Weekend Reads #76: Tome Topple Readathon Wrap-up

W eekend Reads is a weekly post in which I discuss a variety of topics and mention the books I plan to read on the weekend.

For this weekend’s post, I’ll report on my progress for the Tome Topple Readathon, which was held August 4 – 17. The purpose of readathon is to encourage folks to read the longer books on their shelves, i.e. books over 500 pages. I decided to join the fun because this readathon is more than a week long and because I wanted to see if I could rise to the challenge.

I did. And it was a —

SUCCESS!! 😀

I am proud of myself for completing several tomes during this readathon and meeting most of the goals. (I celebrated by partying.) 😆

In classic Zezee fashion, I read 1.5 of the books on my TBR. I constantly prove to myself that TBRs are ineffective for me, but do I listen to myself? No. (Obviously, or I would’ve read what I told myself to read!)

Here is the TBR I created:

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames

Wolf Children: Ame & Yuki by Mamoru Hosoda, illus. by Yuu

Isle of Blood by Rick Yancey

The Iliad by Homer, trans. by Robert Fagles

And here’s what I read:

The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks

The first in the Night Angel Trilogy, The Way of Shadows is about a guild rat who becomes an assassin. I enjoyed the story so much that I consumed its 645 pages in 4 days (I was interrupted by trival things like work and basic living routines).

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (illus.)

An illustrated children’s book about an orphan boy who maintains the clocks of a busy Paris train station while fixing an automaton in his free time. I’d forgotten that I had this checked out from the library, which is why I failed to include it on my TBR. I read it in a day.

Wolf Children: Ame & Yuki by Mamoru Hosoda, illus. by Yu

A beautifully illustrated manga about a human woman who raises her wolf children (they’re half wolf: have wolf ears and can change into a wolf) on her own. This story was sweet and another quick read I completed in a day.

The Iliad by Homer, trans. by Robert Fagles

The epic poem about the siege of Troy. This isn’t as I expected. The story is interesting (Achilles and Agammenon are fucking cry babies!), but the writing isn’t as poetic as I thought it would be. I was eager to read it because I enjoyed how Jason and the Argonauts by Apollonius of Rhodes was written and appreciated how it was translated, done by Aaron Poochigian. I thought this would be similar. I’m still reading it, by the way.

As for the challenges, here are what I completed:

Challenges

~~Read more than 1 tome~~

Along with the four books above, I also completed Eldest by Christopher Paolini and dipped into Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen, but I decided not to count either as part of the readathon because I’d already read much of Eldest by the time the readathon started and wasn’t committed to Queen of the Tearling.

~~Read a graphic novel (over 500 pages!)~~

Wolf Children

~~Read a tome that is part of a series~~

The Way of Shadows

Buddy read a tome

~~Read an adult novel~~

The Way of Shadows

The Iliad

Well, that’s it for this round of Tome Topple.

What I’m reading:

The Reading Quest readathon, August 13 to September 10, is in full swing, so the books listed here are being read for it. As you can see, a few weren’t included in my TBR. By the way, the Bout of Books readathon starts tomorrow (August 21 – 27) so some of these books will be read for it too. I shall, of course, post a TBR. 😀

This weekend’s books:

The Iliad by Homer, illus. by Robert Fagles

Going good so far, but the writing is dry so I’m not always eager to return to it.

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames

It’s got my interest. The state that these heroes are in makes me wonder if their quest, which they haven’t started yet, will be a success. They remind me of Cazaril, probably because they are all veterans. I realize that I prefer these sort of protagonists in fantasy novels: older, experienced, realistic about their capabilities, and a touch sarcastic.

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

I like how this is narrated, but the story is a little dry so far. Actually, my reading experienced is overshadowed by the hype surrounding Pratchett’s talent. I keep expecting to be wowwed and I haven’t yet. I just want the hype out of my head so I can simply appreciate the story as it is.