Monthly Wrap-Up: March Reading 2024

This is a bit later than I had wanted to post this, but it’s better than last month, so I’m taking that as a win! As usual, this wrap-up for March Reading 2024 features my reading statistics from The StoryGraph.

I met my goal from February’s wrap-up – to read more than one book. But I know that I can still do better, and had hoped to read about a book a week, so it isn’t quite what I was hoping for. But I still read more than February, January and especially December, so I don’t feel that irritated with myself.

So yeah, let’s get on with the wrap-up!

March Reading 2024

I read 2 books and 797 pages

😐 MOODS: All the slices of pie were equal this time! The Moods that I had in March were: Adventurous, Funny, Mysterious, Dark, Lighthearted and Tense.

👢 PACE: My books from last month were two different kinds of paces: medium and fast.

🔢 PAGE NUMBER: Everything I read was between 300 and 499 pages. A nice blue pie!

📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: It was once again all fiction this month.

🎭 GENRES: Of the two novels that I read, neither of them shared any Genres. So I didn’t have any predominant Genres at all, but I did have seven of them. The Genres I did have, though, were: Fantasy, Horror, Manga, Romance, Short Stories, YA and LGBTQIA+.

📄 FORMAT: This little StoryGraph pie chart is, in fact, correct for March. I read one ebook and one physical print novel.

⭐ RATING: My median star rating for last month was 4.25. The ratings I gave were either 4 or 4.5 stars so it makes sense.

📉 PAGES READ DAILY: I didn’t read as much as I’d have liked in March, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes. I read a little bit at the beginning of the month, but most of my reading happened during different points of the last week.

The Books I Read in March

★★★★✯ • my review

★★★★☆ • my review

Wrapping Up the Wrap-Up

So yeah, March reading for 2024 wasn’t as strong as I’d have liked, but it was better than the three preceding months, so I’m still happy with myself. I wish I was able to read a couple more books, though.

April has a bunch of books that I’m interested in, several that have already come out, so we’ll see what I read. I’m also still interested in continuing with One Piece, so I’m planning on reading the next arc this month. I’m hoping that I get out of this reading slump soon. It’s miserable.

Also, it’s a bit late, but Happy Eclipse Day!! 🌑☀️🌕🌙 I hope that anyone in or near totality was able to see it that was interested. We were pretty close where I live, and it was still really cool, even though we weren’t in the path of totality.

So yeah, thank you to everyone for reading, and I hope you have an awesome day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Tombs: Story Collection by Junji Ito | Book Review

Tombs: Story Collection by Junji Ito

TRANSLATOR: Jocelyne Allen

LENGTH: 344 pages

GENRES: Horror, Manga, Short Stories, Fiction

PUBLISHER: VIZ Media: VIZ Signature

RELEASE DATE: 28 March 2023

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Countless tombstones stand in rows, forming a bizarre town. What fate awaits a brother and sister after a traffic accident in this town of the dead? In another tale, a girl falls silent, her tongue transformed into a slug. Can a friend save her? Then, when a young man moves to a new town, he finds the house next door has only a single window. What does his grotesque neighbor want, calling out to him every evening from that lone window?

Fresh nightmares brought to you by horror master, Junji Ito.

My Review

“What’s this thing in the middle of the road?”

“It looked like… a tombstone.”

“A tombstone? Why would a tombstone be standing in the middle of the road?”

I’ve decided I wanted to get into more horror lately, and that I’ve wanted to read more translated stories (the only one I’ve really read was Another), so what better place to start than the works of Junji Ito? Nowhere, I thought, so I checked out Tombs on Libby and got reading.

And it didn’t disappoint. It was as strange, horrific and unsettling as promised.

The short story collection that I read had eight different stories of varying length, and were all disturbing on different levels. The ones included in this volume were: Tombs, Clubhouse, Slug Girl, The Window Next Door, Washed Ashore, The Strange Tale of the Tunnel, Bronze Statue, Floaters and The Bloody Story of Shirosuna.

I enjoyed them all to some degree, but my favorites were definitely Tombs, Floaters and The Bloody Story of Shirosuna. I’ll be thinking about all of the stories here, though, for a long time.

The thing that surprised me the most about the works in this volume, however, was how much they all gave me Twilight Zone vibes. Like, the way that Ito tells his stories and frames some of his panels really reminded me of The Twilight Zone. The stories are all distinctly unsettling throughout, and the feeling that something isn’t quite right floats around the back of your mind while your eyes take in the material. There’s also just some straight up weirdness I’m some of these that also gave me TZ vibes.

So yeah, I really liked Tombs. I definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys horror or is a fan of The Twilight Zone. You need to experience this. Or fans of manga and graphic novels that can deal with some gore and disturbing stuff.

Anyway, as always, thanks so much for reading and I hope that you have a lovely day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Creepy Stuff I Enjoyed from This

The area was completely overgrown, but I knew the tunnel was there. It was lying there with its mouth open, waiting for me.

Yes.

That tunnel was waiting for me.

“There’s no indoor plumbing in the village. Please use the well out back. The water turns red sometimes, but it’s nothing to worry about.”

MY LINKS:

Goodreads

Instagram

Birthstone Book Covers: March 2024

Has everyone been enjoying their spring so far? I hope you’ve had decent weather in March so far. Anyway, let’s get on with the post!

Leslie @ Books Are the New Black created a fun monthly post called Birthstone Book Covers. Each month, she features book covers that are either the same color of that month’s birthstone or include the color in the title.

March has one birthstone – Aquamarine.

Rules:
📚 Mention the creator (Leslie @ Books Are The New Black ) and link back to her so she can check out your post.
📚 Pick 5+ book covers that match the current month’s Birthstone.
📚 HAVE FUN!
📚 Nominate people if you want!