Bout of Book 26 | Everything (sign up, TBR, update post)

General + TBR

Bout of Books if one of my favorite readathons and this is round 26 of it! I don't even know how many I've taken part in now, I think my first one was the 7th? And now here we are.

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 19th and runs through Sunday, August 25th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, Twitter chats, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 26 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

boutofbooks blog
BoB twitter

I'll be updating on twitter and instagram, along with here, and I have no idea what my plans are for reading.

Updates

Monday
Number of books I've read today: 2
Pages read: 240
Books:
The Test by Sylvian (started and finished - 112)
The Last Olympian, Graphic Novel by Rick Riordan, Robert Venditti (started and finished - 128)

Notes:
I didn't read much but I wanted to read something on the first day of this readathon, and try and working on finishing a month long reading challenge I'm working on.


Thursday
Number of books I've read today: 1
Total # of books I've read: 3
Pages read: 41
Total # of pages: 280 
Books:
The Undercover Rock Star by Jenna Galicki (started and finished - 41 pages)

Notes:
I spent most of the day hanging out with a friend (and trying to read in a barnes and noble but actually just talking about HP). As you do. At least as I do.

Friday
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Saturday
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Sunday
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Bout of Book 25 | Sign up + Update post

And it's that time again, time for another round of bout of books. I have the time again to be an expert - so any questions, feel free to ask here or on social media - and I'm so excited to try and buckle down and get some reading done. Especially because so many good books come out on the 14th - one of which I've already been hyping for a while now (Red, White, and Royal Blue, go forth and be happy).

Anyway, this part of the post is just for sign up - below will (eventually) be my TBR and then daily updates on what I get up to. It'll probably be a slow start to the week since I am heading on a few day trip for a book event.

Information:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 13th and runs through Sunday, May 19th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, Twitter chats, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 25 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Bout of Books blog
BoB sign up
Twitter 
Instagram 

TBR (possibilities)

• The Ice Princess by Elizabeth Holt
• Read Queer America by Samantha Allen (currently-reading)
• The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren (currently-reading)
• The Art of Three by Erin McRae (currently-reading)
• I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver
• Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (reread)

Updates

Monday
Notes:
I read a lot of fan fiction and packed for my train journey the next day (today as of writing this), here I come Red, White, and Royal Blue launch!


Tuesday
Number of books I've read today: 1
Pages read: 120
Books:
The Ice Princess by - started and finished - 120 pages

Notes:
Read this one for a romanceopoly challenge (the second mystery one, if anyone else is taking part), and I enjoyed it. It wasn't anything super special to me but it was fun and entertaining, I'd definitely consider checking out more of this author's work.

Wednesday
Number of books I've read today: 1
Total # of books I've read: 2
Pages read: 432
Total # of pages:  552
Books:
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren - started and finished - 432 pages

Notes:
I've been slowing making my way through Christina Lauren's backlog and so was excited to be approved for this ARC, though the release date snuck up on me. I'll be having a full review coming very soon but I enjoyed it a lot, gave it 4/5 stars.

Thursday
Number of books I've read today: 1
Total # of books I've read: 3
Pages read: 23
Total # of pages: 575
Books:
Wet Nails by Shira Glassman - s+f - 23 pages

Notes:
This was a cute and short f/f story that was a lot of fun. I've been searching out more f/f because it's there, it's just not as prominent as m/m (or, obviously m/f), but I find whenever I do read f/f I enjoy it a whole hell of a lot, and this was no exception. Of course, I've read this authors work before so I was expecting to, and would read anything Shira writes, though there's still a few things I have yet to get to.

Friday
Number of books I've read today: 1
Total # of books I've read: 4
Pages read: 324
Total # of pages: 899
Books:
I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver - s+f - 324 pages

Notes:
I've been waiting for this book for... a long time, since before Mason had a book deal since I follow them on twitter. This was one of my most anticipated books for 2019 and it did not disappoint. It hurt but it also was so hopeful and positive, even though the main character wasn't because of depression/anxiety, the book was and that's just something I needed. I'm not enby myself but I am queer so reading queer stories that, ultimately, are positive is one of my favorite things. (Ben is kicked out of their house in the first few pages, so it feels weird calling this a positive book, but it really is separate from that).

Saturday
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Sunday
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Bout of Books 21 | TBR, Goals, + Update Post

And another Bout of Books! Sadly, I wasn't able to take part in the last one in August because it was part of the week I was taking an international trip. And this week was going to be a bit of a thing because I was suppose to be getting a cat the weekend before it started.

Sadly, that has fallen through and now we've got to start over with the cat finding. This isn't about cats, though, about the books.

The Goals

• Read! As much as possibly but don't want to push myself too hard. Last January readathon I got eyestrain. My reaching goal is to try and finish a bunch of things I've been currently reading, finish my Mistborn era 2 reread, and get to some comics.
• visit blogs! videos! comment!
• Twitter chats
• BoB expert! Signed up for this again, even though I don't feel like I helped much last time, but going to try and make sure to be more active more
• vlog? maybe, we'll see how I feel

The Stack

• Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson (currently-reading)
• Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy (currently-reading)
• This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab
• Ripped Pages by M. Hollis

Updates

Monday
Didn't end up reading anything, it's been a weird beginning to the year for me.


Tuesday
Number of books I've read today: 3
Pages read: 335
Time Spent Reading: 3 hours, 11 minutes
Books:
Ripped Pages by M. Hollis (started and finished - 60 pages)
The Doctor's Discretion by EE Ottoman (started and finished - 195 pages)
Let Them Eat Chaos by Kate Tempest (started and finished - 80 pages)

Notes:
So it was a good reading day for me, but I'm pretty sure this will be an every other day kind of deal for me, maybe even more then that considering. Still, this readathon is helping me try and get back into reading regularly, which is what I needed. I'm going to try and read more days out of the year then I don't, I think? Just something I've been thinking of, not an official goal, and I have no idea how I'd track that?

Let me know how your bout of books is going!

Wednesday
Didn't end up reading for some reason???

Thursday
Number of books I've read today: 0
Total # of books I've read: 3
Pages read: 75
Total # of pages: 410 
Books:
Think of England by K.J. Charles (started - 75 pages)

Friday
Number of books I've read today: 1
Total # of books I've read: 4
Pages read: 164
Total # of pages: 574 
Books:
Think of England by K.J Charles (finished - 164 pages)

Notes:
I enjoyed this book, but I also kind of had problems with how often there were cruel words thrown around about the love interest. I understand it's historically accurate, and it made it a little better then the MC started to defend him, but I honestly don't think it was needed to be that much? Then again, I can see how it really painted those characters in a horrible light.

However, there were moments when the MC thought things - just in relationship to the LI's queerness and fashion sense - that I felt like were very unnecessary.

Saturday
Number of books I've read today: 3
Total # of books I've read: 7
Pages read: 388
Total # of pages: 962
Books:
Giant Days, Volume 6 by John Allison ( started and finished - 112 pages)
The Ruin of Gabriel Ashleigh (Society of Gentleman #0.5) by K.J. Charles (started and finished - 32 pages)
A Fashionable Indulgence (Society of Gentleman #1)  by K.J. Charles (started and finished - 244 pages)

Notes:
Apparently I have found myself on a queer historical romance kick - on that note, if you have any besides gay/bi dude reccs, please leave them down below. I've had people recommend me K.J. Charles and, on one hand, I can see why but the books are definitely not without their problems.

Giant Dayssssss. I don't know why I love this comic series so much but I do. It's just so much fun, and just three girls at university being friends. It's so great I cry.

Sunday
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Bout of Books 21 | Announcement/TBR

Bout of Books is a week long readathon that is very low key and incredible to take part in. It's very low pressure, not even any reading challenges to try and fulfill, but there is a lot of people just reading and having fun.

There are twitter chats happening, as well (which I'll hopefully be able to take part in both!) They're on Monday 9pm EST, and Saturday 11am EST. They're always a ton of fun and very motivating to go through, always makes me want to read!

On the twitter note I'm also a Bout of Books expert this time around again, so if you have any questions feel free to ask me here or on twitter (@caseycassidy).

As for what I'll be reading - kind of no idea, as per usual. I've got a lot of things I'm in the middle of that I meant to finish before the year ended up it ended up being a very, very busy December. And, also, there's time between now and the readathon starting and I don't know what I'll get done in between then and now. I do know that I'll be trying to finish a book every day - graphic novel counting for that since it's my arbitrary goal.

I was going to try and list what I'm currently working on and other possibilites but, honestly, I have no idea what I'm going to have time to read between now and the start of the readathon. Or what I'll be in the mood for by the time it starts. I'm getting a kitten the Saturday before the readathon starts and, as I'm typing this, friends are still visiting from NYE so I've got no idea what to expect.

Anyway - if you're planning on taking part, let me know! And say hi on twitter if you see me, I try not to post too much but I do linger in the hashtag a lot.

BoutofBooks website
Sign up post

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!

Bout of Books 19 | Sign Up Post

Bout of Books - how could I not participate? As I'm writing this, I still don't know if I will have an apartment guest the weekend before this readathon or not - doesn't really matter either way but would probably make my progress a tad delayed. But friends are kinda cool, I guess.

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 8th and runs through Sunday, May 14th 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 19 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.
- From the Bout of Books team

As for my TBR and such - currently no idea because it depends on what I end up reading for Dewey's and then in the week in between. Probably, this might be shocking, but probably books and graphic novels.

Let me know if you're participating! (or if you are in Dewey's, which starts tomorrow for me - I like my 8am start time normally but lately I've been sleeping in, got to try and change that this week a little. or just stay up late. Decisions)

Bout of Books 18 | Update Post

And time for another Bout of Books, my favorite readathon. Which, if you've seen my post before, you probably know. I don't know how much I'll be getting done reading but I'm hoping to get at least three books done to get ahead on my reading goal (New year, new reading goal, new spreadsheet to fill).

If you're participating let me know! (link me to your blog update post or your twitter, or whatever. I love seeing what everyones reading/up to during BoB)

My Goals

• Read. Read. Read.
• Take part in twitter chats
• Try and get back into reading Words of Radiance (because honestly, self, you've got to just do it. You love this book, there's a lot of it but it's amazing)
• Finish 3 books

Books to Read (who knows what this will looks like by the end of the week - won't take any off that I put up but will definitely add some):

• The Virgin by Tiffany Reisz
• The Queen by Tiffany Reisz
• The God Engines by John Scalzi
• My Year of Epic Rock by Andrea Pyros
• Lumberjanes, Volume 5: Band Together by Noelle Stevenson, +
• El Deafo by Cece Bell
• Adulthood is a Myth by Sarah Anderson
• Crush by Richard Siken
• The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co #1) by Jonathan Stroud
• Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

(I'll add more to my TBR, but I haven't had time to think about this readathon because friends were here for New Years and it's been crazy)

Updates

Monday
Number of books I've read today: 1
Pages read: 129
Time Spent Reading: 26 minutes
Books:
Adulthood is a Myth by Sarah Anderson (started and finished - 109 pages)
The God Engines by John Scalzi (started - 20 pages)

Notes:
It wasn't a great reading day for me, mostly because still recovering from New Years. Loved having friends over but we did not sleep a whole bunch, like bare minimumn of probably 4/5 hours a night (which some people are fine with, I am not, I need a good amount to function).

Adulthood is a Myth was adorable, fun, and too real. And, so far, The God Engines is strange and weird but enjoying it.


Tuesday
Number of books I've read today: 1
Total # of books I've read: 2
Pages read: 367
Total # of pages: 496 
Time Spent Reading: 2:14
Total Time Spent Reading: 2:40 
Books:
El Deafo by Cece Bell (started and finished - 233 pages)
The Virgin (Original Sinners #7) by Tiffany Reisz (started - 136 pages)

Notes:
I didn't get as much reading done today as I wanted to, but I did get some other stuff done and it wasn't a bad reading day, either. I'm now very tired so updating this, then reading a little more, then sleep.

El Deafo was really good - I didn't rate it the full five stars, I rated it four, just because I just kind of got annoyed at the kid drama. I don't know why, I normally like it, but mostly it was the crush thing. I mean, I'm sure kids are actually like that but I never was, or am, so I guess I've got less patience for it. Especially when I'm grumpy.

Rereading Original Sinners was such a great decision since I'd already forgotten so much of it. Except for my love of Kingsley, which is now eternal. (and probably going to become a problem). This one is interesting considering the whole plot of it, which I won't talk about here even though I want to because book seven out of eight.

Wednesday
Number of books I've read today: 4
Total # of books I've read: 6
Pages read: 838
Total # of pages: 1,334 
Time Spent Reading: 6 hours, 46 minutes
Total Time Spent Reading: 9 hours, 26 minutes
Books:
Crush by Richard Siken (started and finished - 62 pages)
Lumberjanes, Volume 5 by Noelle Stevenson, + (started and finished - 112 pages)
The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co #1) by Jonathan Stroud (started and finished - 390 pages)
The Virgin (Original Sinners #7; White Years #3) by Tiffany Reisz (finished - 274 pages)

Notes:
Whew, it was a reading heavy day but that's what I was aiming for. I am still mulling over my feelings for Siken's collection and might need to reread to decide. However - I adored the Lumberjanes. Of course and always, if you're not reading Lumberjanes then honestly what are you doing with your life?

I really enjoyed The Screaming Staircase. I can't remember when I ended up checking out the audiobook but I think someone I follow somewhere was talking about it recently. And so I started listening to it today and quickly put aside the audiobook to read it on my own because I can read faster then that. And it was so good, not quite on the adorable side but almost?

The Virgin. Of course I adored it and am honestly a tad upset to be almost done with my Original Sinners reread. Originall (ha) I wasn't planning on rereading anything but the main books. However, I think I'll probably end up rereading The Confessions, as well. For fun.

Let me know what you read today, as always, and if you've read or are currently reading or want to read anything I read.

Thursday
Number of books I've read today: 1
Total # of books I've read: 7
Pages read: 361
Total # of pages: 1,695 
Time Spent Reading: 3 hours, 27 minutes
Total Time Spent Reading: 12 hours, 53 minutes
Books:
The Queen (Original Sinners #7) by Tiffany Reisz (started - 58 pages)
Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (started and finished - 303 pages)

Notes:
Simon vs was a reread, and I have had it on a pile to read soon and kept toying with when. And just ended up picking up up yesterday on a whim. I woke up with very minor eye strain yesterday so I ended up using a credit to get The Queen audiobook and laying with an eye mask on listening to that and some podcasts (mostly I listened to the new Get Booked podcast, as you do. *stacks more books onto my TBR* it's fine, everything is fine).

Friday
Number of books I've read today: 0
Total # of books I've read: 7
Pages read: 115
Total # of pages: 1,810 
Time Spent Reading: 1 hour, 23 minutes
Total Time Spent Reading: 14 hours, 16 minutes
Books:
The Whispering Skull (Lockwood & Co #2) by Jonathan Stroud (started - 55 pages)
Life Disrupted: Getting Real About Chronic Illness in Your Twenties and Thirties by Laurie Edwards (started 60 pages)

Notes:
I got the audio, thankfully, of the second Lockwood & Co book - I listened to some, read a few pages more. And then ended up reading more then I expected in one sitting of Life Disrupted, which I did not expect to arrive in the mail but was so excited when it did I just kind of started it.

Saturday
Number of books I've read today: 3
Total # of books I've read: 10
Pages read: 362
Total # of pages: 2,172
Time Spent Reading: 4 hours, 11 minutes
Total Time Spent Reading: 18 hours, 27 minutes
Books:
Sex Object: A Memoir by Jessica Valenti (started and finished - 204 pages)
The Summer Palace by C.S. Pacat (started and finished - 30 pages)
The Secret Lives of Rockstars by Suzanne Lazear (started and finished - 128 pages)

Notes:
I'm honestly hoping I won't get anything read Sunday because I want to try and get my eye strain under control. I woke up with it on Thursday and it still hasn't gone away yet. One, it can't be good for my eyes, and, two, it's annoying and painful. Hopefully it'll only take a day or two, last time I had it, it wouldn't go away until I got new glasses (but I just got new glasses a few months ago). Argh.

Anyway - a lot of good reading done today, short things. I half listened to Sex Object on audio and half read it physically, probably exactly. I couldn't stop listening/reading. It'd reach an end of a chapter and I'd go to stop it, but before I could she'd already be talking again and I'd already be sucked in again. Really, really good but definitely not for the faint of heart.

The Summer Palace was surprisingly cute and fluffy. And I knew I was going to like The Secret Lives of Rockstars, mostly because it sounded fucking awesome, but I honestly didn't think I was going to enjoy it as much as I did. It was amazing - and I think the first thing I read this year that I gave five stars that wasn't a reread. Highly recommended, and hoping, hoping there is still going to be a second one/a series.

Let me know what you read! (Might not respond right away because eyes, but I'll try to by Monday night/Tuesday. Hopefully)

Sunday
Number of books I've read today:
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Notes:

Bout of Books 18 | Sign Up

Hello there, long time no talk. It's been a bit of a hectic few months, as every time I post here I say, but it might be evening out once 2017 starts. I'm not sure how well my participating in the beginning of this readathon will be, mostly because I'm having apartment guests for New Years (I want it to just be then so much, I miss my friends, and there will be four of us in the same place!!).

Anyway - Bout of Books. You guys all know it's my favorite readathon, Amanda and Kelly are awesome, and if you're interested in participating here's the little quote (with the blog link to sign up)

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 2nd and runs through Sunday, January 8th 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 18 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I don't think I'll end up posting a TBR or anything, though since I realized how close it was I've been mentally adding things to the list. Like: I need to finish Words of Radiance, I'm dying to, but also want to get a head start on 2017 by knocking out a good few books so we'll see which wins out.

If you're participating let me know, with a link to your blog/twitter. (the twitter chats for this readathon are the best) Hope you all had a good Holiday season, I'm personally kind of relieved it's over, and hopefully a fantastic New Year (2017, be better).

Bout of Books 17 | Wrap Up

This wasn't the best week of reading for me but considering how hectic it was, I'm okay with it, I guess. I ended up finished 5 books and starting 2 others. And 2 of them I read in the last two days of the readathon when I got my reading mojo back a little, which was nice.

Part of it was all the busy but another part of it was I finished a series and just needed a little breather, I think. I mean, it was a series I was relieved to finally be done with, for more then one reason, but it as still the end of a series (goodbye, Sookie Stackhouse, but it fun. Most of the time).

Overall it was a good week and it was tons of fun to participate in the chats - I got to take part in both and I thought I was going to miss the second but ended up I didn't. And the chats are one of my favorite parts of the readathon, everyones just so damn awesome.

Anyway, let's do stats and books and then I'll give mini reviews on each (grouping the last few of the series I finished together).

Books Completed: 5
Total Pages Read: 1,472
Total Time Spent Reading: 19 hours, 21 minutes

Books Finished:
Dead Reckoning (Sookie Stackhouse #11) by Charlaine Harris
Deadlocked (Sookie Stackhouse #12) by Charlaine Harris
Dead Ever After (Sookie Stackhouse #13) by Charlaine Harris
The Foxhole Courts (All for the Game #1) by Nora Sakavic
The Raven King (All for the Game #2) by Nora Sakavic

Those are the 5 books I ended up finished I also started 3 others, but only got a tiny bit into all of them so I'll talk about them at a later date. First I started the readathon off by finished the Sookie Stackhouse series. For some reason, around the end of July, I got the motivation to read over and then finish the series - rereading because I barely remembered what happened at all in the series besides random scenes (none of which were major plot points).

I'd always wanted to finish the series - I really loved reading them when I first did. And I knew I'd enjoy them less now, and I did, but they're still fun. Mostly what annoyed me the most was the glaring editing errors. For example: Sookie learning thing at the end of one book and then learning it again for the first time in the beginning of the next book. I was just like: ????. Overall, though, they're fun and I am so glad to have finally read the last two books and be done with this series. (Though the last book was kind of meh, it didn't wrap it up enough in my opinion).

The next thing I was finished was The Foxhole Court and the sequel, The Raven King, and I've got to tell you I loved them both. At the very beginning I thought of checkplease! (a webcomic you need to check out) but that is mostly light and happy. This is dark, very dark, and I just really love me some dark. There's Andrew who is a tiny psychotic puppy (okay, that might just be what I call him in my head, but I think it every time the author mentions how short he is). And our main character Neil - and the whole team in: Nicky, Aaron, Matt, Dan, Allison, Renee.

It's dark as hell - trigger warnings for violence, rape, torture, probably everything I've only read through the first two - but it's also really good? I really like all the characters and I have no idea where the series is going to go now that I'm 9% into the third, and final, book. And that's the way I like it.

Let me know how you did this Bout of Books - comment or leave me the link to your own wrap up - and also let me know if you've got thoughts on any of theses books.

Happy reading!

Bout of Books 17 | Update Post

Day one and the post with all the things goes up - I'd forgotten I'd gotten into the one post thing, but it is kind of nice to have everything in one place. Is a little, very, long by the end of the week but I guess that's to be expected and fine.

In May, for the last Bout of Books, I had such bad eye strain that for like 85% of the week I could barely move, let alone read. I could barely function - but I was bored while laying still in the dark for hours, a person can only sleep so much, so I did audiobook it. This time - new glasses, which help, and also plain just not doing things that'll cause me eye strain so hopefully this week will be good............ *knocks on wood*

Below are my goals, loose TBR, and then where my updates at the end of every day will be (probably updated the next morning because sleep is nice). 

My Goals

• Read. Read. Read.
• Twitter chats! (possibly my favorite part of these readathons? I just love the chatting part - so much fun!)
• Comment on blogs - not just reading and lurking, leaving actually damn comments. (It isn't that hard but my anxiety makes it super hard - I don't know why! It should, at least, be easy to comment on peoples blogs I've talked to. Excuse the language, though I swear all the time in real life, but fuck anxiety).
• And, as always: have fun! Only flailing!

Books to Read (who knows what this will looks like by the end of the week - won't take any off that I put up but will definitely add some):

• Dead Reckoning (Sookie Stackhouse #11) by Charlaine Harris
• Deadlocked (Sookie Stackhouse #12) by Charlaine Harris
• Dead Ever After (Sookie Stackhouse #13) by Charlaine Harris
• Forest of Memory by Mary Robinette Kowal
• Blood Cross (Jane Yellowstone #2) by Faith Hunter

• Injection, Volume 1 by Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey
• Injection, Volume 2 by Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey
• Paper Girls #6 by Brian K. Vaughn, Cliff Chiang

Updates

Monday
Number of books I've read today: 2
Pages read: 516
Time Spent Reading: 5 hours, 44 minutes
Books:
Dead Reckoning (Sookie Stackhouse #11) by Charlaine Harris (finished - 189 pages)
Deadlocked (Sookie Stackhouse #12) by Charlaine Harris (finished - 327 pages)

Notes:
I am going to finish the Sookie Stackhouse series tomorrow - probably. I mean I don't know what could stop me, even if I have more things to do then expected it's going to take me like max four hours. I'm so ready to be done - I'm enjoying it but it's grinding on my nerves a little, all of them are.

Tuesday
Number of books I've read today: 1
Total # of books I've read: 3
Pages read: 338
Total # of pages: 854
Time Spent Reading: 3 hours, 58 minutes
Total Time Spent Reading: 9 hours, 42 minutes
Books:
Dead Ever After (Sookie Stackhouse #13) by Charlaine Harris (started and finished - 338 pages)

Notes:
So. Finished that series. Let's just - move on now that that's all over.

I meant to read more but I was just kind of exhausted by about eight and just didn't have the brain power, so ended up doing a few things that require less brain power. Don't know how much time I'll have to read tomorrow, but probably going to read some of the comic things I've got I want to read soon and also, hopefully, start the next novel (might already be planning to go off my TBR because nothings catching my eye, but I am damn tired).

Wednesday
Nothing read. Nothing.

Notes:
Yup. I thought this week was free but it turns out it isn't - ah, the fun. But after today I should have more time to read and such, we shall see. I really want to get into Blood Cross by Faith Hunter and have both the physical and audiobook so that might be good for today and the cleaning and such I have to do.

Hopefully your Wednesday went better - let me know how your readathon is going! (Today, tomorrow, whenever you see this. Hey there). (I didn't get enough sleep last night and am slightly loopy, so that'll be fun).

Thursday

Notes:
General business but also my friend, and neighbor, came home from Italy and she had a hell of a trip and not in a good way. So there was much catching up, and I'm fine with not reading because of that. Hopefully I can read Friday but sleeping, for some reason, has become difficult.

Friday
Number of books I've read today: 0
Total # of books I've read: 3
Pages read: 46
Total # of pages: 900
Time Spent Reading: 33 minutes
Total Time Spent Reading: 10 hours, 15 minutes
Books:
Blood Cross (Janes Yellowrick #2) by Faith Hunter (started - 46 pages)

Notes:
I had time to read today, but I couldn't concentrate? I love this series and it's so interesting and there's also stuff happening, though not always action, which is really kind of how I like my urban fantasy. Either way, it just wasn't holding my attention, I guess I needed more time to whatever.

Saturday
Number of books I've read today: 0
Total # of books I've read: 3
Pages read: 222
Total # of pages: 1,122
Time Spent Reading: 3 hours, 23 minutes
Total Time Spent Reading: 13 hours, 39 minutes
Books:
A Trick of Light by Lois Metzger (started - 19 pages)
The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic (started - 203 pages)

Notes:
I also tried getting into another book on my kindle paperwhite - which I am still slightly obsessed with, have been since it arrived - but I didn't want to count all the beginnings of books I read. I want to eventually get to A Trick of Light, but I think I'll wait on that. (It seems to be a little experimental, also it's going to be a hard read and I thought maybe that's what I was in the mood for but maybe not that kind of hard).

The Foxhole Court is different then I expected? I've been hearing about it for a little while and I bought this first one fairly recently - purely based on the fact it was LGBTQ+ and people seemed to like it. At first, with the NCAA college sport thing - I was like: maybe it's like checkplease! hell yes (and the LGBTQ+ elements, as well). Well, it's not like my favorite webcomic in the world, not in any way but that, because it is dark as shit and I am loving it? If you've read this book, or finished the series, let me know your thoughts - planning on finishing the first one tomorrow and maybe going on to the second.

Sunday
Number of books I've read today: 2
Total # of books I've read: 5
Pages read: 350
Total # of pages: 1,472
Time Spent Reading: 5 hours, 43 minutes
Total Time Spent Reading: 19 hours, 21 minutes
Books:
The Foxhole Courts (All for the Game #1) by Nora Sakavic (finished - 34 pages)
The Raven King (All for the Game #2) by Nora Sakavic (started and finished - 286 pages)
The Kings Men (All for the Game #3) by Nora Sakavic (started - about 30 pages)

Notes:
Alright, the end of another bout of books. It's always sad for it to be over - and I may have read a good amount but no where near to what I had wanted to read - mostly to get a bit ahead in my reading challenge which was why I was focusing on novels and didn't get to any of the single issues/comics I'd laid out.

I'm probably going to post a full wrap up tomorrow after I get some sleep, because that's always fun, but quickly: loving the All for the Game series. It's fucked up and really freaking good. I'm enjoying the beginning of the third one a little less but I think because - well, spoilers, but I'm a sucker for like ALL THE SECRETS and then them slowly being doled out in surprising or shocking ways. That's probably normal but it's also fun.

Probably still going to read a good chunk of book three tomorrow, readathon or no, because I need to know how this all ends. Need to.

Bout of Books 17 | Announcement

Another readathon, and a Bout of Books at that! (Just pretend you can see my heart eyes, I love Bout of Books probably a weird amount). This round will be running from August 22nd to August 28th - so the perfect time if you've got some books you want to get through before the end of the month. Blurb here:

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, August 22nd and runs through Sunday, August 28th 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 17 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. 
- From the Bout of Books team

I'll post Sunday or Monday with a kick-off post with goals and a loose TBR - if you're participating let me know! I'll definitely be trying to make the rounds to see what everyones up to and hopefully actually commenting this time (commenting, the bane of my existence).

Happy reading!

BoB blog
Sign up post

(Small note, for myself and just because it's fun, this will be my 11th Bout of Books. I finally did an actual count instead of guessing. 7 - now).

Bout of Book 16 | Update Post

Bout of Books is one of my favorite readathons, if not just plain my favorite. It's a ton of fun, and I'm always excited when it's time for another one (so glad this one isn't only once of year, I'd go insane waiting).

And so it's time for the May bout of Bout of Books (see what I did there?), and I've got stacks of books I want to read, we'll see how far I can get through them. If you're confused, you can check out the website, and definitely join in - there will be mini challenges, and twitter chats (I heart the twitter chats, everyones awesome).

Now onto the important stuff! I'm using the same set up as last time, the suggested template, and I enjoyed using it last time so here we go again. (I won't be finish my full TBR this time, though, or ever again).

Feel free to leave me comments letting me know if you're participating - how you feel about anything I'm planning on reading, or really just anything book related. And I hope, if you're participating, you have a fantastic week!

My Goals

• Read. Read. Read.
• Twitter chats! (should be able to make both of them)
• Visit blogs, comment, interact with people in the hashtag on the medias. (Basically: talk to the awesome people)
• Have fun! (Flailing, not failing)

Books to Read (I have so many books that I want to read that I'm going to just list a handful and then add in what I end up reading, crossed out is finished):

• Deadman Wonderland, Vol 3 ++
• Crush by Richard Silken
• Forest of Memory by Mary Robinette Kowal
• The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan
• World War Z by Max Brooks
• Lumberjanes, Volume 1 by Noelle Stevenson, +
• Lumberjanes, Vol 2 by Noelle Stevenson, +
• Lumberjanes, Vol 3 by Noelle Stevenson, +
• Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

Updates

Monday
Number of books I've read today: 2
Pages read: 328
Time Spent Reading: 2 hours, 7 minutes
Books:
Lumberjanes, Volume One: Beware the Kitten Holy by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Brooke Allen (started and finished - 128 pages)
Lumberjanes, Volume Two: Friendship to the Max by Noelle Stevenson, + (started and finished - 112 pages)
The Hidden Oracle (Trials of Apollo #1) by Rick Riordan (continued - 88 pages)

Notes:
Lumberjanes is so damn good, and they're all adorable characters (And I kind of want to dress up as April?) It's amazing, highly recommended, I ordered volume three so I'll be reading that this week, too.

Had started The Hidden Oracle - just couldn't wait - and feeling a little eh about it. Would of probably just set it aside if not for favorite characters being back or mentioned. I've missed Camp.


Tuesday
Number of books I've read today: 2
Total # of books I've read: 4
Pages read: 480
Total # of pages: 808
Time Spent Reading: 2 hours, 17 minutes
Total Time Spent Reading: 4 hours, 24 minutes
Books:
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson (started and finished - 272 pages)
Deadman Wonderland, Volume 3 by Jinsei Kataoka, Kazuma Kondou (started and finished - 208 pages)

Notes:
I totally forgot to add yesterday, and am not really sure where to add it besides in time spent reading - but have also been listening to the World War Z audio. One of my favorite audiobooks and it's been a while since I've listened to it, so damn good.

Nimona was amazing, so damn good, and Deadman Wonderland is so fucked up and weird but I'm going to keep reading it because of that.

Also I've been struggling reading because hello my old friend eye strain - it feels like whenever a readathon happens, I've got eye strain. I think it's because I spend the few days before doing a lot of reading over stuff and writing on my computer and my eyes want to implode. Bleh.

Wednesday & Thursday
Number of books I've read today: 2
Total # of books I've read: 6
Pages read: 333
Total # of pages: 1,141
Time Spent Reading: 7 hours, 27 minutes
Total Time Spent Reading: 11 hours, 51 minutes
Books:
World War Z by Max Brooks (finished - 221 pages)
Lumberjanes, Volume 3: A Terrible Plan by Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, Carolyn Nowak (started and finished - 112 pages)

Notes:
I could finally stand a few minutes on the computer to update here! Yayyy! It's been the only thing I've been tweeting about, but if you didn't know - eye strain sucks. It's the worst. And I've mostly been listening to audiobooks.

Wednesday was over six hours of listening to World War Z, I just couldn't do anything else. It was hurting to even have my eyes open. And still is at points yesterday and still today, it's been a long week, honestly.

Friday
Number of books I've read today: 1 (and a single issue)
Total # of books I've read: 7
Pages read: 374
Total # of pages: 1,515
Time Spent Reading: 5 hours, 22 minutes
Total Time Spent Reading: 17 hours, 13 minutes
Books:
The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan (Finished - 235 pages)
Black Panther #1 by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Brian Stelfreeze (started and finished - 32 pages)
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (started - 107 pages)

Notes:
I'm really enjoying my reread of The Name of the Wind - the audiobook is incredible - but I had been hoping to reread in physical. I guess it doesn't matter, it's gorgeous either way.

Mostly just eh about The Hidden Oracle - it was fun at parts, mostly the parts where we were seeign characters we already knew - but I was relieved that Apollo was less annoying by the end of the book. Maybe he'll actually learn something at some point.


Saturday
Number of books I've read today:
Total # of books I've read:
Pages read:
Total # of pages:
Time Spent Reading:
Total Time Spent Reading:
Books:


Notes:

Sunday
Number of books I've read today:
Total # of books I've read:
Pages read:
Total # of pages:
Time Spent Reading:
Total Time Spent Reading:
Books:


Notes:

Bout of Books 16 | May 9th - 15th (sign up)

It is May, which means it's time for another Bout of Books. Definitely my favorite weeklong readathon. (Possibly my favorite ever, but I've pretty fond of Dewey's, too). To explain to you what this readathon is, here's a blurb from the team:

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 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th 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 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. 

                                    - From the Bout of Books team

That's mostly all the information you need to know: low pressure, readathon, weeklong. What isn't included in that blurb is the best part of this readathon: the community. The twitter chats - and the general social media interactions during the week - is my favorite part of these readathons. Everyone is just plain awesome, and loves books as much as you do.

This is just my sign up post so I'll keep it short and week - but I'll be posting a kick off post with goals / TBR probably the day before it starts. And probably just add my updates to that post - I've done that before, and then done a different post every day, still not sure which one I like better.

Let me know if you'll be participating! And happy reading.

Bout of Books blog
Sign up post

Bout of Books 15 | Goals + Update Post

Bout of Books 15 kicks off today! This should of been up yesterday, or at least earlier today, but I completely lost track of time and may or may not went to bed at 8pm last night. Anyway -  I'm not doing a separate goals and such post this time around, although I still really like the organization of it, but I figured I'd stick with the actual template they suggest for another time around.

My Goals

• Read. Plain and simple. I haven't been reading too much, and haven't ready anything yet this year period - mostly because of apartment guest, which was so much fun, but now that I've got time I'd like to try and knock out a few things early. 
• Visit blogs - not any certain number, but I'd like to visit the ones I know are participating, that I follow them on something, and also pop over to some new ones to check out.

Books to Read  

(I don't think I'll end up reading all of these - just a handful of things I'd like to get to soon, maybe this week. Also could pick something else up on a whim, who knows)

• The Queen (White Years #4) by Tiffany Reisz
• Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
• 100 Essays I Don't Have Time To Write by Sarah Ruhl 
• Monsters of Men (Chaos Walking #3) by Patrick Ness
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
• The Old Country by Mordicai Gerstein
• The Grownup by Gillian Flynn
• Ms Marvel, Volume 4: Last Days by G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona 
• The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Volume 1: Squirrel Power by Ryan North, Erica Henderson

Updates

Monday

Number of books I've read today: 1
Pages Read: 64
Time Spent Reading: 30 minutes
Books:
The Grownup by Gillian Flynn (started and finished - 64 pages)

Notes:

I didn't get a lot of reading done, and I'm not sure how well I'm going to do tomorow. I think I might be getting a cold - sore throat, sniffles - and just plain exhausted after the first few days of the year. It was a shit ton of fun but I need another good, long night of sleep, I think.

Let me know how you're doing, though! Or post a 

Tuesday

Number of books I've read today: 0
Total # of books I've read: 1
Pages read: 89
Total # of pages: 153
Time Spent Reading: 1 hour
Total Time Spent Reading: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Books:
Summer of Surrender by Zara Stoneley (started - 89 pages)

Notes:
I'm honestly surprised I got any reading done. It was a day, let me tell you. Also, I've just been having a hard time concentrating with all the stress and such. The time around New Years was kind of a break from that stress, but it's back full force now. Great.

Also renewed my Scribd subscription and picked this book up just on a whim. It's alright, not amazing, but it was less then 200 pages and just something for me to be able to read fast on my phone.

What are you reading?

Wednesday

Number of books I've read today: 2
Total # of books I've read: 3
Pages read: 248
Total # of pages: 401
Time Spent Reading: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Total Time Spent Reading: 2 hours, 50 minutes
Books:
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Volume One: Squirrel Power by Ryan North, Erica Henderson (started and finished - 128 pages)
Ms. Marvel, Volume 4: Last Days by G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona (started and finished - 120 pages)

Notes:
I was a little disappointed by Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, maybe I just wasn't in the right mood for it or something (that was probably it), but it was just a little meh for me overall. Sadly, I was so looking forward to it. Ms. Marvel, on the other hand, made me tear up at multiple points. (Also Carol Danvers is life, guys, life. I love her an unhealthy amount, and have just realized this).

Thursday

Didn't read.

Friday

Didn't read - but started the Star Wars marathon (episodes 4, 5, and 1)

Saturday

(Watched episodes 2, 3, 6, and 7. And want to go see 7 again in theaters because of reasons and feelings)

Sunday

Number of books I've read today: 1
Total # of books I've read: 4
Pages read: 182
Total # of pages: 583
Time Spent Reading: 2 hours
Total Time Spent Reading: 4 hours, 50 minutes
Books:
Summer of Surrender by Zara Stoneley (finished - 93 pages)
Playing the Game by M.Q. Barber (started - 89 pages) (ehhh, might DNF)

Notes:
I have fallen such out of the habit of reading - I really need to get back into it. I'm hoping having my reading chair will help once life calms down a bit, which hopefully it'll start to in the next few weeks. I'll try and build a kind of routine with the reading - sitting in the chair for an hour or so after lunch and reading something, and then reading later, too. That's the plan.

I honestly think this is the least I've ever read for a read-a-thon, in general, let alone a Bout of Books. I did watch all 7 Star Wars movies, though - which I'm still not entirely sure how we decided to do that, but Haley and I did. And then we did it.

Anyway - it was still a lot of fun. Also the firs time I've really missed a twitter chat, I popped in and out of the one on Saturday, still watching Star Wars as I was.

How was your Bout of Books? Or just your week?

Bout of Books 15 | Sign Up

I honestly didn't realize how close this was - it's been really hectic here and, for some reason, in my head this is the second week of January? It isn't, it turns out, my brain lies. I'm not sure how the first few days will go because I have a friend staying over New Years and leaving anywhere from the 4th to the 6th - standby flying is always fun - but I don't mind because friend. Just might end up staring a day or two later.

To the actual point of this post.

Bout of Books is a weeklong read-a-thon that takes place multiple times a year (three times seems to be the thing). This January it runs from the 4th through the 10th, whatever time zone you are. There are two twitter chats, my favorite, and everyone's active and really nice, and excited about books. It's a very lowkey and fun read-a-thon, and I really hope to be able to get a few things read, whatever they are.

Official Blurb:
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

Let me know if you'll be participating! I'll also be updating social medias - also about whatever shenanigans Sara and I are up to while she's here: updating goodreads and posting on Twitter, Instagram

Blog
Sign up post
Schedule

Bout of Book 14 | Weekly Wrap Up #21

It was Bout of Books 14 this past week and, like always, I had a lot of fun keeping up with what everyone was up to and barely really seeing much besides social media updates because I was just reading so much myself, which was a surprise to me. I put a large stack of books together for this week and was planning to do what I do for Dewey's - just pick and choose from it, mostly so I'm not walking looking all the books and I own, and mostly because it's just kind of fun.

And then, about the end of the first day I had this stupid crazy thought: maybe I could read all the books in my stack. And I should know myself better and remember to just throw in the towel and realize that's happening as soon as I think it. I might say I'm not competitive, but I am, mostly as long as it's against myself (I mean there was no one else going to finish the stack of books before me, right? But, man, do I feel good having done and having them all stacked next me done and read).

I think the strangest thing about this whole week, for me - besides reading so much after months of reading a small bit of this a month - is that I actually stuck to the pile. I worked my way through the pile until the end, I stuck to a TBR. I'm not sure that that has ever actually happened before, but it was kind of amazing. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to do it again, but I'd like to, it takes the guess work out of everything a little and that can be nice.

Anyway, now we're going to get onto what I read - page count, word count, physically read. I was keeping track of the time I spent reading, but that kind of fell off towards the end. I do have a good estimate, though.(At the beginning I was keeping up with it pretty good, even Saturday I think I got the times pretty exact, but that last day it would feel like it was taking forever and only an hour had past, still, I'm estimating a little high just because of that).

26 hours, 10 minutes.

Also I read a total of 3,451 pages. I also read a total of 12 books with 7 of them being book books (novels and such) and 5 being trades/graphic novels. Which, all in all, I'm very pleased with. I also read two single issue but I didn't count them in with anything but the pages, and maybe the time, but they're quick reads.

And onto the books themselves:

• Planet Hulk #4 by Sam Humphries, Marc Laming
• Cold Kiss (Cold Kiss #1) by Amy Garvey 
• You're Never Weird on the Internet (almost) by Felicia Day
• Mythic #2 by Phil Hester, John McCrea
• March: Book Two by John Lewis 
• Runaways: The Complete Collection, Volume by Brian K. Vaughn, Adrian Alphana, Takeshi Miyazawa
• Glass Heart (Cold Kiss #2) by Amy Garvey
• Black Widow, Volume 1: The Finely Woven Thread by Nathan Edmonson, Phil Noto 
• Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
• Black Widow, Volume 2: The Tightly Tangled Web by Nathan Edmonson, Phil Noto
• Phonogram: Rue Britannia by Kiernon Gillen, Jamie McKelvie
• The Saint (The White Years #1) by Tiffany Reisz
• Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
• Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

And I think that about wraps up my wrap up of the read-a-thon and week! What did you read this week? How did you do for the read-a-thon for your personal goals? Favorite thing you read this week? Let me know!

Bout of Book 14 | Update Post

And so it begins, my favorite read-a-thon, and I'm actually going to be following the template for the update post our lovely hosts offer for once. So good luck, everyone, I hope you get done what you want to and remember to have fun -

My Goals

• Read. More then I have been (this isn't going to be hard to accomplish considering the last few months)
• visit blogs - people I know, new ones. And comment
• Participate in both twitter chats (they're fun! Join in if you can)

Books to Read (this is going to be the stack I want to pick from, I in no way hope or think I can read them all):

• Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey
• Glass Heart by Amy Garvey
• Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
• Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
• Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
• The Saint by Tiffany Reisz
• You're Never Weird On the Internet (almost) by Felicia Day
• March, Book Two by John Lewis
• Phonogram: Rue Britannia by Kiernon Gillen, Jamie McKelvie
• Runaways: The Complete Collection, Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughn, Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa
• Black Widow: Vol 1 & Vol 2 by Nathan Edmonson, Phil Noto

Single issues:

• Planet Hulk #4
• Mythic #2

edit: removed Werecat from the list. I'll get to it eventually but I'm not quite in the mood for it (I read a few pages, it looks like the epitome of trashy werewolf smut. Which is not a bad thing, like seriously not, but I'm not really in the mood for that).

Updates

Monday
Number of books I've read today: 5 (+ 2 single issues)
Pages read: 1,448
Time Spent Reading: 8 hours, 45 minutes
Books:
Planet Hulk #4 by Sam Humphries, Marc Laming (started and finished - 23 pages)
Cold Kiss (Cold Kiss #1) by Amy Garvey (finished - 192 pages)
You're Never Weird on the Internet (almost) by Felicia Day (started and finished - 261)
Mythic #2 by Phil Hester, John McCrea (started and finished - 25 pages)
March: Book Two by John Lewis (started and finished - 189 pages)
Runaways: The Complete Collection, Volume by Brian K. Vaughn, Adrian Alphana, Takeshi Miyazawa (started and finished - 448 pages)
Glass Heart (Cold Kiss #2) by Amy Garvey (started and finished - 310)

Notes:
So obviously I had a good first day, whew. Normally I feel exhausted after a reading day like that but it's been so freaking long, I just feel so good about it? It's honestly been a really long time and it was getting to the point where it was like - did my brain just break? Hello, brain? R-E-A-D-I-N-G. So now I feel a little better.

Also, something else that's more just honestly surprising, is that I'm so far sticking to my TBR? I mean it was like less then twenty four hours since I put it together, but I don't know if I've ever held out this long. Maybe I'll continue to - I'm learning that just moving onto the next thing and reading without giving myself time to panic about it is working out good so far.

edit: I was keeping track of it but I wasn't sure I was going to add it but I decided to. Whenever I'm reading a lot I always get those - how do you read so much? - questions that are mostly rhetorical. And there is your answer, friends, it's because I do very little else on days like this one was.

Tuesday
Number of books I've read today: 3
Total # of books I've read: 8
Pages read: 669
Total # of pages: 2,117
Time Spent Reading: 5 hours
Total Time Spent Reading: 13 hours, 45 minutes
Books:
Black Widow, Volume 1: The Finely Woven Thread by Nathan Edmonson, Phil Noto (started and finished - 144 pages)
Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman (started and finished - 365)
Black Widow, Volume 2: The Tightly Tangled Web by Nathan Edmonson, Phil Noto (started and finished - 160 pages)

Notes:
I wanted to read a little more today but I just didn't have the mental energy and I'm suffering from a tad bit of eye strain. And I know, I know I read a lot, a shit ton, but we're always hardest on ourselves, right? (No, seriously, I am very hard on myself, especially writing goal related, let's not talk about that at all right now).

So I read both volumes of the newest Black Widow run (I don't know if there's a secret wars thing but she's probably somewhere, if not), and I'm loving it. First off - the art is gorgeous, completely stunning. And I'm also loving Natasha. I forget how much I like her character and then we get good characterization and a sharp focus on her and it's like - oh yeah, she's awesome, kickass, and secretly a sweetheart. good.

And then Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman - some of the stories, surprisingly, I was eh about, but this was all very early work. There's quite a few I love though - specifically, to give you nightmares in 100 words: Nicholas Was... and also Babycakes is like two pages and will make you think, and horrify you.

Also I'm still sticking to my TBR and I'm so proud of myself (like stupidly proud of myself) and think I might end up adding a book or two, depending on how long the 400+ books take to read considering.

What did you read today? Tell me!

Wednesday
Number of books I've read today: 1
Total # of books I've read: 9
Pages read: 152
Total # of pages: 2,269
Time spent reading: 45
Total time spent reading: 14 hours, 30 minutes
Books:
Phonogram: Rue Britannia by Kiernon Gillen, Jamie McKelvie (started and finished - 152 pages)

Notes:
So, obviously, today did not go as well as the previous two days did. I don't know what was going on but I was so tired that most of the time i want to read I started to fall asleep - which doesn't happen to me, I've only experienced it a handful of times and it was weird. Makes reading very difficult, but I finished something from my TBR. (feel free to skip the middle paragraph as it's just me talking through the insane things that go on in my brain).

And then it was a strangely up and down kind of day - last night before I went to sleep I was thinking well maybe I could get to 4,000 pages this week. I've done it twice, I think, once almost to 4,500. And then this morning I was kind of like nah, I'll just try and keep going with this TBR thing I have going. And then I started thinking about the other books I could be reading (98% of the books in my apartment right now are unread because my read books are buried in my mom's house to be put in storage or brought here, I don't know yet), so I'm surrounded by unread books.

So that's the up and down things that's been happening and I was in pain and just tired, weirdly tired. Anyway - what did you get up to today? What did you read? Let me know in the comments!

Thursday
Didn't read a page - I don't know what happened but I woke up feeling downright awful and then stuff happened and everything was insane and I didn't read a damn thing, sadly.

Friday
Also didn't read anything - wasn't feeling so good, again, and had a flight with a strange flying insect.

Saturday
Number of books I've read today: 2
Total # of books I've read: 11
Pages read: 746
Total # of pages: 3,015
Books:
The Saint (The White Years #1) by Tiffany Reisz (started and finished - 442 pages)
Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older (started and finished 304 pages)

Notes:
Wasn't feeling completely better today but better then expected. And twitter chats always push me into wanting to read.

I can't believe I'm still sticking to my TBR, I don't think I've ever made it even two days sticking to a TBR, but it's kind of nice. And considering that I'm a person that likes lists and checking things off of them it makes sense. I just really didn't expect to get this far with this one at all, though, I expected to only get two book books read this week, that's what I was hoping for considering my reading the last couple months, so I feel so freaking good about this week.

Sunday
Number of books I've read today: 1
Total # of books I've read: 12
Pages read: 436
Total # of pages: 3, 451
Books:
Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King (started and finished -  436 pages)

Notes:
I'm not all together sure how I felt about the book, but I think I liked it? I've got a lot of thoughts bouncing around about completely TBRs and stuff that I'm going to put in my full wrap up tomorrow, because even though I didn't do seperate daily update posts, I feel like I need to do a separate full wrap up of the week.

Let me know how your reading is going!

Bout of Books 14 | Goal & TBR

Bout of Books is tomorrow and I'm just realizing how much it's sneaking up on me (it's tomorrow, tomorrow. What's happening? I have no idea anymore). Anyway - I've been in a serious reading... slump? I guess it's a slump. I've still been reading, technically, but not as much as I'd like to be. So I've been trying to participate in whatever read-a-thon I can to try and get my head back in the reading (and blogging) zone.

So my goals for this week are pretty simple.

• Read as much as I can - don't push myself too hard, not this time around, but also I respond well to goals/pushing. (average of 200 pages a day minimum)
• Finish some book books, not just trades/graphic novels
• Visit blogs! Comment! (I've been so out of just everything that I haven't gone and visited peoples blogs since before I moved, let alone commented and interacted and I miss it so much, I want to see what everyones up to, what they're reading) (not giving myself a goal, just going to push myself)
• Go to both twitter chats! I love the twitter chats, they're fantastic, and normally make me want to read, so hopefully it'll all go well.

I think the biggest thing that'll be making me read the next week instead of anything else is that I somehow hurt my wrist yesterday or the day before, and it randomly just starts to hurt too hard to type/write/really anything. But I can read. 

For my TBR, obvious this is very loose and more like just my pile of things to pick from. Only one of them is something I've started (which I was hoping to finish before the read-a-thon but a family friend had a cook out yesterday and I actually got to sleep in because workmen don't work on Sunday (there's construction still happening in my building. yay)).

So the books first:

• Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey (currently-reading)
• Glass Heart by Amy Garvey (sequel obviously, would be cool to also get done and have finished another series this year)
• Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman (short story collection, want to read and then move onto Trigger Warnings. I've been missing Gaiman).
• Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older (new release and looks super interesting, and the cover is gorgeous, and is also pretty short & YA)
• Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King (put this on my BookTubeAThon TBR and didn't get to it, but maybe I can this week? It's long but it's King)
• Werecat: The Trilogy by Andrew J Peters (I bought this at a con, and it's a whole trilogy in like 250 pages, perfect for a readathon)
• The Saint by Tiffany Reisz (I've been wanting to continue on with this series since I finished the last one, I love these characters)

And then the graphic novels/trades and such. First off, I'm going to be reading single issues throughout the week but I'm not going to count them as a full thing unless I read like 1-5 and then I'll just count it as their trade counterpart. (Does that make sense to everyone? Won't count as one thing completed, but will count the pages and list 'em)

• March, Book Two by John Lewis (read book one in July and really want to get to this)
• Phonogram: Rue Britannia by Kiernon Gillen, Jamie McKelvie (currently coming out are the single issues to part three, though they're all self contained stories. I still can't start at three, and I love these two).
• Runaways: The Complete Collection, Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughn, Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa (I've always wanted to read this and I'm glad they released it in the longer trades. it looks so good, though)
• Black Widow: Vol 1 & Vol 2 by Nathan Edmonson, Phil Noto (I've been dying to read these, dying, and it's complete now, vol 3 all out in single issues but not collected yet).

And for single issues? No idea, I have so many to read - probably some Secret Wars stuff and then just whatever came out the last two weeks since I should get my pull list in on Friday. 

Those are all things that I want to read soon, I hope to get through a good chunk of both lists but we'll see how it goes, I guess. 

Normally I do a separate post for everyday, it feels less cluttered to me but then I feel very guilty if I haven't read anything, so this read-a-thon we're going to go as low stress as possible and just do all the updates in one post (and then have a post next Monday, after the read-a-thon, that'll have everything I read and page count and just my general thoughts about the week).

If you're participating in Bout of Books this coming week let me know so I can check out your blog, and best of luck. 

BoutofBooks 14 | Sign Up

I am really back, I promise, it's just still hectic as hell around here. I will definitely be here for daily updates/such for BoutofBooks 14! I couldn't miss a Bout of Books no matter what, my favorite read-a-thon. This time around it starts on the 17th and goes through the 23r, and this is mostly just my sign up post, hopefully I'll be putting up a possible TBR post this weekend.

So I'll be doing daily updates of what I read, which will hopefully be more then I have been reading, and let me know if you're participating as well!

Official BoutofBooks blurb:

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, August 17th and runs through Sunday, August 23rd 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 14 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

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