Bout of Books 10.0: Wrap 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 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 10.0 is OVER and now I have to WAIT until the next one. Which is sad. But I guess I should tell you all how I did with my goals this time around...

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

 So Bout of Books 8.0 is OVER and now I have to wait until January until the next one. Which is saddening. But I guess I should tell you all how I did with my goals this time around.

MY GOALS:

• Read for at least 3 hours a day.
• Read at least 5 books from the list below.
• Unearthly by Cynthia Hand
• The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas 
• Tumble & Fall by Alexandra Coutts
• This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales
• Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne
• Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
• From What I Remember... by Stacie Kramer & Valerie Thomas
• Pivot Point by Kasie West
• Participate in at least 1 Twitter chat.
• Meet some new bloggers and make awesome new friends.
• Participate in at least 2 challenges.

THE RESULTS

• Yeah, I definitely read for more than 3 hours each day. For sure.
• I read 6 books, which beats the 5 books I wanted to read. However, I only read 3 books from my list. I pulled 3 other books. I think I picked my goal books too early. Which was my bad and perhaps something I'll learn from for the next go-round. Anyway, here are the books I read. 
• Cress by Marissa Meyer
• Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
• Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
• The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider
• Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne
• This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales
• I didn't make it to any of the Twitter chats this time around...
• Which means I didn't make a new friends this Bout of Books. Which is kind of sad. 
• But I did complete two challenges, which I'm really happy about! 
• The Book Road Trip Challenge hosted by In Wonderland
• The Bookish Madlibs Challenge hosted by The Space Between

As always, I was really close to completing my goals and yet I failed. I had a really good time, though. I also worked on watching less TV and doing more reading instead. It was an interesting exercise. I will say, though, that I'd like to never mess up my Twitter chat goal again. I feel okay missing on the other two, but I do like the communal, conversational aspect of Bout of Books and I'm a little pouty that I failed on that one. I might just have to plan my schedule a bit better next time around. 

Anyway, thanks again to Amanda and Kelly. You ladies are the best. Really. I can't wait for my fourth Bout of Books!

To read my original goals post, click HERE.
To read my progress report post, click HERE.

Did you participate this time around? Did you have FUN if you did? If not, don't worry, the next Bout of Books 9.0 is in January. Let me know if you'll be participating in the comments below!

Bout of Books 7.0: 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 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

Iiiiiit's wrap up time! I've been crazy busy otherwise this would have been up a while ago, but here's how my week stacked up. 

MY GOALS

• Read at least 3 books from the list below
• Defiance by C.J. Redwine
• The Boyfriend App by Katie Sise
• In the Hands of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce
• Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill
• Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt 
• Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi
• Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty
• Fire by Kristin Cashore 
• Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Claire [Audiobook]
• Participate in at least 1 Twitter chat
• Network with bloggers and make awesome new friends
• Participate in at least 2 challenges

THE RESULTS

• I read 3 and 1/4 a book in total. This means I finished two books that I'd started BEFORE Bout of Books. Then I read two whole books throughout the week and started a fifth book before the end of the week. So really I read from 5 different books, but all the pages and halves and quarters added up, I read 3 and 1/4 books. Which is just a bit more than I intended to read, so HURRAH! Oh, AND I listened to 4 disc of an audio book. Here's a list of what I read:
• In the Hands of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce
• Defiance by C.J. Redwine
• Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty
• Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill
• Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi
• Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Claire [Audiobook]
• I participated in the first Twitter chat on Monday. IT WAS SO FUN. So fun. 
• I think I made a few new friends during the Twitter chat? I wasn't as around as I'd normally want to be, but I knew that's how this week would turn out.
• I failed on the challenge front. I only did one challenge and it's the challenge I hosted. So... yeah. 
• Resummarize a Cover hosted by ME

As always, I was SO CLOSE to my goal but, obviously I didn't quite make it. I tried really hard and I'm impressed that I filled my book quota since I was SO BUSY and suddenly a little sick this past week. I think the reason I didn't get through all of the challenges is because I forgot I wanted to do two - I think I thought I only wanted to do one. Although, either way, I'm crazy lame for letting that one challenge I thought I wanted to do be the challenge I hosted. Either way, I hope you guys all had fun with it.

I think my favorite part, as always, was the Twitter chat. I just love talking to other bloggers about books. But also about other things. I love learning that I have other things in common with ALL OF THE BLOGGERS. Especially the Doctor Who connections. Those are the best. 

Anyway, a million trillion thanks to Amanda and Kelly. You guys are the absolute loveliest and I'm so happy I could take part in Bout of Books YET AGAIN. I cannot wait for the next one. 

To read my original goals post, click HERE.

To read my progress report post, click HERE.

Are you guys already pining for the next Bout of Books? I know I am!!! Please share your read-a-thon feels in the comments below and I'll see you all next time!

Bout of Books 6.0: 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, 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

The last week of my life has been crazy absolutely. To be completely honest, I almost didn't do Bout of Books because of it. But then I was like: NO. I'M GONNA BE ABSOLUTELY CRAZY AND DO THIS. So I did. I didn't quite meet all of my goals (the aforementioned life craziness kept me from that),. But let's review what I intended to do and what I actually did.

MY GOALS

• Read at least 6 books from the list below.
• Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman
• Shadow & Bone by Leigh Bardugo
• You Have Seven Messages by Stewart Lewis
• The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
• Crewel by Gennifer Albin
• Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
• Fever by Lauren DeStefano
• My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
• Participate in at least 1 Twitter chat.
• Network with bloggers and make awesome new friends.
• Participate in at least 3 challenges.

THE RESULTS

• I read 5 and a 1/3 books
• The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
• Cinder by Marissa Meyer
• Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
• Fever by Lauren DeStefano
• The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
• Shadow & Bone by Leigh Bardugo
• I participated in the Wednesday Twitter chat
• I made friends with a few bloggers through the Twitter chat (notably a few Whovians and TV nerds ^_^) and got a little friendlier with a few bloggers I'd been following before the chat.
• I participated in 3 challenges
• Scientific Discovery hosted by The Book Barbies
• The Page 48 Challenge hosted by Booking in Heels
• Rewrite the Synopsis hosted by A Day Dreamer's Thoughts

So I was close. I read half the books on my list, added in a book that I didn't think I was going to read and made it through a third of a book that was on my list. I've never done a readathon like this before so I wasn't totally sure what I was capable of and a bunch of family stuff got in the way, so I would say I'm pretty impressed with myself.

All in all, I had a lot of fun. The Twitter chat was probably the highlight. Everything moved so fast and I was crazy overwhelmed but it was amazing, especially since I got to chatting with other bloggers. I also absolutely loved the challenges. I think my favorite was the synopsis rewrite. It's funny though, because I actually have a friend who got in an accident and had metal put in her arm. Another friend of ours saw the cover of Cinder and actually said "Hey, that's V's arm!" And that's where the inspiration for the rewrite came from.

I'm not sure I'll be able to stop trying to read a book a day now that this is all over. I doubt I'll be able to manage that (I couldn't even do it for the challenge!) but it'll be nice to try. Or well, nice as long as I make myself go to bed at a decent hour! I'm already terrible at that, though, so we'll see.

Thanks a million times over to Amanda and Kelly. I can't imagine the amount of work you guys had to put in to make this event happen. My gratitude is endless and I CANNOT WAIT for the next Bout of Books.

To read my original goals post, click HERE.
To read my progress report post, click HERE.