Tag Archives: reading challenge

Bout of Books 25 Update – Day 3

Posted in 2019, Bout of Books 25, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

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Still trucking along. I got home from work late again last night so I meant to read only a short amount of time before bed but I should’ve known with reading the new Christina Lauren book that I wouldn’t be able to stop after a half hour. I LOVE the book I’m reading right now – this is the third book by Christina Lauren that I’ve read and they’re addictive. I enjoy them so much and I can’t put them down once I get into them. I also hate for them to end because I just want to keep enjoying the story! So anyways my Wednesday’s progress is below:

Update

Wednesday

Time spent reading: 2 hours
Number of pages I’ve read today: 212 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read: 594 pages
Books read: Continued reading The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren (I’m hoping I’ll be able to finish this one today! I’m enjoying this one so much I’m trying not to rush through it)
Challenges: I did not participate in yesterday’s challenge – Although this prompt was my idea from BoB 23 and I did do it then!

Capture

Stay tuned for continued progress made in tomorrow’s post on my Thursday update!!

Bout of Books 25 Update – Day 2

Posted in 2019, Bout of Books 25, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

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Tuesday didn’t go super well reading wise. I was at work until pretty late and by the time I got home and ready for bed it was almost midnight so I limited my reading time to a half hour. Luckily I had read a bunch Monday so I’m still feeling on track, and looking forward to more reading time this weekend. So anyways my Tuesday’s progress is below:

Update

Tuesday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 0.5 hours
Number of pages I’ve read today: 62 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read: 382 pages
Books read: Started reading The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
Challenges: I was interested in the challenge today and would’ve liked to participate but I just didn’t have the time.

Stay tuned for continued progress made in tomorrow’s post on my Wednesday update!!

Bout of Books 25 Update – Day 1

Posted in 2019, Bout of Books 25, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

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Started out strong yesterday for the first day of the read-a-thon! I had yesterday off to go to the spa with my Momma for Mother’s Day, and we got some reading done there. And then when I got home I kept reading more! I didn’t want to put this book down so I ended up reading the whole thing in one day yesterday. So anyways my Monday’s progress is below:

Update

Monday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 5.5 hours
Number of pages I’ve read today: 320 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read: 320 pages (Day one! Ha)
Books read: Started and finished The Bride Test by Helen Hoang (Review to be posted today!)
Challenges: I did not do the introduce yourself in six words challenge for Monday, I’ve done it for a couple of the previous Bout of Books challenges already and didn’t have time to post yesterday since I was so focused on reading.

Stay tuned for continued progress (maybe) made in tomorrow’s post on my Tuesday update!!

February Reading Challenge – Romance Novel Bookish Bingo – Wrap Up Post!

Posted in 2019, February Book Bingo, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

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Here’s how I did on my February Bookish Bingo Reading Challenge! I can’t post the titles of all the books since some of them were ones I’m judging for the New England Readers’ Choice Awards and I can’t talk about them until after the finalists are announced. I was still trying to stick with my reading schedule and tried to fit them into the bingo card where I could, so I didn’t end up getting bingo unfortunately. If I’d had a little more time for reading I might have been able to manage but it’s a busy time at work right now! I still had fun participating in the reading challenge though, I can’t wait for the next one!

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2019 Book #11 & #12 – Romantic Re-reads!

Posted in 2019, Book reviews, Contemporary romance, February Book Bingo, Fiction, Reading Challenges, Romance, Romantic suspense by

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As part of my Bookish Bingo reading challenge for February – I decided to go back and re-read a couple of my all time favorites. 

51MIUFVflXL._SX294_BO1,204,203,200_My Nerdy Valentine by Vicki Lewis Thompson

Finished 2/12/19, 3.0 stars out of 5 stars, Romance Novel Bingo “Geeky Lead” box

This book was published back in 2007 and I’ve had it in my library since about then. VLT has been one of my favorite authors since I discovered her back when I was in high school. She wrote a number of books in her “Nerd Series” and while this one wasn’t one of my favorites, it was a good re-read for Valentine’s Day. I struggled a lot in high school with being a “nerd” and this book was one of the first to really help me understand that there is someone out there for everyone, whether you’re cool or a nerd. This is definitely a steamy series, though this read in particular is probably one of the more “tame” of the set. With an underlying mystery, it was a great read to get into the Valentine’s spirit. My main issue with the book is that I honestly just can’t stand Gloria (Amanda’s boss), she is WAY too aggressive for me. Overall though this is a cute read, I’d recommend it – though there are others in the series that I’d recommend first I think!

51pbplI+NrL._SX314_BO1,204,203,200_Now You See Her by Linda Howard

Finished 2/16/19, 4.75 stars out of 5 stars, Romance Novel Bingo “Your Fave Romance Author” box

Linda Howard is one of, if not my top, favorite author. I can re-read her books time and again and continually get the same thrill from reading them. This book has always been one of my all-time favorites of hers, and I’m super glad I got a chance to re-read it for Valentine’s Day this year. This was one of the first books I read by LH and probably one of my first forays into romantic suspense. And even though this book was written 20 years ago, it is still as great today as it was then. Some books that I read from the 90’s or before can be outdated, with heavy handed alpha characters and wilting heroines. This book definitely has an alpha hero – Richard is just about as alpha as they get – but he also respects and listens to his heroine. I think I probably read this book in high school too, and it created a love of alpha heroes for me, but more than that it instilled the idea in me that alphas don’t necessarily have to overpower their heroines but instead can work as a team. This is a great read and I’d highly recommend it!

February Reading Challenge – Romance Novel Bookish Bingo

Posted in 2019, February Book Bingo, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

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So as part of my 2019 Goals I wanted to participate in some Bookish Bingo reading challenges for certain months, one of which was February! And (exciting news!) I just checked and Bookish is doing a Romance novel book bingo in addition to their regular reading bingo for this month. Which is great for me since I end up reading a lot of romance, and also I’d love to focus on romance novels during the most romantic month of the year (allegedly)! PLUS I’m still helping to judge novels for a Romance Reader’s Choice Awards, so those will all count towards my bingo! My biggest challenge I think is going to be finding time to read outside of work – February is going to be (excuse my French) a shit-tastic month for my work schedule this year and I may have to enact my “sleep budget” schedule in order to get my reading done. I’m really looking forward to participating in this month’s reading bingo though!

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Bout of Books 24 Update – Day 7 & Wrap Up

Posted in 2019, Bout of Books 24, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

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So for one of my goals this year to help me focus more on reading and having concentrated time for reading, I decided to participate in two of the three Bout of Books reading challenges / read-a-thons this year! This was the first one for this year. I didn’t done as much as I wanted to but it was still ok amounts of successful.

First let’s do my Day 7 (Sunday) update on reading.

Update

Sunday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 3.5 hours
Number of pages I’ve read today: 188 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read: 658 pages
Books read: Finished reading a book I’m judging for NERCA 2019 (unfortunately I can’t reveal the books on my site until after finalists are announced!) and started reading An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
Challenges: I did not do the challenge post for today

And now let’s look at how I fared for my overall Bout of Books 24 wrap up:

Time Devoted to Reading

I plan to read at least 1.5 hours each day during the week (except for Friday I think), with hopefully additional hours on Saturday and Sunday. Friday I’ll be working all day and then we have a work trip planned trip to the casino Friday night! This does mean that I probably won’t get much reading done on Friday but I’m looking forward to letting off a little steam with my coworkers!
I met the daily reading goal 5 out of the 7 days. Thursday I was too tired and Friday I was too busy having fun! I read extra some of the other days though so I made up for it. Overall I read over 13 hours for the challenge!

My Goals

My goals for this read-a-thon are that I’d like to participate in as much as I can: the daily posts plus reading every day. I’d really like to just focus on getting back into reading. I picked it up again over the holidays but I’ve lost the schedule again with how crazy the last week or so has been.

I was able to read every day! For the first time though I didn’t participate in even 1 daily challenge. I wanted to focus all my available time on reading, though some of the daily challenge posts did look fun!

Books to Read

 

Overall not my best showing but I think I did ok given my time constraints for last week! I’m looking forward to participating in a Bookish Bingo challenge next month and hopefully get lots more reading done!

Bout of Books 24 Update – Day 6

Posted in 2019, Bout of Books 24, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

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Yesterday was Goal Day so I had a good amount of time with the opportunity to read. Unfortunately I was so hung over that I couldn’t take full advantage but I still read for awhile. Friday night we had a GREAT time at the casino but it made for a rough Saturday. Luckily my darling Momma took care of me and we made it through. So anyways my Saturday’s progress is below:

Update

Saturday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 2.5 hours
Number of pages I’ve read today: 70 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read: 470 pages
Books read: Continued reading a book I’m judging for NERCA 2019, unfortunately I can’t reveal the books on my site until after finalists are announced!
Challenges: I did not participate in the challenge for yesterday – I focused on reading for the day!

Stay tuned for continued progress made in tomorrow’s post on my Sunday update!!

Bout of Books 24 Update – Day 5

Posted in 2019, Bout of Books 24, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

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Yesterday was a bust for me reading wise. We had the best time at the casino on our work trip but I had A BIT too much to drink. That didn’t leave a lot of time for reading. So anyways my Friday’s progress is below:

Update

Friday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 0.5 hours
Number of pages I’ve read today: 29 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read: 400 pages
Books read: Continued reading a book I’m judging for NERCA 2019, unfortunately I can’t reveal the books on my site until after finalists are announced!
Challenges: I did not participate in the challenge for yesterday – the day just flew by and there wasn’t enough time

Stay tuned for continued progress made in tomorrow’s post on my Saturday update!!

Bout of Books 24 Update – Day 4

Posted in 2019, Bout of Books 24, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

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Didn’t quite make the goal yesterday. Between a full day of work and the season premiere of one of our favorite shows at night, I only had a little time to read before I got too tired and went to sleep. Today doesn’t look super promising either, all day meetings and then we have a work trip to the casino tonight! I know I’ll be able to catch up tomorrow though, and I’m looking forward to a fun evening tonight! So anyways my Thursday’s progress is below:

Update

Thursday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 1.0 hour
Number of pages I’ve read today: 83 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read: 371 pages
Books read: Finished The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden (Hopefully will have the review post up sometime this weekend) and started a book I’m judging for NERCA 2019, unfortunately I can’t reveal the books on my site until after finalists are announced!
Challenges: I did not participate in yesterday’s challenge, it didn’t sound like something I could manage quickly before my workday started

Stay tuned for continued progress made in tomorrow’s post on my Friday update!!