Bout of Books : Wrap Up!

So Bout of Books 8.0 is over and I had a lot of fun with it this past week. I read a ton of awesome books and even accomplished the goals I had set for myself. I was able to completely smash my goal of averaging 100 pages a day, doubling that and then some! Here's a little wrap-up for days 6 & 7, and just an overview of the whole week.

Day 6

Saturday I started and finished the first volume of Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley, totaling 168 pages. I also read 101 pages of The Titan's Curse and 26 pages of William Shakespeare's Star Wars by Ian Doescher.

Day 7

The final day of Bout of Books I read the remaining 140 pages of The Titan's Curse as well as the last 108 pages of William Shakespeare's Star Wars!

 

Books I Completed
Crewel - Gennifer Albin
Ghost World - Daniel Clowes
Deadly Little Lies - Laurie Faria Stolarz
Blankets - Craig Thompson
The Titan's Curse - Rick Riordan
William Shakespeare's Star Wars - Ian Doescher
Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life - Bryan Lee O'Malley

Daily Page Count

Day 1 : 184
Day 2 : 163
Day 3 : 99
Day 4 : 458
Day 5 : 339
Day 6 : 295
Day 7 : 248

Total Pages Read : 1786
Total Books Read : 7

Bout of Books : Day 2-5!

Day 2
On Tuesday, I read all 80 pages of Ghost World by Daniel Clowes in one sitting, and then read 83 pages of Deadly Little Lies by Laurie Faria Stolarz.

Day 3
Wednesday I read 66 pages of Deadly Little Lies and started Blankets by Craig Thompson, of which I got through 33 pages.

Day 4
I read 291 pages of Blankets on Thursday. I also finished Deadly Little Lies, reading its remaining 134 pages. Then I started The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan and got 33 pages in.

Day 5
On Thursday I got through the remaining 259 pages of Blankets, got through 38 pages of The Titan's Curse and started William Shakespeare's Star Wars : Verily, A New Hope by Ian Doescher. I got through 42 pages bringing my daily total to 339 pages!

Page Count
Day 1 : 184
Day 2 : 163

Day 3 : 99
Day 4 : 458
Day 5 : 339
Total so far : 1243!!

Bout of Books : Day 1!

So today was the first day of Bout of Books 8.0 (well okay, so technically it was yesterday since it's now 1:00am...I'm basically nocturnal so my days are all weird, whatever!) and I think I did really well so far! I read the remaining 184 pages of Crewel by Gennifer Albin, which surpassed my goal of 100 pages a day on average, woo-hoo! (And I really enjoyed it overall, can't wait to pick up the sequel in October!)

I'm not 100% sure what I'll be reading next. At the moment I've started Ghost World by Daniel Clowes, but seeing as it's only 80 pages and a graphic novel, I know I'll get through it tonight. As far as novels go, I'm thinking about continuing my re-read of the Percy Jackson series with The Titan's Curse, but we shall see!

Page Count

Day 1 : 184 pages

Bout of Books : Reads & Goals!

Bout of Books starts at midnight on Sunday and I'm super excited! Here's my list of books I've been itching to get to and hopefully I'll get through a few during the read-a-thon.

• Crewel - Gennifer Albin
• Blankets - Craig Thompson
• Ghost World - Daniel Clowes
• Deadly Little Lies - Lauria Faria Stolarz
• Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone - Kat Rosenfield
• Franny & Zooey - J.D. Salinger
• William Shakespeare's Star Wars - Ian Doescher
• Anne Frank & Me - Cherrie Bennet
• Shadows Cast By Stars - Catherine Knutsson
• The Titan's Curse - Rick Riordan
• The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
• Shatter Me - Tahereh Mafi
• Cinder - Merissa Meyer
• Frostbite - Richelle Mead
• Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life - Bryan Lee O'Malley

I know I won't get through all of these books (I'll be lucky to plow through half!) during the read-a-thon, but I like to have a wide range of choices for these kinds of things. I never know just what I'll be in the mood to read at any given time, so options are always a good thing. As for goals, I'm just aiming to read at least 100 pages a day (or an average of that for the week anyway, which is 700 pages in total). I think that's reachable so we'll see how it goes. If I get sucked into any one of these novels and end up binge reading I'm sure I will surpass it. Not to mention with the graphic novels, I'm sure my page count will do just fine! ;)

(I'm going to come back and cross off the books I finish as I go, just to keep track for myself!)

Bout of Books!

I've decided to participate in another read-a-thon since I had so much fun during Booktube-a-thon. It's called Bout of Books! Here's a better explanation of Bout of Books and what its all about:

"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'm not sure what books I plan on reading during this read-a-thon just yet seeing as I don't know what I'll finish within this week before it starts. I've got quite a pile from the library and a ton that I've bought recently, so I'm sure I'll figure it out as I go. I prefer to just pick up whatever sounds good at the time  rather than setting up a TBR anyway.

I'm really loving the motivation that these read-a-thons have been giving me! Last month I finished a grand total of 10 books, which is way more than I would normally get around to in that amount of time, holy crap!

Booktube-a-thon Wrap Up!

Booktube-a-thon is a readathon that took place from July 15th to July 21st and was created by Raeleen and Ariel over on YouTube. The goal is to read as much as you can during the week, as well as trying to complete mini-challenges (re-read a book, average 300 pages a day, etc.) For more info watch the girls' videos linked above on each of their names, or visit the Booktube-a-thon twitter!

Here are the books I read this past week during Booktube-a-thon!

• Across The Universe by Beth Revis - This is the first book in the Across the Universe trilogy and I actually started reading it right before Booktube-a-thon officially began. I couldn't put it down! I really really enjoyed it and I'm super excited to start the sequel, A Million Suns! (Which I definitely would have started if I had it on hand at the time!)
• Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion - Immediately after finishing ATU, I picked this one up. I had requested it at the library forever ago and it finally came in, so of course I had to dive in. I ended up really liking it, which wasn't much of a surprise seeing as I enjoyed the movie as well.
• Specials by Scott Westerfeld (Complete a series/trilogy) - I read Uglies and Pretties a few years back and I remember starting Specials but only getting a few chapters in before returning it to the library. I picked it up again and forced myself to finish it and...I hated it. Well maybe that's a little harsh but seriously I'm just glad it counted toward the complete a trilogy challenge.
• Free Four : Tobias Tells the Story by Veronica Roth - I read this short little novella (that I've been meaning to get to for a while now!) from the Divergent series and just...yes, good. It was perfect and tacked on 13 pages to my total page count.
• Percy Jackson & the Olympians / The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (Re-read a book) - After Specials I decided to delve into a book I know I love, and the Percy Jackson series definitely fit the bill. With Sea of Monsters coming out so soon, I knew I wanted to re-read the books before seeing the movie anyway and I figured now would be the perfect time to start!

In the end, I read 4 books (and one novella) with a total of 1375 pages altogether! I was able to squeeze in two of the challenges (re-read a book and complete a series/trilogy) which is pretty fantastic considering I went into the read-a-thon without any plans of completing any challenges whatsoever. Woo!