Bout of Books Day 1

One day of reading down!

I didn't do as well as I had hoped for today, but I'm still pretty happy with what I got done. I read to page 309 in Cress and got to page 202 of Nine Stories. Stinkin Goodreads had me thinking there was only 198 pages in Nine Stories but a few minutes ago I realized there are 208. Great observation skills I seem to have there! I've still got mad love for Goodreads though. 

Alright so that brings me to a total of 215 pages read on day 1. Sweetness.

I plan on finishing Nine Stories in a few minutes, but I wanted to update to what I officially read on Monday. 

So yeah, I hope to finish Cress tomorrow and then read my Winnie the Pooh Treasury and hopefully get to another book. I'm not sure what I want to get to after those so I guess I'll see when the time comes.

Tomorrow's other goal: DONT GET SUCKED INTO TV SHOWS. I'm pretty behind on The Voice so I watched 2 episodes tonight, which is why I didn't quite get to finish Nine Stories. I also had a doctors appointment that lasted a while, and I don't believe I have anything else planned until Friday night. It was a fun day :)

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!

Another read-a-Thon!

Im so excited! I found another read-a-thon. I had so much fun with this past one so I'm pumped for this one. Bout if Books is hosting this one, and I believe it's a week-long one. It's in May so I have some more time to prepare this time. Not that I wasn't prepared this time but it won't be so rushed lol. I've seen a bunch of YouTube videos about this so I'm just really excited about it. I'll probably be making a video about it at some point for my TBR list and things like that. 

I'm also in the middle of uploading a Booktube tag video but I've got the "processing blues". A lot of people have said they've had uploading issues lately and I got kinda cocky thinking I wasn't going to have these issues so I guess I jinxed myself. Oops! Guess I won't be doing that again lol.

See ya!

<3 Poison

Post Dewey Read-a-Thon thoughts & survey!

Hey people! So I have officially completed my first read-a-thon! Technically, this post is way late because the actual event ended at 8 a.m. my time (it's currently 2:48 p.m.). I had to get a few hours of sleep in though, because I marathoner the last part of it after sleeping in until about 1 and not getting started actually reading until a little after 2 p.m. yesterday. However, despite my late start, and multiple breaks (some lasting up to 2 hours, I believe), I somehow managed to read way more than my goal of 419 pages, and ended with a total of 674 pages read. I'm so happy, and it was such a fun time. I have to admit, it got pretty hard after I finished The Catcher in the Rye, because I got kind of depressed after reading part of it (but I absolutely LOVED the book overall, and only one part weirded me out, but after thinking about it I'm no longer weirded out. Maybe I'll post a review of it and the other books I read. Maybe.)

I also read Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", and now want to read "Through the Looking Glass", of course. I started reading "A Deodorizer of Dead Dogs" by Ambrose Bierce, edited by Carl Japikse (I still can't pronounce that guy's name…) and let me tell you, it's as weird as the title sounds. I only made it through about 3 stories of that (it's a compilation of short stories by Mr. Bierce), which came out to be about 35 pages. That book's definitely an acquired taste that I don't quite have yet.

The last book I started reading was Divergent. I was really anti-this-series at first, but I'm jumping on the band wagon and have become a fan of the dystopic Chicago centered book. I'm about 70 pages from the end (I got about 340 pages in by the time the read-a-thon ended… yeah I whipped through that baby) and can't put it down. Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration. I mean, I can put it down long enough to type out this blog post, do some mini challenges (I'll explain more in a sec), and go to the bathroom. But that's  about it. Oh, and take the dog out =P

Onto the mini challenges. I thought these were really fun and creative. I posted my entries to my Instagram, and then entered them on the various blog posts that the hosts made. Mini challenges included (but are definitely not limited to): the #shelfie challenge, the #uncomfy challenge, the spell your name challenge, and the book balancing challenge. Check out my Instagram if you want to see my entries! The read-a-thon was a trending topic on Twitter as well, which I think is really cool.

Ok now enough of that. I'm going to do the hour 24 survey (which is another one of the challenges).

Here it goes:

End of Event Meme:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? Hours 8-9 (after finishing a book and having major book hangover)
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I know a lot of people have already read it, but Divergent was definitely a good choice that kept me interested and wanting to read more.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? I don't know if this is possible, but maybe send the hourly challenges out by email so it makes it easier to find them and know what's going on.
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? I loved the challenges!
5. How many books did you read? I finished one, read part of 2, and read one complete book.
6. What were the names of the books you read? The Catcher in the Rye (finished), A Deodorizer of Dead Dogs & Divergent (read part of), and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (complete book)- 674 pages total! =]
7. Which book did you enjoy most? The Catcher in the Rye & Divergent, but Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was not far behind.
8. Which did you enjoy least? A Deodorizer of Dead Dogs. Such a weird book!
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? I can't wait for the next one! I'll definitely be a reader and possibly a cheerleader.

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.