Bout-of-Books 30

The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 4th and runs through Sunday, January 10th in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are daily challenges, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional. For Bout of Books 30 information and updates, visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I'm participating on Twitter (@strangenewwords), but I decided to have a summary-of-everything post on this blog after all.

Monday, 4/1/2021

Reading: The Idea of You by Robinne Lee (finished) and A Winter Symphony by Tiffany Reisz 
Pages/words: 39 + 81 = 120
Challenges/other: 

Tuesday, 5/1/2021

Reading: The Star of Lancaster (Plantagenet Saga #11) by Jean Plaidy, Poly by Lesli Richardson
Pages/words: 12 + 68 = 80
Challenges/other: /

Wednesday, 6/1/2021
Reading: Poly by Lesli Richardson
Pages/words: 99
Challenges/other: 

Thursday, 7/1/2021

Reading: The Star of Lancaster (Plantagenet Saga #11) by Jean Plaidy
Pages/words: 64
Challenges/other: /

Friday, 8/1/2021

Reading: The Star of Lancaster (Plantagenet Saga #11) by Jean Plaidy (finished), Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life by Gary John Bishop

Pages/words: 33 + 31 = 64
Challenges/other: /

Saturday, 9/1/2021

Reading: /
Pages/words: 0
Challenges/other: I participated in the twitter chat! 

Sunday, 10/1/2021

Reading: Angel's Blood (Guild Hunter #1) by Nalini Singh, Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life by Gary John Bishop
Pages/words: 31 + 24 = 55
Challenges/other: /

Wrap-up:

What I read: 

I finished four books! That is, the following:

• The Star of Lancaster (Plantagenet Saga #11) by Jean Plaidy, 
• Poly by Lesli Richardson, 
• The Idea of You by Robinne Lee,
• A Winter Symphony by Tiffany Reisz,

and I made a dent in: 

• Angel's Blood (Guild Hunter #1) by Nalini Singh and
• Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life by Gary John Bishop

Pages/words: 482
Challenges/other: Current Reads on Day 1, and I also participated in always great Saturday Twitterchat. 

All in all, another successful Bout-of Books! These are such a great way to make a head-start into the reading year. 

Bout-of-Books 29

The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins Monday, through Sunday, YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are daily challenges, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional. For Bout of Books 29 information and updates, visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I will be participating on Twitter (@strangenewwords), but I thought it would also be handy to have a summary-of-everything post on this blog (so it gets used at least a little once in a while.)

Monday, 17/8/2020

Reading: The Lost Blackbird by Liza Perrat, The Old Guard fanfiction
Pages/words: 24 pages of The Lost Blackbird, ~14K fanfic
Instagram challenges/other: Currently reading

Tuesday, 18/8/2020

Reading: The Lost Blackbird by Liza Perrat, The Old Guard fanfiction
Pages/words: 123 pages of The Lost Blackbird, ~13K of fanfic
Instagram challenges/other: 

Wednesday, 19/8/2020

Reading: The Lost Blackbird by Liza Perrat
Pages/words: 83 pages of The Lost Blackbird, ~1.5K of Revolution fanfic (reread)
Instagram challenges/other: 

Thursday, 20/8/2020

Reading: The Poems of William Blake
Pages/words: 9 pages of The Poems of William Blake
Instagram challenges/other: /

Friday, 21/8/2020

Reading: The Poems of William Blake
Pages/words: 6 pages of The Poems of William Blake
Instagram challenges/other: Wrote reviews for both The Lost Blackbird and Poems of William Blake (GR-only).

Auto-buy Authors, to name just a few: Kresley Cole, Kit Rocha, Nalini Singh, Liza Perrat, Tiffany Reisz. #boutofbooks #bob29igphoto

— Jo Kay (@StrangeNewWords) August 21, 2020

Saturday, 22/8/2020

Reading: The Old Guard & AoS fanfiction
Pages/words: ~15K of fanfic
Instagram challenges/other: I had a blast participating in the Twitter chat! 

Sunday, 23/8/2020

Reading: AoS fanfiction
Pages/words: ~4.5K of fanfic
Instagram challenges/other: /

Wrap-up:

What I read: Finished The Lost Blackbird and Poems of William Blake
Pages/words: 245 pages +48K words
Instagram challenges/other: I participated in 5 challenges, but on Twitter and also on Saturday's twitter chat.

This was another great Bout-of-Books, I had a blast and certainly read more than I would have otherwise! 

Bout-of-Books 27

The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are daily challenges, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional. For Bout of Books 27 information and updates, visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Consider this my sign-up and updates post.

I have no goals other than to read, because I haven't read anything (not even fanfic!) this year, yet (Can you believe it? Then again, I did read A LOT last year.), and what better way to finally kick it off than with Bout-of-Books? None, I say. And I'm doing updates on my blog this year to bring it out of neglect.

Monday, 6/1/2020

Reading: Sins of the Angels (Grigori Legacy #1) by Linda Poitevin
Pages/words: cca 66 pages or 20%
Challenges/other: /

Tuesday, 7/1/2020

Reading: The Dandelion Girl by Robert F. Young
Pages/words: 11 pages
Challenges/other: My 2020 reading goals, you ask? To read as much or as little as I want and whatever I want. That's it. (Tweet.)

Wednesday, 8/1/2020

Reading: Sins of the Angels (Grigori Legacy #1) by Linda Poitevin
Pages/words: cca 9 pages (3%)
Challenges/other: /

Thursday, 9/1/2020

Reading: Sins of the Angels (Grigori Legacy #1) by Linda Poitevin
Pages/words: 33 (10%)
Challenges/other: /

Friday, 10/1/2020

Reading: Slave to Sensation (Psy-Changeling #1) by Nalini Singh
Pages/words: 18
Challenges/other: Why, yes, I can't committ to a book, so I started a new one. I also threw some book recs out on twitter for today's One with a Book in It challenge.

Saturday, 11/1/2020

Reading: Slave to Sensation (Psy-Changeling #1) by Nalini Singh, and a lovely little fanfic (unrelated)
Pages/words: 57, 1+ K of fanfic
Challenges/other: I had a blast participating in the twitter chat!

Sunday, 12/1/2020

Reading: Slave to Sensation (Psy-Changeling #1) and The Cannibal Princess (Psy-Changeling #1.1) by Nalini Singh
Pages/words: 284
Challenges/other: I guess I did stretch my non-existent goals!

Wrap-up:

What I read: I finished Slave to Sensation (Psy-Changeling #1) and The Cannibal Princess (Psy-Changeling #1.1) by Nalini Singh, The Dandelion Girl by Robert F. Young, and I also read about a third of Sins of the Angels (Grigori Legacy #1) by Linda Poitevin
Pages/words: 417 pages + 1+K of fanfic
Challenges/other: I did two challenges and joined in Saturday's twitter chat.

All in all, that's a lot more than I'd expected going in and this has been a great readathon-ing week!

Bout of Books 15.0 Day 2 Challenge

I'm participating in Bout of Books 15 and I really like today's challenge which is a bookish 'Would You Rather, hosted by Lori at Writing My Own Fairy Tale.

As it's too long to do it on twitter without me feeling spammy and the lack o G+ formatting options made me nope away from there, I'm doing it here after all. ;)

Here are the questions:

Would you rather:
Lend books to someone who dog-ears pages or to someone who reads with cheesy Cheetos fingers?

Preferably neither, but I could stomach dog-eared books much much more easily. 

Would you rather:
Be able to meet one character of your choice or meet one author of your choice?

An author.

Would you rather:
Never be allowed in a book store again or never be allowed in a library again?

I'd rather never be allowed into a book store again, since libraries are a greater source of reading material for those of who can't afford to buy every book we want to read anyway. 

Would you rather:
Have to choose one of your favorite characters to die in their book or have to pick one of your favorite couples to break up in their book?

I'd rather have to pick one of my favourite couples to break up in their book, because I can still imagine that didn't happen. Well, I can imagine the not dying, too, so... imagination is everything. A character can die or a couple can break up in their book, but I can always 'write' and alternate ending in my head. ;)

Would you rather:
Be required to read Twilight once a year for the rest of your life or The Scarlet Letter once a year for the rest of your life?

The Scarlet Letter, since it is much shorter than Twilight and would thus allow me more reading time for other, new-to-me books.

Bout of Books 11.0 Wrap Up

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

How it went:

I was trying to not over-stress myself since this is supposed to be fun, so I didn’t set up any big goals. But something happened on Wednesday and I was super stressed out for the rest of the week. So I didn’t do much reading. I mean, I did, but I didn’t.

Let’s se how I did with my goals:

• read every day & finish/read 1 book

Well, I have read every day. However… considering things I’ve been dealing with in RL, I found Deathless too depressing (although so very beautiful, I’ll definitely continue reading it, just slowly) and none of the other books seemed enticing enough, so I read copious amounts of fanfiction instead, because that helped me relax.

So, page count *cough*: 36 pages (of Loki, by Mike Vasich), BUT add roughly 70,000 words of very good fanfic to that. So, I guess i did read a novel, in a way. ;)

• participate in at least one challenge

I participated in the Book Scavenger Hunt, hosted by The Book Monsters.

• maybe participate in one twitter chat (hopefully)

I joined the Monday twitter chat. It was great.

• try to be a little social either on twitter or visiting & commenting on other blogs

*blushes* Nope. Socializing was not my thing last week.

“Anything of the above will be a success.”

Well, I did (sort of) accomplish more than half of my goals, so it’s a success, right?

How was your Bout of Books 11.0? Is there anything special you will remember it by?

Book Hunting

 

It’s the first day of Bout of Books 11.0 and The Book Monsters is hosting Book Scavenger Hunt.

1. A Book that begins with “B”  (for Bout of Books!): Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater

2. A book that has been made into a movie/tv show: Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks, but I liked the film better. (What? I know!)

3. A series you love: Immortals After Dark by Kresley Cole

And, that’s it. All god things are three, so let’s stop there.

Bout of Books 11.0 Sign Up & Goals

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

It’s almost Bout of Books time again!

MY GOALS:

I’m still trying to not over-stress myself since this is supposed to be fun, so my goals are once again minimalistic:

• read every day & finish/read 1 book
• participate in at least one challenge
• maybe participate in one twitter chat (hopefully)
• try to be a little social either on twitter or visiting & commenting on other blogs

Anything of this will be a success.

Books to select from:

• The Prince of Darkness by Jean Plaidy
• Grave Suprise by Charlaine Harris
• Deathless by Catharine M. Valente
• Loki by Mike Vasich
• and a few more

I’ll be updating on Twitter (@StrangeNewWords), since that is less time-consuming and I’ll write a wrap-up posts in the end.

Are you in? What are your goals?

Bout of Books 10.0 Wrap Up

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

MY GOALS WERE:

I was still trying to not over-stress myself since this was supposed to be fun, so my goals were once again minimalistic:

• read every day (yes, I have no number-of-pages goals)

Done. Not sure how many pages I read, because I didn’t count, but I did read every day, even though on Sunday it was just fanfiction (and one which made me cry, BTW).

• write that one review I keep putting off and any other of the book(s) I finish

I did write and post a review of The Silmarillion, I didn’t write the other, old one, though, but its turn shall come.

• participate in at least one challenge

I actually participated in two challenges.

On Friday, I did Rainbow of Books challenge, hosted by Neon Yeti Reads, which entailed making a mess of my bookshelves in search for the covers I needed and then putting everything back in order. ;)

My pile of books for Rainbow of Books challenge by @neonyetireads #boutofbooks pic.twitter.com/f5KtYBIsNY

— Jo (@StrangeNewWords) May 16, 2014

And yesterday, on Sunday, I did the Retitle Your Current Read challenge, hosted by Oh Magic Hour.

#boutofbooks Retitle Your Current Read mini-challenge hosted by @OhMagicHour: The Plantagenet Prelude by Jean Plaidy -> Born to Rule

— Jo (@StrangeNewWords) May 18, 2014

• participate in one twitter chat (hopefully)

I joined in Saturday’s twitter chat and had fun.

• visit a few blogs each day and comment

Well, this didn’t happen. I guess socialising on twitter was enough for me.

Books to read/finish:

• The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien (to finish, reread)

Done!

• and then start another one, whichever strikes my fancy

And done! I started The Plantagenet Prelude by Jean Plaidy and got about 50 pages in so far.

So, that’s it. Overall, this was both fun and successful.

And finally, I’ve taken an important life lesson from this event, for which I’m very grateful to Amanda, who banned FAILing and made us all FLAIL instead.

The pessimist I am, I needed that to be reminded to celebrate my achievements instead of complaining about things I didn’t do. Now I just have to keep that in mind, not just with regard to reading and blogging, but to all aspects of life.

How was your Bout of Books 10.0? Is there anything special you will remember it by?

Bout-of-Books 10.0 Sign Up & Goals

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

I can’t believe the 10th Bout of Books readathon is almost here! It seems like it was yesterday when I accidentally stumbled upon the first one. And I’ve been participating ever since, though a few times were major reading fails.

Nevertheless, it’s always a fun way to boost your reading, help you meet new bloggers, do fun challenges and all in all have a good time, so join in!

MY GOALS:

I’m still trying to not over-stress myself since this is supposed to be fun, so my goals are once again minimalistic:

• read every day (yes, I have no number-of-pages goals)
• write that one review I keep putting off and any other of the book(s) I finish
• participate in at least one challenge
• participate in one twitter chat (hopefully)
• visit a few blogs each day and comment

Books to read/finish:

• The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien (to finish, reread)
• and then start another one, whichever strikes my fancy

Of course, I might have a bad week (wouldn’t be anything new), and fail miserably, but maybe not.

Are you in? What are your goals?

ETA: I’ll be mainly updating on Twitter (@StrangeNewWords), since that is less time-consuming than writing a blog post. Unless, of course, there is something I absolutely feel like I have to post. ;) And, of course, I will write a wrap-up post at the end.

Bout of Books 9.0 Updates

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 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th 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 9.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

UPDATES

I’ll also update on Twitter as @StrangeNewWords and on Goodreads. See my goals here.

Monday, January 6:
Books I've been reading today: /
Number of pages I've read today: 0
Total number of pages I've read: 0
Today in six words: Day one was a complete failure.

So, I’m not even linking this up. I had so much work to do I don’t even know where the day went. I stopped by Twitter in the evening, just about 10 minutes into the twitter chat (totally by accident, I wasn’t aware it was happening right then) but then both tweetchat and tweetdeck were glitch-y and I wasn’t feeling well enough to deal with the moody tech so I just stared at the timeline for a while and then gave up.

Tuesday, January 7:
Books I've been reading today: Girl in Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold (16),
                                          Pleasure of a Dark Prince (IAD #9) by Kresley Cole (37)
Number of pages I've read today: 53
Total number of pages I've read: 53
Today in six words: I read, that’s something, isn’t it?

Yeah, I read. If I had time I’d probably sped halfway through Pleasure of a Dark Prince. Or read a chapter more of the other book. Maybe my problem with reading is that I want to read everything at once? Because bedsides liking both these book and wavering which one I should read more, I have been having strong urges to start rereading The Silmarillion. If only I had time to do nothing else but read. I visited a few blogs, too, but I still wasn’t up to any challenges due to not enough time. (There is never enough time.)

Wednesday – Sunday, January 8 - 12:
Books I've been reading: /
Number of pages I've read: 0
Total number of pages I've read: 53
In six words: Major fail. Getting sick. Life sucks.

Yeah, I’m completely failing due to a) work doesn't understand there’s a readathon going on, b) I’m having a half-cold and c) people are making me upset. So, in the little free time I had I turned to fanfic for comfort. So, I did read about 15 – 20K, but not books. Whatever.

WRAP-UP:

Total pages read: 53
Anything else done: /

Basically fail of all fails. But foiling at Bout of Books is the least of my concerns right now, because I’m in the middle of an extremely difficult and worrisome situation, which will hopefully be resolved this week. So, positive thoughts are welcome. Stay awesome, my fellow participants, as I’m sure you are, I just couldn’t really find out how this time around.

Bout of Books 9.0 Goals

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 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th 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 9.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

MY GOALS:

I’m still trying to not over-stress myself since this is supposed to be fun, so my goals are once again minimalistic:

read every day (yes, I have no number of pages goals)

participate in at least one challenge

participate in one twitter chat

visit at least one two blogs each day and comment

Books to read/finish:

Girl in Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold

but I think I’ll start with the next IAD book. 

Of course, I might have a bad week (wouldn’t be anything new), and fail miserably, but maybe not.

What are your goals?

Bout-of-Books 9.0 Coming Soon

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 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th 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 9.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Of course, I’m joining, why do you ask? What better way to start a new (reading) year than with Bout-of-Books is there? And if I did all the previous ones (more or less successfully), it really wouldn’t do to miss it, would it?

Besides, I need it to kick off my reading in 2014 well so it might go better than it has gone in 2013 (which really shouldn’t be that hard to top, lol.)

Need a boost for your reading and have fun while at it, meeting lovely people and finding great blogs? Join in! You can sign-up here.

Bout of Books 8.0 Wrap Up

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 19th and runs through Sunday, August 25th 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 8.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I decided to sign-up almost at the last minute. I've participated in all Bout of Books so far, although the last two have been a (not)reading disaster for me, as has been my reading this year in general. Therefore, I set my self pretty low GOALS:

 

Considering my reading this year is crappy, reading every day will suffice as a goal.

Books to read/finish:

• Angelology by Danielle Trussoni (finished)
• Eighty Days Yellow by Vina Jackson
• Love and Intrigue by Friedrich von Schiller

Other goals (aka trying not to be a hermit and to reconnect with blogging community):

• participate in at least one challenge (participated in 4)
• participate in one twitter chat (participated in 2, on Monday and Saturday)
• visit at least one 'new' blog each day and comment
• and visit at least two 'old' blogs each day and comment

WRAP UP:

Books I've finished: 1 (Angelology)
Total number of pages I've read: 241
The number of challenges I took part in: 4
The number of Twitter chats I participated in: 2
Blogs visited: at least three per day

Overall, Bout of Books 8.0 has been a huge success for me on most levels.

Reading: I finished a book. That's an achievement, since I seem to be in a constant reading rut this year. Also, I read every day.

I found out that a little pressure, namely people seeing my progress, makes me more likely to read at least a few pages a day. So, I decided to use that to further motivate myself by putting a sticky in my sidebar where I can write in the number of pages I read each day and in a week. Maybe this will help me be a more constant reader and finally overcome this ridiculous slump.

I also read over 100K of fanfiction during the BoB week. Oh, of course, I don't have a reading slump when it comes to fanfiction. (I can't help myself, okay, I only discovered fanfiction a year or so ago – I had known about it before, but I had never ventured into reading it, and I guess your are never too old for such things. Besides, some fanfiction works are better – even much, much better – than original published works.)

Socializing: I participated in 4 challenges and had a lot of fun doing that. Some other challenges I didn't take part in seemed cool, too, but I just didn't have the time to do everything, but that's fine.

Both Twitter chats I joined – on Monday and Saturday – were great. I was in a seriously bad mood on Saturday, one of those when I feel completely unaccomplished and incompetent, so I joined the chat a little later, and I'm so glad I did that instead of wallowing in self-pity, it was a major boost for my good mood.

I hopped around other participants' blogs every day, but I didn't comment a lot. While at that, I realized why I often find it difficult to comment and I', planning to write a discussion post about that, soon-ish.

Miscellaneous: I found out about BookLikes thorugh BoB. Where was this thing when I started book blogging? I know, I know, it was only set up last year, but it's so cool. I really like how it makes book blogging look so easy: a blog and goodreads in one on a tumblr-like platform. I'm seriously tempted to join, although I really don't need another social thing online to maintain. But it probably wouldn't take a lot of my time and effort, perhaps I'd just cross-post my reviews there. I'll give myself some time to decide and let you know.

I'm so happy I joined this Bout of Books, I got a lot from it. And if I think I would almost decide to sit it out. I'm glad I didn't.

How about you? Anything interesting you've discovered or learned through BoB? Have you achieved your goals? Did you have fun?
I hope you did, because that's the most important.

Bout of Books 8.0 Updates

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 19th and runs through Sunday, August 25th 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 8.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

UPDATES

I’ll also update on Twitter as @StrangeNewWords and on Goodreads. See my goals here.

Monday, August 19:
Books I've been reading today: Angelology
Number of pages I've read today: 24
Total number of pages I've read: 24
Today in six words: I started this week very well.

Challenge: Bookish Bucket List @ Sarah Says Read: I want to visit southern France & the Pyrenees, the setting of Kate Mosse's Languedoc trilogy. I want to see al the historical places she mentions and the landscape she describes so beautifully (Okay, I've seen some of it on TV, but I'd love to visit it in person). And 101 other things. But this one seems actually doable some day.

I also participated in Twitter chat. It was exhausting and I just spaced out a few times, but it was awesome chatting to nice people (and watching nice people chatting among themselves, hehe.)

Tuesday, August 20:
Books I've been reading today: /
Number of pages I've read today: 0
Total number of pages I've read: 24
Today in six words: I read. Fanfiction. Does that count?

Tuesday was the busiest day of this week for me (hopefully). I'm volunteering at my parish on Tuesdays, and after that I had a doctor appointment, so I was away from home most of the day and not able to read in between. I took Angelology with me to the doctor's, but I only had to wait two minutes, so I didn't have a chance to read then, either. Anyway, when I got home I was so tired I just posted a quick update for Monday and hopped to three or four blogs and I didn't feel like focusing on any of my books to-read, so I read fanfiction. So if that counts, I read about 15K of that yesterday. Ahem.

Wednesday, August 21:
Books I've been reading today: Angelology
Number of pages I've read today: 3
Total number of pages I've read: 27
Today in six words: Meds made me sleepy and unproductive.

Challenge: TBR List Challenge @ Musings of a Bookship Girl:

1.  Which 5 books are at the top of your TBR pile at this moment? (I'm interpreting this as which books I most want to read, even though I still have to borrow/buy them or read other books in series first.)
1. Citadel (Languedoc Trilogy #3) by Kate Mosse (have to get from the library)
2. Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander #2) by Diana Gabaldon (have to get from the library)
3. Lothaire (IAD #12) by Kresley Cole (have to read 9, 10,11 first)
4. The Fall of Arthur by J. R. R: Tolkien (counting on a friend to lend it to me)
5. The Poet Prince (Magdalene Trilogy #3) by Kathleen McGowan (have to get from the library)

2.  If I gave you a wad of cash and sent you into a bookshop right now, which 5 books would you buy to add to the stack?
1. Destiny Rising (The Vampire Diaries: The Hunters #3) by L.J.Smith
2. Bilbo's Last Song by J.R. R. Tolkien
3. Flaming Dove by Daniel Arenson
4. Sins of the Angels by Linda Poitevin
5. Incredible Dreams by Sandra Edwards

I was still tired from Tuesday, and the meds the doctor gave me on Tuesday make me sleepy as a side effect, so it was a slow day with everything. I really liked Elllie's challenge I took part in. Although, I went looking at my wishlists and to-read list, which made me drool over all the books I want to read (that is, once I get my reading mojo back).

Thursday, August 22:
Books I've been reading today: Eighty Days Yellow
Number of pages I've read today: 42
Total number of pages I've read: 69
Today in six words: Where did all the time go?

Well, I did a lot more reading than usually lately. But Eighty Days Yellow is a fast read, although the more I read it the less I like it, but I can't not finish it because a) I can't not finish a book and b) it was a birthday gift from a friend who I'm sure had the best intentions.

In other news: I really liked both challenges: I Spy… and Book Road Trip, but I haven't done any of them because I was too lazy to move my books around for I Spy… or to type the answer to the second one, so I did that today, just for fun (I'm still too lazy to move my books around for the first one, though, lol. And I don't have time.)

Anyway, here we go, off the top of my head.

Challenge: Book Road Trip @ In Wonderland
FRANCE: The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse
SCOTLAND: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
IRELAND: Circle trilogy by Nora Roberts
AUSTRALIA: Eucalyptus by Bill Murray
ITALY: Extra Virgin by Annie Hawes

Friday, August 23:
Books I've been reading today: Angelology
Number of pages I've read today: 25
Total number of pages I've read: 99
Today in six words: I socialised all over the place.

Challenge: Bookish Mad Libs @ The Space Between

A. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
B. Gollum – The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
C. Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma
D. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
E. Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold
F. Winnie – Random Magic by Sasha Soren
G. The Empress of Ice Cream by Anthony Capella

Help! I'm being held captive in the GARDEN, by GOLLUM!
It is very FORBIDDEN here!
Gollum is demanding TWENTY THOUSAND DRESSES to set me free!
I have just discovered that WINNIE was captured too!
On second thought, please send ICE CREAM, and don't worry if you don't hear from us for a while!

Much Love,
Jo

This was Bout-of-Books-wise quite a productive day: I read, visited several lovely blogs, commented, chatted on Twitter, added three books to my ever-growing to-read list, and came across some interesting and helpful blogging- and books-related things online. And I loved Bookish Mad Libs Challenge.

Saturday, August 24:
Books I've been reading today: Angelology
Number of pages I've read today: 28
Total number of pages I've read: 127
Today in six words: Bad mood. Don't have six words.

I wasn't feeling well (again!), not so much physically as I was in a bad mood, but I did read and I visited a few blogs. , too, although I hadn't planned to, I participated in the twitter chat, mostly because I was no good at anything else, but it lifted my spirits, so that was great.

Sunday, August 25:
Books I've been reading today: Angelology
Number of pages I've read today: 114
Total number of pages I've read: 241
Today in six words: I was reading out of stubbornness.

I have finished Angelology! Can you believe it? And 114 pages in one day is probably my record for this year. I'm so proud of myself. However, truth be told, I kept reading because it is raining on and off and I am home instead of going out. And the book got so annoying I just wanted to be done with it. I've already written my review and I will post it on Wednesday.

Bout of Books 8.0 Sign-up and Goals

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 19th and runs through Sunday, August 25th 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 8.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I decided to sign-up almost at the last minute. I've participated in all Bout of Books so far, although the last two have been a (not)reading disaster for me, as has been my reading this year in general. But there is always a chance of improvement and 8 is one of my favourite numbers, so why not give it a try?

 

Here are MY GOALS:

Considering my reading this year is crappy, reading every day will suffice as a goal.

Books to read/finish:

• Angelology by Danielle Trussoni
• Eighty Days Yellow by Vina Jackson
• Love and Intrigue by Friedrich von Schiller

Other goals (aka trying not to be a hermit and to reconnect with blogging community):

• participate in at least one challenge
• participate in one twitter chat
• visit at least one 'new' blog each day and comment
• and visit at least two 'old' blogs each day and comment

Of course, I might have a bad week, as is the norm lately, and fail miserably, but maybe not.

What are your goals?

Bout of Books 7.0 – Goals & Updates

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 13th and runs through Sunday, May 19th 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 7.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

MY GOALS

Considering my reading this year is crappy, reading every day will suffice as a goal.

What I 'll be reading: Angelology by Danielle Trussoni. One book will be more than enough. I started it a week or so ago and only managed to read on chapter. It was/is interesting and I want to read it but I just somehow can't manage to work the reading into my schedule (my reading this year is completely off, but BoB is usually a good motivation). I'm more than optimistic if I say I hope I might get halfway through it this week.

UPDATES

I’ll also update on Twitter @StrangeNewWords, and you can find me on Goodreads.

Monday, May 13:
Number of pages I've read today: 20
Total number of pages I've read: 20

Tuesday, May 14:
Number of pages I've read today: 19
Total number of pages I've read: 39

Wednesday, May 15:
Number of pages I've read today: 31
Total number of pages I've read: 70

Thursday, May 16:
Number of pages I've read today: 6
Total number of pages I've read: 76

Friday, May 17:
Number of pages I've read today: 0
Total number of pages I've read: 76

Saturday, May 18:
Number of pages I've read today: 0
Total number of pages I've read: 76

Sunday, May 19:
Number of pages I've read today: 0
Total number of pages I've read: 76

WRAP UP:

Total number of pages I've read: 76

I think I reached a new low as far as my Bout of Books are concerned. It was going well until Wednesday, but then things just piled up and I found myself falling in bed each evening without having read anything.

Well, at least I read something in the first half of the week – probably more than I would have without Bout of Books, so that's something. And it got me really interested in the book, so here's to hoping I manage to read more of it this week.

How did your Bout of Books go?

 

Bout of Books 7.0 – Sign-up Post

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 13th and runs through Sunday, May 19th 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 7.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

MY GOALS:

What goals? Reading every day. That will suffice, considering I'm still recovering from the huge reading slump I had in the beginning of the year. However, Bout of Books is always a great motivation for me, so we'll see. Not to mention that it's fun.

Join me! The more the merrier, they say. You can sign-up here.

Bout of Books 6.0 Goals & Updates

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 7th and runs through Sunday, January 13th 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 6.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. -From the Bout of Books 6.0 team

GOALS:

My goals this time are very modest. I've been in a reading rut (well, sort-of, I'm reading tons of fanfiction, but I have to get back to read books, too). I haven't read a book in a month or so, so reading a book this week would be a progress. Not a too thick one, so 50 pages a day or 300 pages total.

As a consequence of the reading slump, my blogging has been all but non-existent lately, so my second goal is to be more social and connect with other bloggers.

I will also try to participate in a challenge or two.

UPDATES:

(The format is adapted from Amanda's.) I’ll also update on Twitter@StrangeNewWords, and you can find me on Goodreads.

January 7:

The book(s) I’ve been reading: What Alice Knew by Paula Marantz Cohen
Number of pages I’ve read today: 8
Total number of pages I’ve read: 8
Today #insixwords: Well, at least I'm reading again.

January 8:

The book(s) I’ve not been reading: What Alice Knew by Paula Marantz Cohen
Number of pages I’ve read today: 0
Total number of pages I’ve read: 8
Today #insixwords: Personal stuff going on. No reading.

January 9:

The book(s) I’ve been reading: Love and Intrigue by Friedrich von Schiller
Number of pages I’ve read today: 25
Total number of pages I’ve read: 33
Today #insixwords: Little signs of improvement appearing slowly.

January 10:

The book(s) I’ve been reading: Love and Intrigue by Friedrich von Schiller
Number of pages I’ve read today: 10
Total number of pages I’ve read: 43
Today #insixwords: Where did today go so fast?

January 11:

The book(s) I’ve been reading: /
Number of pages I’ve read today: 0
Total number of pages I’ve read: 43
Today #insixwords: I was writing instead of reading.

January 12:

The book(s) I’ve been reading: /
Number of pages I’ve read today: 0
Total number of pages I’ve read: 43
Today #insixwords: Well, this is a total disaster.

January 13:

The book(s) I’ve been reading: Love and Intrigue by Friedrich von Schiller
Number of pages I’ve read today: 10
Total number of pages I’ve read: 53
Today #insixwords: I'm going to hide in shame.

WRAP- UP:

Total number of pages I've read: 53

So, this has been a complete fail. But at least I read something.

Virtual Travels

As a part of Bout of Books 5.0, Virtual Travels is a challenge hosted by Ex Libris.

The Challenge:
Choose a book and find a picture to match the setting you envision for the novel.

 

 

Today I finished Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck.

 

 

 

 

The major part of it is set in the jungle.

Source: picture taken from here.

Book Spine Haiku

As a part of Bout of Books 5.0, Bookgoonie hosts Books Spine poetry challenge, with a nice twist: it has to be a haiku.

This is what I've come up with:

Blood of My Brother,
Forbidden, Phantom Eclipse
– A Trick of the Dark.

Today I am up for dark and mysterious stuff, what can I say. :)

UPDATE: I remembered another one, a bit more romantic, and since this is so much fun, I un-triple-stacked my top bookshelf to take a picture:

The Wolf and the Dove –
Kindred Hearts, Nightfall Moonsong,
Deep Kiss of Winter