Tag Archives: Bout of Books readathon

May 13, 2013 · 7:37 am

Bout of Books Readathon 7.0 MASTER POST

Bout of Books
 
 
Eeeeeeeeek! Bout of Books 7.0 is starting!!!
 
 
cougar town gif
 
 
Once again, here’s the official blurb from the Bout of Books team about what exactly this readathon is all about:
 
 
BoB 7 blurb
 
 
Sounds awesome, right? Cause it is.
 
So this here is my goal and updates post. I’m going to make it a sticky post so it’ll be at the top of my blog all week. I don’t like over-running your readers with daily posts like this (especially since reviews and whatnot will still go up), so just check back here for my updates :-) So, let’s move on to the goals!
 
 

pile of books

Obviously I probably won’t be finishing all of these, but I like to have options.

THE BOOKS

  • Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (read 1st section for HP readalong)
  • Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
  • The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba
  • The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
  • Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me by Chelsea’s family, friends, and other victims
  • George’s Secret Key to the Universe by Lucy and Stephen Hawking

THE GOALS

  • Read at least 200 pages per day, hopefully getting up to 1500 pages read by the end.
  • Finish The Professor and the Madman, which I’m about 1/4 of the way through.
  • Cross at least 4 books off of my list.
  • Visit and comment on other blogs, new-to-me and not, at least once a day.
  • Join in on at least one Twitter chat (@SarahSaysRead if you wanna talk to me!)
  • HAVE FUN OF COURSE!

MY UPDATES – (I’m using a slightly modified version of the Bout of Books template)

Monday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 133
Total number of books I’ve read: 0
Books I read from: The Professor and the Madman, Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me
#todayinsixwords: Could have been worse, I guess.

shrug i guess

Monday.

Tuesday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 278
Total number of books I’ve read: 1
Books I read from: The Professor and the Madman, Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me
#todayinsixwords: Had to work, read decent amount

grin

Tuesday.

Wednesday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 263
Total number of books I’ve read: 2
Books I read from: The Professor and the Madman, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
#todayinsixwords: Felt sick, did nothing all day

Wednesday.

Wednesday.

Thursday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 205 – barely made my page goal for the day!
Total number of books I’ve read: 2
Books I read from: George’s Secret Key to the Universe
#todayinsixwords: Was weird, sleepy, somewhat busy day.

Thursday.

Friday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 159 – missed my daily page goal.
Total number of books I’ve read: 3!
Books I read from: George’s Secret Key to the Universe, Lord of the Flies
#todayinsixwords: Distractions! Work, internet, The Office finale…

Friday.

Friday.

Saturday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 143.
Total number of books I’ve read: 4!
Books I read from: Lord of the Flies, and The Good, the Bad, and the Witchy by Heather Blake (not pictured in original readathon list)
#todayinsixwords: Couldn’t decide next book, wrote reviews.

Saturday.

 

Sunday
Number of pages I’ve read today:
Total number of books I’ve read:
Books I read from:
#todayinsixwords:

Okay, I’m off to visit some of you before I start reading! READATHONNNNNNNN!!!!

~Sarah

47 Comments

Filed under Readathon

Tagged as , , , , , ,

May 12, 2013 · 7:40 am

Sarah Sunday! And Happy Mother’s Day!

image

L, Gabby, Gabby, and quote from Space Chronicles

 

Good morning peoples! And Happy Mother’s Day!

It wasn’t a very exciting week for me – I didn’t have many days off, and the ones I did have off were kind of busy. I went to visit my dad yesterday, and we chatted about books for a while which was nice. It’s SO funny to see people who aren’t usually readers suddenly get so into books. What else…

I’ve changed my treadmill intervals. I lowered the speed I usually run at, and I can apparently run for MUCH longer at that speed. The pace is about a 12-minute mile which is super slow, but I don’t even care. If I can just get used to running 3 miles (so 36 minutes) without stopping, I’ll be happy. I still haven’t started running outside yet, which I want to do but keep procrastinating on until I get new shoes (and because I like the gym). Also, for anyone that cares, I’m still maintaining my current weight. Surprising, as I sometimes feel like I’m eating SO MUCH, but there we have it. In August it’ll be a whole year since I started working out and that’s just super cool. Never thought I had it in me.

OH! We saw Iron Man 3 last week and it was good! Really good, except for the ending. Obviously I’m not going to go into spoilers, but man I don’t really like Pepper Potts. I also finally watched the Reese Witherspoon version of Vanity Fair and ehhh it wasn’t my favorite. Aaaand the honeyman and I started watching a new SyFy show called Defiance and we’re totally hooked. It’s about Earth being accidentally terraformed by this group of aliens and it takes place years later and the alien species (of which there are apparently 7) and the humans are trying to co-exist. And the main characters are Nolan and his adopted (Irathient alien) daughter Irisa, and it’s just so interesting and fun! I may do a whole Defiance post sometime later this week, cause there’s a lot to talk about there. But hey, look at me actually watching stuff! I don’t even remember the last time I watched two movies in one week.

So yeah, it’s Mother’s Day! My mom is currently in Florida and won’t be home for like a week, but Mom if you’re reading this – Happy Mother’s Day and you’re the best and I love you!!!

image

Mommy! With baby L.

 

Also Happy Mother’s Day to my sisters Heather and Amanda :-)

And hell, Happy Not-A-Mother’s Day to myself (and all the other ladies without kiddos), cause I totally love that I can go home and have date night with the honeyman tonight and hang out and relax without kids crawling all over me.

 

The main reason I don’t have or want kids…

 

Bookish update: Ummmm I think I read 2 books this week – Space Chronicles by Neil deGrasse Tyson, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling (which let’s be honest, should hardly count since it’s a very short 100 pages). I’m almost done with The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, hopefully I’ll finish that before I leave work today. A lot of people have mentioned how much they love this book – I’m still undecided. I liked it a lot at the beginning, but all this time in this weird forest place has been VERY strange… I have no idea how it’s going to end, and I think that’ll be the deciding factor in how much I end up liking it.

YOU GUYS, Bout of Books starts tomorrow! I have four days off this week, so I should be able to TOTALLY ROCK this readathon. My goal post will go up tomorrow morning.

Okay, I gotta go finish this book now. I’ll talk to all your lovely faces (blogs?) later. Have a great week!

 

~Sarah

 

10 Comments

Filed under Sarah Sundays

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

January 7, 2013 · 8:25 am

Bout of Books Readathon 6.0 MASTER POST

bout of books

Bout of Books 6.0 is finally here!

cougar town

In case you’re wondering what Bout of Books is, here is the OFFICIAL BLURB from the Bout of Books website:

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

So this is going to be my master post, with my goals and my daily updates. It’ll be a sticky post for the duration of the week, so it’ll be right at the top of my blog all week, but it also means I won’t be overcrowding your readers with constant posts. Let’s get to the goals, shall we?

Books

BAM.

I don’t actually think I’ll be able to read ALL of these, per se, but I think I can read most of them if I focus this week.

THE BOOKS

  • Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
  • The Stand by Stephen King
  • Hyperspace by Michio Kaku
  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (Read the 1st half for the readalong.)
  • Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio
  • The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
  • Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys
  • The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

MY GOALS

  • Finish Hyperspace, which I’m already about halfway through.
  • Read the 1st half of the HP books for a readalong I’m doing.
  • I’d like to be able to cross at least 4 books off of my list above.
  • Read roughly 200 pages per day, for a total of 1400 pages by the end.
  • Visit and comment on other blogs, at least once or twice a day.
  • Take part in at least one Twitter chat (@SarahSaysRead is my Twitter handle).
  • HAVE FUN! :-)

MY UPDATES – (I’m using a slightly modified version of the Bout of Books template)

Monday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 59
Total number of books I’ve read: 0
Books I read from: Hyperspace
#todayinsixwords: Got busy, didn’t have much time.

love actually gif

Monday.

Tuesday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 208! Yessss, made my daily goal!
Total number of books I’ve read: Well, the first half of HP, but since it’s for a readalong that’s all I’m supposed to read of it. 
Books I read from: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and Hyperspace
#todayinsixwords: Honeyman’s sick, I took a nap.

naps, sleep, gif

Tuesday.

Wednesday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 410! Hell yes.
Total number of books I’ve read: 2.5
Books I read from: Hyperspace, Between Shades of Gray, The Age of Miracles
#todayinsixwords: I done good, missed Twitter chat.

Friends, Chandler, gif

Wednesday.

Thursday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 245. Woo hoo.
Total number of books I’ve read: 3.5
Books I read from: The Age of Miracles
#todayinsixwords: This book was easy but slow.

Mal, Firefly

Thursday.

Friday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 54. *sad face*
Total number of books I’ve read: 3.5 still
Books I read from: Around the World in Eighty Days
#todayinsixwords: Easily distracted, then got too busy.

Sheldon throws paper

Friday.

Saturday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 55. In my defense, I was sick.
Total number of books I’ve read: 3.5 still.
Books I read from: Around the World in Eighty Days
#todayinsixwords: Sick sick sick sick sick sick.

faint, monsters inc

Saturday.

Sunday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 53.
Total number of books I’ve read: 3.5 I guess?
Books I read from: Around the World in Eighty Days
#todayinsixwords: I got lured outside by food.

ellen degeneres

Sunday.

THE WRAP-UP

  • Finished Hyperspace, The Age of Miracles, and Between Shades of Gray
  • Read 1st half of Harry Potter #1, and 3/4 of Around the World in Eighty Days.
  • Total pages read – 1084, so I missed my goal of 1400 pages :-(
  • Did okay with commenting and visiting other blogs, but not great.
  • Missed ALL of the Twitter chats, which sucked.

Although I’m disappointed that I didn’t meet my page goal, this was still an awesome reading week for me and helped me get ahead for the year! I think things would have gone differently if I hadn’t been quite so busy, and then if I hadn’t gotten sick over the weekend. I’m a wuss when I’m sick, I can’t focus on reading or computer stuff or anything.

Can’t wait until the next Bout of Books! And thank you SO MUCH to the lovely people who put it all together!

~Sarah

28 Comments

Filed under Readathon

Tagged as , , , , ,

August 19, 2012 · 7:17 am

Sarah Sunday!

image

ALL THE PICTURES.

 

Good morning everybody!

Sarah update: Well the Bout of Books readathon was happening all this past week, so obviously this week was just full of awesome. I don’t even remember what I did most days… ran a lot of errands mostly. Like FINALLY going to the post office and mailing the stuff I had to mail. And sending in some paperwork for some stuff. And yeah. Things. (I’m only on my first cup of coffee here people, don’t expect me to be articulate.) Oh yeah and my work schedule was all wonky and I worked 5 days even though it was my normal amount of hours, I just worked like 2 half shifts. That wasn’t so bad, and actually gave me a lot of my reading time this week.

Hmmm what else… Oh yeah this week there was a lot of Dexter-watching, cause season 6 came out on DVD on Tuesday, and I’m pretty sure that for date night that’s what we’ll be doing. The honeyman loves his Dexter and I’m sure is going nuts because we haven’t been able to watch it since my sis got here. My little sis and L came into town Friday night, which of course involved lots of hilarity. After she got here we went out to dinner with my little brother at the Olive Garden and that was fun. L is taking little steps now, which is cute, and he has this big adorable goofy smile with a gap between his two front teeth. I’m enjoying this time with him this weekend cause now that’s he’s over a year old, his cute factor is going to start going wayyyy down. Saturday night we went and had dinner at my older sister’s house, which was cool and L got to play with his older cousins, and I was the only one there that didn’t have kids to watch and THAT was awesome. And today there’s some big fair and yay! Good thing I took today off :)

Bookish update: I love readathons. Just love em. They’re so motivating. I’ve already read more this month than I last month, and there’s still so much of this month left! Anyhoo, I finished 3 books during the readathon: White Raven by Irina Lopatina, A Witch Before Dying by Heather Blake, and A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. A Discovery of Witches was surprisingly very awesome and I have so much to say about it, but that review is going to have to wait for tomorrow. I already have the sequel, Shadow of Night, on my shelf waiting to be read. Part of me doesn’t want to start it yet though, cause I’ll finish it and want to read the third book but there’s not even a date or title for the third book yet.

Also, The Moonstone readalong is still going awesomely, even though I kind of slacked on commenting around this week cause you know, all the busy and readathoning. I’ve been taking part in a lot of readalongs lately, and I’m kind of struggling with whether or not I should write a final, spoiler-free review after the readalong is over. Cause otherwise the “review” consists of all four or five posts full of spoilers, and that’s not cool. So… I don’t know. I’m thinking about it. In the meantime though, I’m going to keep September readalong-free cause I’m kind of burning myself out with them all.

 

ANYWAYS I should stop rambling to go get ready to have a day full of fun and taking a bajillion pics of my cute little nephew. Also, Gabby keeps trying to get my coffee and I need to defend it.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

~Sarah

image

Have a great lazy Sunday!

-+

7 Comments

Filed under Sarah Sundays

Tagged as , , , , ,

August 13, 2012 · 12:00 am

Bout of Books Readathon 5.0 MASTER POST

It’s that time again! Welcome to my master goal & update post for Bout of Books 5.0!

A quick little blurb about the readathon, from the Bout of Books team themselves:

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 13th and runs through Sunday, August 19th 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 5.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. -From the Bout of Books 5.0 team

So this is where I’ll be posting all my updates each day. I’m making this a sticky post for the duration of the readathon, so that it’ll be visible right at the top of my blog.

Bout of Books to-read pile.

THE BOOKS

  • The Damned Busters by Matthew Hughes
  • A Witch Before Dying by Heather Blake
  • The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (2nd section for readalong)
  • White Raven: The Sword of Northern Ancestors by Irina Lopatina
  • My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler
  • An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
  • The Case for Mars by Robert Zubrin
  • A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

MY GOALS

  • Finish White Raven, which I’m currently over halfway through.
  • Read the 2nd section of The Moonstone (part of a readalong).
  • Read at least 150 pages per day, for a total of 1050 pages. This seems like a modest goal, hopefully I can stick to it.
  • Maybe take part in a couple challenges, and at least one Twitter chat (@SarahSaysRead is my Twitter handle).
  • Visit and comment on some blogs, and try to respond to comments left on my blog in a timely manner.
  • Read as much as possible, and have fun :-)

MY UPDATES – (I’m using a slightly modified version of the Bout of Books template)

Monday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 241! Much more productive than I expected. (44 pages of that was technically audio, but I have the actual book too, so I can keep a page count).
Total number of books I’ve read: Finished 1 book!
Books: White Raven, The Moonstone, A Discovery of Witches
#todayinsixwords: Read a lot, more commenting tomorrow.

Today was a good day! Especially considering that I had to work 2 am to 8 am, run a bunch of errands, and took a short impromptu nap. Tomorrow should be even better, but I want to make some extra time to blog hop a bit more too.

Tuesday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 156. Not at good as yesterday, but still made my daily goal!
Total number of books I’ve read: Still just 1.
Books: The Moonstone, A Witch Before Dying
#todayinsixwords: I just could not freaking concentrate!

So today was an okay day, but it could have gone better. I wish I had been able to squeeze in more of A Discovery of Witches. I did laundry & blogging stuff in the morning, did some tasks and paperwork stuff around the house, and then sat down to read… and it took me HOURS to read the 50 pages I had left in the second section of The Moonstone. I kept getting up to do stuff, or I’d start to get sleepy and start nodding off. Tomorrow morning I have some errands to run, and hopefully I won’t be so restless when I get home so that I can focus on reading.

Wednesday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 202! Not too shabby.
Total number of books I’ve read: Finished 2.
Books: A Witch Before Dying was the only one I read today.
#todayinsixwords: Not great, but not too bad.

Once again, errands and internet time kind of ate up more time than I thought. Well, that and a two-hour nap. I was still able to meet my daily page goal though, which means I’m still ahead for the week! Sadly I missed the Twitter chat cause I was watching Dexter season 6 with the honeyman tonight. At least I finished a book today though. I have to work for 6 hours tomorrow, I’m hoping it’s not very busy and I can squeeze a lot of reading in.

Thursday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 184! I haven’t missed my daily goal yet this week, I’m so proud of myself. Hope I can keep it up.
Total number of books I’ve read: Still just the 2.
Books: A Discover of Witches.
#todayinsixwords: Good day, really liking this book.

You know, I think this might be my best steak ever for Bout of Books. Usually I’ll have all this free time and somehow still miss my daily goal. But I’ve been fitting reading time in even with work, errands, and watching Dexter with the honeyman. I can only imagine how much reading I’d have done by now if Dexter season 6 hadn’t come out this week! I should be able to get lots of reading in at work tomorrow, but once I get home I have to clean and then my little sister and my nephew are coming into town. Have a feeling that will slow me down a bit…

Friday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 125. Damn, first time I’ve missed my daily goal all week.
Total number of books I’ve read: Still just finished the two.
Books: A Discovery of Witches
#todayinsixwords: Work was hell, needed a nap.

Damn damn damn. Well, I went to bed Thursday night with a headache and it stayed with me for almost 24 hours. I didn’t get to read as much at work, and when I got home I took a nap, then got up and cleaned and then saw family and yeah… it was busy and hellish.

Saturday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 226! Another great day.
Total number of books I’ve read: Finished 3!
Books: A Discovery of Witches
#todayinsixwords: Found time to finish another book.

Yay!!! So I read a lot at work today, and by the end of my shift I only have 30 pages left in A Discovery of Witches. I had to sneak in reading bits here and there, but I was able to finish it. Tomorrow is probably not going to be nearly as successful, since my sister is still in town and I took the day off work to spend time with her and L. I’m going to try to sneak in some reading time early, before everyone gets up.

Sunday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 30 :-(
Total number of books I’ve read: Finished 3! Plus parts of others.
Books: The Pirates! In An Adventure with Ahab
#todayinsixwords: Family plans got in the way.

 

So, how did I do?

I read a total of 1164 pages, beating my goal of 1050 pages.

I finished White Raven, A Witch Before Dying, and A Discovery of Witches for a total of finishing 3 books. I also read some of The Moonstone and The Pirates! In An Adventure with Ahab.

I didn’t do so hot with commenting and blog hopping, because I was trying not to spend a ton of time online. The internet is such a time-waster! I just wanted to get back to reading, so my online time was limited.

OVERALL, A SUCCESS! HOW DID YOU DO?

 

 

~Sarah

 

15 Comments

Filed under Readathon

Tagged as , , , ,

August 12, 2012 · 7:18 am

Sarah Sunday!

image

 

Good morning!

Sarah update: Overall, not a very eventful week, at least until the end.

Well, first off as of Tuesday I’m no longer visiting my dad or taking his calls, at least until he gets sentenced and transferred elsewhere (I don’t know if I clarified before, but he’s currently in jail pending a trial – mainly for a domestic dispute – because he’s an idiot and didn’t take the 3-year deal that was offered to him.) In a nutshell, he called me twice this week, and both times tried to argue with me and hung up on me both fucking times. So, that’s that. I’m not putting more money on my phone to take his stupid collect calls so he can try to ask me to do stuff he should be doing (like contacting his lawyers), and then he hangs up on me? Screw that. I’m done. I just do not need this crap. So, I told him to write to me when he knows where he’ll be getting transferred. I’m still really angry, but part of me is glad that he pushed it to point where I could say fuck it and just stop talking to him. He’s just too annoying to deal with, at least while this trial is hanging over his head.

ANYHOO. So that was the main event of this week, which made me all stabby but has also made me life easier and freed up some more of my time every week. Other than that things were pretty slow up until yesterday. After I got out of work the honeyman and I went out to Petco & Target to do some shopping. We finally got a collar & little tag for Gabby, because if she ever manages to get out of the apartment again somehow, I don’t want people to think she’s a stray. And hopefully they’d be nice enough to call us, since our numbers are on the back of her tag. She HATES it. Poor thing, there’s a little bell so she makes a lot of noise while she runs around and she can’t be all sneaky. (We’re keeping the bell on it for now, because it’ll alert us to when she’s jumping up places where she’s not supposed to be.) She spent most of the night attacking her own neck and succeeded in getting it off twice. Hoping she just gets used to it. But until then seeing her get all angry and fight with herself is hilarious. Poor thing.

And finally, after 4 freaking months of working on it my brother-in-law finally finished fixing the honeyman’s car. Hooray! Of course there’s always the chance that something may go wrong with it again, but it’s running for now and that’s all that matters. We have to take it to get inspected this week and hopefully it passes. We’re still going to try to get him a new car in the next couple months, but at least he has his car back again to drive until then, and hopefully he’ll be able to sell it to at least make back the money we spent on parts. 

So you know, good news.

image

Bookish update: Well, I finished reading Three Roads to Quantum Gravity this week and that was interesting but not the best. And now I’ve started White Raven, a book I’m reading for a TLC blog tour on this coming Thursday. It’s interesting so far, but I hate the pressure of reviewing books this way. I think I’m going to take a break from tour books for a while, not that I do a ton anyways.

Most exciting is that the Bout of Books weeklong readathon starts tomorrow! My work schedule is a little wonky this week, but I should manage to squeeze in a good amount of reading time. I’m going to do my goal post tonight.

So, that’s it for me this week! How are you guys doing?

Have a lovely week :-)

~Sarah

image

Basically giving up after attacking her own neck for hours.

11 Comments

Filed under Sarah Sundays

Tagged as , , , ,

May 21, 2012 · 9:18 am

Bout of Books Readathon – WRAP. IT. UP!

 

I’m so sad the readathon is over! Thanks to the Bout of Books readathon, May is my best reading month so far this year.

So, my original goals for the readathon were to read 200 pages a day, or roughly 1400 pages total.

While I didn’t really stick to my list of books, and I usually read under my daily goal and then made it up on the weekend, it was a very successful readathon for me:

I read a total of 1407 pages – JUST made my goal!

And I read a total of 4 whole books, plus part of a 5th!

The books completed were…

I mean sure, 2 of those books were quick YA books, but still. There was also a science book, and a paranormal-ish book, so I think that’s alright. The only challenge I really had time to join in on was the Book Confessions one, but it was fun. I really enjoyed seeing the responses to the other challenges, and I had a blast reading all the responses in my Bookish Question challenge. I loved that there was just one challenge a day, and not a million challenges or giveaways going on. I like keepin it simple!

After this week, I think I’ve realized that Bout of Books is my favorite readathon. The 12-hour ones that I’ve hosted are fun, but also busy for me since I was hosting. And the Dewey’s 24-hour ones are fun, but there’s so much pressure to stay awake, check in on the challenges, etc. I love that B.o.B. is a week long – it totally gives us a ton of reading time and motivation, but I also felt less guilty for checking in online and joining challenges and chatting on Twitter. I CANNOT WAIT until the next one!

So, thanks to all the lovely ladies who worked so hard during Bout of Books, and thanks to everyone who participated because I really loved reading and chatting with all of you!

~Sarah

 

 

 

 

13 Comments

Filed under Readathon

Tagged as , , , , ,

May 20, 2012 · 6:15 am

Sarah Sunday!

From the pier.

View from the pier, all instagram-d up.

 

Good morning people!

Sarah update: This week was largely spent on the Bout of Books Readathon. Even though I bombed on my goals some days, it’s been so much fun and I’m sad that today is the last day of it. I’ve read 2.5 books so far this week, and will hopefully finish other today. Compared to my reading habits for the year, this is awesome.

Anyhoo, I guess there was a life outside of books. Sunday was Mother’s Day & my sister Amanda graduated from college! Yay for her! And she’s slowly finding out her grades for this last semester and she’s gotten 4 A’s out of 6 so far. Yay Amanda! I did 5 whole loads of laundry on Monday, which sounds like no big deal, but YOU should run up and down 4 flights of stairs lugging laundry back and forth and you’ll be appropriately impressed. Tuesday night was game night, and I very happily got to indulge in wine and several amaretto sours with my friend Doni, and that was lots of fun. For some reason, her husband and my honeyman did not enjoy it as much. We must be a little silly when we drink. I can’t wait until we can have another girl’s night again.

And so Wednesday kind of flew by, and I’ve worked from Thursday to today. I was VERY grumpy on Friday, which sucks. And I feel KINDA bad for all the drivers that I snap at, but you know… it happens. Saturday at work was MUCH better, it was slow and I was able to read a whole lot. And because the weather has been GORGEOUS, the honeyman and I went out to dinner at Cheeburger Cheeburger and then walked around the beach and it was lovely. Walking around together was basically all we did when we first started dating almost 5 years ago and it’s so rare that we get to do it now, so when we do go walking around places it makes me extra happy. I wanted to take lots of pictures at the beach, but there was people everywhere and I don’t want a bunch of stupid people in my pictures, so I didn’t.

And now here it is, Sunday! Last day of the readathon, and I have about 7 hours to squeeze lots of reading in, because it’s date night tonight! I think that might involve going to see that new movie Dictator, which looks hilarious. It’s the first Sacha Baron Cohen movie I’ve actually wanted to see.

Tomorrow (Monday) I’m torn between making it a spring-cleaning kind of day, or just laying around and catching up on tv type of day. I’m leaning towards a lazy day, but we’ll see.

 

Gabby

My Gabby girl <3

 

Reading update:  Well, the Bout of Books Readathon, duh. Which by the way, the next one I think is going to be sometime in August and you should all participate. It’s a week long and so much more relaxed and groovy than a 24-hour readathon. I actually think this might be my favorite readathon of all the thons.

Anyhoo, I’m also still reading for the American Gods Readalong, which is going lovely. I finished two books so far this week, The Dead and The Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer (lame) and Aloha From Hell by Richard Kadrey (awesome). I’m about 2/3 of the way through Why Does E=Mc2? by Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw, and I have to say that I’m not crazy about it, but I’ll explain all that in my eventual review. Hopefully I can finish it today.

I also participated in my first TLC Book Tour this week, with my review of The Cottage at Glass Beach by Heather Barbieri. I enjoyed working with TLC, but the downside is that seems like I’m getting a whole bunch of random review-request emails now and it doesn’t seem like they’re from TLC. It’s kind of annoying because my review policy says that I generally don’t accept review requests – I am that one that requested to be part of the TLC Tour for this book, so that was different. Oh well. It was still exciting to be a part it!

And lastly, Armchair BEA is coming up the first week of June! Is anyone else joining in? This will be my first year so I’m looking forward to it. In past years it always seemed like I found out about it too late, but this year I was on the lookout for it! So you know, who else is gonna do it?

 

And now I shall get back to my reading for the day. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!!

~Sarah

 

 

1 Comment

Filed under Sarah Sundays

Tagged as , , , , , ,

May 14, 2012 · 1:00 am

A Bookish Question – Monday’s Bout of Books Mini-Challenge!

Giveaway is now closed.

I am pleased to announce that the winner for any book from The Book Depository (up to $15) is…

Alessanda P at Out of The Blue! 

Congrats Alessandra! I’ll be emailing you shortly.

Thank you to everyone who participated!!!! Such a lovely variety of answers :-)

 

may bout of books readathon

Hey there gang! Welcome to my Bout of Books Challenge! Since this is the beginning of the week, I’m starting us off with an easy-peasy one. But first, a few notes…

  • This challenge will be open for 24 hours, from 1 am EST on Monday the 14th to 1 am EST on Tuesday the 14th.
  • You must be participating in Bout of Books to win – this means you must actually have a goal post up and entered into the linky on this page.
  • What is the prize, you ask? One book up to $15 from The Book Depository.
  • This is open to any country that The Book Depository ships to.
  • Winner will be selected using random.org, and I’ll announce and contact the winner on Tuesday during the day.
  • To enter, all you have to do is discuss the question below, either in the comments or in a blog post that you can link back to in the comments. Please also leave your email address in some form so that I can contact you if you win!
  • To make things easiest for me when checking for goal posts, it’d be nice if you’d put a link to your blog as well.

So, here is your question topic to answer / discuss / muse over…

“What do you like best about readathons? Do you have any readathon traditions or rituals? If this is your first readathon, what do you like so far? Discuss away!”

See, what an easy question is that? I bet you have a million things you love about readathons. Enjoy!

~Sarah

102 Comments

Filed under Giveaways, Readathon

Tagged as , , , , , , ,