Bout of Books 19 | TBR, Goals, Update Post

Another Bout of Books is upon us, my most favorite of readathons (sorry #readathon, but you're a very, very close second). This is my... who knows, honestly (13th? 14th?) time taking part in Bout of Books and I have so much fun every time. A whole week of a readathon with no challenges or pressures, and also fun twitter chats.

If you're confused - Bout of Books website. If you're also taking part, feel free to link me to your blog or whatever you're updating your progress for this readathon. Now, onto goals and my possible TBR for the week, this post will also hold my updates for every day.

Happy readathon!

The Goals

• Read! As much as possible but not giving myself too much pressure to read a certain amount. I've got a ton of books I want to get to, just keep picking them up.
• Visit blogs! Comment! Interact! (One of my favorite parts of book blogging and I'm so bad at it because I let my anxiety get the best of me, but I've been really pushing myself recently to comment/talk with the cool book people)
• Twitter chats!
• Bout of Book expert? (I signed up to be one and it seems like a cross between a cheerleader and a volunteer to answer any questions on twitter/other social media. I'm really excited about this, actually, sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun)

The Stack

(to choose from)

• Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy (comes out Tuesday)
• Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson
• Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson

And like so many more? I have a huge pile of books I want to read ASAP that I'll be picking from, I'll post a picture on instagram that I'll link when it's up because it's ridiculous. Books and trades of comics. (this will be changed/edited as readathon goes on)

The Updates

Monday
Number of books I've read today: 0
Pages read: 35
Time Spent Reading: 14 minutes
Books:
Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson (started - 35 pages)

Notes:
Well. I didn't read a lot, but I did (mostly) take part in the twitter chat!


Tuesday
Number of books I've read today: 0
Total # of books I've read: 0
Pages read: 42
Total # of pages: 75 
Time Spent Reading: 36 minutes
Total Time Spent Reading: 50 minutes
Books:
Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson (continues - 42 pages)

Notes:
(I forgot to update this heyoooo) (had that ever happened before)

Wednesday
Number of books I've read today: 1
Total # of books I've read: 1
Pages read: 307
Total # of pages: 382 
Time Spent Reading: 3 hours, 44 minutes
Total Time Spent Reading: 4 hours, 36 minutes
Books:
Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson (finished - 307 pages)

Notes:
This reread was SO GOOD OH MY GOOD. I can't wait, and am terrified, of starting Bands of Mourning. I actually read for more then an hour today, HEYOOO.

Thursday
Number of books I've read today: 0
Total # of books I've read: 1
Pages read: 231
Total # of pages: 613 
Time Spent Reading: 3 hours, 4 minutes
Total Time Spent Reading: 7 hours, 40 minutes
Books:
The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson (started - 231 pages)

Notes:
So many things are happening what do I do?

Friday
Number of books I've read today: 1
Total # of books I've read: 2
Pages read: 191
Total # of pages: 804 
Time Spent Reading: 2 hours, 16 minutes
Total Time Spent Reading: 9 hours, 54 minutes
Books:
The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson (finished - 191 pages)

Notes:
This book was so good and the ending and - my brain is broken.

Saturday, Sunday, and Wrap up

I realized I never actually published my updates for Friday and Thursday so they're there now. Overall this wasn't a great reading week for me, but it was a lot of fun to take part in the twitter chats and see everyone on twitter. I just, honestly, wasn't feeling super well this week - mentally or physically. The books did kind of help that, as did the fun of chatting to fellow book nerds, but I was just so tired that if I tried reading my head would start dipping.

So tired, I'm still not sure fully why. Anyway - if you did bout of books, let me know how you did or post the link to your wrap up. I hope you had a great week, reading and otherwise, and hopefully I'll talk to you soon!

Bout of Books 19 | Kick Off

And it's the first day of the readathon! I love this readathon, with all my soul. I have exciting news about it, too, which I didn't have when I posted my sign up post - I'm a bout of books expert this time around! *confetti canon* I'm really excited about it?

So please leave me links to your blogs, if you're taking part - or twitter, tumblr, goodreads, just wherever you're updating. (For those curious an expert is basically, from my understanding, a volunteer whose a cross between a cheerleader and someone to answer questions anyone has that they see. And spread BoB happiness, which I am all for).

And that's all I've got for this short kickoff post - there should be a post going up at about the same time as this that'll be my update post that I update throughout the week. Basically: start of readathon (still time to sign up if you haven't), and let me know if you're taking part (I'm better at reading/commenting on blogs after the hiatus I took).

Now - let us readathon!

2017 Challenges | #DiversityBingo2017 + #DiverseReads2016

From the challenges this year you might of noticed a theme: diversity. I think all three of these challenges are good at pushing diversity, I mean two of them have diversity in the title, but the Read Harder challenge always has a diverse list of books to check out - genre, content, such.

Normally I'd talk about the challenges in no specific order, but there's definitely an order for how I feel towards these three challenges. #DiversityBingo2017 (felt too weird to type without the hashtag since I've been talking about it on twitter non-stop, not sorry) is the number one thing. I'm going to post a TBR, with everything I found for every category, and if you've got any recommendations for a book in a west asian setting (or if you can give me a straight answer on what is considered west asian because googling gave me various answers).

Diverse Reads mostly lines up with Diversity Bingo, so I figured I might as well take part because the google doc they created is pretty great so I wanted to talk about that too. Honestly, I'd of completed it by just doing the others so it's perfect, and fun.

Read Harder is run by Book Riot and is 24 challenges, so 2 a month, and is always great (though I've never completed it, normally because there's at least one that I don't really care about. See: for 2016, food memoir. I mean sure but also...? Just isn't really my thing).

#DiversityBingo2017 - all the info

Yes, it's an actual bingo card, I'm very happy about it. I original made it as big as I could so you could see the creators, but it's still hard. So I'm going to type out their twitter handles:

@novelparadise, @headinherbooks, @thesebooklions, @thebooksbuzz, @rhaegardied, @ohbrekker, @aimalfarooq, @bookwormwanders, @theauslibrary

If you're interested I'd go check out/hangout in the twitter hashtag, it's a great place to be. I'm really excited about this one and trying to complete all 36 spaces - so many! - and making sure I have books for each that I'm excited for (so far it hasn't been too hard, but finding own voices books has been, but only because of how much time you can put into it and still not have an answer).

But any reccs I'll accept, I've picked out most of my books, but some I'm going back and forth on (a few because too many I want to read!)

Diverse Reads is being hosted by Mishma of Chasing Faerytales and Shelly of Read.Sleep.Repeat. They have specific monthly challenges, that I won't be following simply because I can't structure my reading that much it'll drive me insane (I wish I could, I'd be more organized as a human).

2017 Reading Goals

Alright so this one I'm rewriting completely - which I didn't really have to do for the others - but I wrote this, and the other end of year posts, at the actual end of the year but then never proofed and posted.

I love New Years and goals - and lists of goals. It might be a problem but I'm okay with that. I love setting goals, basically, but ones I know I can accomplish as long as I remember that they're there and have enough spoons. This year I'm more limited then I have been previously, not as many specific things listed, but mostly because I feel #DivesityBingo2017 is going to be harder then I think it will - even though I've pretty much got books for ever one.

(I'm also kind of doing Book Riot's read harder but I haven't been able to finish it the last few years, and would rather focus on diversity in my reading - which the read harder challenge does push but I like the prompts/challenges for the other two better).

This year's reading challenges are pretty similar to last years - they worked out for me and I liked them.

• Read 100 books (again) (yes, book books) (listen, it works)
• Complete series I've already started / generally just complete series
• #DiversityBingo2017
• #DiverseReads2017

I'm going to do a full post on the challenges just so that I can lay everything out for them. I'll also be doing a separate post of my Diversity Bingo TBR/recommendations because I have done a shit ton of research for this. Probably 8+ hours so far, and might end up doing more because the internet has failed me on explaining geography. I thought I knew things, it turns out I don't but neither goes google.

Anyway - what challenges are you taking part in for 2017? If you're taking part in any of the challenges I am, let me know! From the new releases I'm making a list of to preorder, it's going to be a good year of books.

April 2017 | Monthly Wrap Up

I started blogging again this month and so we have a monthly wrap up! How exciting! Honestly, it kind of is for me, I forgot how much I really just enjoyed doing this. Looking back on the month, seeing what I'd read / posted on the blog and such.

Personally, I think I had a pretty good reading month, considering everything. I'm hoping to read more in May and, I should, finally finish Words of Radiance. I think I have like 400 pages, was going to try and finish during April but it just didn't end up happening for a few reasons. Sadly. I'm loving it, though, it's so good.

Books:

• Even This Page is White by Vivek Shraya (5/5)
• So Sweet (So Sweet #1) by Rebekah Weatherspoon (4/5)
• Check Please! Year One and Year Two by Ngozi Ukaza (5/5)
• Radio Silence by Alice Oseman (5/5)
• The God Engines by John Scalzi
• Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor
• Second Kiss by Chelsea M Cameron 
• One Hot December (Men at Work #3) by Tiffany Reisz 
• Forest of Memory by Mary Robinette Kowal

Graphic Novels:

• Injection, Volume 1 by Warren Ellis
• Injection, Volume 2 by Warren Ellis
• Lumberjanes, Volume 6: Sink or Swim by Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters
• Giant Days, Volume 4 by John Allison

Okay so there were some good ones this month. Even This Page is White made me cry - I read it in snippets because poetry but it was amazing. Radio Silence also gave me a lot of feelings, in a totally different vein, but for some reason it was just so amazing? Platonic m/f bffs and a bi MC and a demisexual mc. I kind of flipped a little because, my friends, the word is actually used.

Check Please!, if you don't know, if a web comic about queer hockey players - here's where to start reading it online for free - and it's just really damn amazing. It has characters that I adore, probably an unhealthy amount, and also a happy m/m couple where one becomes a professional hockey player? It's so good? Love it!

For some thoughts on my Dewey's read - Dewey's wrap up - but Binti: Home was amazing and more people need to read Injection.

Let me know what you read this month, or what you got up to in general. If you've posted a monthly wrap up, feel free to link me to it.

Happy reading!

On the Blog:
Dewey's readathon | April 29th | Sign Up
Where have I been? And where is this going? | Hello, again
My Favorite Reads of 2016 + My Year in Reading
Bout of Books 19 | Sign Up Post
Dewey's 24 hour readathon | April 201
Dewey's readathon | Wrap Up

First Quarter | Wrap Up, Goals Update

I haven't been posting monthly wrap ups so I thought I'd do that for the first quarter and then talk about how I am doing so far in relation to my 2017 goals (yes, this is a little late, but I'm just getting back into blogging. Better late then never, right?)

I've never done a quarterly wrap up - though I'd like to keep doing quarterly check ins to help keep me on track for my goals - so w are winging it. And this will be a bit more cluttered, hopefully, then future ones since I also haven't been doing monthly wrap ups and want to talk about what I read. (If you just want to see my goal updates, jump to the bottom, will be bolded)

Books:

• Crush by Richard Siken (??)
• The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co #1) by Jonathan Stroud (3.5/5)
• The Virgin by Tiffany Reisz (5/5)
• Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (5/5)
• Sex Object by Jessica Valenti (4/5)
• The Summer Palace by C.S. Pacat (4/5)
• The Secret Lives of Rockstars by Suzanne Lazear (5/5)
• The Queen by Tiffany Reisz (5/5)
• The Melody of You and Me by M. Hollis (3/5)
• Heir of Fire (ToG #3) by Sarah J Maas (2.5/5)
• The Assassin's Blade (ToG #0) by Sarah  Maas (2/5)
• Queen of Shadows (ToG #4) by Sarah J Maas (2/5)
• Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (5/5)
• Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (4.5/5)
• Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo (5/5)
• The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle (4/5)
• Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai (5/5)
• My Year of Epic Rock by Andrea Pyros (4/5)
• Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins (3/5)
• Snapshot by Brandon Sanderson (4/5)
• The Confessions by Tiffany Reisz (5/5)
• Defying Convention by Cecil Wilde (5/5)
• Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde (5/5)
• Daughter of the Blood (Black Jewels #1) by Anne Bishop (5/5)

Graphic Novels

• Adulthood is a Myth by Sarah Anderson (4/5)
• El Deafo by Cece Bell (4/5)
• Lumberjanes, Volume 4: Band Together by Noelle Stevenson, + (5/5)

Mini book talk:

Alright so I read some fantastic books - and also reread, with the Tiffany Reisz and accidentally rereading Six of Crows duology - and so I can't talk about them all here. I normally highlight a few, though, in monthly wraps up and I want to this time so I'm not mentioning rereads (I love them both, all the trigger warning for Reisz' Original Sinners series).

Binti I still don't know what to make of it because it took so many turns I did not expect? Like oh this is going to be a nice - nope, nope it's not, hello. However, I really enjoyed it? It was different and fresh and really damn interesting.

Sex Object i picked up on a whim because I'd heard it mentioned on, I believe, the book riot podcast. And it surprised me so much because it was so much different then what I expected? It was so raw and honest, and I have so much respect for her putting all of that out into the public. Holy shit. 

Both Inside Out and Back Again? More the first I think just because I listened/read it more in one go, and I had a lot of feelings.

Queens of Geek and The Secret Lives of Rockstars are both things I want to go back and read already - I might with the second one just cause. And Defying Convention was so god damn cute, honestly, highly recommended for the cute. 

Goal Updates

I read 24 books in the first quarter of the year, 3 graphic novels. Pretty much on track for 100 books for the year

#DiversityBingo2017 - so far I've read 7 (well 8 as I'm typing this but shhh) towards this. Not as many as I would of liked but more then I expected since I haven't been paying much attention since the end of January because health reasons. I'm going to try and make a bigger effort to make sure I'm reading books for the categories I probably won't hit naturally, which are only a handful but I don't want to worry about them.

Overall I'm pretty much on track to read 100 books in the year like I wanted, though I'd really like to read more graphic novels because I've only read three so far? How? I have so many I haven't read yet and want to, and so many coming out that I want to get to.

I haven't finished any series yet this year - have actually started series, but I know it's never going to end - but now that hopefully my health will even out, once again, I can stay more focused on that. It isn't as important to me, though, as the diversity goals and just reading in general.