The Tome Project

Posted on 08/14/2020 by Lenn

Tome, /tōm/ n.
A book, especially a large, heavy, scholarly one.

I started reading more since the quarantine started in March and managed to put a quarter of a dent on my physical TBR. Some time around the middle of this chaos, when it was announced that couriers are back in operations and that deliveries can pass through from wherever city to another, I started buying books again. I started hauling books that have been on my Goodreads TBR for years! So the quarter of a dent that I made on my physical TBR isn’t quite considered a dent anymore since I’ve added quite a number of books on it. Haha

As you know, I’ve announced in a previous post that I am participating in Sam’s (of thoughtsontomes) Tome Topple readathon and it quite gave me an idea to launch this little project. With that being said, I came up with a plan to read at least one tome (or a 500+ page book) from my physical TBR per month.

I have a lot of books that are over 500 pages and I think I’ve added some more during the quarantine, and most of these books are part of a series so I hope that this personal project will help me read most of the books that I have hauled over the years (and recently) and finally finish all of them.

For August, I included Flyte (Septimus Heap, #2) by Angie Sage which has a total of 531 pages and Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles, #1) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl which has a total of 563 pages. This is a good start for me because the Caster Chronicles series has been on my Goodreads TBR for a very long time and it has been suggested and recommended to me by a lot of people and I bought the whole series three years ago, so I really really need to get to it.

Reading update:

I have managed to finish reading Flyte (Septimus Heap, #2) by Angie Sage on Saturday and I gave it a 3.75 rating. It was absolutely an awesome journey with Septimus and Jenna. so I am looking forward to continuing the series next month. After reading Flyte, I started reading Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles, #1) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl yesterday and I’m just a couple of pages in so I can’t really say anything about it yet.

On the side of Beautiful Creatures, I am also reading Dekada ’70 by Lualhati Baustista on the side so that I could also make progress with my Wikathon TBR. So far, I am enjoying the book. For me, it is really educational given the current state of our country recently.

Tier-Ranking All the Contemporary Books I’ve Ever Read

Posted on 07/24/2020 by Lenn

Hi, everyone! I’m back with another book list (sort of). Since I’ve been seeing a lot of people in the book community tier-ranking the books that they’ve read, I decided to do one for all the contemporary book that I have ever read. Continue reading →

Book Mail: My First Ever Fullybooked Online Purchase

Posted on 07/16/2020 by Lenn

Hi, everyone! I’m back with another book mail. These arrived along with the other books that I posted before but decided to post them separately because I bought them separately, too. Haha! It just so happened that I had them shipped to my boyfriend’s place and he had it delivered to me all at the same time.

To be honest, I think I’ve bought so many books this year than I ever did in my whole life. The quarantine keeps me feeling anxious and overthinking most of the time and my only escape is online shopping and looking forward to my parcels arriving. Most of my purchases are books (some skincare, of course, but only if I run out of stocks); books keep me so preoccupied which help me avoid overthinking. So without further adieu, here are the titles for this haul:
Continue reading →

Best Books of 2020 So Far

Posted on 07/06/2020 by Lenn

Hi, everyone! I hope you are all doing okay and you are all able to cope up with the events happening worldwide recently. It’s been a tough year, generally speaking, but to get my mind off all the cruel things happening around us, I turned to my books for solace. Just like what I used to do when I was kid and so 2020 instantly became a great reading year for me so far. My Goodreads goal is to read 30 books this year and I’ve already read 22 books (so I will probably adjust my reading challenge to 40 or 50).

This “tag” is an annual bookish thing that has been going on around the bookish community which, to be honest, I haven’t done in a while. Since I did read a lot of books so far this year, I decided to do it again. Wow, I can’t even remember the last time I did this (and I can’t even remember if that particular post still exists in my blog since I migrated to WordPress from Tumblr just last year).
Continue reading →

Book Mail: Septimus Heap by Angie Sage + Percy Jackson & the Olympians

Posted on 06/26/2020 by Lenn

Another book mail that I received during the quarantine is the Septimus Heap series (minus the seventh book) by Angie Sage. My boyfriend bought it for me and sent it to me via Lalamove along with the other book orders that I had shipped at his place. Continue reading →

Series Review: The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

Posted on 06/22/2020 by Lenn

Series Title: The Mortal Instruments
Author: Cassandra Clare
Number of Books: 6 (See the full list here)
Prequel: The Infernal Devices
Sequel: The Dark Artifices, The Last Hours
Spin-Off(s): The Shadowhunter’s Codex, The Bane Chronicles, Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy
Publication Dates: March 2007 to May 2014
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal, Magic, Action, Young Adult, Romance

Synopsis:

Synopsis for City of Bones:

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It’s also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace’s world with a vengeance when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know…

Continue reading →

Book Mail: Completing the Fallen Series

Posted on 06/04/2020 by Lenn

Just like the first book mail that I posted on the blog a couple of weeks ago, this one also has a story: During the first few weeks of quarantine, I saw someone post a photo of some of her books on Facebook’s Marketplace. It caught my attention because of Lauren Kate’s Passion and Rapture books because I have the first two books in the series and have not yet started reading it because I wanted to complete the whole series first. So I sent the seller a message and reserved the books.

During those weeks, I think most stores were still looking for ways to continue their business while practicing social distancing and by not requiring people to actually visit their stores. Also, all delivery businesses were closed as well. No Angkas, no Lalamove, no Grab, etc. The seller of these books was kind enough to reserve it under my name for almost two months, until there was actually a delivery service that delivers from her location to my boyfriend’s.

Along with Lauren Kate’s Passion and Rapture, I also bought Teardrop by the same author, and Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I’ve only read Eleanor & Park and loved it, so I am really looking forward to this.

I still have other book mails that arrived last week and this week, so I’ll be writing about them in a different post. So stay tuned and stay safe!

Stuff I’ve Been Reading Lately #8

Posted on 06/01/2020 by Lenn

BOOKS READ:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler (Art by Maira Kalman)
The Girl On the Train by Paula Hawkins

BOOKS BOUGHT:

The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin
Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler (Art by Maira Kalman)
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Continue reading →

Book Review: Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

Posted on 05/20/2020 by Lenn

Title: Why We Broke Up

Author: Daniel Handler

Art: Maira Kalman

Date Published: December 27, 2011

Number of Pages: 354

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

I’m telling you why we broke up, Ed. I’m writing it in this letter, the whole truth of why it happened.

Min Green and Ed Slaterton are breaking up, so Min is writing Ed a letter and giving him a box. Inside the box is why they broke up. Two bottle caps, a movie ticket, a folded note, a box of matches, a protractor, books, a toy truck, a pair of ugly earrings, a comb from a motel room, and every other item collected over the course of a giddy, intimate, heartbreaking relationship. Item after item is illustrated and accounted for, and then the box, like a girlfriend, will be dumped.

Continue reading →

Book Review: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Posted on 05/10/2020 by Lenn

Title: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

Author: Gabrielle Zevin

Date Published: April 1, 2014

Number of Pages: 319

Publisher: Abacus

Genre: Adult Contemporary

Synopsis:

As surprising as it is moving, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry is an unforgettable tale of transformation and second chances, an irresistible affirmation of why we read, and why we love.

We are not quite novels.

We are not quite short stories.

In the end, we are collected works.

A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died; his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history; and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island—from Chief Lambiase, the well-intentioned police officer who’s always felt kindly toward him; from Ismay, his sister-in-law, who is hell-bent on saving A.J. from his dreary self; from Amelia, the lovely and idealistic (if eccentric) Knightley Press sales rep who persists in taking the ferry to Alice Island, refusing to be deterred by A.J.’s bad attitude. Even the books in his store have stopped holding pleasure for him. These days, he can only see them as a sign of a world that is changing too rapidly.

And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It’s a small package, though large in weight—an unexpected arrival that gives A.J. the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew. It doesn’t take long for the locals to notice the change overcoming A.J., for the determined sales rep Amelia to see her curmudgeonly client in a new light, for the wisdom of all those books to become again the lifeblood of A.J.’s world. Or for everything to twist again into a version of his life that he didn’t see coming.

Continue reading →

Lenn of Spades ♠

Category Archives: Books