What Mr Hallow Read Last Quarter [July - September]

Its the end of December and I'm only just doing this post... I really need to get better at keeping up with doing posts on this blog Mrs H does pretty much everything and its not fair. So here is my 'what I read this quarter' for July - September. After doing this post I realised how little I actually read after going back to work this year. I really need to read more next year.

July

Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix by J.K Rowling
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I think this book is when I really started to enjoy the Harry Potter books, I thought it was great how the story developed in this book and I just had to get to the next one.

Mr Sparks by Danny Weston
⭐️⭐️⭐️
I had wanted to read this book for a while and although I did enjoy reading this I kind of felt like it was very heavily influenced by the goosebumps books and I found it hard to see past that.

August

Nightmares by Jason Segel
⭐️⭐️⭐️
I was looking forward towards this book because Mrs H loved it, I did like this book but I don't think I will read any of the sequels as I have so many books that need reading.

Memento Mori (Tales from the Haunted Mansion) by Amicus Arcane
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I finally finished!! I loved all of these books great read and the presentation of everything was fantastic. I found this one my favourite of the four books but I think that is more because it was the spookiest of the four.

September

The Company of Ghosts by Berlie Doherty
⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book wasn't at all what I expected going in with that being said I really enjoyed it. The Island that Ellie travelled too sounded great me and Mrs H would love to live somewhere like that even better that it had no other inhabitants.

Predators Gold by Phillip Reeve
⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was a great second novel in this series the way it built on the first book was great and it not my usual cup of tea in the way this is more of a Sci-Fi post-apocalyptic story,  I prefer to read fantasy but for some reason I really enjoyed this the next book is based 20 years into the future so I cant wait to see what happens.

A Whole New World by Liz Braswell
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mrs H has been telling me to read this all year and I thought it was a great alternative to story to Aladdin. We have all of these books and I'm sure I will work my way through them at some point.

So that's it 7 Books in three months in this same time Mrs H read 14 books! My aim for this year was to read 30 books so tune back in for the next post to see whether I make it or not... As I am so late in writing this post I can tell you yes, I did! But how many did I read...?

Collective Book Haul // September - December

 

It's been a while! Compared to last year when we were doing monthly book hauls, it's been pretty different to not be compiling these lists regularly. The previous haul here was uploaded back in September and since our book buying has slowed even moreee. Check out the previous haul here > Collective Book Haul // June - August. 

The Mammoth Book of Celtic Myths and Legends by Peter Berresford Ellis
--
The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste 
--
The Art of the Lord of the Rings (60th Anniversary Special Edition) by J. R. R. Tolkien
--
The Disney Studio Story by Richard Holliss

The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury
--
Nightmares! The Sleepwalker Tonic by Jason Segel & Kirsten Miller 
--
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone MinaLima Edition
--
Disneyland Paris Phantom Manor Decrypted Attraction Book
--
Disneyland Paris Pirates of the Caribbean: A Treasure of an Attraction Book

Umbrella Mouse to the Rescue by Anna Fargher
--
The Ickabog by J.K. Rowling
--
A Middle-earth Traveller: Sketches from Bag End to Mordor by John Howe
--
Fantastic Beasts: The Wonder of Nature by Natural History Museum

As I mentioned briefly in another post, we had planned to allow ourselves a certain amount of money per book we'd read this year, to spend next year so that we could stick to a budget and not go crazy. However, circumstances have changed and now we need to save as much money as possible which means buying books will be a rare occurrence.
Anyway, this is what we have bought in the past 4 months. To quickly address the issue I'm sure many will find, books were already pre-ordered and we are very much LGBTQIA+ allies and do not condone any Transphobic attitudes. 

Pages Per Day // November

 

Just like the title says, this is our Pages Per Day check-in for November. There are no goals or aims because as I have said in previous posts, we've both bypassed our total books read goal for the year already and anything on top is a bonus. We're in the swing with a routine and remember the importance of enjoyment in reading rather than forcing it. 

Days 1 - 7 =  233
Days 8 - 14 = 222
Days 15 - 21 =  191
Days 22 - 28 = 210
Days 29 - 30  =  101

Monthly total = 957

/

Days 1 - 7 =  242
Days 8 - 14 = 239
Days 15 - 21 =  173
Days 22 - 28 = 291
Days 29 - 30  = 167

Monthly total = 1112

Coincidentally, our TBR page totals for November ended up being 966 and 960 respectively so as you can see we both pretty much hit that. Our quarterly round-ups (the next of which will be up around January/February) will show more of what we actually read in terms of following the TBR lists or not, because I have a funny feeling Mr H read something other than his TBR and I also read an extra too!

10 Books I Want Right Now!

 

As time runs out in 2020 and our book buying opportunities disappear I wanted to write a post with my (Mrs H) personal current wishlist...or more so want list haha.

Obviously, up until this year, we have been mainly secondhand book buyers - charity shops were our jam! Also obviously, I have not been inside any building except my house all year, let alone a charity shop so our while our pockets have been spared somewhat, our shelves have suffered!
Next year is likely to be no different at all, therefore with online shopping being our only option we've given ourself a budget. For each book we have read this year, we have £1.50 to spend next year...that means so far with my 56 and Mr H's 36 reads we have £138 or £11.50 per month. Not much at all really.

I mention the above because I'd like to buy the books in this post right now to avoid taking big chunks from our budget next year haha. 

The Disney Book of Maps: A Guide to the Magical Worlds of Disney and Pixar

Walt Disney's Ultimate Inventor; The Genius of Ub Iwerks

One Day at Disney: Meet the People Who Make the Magic Across the Globe

Fantastic Beasts: The Wonder of Nature

Labyrinth: The Ultimate Visual History

The Annotated Wizard of Oz

On the Origin of Species: The Illustrated Edition

A Natural History of Fairies

A Middle-earth Traveller: Sketches from Bag End to Mordor

The Nature of Middle-earth

I didn't expect to, because we haven't exactly got a lot of extra funds right now, but we actually got one of the books above each since putting together this post. My Dad gifted us some money and so while buying some household needs on Amazon, I thought I'd treat us to a couple of books...it had been a while! So I chose the Natural History Museum's 'Fantastic Beasts' book that accompanies their exhibition at the museum seeing as there is no chance we will be able to attend. For Mr H I picked the 'A Middle-earth Traveller' because you can never go wrong with something LOTR for him!

I hope to be able to find the others as bargains at some point as I really, really want them haha.

December TBR Lists

 

It's only been a week or so since I posted November's TBR, but now we are all caught up it didn't make any sense to postpone the usual start of the month TBR post. So for the final time in 2020, here is what we are each planning to read throughout this month.

Mr H's TBR List
The Bad Begining by Lemony Snicket - 162 pages
The Scent of Magic by Cliff McNish - 215 pages
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J K Rowling - 607 pages

- Page Total = 984

Mrs H's TBR List
The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket - 259 pages
The Umbrella Mouse by Anna Fargher - 274 pages
Frostheart by Jamie Littler - 410 pages

- Page Total = 943

Pages Per Day // October

 

Another quick one today just to get us finally caught up! The problem with taking a break from a blog that has time and month related content! Have a peek back at our last couple of posts to read about why I've had to play catch up... now onto what we all read page wise in October.

Days 1 - 7 =  249
Days 8 - 14 = 250
Days 15 - 21 = 415
Days 22 - 28 = 130
Days 29 - 31  =  84

Monthly total = 1,128

Days 1 - 7 =  282
Days 8 - 14 = 208
Days 15 - 21 = 418
Days 22 - 28 = 312
Days 29 - 31  =  124

Monthly total = 1,344


Another couple of thousand pages down between us both and we're coming into the home stretch of the year. We decided to add up the page totals for 2020 so far, up until the end of October and came out with around 10,000 for Mr H  and 12,000 for myself which is pretty cool to know. Let's see how we do with the rest of the year...

November TBR Lists

It feels a little pointless to put this up now seeing as we've read 90% of it and the month is almost over, but I need to post it before next month's TBR otherwise there would be one missing and I can't have that. 
As always we chose these weeks ago, but after our little book blog break and catching up with a couple of other posts that's why it's a month late!

Mr H's TBR List

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman - 359 pages

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J K Rowling - 607

- Page Total = 966

Mrs H's TBR List

The Ghost Tree by Christina Henry - 507 pages

The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell - 453 pages

- Pages Total = 960

Seeing as it's the end of the reading month anyway, it's difficult to write much in way of a conclusion for this because we already know how it went...However, I will say since meeting my book total target for 2020 I guess I've personally lost a tiny bit of motivation. We did recently decide though that for next year any book-buying will be budgeted to £1.50 for every book we have read this year, which has spurred me on a little so I can earn more to spend haha!

Anyway, one more post and we'll be up to date. Woo hoo!

What Mrs Hallow Read This Quarter [July - September]

As I shared in my previous post, we had a 5/6 week break from this blog without really meaning to, so some of these posts may seem slightly outdated while we get caught up. Of course we know not many people read this and it is more so just for our own records and memories, hence posting these rather than skipping them. The below was in part written as I the months went along and the rest in recent days.

Another three months have passed, meaning it is yet again time for a quarterly reading round up. In the first quarter of 2020, I read 13 books, in the second quarter 18... that made 31 total in six months, only 5 away from my yearly goal so let's see what I managed to get through in our third quarter!

July

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is something I owned but gave to a charity shop unread years ago, then we repurchased in December of last year. I got around to choosing it for my TBR in July and was really looking forward to it but it ended up being slightly different to what I was expecting. For something labelled as 'Fairy Tale' and 'Fantasy Fiction' some of the themes and language used was a lot more adult than I hoped. I'm a big girl and can take it, but maybe because I read so much middle grade etc I prefer cleaner reading.
Overall the storyline was good and I'm interested in what the next book will follow.

A Map of Days by Ransom Riggs

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
It's common knowledge by this point we are Peculiar fans in our house. I enjoy all the books...or have done so far.

Haunted by James Herbert

⭐️⭐️⭐️
Looking at the cover of this and comparing it to the rest of the stuff we own and read, it didn't seem like something up my alley. However, the blurb did pique my interest and I gave it a go. Again, it was another that was slightly unexpected with moments that helped drop my rating down. 

August

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I was super excited to put this on my TBR for August because I'd loved the sound and look of it and been looking at it sitting on my shelf since April. Of course, my hunch was correct and the whimsical, strange storyline was right up my street.

Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor

⭐️⭐️⭐️

I had high expectations for this one, the title being something I say often haha. It also holds some sentimental feelings from when and where it was bought. And I did actually really enjoy the main plot. Obviously a 3 star isn't usually a rating you'd give a book you liked the plot of so much, however I docked stars for the (what I feel were) very unnecessary 'adult' themes. This seems to be becoming a running theme and a reason the majority of my reading consists of middle grade and other young fiction.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Yeah, it was fine. Not quite sure why it is so incredibly popular but it wasn't a waste of time to read.

The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket

⭐️⭐️⭐️

See every other review of this series haha! I'm only still reading just to complete the series. I definitely prefer these in movie/tv show form and it's not often I say that...and it feels wrong too...but it's true.

The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I finished the book I had been reading in bed one night and wasn't ready to go to sleep, so of course my choice from our bedroom bookcase wasn't one of the many books I've never read, but one of my all-time favourites that I've read plenty! I had planned on re-reading the whole series again but I've had a lot of other things on my TBRs recently.

September

As Old As Time by Liz Braswell

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Despite owning all of the Disney Twisted Tales and Villian stories I'm still slowly working my way through them. I've probably mentioned in the past how I really don't like the Villian series by Serena Valentino but I actually have super enjoyed the Liz Braswell twisted tales so far including this Beauty and the Beast re-telling.

The Great Elephant Chase by Gillian Cross

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
So this came to me through a recommendation on Goodreads (not that they have a good reputation for recs or anything) and I bought it second hand online. I wasn't 100% sure what to expect and was hoping that there wasn't any animal abuse that was too hard to read but it was set in a time period I enjoy so gave it a go. The storyline progressed well and they managed to respect the elephant more than I thought was going to be the case considering the subject.

The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I think I've talked here before about E Nesbit and my thoughts on her, so when I saw this on the free Audible Stories website I made it my 'on the way to pick up Husband' driving listen. Loved it.

The Conference of the Birds by Ransom Riggs
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Still one of my favourite book series. It's been a while since I rated it, so I'm unsure as to why it doesn't have five stars from me, but I know that the horrible cliffhanger endings annoy me. I know it's to keep you interested so you will pick up the next book but Mr Riggs' feel like he has written a book and then just ripped it in half leaving me completely in the dark for months on end.

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories by Tim Burton
⭐️
It pains me to rate this 1 star. I have always hated poetry but I thought my love for Tim Burton may override that. Nope. 

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was technically on October's TBR list, however after having already completed September's TBR plus another two books on top of that I decided to get a head start on the following month too. 
I had had this in our Amazon wishlist for months and bought it in time to read over spooky season. Although it wasn't exactly what I was expecting, I enjoyed it overall...especially seeing as I've really been loving middle-grade fantasy.

So that's another 14 books down for the past 3 months adding to the 31 from the first half of 2020 to bring me to 45 books. My total goal for the whole year was 36 which means I as of October 1st I had surpassed that by 9! Woo! Let's see if I can reach 60 before the end of the year...

Pages Per Day // September

It is indeed November and you did read the above correctly, September Pages Per Day. We ended up having an extended, unplanned break from this blog for over 5 weeks. Mr H works 6 days a week meaning any time he does have off is scarce and sacred. He had a week off during October, which is when we should have been on our honeymoon, but we tried to spend that time recouping and just spending time together. Therefore we have a small back log of posts to write and publish before we can start fresh in the new year. Here are our pages per day for September!

Days 1 - 7 =  171
Days 8 - 14 = 146
Days 15 - 21 = 360
Days 22 - 28 = 174
Days 29 - 31  =  66

Monthly total = 917

Days 1 - 7 =  327
Days 8 - 14 = 345
Days 15 - 21 = 380
Days 22 - 28 = 191 
Days 29 - 31  =  120

Monthly total = 1,363


Our TBR total pages for September were exactly 1,000 (what are the chances?!) for Mr H and 1,022 for myself. I think we have been doing pretty good, don't you?! What have you been reading lately? Do you track your pages? I really do find it a motivation to keep reading daily. We read every night in bed which helps us sleep better too.

October TBR Lists

October is here!! The best month of the year! 
Sadly, we had to cancel our Honeymoon/my 30th Birthday holiday to Disneyland Paris which should have been this month. However, Mr H will still be off work for a few days and because we will be pretty much confined to our house that means we should have some prime reading opportunities. That is kind of reflected in our TBR choices which may be slightly optimistic in comparison to our usual lists and our actual pages read each month. We have to be optimistic about something though haha!

Mr H's TBR List

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson - 781 pages

The Gospel of Loki by Joanne Harris - 302 pages

- Page Total = 1,083

Mrs H's TBR List 

Brisingr by Christopher Paolini - 748 pages

The Whitby Witches by Robin Jarvis - 375 pages

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster  [Mr H's pick] - 256 pages

The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury [Extra] - 145 pages

- Page Total = 1,524

The Guilty Reader Book Tag

 

Sooo. It's been a crazy, hectic, take-each-day-as-it-comes type of year so far for most of us and despite me being determined to get ahead of myself with the blogs and have everything pre-written a couple of weeks in advance (like I used to) I've gotten to Sunday and realized I'd forgotten about Tuesday's book blog post! That means the original post for today has been bumped for a while and a quick, fun little tag has replaced it! Stayed tuned for next week where we have a pretty cool post seeing as this month's marks the 1 year anniversary of us starting Pages of the Hallows!

Have you ever re-gifted a book you've been given?

Mrs: Nope. I've given them to charity shops etc though.

Mr: No, I only give gifts to Mrs H and I only get them from her so why would I re-gift them back to her.

Have you ever said you've read a book when you haven't?

Mrs: I have not, no. I don't see the point in doing that because if you are asked anything about it, you can't answer and then you'll look extra stupid.

Mr: Maybe in school if we'd been assigned one to read.

Have you ever borrowed a book and not returned it?

Mrs: I don't think I have actually ever lent a book from anyone other than a library.

Mr: Probably from the library when I was a child.

Have you ever read a series out of order?

Mrs: Technically I read The Chronicles of Narnia 'out of order'. I read them in chronological order, whereas a lot of people like to read them in publication order.

Mr: In my opinion no I have not, but according to Mr H a lot of people think I read Narnia wrong

Have you ever spoiled a book for someone?

Mrs: If you wouldn't like it done to you, don't do it to someone else. I remember in high school when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published and a lot of us got it at the midnight release, someone ruined it for us. I didn't read mine overnight like many others, it took me a day or two, but there were people who didn't necessarily understand why it was a big deal to others and purposely went around telling people about a certain important death in the book...they thought it was hilarious. 

Mr: No I haven't but then again the only other person I know who reads is Mrs H and I wouldn't do that.

Have you ever dog-eared a book?

Mrs: Maybe as a child, but I would never do that now!

Mr: Yes but not for a long time, funny fact though I'm still reading the last book I Dog-Eared maybe I will finish it one day.

Have you ever told someone you don't own a book when you do?

Mrs: I see a running trend with my answers. No! I am not embarrassed by any of the books I own so wouldn't need to lie.

Mr: No why would I lie about having a book?

Have you ever told someone you haven't read a book when you have?

Mrs: See above haha. I don't read according to trends or really care what people think of my reading tastes.

Mr: No I have not.

Have you ever skipped a chapter or a section of a book?

Mrs: I actually don't think I have to be honest. Even as a child. Why bother, you could miss something important to the storyline or ruin the ending for yourself.

Mr: No why would anyone do that? It's just cheating yourself out of part of the book.

Have you ever bad-mouthed a book you actually liked?

Mrs: Once again, a final no! For all the reasons listed above. I have bad-mouthed popular books that most people like and I don't, but never a book I actually liked. Surely you would praise it to share it to other people?

Mr: No I usually like most of the books I read, and if I don't like it I says so Mrs H  doesn't waste her time reading it too.

Pages Per Day // August

 

August pages per day post has come around even faster than July's post did! 8 full months of reading down, and 39 books read for me, 30 for Mr H. Our page total TBR goals for August were 943 pages and 971 pages respectively...see below to find out how we did and if having already passed our book goal for the year took away our motivation...

Days 1 - 7 =  238

Days 8 - 14 = 239

Days 15 - 21 = 149

Days 22 - 28 = 143

Days 29 - 31  =  90

Monthly total = 859

As you can see my TBR pages and actually read pages don't match up. I completed two books from my TBR and DNFed the third one with less than a quarter to go. If I'd DNFed sooner, I'd have gotten more reading done because this definitely held me back but I was determined to get through it! You'll see which book it was in our quarterly round up... 

Days 1 - 7 =  304
Days 8 - 14 = 351
Days 15 - 21 = 186
Days 22 - 28 = 327
Days 29 - 31  =  129

Monthly total = 1,297

I read 4 full books in August, my TBR 3 plus a re-read of one of my favourite books from The Chronicles of Narnia, The Magician's Nephew! I also finished a book that was started in the previous month. Like last month, you can see there was the odd not-as-good week but as I've passed my yearly goal I'm really not bothered haha.