#BookBuddyAthon TBR

The #BookBuddyAthon is a read-a-thon created on YouTube by Samantha @ Cold Tea and Crumbs and Elena @ Elena Reads Books. The official read-a-thon is running all this week, from the 7th-13th May. My lovely friend Natalie @ A Sea Change agreed to be my buddy - go and check out her blog if you haven't already, because it's wonderful - and we've decided to extend our read-a-thon to last throughout the month, purely because we'd like to read all of the books we'll be reading and there's no way we can do it all in 5 days; I work full time and Natalie's in the midst of a full time PhD, so we're both busy bees!

The #BookBuddyAthon challenges are:

1. Read a book with your buddy.
2. Read a book with your buddy's favourite colour on the cover.
3. Read a book that begins with your buddy's first initial.
4. Pick three books you want to read, and read the one your buddy picks for you.
5. Read a book you want to read.

Read a book with your buddy:

Natalie suggested we read Kirsty Logan's A Portable Shelter as we both own it and both have yet to read it, and I whole-heartedly agreed! It sounds like a lovely collection of stories, and because it's a collection I can dip in and out of it throughout the month which is ideal.

Read a book with your buddy's favourite colour on the cover:

Like me, Natalie's favourite colour has a tendency to waver, but for this challenge she chose the colour blue so I decided to go with The Strange & Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, which I've been meaning to get to for a while now. It's a beautiful book, so I hope I enjoy the inside as much as the outside!

Read a book that begins with your buddy's first initial:

For an 'N' book I decided to go with The Night Watch, which is the last of Sarah Waters' published novels I have yet to read. It's the one book I hear the most mixed reviews from, which is why I haven't gotten to it yet, but Waters is one of my favourite authors and I'd really like to get to it soon.

Pick three books you want to read, and read the one your buddy picks for you:

I picked The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. As Natalie is also a big Gaiman fan, like myself, she picked The Ocean at the End of the Lane which I'm very excited to read; Gaiman is another favourite author of mine.

Read a book you want to read:

I've been meaning to read Jo Walton's Among Others for years. I've yet to hear a bad thing about it, and considering it won the Hugo and Nebula Awards when it was published it must be pretty darn special. I think that's why I haven't got to it yet, because I've been worried I won't like it as much as I'm hoping I will - there's only one way to find out, though!

Are you taking part in the #BookBuddyAthon? What are you hoping to read this month?