Monday was the first day of Bout of Books 16, and I think overall I had a good day: I managed my 100 pages reading goal, and I completed the daily challenge. I did miss the Twitter chat, but it was at 2am my time.

The daily challenge was to introduce myself #insixwords: Avid story reader & fandom reveller!

Today I read 112 pages of Truthwitch by Susan Dennard.

And finally, if you’re thinking about taking part in Bout of Books 16 there is still time (just). Just head on over to the Bout of Books blog. I hope everyone taking part had a good first day.

See you tomorrow!

Lookie, I decided to sign-up for another bout of books! This year is a little different as I’m going to not only update this blog but I’m also going to try and do mini-vlogs of my daily progress.

And for those of you who are new to my blog, here’s what Bout of Books is:

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 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th 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 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

If you want to find out how I did in Bout of Books 15 you can find how I did here.

And for those of you who are curious about what my goals are, and didn’t watch the video, here they are:

• Read 700 pages
• Take part in 1 Twitter chat
• Complete 2 challenges

They’re relatively simple, but I just want to use this as a chance to have fun. Please let me know in the comments if you are participating.

Good luck to everyone who is.

With Bout of Books 15 in full swing, I thought it was probably past time to write down my goals for this read-a-thon. The whole point of Bout of Books is to have fun, and with that in mind I’ve set myself some relatively easy goals. I am also going to use this page to keep track of my progress during the read-a-thon so if you want to see how I’m doing be sure to check back!

My Goals:

• Read 700 pages
• Take part in 1 chat
• Complete 2 challenges

I don’t think the goals I set myself are unrealistic – I don’t want to make reading a chore, after all – and I’m hoping that they’ll allow me to have some fun.

My Progress:

Monday 4th January

• Completed the #insixwords challenge: enthusiastic reader, dreamer, sleeper and nerd.
• Read 73 pages
• Missed the chat today as it was at 02:00 GMT and I wanted to sleep – hope everyone who managed to attend had fun.
• Although I didn’t reach my goal of 100 pages, I still had fun 🙂

Tuesday 5th January

• Completed the ‘Would You Rather’ challenge
• Read 188 pages
• Total pages read = 261
• It was a good day to read, and I just flew through CARRY ON.
• The ‘Would You Rather’ challenge was fun, and some of the questions were quite hard and had me umm-ing and err-ing trying to pick which was the better outcome.

Wednesday 6th January

• Completed the Rainbow Book Covers challenge. I actually found it quite hard. The indigo and violet choices were especially small – just the two I picked – and I’m not 100% sure they’re right. Oh well. It’s the thought that counts, surely?
• Today I read 82 pages.
• This brings my total for the read-a-thon so far to – 343.

Thursday 7th January

• I decided not to participate in today’s challenge because whilst it sounded fun, I’m not totally sure which villains I’d like to see faceoff. Lord Voldemort comes to mind as one of the participants, but I’m not totally convinced he’s be a good choice – well, unless the person he was facing was a Muggle and then I’m convinced he’d send someone else to do the job instead.
• Reading wise I seem to be back in the swing of things again. Not that 81 pages yesterday was bad, it just wasn’t my goal of 100.
• I’ve finished my first book of the read-a-thon, CARRY ON, and it was a very enjoyable read.
• Today I read 172 pages.
• This brings my total for the read-a-thon to: 515

Friday 9th January

• I started MORTAL GODS, but didn’t actually have a lot of time to read.
• I decided to do the scavenger hunt challenge, and had lots of fun doing it.
• Instead of reading, I used a couple of hours to watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I know I’m late to the party, but I really enjoyed watching the film. It was very similar in feel to the ‘original’ trilogy, and I look forward to seeing where this new trilogy goes.
• Today I read 140 pages.
• This brings my total to 655 pages.

Saturday 10th January

• I took part in today’s chat, which is another of my goals for this read-a-thon done. I was a little late to the party, but I had fun. The Twitter chat itself was brilliantly chaotic, and there were some interesting questions and answers.
• I finished my second book of the read-a-thon today too. I really enjoyed MORTAL GODS. It was what I expected from the previous book, though one of the characters did kind of scare me.
• I decided not to take part in today’s challenge because when I read I just tend to curl up wherever. I don’t have a particular spot where I sit and read – no comfy chair, no warm bed, no small space. I just tend to plonk myself down somewhere quiet and immerse myself in the book.
• Having finished my second book, I decided to start my third. This one’s a little different to the previous ones, and I’ve been looking forward to reading it. THE SANDMAN OVERTURE by Neil Gaiman will be a good third book I think.
• And to my great surprise I managed to finish my third book of the read-a-thon!
• Today I read 450 pages.
• This brings my total pages to 1, 105.

Sunday 11th January

• As there is no challenge today, and I have more than made my goal for this read-a-thon I have been in two minds about whether I should read today.
• Having said that, reading x pages a day is a good habit to have. Especially if I want to avoid any reading slumps this year, I think.
• Hope everyone is having a great final day.
• In the end I decided to do a little bit of reading. It seemed silly not to.
• Today I read 107 pages.
• This brings my total for Bout of Books 15 to 1, 212 pages.

This brings to an end Bout of Books 2015. I had a really fun time taking part, and I’m looking forward to Bout of Books 16 which is taking place from May 9th to May 16th (you can check the Bout of Books blog for more details). Hopefully I’ll be able to take part in that one too.

Okay, so I know I said there won’t be any more posts until 2016 but I had to post this. Bout of Books 15 is right around the corner, and as I seem to have slipped the reading slump for the moment I thought I’d take the opportunity and sign-up to participate.

For those who don’t know about Bout of Books, here’s some info:

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 4th and runs through Sunday, January 10th 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 15 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

If you’ve never taken part before, don’t worry! The whole point of Bout of Books is  not the challenges – and there are daily ones – but the fact that you sit down and you read. You can read as much, or as little, as you want – you get to set your own goal. There’s also a couple of Twitter chats where you can talk to new people. If you do want to take part in any of the challenges or join the chats you can find the schedule here.

I’d love to know if you’re taking part, so please leave a comment below. Good luck to everyone taking part!

Yesterday marked the start of Bout of Books 14, and whilst I am a little late (and by that I mean a whole awful lot) in doing this I thought I’d better get started – or risk losing the window. First off I am going to start by listing my goals for this bout of books, and below that I will be keeping track of my progress as the week progresses.

I’m really happy to have the time to participate in another Bout of Books, and I’m excited to begin.

For this bout of books my goals are:

• To read 100 pages a day
• To finish reading THE IRON GHOST
• To take part in 1 chat
• To attempt 1 challenge

How I’m doing this week:

Day 1: 17/08

Number of Books Read: –
Number of Pages Read: –
Book Currently in Progress: –
Things I participated in: –

Day 2: 18/08

Number of Books Read: 0
Number of Pages Read: 183
Book Currently in Progress:The Iron Ghost by Jen Williams
Things I participated in: –

Day 3: 19/08

Number of Books Read: 0
Number of Pages Read Today: 113
Number of Pages Read Total: 296
Book Currently in Progress: The Iron Ghost by Jen Williams
Things I participated in: –

Day 4: 20/08

Number of Books Read: 1
Number of Pages Read Today: 226
Number of Pages Read Total: 522
Book Currently in Progress: None
Things I participated in: –

Day 5: 21/08

Number of Books Read: 1
Number of Pages Read Today: 0
Number of Pages Read Total: 522
Book Currently in Progress: None
Things I participated in: –

Day 6: 22/08

Number of Books Read: 1
Number of Pages Read Today: 0
Number of Pages Read Total: 522
Book Currently in Progress: None
Things I participated in: –

Day 7: 23/08

Number of Books Read: 1
Number of Pages Read Today: 0
Number of Pages Read Total: 522
Book Currently in Progress: None
Things I participated in: –

Summary of Bout of Books 14: Although I failed nearly all my goals – the only one I did complete was to finish The Iron Ghost – I really enjoyed myself. Hopefully the mostly good reading vibes will continue.

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 17th and runs through Sunday, August 23rd 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 14 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

This is a little late, but…
As you may know, I’ve been struggling with just sitting down and reading on and off through 2015. I’ve really enjoyed taking part in some of the previous Bout of Books, so I thought I’d take a chance and sign up for this one.

And just a FYI, if you haven’t signed up already and think you might want to there’s still time – sign-ups close on Tuesday 18th August at 11.59pm CST.