Even though I stop using the reading jar, I feel like I should make this post as some kind of closure XD

This year I only managed to finish 11 books from the jar. Unfortunately, there are only three books that I rated 3/over 3 stars... so I guess the hiatus is inevitable *sigh* (I have two books with half(!) stars there #oof)

Yes, absolutely! Definitely stop though when it's not giving you positive feelings anymore :)

As of now, no... since I'm in my semi-permanent physical book reading slump era(?). I am playing with the idea of something less rigid though. I have a jar with just alphabets on paper for watching horror movies so something similar might be okay? Pick a letter and find a title that starts with that letter.

Midnight in Austenland

Mr Darcy's Bite

Heroes and Villains

Innocence

The Unreal & The Real: Volume 2

This Side of Paradise
The Trouble with Mr. Darcy
The Mum Who'd Had Enough

Deadlocked

0.5 Stars
The Difference Engine

Heaven's Shadow

I'll be choosy about it though. If it doesn't sound like something I'll enjoy reading, I'll put it back into the jar. I guess three chances will be enough...?

First book - "Dead Man's Embers" by Mari Strachan.

...historical fiction, huh. Reading the summary on GR, it might get heavy...?

Second book - "The Mum Who'd Had Enough" by Fiona Gibson.

This looks like a light read but judging from some of the reviews on GR, it's not really that... so...

Third book - "The Gods Themselves" by Isaac Asimov.

Sci-Fi. It's the shortest one but... I might not like what it's about so I guess this one is out (for now) :P

I'm going to choose the second book, just because it's contemporary. It won't be that easy because it's the longest book among these three... but I'll take that risk. 

It has been a cold and pleasant Sunday so I guess it's not bad... but I couldn't use the internet in the morning (mobile phone/hotspot was bad too, I even received a text message from Maxis about it). That actually got me a bit irritated the whole morning. The second blackout happened around an hour ago while I was about to take a shower. It wasn't as long as the morning's which was 3-4 hours (I think) but gah... it was enough to remind me of again of morning's irritation.

Anyway... I'm going to be reckless today and pick a new book from the jar (even though I'm not done with the two books). 

The book I got is: "Midnight in Austenland" by Shannon Hale.

😑😒😶

...that's one on me.

Oh well. 

It might actually balances out the other two... ←{ is optimistic for some reason } 

Unexpectedly (or expectedly?), I ended up finishing volume 3 because I wanted to escape reality- I mean avoid reading "Heaven's Shadow" (lol). Oh well. 

I guess I'll choose one today. *picks a title from jar*

...and I got "The Trouble with Mr Darcy" by Sharon Lathan.

Ooh.. same author with "Miss Darcy Falls in Love". At least it seems like it might be an easy(?) read. 

Let's try finishing more books this week!

Anyway. Second book for this month! I got... "Heaven's Shadow" by David S. Goyer and Michael Cassutt.

Aha. Another book from when BBW was in KK in 2019. No expectations! Though I'm kind of worried with how long it is (almost 400 pages).

What I got was "World's Greatest Short Stories"...

Gah! Rejected!

Anyway, got a pretty recently purchased (last year!) book for my second attempt. It's Angela Carter's "Heroes and Villains". I guess this makes this the first book I read from her...? 

It's a pretty short book (less than 200 pages) so if I don't like it, at least I don't have to suffer for long? 

Honestly, I'm not done with "This Side of Paradise" (had a reading schedule prepared, I'm like 3 days behind schedule *sigh*) but I'll still pick a new one today from the jar.   

...

Oooof I got a book with vampires(?) (and it's not Mr Darcy XD)... "Deadlocked" by Charlaine Harris.

A very randomly picked purchase from when Big Bad Wolf was in KK (2019). I guess it's fine, I haven't made any new progress in finishing those books recently. I have like 8-10 books left (including "Deadlocked") out of 22 books. One is non-fiction so I can probably count that out lol and another is "Sense and Sensibility" (which will be a reread so I can exclude that too if I want)... 

Anyway... time to pick a new book from the jar! Of course, not finished with "Mr Darcy's Bite" but I'll take the risk :P... also, if I get another short story collection, I'm going to pick a new book. I'll read those short stories in my own time but I won't make it a part of the jar. 

...

OOOH I got Fitzgerald's "This Side of Paradise"!

I hope this week will be a good one~!

Anyway, it's Week 2 but I don't think I'll pick another book two weeks later.

The book I picked from the jar is... "Mr. Darcy's Bite". 

PFFFT! That's soooo random! 

Obviously, my supply of Jane Austen fanfics inspired books is still available XD and this is one of them. I don't even remember where I put this one haha

Let's start with today's book from the jar: I got... Le Guin's "The Unreal & The Real: Volume 2".

Another short story collection for early of the month, huh. And straight to the second volume XD (doesn't matter really since they are short stories). Might be an interesting reading experience. So far, I've read two of her books - Liked one and I'm neutral to the other. Maybe this book might be the one book where I decide if she's a favourite [of mine] or not.

Edit some 8 hours later: Lol just recalled that today is my blog anniversary (I started blogging on this day in 2005).... not doing anything special really. Thought I'll just mention it in today's post~

Oh gosh, I'm worried about this one. It's another book from the SF Masterworks series of which the selections have been a hit and miss with me... Here's hoping that it's at least readable (doubtful lol)...

*Long sigh* 

This year has already started bad for me (woke up with a stomach ache) so... I want to believe that it will get better from here on. 

It will~!

Today's book from the jar: "Innocence" by Roald Dahl.

Oooh... we're starting with collection of short stories, huh? 

...and, oh wow, I really am/was not ready for the new year. *sigh* I feel like I haven't done a thing to prepare for 2023. I guess that's what I'll have to do early this year haaaahh

  

I finally finished the last book from the jar yesterday so now I can make this post. Something like a conclusion post.

Through this jar, I've finished 53 books... and counting those with 3 stars and above, I guess I enjoyed most of them...??? I find it interesting that I don't have any 4.5 stars ones lol. Although... if you only want to count 4-5 stars, then that's very few, huh. I think that's one of risks with these jars. You might have fewer favourites depending on what you put in there. And my reading taste is weird so maybe I'm not the best example to refer to :P

Will I recommend this method to find the next book to read from your shelf?
Absolutely. Very helpful when you don't know which one to start from especially if you have many to choose from. 

Will I do it again?
Oh, yes. Starting Sunday next week. Coincidentally it's a new year so... I'm doing it again next year! It's going to be biweekly - a book every two weeks. If there's a fifth week, then it's going to be rest day/free week. So basically, two books per month.

The Chrysalids

Anggaran Jarak Kita: Tanyalah Betul-Betul!

Convenience Store Woman

I'd Die for You: And Other Lost Stories

Merry-Go-Round

Piranesi

The Nakano Thrift Shop

Easy Go

Green Island

Human Voices

Kane and Abel

Lust

Monday Starts on Saturday

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Austen Escape

The Color Purple

The Doomed City

The Midwich Cuckoos

The Piano Man Project

Trickery

3 Stars
Agent of Chaos
Death by Tiara

Drug of Choice

I, Robot

Man Who Fell To Earth

Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe

Tender is the Night

The Diary of a Nobody

The Gambler

The Lathe of Heaven

The Professor

2.5 Stars
A Vision of Fire
Dubliners

Ethan Frome
Orlando

Kumari: Goddess of Secrets

Roadside Picnic

Scratch One

Selected Short Stories & The Rover

Silence

Sophie's World
The Early Stories of Truman Capote
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Ogre Downstairs

5 Sentimeter Per Saat

A Dream of Ice

At Freddie's 

Hocus Pocus

Miss Darcy Falls in Love 

Summer Crossing
The Double

The Sirens of Titan

The Food of the Gods

*probably an hour later*

Got my following list to under 100(!!)~ From 121 to 93! Unfollowed some inactive account but kept a few for sentimental reasons. Also unfollowed info dump and bot accounts. Kind of forgot how therapeutic this is... Did feel a bit sad unfollowing some of those that I followed for years, but it has to be done. I'm still seeing tweets from unfollowed accounts though in my timeline though.

Will do for Tumblr later...

It's Sunday, so it's time to pick a new book from the jar!

Three titles left! It doesn't feel mysterious anymore because I know what they are. One non-fiction, one Sci-Fi and one romance XD

Should I just pick out the reading order today? Or maybe I'll just do that next week? On second thought, I think I'm just going to read that non-fiction one now/later (as part of this)... so that means I'm doing double today lol

So... *shake shake* *picks one*

First title I got is... "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin! A book I purchased a year ago. Been waiting for this lol

...that automatically makes "The Piano Man Project" by Kat French the book to read for next week!

It's the end of my "A book in a week" adventure~

I did say I'll use the jar with longer books but I've changed my mind. I'm going to make a new list. I might take some titles from that jar with longer books (or just combine them). Might also need to revise the time taken to finish them. I hope I can get this started in December. 

Oooh maybe I'll post something like report or something for next week. Best if I can get the remaining three books from the jar finished by then. If not, maybe end of November. It will be like a post dedicated to the conclusion of the first season(arc? round? part?) of Pick-A-New-Book jar.

Haven't finished those two books (and I'm super behind my reading schedule *sigh*)... but I'm still doing this~ probably will regret this decision later lol

BTW, I broke the ceramic plate (just the inexpensive kind) I use regularly for eating today... not saying that will be a good or bad omen, *haaaah* I'm just a bit sad about it and want to tell the world that this happened. Just.. random thing of the day, or something. 

Oh, well.. back to the jar... which only have four titles left.

I got... "5 sentimeter per saat" by Makoto Shinkai.

Oooh.. one of the Japanese light novels that I have that was translated into Malay. Wow kind of excited about this. I do have interest in reading more of those that are available locally (in Malay).

Now I just have to find the book because I don't remember where I put it haha

Ahhh.. Finally finished watching "Legend of Fei"~~~ Now I'm freed from this drama! I kind of love that one of the themes is "Knowledge should be shared". That usually would be followed by "...except bad ones" but I guess they only get/focus on the good ones there *oh well*.. Ah. But that skill Ah Fei learnt at Great Apothecary Valley .. hmm.. they never really get back to that. (Whatever happen to one of the character's little brother??? I thought he died but it seems he's safe somehow and never mentioned again lol). Loved seeing Xie Yun and Zhou Fei but the other things... not really? The villains were super annoying that when they die it feels like when you see a cockroach perish. So annoying. Shen Tianshu could've been a better villain but he turned out to be quite basic after he lost his allies.

*long sigh*

Also finished with "The Early Stories of Truman Capote". I don't really have much to say about this one though. Just... I also want to do my best to write my own stories XD

Anyway... five titles left in the jar. 

*shake shake* 

*picks one*

I got "The Sirens of Titan" by Kurt Vonnegut.

...oooh now I'm worried. Didn't really like "Hocus Pocus".. I'll be more worried if it's written the same way with "Hocus Pocus".

OH WELL

Anyway, I'll just do what I need to do today. Pick a new book from the jar.

*shakes jar*

*omg 6 titles left inside the jar*

I got... "The Early Stories of Truman Capote".

...yeah. Can't wait to start on this one *nervous smile*

Well, I would've woken up early anyway but *haaah* currently I'm in semi Zombie mode... and my brain is not in proper order.

Anyway. Haven't finish reading "The Ogre Downstairs". It's like... giving me "The Time of the Ghost" vibes so I'm going to read this slowly. That means I have leftovers again XD... so since I don't see myself finishing it today or tomorrow, I'm going to do the jar today!

Here we go. 

*shakes jar*

And...... I got "Roadside Picnic"! Another book from the Strugatsky brothers. 

Oooh. 

Okay, now I'm nervous. Hopefully I won't get too many headaches this following week. I really can't read anything when my head is in pain :/ (Tried it with "Love in the Time of Cholera" and I have no memories of what I read yesterday XD)

*picks a title from the jar*

I got... "The Ogre Downstairs" by Diana Wynne Jones.

Well, well, well... what a fine pick that is XD

Wow, I'm actually happy that I got this one. Never read it before. Familiar writing style. 

Kind of looking forward to this!

So. Next book is... *just going to jump into it*

Michael Crichton's "Easy Go"!

I'm... going to bed.