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Hailee's Buzzwordathon Reading Challenge
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2025 Buzzword Cover Edition
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January's theme completed. I'm still not sure how strict I'm going to be about completing the themes on the "right" month. I read The Midnight Guardians this month so I might count August's challenge as complete as well.
I'll delete this post once you see it...Did you do Magical Readathon this year? Watched this last night and thought of you.
Girl deserves more views, she’s really put in a lot of thought/work + always support the starter outers. The other booktubers and readathons will get thousands of views anyway:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXK7t...
I may just end up doing it myself just to respawn my genre reading muscles.
Remember when we made plans to read The Stand some October? :D I’m here in time and I’ll keep my word but only if you want to xcuz I remember you telling me you were slumpy. Actually this October I’m really in the mood for
and also some very pacy thrillers:
Hey Zaara. Yes I am taking part in Magical Readathon. Have you seen the new world G created for it? Its amazing!!! Although I've only finished one book so far this month so I can't say I'm doing well... I don't often do readathons in October simply because horror/thrillers and all things scary isn't really my vibe so I take a break to recharge ready for Clear Ur S**t Readathon and Believathon in November. That one does look fun though and the prompts don't force you to read scary books so I might do it just to support a small booktuber.
Lets put The Stand on hold this year if that's OK as I am slumpy and I have a couple of long fantasy/sci-fi that I NEED to read in October... I need to read Dune as I want to read it before the film comes out on 22nd of October and I also want to make a start on rereading The Eye of the World in preparation for the amazon prime series coming out. Apart from those my October reading will probably be a bit lighter side of Halloween I'll be rereading the first two Simon Snow books and then finally read Any Way the Wind Blows (there are witch's and vampire in them so they count 😉) I might try and read Truly Devious as well... its a thriller but since its YA it hopefully won't be too gruesome or mind fuckery...
Nice reading plans. No I hadn't yet watched the Magical Readathon video but I know G's fabulous. For some weird reason, I thought it was April and August???Re Dune...
You know, Hay, I figure I owe you one. Reckon I may have put you off mood on the Finial Empire a coupla years ago (? 2019???) by doddering over it and being ominous about my misgivings + it were also a time when every book I read I said sounded like I were spewing venom at the world. But Mayim was only recently telling me she is interested and I still have my one leg stuck in the quicksand of god's swamp so the next time your mood swings round mebbe we all can give it a go.
Anyway, now in the recompense I say nothing about Dune 😈 except book has a magnificent setting + amazing world + villainy villains + I loved the fight scene + everyone must read it once fo sho. Also I really liked the Mom char...jessica + can you believe I forgot all the other names?
But here is the deal... you gotta reward my stunning restraint twofold bcuz restraint comes very hard to us rottem apples :D
1. I'll be very interested to know what you think about the MC and eventually if the show copmares favourably with the books. I hope so. I will follow your updates on the Dune read because i always enjoyed our BRs. We got thru some big mothas together, Hay...💪
2. Also AFTER you read it you sure should check out my old comments and see if the material justifies...NB I feel Mayim would approve wholeheartedly!!
Huuh ...I didn't even know Wheel of Time was getting adapted for the screen, shows you how much I've been out of it all! And still haven't gone beyond S3 on GoT bcuz I wanna do a full reread first. Can you believe I haven't watched Money Heist yet? I'm holding (barely) until the final episodes are out + I'm the same with picking up only completed book series...but...but...but I started watching Vis a Vis last night...
Ha, Clear you S#!t sounds fun! And what's Believathon? I'll go check these on Youtube.Where's the thread where you listed all your challenge books you filled with romances, Hay? Is it in this group???
You know, I think I WILL do the creature thing, after all...gonna go pick my books now...
Zaara wrote: "Nice reading plans. No I hadn't yet watched the Magical Readathon video but I know G's fabulous. For some weird reason, I thought it was April and August???.."
It was previously and from 2022 it probably will be again. Because G has had to create everything from scratch for the rebirth of the readathon she could only do one month this year so made it a special 'travelling to the university' themed one. From next year the theme will again me be magic lessons and it'll probably go back to April/August.
Zaara wrote: "Re Dune...You know, Hay, I figure I owe you one. Reckon I may have put you off mood on the Finial Empire a coupla years ago (? 2019???) by doddering over it and being ominous about my misgivings + it were also a time when every book I read I said sounded like I were spewing venom at the world. But Mayim was only recently telling me she is interested and I still have my one leg stuck in the quicksand of god's swamp so the next time your mood swings round mebbe we all can give it a go.
Anyway, now in the recompense I say nothing about Dune 😈."
Hahaha no need to feel guilty about The Final Empire I actually really like what I read of it but I was swamped with other reads and coz noone ended up depending on me to be a buddy I took the opportunity to temporarily dump it to give myself some breathing room. I'd be up to read it next year some time.
I don't have too high expectations on Dune hence why it has taken me sooooo long to try to even buy it. But if I don't at least try it before I watch the movie, chances are I will never get around to it
Zaara wrote: "Huuh ...I didn't even know Wheel of Time was getting adapted for the screen, shows you how much I've been out of it all! And still haven't gone beyond S3 on GoT bcuz I wanna do a full reread first. Can you believe I haven't watched Money Heist yet? I'm holding (barely) until the final episodes are out + I'm the same with picking up only completed book series...but...but...but I started watching Vis a Vis last night......"Yeah I'm quite excited about the WoT adaptation, although I just found out series one takes plot points from book 1, 2 and 3 so might have to delay watching till I've reread the 1st 3 books. I still haven't watched Game of Thrones. I reread book 1 a couple of years ago with the intention to read them all and then watch the show so the show could finish it off for me coz its not looking like the books will ever be completed but didn't get past book 1 so will probably have to start it all again 🙄
Zaara wrote: "Ha, Clear you S#!t sounds fun! And what's Believathon? I'll go check these on Youtube.Where's the thread where you listed all your challenge books you filled with romances, Hay? Is it in this grou..."
Yes Clear Ur S**t is a lot of fun and since its 2 months long there is plenty of time to read as much as possible. Hahaha no the challenge I was referring to was my goodreads reading goal. I just happened to have read more romances this year than I have fantasy.
Reed wrote: "Can I try this too please?"Of course you can, Reed. Anybody can join. It'll be lots of fun!
:) did you mean the readathons or the Mistborn BR or the ASOIAF BR next year?
Hailee wrote: "I don't have too high expectations on Dune hence why it has taken me sooooo long to try to even buy it. But if I don't at least try it before I watch the movie, chances are I will never get around to it."Uhhh yeah, point taken. Deffo just buy the first book and see if you like it before you get the others.
Some books age well...
1. Re ASOIAF, Broken Empire/Road Brothers and Mistborn buddy reads: anytime you feel like it next year, I'm in.2. Speaking of big books/series, I'm kinda experiencing Malazan withdrawal symptoms...I have the shakes...
3. Also don't forget we have Goblin Emperor. If you are in the mood for it sometime sooner than next year, I'll be up for it in November. If not, we can do it for our usual Standalone January.
4. The Road Brothers hardcover edition has a beautiful cover.
5. Believathon is middlegrade. Ages since I read good middle grade, Hay. Last was
with the YA book club. I don;t even know what to get. I think I may have Magesterium. I love listening to Gavin's accent tho. 6. Re what I'm watching, I just watched the Downton Abbey movie *eyerolls* finally. Haven't watched Bridgertons yet. I just finished watching S1 of Vis A Vis, I'm finding it a bit too hardhitting/bit much to get thru at times...sometimes watching it I feel like I know absolutely nothing about the world. Cannot watch two episodes back to back.
Did you manage to get the edition of Goblin Emperor with the beautiful cover?
Hailee wrote: "I take a break to recharge ready for Clear Ur S**t Readathon and Believathon in November"Are the annoncement videos for either of these two up yet?
Zaara wrote: "Are the annoncement videos for either of these two up yet?"No not yet. I'm a patron of Gavin's so I know that the Believathon announcement is going up on Friday the 8th.
I think initially the Clear Ur S**t Readathon was going up this week but the host posted on Twitter than she'd had a family emergency so it'll be delayed a week or so.
Zaara wrote: "Did you manage to get the edition of Goblin Emperor with the beautiful cover?"I haven't bought it yet but this will definitely be the edition I buy.
Zaara wrote: "1. Re ASOIAF, Broken Empire/Road Brothers and Mistborn buddy reads: anytime you feel like it next year, I'm in.2. Speaking of big books/series, I'm kinda experiencing Malazan withdrawal symptoms...I have the shakes"
Me too! Shall we plan to start one in Feb? (after Standalone January) If so do you have a preference? I'm leaning more towards ASOIAF or Broken Empire but happy to do any of them.
Unless we do Malazan in February instead? Or as well as if you're feeling particularly brave 😅😅.
I was thinking longingly about Malazan a couple of months ago and I definitely want to read at least 4 or 5 of them in 2022. Where are you in the series? I'm only on Deadhouse Gates (although I might quickly fit in a reread of Gardens of the Moon to refresh myself)
Zaara wrote: "3. Also don't forget we have Goblin Emperor. If you are in the mood for it sometime sooner than next year, I'll be up for it in November. If not, we can do it for our usual Standalone January..."I'll be concentrating on middlegrade in November with maybe the occasional mood read so maybe not in November. I'd be happy to do the buddy read in December if you have time but if not them we can definitely do it in January... I'm excited for Standalone January as I've pencilled in Great North Road which is MASSIVE but its one of my favourite ever sci-fis. However since Goblin Emperor is quite short in fantasy book terms I can definitely fit that in as well if we don't do it in December.
Zaara wrote: "Believathon is middlegrade. Ages since I read good middle grade, Hay. Last was with the YA book club. I don;t even know what to get. I think I may have Magesterium. I love listening to Gavin's accent tho."Believathon is a middlegrade readathon. I've only recently got into middlegrade in the last year or so but I've started to build up quite a TBR.
I must admit you've confused me... Sorcery of Thorns is definitely YA not middlegrade... so it can't be the last middlegrade you read?
I can give you a short list of the middlegrades I have that I'm most excited for (if its a series I'll just link the first one)
Middlegrades I've read and enjoyed:
I'll also probably continue on with my reread of the Percy Jackson series that I started a few months ago. And I recently bought a childhood favourite to see how it stands up in adulthood (book one is
Zaara wrote: "The Road Brothers hardcover edition has a beautiful cover...."It does look beautiful but since I hate hardbacks I'll stick with my slightly less beautiful paperback 🤣
Zaara wrote: "Re what I'm watching, I just watched the Downton Abbey movie *eyerolls* finally. Haven't watched Bridgertons yet. I just finished watching S1 of Vis A Vis, I'm finding it a bit too hardhitting/bit much to get thru at times...sometimes watching it I feel like I know absolutely nothing about the world. Cannot watch two episodes back to back....."I'm getting worse and worse about watching TV... I find it difficult to start new things because I mainly watch TV in the background while doing other things so I put on repests of things I'm familiar with do it doesn't require too much concentration and doesn't matter if I miss things.
I stopped watching Downtown Abbey after a few series. Ibthrew my toys out ov the pram after a few things I didn't like happened and angrily announced to my mum I was never watching it again... and I didn't 🤣🤣 so dramatic 🙈
I loved Bridgerton!! That was one thing I actually made an effort to watch... in fact I watched episode 1 at 2am in the morning intending to just watch the one and go to sleep... 8 hours later it was 10am and I'd finished the entire series in one go... boy I was tired that day 😂
Promise to come back and reply soon ok? Im just tired, I got overexcited because of my radical stopping point in the book (i read till 5 am and could not stay up anymore) and typed A LOT for the buddy read. Think I may’ve terrified Narilka instead of motivating her.
*sigh* it's a disease. i ALWAYS go one over, one bit too much, one helping extra than was needed by the situation while knowing i am doing it.
i am classic overdoer in everything!!! at least she will not lack company or spoilers to open...yeesh!!!
Wow, love your middlegrade picks! What a lovely collection you must have by now!!!! Middlegrade, it’s a whole world I know next to nothing about…I really liked the sound of the pirate ship one, the one on the trains had an Agatha Christie vibe, the one with Ted, Wonderscape too bcuz I love how it says its Jumanji meets Ready Player One. I’ll be getting alla those but not in time for November, I don’t think. I’m deffo more in a RJ Bennett/First Law mood right now. And ouuppp sorry your confusion was definitely my bad and more my ignorance of the boundaries between YA and middlegrade. To me Sorcery of Thorns had that innocence, whimsy + touch of adventure and magic in it + the romance was (gosh I’ve forgotten) to my knowledge totally clean + not dark. So yeah…if a small kid can read harry potter they sure can survive sorcery of thorms. Kids are tough! Kids read goosebumps and play video games…unless I got the definition of middle grade wrong agn with goosebumps.The Believathon announcement is up! I haven’t watched it yet. These last coupla days I’m just watching videos of people’s vintage Stephen King collections and ogling at them kitschy 80s hardcovers with a white hot bangbang lust. Dammit, I WANT!!! And I dunno that I will ever read IT because I am absolutely terrified of creepy clowns but (irrationally) I even want a Pennywise funko pop and have absolutely no idea why. Not gonna get it, of course.
Given how little horror I read, I always I think I got lucky with King and only read the best of the best…Misery, the Shining etc…but watching the videos and hearing all the huge King love makes you want to pick up one…I’ll save the Stand for you but I may get Salem’s Lot/Lisey’s Story/Bag of Bones or Under the Dome soonish. One day I will read Dark Tower but once you start it, there are sooooo many tie ins and Easter eggs with the rest of his canon that you just have to…huh! Smart man!!!!
Oh I’ve had that tantrum and thrown those missiles but not for anything on TV. Long before I joined this group, I stopped watching the Blacklist around the time when (view spoiler) and I hated the MC was so bloody self-centered and tantrummingly demand-y but everyone else was just dying like flies to protect her. By then I didn’t give a sh…
Naaw my tantrum (when I actually cared enuf to throw it) was more about the pileup of pain in the Stormlight Archives. He put those chars thru too much. I dunno how I can simultaneously love a book and a world and absolutely HATE what the author chooses to happen to the ppl in it. Narilka and I made pinky swear to do full read of SA 1-5 for when the fifth book comes out and ends the first arc. I’ve read books 1 and 2 with all the girls but largely fogging/blanking out on the ending to Book 2 again from the time when (view spoiler)
THE WORDSY THRASHING OUT OF THE 2022 PLAN Yay for 2022 planning! I have missed reading with you too. I’ve nothing set except vague plans with Anni to read the Powder Mage books.
Oh absolutely no worries, I can find plenty to read in November and December so let’s definitely say Goblin Emperor for Standalone January, then! It feels nice to start the year with a read that you know is going to be good and puts you on a forward momentum, yes?
Hailee, have you read anymore Rutherfurd since London? I really liked how we set things up and exceuted them on that thread…I know I (personally) would never have finished it without the BR. And NOS4A2 too…hehe, we were such cowards!!! We really should be cranking more on those hoary ghosts that have died in servitude to our TBR and now haunt the castle. Shall we do Sarum, perhaps in 2022? I really wanna get that puce monster off my shelves.
Re Broken Empire 1-3 + Road Brothers in Feb,
But uuuuuh sweetheart, while on the one hand I am very tempted to seriously enable you and said yes to everything in the general ideology… mebbe we shall take small pause and see where yous ship is headed…the first 3 WoT, Malazan x 4 and uuuuh ASOIAF. I don’t want that you get completely gridlocked in huge books and start hating your TBR completely…
That said, I just watched this booktuber who started both Drizzt and Shannara and alternated between the worlds each month (she is hating one series and loving the other…basically using the good one as a crutch to get to the payoff on the “other” one)… so something like this could work, possibly? Where we do one big book a month and surround it with lighter mood reads etc, given that we already tasted both series and like them????
Heh, this group has so much Malazan support, it really will be a crying shame if we do not make full use of it. We should haunt the rubble of the old threads and play paintball like zombie children after the apocalypse. I know I will. Hey, are you doing the main series or Extended Reading Order?
I am not too far ahead…a couple hundred pages into MoI (Book 3) and the prologue was so very vivid in my mind that I didn’t have guts to approach the end of that book but I know I will eventually. I joined this group for Malazan and bought all ten books up front. Some series you just know going in, that they’ll be something you will commit to and keep.
Random Malazan explainy backgrnd stuff that has nothing to do with schedules:
(view spoiler)
After you asked, I spent some time thinking whether I’d reset or mebbe just cheat and refresh Gardens and DG from the Tor reread. Both are tempting, one because it
USEFUL LIST TO SAVE TIME AND CUT THE CRAP:
The upshot of all this being:
1. Yeah sure to Goblin Emperor in January
2. Thumping Yes to Broken Empire full reread + Road Brothers in Feb pending Tenfingers approval.
3. Also Yes to 4 Malazan thru the year, open to full reread OR detailed review (match highlights) of books 1 and 2.
4. This is also a Yes but on ASOIAF let’s just pick one up whenever we feel like it. What are the chances George will pull a Robert Jordan on us?
5. What about Mistborn? I want to get to Era 2.
6. And can we please do Sarum for Standalone Jan too? That’s one I really nominate to read with you.
God! I really type A LOT!!! Ugggg...but I made a handy list at the end....and I do it to everyone....you are not alone, if that's any consolation. but the nice flipside to this is, you will get plenty of spoilers in every BR.
Haha yes lots to read here. A lot of good plans but I'll reply in more detail tomorrow as I only have access to my phone right now and no way am I typing everything on my phone keyboard 😅.
Zaara wrote: "Wow, love your middlegrade picks! What a lovely collection you must have by now!!!! Middlegrade, it’s a whole world I know next to nothing about…I really liked the sound of the pirate ship one, the..."Yes i love my little collection carefully curated from the best of lists from Gavin and Jaderaereads who are my go to for middlegrade recs. I'm like you and know almost nothing about the genre really but really want to read more of it.
I think the line between middlegrade and YA is not very clear cut. I can only go by what I personally feel qualifies as MG but that is a very personal opinion and very subjective. I tend to think of a book or a series as MG if the main characters (at least start the series) are about 9-14ish year olds and that it isn't very romance heavy. But like I said that is my very subjective opinion.
Yes I actually watched the Believathon announcement a few days early since my tier of patronage got early access. i also rewatched it coz iyt was worth a second viewing... so funny.
I've never really been drawn to King's books since I always think of him as a purely horror writer and that is just a genre that is just not my thing... NOS4R2 was seriously a read out of my comfort zone LOL. I think of all King's books I'll be willing to read The Stand, 11/22/63 and The Eyes of the Dragon and that's about it.
Right onto the 2022 planning: 1. My copy of The Goblin Emperor arrived the other day so I'm all set for January and yes it is the beautiful edition.
2. Looking forward to The Broken Empire but yeah pretty much anytime in the year is fine by me. I just can't do it earlier than February
3. I think the way I'm going to do Malazan is just reread it all. I only got to the first 3 or 4 chapters of Deadhouse Gates in June last year so would definitely want to reread those and I think given how complicated Gardens of the Moon is, looking through all the notes from the TOR reread probably wouldn't be that much quicker than just rereading it (it'll be my 3rd time so hopefully I'll be quicker than I was on the previous 2 times. If you want to just meet me at Memories of Ice I could probably read GotM in December, and start DG after we've finished Sarum so I'd probably be ready to read MoI with you April or May? Or you could join me in a full reread and we could read GotM in December together and proceed like I suggested or we could start GotM after Sarum in 2022. Completely up to you...
4 & 5. I agree that we should just play starting ASOIAF by ear and maybe also do that with Mistborn? I appreciate you holding me back from starting all the big series at once. And 2022 me appreciates you even more 😅
6. Yes!! Lets do Sarum in January... we can do a similar schedule for how we did London. I'll purchase the lovely 30th anniversary edition in the next few weeks and maybe create the schedule. I got rid of my own puce monster edition years ago because I knew when I got to it I'd want the prettiest edition I could find.. I'm shallow like that lol 🙈
Ok I'm finishing my shift and going home now so I don't have time to check my grammar and spelling... hopefully this all made sense.
Naaw I'll re-read GotM with. In that case, don't bother making progress on DG. And thanks back for not letting me slack off. Here's how cunningly hypocritical I am, (secretly) I was tempted to get WoT after seeing Daniel Greene's set. Until then I had absolutely no interest cuz of all the braid tugging jokes on our threads. But I know that if I start both Malazan and WoT I will progress on neither so...I'm sticking to my resolve. But he sure has a beautiful set!!Ya, I finally watched the Believathon announcement...🤣😂 wonder how many times he practised the sync!!!
Since it's the last Believathon and it still counts if you read just one book...I'll buy Wonderscape and join you for sure...but that's ALL!! Would you mind too much waiting to read it in the second half of Nov? Am facing Covid delivery delays and I'm also moving some (ok lots of) things between homes arnd then.
Also, I asked Tenfingers (and from her reply I feel like it was just a mood rather than a firm plan when she posted but OF COURSE I got overeager and jumped like it was some proper BR invite)...but she says to go ahead with Broken Empire whenever and she will look in.
So uuh 🤣😅 Nov, Dec, Jan and Feb are mostly set.
We've made some good plans 🤣.Sure I'll leave Wonderscape until you're ready to tead it. I'm not making a firm RBR gor Believeathon anyway. I'll just mood reading depending on the prompts I pick from the cards. I'll be picking a new card everytime I finish a book.
Yeah I know what you mean about WOT and Malazan. I am planning to do both but I'll just have WOT running in the background and just read bits as and when I feel like it. It'll be my lowest priority read.
So I guess this is what our schedule is looking like:
November: Wonderscape
December: Gardens of the Moon
January: The Goblin Emperor & Sarum
February: Finish off Sarum & start Deadhouse Gates and hopefully Prince of Thorns
Hehe yeah you know, I made the same list on my phone but didnt post it!!! Made me smile...:D
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I have altered the Buzzwordathon Challenge to fit my own reading plans. I am taking the words from 2021, 2022 and 2023 but I'm not worrying about the months in which I read them
2021
Dream
A Colour :
Time:
Space/Galaxy Terms
House/Home:
Name/Title
Last
Time of the Day
Dark
Element Words
Day/Month/Season
2022
5 Ws and 1 H
Pronouns/Possession Words :
Locations
Big and Little
Directions :
All
Bookish Words
Items and Objects
Light and Dark
Animals and Creatures :
Ending in ING
Numbers :
2023
Life and Death:
Verbs :
Secret:
Emotions :
Flavours
Other
Weather Words
Body Parts
Game Words :
Magic Words :
Good
Sound Words
2024
There/Their/They're:
Positive Words :
Character Names :
Nature Words :
Every
Repeating Words
Measurements
Like
Senses
Relationships :
Only
Holiday Words
2025
Truth and Lies:
Water Words :
Thing:
Animals :
To and too
Memory Words
Punctuation
With
Events
Violent Words :
Never
Alliteration