Let's try again...

Surprise! I'm still alive! I know I said I would be posting everyday till Christmas but I was not realistic in ANY way. I have exams this week, I hadn't really planned anything so I'm going to give it another go in a few days. I am going to try 12 Days of Bookmas! So for the last 12 days leading up to Christmas I shall post something Christmassy. I am much more prepared this time so fingers crossed ;)

Speak soon,
Jade

Sept-Nov Wrap-up (Bookmas!)

To start Bookmas off I'm going to let you know what I read in September, October and November cause I never told you guys that :) There is no real order to this cause my reading has been pretty scare these past few months!

• First on my list is Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell. This is exactly what it says on the tin and it is brilliant! It has cute little illustrations to match the strange (and slightly worrying) things customers say in bookshops. I gave this 4 stars.

• I also read Private Peaceful, Micheal Morpurgo. This was a re-read for me as I "studied" it in year 8. This is a story of 2 brothers and their family growing up and going through WW1. It is heartbreaking and I may have cried a little. 3 stars

• The Jane Austen Guide to Life by Lori Smith was a book that I read over all 3 months. I enjoyed this one but the real benefit was that it actually helped me with my essay writing, and since all 4 of my subjects are essay based thats pretty good. This one surprisingly made me cry too (I'm going soft!) this ones 3 stars too.

A lot of the reading I have done recently is for school. Its the first time I've really had to read my texts outside of school ant its very different.

• A play I read this term is Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" I did this in year 8 or 9 and loved it so doing it again is great! We went on a trip to see it at the RSC in Stratford too and it was amazing! Look out for review of that and another of his comedies soon! Of course this 1 gets 5 stars.

• I've read through The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald too this term and have enjoyed picking that apart greatly! 3 stars

• The last book I finished is another play: Agamemnon by Aeschylus. This is my first Greek text and I did like it but I found it difficult to understand at points. 2 stars.

I also have quite a few on the go that I've yet to finish and those are:

• The Odyssey, Homer
• Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins.
• The Miniaturist, Jessie Burton
• Antigone, Sophocles

So I've been a bit all over the place with my reading and I'm a little behind on my goals but I have big plans for Christmas!

Speak soon,
Jade xx

Bookmas!

So a few days ago I decided that I was going to do Bookmas- something that Booktubers do when they post a video every day. I was going to post everyday till Christmas, as you may be aware this hasn't happened yet. So I'm starting bookmas on the 3rd!! That makes sense! :) Look out for my wrap-up and TBR later today!

Speak soon
Jade xx

Challenge Check-point Nov.

Hello lovely people!

 Today I am going to update you on how I am doing with my reading goals that I set way back when in January. I did 1 of these back in April and thought it was high time I do another before it is time to do a big wrap-up at the end of the year because as usual time is flying! 

1. Revive this blog. I think I'm doing pretty well with this, I'm a bit patchy but I'm still going strong!

2.Read everyday. I haven't really been doing this, especially once I started 6th form I basically stopped reading entirely! I am aiming to fit it into my routine... once I have 1 that is.

3.Read 70 books. This I cut down in April to 42 as I realised just how busy I was this year. According to Goodreads I have read 34 books and I am only 3 books behind, I can catch up easy (maybe) :)

4.Read 6 classics. I've read 5, only 1 more to go!

5.Deplete my TBR. Now I have done this just not as much as I would like so I need to work on this 1.

6. (the last 1) Buy less books. Now last year I used to buy on average 7 books a month, my average for this year is 4. I have brought 40 books this year... its less than last year. Well there is always next year!

So yes, partly on track partly not... still got a month and a half to go though who knows what could happen! 

Speak soon,

Jade xx

Readathons!

Hello!

Just a quick post tonight to let you know of 2 readathons coming up that I'm taking part in. The 1st one is the #24in48 readathon, which is where you try to read for 24 hrs over a weekend (48hrs). I'm not sure if I will reach 24hrs but I can bloody well try! It starts at midnight tonight running from 15th-16th Nov. As my TBR I have a little stack that I will choose from dependent on my mood. This pile consists of:

• Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
• The Miniaturist, Jessie Burton
• Private Peaceful, Michael Morpurgo
• The Jane Austen Guide to Life, Lori Smith

The 2nd one is Sarah Churchill's Anti Bullying Week Readathon to raise awareness of the week. Running 17th-23rd Nov. The idea is to read books the centre of at least have an element of bullying. The goodreads group has tons of suggestions on what to read if you are stuck. I will be reading Wonder by J R Palacio and maybe another book but I don't know what yet.

Good luck if you are taking part!

Speak soon,

Jade xx

Unfinished Series

Hello! Hope you are doing super well!
When I thought of doing this post I didn't think that I had many unfinished series but it turns out I do... 17 to be precise :/ So I'm going to start with series that I can finish but haven't and then series that I can't finish because there are unwritten books in them. Makes sense? I'm not sure it did but oh well on with the list! (I love lists):

• Throne of Glass, Sarah J Maas
• Wings series, Aprilynne Pike
• Finishing School, Gail Carriger
• Birthright trilogy, Gabrielle Zevin
• Divergent trilogy, Veronica Roth
• Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead
• The Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer 
• Finding Sky trilogy, Joss Stirling
• Trylle Trilogy, Amanda Hocking
• Fallen series, Lauren Kate
• The Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins (this will be rectified this month!)
• The Inheritance Cycle, Christopher Paolini
• The Mortal Instruments, Cassandra Clare
• The Infernal Devices, Cassandra Clare
• Hetty Feather, Jacqueline Wilson
• Wicked Lovely, Melissa Maar

So it turns out there is only 1 series where it is not my fault that it is unfinished and that is:

• Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

I think next may be "finish series year"because this is kinda bad. Anyway I hope you have a great week and let me know if there are any series on this list that I MUST get too :)

Speak soon,

Jade xx

Book Haul #7

Happy November! This is the time where I allow myself to be festive because October is too early. So while I'm sitting here in this lovely gloomy weather I thought I would write you guys a book haul cause I got some books last week!

First of on Wednesday I went into Windsor- which is one of my favourite places- and I picked up Wonder by J R Palacio. This is the book for the book club at school so I need to get this read stat! I don't know what it is about really so this is what it says on the back: "My name is August. I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse." Sound super heartwrenching and good right!

I also got given an unloved book from my cousin and that is The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide. This has an amazing cover with this foil cat eyes that catch the light, I think this is another sad 1.

Then I ordered some books off waterstones and just a sidenote their service was brilliant I ordered them Thursday morning and got them Friday afternoon! I mean I doubt it is always like that but wow! Also waterstones have a discount code at the mo: 10% off orders over £30- NB1030. Anyway this is what I ordered:

• One Man Two Guvnors, Richard Bean. I am studying this at school soon so needing it in my collection. It is a play and I saw it back in September, it is absolutely brilliant! Serious if you can go see it!
• Weird  Things Costumers Say In Bookshops, Jen Campbell. This is self-explanatory
• Dracula,  Bram Stoker. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson. All these are Penguin English Libraries and are utterly beautiful as always.

And thats it! I had a bit of a spree as you can see so I think its save to say no books till Christmas! If you've read any of these I would really like to know your thoughts :)

Speak soon,

Jade xx