#CatchUpReadathon Wrap-up!

I am super, super sad that this week has come to end, I have really enjoyed this readathon from the videos I've watched to what I've read (mostly). I am also really happy with amount I read too-
(little reminder that i didn't really stick to the challenges due to all the reading I had to do for school)

So on the first day I finished the Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, I read around 130pgs of that. This I am going to count for the book that I had abandoned and needed to finish. I gave it 3 stars in the end, I found this book a little odd but it was still good and I will post a review of it later next week with all my detailed thoughts on it.

After that I just read whatever here and there and any of these can kinda count for the gifted/borrowed challenge as they are all from the library:

I read a selection of both Tennyson and Keats which was a very mixed bag; some I loved others not so much... Either way the poetry I read adds up to about 90pgs.

I also read The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, which was 229pgs and... I really, really didn't like this book and I found it really hard to get through. Again i will post a review of this soon once I organize my thoughts.

Little extras that I read were these 2 booklets for school on Ancient Greece and mainly like Troy and Mycenae and stuff but there was a hell of a lot to read so they were 60pgs.

So that is was I read this week- a total 509pgs!- this was easily the most successful readathon I have taken part in for awhile all the others I kinda failed on :/ I really hope that you enjoyed what you read this week and thank you so so much to Sarah from the Book People for running this, it has been awesome!

Speak soon,
Jade xx

American Book Haul

So as you may be able to tell from the title I just got back from America; and I may or may not have picked up a few books :)

First though I got my most anticipated book of the year- The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick. The book adaptation of the webseries which is a modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. I know tricky to get your head round it!

Also a couple of days before I went to the Waterstones on New Street in Birmingham (it is such a nice building!) to meet Rainbow Rowell and it was awesome, she was so nice and funny, it was a really great night. Anyway while there I picked up the beautiful special editon of Fangirl and her new book Landline (since that was what the whole tour was in aid of) and I've already read and for me it tops Eleanor and Park.

Now we can actually get on with the books I got on holiday: I went to a Barnes and Nobel and it was pretty cool I have to say.They had categories within young adult, sounds miniscule I know, but I knew I didn't want contemporary and this meant I could just go to like the fantasy section and not be tempted by other books.That being said I went in with a list and out of the 3 I got only 1 was on the list but I'm super happy with all of them:

The book on my list that I got was Scarlet by Marissa Meyer, the 2nd book in 1 of my favourite series The Lunar Chronicles. I'm not going to go into the plot as its a sequel but it is a dystopian series with cyborgs and people that live on the moon and then each book is like a fairytale retelling. So Cinder is Cinderella and Scarlet is Little Red Riding Hood.

I picked up The Assassin's Blade too. A collection of short stories that act as a prequel to Throne of Glass which I just finished and loved! It follows Celaena an the countries best assassin and some of the things she gets up to before she was captured and taken to a basically a concentration camp after being betrayed.

Then I got The Ring and the Crown by Melissa De La Cruz. This mainly drew me in by 2 things. 1. It is a beautiful book and 2. The blurb thing on the back: "Two girls. One beautiful and strong. One plain and powerless. Only one shall be queen... And the other shall serve her. But as I awake from sleep, I still do not know- which one of them is my daughter? And which one is the traitor?" I mean how awesome does that sound? Its all like politics and monarchy and awesomeness!

Then we were waiting around in the airport and there was a book shop. It was a bit of an impulse buy but every time I see this book I contemplate getting it and it has been on my wishlist for ages now. So I caved and brought The Selection by Kira Cass. All that I think I know is that there is some competition for the prince and becoming queen? But I'm deliberately going in blind to this book as I feel like that is best.

So those are all the books I have collected recently let me know if you have read any of them; especially the last 2! I don't know when my next haul will be. My birthday is next month so I may get some books then but I'll just wait till I have a decent amount to tell you about :)

Speak soon,
Jade xx

What I borrowed

A few days ago I took a long overdue trip to the library and got some books that I needed to read for school. I had a big long list of suggestions so chose some that sounded interesting to me and went to see if I can find them. I ended up borrowing 5 books and I have absolutely no idea if I will like them, but I hope so.

• Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks. All I know is that is a WW1 novel.
• The Catcher in the Rye. J.D.Salinger
• The Crucible, Arthur Miller. This I actually saw a production of in Cornwall and it was amazing!
• Poems of John Keats
• A selection of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's work

I always feel like a little kid when I go to the library, I think it is because I used to go way more when I was little and do the summer reading challenges and the fact that I still have the same library card with a adorable little teddy bear on it! I suppose when I was little going to the library was the equivalent to me buying books now (as I didn't really collect books then) and that always makes me happy :)

Speak soon,
Jade xx

#CatchUpReadathon TBR

Starting today is the Book People's catch up readathon, where you read all those books you meant to read during the summer and didn't. Here is Sophie's video explaining it all. But basically there are 5 themes for all the days this week and you are meant to fit the books you read to those. However I have neglected my reading homework so I am going to have to twist and change some of the days so I can fit all the reading in that I need to do but also join in.

So here are the themes and the books I want to read to kind of complete them!:

Read the book that’s been on your bookshelf the longest.- Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, I've this on my shelves for nearly 3 years now!

A gifted/borrowed book you haven’t been able to read. - For this I am using a book that I borrowed from the library, The Crucible by Arthur Miller

The book you've abandoned.- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This I haven't abandoned for long but I need to finish it so reading that.

The largest (page count) book you've been avoiding.- Right this 1 scares me because for me this is War and Peace. But I'm going to compromise and go for my 2nd biggest- Brinsingr- if I have time!

Read as much as you can.- For these days I am going to read tons of poetry, The Catcher in the Rye and Birdsong.

So I am not going to keep to the days but I am going to try and complete the challenges. And to simplify, the books I am going to read are:

• The Great Gatsby
• The Crucible
• Mockingjay
• The Catcher in the Rye
• Birdsong
• A ton of poetry
• Brisingr (maybe)

I will post progress on my twitter and instagram (@jadeling97) and let you know how I did at the end of the week!

Speak soon,
Jade xx

A Chat

Hello lovely people!

So I have been a little absent this week on the bout of books front. Sorry, this past week was so unbelievably busy and in the end I didn't really have time to read let alone blog about it. So I will say this about my Bout of Books success- less than 200pgs. Yeah... I read about 2/3s of Great Gatsby and some poetry. But that doesn't matter because as of today it is the #CatchUpReadathon which is being held by the lovely Sophie at The Book People and I am going to be taking part! I will post my TBR later today for you all to see.

Next up I want to talk to you about me- I know exciting!- basically I just want you guys to know what is happening in my life and what you can expect to see on this blog in the near future. Many of you may know that earlier this year I took my GCSEs and I now have those results. Long story short I got 3Cs, 4Bs, 4As and a C in AS Philosophy. Overall I am absolutely chuffed to bits with this! This means that in September I will be starting 6th Form and I will be taking History, English lit, Classical Civilization and Psychology. I have very mixed feelings about this; on one hand I am super nervous and I know going back to school (especially when the work is going to be a hell of a lot harder) after all this time will be a massive shock to the system. But I'm also really looking forward to starting these courses that I find super interesting and will hopefully love. I am looking forward to seeing old and new friends, the fact I don't have a school uniform now and that instead of a 40 minute walk its less than 5! So as you can tell I'm not quite where I stand with this yet, however I am pretty certain that- at least at 1st- I won't be reading as much and that I may struggle with keeping this blog up to date. So this is pre-warning. At least while I adjust to A-levels I may not be as present on here as I have managed over the summer (cause, honestly I am quite proud of how consistent I've been). I will carry this on because I love it! Dream of Reading is almost like a child to me.

I will still be posting this week (in fact I have quit a few posts planned) but after 3rd September the frequency may go down a little, so enjoy it while it lasts! To anyone who also got their exam results on Thursday, I really hope you got what you wanted and congratulations- you survived ;)

Speak soon,
Jade xx

Bout of Books Day 2

Yesterday was good. The challenges were super cool, I'm starting to enjoy The Great Gatsby now (as I was struggling to get into it at first).

Today I read 34pgs of Gatsby bringing my overall total to 60pgs so far. I am quite happy with this as I tend to take ages with classics because of their different styles but I'm reading this 1 quicker. But I think I may start another book to read alongside it so I can get a bit more reading done especially since I will have to start doing homework in the next couple of days. Hooray! I f you want to see my challenges for the day just scroll down and they should be there.

Speak soon,

Jade xx