Day 7 Progress...and That's a Wrap! | Bout of Books 10.0

I can't believe Bout of Books 10.0 is already over! It went by so quickly, but it was definitely a blast. I loved all the challenges I participated in, and there were other really cool ones that I didn't end up doing as well. I wasn't sure what to expect from this read-a-thon because this was my first time doing it, but I certainly enjoyed learning and participating with my best friends Christine and Michelle. This is my progress for Bout of Books day 7, followed by a wrap-up of the week:

Books Completed Today:

"Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett

Pages Read Today: 125

Wrap-up!

Total Readings Completed: One graphic novel, one audiobook, one play, and eight comic book issues

• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley
• Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) audiobook by Mindy Kaling
• Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
• Serenity: Leaves on the Wind #002
• Serenity: Leaves on the Wind #003
• Serenity: Leaves on the Wind #004
• Loki: Agent of Asgard #002
• Loki: Agent of Asgard #003
• Loki: Agent of Asgard #004
• The Walking Dead #127 by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn
• Teen Titans Go! #1

Additional Readings (incomplete):

• Blood Red Road by Moira Young
• The Superman Chronicles, Volume 2 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

Total Number of Pages Read Overall: 594 and an audiobook (equal to 222 pages)

Challenges Completed: 5

• Rainbow of Books
• Retitle Your Current Read
• Spell It Out
• 10 Books You're Looking Forward To
• Show Author Love

How I did with my goals:

• My tentative reading list involved two novels, two graphic novels, a play and an audiobook; I got through the audiobook, play, one graphic novel and part of a novel, but didn't read through my whole list.
• I wanted to participate in at least one Twitter chat, but unfortunately they were held on days/at times when I couldn't get onto Twitter, so I wasn't able to do any. Better luck next time!
• I also wanted to participate in at least two challenges, a goal I surpassed by participating in FIVE challenges!
• As per my hopes, I succeeded in making daily progress posts.
• I wanted to read at least an hour a day for this week, and with the exception of one day, I did just that.

Despite not getting through my whole reading list, I think I did fairly well during Bout of Books. The whole point of the read-a-thon is to read more than you normally would, and I definitely succeeded at that so I'm happy with my results! This has been a really fun experience, especially participating with friends; I can already feel myself going into withdrawal so I'm looking forward to the next Bout of Books! :)

What did you think of Bout of Books? Did you reach your goals?

Retitle Your Current Read | Bout of Books 10.0 Challenge

Today's Bout of Books challenge is hosted by Oh Magic Hour and requires you to retitle your current read.

At the moment I'm reading multiple books, but I'd like to retitle "Waiting for Godot". The play centres around two characters who are - you guessed it - waiting for Godot, a man who never actually shows up. The play is rife with funny moments, many of which are a result of confusion. With that in mind, I would rename this play "No One Has Any Idea What's Going On or Why They're Here".

Did you participate in this challenge? Let me know in the comments!

Bout of Books 10.0 | Day 6 Progress

Today was cleaning day so it cut drastically into my reading time - our house takes forever (ok, maybe just a really long time) to clean. Despite the cleaning, I got more reading done, which I'm happy about.

Number of Books I'm Reading: 3

Titles:

• Blood Red Road by Moira Young
• Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
• The Superman Chronicles, Volume 2 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

Books Completed Today:

Teen Titans Go! #1

Pages Read Today: 83

Progress Thus Far: 469 and an audiobook

How was your progress on day 6?

Bout of Books 10.0 | Day 5 Progress

I got a lot of reading done today! Here's my progress for day 5:

Number of Books I'm Reading: 2

Titles:

• Blood Red Road by Moira Young
• Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

Books Completed Today:

Is Everyone Hanging Out without Me? (And Other Concerns) audiobook by Mindy Kaling

The Walking Dead #127 by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley

Pages Read Today: 156 and 60% of an audiobook

Progress Thus Far: 386 pages and an audiobook

How was your progress on day 5?

Rainbow of Books Challenge | Bout of Books 10.0

One of today's Bout of Books challenges is to create a Rainbow of Books. This is a fun challenge and I think it creates a really pretty image!

Rainbow of Books

These are the books I chose, from the bottom up:

• I am Legend by Richard Matheson (white)
• Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz (red)
• World War Z by Max Brooks (orange)
• When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman (yellow)
• The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (green - even the pages are green!)
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (blue)
• Walden by Henry David Thoreau (indigo)
• Glass by Ellen Hopkins (violet)
• Looking for Alaska by John Green (black)

What did you think of the Rainbow of Books challenge? Did you participate?

Bout of Books 10.0 | Days 3 & 4 Progress

I didn't read at all for Day 3 because the vast majority of the day was spent either in a car or waiting in a parking lot for Tom Hiddleston.

But for Day 4 I got quite a lot of reading done, especially in terms of comics I've been eager to catch up on (*ahem* Loki: Agent of Asgard *ahem*).

Number of Books I'm Reading: 3

Titles:

• Blood Red Road by Moira Young
• Is Everyone Hanging Out without Me? (And Other Concerns) audiobook by Mindy Kaling
• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley

Books Completed Today:

Serenity: Leaves on the Wind #002

Serenity: Leaves on the Wind #003

Serenity: Leaves on the Wind #004

Loki: Agent of Asgard #002

Loki: Agent of Asgard #003

Loki: Agent of Asgard #004

Pages Read Today: 167

Progress Thus Far: 230 pages and 40% of an audiobook

How was your progress today?

Spell It Out Challenge | Bout of Books 10.0

Today's Bout of Books 10.0 fun is the Spell It Out Challenge. Participants spell out a word using the first letter of a few book titles. I chose to spell out my birth month, November!

Not only does this list show books that I've read and loved, but this list is also a pretty accurate representation of the range of genres and types of writing I enjoy.

Did you complete this challenge?

Bout of Books 10.0 | Day 2 Progress

During day 2 of Bout of Books, Christine, Michelle and I had a tea party, which was lovely. Later in the day, I was able to get some reading done.

Number of books I picked up: 1

Title: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

Pages Read Today: 83

Total Pages Read: 146 and 40% of an audiobook

Bout of Books 10.0 Challenge | 10 Books that have been sitting on my shelves for ages that I'm looking forward to reading

One of today's Bout of Books challenges is to write a list of ten books you're looking forward to reading. Well, I have masses of books on my shelves that I've never read before, so I figure what better time is there to make a list of books on my shelves that I want to read?

1. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

I've wanted to read this for so long, but I haven't gotten to it yet. Once Bout of Books is over, it's the first book I'm going to read. The story is so intriguing to me; the cover is incredibly creepy yet beautiful, and the fact that there are more strange pictures inside is very cool. Everything I know about this novel appeals to me!

2. Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

I was supposed to read this for school, but in spite of it being really cool, I didn't get very far into it. It's a futuristic novel where technology is all-pervasive - there's pretty much nothing that isn't in some way affected by technology. I feel like although the thought of this happening is somewhat disturbing, it's actually quite plausible.

3. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

...I was supposed to read this one for school too. This is a dystopian novel and it takes place in a world where books are banned; the firefighters' jobs are to burn any books they find. Seriously, what a cool and absolutely horrifying concept.

4. The Shining by Stephen King

*Sigh* Ok, there were a lot of books I was supposed to read for school but didn't. But I'm trying now, I really am. Twice, I've gotten partway through this novel and it's really good, but for some reason I haven't been able to finish it. It's not because it's too scary for me or anything, although there's this great sense of foreboding throughout. I want to finish this creepy novel, once and for all.

5. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Honestly, I picked this up at a garage sale because it was 25 cents and looked really old and worn. I loved Cat's Cradle, which is also by Vonnegut, so I figured I'd give this a try. Plus, I've heard great things about the satire within.

6. The Archived by Victoria Schwab

If you've read my review of Vicious, then you know I love Victoria Schwab's writing. Christine, who introduced me to Schwab's writing, gave me this book. I'm especially excited to read this because from what I understand, the dead in the novel turn into "Histories" (aka books!!) and are archived. How cool would that be? Also, apparently the author had David Tennant's Doctor in mind while writing this. My inner Whovian is exploding to read this.

7. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

This is the second book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. I want to continue the series because Hitchhiker's had me laughing out loud constantly - the satire is done so incredibly well. It's one of the funniest novels I've ever read. To give you a tidbit of what I mean, there are five books in this trilogy.

8. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

This is a post-apocalyptic novel that follows a father and son as they travel the barren landscapes that follow a global catastrophe. I've seen the movie and it was spectacularly done, but now I want to read the book that inspired it.

9. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

I'm not sure if you're sensing a pattern here, but dystopian/post-apocalyptic/futuristic novels are my kryptonite. 

10. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

Yes. I know. I haven't read the last book in the Harry Potter series. I don't know why. I love the whole series but for some reason, I just haven't read the last one! 

What books are you looking forward to reading?

Bout of Books 10.0 | Day 1 Progress

My very first day participating in Bout of Books was certainly an interesting one!

I got a decent amount of reading done, given the day I had. You may have read my earlier post about attending Moira Young's book signing - much of the day was spent travelling there and then waiting in Chapters for the event to begin.

Given all that, here is the progress I made today:

Number of books I'm currently reading: 3

Titles:

• Blood Red Road by Moira Young
• Is Everyone Hanging Out without Me? (And Other Concerns) audiobook by Mindy Kaling
• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley

Progress thus far:

• 63 pages and about 40% of an audiobook

So far, I'm really enjoying Blood Red Road; I think the way it's written is unique, and although it took me a while to get used to the style of writing, I'm quite enjoying it now. The story is so intriguing. Is Everyone Hanging Out without Me (And Other Concerns) is hilarious and often quite relateable -Mindy Kaling is so funny. Batman: The Dark Knight Rises is the typical broody goodness you'd expect from a Batman graphic novel, so I'm quite enjoying that so far as well.

How much progress did you make on Bout of Books Day 1?

Bout of Books 10.0 Goals & "To Be Read" List

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I'm doing Bout of Books 10.0! As there are only a few days left before the awesomeness begins, I decided it'd be a good idea to post my goals for the read-a-thon, as well as my "To-Be-Read" list.

I'm doing Bout of Books with two of my best friends, so I know I'll have plenty of support and encouragement; not to mention the fellow participants I'm sure I'll be meeting!

Goals:

• Read two novels, two graphic novels, one play and listen to one audiobook
• Participate in (at least) one Twitter chat (I've never done Bout of Books before, so I'm not really sure what to expect for these)
• Participate in two challenges (again, I've never done this before so I'd like to try different things)
• Make daily progress posts
• Read at least one hour per day (although I'm hoping to do more than that)

To-Be-Read:

To-Be-Read for Bout of Books

• John Green's "The Fault in Our Stars" (I'm also participating in the Chapters/Indigo book club, and TFIOS is this month's book)
• Moira Young's "Blood Red Road: Dustlands 1" (I'm going to a signing for Moira on Monday, so I might start a bit early on this one)
• Frank Miller, Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley's "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns"
• Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's "The Superman Chronicles: Volume 2"
• Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot"
• Mindy Kaling's audiobook "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)"

And of course, this list is tentative; if I feel more inclined to read a different story or (*GASP*) I finish my list with time to spare, I'll choose something else to read.

Are you participating in Bout of Books? What are you reading?

I'd like to give a big thanks to Christine, who introduced me to and has been showing me the ropes of this read-a-thon!

I'm doing Bout of Books; Picture-a-Day #126

I'm doing Bout of Books 10.0!

Bout of Books is a biannual read-a-thon that starts next week; it encourages participants to read more than their usual. I'm really excited to be doing a read-a-thon again, because I haven't done one since I was a kid. My local library always held events during the summer and the kids who read the most books got prizes. Ah, those were the days.

For those of you who are interested in joining the read-a-thon, here's Bout of Books' official description:

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

Bring on the books!

Are you participating in Bout of Books?