Owlcrate catch-up project
Between 2015 and 2020 I had a sporadic subscription to Owlcrate’s bookbox service, an American monthly subscription focused on Young Adult Fantasy books and fandoms.
For me, Owlcrate was the first time I heard of such a book service and as soon as I did I was sold. So not long after hearing about it, I got myself a subscription.
Meanwhile, I canceled my subscription to Owlcrate a while ago, due to a combination of rising shipping costs, my declining interest in YA books and the fact that I was also subscribed to other book subscriptions closer to home.
Even though I received my last Owlcrate book back in November 2020, I still have a number of Owlcrate books on my shelves that I have not yet read. So it’s high time I do something about that!
Throughout my subscription periods with Owlcrate, I received 36 books, all aimed at Young Adults and almost all with a foot in the fantasy or science-fiction genre.
Before 2023, I already read 23 of the 36 books, with very different levels of success. Some books I DNF’ed, another got the full 5 stars!
Which brings me to the remaining Owlcrate books that were still unread at the beginning of 2023. Thirteen in total.
Of those thirteen, ten are part of a series, duology or trilogy, so three books are stand-alone stories. Of three of the series I even bought the sequel through Owlcrate, because I’m susceptable enought to want to by a matching edition for a first book, even if I haven’t yet read that first book, LOL.
The oldest of the unread books has been on my shelf since April 2019, while the most recent still dates from August 2020.
At the beginning of 2023 I had planned to really work on those Owlcrate books. Given that I read about 100 books a year, it seemed very feasible to make these 13 unread Owlcrate books part of that.
In the end it took me until June before I picked up the first one. Since then, I’ve made a real effort to schedule Owlcrate books into my TBRs, so at the time I’m writing this, I’ve already finished five Owlcrate books.
Two I read in June, one in July and another two in August, for which I still need to write my reviews.
This means that for my previously unvoiced goal of 2023, to have read all my unread Owlcrate books by the end of the year, I still have eight books to go. And to hold myself a little more accountable, I decided to write this blog post! This also forced me to take the Owlcrate books out of my bookcases to take pictures, so now I’ve also put the unread books separately in a more visible place!
However, I’m very aware that I’m becoming less and less interested in YA books.
They do often have a nice premise, but I don’t always vibe with the execution anymore. There are of course exceptions, but with these eight books I want to keep in mind that I don’t necessarily have to read them completely.
Before the end of 2023, I want to make at least an attempt to read all eight of them. If I’m intrigued and finish the book, fantastic! But if I don’t feel much for the book from the start and really have to force myself to read it, then I certainly shouldn’t hesitate to DNF. Either the book was never for me or I just missed my window to read it.
Having said this, have you ever read any of these eight books? Is there one you would recommend I read? Or shouldn’t bother with?
(Meanwhile I started reading We Hunt the Flame and, ugh, why didn’t I read this sooner, because this is FUN!)
Cheers,
Charlotte
