Final Bout of Books 10.0 Wrap-Up (Day Seven)

And this is the end - the last post of this Bout of Books. I hope your week was fun (and the next one is in August). Leave me a comment with how you did or a link to your own wrap-up post. Bout of Books is definitely my a ton of fun, especially the Twitter chats and talking to people about books, because who doesn't love talking about books.

Speaking of books - first, let's do the wrap-up/stats for day seven and then the total for the read-a-thon.

Number of Books Read Today: 4

Pages Read Today: 590

Books (just today):
Locke and Key, Vol 1: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez (started and finished - 168 pages)
Locke and Key, Vol 2: Head Games by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez (started and finished - 160 pages)
Locke and Key, Vol 3: Crown of Shadows by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez (started and finished - 140 pages)
Once Dead, Twice Shy (Madison Avery #1) by Kim Harrison (finishd - 122 pages)

Words Written (today only): 5,597

Notes:
Locke and Key - I wish I had the last three volumes in the series, I probably would of read those today, too, if I did. I really, really enjoyed them - the mythology is great and I love these characters so much.

Sunday was definitely a much better reading day then Saturday and sometimes I forget how much I love graphic novels, the art adds so much. And now - onto the read-a-thon totals and all the books I finished, and the ones I started this week but didn't finish.

Total Books Read: 12

Total Pages Read: 3,345

Books:
The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking #2) by Patrick Ness
The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allen Poe
The Walking Dead: Book Two by Robert Kirkman
Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos (Theodosia Throckmorton #1) by R.L. LaFevers
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill
Maus l by Art Spiegelman
Maus ll by Art Spiegelman
Locke and Key, Vol 1: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez
Locke and Key, Vol 2: Head Games by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez
Locke and Key, Vol 3: Crown of Shadows by Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez
Once Dead, Twice Shy (Madison Avery #1) by Kim Harrison

Books not finished;
Watchmen by Alan Moor, Dave Gibbons (got to page 206, approximately)
The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) by Brandon Sanderson (got to page 204)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide #1) by Douglas Adams (got to page 50)

Notes - and final thoughts:
I'm always so sad to see these read-a-thons end - even if I'm also looking forward to watching some TV without guilt (self imposed guilt, but still). I love read-a-thons, and I'm always surpised with how much I get read during them.

This one was a bit of a struggle for me - I had migraines on most of the days and those are exhausting and normally don't go away very easily. However, naps were very helpful (as was my migraine medicine), and hopefully that cluster of migraines is over now.

To talk more about the reading, though, it was a very good week for me. Not quite the most I've read in a Bout of Books (Bout of Books 7.0 was the best, and I have no idea how I did that, I read 4k pages that week), but it was an awesome week.

I hope your week went well. And if you didn't get to read as much because of real life happening - then don't stress about it, you can't stop real life. Remember: flailing, not failing. And there's always the next read-a-thon. Or just the next time you can take a few hours to curl up with a book.

Happy reading!

Bout of Books 10.0: Day Six Wrap-Up

Today was not a good day for me, and I'm mostly okay with that because I've gotten a lot read this week, but - still. I couldn't concentrate at all today, and fell asleep for two hours, it was not good.

There was a Twitter chat, though, which was a ton of fun! And now onto my stats, and it's now officially the last day of the read-a-thon, which is very, very sad. I love read-a-thons and it's sad to see them end. And now I have a ton of books to write reviews for.

Number of books read today: 0

Total number of books read: 8

Books currently-reading:
Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons (startes - 206 pages)

Number of pages read today: 206 pages

Total number of pages read: 2,755

Words Written (today only): 2,646

Notes:

I didn't get much written at all today because I was feeling so, so burnt out and exhausted all day. I ended up watching the RoosterTeeth live-stream randomly and them doing stupid things for charity. And that actually helped a little.

Anyway - I started Watchmen and got about halfway through it and am really enjoying it so far, but I think my mood is much more funny and happier things at the moment. It's so good, though.

How did you day go? I hope better then mine. And what are you currently reading? 

Bout of Books 10.0: Day Five Wrap-Up

I woke up with the beginning of a migraine today - so a lot of hours were lost to trying to get it to leave, but it finally did. I ended up deciding to go for some graphic novels, they were quick and I have a lot of them that I want to get through, and I'm not up to par right now.

Number of books read today: 2

Total number of books read: 8

Books:
Maus l by Art Spiegelman (started and finished - 160)
Maus ll by Art Spiegelman (started and finished - 136)

Books currently-reading:
Once Dead, Twice Shy (Madison Avery #1) by Kim Harrison (started - 110 pages)

Number of pages read today: 406

Total number of pages read: 2,549

Written Today: 5,126
(thought I'd just do this, since I'd been tacking it on the last few days anyway)

Notes:

I really enjoyed both volumes of Maus, I haven't ready many things that've dealt with the Holocaust but the one book I did read stuck with me (and I want to reread it) - it was Night. Anyway, I highly recommended checking out Maus. 

I didn't end up reading anymore in the other books I'm in the middle of, which is why I didn't list them today, also I'm exhausted. I stopped reading kind of early, hopefully the weekend is kickass, it's not like I have any shortage of books that I'm excited to read or finish.

I have a feeling I won't be getting much done tomorrow. There's a few things going on and we're also going to try and get the ACs in because it's starting to get warmer.

What are you currently-reading and how is your Bout of Books going? 

Bout of Books 10.0: Day Four Wrap-Up

Today was a pretty good reading day, not as good as yesterday but I had some time to read some more of The Final Empire so that was lovely. I got a little distracted by writing in the morning/early afternoon and might have had a slight dance party to wake myself up. Now - stats?

Number of books read today: 1

Total number of books read: 6

Books:
All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill (finished - 258 pages)

Books currently-reading:
Quiet by Susan Cain (continued - 38 pages)
The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) by Brandon Sanderson (continued - 100 pages)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide #1) by Douglas Adam (started - 50 pages)

Number of pages read today: 446

Total number of pages read: 2,143

Notes:

Apparently All Our Yesterdays is going to have a sequel. Why? It ended so freaking perfectly. I don't even know where the story would go from there.

Anyway - I also continued reading some other books. As you can tell my reading after finishing All Our Yesterdays was a tad scattered, as I honestly tend to be after finishing a book. I am currently just completely loving Quiet - it's got so much information jammed into so many pages, but it doesn't feel like it's hard to read, though it's a little slower, I find all non-fiction is.

And The Final Empire. Brandon Sanderson, if you haven't read him - do it now. I don't want to finish this book quickly but I also want to know what happens, but - it's like it's replenishing me of something and it's just so fantastic, I love it to absolute pieces, I'm so glad this is a series and that the first three books are so long. (It appears like there's going to be six books in all - I kind of hope there's more, which is rare for me to want more books in a series).

Also - Hitchhiker's Guide is lovely. I mean what can I really say? This is a reread for me and I read the first three books I think two years ago (I could go check, but I'm no going to) and I really enjoyed them, completely hilarious, but I never ended up reading the last two. So I want to reread the first three, and then get to the last two. This is definitely not going to happen during the read-a-thon, but soon, they're all really short.

(Edit: Added thing again, I wrote 7,482 words today, thought I'd add that in today. If you haven't noticed, I like stats of things).

I hope your reading day went well and just your day in general. What are you reading? How are you liking them? Have any books you want to push that you think I might like?

Bout of Books 10.0: Day Three Wrap-Up

Today was definitely a better day. I didn't have a headache or a migraine when I woke up, and I was able to get some reading done. And some writing done, I haven't been able to write the last two days which tends to make me just argh.

Anyway - today was a good reading and writing day. And there was also an awesome twitter chat, I love twitter chats, if you haven't checked one out there's one on Saturday, check out the Bout of Books blog for more info.

Number of books read today: 2

Total number of books read: 5

Books:
Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos (Theodosia Throckmorton #1) by R.L. LaFevers (finished - 292 pages)
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (started and finished - 235 pages)

Books currently-reading:
The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) by Brandon Sanderson (didn't read any more, oops, saved it for last and then hello migraine)
Quiet by Susan Cain (also no, non-fiction is definitely slower)
All Our Yesterdays (All Our Yesterdays #1) by Cristin Terrill (start - 102 pages)

Number of pages read today: 629

Total number of pages read: 1,697

Notes:

Kind of accidentally picked up All Our Yesterdays, and I love when that happens, but I'm 100 pages in and not sure how I'm feeling about it - it's interesting and a pretty fast read, but we'll see. (There was some like high school drama-esque stuff, hopefully that doesn't come back, I just - no. I mean some people like that, and power to you, but I personally just want to shoot the characters normally).

Theodosia I had a hard time getting into, but it was a really fast read and I started to really enjoy it towards the end. Also - Egyptian mythology, especially added with ancient artifacts, I am normally down for, it's a weakness.

American Born Chinese was really good and kind of oddly adorable, really like it.

(Fun fact, if you're interested, on top of those 600+ words, I wrote 6.8k. I don't know how this happened, it's all a little blurry).

Anyway - I hope your day was good. How did it go? Did you get reading done? Remember: flailing, not failing!

Bout of Books 10.0: Day Two Wrap-Up

Day two felt physically better then day one, thank you migraine meds and my trusty heating pad, and the reading wasn't quite as productive in number, but it felt a lot more productive for some reason.

Number of books read today: 2

Total number of books read: 3

Books:
The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allen Poe (started and finished - 25 pages)
The Walking Dead: Book Two by Robert Kirkman (started and finished - 304 pages)

Books currently-reading:
The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) by Brandon Sanderson (started - 104 pages)

Number of pages read today: 433

Total number of pages read: 1,068

Notes:

The Purloined Letter was a quick read, that I mostly read in the hours of the morning that one might consider "the dead of night," because my head was throbbing and I was awake. It was - okay, I guess, interesting.

The Walking Dead: Book Two I started during Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon, but I had to go back and reread those 20 pages or so, because I didn't remember really what had happened (it was about 4/5am I think). Anyway - it was alright, I gave it three stars. The thing with characters being killed off in this series is that I just don't care - they're not built up enough for me to care.

The Final Empire - Brandon Sanderson, friends, might just be my favorite author. I mean J.K. Rowling is just like Queen by now, and there are some other authors I really love, but - but Brandon Sanderson. If you haven't read any of his books - do it, do it now. I'd highly recommend The Way of Kings (I wish I could write a conceive review of that book, but it's too good), but if the length of that one scares you: The Rithmatist, Steelheart, The Emperor's Soul.

Or Misborn, I'm only 100 pages in and I already am loving it and know it'll definitely be one of my favorite books of this year. I"m constantly blown away by his books. Most of them tend to have magic systems and they're all so different and - just give him a try, you won't regret it. I'd write more, but I'm exhausted from my day of reading and I"m sure you've all heard the laments and praise to Sanderson. So just do it.

How did your day go? What are you currently-reading? And how are you feeling? Alright? Take a break, this is suppose to be fun - flailing not failing. 

Bout of Books 10.0: Day One Wrap-Up

Day one of the Bou of Books 10.0 read-a-thon! I didn't feel quite right today, didn't mention it on twitter - but I had a migraine for part of the day and a tad dehydrated (no, seriously, weather - jumping to like 80 degrees isn't cool, literally, and my body was not ready for that).

Anyway, I didn't want to mention it just because I didn't want to complain too much. On to happier topics and hopefully I feel better tomorrow!

There was a Bout of Books Twitter chat today, which was even more crazy and fast moving then usual and still so, so much fun. I love seeing what everyone's saying and what they're reading or recommend, it' a ton of fun and if you haven't been to one - there's another chat on Wednesday and Friday, and I think a live G+ hangout tomorrow.

Number of Books Completed Today: 1

Books Finished:
The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking #2) by Patrick Ness (519 pages - started and finished)

Books Currently-Reading:
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain (64 pages read)
Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos by R.L. LaFevers (52 pages)

Number of Pages Read Today: 635

Notes:
I really, really loved The Ask and the Answer, I just flew through it too, this series is fantastic. I have the third one waiting to read, but it's almost 600 pages and... it's going to make me cry isn't it? I don't know if I'm ready for emotional scarring this early in the read-a-thon, so I might put it off until the weekend.

Quiet is so fantastic and though provoking so far, I'm reading it on my Kindle (it was pretty cheap, too) and I'm really glad I am because it's so much easier to make notes on it and such.

I'm not that far into Theodosia, it's the first in a series, and I"m kind of eh about it at the moment, but like I said I'm not that far into it. Also it's about Ancient Egypt, so I'll probably end up really into it. If not - I am still determine to read the rest of the series (I may have pre-emtively bought others in it, I've mostly stopped myself from doing this, but I can't resist ancient Egypt in middle-grade, it's a weakness).

What have you been reading? Also - am I going to cry reading Monsters of Men? (I want to be prepared). I hope you had a great reading day or just a great day in general - happy reading!

Bout of Books 10.0 starts today!

And here we are at the beginning of another read-a-thon. Bout of Books 10.0 started at midnight in whatever timezone you may be in. And I've got to say, it's probably my favorite read-a-thon, just because it's longer and the twitter chats. (Though, I do have a lot of love for Dewey's 24-hour read-a-thon).

I have plans to not start at midnight this time around, which is actually very weird for me, normally I try and at least read a few pages before going to bed. I am planning on getting up early to start reading with a cup of coffee. The first two days of this read-a-thon, I'm not going to worry about anything but reading, really.

And now, if you haven't been following my blog during a read-a-thon, here's how updates will work: I put up the wrap up of Monday, on Tuesday and so on (normally I just write it up before I got to be and schedule for like 12/1am, and hope there are no spelling mistakes). However, if you haven't more on time reading updates: Goodreads, Twitter, Instagram.

Do you have any special plans for the first day? Also - what are you currently reading for this read-a-thon (or just in general)? And what are your plans to read more (ex: limiting things or just kind of giving them up for the week)?

Goals/TBR
Bout of Books 10.0 Starts Monday! (with some tips)

Bout of Books 10.0 starts Monday!

I've posted already about the Bout of Books 10.0 read-a-thon, but I wanted to just post again just as a reminder. This read-a-thon starts at the very beginning of Monday (May 12th), midnight in your own timezone, and continues until Sunday night (May 18th).

I highly suggest checking out the blog, if you haven't, and aren't sure if you want to participate. It's a low stress read-a-thon, you set your own goals, and there are challenges if you want to participate in those or Twitter chats.

I've participated in quite a few Bout of Books at this point, my first was 4.0 and then 7.0 to now. So this will be my fifth BoB, and my who knows full read-a-thon tally. I'm definitely not, really, any kind of expert (can you be an expert in read-a-thons?) but I thought I'd share a few tips if it's your first:

• Have fun. Seriously, just - let go of the stress. If you're like me and need a higher goal to push yourself towards, then just make multiple levels of goals, keep your "impossible" goal, hope, to yourself so you don't feel extra stress about it.
• Small books aren't cheating, they're your friends. Or graphic novels, to just slot them between bigger books you're reading, or just so you feel like you're making progress. I never feel like I'm making progress unless I'm finishing books. Short books, graphic novels, and manga are perfect for that.
• Participate / talk to people. Go and click on some people's posts, or just check out the #boutofbooks hashtag on twitter. It's scary, trust me I totally get that, but it's also a ton of fun. I didn't really do this for the first two years or so of me blogging, just because I have a lot of anxiety and talking to people i terrifying. However - book bloggers and such are probably the nicest people in the world (at least from all I've experienced), so just pop into a twitter chat, even for a few minute, or leave your blog link below so I can check out your blog / say hi!
• Just read. No, really, this is a thing you should remember. Talking to people is fun, but don't stay on twitter for four hours or cruise through blogs. Give yourself time limits and get back to reading.

And once again have fun - those are just what I've learned from participating in quite a few read-a-thons over the years. You don't have to listen to any of it if you don't want to, do whatever works for you.

Also there's a slight edit to my TBR, which I'm sure no one cares about, but I wanted to mention it anyway. I'm missing the first two books in the Jill Kismet series, so I might not be able to start that series (they're on the way, and I have the rest, so I will marathon them really soon). And, as of writing this, I've only got two books left in the Dante Valentine series, so I might just be finishing the final book for the read-a-thon.

Do you have any added tips or things you've learned? Leave them in the comments!

My goal post

Twitter

Bout of Books 10: Goals and TBR

First off, if you don't know what Bout of Books is, it's a week long read-a-thon, that is a ton of fun. Check out their blog to find out more. Also - my sign up post (which was for two read-a-thons, and Dewey's already passed).

However, this read-a-thon will be taking place from May 12th - 18th and I'll hopefully be reading for a large part of every day. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to set aside the first day, maybe two, to pretty much just reading and then let up a little on it. Either way - I have high hopes for this read-a-thon, as I tend to.

I tend to just pick a bunch of books that I'll be picking from during the week, so I'm going to list the books I'm thinking of reading during this week:

• More of the Dante Valentine's series by Lilith Saintcrow
• And, on the same not, the Jill Kismet series by the same author
• The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness
• Theodosia Thorkmorton series by R.L. LaFevers (I'd like to at least read the first book, and they're middle grade, so I should be able to fly through it).
• Reread City of Glass and maybe the other two (that last book comes out at the end of his month!)
• Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen
• Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey

Sadly, I don't really have any graphic novels that I'm waiting to get to, because I normally use those between books to give me a little break of sorts. And now, onto my goals/hopes for the week.

I tend to be very hopeful, I guess, with what I want to accomplish during read-a-thons, but I also tend to be pretty good at getting there. 

• Finish 1-2 books a day (I'd really like to say 2-3 but I don't want to put too much pressure on myself. However I'll be setting my sights for that and if I only get one finished, I'm not going to be upset my any means).
• Read 300+ pages a day (I normally put 200-300 but I glanced back at my stats from 9.0 and I was over 300 all of those days, so I think this is very doable).
• Participate in the Twitter chats (if you haven't done a Bout of Books, or have and haven't checked these out, you should they're a ton of fun).
• Have fun, don't stress too much, just read, read, read.

If you're participating in this Bout of Books, then leave a comment letting me know so I can check out your blog and cheer you on. And if you're not, or you just can't - I hope you have a great week, anyway.

Read-A-Thon's On the Horizon!

There are two read-a-thon's coming up very soon. So let's split it up and start with the one that's closer, shall we?

Dewey's 24-hour Read-A-Thon. (April 26th)

It's a read-a-thon that goes on for, as you'd guess, a full twenty four hours. I never seem to be able to put aside those full twenty four hours or stay awake the whole time, but it's always a lot of fun and it starts 8am eastern time, but there's a page to find your own start time, it looks like it's got pretty much everywhere to me so you can skip that annoying and hard to do time zone math.

Also they just posted a list of recommended short books, which I thought was a good idea.
Direct link to the reader sign up
Direct link to the cheerleader sign up
Twitter

Bout Of Books 10 (Mid-May, May 12th - May 18th)

This is a read-a-thon that's a week long and takes place multiple times throughout the year. I can't wait for this one to start, already mulling over possible books to read, and it's probably my favorite one just because it's longer. Also - people in the hashtag on Twitter are so nice, as book bloggers are, and it makes those twitter chats a ton of fun.

The official Bout of Books blurb is right 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, May 12th and runs through Sunday, May 18th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 10 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. 
- From the Bout of Books team

Bout of Books' Twitter

If you're going to participating in one or the other, or both like me, then leave me a comment so I can check your blog out! I'm awful at remembering to go to people's blog during the read-a-thon times, normally because I'm trying not to go on my computer, but it's on my goal to be better at that this year (and it's always a ton of fun).