Bout of Books 12

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 5th and runs through Sunday, January 11th 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 12 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

It’s just after Christmas, and I’ve been lax on the reading front so I thought that taking part in the first Bout of Books of 2015 would be a good way to get back into reading.

This year the Bout of Books team have decided to remove the goal aspect of the challenge – which I’m kind of sad about. So although they won’t be “official”, I’m going to set myself some goals I would like to achieve during Bout of Books 12. They aren’t going to be super hard though, because the whole point is to have fun.

During Bout of Books 12 I would like to:

• Attend a Twitter chat
• Participate in a challenge
• Read two books from my TBR shelf

So there they are, and I guess next week we’ll see how they go. Fingers crossed I’ll manage to do all three.

If you are participating in Bout of Books 12 please comment below and let me know – it’s always cool to see how other people are doing. And finally, I hope everyone participating this time has a great time.

See you on the other side.

The Wrap-Up

Sunday concluded Bout of Books 11, and it was a great reading day for me. I read 433 pages, which I was really proud of. I finished reading the book I started on Saturday and made an indent into a new one. So I got to end Bout of Books 11 on a high note 🙂

Books Completed (Total): 4 – INTO THE STILL BLUE, NIGHT BROKEN, THE ASSASSIN’S BLADE, DARK VISION
Total Pages: 1,643
Twitter Chats: 2 – I took part in the Monday and Saturday chats. They were beautifully chaotic.
Challenges: 2 – I took part in a Monday Challenge and the Saturday Challenge

Although I did not manage to read 100 pages every day, my total amount of pages read is more than double my original goal. So, I think I should count that as a win 🙂

I had huge fun taking part and am looking forward to participating in Bout of Books 12.

Saturday – Day 6

Today was a typical Saturday, so I got a little caught up in life and didn’t end up reading much BUT I did manage to squeeze in the challenge. It ended up being a LOT of fun, though more work than I expected it to be!!! Today’s challenge was created by Kimberlyfaye Reads and can be found here.

The challenge:

Use the first letter in any book you’ve read or want to read to spell out a word. You can choose first name, initials, your birthday month, or your zodiac sign.

You can see my entry below – it spells SEPTEMBER (my month of birth).

I used:

Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong
Eon by Alison Goodman
Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
Tiger’s Curse by Colleen Houck
Eona by Alison Goodman
Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder
Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce
Ever After by Kim Harrison
Rising Darkness by Thea Harrison

It was quite difficult finding some of the letters, especially the ‘e’s as I tried not to use any book that had titles starting with the. But I managed it! I’m super proud 😀

Books Read Today: 1
Books Completed (Total): 3 – INTO THE STILL BLUE, NIGHT BROKEN, THE ASSASSIN’S BLADE
Pages Read Today: 50
Total Pages: 1,210

Friday – Day 5

I had a bad start reading-wise for day five. I slept late then I met Mum in town for lunch, and it was my turn to cook dinner. So I didn’t start reading until probably early evening. Despite that I had a brilliant day reading-wise, though I didn’t participate in the challenge. I think it’s safe to say that Bout of Books is going surprisingly well at the moment.

Books Read Today: 1
Books Completed (Total): 3 – INTO THE STILL BLUE, NIGHT BROKEN, THE ASSASSIN’S BLADE
Pages Read Today: 430
Total Pages: 1,160

Wednesday – Day 3

The third day of the read-a-thon was a bit busier for me than the previous two days I had to visit the doctor for a routine appointment. Read-a-thon wise the day was…well, a dud. I read zero pages, didn’t do a challenge, and I didn’t stay up and participate in the chat (2am was too late y’all).

Ah well…

Books Read Today: 0
Pages Read Today: 0
Total Pages: 279

Thursday – Day 4

With the disaster of day three behind me I approached the fourth day of the read-a-thon with renewed zeal…. and didn’t end up reading in the morning, but I totally surprised myself by the end of the day and I think I’m back on track (kind of).

Books Read Today: 2
Books Completed (Total): 2 – INTO THE STILL BLUE, NIGHT BROKEN
Pages Read Today: 451
Total Pages: 730

Tuesday – Day 2

The second day of this read-a-thon went much better than the first, at least as far as reading was concerned.

I didn’t participate in any of the challenges, though I did think about them. Infinite Ink’s challenge (more info here) sounded particularly interesting… So I thought I would say something here instead.

Challenge:

For this challenge, I want to hear all about your favorite literary OTP.  Tell me why you ship them.  Tell me how perfect they are for each other.

I have to admit that I don’t have a single OTP, and most of my preferred OTPs are not by any definition canon. So thinking of a canon based OTP has been a bit of a challenge, but I think I’ve managed to come up with a couple, one of which was inspired by Crystal’s example on Infinite Ink. So here goes…

Li Syaoran & Kinomoto Sakura from Card Captor Sakura and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles both by CLAMP.

I was first instroduced to Syaoran and Sakura through the anime Card Captors, and I just fell in love with the characters and the world. Then I read the manga on which the series was based, and it was awesome. So when I heard that CLAMP were re-using the characters in Tsubasa I had to read it too.

I ship Syaoran/Sakura because they are just adorable together. It was really fun in both mangas watching them fall in love with one another, and the other characters’ reactions to their relationship.

If you’ve never read a manga before, then I totally recommend anything by CLAMP as a great place to start. They typically write really cute romances with adventure and magic.

Alanna & George from The Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce.

I’m afraid I’ve been an Alanna/George shipper from the start. I know a lot of people wanted Alanna to be with Jon, but I always felt that Alanna would have to bend too much for the relationship to work long-term. I ship them primarily because George makes Alanna laugh and take life less seriously – sometimes she can be too serious, and life has to have fun times too. I also ship them because George is always there for Alanna even when she’s made it pretty clear that she just wants them to be friends.

Books Read Today: 1
Pages Read Today: 241
Total Pages: 279

Monday – Day 1

The first day of this challenge was both a resounding success and a complete disaster.

I didn’t do much reading at all. Like almost none. However, I did manage to participate in a challenge (see below) and in the Twitter chat which was fun and hectic.

Challenge:

The Book Monsters held a scavenger hunt (you can find more details here) and here is my entry:

1. A Book that begins with “B” (for Bout of Books!) –> Beka Cooper/Bloodhound
2. A book that has been made into a movie/tv show –> The Last Song
3. A series you love –> Beka Cooper Trilogy
4. An anthology of poems or short stories –> The Assassin’s Blade (kind of a cheat, I think)
5. A book on your TBR shelf, or your full TBR shelves –> The Assassin’s Blade

It was quite fun doing this challenge.

Books Read Today: 1
Pages Read Today: 38

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 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

As I am currently running super behind both in signing up for this Bout of Books, and in blog posts in general, I have decided to combine what would normally be two posts… Sorry in advance if this post gets super long!!

Bout of Books 11 is my fourth time taking part in this read-a-thon. On the whole I have found the read-a-thon to be really enjoyable, and I have been on the whole quite successful with my goals. Taking part in the read-a-thon has also helped me to get back on track with my reading schedule, which I’m falling behind on yet again. Here’s hoping that this one will continue that pattern.

So without further ado, here are my goals for Bout of Books 11.

Time Devoted To Reading … I think I’m going to go with the same goal as I did with Bout of Books 10, I’m going to aim to read about 2 hours a day for the whole seven days.

My Goals for Bout of Books 10:

1. Read 100 pages a day minimum.
2. Take part in 1 Twitter chat.
3. Participate in 1 Challenge.

Books I want to Read:

These are the books which are next in my TBR pile. I doubt I will manage to read all of them, but it would be nice to make a dent into the stack. I’m going very much by my mood this time, so which ones I read will definitely depend on how I feel on that particular day.

Links to Goal Updates:

• Monday 18th August
• Tuesday 19th August
• Wednesday 20th August
• Thursday 21st August
• Friday 22nd August
• Saturday 23rd August
• The Wrap-Up

Good luck and happy reading to everyone else entering!