Bout of Books 8.0: Day One

Day one of the read-a-thon! 

Number of books I've finished today: 2

Book(s):
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (started and finished - 215 pages)
Serenity: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon and so many more (started and finished - 80 pages)
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (started - 140)

Number of pages read today: 435

Notes:
I was going to read more, I really was. But - then I started writing and there was the Teen Wolf midseason finale and a headache, and I wanted to get to sleep at a semi-normal time. Anyway, I did read over 400 pages today, so I can't say I can complain considering my goal is to read 200-300 pages a day.

I finished A Monster Calls just before noon and had to really try not to suddenly burst into tears. It was such an amazing and intense book and I can't believe it took me so long to read. And I can't wait to finish Eleanor and Park, I'm really not a contemporary person but I'm loving this story so far.

Also. That Serenity comic book, man. I've got the other two and then another book with tidbits and pictures and then some short stories written by some of the writers, so that's kind of awesome, I'm really excited about all of these things. My addiction to Firefly is getting a tad out of control, I guess. I'm not complaining.

Overall it was a really successful first day for me not stressing about it (me trying not to stress about it, my factory setting is stressing about things with full anxiety, but mostly not stressing about it). Really, getting some books read this week just seems like the best thing to do.

Read-A-Thon Day Five Wrap-Up (Bout of Books 7.0)

So today wasn't the most productive day of the read-a-thon, but I had some relaxing time (and we played some video games, the opposite of relaxing, but still). I did get some reading done, but hopefully more tomorrow and Sunday.

Number of books I've read today: 1

Total number of books I've read: 14

Books:
Bake Sale by Sara Varon

Books currently-reading:

Disney at Dawn (Kingdom Keepers #2) by Ridley Pearson (49% finished)

Number of pages read/listened to(today and total): 346 pages, no audio
Total: 2,870 and audio is the same

Notes:

Not really much to say. Bake Sale was cute and took me, maybe, half an hour to read, but it didn't really have a plot, things were just there. Anyway, I'm really ending book two of the Kingdom Keepers series so far, going to try and read a little more before I go to sleep, probably.

Hope all your days were good, if not also good on the reading front. Happy reading!

Monday Kick-Off!

Day One Wrap-Up

Day Two Wrap-Up

Day Three Wrap-Up

Day Four Wrap-Up

Read-A-Thon Day Four Wrap-Up (Bout of Books 7.0)

I had a lot of cleaning to do (friend sleeping over tomorrow and just spring cleaning) and I'm trying to move my books around so I can put in another bookcase, because they're just everywhere. Anyway, onto the actually reading that happened. Here we go with the stats for day four of this lovely read-a-thon.

Number of books I've read today: 1

Total number of books I've read: 13

Books:

Witness in Death (In Death #10) by J.D. Robb

Books currently-reading:
Haven't had the time to start up my next book, that's for tomorrow morning, I guess.

Number of pages read/listened to(today and total): 305 pages, no audio
Total: 2,524 and audio is the same

Notes:

I'm glad I finished one book, at the very least. It's been a crazy couple days with this read-a-thon. Awesome, but crazy. And hanging-out with Haley tomorrow (getting her super early) hopefully I'll get some reading done.

Kind of a short post, as you can see. Sadly, I can't think of much else to say as of now. I hope your day is awesome and that you get some reading done.

Monday Kick-Off!

Day One Wrap-Up

Day Two Wrap-Up
Day Three Wrap-Up

WWW Wednesday (15)

Ah, my favorite meme. Kind of like a wrap-up but in more detail, just full on information on what I am reading, what I finished reading, and what I might read next! WWW Wednesday is a meme hosted by MizB at Should be Reading. She asks that you answer three questions:

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you'll read next?

Currently-Reading:

I'm very, very little into the next books in the Anita Black and In Death series, but kind of stalled in both, at barely 30 pages.

Read:

Midnight in Death (In Death #7.5) by J.D. Robb (5/5)

Might have missed this in my read through of this series, but I didn't get very far before I caught it, it was really good, just a Novella type of thing, I'm pretty sure only available in ebook, but it was really good.

Loyalty in Death (In Death #9) by J.D. Robb (5/5)
This one was also very good. I'm getting so far in this series, that's all I want to say so I don't accidentally give anything away!

Hamlet by William Shakespeare (5/5)

Technically for school, but I did read it all the way through before having to write things about it and I really enjoyed it.

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (5/5)

Very good, I really liked this one, probably because of the mischievous faeries. I know it was probably them.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (5/5)
This book was fantastic and amazing! If you haven't picked it up yet, you definitely should. It's amazing, the writing is my favorite part and the characters are amazing.

Aesop's Fable by Aesop (5/5)
This was really good. Really enjoyed it.

George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl (4/5)
This was good, but - I don't know, it sat weird with me. Maybe I read it to early in the day for magic medicine? Whose to know.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupèry (5/5)
An amazing book. I read it in English, but I hope to eventually read it in French. Either way, beautiful and heartbreaking.

The Field Guide (Spiderwick Chronicles #1) by Holly Black and Tony DeTerlizzi (5/5)

Fantastic first book to this series. I listened to it in audio format and - it just wasn't for me, the weird voice and stuff, shook me out of the story. However, the book itself is amazing, glad I gave it a second chance.

The Seeing Stone (Spiderwick Chronicles #2) by Holly Black and Tony DeTerlizzi (5/5)

Loved this one, too! A further look into the fairy lore of this world.

Lucinda's Secret (Spiderwick Chronicles #3) by Holly Black and Tony DeTerlizzi (5/5)

A little more information in this one. These are so short, but at least I had the thing of them or I would of been dying for more.

The Iron Woodtree (Spiderwick Chronicles #4) by Holly Black and Tony DeTerlizzi (5/5)

I liked this one, too, obviously I'm trying to say as little as possible to not spoil anyone. Love this series, though!

This is Water by David Foster Walace (the 30min audiobook) (5/5)

I'd seen a video, featuring audio from this and was instantly intrigued and had to know what i meant, so I picked it up off Audible for about $4. There's a physical, dead tree version, that is much longer, but it's not coming in the mail for a while. I'd recommend this to everyone.

The Wrath of Mulgarath (Spiderwick Chronicles #5) by Holly Black and Tony DeTerlizzi

Such a fantastic end to the series! So glad this one was longer, was feeling like there was no way they could give us all the story in one more book. Very, very good.

The Horse and His Boy (Chronicles of Narnia #3) by C.S. Lewis (4/5)

Actually enjoyed this one. A bit slow at first and dragged a bit at the end, but otherwise good.

Disney After Dark (Kingdom Keepers #1) by Ridley Pearson (5/5)

Ah! Can't wait to read more in this series. This one was really, really good. I could barely put it down! Recommended to those who even remotely like Disney or wondered what happens in the park after dark. Very good.

To-Read:
I've got book two of the Kingdom Keeper's series that I'm dying to read, so excited for more of this series. I'm pretty much surrounded by books right now because of the read-a-thon. I scheduled this before it started and had to just add ten more books to it. Ten. (What read-a-thon, you ask? Monday kick-off post and day one wrap-up)

February Wrap-Up/March TBR

I'm always late with these, aren't I? Well, better late then never, I guess. I think it's because I'm always going 'well, I didn't read much, why do one?' and then my brain goes 'so you have them for the whole year!' which would be nice. So here I am again...

I only read two books in February, but I'll take it instead of none. They were:

• The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson (5/5)
• Marilyn: Her Life in Her Own Words:..... by George Barris (4/5)

Both were good, as you can see. I really wanted to do a full review of The Emperor's Soul because it was fantastic and I feel like not a lot of people will read it, given that I'd never heard of it before, but it was amazing. You can see it's Goodreads page here to judge it for yourself, but it's 100 days of this women trying to make a soul and it's amazing. I was surprised with how rich the world seemed and how in depth it is, because it's not a long book, it only over those 100 days, and it's not even really a full 100.

Now, onto the what I'll be read in March, which has already started. I've already finished a short story (in audiobook form) by Neil Gaiman, which was amazing. I'm also currently reading much too many books, as I normally am. Including, which I hope to finish. The Violinist's Thumb, about DNA, and The Regulator's by Stephen King. I'm about half-way though both, as of when I write this.* The first is amazing and so interesting and the King one is also amazing and since I'm halfway through, I only have the faintest idea what the hell is happening and am loving the ride. I love Stephen King's books and this one is no exception so far, so I'm excited to see where it goes.

*I finished the Violinist's Thumb before this posted and thought I might as well add that, it was amazing. I also started and finished Naked in Death, which was actually pretty good, too. I've already read three books this month! Maybe that reading slump is vanishing? I hope so... (knock on wood).

WWW Wednesday (12)

My first one of these of the year. I can't believe I haven't done one yet! I'm slowly getting out of my reading slump and at least I've read something. Anyway, WWW Wednesday is a meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading and it's asked you answer there three questions:

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you'll read next?

Currently-Reading:

Not as many books as normal, surprisingly. I'm at about 5, I think, on Goodreads, normally I'm 10-12, but I'm not complaining, I don't think it's a bad things, that's for sure.

Read:

Ubik by Philip K. Dick (5/5)

I did a very long review on this one, that I'm kind of proud of, that you can find here.

You Have to Stop This (Secret #5) by Pseudonymous Bosch (5/5)
Very good end to an amazing series, truly. I adored this series and I put off reading this one because I didn't want it to end.

My Story by Marilyn Monroe (5/5)

This is very good. I don't think I'll review it, just because I really don't know what to say about it, but it was good.

The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson (5/5)
I really enjoyed this book, it was so interesting and complex, and had so much story packed in it without feeling overwhelming.

Marilyn: Her Life in Her Own Words... by George Barris (4/5)
It was okay, good even, and I really enjoyed reading more about her.

A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman (5/5)
First Audiobook of the year! And it was very short, but I couldn't find an ebook copy. Anyway, this is a fantastic short story, I really wish that it was longer, I'd love to spend more time in this universe.

The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, Lost, and Genius, as Written in Our Genetic Code by Sam Kean (5/5)
This was an amazing book about our DNA and everything about it, a very interesting read and an all around fantastic book. I'm kind of hoping to do a full review on this one, we'll see.

Naked in Death (Death #1) by J.D. Robb AKA Nora Roberts (4/5)
This book was okay. I may have suspected who the killer was right away, but I have read way too many books like this. It has SciFi elements that are just cliche and kind of unimportant. It was pretty good, though, considering that. And, oddly enough, this was published the year I was born so that's weird.

Robot Dreams by Sara Varon (5/5)
This was an amazing book, considering there's no dialogue in it and, really, no words. It's a graphic novel and had an amazing story, the end kind of stomped on my heart, but - it was bittersweet and perfect. I'd highly recommend it!

The Magician's Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia #1) by C.S. Lewis (5/5)
I've never actually read the Narnia books, I'm not entirely sure why, but as a kid I guess I just didn't get to them before I made the leap into YA and horror (mostly horror, at first I skipped right over YA). But this was really good and I'm excited to read the others in the series.

The Regulators by Stephen King (5/5)
Finished just before midnight on Wednesday and thought I might as well add it. An awesome book and I'm still processing it but it was amazing!

Read Next:

I have no idea. I have so many books I haven't read, and a couple I have to get through for school, and just a lot of books everywhere. 

December Wrap-Up (2012)

And it's the end of the year! I don't even know what to say, this year went by so fast and I'm not ready for it to end at all. Anyway, though, here we go for my December Wrap-Up.

World War Z by Max Brooks (5/5)
I posted a review of this early in the month which you can find here. Review in a sentence: I really, really loved this one.

Succubus Blues (Georgina Kincaid #1) by Richelle Meade (5/5)
For a bookclub on the Goodreas and surprisingly really, really enjoyed this one.

Jack the Ripper: Hell Blade, Vol. 1 (2/5)
We're pretending this never happened, why did I read this. I kind of love Jack the Ripper stuff (Maureen's book coming out last year was just like me squealing), but this was just - weird. Very, very - just no.

How They Met, and other stories by David Levithan (5/5)
I always love David's books so I wasn't surprised at all when I was reading this one and found myself feeling the same why. I always end up getting all teared up, though, but they're just so very good.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (5/5)
This took me too long to read, but it was like I had to soak up what I'd read and kind of let it sit. It was so very good, though.

Daughter of the Blood (The Black Jewels #1) by Anne Bishop (4/5)
Really good, I've been 'currently-reading' this book for months and finally just sat down and finished it.

Working for the Devil (Dante Valentine #1) by Lilith Saintcrow (4/5)
I liked this one, but there was something that just stopped me from giving it the full 5, I felt like there was something off about it. To me, at least.

Ender's Game (Ender's Saga #1) by Orson Scott Card (5/5)
This book took me a very, very long time to read, but it was worth it. There was something about it that I couldn't read too much at a time until I just sat down and finished it.

Night Shift (Jill Kismet #1) by Lilith Saintcrow (5/5)
This book was really good. I don't know why I liked it more then the other Lilith Saintcrow book, but for some reason I did.

I also read two others that were short and really not worth mentioning. I finished my 100 book challenge by the skin of my teeth, but at least I finished it.

WWW Wednesday (10)

This is one of my favorite memes to do and to read. I have no idea why, I just find it kind of fun to share what I'm reading and to see what everyone else is reading. So, without any more of my rambling, here we go. WWW Wednesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading and she asks that you answer these three questions:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you'll read next?

Currently-Reading:

I am currently-reading so many books, so many. But, mainly, Mort by Terry Pratchett (book 4 in the Discworld series) and for some reason I'm just having a hard time staying into it. It's good just... weird.

Read:
1776: A Story in Tweets by Maureen Johnson (5/5)
I am including this just because I loved it so much. I got it through donating to the HPA for equality for the win and I'm kind of excited about it. It was really hilarious.

Doctor Who: Ring of Steel by Stephen Cole (3/5)
This was good. I've listened to many Doctor Who audiobooks lately I don't even know what to do with them. None of them seem really amazing, but this might because of the audiobook form. I just have such a problem getting really into the story even in the narrator is Matt Smith or Arthur Darvill (this one is narrated by Arthur, by the way. They're both really good at it, I'm just apparently bad at getting into Audiobooks sometimes).

World War Z by Max Brooks (5/5)
I have a book review coming out for this tomorrow (Thursday) so I don't want to say too much, but it was really, really good. I'm not going to tell you to read it, because I don't really like that, but if it's in your TBR I'd definitely say it's worth it.

Succubus Blues (Georgina Kincaid #1) by Richelle Meade (5/5)

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel going into this. I kept picturing the main girl from Lost Girl, which is actually not a bad thing at all, and I really, really liked this one. I actually didn't expected to, but it was well written, witty, and had me guessing (which I wasn't expecting). I'll be posting a full review of this soon.

Jack the Ripper: Hell Blade, Vol 1 by Je-Tae Yoo (2/5)

The only reason I gave it two instead of one star is because I wasn't exepecting the ending and it made everything more more sense (kind of). This sounds like an amazing idea is theory, but I was really underwhelmed by it. I noticed too many places where details could of been but weren't and the pentical wasn't inverted, and it annoyed me too much.

Want to Read Next:
So many books. I have so many books on be to-read list on Goodreads and some that I own I haven't even added to that list! This is definitely not a bad thing, just there are so many books! I did a December TBR, though, which lists what I basically want to read for the month.

I apologize (again) and December TBR

And I am once again apologizing about not posting. I'm just not very good at posting regularly, apparently, I was getting better at it. It's not even lack of ideas or lack of stuff to share, I just forget. November is just the most crazy month and this past one was even crazier then normal. November for me in NaNoWriMo and since I barely had time to sleep, I had even less time to blog. November is National Novel Writing Month. Well, it is for me, anyway.  For those of you scratching your head in confusion, NaNoWriMo is a month long writing project where you try to write a novel or 50,000 (50k) words in a month. It's insane and awful and my favorite month of the year.
And I devote any free time I'm not going school work to writing. And it definitely paid off this year. I overachieved last year, aimed for more then 50k, and this year my goal was 150k and I blew past that and ended up over 220,000 thousands words. So my not blogging showed, I just wish that I had remembered to schedule some posts.

Now onto my December TBR, I'm not even going to bother to do a November wrap-up because I read1 short thing and listened to an audiobook so it's not even worth the words. However, I now have 11 books I need to read to reach my goal of 100 books. And that's doable for me if I just focus on reading, which I really want to do having not gotten any reading done in November.

So there a couple books for some book clubs and such. There are also a couple books that I'm in the middle of.

Book Clubs:

• Succubus Blues(Georgia Kincaid #1) by Richelle Meade
• Dragon Actually by G.A. Aiken

And one of my book clubs is reading the Hobbit. I kind of want to read The Lord of the Rings before it, yes I saw the movies but I still want to read the books, and the Hobbit is coming out very soon. So I don't know if that will happen, but I'm hoping.

Currently-Reading (and would like to finish this month):

• World War Z by Max Brooks - This books is so very good, the only reason I didn't finish it during November was because of NaNoWriMo.
• How They Met and other stories by David Levithan - I cannot tell you when I started this book, I could look it up on goodreads but that's not the point, it's so good, too, I just need to get to it.
• Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas - I have an ARC of this and I started reading it in like late June/early July and then I haven't picked it up again. I don't know why, either, it was fantastic and I'm about 1/2 way I think.
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - This one has been just a slow read for me, but I'm like to finish it by the end of the year, at least. It's good it's just something about it is making it hard for me.
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - I actually need to finish this for school, I'm at the third part, I have to do school stuffs for it. So, basically, I need to finish this one, there's no question about that.

I'm currently-reading a lot of books on Goodreads, I always am, but those are ones I'd like to finish. I would also like to pick up some new ones the second omnibus of The Walking Dead, for example. Also, I'm in a classics mood, so that's a good thing. Hopefully I can get some reading done for school and be ahead instead of behind, I hate being behind in anything.

I am hoping you all take my apologizes for being such a bad blogger in November and maybe now that I have a desktop, I'll be able to get more on top of everything. Hopefully. I love blogging and reading and I really am hoping I can make extra time for it. I hope your days/weeks/months were well and, hopefully, I'll be posting again very soon.

August TBR

So I did this last month, a little late, and this month I'm doing it again and I'm going to split it into 3 parts, because I want it to be all organized and stuff.

This is what I want to read this month, first we have the 'for fun' reads, the ones I just want to read because they are there:
Social and Cultural Anthropology by John Monaghan and Peter Just
The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

Book club(s):
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb (Sword and Laser)
Master of None by Sonya Bateman (VFH)
Ill Wind by Rachel Caine (VFH)

For Review:
Innocent Darkness by Suzanne Lazear
AngelFall by Susan Ee
Gods and Warriors by Michelle Paver
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
False Memory by Dan Krokos

And I'm really hoping to read MORE then this, even though this is quite a bit. Though, I did read 12 books last month, maybe I can keep up with myself and read about that this month. Though, I do leave for Chicago for LeakyCon in 6 days, so maybe not. But I can try!

If you have any questions about the books I'm planning to read or the book clubs I'm part of please feel free to leave a comment with it.