#backlogathon22

🔮 6th of October: What is your favourite kind of monster? (vampire, witch, fae etc.)

I've been reading The Odyssey recently, and because of that, right now the Cyclops is my favourite monster ^_^. I think it's totally fair and justified that the Cyclops ate Odysseus' men because Odysseus and his crew just WALTZED into the Cyclops' cave and ate all his food! Like, hospitality in the ancient world is one thing, but Odysseus was just a bastard in that case.

I used to like vampires because I would read my mum's collection of Anne Rice books, but Twilight and Vampire Diaries ruined the vampire concept - vampires are now tame and pretty -_-

Hosted by my wonderful friend @logarithmicpanda!

It’s now known that I read a lot and quite fast, but honestly I’m tired and there are quite a few things going on with uni and work right now so my list will be short. On the bright side, I have to read some of these books to pass an exam; two birds with one stone, so to speak.

The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells (1897)

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (1920)

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke (2000)

The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison (1922)

Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho (1998)

Of the three books planned, I have read two :

Thirst for Love (1950) by Yukio Mishima

Shanghai Baby (2001) by Wei Hui

The Mishima was weird as hell, which I expected but was still surprised by somehow. It was a good one though. On the other hand, i really did not like Shanghai Baby. Not my cup of tea at all.

🔮 8th of October: Did you ever experience something supernatural?

Nope. I've never experienced ghosts, fae, rooms that just chill you to the bone as soon as you walk in. Nothing.

To be honest, I'm still grasping how incredible nature is - the planets, gravity, birds that fly, soil that nourishes plants. I know that there are experts in all these fields, but the ultimate why of 'why does nature do that?'... That why still feels supernatural to me.

Also, The Haunting of Hill House (first published 1959) still reads SUPERBLY today. I have SO MANY thoughts on Eleanor and Theodora's relationship 🤓 🧐 particularly its giddy-school-girl overly affectionate beginning and its knife-sharp middle.

🎃 Horrortober Challenge + Backlogathon 2022 📚

🔮 13th October: Do you believe in Friday 13th superstitions?

I don't believe in Friday 13th superstitions, no. But for some reason the broken mirror = bad luck superstition is really strong for me 🤷🏽‍♀️. Someone has put a broken mirror in our apartment building's hard rubbish collection, and it's been sitting to the side for a month, and it's SO UNNERVING >.< (And I wasn't even the person who broke the mirror!!!)

Thank you to @logarithmicpanda for putting this marvellous idea out into the tumblr world for all to enjoy ^_^

I have on my list for October:

- The Mirror of Ink by Jorge Luis Borges (Pocket Penguins edition published 2005)

- Chess by Stefan Zweig (1942)

- Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (1911)

- Martha and Hanwell by Zadie Smith (2005)

The books that will cross-over with the Horrortober Reading Challenge are:

- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959)

Hosted by @logarithmicpanda, the idea is that we're only reading stuff published before 2010. And you know what ? I had completely forgotten what books I wanted to read back when i first saw the readathon announcement. On top of that, I am currently reading The Library at Mount Char, which was published in 2015, so actually starting the readathon will need to wait until I'm done.

However.

However, there's some old stuff in my to-read pile, that will fit very well the theme once i'm done with the Library ! Thus annoncing :

Thirst for Love (1950) by Yukio Mishima

Shanghai Baby (2001) by Wei Hui

Les Croisades vues par les Arabes (english : The Crusades through Arab eyes, but since I'm reading it in the original french, I'm putting the title in french. 1983) by Amin Maalouf

That third book is mostly "if I have the time this month" because we all know how slowly I read, and I'm still currently reading a book lol

It’s over! And I’ve done my homework most diligently.

Here’s the complete list of what I’ve read for the readathon:

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke (2000)

Veronika decides to die by Paulo Coelho (1998)

The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells (1897)

An Essay To Revive the Antient Education of Gentlewomen,

in Religion, Manners, Arts & Tongues by Bathsua Makin (1673)

The Mysterious Affair At Styles by Agatha Christie (1920)

The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison (1922)

An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde (1893)

Stardust by Neil Gaiman (1998)

Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History by Robert O. Bucholz & Newton Key (2003 - not finished but halfway through, I’m waiting for my British history course to catch up)

I managed to finish my short list and expand it a little, so I’m really happy! On another note, I also finished reading Fence (by C. S. Pacat), discovered the short story Annie Without Crow (by Michael Swanwick) and got around to reading poetry with Flower Crowns and Fearsome Things (by Amanda Lovelace).