books I have read so far

Warning!!! This is a long post!

I haven’t been writing a lot here on the blog, and I have been missing it. I just haven’t been sure what to write about. But today, I decided to grab all the books I have read so far this year, and stack them in a stack and take a photo. Because, why not, right?

So far I have read 24 books, 1 away from my Goodreads goal (you can find me here). All though, with that being said, my actual goal is 31. If I manage to read 31 books, that means I have read more than last year, which is my goal, I suppose. Though, I will be happy if I read more than 25 only!

I found Books and Lala on youtube last week and subscribed to her. She does book tube, and I just really loved her wrap up were she does the statistic so I decided I wanted to do a blog post with the statistic “half way” into the year. I’m a little late, but better late than never, right?

Anyway, I wanted to see the statistics of amount of pages, publication years, genre, my star rating and the gender of the authors!

Let’s start with ALL the books. Also, I do have three books that isn’t here because one was a library book (had to read for school..), one was a book of poems I borrowed from my sister and the last was the first audiobook I have finished!! Those three were Pan by Knut Hamsun, a collection of poems by Arnulf Øverland and the last, the audiobook, was Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz.

Oh, by the way, this photo was taken on my iPhone whilst the others were taken with my camera!

note: if there is a * after a book, it means that it’s in Norwegian and doesn’t have an english translation (there isn’t many), but those that is norwegian without the * has an english translation!

NUMBER OF PAGES

So far, I have read 9407 pages according to Goodreads.

LESS THAN 300 (picture 1)

Here we have, mostly, my non fiction books and my three that aren’t:

• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K Rowling
• Report from nr 24 by Gunnar Sønsteby (norwegian + this book is 2 books, I have only read one)
• The King’s Choice by Alf R. Jacobsen (norwegian)*
• Almost Autumn by Marianna Kaurin (norwegian)
• The Princess Diares: Princess in the Middle by Meg Cabot
• Everything what mothers have fought by Mari Jonassen (norwegian)*

300 – 400 (picture 2)

A mix of everything, really:

• The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye
• The White Russian by Vanora Bennett
• The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead
• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
• Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger
• Sara’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

400 – 600 (picture 1)

I love big books and I cannot lie!

• The Fate of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
• The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
• A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
• The Venetian Contract by Mariana Fiorato
• The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

600 + (picture 2)

Bigger books!

• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
• Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
• Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon

So, from here, since I have already mentioned every single book, I’m not going to write the names on every single one. If you are interested in any of the books, look at the photo or at the names over :D

PUBLICATION DATE

I divided this into three because I wasn’t going to do every single year:

BEFORE 2000

2000 – 2010

2010 – NOW

(in no particular order by the way. I just stacked them so they wouldn’t look like crap..)

GENRE

Ok, so I have realized that I really don’t read varied in the genre department, so I only have four: fantasy, historical fiction, non fiction and others.

FANTASY

I don’t think The glittering court is fantasy, but I just added it here…

HISTORICAL FICTION

NON – FICTION

They are all world war 2, and three of them are resistance related and the last one has to do with the king.. (which by the way, check out the trailer for one of my favourite movies thats “based” on the book: The King’s Choice!)

OTHERS

AUTHOR’S GENDER

Not that it really matters, but I do want to read varied, AND I have now realized that I haven’t really when it comes to gender… And of course, I’m not assuming anyones genders, I’m just going by the name ;)

MALE

… because this is tiny

FEMALE

… and then, last but not least:

MY STAR RATING

I want to point out that I might have given some of these books 3,5, 4,5 and so on!

Let’s start from the bottom, shall we?

I don’t have any 1 stars, so:

2 STARS

I was contemplating wether or not I should show this, but hey, I didn’t particularly like it, so I’m telling you so.

3 STARS

For me, 3 stars are when the good books comes, so 3 stars doesn’t mean I didn’t like them, because I really enjoyed these books, but a few things “forced” me to not give it better.

4 STARS

5 BOOKS

I have read so many great books so far this year!

 

Ok, that was that, really. It’s interesting to see. I’m not sure what I’ll do with the information, but maybe I’ll try to read a little more diverse, and not just read fantasy and historical fiction? All though, I’m going to read what I want to read and not force myself to read anything just because I feel like I have to!

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? What books have you read so far this year and which were your favourites?

Thank you for reading! :D

read-a-thon

I participated in my first ever read-a-thon a few days ago. It was called duodecathon, and even though I have noe clue why it’s called that, I decided to participate because it was the first one to start.

Duodecathon is a read a then that happens 12 times a year, once a month. It’s usually in the end of the month. It also has 12 challenges so you can do one each month. However, I personally didn’t try to do one of the challenges, as I just wanted a time and date to follow. I did consider trying to reach for the 1200 pages, but decided against it.

The read a thon started on June 24th and ended on June 30th. So, 7 days!

Even though I didn’t choose one of the premade challenges, I did have a challenge. My challenge was to finish as many as possible of my started books. So books I have stopped reading after reading 50 or more pages (or less, but none of mine were less than 50).

I was also sick the first few days of the read-a-thon, so all I did was to read, and read, and read more. Which was great!

day 1 – 24 of June

I decided to start “Etiquette and Espionage” by Gail Carriger. I had already read 106 pages off it, and seeing that it wasn’t the thickest book, I easily finished it by the end of the day. The reason I had stopped reading this book a few months ago when I startet it, was for a few reason. 1, being because exams were coming up and I couldn’t focus on what I was reading, and 2 being because it just wasn’t an interesting enough book in my opinion. By the end of the day, when I only had about fifty pages left, I really wanted to give up on the book, but I knew that if I didn’t finish it before I went to bed, I would not want to start the next day because I would feel obligated to finish this book. But I did. I gave this book 2 stars. I think one of the reasons why I didn’t like it was because it felt so young. Yes, the character was 15, but the way it was written.

Total pages read: 201

Books read: 1

day 2 – 25 of June

I wasn’t sure what book I wanted to pick up this day, but after looking at my bookshelf for ten minutes, I finally decided for “The girl on the train” by Paula Hawkins. I got this book for christmas and had read 53 pages of it a couple of months before my exams. Though, I didn’t stop reading this because of exams, but because I recived a book in the post that I really wanted to read. But those 53 pages were really interesting, and I was excited to dive back into it.  I rarely read crime (this is crime, right?), but this book was amazing. A little creepy and made me believe love isn’t real for a second, but amazing. Even though this book had more pages than the last one, this one took me less time, and I finished it at 21.40 (or 9.40) in the evening. I gave it 5 stars!

Total pages read: 480

Books read: 2

day 3 – 26 of June

This was the day I started to feel a lot better, so I didn’t read as much because I had other things I wanted to do too. I picked up “The lost symbol” by Dan Brown which I started sometime late last year, or early this year. I really like the “Robert Langdon” series, and am planning on reading the next (and the next?). I had read 179 pages when I started it, and I managed to read 103 pages, which isn’t bad!

Total pages read: 583

Books read: 2

(I read The Girl on the Train and The Lost Symbol in Norwegian. Piken på toget and Det tapte symbol)

day 4- 27 of June

This was my worst day, I think. I only read 3 pages. But that’s ok. This was the first day I felt good enough to be with friends, so me and two friends went to the mall and played cards pretty much the entire day.

Total pages read: 585

Books read: 2

day 5 – 28 of June

I went outside and read. I even wore shorts which is a first for me this year. I managed to read 101 pages – my goals was 100 – so I was pretty happy with the progress.

Total pages read: 686

Books read: 2

day 6 + 7 – 29 + 30 of June

Ok, so day 6 and 7 was sort of a blur. I didn’t write down what I read on day 6, though I read a little, and on day 7 I was away from 11 in the morning till nine in the evening. When I came home I read a little just as a last try to read more. I still didn’t finish the book.

Total pages read: 736

Books read: 2

 

wrap up

Total pages were (as written already) 736 pages and I managed to finish 2 (and a half) books, which is more than I thought I would manage, so I am pretty pleased with what I did. I really enjoyed my first read-a-thon, and I’ll defiantly do more in the future.

the books:

Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger.

• Started: 24th of June. Page 106.
• Finished: 24th of June.
• Rating: 2 / 5

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.

• Started: 25th of June. Page 53.
• Finished: 25th of June.
• Rating: 5 / 5

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.

• Started: 26th of June. Page 179.
• Finished: 2nd of July, so after the read-a-thon ended.
• Rating; 5 / 5

Total pages read: 736

Books read: 2 (and a half)

 

So, as I said, I am pretty pleased with how much I managed to read. I managed to finish 2, almost 3 (finished with that one now), but the most important thing that I got out of this read-a-thon was me getting out of the damn reading slump I have been in for a while now. And I am so happy!

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave your read-a-thon accomplishments in the comments if you participated in this one, or another one. I would love to read. If you have any tips when it comes to read-a-thons, please let me know!

Have you read any of these books?

book haul

I’m finally feeling a lot better after being sick for a few days, and I am back to blogging. Me being sick had it’s positives though; I managed to read 2,5 books (still working on the third). I’m currently participating in a readathon. This is my first one, and I’m very happy with my progress so far. I will be doing a blog post about it when I’m done! (Saturday/Sunday)

I have been trying to not buy too many books lately because I already have a long tbr (to be read) list, but lately I have been wanting to read more books in Norwegian (as I have been reading mostly English the last few years), so I have had to buy some more.

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. I just said that I bought some more books because I wanted books in Norwegian, but here I am, with an English book. But I actually got this from my sister from when she was in England for a trip with her friends. I really enjoy the Throne of Glass series by the same author, and have heard great things about this series too, so I have wanted to give this a go for a long time.

As far as I know this is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I’m usually not a big fan of retelling (though, I have to be honest: I haven’t read many) so I’m excited to see what I think about this book. This book is in Norwegian, though not originally. This is All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. I actually already have this in English, but as I said I wanted more books in Norwegian, and I have wanted to read this book so much, but every time I sat down to read it, I just couldn’t. I hope I’ll manage to read it in Norwegian! Plus, it was on sale, so I couldn’t go without it!

All the light we cannot see is a world war two fiction about a blind girl and another boy, and their stories links up somehow. I can’t wait to read it. Apparently it’s beautiful. It even won some sort of price!The last book is only in Norwegian. You might have noticed if you read my blog that I’m interested in World War 2. I love reading fiction and non fiction about the war. All though it’s very sad, and I tend to cry a lot. This book is a non fiction book about a 16 year old Norwegian boy who started his own resistance cell with some friends and his teacher. It just sounded very interesting, and I’m actually in the “process” of writing my own story set in world war 2. (I would like to say book, but it’s far from being an actual book.) So reading world war 2 books is both research and fun!

Oh, this book is called Gutten som lurte Gestapo, or translated with the help of google translate: The boy who tricked Gestapo. (I actually had to add this book into goodreads myself because it wasn’t there!)

I’m going to Spain with my family soon, and I’m bringing these three books with me. Last time I went to Spain (same place) I only brought three books and finished them quickly so because I learned from my mistake, I’m bringing five, maybe six, this time!

Thank you for reading. Have you read any of these books? Do you have any other suggestions for books I could read? :)