Welcome back fellow readers. Today, we’ve got a fun (belated) look at last month’s Popculture Readathon, a 90’s movie inspired readathon that was hosted by Whitney from Bookswhitme and Lorryn from Readingparental There were four bingo boards and choose from, of which could read prompts from one, multiple, or all to eventually get bingo.
Now, my track record for readathons has been mentioned before. I historically don’t manage to finish them out (the curse of being a perpetual mood reader.) So… How did I fare? Did I hit bingo? Black out the board?
We’re getting back in the swing of things here at Fine Point Scribbles, and that includes delving into ARCs and review copies. While I’m reading for the PopCulture Readathon throughout the month, there’s also a few other recent books I’ve been sent to review, that I’ll be giving my thoughts on and that you might be interested in, too.
So, if you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know I do not do readathons. Historically I’ve never finished one out, and as a chronic mood reader, readathons—long, short, and in between—have been the bane of my blogging existence. I also have a bit of a rebel streak when it comes to what feels like required reading, and regardless of the structure of most readathons, my brain always defaults to ‘nope, not gonna do it.’
However, as a 90’s kid who’s easily susceptible to nostalgia, I would only be doing myself a disservice for not participating in the PopCulture Readathon. Hosted by Whitney (a damn delight on the TL with her reading live Tweets and overall Book Badass) and Lorryn (sweetest of beans and co-founder of the Pages & Prose Book Club) the PopCulture Readathon brings together a love of iconic 90’s movies, bingo boards, and books. Featuring four themed boards, of which you can read the prompts from one, some, or all, it makes for a good excuse to reconnect with some old faves while trekking through those July TBRs.
Books can be intimidating, even for the most avid reader—especially when they’re big books. As much as I love the satisfaction that comes with crushing a thick book, actually deciding to pick one up and dive into it in the first place takes a little more effort than I’d like to admit. Sometimes I just don’t have the attention span or the time to dedicate to a larger book; sometimes I’m just outright lazy.
ReadYourTomesAThon has entered the chat.
Created by Ness over at The Wolf and Books, the ReadYourTomesAThon is a year-long readathon meant to tackle your tomes—at your pace. The goal is to read books at five hundred pages or more, year-round. How many or how few, is up to you: as long as you read them, and especially if they’re books you’ve been putting off because of their sheer page count or because they’re backlist TBR books. Though, for those of us that like a little extra challenge, she’s also created a really fun leveling system that gives you a different librarian level for every additional volume of books you read. Kind of like leveling up a DND character… but for reading thick books.
The TBR
For this readathon, I’ve gone through my physical books, making those my priority for my selections. If I happen to read books my partner owns that fit into this challenge, or get through a particularly impressive e-book, I’ll add them to the list.
Title
Genre
Page Count
Blood & Beauty
Historical Fiction
526
The Poppy War
Fantasy
527
Star Wars: Lost Stars
Space Opera
551
Celtic Myths & Legends
Mythology
612
Black Leopard, Red Wolf
Fantasy
620
Desperation
Horror
690
The Divine Comedy
Epic Poetry
693
Imaginary Friend
Horror
705
Wicked & Son of a Witch
Fantasy
735
The Star Wars Trilogy
Space Opera
765
The Luminaries
?
830
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Fantasy
1008
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Fantasy
1160
The Vampire Chronicles
Horror
1269
The three from this list that I think I’m the most invested in getting through this year are The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang, Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James, and The Vampire Chronicles Trilogy by Anne Rice. I think they’re also the heaviest in terms of themes and events of the books that I own, so that should be fun. (That’s not sarcasm; I’m a glutton for literary punishment.)
For the full run-down on joining and participating in the ReadYourTomesAThon, check out Ness’ blogpost announcing the readathon, where she outlines the nitty-gritty of the rules so you can get started. After that, happy reading~
Growing up, I didn’t read a lot of poetry. I latched on to Shel Silverstein when I was young enough that my school libraries were still carrying Where the Sidewalk Ends on the shelves rather than wall-to-wall stacks of reference material. That’s about it, if we don’t count my Nan feeding an early interest in Poe and assigned readings in English making me learn about iambic pentameter (I don’t, mainly because I still don’t know what iambic means, nor why it’s in pentameter.)
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve had fluctuating opinions on poetry, from being vaguely interested but not committed enough to pull my nose out of novels, to outright confused about the boom in ‘Insta poetry’ and similar styles. Then, last year, I got my hands on an ARC for the poetry collection Sparks of Phoenix by Najwa Zebian. To say that it ignited a healthy interest would be an understatement; I fell in love with that collection and Najwa Zebian’s writing. I fell in love with the deep, simmering catharsis that worked its way through me as I read, leaving me with an experience that felt less like opening old wounds and more like peacefully acknowledging their presence.
I’ve made it a point to seek out more poetry since then. There is something elegant in the way a poet paints words on a page that isn’t captured in a novel, and two collections that I’ve read this year brought up those same feelings of catharsis and feeling seen as Sparks of Phoenix did for me last year.
