Setting Up a Reading Journal

I love making lists and tracking all of the things. For the past few years I’ve done this in a bulletjournal, combining all of my ‘stuff’ into a single book – however – for 2025 I’ve decided to go ahead and make a dedicated reading journal, just for books (well, sort of, it’s for books, tv shows, movies, and tracking things that I enjoy like knitting).

I figured I’d post a few pages here on the book blog to showcase how I’ve got it set up this year. I’m taking a lot of inspiration from other reading journals out there, and just customizing it a bit to suit my own needs / designs. In the picture above, is my TBR pile (to be read) for the year, along with my rating system. Whether or not I actually make it through all of these books will be another story. I plan on crossing them off as I read them (if I read them), and then of course further on in the book I’ll have the actual reviews written.

Since I’ve joined a book club, it will also give me space to track challenges and events with that. I’m excited! It’s nice to have it all in one place, physically, besides just keeping it around on GoodReads (which I have been trying to move away from a bit).

Do you keep a reading journal? Let me know in comments!

5/5 Stars: Nettle & Bone

This was my first encounter with T. Kingfisher, and it certainly opened the floodgates! After enjoying this book so much, I quickly dove into several others by her. The premise of a “chicken possessed by a demon” immediately hooked me, and I couldn’t resist picking it up.

“How did you get a demon in your chicken?”
“The usual way. Couldn’t put it in the rooster. That’s how you get basilisks.”

I was not disappointed at all.

T. Kingfisher has a unique talent for crafting vibrant worlds that come alive on the page. Her characters are equally memorable. Take Bonedog, for instance—if you’ve read the book, you know exactly what I mean. If you haven’t, I urge you to dive in! It was genuinely a pleasure to read, and I don’t often say that.

The story centers around Marra, the third-born daughter on a quest to rescue her sister, who has been married off to a truly terrible person. The first-born sister was married to the same prince, and let’s just say things didn’t go well for her. Marra’s journey is filled with twists and turns, and she encounters a Dust Wife along the way (no spoilers here, but trust me, that’s when things get really intriguing).

I’m thrilled that I discovered T. Kingfisher’s work. You can expect to see more reviews from me in the coming months, as I’m eager to share my thoughts on her other captivating stories. Each one has been a delight, and I’m excited to explore even more of her imaginative worlds.

5/5 stars

DNF? Absolutely.

In the past, I used to power through a book even if I wasn’t enjoying it, thinking I had to finish what I started. However, that’s no longer the case. My time is valuable, and there’s simply not enough of it to waste on books that don’t bring me joy or satisfaction. Now, if I’m not engaged with a book, I have no problem putting it down and moving on to something else.

This shift in mindset doesn’t necessarily reflect poorly on the author. Sometimes a book just isn’t meant for me; I’m not the target audience, and that’s completely fine. When I decide not to finish a book, I won’t leave a star rating. After all, how can I fairly rate something I haven’t completed? For me, the key to sticking with a book is a sense of enjoyment. I don’t need a masterpiece of literary prose, but I do need the story to flow well and keep me interested.

Occasionally, I’ll mention books I didn’t finish on social media, not to criticize them, but to share my experience with like-minded readers who might relate. It’s interesting how some of the books I don’t finish are quite popular, which makes me wonder if it’s just me who didn’t connect with them.

As a result, there are a few books on my GoodReads list marked as “completed” but without a star rating, flagged as DNF (did not finish). This is more for my own organization, so I don’t mistakenly add them to my to-read list again. Ultimately, it’s important to remember that it’s perfectly okay to stop reading a book if it’s not bringing you enjoyment. Life’s too short to spend on something that isn’t worth your time!

5/5 Stars: Cassiel’s Servant, by Jacqueline Carey

As soon as I found out Jacqueline Carey would be returning to the world of Terre d’Ange, and this time from the perspective of Joscelin – I knew I was going to buy the book, and I was pretty confident that it would be a 5 star rating from me.

Even though many (many) years have gone by since I read Kushiel’s Dart, I was instantly brought right back, and I loved every second. I felt the story worked as a stand alone for those who were maybe not familiar with the story, but since it had been so long since I read the books, it also worked fantastic for me. If you are a newcomer to the series, I do suggest you pick up Kushiel’s Dart (if you enjoyed Cassiel’s Servant) so you can get acquainted with Phedre, as my rose coloured glasses consider that single book her best work.

I (as always) read it too quickly, even though I tried to savor it. Jacqueline Carey is a talented author who can write in numerous genres, but the ones that involve the Kushiel universe are some of her best (in my opinion).

5/5

2/5 Star Review: Master Your Emotions, By Thibaut Meurisse

I listened to this as an audiobook on YouTube, I’m pretty sure it was read by AI, which was pretty horrible, but I was determined to make my way through it. I also picked up a free copy on Amazon during a sale.

The author spends most of his time quoting others, and even says if you want to learn more you should go YouTube it. While I don’t think it was intentional, the tone was almost condescending, and there were plenty of groan-worthy moments. The ideas presented were simplistic in nature, so if you’re looking for a quick read (or listen) with basic ideas that you’ve probably already attempted on some scale, then look no further.

It also felt like there was a lot of repetition and confusion within the book. The author says ‘problems don’t exist’ and then also says ‘everybody has problems’. He talks over and over about how emotions are formed, how to be aware, how to let go, and how to deal with negative emotions – and is a bit all over the place with his ‘how to deal’ with aspects.

That being said, the book does have fairly high ratings over on Goodreads, sitting right now at 4.15 with 14,430 ratings. I’m not personally sure what those people saw in the book, but it really wasn’t for me.

2/5 stars

2023 Reading Challenge – Completed!

Ah goodness, I’ve fallen behind with this site – but I did manage to complete my GoodReads reading challenge for 2023, and I’ve read 20+ books! Here’s the list, and in the future expect a lot more reviews.

20. Bookshops & Bonedust – Travis Baldree (5/5)
19. (DNF) The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic – Breanne Randall (1/5)
18. Madly, Deeply the Diaries of Alan Rickman – Alan Rickman (5/5)
17. Age of Assassins – RJ Barker (3/5)
16. Cassiel’s Servant – Jacqueline Carey (5/5)
15. Village Witch – Cassandra Latham-Jones (4/5)
14. The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in life and Business – Charles Duhigg (2/5)
13. Her Mistletoe Cowboy – Liz Isaacson (3/5)
12. Carl’s Doomsday Scenario – Matt Dinniman (4/5)
11. Have I told you This Already?: Stories I don’t want to Forget to Remember – Lauren Graham (5/5)
10. The Complete Color Harmony, Pantone Edition – Leatrice Eiseman (5/5)
9. Buddhism for Beginners – Richard Johnson (3/5)
8. It Happened One Summer – Tessa Bailey (2/5)
7. Antony & Cleopatra – Adrian Goldsworthy (5/5)
6. Master Your Emotions – Thiabaut Meurisse (3/5)
5. Ikigai – Hector Garcia Puigcerver (2/5)
4. Homeland – R.A. Salvatore (5/5)
3. Love, Furballs & Forever – Karen Drew (2/5)
2. The Ivory Tomb – Melissa Caruso (5/5)
1. Book Lovers – Emily Henry (3/5)

I imagine a few more books will make the list before the end of 2023, but I’ll write about those as a ‘year end’ type of post. Over all, it was a pretty good year as far as books go. Some big winners and some not-so-great books, too. I think next year I’m going to aim for a higher goal. Maybe 10 more, or so. I really didn’t dedicate much time to books this year, and I want to change that for 2024. I also plan on tossing in a lot more audiobooks while I do things like knitting.

I am also currently participating in two beta reads, and I can’t wait to talk about them in the future, so watch this space!

Happy reading!

5/5 Stars: The Ivory Tomb, by Melissa Caruso

Wow. What a fantastic end to this trilogy.

I was a huge fan of the first two books, and the third did not fail to disappoint. It’s an epic fantasy tale with lots of tropes, but I didn’t mind them in the least, the author used them well. We learn more about the Dark Days, and watch the development of the relationship between Ryx and Severin. There’s a lot of action, the book was over before I knew it.

Highly recommended, I enjoyed them so much that I’ll be looking into other books that Melissa has written, if they’re anything like these then they’re sure to be winners.

5/5 stars

5/5 Stars: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

Oh goodness. What can I say about this book.

The world has been all but destroyed, and the people who are left are dumped into an enormous survival style game that is being broadcast for aliens. Carl and his cat (Donut, also known as GC, BWR, NW Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk) are two of the characters trapped in this new ‘game’ and the key is survival.

I loved everything about this book – but it is quite over the top with violence, which might not appeal to everyone. The thing is, it’s SO over the top, that you can easily liken it to a video game, and it makes you feel a little bit better. As you get to the end of this first book you suddenly realize just how in-depth the story actually is, and yes, I most certainly will be reading the second one. Highly recommended, this is the book that I never knew I wanted to read.

5/5 stars

3/5 Stars: The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

I had some issues with this book. First of all, it’s dark. REALLY dark. There seems to be almost no joy at all or any happy occasions – they are continuously shadowed by dark and that continues throughout the entire book. Even when you think something good might be coming along, chances are, it is not.

Priya is a maidservant with a huge heart. She’s strong, stubborn, and I love the character – but it also seems very over the top. Her love interest is Malini, who is a prisoner trapped in isolation by her brother.

The thing is, there’s barely any explanation on why any of this is happening. This is the first book in a series, but I felt like I was plopped down half way through with absolutely no knowledge. There was no cohesive history lesson on what the world is, who the people are, why they are doing what they’re doing. I felt like every time an event happened that I should have known more about why it happened. I could feel the Indian inspiration, but since my actual knowledge is lacking, it just felt as though I was supposed to know more than I did. It was a bit disjointed because of that.

I also didn’t really enjoy the multiple POV, and felt there was no need to introduce more. The world building was beautiful, the writing lovely (that’s what helped me get past the points I didn’t enjoy) and while I’m glad I read this book, I’m not sure if I want to follow through with the next one or not.

Review: Age of Myth by Michael J. Sullivan

I’ve never been one to write a review where I talk about the entire contents of a book because I really don’t want to spoil it for people. I know plenty of people who write those types of reviews, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with them, but it’s just not my jam. I just wanted to put that out there.

When a book enters my TBR pile it usually happens one of three ways. One, a friend recommended it. Two, I read about it some place online. Three, I happened to be browsing ‘what should I read next’ lists or recommendations off of sites like StoryGraph or even here on GoodReads. ‘Age of Myth’ entered my pile from all three of these methods. I was searching for an epic fantasy book to read because I hadn’t read one for some time, and this one popped up on my feed. After I purchased the book I noticed that the back cover has a brief review from Mogsy over at the BiblioSanctum, who I adore and have been friends with for a number of years. We don’t always like the same books, but when she gives a 4.5/5 star review, I know it’s going to be a good read.

I was not disappointed at all with Age of Myth. It was everything I wanted – but not perfect. It was a book I found hard to put down, beautifully written (the world building is absolutely top notch) with a fascinating story. There are multiple story lines going at once, so if that’s something that doesn’t interest you, you might want to take a pass – on that same note, the stories do converge fairly early on, making it much easier to keep track of everyone.

Female protagonists, epic deities, a ‘big bad’ – and let me say that’s one thing that I actually think the book did not need. Further on you meet ‘a big bad’ on top of a few other ‘bads’ wandering around. You’ll know who I’m talking about when you meet him, and it is a very stereotypical ‘big bad’ and one that I think the book absolutely did not need. It felt a bit like HBO trying to force blood/gore/elicit emotion that I was already feeling before the ‘big bad’ even showed up. I’m not even sure their role was needed at all. I might be alone in that feeling, but it seemed unnecessary.

I finished this book within a week, it was that good. It was a great epic fantasy read, and exactly what I was hoping for. Thankfully the second book is already out, and I’m thinking of picking it up as an audio book because Tim Gerard does the reading and apparently it’s quite amazing.

5/5 stars