Day: June 4, 2020

June reading challenge 2 – Olympic Games

/ AnastasiaAdamov / 2 Comments

Second reading challenge I decided to participate in this June is The Olympic Games hosted by Ishi Time. You can check out her channel and the challenge announcement HERE. This reading challenge lasts for the whole month of June. What pulled me in to add this challenge as soon as I discovered it was that it is thematically tied to the world of Percy Jackson and I looove those books!

Here is the Camp Half Blood Letter for more details!

For my patron God I picked out Hades. I like my books a bit on the darker side and Hades fits nicely with the books I can choose from my bookshelves. To honor my patron deity I have a list of five prompts I need to read books for. Again I will concentrate only on my own reading journey and not explain other prompts and deities prompts. I love that the order I complete the books is up to me and that there are some advanced challenges after I finish the five mandatory ones! Here is what my patron Hades is all about!

Hades prompt 1. – book featuring the undead

The Laughing Corpse (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter, #2) by Laurell K. Hamilton

I’m stealing this book from the Make Your Myth-Taker challenge and it fits perfectly here as well!

Hades prompt 2. – reread a book

Circus of the Damned (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter, #3) by Laurell K. Hamilton

I decided to reread this series long ago and this might be a good time to add another book of the series. also I kinda like how the theme fits to Hades a s well.

Hades prompt 3. – book with a dark cover

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3) by J.K. Rowling

I made a plan to make as many crossovers with the Make Your Myth-Taker reading challenge that I’m not even ashamed how well I am pulling it all off! I plan on fitting the other Harry Potter book with another prompt as well!

Hades prompt 4. – random TBR book

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 1 by John Vornholt, Arthur Byron Cover, Alice Henderson

My random book of the month just happened to be a part of three different challenges this month! Since this book is actually collection of three different books by three different authors and also almost 700 pages long I will not even try to hide how well I am pairing these books to my reading challenges in June!

Hades prompt 5. – Any Hermes prompt – snake on the cover

I choose snake on the cover prompt since it gave me the most room to plan my reading this month – I was surprised when I realized this as well! There were three books I will be reading this month that have snakes on the cover! I choose this snake:

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2) by J.K. Rowling

My patron Hades has two available challenges: Sword and Shield and Monster Fighting. The rule of the challenge that these are not mandatory and can be only read after the five mandatory prompts have been done already. Here are all the prompts for the advanced challenges:

Advanced Challenge 1. – Sword and Shield

The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air, #3) by Holly Black

The prompt is to read a book with characters whom I would not get along with. This prompt is a bit tricky unless you have already read the book in question so I picked out another reread. There are so many characters in this book I would not get along with. When I first read this book I was very invested in the story and on the edge constantly. There are so many conflicts between the characters and those provoked many contradictory emotions in me. It was an emotional roller coaster all the way and it did not help that it was the last book in the series I loved reading!

Advanced Challenge 2. – Monster fighting

Wayward Son (Simon Snow, #2) by Rainbow Rowell

This is a book I really wanted to include in this months reading so I picked it up for and advanced challenge here. I consider both Simon and Baz magical creatures for obvious reason – one has wings and a tail and the other is a vampire – also there is Penelope who is in a class of her own of how much magic she can wield.

My reading pile for June got a bit bigger now. But I am still looking forward to some great reading this month and hope to rise to the challenge! Both challenges actually!

June reading challenge 1 -Make Your Myth-Taker

/ AnastasiaAdamov / 2 Comments

So I begin a third month in a row deciding to participate in some new and exciting reading challenges! To make matters more dangerous I had to pick not one but TWO (!) amazing challenges since I was so excited to try them out and have a bit of a self destructive streak right now…also by the end of May I really thought I was going to relax with my reading in June…

But lets talk about some amazing June reading challenges I decided to try! I picked out two: Make Your Myth-Taker and Olympic Games. First is a general fantasy choose-your-adventure-and-path kind of style reading challenge which is kind of neat. Second reading challenge is Percy Jackson themed and I really could not resist it since I really love Rick Riordan’s world! That one will need its own post! After much deliberation here are the books I picked out for Make Your Myth-Taker June!

Make Your Myth-Taker

This reading challenge has been created by Charlotte and Ashley from A Frolic Through Fiction – you can check out Ashley’s announcement for the challenge HERE. Charlotte is on Twitter and you can follow here HERE. Give them some love for they deserve it!

This reading challenge is made up of four general paths and each path has four characters to choose from and I will not go into details on all of them but only concentrate on my own reading journey. This readathon lasts trough the whole month of June and has a rule I am not very fond of – reading books in the given order are mandatory. I have personal issues with mandatory reading and this prearranged list does not give me very much room to wander when picking out the next book to read within the month. All this being said, I have chosen the path of the Sorcerer and follow it to become a Goddess!

Sorceress prompt 1. – nonhuman main

Elves Vol. 1: The Crystal of the Blue Elves by Jean-Luc Istin, DUARTE (Illustrator), Saito (Illustrator)

For my first prompt – a nonhuman main character – I have decided to read a graphic novel I have only recently found out about. It is set in the fantasy world where there is magic and nonhuman races of people. The main story follows a number of Blue Elven race characters and some great world building events.

Sorceress prompt 2. – foiled cover

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2) by J.K. Rowling

What this picture is not showing is the glassy cover illustration and lettering. I love my Hufflepuff editions of Harry Potter and hope to collect them all in time. I have only lately started reading them. I never really read the first three books trough and I am working on that.

Sorceress prompt 3. – highest rated

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3) by J.K. Rowling

As it turned out this prompt was kinda problematic. I turned to Goodreads ratings and got some impossible results. See what I mean in the picture below. The highest rated book for me was way to pricey to buy right now since I’m currently unemployed. Next were the number of books that are not even out yet – what is that all about? The first book I could settle for as the highest rated was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban which seemed pretty incredible since I will be reading the second book of the series just before it! I decided to go with the Harry Potter book and enjoy reading my Hufflepuff editions.

This prompt is highlighted purple and it allows me to make a crossover with Royal Court category. After reviewing the royal category I decided to be a Goddess Monarch. Here is the picture of the Royal Court category.

For the crossover part I have deducted that I now have some new prompts to add to my Sorceress Goddess prompts. I was not sure am I supposed to add just one Royal Court Monarch prompt – reread a favorite; or am I supposed to add the whole line of four prompts here. Until I figure it out and just to be on the safe side I decided on the books for all the prompts! But first comes the last prompt from the Sorceress category:

Sorceress prompt 4. – random TBR

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 1 by John Vornholt, Arthur Byron Cover, Alice Henderson

This was a random pick I pulled out for my TBR Jar Draw this month and decided to use it for this challenge. It is a bit on the chubby side with nearly 700 (!) pages and collects three stand alone stories. This one might be the killing blow for my reading goals this month but here it goes anyway.

Royal Court prompt 1. – queen main character

The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air, #3) by Holly Black

It came as a surprise to me just how difficult this prompt was to fit into my books. In the end I decided to reread a book I read earlier this year since it was the first book with a queen I could come up with in short time.

Royal Court prompt 2. – red, purple or gold on the cover

Elves Vol. 2: The Honor of the Sylvan Elves by by Nicolas Jarry, Gianluca Maconi, Diogo Saito

I choose graphic novel to give myself some respite and because I am interested in reading this series trough. The gold illustration looks archaic and the coloring is beautifully done on the cover.

Royal Court prompt 3. – highest rated

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3) by J.K. Rowling

Same as the Sorceress prompt 3. – highest rated

Royal Court prompt 4. – reread a favorite

The Laughing Corpse (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter, #2) by Laurell K. Hamilton

Antia Blake Vampire Hunter book series has been a favorite a long time and I have been meaning to reread these books for a while now. This was the perfect opportunity!

This makes a neat little pile of books: five in physical form and two graphic novels in digital form! Wish me luck with these and next post where I present the books for the second reading challenge I am joining in for June – the Percy Jackson themed Olympic Games!