#readalong

Dates for the 'Book of Life' read along from Deborah Harkness.

Happy April, happy spring! We’re now less than seven months away from the release of Cassandra Clare’s The Last King of Faerie and I think it’s safe to say that we all can’t wait for this book! It’s been a while since the publication of a full-length Shadowhunters novel so my friend Rossella from Shadowhunters.it and I came up with something fun! TMISource.com and Shadowhunters.it will be hosting…

2025 A Song of Ice and Fire Readalong

Hosted by @dragonbadgerbooks

Heya Booklr!

As I've talked about previously, I desperately want to reread the entirety of ASOIAF, but I am accountable to no one but myself, and I know that gal's a softie and won't hold me to it.

That's where you (hopefully) come in.

Let's read together!

I'm planning to start reading A Game of Thrones beginning Monday, June 1. Another poll said that people would prefer to take 6 weeks to read the book (which is perfect for me because I'm juggling this with a full time job and a two year old) and have set chapters/pages to read each week. This averages out to one to two chapters each day with a breakdown below for each week (In the mass market paperback, this is about 19 pages a day or 134 pages a week). Since GRRM doesn't do chapter titles, I've broken it down by the character name and which of their chapters it is (so if it's the second Arya POV chapter, it's called Arya II).

Depending on interest, interaction, and my own motivation, we'll see about continuing with the other books. It's my hope to reread the entire series over the next few months, so y'all gotta keep me accountable :)

Book I: A Game of Thrones Breakdown

Week 1: June 1-7

Prologue Bran I Catelyn I Daenerys I Eddard I Jon I Catelyn II Arya I Bran II Tyrion I Jon II Daenerys II Eddard II Tyrion II Catelyn III

Week 2: June 8-14

Sansa I Eddard III Bran III Catelyn IV Jon III Eddard IV Tyrion III Arya II Daenerys III Bran IV Eddard V Jon IV Eddard VI

Week 3: June 15-21

Catelyn V Sansa II Eddard VII Tyrion IV Arya III Eddard VIII Catelyn VI Eddard IX Daenerys IV Bran V

Week 4: June 22-28

Tyrion V Eddard X Catelyn VII Jon V Tyrion VI Eddard XI Sansa III Eddard XII Daenerys V Eddard XIII Jon VI Eddard XIV Arya IV

Week 5: June 29-July 5

Sansa IV Jon VII Bran VI Daenerys VI Catelyn VIII Tyrion VII Sansa V Eddard XV Catelyn IX Jon VIII Daenerys VII

Week 6: July 6-12

Tyrion VIII Catelyn X Daenerys VIII Arya V Bran VII Sansa VI Daenerys IX Tyrion IX Jon IX Catelyn XI Daenerys X

If you do want to participate, I think I'll use the tag #dbbasoiafreadalong, #dragonbadgerbookclub and my usual #dragonbadgerchallenge. I'll try to also do discussion questions to give a starting point :)

Thank you for wishing to know more! FairyLoot special edition is the special edition with bonus content. I will explain more. FairyLoot is a wonderful UK-based group who make fancy special editions for their monthly boxes. People sign up for FairyLoot and get books picked for them. You can get Young Adult, Adult Fantasy, or Romantasy, or a combination thereof - Long Live Evil was the August Adult Fantasy pick - and you can buy other special editions from their website. So the FairyLoot folks are Tastemakers as well as makers of beautiful objects. (ISN’T IT BEAUTIFUL? Pictures stolen. Interior art by Bon Orthwick who got Marius’s hair PERFECT.)

But you can’t buy the monthly boxes, unless they have extras! If they do have extra Evils to buy, I will put up a link.

There are many boxes now, but FairyLoot and Illumicrate are the two biggest and have made a lot more people embrace reading and see books as a special treat. Waterstones and Barnes & Noble have started making special editions of books because of them. A while back I knew none of this, because I was staying away from publishing, working with IP books (very different branch of publishing) and training for a different job. But then I did a catch-up call with my frien. She talked about FairyLoot. I did not understand her and thought maybe the deadlines had got on top of her and she believed fairies had looted her manuscript.

Holly: So these FairyLoot editions have (She holds up a copy of… I think… the Coldest Girl In Coldtown?) been amazing for UK sales.

Sarah: Sorry but why are these books so beautiful?

Holly: Because I just explained to you why, girl. Sarah: Can I have this.

Holly: No they’re limited!

So then I knew FairyLoot was a Giant Deal and they were offered Long Live Evil but I was sure they wouldn’t pick me.

My lovely editor Jenni: great news, the FairyLoot people picked you! Sarah: are you. are you quite sure.

Jenni: … yes? Could you write them some bonus content? Sarah: YES! A thing I can do for them? Oh yes! Here’s three things I can do. Tell them they can pick which one they would like!

I wrote a letter for them as well, to be bound in with the book. But the bonus content is an extra adventure or point of view you didn’t get to see in the main book. FairyLoot picks what they think their readers might like most.

I really like epistolary novels, where the action is told though letters, such as Jane Austen’s Lady Susan and Amal El Mohtar and Max Gladstone’s This Is How You Lose The Time War. So I thought it would be fun to do a story through letters!

Obviously I then had a moment of dark self-doubt.

Sarah: O my god why did they pick this nobody’s going to like him what shall I do! Holly: When I was writing Cardan’s letters you said ‘epistolary is so fun, you said, this is a piece of cake, you said, get in loser we’re writing romantically sinister letters, you said…’

Sarah: my Vision is a romantic The Screwtape Letters. Holly: … oh dear. Okay. Get in loser we’re writing romantically sinister letters.

And so with a lil help from my kind frien, I wrote Letters to My Lady From the Abyss, which is an epistolary short story with a POV we don’t get in book 1 and an adventure we don’t get to see. But I did write it, as you see, for FairyLoot so it belongs to them and it’s up to them. I think I might get it back in a year and then I’ll put it up on my website. I will let you know!

I am so sorry for this very long explanation, I just wanted to let you know what was up.

Should you read it, I hope you enjoy. And I will write more bonus content, I promise!

Also speaking of FairyLoot, they’re doing a readalong of Long Live Evil right now if anyone might like to chat about the book. Here’s a link to people talking about chapters 1-7 - they will do a different chunk every day! I like that people are choosing favourite characters, so far the Cobra, Key and Emer have the votes!