One last round of qs for my #skeletoncrew to help me be the best team captain I can!

I‘ll be checking in to get your points twice during the challenge at the middle and end, so you‘ll need to track your own points. I recommend a spreadsheet but whatever works!

I know there‘s a lot of #scarathlon info. If there‘s anything you don‘t see yourself taking part in, let me know and I‘ll just tag you in what interests you.

I‘m very excited for the #20in4 readathon! This is my first readathon in ages and I‘m excited to get back into it at the start of #scarathlon. Life gets in the way of me reading a lot and engaging with Litsy for most of the year particularly now I‘m at grad school but autumn always brings me back.

My goals are to get through at least my school readings, one audiobook and doing my traditional Oct 1 Pumpkinheads reread

@Andrew65 #skeletoncrew

Ahoy #skeletoncrew 🎃 #scarathlon 2023 is just three sleeps away and I‘m excited

The first readathon of the challenge is the #20in4 hosted by @Andrew65 starting tomorrow. Set whatever goals you like and start on your first spooky, scary or autumnal read

If you still have early bird points you haven‘t posted to get yet there‘s still time! Now is a great time to make those bucket lists, pick some bingo boards, buy in some snacks… I can‘t wait!

There are a lot of fun bingo boards and readathons to get on board with this month my #skeletoncrew compatriots! Here‘s a very cool looking bingo board from @Read4life which will work great for horror and non horror reads to suit everyone doing #scarathlon and get those stackable readathon points.

I‘m going to put a link in the comments to a google drive with a lot of other readathon stuff and bingo boards in it if anyone fancies some more!

Ahoy there #skeletoncrew 🎃 if anyone wants to take part in the #poetrymatters daily challenge this October I‘ve heard from @Clwojick and @StayCurious that it will get you the same points as the photo challenges if you post poetry and quotes that match the daily prompts. If you‘ve already been doing this a long time (I know loads of you have!) or if you‘re joining in for the first time like me, this looks a lot of fun!

@TheSpineView #scarathlon

I am so excited there‘s a second daily photo challenge for #scarathlon this year! Thank you @Eggs and @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks 🎃

For my #skeletoncrew members - the same rules count for this challenge as the other photo challenge so it‘s:

5 points per photo post on the calendar day (+1 for participation)
15 point bonus if you read a book anytime in October that matches any of the prompts

Good morning #skeletoncrew 🍁 five sleeps to #scarathlon 🎃🎃🎃

Our host @Clwojick has made an October edition of the I Spy bingo board. If you‘d like to join in and get those bingo board and readathon points, spot the listed features in the books you read to match them to the board.

@ShananigansReads @IndoorDame @moll2 @candc320 @MidnightBookGirl @Pigpen_Reads @kwmg40 @Blerdgal_Fenix @Bluebird @Q84 @Eyelit

Hi there @mom_of_4 🎃 I loved going through your #trappedinaspookyhouse book list and picking these out for you!

Calling all #skeletoncrew #scarathlon team members! @AnnR has created a bingo board for cosy mysteries for October. I know we have some people on the team who aren‘t too into dark horror, so you can match any cosy light mysteries you‘re reading to the picture prompts and get points for the bingo lines and for each hour you read (counting it as a readathon).

The tagged book is one of my all time fave cosies if anyone wants a recommendation 🎃🎃🎃

Attention #skeletoncrew 🎃 here‘s another readathon running all October that‘s going to be an excellent source of #scarathlon points run by @Catsandbooks

Your goals can be whatever you like - 31 hours of reading, 31 pages a day, 31 books, anything you like! I‘m going to try and go for reading at least 31 books in the month of October 🍂🧙🍁

I love taking part in #bookspinbingo for #scarathlon and winter games every year 🎃🎃🎃 I always stack up as many readathons and challenges as I possibly can! Here‘s my list for October

@TheAromaofBooks

Tagging my wonderful #skeletoncrew teammates down below - if you want to make your 20 book list for book spin bingo it‘s a free pass to some easy points!

I‘ve made myself an ambitious autumnal bucket list for #scarathlon this year! Can you tell autumn is my favourite season lol

I love the bucket list it‘s a great opportunity to get some points for the #skeletoncrew for doing the things I love outside reading

Calling all #scarathlon participants! I‘ll be hosting a little midweek readathon October 10-13 to help us all enjoy spooky season more and rack up some readathon points.

This #pumpkinspicereadathon is all about reading whatever you want, however you want, and enjoying the warm gorgeous autumn vibes. Pictures of you reading with a cute hot drink, with it raining outside, under a blanket or all of the above are greatly encouraged!

Here‘s some quick #scarathlon tips and tricks for my #skeletoncrew pals from our wonderful hosts @Clwojick and @StayCurious 🎃

I‘ll be posting the spreadsheet tracker in the comments of this post on my lunch break today when I have a computer. Ask me any questions if there‘s anything here that‘s new to you. I‘m so excited to get started - scarathlon brings me so much joy every year and the games this year look REALLY fun 🧙

One of the absolute best books I‘ve read this year! A surreal, dark, original, transcendental fantasy campus novel with world building that‘s just not like anything else I‘ve read. This is right up there with the secret history as the greatest ‘dark academia‘ kind of novel. I saw one review say it was like if Kafka wrote harry potter and that‘s absolutely true in the best possible way.

This is my final #scarathlon info post today for the #skeletoncrew 🎃 I know it‘s a lot of content so comment if you have any questions - this is a new element of the challenge and a fun opportunity to get 15 bonus points for a book that happens to meet a prompt from the photo challenge

We‘ve got the photo challenge back this year in #scarathlon 🎃 i love looking out for things that make you feel autumnal, spooky, Halloweenie each day. I love looking for something that resonates with each word in my daily life - it‘s quite mindful and then I love capturing those memories! It doesn‘t have to be photos you take yourself that day, it could be a photo that resonated with you or something you saved from before

#skeletoncrew

The word search is back this year for #scarathlon 🎃

Anytime you spot one of these words in any book you read, that‘s 10 points 🥰 I love this part of the challenge and am so keen it‘s back this year. It‘s so motivating to keep you reading one more chapter before bed, and it‘s a fun way to get points from books with nothing to do with Halloween if you want a break from being spooky.

I‘m gonna be posting some more #skeletoncrew #scarathlon info today!

There‘s quite a lot of ways of getting points - you can bother with as many parts of it as work for you, but I‘m a Get All The Points gal myself 😂

The bucket list is a rly fun way to work out all the autumn experiences you want to have from pumpkin spice lattes to long walks to time with partners and kids, what do you want to do this October? 10 points per item you tick off!

Hello to all my #skeletoncrew #scarathlon teammates! I thought it would be nice to get to know each other a little before embarking on our spooky and autumnal reading together so here‘s a little getting to know you post to share and discuss. There‘s no points up for grabs here but it‘d be awesome if you wanted to repost and tell us a bit about yourself!

Here‘s my answers here and in the comments:

1. My perfect Halloween would involve 👇

The moral of #scarathlon for me is that I can never be part of too many challenges or make tracking too difficult for myself. What‘s one more?? @PuddleJumper

1 Atlas 6
2 Head like a hole
3 Reyes Incident
4 Don‘t fear the reaper
5 Cottage on pumpkin & vine
6 Frankenstein (Ito)
7 Frankenstein (Shelley)
8 Season of mists
9 Against the currant
10 In charm‘s way
11 Tender is the flesh
12 Interview with the vampire
13 Witcha gonna do

Just one more info post for the #scarathlon #skeletoncrew 🍁 here‘s the points breakdown. I can also share a blank spreadsheet for tracking your points if anyone would find that helpful to have?

Remember readathons and bingo boards are your friends to get points! If you‘re reading a book to fill a bingo board you found anywhere on the internet that also counts as a readathon, so each hour read could count 5 times (50 points) if you want!

For this year‘s #scarathlon watchlist I made a Letterboxd list… with 150 movies on it lol. I LOVE horror movies and spooky or witchy movies in general so I can do this all day everyday lol (and I will). I‘m not a huge tv watcher but I‘m also halfway through charmed and will definitely be counting a bunch of episodes of that.

If any #skeletoncrew team members have movie recommendations for me I‘d love to see them!

A peek at my tbr stack for #scarathlon this year. I‘m going for a healthy mix of spooky classics, new horror, cosy mysteries, witchy romance etc. I just love all spooky genres so much!

I‘m going to be reading the tagged book for our #skeletoncrew buddy read - so excited as I loved the first book in the series. I‘d love to see all your tbrs if you‘d like to tag me and use the #skeletoncrew hashtag my pals!

Calling all members of the #skeletoncrew for #scarathlon early bird points! Great chance to get some points in before October 1 for all 3 of the activities above. Start keeping track of your points (spreadsheet, notes app, back of envelope, whatever works) and start earning those points.

I can‘t wait to see your tbrs and to steal some book ideas for myself 🎃

Thank you for the tag @dabbe 🥰

1. The wife of bath in the Canterbury tales. Shouting down the male pilgrims to tell a fairytale story about consent and free choice for women 🎉
2. Death in the sandman series. Rereading this right now and I love her so much, maybe my favourite literary Death
3. Got to be Jane eyre - a classic never to be beaten

#threelistthursday if you‘d like to play you‘ve been tagged!

Attention #scarathlon #skeletoncrew! There‘s a couple choices for our buddy read, worth 50 points, though you can only use one book as the buddy read. I wanted to give more and less scary options

Horrorstör is a horrific comedy about hell and labour relations set in a store that can‘t legally be called IKEA

Hello hello it‘s nearly #scarathlon time! I‘m delighted to welcome everyone tagged in this post to the #skeletoncrew team 🎃

I‘m a huge fan of scarathlon and everything halloweeny from horror movies to witchy romance to dark academia to murder mysteries to true crime. Whether you‘re getting a thousand points a day or just taking part a little where you can manage it, I‘m very excited to be in this together!

Stephen king is a funny one for me cause I can never tell if a book is gonna carry me away and make me love it or just be eh. Unfortunately for a book this long, it was eh. I didn‘t feel like there was enough world building or content for 700 pages. I was alway waiting for the story to get bigger or more intricate but it never quite did? Not one of his best for me.

Such a sweet, original, funny, heartfelt romance. This was spooky and touching and romantic. I thought the subplot with the death of the MC‘s father was really well handled - I never usually appreciate dark material in romance but this was an exception that was written so well. I loved Ben our ghostly love interest and I think this would be a great pick for #scarathlon if anyone is looking for books for this years challenge 🥰👻💀

I always always love dark academia and this had incredible concepts, world building and ideas. The concept of magic secret societies doing necromancy at Yale is just so delicious, so obviously I adored it.

I will say the plot was complicated and I don‘t think being told out of order helped it. I‘d have preferred a chronological beginning to end version of the story being honest.

My bf recommended me this so many times and I never read it because I didn‘t care about mountaineering, but I‘m so glad I finally read it. This was so atmospheric and there was such a sense of dread. The horror and true crime part of my brain loved this so much and the writing was so beautiful. Maybe the only book about Everest I‘ll ever like but I loved this

I‘m afraid I wanted to like this one more than I did. I usually like tessa bailey but the characters being so wildly irrationally jealous was a big turn off for me. In a contemporary real world romance I just can‘t be doing with seething jealousy from people in their mid thirties about someone you dated 10 years ago like, it just doesn‘t do it for me.

Sweet and funny around that and I loved the winemaking setting.

This has been sitting in my kindle forever and when I finally read it it was one of my favourite books of the year! Such a gorgeously dark and complex coming of age state of the nation dark academia campus novel (if that‘s a thing). I‘ll be turning Natalie over and over in my head forever. I also think this is going to set me off on a big Shirley Jackson phase I need more.

To celebrate #scarathlon signups coming around for another year I treated myself to this Junji Ito collection in Waterstones. He‘s such a master of really inventive and cool horror and I bet this reinterpretation of a horror classic will help with a lot of bingo boards eh

I‘m turning into such a romance reader - they‘re the only books that fix my brain after grad school reading. I decided to give this booktok classic a go without super high expectations as I hate sport, but I was pleasantly surprised. It took a while to get into (swear there were 10x as many side characters as we needed?) but I got so invested and really really cared by the end. I‘m definitely going to read the sequel so have to call it a pick.

I would absolutely buy this for a teen if I knew one. Positive, sweet, honest but optimistic trans representation for young people is so important and I wish there had been more like this when I was a teen looking for queer books.

Having said that, it‘s a rare YA book that wins me over to not just wishing I was reading something for adults. That didn‘t seem fair to hold against the book though as I knew what it was going in.

“He normally came here for coffee every couple of days, so it was only natural for her to say this after his almost week-long absence. Of course, she knew nothing of his trip to Kyushu.”

Happy national book lovers day!

#wondrouswednesday @Eggs

Is anyone else having an issue of no photos showing up on litsy at all? I can‘t even see people‘s profile pics or my own posts, just grey squares. When I log in online everything‘s fine though it‘s just my phone.

Is that just me?

I love this series so much - I do think this was the weakest of the three so far but still a pick overall. I‘m a big sucker for soulmates/soul bound kind of things, more and more as I get into romance novels more, so this was right up my alley. The writing and the witchiness of the world and all the side characters was so strong.

Having said that, I was confused by the approach to the non binary love interest who was mostly just treated as a man?

My favourite time of year is here again - I mean it‘s august so it‘s basically Halloween already right? SO excited to have signed up for the fifth annual #scarathlon and to be a team captain this year! Thank you so much as always @Clwojick and @StayCurious 🎃

Could I please just check you got a legitimate email address in my signup form? Worried I did a typo and can‘t go back to check 🫠

I know I just said I was sick of angry, clipped-writing-style millennial books about women being angry with society, but maybe I should rephrase it to add ‘but only if they do it REALLY well‘. This isn‘t the kind of book I like much anymore but it was so so well executed, so thoughtful and original, so good at being both dark and funny and touching, that I couldn‘t not love it.

There was nothing really wrong with this novel but I just didn‘t quite get on with it. I used to love Sally Rooney but I think I‘ve soured quite a lot on ‘millennials in relationships not quite communicating‘ books - I might just have read too many of them. Some beautiful writing but in general I spent the whole book thinking ‘why am I here? When does this end?‘

The incomparable @indiaro surprised me with this on audiobook because I had a shitty cold last week - nothing serious just a dreadful sinus headache and needing to sleep all the time for a few days - and she knew exactly what would fix me. I‘m really enjoying this, like it‘s very similar to her other books but what‘s not to like about a rom com set between warring wine shops

My second time reading the tagged book so you can probably guess I like it a lot 😮 it‘s funny, Brendan is really really not for me as a romantic hero (I don‘t at all need anyone growling at me that I belong to them) but I still find this book really comforting and fun. I just bought a copy for a friend and it made me realise how much I wanted to go back to Westport. I want to inherit a bar in a small fishing town and reinvent myself there ngl

I‘ve been really loving rom coms, and particularly witchy rom coms, recently. This had a lot going for it but in the end I think I found most of it too silly to be on board with much of the plot or the central love story. It was very slapstick and the spells, names etc just felt too childish for a spicy scene in the middle of that to make much sense I guess? I loved the MC I just wish the tone had been different.

There were parts of this I… nearly enjoyed? The description of the town was nice and some of the magic. But EVERY woman on EVERY page was having her weight and bodily functions described in truly bizarre detail. I‘m not sure if John Updike has a) never met a woman or b) only met women he truly truly despised and sort of believed were just fat messy automata??

I‘m in holiday reading mode! My bf and I are in northern Italy for about a week and I‘ve got to say, I‘d forgotten how good it is having an air conditioned flat to sit in and read and no one needing me to be anywhere. I‘m trying to balance out some masters reading with some romance novels (but the romance novels are winning)

I‘ve been reading a lot of campus novels recently and I really liked this one. It came highly recommended and while it wasn‘t perhaps as standout as I had it billed to me, I loved the way it cultivated the vibe of a privileged, quite isolated, quite intense and hormonal and emotional boarding school. The atmosphere was amazing and the characters fitted that perfectly.

I‘ve been meaning to read this for years and I was absolutely right about how much I‘d love it. Beautiful, labyrinthine, full of yearning and strange surreal mystery elements and I LOVED how it viewed the past and wrote about (obviously very romanticised and somewhat secret history-esque) academia. The ending was a bit predictable but I wasn‘t really in it for the solution to the mystery eh