April TBR

April brings in the Orilium Spring Equinox reading challenge.

Alchemy - Metal in the name
Rhinegold by Stephan Grundy

* Animal Studies - flip a coin: heads - non fiction, tails - fiction
I got heads. I'm going to read a biography
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

[That's also the choice of the "Everyone has read this but me" group for April. :-)]

Art of Illusion - match clothing colour to cover colour

* Astronomy - 2 Es in the title
Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi

* Conjuration - recommended by a friend (or celebrity, author, book media, site...)
Assholes: A Theory by Aaron James

Demonology - book compared to your favorite (if you liked this, read this...)
"Favorite" Starless Sea - read: The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

* Elemental studies - flowers on the cover
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

spells and incantations - read a book that is 389-415 pages
Dandy by Jan Guillou (396 pages)

artificery - start your read with a snack

inscription - a book from your highest shelf

lore - book with a map

psionics and divination - clouds on the cover or in the title
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

* restoration - close your eyes, shuffle the books, and point
The Summer Birds by Penelope Farmer

* shapeshifting - wolf on the cover, title, author's name
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

There are the "book a week" challenges, which means that I would need to read 12 books, but as I'm doubling, I am going to get away with less than that :-D

Read a cookbook cover to cover.
The Little Library Cookbook by Kate Young
I could also choose something to make to eat before eating a book for artificery class in Orilium :-D
Either spice cookies to eat while reading We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
or posset to eat with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

Read a book with under 500 Goodreads ratings.
Mistress of Mistresses by E.R. Eddison

Read an author local to you.
Dandy by Jan Guillou

Then there are some 10 books I need to read for the genre challenge.
Hopepunk, magical realism, matron lit, women's fiction, and biographies. 

Some of them are going to fulfill some of the prompts :-)

Then I need to read The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky for the "Everyone has read this but me" book club.

Then there's the Battle of the Bands. I'm in the AC/DC group :-) I'm glad about that because that's the five books that look most interesting to me right now :-D (Oh, I want to read all of them, of course, and if everything goes as planned, I will.)

March TBR

 So... this year I'm going to reread more books.

“It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.”

- C.S.Lewis

Now, I don't know if that is a good rule or not, but... it's kind of interesting to reread old favorites. And kind of horrible. I just read the Starlight Barking and I hated it. :-D

So, March.

March of the Mammoths is on, and I planned to read War and Peace, which I have never read, and which is a serious mammoth (some 1400 pages).

(I also planned on reading David Copperfield (974 pages) and Demon Copperhead... heh.)

"Everyone has read this but me" club's March reads are: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence, and Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.

I planned on rereading the challenge books I've already read, but... I hate Wuthering Heights.

Then, as I plan on finishing three 52 prompt challenges, I'd need to read 3 books every week :-D (No, it's not as scary as it seems, as many of the prompts are the same, and many books fit many different prompts. I usually read one book for each prompt, but this year I'm doubling and tripling :-D

PopSugar 2023 reading challenge
Around the Year in 52 Books
52 Books Club

Then there's the Read Harder challenge.

I'm also doing the "100 Book Genre Challenge" - it would be nice to read genres I don't usually read.

I chose Hopepunk, which is a new acquaintance to me. I read some suggested book lists, and I have loved every one I have read, so it looks like a safe choice :-D
I chose Magical Realism, but that is what I read all the time. Well... not quite so, but I usually read a couple of those every year.
Then I chose Matron Lit, which is chick lit for gals over 40 :-D I am middle-aged, and people 30 and younger feel like children to me. I don't quite identify myself with a teenaged marysue heroine, and find it hard to like those books. I suppose Matron Lit might suit me better. I don't usually read much chick lit, though I have nothing against it.
Then I have Women's Fiction, because I stumbled over Britta Böhler's 1001 Books Before I Die challenge. I do consider myself a feminist, even though I am kind of stuck in the 80s and 90s with my feminism. I think it's good to further educate myself about feminism and read some feminist literature written by women younger than me. :-D
And last I have biographies. 

I was considering plays/drama and fairy tales, too. Maybe next year ;-)

I need to read 2 books every week for the genre challenge, and it's week 10, so I should need to have read a whole "genre" - 20 books. I'm not going to do that. So I have to take the rest of the year - 42 weeks - and divide the 100 books with that, and that gives me about 2 months for each 20 books. 10 books a month. More achievable :-)

Next, I need to finish my own fantasy challenge :-D

I also plan on reading "The 51 Best Fantasy Series Ever Written", Time's God Awful list of The 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time, and other such lists.

I have to say that Oprah's These 25 Fantasy Books Will Transport Your Imagination to Other Worlds is better :-D Readers' Digest's list is pretty bad. 

I have compiled a couple of lists on List Challenges; The Ultimate Fantasy Reading Challenge and The Ultimate Fantasy Reading Challenge Part II

And then I want to read all the award winners, especially Hugo and Nebula. And some others :-D (Locus, BFA, WFA, Mythopoeic, Tähtifantasia...)

(I have over 1300 books on my TBR list right now, and that's just those I have added to it... 
there are at least a couple hundred more that are not on it :-D)

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson

Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

So, I need to read 9 hopepunk books in March

The Obelisk Gate by N.K.Jemisin

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison

Home by Nnedi Okorafor

The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan

and 2 more... well... if I have time :-D

There's 24 prompts in Read Harder, that's 2 books a month. It's the third month, so I would need to read 6 books for that.

I have read The Tea Dragon Society, but I need to read

Peter Darling by Austin Chant

Muumipapan urotyöt by Tove Jansson

Lobizona by Romina Garber

The Poppy War by R.F.Kuang

Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence

The Cult of Venus by David S. Brody

To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Lammas Night by Katherine Kurtz

Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff

Stöld by Ann-Helén Laestadius

That's 28 books. I am pretty sure I am not going to read that :-D

But, but... I'll read what I can :-) Anyway, this is my TBR list for March.