Rachael Turns Pages Library Books Readathon

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Hi guys! So I just happened to find out about this awesome read-a-thon literally at 12:30 this morning and let me tell you, it could not have come at a more perfect time because I went to the library last week and borrowed 12 books on top of the already 3 or 4 books that I had out at the time. The read-a-thon lasts from today, June 9th until June 16th.

I'm so excited to be participating in this read-a-thon! Here's a list of the library books that I currently have out. I know I most likely will not get to nearly all of them during the week, but I really hope to get through a nice chunk of them!


Books that I've already started before the read-a-thon:
Allegiant by Veronica Roth (as of the time I found out about the read-a-thon, I was on page 385)
Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare (as of the time I found out about the read-a-thon, I was on page 97)
Labor Day by Joyce Maynard (as of the time I found out about the read-a-thon, I was on page 77)


Now for the books that I have not started but want to get to soon:

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
The Shadowhunter's Codex by Cassandra Clare & Joshua Lewis
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Guitar Notes by Mary Amato
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: life, death, and hope in a Mumbai under city  by Katherine Boo
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Panic by Lauren Oliver
If I Stay by Gayle Foreman
Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy
The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling

Like I said, it's a pretty insane list that's full of a large variety of books that I can't wait to dive into!

Happy reading!

Day 2 Update- Holy Moley!

I finished Cress. The Lunar Chronicles is now in my top favorite series of all time. I just can't even. So good. So good. That's all the update I have for now because I just finished it less than 5 minutes and am just *insert fangirl (?) screams*. Loved it. So much. I can't wait for Winter. 2015 most anticipated book so far!

Alright. I need to calm down. Now onto my real update. 

I read 232 pages today and finished one book. That bring my total pages read up to something that I can't figure out right now because we're in the middle of a huge thunderstorm and I think my WiFi just went out. Poo. 

I also got about 7 or 8 (I think 8) books out from the library. I believe I need to go on a book borrowing ban for a little bit because I still have Franny & Zooey and just took a collection of the 1st three Oz books off my mom's hands, plus A Tree Grows in Brooklyn which I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to read anytime soon. But I will get to it at some point.

New books from the library:

I Heard That Song Before by Mary Higgins Clark

Remember Me by Mary Higgins Clark

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

So excited. So excited. Yes.

Update- I finally got my internet back this morning! Woohoo!

Bookish Battle Royale! (Bout of Books/My Life in Books Challenge)

Alright, so I had to think long and hard about who I thought should battle it out and I think I've come up with some pretty weird characters that I think would make an awesome battle. The characters are:

Haymitch Abernathy (The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins)

Strengths

• Resourceful
• Intelligent
• Survived the Hunger Games for goodness sake!
• Extremely invested in protecting the people he cares about

Weaknesses

• Usually intoxicated
• Haunted by his experiences in the Hunger Games

Argus Filch (Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling)

Strengths

• Loves torturing students (has had practice & the tools to do so)
• Has no problem with corporal/inventive punishment
• Mrs. Norris (helps him find scoundrels)

Weaknesses

• Out of shape
• Squib
• Not the most intelligent person in the world

Gollum (The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien)

Strengths

• Cunning
• Resourceful
• Intelligent/Good riddle teller
• Manipulative 

Weaknesses

• Driven mad by The Ring
• Thinks he's two different people
• Loosing strength since he lost The Ring

And the winner is: Gollum

Gollum would, baring he's not under the impression that he's two different people, be able to distract poor old Filch enough to be able to steal some of his torture devices. Since Mr. Filch can't use magic, he wouldn't be able to stop Gollum. Gollum's so cunning that he probably wouldn't be seen by many people at Hogwarts, minus those who have the Marauder's Map. Haymitch, skilled and knowledgeable as he is, would probably be in too much of a drunken stuper to truly be able to defend himself. So the winner would be Smiegel, all the while whispering to himself "My Precious!". 

Books I'm Looking Forward To (River City Reading/Bought of Books Challenge)

It's that time, the time when I list the 10 books that I'm most looking forward to. I love this challenge, but it was pretty hard for me to complete for the sole reason that I have sooooo many that I want to read and trimming the list down to 10 was almost impossible. But I did. I'm also adding in a little blurb as to why I'm looking forward to reading these books because well, honestly, I forget the reason why, but I'm doing it anyway, so just go with it? Okay? Okay. Yup I just shamelessly threw in a TFiOS reference. That might be on my list. Who knows. I guess you're going to have to wait and see.

Here's my list (in no particular order):

1. Winter by Marissa Meyer

• I'm about 150 pages away from the end of Cress, and I know I'm going to want to read Winter ASAP, but sadly it's not coming out until next year. Sad day. But I just recently read the first reference to Winter in Cress and it made me excited to see what she brings to the storyline and if she's a good character or evil. Muahahahahaha. 

2. Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare 

•  I'm pretty late, it seems, on the Cassandra Clare front. I just recently found out about the Mortal Instruments series so I checked out her website and found the Internal Devices series. It sounds awesome and has been raved about by many a booktuber (I'm most impressed by Katytastic's enthusiasm for the series, putting it in her top series of all time alongside Harry Potter and the Hunger Games), so yeah. There's that.

3. Insurgent & Allegiant by Veronica Roth

• I know, I know, these are two separate books, but I'm counting them as one because they're in the same series. I absolutely loved Divergent and am waiting, somewhat impatiently, for Insurgent to come into the library. Current hold count: hold #34 on 39 circulating copies. That's better than the original #64 holds, or something like that. We're getting there. 

4. I've Got You Under My Skin by Mary Higgins Clark

• I recently finished Moonlight Becomes You by Ms. Clark and absolutely loved it. The story was so suspenseful and kept me on my toes and was intense until the last moment. I can't wait to read all of her books. Not kidding.

5. Rooms: A Novel by Lauren Oliver

• I've heard a lot of great things about Lauren Oliver. I've never actually read anything by her, but I thought this would be a good book to start with since I believe it's about ghosts and what they see while living in the walls of a house. I don't think I've ever heard of, and I know I definitely haven't read, a book from the perspective of a ghost so I'm super excited about it.

6. Panic by Lauren Oliver

• Yup totally just realized that I want to read another Lauren Oliver book. Awkward ineptitude engaged. I think this sounds really interesting and I think I'm going to enjoy this very much. It's going on my "to put on hold" list and will be one of the next ones I get from the library. Ya know, once I finish my insane amount of books that I both currently have checked out and that are currently on hold. I think that number's somewhere between 10 & 15. Yikes.

7. Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman

• I recently started watching the tv show version of this book and am loving it. I've talked a little bit about it in my Mapril Favorites video. My mom read it recently and we've been comparing notes on the two stories and the tv show seems to be a lot different from the book, but nonetheless I don't want any spoilers for the tv show. I know, weird. I usually read books before movies but for some reason this one's opposite. I guess it had to happen sometime.

8. Mansfield Park by Jane Austin

• I ordered this book off of http://bookoutlet.com while they were having their spring cleaning sale, so it cost me no more than $3.00, which was super exciting. The story sounds awesome and I just can't wait to read it. It will be my first Jane Austin novel in a very, very long time and might even be the first one I've ever gotten through. Whoops.

9. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde: A Graphic Novel by Robert Louis Stevenson

• I've been getting into the more creepy side of fiction lately, and this is a classic story that I feel like I should read. Plus I just really want to read it in the first place. I also got this from the BookOutlet spring cleaning sale so it was super cheap. I can't wait to see what it's like!

10. King Lear by William Shakespeare

• Another BookOutlet steal. I'm super excited because, based on the description, King Lear goes nuts, and I love stories like that. Call me crazy, but I do. I just do. This makes me wish I could get a more specific delivery date from the shipping company. Gr. 

So yeah that's my list of top 10 books I'm most looking forward to. I can't wait to get my hands on these books and read, read, read!

Day 1 Update #1

Ive reached my first goal for the day! I'm officially on oage 304 of Cress. I'm having a feet time wizzing through this book. 

Pages read so far: 86

Whoop whoop! I didn't start read until almost 4:00 so I'm pretty excited about my progress so far. More later!

Let the reading begin!

So today's Day 1 of the Bout of Books read-a-thon! I have to say, I'm super pumped to get reading. I did wake up kind of late this morning, so I haven't started reading yet. I have a doctor's appointment later and then I'm running some errands, so I'm not going to have a lot of time to read until after those are done. But nonetheless, I figured I'd post a baseline of where I'm at with my reading.

I made sure to document how far I had gotten in books before midnight last night because, you know, I'm a little OCD like that. =P I somehow miraculously got to bed shortly after doing that, so I haven't read anything yet today. Here's where I'm at so far and some of my goals for the day:

Currently Reading: 

1. Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger - page 78/198

2. Cress by Marissas Meyer - 219/550

My goals for the day:

1. Finish Nine Stories

2. Get to page 300 in Cress

3. Write an update blog before midnight tonight

I've also got two books ready to be picked up at the library, but I'm going to try to force myself not to read those until I finish these first two books. I've been reading Cress for a while now (about a week… don't judge, that's a long time considering I got through the first two books in max two days each… o_O)

Books at the library: 

1. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

2. I Heard That Song Before by Mary Higgins Clark

I've also made a goal for myself to read everything John Green before June 6th when The Fault in Our Stars comes into theaters. I seriously can't wait!!

Happy reading!

<3 Poison

Bout of Books Read-a-Thon Goals!

Ok, so I've been having kind of a blogging slump and don't really feel like posting about nothing, so I think I'm going to make this blog more about books, i.e.- the books I'm reading, books I've bought, books I want to read, and what I think of the books. I think that'll keep me motivated to keep this blog going. That and I can kind of link this with my Youtube channel and get some more motivation from there. 

With that in mind, my first "official book blog" is going to be about the Bout of Books Read-a-Thon! =] I'm super excited for this read-a-thon, especially after the Deweys Read-a-thon I did in April. I have a pretty big TBR (to be read) list for the month of May, partially because of this read-a-thon.. And let's be serious, I went a little nuts at the library a few times recently. 

My goals for this read-a-thon are:

1. Finish the books I'm currently reading
2. Read one book per day (a bunch of the books on my TBR list are shorter)
3. Participate in challenges
4. Get some sleep! 

I have a tendency to stay up ridiculously late, especially when I'm reading, so that last goal is probably going to be the hardest to accomplish =P

Alright, now onto the actual books I want to finish:

• Cress by Marissa Meyer
• Jailbird by Kurt Vonegaut
• A Deodorizer of Dead Dogs by Ambrose Bierce, edited by Carl Japiske

The books I haven't started as of today but that I want to read during the read-a-thon are:

• Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger, Stories include:
• A Perfect Day for Bananafish
• Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut
• Just Before the War with the Eskimos
• The Laughing Man
• Down at the Dinghy
• For Esme- with Love & Squalor
• Pretty Mountain & Green My Eyes
• De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period
• Teddy
• Franny & Zooey by J.D. Salinger
• The Original Winnie the Pooh Treasury by A.A. Milne, Books in this treasury include
• An Expotition to the North Pole
• Piglet Meets a Heffalump
• Pooh goes visiting and Pooh and Piglet Nearly Catch a Woozle
• Eeyore Has a Birthday
• Piglet is Entirely Surrounded by Water
• Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Bees
• Christopher Robin Gives Pooh a Party
• Kanga and Baby Roo Come to the Forest
• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Bette Smith
• Fight Club by Chuck Palaniuk

A lot of these are short stories (J.D. Salinger & especially the Pooh books) so I hope I can read those pretty quickly. I'm going to count each of those as one book though because I don't think that would really be fair to raise my count with them. 

I hope to be posting updates every day of what I've read, how many pages I've read, and then possibly do some reviews after everything is all said and done.                                                  

On the off chance that I actually finish all of these books, I will start these:

• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
• Insurgent by Veronica Roth (if it comes into the library!!)

I'm getting tired just thinking about all of these books but I'm really excited!!

Happy reading!

<3 Poison

 Oh! I almost forgot! I will be tweeting throughout the day while I'm reading as well as using Instagram for challenges. I'll also put up a video or two on YouTube throughout the week about my progress. Click the links to get to the various pages! Thanks for stopping by! Come back soon!

Dewey Read-a-Thon April 26th, 2014

I've been on kind of a YouTube binge lately…

Who am I kidding? That's practically all I do anymore. Almost. I do read a lot. I tend to go through phases (mostly based on if I have fines at the library or not o_0). I'm not really sure what got me into this new obsession. Maybe it was a suggested video on YouTube, I don't really remember. Either way, I stumbled upon this amazing Booktuber, Little Book Owl, and my mind was blown. This woman's channel is dedicated solely to reading books, doing reviews, hauls, and TBR lists, and talking about books she's read. She throws in the occasional tag video as well. Actually, now I remember the video that got me started on all of this. It was a bookshelf tour she did at the end of 2013. Let me tell you, it was INSANE. Like, I've never seen so many books in one person's library. And that's saying a lot because my mom's an avid book collector and reader. Like, it's insane. And amazing. And inspired me to update my TBR (To Be Read) list. So yeah, I've started using goodreads.com again, and let's just say I've added an insane amount of books to my TBR list. Like, about 550. Yeah. I don't think that's going to be humanly possible to read in my lifetime, but I'm going to try.

Now, onto the main reason I'm posting: the Dewey Read-a-Thon. While perusing Little Book Owl's channel, among many, many others, I've discovered that there are these things called "read-a-thons", where you basically read books, nonstop, for the allotted amount of time. The most common ones seem to last for a week, but some last for 24 hours or have monthly themes. This newest one that I've seen is one of the 24-hour read-a-thons. So, naturally, I'm very interested in doing this. I'm planning on doing the week-long one in May, but I think I should start with this one to practice. I'm super excited about this because it gives me an excuse to be held up on my room all day doing nothing but reading.

As I've said, this is my first read-a-thon, so I'm not exactly sure what the requirements are for posting about what you've read. I'm probably going to be doing a YouTube video with my intentions for the read-a-thon as well as this post. I'm going to list down below the books that I'm putting on my TBR list for this one. I'm also planning on doing some big book hauls from the month of April as well as starting a TBR/Wrap Up videos which I'm super excited about. I've posted a few more videos since I updated last (which I know has been a long time, but I've been in kind of a blogging funk… blah), so I'll link those below.

Dewey Read-a-Thon TBR:
The Catcher in the Rye (finish it)- by J. D. Salinger
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland- by Lewis Carroll, introduced by Chris Riddell
A Deodorizer of Dead Dogs: Another Collection of Great Stuff That You Never Read in School- Satires & Tall Tales by Ambrose Bierce- by Ambrose Bierce, Edited by Carl Japikse


We'll see how it goes! Also, I guess you can link your GoodReads account, so I'll link that below as well.

GoodReads

YouTube Videos:
Cats on Cats on Cats
Rob For was Here?! Toronto Day 1!
AGHHH! (Filming frustrations, new puppy, partial book haul) 
Vlog: Moody Hiking Trail (Rushville, NY)
My Bed!
My First Birchbox! (April 2014)


I guess it might help if I share the link to the website where you can sign up, wouldn't it?
The reading starts at the same time all over the world, so depending on your time zone, it might be early in the morning (like for me, it starts at 8:00 a.m.) or late at night. But everyone will start reading at the same time, no matter what the hour technically is in your time zone. I hope that makes sense.