The Terror of Knowing

It’s Bout of Books time again!

The last time I participated was in Bout of Books 11 – and I didn’t realise so many rounds of the readathon had happened since then. Life, it turns out, really does get in the way.  Bout of Books was my first concerted effort to participate in a readathon so it will be fun to see if I can repeat the relative success I had before. I do remember the sense of community and cheering each other on was really what made this readathon so much fun – as well as the daily challenges which I’m looking forward to again.

For those who don’t know, here’s a handy dandy blurb to catch you 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 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th 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 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

So I think we’re all on the same page, this is me officially declaring my intentions to participate. As previously mentioned in my May TBR, I have quite a few library books to get through, along with some new releases from the past couple of months, so this readathon comes at a great time for me to try to clear some of that ever-growing TBR pile. Fingers crossed anyhow.

It’s always nice to have some (admittedly vague) goals for any readathon, so…

Time Devoted to Reading
I will be reading all week, for at least 40 minutes a day. I’m off Mondays, Tuesdays, and weekends, so really I have no excuse for not reading quite a bit more on those days. However, my train journey to/from work (I only work Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays) is about 20 minutes, therefore even on days when I am at work I should get at least 40 minutes read, not even including the bit of reading I usually get done in the break room whilst I’m scoffing down my dinner.

My Goals
Apart from the amount of time I wish to read every day, I would also like to participate in every one of the daily challenges.

I would also like to interact on Twitter with fellow Bout of Book-ers – I think I did a little bit of that in previous readathons but I find balancing the chatting with the actual, oh you know, reading to be a challenge sometimes!

Books to Read
You may recognise the following books as basically my May TBR – I’m nothing if not consistent in my reading goals. I obviously don’t expect to get to all of these books, but this is the pile of books I should be choosing from over the course of the week:

1. Shadows of Self – Brandon Sanderson
2. The Establishment and How They Get Away With It – Owen Jones
3. The Gap of Time – Jeanette Winterson
4. Shylock Is My Name – Harold Jacobsen
5. Glamour in Glass – Mary Robinette Kowal
6. Without A Summer – Mary Robinette Kowal
7. The Dark Days Club – Alison Goodman
8. Blue Lily, Lily Blue – Maggie Stiefvater

Like I said, there’s no possibility in the slightest that I will complete any one of those books, let alone all of them, but I like to have a variety to choose from so that selection is certainly that. If absolutely nothing else, Shadows of Self must be finished by Tuesday anyway because someone has reserved it at the library so I have to return it. That will be returned fully read, it will be – see, manageable goals!

Are you participating in Bout of Books? Have you previously? If not – consider it! Let me know in the comments if you are because I’d love to see your TBR and cheer you on throughout the week.

Goodreads | Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram | Bloglovin’