New Reading Plans: Welcome to Aeldia!

 Hello my Bookish Friends,

It's a new year my friends. Okay so in the last post I mentioned I wanted to reread through my collection of Mercedes Lackey Velgarth this year, but there's been a slight change of plans. See it all started when I put my cart together. For Christmas Fangirl gifted me this lovely rolling cart:

I been wanting one since I saw booktubers use them for TBR carts. I wanted to use the bottom shelf for my TBR, middle shelf for my reference material for my books, and the top for just a place to lay things cause I like a place to store stuff beside me at my desk. 

So Monday I put the shelf together while watching the Rose Parade, and now I have this lovely peacock shelf to brighten up my room:

Excuse my messy bed in the middle of a room rearranging.

After it was built, I proceeded to move my TBR stacks from the corner near my bookshelves to this cart. I quickly learned I had more in my TBR than I thought, many of which are Mercedes Lackey novels out side her Velgarth. So I thought, maybe I should work on them instead this year.

Luckily about that time Book Roast provided the perfect avenue to use to work through it the Choose Your Own Adventure: Year in Aeldia. Twice a year and with some events in between. Book Roast hosts the Orilium Magical Readathon in August and April. The concept is you create a character who attends the magical school of Orilium. You join a guild and and choose conduit for your magic and your calling. All these will guide your course of study each semester. To pass each semester you read the books required. This give you points in your guild ranks to build on your ranking with in it. I thought it was an awesome idea and was going to participate from the start, but my crappy attention span didn't allow for it. Well this year she has a year long event that requires a book a month except for readathon months. So I decided to give it a shot. So I started by looking through the worksheets she's made, and made a character. I thought it'd be fun if here I chronicled the journey with this adventure. I found the Novice's Path worksheets that people did at the start of the readathon, and while I don't need to read these books, I want to do it for fun, I'll read these along with by monthly book prompts and hopefully I'll have it done by  the April semester of Orilium, and I'm gonna try to do both semesters of that this year. So soon I'll introduce you guys to my character, and then we'll begin her year long story. I'll include what books I read for each prompt, the review you'll of course see in my Library posts later. Sound like a plan?

Yup it's going to be a whole year of bookish delight, and hopefully I'm not too in over my head. If this sounds like something you'd like to get into click the links above to get started, and hopefully we can make this journey together. 

I hope you guys have a good rest of the week, read lots, and God bless!

*Thrifty Geek*

 

Ninja Writer's Library: Gods, Sweets, and Mad Women plus a Readathon

Happy Friday Book Nerds,

It's that time again when I give you a peek at what I've been reading lately! So sit back and get ready for a bit of a read. I decided to do 5 books this time so I can devote the next Library post to next month's ready event.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians #2: Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
Here we have the continuing adventures of Percy and his friends.  I managed to read this in a day. I love seeing the modern spin on the Greek tales we grew up with. I also love meeting Chiron's cousins they were so hilarious. A lot of the characters I still see them in my head as their movie versions, which if you love the movies I defiantly recommend the book.

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
This book is a reread, but it's  my favorite and first book I ever read by this author.  Again we're in a small North Carolina town and we have a  woman who finds herself in a bizarre situation involving her closet that leads to new friendships and revelations about her family. In Allen's usual style she spins a modern tale with a hint of magic.
My favorite character is Chloe, I want her car and "problem" with books, just don't know where I'd put them all... Read for it all to become clear. My favorite quote in this book involves iguanas and bikers gangs. Tempting you to read it yet? Yes I urge you to read it.

The Appalachian Trail Hiker by Victoria and Frank Logue
I mentioned this book earlier in my Appalachian Tail post. I didn't finish it, mostly cause it is a guide book for prepping for hiking, if I going to do a hike then this would be a perfect, just not good for a pleasure read, but if you plan any long hiking trip this is the book to read.

The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell
If you love the Brontës you might love this. We find the last Brontë descendant, Samantha,  who's dealing with her past, the family legacy both recent and ancestral, and trying to solve the mysteries behind each one.
I couldn't put this down. I kept wanting to find out the truth. I did find myself being surprised a few times by the twists in this tale. One thing I'm just wondering is if the writer was writing it as if Samantha was a reincarnation of Anne Brontë, or just being haunted in her dreams by Anne.
To be honest I haven't read any of these ladies works, maybe one of the poems, but now I have to say I became familiar with their names and a little of their background. I may at least give some of the poems a read, I don't know if I could get interested in some of the other mentioned titles, granted I use to say the same thing about Jane Austen.

Hikers' Stories From the Appalachian Trail by Kathryn Fulton
This is another that I couldn't finish, but I would like to pick up again later. These are collected stories from blogs of hikers of the aforementioned trail. It wasn't a bad read, just wasn't holding my interest  and it was due back at the library, plus I have some planned reading in April, which I delve into more in the next section. I did love reading the accounts of the hikers it did give some good insight to the trail. I really don't know how people manage to hike this.

O.W.L's Magical Readathon 2019

Lastly in April Book Roast is having the O.W.L's Magical Readathon. I've never done it before, but I'm gonna try it. This year she made a careers booklet  you can choose to guide your reading. I decided to do the Journalist or Writer career. The subjects I have to do is History of Magic, Muggle Studies, and 1 other subject I get to choose.  History of Magic requires you to read a book published at least 10 years ago for this I'm going to read Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. In Muggle Studies I have to read something contemporary I've got a couple books on hold that could fit into this First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen or A Map of Days by Ransom Riggs, the fourth book in the Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, I think that one take's place in the here and now, if neither of these get freed up I might have to find something else. For my last one which is up to me I chose potions in which I am to read a sequel, so I'm going with The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherine M. Valente, yeah this is a children's book, but I like the song "Wonders" by S.J. Tucker, which comes from the album of the same name, which is about the first book in the series. Fangirl handed the book to me in a store saying I should like it and I recognized  the title and decided to give it a read.

Whew there's a post. Any of you guys going to participate in the readathon? If so what career are you doing and what are you reading? Let me know. I hope you all have a good week end, read lots, and God Bless You!

Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer and Vampire >vv< Kitty

Saturday Morning Sharings

Hello my friends,

I hope this post finds you all well. I have been in winter's grip, not as bad as the peeps in the north have had this year, but enough to turn me into a zombie* I think more so than usual, add in some other rough patches health wise and it's been a rather less than warm welcome to the new year. But we are thawed out, for now, and I'm trying shock life back into me. So for this post I'm kinda gonna channel Julie Wunder's Running in a Skirt blog where she does these posts occasionally called Currently and Things I'm Loving Lately, in which she discusses things she's doing, or into at the moment. Also probably homing in on Austin Kleon's Email Newsletters. I'm just gonna talk some things I'm enjoying or getting into right now.


Latest Movie Purchase
I don't buy movies often, but I saw Enchanted in the store and it's defiantly a top favorite of mine, so I had to get it. When this was out in theaters in 2007 I think, cause the DVD says the DVD released in 2008, I saw this twice, once with Fangirl, and then the two of us went to see it with my sister**, both times I came out of the theater feeling so happy. This is a feel good movie for me. It also is the reason I really think people need to just break into a good song and dance number a least once a day, any more than that and we're treading into Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Once More With Feeling territory in which singing and dancing not so great.

I was really happy to find the music video for Carrie Underwood's Ever After on the disc, I think I only kept catching snippets of it when it was on the TV, but now I finally got to see it all, and like the movie it makes me smile. It's one of my top two favorite songs from the soundtrack, That's How You Know is the other, and yes I purchased the soundtrack not long after I saw it the first time.

Another extra I love from this DVD is when they took three of the scenes and showed how they put it all together. Some people don't like having the secrets of scenes revealed, cause they feel the magic is ruined, it's never really ruined it for me, I find it all fascinating.


Attempting to Reread
I was hankering for some Jane Austen so I decided to reread Emma, but the mood has passed I believe I only seem to read a few sentences and I put it back down. Errr.


What's On My Youtube
I don't know how I came across this YouTube Channel but I'm enjoying it. It's called Book Roast brought to us by avid reader Gintare, I think I got that name right. She talks books, does critiques, but not in a ripping it to bits way. She also does a few subscription box openings, if I wasn't so broke I know at least one I'd subscribe to if I had extra cash to spend. She's a big Potterhead, a couple of her poxes are Potter themed. One of her bookcase shelves is dedicated to the series (I've wanted to do that too with not only the Potter series, but a few others as well).


Games I'm Zombieing Over
I've been playing Con Man: The Game a lot lately. It's based off the show Con Man with Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion. You basically get to fulfill your geeky fantasies and build your own convention. It's got everything in this game alien battles , geek culture references, and an elderly woman who has listened to Ray Steven's The Streak one to many times. There's even appearances by not only the main stars of the show, but some other members of the geek fame: Kevin Smith, Felicia Day, and Joss Whedon to name a few. If your a fan of the show, or want to run your own con I totally recommend this game if your looking to pass some time.

I've also been getting back into Dungeons and Dragons Online. I've been playing my blue haired elf trying to relearn everything. She got knocked over by a horde of trolls, one never wants to be adventuring alone and see a gang of trolls running at you.

In Memory
I sadly learned a singer who's music I enjoyed passed away. Her name was Lari White. Some of my favorite tunes included That's My Baby, Ready, Willing, And Able, and Take Me I thank her for the great music and hope she's at peace now.

I shall end my transmission here. I hope you all enjoy your weekend. God bless you!

Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer

*PS- When I refer to myself as a Zombie or in zombie mode, it's that mind set where your just sitting there numbly going through your day. You don't feel quite all there.

**PSS- My sister was dying to get out of the house and asked Fangirl and me if we all could go out, despite the fact Fangirl and I had just came in from a out of state trip. Enchanted was still playing and they only thing I think good to see that night. I'll never for get the look on my sister's face when the opening musical number came on. One could read her thoughts "WHAT THE CRAP HAVE THEY BROUGHT ME TO?!"