to be read

On My TBR: Greek Myth Retelling Edition

Posted on June 12, 2019June 9, 2019 by Ashleigh

We have the beginning of a new series on this blog of mine! And it comes with a story.

Basically, for the longest time I’ve wanted to do a video/blog post recommending greek myth retellings…but so far, I actually haven’t read that many. I just really love the ones I have read, and have accumulated a lot that sound super interesting to me. But it’s going to take me a looooong time to get through all the greek myth retellings I’ve accumulated to do said list..but hey, why not show you the books I’m really excited to get to from my TBR?

So here’s the beginning of a blog series, in which I show you 5 books on my TBR that I’m really excited to get to! Each post will claim a genre, some upcoming ones being female fantasy and nonfiction. But since the original idea came from all the myth retellings I want to read – that’s what this post is dedicated to! Here are 5 greek myth retellings that are high priority on my TBR!

Keep reading!

First Chapters – Deciding My Holiday TBR

Posted on July 20, 2018July 16, 2018 by Ashleigh

Book spines - The Magicians by Lev Grossman, The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry, The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, American Gods by Neil Gaiman, A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray, A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood, Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor, The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen, And I Darken by Kiersten White and I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

Way back in January, I was shocked to find myself part of a family-holiday-booking process, something I’ve never done before. And as of right now – the very day this blog post goes up, in fact – I will be on my first holiday abroad. Who’d have thought?

So of course my biggest dilemma for the past couple of months has been trying to decide which books to take with me.** I very rarely read the “typical” holiday reads – contemporaries, romances, crime novels etc – and so there wasn’t a particular mood to go for when plucking books off my shelves. So I decided to follow Hannah’s idea (A Cup of Wonderland), and decided my reads based on the first chapters. I vastly underestimated how long it would take me to read the first chapters of 10 books and started cheating a little by not reading the entire first chapter of some (I mean, some book chapters can be a solid 50 pages long! No thanks), but either way I eventually whittled it down to 6 books, which is hugely ambitious considering I’m a slow reader and will only be there 10 days. But better to be prepared, right?

Continue reading First Chapters – Deciding My Holiday TBR

The books I gave a home, but not a read (yet)

Posted on February 17, 2018 by Ashleigh

“How many books do you have on your shelves that are unread?” is probably a question that’s better left unanswered (although, I’ll have you know it’s not as many as I thought…it’s bad, but not as bad). And when it comes to my good old phrase of “I’ve been meaning to read this one for years!” you can guarantee I’m not exaggerating. But it had me thinking – which books have I been meaning to get round to the longest?

I actually loved doing this post and unearthing the lost treasures on my shelves. Not that they were ever hidden…they just became vastly overshadowed by at least 3 or 4 years worth of shiny new books (yikes). But since I log all the books I own on Goodreads, I managed to trace back the ones I’ve had on my shelves the longest quickly enough. And so here’s the books I gave a home to all those years ago, but have still yet to read…

Continue reading The books I gave a home, but not a read (yet)

Here are the top 10 books I want to read this year!

Continue reading Top 10 books I need to read in 2017 – both anticipated releases & books I already own

Big December book haul: The aftermath of a 3 month book buying ban

Posted on January 1, 2017January 5, 2018 by Ashleigh

december-haul

Ooooohhhhh how December was a great month, haul-wise.

I’ve been on a book buying ban for THREE MONTHS. I needed to save my money for a whole bunch of different things, and so my book buying was put on hold for a whole three months. And oh how Christmas made up for that 😆

Nearly all of these books were gifts I got for Christmas, since everyone around me knows how much I love books. I’m incredibly grateful for them all and always will be ❤

This post is going to be set out a bit differently. My main version of this is actually on my booktube channel, so below you’ll find a video for this haul. HOWEVER, I’ve also listed the books mentioned below the video, with the synopsis and relevant links, so if you don’t have time (or simply don’t want) to watch the video, you can have a quick glance through instead!

The video has me full of excitement and rambling about why/how I got each book though, so I’d recommend watching it *wink*

Let’s see which books December brought me!

Continue reading Big December book haul: The aftermath of a 3 month book buying ban

Sunday Status: Because December is the month where my reading and blogging life gets busy

Posted on December 18, 2016December 12, 2016 by Ashleigh

sunday-status

Now what do we have here?

Oh yes, it’s that new feature I brought in months ago…and then completely forgot about. How did that even happen? Either way, I’ve brought it back now. Let it rise from the ashes like a phoenix and heal you with it’s medicinal bird tears.

10 points to your Hogwarts house if you got the Fawkes reference.

Since the first (and only) one of these features happened a long time ago, here’s a quick summary of what a Sunday Status post is. Basically, it’s just a post where I update you on anything reading related – what I’m currently reading, future plans for my blog and booktube, anything remotely interesting I might have to mention.

So…what’s my Sunday Status?

Continue reading Sunday Status: Because December is the month where my reading and blogging life gets busy

Such a “Heartless” cover reveal (geddit?) – Heartless by Marissa Meyer is having a separate UK cover? How did I not know?

Posted on October 20, 2016October 19, 2016 by Ashleigh

lets-talk-4

SPONTANEOUS BLOG POST BECAUSE BOOKISH NEWS.

This actually confused me slightly when it was revealed yesterday. Because Heartless by Marissa Meyer had a cover reveal…even though it already had one. I even did a blog post on that one too 😆

And yet here we are today, with another spontaneous blog post because I just feel the need to share all things bookish. Even if it happened yesterday and everyone probably already saw by now. ~~But shhhhhh we’re here to chat about said news.~~

So here’s the UK cover of Heartless, in

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Continue reading Such a “Heartless” cover reveal (geddit?) – Heartless by Marissa Meyer is having a separate UK cover? How did I not know?

The Top 10 books I absolutely NEED to read before the end of 2016 comes around

Posted on September 11, 2016September 8, 2016 by Ashleigh

All year, I’ve had a list of books that I ABSOLUTELY NEED TO GET TO. You know the sorts. The ones with loads of hype AND actually sound amazing. The ones that have been sat on your shelves waiting for months. The ones that have been on every TBR possible and yet still haven’t been read.

WELL HERE’S ANOTHER TBR FOR THEM.

~~Because surely my knack for failing TBRs will leave me this time and actually let me read all the books listed…right?~~

Now, this list is just from the books I own. Not the books I intend to buy. If they were on the list too, you’d be reading this list until George RR Martin decides to publish his next book (come on MR Martin – we’re waiting!!).

So here are the top 10 books I absolutely need to read before the end of 2016!

Continue reading The Top 10 books I absolutely NEED to read before the end of 2016 comes around

Doodling All The Book Series I Need To Continue/Finish

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Ashleigh

doodling book series

As I’ve said countless times, I have this really bad habit of starting book series and then taking years to finish them.

So much so, that now I have over 20 book series on the go.

Wow.

I made a list of all the series I’ve started so that I can keep track of every single one, and when it comes to buying more books, I’ll be more likely to look at the list and choose a series to continue.

But why just make it a list?

This “list” of mine turned into a doodle session. I love making my notebook look more interesting – I showed you guys in my review process how I like to draw the book titles for my review notes. So this time, instead of this being a mere list that I wouldn’t look at again, I decided to draw the titles as book spines, and every time I finish a series, the spine will be coloured in.

In the second half of the post I’ll list all the book series I need to finish – split into three sections. Just so that you guys can see more clearly 🙂

So let me show you the book series I need to finish…and how I doodled!

Continue reading Doodling All The Book Series I Need To Continue/Finish

TBR Unhaul -Brutally Kicking Books Off My Goodreads To Read List

Posted on May 8, 2016May 7, 2016 by Ashleigh

tbr unhaul

If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I’m a person that loves organizing my things.

Well, that’s probably not the one thing you should know, but it’s a thing.

Anyway, because of this, every so often I feel the need to go through my Goodreads account and sort everything out – make sure all my books have ratings (because sometimes I forget to do the starts when I add my review), adjust my favourite shelf, all that kind of stuff.

And one of the things I like to do is go through my “to-read” list and delete any that…well…that don’t belong there any more.