My Reading Adventure

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Thankfully Reading Weekend 2016

Thankfully Reading Weekend is one of my favorite events of the year. It is a nice break from Thanksgiving hustle and bustle and much better than all the Black Friday and shopping madness.
This year I am celebrating Thanksgiving at my parents house. I am going to make two dishes to take to our potluck. I love that we do a potluck. It takes off the pressure on one person to do all the cooking.
I have a large TBR pile for this weekend. I know I won't get a chance to read them all because I won't have that much time. My goal is to at least finish two books.

I have a photo session Friday and the Gilmore Girls comes out that day too so I won't get much reading done that day. But Saturday and Sunday I have no plans except for editing photos.
I will be reading a combination of print, ebook and audiobook. I am starting out with The Handmaid's Tale on audiobook read by Claire Danes. I love this book and I thought it was an appropriate time to read it again. I purchased it in the big Audible sale earlier this year and am excited to listen to the audiobook this time.

My sisters also love to read so I am sure we will be swapping recommendations at Thanksgiving. I will pass them on if I receive them.
This year I am going to do one big post for Thankfully Reading so I will update here.

Wednesday

7:30 pm
Well its been a busy day with running errands to get ready for Thanksgiving, cooking and editing photos. But I still have managed to spend plenty of time reading and listening to my audiobook. I finished Crazy In Love earlier. It is pretty funny and one of my favorite Lani Diane Rich books so far.

My next book is Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood. It is a retelling of The Tempast. Loving it so far. I just realized I am reading two Margaret Atwood books. My house smells delicious from the cornbread I made for tomorrow and the mustard pork loin I made for dinner. Yummy!

Pages read: 575
Audiobook time: 5 hours 6 minutes
Books finished: 1

Thursday

10:30am
Happy Thanksgiving! I am so excited to go to my parents house and eat lots of delicious food. We have the best cooks in our family. My Grandma's dressing is my favorite dish. It is so yummy. I am surprised how much reading I got done this morning. I am almost done with Hag-Seed and about half way through my audiobook. Well I am headed out. I hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving day!

Pages read: 97
Audiobook time: 2 hours 22 minutes
Books finished: 1

Friday

10:50 pm
Well it has been a busy couple of days. I ended up staying at my parents house yesterday until about 6 pm. Once we got home and made delicious leftovers I wanted to watch the last episode of season seven of Gilmore Girls in order to be ready for the new episodes. We were about twenty minutes in when all the power went out and we heard a big boom. It must have been a transformer box exploding. It was awful. Our whole neighborhood was so dark. So I didn't get a chance to read because my book light battery was dead.
I had a photo session this morning that was so fun. It was an awesome, hilarious family. I stopped by Dunkin Donuts on the way home and got a half dozen doughnuts. And my husband and I preceded to watch all four episodes of the Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life with only occasional breaks for his work phone calls. No spoilers for GG so I won't say how I felt. Still need to process.

Pages read: 298
Audiobook time: 2 hours 51 min
Books finished: 2

Sunday

12:00 pm
I have been terrible about updating my blog. But I have been reading in between doing other things. I planned to read all this morning and then edit photos this afternoon but my husband tricked me into going shopping this morning and we just got home. I am exhausted. I hate to shop with a burning passion and I tried on way too many clothes and we went to way too many stores. But I am excited for the few things I found. When we stopped for lunch I just blatantly pulled my book out of my bag and started reading as my husband was composing some work emails. I mean if he was on his phone may as well read. Late last night I started The Last Boy and Girl in the World. I am excited to read more of it later today. For the time being I am going to continue to listen to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe while editing the sweetest newborn photos. I will check in later. I hope everyone is enjoying the final day of Thankfully Reading!

Pages read: 466
Audiobook time: 4 hours 3 min
Books finished: 2

Wrap Up

I felt like I really didn't read that much this Thankfully Reading weekend but I look at my numbers and they tell a different story. This is the first year in a long time that I didn't start the weekend on Tuesday so I had less time and was really busy during the weekend. But I still made time for reading. I didn't really get a chance to participate much on Twitter, Instagram and Litsy like I planned. But I finished nine books and that is WAY over my goal of two! This weekend seemed to whiz by so fast. All in all it was another fun reading even. Thanks so much Jenn for hosting it!

Totals:
Total pages read: 1762
Total audiobook time: 14 hours 20 min
Books finished: 9

Thankfully Reading Weekend 2016

11:50 pm
I am really enjoying Hag-Seed. Its a modern day retelling of The Tempast. A theatre art director who was screwed over by his right hand man seeks long term revenge. I love how he teaches prisoners how to act and put on productions. I enjoy all the characters he works with and their Shakespearian curse words! I also started a new book Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover. I saw this book all over Instagram so I thought I would get it from the library. It's about a deaf songwriter who finds a muse in his neighbor. I am loving it so far. Well I am headed to bed so I won't be totally worthless for Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Pages read: 575
Audiobook time: 5 hours 6 minutes
Books finished: 1

Thursday

10:30am
Happy Thanksgiving! I am so excited to go to my parents house and eat lots of delicious food. We have the best cooks in our family. My Grandma's dressing is my favorite dish. It is so yummy. I am surprised how much reading I got done this morning. I am almost done with Hag-Seed and about half way through my audiobook. Well I am headed out. I hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving day!

Pages read: 97
Audiobook time: 2 hours 22 minutes
Books finished: 1

Friday

10:50 pm
Well it has been a busy couple of days. I ended up staying at my parents house yesterday until about 6 pm. Once we got home and made delicious leftovers I wanted to watch the last episode of season seven of Gilmore Girls in order to be ready for the new episodes. We were about twenty minutes in when all the power went out and we heard a big boom. It must have been a transformer box exploding. It was awful. Our whole neighborhood was so dark. So I didn't get a chance to read because my book light battery was dead.
I had a photo session this morning that was so fun. It was an awesome, hilarious family. I stopped by Dunkin Donuts on the way home and got a half dozen doughnuts. And my husband and I preceded to watch all four episodes of the Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life with only occasional breaks for his work phone calls. No spoilers for GG so I won't say how I felt. Still need to process.

And I have just been reading since we finished watching GG. I finished Hag-Seed. Loved it! It turned out to be such a good book and I recommend it highly. I am about to finish Maybe Someday and I hope to start another book before bed but we shall see. I bought the audiobook of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe since it was on sale on Amazon/Audible so I will start that when I finish The Handmaid's Tale. I will be listening to a lot of audio the rest of the weekend as I have five photo sessions to process.

Total pages read: 326
Total audiobook time: 2 hours
Books finished: 3

Saturday

7:00 pm
Well I haven't read that much today. I have been busy running errands, spending time with my husband and working. I finished the Handmaid's Tale audiobook and started listening to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I also started Lily and Dunkin which is heartbreaking.

Total pages read: 298
Total audiobook time: 2 hours 51 min
Books finished: 2

Sunday

12:00 pm
I have been terrible about updating my blog. But I have been reading in between doing other things. I planned to read all this morning and then edit photos this afternoon but my husband tricked me into going shopping this morning and we just got home. I am exhausted. I hate to shop with a burning passion and I tried on way too many clothes and we went to way too many stores. But I am excited for the few things I found. When we stopped for lunch I just blatantly pulled my book out of my bag and started reading as my husband was composing some work emails. I mean if he was on his phone may as well read. Late last night I started The Last Boy and Girl in the World. I am excited to read more of it later today. For the time being I am going to continue to listen to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe while editing the sweetest newborn photos. I will check in later. I hope everyone is enjoying the final day of Thankfully Reading!

Thankfully Reading Weekend 2016

11:50 pm
I am really enjoying Hag-Seed. Its a modern day retelling of The Tempast. A theatre art director who was screwed over by his right hand man seeks long term revenge. I love how he teaches prisoners how to act and put on productions. I enjoy all the characters he works with and their Shakespearian curse words! I also started a new book Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover. I saw this book all over Instagram so I thought I would get it from the library. It's about a deaf songwriter who finds a muse in his neighbor. I am loving it so far. Well I am headed to bed so I won't be totally worthless for Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Total pages read: 575
Total audiobook time: 5 hours 6 minutes
Books finished: 1

Thursday

10:30am
Happy Thanksgiving! I am so excited to go to my parents house and eat lots of delicious food. We have the best cooks in our family. My Grandma's dressing is my favorite dish. It is so yummy. I am surprised how much reading I got done this morning. I am almost done with Hag-Seed and about half way through my audiobook. Well I am headed out. I hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving day!

Total pages read: 97
Total audiobook time: 2 hours 22 minutes
Books finished: 1

Friday

10:50 pm
Well it has been a busy couple of days. I ended up staying at my parents house yesterday until about 6 pm. Once we got home and made delicious leftovers I wanted to watch the last episode of season seven of Gilmore Girls in order to be ready for the new episodes. We were about twenty minutes in when all the power went out and we heard a big boom. It must have been a transformer box exploding. It was awful. Our whole neighborhood was so dark. So I didn't get a chance to read because my book light battery was dead.
I had a photo session this morning that was so fun. It was an awesome, hilarious family. I stopped by Dunkin Donuts on the way home and got a half dozen doughnuts. And my husband and I preceded to watch all four episodes of the Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life with only occasional breaks for his work phone calls. No spoilers for GG so I won't say how I felt. Still need to process.

Friday, October 21, 2016

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon October 2016

I am so excited that this weekend is the Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon. It is such a fun event. It goes from 8 am Saturday to 8 am Sunday in my time zone. It is a time to read books, relax, chat with other book lovers and try to stay up 24 hours to read. I did it for the first time earlier this year and it was so fun! I wasn't able to stay up for 24 hours but it is always fun to attempt. There is no pressure to read a certain amount of books and not a lot of rules to follow. 2016 has been a rough year so I am looking forward to a reading weekend!

This is my stack of possible books to read. Obviously I won't read all of them. But what I learned from the first readathon is that it was nice to have books to dip in and out on.

I will be updating this blog post a few times during the readathoon. I always try to spend a little time online so I will be updating Twitter, Instagram and Goodreads as well. Now I am off to buy snacks!

10 am

Well I didn't get as much sleep as I would have liked last night so I am doubting I will be able to make the whole 24 hours. But I popped out of bed excited to get started on reading. I began with an audiobook while getting ready for the day, Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor. I didn't really like the second book in this trilogy but I decided I wanted to find out what happened. Hopefully this one is better than the second. Then I made cinnamon rolls (from a can:-) for breakfast and started Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon while waiting for them to cook. I have been waiting to read this book for months. It is not a disappointment. It is funny, entraining and touching. However, I don't see any way around it being a heartbreaker.

Hours Spent Reading: 2
Total Pages read: 168
Total Audiobook time: 40 min
Books finished: 0

1:30 pm

Everything Everything ended up being terrific. I definitely gasped out loud near the end. I was NOT expecting that. I highly recommend you read it. I can't wait to read Nicola Yoon's new book when it comes out.

My second read of the day was Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher. It was a hilarious book with also some pretty sad moments. It was only about a 150 pages so it was a quick read. My head is feeling a little fuzzy so before I start my next read I think I will go for a walk while listening to my audiobook.

Hours Spent Reading: 5.5
Total Pages read: 468
Total Audiobook time: 1 hr 6 min
Books finished: 2

4:30 pm

I enjoyed a beautiful walk while listening to Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor. It is a gorgeous fall day here. A little chilly but warmed up throughout the afternoon. I love fall but hate that winter is on the way.

I enjoyed a yummy pizza for lunch. And then sat on the front porch to read my third book, A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro. I love this modern take on the Holmes/Watson story. I am really enjoying the characters and the story. I am developing a little bit of a headache and if this advil doesn't work I may have to take a nap to get rid of it.

Total Hours Spent Reading: 8.5

Total Pages read: 624
Total Audiobook time: 2 hr 20 min
Books finished: 2

9:30 pm

Wow I can't believe I am halfway there and I am still reading. That seems like a win to me. It took me quite a long time to finish A Study In Charlotte. I absolutely loved it. I loved the characters of Holmes and Watson. I am looking forward to reading more of their stories. I dug into my snack stash for some yummy candy corn which means it really is fall!

I started lagging a little so I decided I needed caffeine in order to make it through the evening. I rarely drink caffeine and never after one so this should keep me pretty hyper at least for awhile.

I started my fourth book Fortune's Bride by Jane Peart. This is a reread. I love the Brides of Montclair series. I have been reading them since I was about 12 years old. I started my reread a few months ago and this is the third book in the series. I loved these generational series as a young girl where it followed one family through many different generations and times. I broke into some more snacks after realizing I forgot to eat dinner.

Hours Spent Reading: 13.5

Total Pages read: 891
Total Audiobook time: 3 hr 22 min
Books finished: 3

1:00 am

Well I am getting a little sleepy. I may have to nap soon. I am reading in bed now and that's not the best place to stay awake. My husband is at a work event though and I probably won't be able to sleep until he gets home.
So I have pretty much been reading or listening to an audiobook since 8 am except for popping in on social media and writing blog. It's a lot! I am glad I had the audiobook so I can get up and move around. Ironically I have more Fitbit steps today than I have had the whole week.
I finally had one of my cats come snuggle with me after being snubbed by them all day. They can't resist the red blanket! I think Trixie knows how pretty her light fur looks against it. I finished Fortune's Bride after forgetting how annoying the heroine was.

I bought some special pastries at Publix yesterday: fall petit fours and a mini cannoli. They were quite delicious and gave me a wonderful sugar buzz. And they are so pretty too!

I just started my fourth (fifth if I count audiobook that I haven't finished) book of the day: Heaven to Betsy by Maud Hart Lovelace. I read the Betsy high school books every fall so I thought Readathon was the perfect time to start. I took a nice relaxing bath hoping that would wake me a little. It did not. Just made me sleepy but I am going to try to stick with it at least another hour before I try to nap.

Hours Spent Reading: 17

Total Pages read: 1104
Total Audiobook time: 3 hr 42 min
Books finished: 4

Wrap-up

Well at three thirty I decided take a little nap and set my alarm for five. My alarm went off and I could barely open my eyes so I listened to my audiobook for about 15 minutes and then decided I wanted sleep more than reading and woke up at nine. A little sad I missed the very end of Readathon but also happy I won't want to spend all of Sunday sleeping. Because of course I will be reading! This was a terrific readathon. I finished four books and got halfway through another and about 1/3 of the way through my audiobook and I read over 1000 pages which was my goal. I didn't read as many books or say awake as long as I did in April. But I also spent more time this year participating in social media and blogs throughout the day. I am already looking forward to April!

Final Totals:

Hours Spent Reading: 19 hr 30 min

Total Pages read: 1250
Total Audiobook time: 4 hr 54 min
Books finished: 4

Friday, August 19, 2016

Bout Of Books August 2016

Wow I can't believe it's almost time for the next 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, 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

OF COURSE it will be a super busy week and I have more scheduled than I have in the last few months. But that seems to be the way most readathons go for me. I still went to the library and got a pile of books plus I will be trying to read some of my ebook TBR and audiobooks while driving around. I will be updating this post all during Bout of Books so stay tuned here and to my Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Monday--

Well as expected I didn't have that much time to do anything but listen to audiobooks today. I had an awesome newborn session this morning. I love cuddling new babies! I was in the car for a few hours so I took the time to listen to The Hunger Games audiobook. I love The Hunger Games books so much and it is such a different experience to listen to the audiobook than read the book. I am really enjoying it. I have a lot of photo editing to do tomorrow so it is quite possible that I will finish the audiobook.

I am also listening to the audiobook of Missoula: Rape and the Justice System In A College Town. This one is rough to listen to. It is enraging, devastating and heartbreaking. I can only listen to it in small pieces. It is such an important subject. I love Jon Krakauer's writing. All his books are fascinating.

I started Insatiable by Meg Cabot. I love the modern day twist on a vampire story. I didn't get that far in it as I could barely keep my eyes open but I am really looking forward to reading more of it tomorrow. I didn't even take any photos of my books today which is quite surprising but I will try to be better on Instagram tomorrow.

Day One Numbers

Pages read: 183

Audiobooks Time: 5 hours 45 mins

Books finished: None

Tuesday-- This was a much better reading day since my photo session today was only about 25 minutes. I had lots of editing/audiobook time and I even finished a few books. I didn't finish either of my audiobooks but I am nearing the end on both.

I finished up Insatiable. It ended up being a pretty fun read if the author meant it to be a cheesy vampire parody. If she didn't well not so good.

I also started and finished My Folks Don't Want Me To Talk About Slavery. It is a collection of twenty one oral histories from the Slave Narrative papers. People went around in the late 1930's gathering all these stories and commentary on slavery: how they were treated, what they ate, were they educated etc. I think this is a must read. Their voices were silenced most of their lives and it's important to hear what they have to say. I plan on looking for more books written about these first person narratives.

In honor of the Olympics being over I started reading You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott. Ahh it is SO good. I could barely put it down and go to bed. I have heard so many great things about her books and now I want to read them all.

I have to take my MIL to the dr tomorrow an hour away so I have downloaded another Jon Krakauer book for us to listen to in the car.

Day Two Numbers

Pages read: 445

Audiobooks Time: 5 hours 47 mins

Books finished: 2

Wednesday--

Well today was a busy day with lots of editing. And a simple 10 minute doctors appointment turned out to be a nightmare of traffic and storms and five hours away from the house. I finished The Hunger Games audiobook and You Will Know Me. I started The Great American Whatever and The Invisible Intruder. I am pretty irritated tonight so I will talk more about these books tomorrow.

Day Three Numbers

Pages read: 388

Audiobooks Time: 5 hours 23 mins

Books finished: 2

Thursday-- Well this was a much better actual book reading day although I didn't feel very good. I am afraid I am getting sick.

I finally finished the Missoula audiobook that I have been listening to for a few months. It was a tough one to get through. It's a very difficult subject matter and very enraging. But I definitely recommend reading it. It should be required reading for boys and girls in high school.

I also am listening to Under the Banner of Heaven. I downloaded this for our trip to the dr yesterday. It is a book about Mormon fundamentalists. It is another very hard subject matter.

I finished The Invisible Intruder, the 46th Nancy Drew book. I love the Nancy Drew books so much. I have a huge collection of Nancy Drew books and companion books.

They are some of the first books I remember reading. My mom had all the blue covered books. She threw them away one day for some reason and I will never get over it. Sadly I just have the new yellow ones. It is interesting to read these books and even though they have been updated from the original books they still are old fashioned. And poor Bess gets fat shamed all the time. I enjoy the three or four older books I have because they have the illustrations inside the front cover from all the books. It just brings me right back to childhood!

I also finished The Great American Whatever. I really loved this book! The breezy style Tim Federle writes with is great even with the sad subject matter. I would say this isn't so much a love story as a story of grief and acceptance. I love all the quips and jokes. I enjoyed being in Quinn's head.

I started listening to Catching Fire, the next Hunger Games book. This is my favorite of all the Hunger Games books. I love it so much. I am just really enjoying listening to these. It's a different experience.

I started and finished the 19th Agatha Raisin book, A Spoonful of Poison. I love these cozy mysteries and I love Agatha. She is so unpleasant and foolish about men but she always solves the case! The books always make me laugh. I have really been enjoying the books since she started the detective agency.

I started See Me, the newest Nicolas Sparks book. I won it in a Goodreads giveaway so I figured I would read it now. I feel bad when I win a book and don't read and review it right away. I have a love/hate relationship with Nicolas Sparks. A lot of his books are too formulaic. However I don't mind formulaic (see Nancy Drew and Agatha Raisin above ha ha). I am having a hard time getting into this one though. I also ate about a pound of Twizzlers while reading it. Not a good idea when I already don't feel good.

Tomorrow I plan on finishing editing my last photo session, listening to the new Butch Walker album and hopefully getting some reading in.

Day Four Numbers

Pages read: 695

Audiobooks Time: 3 hours 19 mins

Books finished: 4

Friday-- It was a fairly good reading day even though I also was busy with work and cleaning. I stayed up late since it was Friday.

I finished See Me and it ended up being pretty good near the end. But there were just so many annoying characters and it was too long and rambly. I felt like the character development was terrible. Lily was a horrible cliche of a Southern woman which is ridiculous because Nicolas Sparks is from the South and knows better. But Lily and Serena seemed to share too many characteristics. And I just didn't buy the romance between Colin and Maria. I thought a real woman would have been SO annoyed by his saying okay all the time. Nope not cute. I hated how her family had to be told about his past and Colin have that dramatic talk with her father. My parents would never have a say in who I dated at 28. Ridiculous! Anyway I am just glad he has gone away from one of the main characters always dying at the end. That was getting pretty predictable.

I also started and finished the next Agatha Raisin book There Goes the Bride in which James Lacey's young bride to be is shot to death on their wedding day. Oh James you and Agatha belong together because you are idiots about the people you date. Ha ha. The only sad thing about this book is that I don't have the next one.

I finally started Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. I can't wait to read this one as I have heard so many good things about it. And I love following Tahereh's travels and photography on Twitter and Instagram. She wears amazing outfits. And she and Ransom Riggs are #relationshipgoals. Am I too old to say that?

My goals for tomorrow and Sunday are to read as much as I can while enjoying it and hopefully do something fun along the way as summer is winding down.

Day Five Numbers

Pages read: 655

Audiobooks Time: 3 hours 1 min

Books finished: 2

Saturday-- Today was a pretty leisurely day. I did work a little and then enjoyed dinner and spending time with my husband so didn't get as much reading in as I did the last two days but it was a good day.

I am still listening to and really enjoying Catching Fire. I forgot how much of the book was set before the Quarter Quell even started.

I am still reading Shatter Me. I am liking the characters but I am fascinated with this world and hope to hear more about it before the book is over.

I started and finished another Meg Cabot book Nicola and the Viscount, a Regency romance and it was funny and very entertaining. I also started the Overbite, the sequel to Insatiable, but I am having a hard time getting into it.

Tomorrow is the final Bout of Books day and I probably won't read as much as I have been because I have some work to do. We shall see. Oh and I also noticed today on Goodreads that I met my book reading goal for the year! I didn't know I would meet it so early. I may have to change the goal to the amount of books I read last year.

Day Six Numbers

Pages read: 466

Audiobooks Time: 3 hours 11 min

Books finished: 1

Sunday-- I got some good photo editing in today and also watched a movie with my husband but still was able to do a good amount of reading on the final Bout of Books day.

I finished the Catching Fire audiobook and listened to a few more chapters of Under the Banner of Heaven. I finished Shatter Me and started and finished Ramona the Brave. I just can't help but marvel at how perfectly Beverly Cleary captures the emotions and feelings of being a child.

I will do a wrap up post tomorrow.

Day Seven Numbers

Pages read: 471

Audiobooks Time: 4 hours 9 min

Books finished: 2

Wrap Up & Totals

Well Bout of Books 17 has come to an end. I really enjoyed taking the time all week to just enjoy books. I didn't watch any tv or listen to any podcasts. Even though I did miss my podcasts I did enjoy time away from the TV. It was a busy week but I definitely read way more than I thought I would. I read many hours of audiobooks while working and driving and that definitely helped me read more. I am already looking forward to the next Bout of Book in January!

Totals

Pages read: 3,303

Audiobooks Time: 30 hours 35 min

Books finished: 13

24 in 48 Readathon

This was the first year I have done the 24 in 48 Readathon. The reason why I never did it before was because I thought it was 24 books read in 48 hours. Ha ha. Anyway the Readathon was July 24 & 25th. It was a really busy weekend for me of course. The weekend before and after I had nothing to do but that weekend was busy with photo shoots, movies with friends, plus Stranger Things 😃

I ended up reading 19 hours which was way more than I thought I would be able to when I signed up. I listened to 8 hours 24 minutes of audiobook and read 945 pages. I finished six books: The Walls Around Us, Unbreakable, The Mystery of 99 Steps, Champion, The Clue in the Crossword Ciper and Open Road Summer.

I had fun participating in this Readathon and will definitely do the next one. You can see photos I posted during the Readathon on my Instagram account.

Monday, May 9, 2016

Bout of Books 16

The Bout of Books Read-a-thon sounds like a really good read-a-thon!

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

It sounds like it is a fun and casual read-a-thon so I thought I would participate although this week and weekend is busier than usual. I always can make time for reading! I will update this post with all the books I am reading so check back in throughout the week! I will also be updating at Twitter and Instagram.

Monday

Books Read: 1

Pages Read: 328

Notes: I finished Salt to the Sea. I also am switching off on listening to the Jane Eyre audiobook and reading the book depending on what I am doing.

Tuesday

Books Read 0

Pages Read: 293

Notes: I finished about 75% of The Guest Room. It is such a great book and I can't wait to finish it tomorrow. I also read a little more of Jane Eyre.

Wednesday

Books Read: 3

Pages Read: 729

Notes: I finished The Guest Room and started and finished Kissing Christmas Goodbye and Marcy Catches Up. I started Criminal That I Am and kept reading Jane Eyre. The Guest Room was very good and Criminal That I am is a fascinating memoir. Kissing Christmas Goodbye is an Agatha Raisin book that had a Christmas celebration in the last ten pages so they slapped a Christmas name and cover on it. Marcy Catches Up was the second installment of a 1950s YA series I have been reading.

Thursday

Books Read: 2

Pages Read: 466

Notes: I finished Criminal That I Am, started and finished The Good Girl. I read more of Jane Eyre, or rather listened, while I ran errands. And I started The Dream Thieves.

Friday

Books Read: 0

Pages Read: 195

Notes: I didn't get much reading in today as it was a busy work day.

Saturday

Books Read: 1

Pages Read: 157

Notes:I didn't get much reading in as I was working but I did finish the 3rd Marcy Rhodes book and read more of The Dream Thieves.

Sunday

Books Read: 0

Pages Read: 86

Notes:Another bad reading day since I had a photo session and then hung out with my sister afterwards.

Bout of Books Totals:

Total Books Read: 7

Total Pages Read: 2,254