What Mrs Hallow Read This Quarter [January - March]

Here we go, we're at the quarter mark of 2020 already and our first reading summary of the year. If you caught my 2019 Goodreads Year in Books you'll have read that I didn't do too much reading at the start of the year, the bulk of my total being in the last six months. What with our collection haven grown over the last few months we really needed to crack down to some serious reading...and here is exactly how that all turned out.

January

The Brothers Grimm Folk Tales by Brian Alderson [Translated]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book Mr H and I had started reading together in December. We'd read each other a story or so while the other was having a bath or something, but only got a couple stories in. I decided to start the reading year with something I knew I would enjoy and of course I did.

The Arctic Incident (Artemis Fowl #2) by Eoin Colfer

⭐️⭐️⭐️

I read the first in the Artemis Fowl series back in March 2019 to get ready for the Disney movie adaptation coming out. It turned out that the release date got changed and although I didn't extremely care for it, I thought I'd try to read the other two before we see the film. Overall I think I enjoyed this one more than the first, but I wouldn't read it again.

As someone who loves fairies and fantasy it throws me off a little with it coming from a sci-fi perspective.

Poor Unfortunate Soul: A Tale of the Sea Witch by Serena Valentino

⭐️

If I could say 'I give up with these books' I would. I own the full series of Disney books from Serena Valentino and I'm determined to get myself through them but man!! This is the second out of six that I've forced myself to read and I just do not enjoy anything about them.

The Tin Woodman of Oz (Oz #12) by L. Frank Baum

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Anything from the lands of Narnia or Oz I'm guaranteed to like. I'm coming to the end of the Oz stories but unlike most series that are so many books long, each of these stories still keeps me interested and entertained.

February

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

⭐️⭐️

I've had this book on my shelves for a long time and have to admit that it was another I only picked up after seeing the new movie was being released. I read a couple of 'non-spoiler' reviews before and during reading this and cannot disagree more that this is a book that all dog lovers will adore. I read that review a lot. Maybe other dog lovers like to be sad but this book was just so upsetting and full of horrible themes that I couldn't bare it. Yes, I stuck with it until the end though literally just because others had loved it so much I thought something was going to turn it around. The ending is the only reason I gave this 2 stars otherwise it would be a - 5.

The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In contrast to the previous book, The Toymakers ended up being me second 5 star of the year! I didn't expect it at the beginning as apart from the magic aspect, it really isn't my usual thing. I'm not a fan of things set around war times, I don't like romance or relationships in books. However, it kept me reading! I didn't have to ever force myself to pick it up and although some parts were predictable, other parts I really was excited to find out more. The ending cemented the rating even after all my tears!

The Reptile Room (A Series of Unfortunate Events #2) by Lemony Snicket

⭐️⭐️⭐️

For this 'review' I revert to my previous What I Read This Quarter post, to the first Series of Unfortunate Events book I read and I repeat - Meh. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it and it was better than The Bad Beginning but considering my admiration for the film and TV series adaptations I think my expectations were too high.

March

The Magic of Oz  (Oz #13) by L. Frank Baum

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It's an Oz story. I'm always going to love it. As for why it isn't a 5 star...I'm not sure. My gut tells me when I close a book whether it has earned complete obsession or just high adoration and although I would of course read and love this again it just didn't quite get the 5.

Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I read this in the form of an audio-book, my first of the year, and on this occasion I'm pretty sure it was a better experience listening to this book than reading it because the performance added such an extra special touch. Voices included Stephen Fry, Jeffery Palmer, Dame Judy Dench and many more. 

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Admittedly I originally picked this up because of the cover (but from other reviews I've read so did others). The first chapter or two didn't get my interest at all, however once Mori is introduced I got more into it until I ended up not really wanting to put it down.Usually with books that jump time and place every other chapter I can get a little lost but this was easier to follow, kept me guessing and wasn't as predictable as a lot of things I've read lately. I enjoyed it so much actually that I ordered the next book that Natasha Pulley had written the day I finished this.

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I read the first of this series back in November and the tie-in/prequel/short story collection 'Tales of the Peculiar' in June 2017, so I was more than ready to continue this series. Again, I'm lucky that this month has been filled with good books and my only real thoughts about this book was that it felt like another 'Series of Unfortunate Events'!

The Wide Window (A Series of Unfortunate Events #3) by Lemony Snicket

⭐️⭐️⭐️

3rd book of the series, 2nd time I'm going to refer you to the review for the previous of the series and say 'ditto'.

Frankenstein by Mary M Shelley

⭐️

Originally on my January TBR list I DNFed it because I just couldn't get into it. Then Audible released a load of free to listen books and as it was on there I thought I'd give it another go. This really cements my dislike for the majority of 'classics' haha. 

13 total, 2 of which was an audio book, averaging out at 4 per month. If I carry on the year as it has started out I should beat my goal of 36 by a whole 12 books. I'm excited to finally make a dent in what seems to be a never ending TBR list.

Check out what I read in the previous quarter by clicking here.

February Haul and Un-Haul

A two for one blog post coming to you today! February was a slow month for new book traffic and so we decided to combine our monthly haul with another un-haul of the recent stack of books we've weeded from our shelves ready to take to the charity shop.
Here is what has joined and what is leaving our collection...

5 books in total, but really 3 seeing as the Treasure Cove books are more of a collectible sort of ornament rather a story we will actually ever read. However, I found it funny that all 5 were brand new rather than bought from charity shops or second hand online stores.

A Sprinkle of Sorcery by Michelle Harrison

Paperback

Tesco

The Night Country by Melissa Albert

Paperback

Tesco

Tales from the Perilous Realms by J R R Tolkien

Paperback

Amazon

The Threat of Thanos - Treasure Cove Storybooks

Hardback

B&M

Cinderella - Treasure Cove Storybooks

Hardback

B&M

As for the un-hauling, the pile is considerably bigger and that is for a multitude of reasons.  

The top photo shows a stack of books that we really just have no interest in reading. Some were gifts, some were bought on a whim, though none of them will be finding themselves on any up coming TBRs so they will be better of finding new homes where the will be enjoyed...hopefully.

The bottom photo has three books that are only going because they have been replaced with the same book in either a nicer cover or in a better condition version of itself. Whereas the remaining three should have unfortunately actually been in this months haul. We ordered them from a used book site that we have used multiple times before. They were described as being in 'very good' condition. They arrived is appalling condition and as all three were for part of collections we will not be keeping them. It was a sad experience as I've only ever had amazing books from the company in question and this time even their customer service department lacked care. Never mind! 

It seems it's been almost a full six months since our first book unhaul blog post which you can find here, although we have definitely gotten rid of other books between now and then without documenting.

Take a look at all of our other monthly hauls by clicking here.

Pages Per Day // February

We're back with our second month of page tracking and I say 'we' because Mr H managed to keep a track of what he read too.
We both had our TBR lists and of course the total of those books was our reading goal. My own was 1008 pages over 3 books and Mr H's was 1322 over 2 books. This didn't exactly go to plan, which you will see more about below...

Days 1 - 7 =  251

Days 8 - 14 = 153

Days 15 - 21 = 252

Days 22 - 28 = 286

Day 29  = 10

Monthly total = 952

My personal aim was to read no less than 20 pages per day, which I feel I did pretty well with having 8 days under that goal and only 1 day of no reading at all! From my TBR my goal to complete all 3 books was 1008 pages. As you can see, that didn't happen, however I did actually finish a full 3 books...you'll see more about that at the end of the month in my quarterly reading round up.

----------

Day 1 - 7 = 119
Days 8 - 14 = 80
Days 15 - 21 = 92
Days 22 - 28 = 78
Day 29 = 10
Monthly total = 379

Well as you can seen I didn't get anywhere near my TBR for February, I had a very difficult month with work ect and my reading truly suffered because of this. This month I started a book and got nearly 200 pages in and then set it aside as I just couldn't get into it properly baring in mind its book 6 in a series I was was very disappointed in myself but I will pick it back up because I do love the series. I'm determined March will be a better month of reading and I'm looking forward to getting a few more titles finished!

March TBR Lists

I'll keep this one short and sweet - March is here and so is our TBR lists! The page tracking and page goals have been helping somewhat in getting through our ever growing piles of 'to be read', however Mr H's work has been taking over life and not leaving him much extra time to do anything else...
You'll see at the end of March/beginning of April what we've managed to read this quarter but until then, here are the last books we hope to add to those posts for March.

Mr Hallow's TBR List

Alice Through the Looking Glass by Kari Sutherland [TBR Jar pick] - 299 Pages

Tales from the Haunted Mansion, Volume III: Grim Grinning Ghosts by Amicus Arcane [Mrs' pick] - 240 pages

Shield Wall by Justin Hill - 497 pages

- Page Total = 1,036

Mrs Hallow's TBR List

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley [TBR Jar pick] - 318 pages

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs [Mr's pick] - 428 pages

The Magic of Oz by L Frank Baum - 182 pages

- Page Total = 928

Walt Disney Company Book Collection

It's been a while! Well, yeah in general, but also since we shared any of our collections within our overall collection. The last one I personally talked about was the Harry Potter & The Wizarding World Book Collection which was apparently way back in November!! The thing is most of our collections change pretty regularly so that one is more than likely slightly out of date and I know for certain that Mr H's Tolkien collection has changed a lot since he posted it.

Today I'm finally getting around to writing about my Disney book collection. Just as I said in my Wizarding World post, I was sure there was more to my collection than it ended up looking once I took my photos, it's possible that I've missed a little chunk somewhere, but I've still spent a lot building the collection and love everything I have...obviously!

There are multiple categories of books within my Disney book collection, so that coupled with the fact they come in all shapes and sizes too means they are housed in different locations over the house.
The books in the images above live on the top shelve of our cabinet in the living room. They are main novel/story/book of the movie books. I have all of the Twisted Tales that are currently available in paperback (though I do still need to put them into chronological order), alongside the Serena Valentino fan fictions (which - spoiler alert - I hate) and a random one of Mr H's Marvel novels. My favorites in this section is definitely the Tales from the Haunted Mansion series!

Then we go upstairs to the bedroom! We have one small bookcase in there that is mainly used for books that are too big elsewhere or overflow from downstairs. The bottom shelve has a mix of things going on: a handful of what I call 'special' books from the 1970s - 1990s, art books, biographies and a couple of stray book of the movie books!
There is also the extra special Disneyland Paris A to Z book that was released for the 25th Anniversary that stays stored away.

Lastly we make the journey back down the stairs to the living room and the second shelve on the small bookcase (that also has the Tolkien collection and some of the Potter stuff on it). These are purely collecting books, as in I don't read them. The rainbow books are from the Wonderful World of Reading series published between the 1970s-1990s also. Then we have a newer collection that are technically meant as children's books, but I just really enjoy the artwork so I hoard them.

And that is it!

Periodically we'll find a WWoR book in a charity shop or a new Twisted Tales will be released but really this is a slower growing collection than the likes of Tolkien where multiple copies of the same title are bought in different covers or editions. I look forward to see what 2020 does to this collection...!