October TBR: Becca’s Spookoplathon 2023
Ever since 2020, I have been participating in Becca‘s monthlong readathon based on the well-known Monopoly board game. For this purpose, Becca makes her own version of the Monopoly board, specifically for picking the books you will read that month.
This year, however, there was no September bookoplathon announcement, which was to be expected given Becca’s busy schedule for September. But then this video appeared on her channel with the announcement for a Spookoplathon for the month of October!
Now, in October I’m going on a trip myself, so I have no idea how much I’ll read that month and whether I’ll be in the traditional spooky October mood, but picking a TBR is always fun and can’t hurt 😀
As I always do, I translated the game into an Excel table and rolled virtual dice instead of real ones, but it all comes down to the same thing.
For the community shelf cards I drew 16 prompts from my TBR jar and listed those in Excel.
For the chance cards I did the same, but I chose titles of books, initially only choosing unread Owlcrate books, then physical books with a more spooky/dark/witchy feel and finally supplementing with a book club book.
I adjusted the assignment for one box on the game board, because I don’t feel like making a survey. I replaced Poll Pick with a book that was previously on a TBR of mine, but has not yet been read.
To roll the dice and choose the cards, I used the RANDBETWEEN function in Excel, which gives a random result every time you press enter.
And I simply opened the board on my computer and followed the boxes I ended up in.
For the number of rolls, I decided to follow Becca’s example and go for 5 rolls, which then basically equals 5 books, unless I would roll a double, which would require an additional roll. This wasn’t the case this time, so here are my 5 TBR books for October:
| # | D1 | D2 | Prompt | TBR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
⚂ |
⚄ |
Green: A book with a mostly green cover | Adalyn Grace – All the Stars and Teeth Since I really want to finish reading my Owlcrate books and this one fits well with this prompt, I’m going to take the risk of choosing this one, even though it can still be selected via a chance card. If that were the case, I can still switch. Other options I want to read:Mexican Gothic, Weyward, A House with Good Bones, Elektra, Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone or The Beautiful Ones. An abundance to choose from! |
| 2 |
⚅ |
⚀ |
Are we out of the woods yet?: Read a book set in the woods/forest or a rural/country/isolated location or a book with trees on the cover. Feel free to open to interpretation. | Ava Reid – The Wolf and the Woodsman I have been wanting to read an Ava Reid book for years and this one really feels like a true autumn book: A dark fairytale set in the forrest! |
| 3 |
⚀ |
⚂ |
Daphne du Maurier: The queen of dark, haunting, atmospheric literature. Read a gothic story. | Erin A. Craig – Small Favors I bought this book in London last year because after reading House of Salt and Sorrows by the same author, I am curious about her further development as an author. Although I was somewhat disappointed with the book I read, it still had a lot of elements that I am a fan of, including gothic vibes. I’m not really sure if this book will also have those gothic vibes, since the cover doesn’t immediately convey this. If this book doesn’t turn out to be a good fit, I think I’ll go for Silvia Moreno-Garcia – Mexican Gothic |
| 4 |
⚀ |
⚁ |
Chance #3 | Tara Sim – Scavenge the Stars Another Owlcrate book, one by an author I’ve read before (The City of Dusk) and enjoyed reading. So I’m curious about her previous work. |
| 5 |
⚃ |
⚀ |
Candy Corn: A sweet book! Something that’s all vibes and no stakes. Maybe a cute romance or a cosy novel. | Ashley Poston – The Dead Romantics A romantic book, but still with spooky vibes. Ideal for October I think! Another option that has also been on my TBR since I heard about it is The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna, but because I physically bought the other book in Waterstones a while back, I’m giving it priority. |
And these were my five throws and TBR for October. Of the five, I also chose four that were included in the chance cards, precisely because these are books that I either want to give priority or are just too fitting for October to pass them up!
Is anyone else participating in this readathon?
Cheers,
Charlotte
