#boutofbooks 6.0: status updates

I'm planning on using this single post to hold my read-a-thon status. I'll just update every day with the statistics and observations. I posted my goals yesterday morning. I'm still reading the book which I started on Sunday morning, but I should finish it fairly soon.

Updates

Monday, 7 January: I took I Am Half-Sick of Shadows to bed with me at 12:30. Starting on page 74, I read for about 1/2 hour before falling asleep. Since Monday was a normal work day, I had to squeeze in reading time during my lunch break and then could get back to it at the end of the day. When I turned in, I was on page 162, accounting for 88 pages read during the day. I also hung out on Twitter for a little while during lunch since the Twitter Chat was going on during that time.

Wednesday, 9 January: Tuesday was such a bust when it comes to reading that I didn't even get around to updating the blog. I only read 34 pages, and when you consider that I average over 900 pages per week, I have a lot of reading to do the rest of this week to keep up with that pace. I did finish I Am Half-Sick of Shadows this morning before work. That allowed me to start another book during lunch, Singer of Souls by Adam Stemple. By bedtime, I had read 106 pages in this book, taking my total for the day to 203. I'm really looking forward to the weekend when I don't have to go to work and I can spend more time reading. And, of course, I'd like to visit a lot of blogs to see what others are reading.

Thursday, 10 January: Another day when I didn't read as much as I would have liked. Working sure cuts into one's free time. But I do have to admit I like having a good income. It lets me do interesting things with the free time that I do have. Most of the reading that I accomplished was during the meal breaks. I read Singer of Souls on the way to and from lunch, during lunch, and during supper. We went to supper pretty late and it was dark out, so I read more in Blame It On the Mistletoe which is on my Blackberry. At the end of the day, I had read 64 pages in Singer of Souls and approximately 13 pages in Blame It On the Mistletoe. (Actually, it was 219 locations in the Kindle book, but that translates pretty much to 13 +/- pages.) I didn't have time to get into Twitter or visit blogs. Guess those will have to wait until the weekend.

Monday, 7 January

Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 88
Number of books completed today: 0

Tuesday, 8 January

Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 34
Number of books completed today: 0

Wednesday, 9 January

Number of books I've read today: 2
Number of pages I've read today: 203
Number of books completed today: 1

Thursday, 10 January

Number of books I've read today: 2
Number of pages I've read today: 77
Number of books completed today: 0

#boutofbooks 6.0: goals and starting position

The time has come. The Bout of Books read-a-thon is now on its 6th iteration and I've signed up to participate again. This will be the fourth time I've participated in Bout of Books and you can tell that I enjoy it since I keep returning. I've labeled all my posts from previous events, and you can read about my past participation by checking my Bout of Books tag. In this first post, I'll lay out my goals and then I plan to post periodic updates throughout the week. In case you're interested, here's the official information:

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 7th and runs through Sunday, January 13th 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 6.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. -From the Bout of Books 6.0 team

One of the notable characteristics of Bout of Books is the use of Twitter to communicate with particpants. The organizers send periodic encouragement via tweets with the #boutofbooks hashtag. And, there are three “chats” scheduled to take place on Twitter.

My Bout of Books Goals

My Targets

My only real goal is to spend as much time reading as I can and to have fun!

Time Devoted to Reading

This time, Bout of Books is taking place during an ordinary work week, so my reading will be confined to meal times and the evenings before I go to sleep. I'm hoping that the weekend will give me plenty of time to devote to reading—but that will depend on whether I have any family activities that I need to participate in.

Books to Read

I'm lining up a couple of books that have a high likelihood to be read during the week. I reserve the right to change my mind at any time. These are a mixture of books which I owe to fellow readers over at BookObsessed.com and some high-interest books, many of which are in series that I have started and want to read further in. First up are books that I've already started reading and hope to finish this week:

• I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley—4th in the Flavia de Luce mystery series; checked out from the library; starting on page 74
• Blame it on the Mistletoe by Joyce Magnin—4th in the Bright's Pond series; a free eBook that I picked up from Amazon and which I have loaded onto my Blackberry; starting at location 821, which is about the middle of chapter 5
• The Book of Love by Kathleen McGowan—2nd in the Magdalene Line series; an audio book on 18 CDs; starting at disk 7, track 13; I probably won't finish this book since I only listen when I'm alone in the car

And then the books that I will probably start reading this week:

• The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers—a book which Candy won in a swap at BookObsessed; I need to mail this book by the end of the month
• Singer of Souls by Adam Stemple—a book which has been on my TBR stack for several years
• Vicious Circle by Linda Robertson—first in the Persephone Alcmedi paranormal series; I owe the first 3 books to Wendy from a virtual book box at BookObsessed; need to mail all 3 books by the end of March

Reading ... and life in general

If you read my blog at all, you'll notice that the previous update took place at 7am on 13 October, just as Dewey's 24-hour read-a-thon was beginning. Needless to say, I didn't follow through with the read-a-thon at all. Unlike in previous years when I had been able to set aside the entire day and have nothing else scheduled, this Saturday was full of plans and commitments. I drove to my son's house to pick up his 2 year old daughter, we drove to my produce co-op to pick up the week's allotment, the two of us went to my other son's house to stay with his 2 year old son, and by supper time, all the reading I had accomplished was listening to a couple of disks in the car. By the time I got back home around 8pm, I was thoroughly disgruntled that I hadn't been able to participate at all in any of the Dewey activities. I did run around to a number of blogs to cheer on other participants, but I just abandoned my participation entirely—which is why there's only the one post here in my blog. (That's not to say that I didn't read, I just didn't track it as closely and I went to bed at a normal time instead of staying up all night long.)

This morning is the first day of a read-a-thon we're calling “Reading Through the End of the World and Beyond”. It's being held over at BookObsessed and there's still time to join us if you're interested.

Today, I read the last page of the 148th book of 2012. At the beginning of the year, I set the goal of reading 150 books, and I think I'm going to get there and maybe a book or two beyond. All the books have been recorded in this blog at The Books of 2012. Books read in previous years are documented in the respective pages which are linked from the sidebar.

So, although months and months have gone by since I updated this blog, I have been reading. In fact, since the previous post, I have read 28 books. Maybe more impressive is that those books contained a total of 9035 pages. That's an average of 1000 pages per week.

So, I'm off to do some Christmas shopping—listening to an audio book as I drive—and then I'll settle down to some old-fashioned reading of text later today. I hope your day will be as pleasant.

Dewey's Read-a-Thon: the beginning

When I went to Dewey's home page, I was blown away by this new logo! Cheers to the artist who created it. It perfectly embodies the concept—reading around the clock, night and day. And so it begins again this year. Since I'm in Texas, I'll be reading from 7am on Saturday until 7am on Sunday. Most of the day, I'll be away from the computer, so I won't be posting frequent updates as I have in the past. But I'll be reading during all my free time.

There will be less free time today as in prior Read-a-thons. I've gladly embraced the opportunity to care for my two grandkids on Saturdays. I start in the morning at Victoria's house and then the two of us pack up and head over to Aiden's house for the afternoon. When their daddies get home in the evening, I head back home. Reading-wise, I do get to spend at least 2 hours listening to an audio book. But there will be much of the daytime when I will not be reading. I hope to manage to stay awake all night—in contrast to previous events when I fell asleep in the wee hours—and therefore make significant progress through my TBR stack.

I'm starting with these books: in paperback, White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison; on my Kindle: Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble by H P Mallory; audio CD: The Expected One by Kathleen McGowan

Introductory Questionnaire

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?

I'm at my home location in North Texas.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

I really would like to finish White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison. I'm planning on sending it to a fellow reader along with other books, and this is the last one I need to finish before I can pack them up and hand them to the mailman.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

Today is distribution day for Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op, so I'm looking forward to some yummy fresh fruit to snack on.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

I have two grandchildren who are both 2 years old, and their parents work on Saturdays, so I get to spend the whole day with the grandkids. It's such a blessing. Of course, that cuts into Dewey reading time, but I'll still have the overnight hours to dedicate to reading.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?

This is my 7th time to participate in the Read-a-Thon. I look forward to it and try to clear my calendar so there are few distractions. Of course, caring for the grandkids restricts my reading time during the hours that they are awake.

Read-a-thon updates

   

I think it's time for another update on read-a-thon progress. Today is the next-to-last day of FrightFall and the second day of FraterFest. I took Friday off work and spent several dedicated hours reading. As a result, I read a total of 197 pages on Friday compared to an average of 75 on each on the days that I was at work. Although today is Saturday, I have family activities planned that will cut into the free time available for reading. The good news is that I'm currently at page 357 of 529 in Academ's Fury. I don't know if I will finish it today—but definitely by tomorrow.

Current reads are Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher and Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble by H P Mallory. The latter might fulfill the requirement of FraterFest to read a “bump in the night book (vampire, zombie, shapeshifter, ghost etc).” It's not very scary, but the main characters are a witch and a wizard.

Thursday, October 4

Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 60
Number of books completed today: 0

Friday, October 5

Number of books I've read today: 2
Number of pages I've read today: 197
Number of books completed today: 0

FraterFest Read-a-Thon - starting position

Today is the first day of FraterFest, and intense four-day read-a-thon. The sponsor, Kimba, has asked the participants to include one book by Rhiannon Frater or a bump in the night book (vampire, zombie, shapeshifter, ghost etc).

Now, I hated to admit it, but I had not heard of Rhiannon Frater prior to signing up for the read-a-thon. I immediately checked out her bibliography and found out that The First Days—her first book in the As The World Dies series—is set in the Texas Hill Country just a couple hours south of my home. That certainly adds to its appeal. I'm going to try to track down a copy of that book today. The book and series have mixed reviews, so I won't spring for an eBook or a new paperback, but a used book would be good to find.

So, starting position. I am in the middle of a great fantasy novel, Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher. Academ's Fury is the second book in Butcher's Codex Alera series, set in a world where the forces of nature take on personalities. These “furies” bond with talented individuals who direct their capabilities to protect the land from their enemies. By the way, Butcher is the author/creator of The Dresden Files starring wizard Harry Dresden, a private detective who takes on paranormal investigations.

I suppose I should also include a couple of goals. I intend to read 400 pages during the read-a-thon. And, if I can find a copy, one of the books I read will be by Rhiannon Frater. If not, I will read a frightful book from my stash—either The Demon You Know by Christine Warren or White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison.

Now, less blogging and more reading!

FrightFall Read-a-Thon: the half-way mark

It's Thursday and that means FrightFall is half-way done. So far, I've read 343 pages in three different books. On Tuesday morning, I finished reading The Outlaw Demon Wails by Kim Harrison. (I was on page 337 when the read-a-thon began.) I immediately picked up Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher. As of this post, I'm on page 168 and making pretty good progress considering that this is a normal work week and I don't get to read until work is over. Also on Tuesday, I listened to one chapter of The Expected One by Kathleen McGowan.

Monday, October 1

Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 90
Number of books completed today: 0

Tuesday, October 2

Number of books I've read today: 3
Number of pages I've read today: 95
Number of books completed today: 1

Wednesday, October 3

Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 43
Number of books completed today: 0