Hello!
We’re still in the first week of July so I’m not late on this yet… right?
After months of banging on about making my monthly tbr’s shorter and more achievable, I’ve got a tbr that’s 10 books long but I can explain 😂
It’s only so long because I’m doing my first ever readathon! I’ve been following gabbyreads on YouTube for a couple of years and even though I don’t read a lots of thriller/horror books, her summerween readathon looks like so much fun so I decided I’m going to join in! It’s a week long readathon and there are five prompts that I have a picked a book for each so that is why my tbr is longer this month!
So I’ll start with my Summerween tbr and then explain what categories and prompts everything fits along the way!
The Thin Executioner – Darren Shan
My husband picked this horror book for our wedding book club pick for this month with no idea that I was doing a thriller/horror readathon this month, so this worked out so well in my favour! I’m using this for the prompt ‘read a book in the dark’ and I’m planning to read this in bed with some fairy lights on but if it gets too scary I’m definitely turning the lights back on! I’m not sure if the prompt is meant to be read the whole book in the dark but I don’t think I can manage that, especially not with a 410 page book!
One Of Us Is Lying – Karen M McManus
So obviously reading isn’t about ‘productivity’, but this book is on my 24 in 2024 list and it fits the Summerween prompt ‘read a book with five words in the title’ so it hits two goals with one book and that is really satisfying for my brain.
I’ve used an audiobook credit on this one and I was meant to be doing a couple of long drives this weekend – I’m no longer doing them but I’m going to try and put the time in as if I was! From what I know I think this book is really binge-able anyway so I’m hoping to get through this by the end of the weekend then get to another audiobook for summerween next week!
Sixteen Souls – Rosie Talbot
This book has been on my monthly tbr’s at least three times this year but I’m doing it this time! This is another ‘two goals one book’ read as it is also on my 24 in 2024 list and I’ll be reading this for the ‘read a thriller/horror book’ Summerween prompt. I didn’t mean to pick two YA books from my 24 in 2024 list this month but I’m hoping it’ll help me read a bit faster. But then I always convince myself that YA books are faster paced when they aren’t always, so I should probably put less pressure on myself.
Then we have a couple of non-thriller/horror picks for the last two Summerween prompts!
The Kiss Countdown – Etta Easton
For ‘read a book with a night sky on the cover’ – the Afterlight edition has arguably a space themed cover, but is space not just the ultimate night sky? This is one that is from a past monthly tbr and when I don’t finish a monthly tbr, the unread books get migrated to what I call my ‘leftover tbr’ (I have too many tbr lists) so if I manage to read this one I’ll be really working on my backlog! This is a fake dating romance with an astronaut and I was really gutted to have not got round to it when it was on my monthly tbr so I’m excited to include it in this readathon!
You And Me On Vacation – Emily Henry
The last of my Summerween tbr for the prompt ‘read a book set in the summer’! The summary of this book uses the word summer approximately six times so if it’s not set in summer I am going to be shocked. I read my first Emily Henry book in 2021 and I’ve been nervous about reading her other books ever since because I didn’t know if I’d love them as much as I loved Beach Read, then I read Funny Story when that came out and now I have the confidence to read more from Emily Henry! I know this is arguably her least popular book, but I’m excited to read another EmHen and being one book closer to reading all of her backlog!
I have this one as an audiobook as well and I’m hoping to weather picks up next week and I can go to a local reservoir and coread – aesthetic reading solo date!
THEN THE BOOKS THAT AREN’T ON THE SUMMERWEEN TBR
Famous Five: Five On Kirrin Island Again / Five Go Off To Camp – Enid Blyton
Shock horror, I’m behind on Famous Five again. I know now I can binge read these books in a day so my plan is to catch up on last months book after Summerween and then save the other one for the end of the month, assuming I don’t get stuck on any other books this month! I got stuck on a heavy auto-biography in June so I didn’t get to read anywhere near as much as I wanted to and I’m determined not to do this again. I don’t want to say that I’m forcing myself to read this series at this point… but it’s not for me! It’s for children and they’re very old fashioned books, but I really want to finish the box set so I need to catch up.
Of Jade and Dragons – Amber Chen
The June Illumicrate book looks so good – aesthetically it’s absolutely stunning, it seems quite chunky but the font is really big, I’ve redeemed this as an audiobook and I’m looking forward to coreading this one. It’s giving me similar vibes to ‘To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods’ by Molly X Chang which I didn’t love but I do like reading about fantasy books inspired by different mythologies and cultures I’m not familiar with so I’m going in open minded.
Cross The Line – Simone Soltani
I’ve been eyeing up this F1 romance in The Works for ages and then it was the June Afterlight subscription book? It’s a sign – I’m really looking forward to it! I’ve not read an F1 sports romance before and I believe the female protagonist works in social media marketing which is basically what I do, so I’m intrigued to read about that! I think it’s going to be fun and this audiobook is available on Spotify so I’m hoping to coread this one too.
Goddess of the River – Vaishnavi Patel
There was a delay on the May Illumicrate box which means I have an extra one this month. Realistically I don’t think I’m going to get round to this but I didn’t want to not try so on the tbr it went! This sounds pretty good, I don’t really know anything about it but the edition is beautiful and I’m trying to like at least one Illumicrate book…
And that’s how I ended up with a 10 book tbr! As of the 5th, I’ve finished off the two books I was reading at the end of June and haven’t started any of these books so not off to the best start but the Summerween readathon has now started and I’m going to try and binge a couple!
Have you ever done a readathon before? If you have any tips for getting through as many books as possible, please let me know!
Thank you for reading,
Sophie xx
sophie counts clouds 
Leave a comment