When I thought this fall would be an excellent time to slow down and work on some of those exciting new projects I have in my mind, my turbulent life as usual as gotten in the way, and like many weekends, it’s been quite the chaotic Caturday…

So for tonight’s blog post, I decided to answer the WordPress Daily Writing Prompt for a short ‘n spooky Saturday night entry. I have noticed that I’ve been interacting with these prompts on a semi-regular basis, but with today’s prompt being about books, I couldn’t miss an opportunity to participate and connect with other (horror) book bloggers on WordPress!

Ummm…

Let’s just say that will be a challenging prompt for me to answer…

(heh, because… which one?!)

Let me just express my truest love, deepest desire and obsession with books. The absolutely aesthetically pleasing and cozy vibes created by them in any given space, plus the magical ability to immerse oneself and escape to other worlds with words… spectacular!

So, theoretically, how could you pick just one book to read at a time? 🙈

If you happened to pick really any of the answers above…

Consider subscribing, fellow chaotic book lover 🤭

The Chaotic Life of a Multi-Book Reader

Difficulties with decision making (classic Libra) so I struggle to pick just one book to focus on at a time. I like to have my opinions. I mean, just look at the book clubs I moderate or the amount of book clubs I’m in. Life is too short not to be reading all the books, all the time.

So currently, I’m reading about eight books…

It would be hard for me to talk about just one of them, so I thought I’d share all of them with you.

As a mood reader who lives very chaotically, I can fall in and out of reading slumps for various reasons. I also try to finish all the books I start to read… but the waves of life can pull me away from them and the struggle to get back into reading is real. But I truly and actively try to remain on top of my set reading deadline (especially with authors, book publishers and other commitments)

A few of the books on my currently reading list have been there since the summer (or earlier) and I refuse to remove them from that list until I actually finish them. I really don’t like to just stop reading a book, as a completionist I must finish everything I start… but the wavy moods really get in my way and cause me to pause my reads. But thankfully, having an app (like Goodreads or Fable) allows me to note where I’ve left off so I can pick them back up, refresh on the previous pages I’ve read and notes I’ve taken, and start up again.

Yes, I’m looking at you two, Sour Cherry and The Deep 🙈

You’re probably asking How do I have the time or the ability to read so many books at once? And to answer you honestly Boils, Ghouls and Grems… I do not truly know. What I do know is that my love of literature and my dedication for my horror book clubs & ARC reviewer platforms is one of my main drivers to keep on reading on!

NetGalley & BookSirens

Typically with NetGalley, you have approximately 55 days to read and finish an approved ARC + post your review on their website with attached links to your blog or other book social sites (e.g. Goodreads, Amazon, etc.) Book publishers will set an archive date which will make that book unavailable to access, whether you’ve been approved or not, so always set reminders to make sure you never miss a download deadline!

BookSirens approved requests can be between 30-60 days, depending on the author and the publishing date, since they include books in various publication stages.

I find working with deadlines can motivate, and/or demotivate, a mood reader so I do tend to work cautiously with them and set my own so I’m not completely crushed by the amount of them I subject myself to.

My Most Recent Reads

And possibly some extra credit to today’s writing prompt (or completely off topic, one of the two…) but I thought I’d share some of my most recently finished books that truly grabbed my attention and hooked me from the start.

13 Months Haunted

Jimmy Juliano

Do you want to be thrown back into the early 2000s with references of Napster and AOL while also being terrified like an early 2000s horror movie?

Then, pick up this book! 😈

Nails and Eyes

Kaori Fujino

A spontaneous Horror pick at Joie de Livre during my travels earlier this month that I had never heard of, and yet, one of the last books that I just could not put down!

And I just love these Pushkin Press book covers… I mean, just look at some of them!

Happy Bad

Delaney Nolan

I became emotionally invested within the first few chapters of Delaney Nolan’s debut novel!

This is a terrifying and potentially accurate dystopian/ecological horror that must be read, if you love our planet and want a compelling wake up call on the devastation being done upon it.

Organizing the chaos

Here are a few methods I tend to use to organize the chaos (plus one that I really want to try) to make my reading hobby fun and functional!

🧠 Using Goodreads & Fable

Having book tracking apps like Goodreads and Fable to encourage and help me actively track where I am in my books really helps keep the chaotic, living-on-the-edge, with my current reads slightly organized…

We 🖤 dark mode 🙏🏻 Fable, please enable…

But honestly, I can get easily overstimulated with apps & technology, and will at times forget to input my reading progress across all my various apps, so I also like having an analog method to track and take notes of the books I’m reading…

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Starting a Reading Journal 💡

I started looking into creating a reading journal (or a reading diary) and I plan on doing an entirely separate post on my approach to starting one, so if you’re morbidly curious about how I go about creating my first Horror Reading Journal, stay tuned!

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🤓 Making a Reading Tracker using Spreadsheets

In the meantime, and since I constantly live and work in spreadsheets for a living, I made a few reading trackers to keep tabs on my NetGalley ARC deadlines, BookSirens reads and Author submissions (via my personal Contact form.)

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If your eyes have stumbled upon this portion of tonight’s blog entry, I appreciate your presence and attention! You could have read anything on the world wide web, but you chose this… and so your lasting impression had been made 😏

Consider subscribing to the blog if you’re an avid (and moody) horror book reader & lover, like myself, and hauntingly chill + vibe with us over here, in this creepy corner of the interwebs!

Until we meet again,

May I ask you the same question?