Holiday Cram-a-thon Read-a-thon

I’ve been hoping to take part in a read-a-thon for a while now, but between one thing and another, I never found the time to fully commit. When I saw the Holiday Cramathon on my Bloglovin’ feed late last night, I thought YES, perfect, I need this! All year long I’ve been flitting between reading and blogging slumps, and I need something to kick me out of this rut once and for all.

The event is hosted by Jessica @ Let Me Tell You a Story, and you can find out all the official details HERE. The Holiday Cramathon began on the 22nd November, and will run until the 13th December, giving us three weeks to cram in as much reading as possible! If you fancy taking part at any stage, #holidaycramathon is the official hashtag.

For the read-a-thon, I have one main goal, and some side goals I hope to chip away at as well.

My Main Goal:

Read 7 Books. I want to complete my Goodreads yearly reading challenge ASAP, and to do this I need to read, you guessed it, 7 books. It’s a pretty low overall goal, but with my reading pace resembling a snail in slow motion these days, I’ll be delighted if I get this done!

Side goals:

- Tackle some eARCs. The number 7 seems to be haunting me, as I currently have 7 eARC’s I need to get read as soon as I can. And yes. Fate seems to be shining on me right now that I also need 7 books to complete my Goodreads challenge! Since I’m letting my mood take control, I’m not going to force myself to read just those eARC’s, but 3 or 4 seems like a reasonable goal to start with.

- Complete all the yearly challenges I signed up for. I’ll admit I’ve already come to terms that I won’t manage to do this by the end of the year, but I hope to make a little more progress anyway. I’ll need to read 16 books to complete them: 1 Dystopian, 5 Retellings, and then re-read 10 books. All in a little over a month. Yup. This looks bleak.

So, Alma, what are you going to read, I hear you ask. Um, well… I haven’t a clue! But, this might be a really good thing! I’m going to let my mood-reader-self take full control, and hopefully this way I’ll manage to smash my goals without having a meltdown along the way!

One book I’ll definitely finish reading is Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride. I started it on Saturday past, and I LOVE it so far! It’s the most pure Urban Fantasy book I’ve read in a long, long time, and it’s so freaking good.

Since deciding to take part in the read-a-thon, I’ve had my eye on both City of Glass by Cassandra Clare, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling. Both are pretty chunky books, so they’re probably not the best choice for a read-a-thon! I don’t have too many thin books on my shelves right now… so we’ll see how things go.

Thanks for stopping by, and let me know if you’re taking part in the read-a-thon! Happy Reading!

Bout of Books 10: Day 2 Updates and Challenges

Updates and Progress for Monday

Currently Reading: Die for Me by Amy Plum
Pages Read Today: 152 pages
Total Pages: 152 pages
Number of Books Completed: 0
Books Completed: None yet
Challenges: If you like X, try Y

Thoughts:

Die for Me is the longest of the four books I’ve chosen to read this week, and I’m almost half-way through, so I’m pretty pleased with my progress so far. To make my goal, I need to be reading around 145-150 pages a day, so hopefully I’ll get a repeat and keep the momentum going.

Tuesday's Challenges

Bout of Books 10 -- Goals and Updates

Bout of Books 10 is almost here! This read-a-thon is very low pressure: the challenge is to read more than you usually would in the week. The event runs from Midnight on Monday, 12th March to Midnight on Sunday, 18th March, in whatever timezone you are in. Sign-ups are still open, so this is the perfect excuse to set some time aside to read more than you usually do.

I'll be trying to read as much as I can throughout the week, and I'll do my best to set aside one - two hours a day to do nothing but read. Hopefully I'll get a couple of days during the week where I can sneak an extra hour or two in.

Goals

I average out at 2 - 2.5 books a week, but this isn't really accurate. Some weeks I complete one book, the next I could complete three, and other weeks I might only get half a book read. My goal is going to be four books, but I'll be happy if I can complete three, and have started the fourth by the time the week is complete.

Books I Plan to Read

This list isn't set in stone, I chose them based on their page numbers, as they are some of the shortest books I have to read at the minute. I'd like to complete my goal, and I know if I included a 500+ page book I'd be setting myself up to fail right from the start!

- Girl with Guitar by Caisey Quinn - 210 pages (Kindle)
- Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore - 225 pages (Paperback)
- The Bullet List by Nikki Roman - 247 pages (Kindle)
- Die for Me by Amy Plum - 341 pages (Paperback)

If I manage to read all four, this gives me a total page count of 1023 pages. In a week. Yeah, I'm a little intimidated already! I think I'll start with Die for Me, as it's the book I want to read most - try to get off to a good start!

If, by some miracle, I have completed all of these books before the week is up, (or if I want to switch a book) I'll move onto some of these:

- Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins (Paperback)
- Matched by Ally Condie (Paperback)
- Darkness, Be My Friend by John Marsden (Paperback)
- Forgiven by Carly Fall (Kindle)

Progress and Updates

Monday

Currently Reading: Die for Me by Amy Plum
Pages Read Today: 152 pages
Total Pages: 152 pages
Number of Books Completed: 0
Books Completed: None yet
Challenges: If you like X, try Y

Thoughts:

Die for Me is the longest of the four books I’ve chosen to read this week, and I’m almost half-way through, so I’m pretty pleased with my progress so far. To make my goal, I need to be reading around 145-150 pages a day, so hopefully I’ll get a repeat and keep the momentum going.

Tuesday

Currently Reading: Die for Me by Amy Plum
Pages Read Today: 118 pages
Total Pages: 270 pages
Number of Books Completed: 0
Books Completed: None Yet
Challenges: Day Two Challenges

Thoughts:

I didn’t get as much read as I’d hoped. 118 pages is still a good total. I was hoping to complete Die For Me, but I didn't get enough time to read.

Wednesday

Currently Reading: Girl With Guitar by Caisey Quinn
Pages Read Today: Die for Me -- 71 pages; Girl With Guitar -- 57 pages = 128 pages
Total Pages: 398 pages
Number of Books Completed: 1
Books Completed:

Thoughts:

Phew, finally got my first book completed! I was hoping to be a little further along, but I’m actually pretty happy with almost 400 pages at this stage. April was a slow reading month for me, so I’m already reading more. Now, just to add a couple more hours to each day, so I can get back on track… ;)

Looking at some of the other Bout of Bookers updates, I’m realising I’m an incredibly slow reader! I don’t have the attention span or the ability to sit still and do only one thing for hours on end to read an entire book in one sitting – I just physically can’t do it! I end up getting distracted, or even worse, bored by the book I’m reading and I definitely don’t want that to happen!

Thursday

Currently Reading: Finished Girl With Guitar, started Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore
Pages Read Today: 159
Total Pages: 557
Number of Books Completed: 2
Books Completed:

Thoughts:

Got a second book finished, and got a little more time to read than I have over the past few day, and I'm over halfway to completing my total page count, so big win/win!

Friday

Currently Reading: Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore
Pages Read Today: 118 pages
Total Pages: 675 pages
Number of Books Completed: 2
Books Completed:

Thoughts:

I knew going into this challenge that breaking the 1000 page mark in a week would be very ambitious. I think it's safe to say that I'm not going to get all four books complete, but I should be able to complete three, and have started the fourth. If I can get into the 900's, I'll be happy!

Saturday

Currently Reading: Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore and The Bullet List by Nikki Roman
Pages Read Today: Magic Under Glass -- 107 pages; The Bullet List -- 39 pages = 146 pages
Total Pages: 821 pages
Number of Books Completed: 3
Books Completed:

Took part in the twitter chat.

Sunday

Currently Reading: The Bullet List by Nikki Roman
Pages Read Today: 127 pages
Total Pages: 948 pages
Number of Books Completed: 3
Books Completed:

Bout of Books Wrap-Up

This was my first bout of books, and it was a lot of fun. I ended up doing more challenges than I anticipated, and I took part in the twitter chat on Saturday which I didn't expect to be free at that time. I almost completed all four of my books, and I'm pretty happy with 3 and 3/4 books in a week! The next Bout of Books is set for this coming August, and if time allows, I'd love to take part again. Maybe I'll actually get to break that 1000 pages read in a week goal... Very tempting!

Bout of Books 10

Hi guys! I'm going to take part in the Bout of Books read-a-thon in May. This is my first read-a-thon, and I'm really looking forward to it. As of today, I *should* be almost-completely free that week, so it's perfect timing to get a lot of reading done!

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 12th and runs through Sunday, May 18th 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 10 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I usually average 2 - 2.5 books a week. Realistically, I'd like to read at least 3 books, but my goal would be 4 books. I might revise this closer to the time, maybe add a couple of novella's to the list as well. Closer to the start date I'll have a better idea of which books I'm going to choose to read.

If you've already signed up, let me know and maybe we can do the support and motivation thing to help each other get through the week. As I'm a complete newbie to read-a-thons I have no idea what to expect, so any advice is appreciated! Happy reading =)

**Updated**

Here is a link to my official goals post: Bout of Books 10 -- Goals.