Bout of Books 20 Sign up

Finally, a Bout of Books that I can sign up for and fully participate in. Bout of Books 20 starts on the 21st of August (which happens to be my birthday) and continues until Sunday the 27th of August. As the BOB is my favourite readathon, I am treating this as my birthday present from the bookish gods. Thanks guys!

I’m currently only working 13 hours a week and can spend a couple of those hours reading anyway, so I am planning on doing lots of reading throughout the readathon. I’ll try and participate in some of the challenges and bookish events and will also be hanging out on twitter. If we’re not following one another already, please add me @bookybecksa, because I’d love more readathon’ers to chat with over there.

I haven’t set myself any goals for recent readathons, but as this is my birthday readathon, I’ve decided some goals would be best. A TBR will be posted the day before the readathon starts.

GOALS

Read 1500 pages.
Finish four books.
Write reviews for all books read, as I read them. (important or else they don’t get reviewed)
Participate in 3 challenges.
MAKE NEW BOOKISH FRIENDS! (most important)

If you haven’t already signed up for the readathon, I encourage you to do so, over at the Bout of Books website. This is one of the best bookish events that you can participate in.

Bout of Books #16 Sign up & TBR

Hey guys! I’m emerging out of blogging and reading obscurity to take part in one of my favourite bloggy/reading events – Bout of Books! I’m looking forward to dedicating a whole week to catching up with some of my favourite authors and shunning the outside world.

I am going to challenge myself this time to read over 2,000p over the week, so I won’t be committing too much else. There will be no blog updates on here, and I might complete a challenge or two, but they won’t be my priority. Also, I’ve decided not to host a challenge this BOB, so that’s a little pressure off my shoulders. Interesting to see that all the challenges will be hosted on the Bout of Books blog this year. If you haven’t before, and are interested in this wonderful event, check them out here.

Most of my Bout of Books’ing will happen on twitter, where I am @bookybecksa and am much more active than here! I’m trying twitter as my primary platform because I find blogging to be time intensive during a readathon, and I always end up having to compose and combine multiple day’s updates in one post. If I remember, I will post a summary/wrap up at the end of the week, linking that to the Bout of Books blog too.

I’ve got a cautionary TBR prepared, but will allow myself room to mood read if need be. I’ve tried to include long but easy reading books and new books by favourite authors so that I can hopefully hit my word count!

TBR

Novels

Deathlist – Chris Ryan
Fire Point – Sean Black
State of Emergency – Andy McNab
The Black Echo – Michael Connelly
First Response – Stephen Leather
Dead Girl Sing – Tony Cavanaugh

Short stories/Novellas

Budapest/48 – Sean Black
The Soft Touch – Tony Cavanaugh
The Sandpit – Stephen Leather

BOB15: Day 6 & 7 and Wrap-up!

Another Bout of Books has brought itself to a close, and I sure did get some reading done! I’m surprised by how much progress I have made, considering I’m mid EDS flare-up. Most of my reading has been done in my bed and up late at night when I just. can’t. sleep. I’m thinking about investing in a bean-bag, although I HATE the look of them, because it’s either that or a swimming pool.

So, my figures for the weekend were okay, I finished another book on Sunday night.

Day 6:

91p of The Business of Dying by Simon Kernick

Day 7:

246p of The Business of Dying by Simon Kernick – Completed

Total for readathon: 1,536

My goals for this readathon were:

• Write an update post daily on Ranty Runt, even if it is just what I have read and a cumulative total – I did provide updates of each day, even though the last four days were condensed into two posts. I will take this as a win. I might do this on twitter next Bob.
• Participate in 2 challenges – I participated in one challenge.
• Be a social butterfly and read & comment on at least three updates per day – I commented on quite a few blogs over the bob, not sure if it would equal three a day. 
• Read 2000 pages.  – I read 1536p. Not the goal, but I’m still happy with it. Way more than I would normally read!
• POST MY CHALLENGE AT THE RIGHT TIME – I nailed this one!

So, that’s the end of this Bob, I don’t think I will host a challenge next time around – I enjoy doing it, but it might just be more than I can handle during semester. Hope everyone else had a great bob, and I’ll see you all in May? Is it May? I think so.

BOB11: Day One update

Well, yesterday I got some decent reading in, I had uni in the morning but then got home and started the new Spider Shepherd book, and didn’t stop reading until I finished the darn thing. I also finished off the last 80 pages of 1984 at uni – I was hoping to finish before the readathon started, but ended up reading it during.

I was quite happy because I managed to check out peoples blogs, but didn’t spend too much time on the net – that was my downfall last BOB.

Reading Progress:
1984 – last 80p
White Lies – 384p

Total Pages = 464

Today’s challenge – The Book Monster’s Scavenger Hunt! I had fun doing this one, and I realised I picked three books written by Stephens – It was a coincidence, I promise!

 

Challenge #1
1 Starts with a B – Beat by Stephen Jay Schwartz
2 Has been made into movie – Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter (was made into the movie Sniper)
3 Favourite series – Hard Landing by Stephen Leather (#1 in Spider Shepherd books)
4 Collection of poems/short stories – 100 Best Loves Poems edited by Philip Smith
5 TBR book – No Going Back by Matt Hilton

Today’s plan:

The Great Gatsby – 120
No Going Back – 360
Participate in a challenge
Visit blogs

Bout of Books 11!

YAY! I’m going to participate in BOB11. I was umming and ahhing for a while, I do have things going on that week – most notably my birthday… but I’ve also got time off work so I can actually spend more time reading!

I’ll post my goals later this week. I am looking forward to participating, are there many other BOB’ers getting ready? Have you decided your goals yet?

 

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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 18th and runs through Sunday, August 24th 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 11 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

Bout of books 10 summary!

Well I certainly enjoyed this read-a-thon, and was very happy with my participation. I read 1405 pages, which for me, in a week, is pretty much unheard of. I managed to finish 4 novels and 1 short story, my goal for the challenge was to complete 4 novels, so I accomplished that!

The challenges were excellent and I certainly will be putting the next bout of books in my calendar! Thanks to everyone who commented on my blog or simply participated – you guys rock, and make the challenge worth doing.

The following is my list of books I wanted to read from, and I read 5 of the 8. I only chose books from this list until my last option, which for me was something different – I usually am a mood reader.

Proximity – Stephen Phillips
Free Bird – Kevin Cooley
The Watchman – Chris Ryan
Beat – Stephen Jay Schwartz
Personal Protection – Stephen Leather
Last Night – Stephen Leather
The Giver – Lois Lowry
Stone Cold – C.J. Box

So the following is my update for day #7
TODAY:
Hours of reading: 3
Pages read: St Kilda Blues by Geoffrey MacGeachin 150p
Total pages read: 1405p

Books in progress:
St Kilda Blues by Geoffrey MacGeachin – 150

Books completed:
Stone Cold by C.J. Box
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Narrow Escape by Stephen Leather
Free Bird by Kevin Cooley
Lastnight by Stephen Leather

Bout of Books progress report day 6

Hours of reading: 4

Pages read: Finished Lastnight by Stephen Leather

Total pages read: 1255

Books completed:

Stone Cold by C.J. Box

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Narrow Escape by Stephen Leather

Free Bird by Kevin Cooley

Lastnight by Stephen Leather

 

I didn’t participate in any challenges

 

Tomorrow I’m hoping to get to 30% of St Kilda Blues, but I do have lots of uni work to do, so we will see.

Bout of Books Progress Report Day 5

Hours of reading: 2
Pages read: Made it to 40% of Last Night by Stephen Leather
Total pages read: 838
Books completed:
Stone Cold by C.J. Box
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Narrow Escape by Stephen Leather
Free Bird by Kevin Cooley

No Challenges once again, but I am happy with the couple I have already participated in!

Tomorrow I’m reading Last Night by Stephen Leather, again. Hopefully I will polish it off today, that’s my goal. I have a couple of books I need to write reviews for next week, but the first step is reading them!

Bout of Books progress report day 4

Well, I certainly didn’t get as much reading done yesterday as I was planning – just a measly 2 hours, and it was very distracted time too, as my boyfriend kept coming in the room and talking to me. Plus, I then went and saw my sister for lunch and stayed there all night, but that is the nature of it! I’m not planning on reading much tomorrow either – I have lunch & dinner plans, but hopefully I can squeeze in a couple of hours.

Hours of reading: 2
Pages read: 19% of Last Night by Stephen Leather
Total pages read: 838
Books completed:
Stone Cold by C.J. Box
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Narrow Escape by Stephen Leather
Free Bird by Kevin Cooley

I participated in the spell it out challenge by Kimberlyfayereads

Tomorrow I am planning on finishing or at least getting further through Last Night. I am really enjoying it so far, it’s about a serial killer who targets goths!

Bout of Books progress report Day 3

Hours of reading: 5
Pages read: 245
Total pages read: 838
Books completed:
Stone Cold by C.J. Box
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Narrow Escape by Stephen Leather
Free Bird by Kevin Cooley

Today I didn’t complete any challenges, but I did go around and post on a couple of blogs, just to see how other people are going. It’s interesting to see how other people progress through their reading.

Tomorrow I’m reading Last Night by Stephen Leather