Winter BiBib Wrap-Up + Other Reading Challenges of 2018

My favourite read-a-thon of the year drew to a close yesterday and I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. I love how there are so many challenges that one can do – be it just reading, blogging, bookstgraming or vlogging. I really enjoyed the whole buzz it created and reading with a lot of different people from the book community. I took part in a Twitter sprint for the first time, hosted by my friend Sam from Will Read for Booze and it was a blast! I read dangerously for this one, often staying up past my bedtime like the rebel reader I am (I prefer the title book dragon though, because worms are so passé). Here’s a breakdown of all that I’ve accomplished with respect to this read-a-thon. I will later talk about some other reading challenges I plan to take part in, so without further ado, let’s get going.

Winter BiBib Day #7: Write a Book Recommendation

It’s the final day of the Biannual Bibliothon and I’m back for the last time to bring you my post for today’s challenge. It is hosted by Laura from Laura’s Literary Letters – love the alliteration in the title! Her challenge is quite simply to recommend a book. This proved hard for me because there are a few books that I absolutely love but don’t think many will appreciate, few books that everyone seem to adore but I think are quite mediocre and coming up with a title that I think everyone can take away something from is quite difficult. However, I settled upon a very famous book, not because it’s my favourite but because I think everyone in our generation who reads or likes the idea of reading should at least give this a try.

Winter BiBib Day #4: Winter Fantasy Bucket List

I’m back again with another post for the Biannual Bibliothon blog challenges, hosted by The Bookworm in Me. This is probably the hardest one of them all because I personally don’t prefer the winter season. Pretty much all I want to do is stay indoors, curl up under warm blankets and read. We don’t get snow here at all, so my winter bucket list would be pretty much the same as any other season. Also, lately I’m finding that I’m forgetting everything that I’ve ever read in books. Character names, important plot points, food/beverage mentions, etc. I don’t know what’s come over me and it’s starting to bother me a little. Anyway, enough of that gloomy stuff, let’s jump in to the actual post. I’m keeping it very short because I’m exhausted yet have a ton of work to finish as I’m writing this.

1. Make potato stew with Sam Gamgee (The Lord of the Rings series by J. R. R. Tolkien)
2. Do a buddy read with Hermione and Crookshanks (Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling)
3. Have a slumber party with Vivian (Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu)
4. Gaze at the Aurora Borealis with Malcolm (La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman)
5. Have a tea party with the Five Find-Outers gang (The Five Find-Outers and Dog series by Enid Blyton)
6. Munch on falafel with Magnus Chase and his friends (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard by Rick Riordan)
7. Build a snowman with Calvin and Hobbes (Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson)
8. Have hot chocolate with Starr and her family (The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas)
9. Exchange presents with Shawn (Psych series by William Rabkin)
10. Spend a winter day in Gauri and Vikram’s magical garden (A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi)

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What’s the topmost thing on your bucket list? Would it change according to the season/weather? Let me know in the comments section below.

Winter BiBib Day #2: Bookish Beverage

Welcome to the second post on the Winter Biannual Bibliothon blog challenge! Today’s challenge is hosted by the lovely team from Will Read For Booze. The fact that I knew her from before the Bibliothon gives me a special feeling. I’m so glad that she got chosen as a host for one of the blog challenges this time! She’s an absolute joy to interact with on Twitter and her blog is fabulous as well, so head over to show her some appreciation. The challenge for today is to create your own bookish beverage.

I actually struggled a lot to come up with this one. It marries my two passions, reading and cooking, yet I was stumped for ideas. I suddenly forgot every food/drink ever mentioned in any book. The idea I finally hit upon is quite a strange mix of the magical and real. The drink is inspired from The Star-Touched Queen and A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi. There is no direct reference to this in any of the books (at least to the best of my knowledge), but it’s the sort of beverage that would seamlessly fit into the world that Chokshi has created and you can imagine it being sold in the Night Market that Maya visits. I can also totally picture Gauri drinking it and growing it in her magical garden. It fits the atmosphere and the aesthetic of the setting in the books rather than any character. Also, the drink is predominantly white and in sync with the winter theme of the read-a-thon! However, it is a quirky real drink that can be bought or, even better, easily made. I think I’ve teased about it enough, so I’ll let you in on the secret now.

Winter BiBib Day #1: Snowy Day Reading List

I’m doing my first read-a-thon/reading challenge/blog challenge of the year starting today and it is none other than the Winter Biannual Bibliothon. It is hosted by The Booktube Girl, Brittni’s Book Find, dylanthereader5, emmmabooks, Kellys BookSpill, LittleBookOwl and Little Red Reader over on YouTube. It has reading challenges, video challenges, blog challenges and Instagram challenges so that everyone can join in. It’s great fun and I’m so happy that I’m doing it for the second consecutive time! A few old-timers here probably remember the first time I took part in this. All of the posts I did for the Summer Biannual Bibliothon of 2017 can be found here. The first blog challenge is hosted by Latte Night Reviews and Victoria has asked us to create a snowy day reading list.

For those of you familiar with my life, I live in a tropical city where there isn’t even the barest hint of snow. So, compiling a snowy day reading list proved a bit of a challenge for me. However, I decided to put my own spin on things and create a list of books with white covers. I’ve already read every single one of them and enjoyed them, so this also doubles up as a book recommendations list. I’ve also included the genre and what mood the book is perfect for so you can find your perfect match.