For June I have only selected one readathon (gasp only one!) to participate in and that is Read-o-Rama.
Read-o-Rama is now in its 10th cycle. It is a week long readathon with 7 challenges and is focused on just reading those books.
The challenge prompts are fairly similar each round and they are always very flexible allowing you to easily choose books from your TBR.
The Challenges:
The challenges are:
1) A book that has R-A-M-A on the cover.
2) An Underrated book.
3) A book with mental health representation
4) One of the Books selected by one of the four hosts
5) A book with flowers on the cover
6) A book where the author is from the city/state/country you live in.
7) Read 7 books
My TBR
Luckily I have a few days off work the readathon week so I should be able to find time to get lots of lovely reading done.
However, since I have been in such a sporadic reading mood lately ( I am still fighting the slump monster) I have decided to keep my TBR as flexible as possible.
I really want to start tackling all the unfinished series on my shelves, I have a freah stack of new aquisitions due to my recent birthday that are begging to be read and I still have several books out from my library that need to be read.
Therefore, I am spoiled for choice and have for some challenges selected options instead of a single book.
1) R-A-M-A on the cover
Space OpeRA by Catherine M VAlente
I just got this book as a birthday present but I have had my eye on it for a while. It had to be ordered in from the USA as it has not yet been relased in the UK and I couldnt wait till next year to get my hands on it.
It fell through my letterbox yesterday and it been so hard not to dive in but wait until the 9th to start it.
2) An underrated book.
Carnivalesque by Neil jordan.
Everytime I get a new physical copy of a book I scan it into Goodreads and place it on my owned TBR shelf and it helps me keep track of what I still have to read. Its sitting at 160+ books Yikes!
To choose what book to read for this challenge I opened my owned TBR shelf and sorted it by lowest rating. This is the lowest rated book I own with a good reads rating of 2.7. It is also the only book I own that has an overall rating of less than 3.
It is going to be interesting to see if I agree with the ratings or not.
3) A book with mental health representation.
This one was difficult. I dont read a lot of contemporary fiction. I dont usually enjoy it.
I tend to be a Sci-fi/Fantasy reader and while there is lots of rep out there issues pretaining to mental health are not major themes of those books so they tend to be absent from booklists etc.
One book I found was the Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater that is reported to have anxiety rep
I also still have Midnight at the Bright ideas bookstore by Matthew Sullivan out of the library which again i have found on various Goodreads lists.
I think i may try a chapter of each and see which one I fancy diving into at the time.
4) Every Read-o-Rama the hosts choose a book each for everyone else to dive into.
The books are as following:
a) The Giver by Lois Lowrey chosen by Gwen
b) Every heary a Doorway by Seanan McGuire chosen by Alyssa
c) Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett chosen by Chloe
d) The Last unicorn by Peter S. Beagle chosen by April
I have already read Every heart a doorway multiple times and while I love it i don’t think i should choose it.
I dont have nay interest in Starry Eyes, I have never been a real fan of YA contemporary.
This leaves me with two books both of which I have easy access to. I will have to see what i feel like reading at the time.
Though I do have The Last Unicorn on audio-book, which might be a good choice for the days I am working.
5) A book with flowers on the cover.
A Forest of a Thousand lanterns by Julie C. Dao
I have had the book for a while and it has made it on to a couple of TBRs lately but never actually read it.
It deserves its turn to be read, also my copy has a beautiful flower on the front.
6) A book where the author is from the city/state/country you live in.
I am spoiled rotten for choice in this catagory that I just dont know where to start.
I live in Edinburgh Scotland. Edinburgh is an old publishing city and has always had a large writing culture. We even have a writers museum dedicated to Scottish writers.
I can choose from well known Greats such as Sir Arther Conan Doyle and Mary Shelley.
More Modern classics such as J.K. Rowling ( Harry Potter was written in Edinburgh!), Charlie Stross or Chrispotpher Brookmyre covering every genera imaginable.
There are even authors such as Laura Lam, Elizabeth May and recently V.E. Schwab that have set up home in Edinburgh.
As you can see from the photo above I have many of these authors books on my shelves so I am just going to grab whatever general takes my fancy at the time.
7) Read 7 books.
I feel this one is always a free for all as if I do manage to complete the other challenges and have time for this one it gives me the freedom to pick up a random book.
It is however Sci-fi Summer and I am also planning on trying to finish off some outstanding series so I am placing
Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff at the top of the pile for consideration for this one.
Fi's Bibliofiles 