Happy September everyone! My TBR this month is coming a little late, but I have a good reason! It’s currently Monday the 8th and over the weekend I just moved house! I’m now in Edinburgh to do my master’s degree in East Asian Studies. I didn’t do my TBR until now for two reasons: 1) I was really busy packing and 2) I wasn’t sure which books I would end up bringing with me.

But I’m all moved now so I can start thinking a bit about reading again! So without further ado, let’s take a look at my September TBR

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Books to Read/Finish

These books are a mix of books I need to finish from last month (either started or just from the TBR) and books that I picked out for my Magical Readathon TBR. In the end I ended up using a Scroll of Versatility to be able to use The Way of Kings for two prompts since it’s so massive.

Because I’m now away from most of my books again (I recently moved to Edinburgh to do my master’s degree), my book choices are largely dependent on the few books I brought with me and what books are available at my library (+ which holds are coming through this month). Still, I think I’ve managed to put together a promising TBR.

I had planned on finishing Die Perlen des Todes [The Pearls of Death] and An Apology for Idlers before moving to Edinburgh but I ran out of time, so hopefully I will be able to finish them by the end of the month.

Fuchsia War by Gaia Kai is an ARC and it comes out on the 12th, so I need to read and review it by then. Cutting a little tight since I still haven’t started it, but alas this is life.

My hold at the library on The Island of Sea Women just recently came in, so it’s the perfect chance to read another Lisa See book. I really enjoyed Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, so I’m hoping I like this one just as much.

The Way of Kings is one of those books that I’ve been wanting to read for ages but kept putting off because it’s just so intimidating. I’m going to give it a shot this month though!

We’ll Prescribe You A Cat should be a quick read and it fits the Magical Readathon prompt for “animal on a cover” + I was able to get it from my library. Red Dust, White Snow is likewise a Magical Readathon pick for a book from Singapore and I should be able to borrow the physical book from the library here in Edinburgh once I join.

Finally, we have All Systems Red – my hold on this came in at the library and so I’ll be using it for the single POV prompt of the Magical Readathon.

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Books to Continue/Start

There are three books I’ve already started that I want to continue, and then I finally need to start my current buddy read (The Master and Margarita) as well.

• 검을 든 꽃 [Flower Wielding a Sword] by 은소로 [Eun Soro] – the next two parts (to page 181, so 130 pages total).
• 魔幻時刻 [Magical Moments] by Jedit – c. 1 poem/essay per day, or 28 total.
• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgokov – to the end of part 1 (page 204).
• 이상한 나라의 스물셋 [The Strange World of 23] – stories 3 and 4.

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Books for my degree

Now that I’m back in studying mode I also need to start reading books for my master’s again. Unfortunately – despite starting classes in a week – I still don’t have a confirmed list of all the classes I’m taking (I had to rank my choices so I don’t know which ones I’ve been allocated) and I don’t have complete reading lists either, so it’s a little bit hard to figure out which books specifically I will be reading this month. However, I also want to start reading books around possible topics for my dissertation, so that’s what I’ll focus on here. It’s not completely set yet since my timetable is so up in the air but these are a couple that I’m thinking of prioritising this month:

A History of Korea is one that I’ve read quite a few chapters of during my undergraduate degree but never actually finished entirely. It’s largely stuff I’m already somewhat familiar with, so it should be pretty quick to finish it and give myself a quick refresher having not studied Korean history for over a year now.

Chinese Literature: A Very Short Introduction is part review and part preparation for my dissertation research. I’ve studied contemporary Chinese literature before (and will likely do so again during my master’s) but this book also introduces premodern literature, which I’m thinking will be important for my dissertation.

I’ve not entirely decided what I will write my dissertation on yet, but there is a decent chance it will have to do with women’s history in premodern China, so I thought I would start by reading a couple of the books that I have only read a couple of pages here and there of about the topic – Teachers of the Inner Chambers and Women in Ming China.

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Maybe?

There are also a couple of fun books that I might read if I’m feeling a bit slumpy or miraculously have reading time to spare (unlikely, but you never know). Right now, the most likely candidates are Modern Divination and Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries.

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Question Time

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What books are you planning on reading this month?

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Keira x