Bout of Books Read-a-thon!

 Ok people, I am really excited about this upcoming read-a-thon!!! I first heard about Bout of Books from Charleen over at Cheap Thrills. At first, I was like oh cool, a read-a-thon. Might be fun. I like to read and I like accomplishing reading goals. But then I went over to Bout of Books and the more I read, the more I loved! This read-a-thon is hosted by two book bloggers (Amanda and Kelly, see below) and it epitomizes what book blogs and challenges are to me! The rules are simple and the competition is basically with yourself. You can use it as motivation to read more or just accomplish some reading goals you've been meaning to set for a while. The whole vibe is very laid back and it's apparent the goal is to just enjoy reading and all that it gives to us. I love that!

I've recently stumbled across some blogs that just rub me the wrong way. They are all about "beating" other people and following strict rules. If you don't follow said rules, you get a strike! So many strikes, you get BANNED! Dun dun dunnnnnn. WTF? That is not what reading is about and it completely turned me off of the idea until I found BoB. I'm so glad there is a group of readers out there who just want to motivate each other and uplift other bloggers. Plus, I think it will be a great way to network so I won't be so lame in the bloggy world (as evidenced by this and this.)

One of the coolest features of this event is that there will be social hours where you can connect and meet other book bloggers. Hence the newly created Beauty and the Book twitter account! You can find me @beautybookblog or just hit that button over there on the side.

I'm so excited to take some time to enjoy the book blogging community as well as achieve some personal reading goals. So why don't you grab a BoB button and read along with me? I will be posting my goals in the next few days as well as updates during the week of the 19th. Feel free to follow along and join! Here's to reading and the positive side of book blogging. Cheers!

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 19th and runs through Sunday, August 25th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 8.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team