📚 Bout of Books 20

I’ve been so busy with writing work. I’ve been in a reading slump. Or maybe an everything slump. But…

It’s Bout of Books 20!!!

I think my first BoB was #4 back in spring of 2012. I love me some BoB. 😘

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 21st and runs through Sunday, August 27th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 20 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

TBR

  

All these books are in progress. If I finish them, I’ll be 9/10 for 10 Books of Summer. Also have “The Artist of the Beautiful” by Nathaniel Hawthorne to read this week.

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Bout of Books 19

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 8th and runs through Sunday, May 14th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 19 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

I have a busy week ahead, but I really want to do Bout of Books too. Maybe there’s a compromise? I usually try to read 33 pages a day. Back in January I doubled that for BoB and that worked pretty well. This time around, I’m going to try to read an extra 20 pages day.

TBR

  

• Wicked Wonders – I have the short stories in this collection scheduled out to one a day. I probably won’t go beyond that, but you never know.
• Best way to get extra pages? Finishing up Queen of Magic, Adalaide Herrmann’s memoir.
• Also different this time out, I’m including pages from my read-through of my husband’s manuscript. (The cover is from PHYSIC, the 1st in the series. I’m reading book 8.)
• Other miscellanea – articles and the like.

Bout of Books 18 ~ January 2017

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 2nd and runs through Sunday, January 8th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 18 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

After the last couple months, you’re darn right: I’m coming down with a Bout of Books. I’m going to try for 450 pages of reading, but if I don’t make it, there’s no failing BoB, right? What am I reading?

  

• Finish The Long Way Down by Craig Schaefer – I have about half left.
• Moby-Dick by Herman Melville – Reading this through the Pigeonhole, so only a guppy-sized portion every day.
• Writing on the Wall: Social Media – The First 2,000 Years by Tom Standage
• Oh, and a bunch of short stories…

Total Read: 496

Sunday

Sunday Total: 48

• Writing on the Wall : pgs 15-43
• Moby-Dick : pgs 105-119
• The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf : pgs 1-4

Saturday

Saturday Total: 125

Grumpy and not feeling awesome, I decided to spend the day reading. I’m knocking on the door of my goal.

• “Between Going and Staying” by Lilliam Rivera : 15 pages
• “Blackwater Lake” by Maggie James : 85 pages
• Moby-Dick : pgs. 80-104

Bout of Books 17!

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 22nd and runs through Sunday, August 28th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 17 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

Aug. 22-28: I plan to have a good writing week, keep up with my classes, deal with the chaos that is the week after ultimate frisbee league draft…and readathon! It’s the perfect plan. What could possibly go wrong? Luckily, there is no failing the Bout of Books readathon.

Wrap-Up

My grand total for the readathon was 416 pages read and 278 minutes of audio book listened to. It wasn’t quite the week I wanted to have, but it worked out well enough. I certainly read more than I might have during a busy week. I finished The Unknown Poe and The Bling Ring and confirmed that I still don’t care for Jane Austen.

Big shout out to Amanda and Kelly for hosting. BoB is always runs so smoothly and it’s all to their credit!

TBR Stack

I’m making a last 15-ish Books of Summer push:

   

• Finish The Unknown Poe, edited by Raymond Foye
• Finish Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen – DNF
• The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction by Neil Gaiman
• Finish The Bling Ring by Nancy Jo Sales
• “The Dust of Death” by Isaac Asimov for Deal Me In
• Finish Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright (audio)
• Decent into the Depth of the Earth by Paul Kidd

Bout of Books 15

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 4th and runs through Sunday, January 10th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 15 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

Summary

My “day job” got the better of me, but I still managed 262 pages and half of an couple hours of an audio book. Not too shabby. A great start to January!

Bout of Books 13!

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 11th and runs through Sunday, May 17th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 13 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

On the one hand, I’m behind on a lot of work, and I’ve been low on energy lately.
On the other hand…

Bout of Books Lucky-Number-13!!!

Can I resist?
You know that I can’t.

I’ve been enjoying short works lately, so I’m not going to buck the trend. My plan:

• The novella On the River, Down Where They Found Willy Brown by Theodore Wheeler. Finished!
• The “Other Stories” in Don’t Look Now by Daphne du Maurier. Finished!
• A couple of essays from Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands by Michael Chabon. Ended at 37%, which is about where I intended.
• Rick Moody’s “The Albertine Notes” for Deal Me In from Thrilling Tales, edited by Mr. Chabon. This didn’t go so well… I DNF after 17 pages.

And hopefully I’ll hit a Twitter party too. 😉 Missed the Twitter parties, but read more than I expected. 646 pages total!

Updates

Sunday: 161 pages. Finished the de Maurier collection and the rest of October Faction.

Saturday: 149 pages. Finished the Vivi Andrews, a couple more essays from Maps and Legends, “Underneath” by Kealan Patrick Burke, and “Swift, Brutal Retaliation” by Meghan McCarron (which, it turns out, I’d read before). In need of a graphic novel break, I started October Faction Vol. 1 and remembered how annoying comics are to read in ePub form.

Friday: 151 pages. Finished Chabon’s essay on Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials series and a less supernatural du Maurier story. Decided in the evening to jump in on #crushYourTBR and read some old Kindle acquisitions. Read “Overtime” by Charles Stross and half of The Ghost Shrink, the Accidental Gigolo, & the Poltergeist Accountant by Vivi Andrews.

Thursday: 41 pages. I could have sworn it was more than that. Finished another du Maurier story and Chabon’s essays on Sherlock Holmes and Norse mythology.

Wednesday: 16 pages. Couldn’t get going on anything on Wednesday! Pft.

Tuesday: 27 pages on the next story in Don’t Look Now. Du Maurier has a lot of water and a lot of dead people in her stories.

Monday: 101 pages read! Finished On the River… . I’ll probably review that next Tuesday. Read “The Breakthrough,” which was more sci-fi than I was expecting from du Maurier. Read “Maps and Legends” from the Chabon book and started his lengthy essay on Sherlock Holmes. Also read a few poems from Chicago Poems by Carl Sandburg.

Bout of Books 12!

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 5th and runs through Sunday, January 11th 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 12 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

Unfortunately, I won’t truly be able to “call in sick” with my “bout of books.” I came down with a bout of head cold last week that hindered my writing productivity. Also, I have a bunch of impending, time-sensitive web mistress duties. But the readathon goes on!

No Goal! I’m a slow reader; I never liked ’em anyway! I do want to participate in a few challenges and at least one Twitter party–I’ll start building my energy reserves now.

Wrap-Up

Read 400 pages, which isn’t my best readathon number ever, but it’s more than average. Had fun with a few challenges, made it to a twitter chat, added a some new bloggers to my RSS feed. What more can I ask for? Not much, I tell you. Until May, Bout-of-Books-ers!

What Am I Reading?

• Finish Raylan by Elmore Leonard
• Short story: “Midnight Emissions” by F.X. Toole (More like a novella.)
• Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about Our Everyday Deceptions by Stephen L. Macknik, Susana Martinez-Conde, Sandra Blakeslee
• Maybe I’ll get toThe Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

Updates & Challenges