BC: August 2019 TBR

Bonjour all

 

It has been a fair while since I’ve done a bit of a book chat. Uni and life, in general, are to blame for that – I have actually typed out a couple and then decided that they were either a bit meh, or that I had waited so long to publish it that what I was saying was no longer relevant. Enough excuses, here’s what I plan on reading in August 2019. It’s quite an ambitious list for me – especially as I’m starting my first ‘proper’ full-time job – I’ll be happy to have finished half of these (and started the other half) by the end of the month 🙂

 

Clicking on each of the titles below will take you to the relevant Goodreads page. They’re mostly fantasy/speculative fiction; I haven’t copied images over from Goodreads as I’ve noticed that blog posts like that can take considerably longer to load and nobody wants that. For info about the book please check out the Goodreads page 🙂

 

Current reads:

• 1. Northern Lights (The Golden Compass) – Philip Pullman
  • This does not need any introduction from myself. I have previously tried to read this two or three times (both physically reading and listening to the audiobook) but this is the first time I’ve got more than one-third of the way through. It’s so good – I don’t know why I have always given up in the past. Part of the compulsion to read this now is, of course, due to the upcoming TV series which looks absolutely stunning. Gotta’ read the book before watching the adaptation.
  • I’m actually reading this a bit weird – I’ve loaded the text from my ebook copy (purchased legally) into a PDF and then have fed that into a Chrome extension called Sprint Reader. This basically flashes one word at a time on your screen with the aim to dramatically improve reading speed. I’ve personally had no issues with comprehension using this method, but have been able to get through the story much quicker than ever before. Might be worth checking out.

 

• 2. The First Fear – M.S. Olney
  • This is an indie book that I was asked to review by Fantasy Book Review (a review blog), and I’m sad to say that it has taken me months to get around to reading it. Why? Uni work and lack of motivation, to be honest. While working on my undergrad dissertation I struggled to read anything at all. The good news is that I am enjoying what I have read so far (I’m about 60% of the way through).
  • As with some other books, although I was given a review copy of the ebook I purchased the audiobook version in order to read it quicker. I have a few minor quibbles about the narration but generally, have found this to be a good way of consuming The First Fear.

 

• 3. The Storm Keeper’s Island – Catherine Doyle
  • A nice little MG book about a young lad and his friends as they visit an Irish island which is heavily infused with magic. Loving this so much so far (I’m about one-third of the way through at time of writing this post) and it’s reminding me of the books I used to read 10+ years ago.
  • Reading this one via a paperback copy I purchased from WHSmith (UK books and stationery shop) for a whopping £2 a few weeks ago.

 

Planned:

• 4. The Prisoner of Azkaban – J.K. Rowling
  • Again, no introduction needed here. I enjoyed The Philosopher’s Stone and didn’t care for The Chamber of Secrets, so I’m hoping that reading The Prisoner of Azkaban will one again attract me to the series. I haven’t read the books before, but the third movie is my favourite and I’ll be interested to see if it’s the same for the books.
  • I’ll be listening to the audiobook of this, read by Stephen Fry, via the BorrowBox library app.

 

• 5. Shades of Magic Volume 1: The Steel Prince – V.E. Schwab & Andrea Olimpieri
  • This is a graphic novel prequel to Schwab’s Shades of Magic trilogy – the first three books I read by the author and by far my favourite works of hers. Unfortunately, they were read before I started this blog so no reviews exist on here.
  • I received a paperback of this for my birthday back in January, so I’m glad to be moving around to it soon.

 

• 6. Blackwood Marauders – K.S. Villoso
  • Yet another ARC I was sent late last year which has struggled to work its way onto any of my TBRs since then. Villoso is a well-liked author and I feel guilty about delaying reading this for so long. It’s meant to be good and I agreed to write a review for it – so that I shall do.
  • I plan to copy this into the Sprint Reader app as I have done with Northern Lights. At 321-ish pages I don’t think that this will take too long, but if it doesn’t work well in the app then I’ll just switch over to the Kindle copy the author sent to me.

 

• 7. The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
  • I know very little about this, but picked it up very cheap at the start of the year and whacked it on my 2019 TBR as a piece of translated fiction. It’s very well known and seems to have a decent group of fans online, so I’m excited to see what all the fuss is about.
  • I’ll be reading a paperback copy.

 

• 8. To Be Taught, If Fortunate – Becky Chambers
  • If I could only read one book in August, it would be To Be Taught, If Fortunate, a new novella from the author of my favourite book /series of 2018. I genuinely don’t think Chambers can do wrong, and with only 144 pages to play with I’ll be interested to see how she does in the shorter format.
  • I have a signed edition on order from Waterstone, but I’ll probably be buying an ebook copy too so that I don’t risk damaging a nice shiny hardback.
  • Reviews for Chambers’ other books:
    • the long way to a small, angry planet
    • a closed and common orbit
    • record of a spaceborn few

 

Have you read any of these books? If so please comment with your thoughts or point me to your review, I’d love to see what you thought of them! 🙂