I don’t think I’ve ever posted a monthly wrap-up on the first of the month yet. Or maybe I’m wrong? I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter much. It’s time to begin the October Reading 2023 Wrap-Up!
I read so, so, so much during this past month. It’s my bookish peak of the year so far! I’m so happy with myself – I don’t think I’ve ever read 13 books all in the same month before! I guess this just shows that autumn really is my favorite reading season, huh?
But yeah, without further ado, let’s get on into my statistics from The StoryGraph from last month!
October 2023 Reading
I read 13 books and 5439 pages
😐 MOODS:Adventurous was the biggest slice of pie, as it always is. Lighthearted was surprising in being the second biggest piece though – it’s never been before. The other ones were: Funny, Emotional, Dark, and Mysterious.
👢 PACE: I read all three different kinds of paced books: slow, medium and fast.
🔢 PAGE NUMBER: Everything I read was between 240 and 600 pages. The majority of books I read were between 300 and 499 pages, however.
📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: It was once again all fiction this month.
🎭 GENRES:Fantasy, as usual, was the biggest bar of the graph. Manga, Graphic Novel, YA, and Middle Grade were the second longest bars after Fantasy. The other genres on the graph were Comics, Romance and Historical.
📄 FORMAT: This little StoryGraph pie chart is almost correct. All of the books except for one we’re all physical copies.
⭐ RATING: My median star rating for last month was 4.27. My ratings for October were all pretty varied, but they were generally higher than in September. Most of them were 4.0 and above.
📉 PAGES READ DAILY: I read a ton throughout October. The time I read the least was between the 5th and the 8th, and my peak of reading was on the 20th.
So October ended up being waaayy better reading-wise – and blogging-wide – for me than September was. I’m really happy that I read so much, and with the books that I ended up reading. Here’s to keeping it up in November! 🤞🍀🥂🍻
I’m actually really excited for the books I’m almost certainly going to read this month. For one thing, Murderbot book #7 is coming out, and it’s my most anticipated book of the year. I’m also looking forward to hate reading Lightlark AND Nightbane, the latter which is also releasing this month. And of course, I’m continuing with One Piece and I’m looking forward to the next arc.
As for anything else I’m planning on for November… Other than the beginning of the holiday season and Thanksgiving and stuff, I’m not really sure yet about anything else. I’ll probably be doing some Christmas shopping though.
Anyway, thank you all so much for checking out my October 2023 Reading stars and monthly wrap-up. I hope you have an awesome day/night!
Last week was crazy. I read a lot, and I got a bunch of stuff done around the house. So, lots of different kinds of progress.
I can’t believe that Halloween is tomorrow. These past four weeks have gone by so fast. Soon enough I’ll be posting October’s monthly wrap-up!
But that’s for another time. Let’s get into this part week’s wrap-up.
Tuesday 10/24: Tasteful Tuesday
Last Tuesday I brought back Majestic Mondays – but now under a new name! I’ve also moved the day of the week that I do the post – hence why I’m now calling it Tasteful Tuesday!
Tasteful Tuesday, if you aren’t aware, is when I highlight an awesome looking book cover and talk about what I like about it.
For my Friday post, I did something a little different. I wasn’t feeling a First Line Friday or anything like that, but I was having a time of figuring out what to do.
I eventually decided to give the blog a reading update. As of Friday of last week, I’d read 52 books within 43 weeks. I’ve never done that before (and I’ve read even more now!). I’m not gonna gush about it here, cuz I’ve already done so in the actual post.
Yesterday I posted another book review – the second of two last week. It was a book (and series) that I was actually excited to read, but was ultimately disappointed by, unfortunately.
Hounded was simply not for me. I don’t think it was necessarily poorly written or anything – I just think it just wasn’t my type of book. I ended up giving it ★★✯☆☆.
I know I’ve been talking a lot during this section of the post lately, but I’m going to cut it a little short this time. I’m tired and I haven’t been feeling well since last night.
This coming week I’m definitely going to post my review for The Graveyard Book. I’ve actually been saving it for tomorrow, since it’s Halloween and all – I wanted to do a spooky book review!
Aside from that, I’m gonna post my monthly reading wrap-up for October, and probably Spell the Month in Books. But I’m not sure about anything else.
But yeah, I don’t really have anything else to say. So this is the end… of this post.
As always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope that you have a great day/night!
The first novel in the New York Times bestselling Iron Druid Chronicles–the hilarious, action-packed tales of a two-thousand-year-old Druid pursued by ancient gods in the modern world
Atticus O’Sullivan is the last of the ancient druids. He has been on the run for more than two thousand years and he’s tired of it. The Irish gods who want to kill him are after an enchanted sword he stole in a first-century battle, and when they find him managing an occult bookshop in Tempe, Arizona, Atticus doesn’t want to uproot his life again. He just wants everything to end one way or another, but preferably the way in which he can continue to enjoy fish and chips.
He does have some small hope of survival: The Morrigan, the Irish Chooser of the Slain, is on his side, and so is Brighid, First Among the Fae. His lawyer is literally a bloodsucking vampire, and he has a loyal Irish wolfhound with opinions about poodles.
But he’s facing down some mighty enemies: Aenghus Óg, a vengeful Irish god, plus a coven of witches and even the local police. On top of all that, Aenghus has a direct line to the firepower of hell. Atticus will need all the luck of the Irish and more if he’s going to stay alive.
My Review
So, I really, really love the Dresden Files. Or, at least, the ones that I’ve read so far. And I was in the mood for another kick-ass and sassy urban fantasy series. So when I heard about the Iron Druid Chronicles, I was like: This seems right up my alley!
But, uh, it really wasn’t. Unfortunately.
I really wanted to like Hounded. I wanted to like it so much. But I didn’t, and I couldn’t. This book just wasn’t for me. It wasn’t right up my alley.
Let’s just get into it…
Pros
I’d have to ask Oberon to leave him a present on his front doorstep. He’d do it camouflaged too, so that even if Mr. Semerdjian was watching – and he probably would be – it would appear to be undeniable, physical evidence that, sometimes, shit just happens.
• The dog ▼
I really enjoyed Atticus’s (the main character) dog, Oberon. He’s just so funny and loyal. I really like dogs as a rule, however, so this isn’t a surprise at all to me. I do wish his dialogue wasn’t quite as… intelligent I guess, for lack of a better word. Like, he used some words from the English language that I’ve rarely seen in most books – and he’s a dog! Not even a magic dog! Manchee from Chaos Walking is how to write dog dialogue in my opinion.
• The way the different gods and magic interact ▼
This is a bit of a long way to word this point, I know, but I couldn’t think of another way to do it without getting the point I wanted across. I like how Hounded incorporates different religions and pantheons and magic, and then blends it together seamlessly. It really all feels very natural, like all of these different religions and magic are just coexisting somehow, all on planet Earth.
Like, it just works. Even though this novel focuses primarily on Irish gods and druidic magic and witches, other gods and supernatural beings appear too. For example, Jesus and Mary from Catholism are just casually band dropped, like yeah they’re here too. And vampires and werewolves also make several (moderately important) appearances throughout the book.
• (Some of) the narration ▼
Admittedly, though I had a bunch of issues with Atticus as a character, I really did enjoy some of his narration. It’s a little bit witty, and I also found it somewhat funny to read. I’ve definitely read better, but the way the book was written wasn’t the worst in the first person narrative department. This was at least sometimes entertaining.
Cons
• (Almost all of) the characters ▼
I didn’t like any of the characters in Hounded. Like, at all. (Save one.) It was hard to find any of them to be likeable, especially when we don’t really get to know too many of them.
Atticus O’Sullivan is our main character, and I didn’t much care for him. He’s too overpowered for my tastes and not in a good way. Because there is a way to write a likeable OP character – Atticus just isn’t done right. He’s also not a very interesting character to me, for whatever reason. Probably because he isn’t very interested in the stuff happening around him for a good portion of the book, even though it’s threatening his existence.
I also found it kind of annoying that he has sex with several goddesses throughout the novel. Like, I didn’t really understand why they were all so horny. Atticus my look 21, but he’s over two millenia old. He’s therefore had plenty of time to master his libido. And the goddesses weren’t really interesting either – they were basically non-characters, which was probably what annoyed me the most about the sex thing. Oh, and none of the other characters were really compelling or interesting either.
When he said to give him the sword, I don’t think he meant for you to stick it in his guts.
• The storytelling ▼
This was probably my biggest gripe. The storyline, and the flow of the novel in general, really sucked. To me, at least. This book started off kind of slow, and the pacing never got any better. Atticus himself didn’t even seem to be interested in the book’s story until at least a third of the way through either, and that’s not a good thing.
Not to mention the constant interruptions to the flow of the plot. It seemed like every time a new character was introduced, Atticus or the character themselves had to regale us with their entire background. I hated it. I hated it, hated it, hated it so much. It was extremely irritating. I didn’t care about these characters enough yet! At least let me get to know them first, before you dump their history all over my eyes in the worst expository way possible! (I have very strong feelings about this if you couldn’t tell, lol.)
Final Thoughts
I believe that this first book – and series thereafter – have a ton of potential. In fact, if I would somehow, someday decide to continue the Iron Druid Chronicles in the future, I might enjoy future installments more.
But I don’t think that this series is for me, and I’m honestly not at all interested in continuing beyond book one. So this is probably where Atticus O’Sullivan’s adventures are gonna end for me.
I think that some of the people that enjoy the Dresden Files and other popular urban fantasy books might enjoy Hounded. But since I didn’t even care for it myself, I can’t really say anything else.
Have you read any of the Iron Druid books? What did you think of them? Did you enjoy them more than I did?
Thanks so much for reading, and have a wonderful day/night!
