Coming Up and Going On!

It's the time of year when loads of great blogger events are coming up. As the days get shorter and colder and we all dig out our scarves and gloves and cosy blankets to curl up and read lots of lovely people are organising lots of great events and I wanted to give them a shout out here, whether I'm participating or not!

First up the three that I am taking part in:

If you've been around here for a while or follow me on twitter you'll have heard me going on (and on and on) about the Ninja Book Swap. It runs twice a year now and sign up for the Autumn swap has just opened. The idea of the swap is that you sign up and get a partner (we use the word losely because the person you send to isn't the same person you receive from, hence the ninja). You then buy a book or two from their wishlist, a gift or two based on the list of likes and dislikes you'll get, and write them a note introducing yourself and send it off. Lovely, right? 

This time we're also running the Penpal Project which does exactly what it says on the tin. Sign up to get a penpal - you can choose your preferred gender, age range and whether you'd like to send international or domestic - and you'll be paired with two people, one of whom you will write the first letter to and the other will write the first letter to you. 

Both swaps are open to anyone from anywhere in the world. You don't have to be a blogger but the emphasis is strongly bookish, and you must have a regularly updated online presence (twitter, tumblr, Goodreads or Instagram) or know one of the organisers (me or Hanna) personally. Please only sign up for the Ninja Book Swap if you are able to make a committment to making a lovely parcel for your partner - books don't have to be new but MUST be in good condition you'd be happy to receive yourself. They must not be 'free with The Times', ARCs or homemade. Gifts can be homemade as long as you're good at that :-) What I'm saying is, we love participation to be as high as possible because we want to spread joy to as many people as possible, so you don't have to spend tons on your parcel but it has to be something lovely that will cheer someone's day up. 

If you're interested you can sign up here until September 14th. 

The second upcoming event is also one I'm organising! The first rereadathon back at the beginning of the year was really fun, and when Katie mentioned that she was thinking of doing an informal one herself to get some more rereading in I thought why not organise another? This time we decided two weeks was realistic, and it kicks off on Monday 7th September, which also just happens to be the hand in day for Laura's dissertation so she can play too!

The idea is that you use the two weeks to do some rereading of old (and newer) favourites, visit other people's blogs, take part in challenges and a twitter chat and generally get to know some new people while talking about and reading the books you love! If you'd like to sign up you can do so here. 

After much deliberating I've finalised my TBR pile for this event. I always knew I'd be kicking off with The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern but I wasn't sure about the others, but this is it now!

I'm definitely hoping to get to The Ocean at the End of the Lane  by Neil Gaiman as well, although it took me ages to decide between this and American Gods. Maybe I'll save that for next time. I'd like to restart The Lord of the Rings as well as it's been many years since I read the trilogy and I adore it. Autumn is totally the right month for epic world saving fantasy as well. 

If you're taking part I'd love to know what you're planning to reread! You can tell me in the comments or share your TBR using #rereadathon on twitter and instagram!

Image by Abigail Larson

The last event I'm definitely taking part in is not organised by me! If you've not heard of RIP (Readers Imbibing Peril) and it's fairytale related counterpart, Once Upon a Time, then you have probably been actually living under a rock. This year is the tenth anniversary of RIP and Carl has handed proceedings over to Andi and Heather of The Estella Society. The event runs from September 1st - October 31st and the idea is to read creepy stuff - as the sign up post says, mystery, suspense, thriller, dark fantasy, gothic, horror, supernatural... I don't personally read a lot of horror because I don't enjoy it, but I do have a fair number of mysterious and creepy books on my shelves so I've made a little pile and will be attempting to read at least a few in the given time frame. There are always different levels of participation. This year I'm going for two:

Peril the First which means I have to read four books for the event and I already started The Moonstone during the Victorian Celebration and didn't finish it but really want to, plus two of my books are on my ReReadathon pile as well, plus I really want to read The Dead Travel Fast  aaaand 

Peril of the Short Story because as you will see I have some Edgar Allan Poe on my pile and it's about time really. 

And here is my pile

If you want to sign up and haven't already you can do so here.

Honourable Mentions 

Much shorter section I promise but I wanted to include some shout outs to other awesome things happening around the blogosphere!

Events

Sometimes I can't believe that I used to live without themed events in my reading. I love them. Here are some coming up

Gothic September hosted by Castle Macabre featuring readalongs of several Edgar Allan Poe stories kicking off September 7th. Ties in well with RIP!

Halloween Reading Challenge hosted by Reading Every Season runs Oct 1-31st and is very similar in theme to RIP.

John Steinbeck Blog Tour hosted by She is Too Fond of Books that I would be participating in if so much else wasn't happening! Runs September 25th - 30th.

The Edge of the Precipice is hosting their annual Tolkien Blog Party of Special Magnificence with games, quizzes, questionnaires and giveaways from September 22-28th.

Readalongs and Readathons

We all love a good readalong, it's a great way to motivate yourself to read the more daunting books or just the ones you've not got around to yet! And readathons - concentrated periods devoted to reading (and let's face it, snacking?) Yes please! Here are a few:

#AYearAThon has been running all year. Each month has a different theme. September is Banned Books and October is LGBT. 

The Reading Wench hosts a readalong of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club kicking off September 7th!

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon is back the weekend of Oct 17th! 

Fall into Books Readathon hosted by Reading Every Season runs September 23rd - 29th.

Aand that's it from me! If you're hosting an event or readalong in September or October that I've missed please feel free to let me know!