Tag Archives: reading challenge

Bout of Books 24 Update – Day 3

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

qffxp8j

Still trucking along. Not making huge strides but I am fitting in reading time as much as I can. I LOVE the book I’m reading right now but it does take me a little longer than normal to read since there’s so much going on and I have to concentrate on the book a lot. Hoping to making some longer strides this weekend. So anyways my Wednesday’s progress is below:

Update

Wednesday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 1.75 hours
Number of pages I’ve read today: 77 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read: 288 pages
Books read: Continued reading The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden (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 – I was in a training all day and between that and traveling I didn’t have time to put a post together

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

Bout of Books 24 Update – Day 2

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

qffxp8j

Tuesday went well – I’m keeping up with things for the most part. I would’ve liked to spend some time doing the challenge for yesterday since it sounded fun! But I had limited time available where I was going to be awake so I decided to spend my time focusing on reading. So anyways my Tuesday’s progress is below:

Update

Tuesday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 1.5 hours
Number of pages I’ve read today: 84 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read: 211 pages
Books read: Continued reading The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden (I’m getting there!)
Challenges: I was interested in the challenge today and would’ve liked to participate but I just didn’t have the time. I have to say though, I would’ve most certainly had one of the people at my dinner party be the main character from my current book, Vasya. She is such an outstanding and courageous character and I would love to meet her!

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

Bout of Books 24 Update – Day 1

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

qffxp8j

Started out strong yesterday for the first day of the read-a-thon! I met my goal of reading 1.5 hours and I got through a good chunk of reading! I’m trying to balance my work schedule this week so that I can spend more time reading, I have a meeting tonight though so I might be distracted today. So anyways my Monday’s progress is below:

Update

Monday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 2.5 hours
Number of pages I’ve read today: 127 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read: 127 pages (Day one! Ha)
Books read: Continued reading The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden (and am LOVING IT!)
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

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

Bout of Books 24 – Sign Up Post

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

qffxp8j

So for one of my goals this year to help me focus more on reading and having more fun with my reading schedule, I am participating in two Bout of Books reading challenges plus a handful of other challenge this year! I’ve participated in these reading challenges in the past couple years and I’m usually able to get a good amount of reading done.

I’m hoping to be able to find enough time for this reading challenge to get a couple of books read. Things are picking up at work, so it my be a little tougher during the week, but I have GOAL DAY next Saturday and I should be able to make up some time then.

For those of you who don’t really know much about Bout of Books, it is basically a week-long, no pressure read-a-thon that has been going strong since 2011! Here is a description directly from the Bout of Books blog:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 7th and runs through Sunday, January 13th 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 24 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 was created by Amanda @ On a Book Bender on a complete whim in August 2011. It took on a life of its own and was such a hit that Amanda decided to do it again and turn it into a somewhat regular occurrence.

  • Bout of Books is a week long read-a-thon, usually from 12:01am on a Monday through 11:59pm on a Sunday in whatever time zone you are in.
  • It is low pressure, meaning participants are only asked to push themselves to read more than they normally would during any given week. There is no competition between readers.
  • How much time a reader wants, and can commit, to read, tweet, or network with fellow bloggers is left to individual preference. All challenges and giveaways are optional.
  • Networking with fellow bloggers is actively encouraged, though never required.
  • Use Twitter to post updates throughout the read-a-thon. Everyone will be tweeting with the #boutofbooks hashtag.

I’ve been reading pretty close to on schedule lately and I’m hoping to continue that trend over the next week!

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!

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.

Books to Read

List is a little ambitious but with Saturday and Sunday focused on reading who knows how much I’ll get accompished! I would’ve loved to take the whole week off and just read non-stop but work has been consistently busy since over a year ago, plus things are starting to pick up in preparation for our “busy season.” Anyways, I’m really looking forward to this week-long reading challenge devoted to reading ! If you do want to join make sure to add yourself to the page’s Sign Up Post by Tuesday, January 8th at 11:59pm! Happy reading!

2018 Book #81 – Tailspin by Sandra Brown

Posted in 2018, Book reviews, Reading Challenges, Rebecca's Reading Birthday Bash, Romantic suspense by

41tvIWI0n3L._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_Title: Tailspin
Author: Sandra Brown
Date finished: 9/23/18
Genre: Romantic suspense
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: August 7, 2018
Pages in book: 432
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: Purchased!

Blurb from the cover:

Rye Mallett, a fearless “freight dog” pilot charged with flying cargo to far-flung locations, is often rough-spoken and all business, but soft on regulations when they get in the way of meeting a deadline. But he does have a rock-solid reputation: he will fly in the foulest weather, day or night, and deliver the goods safely to their destination. So when Rye is asked to fly into a completely fogbound northern Georgia town and deliver a mysterious black box to a Dr. Lambert, he doesn’t ask questions.
As Rye’s plane nears the isolated landing strip, more trouble than inclement weather awaits him. He is greeted first by a sabotage attempt on his plane that causes him to crash land, and then by Dr. Brynn O’Neal, who claims she was sent for the box in Dr. Lambert’s stead. Despite Rye’s “no-involvement” policy when it comes to other people’s problems, he finds himself irresistibly drawn to the intrigue surrounding his cargo . . . and to the mysterious and alluring Brynn.
Soon Rye and Brynn are in a treacherous forty-eight-hour race to deliver the box before time runs out. With everyone from law enforcement officials to hired thugs hot on their heels, they must learn to trust each other so they can protect their valuable cargo from those who would kill for it.

My rating:  3.25 stars out of a scale of 5

My review:

I have read a lot of books by this author in the past and I just love her books. I usually try to get approved for an e-galley for her releases since I love her books so much. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to this time but fortunately  it is almost my birthday and I decided to spend this time reading things that I wanted to read! This was my first pick for Rebecca’s Reading Birthday Bash!

I purchased this book from Amazon to read. And funny enough, it ended up being the only book I had time to read for my Birthday Bash! It ended up taking me two weeks to read it because between work and all the various birthday celebrations, I had almost no free time for reading.

I’m not sure if its just because it took me so long to read and it was hard to focus on but this book ended up falling a little flat for me. I love Sandra Brown books but this one in particular seemed a little far fetched to me. The plot just kept getting more and more convuluted and hard to believe. And I didn’t love Rye’s character for a hero, he was pretty cowardly when it came to relationships and spent a lot of the books pushing Brynn away. The book was ok overall just not my favorite of hers (which as everyone knows is Deadline).

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

ARC August 2018 – Final Update and Wrap Up!

Posted in 2018, ARC August 2018, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

ARC-August

This ARC August was super successful! I really pushed myself and tried to read as much as possible. It was hard to balance between this, social stuff, a wedding we traveled for, and the Fair, but I still managed to read a lot of great books. Plus I also participated in the Bout of Books 23 challenge during one of the August weeks, which was another great way for me to incentivize myself to read more, not that I really need an excuse. Anyways so here’s where I ended up on the ARC Reading challenge! I made good use of my time in and really put in some extra hours but didn’t get through as many as I had hoped:

MY PROGRESS

August 2018 ARC’s

–Good Luck With That by Kristan Higgins – Read and reviewed (Week 1)
–Our House by Louise Candlish – Read and reviewed (Week 2)
–Smothered by Autumn Chiklis – Read and reviewed (Week 1)
–The Duke of Seduction by Darcy Burke – Read and reviewed (Week 4)
–Maybe For You by Nicole McLaughlin – Read and reviewed (Week 3)
–Cowboy, Cross My Heart by Donna Grant – Read and reviewed (Week 3)
–The Duke with the Dragon Tattoo – Read and reviewed (Week 5)
–Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia – Read and reviewed (Week 5)

Additions

–Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone – Read and reviewed (Week 3)
–BuzzBooks 2018 Romance Sampler – Read and reviewed (Week 2)
-Hot Pursuit by Rebecca Freeborn

Backlog ARC’s

I’m actually using a reading challenge to help me whittle away at the 2016 and 2017 backlog list, so for this challenge I’d like to get to the following:

-A book told through letters
-A book with a five-word title – Read and reviewed At the Heart of It by Tawna Fenske (Week 2)
-A book whose cover features nature
-A book whose title begins with K, Q, J, X, or Z – Read and reviewed The Killing Game by Nancy Bush (Week 4)
-A book you bought (requested) for the cover
-A book written by an author who wrote one of your favorite 2017 books
-A book with a one-word title

Books Read August 27th – 31st

Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia – 3.75 stars
The Duke With the Dragon Tattoo by Kerrigan Byrne – 4.0 stars

ARC August 2018 Reading Bingo!!

I was super excited to have the Bingo be a part of the fun this year, I really enjoy any time that I get to do a reading bingo. Here is my bingo sheet and how I did with this bingo challenge!

ARC Bingo

So that’s a wrap for this year! I had a great time participating in this challenge again and I hope to participate again next year! Happy reading everyone!

ARC August 2018- Update #4

Posted in 2018, ARC August 2018, Reading Challenges by

ARC-August

What a freaking crazy week this was! Busy week at work, and then the Fair was this past weekend and that takes up so much of our time! I tried to stick with the reading schedule, I’ve been really pushing myself for the reading challenge this month and I’ve been enjoying all the extra reading a lot. I didn’t necessarily knock it out of the park this past week since it was such a busy week but I was able to get a bit of reading done. This past week I also participating in both ARC August AND Bout of Books, which was fun and challenging. You can check out my Bout of Books 23 journey here! Anyways, so here’s where I stand right now:

 

MY PROGRESS

August 2018 ARC’s

–Good Luck With That by Kristan Higgins – Read and reviewed (Week 1)
–Our House by Louise Candlish – Read and reviewed (Week 2)
–Smothered by Autumn Chiklis – Read and reviewed (Week 1)
-The Duke of Seduction by Darcy Burke – Read and reviewed (Week 4)
–Maybe For You by Nicole McLaughlin – Read and reviewed (Week 3)
–Cowboy, Cross My Heart by Donna Grant – Read and reviewed (Week 3)
-The Duke with the Dragon Tattoo
-Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia

Additions

–Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone – Read and reviewed (Week 3)
–BuzzBooks 2018 Romance Sampler – Read and reviewed (Week 2)
-Hot Pursuit by Rebecca Freeborn

Backlog ARC’s

I’m actually using a reading challenge to help me whittle away at the 2016 and 2017 backlog list, so for this challenge I’d like to get to the following:

-A book told through letters
-A book with a five-word title – Read and reviewed At the Heart of It by Tawna Fenske (Week 2)
-A book whose cover features nature
-A book whose title begins with K, Q, J, X, or Z – Read and reviewed The Killing Game by Nancy Bush (Week 4)
-A book you bought (requested) for the cover
-A book written by an author who wrote one of your favorite 2017 books
-A book with a one-word title

Books Read August 20th – 26th

The Duke of Seduction by Darcy Burke – 4.0 stars
The Killing Game by Nancy Bush – 3.5 stars

Plan for Upcoming Week

This coming week should hopefully be a bit smoother. Really August is just through Friday so there’s only a few days left to get in as much reading as I can. I plan to take Friday off to hopefully fit in a little last minute push to the finish line, but Friday night we’ll be leaving for Block Island for the weekend! Hope everyone else is having a successful reading month.

Bout of Books 23 – Day 7 & Wrap Up

Posted in 2018, Bout of Books 23, Reading Challenges by

3PKyE93

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 all 3 Bout of Books reading challenges / read-a-thons this year! This was the third and final 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, even though it’s pretty bad.

Update

Sunday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 0 hours! I was so busy, didn’t get to read much at all
Number of pages I’ve read today: 1 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read:  725 pages
Books read: Continued reading Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia
Challenges: I did not participate in the challenge for yesterday, just too busy this weekend!

And now let’s look at how I fared for my overall Bout of Books 23 wrap up:

Time Devoted to Reading

I plan to read at least 2 hours each day during the week, with hopefully additional hours on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I’ll be working up at the Fair event all afternoon and evening Thursday and Friday and then all day Saturday and Sunday, but I might be able to take a couple short breaks for reading between shifts.
Things definitely did not work out this way. Most of the weekdays I was able to read 1.5 – 2 hours but once we got to the weekend it fell apart. It’s just super hard to concentrate on anything during the Fair because there’s so much work to be done and so much going on. 

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. One of the reasons I’m especially excited about this read-a-thon is … I’M ON THE SCHEDULE! I submitted a couple daily challenge ideas and one of them was picked! I’m more excited than ever to participate, hopefully I don’t run too low on time.
I did participate in Monday and Tuesday’s (below) daily posts, the other days I either wasn’t interested in the prompt or ran out of time. I was especially excited to participate in Tuesday’s post since it was my suggestion! 

Capture

Books to Read

 

Overall this was not the greatest week of reading for me, I feel that I started off strong but fizzled out at the end due to my other commitments. I was able to get a little reading done at least. I’m looking forward to participating in the next Bout of Books but maybe I’ll skip August’s next year!

Bout of Books 23 Update – Day 6

Posted in 2018, Bout of Books 23, For the love of books, Reading Challenges by

3PKyE93

Worked at the Fair yesterday 7am to after 11pm. Not a lot of time for reading but it was a great and very productive day for Fair activities! So anyways here’s my Saturday update:

Update

Saturday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 0.5 hour
Number of pages I’ve read today: 27 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read:  724 pages
Books read: Continued reading Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia
Challenges: I did not participate in the challenge for yesterday, just too busy this weekend!

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

Bout of Books 23 Update – Day 5

Posted in 2018, Bout of Books 23, Reading Challenges by

3PKyE93

It is the Fair! I took a little extra time yesterday morning to rest up ahead of the big event, so I managed to fit in some reading time. Looking forward to the rest of the weekend I might not have as much time but that’s ok! So anyways here’s my Friday update:

Update

Friday

Time spent reading: (Approximately) 2 hours
Number of pages I’ve read today: 169 pages
Total number of pages I’ve read:  697 pages
Books read: Finished The Killing Game by Nancy Bush and started reading Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia
Challenges: I did not participate in the challenge for yesterday, just too busy this weekend!

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