Tis The Damn Readathon - I did it!!! / March Reading Wrap Up

Hi all,

I have just finished reading the 10th book for Tis the Damn Readathon - a Taylor-Swift-inspired readathon.

For each of her albums we were given 3 prompts to choose from, 2 that involved reading a book and 1 random fun one - https://damnreadathon.carrd.co/

I thought I might get through 5-6 books but I just kept reading of an evening and managed to read a book for each album.

For 1989 I chose the prompt read a book with a number in the title and I chose ‘13 Reasons Why’. I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did and I ended up reading it over two nights. The story kept me intrigued and I needed to keep reading to see how this character was involved in the girl’s death. Being written for young adults, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did but I would really recommend this book.

For Taylor Swift I chose the prompt which was to read a book about music and that was ‘Jessie J: Nice to Meet You’. This book has been on my TBR for so long - since the book came out! It was an easy read given how it was laid out, a lot of photos and I enjoyed the conversational style of the writing.

For Speak Now I read a book that has a movie adaptation and I read ‘If I Stay’. Again, I didn’t expect to get into this as much as I did and I read this over just a couple of nights as well. It took me two attempts to read this as I had DNF-d it after about twenty pages initially but decided to give it another go and I’m pleased I did as it did pick up and was an emotional read.

For Red I read a book with red on the cover which was ‘Switch Bitch’ by Roald Dahl. This was not what I expected at all. I only found out recently that Roald Dahl had written adult books so I had to get myself a couple. I loved his books as a child and really wanted to see what his adult books were like. What a surprise. This book contained 4 short stories which had actually featured in Playboy magazines but they weren’t full-on sexual content. Mainly you were just aware that things occurred shall we say but it was very odd to read this style of book from one of my favourite childhood authors.

For Evermore I chose a book at random with a random number generator and that was ‘The Untethered Soul’. This has been on my TBR for about a year and I had tried to read it previously when perhaps I wasn’t in the right headspace. Being off from work at the moment and my mental health not being very good, this was the right time to read this book. It’s given me a lot to think about but has helped me to understand why my mind thinks the way it does.

For Fearless I read a book I was intimidated by which was ‘The Book Thief’. I was just intimidated by it’s size being over 500 pages. I loved how this was written - the being narrated by Death, having little snippets of definitions and explanations, etc - it was a gripping read. Very emotional and I feel the author did demonstrate the upsetting events at time very well.

For Lover I read a 5 star prediction which was ‘Flappy Entertains’. I love Santa Montefiore as an author and I was really excited to read this. Didn’t quite make the 5 stars for me, I gave it 4. I’m not going to spoil it but something quite serious occurred and the ending was very ‘and they all lived happily ever after’ ish and I’m not 100% sure I’m okay with that.

For Reputation I read a book which was recommended to me which was ‘Psychic Protection’. Bits were interesting for me but some of it was just a bit too much for me.

For Folklore I read a book based on mythology which was ‘Unicorns’. This was a Christmas present from a good friend and it was such a lovely read. I had no idea about how unicorns were mentioned through history, in religious texts, etc - a really interesting read.

I also chose to read one from the Blank Space prompt in case I didn’t tick off one of the other prompts. I chose a Christmas book which was ‘The Gift’. I love Christmas and I love me a Christmas book. As a bit of a workaholic, this was an emotional read and it has definitely left me thinking about how work consumes me at times.

So, 10 books this month. Quite the variety of books - fiction, nonfiction, mythology, Christmas, YA, etc - and I really loved reading completely different books.

To the organisers of the readathon - thank you so much! I really enjoyed it :-)