wickedjr89 book review, book thoughts, Bookish, monthly wrap ups

How I did with Nonfiction November and manga

How did I do with Nonfiction November and 30 in 30 Manga Reading challenge?

In my opinion? Great! I read 4 nonfiction books, 1 for each of the prompts, and 6 volumes of Food Wars! … That’s it, 6 volumes. I know that’s no where near 30 but I do remember it being said that the point is just to read more manga than you usually do, and I succeeded in that. Sure, more woulda been nice but I didn’t fail either. And hopefully this time I won’t stop reading Food Wars and will actually finish it! I initially read the first 12 volumes, loved them, and then … well i’m bad at series ok? So I need to read 6 more and i’ll be where I was at before. There are 36 volumes. Wish me luck.

The Nonfiction Books I Read

I read Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff for the prompt Record. I gave it 3 stars. I listened to it on audio book and it was very interesting. I’m just bad at processing audio books and I know it didn’t really get into my brain, but that’s a me problem. I did like it.

I read The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World by Stephen Brusatte for the prompt Element. I loved this! It was so fascinating (and I have it physically) and understandable and there are pictures and DINOSAURS. I have a newfound love for dinosaurs now. I gave it 5 stars. My review on Goodreads states:

“Dinosaurs are fascinating! I learned so much. Very well written and accessible.
My favorite dinosaur, is penguin. Confused? Read the book. If you are remotely interested in Dinosaurs, read it.”

I read Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake for the prompt Border. I gave this 4 stars. This was also very fascinating, and unexpectedly thought-provoking! I read it on kindle.

I read Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell for the prompt Secret. I gave this 4 stars. This both is and is not what you’d expect. Once you read it you’ll see it everywhere. But is that really terrifying? Yes and No. It depends. Read it if you want to understand what I mean. I listened to it and did really enjoy the narration and it kept my attention.

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wickedjr89 Bookish, Monthly POPs

December POP (Pile of Possibilities)

I am planning to participate in the Queer Lit Readathon (from the 4th – 10th) and the Christmas Evil Readathon (all month). The covers should link to their Goodreads page. These are just my high priority reads (but still not a big deal if I don’t get to them).

Strange Things in the Woods is for the group Creatures, Creatures Everywhere!

She Drives Me Crazy I got on audio via Hoopla and is queer. Anya’s Ghost is a graphic novel I borrowed from libby. One Last Stop I also borrowed from libby as an ebook and is queer. The Ice Cream Man and Other Stories I also borrowed from libby as an ebook.

I actually decided to borrow a few books via my out of state library card with Brooklyn Public Library in NY because my library card will be expiring in January and they are not doing out of state library cards anymore. So I found stuff to specifically use that card for while I still can.

The Girl From the Sea is a queer graphic novel I have on hold (should have soon) from libby.

Melissa is queer and I own it physically. I actually bought it back when the title was the MC’s deadname, because I heard the author is genderqueer and heard other trans people love the story but I could not get myself to pick it up because just thinking about the title, dead-naming the main character, made me feel sick. I couldn’t understand why that was the title and yea, I couldn’t get past it. It has since been changed. So while my copy has the deadname I feel much better and hope to finally pick it up!

The Haunting of Hill House I own physically, same with The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena, Clown in a Cornfield and In the Miso Soup. Those 4 are for the Christmas Evil Readathon.

If I get to anything else it’ll probably either be via Kindle Unlimited or Magazines I subscribe to (so far behind), but we’ll see what happens. Oh and some Food Wars volumes to!

What’s on your December TBR/POP?

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Storygraph Reading Challenges

Storygraph has reading challenges set up by regular users and I couldn’t help but join a ton and even make a couple! Here are ones i’ve joined so far. You might have to have a (free) profile to see them. Some of them have time limits, many of them do not.

Obviously I do not plan to do all these next year. I plan to make progress. Most of them don’t have a time limit so i’m free to take my time with them. All the reading challenges will be linked, as you can see, so if you want to check them out you can!

50 States, 50 Horror Books – 50 states in the USA, 50 horror books

Random Reading Challenge – Random reading prompts

Fairytale Retelling Challenge – Fairytale retellings

Learning to read anthologies – Read 7 anthologies

Supernatural Creatures Book Challenge – Vampires, werewolves and more

The Fiction of Octavia E. Butler – Exactly what it says. I’ve only read Kindred so far.

Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum – The Wizard of Oz is a 14 book series. I need to reread the first one.

30 in 30 Manga Challenge – This is/was for November 2022 only. I will not be completing this, and that’s ok, but as of writing this there are still 3 days left in November so we’ll see what I manage.

Queer Representation Book List – Queer books!

The Disney princess challenge. – Challenges based on Disney princesses.

Monster Romance – Monsters need love to! :p

The Mood Reader Challenge – Storygraph has moods for books, read a book for each mood (and a couple more prompts involving moods). Goes for the year 2023.

Horror Genre Challenge 2023 – Goes for 2023, different horror genres.

Queer Lit Readathon Round 10 – From Dec 4th – 10th. I will not be finishing this either, I can’t read that fast, but i’ll see what I manage.

All-the-genres on The Storygraph! – 58 genres!

Sapphic Books Challenge – Sapphic books, different genres

Trans Books Challenge – Trans books, different genres

Fear Street – R.L. Stine

Goosebumps Horrorland Series – R.L. Stine

Original Goosebumps books – R.L. Stine

Goosebumps SlappyWorld Series – R.L. Stine

a tarot reading journey … 🔮 – Inspired by major arcana, tarot.

Stranger Things Reading Challenge – Inspired by Stranger Things

Memoir Challenge – Memoirs

50 Best Horror Books of All Time (Esquire Magazine) – Horror

18 Nonfiction Reading Prompts – Nonfiction

Nonfiction November 2022 – I finished this! Woo!

Vampire Literature Through the Ages – You get the picture

literature from all over the world – Books, from around the world

Jack Edwards: 20 books to read in your 20s – Jack Edwards is a booktuber. I am in my 30s… am I allowed to read these books anyway? lol (yes, I know I am).

Urban Legends, Supernatural Creatures, Cryptids, and Mythological Creatures – What it says on the tin.

I made 2 reading challenges that are private, as you can make a reading challenge that only you can see, just for you. One is for “Religious Literacy” and was inspired by another reading challenge on storygraph that unfortunately has a time limit and reading religious books, learning about them, I really want to take my time and it’s going to take a lot out of me. I don’t think i’m going to be finished all I want to be in just 2 years. With that pressure, I just wouldn’t read anything at all. So my private one is just for me so I don’t have a time limit (and I can change anything if I want to). The one it’s inspired by is here.

The other one is “Books still on my 40 before 40 list”. On my 30th birthday (i’ll be 34 in February) I made a list of 40 books I want to read before I turn 40. I posted the list on my old blog on blogspot Here. It is not updated! I have 15 books left to read.

I also made 2 reading challenges that anyone on storygraph can join!

Horror Subgenres – Horror subgenres. I made the more extreme ones or certain ones bonus prompts just in case not everyone who wants to join wants to do those. I will be doing all of them. No time limit.

Expand your mind with Nonfiction 2023 – 24 prompts. Different subgenres of nonfiction. You can double/triple etc up (same with Horror Subgenres) if you want. Going for the year 2023. I wanted to make the challenge for myself but there’s no reason I couldn’t share it in case anyone wants to join in. 🙂

My storygraph profile is Here (and it’s in my linktree link below) if you want to be friends on storygraph.

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2023 Reading Goals

So i’ve been thinking of goals for next year whether I like it or not. I can’t seem to help it. I am trying a new attitude though of no stressing out over reading as it’s just my hobby and life is really fucking hard. That said I can use these “goals” as a guideline to help me remember things I do actually *want* to read. I’ve also gotten obsessed with Storygraph (profile Here if you want to follow/friend me on there) and the reading challenges on there! I have joined so many lol. But first, onto my goals that are unrelated to Storygraph reading challenges! I would number them but then it goes all wonky and I can’t figure out how to fix it so i’ll just bold the goals.

24 Audio books

I have a couple hundred audio books yet rarely listen to them because processing audio books is REALLY HARD. It is for me at least. Different brains. I have aphantasia and am autistic. I also have auditory processing disorder. That’s why I have a bunch of nonfiction audio books and audio books I read with my eyeballs first so I can listen to them as a reread. Easier than trying to learn a whole new freaking world and characters and shit while struggling to process the audio book. I want to practice listening to audio books. 2 a month doesn’t sound like too much? But even 12 would be an improvement for me!

33% Nonfiction

This % is subject to change. I want to read more nonfiction. However, I also want to read more comics/manga/graphic novels, and I could read a few comics or manga in one day unlike nonfiction books so that might seriously skew the %. As long as I know i’m making an effort to read more nonfiction, i’m happy. That said previous years, now that I finally got all my read books logged into storygraph (I have “too many rows” to import from Goodreads) show I read more nonfiction than I thought I did. I’d like a minimum of 20% and a max of no more than 50%, so we’ll see what happens.

6 Classics

Sounds reasonable.

6 Mystery/Thrillers

I want to read more adult thrillers. There’s many I want to check out and I just … never do.

36 Graphic Novels/Comics/Manga

I’m shooting for more actually but 3 a month sounds reasonable. Again though as long as I make an effort i’ll be happy.

8 Frankenstein related books

Frankenstein is my favorite book (particularly the original uncensored 1818 version). Related books being like retellings for example (not limited to retellings).

6 Taboo books

I have many taboo books and I want to read them.

Finish Bingo Boards

My and my friend Georga made bingo boards at the beginning of the year. I have not finished them, and that’s ok. Maybe in 2023?

6 Pagan Books

I’m Pagan. I want to read 6 nonfiction Pagan books. I seriously need to work on my spirituality.

Focus on what I love: Horror and Nonfiction

I love to read all kinds of books, and I love that about myself, but I do say horror and nonfiction are my favorites, so I want to make sure I focus on them!

9 Anthologies

I have a bunch of anthologies I need to read!

Well Read Lie list books

I mentioned my “well read lie” list that I made in this post. It’ll take me so many years to finish it if I ever do lol. So, maybe a couple or a few books from it a month would be nice, but no stressing out over it.

Kindle and Comixology unlimited

I have both of these, I need to use them. A few books a month from each would be nice … lol.

Use my Libby and Hoopla

I should use my local libby and Hoopla sometimes.

6 Translated Works

Not counting manga! That’d make it way too easy lol.

6 Poetry

Poetry is hit or miss but when it’s a hit, it’s a hit. I need to read more poetry.

3 Stephen King Books

Self explanatory

R.L. Stine/Goosebumps

I have yet to finish the original Goosebumps books so I want to make progress on them! I don’t need to finish them next year but at least make progress.

8 books still on my 40 before 40 list

On my 30th birthday (i’ll be 34 in February lol) I made a “40 before 40” list of 40 books to read before I turn 40. I have 15 books left to go! I used blogger back then and made a post with the list here if you want to check it out, it is NOT updated though! I don’t go on there any more. The books are the same but i’m sure i’ve read more than it says I have now. So out of the 15 I have left I hope to read 8 next year. We shall see. I still have 6 years lol.

72 hours listened

Storygraph has a thing where you can set a goal for hours listened to audio books! So I figure 72 hours for an entire year sounds reasonable and low but also progress for me. We shall see. I am trying to keep this and the next 2 things low to avoid stress. I already love to read I don’t need to make it stressful.

2,500 pages read

Like I said, low. Storygraph also has a thing where you can set a goal for pages read.

Books to read: 25

I’ll probably read more than this, hence setting it low. I want to keep reading but again, it’s a hobby.

I’ll have to make a post about the storygraph reading challenges i’ve entered separately.

Have you begun thinking of your reading next year yet? What are your goals if you have? Comment down below 🙂

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