Bout of Books #16

It's time for Bout of Books 16! Having recently finished Dewey's readathon, I'm glad I can still use the momentum to roll into this week-long challenge and do some more catching up! This will be my post for the week, keeping it all together. If you don't know about Bout of Books, you can check out the site here, and read this blurb! 

 The Bout of Books read-a-thon is hosted by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It's a week-long read-a-thon that begins at 12:01 AM on Monday May 9th and ends and runs through Sunday May 15th for whatever time zone you're in. Bout of Books is low pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all information and updates, please check out the Bout of Books blog!

I'm setting my goal for the week at reading 7 books. That's two more than last time, and since I've got more time off than before, I think it's do-able. Hopefully I can shoot past that goal, but no pressure. Whether it's something I'm just starting or something that I'm already reading, fingers crossed that I finish 7 books. (I'd say "and get rid of them too" but that's a difficult thing for me - maybe I can get rid of one?) 

Day 1, Monday

Challenge: Happily forever crushed by TBR pile. #insixwords introduce yourself.

Pages read: 50 (at 9:30 AM), plus about 50 pages in a bunch of random books throughout the day, and 4 hours of an audiobook.

Books finished: The audio of "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie, narrated by Dan Stevens, and "Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake" by Sarah MacLean. This year I'm trying romance novels, and so far I'm liking what MacLean is doing!

Notes: It's now about 9:30 AM and I'm just setting this post up (not being able to keep track of dates clearly). This morning I finished my first book, so I'm totally counting it, even if I wasn't officially signed up yet. I've got the morning free, and have to work late this afternoon for a few hours, so there should be more books listed here, and soon!

Day 2, Tuesday 

Challenge: To take some shelfies and post them. I'll have to wait to do that during the day tomorrow, though, and I'll post them on my instagram. 

Pages read: 60, plus 10% in an ebook.

Books finished: "The Pharos Gate" by Nick Bantock. This was wonderful! I didn't realize how much I'd missed both this story and Bantock's work until I opened this up and got lost in the first two pages. Brilliant!

Notes: Kind of a crappy day in general, for no real reason, and after work I was so achey and tired that nothing got read at night. But since I have the next few days off, I should have plenty of time to get some more pages in!

Day 3, Wednesday

Challenge: 5 favorites of anything bookish we like! I'll pick my 5 favorite classic novels. In no particular order, they are:

1. "The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton

2. "The Portrait of a Lady" by Henry James

3. "Evelina" by Frances Burney

4. "Jude the Obscure" by Thomas Hardy

5. "Sense & Sensibility" by Jane Austen

I've always loved reading classics, however loosely defined, and between being an English major and a member of a classics bookclub for almost 15 years, this list could have easily been much, much longer. And, I now realize that it's been awhile since I've read a traditional classic (i.e. British and from the 1800's), so I'll have to remedy that soon!

Pages read: So far, none, and it's 9PM. But I'll be fixing that soon, hopefully. 

Books finished: Again, zero so far.

Notes:  I worked a half day and the headache I was trying to work with turned into a sinus migraine. I took some medication and a two-hour nap, and after making soup for dinner and doing two loads of laundry, suddenly the day is over with. 
Update, I read nothing yesterday. At all.

Day 4, Thursday

Challenge: If you like this, try this - recommendations. If you like time travel, historical fiction, romance, adventure, mystery, and suspense in your reading, try the "St. Mary's Chronicles" series by Jodi Taylor. They're some of my all-time favorite books, well-written, engrossing, funny, interesting, and heart-poundingly exciting. I can't imagine a person who wouldn't like something in these books, if not love them. They're ebooks first and the print editions come later, so you can go and download the first one right now! (It's "Just One Damned Thing After Another", FYI.)

Pages read: 180

Books finished: "A Practical Guide to Addison's and Adrenal Fatigue" by Regan J. Heineke.

Notes: Last night I had one of my too-real-to-not-be-true dreams (they're happening about once every other month now) and when I woke up I had to write it all down immediately. Two hours and twelve pages later, I got the bulk of it down. Phew! Now I can officially start my day and get to taking some shelfies, doing laundry, and actually reading something!
I only really started reading after 8 last night, and made some decent progress on one book and read 15% of an ebook in bed.

Day 5, Friday

Challenge: Post a scary picture of you or your books in a scary setting for Friday the 13th. Hm, not sure if I'll get to do this one or not.

Pages read: None, but I listened to an hour of an audiobook.

Books finished: None

Notes: The day is off to another strange start - maybe I should consider that my new normal?!? - and I'm off to have breakfast with a friend, drop off clean laundry at work, get some groceries, and come home to putz around the house for the rest of the day.
All of that putzing around the house equaled no pages read. I did get some audiobook time in, though, so it was something. 

Day 6, Saturday

Challenge: Write your favorite BoB moment, from this or any other. Since this is the first one I've come close to completing, if I do manage to finish this that will be my favorite part!

Pages read: 10% in an ebook

Books finished: None

Notes: I'm spending the majority of the day catching up on season 5 of Game of Thrones, quite happily, but I'm hopeful that the rest of the night can be spent deep in the pages of a book or two. 
Yeah, that didn't happen. I did some laundry and screwed around online for too long, and then just watched Gilmore Girls and Bob's Burgers. Story of my life. ;)

Day 7, Sunday

Challenge: None, it's a no-challenge day! 

Pages read: 240 pages, 65 pages of an Entertainment Weekly, an US Weekly and a People magazine, and 5 hours of audiobook.

Books finished: Le Road Trip by Vivian Swift and The Faust Act, Volume 1 of The Wicked + The Damned by Kieron Gillen

Notes: I'm determined to get some damn reading done today! Not only do I have a few library books that are due this week (all unstarted, some with next books that are due w/o renewal), but I'd like to finish up a few of the books that I've been reading for months. And some comics too. I'm just getting into comics and have created a fantasy Pull List (fantasy in that it's more money than I have to spend on a Pull List right now). I add all of my books into LibraryThing, and I'm not sure how to add individual issues - or rather, what the best way to add them would be. So hopefully I can get through the bulk of my current audiobook ("Old Filth" by Jane Gardam) while I screw around online. And try to avoid calling my local comics shop and creating that Pull List! 
Just before midnight I managed to finish two more books! It's so much easier to read when the TV is turned off, and once I made sure I had enough recording space to accommodate last night's shows, that's what I did. I was hoping to finish up another ebook in bed, but I feel asleep shortly after I crawled in.   

Totals

Pages read: 580 pages (not including three magazines), 10 hours of audiobooks, and 20% of an ebook.

Book finished: "A Practical Guide to Addison's and Adrenal Fatigue" by Regan J. Heineke, "Nine Rules to Break When Romancing A Rake" by Sarah MacLean, "Pharos Gate" By Nick Bantock, "Murder on the Orient Express", "Le Road Trip" by Vivian Swift, and "The Faust Act, Volume 1 of The Wicked + The Damned" by Kieron Gillen. I didn't make my goal, but I got close to it, finishing 6 / 7 books. 

Notes: This was the first time I've finished the BoB challenge, so I'm excited about that! I like how hands-off it is, and how you can really make it your own, whether through goals or challenges or participation. Hopefully next time won't be full of season finales on TV, which was a huge distraction for me. I'll participate again, though maybe not as intensely as this time - reading through a few dozen blogs, it seems like most people either have more of a life than I do (very possible) or just do shorter updates. Something to think about! Thanks for hosting, Amanda and Kelly!