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My intention was to do a post called ‘How much can I read in an average week with a 9-5 office job 💼’. However, I realised that I was trying too hard to actually read more than perhaps I would have after work. It felt disingenuous, so instead I wanted to keep the momentum of trying to read more by gamifying the last couple of weeks in October.
There are three rounds and I can’t progress to the next round until the previous has been completed. If I ‘win’ by completing all three rounds, I can collect a Lord of the Reads prompt card from a previous month – for a book I finished but didn’t complete in the month. If I don’t ‘win’, I will be put on a self-imposed book buying ban for the rest of 2026!
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ROUND ONE – S.M.A.Q
I saw Samantha Donovan play this game on her channel, which was created by Raimey Reads, and I immediately wanted to play too. I remember playing MASH as a kid, and this is such a creative fun idea!
I’m starting this challenge with 84 pages already in my pocket for The God of the Woods by Liz Moore. So far, we’ve met our campers and key players, as well as Barbara going missing. At the moment, we’ve been sent back to the 1950’s (the ‘present day’ in the novel is 1975) and we’re learning about how Alice became involved with with Van Laar family and I’m assuming the disappearance of her first born child, Bear.
Got snuggly on the sofa, with Darcy snoring beside me, and read the pages needed to complete round 1.
I’ve seen discourse on this that it’s slow and I do agree. However, I don’t mind because I’m learning so much about these people. We’re going back and forth through several different timelines and I love historical fiction.
This novel, despite Barbara’s disappearance being the catalyst, it’s mostly about Bear and how the family and this camp are still living in the shadow of his disappearance fourteen years earlier. Within the 169 pages, I have a couple theories about Bear’s disappearance and I also think I may have thoughts on Barbara and her ‘boyfriend’ and I don’t like it.
I’m not IT savvy enough for how I wanted to edit this picture. The yellow/gold coloured stitches, as well as the light blue on top make up the 169 stitches to match the page count. It’s a Christmas present so I can’t spoil too much of the image!
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ROUND TWO – Play Your TBR Right
This game was created by Gavin Reads It All who’ve I’ve been watching for years now!
In his game, he does allow for a fail, which I completely let myself have! I chose two books that are on my monthly TBR, one that is very short and could make this round speed by – Graveyard Shift; M.L. Rio – and then one that’s longer and a genre that I feel like I’m a little tired of at the moment – Bringing Down the Duke; Evie Dunmore.
Graveyard Shift is a rarity in that I don’t own it physically, only an ebook copy. It was 99p and the paperback is £9.99… It’s 160 pages…
“Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift…
One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn’t there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom?”
I easily read this in one sitting and while it was interesting and I enjoyed the dynamics between our five characters, I did not end the novella with positive thoughts; mostly confusion instead.
While I didn’t really understand the scientific stuff, it was still easily digestible. I found Edie and Tuck to be the most likeable and interesting to follow. I wish we got to see more of the investigation rather than being given so much information on a plate.
This felt like wasted potential and could have easily been a full length novel. The writing was good and the beginning was strong, but neither ‘horror’ nor ‘mystery’ were very prominent.
Rating: ⭐⭐
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ROUND THREE – Heads or Tails
For round three, I went for a heads and tails combined with a mini bracket game to decide what I would be doing for the final round.
So, while ‘heads’ was starting strong, ‘tails’ come out in the final round to get me dabbling in HRCYED 3.0 in a focused way. The Hardest Reading Challenge You’ll Ever Do was created by Qwordy and is a year long challenge that starts every June.
There are 25 categories and Google’s random number generator chose violence – a.k.a the ‘Not-So-Secret Prompts’.
There are 12 prompts in this category and I have only completed one so far… To complete round 3 I will need to finish 11 books.
Book 1: Rest in Pieces; Bess Lovejoy
- Prompt: Read Outside
- Pages: 283
- Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
“From Mozart to Hitler, Rest in Pieces connects the lives of the famous dead to the hilarious and horrifying adventures of their corpses, and traces the evolution of cultural attitudes toward death.”
Rest in Pieces is such a fun and informative read. This non-fiction goes through the fates of many famous corpses throughout history and I learnt so many new things! I’m absolutely flabbergasted about the amount of people who have been embalmed in the modern era and are still on display. Wild!
The writing style is incredibly accessible and I would highly recommend this if you’re a fan of Horrible Histories.
I fulfilled this prompt quite easily by reading this novel at bus stops and on train platforms.
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Book 2: The Moving Finger; Agatha Christie
- Prompt: Cover Features Motion
- Pages: 240
- Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5
“A village filled with suspects Nothing ever happens in the sleepy village of Lymstock. Until letters accusing the villagers of unspeakable acts start to appear. They try to dismiss them as a cruel hoax, but then one of the recipients is found dead.”
Posting a letter through a letterbox is an act of motion, so I think this counts.
I forgot that this was a Miss Marple book. It felt like a Christie novel and I was enjoying following these rich siblings round a little village, but the fact that little Miss Marple doesn’t turn up until about 75% of the way through is wild to me. And she clocks everything.
The misogyny and classism in this one was a little too rife for me to rate it higher. The mystery itself had some interesting angles and an eclectic hodge-podge of village people is always fun. I wish we didn’t have so much just told to us at the end, but that’s a very Marple/Poirot element to their novels.
I kind of enjoyed how protective Jerry was over Megan, but I wish we knew how old that man was, because there were times where I felt a bit uncomfortable.
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Book 3: Prophet Song; Paul Lynch
- Prompt: ‘I’ll Get Round to It Later’ Tag
- Pages: 117
- Rating: ⭐⭐.5
“Ireland is falling apart, caught in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny. As the life she knows and the ones she loves disappear before her eyes, Eilish must contend with the dystopian logic of her new, unraveling country. How far will she go to save her family?”
For the ‘I’ll Get Round to It Later’ tag, I’m using Prophet Song for the ‘book you’ve been procrastinating’ and this is certainly that. I have been on page 192 for ages as I’m struggling to want to pick this up.
I wish I would have loved this, but this is definitely on me. Prophet Song is a Booker Prize winner, so I’m just not high brow enough.
I found it so hard to engage with the characters due to the lack of punctuation, which sometimes left me confused on who was speaking. The plot is also rather fragmented and so much happens.
I think this may be a book that I revisit, especially as it continues to feel relevant.
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Book 4: The Appeal; Janice Hallett
- Prompt: Title Shared by Another Book
- Pages: 445
- Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
“The Fairway Players, a local theatre group, is in the midst of rehearsals when tragedy strikes…
In the run-up to the trial, two young lawyers sift through the material—emails, messages, letters—with a growing suspicion that the killer may be hiding in plain sight.”
Re-reads are allowed if you last read them 5 years ago… and I may be cheating as it’s not quite 5 years yet, but I really wanted to read this.
The Appeal shares it’s title with a John Grisham novel.
I love a mixed media novel and the crime genre works so well with this format. I rated this book 4⭐’s previously and I still feel secure in this rating. It’s definitely a solid read.
The characters are all interesting and feel real. I, 100%, have met people like the ones in the Fairway Players. The mystery itself is full of twists and turns, some more fleshed out than others, but I was always on my toes.
Despite having read this before, my memory is like a sieve and reiterates the fact that I would not be a good detective because I was so sure it was someone it was not.
I would definitely recommend Janice Hallett, I’ve enjoyed near enough all of her novels so far (we don’t talk about Alperton Angels).
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Book 5: The Christmas Appeal; Janice Hallett
- Prompt: A Colour From Joseph’s Technicolour Coat
- Pages: 201
- Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
“The Christmas season has arrived in Lower Lockwood, and the Fairway Players are busy rehearsing their festive holiday production of Jack and the Beanstalk… But despite the season, goodwill is distinctly lacking among the amateur theatre enthusiasts…
Join lawyers Femi and Charlotte as they investigate Christmas letters, examine emails, and pore over police transcripts…”
I’m 100% cheating with this one as I read this the year it came out in 2023, which is only 3 years ago. There’s no reading challenge police, so I’m using it! Plus, I really want to read it and I need The Appeal to be fresh in my mind to remember all the characters. And it’s got both green and red on the cover which is on Joseph’s coat.
For such a short novella, this was so fun and interesting. A lot happens and I really enjoyed seeing Sarah-Jane at the helm – she’s so likeable.
We got to see more secondary characters also come to the foreground in this one, as well as meeting some new characters. That policeman is actually so hilarious.
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It’s now November and I did in fact not ‘win’, but I’m still so happy that I finished the books I did and gave it a good go!
Plus, I could definitely do with not spending money, especially on books as I have so many unread books staring at me.
Thanks for reading! I hope you’re having a lovely day and staying safe 💕
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