Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon April 2019

It is time for one of my favorite readathons! I didn’t plan to do it this year because I have a photo session for a large part of the day but I decided last minute I would just participate as much as I could. The Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon runs for 24 hours and you try to stay awake for 24 hours and read as much as you can. In my time zone it will run from 8 am Saturday morning to 8 am Sunday morning.

My stack this year is much smaller than usual! I plan to finish an ARC I am reading, The Lovely and the Lost by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. I want to finally read The Cruel Prince by Holly Black and maybe get started on the sequel, Wicked King. I also will be listening to Where the Crawdads Sing on Audible and I hope to get started on Shortest Way Home by Pete Buttigieg. I am looking forward to this readathon. Let me know in the comments what you will be reading! I will be updating on Litsy, Goodreads and Twitter.

6:30 p.m.

Well it’s been a busy day. I didn’t sleep enough last night so I am afraid I will not be able to stay up all night. But we shall see.

I woke up right before eight and started reading. I was already 50% done with The Lovely and the Lost. This book was very good! I definitely recommend it especially if you love Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Also, if you haven’t checked out her The Naturals series do so. It’s a great YA series.

I then started reading Shortest Way Home by Mayor Pete. I like the writing style of this so far. It’s very interesting to read about the start of his life and I am looking forward to finding out more about him especially when I found out he was born the same year as me. It made me pause and question my accomplishments :-) I had delicious leftover Pad Thai for lunch and that was it for the food I have in the house. Which of course is totally against everything the Readathon stands for.

I had to go to my photo session after lunch. I listened to my audiobook, Where the Crawdads Sing on the way there. Three hours later I headed to the grocery store to get my snacks. I might have overdone it a bit considering it was 4 pm. I don’t think I will have time to eat all this!

I am finally settling in for an evening of reading so I will check in later. Although the series finale of Crazy Ex Girlfriend is calling my name especially since I am enjoying some delicious pretzels. So afraid that I will see spoilers that I haven’t been checking Instagram or Twitter.

Reading time: 7 hours 33 minutes

Pages read: 211

Audiobook Time: 5 hours 14 minutes 

Books finished: 1

2:30 a.m.

Well still awake but I am getting pretty sleepy so I might have to nap soon.

I haven’t been able to finish another book. I have just been switching between my audiobook and Mayor Pete’s book. I did start The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. I have been looking forward to this one. I am liking it so far! I have eaten way too many snacks tonight. And I can’t believe the Cherry Coke I drank at dinner isn’t keeping me awake.

I started flagging a little before one but then bad storms started and my dog is terrified of storms so I had to go downstairs and keep him company.

Total Reading time: 13 hours 16 minutes

Total Pages read: 433

Total Audiobook Time: 6 hours 53 minutes 

Total Books finished: 1

Wrap Up

Well this wasn’t my most successful Readathon but pretty good for deciding to do it the night before. I am determined not to schedule a photo session during the October Readathon.

Total Reading time: 15 hours 11 minutes

Total Pages read: 481

Total Audiobook Time: 7 hours 29 minutes 

Total Books finished: 1

Bout of Books 20 August 2017

It is finally the week of Bout of Books 20! I am so excited.

"The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 21st and runs through Sunday, August 27th 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 20 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog." - From the Bout of Books team.

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is one of my favorites because it lasts a whole week. And no surprise my week is packed with work and after work activities. So I don't know how much time I can make for reading but I will get in as much as possible. 

My goal is to finish up the books I am currently reading which are the following:

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

Devil's Bargain by Joshua Green

Before I Let Go by Marieke Nijkamp

When Paris Went Dark: The City of Lights Under German Occupation, 1940-1944 by Ronald C. Rosbottom

I am also reading A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin but I doubt I will have time to finish it as I am "only" 400 pages in.

Well I am going to get to reading before I have to head to work for eclipse madness!

Well thank goodness for audiobooks is all I have to say. I didn't have a terrific reading day. Work was insane. We were getting phone call for eclipse glasses every 30 seconds before the eclipse started. The good news is I got to see the eclipse. It was so amazing! I definitely am going to plan a trip in the path of totality for the next one.

I mostly read my Game of Thrones book and listened to my audiobook but I hope to get more into the Lying Game tomorrow. It's a fascinating story so far and I am looking forward to finding out what really went on. It has been a long day and I have to be up super early tomorrow as I have a photo session an hour away. Better luck tomorrow!

Monday Numbers:

Pages read: 160

Audiobook Time: 3 hours

Books finished: 0

Tuesday

Helloooo Tuesday! Today was an insanely crazy day. I was in my car most of the morning, driving to a photo session and then running all these long overdue errands. I worked at my second job at the library all afternoon so I only got some reading in before bed. But the good thing about being in the car all day is that you have plenty of time to listen to audiobooks!

I finished listening to When Paris Went Dark. I don't know if loved it is the right word considering the subject matter. But this book was really informative and had a good narrative flow. Books about the Nazis are extra chilling these days.

I also finished Before I Let Go. I loved the first half of the book. This was a haunting tale of a girl trying to figure out how and why her best friend died. The pain and grief of Corey was palpable in the pages. And then suddenly the book turned confusing and disjointed. It kind of turned out to be nothing? I was really confused by the resolution of the story. I also didn't like the phone call scenes. They really took away from the flow of the book and didn't really add much (FYI I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review).

I also am reading a book at work called Inside, Outside, and Online: Building Your Library Community. It's very heavy on research and stats. I am trying to read more about the Library world and how it works so this is very helpful. 

Tuesday Numbers  

Pages Read: 330

Audiobook Time: 5 hours 50 minutes

Books Finished: 2

Wednesday

Another subpar day. This just wasn't the best week for me in terms of being able to read. My time is so crunched this week. I think this Bout of Books will just be all about audiobooks. I had work and then had to photograph a really long play so I didn't get much actual reading done. I mainly just was able to finish reading The Lying Game before work. I really loved it! It was just the right amount of suspense and mystery. 

I would say I am hoping for a better reading day tomorrow but I have to take my MIL to the dr. tomorrow and it will probably take up all my time before work. Sunday is the only day this week I will have to read all day so I am looking forward to it.

Wednesday Numbers

Pages Read: 256

Audiobook Time: 3 hours 8 minutes

Books Finished: 1

Thursday

Nope. Just a wash. Better luck tomorrow or the weekend.

Thursday Numbers

Pages Read: 169

Audiobook Time: 3 hours 56 minutes

Books Finished: 1

Friday

OMG its finally Friday! So happy. It has been a long, long week! I feel like the eclipse threw everything off. I am hoping to catch up on sleep and reading this weekend. I didn't get much of a chance to read again today as Friday is one of my long work days. I am sad about my lack of reading time this week. I do miss being able to take time off during read-a-thons but I am so thankful to have found a part time job I love. So it's ok if I wasn't able to read as much as usual. I am happy I am able to read at all!

Friday Numbers

Pages Read: 82

Audiobook Time: 21 minutes

Books Finished: 0

Saturday

Yay finally a decadent reading day and I spent hours at my Grandmas today and still got some good reading in.

I finished Small Admissions. It was quite disappointing. I saw so many good reviews about it. It just reminded me of the usual different girls in the city books. I wasn't that attached to the people in the book and I probably only finished it because it was a readathon.

I was so excited to get an ARC of Andy Weir's new book, Artemis. I started it tonight and it is SO good. It definitely kept me up later than usual. I forced myself to go to bed. When I got Martian I started reading it at 6 pm and I stayed up all night until I was done. I love that this book has a female protagonist. 

Well tomorrow should be a good reading day although I am also hoping to spend some time with my husband too!

Saturday Numbers

Pages Read: 355

Audiobook Time: 38 minutes

Books Finished: 1

Sunday

Well this was definitely the best reading day of the whole week. I finally just got to real and enjoy reading.

I finished Artemis. I really enjoyed this book. I don't think it's always easy for a male to write a female MC and there were a few instances where I thought that missed a little. But I thought this book was so fun. I liked Jazz and her cast of characters. Like The Martian my eyes would glaze over at the hard core science stuff. This book reminded me of an old fashioned heist movie even though they weren't heisting anything!

I also was excited to get am ARC of Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World. This book is awesome! Its a graphic novel packed full of beautiful illustrations and text about awesome ladies from history that you don't usually hear about. It is SO good. 

I started Moonglow too because I have five days to read it before it has to go back to the library.

Sunday Numbers

Pages Read: 522

Audiobook Time: 3 hours 7 minutes

Books Finished: 1

Wrap up!

Well this was not one of the best Bout of Books I have ever done. I just didn't have the time I usually did. But I still did decent. It was a long and exhausting week and I was glad the little pockets of time I was able to escape and read.

Total Numbers

Pages Read: 1,874

Audiobook Time: 20 hours

Books Finished: 6

My Favorite Book Apps

Although I love paper books my house is completely overrun with books. The emergence of technologies such as ebooks has been helpful in keeping my husband happier with less physical books strewn around. But my favorite technology right now are my book apps on my iPhone. I wanted to share my three favorite book apps with you today.

Goodreads: Of course this is my number one favorite app. I use this at least once a day if not more. It is a condensed version of their regular website. I use this to track all my books that I am reading, scan books in bookstores that I want to read and look up book reviews. Plus, when I am at the library I can look up books on my to read list to check out. Also, the app has a library of public domain ebooks. I don't love reading an actual book on my iPhone since the screen is so small but I definitely will on my iPad. 

Overdrive: This app works in conjunction with my local library. It has a database of audiobook and ebooks. I absolutely love this app! I listen to audiobooks whenever I am cleaning or editing photos. They have a decent selection based on the particular library you are a member of. Check out your library to see if they participate with Overdrive.

Free Audiobooks: This is one of my favorite apps because it is a bunch of free public domain audiobooks. Librivox is a website that offers free public domain audiobooks read by members of their community. This is so amazing and I love it. You can also volunteer to be a reader! Some of the readers can make you wish the chapter was over more quickly but I am not complaining over this wonderful free service. Definitely check it out!

I would love to hear about your favorite book apps.  I always have room for more! Tell me your favorite apps in the comments and thanks for reading.