Reading Challenge 2023!

Hello

안녕하세요

(Annyeonghaseyo)

こんにちは

(Konnichiwa)

你好

(Ni Hao)

It's that time again to set myself a new reading challenge for 2023.

Last year I set myself the challenge of 6 books, and why would I change my habits of not completing my set challenge. In 2022, I read 4 books, with 3 of those books weren't even on my list to read, but they're still completed books I guess.

One of the books in this years challenge is another rollover, and I have set myself again the challenge of 6 books.

This years books included in my challenge are: Elizabeth Lim's Reflection (again), Mira Grant's Deadline, Masashi Kishimoto & Jun Esaka's Sasuke's Story: Star Pupil (again),  Haro Aso's Alice in Borderland Vol.1, Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's Heaven Official's Blessing Vol.3 and Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation Vo.1.

As I mentioned, last year, I competed 4 books, and before I get stuck into this years challenge, lets have a recap on how I did last year.

My first book was Heaven Official's Blessing Vol.1 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, I decided to watch the anime first on Netflix, and when I saw that it was based on a book series, I knew I had to get my hands on them and I'm so glad I did. I absolutely loved the first volume and while most of it follows the 1st season of the anime, I still couldn't put it down.

The illustrations are stunning too.

A God Fallen... A Ghost Risen

Born the crown prince of a prosperous kingdom, Xie Lian was renowned for his beauty, strength, and purity. His years of dedicated study and noble deeds allowed him to ascend to godhood. But those who rise may also fall, and fall he does - cast from the heavens and banished to the world below.

Eight hundred years after his mortal life, Xie Lian has ascended to godhood for the third time, angering most of the gods in the process. To repay his debts, he is sent to the mortal realm to hunt down violent ghosts and troublemaking spirits who prey on the living. Along his travels, he meets the fascinating and brilliant San Lang, a young man with whom he feels an instant connection.

Yet San Lang is clearly more than he appears...

What mysteries lie behind that carefree smile?

My second book was Heaven Official's Blessing Vol.2 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. Pretty much as soon as I'd finished Volume 1, I'd ordered the 2nd volume and got stuck straight into it and it didn't take me long to get through it, I loved reading how the characters grew, as well as meeting new characters, as well as heading back into the past and beginning to read about Xie Lian's past.

Yet again the illustrations were stunning.

The Touch of a Hand, a Roll of the Dice

Xie Lian has confirmed that the bewitching youth San Lang is actually Hua Cheng, one of the four calamities and a supreme ghost despised by all heavenly official's.

Still, he has trouble matching the terror of his companion's reputation with the charming, clever, and protective young man he's come to know.

When a distress signal leads Xie Lian into Ghost City, a bustling metropolis containing all the horrors and delights of the dead, he sees Hua Cheng in his element - and his true form - for the first time.

But despite their chemistry and care for one another, there are missions to fulfill and secrets to uncover, and Xie Lian's centuries of troubled history are never far behind.

My third book was The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith. I'm a big fan of the Strike series and I always look forward to the next book in the series.

This was the first time that I thought we would never find out who the culprit was, and for me this book was more nerve-wrecking than the others as it's about someone hidden behind a keyboard, at first the online chats were a little hard to follow but I got into my own rhythm of reading them.

It didn't take me too long to complete, these books never do.

When frantic, dishevelled Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott doesn't know quite what to make of the situation. The co-creator of a popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart, Edie is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie. Edie is desperate to uncover Anomie's true identity.

Robin decides that the agency can't help with this - and thinks nothing more of it until a few days later, when she reads the shocking news that Edie has been tasered and then murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of The Ink Black Heart.

Robin and her business partner Cormoran Strike become drawn into the quest to uncover Anomie's true identity. But with a complex web of online aliases, business interests and family conflicts to navigate, Strike and Robin find themselves embroiled in a case that stretches their powers of deduction to the limits - and which threatens them in new and horrifying ways...

A gripping, fiendishly clever mystery, The Ink Black Heart is a true tour-de-force.

My fourth and final book was FEED by Mira Grant.

I've read this book before and it took me a while to move past it and start a new book because it really had a affect on me. The 2nd time reading it was no different, reading it again, I was on the edge of my seat, holding my breath, this really is one of my favourite books and series'

'ALIVE OR DEAD, THE TRUTH WON'T REST.

MY NAME IS GEORGIA MASON, AND I AM BEGGING YOU, RISE UP WHILE YOU CAN'

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had cured the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds, with one unstoppable command: FEED.

Now, twenty years after the Rising, bloggers Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives - the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.

So there was my 2022 reading challenge results and now it's time to get stuck in and start my challenge for 2023.

CHALLENGE START!!

See you soon!

안녕

(Annyeong)

さようなら

(Sayonara)

再见

(ZaiJian)

Bye