[Bout of Books] Wrap up

I'm sad that Bout of Books is over already. Last week flew by and I was busy with so many other things, I still don't know what happened or believe that it was actually an entire week.

Last night, I really scrambled to finish the two books I has started to get to a somewhat decent result for Bout of Books. I was about 70% done with The Selection by Kiera Cass and 50% done with a short German audio book produced by Audible.de.

Here's the result:

Goal: Read 4-5 books
-> Well, that one was a miss. I finished 2 audio books and 1 e-book, so I'm one short of my goal. I usually read about 2 books per week, so I really hoped I could double it up with the week-long readathon. Unfortunately, I was so busy with work, university, and my first Lamaze class, that I just couldn't get it done. I'm a little bit sad about that, but in the end, 3 books is a good result with all that was going on.

Goal: Participate in one Twitter chat
-> That was an all-out success! I participated in the last Twitter chat on Saturday and had a lot of fun. With the time difference, the other two would never fit in because I'm either fast asleep or busy with work/university. The weekend chats usually work out for me, though, because I can arrange my schedules accordingly.

Goal: Write reviews for the finished books.
-> Yeah, I've started, but I did not finish them yet. If I am lucky, I can finish them by Wednesday.

If you participated in Bout of Books, how did you do? Would you participate in an upcoming Bout of Books?

[Bout of Books] Update Day #7

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Are you all ready for the last day of Bout of Books? I cannot believe it is almost over and I haven't gotten nearly as much done as I had planned to. In fact, I've managed to forget the goals I had set. That's embarrassing, if you ask me...

Yesterday, I participated in the last Twitter chat and met some great people - who I am now stalking on Twitter ;-) I also started to listen to a German audio book, which so far is very entertaining, but due to the language barrier will probably only get a quickie review here, if that.

Updates for today will follow here as I go:

11:30am
I listened some more to my audio book this morning, which leaves me at about 50% of the story. I really hope to finish it today because I want to know how it ends. And last night, before I fell asleep, I also read some more of The Selection by Kiera Cass. I had thought I'd be able to finish it faster, but with the lack of reading time I had to deal with this past week, there was no chance, even though I love the story and the main character so far.

[Bout of Books] Update Day #6

After a slow start with me sleeping in way too late (I was supposed to run errands) and a late breakfast (at around 12:30pm), I finally managed to crawl upstairs to update my files for my TBR with the two books that arrived in the mail today (I will post a Stacking the Shelves post later on!) while catching up on Bones Season 5 as the mister watched some episodes without me (shame on him!).

Today, for the first time in this Bout of Books, I will actually update this post as I go along, so check back if you want to know how I fare...

For now, I will try to finally catch up on the last few hours of Bout of Books tweets. I may not have been able to participate in the Twitter chats, but I try to stay up to date with what everyone is doing & I have met some wonderful people already! This, to be honest, is always one of the two reasons why I sign up and participate in Bout of Books.

6:30pm
I have accomplished one of my goals! Can you believe it? LOL I participated in the Twitter chat earlier (right after the Bloggiesta Twitter chat, which means I spent 2 hours on Twitter). I met great people and have set up a bookmark folder so that I can check out all the blogs after Bout of Books. Now, I will head on to my books, who knows, maybe I'll go listen to an audio book.

10:25pm
I started a German audio book earlier and didn't get very far. The mister kept talking. Imagine a very, very annoyed look on my face. He didn't get it... Off to my book!

[Bout of Books] Update Day #5

Bout of Books sadly is coming to an end soon and I have not achieved my goals yet - not nearly *sigh* I almost feel like a failure this time around, but life just took over.

I managed to read for two more hours on Thursday night and Friday, leaving me at eight hours of reading so far. I have finished The Maze Runner and about a third into The Selection. I hope to be able to finish this one soon, preferably on Saturday, but we'll see.

I have not yet taken part in any of the challenges (but I didn't plan to anyway) and none of the chats, as the time was never suitable for the time zone I am in. If I am lucky, I can participate in tomorrow's chat, as that is during my daytime. Wish me luck!

How are you doing so far?

[Bout of Books] Update & General Thoughts

Until 10:30am this morning, I was determined to finally write a review I've been planning. And then I remembered that after work, I'd have my first Lamaze class. Each class takes two hours, so I knew then that I'd be coming home late. And now, after some relaxing and dinner, it's almost midnight. There is no way I can coherently type up my thoughts. So I decided to wait until tomorrow.

However, it is not like I haven't been thinking about books and reading lately, especially with Bout of Books. So, first a short update on how that has been going:

I so far read for about 6 hours this week, but I haven't finished anything yet. This is such a fail! But between work, university, a doctor's appointment, and the Lamaze class, I didn't have much spare time. This, hopefully, will be better during the next 4 days - and lucky me, Monday is a holiday here, so I will be reading on Monday as well. I am working on the last few pages of The Maze Runner and The Selection. By tomorrow, I should at least have finished one book.

And then a general thought:

I have been on a semi-successful book-buying ban (more like a limitation) since January and in theory it is going on until the end of the year. My basic goal was to read at least 3 more books than I acquired. So far, I've been doing quite well, in some cases working up to 9 more books off of my TBR shelves than I added to them. This month, however, I can already say I failed miserably! I added around 20 books to Mt. TBR (if they all arrive this month). I cannot possibly read 23 books, so that's that for May. It will be big, fat fail!

Nonetheless, I think the books I will be receiving soon are totally worth it. Just wait until you see the goodies!

[Bout of Books] Goals 7.0

So, Bout of Books starts on Monday and I guess it is time to actually decide on goals and what books I want to read and all that.

For books, I will go with the ones I have on my reading stack for May 2013. The only book missing on that stack is King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard because I didn't have it with me when I took the picture and wrote the post.

I hope I will be able to read 4-5 books off of that, along with my current reads if I don't finish them before then. I will most likely not read much on Monday as a good friend of mine will celebrate her birthday, so I will head on to my parents for the night to meet with her and some others.

If I can fit it in my rather tight schedule, I will participate in one of the twitter chats (probably on Sunday). I enjoyed that a lot the last time and I got to know a number of awesome bloggers I had not known before.

And last, but not least, I will try to write at least the reviews for books I finish during the readathon, so I can schedule them. That way, I don't have to fiddle with taking notes, which usually end up being illegible anyway. Hehe! Trying to outsmart myself here, hopefully!

Are you participating in Bout of Books? What are your goals?

[Bout of Books] Declaration for BoB 7.0

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-A-Thon is barely over and here I am, signing up for another reading event! But hey, I have to take every chance I get to read while I still can, right? (Also, can we have one more reading event before mid-July? Please?)

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 13th and runs through Sunday, May 19th 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 7.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I will hopefully be able to read 4 books during that week, that's all I'm planning for right now. Who knows what books I'll pick up.