readathons

Bout of Books 22 | Sign Up & TBR

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Oh, look, Emma is back armed with nothing but good intentions and a TBR to foolishly try to participate in yet another readathon even though she kind of sucks at them in terms of productivity! Yep, it’s time for another round of Bout of Books, everyone’s favourite low-key readathon!

For those unaware of the delight that is the Bout of Books readathon, the organisers have a handy blurb available to clue you in:

bob22The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 14th and runs through Sunday, May 20th 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 22 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

So this coming week I will be participating in Bout of Books 22 to the best of my ability. I don’t have too much planned, aside from going to see a comedy gig on Friday night, so I should be able to get some much-needed reading time in after work and (especially) at the weekend. Often with Bout of Books, I end up being really quite overly ambitious with my TBR (for proof: see my previous Bout of Books Sign Up & TBR), and my May TBR is pretty damn optimistic already, so I have tried to be conservative and realistic with what I can achieve this time round when constructing my TBR for the readathon. Without further ado, let’s take a look at it…

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The House Cup Reading Challenge | Wrap Up

Emma2 Comments

As you may remember, I enthusiastically (and a tad foolhardily) signed up for the House Cup Reading Challenge – if you don’t remember, you can find my sign-up/tbr post here! The readathon lasted from Sunday 15th October until Sunday 12th November and was hosted by Lauren of Live, Love, Read/@BetweenDPages; Alex of Book Daisy Reviews/@booksydaisy; Kelsey of Kelsey’s Cluttered Bookshelf/@Kelsenator; and Erica of Escape Under the Cover/@slychica08. The aim was to read some books based on the challenges which were Hogwarts-themed!

You earnt points based on the number of books you completed which fulfilled the Main and Bonus Challenges (20 points and 10 points respectively) and then reported your points to your House’s Head Girl at the end of the readathon. Using the hashtag #housecupreadingchallenge on Twitter also earnt you 1 point per tweet (limited to 20 points total).

I periodically (read: when I remembered) updated a progress thread via Twitter which you can find here. And let’s see how many challenges I managed to complete, shall we?

The Reading Challenges

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The House Cup Reading Challenge | Sign Up & TBR

Emma8 Comments

Guess what everyone? I haven’t learnt from any of my mistakes in the past few months (don’t join in on multiple readathons and readalongs, folks) and I’m enthusiastically signing up for the House Cup Reading Challenge. That’s right, it’s a Harry Potter themed readathon… so you can see why I had an issue saying no, right?

The readathon is taking place from Sunday 15th October until Sunday 12th November and is hosted by Lauren of Live, Love, Read/@BetweenDPages; Alex of Book Daisy Reviews/@booksydaisy; Kelsey of Kelsey’s Cluttered Bookshelf/@Kelsenator; and Erica of Escape Under the Cover/@slychica08. The aim? Read some books based on the challenges which (you guessed it) are Hogwarts-themed! You earn points based on the number of books you complete which fulfill the Main and Bonus Challenges (20 points and 10 points respectively) and then report your points to your House’s Head Girl at the end of the readathon. Using the hashtag #housecupreadingchallenge on Twitter will also earn you 1 point per tweet (limited to 20 points total). Sounds fun, doesn’t it?

The Reading Challenges

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24in48 Readathon | Sign-Up & TBR

Emma7 Comments

Hello, welcome on this rather gloomy Friday, I bring you an exciting readathon sign-up/TBR post. For those unaware, the next round of the 24in48 Readathon is happening this weekend – that’s right,  for the 22nd and 23rd July, for those 48 hours, the ultimate goal is to try to read for 24 hours out of that time.

(For more information, you can check the readathon website or see my previous 24in48 post.)

Last time, back in January, I really enjoyed the readathon and managed to read what seemed like a ridiculous of amount of books, even if I didn’t manage to read for the full 24 out of 48 hours. This round, I’m hoping to do better than last time. I’m still skeptical I’ll be able to make it to 24 because I need to leave the house on Sunday afternoon and that eats into valuable reading time, buuut I’m going to try my hardest anyway.

(Side note: last time the 24in48 readathon happened I was trying to get through War and Peace and completely failed to do so because the 24in48 readathon reminded me how nice it was to actually, you know, finish books instead of slaving away at a tome for weeks on end. Now it’s the second 24in48 of the year and I just so happen to be trying to read War and Peace at the same time again – weird conincidence but I really hope this readathon doesn’t kill my progress with it!)

So this is my official sign-up post and also I thought I’d mention a few books on my TBR because that seems relevant:

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer [audiobook/PB]

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee [audiobook]

& I’ll probably completely stray from that TBR and end up reading something completely different too.

I’d like to say that I will try to keep my blog updated at various points during the weekend but, since I enjoy sleep, I really do need to be reading for every moment of my weekend in order to try to get to 24 hours. The upshot of that is that blogging takes up too much valuable reading time and I’ll likely forget to update here with my progress. However, I’ll definitely be periodically posting status update tweets on Twitter and annoyingly frequent page count updates via Goodreads though, so be sure to follow me over there if you’re at all interested in seeing how I do! And until then, I’ll see you on the other side, folks…

Are you talking part in the 24in48 readathon? Then please do pop in and say hi below and we can cheer each other on in this weekend of reading!
If you’re not taking part, what are your plans for this weekend? What book are you planning to read and/or currently reading? Let me know below and let’s chat books!

Bout of Books 19 | Stating My Intentions

Emma3 Comments

It’s that time again – it’s Bout of Books 19! Those of you who have been around the blog for a while may remember I participated in the last few rounds (check out my BoB 18, BoB 17, or BoB 16 updates posts for how I did) but for those of who you don’t know about Bout of Books here’s a quick overview:

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

As you can see, it’s a very low-key readathon which is my kind of readathon since there are very few challenges and/or expectations of you other than to simply read. That’s the kind of readathon I can do (hopefully anyway). However, I still have a few books in mind that I’d like to get to so this is my tentative TBR for the upcoming week ahead:

  1. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
    I’ve started this and I’m really enjoying it so it makes sense to carry on reading it for the readathon. Plus the TV show (which I’ve been highly anticipating) premiered last week so I’d like to start watching it asap before I miss too many episodes. So, yeah, I need to finish the book itself asap because it looks amazing.
  2. Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
    I got an eARC of this through NetGalley since I’d heard Sam Missingham from Harper Collins raving about it over on Twitter. Honestly, though? I don’t think I’m the right audience for this (since I’m not middle aged and/or married) but it’s entertaining enough. I don’t know if I will actually finish it but a readathon would be a good way to shift through it and make sure I finish it so I can review it.
  3. Spellslinger by Sebastian de Castell
    Again, another eARC I got through NetGalley, but this one sounds much more promising. I mean, for a start, it’s fantasy. Secondly, these phrases are included in the synopsis “Magic is a con game” and “perfect for fans of The Dark Tower, Firefly, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ben Aaronovitch and Jim Butcher”. Why yes, I am that easy.
  4. Rotherweird by Andrew Caldecott
    I’m going to copy and paste this book’s synopsis too (sorry/not sorry): “The town of Rotherweird stands alone – there are no guidebooks, despite the fascinating and diverse architectural styles cramming the narrow streets, the avant garde science and offbeat customs. Cast adrift from the rest of England by Elizabeth I, Rotherweird’s independence is subject to one disturbing condition: nobody, but nobody, studies the town or its history.” I mean, come on, of course I want to read that. Plus I have an eARC and it’s released soon so, you know, I need to get on this right now.

I’m sure I’m going to end up reading precisely none of these books, as is the tradition with readathons, but it’s always nice to have a plan in mind. Over the course of the readathon my main hope is just to read as much as I can, prioritising that as an activity over watching a TV show or a film. I also would like to try to interact with other BoBers via Twitter, Instagram, and on here of course. I think that’s a pretty damn achievable goal so watch this space…

If you want to keep up with my (admittedly sparse) updates during the course of the readathon, I’ve started a Twitter thread of my updates.

Are you participating in this round of Bout of Books? Comment below if so, I’d love to chat books and we could help cheer each other on during the readathon. 

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24in48 Readathon Wrap-Up

Emma3 Comments

As you might have seen from my previous post, this past weekend I participated in the 24 in 48 Readathon. For those unaware of the premise, a quick summary is that you try to read for 24 hours out of a possible 48 hours i.e. Saturday and Sunday.

Now, I knew going into this that I would never in a million years make it to 24 hours of reading, no way, I’m not that disciplined, frankly, and I also didn’t want to burn myself out on reading. However, I did want to make the effort to make reading a priority this past weekend and, on that front, I’d consider it a rousing success. Whilst I did watch some TV – Taboo could not be missed on Saturday night, and we needed to finish the final episode of Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events – I mostly just read. When I got up and had breakfast, rather than putting on an old episode of Thick of It for the billionth time, I read instead, and I felt so much better and productive for it. Don’t get me wrong, I also spent the entire weekend inside, in the same chair, which made me a little cabin fever-y but nothing a week at work can’t cure, I’m sure.

But, for now, I wanted to wrap-up the readathon by briefly mentioning what I read, since I read some really great things that re-invigorated my love of reading, and I would like to share them. (Also, not gonna lie, this might be the most productive weekend I’ve ever had, reading-wise, so I need to document this moment for posterity’s sake!)

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These are the stack of books I hoped to choose from over the course of the 24in48 readathon. (Not pictured: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire audiobook, as read by Stephen Fry)

I purposely picked books that were different genres, different lengths, different formats, in order to keep me interested and keep me productively reading – if I started to get bored of A Series of Unfortunate Events, for example, I could switch over to a memoir or to poetry. As far as TBR stacks go, I feel like this was one of my most considerate and successful, as you can see below…

Read for 14.5 hours in total | 1182 pages | 7 books

Completed 7 books – 3 graphic novels, 1 poetry collection, 2 novels, 1 memoir:
Saga, Volume One – Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples
Saga, Volume Two – Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples
Saga, Volume Three – Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples
Wishing For Birds – Elisabeth Hewer
The Wide Window (ASOUE #3) – Lemony Snicket
The Miserable Mill (ASOUE #4) – Lemony Snicket
Talking As Fast As I Can – Lauren Graham

& made 24% progress with 1 audiobook:
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J.K. Rowling (read by Stephen Fry)

Considering all I wanted to do was prioritise reading, I’d say I’ve definitely met that goal for this past weekend and I’m very proud of the progress I made. Whilst I would have liked to have a little more War and Peace under my belt, I’m not in the least surprised that I favoured shorter reads for quicker gratification. However, participating in this readathon has allowed me to think carefully about what I was reading and it has taken a bit of pressure off me in terms of the yearly challenges I’m doing though, so that will definitely help when War and Peace takes longer to read than other novels. (See Around the Year in 52 Books, Book Riot Read Harder, and my 2017 Read for any progress updates on my yearly challenges! And I will be trying to periodically upload reviews for all the things I’ve read so far in 2017, I swear.)

All in all – a very good weekend of reading and I’m very glad I participated in the readathon; I highly encourage you to try it out for yourself if you haven’t before!

Did you participate in the 24 in 48 Readathon? How did you do?
 Comment below or link progress posts if you have them – I would love to hear about your weekend’s reading.

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Bout of Books 17 | Updates Post

Emma8 Comments

For those who have no idea what’s going on, see my recent Stating My Intentions post. As with most intentions, these ones are good, and I hope to participate in the Bout of Books 17 readathon as much as I can this week.

(Caveat: I have an interview Thursday morning so I’m very sure that Wednesday and Thursday will be spent panicking as opposed to reading, but we’ll see how I do.)

This is my updates post which I’ll (hopefully) be updating daily to chart my progress (or lack thereof) throughout the readathon. If I do the wonderful daily challenges, I’ll also post those here. Understood? Good. Let’s just go…

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