Bout of Books 10 | Mid-Week Update!

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, May 12th and runs through Sunday, May 18th 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 10 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team.





When I said this was the first Bout of Books read-a-thon I hadn't been too busy to participate in I obviously spoke too soon.

I've managed to get a little reading done - mainly yesterday, to be honest, because I didn't get any reading done on Monday or Tuesday due to other commitments - but nowhere near as much as I'd hoped to read by this point. I still have the rest of tonight and the next three days to catch up, though, so not all hope is lost!

Contrary to my TBR, I've been reading more of Feed by Mira Grant and I've started Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. I'm really enjoying Feed - in fact I'd love to be reading it now, but I have some uni work to do - it's the first zombie story I've come across in which society hasn't just crumbled, and it's funny, too. Before the read-a-thon I was up to page 47, and now I'm on page 117, so I read 70 pages of Feed yesterday.

I picked up Northern Lights in the early hours of Wednesday morning when I couldn't sleep and I'm enjoying that one too; it's one of those fantasy books I'm always ashamed to say I haven't read. So far I've read 67 pages.

So, in total, I've read 137 pages so far this week which is terrible progress, but I didn't get any reading done on Monday or Tuesday and I'm unlikely to get any done today because I have uni work to do that I'm not likely to finish before midnight.

Hopefully I'll get a lot of reading done over the weekend. I'd love to finish Feed and I think I should be able to; it's a little thicker than the average book but it's so fun and easy to read. It'd be nice to get a good chunk of Northern Lights read too; I'll try and finish it if I can.

I'm also finally going to start Fangirl tomorrow! I'm going to be reading it alongside my friend Laura, and I think it'll be nice to have a contemporary novel there for when I want to take a break from zombies and daemons.

How's your progress so far? What are you reading?

J.

What's Up Wednesday | 14/05/14

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop created by Jaime Morrow and Erin L. Funk as a way for readers and writers to stay in touch!

What I'm Reading

I'm currently taking part in Bout of Books 10, but sadly I got no reading done yesterday or on Monday because I've had a surprisingly busy start to my week. Things are slowly starting to settle down, though, so hopefully I'll get a lot of reading done by the end of the week.

At the moment I'm reading Philip Pullman's Northern Lights which, despite not being on my Bout of Books TBR, was calling to me. I'm ashamed to say I've never read the His Dark Materials trilogy. I tried once when I was younger but I just couldn't get into it. I've heard so many fantastic things about the trilogy, though, so I thought I'd give it another try and this time around I'm enjoying it!

What I'm Writing

As usual, I'm working away on Bloodroot and Bracken!

What Inspires Me Right Now

Is it cocky to be inspired by your own work? I remember a time when I doubted myself so much I thought I'd never be able to write a novel, and now I have a story that I love with characters that I love and a lot of loose ends of the plot that were bothering me are starting to fall into place. It's a great feeling.

What Else I've Been Up To

On Friday myself and a friend went to see Pompeii, and I really enjoyed it. It wasn't exactly a cinematic masterpiece - it was part Gladiator, part Titanic, part disaster movie - but it was fun, and even though parts of it were a little funny I actually thought they did a pretty good job of treating the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and its consequences quite tastefully. It wasn't over-done.

It was nice to see Kit Harington somewhere that wasn't snowing, too, and Emily Browning's just gorgeous.

Other than that I've been buying myself some cheap books online. I decided to buy myself a copy of Tanya Huff's The Silvered because I stumbled across it the other day and it sounds really cool, then I managed to find very cheap, second hand copies of Victoria Lamb's Witchstruck and Marc Sedgwick's Witch Hill. I'm constantly on the look out for more books that could be useful for my portfolio's bibliography!

What's new with you?

Read-a-Thon | Bout of Books 10

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, May 12th and runs through Sunday, May 18th 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 10 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team. 

Hello book lovers!

Monday the 12th of May until Sunday the 18th of May will see the 10th Bout of Books read-a-thon, and this time around I can finally participate!

For as long as I've been aware of the read-a-thons they've always come at a time when I've just been too busy to join in, but now that I'm a postgrad I have more time to read for pleasure than I did when I was an undergrad. 

Right now I don't have a specific list of books I'd like to read for the read-a-thon, though I wouldn't mind trying to get through the rest of the Dust Lands trilogy - Rebel Heart and Raging Star - and Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I'm probably going to post a TBR nearer the time!

If you'd like to take part then follow the link to the Bout of Books blog above! Are any of you participating?

J.