Category: Bout of Books

Well, what a fun week I had last week! I read a lot more than normal 🙂 And I had a lot of fun! I think my only complaint with what I accomplished was that by Sunday I really ran out of reading steam. I just wasn’t in the mood. Which was a shame, because I had all Sunday to myself … hubs took Garrett up to his parents house for a visit and I was alone from 10am until 6pm. But after a pedicure and grocery shopping, the only thing I had enough energy for was a nap. Anyway, to quickly sum up my Bout of Books progress:

Total pages read: 626
Total time read: 10 hours 23 minutes

Monday August 18 

• Time read: 121 minutes
• Pages read: 124 pages
• Challenges: Book Scavenger Hunt … that was a lot of fun! And my non-bookish friends on Instagram are probably hating me for blowing up their feed temporarily 🙂
  • Also today I finished Father of Fear by Ethan Cross … a review book that I’m scheduled for a review on 9/2. It was really good!!

Tuesday August 19

• Time read: 162 minutes
• Pages read: 186 pages
• Challenges: 0

Wednesday August 20

• Time read: 60 minutes
• Pages read: 56 pages
• Challenges: 0

Thursday August 21

• Time read: 51 minutes
• Pages read: 67 pages
• Challenges: 0

Friday August 22

• Time read: 84 minutes
• Pages read: 90 pages
• Challenges: 0
  • Finished Private: #1 Suspect by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro today.

Saturday August 23

• Time read: 99 minutes
• Pages read: 73 pages
• Challenges: 0

Sunday August 24

• Time read: 46 minutes
• Pages read: 30 pages
• Challenges: 0

I had a wonderful week, and I’m already looking forward to Bout of Books 12 … January 5-11, 2015!!

Yeah! I’m totally signing up for Bout of Books again! I’m really looking forward to it!

In case you don’t know … here’s what it’s 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 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

Sounds exciting, right?! I’m so excited! I’ll also be keeping track of my goals and progress here on this page.

My goals:

• Read
• Visit new blogs
• Participate in at least 1 challenge

Once again, I’m keeping it very simple. It works best for me that way … I don’t like to feel pressured, once I get to that point I essentially shut down 😦

My progress:

Monday August 18 

• Time read: 121 minutes
• Pages read: 124 pages
• Challenges: Book Scavenger Hunt … that was a lot of fun! And my non-bookish friends on Instagram are probably hating me for blowing up their feed temporarily 🙂
  • Also today I finished Father of Fear by Ethan Cross … a review book that I’m scheduled for a review on 9/2. It was really good!!

Tuesday August 19

• Time read: 162 minutes
• Pages read: 186 pages
• Challenges:

Wednesday August 20

• Time read: 60 minutes
• Pages read: 56 pages
• Challenges:

Thursday August 21

• Time read: 51 minutee
• Pages read: 67 pages
• Challenges:

Friday August 22

• Time read: 84 minutes
• Pages read: 90 pages
• Challenges:

Saturday August 23

• Time read: 99 minutes
• Pages read: 73 pages
• Challenges:

Sunday August 24

• Time read: 46 minutes
• Pages read: 30 pages
• Challenges:

Well… Bout of Books is over! Whew. Let’s just briefly recap what my original goals were:

• Read
• Participate in at least one challenge

Not very difficult. So … how did I do?

Well…

• I read.
• But I failed to do one challenge.

Here’s my final totals:

• Time spent reading: 7 hours 22 minutes
• Pages read: 441
• Books finished: 1

I really wanted to keep things low-key this time around because my situation is a lot different than it was in January. I’m working 4 days a week now (instead of 2 like I was in January) and Friday was our 7th wedding anniversary. I didn’t read a single, solitary page on Friday. I had entirely too much wine with dinner. 🙂 Saturday we had my parents watch Garrett for the day and we went to lunch and a movie. Sunday I had planned to get quite a bit of reading in the afternoon, but little man woke up sick as a dog that morning and the day didn’t go exactly as planned.

So overall I really didn’t do half bad. I managed to finish the book I was reading (and got a review of it up) and I managed 2/3 of another book. Pretty good results in my opinion. I really hope that this was the jump-start I needed in my reading because I had hit a pretty nasty slump.

I’m already secretly looking forward to August’s bout of books. I really like this low-key, week-long read-a-thon. It definitely suits my needs much better than the 24 hour one (which I’ve never even wanted to participate in).

I hope the rest of you bout-of-bookers had a great week! See ya in August!!

so I participated in this in January … and I’m ready to go again! (And once again, I’m “late” to the sign-up party, ha!)

Anyway what is Bout of Books?

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

And what are my goals? Well I’m going to keep them pretty low-key.

• Read
• Participate in at least one challenge

That’s it. I’m keeping it very low-key this time since I’m now working 4 days a week and don’t have as much time like I did in January when I only worked 1 or 2 days a week.

I am confident I can finish the book that I’m currently reading (Critical Damage by Robert K. Lewis) and I hope I can get a good start on my next book … maybe even finish it 🙂

Here’s where I’ll be keeping my progress:

Monday May 12 

• Time read: 42 minutes
• Pages read: 36
• Challenges: 0

Tuesday May 13

• Time read: 56 minutes
• Pages read: 51
• Challenges: 0

Wednesday May 14

• Time read: 40 minutes
• Pages read: 39
• Challenges: 0

Thursday May 15

• Time read: 83 minutes
• Pages read: 90
• Challenges: 0

Fininshed Critical Damage by Robert K. Lewis!

Friday May 16

• Time read:
• Pages read:
• Challenges:

Saturday May 17

• Time read:
• Pages read:
• Challenges:

Sunday May 18

• Time read:
• Pages read:
• Challenges:

Well… Bout of Books is over! Whew. Let’s just briefly recap what my original goals were:

• Read at least 100 pages each day.
  • Load my recently acquired e-galleys onto my Nook and start at least one of them.
  • Make some more progress on my current read, a 750+ page chunkster! (I’m on page 335)
• Participate in at least 1 challenge.
• Visit at least 5 new blogs each day. And comment 

So … how did I do?

Ummm…

• I didn’t make it to 100 pages each day … although I did on two days!
• I did load, start and finish one of the above mentioned e-galleys.
• I read 223 pages in the chunkster that I’m *still* reading.
• I participated in Doing Dewey‘s challenge, introducing people to my favorite genre.
• And I visited lots of new-to-me blogs, but only left comments on 8 of them.

Here’s my final totals:

• Time spent reading: 7 hours 36 minutes
• Pages read: 467
• Books finished: 1

I’m very pleased with how things with for me this time around. I had participated in Bout of Books once before a while back, but stumbled along the way and never even came close to finishing. However, this time around I was very pleased with my progress. I could have done a lot better had I not had two work days from hell … you know those days that you just want to come home, crawl into bed and go to sleep. And that’s exactly what I did! But really, I have a 19 month old son who keeps me on my toes constantly. I worked two days. And I didn’t officially sign up until Tuesday. … I consider this week a success! 🙂

Not sure I will participate in the May Bout of Books simply because that week is our 7 year wedding anniversary, two weeks before Garrett’s 2nd birthday and one week before my  best friend’s bachelorette party. I will have a lot on my plate that week, so we shall see, but I’m seriously considering it.

…late, of course. But that’s okay, right? I mean the sign up link is still open 🙂

Anyways, I decided to join in because everyone (and I do mean everyone) is in on the party and I felt left out, lol.

I’ve done one Bout of Books before a while ago and didn’t even make it the whole week. But I’m going to do better this time. … Right? Sure! Ha!

Anyway what is Bout of Books?

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

And what are my goals? Well I’m going to keep them pretty low key.

• Read at least 100 pages each day.
  • Load my recently acquired e-galleys onto my Nook and start at least one of them.
  • Make some more progress on my current read, a 750+ page chunkster! (I’m on page 335)
• Participate in at least 1 challenge.
• Visit at least 5 new blogs each day. And comment 🙂

Here’s where I’ll be keeping my progress:

Monday Jan. 6 

• Time read: Approximately 45 minutes
• Pages read: 38
• Challenges: 0
• New blogs visited: 0

Tuesday Jan. 7

• Time read: 1 hour 43 minutes
• Pages read: 110
• Challenges: 0
• New blogs visited: Sarah Says Read / Bookishly Jaime / Mom with a Book / Love. Life. Read / Reading Extensively

Wednesday Jan. 8

• Time read: 2 hours 36 minutes
• Pages read: 153
• Challenges:
  • Doing Dewey asked us to introduce someone to our favorite genre. Here is how I answered:

  • My favorite genre is mystery/thriller/suspense. So where would I suggest you start?

    Along Came a Spider by James Patterson (first in the Alex Cross series)
    The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon
    The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly
    The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen (first in the Rizzoli/Isles series)

    I know that I’ve probably raised some eyebrows by including James Patterson on this list, but in all honesty his early Alex Cross series books are by far the best (my personal fave in the series is “Violets are Blue”) The more recent installments are just “eh” for me, but those first 10 or so – awesome! Also the Rizzoli and Isles book series is nothing like the TV show, so be forewarned before going into the books. Jennifer McMahon is a new find for me, but I’ve enjoyed her so far. And “The Lincoln Lawyer” was really a great book; if you’ve seen the movie, it stayed relatively true to the book.

    I’m sure I could come up with some better selections, but those were just the first few that popped into my head.

• New blogs visited: Doing Dewey / Unbound Books / Reading Until Proven Innocent /

Thursday Jan. 9

• Time read: 37 minutes
• Pages read: 38 pages
• Challenges: 0
• New blogs visited: 0

Friday Jan. 10 

• Time read: 1 hour 41 minutes
• Pages read: 81 pages
• Challenges: 0
• New blogs visited: 0

Saturday Jan. 11

• Time read: 55 minutes
• Pages read: 53 pages
• Challenges: 0
• New blogs visited: 0

Sunday Jan. 12

• Time read:
• Pages read:
• Challenges:
• New blogs visited:

I decided to keep all of my Bout of Books progress in one sticky post. Edited to add: I’ve re-formatted how I’m keeping track.

10/24
Pages read today: 80 pages
Books read today: Finished off Envy by Gregg Olsen
Total pages read for the week: 80
Total books completed for the week: 1
Today #insixwords: Had to push myself to read.

10/25
Pages read today: 73 pages
Books read today: The Confession by John Grisham
Total pages read for the week: 153
Total books completed for the week: 1
Today #insixwords: John Grisham is a genius, period.

10/26
Pages read today: 33
Books read today: The Confession by John Grisham
Total pages read for the week: 186
Total books completed for the week: 1
Today #insixwords: I’m not pleased with 33 pages.

10/27
Pages read today:
Books read today:
Total pages read for the week:
Total books completed for the week:
Today #insixwords:

10/28
Pages read today:
Books read today:
Total pages read for the week:
Total books completed for the week:
Today #insixwords:

10/29
Pages read today:
Books read today:
Total pages read for the week:
Total books completed for the week:
Today #insixwords:

10/30
Pages read today:
Books read today:
Total pages read for the week:
Total books completed for the week:
Today #insixwords:

So I didn’t participate in the Read-a-Thon. Honestly, that kind of stuff just isn’t for me. However, I kept seeing the Bout of Books and didn’t really know what it was about. But when I read about it, I was intrigued. It seems like a more laid back event that I could participate in easily. So I’m signing up.

I don’t really want to be too specific in my goals. I intend on finishing the book I’m currently reading, Envy by Gregg Olsen. I would also like to finish one other book, yet to be determined, but I won’t be disappointed if I don’t make it. I hope to read at least 30 minutes per day. (I would say more but I’ve got a lot going on in my personal life … READ HERE … and I don’t want to commit to too much right now.)

I have yet to decide how I will be keeping track of what I read this coming week. Whether I will post individual daily posts to update my reading or if I will keep it all in one sticky post. But you will obviously be seeing daily updates. Oh and I will also be updating as I can on Twitter too, so find me there (@tarataylor7585).

That’s all I’ve got for right now. I look forward to participating and happy reading!!!