Showing posts with label BoB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BoB. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Bookish (and Not So Bookish) Thoughts/Hiatus

BOOKISH (AND NOT SO BOOKISH) THOUGHTS

Link up with Christine from Bookishly Boisterous

  • You may or may not have noticed it's been a little quiet on this part of the world wide web. That's simply because, life happens. Fortunately, it's all good happenings but they leave very little time for book reviewing and blogging because most of the happenings are not so bookish.
  • While I have done a lot of reading, I've done zero reviewing and don't have any posts scheduled so I ask that you bear with me for a little while until life calms down (insert mini-hiatus).
  • Not intending to be vague but I will fill you all in once things have settled.
  • Just this week alone we have the beginning of college football season (my absolutely favorite time of the year, Go Tigers!!!), football viewing party, our fantasy draft, and our one year anniversary. Woooo to all of the above but there will be lots of calories and alcohol consumed which means very little free time or reading time. Not complaining, just explaining.
  • Since I know the #boutofbooks ladies hate to hear someone talking about how they "failed at BofB," I'll just allow my lack of bout of books related posts speak for itself...
  • I finally got my new social security card with my married name. For an efficient and effective process, I would not recommend getting married in upstate New York. Complicates things, I tell ya!
  • I just wanted to check in and update you on where I've been, why it's so quiet, and what to expect in the near future. I'm hoping to get some reviews written soon but I'm not making any promises for lots of action ASAP. I'll post when I can :) 

Friday, August 23, 2013

Update # 4

Yesterday, I got a lot of good reading time in. I'm getting towards the end of Summer and the City and am looking forward to starting The Fault in Our Stars over the weekend. Unfortunately, I think today will be my last official update. I leave after work for vacation/wedding preparations and will not be posting BoB updates unless my phone cooperates. I'll try to update via twitter so your best bet is to follow me over there.

I've loved participating in BoB this time around and can't wait until the next one. I love finding new blogs and doing reading challenges so this was really fun for me. To all of my new followers, welcome! Let me know if you stop by so I can visit your blog as well :) Happy reading my friends!

Number of pages I read today: 200
Total number of pages so far: 525
Total amount of time I read today: 3 hours
Total amount of time I've read so far: 8.5 hours
Books I'm reading: Summer and the City
Books I've read: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), The Lightning Thief (finished last night)
Challenges: Bookish Bucket List and TBR Pile
Social hours: Too busy dancing...
 
And don't worry, even though I'll be in serious vacay/prep mode, I haven't forgotten about this blog. I've got a handful of reviews and book blogger challenges lined up for your reading pleasure. Have a good weekend y'all!

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Update #3

UPDATE FOR WEDNESDAY 8/21/13


I have to admit, today's progress was a little less than I expected. I had high hopes of coming home, getting some good reading in, and participating in the social hour. Well, two out of three ain't bad. I came home and eventually got some good reading in but it required staying up an hour past my bedtime. All intentions to participate in the social hour were demolished when I started practicing dance moves with my fiance in our living room.

We looked a little like this.
 
There was some of this.
And this.
But mostly this.

We were practicing our dance moves for our big day and time just got away from us. Sorry guys, as much as I would have loved to participate in social hour, this was where I belonged. And it will hopefully keep us from looking like this at the wedding.

Dubya's got moves I don't want

Number of pages I read today: 100
Total number of pages so far: 325
Total amount of time I read today: 2 hours
Total amount of time I've read so far: 5.5 hours
Books I'm reading: Summer In the City
Books I've read: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), The Lightning Thief (finished last night)
Challenges: Bookish Bucket List and TBR Pile
Social hours: Too busy dancing...

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Bout of Books Read-a-thon Goals



Goals are good! They help us accomplish things but I also think they help me keep track of stuff I need to do and be conscious of. In order to get the most out of the upcoming BoB readathon, I'm going to set some loose goals. And let me emphasize LOOSE here. There is no telling what the week of the 19th will have in store for me, but I know the weekend (24-26) I'm traveling to Upstate NY in order to prepare for my wedding on September 1. Now, that could either provide a lot of free, relaxing, reading time before the wedding ORRRR it will be chaotic and I won't get a page in. Who knows! Keeping that in mind, I may adjust as needed. Here goes:

Time Devoted to Reading:

I would like to read at least an hour a day during the week and squeeze in at least 2 on the weekend. Some days this will be easier than others but I think this is my average for a normal week (M-F) and then low balling for the wedding prep weekend.

My Goals:

This year, I'm keeping track of how many pages I read (my fiance has always wondered what this number was and I thought it would be cool to find out). I've set a year long goal of reading 30,000 pages. How did I get to this number? I have no idea and there's a good chance I overshoot it (I'm already at 20,500 +) but it was just a starting point.

With that in mind, I would like to read at least 100 pages a day during the week and aim for 200 on the weekend.

I would also like to participate in a handful of the challenges and social hours but I'm going to set my goal to at least 3 challenges and one social hour.

Books to Read:

Since I love challenges, I'm actually already participating in one on goodreads. This is my second time doing this particular challenge and I won the last one! Winning meant I got to choose a task for the next challenge so that was very cool. This time around though, I'm near the top but definitely not in first place (or 2nd, or 3rd etc.) I think this is mainly due to the fact that I didn't connect with a lot of the tasks but I also tend to make the books I read fit a certain task rather than the other way around. At some point, I realized I was not making much progress on this challenge so I started choosing books that are on my TBR list or already on my nook and plugging them in for the tasks. I've made some headway with this strategy but I think the readathon is a great place to finish off the remaining ones that I've already picked out since the challenge ends September 1. If you are interested in the full list of tasks or more info on the challenge, go here.


 
 








 
Will I read all of these books? No! Absolutely not. But it's a good way for me to remember which ones are left and keep me on track to my goal of finishing this challenge. I'll update to let you know which I'm reading when the actual readathon starts. Which brings me to:
 

Updates:

Throughout the week of the 19th I'm going to post daily (or try really, really hard to...) updates to let you know the progress I've made on my goals as well as any challenges or social hours I've participated in. They will look something like this:
 
Number of pages I read today:
Total amount of time I read today:
Books I'm reading:
Books I've read:
Challenges:
Social hours:
 
Remember, all of this info is mostly to keep me accountable to myself but if you are participating in BoB or just following along with me, I would love to hear from you! I think this is a great way to start some conversations about books and book related things so feel free to comment at any time.

Now, we wait for the 19th when the readathon and serious book reading will commence!!!

Monday, August 12, 2013

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