As part of my ongoing, post-Twitter “Social Reboot,” I committed to a couple of quality of life things for 2023 that are, so far, going pretty well: blogging and reading. You’re soaking in the first, while I’ve been successfully squeezing in book reading into times that used to be wasted on doomscrolling, particularly before bedtime. I’ve even stayed up late once finishing a book, and recently spent a few Saturday afternoon hours on the couch finishing another.
It’s been glorious!
I deleted my Goodreads account a few years ago but wanted to use something to track my reading again and maybe write short reviews (which, unlike Goodreads, I’ll capture on the blog periodically), so I signed up for The Storygraph and am liking it so far (with apologies to my long-dormant LibraryThing account).
Comments on blogs aren’t really a thing anymore, especially on this here blog, but I occasionally have someone pop in via WordPress Reader, I think, and while checking out the blog of one such commenter, It’s The Bageler!, I discovered “The Year-Long Scavenger Hunt” at Birdie’s Book Nook.
As Birdie describes it, “It’s basically a bingo… You can choose to read 31 books where each book fits a different prompt or you can choose to find books that fit multiple prompts.” The prompts lean heavily towards genre fiction and diversifying your reading somewhat, but I’d already established my TBR pile for year — pictured in the header above — to which I’ve since added at least 5 more books, not including the ebook trilogy I unexpectedly discovered last month, so a few more may need to be added to the mix.
I’m tracking the hunt/challenge on its own page and was happy to see the four books I’ve read so far already hit multiple prompts, including the nonfiction title I just finished, which I was worried wouldn’t fit in the hunt at all.
Scanning the books on my TBR pile, I suspect I’ll be able to easily hit most of the prompts, although a few may take some special attention, like Sword on the Cover, Title __ Of __, and YA Book. I’m also not sure what a Merlin Character is, so that might take some extra effort as Google couldn’t figure it out. If you know, please tell me!
It’s been a few years since I’ve regularly read much for pleasure so I’m looking forward to making 2023’s challenge (to read at 24 books) more fun, too. That I stumbled across it the old-fashioned way, through the blogiverse, is icing on the cake!
Hi! So glad you’re interested in the Scavenger Hunt! A Merlin character is a character who basically fits the role of Merlin in whatever story they’re in. So an older usually magical character who mentors the main character! Dumbledore, Gandalf, etc. Hope that helps!
That’s what I suspected but Google just gave me lists of actors who’ve played Merlin so I thought there might be some other Internet meaning behind it. LOL! Witch Hat Atelier definitely fits that, so another prompt checked off.
Thanks for putting the challenge out there!
ONE OF US
ONE OF US
LISTS ARE FUN
WE ARE COOL
Also, that shot of your bookshelf bewildered me in a delightful way, as I’m presently reading A Memory Called Empire and just finished A Journal Of My Father after hearing about it on Mangasplaining, to say nothing of the Witch Hat Atelier and Broken Earths! Did you manage to get in on the Fifth Season TTRPG crowdfund-campaign?
LOL! Glad to be in the club. Mangasplaining put me on to A Journal…, too! *insert Spider-man meme*
I hadn’t seen the FS RPG, though! That’s really tempting, but I’m so deep into Shadowrun right now, I may wait until it’s actually out and I’ve at least read Obelisk Gate before checking it out. I have a bad habit of buying RPG sourcebooks I’ll never play just because I love the worldbuilding. Way too many Forgotten Realms books over the years, and I still have the Artesia adaptation I haven’t looked at in years.
Listen, vague gesture, who among us
*eyes shelf of Monster Care Squad, Mage, Exalted, Fate, and Pathfinder 2e books nervously*