End of Hours One and Two

I slept in but since I'm less awake in the morning than late at night hopefully this is a good thing.  I'm up now and getting going.  Gonna do the Intro Meme and start reading.

My TBR pile for Dewey's 24 Hour Read-A-Thon

I've got all my prep work done for Dewey's 24 Hour Read-A-Thon which is tomorrow and will be the 17th I've taken part in.  I've been in a total reading funk so am hoping this helps pull me out of it.  I've got all our snacks ready and my TBR pile is ready to go too.

My TBR Pile

I've got...

Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell - A special novel from World Book Day that was a nice surprise from a friend.

The Boy in the Smoke by Maureen Johnson - A special novel from World Book Day that was a birthday present from my husband.

The Servant Queen and the King She Serves - A special present that my father in law mailed me from England as a treat.

Lazarus, Vol. 4: Poison by Greg Rucka - I love this series and am really looking forward to this one.

Hawkeye, Vol. 3: L.A. Woman by Matt Fraction - I've really enjoyed this series so far.

Scarlet, Book 1 by Brian Michael Bendis - Part of my Listopia challenge

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson - Part of my Listopia challenge

I can't wait to get to reading!

Bout of Books Update #7 & Wrap Up

I only managed 22 pages for my last day as the Golden Globes were one which I love.

Over the course of this Bout of Books I only read from one book and read 324 pages in it.  Being sick really held me back a lot (Cold medicine is not conducive to concentration).  Considering how bad I felt this whole week it says a lot that I was still able to enjoy Fangirl as much as I did.  I'm looking forward to finishing it.

Add in a Starbucks cup and you have my week.

Bout of Books Update #6

I read 61 pages in Fangirl and am still loving it.

Bout of Books Update #5

I'm still feeling crappy but managed to finally get some reading done as I felt a bit more clear headed. I'm so loving this book!  I keep laughing as I read.  I read 69 pages in Fangirl and it's just awesome!

We went to the movies too!

Bout of Books Update #4

I read 43 pages of Fangirl today.  I was feeling really bad again which really sucks because I love this book.   I just feel so awful it's hard to concentrate.  I got new cold medicine so maybe that will help me sleep tonight and make it easier to read tomorrow.

Bout of Books Update #3

I read 41 pages of Fangirl today.  Feeling a bit better though still coughing my head off.  I am loving the book though.

Bout of Books Update #2

I read 25 pages in Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell today.  I have a nasty cold and it's making it really hard to concentrate.  Hopefully I'll be feeling better tomorrow and can get some more reading done.

Winter Sky

Bout of Books Update #1

I read 66 pages in Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.

Reading at Starbucks

My Bout of Books TBR Pile

This is the TBR pile I have so far.  I do have a graphic novel hopefully coming in this week at the library and if so I'll add that, but otherwise this is it.

I'm taking part in Bout of Books!

This will be the fourth time I've taken part on Bout of Books and I'm really looking forward to it. It's a great way to start the year off on the right note.  I'll post a TBR pile tomorrow.

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

Closing Survey

Closing Survey

Which hour was most daunting for you?

Hour Sixteen, I was just really struggling to concentrate.  Thankfully I got my second wind.

Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?

Morning Glories - These graphic novels are perfect for a RAT

Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

Nope, it was awesome

What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?

Some great cheerleaders and wonderful hosts.  Personally having some graphic novels to read was great.

How many books did you read?

5, plus read a bit of one other

What were the names of the books you read?

Monument 14 Savage Drift by Emmy Laybourne

Morning Glories Vol. 5 Tests by Nick Spencer

Morning Glories Vol. 6 Demerits by Nick Spencer

Morning Glories Vol. 7 Honors by Nick Spencer

Morning Glories Vol. 8 Rivals by Nick Spencer

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting (Didn't finish)

Which book did you enjoy most?

Monument 14

Which did you enjoy least?

The Body Finder

If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?

How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?

Oh I'll be there!  Probably as a reader but possibly as a cheerleader as well.

End of Hour Twenty-One

This hour I read:

Morning Glories Vol. 8 Rivals by Nick Spencer 43 pages - Finished It!

I read for 46 minutes

Total pages read: 602

Total minutes read: 656

Books Finished - 5

Woohoo!  Finished Morning Glories Vol 8 and that brings me up to date on the series.  I'm done reading and I'm very happy with my totals.

End of Hour Twenty

This hour I read:

Morning Glories Vol. 8 Rivals by Nick Spencer 39 pages

I read for 37 minutes

Total pages read: 513

Total minutes read: 610

Books Finished - 4

Of course this hour had to have all kinds of scientific stuff in the chapter...

End of Hour Nineteen

This hour I read:

Morning Glories Vol. 8 Rivals by Nick Spencer 28 pages

I read for 35 minutes

Total pages read: 474

Total minutes read: 573

Books Finished - 4

We went out for a late night run to Whataburger to get out second wind and some fries and shakes.

End of Hour Eighteen

This hour I read:

Morning Glories Vol. 7 Honors by Nick Spencer 17 pages - Finished It!

I read for 17 minutes

Total pages read: 446

Total minutes read: 538

Books Finished - 4

I liked this Vol much better than the last.

End of Hour Seventeen

Blueberry Pie - Dean Approved

This hour I read:

Morning Glories Vol. 7 Honors by Nick Spencer 58 pages

I read for 43 minutes

Total pages read: 429

Total minutes read: 521

Books Finished - 3

Got into Morning Glories 7 this hour....should finish it in the next one.

End of Hour Sixteen

No reading this hour.  I had some snacks and spent some time on the computer...finding it hard to concentrate.

End of Hour Fifteen

This hour I read:

Morning Glories Vol. 7 Honors by Nick Spencer 35 pages

I read for 40 minutes

Total pages read: 371

Total minutes read: 478

Books Finished - 3

Thank God for this series, as it's kept me reading this RAT.

Reading Rainbow Mini Challenge

I loved Reading Rainbow as a kid so I had to take part in this mini challenge.

"Have you ever loved a book so much you didn’t want the story to end? We feel that way about a LOT of books! So your Reading Rainbow mini-challenge, should you choose to accept it, is this:

Share a book that you didn’t want to end, and what you think the title of the sequel would be!"

The Outsiders made me a fangirl.  I would love to have a sequel.  As far as a title goes...Who We Became.

End of Hour Fourteen

This hour I read:

Morning Glories Vol. 6 Demerits by Nick Spencer 17 pages - Finished It!

I read for 14 minutes

Total pages read: 336

Total minutes read: 438

Books Finished - 3

I didn't love this Morning Glories as much as the last (There was animal violence, though just a small bit, but that's a big red flag for me.) but it was still good.  These books just get loopier and loopier.

Mid-Event Survey and End of Hour Thirteen

1. What are you reading right now?
Morning Glories Vol. 6 Demerits by Nick Spencer

2. How many books have you read so far?
Finished 2 and read bits of 2 others

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?
Finishing Morning Glories Vol 6

4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?
A few and have struggled to concentrate a bit.  Just tried to re-focus.

5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
How quickly it's going.

No eating this hour.  Dinner time.

End of Hour Twelve

This hour I read:

Morning Glories Vol. 6 Demerits by Nick Spencer 26 pages

I read for 21 minutes

Total pages read: 319

Total minutes read: 424

Books Finished - 2

Headed to Chili's for dinner this hour.

End of Hour Eleven

Our famous shoe shot

This hour I read:

Morning Glories Vol. 6 Demerits by Nick Spencer 42 pages

I read for 38 minutes

Total pages read: 293

Total minutes read: 403

Books Finished - 2

We've taken a picture of our shoes together every single RAT we've done together.  Just a quirky little thing we enjoy.

End of Hour Ten

This hour I read:

Morning Glories Vol. 6 Demerits by Nick Spencer - 46 pages

I read for 50 minutes

Total pages read: 251

Total minutes read: 327

Books Finished - 2

Back down the rabbit hole with Morning Glories!

End of Hour Nine

This hour I read:

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting - 16 pages

I read for 24 minutes

Total pages read: 205

Total minutes read: 277

Books Finished - 2

Starbucks time.  I read a little from The Body Finder but couldn't really get into it.  Moving onto my next Morning Glories for the next hour.

End of Hour Eight

This hour I read:

Morning Glories Vol. 5 Tests by Nick Spencer - 35 pages - Finished It!

I read for 25 minutes

Total pages read: 189

Total minutes read: 253

Books Finished - 2

Volume 5 of Morning Glories was crazy..as is this whole series.

End of Hour Seven

No reading this hour.  Lunch time!

End of Hour Six

This hour I read:

Morning Glories Vol. 5 Tests by Nick Spencer - 36 pages

I read for 33 minutes

Total pages read: 154

Total minutes read: 228

Books Finished - 1

This series is just so insane.  Lunch time this next hour.

End of Hour Five

This hour I read:

Morning Glories Vol. 5 Tests by Nick Spencer - 67 pages

I read for 44 minutes

Total pages read: 118

Total minutes read: 195

Books Finished - 1

I started the next Morning Glories this hour.  I just love this series! 

End of Hour Four

This hour I read:

Monument 14 Savage Drift by Emmy Laybourne - 11 pages - Finished It!

I read for 27 minutes

Total pages read: 51

Total minutes read: 151

Books Finished - 1

Savage Drift wrapped up the Monument 14 series so well.  I loved it.

End of Hour Three

This hour I read:

Monument 14 Savage Drift by Emmy Laybourne - 21 pages

I read for 43 minutes

Total pages read: 40

Total minutes read: 124

I spent part of this hour reading through tears, as this part of my book was quite emotional.  I should finish it next hour.

End of Hour Two

This hour I read:

Monument 14 Savage Drift by Emmy Laybourne - 19 pages

I read for 38 minutes

Introductory Meme & End of Hour One

Introductory Meme

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

The Woodlands, TX

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

Monument 14 Savage Drift (Finishing it)

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

Blueberry Pie from House of Pies

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

I'm not a morning person (so snoozed through the first hour of the RAT) and people who are confuse me.
I love words.
I'm a Fangirl and proud of it.

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 16th time participating.  Last time we had a soccer game to attend.  No game this time so I won't lose that big chunk of time.

My TBR pile for Dewey's 24 Hour Read-A-Thon

I'm getting ready for Dewey's 24 Hour Read-A-Thon, which will be my 16th.  Cleaning, cooking, you name it, I'm doing it!  I've done really well on reading this year, meeting my yearly goal in August.  Then, I hit a little snag.  In September I somehow started writing fanfic, something I didn't plan on but it quickly became an obsession and since I started I've barely read anything.  Tomorrow will honestly be the first day I have really spent reading since I started writing.  I'm hoping for a good day.  I just need to finish off my first book (which I'm already close to finishing) and I'll have hit 50 books for the year.  Yae!  Just gotta keep focused and not give into the urge to write...

My TBR Pile

Z For Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien - This is on my checklist for the year and it's not too long so figured I would throw it in.

Monument 14 Savage Drift by Emmy Laybourne - The last in the series and what a series it is!  I started this trilogy this year and it's just so good.  It's smart and interesting and the author is lovely. I have less than 100 pages to go so this will be the book I start with.

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting - I started this book back in early September and only got a few chapters in.  Hoping to get back to it now.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak- I have wanted to read this book for years and kept putting it off, intimidated by the size and topic.  I started it in August for a Time Consuming challenge and fell in love with it.  We are talking head over heels, tears in my eyes from the beauty of it, won't shut up about it love.  But then I took part in another reaidng challenge and set it aside and haven't gotten back to it.  I may just have to fall back in love with it tomorrow.

Morning Glories by Nick Spencer Vol 5-8 - I read the first Morning Glories back in May and have been hooked every since (and gotten a few others hooked as well.) It's a completely weird series, with shades of Lost in it. I bought these four for this weekend especially and am sure I'll read at least a few.

Happy Reading Y'all!

BookBuddyAThon Wrap Up

BookBuddyAThon was so much fun!  I got quite a bit of reading done.  I finished four books and read a tiny bit in one other (The Body Finder).  I also finished challenges 2, 3, 4 & 5.

My Finished Books.

Here's a breakdown of my reading:

Day 1: 117 pages read
Day 2: 82 pages read
Day 3: 64 pages read - First book finished!
Day 4: 83 pages read
Day 5: 92 pages read
Day 6: 69 pages read - Second book finished!
Day 7: 354 pages read - Third & Fourth book finished!

Total Pages read: 861

BookTubeAThon was definitely fun and I would love to do another one.

BookBuddyAthon

So since I obviously can't get enough of read-a-thons I'm taking part on another.  This one was discovered by Heather, who is going to be my book buddy.

Here's my TBR pile and the challenges the books match up with below.

The Challenges

1) Choose three books and get your buddy to pick one from them for you to read

Heather chose The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting.  (The other two I had given her to choose from where Z is for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien and Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have) by Sarah Mlynowski). This book is one I chose for a Listopia challenge on GoodReads and I'm looking forward to it.

2) Buddy read a book with your buddy

We decided to read a book we both got for OwlCrate.  Trouble is a Friend of Mine by Stephanie Tromly was the latest one and we were both really interested in it, since they compared it to Veronica Mars.  I'm a mystery lover at heart so hopefully this is a good one.

3) Read a book with your buddy's favourite colour on

I chose Fables since red is Heather's favorite color.  I had just read about this graphic novel, it sounded interesting and the red color was perfect.

4) Read a book your buddy gave 5 stars

Heather has been obsessed with Saga since she read it for a RAT last month.  All the talk has gotten me intrigued enough that I wanted to check it out. 

5) Read a book that you want to... just because

I'm leaving this open so I can decide as the week goes on.  I do have the next Morning Glories waiting on my bookshelf but we'll just see how the week goes.  

I love the challenges in this RAT and can't wait to get started!

Casual Readathon August

This past week I took part in the third Casual Readathon.  Here's a breakdown of my reading:

Day 1: 54 pages read

Day 2: 70 pages read

Day 3: 110 pages read 

Day 4: 29  pages read 

Day 5: 204 pages read - First & Second book finished!

Day 6: 132 pages read 

Day 7: 150 pages read - Third book finished!

Day 8: 150 pages read - Fourth book finished!

Total Pages read: 899

I completed all the challenges.

Overall I finished four books (The Summer I Turned Pretty, Fray, Morning Glories Vol.3 and Runaways Vol. 3) and read parts of two others (Monument 14: Savage Drift & Runaways Vol. 4). 

I had so much fun doing this, taking part in sprints and completing the challenges.  I can't wait for the next one!

Bout of Books Update #7 & Wrap Up

Over the course of this Bout of Books I finished three books and read a total of 635 pages.  I also read some of Morning Glories Vol. 3, P.E. and Monument 14: Savage Drift.  I'm pretty happy with those results.  :)

Bout of Books #6

I read 204 pages and finished 2 books.  Woohoo!

What an amazing book!

Loads of fun!

Bout of Books Update #5

Today was a day out to lunch with my husband and soccer in the evening so I didn't have a lot of time to read.  I read 29 pages and am almost done with The Summer I Turned Pretty.

Bout of Books Update #4

I read 110 pages today.  Really making progress in The Summer I Turned Pretty.

Bout of Books Update #3

I'm really enjoying The Summer I Turned Pretty.  It wasn't quite what I expected it to be but it's really got me interested now.  I read 70 pages in it on Day 3 of Bout of Books.

Bout of Books Update #2

I started reading The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han and read 54 pages.  I was out all evening or I'm sure I would have read even more.  The book is not what I was expecting but I really like it.

Bout of Books Update #1

I finished my first book yesterday, which I was close to finishing to begin with.  This was not my favorite book, but in finishing it I completed my GoodReads challenge for the year.  Yae!

I read a total of 36 pages yesterday.

My Bout of Books TBR Pile

This is the TBR pile I have so far...I should be getting a few graphic novels from the library this week that I've placed holds on, but so far this is what I have to read.  I'm almost done with Secrets of my Hollywood Life and have started Fray so those should be easy to finish.  Morning Glories Vol. 3  I have been dieing to read and The Summer I Turned Pretty is supposed to be really good.  So hopefully this pile will get me going pretty well!