The First Promp on The Hardest Reading Challenge of October

It finally happened. I finished my first prompt! Light the fireworks. Cut the cake. Let’s celebrate! I’m beyond excited for this accomplishment. Thank you all for your support. I couldn’t do it without you. Thank you to my mom and dad… Too soon to make an acceptance speech? The challenge isn’t over yet? Ups. Sorry, I got carried away. Still, it was a good month, and I made much progress in the challenge.

The books of October

For the October new release, I read Blasfamous‘s complete edition of the three-issue comic book. This is by the Italian author Mirka Andolfo, who created the Unnatural, a comic book series published by Image Comics. I haven’t finished that series yet, but there’s something in her illustrations and storytelling that I enjoy a lot. Also, her characters tend to be gorgeous curvy females, and I’m here for it. As I mentioned in the previous update, I finished the September release, and I’m counting it this month.

Sentience Hazard by Alexandru Czimor was a hard book to get through. It was very slow, and I had to turn on the voice talk to help me. Basically, I turned it into a low-quality audiobook. And I wish I could say that it was just a slow middle part, but it was slow throughout. There’s a build-up of the plot that culminates in a quick resolve in the end. Although, the strongest part of this book is the exploration of consciousness in non-human beings. It brought a new perspective to the robots and AI side of science fiction that I really enjoyed. I never read anything like this before, and I appreciate it a lot. I just wished the delivery would be different.

Both books in the series laying down on a table.

Then I continued with A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series with Good Girl Bad Blood by Holly Jackson. I already have a review about it. To summarise, the series didn’t continue to be a whodunit as I was expecting, and now I don’t know how to feel about it. The second-book syndrome is really strong in this one because I don’t have any idea how to rate this book. It has been 3 weeks, and I still don’t know. I need the third book ASAP.

Since October is also my birth month, I had to buy a few books. How could I not? And one of those books was Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson. This is the first book I read by him and my first glimpse into the Cosmere universe. And now I know why this man is so popular. He’s a fantastic storyteller. I’m very happy I enjoyed this book so much. It was a purchase out of my comfort zone that I was delaying over and over again. And now he’s an author I’ll read more in the future.

The prompts conquered

I completed my very first white prompt! Tress of The Emerald Sea isn’t just a good book. It was also one of the books part of Brandon Sanderson’s massive Kickstarter campaign. So it counts towards reading a crowdfunded book. This is one of the few prompts that only take one book to complete, and I didn’t want to delay it any longer.

As I’ve mentioned above, I’ve completed the September and October new releases, so I’m still on track with that prompt. Both books also count towards the other country prompt because Alexandru Czimbor is a Romanian author, and Mirka Andolfo is Italian. Without even trying, I’m almost done with this prompt as well.

Book Tress of the Emerald Sea standing up on a table.

I also started reading Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe on Webtoon. I could have chosen a smaller comic to fulfil the prompt of reading a complete webcomic. However, I always wanted to read Lore Olympus since it was traditionally published. The art style is so beautiful, and I’ve been very curious to see what the story is about. I’m loving it so far. Only 45 chapters in, so there’s still plenty to read before this prompt can be crossed off.

For the purple prompts, Tress of the Emerald Sea also counts towards the rainbow challenge crossing off the green cover. Every single book I read counts towards the alphabet prompt. M for Mirka (Blasfamous), G for Good Girl Bad Blood, A for Alexandru (Sentience Hazard), and T for Tress of the Emerald Sea. To spell my name I used a double A from Mirka Andolfo and Alexandru Czimbor. Which means I finished my first name. Four more to go.