Tag: to be read

What’s Ashley Reading?: A Year in Review

This was a busy year for reading! I completed 142 books in 2023 but there were a few standouts that I would highly recommend. Below are my top 10 books I read in 2023!

  1. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal
  2. Starter Villain by John Scalzi
  3. None Of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
  4. Where Are The Children by Mary Higgins Clark
  5. The Last Devil To Die by Richard Osman
  6. An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good by Helene Tursten
  7. Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I by Tracy Borman
  8. The Only One Left by Riley Sager
  9. The Drift by C. J. Tudor
  10. The Temple of Fortuna by Elodie Harper

And I know that next year will have some great books for my TBR list. Here are the ones I am most looking forward too!

  1. End of Story by A. J. Finn (02/20/2024)
  2. The Guest by B. A. Paris (02/20/2024)
  3. Normal Women by Philippa Gregory (02/27/2024)
  4. Murder Road by Simone St. James (03/05/2024)
  5. The Prisoner’s Throne by Holly Black (03/05/2024)
  6. The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo (04/09/2024)
  7. The Gathering by C. J. Tudor (04/09/2024)
  8. A Talent For Murder by Peter Swanson (06/11/2024)
  9. Middle of the Night by Riley Sager (06/18/2024)
  10. The Darkness Within Us by Tricia Levenseller (07/09/2024)

What were your favorite reads of 2023? And what are you looking forward to the most in 2024? Leave us a comment!

Read-A-Thon to the Rescue

It’s a weird time right now. We’re cancelling plans and trying to stay informed, but we’re all unsure about what the future holds. What we do know is that staying home is one of the safest things we can do to minimize our exposure to this virus. If you’re someone who loves to read or has wanted to get back into reading, this time at home could be an opportunity for you to dive into that stack of stories sitting on your bedside.

But do you want to make it interesting? Perhaps try some reading challenges that could get you metaphorically one step closer to becoming a witch or wizard of the beloved Harry Potter world?

The 3rd Annual OWLS Read-a-thon is here, lasting from April 1st to April 30th. I previously covered this read-a-thon in another blog post that I’ll link here, but in essence, it’s a month-long challenge to read books that would align with Hogwarts school subjects. If you “pass” certain subjects, you’ll be able to work in specified wizarding world professions like an auror, a professor, a curse breaker, or Ministry of Magic member.  

The creator of this read-a-thon, TheBookRoast, has gone above and beyond this year for an even more interesting challenge. She’s added additional workshops and trainings and is also hosting a number of Harry Potter-related activities online.

So what are my professional goals this year as a Hogwarts student? When I saw the new Merpeople Linguistics course, I knew that I would definitely want to work in International Relations with Merpeople. I’ll be focusing on earning both a Magizoologist and a Herbologist career with a possible Ministry of Magic credit if I have time. I was definitely an overachiever in muggle school so of course I’d be Hermione-level studious at Hogwarts.

Here’s my tentative OWLS Exam Schedule:

  • Ancient Runes: Sacred Heart by Liz Suburbia (getting this on Hoopla!)
  • Care of Magical Creatures: My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
  • Herbology: A Monster Like Me by Wendy Swore
  • Potions: Arthur and the Golden Rope by Joe Todd – Stanton
  • Defense Against the Dark Arts: Seafire by Natalie C. Parker
  • Charms: The Crooked House by Agatha Christie (my edition has a white cover)
  • Divination: Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate

Since the library will be closing its services until further notice, it may be difficult to find physical books to fit your challenges, but don’t forget that all of our online services including Sunflower E-Library and Hoopla will be available for you to use.

I hope you join in on the OWLS Read-a-thon this year and get to add a little magic to your life!

The Wheel of TBR: September 2019

When it comes to reading, I’m not much of a planner. Or at least, I used to not be. I’ve known various readers who have a pre-determined to-be-read (TBR) list for the month or even for the next six months, but I never understood how a reader could plan exactly what they were going to read for a period of time longer than a week. What if I don’t feel like reading that book at the time I need to read it? What if I discover a new book that grabs my attention more than the ten books I planned to read in the month? And what if I don’t read what I planned?

This all changed over the summer when I participated in two read-a-thons. If you’re curious about what a read-a-thon is, feel free to check out my previous blog post about them here.

I did the Book Junkie Trials Read-a-thon in the month of July and managed to read a whopping seventeen books in the month! Then in August, I participated in the Magical Read-a-thon: NEWTS 2019 and read eighteen books in the month!!

I’ve never read this much in such a short amount of time, and I think my success has been actually coming up with a list of books to read ahead of time and sticking to that list as much as possible. I knew exactly how to plot out my reading by knowing the length and content of every book. I also had a destination in mind. After I finished a book, I didn’t mindlessly roam until I found another book that caught my interest or left my decision up to fickle emotions. The books on my list were books I was genuinely interested in, and I prioritized just those for the month.

I haven’t found any read-a-thons to participate in for September, but I did find this awesome YouTuber named Codie who creates a monthly to-be-read list using a wheel! Each space on the wheel is a topic and with every selection, she finds a book that fits.

I decided to make my own Wheel of TBR just to see what came up. After having read so many books in the past few months (and with many of those books being smaller), I thought to just go for ten books. Spin the wheel, and let fate decide.

Here were the topics I included. Of course, if you make a wheel of your own, you can include whatever topics you want!

  • Young Adult Fantasy
  • Adult Fantasy
  • Paranormal Romance
  • Tome Tackle (book over 500 pages)
  • Short Read (book under 200 pages)
  • Graphic Novel/Manga
  • Middle Grade
  • Erotica
  • Random Pick– Select a random book from my goodreads list
  • Highest Rated – organized books on goodreads by rating
  • Poetry
  • Mystery/Thriller
  • TBR Vet – a book that has been on my goodreads forever
  • Non-Fiction
  • Classic

I used WheelDecide to make the wheel, and I spun ten times. After I got my selections, I made my September TBR list from books on my Goodreads, books I had on my own shelf at home, and books that I’d recently discovered.

These are my Wheel of TBR September Selections:

I’ve spent the last week of August gathering these books from the library or by requesting them through Interlibrary Loan. I’m so excited to start with one of these books for the month and see if I can make my way through them all!

Do you think having a set TBR pile for the month would help you read more? Would you make a Wheel of TBR and let fate be your guide? Let me know if you give this a try!

Happy Reading!

P.S. If you’ve ever wanted to try a read-a-thon of your own, be on the lookout in the month of October. The library is planning something very special!