Category: Read-a-Thon

Bout of Books 6.0 Wrap-up

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Bout of Books Read-a-ThonAs of yesterday, the Bout of Books 6.0 Read-a-Thon is officially over. I did accomplish my goal of reading every day, but ultimately I didn’t read as much as I wanted to. Overall, I read 280 pages of Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove. This isn’t totally insignificant, but the book is so long that 280 pages feels like a mere drop in the bucket! Still, I’m glad I participated in this read-a-thon; some days it was the only motivation I had to read at all! Hope everyone else had a fun and productive experience.

24-Hour Read-a-Thon Wrap-up

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Well, the October 2012 24-hour read-a-thon has officially come to an end.

I participated until about 12:30 am, a little more than 16 hours. Here’s the end-of-event survey:

  1. Which hour was most daunting for you? Hour 17, the hour in which I fell asleep!
  2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? The Westing Game was great because it was an engaging mystery but also a short children’s book. For read-a-thons, short is good.
  3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Not really; I think it went pretty well!
  4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? I appreciated that the posts for each hour kept track of all the ongoing challenges and challenge winners. It’s great to have everything centrally located like that!
  5. How many books did you read? Three, plus a little bit of a fourth.
  6. What were the names of the books you read? The Assassin’s Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke, The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, My One and Only by Kristan Higgins, and a little bit of The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater.
  7. Which book did you enjoy most? Honestly, all of them!
  8. Which did you enjoy least? N/A.
  9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? I wasn’t a cheerleader.
  10. 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 definitely be back for more read-a-thons! I’ll be a reader, and I’d like to host a mini-challenge at some point.

Sure, my progress wasn’t super amazing — only 3 books (and less than 900 pages) read. But I had fun, and I got to read all day long, so I’m not complaining! Congratulations to all who participated, especially those who made it through all 24 hours! And thanks to everyone who stopped by — I really appreciate it!

24-Hour Read-a-Thon Progress

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The 24-hour read-a-thon begins now!

I’ll be posting updates here throughout the day, so I apologize in advance for the eventual length of this post.

Hour 1 — Kicking off the read-a-thon with The Assassin’s Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke. Also, here’s the Intro Questionnaire:

  1. What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Washington, DC area
  2. Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? Probably Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys, since I loved The Scorpio Races so much!
  3. Which snack are you most looking forward to? I actually didn’t buy snacks in advance…oops. I’ll definitely be hitting the grocery store today though!
  4. Tell us a little something about yourself! I have bobbleheads of three (current or former) Supreme Court justices.
  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? I’ve done the read-a-thon a few times in the past, and my focus has usually been solely on how much I can read. This time I’m going to take it a little easier, go to bed at a normal hour, and spend more time visiting people’s blogs.

Hour 4 — Not too much to update, sadly! I had to run some errands this morning, so I haven’t actually done much reading yet. I’m 67 pages into The Assassin’s Curse and liking it so far.

Hour 6 — Still not done with my first book yet, which does not bode well for my progress in this read-a-thon. On the other hand, I’ve been having fun doing some mini-challenges and visiting the other readers’ blogs.

Hour 7 — Finally finished The Assassin’s Curse! I quite liked it overall, although I hate books with cliffhanger endings, especially when there’s no previous indication that the book is part of a series. Oh well — on to The Westing Game  by Ellen Raskin, which I somehow never read as a child.

Hour 8 — The Westing Game is pretty fun! I have figured out something, but I don’t know how that something relates to the book as a whole. Mystery-solving is fun! 🙂

Hour 9 — How about a mini-challenge? The idea is to make a rebus spelling out the title of a book. Here’s mine:

  

I will post the answer in my wrap-up post tomorrow! Feel free to guess in the comments…winner gets bragging rights.

Hour 11 — I finished The Westing Game, which turned out to be pretty great! It was a lot deeper and more thought-provoking than I thought it would be. On to my next book, My One and Only by Kristan Higgins…and time for dinner, too!

Hour 13 — Time for the mid-event survey!

  1. How are you doing? Sleepy? Are your eyes tired? I’m actually fine for the time being, but ask again in 3 hours.
  2. What have you finished reading? A whopping two books thus far, The Assassin’s Curse (Cassandra Rose Clarke) and The Westing Game (Ellen Raskin).
  3. What is your favorite read so far? I guess The Westing Game, but I’m also quite enjoying my current read, My One and Only.
  4. What about your favorite snacks? Mmm, Smartfood. (White cheddar cheese popcorn, and no lie, I think the cheese is laced with crack. Super addictive and delicious!)
  5. Have you found any new blogs through the readathon? If so, give them some love! I’ve been visiting several blogs, but I haven’t been keeping too much track because of all the read-a-thon goodness going on! Tomorrow I’ll sift through it all, and then I’m sure I’ll be following some new bookish blogs.

Hour 16 — I think this is my last hour, you guys. I’m starting to fade here. I did finish My One and Only, and now I’m starting Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys. One part of me is really excited, because I loved The Scorpio Races so much; but the other part of me is nervous, because how could anything else live up to it? Time will tell, I guess!

Get ready…

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The 24-hour read-a-thon is tomorrow!

Are you participating? If so, will you be a reader, cheerleader, or both? Are you going to get a good night’s sleep or stick it out for the full 24 hours? And most importantly, what are you planning to read?

Here’s what’s on my “maybe” shelf: (1) Cassandra Rose Clarke, The Assassin’s Curse; (2) Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game; (3) Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl; (4) Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven Boys; (5) M.M. Kaye, Death in Zanzibar; and (6) Kristan Higgins, My One and Only. I most likely won’t get to all of these, but I like to be prepared!

I’ve also decided not to attempt the full 24 hours this time. I have things to do on Sunday and unfortunately won’t be able to sleep the day away! Instead, I’ll  shoot for 16 hours. I’m looking forward to a long, leisurely day of reading and participating in the read-a-thon events. I’ll set up a progress post tomorrow and update it throughout the day — hope to see you there!

Bout of Books 5.0 Wrap-up

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Bout of Books Read-a-Thon

As of last night, Bout of Books 5.0 has officially come to an end. I had a lot of fun during this read-a-thon, although I didn’t participate in as many mini-challenges or do as much networking as I would have liked. Thanks to all who stopped by to leave encouraging comments; it was great to hear from you all! I really enjoyed stopping by other blogs and viewing their Bout of Books progress as well.

My goals were (1) to read for at least 30 minutes every day, and (2) to read three books from start to finish. Happily, I achieved both of them! If my extremely haphazard time estimates are accurate, I read for a grand total of 12 hours and 40 minutes. I’m not going to do the math right now, but it definitely averages out to more than 30 minutes a day! 🙂 And I actually read four books from start to finish: Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-King’s Daughter by Simon Brett, Agent of Change by Steve Miller & Sharon Lee, and Bachelor Boys by Kate Saunders. I enjoyed all four, though Garden Spells was definitely my favorite!