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!