75 Books...More or Less! discussion

Ready to read all the books again this year! To be honest, a lot of my life is up in the air right now with this new business of mine, so I'm going to be taking 2024 a month at a time more than I usually do. To that end, I'm not really committing to the reading goals I was originally planning to aim for to keep the pressure off as much as I can.

I'm gonna set my goal at 40 again, but I'll probably up that later in the year. I'd also like to try for another Shakespeare and nonfiction read like I used to. I've read so many classics now, I'm not really concerned about making them a priority at this point.

My only other real goal this year is to read more sapphic books. I got a bunch I'd like to read this year.

Decided to track the sapphic books too:

All books read in 2024:

It sounds like a busy year for you Shelby! What kind of business are you starting?

Andrea wrote: "It sounds like a busy year for you Shelby! What kind of business are you starting?"

I've actually been training and working in it for a while! I'm a copywriter, so I write ads for businesses and organizations of any size. Facebook ads, web pages, emails, etc. I can work with clients anywhere in the world as a freelancer, provided my work is in English, which is great. On the off chance anyone's looking for a copywriter, my portfolio site is www.ArcticFoxCopywriting.com

Welcome back, Shelby! Looking forward to seeing what you read!

Elyse wrote: "Welcome back, Shelby! Looking forward to seeing what you read!"

Thank you Elyse!

Wow, that sounds like a really interesting and creative job!

Andrea wrote: "Wow, that sounds like a really interesting and creative job!"

It’s really is!

New Monthly Magical Readathon! Starting with a new character this year.


January: Rely on your wits (Listen to an audiobook) -


February: Turn right and embrace the Mist of Solitude once more (Word 'mist' in the title) -


March: Remove a complex lock enchantment cast on the exit door (Start/continue a series that intimidates you) -


April


May: Extra credit in Restoration (Title has multiple 'R's) -


June


July


August


September


October


November


December


Guild Points: 140

Wow, you're busy! I like the idea of more sapphic books!

Juli wrote: "Wow, you're busy! I like the idea of more sapphic books!"

I want some favourite sapphic ships!

I suppose I should catch up here before I get too far ahead...



This was okay. If there's a young reluctant reader in your life who loves pirates and/or airships, this could be a good one for them to try.

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Some of this was interesting. A lot of it was review for me after having written so much, but I picked up a couple of useful things. King has some iffy opinions, but I guess that's to be expected. Learning about his life was interesting though.

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I kept almost picking up this one last year, and I finally made myself just do it this month. I wanted a thriller and this one fits with the freezing January weather. Other than all the details about mountaineering, this is a very standard thriller. I figured out the twist near the beginning.

Yesterday I decided to throw myself a day-long readathon to see how many books I could read. The previous day was really stressful, so my brain needed some breathing room. I ended up crossing 4 books off my TBR, so not too bad.



This was cute. The Great Mouse Detective was one of my favourite Disney movies growing up, so I was going to get to this one eventually. I just finished watching the movie, and I still enjoyed it. I probably would've liked these books more when I was young. Honestly, I could see these being an early favourite if I'd known about them.

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A short picture book about a young girl spending time with her family and learning about her heritage in the final days before she's sent to a residential school. Sad but hopeful.

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I've been meaning to pick this one up for ages, and I ended up loving it! Unlike The Stepford Wives and Rosemary's Baby, I'd say this is more of a thriller. But this thriller got me multiple times, and I really loved the twists and turns here. I'm really glad I got to read this one in one sitting.

5 Stars

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I had a bit of time left at the end of my readathon and I was scrambling to find something short I could finish with, and this was on my wishlist, so I grabbed it.

I picked this up spur-of-the-moment, and I'm glad I did! I really enjoyed Below by Laurel Hightower, and I ended up liking this one even more. Crossroads is in a similar vein to Carrie by Stephen King, where you're just watching helplessly as a slow-motion car crash plays out in front of you, hoping it doesn't happen, knowing it probably will.

5 Stars

Intense: ✔️
Scary: ✔️

Just when you think you’ve figured out the plot, R.L. Meza flips the table.

Well, that was certainly a thing I read.

Shelby wrote: "

Well, that was certainly a thing I read."

Ouch! Hopefully that's the only one of those you have this year :(

Stacie wrote: "Shelby wrote: "

Well, that was certainly a thing I read."

Ouch! Hopefully that's the only one of those you have this year :("

Here’s hoping. ☹️

Had this on my tbr for a while and decided to pick it up with TFIL. Planning to watch the film tomorrow.

ATTENTION! Eerie River Publishing has a Kickstarter going for a new horror anthology, and one of the rewards/add-ons is an ebook set of the It Calls series, including It Calls From the Veil! There are tons of other goodies too: bath bombs, mugs, coffee and candy, etc. Check it out!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

Lightning round summary!



Valentines Day read. I'm not sure how it stacks up with Aces Wild, but I liked it.

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I'm not really a Bradbury fan, but I enjoyed the premise.

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This picture book deals with some pretty serious historical issues, and it rose to the challenge. A good entry point if you're unfamiliar with what happened.

5 Stars

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I'm so glad I finally got to this. I wasn't sure where it was going for most of it, but I love the ending.

5 Stars

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This was cute. I'd say it's an engaging book for kids.

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A really clever take on the Red Riding Hood story. I knew what was happening pretty quickly, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it.

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This one took me a while to get into, but I ended up enjoying the ending.

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This was one of the short books on my tbr waiting for a readathon after I read the first one last year. Did not enjoy this one as much, but it's certainly weird. Imagine Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but with dogs and less exciting.

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I had high hopes for this one. I was really into it at first, but it didn't stay that way.

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The Magical Readathon finally made me read a book by this author. I wasn't a fan of this one, but I did like the ending. I still have another few books by this author on my TBR and I'm willing to give them another try.

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A classic I've been meaning to read for a while. I liked the dreamlike quality I'd heard so much about.

Another day, another quick catch-up before Magical Readathon in April!



I've been meaning to get to this one, especially now that there's a movie coming. I liked it more than Never Let Me Go. It was certainly less bleak.

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Well, I already read Alice, might as well finish this one off. I thought it was okay, but I definitely preferred the first one more.

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I did it, folks. I read Gideon the Ninth. This book has been intimidating me for ages. I liked it, but I didn't love it. I am interested to see where the author takes things later this year. Buddy read with Elyse! Come join us in reading this series!

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Another book that I've been meaning to get to for ages. I liked it, didn't love it though. Very paranoid and tense, if that's what you're looking for. I'm interested to read more by this author.

April is officially the first semester of Magical Readathon: Orilium! So excited to be back!

I've started a new character this year, who's going for the Faeworld Cartographer career, which means that for Spring Equinox I need to pass the following classes:

Elemental Studies: Call lightning (Source of light on cover) -

Shapeshifting: Mimics (Read from author who blurbed your last 5 star read) -

Animal Studies: Pebble ducks (Yellow title) -

Astronomy: Constellations 3 (Zodiac recommendation) -

Alchemy: Transmutation circles (Circle on the cover) -

Inscription: Practical - Typography (Write down 3 titles, fold them, pick one) -

Demonology: Pacts & Contracts (Book you didn't pay for) -


Spring Equinox Quests:

Quest 1: A book with a moon on the cover or in the title -

Quest 2: Book with copper/bronze foil elements/in the title -

Quest 3: Read a book with portals/portal magic in it -

Quest 4: Read a book with a door on the cover or the word 'door' in the title -

Quest 5: Nearest unread book to you right now -

Current Guild Points Level: 140

So my April was not relaxing, as it turned out. I've been dedicating a lot of concentration to work at the moment, and writing, and my reading for this readathon was left in quite a lethargic start. I don't know if my brain was just tired, or I was in a reading slump or what, but my Magical Readathon this Spring Equinox looked like this:

Start of April: Rounds and rounds of DNFs. Constantly changing my mind on what I was in the mood for. Dragging myself through the first few.
Then: ALL THE WORK!
Mid April: Starting another book and taking an evening to catch up on Lore Olympus.
Then: Even more work.
End of April: Taking a little under a week to let myself binge short reads to cross off my classes and some quests.

I did end up enjoying many of these, but man I hope my August is better for this readathon. Maybe less crazy and I'll have a better time reading.

Now for a lightning-round summary:

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I'm not sure what to make of this one. It was sitting on my TBR for ages, so I needed to get to it already. I did like some of the descriptions for the weirdness of the actual house.

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I really enjoyed the worldbuilding in this one!

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I'm so glad I picked these up! I wasn't a big fan of volume 5, so I was dragging my feet on these next two (plus I wanted to wait for them to stack up again so I could binge them!). I really loved these two. Excited to read more!

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I was meaning to pick this one up, and I was in exactly the right mood for it. I plan to focus on getting through the other books from this series on my tbr asap because one of the special edition shops I follow is doing versions of the queer books in this lineup. So far I've really enjoyed the spin these authors have taken on all of these remixes.

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Another graphic novel I needed to get to! I liked the book, but I LOVED the movie! Go watch it on Netflix if you haven't already.

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I really liked this one too! And that's coming from a fan of the original.

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My love of the Silverwing series is well documented by this point. I was saving this one for a special occasion, and that occasion was now lol. I ended up really liking the art design (especially of Goth), and I'm SO excited for Sunwing: The Graphic Novel. Also, read the novels, if you haven't yet. Especially the first two.

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This was okay. I grew up with the Goosebumps books, but I'd never read the Fear Street ones for older readers, so I thought I'd give them a try. This one sounded like the type of plot I'd like, so I decided to pick it as my first one. I don't know if I'll read more Fear Street in the future, but if I do, I'm probably going to look for creature features.

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Last read of the readathon, and I'm now over halfway done this series. Overall, I liked it. I can see what other reviewers mean by this being more horror scifi, which is fun.

My recent reads have gotten away from me once again. Guess it's time for another wrap-up.
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This one's been sitting on my TBR for a while, so when I saw This Film Is Lit covering it, I decided to cross it off the list.

I enjoyed this more than Haunting of Hill House, but then, I didn't like that one much. I'm at the point where I'm wondering if I should give it another try.

Really enjoyed the ambiguity of this one.

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Another remix from this series that I wanted to read before Dazzling Bookish Shop released their special editions. This was pretty even with My Dear Henry for me, although I think I'd give the edge to this one, seeing as I like the original Jekyll and Hyde, but Gatsby not so much.

I mentioned somewhere that I was excited for Gatsby to enter the public domain so we could get some queer re-imaginings I'd like better, and this is certainly that. I really like the 1920s setting of the original, so it was nice to like the characters for a change too.

I've got one more from this series I'm reading next, and I'm really hopeful I'll like it.

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Book 2 in my buddy read with Elyse! This one felt like a lot of setup for book 4, which doesn't have a real release date yet. I get the sense book 3 will be like that too.

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Quick question - did they gender-swap the cousin in the movie we're all familiar with? I could've sworn they were a girl. Haven't seen it since I was little, and I only remember vague scenes.

It took me a while to get into this one, but I liked the second half more.

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I kept almost reading this, but then I got a prompt saying I pretty much had to, so here we are lol. I think the horrorland series has a much stronger setup compared to the more recent series of Goosebumps. This one felt a bit like the older ones at times.

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Read this for research.

Shelby wrote: "Yesterday I decided to throw myself a day-long readathon to see how many books I could read. The previous day was really stressful, so my brain needed some breathing room. I ended up crossing 4 boo..."

Ummm no. The Great Mouse Detective movie gave me nightmares as a child!! When the mouse turns into a rat!! 😱😱😩😩 Scarred for life.

Shelby wrote: "So my April was not relaxing, as it turned out. I've been dedicating a lot of concentration to work at the moment, and writing, and my reading for this readathon was left in quite a lethargic start.

..."

I frick fracking love Nimona! The graphic novel, the audiobook, and the movie!!

Shelby wrote: "My recent reads have gotten away from me once again. Guess it's time for another wrap-up.
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This one's been sitting on my TBR for a while, s..."

I also liked Castle more than Hill House!

Elyse (catching up since giving birth in Jan!) wrote: "Shelby wrote: "Yesterday I decided to throw myself a day-long readathon to see how many books I could read. The previous day was really stressful, so my brain needed some breathing room. I ended up..."

I do love Ratigan straight-up becoming a werewolf. It's wonderful! Lol.

Elyse (catching up since giving birth in Jan!) wrote: "Shelby wrote: "So my April was not relaxing, as it turned out. I've been dedicating a lot of concentration to work at the moment, and writing, and my reading for this readathon was left in quite a ..."

Nimona's great all around!

Shelby wrote: "I do love Ratigan straight-up becoming a werewolf. It's wonderful! Lol...."

Terrifying! lol

Just stopping by to update my reading list at the top, seeing as I like to refer back to those, but I'm not really interested in going through them all at this point. Still, it's not like I didn't read anything the second half of 2024!

I'll post my review, though:



I'm not sure how to talk about this one. It's very different from what I was expecting from the blurb. That said, the supernatural horror was really unique.

I did read a whole bunch of sapphic books. Didn't find what I was looking for, but I definitely read more than I usually do, so I'm counting it as a win!

Well, you beat your goal of 40 so woohoo congrats!

Elyse wrote: "Well, you beat your goal of 40 so woohoo congrats!"

Thanks!