Scribd | Review

**Not sponsored by Scribd**

I heard about Scribd about a year ago and decided to take the plunge this summer using a free month trial from the folks over at Book Riot. I am so glad I did because I freaking love Scribd and want to tell everyone I know how great it is.

Pros

• Unlimited books and comics, one audiobook credit per month
• Huge selection of books, but particularly genre fiction and literary fiction
• Many books come to Scribd close to their release date
• Beautiful design and reading experience
• Lots of bang for your buck. Even only reading one novel or one comic trade or one audiobook per month and your subscription has paid for itself
• Great library interface which lets you save books for later and organize them into lists

Cons

• They advertise themselves as monthly but the subscription hit my credit card in one lump sum — not crazy expensive but also not my favorite surprise
• Sneaky space hog. Scribd holds a “recently read” cache on your reading device, which can take up a lot of space if you don’t realize it. It’s really easy to clear, but something that builds up quickly
• The audiobook player can be buggy when listening for really long stretches of time

Overall, I couldn’t be more happy with my Scribd subscription. I’ve been reading way more audiobooks than I ever have before, including one of my now favorite books Beautiful Ruins. I read most of the Ruth Galloway series on Scribd, listened to Girl on the Train right after it came out, and am now reading Locke and Key. There’s a huge and diverse selection of books with a great reading experience. They also have curated lists of editors picks, top books, and new releases.

If you love audiobooks, ebooks, and comics, or even just want to cut down on your book budget a little, this is a great service. I find between it and the library, I can save my money (and space) for physical copies of books that I really love from my local indie.

Halloween | Read, listen, and watch

We have a fortnight until Halloween! Here in Michigan, it’s still light out until 7:30 or 8:00 at night until the middle of October, so it doesn’t feel Halloween-y until then. That really only leaves about two weeks for creating the spooky Halloween atmosphere, so my Halloween picks are not as extensive.

Reading

My book club is reading October County, a collection of Ray Bradbury short stories. It’s creepy and atmospheric, like everything Ray Bradbury writes.

I’m also binge-reading Fables, a noir-esque take on classic fairy tales. The whole series has the feeling of a cloud of smoke hanging over it.

Watching

The Munsters is currently on Netflix, so that’s where you’ll find me all month. Don’t ask me to choose between the Munster family and the Addams.

Listening

Welcome to Night Vale is a given around this time of the year. Somewhere, someone is making a haunted house based on the dog park.

“Danger and Dread” 8tracks playlist
I can always count on 8tracks to give me the exact feel I’m looking for and this Halloween I’ve been listening to a ton of the “southern gothic” playlists, but this one is the best.

Friday Listening

  
A live episode of Witch, Please! 

This podcast, y’all. Two Canadian academics, Hannah McGregor and Marcelle Kosman, talk about the Harry Potter books and movies from many lenses, but particularly feminism. They talk about adaptation theory, books as objects, Jew Watch, JK Rowling retconning diversity, and of course Hermoine Granger and the Goddamn Patriarchy. It’s wonderful. 

Listen here.

Quarterly Goal Check-in | Reading

This is the last quarterly goal check-in of 2015! I can’t believe it. I set my goals here, and checked in on this year’s reading goals two other times, first here and then here. Onto the goals!

This year, my goal was to read 50 books. I am currently at 47. I think that I really underestimated my reading goal this year for a couple reasons. 1. I’ve been reading way more comic trades, which I can read at a much faster pace. 2. I graduated from college and didn’t realize that my reading time was about to explode. These are good things to know moving into 2016.

Other goals:

• Read at least 20% people of color and LGBT people:  I am currently at 19%. This goal kind of fell by the wayside during the summer when I devoured a mystery series, seven books all by the same white women. Currently, both books I’m reading are by people of color so I’m definitely making a concerted effort to re-diversify my reading.
• Read more classics: This depends how you define classic. I read Maus this quarter, which some consider a classic of the graphic memoir genre. I am currently reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which based on how people talk will be a classic.
• Read lengthier texts: Devil in the White City was somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 pages, as was Station Eleven.
• Read Harder Challenge:
  • A book written by someone when they were under 25- Purple Hibiscus
  • A book that someone recommended — Devil in the White City
  • A book written by someone when they were over 65 – Cat Among the Pigeons

I actually did much better on my goals this quarter than I thought. I kind of abandoned my goals for the summer and binged mysteries and comics without regard for reading diversely or the Read Harder Challenge or any of my other goals, but I actually ended up reading a lot more in line with my goals than I thought.

Going into the last three months of 2015, my top priority is continuing to read diversely, while also working to finish the Read Harder challenge.