Bout of Books Challenge: What to Read Next!

Today's challenge is to "recommend 3 books (and only 3 books) you have read this year that you think should be recognized as something great." It's hosted by Sarah over at Sarah Reads Too Much!

1. You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day

You can check out my (gushing) review here! As a person of the internet, Felicia understands. "Understands what," you ask. Everything - your obsession with gaming and being on the internet, the anxiety that comes with talking to people (new and otherwise)...she's very easy to relate to and she's hilarious! And the pictures she includes are just pure gold.

2. One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B.J. Novak

My review for this collection can be found here! This book of short stories pleasantly surprised me, even though I was already anticipating enjoying it because I like B.J. Novak's humour. There's a mixture of funny and touching stories, and I loved most of them. I'll be coming back to this one.

3. The Night Sister by Jennifer McMahon

Stay tuned - my review for this one will be up on Tuesday! From the opening scene onward, I was hooked on this story and its characters. There's a pervading creepiness from page one, and I wasn't sure how that could be maintained over the course of an entire book, but it happened. So creepy.

What book(s) have you read this year that you think everyone should read?

Bout of Books Challenge: Road Trip!

Hi friends! Today's Bout of Books challenge is hosted by Steph over at Steph in Wonderland, and we have to make a list of books set in places we'd like to visit.

I don't know about you, but I love road trips! It's so cool that we can take a bookish approach to this and go on an adventure; I chose to do a Canadian road trip, as it's something I think would be really cool to do in real life. Starting with the west coast:

British Columbia: The Emily Carr Mystery by Eric Wilson
Saskatchewan: Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat
Quebec: Bottle Rocket Hearts by Zoe Whittall
Prince Edward Island: Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Newfoundland: Barnacle Love by Anthony De Sa

Bout of Books Challenge: MASH!

When I found out what today's challenge was, I was...well, nostalgic, to say the least. I remember playing this game constantly in elementary school to pass the time. It was such a fun way of imagining my (sadly) fictional future with my then-celebrity-crushes.

Today's challenge is hosted by Sarah over at Rocky Top Real Talk. I just had to jump in and do this challenge, and to up the stakes, I threw in a not-so-great option in each category!

Did you enter this challenge? Feel free to leave a comment and a link below, I'd love to see your results! Have fun during the rest of the read-a-thon :) 

Bout of Books Challenge: Scavenger Hunt!

Today is my first challenge entry for Bout of Books 14! Today's challenge is hosted by Kristen over at The Book Monsters, and it's a scavenger hunt. I personally love doing book scavenger hunts, so I always look forward to this challenge when Bout of Books rolls around.

1. A book that begins with "B" (for Bout of Books!)

Blindness by José Saramago

2. A book you're currently reading for Bout of Books

The Night Sister by Jennifer McMahon

3. Blue Book

You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day

(I cannot say enough good things about this book - you can see my review here!)

4. Book from your favourite genre!

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

(One of my favourite genres is horror/thriller)

5. A book on your TBR shelf

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

Did you participate in this challenge? Feel free to leave a comment below so I can check out your challenge entry!

Book Haiku! | Bout of Books 13 Challenge

Today's challenge is hosted by Kristina Horner - we get to write a haiku about whatever book we're reading right now!

George. Gentle giant.

Landseer Newfoundland surfs.

Sweet AND talented.

Just in case you don't know, George is a dog! He's a Landseer Newfoundland and on a trip to the beach one day his owner, Colin, realized that George knew how to surf - George has even participated in surfing competitions! You can read all about their life together in Colin Campbell's Free Days with George.

What are you currently reading for Bout of Books? Did you do this challenge?

Bookish Survey! | Bout of Books 13 Challenge

It's Bout of Books Day 1, and you know what that means...the challenges have begun! Today's challenge is hosted by Lori over at Writing My Own Fairy Tale, and it's a bookish survey. Feel free to answer any/all of the questions in a comment below or, better yet, leave a comment and link me to your very own responses!

1. How do you organize your shelves?

"Organize"? I no longer know the meaning of that word. I used to arrange my books vertically with some carefully-placed horizontal ones, but now my collection has extended to piles on my desk, floor...any clear surface, really.

2. What is one of your favourite books that's not in one of your favourite genres?

I don't tend to read many autobiographies or memoirs, but I loved The Wild Oats Project by Robin Rinaldi. It's a really honest account of Robin's one-year open marriage with her husband. I love the honesty and the way it made me think about possibilities in life...and it's educational in more ways than one.

3. What is the last 5 star book you read?

Boo by Neil Smith. I finished it today and oh. my. gosh. It's wonderfully unique, and if you want diverse characters, look no further. Review coming soon!

4. What book are you most excited to read during the read-a-thon?

That's tough because I've picked quite a few good'uns for this week. But I'm going to have to say Saga, Volume 4 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples; I love this series so much and I'm excited to journey through the next volume!

5. What book do you recommend the most?

I tend to recommend books based on what I've just finished, so this changes quite a bit.

5-Book Challenge: Post-Apocalyptic Edition! | Bout of Books 11 Challenge

Ashley over at Falling Down the Book Hole is hosting today's final Bout of Books challenge! Using the following blurb as inspiration, we must pick 5 books we would grab if there was an impending apocalypse and we had to abandon our homes:

"It is 11:00 PM on a Sunday night. You are laying in bed thinking about all of the things you must do the next day. Tasks of the coming days consume your thoughts and while your mind is somewhere else you are caught off guard by a flash in the sky that is followed by a large wailing screech that pierces the air and shatters your bedroom window. Slowly you move to the window and what you see catches your breathe and causes you to stumble back a few steps. The aliens (at least you think they are aliens) have began to enter the city and destroy everything that is in their path. Through the window your view is consumed with destruction, screaming people and large flames that are dancing across the city at a fast pace. You notice that the creatures are heading in your direction and you realize you probably have about fifteen minutes before they reach your home. That means you have only about ten minutes to gather your belongings and escape before you are caught in the attack from the aliens invading the city."

I would take these books with me:

World War Z: An Oral History of the World by Max Brooks - This isn't just a book about zombies. This was thoroughly thought-out and if you stop for a moment to think about what you're reading, you realize that a lot of the theories and political reactions to an outbreak Brooks' writes about could very well be true. This novel would help me in an alien invasion because it'd give me ideas about where to seek safer shelter and how to react to new and dangerous situations.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (gah...or The Half Blood Prince, I'm not sure!) by J.K. Rowling - One of my favourite childhood series...how could I not? I've always loved getting lost in Harry Potter's world and these two are my favourites in the series. Reading either of these would help me take my mind off of the chaos around me.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell - I would take this book with me so I'd always remember what kind of person I was before the invasion. I feel so much like the protagonist, Cath, that throughout the novel I felt like I was reading about myself. Having to survive after an invasion would surely change me as a person, and it'd be nice to have this around to remind me of what life was like before.

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories by Tim Burton - I love Tim Burton's art, poetry, movies...this book contains two of those things. The poems are so sweet and at the same time, quite morbid, which is a combination I love - it makes for some laughs! And after an invasion, I'm sure I'd appreciate some of those.

Black Widow: The Finely Woven Thread by Nathan Edmondson - Natasha Romanoff is a badass. But not the kind that gets everything done cleanly - she makes mistakes, and they cost her. That makes her more relatable, I feel. Black Widow would inspire me to survive with her strength, intelligence and badassery.

What books would you take with you if there were an apocalypse?

Recreate a Book Cover! | Bout of Books 11 Challenge

Samantha over at Spines and Covers is hosting one of today's Bout of Books challenges! This challenge is to recreate any book cover in essentially any medium, be it drawing, photoshop, or whatever else you can think of. I decided to involve makeup in my challenge, and chose to recreate the cover of Unite Me by Tahereh Mafi:

Did you do this challenge? Feel free to leave me a link to your post and enjoy the rest of Bout of Books!

Photos by Author

Book Spine Poetry! | Bout of Books 11 Challenge

Alysia over at My Little Pocketbooks is hosting one of today's Bout of Books challenges! This one involves book spine poetry, which is pretty much self-explanatory: you write a poem using the titles of books you own! As a way of making the challenge a bit easier, we get one free word for every book we use - so since I'm using seven books, I can choose seven words of my own. This is my very own book spine poetry:

Let me in

to

the Murdered House

where the

road ends

in

Hollow City.

Under

Alabama Moon

we're

dancing with the dead -

all

shades of grey.

Photo by Author

Book Scavenger Hunt! | Bout of Books 11 Challenge

I love the idea of Book Scavenger Hunts! Whenever I see this kind of challenge, I will do it. They're a lot of fun to me! Kristen over at The Book Monsters is hosting today's challenge, and without further ado, here is my entry.

1. A book that begins with "B" (for Bout of Books!): Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz

2. A book that has been made into a movie: Blindness by José Saramago

3. A series you love: The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

4. An anthology of poems: The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories by Tim Burton

5. A book on your TBR shelf: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Do we share any of the same picks? Feel free to leave me a link to your entry and have fun during this Bout of Books!

Photos by Author

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!

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?

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 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?