#24in48readathon

Here’s the final thoughts and tally count as I reach the end of my last session!

I finished Felix Ever After and every second made me happier towards the end. A good book. A very good book. I don’t know what more I can add as to gushing about this book without being very spoiler-y, so I shall refrain.

I continued to read Lord Byron’s Selected Letters on and off, maybe I’m just over tired, but the whole thing starts to strike me as terribly tragic, the way he talks to and about his friends, feeling lonliness, missing them all, begging that they replied etc. And his letters to his sister are all so sweet but for the terrible understanding that he’s not just familial with her, but quite in love with her. Just all sort of a bit miserable and tragic. I’ll probably finish it slowly over the next week, as I feel this intensive reading I’ve been doing doesn’t really work for this book.

I also started The Last Sun by KD Edwqrds on audiobook, it’s an interesting world so far, a modern worlds and technology with traditional fantasy political intrigue, magic and machinations. I’m interested to see where it goes.

Finished Reads

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

Why I’m Not Talking to White People About Race - Reni Eddo-Lodge

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

Partial Reads

Selected Letters and Journals by Lord Byron 

So I started with the intent to make Felix Ever After (which I read on audiobook) to be my puttering-about-doing-life0tasks read whilst I couldn’t physically sit down and read a physical book.

I was mistaken.

As mentioned in my previous post, I was starting to feel anxious about Felix’s actions about 30-40% of the way through the book (the only thing that really stops me reading a book, or even puts me in a reading slump is something I feel that is triggering anxiety in me), if that plot thread had continued I don’t know if I could have finished, but as that changed, oh boy I could not stop this book. I haven’t quite finished (almost 90% done right now) but this is a beautiful story that I’m almost reluctant to finish because I don’t want to be done with the characters.

Anyway, I’m 19 and a half hours in (almost exactly) and I hope to smash out the last 4 and a half hours before I go to bed. I will definitely finish Felix Ever After first, and then back to Byron, which I feel that I will be unlikely to finish before the end of the challenge.

Finished Reads

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Current Reads

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender - 88%

My Sunday morning session is complete and I am at 16 hours 35ish minutes

Reading the Byron continues to be slow but engaging, I think I’m finding myself having to read some of the letters a couple of times to really get the context of them which is really slowing me down. It’s interesting to see the hints of his anorexia and mental illness portrayed through brief glimpses in his letters, and that his affair with his own sister was permitted to be put in writing, but his allusions to his bisexuality had to be generally more coded. It’s fascinating, in what he felt he could put to paper, even if the letters weren’t really intended for public consumption, I hadn’t properly known his biography (bar his involvement with the Shelley’s and that he was always trying to compensate for the physical deformity of his club foot by being an excellent swimmer) and to be able to see all these other details of his life through his correspondence is insightful.

I also finished Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race - An excellent overview and a way to direct further reading. Even if a not particularly in depth analysis of any one area, it makes you aware of the scope of the problem in other realms that you had not previously considered, for me I’d never noticed the political rhetoric surrounding class and whiteness in politics, and now it’s definitely something I’m interested to read more about, particularly in relation to the great British class survey.

Finally, I’ve started Felix Ever After, I’m at the 30ish percent mark which is where most people apparently stumble due to Felix’s attitude and approach to their problems, but I see that other readers felt the same way and still gave the book 5 stars, so I happily continue.

Finished Reads

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Current Reads

Selected Letters and Journals by Lord Byron -  page 111

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender - 37%

TBR