It's Monday! What Are YOU Reading? #7

So I will be writing a Year in Review type post next week, most likely, but I just felt like I haven't been super active in the last couple weeks, so I thought I would write a quick Monday post!

One of the Facebook groups I'm in, called Life & Lit, has been doing different challenges and activities all month long, under the theme of Yule Ball (from the Harry Potter books/movies). One of the biggest challenges is the Yule Bingo. The bingo card is divided into 16 squares, with one column for each of the four houses (Griffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff), and each square is a character or major element from the Harry Potter stories, which represents a theme of a possible book (ex: Butterbeer is a for a sweet book, and Harry is for a book with the "chosen one" trope). You get one point for your house per square you block off, and if you block off the whole column for your house, you get a bingo, which means 5 points! It's a lot of fun!

So, I've been working away at the Yule Bingo. I have read five books so far this month for that. I need to read two more from the Ravenclaw column to get bingo, and then if I read just one more book after that, I will have reached my unofficial goal of 75 books! I think it's totally achievable! At the end of November I wasn't so sure I'd be able to make it, but I've been doing really well. Admittedly, a couple of the books I've read this month were shorter/kids' stories, but still!

I got into a bit of a slump over the weekend, but my current read is The Glass Spare by Lauren Destefano, which came in the November OwlCrate box. It sounds good, and what I've read so far has been good, but I just haven't felt like reading that much lately, and I had other stuff going on this weekend.

After I finish The Glass Spare, I intend to read Matchless: A Christmas Story by Gregory Maguire. It's a shorter one, so I should be able to finish it in a day, depending on what else is going on. And then I think I'd like to try to read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, before I give it to my nephew for his birthday on January first!

What are you guys reading this week? How have you done with your reading goals this year?

Bib-li-o-phile Friday: Holiday Wish List

I've been participating on and off in a few weekly memes. Bib-li-o-phile Fridays is a weekly meme hosted by Aurora & Louise on Goodreads, and today's theme is Holiday Wish List. We are to pick out five books we hope to get this year for Christmas, or plan on buying for ourselves. I'll try to avoid books I've mentioned in previous posts as much as possible. This was the list I gave my mom a few weeks back(as always, in no particular order):

1. The Thousandth Floor - Katharine McGee
2. I Am Half-Sick of Shadows - Alan Bradley
3. Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell
4. Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell
5. The Magician's Lie - Greer Macallister

I know which one she bought, because she used my Indigo.ca account to buy it so that I would also accumulate points. So, no surprises, but I get a book I wanted and points to someday buy another book, so that's ok. I will leave it at that for now, instead of writing a description about one of these, and wait to gush about the one I got after Christmas. ;)

Top Ten Tuesday: Things I Wouldn't Mind Santa Leaving Under My Tree

This week's Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by The Broke and the Bookish) is all about what we want to see under the tree this Christmas! The prompt was "Ten Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Leaving Under My Tree (or non-book bookworm items)" and so I will be going halfsies and doing 5 of each.

5 Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Leaving Under My Tree

1. The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee - Because I've heard good things about it.
2. Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst - Because the cover... and it sounds really awesome. :)
3. I am Half-sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley - I've read the first two books of the Flavia de Luce series, and own the third, so having the next one (or two) would be great!
4. Spare and Found Parts by Sarah Maria Griffin - Because it sounds so awesome! I've seen it floating around Facebook and Instagram and I'm just so intrigued.
5. Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs - I haven't read Miss Peregrine's yet, and I don't know if you would have to have read them first to read this one, but I just like the idea of the short stories.

5 Non-book Bookish Items

1. Library card socks from Out of Print - So fun! Available in grey, yellow, and blue.
2. Magnetic bookmarks from Happy Hello on Etsy - There are way too many cute designs to choose from! I love the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beast themed ones, and I think I saw an Anne of Green Gables one as well!
3. Jewelry from Authored Adornments on Etsy - Her necklace pendants are particularly gorgeous, and she has a Sherlock ring. *thumbs up* I like all the Alice in Wonderland goodies.
4. Harry Potter Monopoly! Because how fun would that be?? Unfortunately there is no official game, only fan recreated ones. I wish I had more local bookish friends to have game nights and Harry Potter parties with which would warrant me making my own...
5. Customized bookplates or stamps from Etsy - There are tons on Etsy and they are so fun! I love the idea, but don't actually like writing/sticking things in books, so I'm not sure I'd actually use them...

Hello Again Thursday (Hello December!)

Hey guys, I just thought I'd follow up on last week's non-bookish post about my craft sale preparations...

The sale took place on Saturday, November 26th. It was a nice day: not too cold, a bit of rain & overcast, but no storm. The location was easy to find and seemed to have been advertised locally, so I was still optimistic, right up until 11am. When I found my table, I realized that the tables were packed way too close together. It made for awkward set up, and an even more awkward day as we tried not to bump into the other artisans beside and behind us. That wouldn't have been too bad, but I was also upstairs. I heard from some shoppers that it was the first time they had used this upstairs space for artisans for this event, so I feel like it's possible that people didn't even come up. There were shoppers, but not as many as I would have expected. Artisans were wandering around as well, so it was really hard to tell the shoppers from the organizers and artisans.

In the end, it was a long day. Not a bad day, but a long day. I shared the table with my mom (she had homemade Christmas cards for sale), and I think between both of us we sold around $60 worth of merchandise. It's not bad, but I have done much better at the sale I usually go to.

So, feeling a bit discouraged at the end of the day, I posted the leftover ornaments to my Facebook page, and sold another dozen right off - go figure! I still have some left, if ever anyone is interested. :)

Thanks for listening!