Bout Of Books August 2016

Wow I can't believe it's almost time for the next Bout of Books.

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 22nd and runs through Sunday, August 28th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 17 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

OF COURSE it will be a super busy week and I have more scheduled than I have in the last few months. But that seems to be the way most readathons go for me. I still went to the library and got a pile of books plus I will be trying to read some of my ebook TBR and audiobooks while driving around. I will be updating this post all during Bout of Books so stay tuned here and to my Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Monday--

Well as expected I didn't have that much time to do anything but listen to audiobooks today. I had an awesome newborn session this morning. I love cuddling new babies! I was in the car for a few hours so I took the time to listen to The Hunger Games audiobook. I love The Hunger Games books so much and it is such a different experience to listen to the audiobook than read the book. I am really enjoying it. I have a lot of photo editing to do tomorrow so it is quite possible that I will finish the audiobook.

I am also listening to the audiobook of Missoula: Rape and the Justice System In A College Town. This one is rough to listen to. It is enraging, devastating and heartbreaking. I can only listen to it in small pieces. It is such an important subject. I love Jon Krakauer's writing. All his books are fascinating.

I started Insatiable by Meg Cabot. I love the modern day twist on a vampire story. I didn't get that far in it as I could barely keep my eyes open but I am really looking forward to reading more of it tomorrow. I didn't even take any photos of my books today which is quite surprising but I will try to be better on Instagram tomorrow.

Day One Numbers

Pages read: 183

Audiobooks Time: 5 hours 45 mins

Books finished: None

Tuesday-- This was a much better reading day since my photo session today was only about 25 minutes. I had lots of editing/audiobook time and I even finished a few books. I didn't finish either of my audiobooks but I am nearing the end on both.

I finished up Insatiable. It ended up being a pretty fun read if the author meant it to be a cheesy vampire parody. If she didn't well not so good.

I also started and finished My Folks Don't Want Me To Talk About Slavery. It is a collection of twenty one oral histories from the Slave Narrative papers. People went around in the late 1930's gathering all these stories and commentary on slavery: how they were treated, what they ate, were they educated etc. I think this is a must read. Their voices were silenced most of their lives and it's important to hear what they have to say. I plan on looking for more books written about these first person narratives.

In honor of the Olympics being over I started reading You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott. Ahh it is SO good. I could barely put it down and go to bed. I have heard so many great things about her books and now I want to read them all.

I have to take my MIL to the dr tomorrow an hour away so I have downloaded another Jon Krakauer book for us to listen to in the car.

Day Two Numbers

Pages read: 445

Audiobooks Time: 5 hours 47 mins

Books finished: 2

Wednesday--

Well today was a busy day with lots of editing. And a simple 10 minute doctors appointment turned out to be a nightmare of traffic and storms and five hours away from the house. I finished The Hunger Games audiobook and You Will Know Me. I started The Great American Whatever and The Invisible Intruder. I am pretty irritated tonight so I will talk more about these books tomorrow.

Day Three Numbers

Pages read: 388

Audiobooks Time: 5 hours 23 mins

Books finished: 2

Thursday-- Well this was a much better actual book reading day although I didn't feel very good. I am afraid I am getting sick.

I finally finished the Missoula audiobook that I have been listening to for a few months. It was a tough one to get through. It's a very difficult subject matter and very enraging. But I definitely recommend reading it. It should be required reading for boys and girls in high school.

I also am listening to Under the Banner of Heaven. I downloaded this for our trip to the dr yesterday. It is a book about Mormon fundamentalists. It is another very hard subject matter.

I finished The Invisible Intruder, the 46th Nancy Drew book. I love the Nancy Drew books so much. I have a huge collection of Nancy Drew books and companion books.

They are some of the first books I remember reading. My mom had all the blue covered books. She threw them away one day for some reason and I will never get over it. Sadly I just have the new yellow ones. It is interesting to read these books and even though they have been updated from the original books they still are old fashioned. And poor Bess gets fat shamed all the time. I enjoy the three or four older books I have because they have the illustrations inside the front cover from all the books. It just brings me right back to childhood!

I also finished The Great American Whatever. I really loved this book! The breezy style Tim Federle writes with is great even with the sad subject matter. I would say this isn't so much a love story as a story of grief and acceptance. I love all the quips and jokes. I enjoyed being in Quinn's head.

I started listening to Catching Fire, the next Hunger Games book. This is my favorite of all the Hunger Games books. I love it so much. I am just really enjoying listening to these. It's a different experience.

I started and finished the 19th Agatha Raisin book, A Spoonful of Poison. I love these cozy mysteries and I love Agatha. She is so unpleasant and foolish about men but she always solves the case! The books always make me laugh. I have really been enjoying the books since she started the detective agency.

I started See Me, the newest Nicolas Sparks book. I won it in a Goodreads giveaway so I figured I would read it now. I feel bad when I win a book and don't read and review it right away. I have a love/hate relationship with Nicolas Sparks. A lot of his books are too formulaic. However I don't mind formulaic (see Nancy Drew and Agatha Raisin above ha ha). I am having a hard time getting into this one though. I also ate about a pound of Twizzlers while reading it. Not a good idea when I already don't feel good.

Tomorrow I plan on finishing editing my last photo session, listening to the new Butch Walker album and hopefully getting some reading in.

Day Four Numbers

Pages read: 695

Audiobooks Time: 3 hours 19 mins

Books finished: 4

Friday-- It was a fairly good reading day even though I also was busy with work and cleaning. I stayed up late since it was Friday.

I finished See Me and it ended up being pretty good near the end. But there were just so many annoying characters and it was too long and rambly. I felt like the character development was terrible. Lily was a horrible cliche of a Southern woman which is ridiculous because Nicolas Sparks is from the South and knows better. But Lily and Serena seemed to share too many characteristics. And I just didn't buy the romance between Colin and Maria. I thought a real woman would have been SO annoyed by his saying okay all the time. Nope not cute. I hated how her family had to be told about his past and Colin have that dramatic talk with her father. My parents would never have a say in who I dated at 28. Ridiculous! Anyway I am just glad he has gone away from one of the main characters always dying at the end. That was getting pretty predictable.

I also started and finished the next Agatha Raisin book There Goes the Bride in which James Lacey's young bride to be is shot to death on their wedding day. Oh James you and Agatha belong together because you are idiots about the people you date. Ha ha. The only sad thing about this book is that I don't have the next one.

I finally started Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. I can't wait to read this one as I have heard so many good things about it. And I love following Tahereh's travels and photography on Twitter and Instagram. She wears amazing outfits. And she and Ransom Riggs are #relationshipgoals. Am I too old to say that?

My goals for tomorrow and Sunday are to read as much as I can while enjoying it and hopefully do something fun along the way as summer is winding down.

Day Five Numbers

Pages read: 655

Audiobooks Time: 3 hours 1 min

Books finished: 2

Saturday-- Today was a pretty leisurely day. I did work a little and then enjoyed dinner and spending time with my husband so didn't get as much reading in as I did the last two days but it was a good day.

I am still listening to and really enjoying Catching Fire. I forgot how much of the book was set before the Quarter Quell even started.

I am still reading Shatter Me. I am liking the characters but I am fascinated with this world and hope to hear more about it before the book is over.

I started and finished another Meg Cabot book Nicola and the Viscount, a Regency romance and it was funny and very entertaining. I also started the Overbite, the sequel to Insatiable, but I am having a hard time getting into it.

Tomorrow is the final Bout of Books day and I probably won't read as much as I have been because I have some work to do. We shall see. Oh and I also noticed today on Goodreads that I met my book reading goal for the year! I didn't know I would meet it so early. I may have to change the goal to the amount of books I read last year.

Day Six Numbers

Pages read: 466

Audiobooks Time: 3 hours 11 min

Books finished: 1

Sunday-- I got some good photo editing in today and also watched a movie with my husband but still was able to do a good amount of reading on the final Bout of Books day.

I finished the Catching Fire audiobook and listened to a few more chapters of Under the Banner of Heaven. I finished Shatter Me and started and finished Ramona the Brave. I just can't help but marvel at how perfectly Beverly Cleary captures the emotions and feelings of being a child.

I will do a wrap up post tomorrow.

Day Seven Numbers

Pages read: 471

Audiobooks Time: 4 hours 9 min

Books finished: 2

Wrap Up & Totals

Well Bout of Books 17 has come to an end. I really enjoyed taking the time all week to just enjoy books. I didn't watch any tv or listen to any podcasts. Even though I did miss my podcasts I did enjoy time away from the TV. It was a busy week but I definitely read way more than I thought I would. I read many hours of audiobooks while working and driving and that definitely helped me read more. I am already looking forward to the next Bout of Book in January!

Totals

Pages read: 3,303

Audiobooks Time: 30 hours 35 min

Books finished: 13