on the moorland near Swansea. We’re both big fans.

22.56: Finished reading The Old Ways, and reviewed everything so far. Not sure what I’m going to read next; partner’s going to be going to bed soon, but she’s letting me keep the main light on, whew. Otherwise I’m sure I would end up sleepy.

Even still, I can imagine getting tempted in the chill of 5am to squirm into bed next to her. Let’s hope the bunny can keep me awake!

00.07: I’m now reading Rose Daughter, by Robin McKinley. Partner’s gone to bed, so now I’ve got her chair. Not sure I won’t sleep, but I do want to at least finish Rose Daughter.

01.13: Nearly finished with Rose Daughter, and then I think I am going to curl up with my partner. If I can’t sleep, I’ll get up and read more; if I can, well, I have a con to go to and quite a bit of work to do, tomorrow, so I should get rest if I can.

1. What are you reading right now? Robin McKinley’s Rose Daughter.
2. How many books have you read so far? Four.
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? I think I was looking forward to Rose Daughter most! But perhaps A Song for Arbonne, on the train tomorrow or if I can’t sleep.
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Not really. My partner’s understanding of the readathon, and the bunny can be pet while I’m still reading.
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? Perhaps how print-orientated the challenges are. It’s not the only way to go, guys! Some book lovers don’t collect; some book lovers aren’t at home. It makes me feel a little left out, honestly.

01.46: Finished reading Rose Daughter, now. I’m not so tired I have to go to bed, but five books is a good amount and I do have a busy day tomorrow, so I’m going to have a quick shower and then scurry to bed. If I can’t sleep, it’ll be A Song for Arbonne keeping me company.

09.56: About to go to the con! Reading A Song for Arbonne on the train, I think. Or maybe The Crystal Cave.

19.04: Back from the con and settled down after doing some work. I started my rereads of both A Song for Arbonne and The Crystal Cave; I’m getting on better with the latter now than I did before, though Misogynistic Merlin is my least favourite flavour.

I’ll do a draw for the winner of my mini-challenge tomorrow morning and send them an email ASAP. For now, thanks to everyone in and running the readathon!

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? None, I just did what I could and then chose to go to bed.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Honestly, it’s different for everyone. But maybe Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce books would suit a pretty wide audience: they’re fun, but not too heavy.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Fewer challenges focused on physical books.
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? Everything seemed to run pretty smoothly.
5. How many books did you read? I finished five and read a bit of two more.
6. What were the names of the books you read? Galapagos, by Kurt Vonnegut; Loki: Agent of Asgard by Al Ewing; Shards of Honour, by Lois McMaster Bujold; The Old Ways, by Robert Macfarlane; Rose Daughter, by Robin McKinley. And part of The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart, and A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay.
7. Which book did you enjoy most? Probably Rose Daughter; it’s a familiar favourite.
8. Which did you enjoy least? I didn’t really dislike any of them.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? N/a.
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? Reader, along with running a mini-challenge, methinks.