Bookish Brits Vlog 30: UKNA?

UKNA? What is it not? What is it? Where does it come from? Why is it so rare?

Our intrepid reporter-writer Julianne investigates.

All that's left is for you to decide - do you even want it?

(It's been a while since I reposted my Bookish Brits vlogs on here - bear with me while I catch up!)

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Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon - October 2016

I made the last minute decision to sign-up for the readathon today! I was considering it before but as I have two books I want to finish by tomorrow, plenty more on my TBR, and a cold that'll stop me doing anything more adventurous, I decided it made sense to go for it!

In this post I'll be keeping track of how it goes. To begin, here's the Opening Meme:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?

London, UK.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness. I've heard so many good things about it. I only have a two book stack (check it out on Instagram and Litsy) of books I must read, after that I'm going to pick up whatever I fancy from my many overflowing piles.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

Dinner! I'm not a big snacker, but I do have nuts and seeds on hand.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

I need to finish 25 books before the end of the year to complete my Goodreads Reading Challenge...I'm quite behind! I'm also behind on all my other reading challenges, so I want this readathon to help me catch up.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?

I've been aware of this readathon for as long as it's started, but have never taken part before, being too intimidated! I'm looking forward to finally getting over this and hopefully joining in the many readathons to come!

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And here's the End of Event Survey:

Which hour was most daunting for you?

Around hour 4-5 I started to flag so I switched from reading short stories to reading a novel!

Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?

The Rest of Us Just Live Here was fantastic and kept me engaged for the rest of the Readathon.

Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next season?

Nope! This was my first one, so I'm hardly an expert!

What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?

I loved the use of social media, it really made me feel like I was part of something when I checked in on Instagram and Litsy and Twitter.

How many books did you read?

I had a good go at two, but I didn't finish either! I'm a very sleep-dependent person and I had a cold so I didn't stay up reading!

What were the names of the books you read?

The novel I was reading was The Rest of Us Just Live Here, by Patrick Ness, and I was also reading the Doctor Who: 12 Doctors, 12 Stories collection.

Which book did you enjoy most?/Which did you enjoy least?

I don't think it's really fair to compare them but I found the short stories hard-going.

How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?

I will definitely be a reader in future Readathons! It was a lot of fun!

Top Ten Tuesday: Villains in Books

I could not resist this topic as I love a book villain, especially one who is a little bit sympathetic or is extremely clever!

Top Ten Villains in Books

1. Voldemort, from the Harry Potter series - I thought I'd kick off with a classic and couldn't resist putting Voldemort on the list. He's got it all. He's physically frightening, creepy, wants to kill the lead character, wants to oppress all Muggles, you name it, if it's evil, Voldy wants to do it. Plus his middle name is Elvis in the French translation, which is très drôle, non?

2. President Alma Coin, from the Hunger Games trilogy - I know Snow is more iconic but Coin is ultimately more cunning, and therefore more interesting to me. I love it when a villain appears to be the good one but has a self-serving plan.

3. Speaking of self-serving, Piper Greenmantle in Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Cycle is the queen of selfishness. She does whatever suits her in the moment without really thinking about it and that makes her much more scary then any of the other potential villains in this series.

4. Another villain that appears to be 'the good one' is Silarial, the Queen of the Seelie Court in Holly Black's Modern Fairy Tale series. The Seelie Court make a good show of being genteel but behind all that prettiness they're child-snatching monsters.

5. The Queen in The Sin-Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury has so much power she gets away with only the thinnest veneer of civility, which is quickly brushed away when things don't go as she had planned.

6. Opal Koboi, from the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer, is probably my favourite villain on this list. She pretends to be an upstanding businessfairy, but is actually deliciously evil and brilliantly cruel. It's so much fun to both see her put Artemis and the others in danger and get her comeuppance.

7. Opal seized power from her father, and another favourite villain who grasped power when she had the chance to get it is Circe, from Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle trilogy. She was the girl who wasn't gifted, who could only access power when her best friend allowed it, and when there was the risk that she would never be able to wield it again, she took matters into her own hands. I have a lot of sympathy for her - even though she does terrible things to get that power.

8. That's enough individuals - now let's move on to a villainous organisation. Rush Recruitment is the big bad of the Hobson and Choi series by Nick Bryan (my boyfriend - the fourth book is out today so I couldn't resist including them on my list), an evil recruitment agency/human trafficking organisation. They're genuinely terrifying, even though so far they haven't appeared that frequently, because they have their fingers in so many pies and commit such appalling acts.

8. In the marvellous historical fantasy Sorcerer to the Crown, by Zen Cho, the villain is really institutional prejudice. Everything would have gone a lot differently for the main characters had they not had to deal with racism and sexism throughout their lives - and a good part of the plot involves them fighting it efficiently and hilariously, in order to save the day.

10. Similarly, but more extreme, the villain in Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill is the entire goddamn system. Everything is hopeless for frieda and isabel because all the odds have been stacked against them. And that's the most frightening thing of all.

Let me know in the comments if any of your favourite villains are on my list, and if you've participated in this week's Top Ten Tuesday.

Top Ten Tuesday was created and is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.