Monday 23 December 2013

Christmas BookTubeAThon Wrap Up

Yes, hush, I know I'm still not technically part of BookTube, but I really don't care. A lot of my inspiration came from those vloggers and I'm probably going to be stealing a lot of their tags for future posts.

Anyways. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, some BookTubers decided to hold a Read-A-Thon this past weekend, December 20-22. The idea was to read as much as possible to try and make way for all the books you're sure to get for Christmas.

And I decided to participate. My goal was to read 3 books... but that didn't quite happen. I probably could have read another short book on Sunday, but I just didn't feel like it.

So, check out my accomplishments after the jump!

Friday, December 20
After an exhausting half day at school, lunch out with my sister and a lengthy nap, I managed to read the final 179 pages of Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I absolutely adored this book, start to finish. It was charming and relateable and one of the best odes to fandom I've probably ever read. I knew after the first dozen pages that this was going to be one of my favourite books... and I was right! Read my full review of Fangirl here. ★★★★★ (5 out of 5 stars)
Highly recommended!



Saturday, December 21
I had an ambitious start to the day by picking up Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier. This is the first book in the Precious Stone Trilogy. Usually, I wouldn't have jumped into something new right away... if it hadn't been the Read-A-Thon I probably would've continued to ride the Fangirl-high for a while longer. But I had a lofty goal to meet, so I sat down shortly after breakfast and started reading. Ruby Red came highly recommended by a number of booktubers--and the idea of historical fiction + time travel was just too good to resist. I found the writing style and narrator a bit juvenile, even for YA. It might've been better pitched as middle grade reading. But it was a super easy read--I read all 322 pages on Saturday without even trying--and it was interesting enough that I'll probably look into the rest of the trilogy. You can find my full review of Ruby Red here. ★★★☆☆ (3 out of 5 stars)


Sunday, December 22
... I had every intention of reading on Sunday. A reread of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen was on my list. I even put it by my bedside, ready to go. But I just didn't have the energy to read on Sunday. I did a lot of writing plotting instead. I'm working on a magical realism idea that may or may not have enough substance to be a future NaNoWriMo project. I wanted to try a new outlining style and get my feet wet with Scrivener. And by the time I'd made progress with that and bought groceries the day was practically over.

Overall though, a successful weekend, I'd say. Two books, 501 pages read... I'm pretty satisfied with my accomplishments.

How about you? Did you read anything this past weekend, whether it was for the BookTube-A-Thon or not? Are you going to try to cram in a last minute read before Christmas? Let me know!