This month I chose to participate in the January AYearAThon readathon where I read as many red covers, as I could, for one week. Now, I don’t intend to participate in the AYearAThon moving forward, but I like to participate in at least one readathon every month because it helps me read more. I chose this readathon because it seemed like an easy one too get invested in that covered a lot of the books I wanted to read (soon). The objective was pick books with a certain color on the cover, so I chose red. The rules technically said to read a cover of that color not with that color, but I allowed for a little wiggle room.
Overall this was a very successful readathon. I’ve read more books this week than I think I ever have before in a week (9). Of course, some of these are novellas, or just very short books, but even still, it was a challenge but one I thoroughly enjoyed. I went in with what I thought was a very ambitious goal, expecting to read 7 or 8 books. I had had a slow start to the month (year, decade!) and was hoping to get myself back into the swing of things. Once I started with my regular reading routine, I really got into it. By the end, I even threw in a 9th book!
This month I read If You Ask Me, by Betty White. I was very hesitant to read this one because as much as I love Betty White I wasn’t sure how much I would like it. In the end, I enjoyed it, but it was a little lackluster. I had an overall better experience with Robin by Dave Itzkoff. It was a fantastic book that I recommend to any Robin Williams fan. The next one that I read was Underland by Robert McFarland, and I was really excited about this one. Sadly, I was very disappointed by what I read; it just was not what I thought I was getting when I started it. Luckily that was really the only novel that severely disappointed me. Every other book I read I either loved or was at least glad I read it.
I read How We Know What Isn’t So by Thomas Gilovich. This is a book that I had on my TBR for a while because it is considered a standard book and the skeptic community. It’s about the fallibility of human reason, and I really enjoyed it. I was hesitant because these types of books about human bias and human psychology can easily be very esoteric and difficult to read. However, that was not the case. This one was written away that was very easy to consume, and I highly recommend it! A more esoteric book was be The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould. That one I enjoyed, but I did not much appreciate the way in which Gould structured the book.
In fiction, I finally read Scythe by Neal Shusterman. I added this one to by TBR at the last second because I had been so hesitant to read it. There are so many hyped YA books, and so far, I have really not loved them. Luckily, I gave this one a shot, and it is amazing. I haven’t been this excited for a series in a while. Another book that I read was the 4th book in the Earthsea Cycle, Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin. It was fine. I haven’t loved reading them, but I am trying to read one a month so as to get a full review of the series. I enjoyed it more than the others, but it still isn’t something I love. You’ll see my review of that sometime in the spring.
The last book I read (this isn’t in the order I read them) was Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman. I read this one because I haven’t been reading a lot of general thrillers, and I wanted to tackle that section of my TBR. This was one of several books I bought after the positive review by Books and Lala, and while I trust her opinion, I’m finding it hard not to go off books that I am more excited for on my own than purely off her suggestion. Of course, there is a reason I trust her judgement! It did not fail me because I loved this book. It is a story about these teen girls who get into some drama, and I am here for it. I absolutely adored that book.
I read so many books part of me is worried I am leaving one off! This is the first time I created a readathon post after finishing it, but the holidays and January are such a busy time. You may have noticed, I attached a video at the top of this discussion. That is my first attempt at posting a video for Booktube! It is essentially me talking about the same stuff as here. I may or may not continue to do blogs and videos for the exact same content, but that is the goal!
I am so grateful to the leaders of the AYearAThon readathon. I had been having a serious slump this month from the traveling followed by the flu for a week. I was getting really disheartened about reading, but now I leave this week with 9 new books and a renewed vigor. I was shocked I read so many nonfiction, but I suppose those are the ones I wanted to read. I think I owe some thanks to Olive at abookolive for being one of the key people getting me inspired about nonfiction. Overall, I loved this readathon! I would say it was a real success not just in quantity but specifically in the quality of books that I read.
For the Love of Science 