I'll be honest. I'm sad to see this week of Bout of Books end. I felt like I really got in a rhythm with my reading this week. While it's definitely not sustainable, it was fun. I'm already looking forward to the next read-a-thon in August!
My Goals
I kept it simple this time. My only goal was to read 5 books.
How Did I Do?
I finished 8 books! Yes, EIGHT books!!! I also read portions of 2 others, which I will finish today (!!!). That's a grand total of 1,534 pages! I also participated in all 6 challenges. LOVED the challenges this time! I honestly couldn't be more pleased with how things played out this week!
The Books
No Place to Hide by Lynette Eason - Finished!
Princess for Hire by Lindsey Leavitt - Finished!
A Heart's Danger by Colleen Coble - Finished!
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart - Finished!
All Fall Down by Ally Carter - Finished!
The Reading Promise by Alice Ozma (audio) - Finished!
On a Ring and a Prayer by Sandra D. Bricker - Finished!
It's officially time for Bout of Books! There's still a little time left to sign up, Signups are "officially" closed, but you can still join in the fun if you like! I'm posting the daily challenges here on this page. I'm posting daily progress over here, so keep checking in with me. And if you're participating, too, leave me a link so I can hop over and visit!
Share one book that you believe will be considered a classic in 100 years time. Simple? I do have a few caveats, the book must have been published in or after 2005 and you need to provide two reasons for why this book will be a classic.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The author tackles the truth of a difficult time in American history with realism and humor. The writing is near perfection—switching between multiple POVs and dialects. It's a book I hope becomes a classic so that people won't forget the pain of racism as we move forward.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
This book perfectly portrays the horrible mix of feelings that kids with cancer experience on a day-to-day basis. It's perfectly positioned to help kids explore their emotions and provides courageous characters that they can identify with. I've known quite a few (more than normal!) kids battling cancer, and this book is important because it gives their struggles and feelings a voice.
Write a haiku about whatever book you're reading right now.
I've done these little book haikus before and they're always so fun. I even started a "Haiku in Review" feature once but only did a couple. Maybe I'll have to bring that back! Since I've been reading two books (so far!) today, here's a haiku for each. What do you think? Leave me a link in the comments if you wrote a haiku. I'd love to read it!
Create the ultimate character face-off. Pick two of your all-time favorite characters. They can be from the books you chose for the read-a-thon (or not — totally up to you). Even though they are both your favorite, you HAVE to choose one as the winner. And tell me why. Sell me on why this ONE character is your favorite character of ALL characters.
I'm terrible at choosing favorites, so I don't know that these are my absolute favorite characters, but these guys are definitely some of my favorites! And, because I'm an overachiever in EVERY sense of the word, I'm doing a three-round face off! (Think like a bracket for the basketball tournament.)
The Christiansen Family series by Susan May Warren is truly one of my favorites. I thought it would be fun to pitch the guys against each other and choose a favorite from the four books that are out so far.
Who: The eldest Christiansen sibling. Runs the family business, the Evergreen Resort. Widower and single father to five-year-old Tiger. Pros: Loyal to family. Puts the needs of his son above his own. Wants to belong and provide a place of belonging for a special someone. Cons: Struggles with unforgiveness and anger. History of poor decision-making.
Casper
Who: Christiansen sibling. Aspiring archaeologist. Pros: Sweet and kind. Refuses to give up on the woman he loves. Turning over a new leaf and be reliable and trustworthy for his family. Cons: Flounders professionally. Hot tempered (sometimes with good reason!).
Winner: Darek
Why: There's maturity in Darek that is extremely likeable. And while loyalty is a trait that the entire family shares, Darek exhibits it in every aspect of his life—even allowing loyalty to trump his anger and unforgiveness. By the end of his story, he has grown into the type of man that I would hope my friends would fall in love with . . . which is always a plus in a romance novel!
Who: Professional hockey player. Love interest of Eden Christiansen. Pros: More sensitive than he lets on. Kind, protective, selfless. Uses his celebrity for good when given the opportunity. Loves freely once people get past his barriers. Cons: Aggressive and bad-tempered. Prone to assume the worst of others—and oftentimes of his friends.
Maxwell
Who: Professional hockey player. Amateur chef. Love interest of Grace Christiansen. Pros: Protective and selfless, especially towards Grace. Excellent tour guide. Fun loving. Cons: Fearful of the future. Big barriers in place to keep others out.
Winner: Max . . . by a hair. :)
Why: This one was nearly too close to call, but Max won me over. He truly is a fun character, and despite his personal struggles (major!), he is conscious of the need to move past the fear and allow himself to live.
Round Three: The Finals
Darek Christiansen vs. Maxwell Sharpe
Winner: Maxwell Sharpe
Why: Both of these guys are amazing and love their women SO well. And they both have a lot of trauma in their pasts—which of course contributes a lot to the men they are today. But Max has overcome a lot and still has to face a lot in the future. There's just something about him that makes my heart squeeze just a bit. I hope Susan treats him well in the rest of the series!
There are still two more books (so two more amazing men!) to come, but I don't know if it's possible to throw Max over for another. I guess I'll just have to wait and see! And now, I'm in the mood for a Christiansen story. Perhaps start re-reading at the beginning? :)
1. How do you organize your shelves?
I'm not sure it's accurate to say that my shelves are organized. :)
Hubs organized our main three shelves (in the dining room turned
library) by genre. Books by the same authors are grouped together, and
they are generally in some sort of height order. Then there's a smaller
fiction shelf in the library, a bigger fiction shelf in our bedroom,
baskets of books in every room, books on night stands/tables/chairs/and
pretty much every other surface. So, organized? Not so much, but I've
definitely surrounded myself with books!
2. What is one of your favorite books that’s not in one of your favorite genres? Probably The Fault in Our Stars.
I don't read a ton of YA fiction, but this one was pretty much
life-changing in the best possible way. (Is that totally cliche?)
3. What is the last 5 star book you read? This one's easy since I just finished it! The Inn at Ocean's Edge by Colleen Coble. You can read my review here.
4. What book are you most excited to read during the read-a-thon? The next one? Which will probably be No Place to Hide by Lynette Eason. Can't wait!
5. What book do you recommend the most? Such
a hard question! I typically recommend whatever I'm reading at the
moment (or something in the very recent past). But over the past year or
so, I've consistently recommended A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet
by Sophie Hudson. And I gave it to nearly everyone for Christmas.
Seriously, you should read it. Ooh . . . maybe that's my favorite book
outside of my normal genres.
It's officially time for Bout of Books! There's still a little time left to sign up,
so don't miss out if you want to join in the fun! I'm posting daily progress on this page and the daily challenges over here. Be sure to check in from time to time. And if you're participating, too, leave me a
link so I can hop over and visit!
Well, I've already set some goals over here. But I thought it might be helpful to post a TBR list for this week. Otherwise, I'll be a wreck trying to choose books and not get much reading done. :)
These four are my TOP priority! Reviews are due (or past due), so I've really got to read them soon.
And then these are on loan from the library. Yes, I went on a little YA binge checkout last week and hope to read and/or finish a couple of these.
And then (!!!) I looked at my "currently reading" shelf and was appalled to find 18 books on that shelf! Yes, EIGHTEEN!!! And some of the books have been VERY good . . . but I've just been in a slump. So maybe I can finish one or two? It's not likely, but a girl can dream, right?!
And of course, it wouldn't be a true read-a-thon without posting daily progress. So, here you go.
MONDAY
Number of pages I've read today: 98
Total number of pages I've read: 98
Number of hours I've listened to today: 1:11
Total number of hours I've listened to: 1:11
Number of books I've read from today: 3
Total number of books I've finished: 0
Thoughts for the day: Well, not a phenomenal start, but 98 page is 98 pages!
TUESDAY
Number of pages I've read today: 178
Total number of pages I've read: 276
Number of hours I've listened to today: 0:55
Total number of hours I've listened to: 2:06
Number of books I've read from today: 3
Total number of books I've finished: 0
Thoughts for the day: I'm glad I was able to read a bit more today! Still haven't finished a book yet, but I'm enjoying what I'm reading!
WEDNESDAY
Number of pages I've read today: 495
Total number of pages I've read: 771
Number of hours I've listened to today: 0:00
Total number of hours I've listened to: 2:06
Number of books I've read from today: 4
Total number of books I've finished: 4
Thoughts for the day: I'm SO pleased with my reading today! And I finished FOUR books! Not sure that this will happen again, but I'm happy that it did today. :)
THURSDAY
Number of pages I've read today: 114
Total number of pages I've read: 885
Number of hours I've listened to today: 1:07
Total number of hours I've listened to: 3:13
Number of books I've read from today: 2
Total number of books I've finished: 4
Thoughts for the day: Another fun day of reading (and listening!). I'm especially glad to be finishing up some of these books that have lingered way too long. I must be in a better place than when I started them because I'm really enjoying what I'm reading this week!
FRIDAY
Number of pages I've read today: 138
Total number of pages I've read: 1,023
Number of hours I've listened to today: 1:41
Total number of hours I've listened to: 4:54
Number of books I've read from today: 4
Total number of books I've finished: 6
Thoughts for the day: Seriously, I'm so surprised by how much I've read. I've been choosing TV over reading for a couple of months now, so I'm glad to see the love of reading returning full force this week. :)
SATURDAY
Number of pages I've read today: 303
Total number of pages I've read: 1,326
Number of hours I've listened to today: 1:10
Total number of hours I've listened to: 6:04
Number of books I've read from today: 3
Total number of books I've finished: 7
Thoughts for the day: Well, being the weekend, I had extra time to read. Started off with the last half (or so) of We Were Liars. Still not sure I can give words to all my thoughts on that one. In a good way! One more day to go. I anticipate finishing at least one more. We'll see. :)
SUNDAY
Number of pages I've read today: 208
Total number of pages I've read: 1,534
Number of hours I've listened to today: 0
Total number of hours I've listened to: 6:04
Number of books I've read from today: 2
Total number of books I've finished: 8
It's been ages since I participated in a read-a-thon. I saw posts over the weekend about two that I've done in the past, and since things have calmed down a bit, I thought it might be a good time to jump in. And hopefully catch up on some of the reading that has been set aside over the past month or so. :)
Bout of Books Read-A-Thon 13.0
May 11-17, 2015
The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender
and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that
begins 12:01am Monday, May 11th and runs through Sunday, May 17th in
whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are
challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are
completely optional. For all Bout of Books 13 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team
My Goals
To read 5 books. This may be a bit over-zealous, but I think it's doable.
My Updates
I'll update my progress on a post (yet to be posted). You can also follow my progress on Goodreads.
Clean Sweet ARC Challenge
May 1-31, 2015
You can read all the details here, but the general idea is to read books that you've received from an author or publisher for this challenge. And I've got plenty of those!
My Goals
I don't even know how to set a goal for this one, so I'm going to just toss out a number and hope it will stick. :) So . . . I'm going to attempt 10 ARCs for this month. (By the way, I initially typed 100 on accident. Definitely won't be reading 100!)
Bout of Books 11.0 starts TOMORROW! I haven't gotten around to signup yet (eek!), so it's better late than never, right?!
The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender
and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that
begins 12:01am Monday, August 18th and runs through Sunday, August 24th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure,
and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number
of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand
prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 11.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. — From the Bout of Books team
I'm hoping that this will give me a chance to make some great progress on my summer reading goals, but with several other things on the calendar for the week, we'll just have to see how it goes!
The Goals ...
Read at least 1 hour per day
Read 1000-1500 pages
The Books ...
Not sure which of these I'll start with (or perhaps I'll add others to the mix!), but these are next up on my TBR list. :)
We are mere hours from the start of Bout of Books 9.0! With Coldpocalypse 2014 imminent, this should be a good week for reading. (Except for tomorrow night when my Auburn Tigers will be playing for the National Championship!!! There will be no reading tomorrow night!)
I'm finally getting around to setting goals, so here they are. I want to finish 5 books this week, make progress on my current audio book, and participate in some of the challenges.
I'll most likely be reading from these books, though it's certainly possible I'll change my mind. :)
Are you participating in Bout of Books? What are you planning to read this week?
I've been intending to sign up for Bout of Books 9.0 for WEEKS now. Between getting ready for Christmas, visiting with tons of family and friends, and being sick for the past few days, I just never got my post up! But I'm still planning to join in!
The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender
and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that
begins 12:01am Monday, January 6th and runs through Sunday, January
12th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure,
and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number
of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand
prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 9.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. — From the Bout of Books team
Bout of Books 8.0 has ended. :( All good things must come to an end, right? I had a great time this week reading with some bloggy friends. It was so fun to encourage one another and tweet back and forth all week to see how we were all doing!
(Bout of Books 9.0 is January 6-12, so go ahead and plan to join us. You know you want to!)
Here's a quick recap of my reading this week!
My goals were to ...
Read 1600 pages
Finish 4 review books
Finish 2 non-fiction books (1 is audio)
Comment on at least 5 blogs each day
How did I do?
Read 1540 pages, 4:16 hours of audio (est 1716 pages total!)
Finished 4 review books!
Finished 1 non-fiction book!
Yes ... that's 5 books total!
Read bits of 3 other books!
I didn't really comment that much or participate in the challenges this time.
Here's a quick run-down of what I read this week ...
The Icing on the Cake by Janice Thompson - FINISHED! - 320 pages
The Four Seasons of Marriage - FINISHED! - 4:16 hours / 176 pages
North Country Hero by Lois Richer - FINISHED! - 224 pages
Snow on the Tulips by Liz Tolsma - FINISHED! - 326 pages
Falling for the Teacher by Dorothy Clark - FINISHED! - 288 pages
Into the Whirlwind by Elizabeth Camden - 253 pages
Beyond Ordinary by Justin & Trisha Davis - 49 pages
Misery Loves Company by Rene Gutteridge - 80 pages
