Bout of Books 11.0: Monday to Wednesday

Books I've read from:  

The Dinner by Herman Koch

The 100: Day 21 by Kass Morgan

Pages read today:

  309 from The Dinner

  125 from The 100: Day 21 

Books finished today:

1 

Running total:

  434 pages, 1 book (as of 8:27pm)   

Today #insixwords: 

Sarah J. Maas = best person ever.

So today is the first day I've actually been able to write a proper Bout of Books post, but I've had a fairly hectic week.

First off, Monday was the first day where I was sufficiently recovered enough to venture into the outside world... which I obviously celebrated by going on my driving test. As you do. I failed my first test on the 5th and the next available date was September 24th but luckily I managed to find a cancellation.

Considering I thought I'd failed before I'd even left the carpark (I didn't even take the handbrake off until it beeped at me), I was shocked when the lady told me I'd passed. I actually said, "What? Seriously?" with a critical expression, which can't have helped matters...

But let's focus here... I PASSED MY DRIVING TEST.

So we went out for a meal to celebrate on Monday evening and yesterday my boyfriend and I went to an open-air production of Romeo & Juliet. It was a wonderful company (The Lord Chamberlain's Men, I think) who perform traditionally with a small, all-male cast.

We took wine and a picnic and had an absolutely amazing night. I really recommend outdoor theatre and I'd especially join the mailing list for this company. Professional yet fun, I'd say.

So now we're up to today. I'm shattered but I just thought I'd pop in and let you all know how my reading is going. I finished reading The Dinner today, while standing in line to meet Sarah J. Maas in Waterstones. I'm going to write a proper post on that in a minute, but let me just say she's the nicest person ever. I was really thrilled with how thoughtful she is.

I loved The Dinner too, although considering how long the line was, I ended up wishing the book was thicker!

The 100: Day 21 arrived as a review copy today so it was right next time to me when I flopped over exhausted onto the couch. It's amazing how sometimes you'll just read whatever's in arm's reach isn't it? Anyway, it worked for me this time because I'm loving it so far. I was worried that I wouldn't remember The 100 well enough to enjoy the sequel, but it recaps itself really well. 

That's all you're getting from me tonight, but I'll be back tomorrow with hopefully more pages read. See you all then!

What have you all been reading during this lovely week of bookishness?

Bout of Books 10 Read-a-thon Sign-up and Goals

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 12th and runs through Sunday, May 18th 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 10 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

One day I'll write a sign-up post before the eve of an event beginning. Today is not that day.

Well, Bout of Books seems to have swung around again awfully quickly, but it's not like that's a bad thing. Far from it, I can't wait to get started. My reading has tapered off a little lately due to a heavy workload and my ambition to keep up-to-date with reviews has fallen by the wayside as well. Still, no matter! My goal is to rectify this during the read-a-thon.

More specifically, over seven days I hope to:

• Read four books
• Write five reviews
• Comment on five new-to-me blogs per day

Here's what I may (or may not) be reading from:

 
I am, of course, still working throughout this week, in my odd job with odd hours and odd time requirements so it remains to be seen how much reading I'll actually get done. Maybe I'll take annual leave for the next read-a-thon... regardless, I'll do my best!

Happy read-a-thoning everybody!

Bout of Books 6.0 Wrap-Up

Monday

Books I've read from:  

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Pages read today:

97, as of 9:45pm

Books finished today:

1   

Running total:

97 pages, 1 book   

Non-reading progress:  

Umm... I wrote this post, didn't I?

Today #insixwords: 

Hanna is part of many projects... *dies*

Tuesday 

Books I've read from:  

This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers

Pages read today:

322

Books finished today:

1   

Running total:

  419 pages, 2 book, 1 review   

Non-reading progress:  

Are you implying I'm not working hard enough!?

I also wrote a review of Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James.

I scheduled my challenge post for tomorrow - harder than it sounds considering it involved converting my own time zone, that of Bout of Books and then that of rafflecopter!

Today #insixwords: 

Awesome day, despite lack of reading.

Wednesday

Books I've read from:  

The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker

Pages read today:

272

Books finished today:

0   

Running total:

  691 pages, 2 book, 1 review   

Non-reading progress:  

I'm hosting a Bout of Books challenge! Go join in! 

Today #insixwords: 

Where did those pages come from!?

....... 

Saturday

Books I've read from:  

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Pages read today:

79

Books finished today:

0   

Running total:

  770 pages, 3 books, 1 review   

Non-reading progress:  

Oh shh.

Today #insixwords: 

Why did I start this book!?

Sunday

Books I've read from:  

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Pages read today:

120

Books finished today:

0   

Running total:

  890 pages, 3 books, 1 review   

Non-reading progress:  

Go away!

Today #insixwords: 

Clawed it back at the end!

What a strange read-a-thon. At the beginning of the week, when I had classes, a shedload of work and assemblies to lead, I read a book per day. THEN, when it quietened down, I read nothing.

As I explained on my Saturday post, Thursday was a no-go due to not managing to sleep AT ALL the night before, so I had to spend the first part of the day catching up and then the second part catching up on the work I'd missed! Friday I was in court and then pretty much fell straight asleep.

Still though, three books plus a decent way into a HUGE one. I do wish I'd managed to write more reviews, but hey ho. I enjoyed hosting my challenge and I hope I'll be able to do it again next time. The winners, incidentally, were:

Jasprit @ A Reader's Den

Jennifer @ A Librarian's Library

I guess I've learned that it is possible to read, even when you have a mountain of things to do. This week has been horrendous and yet I still achieved quite a lot. What a great start to the year!

Bout of Books 6.0: Tuesday

Books I've read from:  

This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers

Pages read today:

322

Books finished today:

1   

Running total:

  419 pages, 2 book, 1 review   

Non-reading progress:  

Are you implying I'm not working hard enough!?

I also wrote a review of Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James.

I scheduled my challenge post for tomorrow - harder than it sounds considering it involved converting my own time zone, that of Bout of Books and then that of rafflecopter!

Today #insixwords: 

Awesome day, despite lack of reading.

I'm so tired right now that I pretty much want to curl into a ball and hibernate for the Winter, but I've had an awesome day. The project I've been working on forever, where we demonstrate the court process to school children, finally came together today and our first event went very successfully.

I had to give a speech to a room full of people that I hadn't prepared for, but managed to pull off, and then the trial itself went well too. Nobody forgot their rules or their stories and the children seemed engaged and entertained. The supervisors all congratulated me and I think everybody had a good time.

So, there was that, plus a Civil Litigation class, plus the preparation for the afore-mentioned class... yeah, not much reading. In fact, the only reading I got done today was between the hours of 1 and 3am (151 pages). Clearly I'm not a natural sleeper. I'm too tired to read anymore today but considering how happy I am, I don't mind.

LATER - Actually, I did get a little more done. It was time I should have spent studying/planning tomorrow's meeting, but I was so tired that it just wasn't going to happen. Teenage zombie book it is :D 

EVEN LATER - *coughs* Yeaah, I finished the book. 

Bout of Books Wrap-Up

I know I say this every time, but I just can't believe how quickly this week has gone. I didn't get as much read as I wanted to, but I think that's because I ended up picking reasonably heavy books.

My goal list is here, but the gist is that I wanted to get through three books from my TBR and write/post three reviews.

Here's what I ended up reading - 

 

That's The Gunslinger by Stephen King, Jurassic Park: The Lost World by Michael Crichton, Bumped by Megan McCafferty and then a little of Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan. 

Click here for my update post, but in case you can't be bothered, that's 1231 pages!

Oh. I actually thought I'd done really badly, but that's nearly as many as my last Bout of Books total of 1330. I think that because my first two books were kind of heavy I didn't progress nearly as fast as I thought I should have. As you can see from my update post, I got much more read over the weekend when I enjoyed my books more.

It doesn't help that I've not been overly well lately - my BiPap machine is broken and I've been given some physiotherapy exercises that tend to leave me in a miserable heap on the floor, which is hardly conducive to reading. That said, I really enjoyed two of the books I read and it did cheer me up a lot :)

As for my other goal of three reviews - I didn't quite make it, but I sort of did, kind of. I got two actual reviews up, for The Fault in Our Stars and King Solomon's Mines, but then I got an In My Mailbox post up as well. Doing those can often seem like a bit of a chore, so it's a post up at least! 

On the whole, I'm happy with this week and I absolutely cannot wait to read more of Theft of Swords. It's not much more than I'd read in a normal week, but keeping track of it with you all makes me happy :) I'll see you all at the next read-a-thon!

So how did you do this week? Did you achieve your reading goals or did life get in the way?

Bout of Books Read-a-thon Sunday Challenges

Today, Pretty Deadly Reviews asked us who we would cast in a film version of our current read. I've just finished Bumped by Megan McCafferty, so it's not technically a current read, but if I start a new book then I won't have the faintest idea about the characters!

Incidentally, I am appallingly bad with actors and actresses so excuse me if there's someone else who would be just that much better :)

Here we go - 

Amanda Seyfried as Harmony/Melody

I did immediately think of the Olsen twins, as they're the only famous female twins that I know of but then... no. I ended up having to cast one actress as both roles, like Lindsey Lohan did in The Parent Trap and decided on Amanda Seyfried.  

She's 26, so she's a little old to play a teenager but then again actresses always play younger roles and she does look a little younger. I just figured the long blonde hair and general attractiveness was a perfect match for the twins and their 'retroaesthetical' appearances :p

Taylor Lautner as Zen

I know, I know, I don't like Taylor Lautner either. But then I wondered if I'd dislike him quite as much if he hadn't been in Twilight, and so I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I did imagine Zen as looking vaguely like this in my head though, so it's not a bad fit. Plus he's not too far away from the correct age, which helps.  

                                                     ?

as Jondoe

I really wanted Zac Efron to play Jondoe just because I have a soft spot for him, but I'm not sure it would be a good match. He should only ever play loveable, shiny characters not a sex-addict like Jondoe! Plus then all the teeny-boppers would flock to see this completely inappropriate film. 

Who then? It has to be somebody attractive to make all those adorable babies. There's nobody! They'd have to cast an unknown because there just aren't any charismatic, super-hot male teenagers in the celebrity world. 

Neil Patrick Harris as Lib.

Yeah! Who doesn't love Neil Patrick Harris!? There were loads of options regarding who to cast as Lib, Melody's over-excited and slightly camp agent, but in the end I figured this was the perfect choice.

Honestly, I found Lib incredibly irritating in the book, but if he was cast like this in the movie I think I could deal with it :) 

Who would you cast in a movie version of Bumped? Would you go see this film?

Bout of Books Read-a-thon Thursday Challenges

Firstly, BookSmartie wants to know what we snack on when we read. 

Honestly? I don't. I have Lupus and IBS, amongst other things, and the combination of those and a myriad of medication means that I tend to throw up. A lot. Roughly about a third. And while I am used to this, it ain't what I call pleasant and so I tend not to snack really. I have a slowly-growing list of things that I don't seem to throw up ever, but most of these aren't really snack foods. If I'm eating anything though, it's usually grapes - they're easy to eat one handed and not messy :)

Next, Reading in Winter asked us to a pick a book that would fit in perfectly with every season. Here we go!

Spring: I'd definitely go for something light and magical, like The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making. I just find that this is the perfect season for reading about magical lands and far-off places.

Alternatively, the scene from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe where the ice finally begins to melt would be a perfect Spring scene :)

Summer: I know a lot of people tend to go for 'beach reads' during the Summer, but I like to pick one heavy classic to read through the long days. This year it was Anna Karenina, but next year I'm thinking maybe The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Sunshine-y books like The Paradise Room by Belinda Jones would be perfect for summer relaxing though!

Autumn: HALLOWEEN! There's an Agatha Christie book called Halloween Party, although honestly I don't think it's one of her better ones. Otherwise there's a huge variety of spooky books, like Dracula, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or The Woman in Black.

I like to go for slightly easier books in Autumn, as it usually signals the start of the academic year and it can be a shock to the system after a long, lazy Summer! This year I'm going to Law School to do my BPTC after a year away, so it's going to be doubly difficult. I'll probably be choosing some YA reads as a break from the heavy reading at Uni - The Maze Runner, perhaps, or Wither.

Winter: My absolute favourite Christmas novel is A Christmas Carol - I read it every year. It's much, much more accessible than the other Dickens and the atmosphere is just amazing. There's also a wonderful Christmas scene in Little Women.

Winter is when I like to curl up in the warm and reread some of my favourites, like Pride and Prejudice, The Night Circus or The Hunger Games.   
 

Look at Monday's challenges here, or check out my Bout of Books progress!

Bout of Books Read-a-Thon Mini-Challenge 1

One of today's challenges was jointly created by The Space Between and Reading in Texas, and they want to know what we do with our books when we've finished reading them.

Well for me it varies. I have to admit that I am, first and foremost, a book hoarder. I love the idea of having a huge library one day and I think I've subconsciously started collecting for that. Unfortunately I've run out of room on my wall-to-wall bookshelves so I've had to be more ruthless lately.

Obviously I'm still willing to keep the books I love. Obviously. But if I don't like it then it gets plonked onto the ReaditSwapit website (my list of books is here) and then hopefully it can be swapped for something else. If it's been sat on there for a stupid amount of time, then I'll haul it down to the charity shop where I work and then get ridiculously over-excited when somebody buys it.

For the books I'm not sure about I let sit on my shelves, but not always permanently. Sometimes I need to muse on it for a while because you don't know if you're likely to want to read it again until after the buzz from it has already worn off. If I decide it's not worth it, then it'll get caught up in the next book purge a month or so in the future :)

What do you do with your books once you've read them?

Bout of Books Update Post

I'll update this at the end of each day, instead of spamming everybody's feed reader with posts :)

Conveniently, I finished my current read, The Fault in Our Stars, late Sunday night so it left me free to start a new book for the read-a-thon!

13/08 - Monday

Books I’ve read today: The Lost World by Michael Crichton
Pages I've read today: 122 pages of The Lost World.
Comments: I didn't get off to the best start today - I woke up late and then snatched an hour of X-box time while my boyfriend went out. Playing while he's in the room tends to erode our already fragile domesticity - he tries to 'help' and it doesn't end well.

Then I tried to real but kept getting distracted by the Olympic Closing Cermony on iPlayer and wishing Brian May would just stab Jessie J with the end of his guitar.

Still, I've caught up now. The Lost World is pretty good and I'm enjoying it (even though it wasn't even on my list of possible reads for this week) but I do wish I'd managed to get a review finished today (or started...).  Oh, and I did complete my first mini-challenge - what do you do with your books once you've read them?

14/08 - Tuesday

Books I’ve read today: The Lost World by Michael Crichton
Pages I've read today: 185 pages of The Lost World.
Comments: Better today. We haven't really been out or done anything today as The Boy is happily keeping himself busy while I read. I did have The Nap To End All Naps a little earlier, but that couldn't really be avoided.

I did manage to get a review up though! It wasn't one of the three that I listed in my goal post, but I finished the book after I'd written that and desperately wanted to talk about it. Read my review of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. 

15/08 - Wednesday

Books I’ve read today: The Lost World by Michael Crichton and The Gunslinger by Stephen King
Pages I've read today: 123 pages of The Lost World - FINISHED! and 25 pages of the other.
Comments: Yay! I finished my first book for the read-a-thon! I was hoping to be a reasonable length into my second by now, but the Jurassic Park books are surprisingly heavy. I love them though, so that's alright :)

We were going to go to the cinema today but as there's torrential rain outside we decided to stay in. Surprise surprise, I ended up with a headache the size of china, but I've done a little on my blog at least.

Oh oh! And I found out that I've been accepted to Middle Temple Inn, FINALLY! I'm due to start my BPTC in September and they don't admit you without membership to an Inn of Court and I've finally, FINALLY got in! *dances* 

16/08 - Thursday

Books I’ve read today: The Gunslinger by Stephen King
Pages I've read today: 75 pages. 
Comments: I've been at work today, so not really had chance to read. It doesn't help that I'm not really feeling The Gunslinger either. I've started to get into it a little more now, but I don't know. 

I also did two of the mini-challenges! Check them out here.
 
I've just come home from work after a week spent at my boyfriend's... and I'm sat in a room ON MY OWN! I can't even explain how truly awesome this feels.

17/08 - Friday

Books I’ve read today: The Gunslinger by Stephen King

Pages I've read today: 99 pages.

Comments: Pfft. Fairly crappy reading day today. I had to go to the hospital in Leeds this morning, which involves two trains and two buses in total, so I was fairly shattered when I got home and just went to sleep. By the time I got up it was 4:30pm and I watched Percy Jackson with Mum. I don't know, it's strange for me to have a day where I barely read - I hardly ever watch TV or films at home. Figures the one day I do is during a read-a-thon, right? :p

I did get one of my goal reviews up though - read my thoughts on King Solomon's Mines!

18/08 - Saturday

Books I’ve read today: The Gunslinger by Stephen King - FINISHED! and Bumped by Megan McCafferty

Pages I've read today: 39 pages of The Gunslinger and 280 of Bumped.

Comments: Now that's more like it! Clearly I made the mistake of kicking the read-a-thon off with two really heavy books, because now it feels like I'm flying through Bumped. It helps that I had incredibly low expectations for it due to a scathing review I read, so it was a pleasant surprise when I ended up enjoying it.

I haven't had much to do today, so I've been able to read a little more anyway. Well, I've had plenty to do inside the house (which was dutifully ignored) but nothing that meant I had to venture into the dreaded Outside, so I've nearly finished my third book just from today. 

98/08 - Sunday

Books I’ve read today: Bumped by Megan McCafferty - FINISHED! and Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan

Pages I've read today: 53 pages and 230 respectively.

Comments: I just can't believe it's the last day of the read-a-thon already. I've got no idea where this week has gone, but at least today I met my target of three books. I've written two reviews this week as well, so if I can get another all typed up this afternoon then that's another target met.

I also did one of the mini-challenges today - click here to see who I'd cast in a movie version of Bumped.

I finished Bumped a few minutes ago (about 2:30pm), so I should have time to start another a little later on :)

LATER - And I did! I got 170 pages into Theft of Swords, which is 649 pages long. Hardly a huge dint but at least it's a larger number to add to my total.



 

Bout Of Books Read-a-thon Post!

It's that time again! I had such a good time with the Bout of Books Read-a-thon a couple of months ago that I just had to sign up again. I know there have been a fair few other read-a-thons going on lately, but I have to admit that none of them have really grabbed me. 

Still, I know that I get along just fine with Bout of Books and I've been in a bit of a reading slump lately so maybe this will persuade me to get back into those books! I don't usually have reading slumps though, so it could just be the fairly stodgy couple of books I was reading at the time, but we'll see!

Join us!

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 13th and runs through Sunday, August 19th 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 5.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.  

                                -From the Bout of Books 5.0 team 

Goals

I feel like I've been bogged down quite a lot with library books, review copies and challenge reads lately, so I'm liking the idea of just choosing my own books of my shelves. With that in mind, I don't really want to set too concrete a goal list so I can enjoy this read-a-thon to its full capacity.

I'm going to aim for three books during the week, possibly from the following:

 

 These are the books on my shelves that I'm most anticipating. I picked my first free-choice book off my shelf today (Red Glove by Holly Black) and I'm loving it, so I'm really looking forward to just reading whatever the hell I want!

I've also fallen behind a little with reviews, due to my general all-encompassing slump, so I'd like to get the following three reviews up - 

• Counselling for Toads by Robert de Board
• King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
• Red Glove by Holly Black 

 Wish me luck!

Bout of Books Wrap-Up

 

I can't believe the Bout of Books read-a-thon is over already! Like I said in my update post, this was my first ever read-a-thon, but I'll definitely be back. I've always avoided them before, because they're usually over 24 hours and that's just not do-able for me. I'll definitely be back for the next Bout of Books though - I had a fantastic time, exceeded my goals and met a whole load of new bloggers!

These were my goals - 

I wanted to finish In Leah's Wake by Terri Giuliano Long, as I had about half of it left at the start of the read-a-thon. I also wanted to read and finish both The Pirates! in an Adventure with Moby Dick and Telling Tales: A History of Literary Hoaxes.

I actually completed all of this and a little more. Here's what I actually read: 

That's half of:

•  In Leah's Wake by Terri Giuliano Long, as I needed to finish it
• The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, because I wasn't masochistic enough to try and finish it.

But, more importantly, I started and finished:

• The Pirates! in an Adventure with Moby Dick by Gideon Defoe
• Telling Tales: A History of Literary Hoaxes by Melissa Katsoulis
• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
• The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho 

 Four full books and two halves - not too shabby, I think.

That's a total of 1330 pages! It's a much better total than I expected and I'm more than happy with it.

I also took part in two mini-challenges - the this or that challenge and then the shoe challenge on Friday. I swear I've never been so excited about a challenge before in my life - I managed to use not only my own books, but my own shoes as well!  

So, long story short, I had an awesome time last week and I'll definitely be signing up for the next one.