Bout of Books Sign Up and Goals

It's Bout of Books time again! I love this read-a-thon, and I really need it right now. I've put holds on a few books at my library, and have been in a different place in the queue for each one, so technically each one should have arrived just as I finished the last. Of course, that didn't happen... somehow they all arrived at once. Then I made this worse by borrowing a few more just for good measure, so I'm really in need of a read-a-thon! :-)

Here's the 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, 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.

My Goals:

I like to keep my goals simple and easy for read-a-thons, as this keeps things low stress and motivates me to read more. So...

- Finish at least 2 books.
- Take part in at least 2 mini-challenges.
- Write at least 1 review.
- Take part in one of the Twitter chats.
- Visit lots of blogs! :-)

I'm not sure yet which books I'll read and hopefully finish, but here are some of the choices:

Can't wait! :-D

Bout of Books 7.0 Wrap-Up

 
And that's it! Read-a-thon over. It was a lot of fun, and I got more reading done than I thought I would. I met most of my goals, and took part in most of the mini-challenges. Yay! Whether you joined in this time or not, hope to see you in August for the next one! :-)

My goals were:

Finish The Night Circus and at least one other book.
- I finished The Night Circus, Any Other Name, and Poison, and I started Angelmaker.
 
Catch up on some cross-posting of reviews.
- I... did not do this. >_< 

Visit as many participating blogs as I can.
- I didn't have as much time for blog visiting as previous read-a-thons, but I did still manage to visit lots, and to say hi to old friends as well as new.

Take part in at least two mini-challenges.
- I took part in five mini-challenges!

Join in at least one of the Twitter chats.
- I joined two of the Twitter chats.

Have fun!
- The easiest but most important goal. Yes, I had a lot of fun!

Books Read/Started:

The Night Circus

Any Other Name

Poison

Angelmaker

How did everyone else do? Did you have fun? :-)


 

Bout of Books Mini-Challenges

I find it easier to put the mini-challenge responses in a separate post from my updates, so here we go. I LOVE mini-challenges, so I'm pretty excited...


Sunday:

Last day of the read-a-thon! Today's mini-challenge is hosted by Snarky Bird, Uber Nerd, and it's all about recommending books. The idea is to say that if you liked (...) then you'll love (...)

Okay, here are my suggestions. I wanted to go mad and recommend everything on my shelf, but then realised that I'd have to limit myself. Of course, these work both ways - if you've read the second suggestion, then you should love the first too!

- If you like The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, you'll love Johnny and the Dead by Terry Pratchett. The latter book is older, and I never see it talked about much, but it is very good!

 

- If you like The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa, you'll love Bitten by Kelley Armstrong. Strong heroines, and sexy supernatural stories that don't pull punches.

- If you like the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, you'll love the Bartimaeus series by Jonathan Stroud. Not exactly similar, but both are fun and adventurous, both feature magic, both are very British, both feature arrogant magic users (the Bartimaeus series could be seen as what the Harry Potter world could look like if the magic users had ruled over the muggles instead of hiding from them), and both explore prejudice towards magical creatures.

- If you like A Game of Thrones by George R R Martin, but would like a smaller cast of characters and more women in positions of strength, then you'll love The Red Knight by K. T. Davies.

- If you like The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, you'll love Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. In terms of the magical feel. So enchanting and absorbing, though I think Howl's Moving Castle has a much better story, and would recommend it to anyone, even if you hated The Night Circus. ;-)

- If you like the current trend of YA dystopias involving pregnancies, you'll love The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

- If you like A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula le Guin, you'll love The Magician's Guild by Trudi Canavan. Similar idea of young people being plucked from the most unlikely place in order to learn magic, and then dealing with the consequences.

- If you like the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton, you'll love the Roman Mysteries series by Caroline Lawrence. Same sense of adventure, same fairly simple but very fun puzzles, same brave children and strong friendship, and the added bonus of learning about ancient Rome as you go!

So there you go. Hope there was something there to interest you, or to add to your To Read list! Can't wait to see everyone else's suggestions. :-)


Saturday

Today's challenge is hosted by Smash Attack Reads and it's another book spine poem! But this time we have to stick to one genre of books... of course, I chose fantasy (it's the genre I own the most of, so makes things a bit easier). It's 12 books long and uses 12 extra words, and I ended up having to take the picture in three:

A game of thrones in Fantasyland:

The Iron King on his throne of glass;

The High Lord in his castle in the air.

Each sips poison from enchanted glass,

As the novice, cursed with eyes the colour of magic,

Claims the crown of Dalemark.

I'm not sure if the second title is 'Fantasyland' or 'The Tough Guide to Fantasyland'. If it's the latter, then replace that title with 'City of Ruin', which I own but haven't taken a photo of.


Thursday

Today's challenge is to make an acrostic poem, hosted by Harley Bear Book Blog. The task is to take a book title and use each letter to make a word. Here's mine:

Wednesday

Create a cover! This is being hosted by I Talk Books, and the challenge is simple: re-design a book cover! I picked Wool by Hugh Howey, and created this with the help of my husband. Enjoy! ;-) 

 
Monday

Book spine poem time! This is being hosted at Escape Through the Pages.

The rules are: create a poem using book titles. You get as many extra words as you have books in your poem. I'm already breaking the rules because I actually have two more words than I do books. Technically, I can do it without cheating, as I can replace 'I call' with 'are', and remove 'and', but I think this throws off the rhythmn a bit, so I prefer this version.

This is a little tribute to the poem within the book The Stars My Destination, which is also one of the books in the stack. :-)

I've titled it:

'The Science Fiction and Fantasy Author'

I'm the master puppeteer,
And Neverwhere my nation.
Magic and stone I call my home,
The stars my destination.

Bout of Books 7.0 Sign Up!

It's Bout of Books time again! This is such a fun read-a-thon and I'm more than a little excited about it, especially as I just beat Camp NaNo (woot!) and now feel like I can TAKE ON THE WORLD. Bring me the books, bring me ALL the books!

Here's the official blurb from Amanda and Kelly:

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.

This is a great event, involving lots of reading, twitter chats, discovering lovely bloggers, mini-challenges, and general fun! Why not come and join in? - Sign up here!

I'll be doing a separate goals and updates post nearer the time. ;-)


 

WW Read-a-thon Sign Up and Updates

So, it's not just my blogoversary this month, it's also My Shelf Confessions' second blogoversary! To celebrate, they're doing a grand giveaway, a mystery box giveaway, and a read-a-thon. I'm signing up for the read-a-thon this weekend as I've got lots of reading that I want to get through, and read-a-thons are always fun! Why not join in?

The read-a-thon has no set targets, no rules, no pressure - just read as much as you can! I'll be updating my progress here.

Friday:

Echo, by Alicia Wright Brewster - from 42% to 82%

Saturday:

Gorgeous sunny day, so walked into town. Bought 5 books! :-) Couldn't make the Twitter chat though, which was a shame. Hope everyone else had fun!

Feersum Endjinn, by Iain M Banks - from beginning to chapter 10.

Sunday:

Nice relaxed Sunday, and feels so good to be reading a DWJ again! :-)

Enchanted Glass, by Diana Wynne Jones - from beginning to page 118.

Wrap Up:

Actually got a lot more reading done than I exected. Finished Echo, and made good progress into Feersum Endjinn and Enchanted Glass. Great for a very last minute read-a-thon (I didn't know about it until Friday!).

Hope everyone else got lots of reading done too! :-)

The Wicked Valentine's Read-a-thon - Goals and Updates

The Wicked Valentine's Read-a-thon has started! This is a week-long reath-a-thon, in which participants simply challenge themselves to read as much as possible. There will be mini-challenges and Twitter chats (#wwreadathon), and it looks like a lot of fun! Join in here.

My Goals:

I'm actually not feeling too well at the moment, so it's tempting to just set my goals as 'read and sleep'! :-) But I definitely want to try to take part as much as possible, so, here are my relaxed goals for the week:

- Finish at least two books (I've got three on the go at the moment, so hopefully this should be easy enough)
- Take part in one of the Twitter chats
- Do at least two mini-challenges
- Visit and comment on other participants' blogs


Updates:

I'm starting on Friday, so no Thurs updates.

Friday: Lots of reading time in the afternoon, especially at the laundrette waiting for the laundry. My husband managed to pinkify some of our white sheets, then in an attempt to fix them managed to get a semi-circle of bleach on the bath-mat, lol! >_<  Good job I'm not one of those precious-about-home-things people. I'm only really precious about books! :-)

Black Feathers (Black Dawn Vol 1) - 10% read, 52% through
City of Bones - 38 pages read, 138 pages through
Of Mice and Men - 42 pages read, 42 pages through

Saturday: Not much time for reading as I was in town most of the day. Still made some good progress on Black Feathers though. Really enjoyed the Twitter chat!

Black Feathers - 63% through
City of Bones - still 138 pages through
Of Mice and Men - still 42 pages through

Mini-Challenge - Done!

Sunday: Finished Of Mice and Men, and then fell asleep on the sofa! Was a nice, relaxed day.

Black Feathers - 63% through
City of Bones - 145 pages through
Of Mice and Men - Finished!

Mini-Challenge - Done!

Monday: Busy day! Got a fair bit of City of Bones read at bed-time and stayed up a bit too late reading it... it was at a really good bit! :-)

Black Feathers - 65% through
City of Bones - 213 pages through

Mini-Challenge - Done!

Tuesday: So. Full. Of pancakes.

Black Feathers - 70% through
City of Bones - 236 pages through

Mini-Challenge - Done!

Wednesday: Good reading day, finished Black Feathers! Unfortunately, my laptop cable broke and I had to turn my computer off in the evening, so didn't get to be sociable or complete the last mini-challenge. Nevermind, it did mean more reading time!

Black Feathers - Finished!
City of Bones - 236 pages through


Wrap Up:

So, by the end of the read-a-thon I've managed to complete all of my four goals, though admittedly not the last one as much as I would like:

- I finished 2 of the 3 books I had on the go at the beginning of the read-a-thon.
- I participated in 4 mini challenges.
- I took part in one of the Twitter chats. (the other was too late at night for me, otherwise I would have joined that one too. I love Twitter chats!)
- I visited other blogs and commented, though not as much as I would have liked. Hopefully will be able to visit a lot of people's wrap up posts though.

Success! :-) How did everyone else's read-a-thons go? Did you manage to meet your goals?


 

Wicked Valentine's Read-a-thon Sign Up

I'm signing up for the Wicked Valentine's Read-a-thon, hosted at My Shelf Confessions. I've taken part in two read-a-thons on my blog now, and they're just so much fun! Reading, mini-challenges, Twitter chats, getting to know other bloggers... what's not to love?

This one will take place Feb 7-14. The goal is simply to read as much as you can to get through your To Read pile. You don't have to have a blog to join in, just somewhere to post updates - Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, etc.

Why not join in the fun? Sign up here!

Find my goals and updates here.

Bout of Books Read-a-thon

I'm signing up for the Bout of Books Read-a-thon, running from Monday to Sunday. The goal is simply to read, and to encourage each other to reach our book goals for the week. This is the first time I've taken part in the Bout of Books Read-a-thon, and it looks like good fun! Here's the official blurb from the Bout of Books site:

The Magnificently Magic Readathon Wrap Up

This was my first read-a-thon, and I really enjoyed it! I'll definitely be taking part in more of them in the future. It was hosted by Faye at A Daydreamer's Thoughts, and you can see her wrap up post here. There were mini-challenges (all huge fun!), giveaways every day, a twitter chat (which unfortunately I couldn't join because I already had plans to see The Hobbit), and of course, lots and lots of reading. The theme was magical books, either stories about magic or stories that just feel magical. Everyone picked great books - a lot of Christmassy romances! - and I saw quite a few that I'm going to search out for myself.

So how did I do? Well, of course, as soon as I decided to do a read-a-thon, about everything that could distract me did distract me! But I'm still quite pleased with how much I read, and I did manage to meet my personal goal. I read 2 books and got about 15% into a third:

I also took part in all the mini-challenges. You can see my efforts here.

I want to say a big thank you to Faye for hosting the challenge, to the people who came up with mini-challenges and ran giveaways, and to everyone who took part. It's been so much fun!

MM Readathon Mini-Challenges

I decided it would be better to create a separate post for the Magnificently Magic Readathon mini-challenges, otherwise the first post will get very long!

 

 

 

 

The Magnificently Magic Readathon Has Begun!

The Magnificently Magic Readathon, hosted by Faye over at A Daydreamer’s Thoughts, begins today! The goal? Read books about magic, books that contain magic, or books that feel magical in some way.

Magnificently Magic Read-a-thon Sign Up

On December 15th-17th I’m going to be joining in a read-a-thon hosted by Faye of A Daydreamer’s Thoughts, themed on magical books, to celebrate a magical time of year. This is a wonderful idea, and I never could resist a book about magic...