Readathon 2018 Mini Challenge: #CoverFromMemory

Happy 24 Hour Readathon, everybody! I have a mini-challenge here for you...one that I absolutely adore. I was going to try to come up with a new idea, but this one just makes me laugh too much. It's the classic, very funny #CoverFromMemory. You know it, you love it. But if you don't, here's more on the challenge:

I don't know about you all, but even before I was a bookseller, I prided myself on how I would remember the covers of books. I was never completely helpless when a bookstore customer came up to me and said that they don't know the name of the book, but it's blue. But how good would I actually be at reproducing these book covers? It's time to find out.

What I want you to do is think of a book. Maybe an all-time favorite, maybe a book you read two months ago. Now, with no googling or shelf-searching, you need to draw it. You don't need to be an artist! Let's be real, the uglier it is, the better. Imaginary bonus points if you use MS Paint. Here's my example where I drew Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller.

I couldn't find my colored pencils, so I did a sick hand-drawn/photoshop combo. I don't know why I didn't remember that the ghosty thing very explicitly looked like a person. Anyway: YIKE.

Accuracy won't get you the win; just participation! Either post your creation in the comments or share it on social media (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Litsy, or the comment here) with the hashtags #Readathon **AND** #CoverFromMemory.

At the end of the readathon, one winner will be randomly chosen and will win my Outlandish Lit Weird Ebook Bundle. The ebook bundle has 13 novels and short story collections in it, all DRM free (and legally obtained!!). If you're a fan of weird fiction, strange lyrical poetry, and sci-fi, this is the collection of books for you. It has two of my favorite books in it! Good luck and I hope you enjoy this ridiculous break from reading!

Annihilation Hat Knitting Pattern!

Two pals, as featured on his Amazon author page.

Hey, friends. I wanted to pop in to let you know that I just published my first official knitting pattern! I've been knitting for a long time and occasionally have fun "freestyling" and creating my own designs. In celebration of the Annihilation movie coming out, I decided to formally write up a pattern for the Annihilation book cover inspired hat that I made and gave to Jeff VanderMeer. I haven't seen the Alex Garland directed movie yet, but I seriously can't wait. Rep your love of Area X & weird enviro-scifi with this colorwork hat.

If you're interested, I'd be grateful if you checked it out on Ravelry. If you know someone who might be interested, I'd also be grateful if you shared! Full disclosure: this is a paid pattern. It's $2.99. Help a bish pay her cat's vet bills if you're so inclined! Wish it could be free, but at this point in time I need dat money.

More big, new, exciting things are on the way very soon (unrelated to knitting). Thanks for sticking around if you've been following me for a while!

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon :: October 2017

Hi, book babes! This is my sixth time participating in Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and I'm as excited as ever. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out that link to sign up. It's exactly what it sounds like - you try to read for 24 hours. And there are prizes!

For the first readathon ever, I don't have to work!! I'm co-hosting the readathon, so be sure to say hi on the Readathon Twitter between 9 pm and 12 am central time. Also look out for my posts on the Readathon blog! Oh! And I'm hosting a mini-challenge here on the blog at 2 pm central time. Get in on it, it'll be fun, I promise!!


Most of my real-time, v exciting updates will be posted on twitter, instagram, and you can find me on Litsy as OutlandishLit! But I'll be using this post every few hours to update as well. Let me know if you're participating!

UPDATES

Hour 0

1 // What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Minneapolis, Minnesota.

2 // Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Probably The Doll's Alphabet

3 // Which snack are you most looking forward to?
I have some homemade zucchini bread that I remembered to thaw!

4 // Tell us a little something about yourself!
I'm a spooky gal who likes to read weird books. I'm a bookseller and I'm now training to be a used book buyer at Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis. I like forests, intersectional feminism, horror movies, reality tv, propagating succulents, crafting pretty things, and traveling.

5 // If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
I'm going to take some time to read some books in Japanese!

Hour 7

I've been trying to be a little more "chillaxed" about the readathon than I normally am. And so far so good! Since 7:30 I've been listening to the audiobook of the The Visionist, which I'm really enjoying bc it's sort of about a cult. I took a bath, I sat on the couch, it's been incredible. I also started a tiny little scary book called You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann. I LOVE IT so far. I'm like 30 pages from the end, so once I finish prepping my mini-challenge for Hour 8, I'm going to wrap that bad boy up.

Ten in Ten Challenge
I'll be adding to this as I think of them:

2007 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (which I didn't love, but that's all I've got for 2007 haha)
2008 - Suicide by Edouard Leve
2009 - Light Boxes by Shane Jones
2010 - How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti
2011 - Embassytown by China Mieville
2012 - The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin
2013 - The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara
2014 - Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
2015 - A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
2016 - Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt
2017 - Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

Hour 12

Mid-Event Survey: 
1 // What are you reading right now? 
The Visionist by Rachel Urquhart and Agents of Dreamland by Caitlin Kiernan

2 // How many books have you read so far? 
One!

3 // What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? 
Oh god, I don't know. Maybe Penance by Kanae Minato, because I like to save thrillers for the end.

4 // Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? 
I just kind of audiobook during interruptions if that's possible. Otherwise I just do whatever I need to do and get back to the reading after WITHOUT beating myself up about it.

5 // What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? 
Nothing too surprising!

Hour 19

Well, it just turned Hour 19 here and it's 1 am. I had a great time co-hosting from hours 15-18, but it definitely ate into my reading time. I kept finding myself pausing my audiobook for long periods of time. So here I am now trying to finish up the audiobook I started and I've got probably 20 minutes left in it at double speed. I like this one (The Visionist) quite a bit. The other book I finished earlier was ALSO about a cult, which was kind of confusing when I switched back and forth. Agents of Dreamland had like everything I love in one small book. I definitely need to check out Caitlin Kiernan's other books. Oh, I also read the first 16 pages of Penance by Kanae Minato. I just can't fit everything in!! I'm pretty happy with what I did get to this readathon! Oh, p.s., You Should Have Left is GREAT.
  


TOTAL BOOKS READ: 2
TOTAL PAGES READ: 602
TOTAL HOURS READ: 13 hours

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon :: April 2017

Hello, bookfrnds! This is my fifth time participating in Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and I'm as excited as ever. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out that link to sign up. It's exactly what it sounds like - you try to read for 24 hours. And there are prizes!

I work for approximately 4 hours today, but it shouldn't be too much of an issue. I'm co-hosting the readathon for a second time now, so be sure to say hi on the Readathon Twitter between 5 pm and 7 pm central time. Also look out for my posts on the Readathon blog! Oh! And I'm hosting a mini-challenge here on the blog at 9 am central time. Get in on it, it'll be fun, I promise!!

I'll keep my list of books finished here:

The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma

Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel

Most of my real-time, v exciting updates will be posted on twitter, instagram, and you can now find me on Litsy as OutlandishLit! But I'll be using this post every few hours to update as well. Let me know if you're participating!

UPDATES

Hour 0

1 // What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Minneapolis, Minnesota.

2 // Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Borne by Jeff Vandermeer!!! Also tbh some nonfiction books about gardening, because I have SO MUCH to learn.

3 // Which snack are you most looking forward to?
God, I never do enough snack prep. I have like 5 stroopwaffels left, but that's kind of all. I have some banana chips too.

4 // Tell us a little something about yourself!
I'm a spooky gal who likes to read weird books. I'm a bookseller and I'm now training to be a used book buyer at Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis. I like forests, intersectional feminism, horror movies, reality tv, propagating succulents, crafting pretty things, studying Japanese, and traveling.

5 // If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
I really would like to challenge myself to read 1,000 pages. I'm normally super low key and don't like putting any pressure on myself. But like... 1,000 would be cool haha. I know that's nothing for a lot of readathoners, but I'm bad at focusing. I'd ALSO like if some of my friends stopped by my place for ~communal reading~ but I haven't officially organized anything sooooo.

Hour 8

Well, because I had work in the morning I've only been reading for two hours now. But that's better than nothing!!

I've been spending most of my time listening to an audiobook: The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma. It was very necessary as I was getting ready for work in the morning then sorting out my life when I got home from work. I started reading Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel, the sequel to Sleeping Giants, because I felt like I wanted to stop listening to things and hold a book. I got 30 pages in and am having fun reading it so far, but my eyes are already tired from work and waking up so early. Back to the audio book now and closing my eyes for a bit.

Hour 12

1. What are you reading right now?
Still listening to The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma

2. How many books have you read so far?
0! haha

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?
I'd like to check out The Goddesses

4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?
Wooooork and other things. I kind of just had to do those things.

5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
How I'm so amazing at not focusing!!


Hour 18

I finished my first book during hour 17!! It was the audiobook of The Fishermen. I really liked the narration, but, I don't know, I just didn't love this book. Everybody else was obsessed with it when it came out and I thought it was fine. I'm just not sure what I missed.

I'm halfway through Waking Gods right now and I think I can finish it before I head to bed (I must, because I work tomorrow morning). It is just a breeze to read. Did I want to read more than this? Yes. Did work actually take 5 hours and was I super tired after? Also yes. So no hard feelings, me. I'm settling in with my chai tea now and I hope everyone has a great late evening/early morning of reading!

Hour 24

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? 
Hour 9 or 10, because I was asleep af.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a reader engaged for next year?
The Themis Files trilogy by Sylvain Neuvel is perfect for readathon. Most of it is written in interview format, so it's super fast to read. And it's ACTION PACKED.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next season?
72 hour readathon
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? 
The youtube video I found with noises of being on a train haha
5. How many books did you read? 
2! And they were both like 300 pages, proud of me.
6. What were the names of the books you read? 
The Fishermen, Waking Gods
7. Which book did you enjoy most? 
Waking Gods!! It was just a lot of fun. V good for what it was.
8. Which did you enjoy least? 
The Fishermen. I'm not sure why there was SO MUCH crazy hype. It was good, but I wasn't blown away.
9. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? 
~forever co-host~

TOTAL BOOKS READ: 2
TOTAL PAGES READ: 584
TOTAL HOURS READ: 12 hours

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon :: October 2016

Hello, super-readers! This is my fourth time participating in Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and I'm ready to go hard. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out that link to sign up. It's exactly what it sounds like - try to read for 24 hours. And there are prizes!

My stack of to-read books may be out of hand (the books on the left in the photo are the ones I'm already halfway through), but I ain't got time to judge myself. I work for approximately 4 hours today, but that's nothing. This time around I'm going to be co-hosting the readathon, so be sure to say hi on the Readathon Twitter between 10pm and midnight central time. Also look out for my posts on the Readathon blog!

I'll keep my list of books finished here:

Zero K by Don DeLillo
Saga Volume 6 by Brian K. Vaughan
The Red Car by Marcy Dermansky


Most of my real-time, v exciting updates will be posted on twitter, instagram, and you can now find me on Litsy as OutlandishLit! But I'll be using this post every few hours to update as well. Let me know if you're participating!

UPDATES

Hour 0

1 // What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Minneapolis, Minnesota.

2 // Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
I'm super stoked about Fish in Exile and The Mothers.

3 // Which snack are you most looking forward to?
I haven't put that much thought into snacks this year, because I discovered I have brie cheese and Mike's Hard Strawberry Lemonade in the fridge already. I clearly love myself.

4 // Tell us a little something about yourself!
I'm a spooky gal who likes to read weird books. I sell books and take photos at Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis. I like forests, intersectional feminism, horror movies, reality tv, propagating succulents, making pretty things, studying Japanese, and traveling.

5 // If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
I'm not going to force myself to stick with a book if I'm not really feeling it. I think I'll be bummed by staying focused but reading very little. If I find something I'm excited about, I'll be happy. But, at the same time, I reaaaaally want to finish some of my half-read books.

Hour 5

Hey, everybody! I'm checking in now after a very relaxing morning of audiobook reading. I didn't wake up at 7 am, because I accidentally went to bed at 1 am (thanks, Twin Peaks). But I woke up at 8 and began audiobooking immediately. And it's 11am now and I just finished! It was Zero K by Don DeLillo, which I had started listening to a number of days ago. I had a physical copy, but for whatever reason I was finding it so hard to get myself to read it. I'm glad I did the audio. I think I liked it for the most part, and I got a bit of knitting done. Did the math and I read the equivalent of 162 pages. Now I'm going to move on to another unfinished book - Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt. Hopefully it's good.

Hour 7

I finished another one! Granted, it was a bit easier. After reading 10 pages of Hex, I switched to Saga volume 6, which was such a delight. I just ate lunch and let the boyf distract me with youtube videos for a while, but it's time for me to get back into reading. I'm very curious about Fish in Exile, so I think I might just go for it.

Hour 11

Well, I have to go to work now. I'll be back in a few hours, though. And I should be able to audiobook a bit during some of it. I read 14 pages of Fish in Exile, then swapped it out for The Red Car by Marcy Dermansky. It. Is. AMAZING. I didn't think I'd like it that much, but I love it. I'm halfway through and can't wait to come back and finish it. For the past 45 minutes I've been listening to the audiobook of The Sisters Brothers just because I was tired of reading with my eyes and it's also quite good. See you all again soon.

Hour 20

Oh my, I didn't mean to not check in here for so many hours! Work went well - I got to audiobook while at the bookstore, then I had a great time photographing Mark Frost. After that I enjoyed some pad thai and reading before hosting on twitter for two hours. I've got to tell you, that shit takes ALL your focus. After the first hour, I let my Sisters Brothers audiobook play. I think I'm halfway through that. And I just finished The Red Car which did not let me down at all. It's 100% one of my favorite books of the year. I know a ton of people I need to push this book on pronto. Ah, the joys of readathon.

Hour 21

It's 3:30am now and I think it's time for me to hit the hay. Did a little more of The Sisters Brothers then jumped over to HEX which I don't really hate anymore. Or, at least, there hasn't been bad dialogue in a while. I feel good about how much I read considering I had 5 hours of working and I also have work tomorrow morning so I need SOME sleep. This was SO much fun and I feel my reading-love renewed.



TOTAL BOOKS READ: 3
TOTAL PAGES READ: 771
TOTAL HOURS READ: 13 hours, 30 minutes

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Oct. 10, 2016]

I just got back from camping this weekend! It was absolutely freezing, but I'm still glad I did it. I need to try to prioritize going out into the woods every week or two, because it's really something that I love. Each time I do it, I'm devastated to leave. I did some knitting (until my fingers got too cold), did some reading, started nature journaling, and also ruined some shoes when we got a little too confident on a flooded trail. We had fun. And I finished the first page of my state park passport!

Last night I went to a publisher rep night for booksellers in Minnesota. It was great fun seeing other booksellers and talking to the publisher reps. And, of course, I learned about a ton of amazing, upcoming books. Below is a photo of what I brought home. I think very soon I might do a post about the great books from local publishers I grabbed. They sound AMAZING.

One more thing: I have an excited bookish project in the works that I can't announce just yet, but I should be able to in a week or two. I wish I could say more, but I cannot. PATIENCE, FRIENDS!!

THIS WEEK(S) I READ:

• The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson - one of the best books I've read this year

CURRENTLY READING: 

I started Scratch by Steve Himmer while I was in the woods. At night. Which is the best and the worst decision. This one's about a man who's trying to settle down, so he moves out to a rural area. He lives near a forest where - surprise - a shapeshifter also lives. It's fun so far, right now the story is being narrated by the shapeshifter. I have no idea where this one is going to go. It comes out tomorrow!

What are you reading this week?

 

BookExpo America 2016

Whoa! It's been ten days since my last post. I expected a blogging break while I was at BEA, but right after returning home I got really debilitatingly sick. Like can't read, can't write, can't do anything sick. I'm on the mend now, so here I am with a very delayed update on my time in Chicago!

If you follow me on Twitter, Snapchat, or Instagram, you undoubtedly saw many many BEA updates. But in case that wasn't enough, here's a quick rundown of my three days at this bonkers book event.

There was a lot of this.

BOOK BAES

I'm going to come right out and say it, this super overwhelming event would have been kind of miserable had I not had a lot of book friends who were able to make it to Chicago. Even though I can definitely act confident and take care of business during big things, that doesn't mean that I'm having any fun. And I can 100% say I had a blast for all three days and it's all due to running around the booths with people I had been dying to meet/had met previously.

From left to right: Me, Rachel, Kerry, Emily

From left to right, top to bottom (excluding me): Sweet Shaina, Shannon, Liberty Hardy, Marisa, Kim

I met so many more people that were not pictured, and they were all great (Katie, Heather, Julie, Jessica, Catherine, Kristen, Beth, and more). I was lucky to go to several happy hours/dinner with these bad book bitches, as well as have lunch with Liberty Hardy and Amanda Nelson of Book Riot.

BOOKS & BOOTHS

Ok, enough gushing about the book baes. I wasn't hardcore enough to make a spreadsheet beforehand, but I did write some things on a piece of paper. I thought the amount of overlap of some of these signings and galley drops would definitely leave me missing out on some of the things I'd wanted to get in on. And I had prepared myself for that. But, surprisingly, I don't think I missed anything I had wanted to do. The size of BEA was kind of deceptive. Like it was absolutely huge, but after a certain point in one direction, it was just kids books, books in languages I didn't know, university presses, and remainders for bookstores to buy. So after checking it out once, there isn't really any reason to go back over there, narrowing the area in which you hang out significantly.

Every publisher I talked to was super super nice and accommodating. They were all excited to talk about their books and wanted to help get books to you if they were out of them. I was most impressed by the Graywolf booth (not just because they're Minnesotan). SUCH COOL PEOPLE.

I was also impressed by the in booth signings. At first when I heard people like Jonathan Safran Foer and George Saunders were doing their signings in booth instead of in the area specifically for signings, I was frightened. I had heard horror stories about this how wrong it went at Javits. But there was a pretty good amount of extra room near the bigger booths like Penguin Random House that allowed for the large lines. I didn't have to wait very long for anything.

Here's a photo of my explaining literature to George Saunders

There were a bunch of heavy hitters there as far as books go. Saunders' first novel Lincoln on the Bardo, Colson Whitehead's Underground Railroad, Alan Moore's (creator of Watchmen) first (enormous) novel Jerusalem. Etc. Etc. I came home with 30 books total, I think. Every day was fucking rough on my shoulders. Luckily beautiful Jenna of JMill Wanders drove me home, so I didn't have to worry about how much I was bringing home. But I also didn't want a million books, so I mostly controlled myself.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

- Shaina and I drank champagne that was probably not for us. They didn't fence it off and we didn't get yelled at sooooo it was probably fine. But we also looked very, very professional.

- Book speed dating! A fun idea that I was highly looking forward to, but kind of a clusterfuck. The idea is that you sit in groups at tables with a bunch of ARCs on them. Publisher reps come around and pitch books to you. After the publisher is done, you can take ARCs. OBVIOUSLY that is not what actually went down. Randos were showing up without having signed up then getting real mad about there not being enough chairs or books. A lot of publishers didn't actually have books there, because they didn't ship properly or something? Either the books didn't get there on time, or NY people didn't want to deal with shipping books to Chicago, so whatever. And elderly librarians are GRABBY. Pretty much everyone I knew at this event had some greedy mother fuckers at their table who didn't want to play by the rules. And my question is just like... why? You'd think these people never see books. Unreal. I also wasn't really interested in any of the books. OH WELL.

- I was given a sign to hold as I stood in a line. I was confused as to why I was holding it and what I was supposed to do with it after a while. But I do like having a false sense of power, so.

- Deep dish pizza. And seeing my friends. If you didn't know, I lived in Chicago for four years, so it was nice visiting a place I consider home.



I'm not going to say anything about the galley "scandal" and the rights of bloggers or whatever, because I'm already bored.


Tomorrow I'll be sharing some of the exciting new books I didn't know about before planning for BEA. GET PUMPED.

The Month-long Weirdathon Begins & The Achievements

IT'S HERE! March, the month of my three year blogiversary, is here and I'm SO ready to celebrate with the Weirdathon! Keep coming back to this page to update your progress on the reading achievements in the Rafflecopter. Every Wednesday there will be a new Weekly Weird-off post. And every Saturday I'll post a link-up for your weekly Weirdathon reading posts! Keep us up to date on what you're reading and have fun!! I'll be posting my reviews and lists of weird books throughout the month.

THE WEIRD READING CHALLENGE

Read as many weird books as you can during March! Once you're signed up you can enter the Rafflecopter below to win a book worth $15 USD or under from Book Depository, as long as you're in a country that gets free shipping. You will then reveal 14 achievements to help guide your reading and give you extra entries in the giveaway! You can't use one book for more than one of the achievements (other than the read 1, read 5, read 10 achievements). So if you read a book that had aliens AND an experimental format, you'll have to choose one achievement to use that book on. Still looking for books to read? Click here to see my lists of weird books.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

THE BOOKSTAGRAM CHALLENGE

If you're an Instagram lover, now is the time to start hunting for the weirdest book covers you can find. Take a lovely/bizarre photo of what you find, tag it with #weirdathon, and they'll be entered for judging (by me because I'm obviously an expert). Multiple entries encouraged! Show me the weirdest book covers ever! Winner gets a book of choice from Book Depository $15 or under if you're in a country that gets free shipping.

HUNT FOR THE WEIRDEST BOOK

As you're working on your reading challenge, pitch the weirdest books you read in a single tweet with the hashtag #weirdathon. At the end of the month, there will be a vote for the most compelling pitch and the winner gets a weird e-book bundle curated by yours truly! Keep writing pitches for the weird books you read for more chances to win AND to inspire other participants with your recommendations. We WILL find the weirdest book published this March.

THE WEEKLY WEIRD-OFFS

The debates have begun! Every Wednesday you'll see two of your favorite book bloggers going head to head. They've each chosen a weird book and will argue to the death about which book is weirder. It's informative, it's intense, and it's pretty funny. Check back every week to see what book you should read next! Winner of the debate receives a weird e-book bundle I've curated.



There's still time to sign up HERE! The challenge ends March 31. Be sure to show us your TBR book stack by using the #weirdathon hashtag and posting your link HERE. 

LET'S GET WEIRD.

Month-Long Weirdathon: What I'm Going To Read

The Month-long Weirdathon starts on March 1, which is in TWO DAYS. I am so excited I can hardly contain it. My favorite part of reading challenges is going through my bookshelves and figuring out what I want to read. And if you've ever watched me take part in a challenge or a readathon, you'll know that I have some problems with "reality."

I don't necessarily expect to read all of these. I just like to have options, ok?? And this is after I painfully narrowed it down. I still weep for the 3 books or so that I put back. I think the first book I'm going to read will be The Vegetarian by Han Kang. I have March 1 off, so I'll probably finish it up in a day.

I think the book that I'm most excited to read is The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector, because apparently it has a huge "what the fuck" ending. But I'm also super pumped for The Unfinished World by Amber Sparks. THEY ALL LOOK SO GOOD.

SIGN UP

If you haven't signed up yet, OR if you don't know what I'm talking about, CLICK HERE to learn more and sign up. If you are NOT signed up on the Linky by March 5th, you will not be eligible to win book money! Need some suggestions of weird books? HERE is my list of lists and reviews.

Show us your TBR stack!

Link to your post (blog, twitter, instagram, facebook, or otherwise) listing what you want to read this month! And be sure to use #weirdathon on your post!

Books I Loved & The Bloggers Who Pushed Them

Day 3 of Book Blogger Appreciation Week is today, and it's all about celebrating books you wouldn't have picked up without the push of a book blogger. Soooo much of my reading is shaped by what my favorite book bloggers are reading, so this list just barely scratches the surface. And, I'm going to be real, my memory is not amazing. I'm sure multiple people recommended certain things or I read many reviews about specific books. So accuracy is not guaranteed, but all the reviews I link to are so solid. Thanks, book bloggers! 

What I love most about the bookternet is when it feels like a horde of people running toward you with a particular book, and the horde keeps getting bigger and bigger. I don't remember all of the people who recommended The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips to me, but I'm pretty sure Shannon from River City Reading, Sarah from Sarah's Bookshelves, and Katie from Bookish Tendencies were some hardcore book pushers.
[Shannon's review] [Sarah's review] [Katie's review]
[My review]

Here's one that I sort of caught wind of on Twitter then got coerced into needing. The people I watched reading The Shore by Sara Taylor were I THINK Shannon, Sarah, and Shaina from Shaina Reads. But, again, there could have been more.

[Shannon's review] [Sarah's review] [Shaina's review]

[My review]

This book was sort of a given for me, because it combined horror and reality TV. And I had the book on my bookshelf. I just needed a little motivation to read it when I did. Lauren from Malcolm Avenue Review originally pushed A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay and I was pretty much sold despite her and I having some mild disagreements sometimes. But then Sal from Motion Sick Lit also said I needed to read it (after having heard about it from me), so I took the plunge. Neither let me down.
[Lauren's review] [My review] 

Seeing the cover of Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer was pretty much love at first sight, but luckily it was also accompanied by a fantastic review by Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings. This is one of my favorite books ever and I don't know that I would've found it otherwise.

[Carl's review] [My review]

M from Rain City Reads actually bought me Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, just because she loved it so much and it must have been my birthday or something. I was avoiding it because of the hype (as I do), but it's actually really, really good. Thanks again, M!
[M's review]

Leah from Books Speak Volumes has written tons of reviews that have convinced me to pick up books, but Hall of Small Mammals by Thomas Pierce was kind of notable. I almost refused to pick it up just because the cover was too good. I was trying not to be so shallow. But I read her review and was like yup, I need this. And it was so so good.

[Leah's review] [My review]

Andi from Estella's Revenge was right. Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt was the perfect kind of weird for me. She gets it.
[Andi's review] [My review]

I had never heard of Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation until Monika from Lovely Bookshelf wrote a great review of it. I'm so glad I read it, because I'm really bad at reading nonfiction and it's probably something I wouldn't have heard of on other blogs. It was an incredible, thought provoking experience. 

[Monika's review]

I hadn't delved into grit lit at all until reading Shannon's blog. And I probably would've skipped over The Animals by Christian Kiefer completely because it almost sounds too much like a thriller for my picky self. But it was SO BEAUTIFUL and also thrilling. What more could you want?
[Shannon's review] [My review]

THE FIRST CHAPTER. Thanks for the great review of Bull Mountain by Brian Panowich, Katie.
[Katie's review]

A trend I'm noticing: I often avoid books that I might like because there's no way I'd actually like them... or something. I had heard mixed reviews about Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh, but Naomi from Consumed by Ink's review and comments got me super excited to pick this on up. And I'm glad I did.
[Naomi's review] [My review]

Ursula Le Guin was someone both Shaina and I put off reading. I'm glad we read The Lathe of Heaven together, because obviously we would both love her (and we did), and I loved hearing Shaina's insights as we read. Thanks for being a great buddy reader, my love <3.

[Shaina's review] [My review]

What book have you read and loved because of a great recommendation from a book blogger?

Book Blogger Appreciation Week: Interviewing Literary Lindsey

This week is Book Blogger Appreciation Week! It's a whole lot of fun, check out the site and the hashtag #BBAW on Twitter if you want to find some cool new book blogs. So it's Day 2 of said week, and I got paired up with a random book blogger to interview. And, may I say, I am SO EXCITED to have gotten paired with Lindsey from Literary Lindsey. Her blog is a lot of fun to browse, so go check it out after reading a little more about her below!

TALKING WITH
LITERARY LINDSEY

What are your favorite and least favorite genres?
I am a big literary fiction junkie and I read a fair amount of historical fiction. My husband says I am mildly obsessed with WWII era stories. I think he is exaggerating. I usually manage to read one or two nonfiction books each month, but I’m trying to read more. I tend to stay away from horror and scary mysteries because I will never sleep again.

What's the biggest surprise you've encountered in book blogging?
I don’t know that I would call it a surprise, but I might call it the biggest thing I’ve learned about book blogging. No matter how many followers or comments you get (or don’t), at the end of the day, it’s about you and books. It’s about sharing them with other people, but it’s mostly a way for you to remember what you loved.

What book do you want to recommend to everybody?
I'm going to cheat and pick a few.
For the new parent who feels like they are not doing it right: After Birth by Elisa Albert
For the reader looking for a can’t-put-it-down nonfiction book: The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison
For the reader searching for a new series: Flavia de Luce books by Alan Bradley
For the person who doesn’t think they like short stories: A Guide to Being Born by Ramona Ausubel

What are your favorite kinds of posts to write?
I like writing reviews when the thoughts all come together easily. I also love writing reviews with my kids. My son and I reviewed children’s books on Wednesdays for a long time. Now he’s a little older and isn’t always into it, but I’m always game when he is!

Do your friends and family know about your blog? What do they think?
Some of them do! I know my mom gets all of my posts and my best friend (who lives across the country) tells me it’s a great way to keep tabs on what is going on in my life when we just can’t seem to catch each other on the phone.

What's the weirdest book you've ever read?
Off the top of my head, the weirdest book I remember reading is actually a short story collection. Karen Russell’s Vampires in the Lemon Grove had some very unsettling tales. There’s a young boy who sees things that may or may not really be there on the lonely frontier, a girl who undergoes a terrifying transition at a silk factory, and a soldier’s tattoo changes based on what he thinks happened during his tour of duty. It was so very weird and I remember most of the stories, which rarely happens for me with short story collections!

Thanks so much for talking with me, Lindsey! I hope you all enjoyed learning about this lovely book blogger!! 

 

Month-Long Weirdathon: Sign-Up

March is my three year blogiversary and so far I have never done anything for it. But THAT'S ABOUT TO CHANGE. At the end of last year, I struggled through a lot of stale books. It's easy to get into a reading rut. The solution? Get weird. Join me in this month-long reading challenge to expand your reading horizons and find the strangest books you can, with MULTIPLE ways to win book money!!

UPDATE: Sign ups have been reopened until March 15

THE WEIRD READING CHALLENGE

Read as many weird books as you can during march! You can set your goal low or high, it's completely self-directed. To help you along, there will be achievements to give you more giveaway entries. Every week there will be an optional link-up for your progress.

What counts as weird? Anything that's weird to you. Maybe that's aliens. But for others maybe it's bizarro fiction written in a created dialect starring a talking fruit. Click here to see my lists of weird books for inspiration and TBR padding!

THE BOOKSTAGRAM CHALLENGE

Love Instagram as much as I do? Search your shelves or bookstores for the weirdest book covers you can find. Tag them with #weirdathon and they'll be entered for judging (by me). Weirdest cover gets a prize!

HUNT FOR THE WEIRDEST BOOK

As you're working on your reading challenge, pitch the weirdest books you read in a single tweet with the hashtag #weirdathon. At the end of the month, there will be a vote for the most compelling pitch and the winner gets a prize. Keep searching for the strangest books you can find, so you can win!

SIGN UP

This reading challenge runs from March 1 to March 31. You have until March 15th to sign up! All you have to do is 1. post about your intention to join the #weirdathon on your blog, Twitter, Goodreads, Instagram, Facebook, or Youtube. Then 2. post a link to that in the linky below. Feel free to use the official weirdathon image below and at the top of the post, and please link back to this post!

If you want to tweet, you can use this convenient pre-written message (or change it however you like):

Use the direct link to your sign up post/status in the linky below and you're golden! If you need any help with that or have questions, leave a comment below.

All signed up?? Enter the giveaway HERE.

Be sure to show us your TBR book stack and use #weirdathon! LET'S GET WEIRD.

Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon - October 2015

This is my second time participating in Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and I'm super pumped! To be honest, I hadn't even planned on actually doing it until like...yesterday. But my book slump has been way too real for my tastes, so I want to force myself into reading for as close to 24 hours as I can get. I work from 3 to 7 at the bookstore which oddly is not super fond of you reading while on the clock. So that makes it more like a 19-Hour Readathon for me. It'll do.

The books in my stack in the order I should probably read them:

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
Three Moments of an Explosion by China Miéville
Saga Vol. 5 by Brian K. Vaughan
Revival Vol. 4 by Tim Seeley
Locke & Key Vol. 2 by Joe Hill
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
Rat Queens #11 and #12 by Kurtis J. Wiebe

Most of my real-time, v exciting updates will be posted on twitter and instagram, but I'll be using this post every few hours to update as well. Let me know if you're participating! LET'S READ A MILLION BOOKS!!

UPDATES

Hour 1

1 // What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Minneapolis, Minnesota!

2 // Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Probably Three Moments of an Explosion by China Miéville or Saga Vol. 5 by Brian K. Vaughan, because I was super hyped about reading both when they came out but for some reason put them off.

3 // Which snack are you most looking forward to?
Cheez-its. Always Cheez-its.

4 // Tell us a little something about yourself!
I'm a book blogger who really likes weird books! I'm also a bookseller at Minneapolis indie bookstore Magers & Quinn. I've been in a book slump for the past like two months, but I'm working on it and trying to embrace that sometimes I really just need to read books with pictures in them.

5 // If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
One thing I'll do differently... if my eyes start to hurt, I might give myself a break. Don't want to burn out and create a new book slump.

Hour 7

So I managed to wake up in time to start the readathon with the rest of the world, but a few hours in I got a little bit distracted. I just hit page 300 in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao which I'm not loving as much as everybody else in the world. I'd go ahead and just finish it, but I'm reading it with somebody so I guess I'll ask permission to complete the book so it feels like I'll have made more progress. Moving onto some comics then Fates and Furies before I go to work in 2.5 hours!


Hour 14

I'm off of work, yay!!! Before heading to work I finished Saga, Vol. 5. Then right after work I headed to a pizza place to use a coupon I'd forgotten about. On my one person pizza date, I spent a little time with Fates and Furies. Honestly, I am really over Lotto. Need to get to the good part already.


Hour 24

I toooootally fell asleep at 10pm while reading Fates and Furies. Perhaps not a good sign. I really should've invested in some Rockstar, because I did NOT get a lot of reading done this readathon. Onto the closing survey.

1 // Which hour was most daunting for you?
16, as I started to feel reeeeeal drowsy.

2 // Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
I would recommend No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July or Selected Unpublished Blog Posts of a Mexican Panda Express Employee by Megan Boyle. The titles are basically longer than the books are.

3 // Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Can we have some irl Readathon slumber parties? That would be ideal.

4 // What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
Everything was beautiful <3

5 // How many books did you read?
Two. I don't want to talk about it haha.

6 // What were the names of the books you read?
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz and Saga, Vol. 5 by Brian K. Vaughan

7 // Which book did you enjoy most?
Saga, obviously. 

8 // Which did you enjoy least?
I really didn't love Oscar Wao. I realize that's an unpopular opinion.

9 // How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again?
SO LIKELY. Can we do one next weekend?


TOTAL BOOKS READ: 2
TOTAL PAGES READ: 395
TOTAL HOURS READ: 8-ish

The #24in48 Readathon!

I love nothing more than a good readathon. #24in48 allows you to spend this Saturday and Sunday reading for a total of 24 hours. Learn more and sign up here!

I'm normally pretty lax about keeping track of how much I actually read during readathons, but this time I'm going to use my phone's stop watch to only record when I'm actively reading. I really want to hit an actual 24 hours. But also I'm lazy so we'll see what happens. Updates will be going on this post throughout the two days, so keep checking back!

Obviously I don't intend to read ALL of these books, but I like to have options. And I just grabbed two single issue comics, so I think I'll speed through those as well.

Let me know if you're participating! It's not too late! I'll be on twitter, instagram, AND my shiny new facebook page with more active updates. I'll be using the hashtag #24in48. HERE WE GO.


// UPDATES

DAY 1. 11:00 AM. HOUR 11.

Uh oh, I just woke up. TO BE FAIR, I got woken up at 4 then couldn't fall asleep until 7. Perhaps I should have read then, but I was too busy saying "why" over and over again in my head. Around midnight I read the single issue comic of Trees (#10). Sooo that was a solid 7 minutes. COOL. Onwards.

TIME READ: 7 minutes.
PAGES READ: ~30

DAY 1. 4:00 PM. HOUR 16.

I had a late start, but I've been pretty good at focusing on reading. I'm trying to read as hard as I can now so I'm not super behind tomorrow. Finished these two comic books and I'm a third of the way through each novel. Bitch Planet was SO GOOD. And The Room is SO FUNNY. I thought When We Were Animals was going to be a horror novel, but like... it's not really. So I'm leaving it alone for now.

TIME READ: 4 hours, 10 minutes.
PAGES READ: 230
BOOKS READ: Trees #10, Bitch Planet #1.


DAY 2. 2:00 AM. HOUR 26.

I've been jumping around in books A LOT. And some friends forced me to leave the house, so that cut into some reading time. Finished The Room, which was great. Finished When We Were Animals, which was not. I read a little bit of The Keep by Jennifer Egan, but I wasn't feeling it that much, so I stopped. Nothing's really calling to me right now, so hopefully I can find an exciting book tomorrow.

TIME READ: 11 hours, 10 minutes.
PAGES READ: 597
BOOKS READ: Trees #10, Bitch Planet #1, The Room by Jonas Karlsson, When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord. 


DAY 2. 1:20 PM. HOUR 37.

Oh my god, my book hopping is out of control. I started Ticknor by Sheila Heti then stopped after 11 pages. Then I started The Animals by Christian Kiefer, which I like. But THEN my boyfriend came home with the continuation of the Invader Zim series in comic form, so obviously I had to read that immediately (and it was perfect). I'm back on The Animals now and I'm going to read outside to try to become less brain dead. So there's a lot of jumping and a lot of very slow tired reading. I'm trying so hard to hit 24, you guys.

TIME READ: 14 hours, 35 minutes.
PAGES READ: 695
BOOKS READ: Trees #10, Bitch Planet #1, The Room by Jonas Karlsson, When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord, Invader Zim #1.  


DAY 2. 9:30 PM. HOUR 46.

My reading has slowed down very significantly. Some of it's the overwhelming, muggy weather. Some of it's my brain is mush. I think what I've learned is that my attention span is way too short for marathon reading. There's been a lot of reading sentences several times. But I'm going to try to finish ONE MORE BOOK, because I'm crazy. I don't even know what it's about (The Blue Fox by Sjon), but it's tiny, it's square, and it's 115 pages. THE FINAL SPRINT, HERE I GO.

TIME READ: 22 hours, 30 minutes.
PAGES READ: 912
BOOKS READ: Trees #10, Bitch Planet #1, The Room by Jonas Karlsson, When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord, The Animals by Christian Kiefer.



DAY 2. 11:05 PM. HOUR 48.

I DID IT! I read for a full 24 hour! I mean I only read 1,027 pages so clearly not all of that time was speedy or very productive, but I still DID IT! 3 comics and 4 books. Most of them were animal themed for some reason? That was unplanned. Finished on the bizarre and delightful little book, The Blue Fox which was perfect for my delirious state. Time to sleep forever. Thanks to everyone who read along this weekend!

TIME READ: 24 hours!
PAGES READ: 1027
BOOKS READ: Trees #10, Bitch Planet #1, The Room by Jonas Karlsson, When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord, The Animals by Christian Kiefer, The Blue Fox by Sjon.