Friday, August 23, 2013

Bout of Books 8.0



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 19th and runs through Sunday, August 25th 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 8.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Hello and welcome to my Bout of Books 8.0 updates post! As you will see below, I am slightly more organized today! Yay! With the blog transition, I have decided to make one update post & continually update it. Check back each day to see how I'm doing! And let me know below how you’re doing!

 Time Devoted to Reading: 4+ hours a day
 My Goals:
-Read an average of 150 pages a day (1050 pages over the week)
-Read 3+ books
-Complete at least one challenge

 Books to Read:
-Memory’s Door by James L. Rubart (353 pages)
-Divergent by Veronica Roth (487 pages)
-The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (316 pages)

Updates:

Thursday

Number of books I’ve read today: 1
Total number of books I’ve read: 1
Number of pages I’ve read today: 86 / 150
Number of pages I’ve read total: 336 / 1050
Books: Memory’s Door by James L Rubart, Divergent by Veronica Roth
Thoughts: Memory's Door ended just as strong as it started. Super excited to finally be starting Divergent! Loving surprise social hour!
Challenges:  Book Road Trip Challenge:
1. New York City – City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
2. Palm Springs – Bloodlines by Richelle Mead
3. England – Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
4. Colorado – Soul’s Gate by James L Rubart
5. Seattle – Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead
6. Paris – Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
7. Amsterdam- The Fault in our Stars by  John Green.
Other challenge: I Spy Challenge- from upper left to lower right: (Anna Dressed in Blood = fog, Coral Moon = Moon, Faefever = road, Saving Juliet = Sunglasses, Chance of Ghosts = snowflakes, Christmas Wishes = Christmas tree, Game of Thrones = sword, Divergent = flames, Twisted = heels, Indigo Spell = tattoo, The Reason = lightning, & City of Bones = City skyline):

Wednesday

Number of books I’ve read today: .75
Total number of books I’ve read: .75
Number of pages I’ve read today: 159/ 150
Number of pages I’ve read total: 299 / 1050
Books: Memory’s Door by James L Rubart
Thoughts: Amazing, page turning book with some great points. Super fun experience!
Challenges: Top 5 TBR (Beautiful Creatures, Delirium, Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars, The Darkest Minds) & Top 5 Buy Now (The Darkest Minds, Mockingjay, Cuckoo’s Calling, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Uglies). Book Spine Poetry:

Tuesday

Number of books I’ve read today: 1/4
Total number of books I’ve read: 1/4
Number of pages I’ve read today: 127 / 150
Number of pages I’ve read total: 140 / 1050
Books: Memory’s Door by James L Rubart
Thoughts: Loving my book! Super suspensful & edge of the seat. Excited to be catching up! Loving the making of new friends aspect as well.
Challenges: Re-Title a book. Memory’s Door re-titled When Warriors Riding Are Attacked.

Monday

Number of books I’ve read today: 0
Total number of books I’ve read: 0
Number of pages I’ve read today: 13 / 150
Number of pages I’ve read total: 13 / 1050
Books: Attempted Trick or Treat MurderMemory’s Door, & First Grave on the Right
Thoughts: Wishing I could get in the reading zone.
Challenges: Pair-A-Thon (pair drink/food with your book!) Sutter Homes Moscato w/ Trick or Treat Murder.

Bout of Books 8.0 Intro

Hey guys! I am participating in yet another Read-A-Thon this week, and I have decided to combine it with blogging, since that’s something I really need to be keeping up with. Maybe all of this reading will even further encourage my writing!

What will I be posting in my Bout of Books posts? I will be posting a link to my BookTube videos each day discussing the experience and what book(s) I read. I will also give a brief talk here about how it’s going, in case you don’t want to watch the videos. I will let you all know what I’m reading and what I’m thinking of said books. I will also talk about any challenges I am participating in and how many pages I read each day. Basically, anything related to this Read-A-Thon will be found here AND in my videos. So, now let’s get on with it.

First off, a link to my Intro video:


The books I plan to read:
-Memory’s Door by James Rubart (353 pages)
-The Fault in Our Stars by John Greene (316 pages)
-Divergent by Veronica Roth (487 pages)
-Undecided 4th Novel

 Currently, I am not doing any specific challenges. My main goal is to read 1050 pages total, half of the goal for the last Read-A-Thon I participated in. I might attempt to do some of the same challenges that were in the last Read-A-Thon, such as reading a classic, rereading a book, or read a book with 500+ pages. It’ll all depend on time, but we’ll see!

Tonight there will be a (hopefully) better organized post discussing how I did today, and with a link to my Day One update video. See ya then!

Book Review: The Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

The Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare was a great book, although didn’t quite live up to the first book in the series. Where The Clockwork Angel was fast paced and constantly had me on the edge of my seat, The Clockwork Prince was slow (in my opinion) for about the first half. It literally took me weeks to get through just half of this book. After things started to take off, however, I finished it pretty quickly. There were a lot of twists and turns that I enjoyed, and they are most definitely trudging through to get to!

All in all I would give this book a 3.75/5. It’s so close to being a 4, but I’m just not quite sure. I would certainly recommend reading it if you liked the first, though!

Originally reviewed 4.12.12

Book Review: Heartless by Sara Shepard

I thoroughly enjoyed the 7th book in the Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepard. This book kept me on the edge until the very end. It was very hard to force myself to put this book down when I had to complete schoolwork. In fact, I had planned to read from another series after finishing this one, but I just couldn’t wait and so I am now reading the 8th book in the series; “Wanted” and enjoying it just as much! Secrets are reveled that will shock you, and for those of you that watch the show, don’t expect anything like you have seen on TV! My favorite thing about the series is that they have managed to keep the book and show separate in enough ways that I can totally enjoy both without feeling like anything was spoiled! If you have enjoyed Pretty Little Liars, the book or show, pick this one up and find yourself emersed!

 I give this book a 5 out of 5!

(Originally reviewed 4.12.12)

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Book Review: Killer by Sara Shepard

My first book of the year was “Killer” by Sara Shephard. For those of you that don’t know, it is book number six in the Pretty Little Liars series. It was most definitely one of my favorites of the series. It had me on my toes around every single corner! I had to make sure that every time I picked it up, I had plenty of time to read, because I wouldn’t be putting it back down for a while!

Now, to throw out there for anyone that watches the show but doesn’t read the books, they are two very different things! Yes, they both have the same basic concept behind them, but the characters are SO different! For instance, I am really loving Mike on the show right now, where I would kind of like to punch the book version. So if you like the show, check out the books. There are some things that could be spoiled, but even with spoilers, I am still thoroughly enjoying both!

This book involved SO much romantic drama, and I think that might be what made it one of my favorites. There were a few “oh my gosh!” moments in areas that barely involved “A” at all. In fact, “A” didn’t pop up as much in this book as she/he does in the others, at least it didn’t seem like it to me. When they did make themselves known, though, the made sure it was worth it. “A” went for broke in this book, still shocking me even six books in.

I highly recommend this book (after the first five, of course). I gave it 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

(Originally reviewed 1.5.12)