Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

766 Pages

Rating: 5/5 (would it be anything else? It's a Potter book)

I'm enjoying re-reading this series so much I've stopped after this one for a little while because I don't want it to end just yet!

Although I love this series so much I made butterbeer cupcakes (find my post on that, including the link to the recipe, here) this book is definitely not the best book in the series. Don't get me wrong, I still love it dearly and think it's a truly fantastic book in comparison to other books but it's not in comparison to the other Potters. When I was discussing this with a friend she pointed out how this one and the 6th one seem to not have been edited as well as they maybe could've been because they were trying to release them quickly and I see her point. It seems like a very long book and although the majority of what happens does need to be there, the book seems slightly longer than it needs to be.

Having said that, I still love it and I stand by the fact I think everyone should read the Harry Potter series no matter how much they like reading. It truly is more than a series, it's a world. And I for one would love to belong to that world in a way that is more than reading them, watching them and re-creating as much as I can.

(Book 23/50)

Lucy x

Wonder by R. J. Palacio

310 Pages

Rating: 4/5

For Auggie Pullman, starting Middle School is a much bigger deal than it is for other people. Not only is it the first time he'll be attending school (he's been home-schooled up to this point) but he also doesn't look like his class mates.

I've heard a lot of good things about this book so I was worried it wouldn't live up to the hype but I have to say, I do think it's worth the hype.

Although Wonder isn't my favourite book I've ever read I do feel that it's the kind of book that will stick with the reader long after they've finished reading it. Wonder is a real eye-opener and really made me think about how life would be from the perspective of someone like Auggie and his family.

Wonder reminded me of books like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and The Perks of Being a Wallflower with a bit of John Green thrown in so if you like any of those books, you'll probably like this. That's not to say if you didn't like them you won't like this as I wasn't a massive fan of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (controversial I know) and I still really enjoyed this.

(Book 22/50)

Lucy x

Summer Book Haul (Haul #2)

Those of you living in the UK will know that GCSE exams are now over and what better way to celebrate finishing exams than buying books as a present from me to me?

While doing my exams I didn't have much time to read at all and I was actually struggling to read a book a week which is my usual goal. Since I've finished exams (about 3 weeks ago) I've tried to get back into reading because it's not only something I enjoy but something I'm going to have to do a lot of next year for English Literature so I decided to get reading some of the things I've wanted to for ages! All these books I bought either from Amazon or The Book Depository with the exception of Etiquette & Espionage which I happened to see in a shop called 'The Works' for £1.99! (most books in shops in the UK are around the £6 mark which is why I usually order online where they tend to be more around the £4 mark.

I bought 6 books (Billy and Me by Giovanna Fletcher, The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan, Crossed by Ally Condie, Beauty Queens by Libba Bray, Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger and The Bling Ring by Nancy Jo Sales) and my Mum then bought Wonder by R. J. Palacio which she let me borrow after I'd taken these photos so it's pictured below. I've already read The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan and to read my review click here. Other reviews will be posted as I read them so if you're particularly interested in a certain book, keep an eye out because the review will be coming sometime this summer.

Booktubeathon: Change of Plan

So as you will probably be able to tell from the few updates I've done on booktubeathon, it wasn't going well for me at all. One day I read less than 50 pages which is not good for me on the average day never mind during a readathon.

I was feeling a little down about the fact I've been doing to badly with it all because I really did want to succeed so I talked to a friend of mine about it who is also an avid reader. She said to me that the challenges are a good thing to be doing but not to worry about not reading it all in a week because it's been such a busy week and she's right. Because of that, I've decided to change what I'm going to do.

I'm not going to give myself a time limit (other than the end of summer) to read the books I'd picked out to read but I am going to cut myself a bit of slack and try to not stress over reading a certain thing in a certain number of hours because it would seem that doesn't work for me.

For the rest of you still doing the readathon, I hope it's going well!

Happy reading :)

Lucy x

Booktubeathon Day 3: Day 2 Update and Still Failing

Day 2 final update:
115 Pages of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
5 Pages of Sense and Sensibility (that one's not going too well)

120 Pages total... the day was failed miserably

Day 3: Still Not Going Well
So as you can probably see from my Day 3 word count, this readathon isn't exactly going as well as I'd hoped it would. I'm still trying to power through and read as much as I can in the time I have but it's proving to be more difficult that I thought due to the fact we've got lovely weather here in the UK at the moment and because I know it won't last long I've spent every day this week at the beach (and fully plan on doing the same for the rest of the week!) I think considering I've only really had a few hours each day to read I'm doing pretty well!

I managed to finish Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix this morning which means I've officially finished my first book of the readathon (and the biggest one) and I've finished my first (modified) challenge!

How're you all getting on with the readathon? Is it going well? Is it more difficult than you thought it would be? Let me know!

Happy reading!

Lucy x

Booktubeathon Day 2: Day 1 Update and Day 2 Progress

Day 1 Update:
I managed to read...
168 Pages of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
9 Pages of Sense and Sensibility
Total: 177 Pages (I failed miserably yesterday)

Day 2 Progress:
So as you can see, yesterday didn't really go to plan due to being down the beach with my friends and today the same thing happened! This is the most sociable I've been since I left school a month ago! Bad week to choose to do that but oh well, have to make the most of the nice weather before it's too late.

Day 2's beach read

I did manage to read a little bit of Sense and Sensibilty down the beach while some of my friends were off getting chips and the others were in the sea and I got a bit of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix read last night so I'm going to go continue with that one! I'm using Sense and Sensibility as my book to carry around with me seeing as though Order of the Phoenix isn't the most portable book in the world!

Happy reading!

Lucy x

Booktubeathon Day 1: Already Cheating and TBR

So today is the first day of the booktubeathon that I mentioned in a post a while ago and it's the first readathon I've ever done so I knew it was going to be an experience to say the least. I hadn't even decided what books I'm reading until just before midnight last night and it's still changing!

When I say I'm already cheating, I mean with the challenges set by Ariel and Raeleen which are totally optional anyway. For the book over 500 pages I'm reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which I was actually already about 300 pages into so I'm not technically reading a full book with 500 pages but I feel like it still counts because I wanted to finish it before starting anything else anyway. As for the audio book and finishing a series, I've decided not to do either of those challenges because I'd rather read a book than listen to it and there are no series' that I only have 1 or 2 books left in. What I think I'm going to do to make up for these however is finish as many books as I can that I'm halfway through because I seem to have developed a habit recently of leaving a book if I don't find it interesting but thinking that I'll come back to it at some point. One in particular I'd like to finish is Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger but I've also got The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks and The Bling Ring by Nancy Jo Sales sitting there on my shelf waiting to be finished. This was a bit of a last minute decision challenge for me so I might not carry it through but we'll see!

The books I've decided I want to read (this will probably have changed by tomorrow) are Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for over 500 pages, Slated by Teri Terry for the book that's been on my shelf forever and The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith for re-reading a book. As for classic I'm thinking at the moment it will be Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen however I'm not sure if I'll finish it in a week so I may swap to The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald or Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

Are any of you taking part in the booktubeathon? I'd love to be able to chat to you if you are so we can encourage each other and keep track of each other's reading! If you are please either leave me a comment on here or tweet me and I'll definitely reply! :)

Happy reading and let the games begin! ;)

Lucy x

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

636 Pages

Rating: 5/5! (if I could give it higher I would!)

I'm thoroughly enjoying re-reading this series but I was a little worried after finishing Prisoner of Askaban because I'm not usually a fan of big books. I find that they put me off because I think I'll get bored and not finish them but this book proved to me that isn't always the case.

So far in the series, I have to say I think this is my favourite (although there's not much between this and the rest). What I liked about Goblet of Fire so much is that you can really sense the build up throughout the book for each task and the ending doesn't feeling like an ending, it feels like a beginning. For me, this is the book that really shows the characters growing up as they're forced to be more mature due to the circumstances at the end and after finishing it, I wanted (and did) start Order of the Phoenix straight away because of the dramatic ending. It has much more of a dark side to it and I really enjoyed that.

I really loved reading this book and it's made me so excited for the rest of the series!

(Book 21/50)

Lucy x

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

317 Pages

Rating: 5/5!

Like Chamber of Secrets, I haven't read this for years however I watched the film not too long ago. One thing I have noticed from re-reading these books and re-watching the films is just how true to the books the films are. Of course some areas will need to be cut down or removed because there's a limited amount of time for the film but a lot of the dialogue is the same as the book.

I loved this book just as much as Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets and I'm enjoying this series so much, possibly even more than I enjoyed it the last time I read them. It's actually really nice to read them knowing what happens at the end of the book/series because there are some little details that may seem meaningless the first time you read them but actually relate back to the final outcome.

I've completely fallen in love with this series all over again and I can't stop reading them! Anything else seems to not quite live up to the standards set by these books at the moment.

(Book 20/50)
Lucy x

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

251 Pages

Rating: 5/5!

I've only ever read this book (along with the remainder of the series) once before and that was years ago so I thought it was about time to re-read it. I'd forgotten how much I love Chamber of Secrets and although I know a lot of people say they don't like it as much as some of the other books I really love it.

One thing I'd forgotten in the years its been since I'd read this or, in fact, watched it, is how much I love Fawkes. I just love how he manages to save the day and I think that the loyalty he shows to Harry once Harry has shown his loyalty to Dumbledore is amazing.


(Book 19/50)
Lucy x

Bloglovin!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin 

I very recently discovered a website called bloglovin that lets you follow all your favourite blogs in one place and sends you a notification when they share a new post. I just wanted to let you guys know about the site because although I haven't been on it long I've already fallen in love with it and I can see how it will make keeping up with the blogs I like so much more easy.

If you want to follow me on there the link it above :)

Lucy x

The Book-tube-a-thon! (My First Read-a-thon)

I've loved watching booktubers for a while now and it's actually what got me interested in blogging about books. I've always been a 'reader' but since stumbling upon John Green's The Fault In Our Stars early last year and all the booktubers who were talking about it, I've completely fallen in love with reading and the community.

Because of this I've decided to take part in the booktube-a-thon which is a read-a-thon that has come from the world of booktube. I know that I'm not a 'booktuber' in the sense that I post videos about books but I feel like being a book blogger is the next best thing! I'm not sure if I'll attempt all of the challenges yet because I tend to read really slowly if I'm not completely in the mood to read that certain book so things like reading a classic in a few days might not be the easiest thing for me but I'll give as many of them as I can a go! I've already picked out my 'over 500 pages' book which is going to be one of the later Harry Potter books depending on how much I read before then (I've just started Goblet of Fire) but the rest I think I'll just see what I want to read.

Let me know if you're taking part in the book-tube-a-thon too, I'd love to be able to keep track of what I'm reading with someone. I'm not sure whether I'll review the books as I read them or if I'll just post all the reviews at the end of the read-a-thon but there will be separate reviews for each of the books I read.

Lucy x