Little House Read-Along: Farmer Boy

Heeeeey everyone! I'm keeping up with tradition and writing about this month's title at the last possible moment despite having actually finished it about a week ago... But we're three months in now so it really is a tradition.

I'm kind of amazed with myself that I'm keeping up with the reading so far, and actually I'm really enjoying this whole book a month reading. I think I'm going to read all the long series I have on my TBR like this from now on!


I wasn't looking forward to wrenching myself away from Laura's world into Almanzo's this month but oh my goodness I adored this book! I think it helped that I started it when I was hungry and the first few chapters are basically all just descriptions of really big amazing sounding meals that the Wilder family have.

So, while the Ingalls family were out on the prairie, building their own house and digging wells and so on, Almanzo's father is a pretty successful farmer in New York State. Farmer Boy sticks very much with the tone of the series so far, and follows the 'things that happen throughout the year' format of the previous two books. I really love this format, because you know that you'll start off in a season and come full circle and end up back in the same season. I am so comforted by the seasonality of the books, and it's lovely to remember that this is the way that we should all be living - eating stuff when it actually grows somewhere near us, whether that's in our back garden or just locally, thinking ahead and attempting to actually support ourselves.

I'm carrying on with the 'these books make me feel lazy' theme of the previous two months, because they do. Almanzo is ten by the time the book ends and he's already training his own farm animals and helping to plant and harvest entire fields of crops!

I could critique this book (and the series in general) but honestly I just don't want to because I really enjoy them. They are such comfort reads and very motivating for me personally in terms of my 'grow all our groceries in our garden' plans and I love it.

Bring on April!

If you want more info on the read-along that's running all year or to join us for a month (or all of them!) you can find all the details here.

Re-Readathon: Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday Challenges & Updates!

Hello everyone! Let's ignore the total lack of weekend updates from me and carry on, shall we?

Easter weekend was great - I was unexpectedly back in London with my family for the whole weekend and having time to properly hang out with everyone and catch up (as well as to have snuggles with my brother-in-law's baby nephew) was awesome. Now I'm back home with a kitchen table full of Easter egg boxes for a big robot-making project later this afternoon and some grocery and Waterstone's shopping to do! Over the weekend I read True Notebooks by Mark Salzman which was great and inspiring (like Freedom Writers but in juvenile hall). I'm glad I re-read it as it's been a loooong time since my first read. I'm following it up with Scarlett Thomas's first novel, Dead Clever, which is a detective mystery and the first in a series. I'm probably going to finish that later today though and will start Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett once I do! I'll attempt to update properly for today and tomorrow!

In the meantime, here are the challenges:

Nostalgia Challenge
This is still running and I need to come up with my own post for it! Find the details here and link up your entries on the master post

Tuesday Challenge - #wanttoread
Show us the books you'd most like to re-read - that you've re-read before and didn't get to this time around or that you've only just read for the first time but are looking forward to reading again!

Wednesday Challenge - #reread
For the last day, show us what you've read!

Don't forget to use #rereadathon and tag me (@NinjaBookSwap on twitter and @armchairbythesea on IG)

Final Update

Pages Read: some
Books Read From: Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett and We Should All be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Books Finished: The Secret Seven Collection by Enid Blyton, American Gods by Neil Gaiman, True Notebooks by Mark Salzman, Dead Clever by Scarlett Thomas
Snacks Consumed: Peanut butter and jam pinwheel biscuits, Easter egg, ham,egg, and chip shop chips.
Favourite re-reading moment: So many giggles in the first 30 pages of Witches Abroad. Terry Pratchett is a comedy genius.

I've read soooooo much this Re-Readathon! When we started I thought with it being Easter holidays and us going back London way for a few days that I would get hardly anything finished but no. It's been the readathon of stuff I read 5+ years ago which is awesome, and all the books I've read have ended up staying on my shelf because they are great. Probably my favourite re-read was True Notebooks, which is kind of like Freedom Writers but in juvenile hall and is just so inspiring and amazing and made me further motivated to get hold of a copy of Just Mercy and join in with Kerry's Social Justice Book Club (I know, feminist bookclub, social justice book club. All the issues!).

I'm reading Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett for the first time in ages and I'm giving myself the last day of March to finish it despite the Re-Readathon being over today. I also just picked up We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie because it's super short, super inspiring and super awesome and I can probably get it finished tonight, bringing my total of finished books for the event up to five, my best Re-Readathon ever!

I'll be announcing the winners of the giveaways tomorrow morning on the blog. Thank you so much to all of you who took part in the readathon and particularly in the challenges. I never got around to entering the Nostalgia challenge but I think I'll probably run a similar one next time - look out for the next Re-Readathon around the end of summer sometime!

Re-Readathon: Saturday & Sunday Challenges and Updates

Happy Easter everyone! As I said yesterday this Easter weekend is a pretty full on one for me, so I'm scheduling this post and probably won't be around/reading all that much today or tomorrow, but please keep blogging/commenting/Instagramming/tweeting and using #rereadathon and I'll check in when I can!

Saturday Challenges

#weekendread

Give us a snapshot of your reading this weekend - what you're reading, where you're reading from, who/what is keeping you company. Whatever! Don't forget to tag me (@NinjaBookSwap - twitter, @armchairbythesea - IG) and use #rereadathon please!

Nostalgia Challenge

I'm sure you all know the details of this by now, but don't forget to link up your entries in the linky on the Master Post!

Saturday Update

Pages Read:

Books Read From:

Books Finished:

Snacks Consumed:

Favourite Re-Reading Moment:

Sunday Challenges

#bookpusher

What's the book that you've made the most people read? Even if you haven't read it more than once! Tag me as above and don't forget the hashtag!

Nostalgia Challenge

Sunday Update

Pages Read:

Books Read From:

Books Finished:

Snacks Consumed:

Favourite Re-Reading Moment:

You can link up any other updates/tweets etc via the linky in the master post as well and please remember to be signed up and have filled in the form to win prizes!

Re-Readathon: Thursday and Friday Challenges & Updates

How's everyone's re-readathon going? It's going extremely well so far for me, and I'm really enjoying checking out everyone's challenge entries. Don't forget, for the Nostalgia challenge, link up via the linky in the master post, and for the Instagram/Twitter challenge use #rereadathon and tag me (@NinjaBookSwap on twitter, @armchairbythesea on Instagram) for extra entries to the giveaways (for which you must be signed up and have filled in the form).

Thursday Challenges

#childhood reread

This can be a favourite reread you first read when you were a child, or one that is a kids book. Either is fine, multiples are also fine. Tag me via the instructions above!

Nostalgia Challenge

Ongoing. Check out the details and Ellie's lovely entry. 

Thursday Update

Pages read: 100ish

Books read from: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Books Finished: The Secret Seven Collection by Enid Blyton

Snacks consumed: little easter eggs. 

Favourite rereading moment: There were several, but it's the end of Friday now and I don't remember!

Friday Challenges

#progressreport

Show/tell us how you're doing so far! I've finished The Secret Seven Collection, American Gods and just started True Notebooks: A Writer's Year at Juvenile Hall by Mark Salzman. Don't forget to use #rereadathon and tag me (@NinjaBookSwap - twitter, @armchairbythesea - Instagram) 

Nostalgia Challenge

See above. 

Friday Update

Pages Read: 136

Books Read From: American Gods by Neil Gaiman and True Notebooks by Mark Salzman

Books Finished: The Secret Seven Collection by Enid Blyton, American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Snacks Consumed: finished the chocolate fudge (sob), had a fry up for lunch (yum) and some of the boys pancakes with berries and yoghurt, also some chocolate fudge cake with ice cream and then we made hot cross buns and ate them warm with butter. Yum. 

Favourite Re-Reading Moment: Desperately trying to finish American Gods between taking turns playing board games with Benji. Extremely disjointed reading!

Today is Good Friday and it was sunny and Rhys didn't have to work til the evening, so I didn't get this done this morning for which I apologise! I'm going to put up the challenges for Saturday and Sunday tomorrow morning as well since Easter involves a big overnight church service and I'll be asleep most of Sunday! 

We spent most of today at the garden centre getting stuff for the garden, at soft play with the kids, or in the garden planting/putting our new planter together/painting misc other boxes/making the garden presentable, and so I didn't get any reading done until about 4pm. I have managed to finish American Gods though, which I'm extremely happy about. I started off remembering nothing but as I went through things started coming back to me. There were still things that I never remembered though, and that was kind of great because it was like I was rereading it and reading it for the first time, if that makes any sense? Suffice to say it's staying firmly on the keeper shelf! 

I'm following it up with a bit of nonfiction in the form of True Notebooks, which is about a guy who taught a creative writing class with high risk offenders at juvenile hall. This re-readathon is turning out to be the one in which I re-read stuff I read yeeeeears ago. My first read of True Notebooks was directly inspired by The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, my first reading of which inspired the creation of this blog, so I first read it five years ago or  so... 

Re-Readathon: Tuesday & Wednesday Challenges & Update

I've already decided that doing this in one big post is going to be silly, so here we are with Tuesday's challenges!

Firstly check out the challenge entries from yesterday: Jane's, Ellie's, Gemma's, Sharon's and Jade's.

If you haven't entered your #rereadathonTBR yet, you can still do that just don't forget to tag me!

Tuesday's Challenges

#favouritereread

Today on Instagram or twitter show us your favourite reread/s of all time! Don't forget to use #rereadathon #favouritereread and tag me (@armchairbythesea on Instagram, @NinjaBookSwap on twitter, just to be confusing!) 

Nostalgia Challenge

This is ongoing throughout the readathon so please feel free to check out the details and leave your link in the link up on the master post. (I have changed this as it seemed silly everyone leaving comments when there was a linky right there)

Please also remember that for your entries to count as extra towards prizes you need to be signed up and have filled in the form with your preferences. 

Also please feel free to link up your update posts/tweets/Instagrams from Monday in the linky on the master post. 

Tuesday Update 

Pages read: 80 

Books read from: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Books Finished: The Secret Seven Collection by Enid Blyton

Snacks Consumed: homemade cheese straws, homemade chocolate fudge. 

Favourite rereading moment: remembering how graphic American Gods can be. It's been years...

Today was the first day in three weeks that I've had the boys on my own. It was sunny and I got carried away with activities. We spring cleaned the shed, sorted stuff in the garden, took a three mile nature walk, made Easter cards, baked cheese straws... and they'd been up since 5.30! I meant to do some more reading once they were in bed but (oh the glamorous life I lead) fell asleep around 7.30 and didn't get up til 6am.

Wednesday Challenges

#snacks

Show us your Re-Readathon snacks! Don't forget to use #rereadathon and tag me (@armchairbythesea) for it to count as an extra entry for prizes. You also need to be signed up and have filled in the form. 

Nostalgia Challenge

Pair up your favourite or current re-read with something it reminds you of! Full details here, please link up your entries through the linky in the master post with (Nostalgia Challenge) as well as your name. 

You can add your daily updates to the linky on the master post, and please don't forget to use #rereadathon on twitter when tweeting them or anything about the Re-Readathon. 

Wednesday Update

Pages read: 182

Books Read from: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Books Finished: The Secret Seven Collection by Enid Blyton

Snacks Consumed: Kitkat chunky, sultanas, fudge, creme egg, baked potatoes and bolognese.

Favourite rereading moment: "a town isn't a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town , but unless it's got a bookstore, it knows it's not foolin' a soul". Wise words, Hinzelmann.

I managed not to fall asleep at 7.30pm so I actually got some reading done, hurrah! The day was pretty full of playing in the garden, because it wasn't raining or freezing for the second day running and we're attempting to grow lots of stuff from seed this year, which entails a lot of compost watching and going 'why isn't is coming up yet??'. I tried to convince Ben to play skittles by himself so I could sit outside and read, but it didn't really work because I ended up being on 'stand the skittles back up again' duty. Never mind, we had fun!

I'm really enjoying American Gods so far. I first (and last) read it when I was about 17 and I actually remembered almost nothing about it besides that it was weird and there's a guy named Shadow who's been in prison in it, and that it was about Gods. It's so great, but even weirder and more graphic than I'd remembered.

I have  a new system with my 'keeper shelf' so that all the books I've reread more than once are on the top shelves and then all the other books I've put there because they're great but haven't yet reread go after that, and as I reread them I decide if they still get to stay and move them up if they do or pass them on if not. Once I finish American Gods it will join Neverwhere as the only Gaiman books that I've actually reread recently! Shocking, I know. 

Re-Readathon Master Post!

It's heeeeeere! Today we kick off the 10 day re-reading extravaganza that is Re-Readathon #3 and I am so stupidly excited. So here's the stuff you need to know:

• Re-Readathon runs from today until March 30th.
• To win prizes you must be signed up and have filled in the giveaway form so I have your details & preferences should you win. You can sign up using your starting post/tweet/Instagram pic for the week and you can sign up throughout the event. 
• There are challenges! You can do the challenges or not, but if you do please follow the instructions for them so that they count for extra entries to giveaways. This is the post to leave your links in the comments of for extra entries!
• Please use #rereadathon on twitter and IG so I can keep up with you and to make it easier for everyone to chat. 
• If you want to link up you update blog posts I'll put a linky below my TBR on this post so you can do that. 
• Have fun!

I'm going to be trying to update this post daily, and will be tweeting at NinjaBookSwap and Instagramming at armchairbythesea. Let me know where you'll be taking part so I can make sure I'm following you! 

My starting TBR is above. I'm pretty sure I'm going to add a stupid amount of books to it as I plan a library trip to pick up some favourites that I don't own, just for inspiration purposes. I'm also pretty sure I'm going to put a graphic novel or two and at least one Discworld book on it as well!

If you want to link up blog updates please do that here! 

My readathon update format is entirely stolen from Ellie, for which I am unapologetic because she's pretty much the queen of readathon updates, plus her snacks are amazing!

If this gets too long (which I suspect it will) then I'll do separate update posts for other days, but this will still be the post to leave comments on for giveaway entries. 

Monday's Challenges

#rereadathonTBR

Show us your TBR for the event! If you want it to count as an extra entry for the giveaways please make sure you've filled in the form and follow the instructions below:

• If you're participating on Instagram use #rereadathon, #rereadathonTBR and tag me (@armchairbythesea) in the comments please!
• If you're participating on twitter, please use #rereadathon and tag me (@NinjaBookSwap)
• If you've posted it on your blog please leave the link in the comments here. 

Nostalgia Challenge

Pair your current or favourite reread with something it reminds you of. Another book, person, place, food, smell, song, whatever. Full details here. Leave the link to where you've done the challenge in the linky above! 

Monday Update

Pages Read: 550

Books Read From: The Secret Seven Collection by Enid Blyton, and American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Books Finished: The Secret Seven Collection by Enid Blyton

Snacks Consumed: Several of those sherbert boiled sweet things someone brought into work...

Favourite re-reading moment of the day: When the Secret Seven made a treehouse for their meeting house in some random forest with planks of wood from their garden and nobody told them off for messing with health and safety. 

Today was a work day so I got in some good re-reading time on the bus and during my lunch hour. We went for breakfast before we started which we do from time to time and so I was super full and didn't need to venture out during my lunch or break which meant I powered through the Secret Seven books! Technically it's four books in one which makes me feel great about my reading so far!

We went to bed really early because the boys have been getting up at 5am (so.fun.) but I got in a few pages of American Gods before falling asleep and I'm looking forward to continuing it tomorrow!

Re-Readathon Challenges!

The third Re-Readathon kicks off on Monday and I am so excited! In order for us all to have as much time to read as possible I thought I'd post the challenges ahead of time so you can prepare yourselves. 

Prizes

There will be two major prizes. The first is a choice of either this beautiful edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, or this gorgeous edition of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, two of my favourite re-reads ever. This giveaway will be open internationally.

 

The second prize is this pile of books. They are all pre-loved and books that I have read and enjoyed recently. Due to ridiculous postage costs, this giveaway is open to UK and EU only. 

If you want to be entered to win prizes you need to do two things. Firstly be signed up to the Re-Readathon here and secondly fill in this form so that I have all your preferences and contact details should you win. You'll see that you can enter to win the entire pile of books or just select the ones you're interested in or don't already own! After that you can post challenge entries in the linky on my master post, or follow the rules specified for the Instagram challenge. Each challenge you complete will gain you an extra entry into the giveaway/s of your choice!

If you feel generous and inclined to host your own giveaway during the event, please leave the link in the comments here so I can help spread the word, and/or use #rereadathon on twitter. 

Of course, the major focus of the event is the re-reading and I want to get the chance to come and visit you all and say hi and add stuff I haven't read to my TBR and squeal over stuff we both love together. The challenges aren't designed to detract from that but just as something extra to do if you want to. I'll also be updating my master post daily (hopefully) so make sure you check it out and use #rereadathon on twitter and Instagram to chat to each other if you want to!

Challenges

So, challenges!

#rereadathonTBR

The first thing that you can do is to link up your TBR for the event. This is also included in the Instagram challenge, but if you've already done it or want to do it through your blog or twitter then please add the link for your blog or tweet to the sign up link if you haven't already done so! If you tweet or Instagram it, please use #rereadathonTBR 

Nostalgia Challenge

This is my favourite challenge of the event I think, and I may have got a little carried away with examples, but the idea is simple. Pair up either your current or your favourite re-read with something it reminds you of. This can be a memory, a person, smell, food, place, song, another book, whatever. You can write a blog post about it, create a playlist, take a picture of yourself in an outfit you associate with the book (it's totally OK to dress up as one of the characters if you are so inclined), make a 3 course meal based on the book (OK, probably a little extreme but the option's there if you want it!), or whatever you like! The idea is to get to know a little more about why you love this book! 

For example, if I were reading The Night Circus I might make peanut butter fudge and salted caramel brownies and share the recipes here. If it were Little Women I might blog about how it's responsible for getting me into knitting and gardening. And now I have to go think up something else as my actual entry.... 

There may be an extra prize awarded for this challenge, depending how excited I am by the entries! Link up yours once you've done it in the comments of the master post! Be as creative (or not) as you like!

Instagram Challenge

In these photo obsessed days how could I not have a daily Instagram challenge running throughout the 10 days? Because I'm still technologically challenged I haven't made an image for it, but for your photos to get you extra entries to the giveaways you need to use #rereadathon plus the hashtag for that day and please tag me (@armchairbythesea) in the comments so I can find you as my phone doesn't always show me everything on hashtags!

Mon 21st #rereadathonTBR - as noted above, show us your TBR!

Tue 22nd #favouritereread - as it says on the tin, a pic of your favourite reread/s. You can tell us why you love them, or not.

Weds 23rd #snacks - Show us your re-readathon snacks! 

Thurs 24th #childhoodreread - What's your favourite reread that you first read when you were a child or which is a kids book?

Fri 25th #progressreport - What have you read (or failed to read) so far?

Sat 26th #weekendreread - a snapshot of your rereading this weekend. 

Sun 27th #bookpusher - Which book have you made the most people read?

Mon 28th #currentreread- Another update on what you're currently re-reading. 

Tue 29th #wanttoreread - Stuff you've read recently (or not) and not got round to rereading yet but want to. 

Weds 30th #reread - as in 'I've read that'. As in, the end. Show us what you've read during the event!

If you don't have Instagram you can do the challenges on Twitter but please make sure you use #rereadathon as well as the daily hashtag or it won't be entered into the giveaway!

Ok so that's it for the challenges. As mentioned above, if you want to host your own giveaway for something bookish or re-reading related then I strongly encourage that. Those who follow me on twitter will know about my love of giving people stuff! I'd also encourage everyone to check out the other participants on the sign up linky and give them a follow if you want to. 

Recap: fill in the form to be entered into the giveaways, use #rereadathon for anything you do on social media, and if you want to follow me there I'm @NinjaBookSwap on twitter or @armchairbythesea on Instagram. 

Bring on Monday!