Monday, May 21, 2012

Bout of Books: Day 7 Recap

Sunday, Sunday. This day was entirely my own—no work, no visitors. Just a relaxed day to fill with reading and whatever chores couldn't wait until another time. I started the morning off reading in bed. By the time I arose and went in search of breakfast, I had read almost 50 pages. My book (Blameless by Gail Carriger) went everywhere with me: to breakfast, to the gas station, and back to bed. And thus I finished reading it around 14:30 in the afternoon. As a reward, hubby and I went out to get ice cream treats.

Looking back over the list of books that I had intended to read, I made a decision to divert from that original plan. Instead, I picked up The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall. I read 64 pages into it and should finish it on the airplane this morning. I still need to pull together an end-of-event post, but the basic numbers are here:

Summary

5/20
Number of books I've read today: 2
Number of pages I've read today: 242
Number of books completed today: 1
Total number of books I've read: 5
Total number of pages I've read: 1203
Total number of books completed: 4

Books:
Changeless by Gail Carriger (completed)
The Tale of Holly How by Susan Wittig Albert (completed)
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell (completed)
Blameless by Gail Carriger (completed)
The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall

Changeless by Gail Carriger The Tale of Holly How by Susan Wittig Albert Blameless by Gail Carriger The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarqin Hall

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Bout of Books: Day 6 Recap

I love lazy Saturday mornings! I woke up at 7:00 and read in bed for an hour—progressing from page 114 to 141 in Blameless before I had to get up and dress for the day. While driving down to my son's house this morning, I listened to 19 tracks of The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. In the evening drive back home, I listened to another 22 tracks. Since I have a paper copy of the book, I know that the portion I listened to runs from pages 128-196. And since I only listen to audio books when I'm driving, I decided to finish reading this book with the text version.

With just 1/2 hour left in the day, I took Blameless with me to bed and read until midnight. I recorded the page number, inserted the bookmark, and then turned off the lights.

Summary

5/19
Number of books I've read today: 2
Number of pages I've read today: 180
Number of books completed today: 1
Total number of books I've read: 4
Total number of pages I've read: 961
Total number of books completed: 3

Books:
Changeless by Gail Carriger (completed)
The Tale of Holly How by Susan Wittig Albert (completed)
Blameless by Gail Carriger
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell (completed)

Changeless by Gail Carriger The Tale of Holly How by Susan Wittig Albert Blameless by Gail Carriger The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Bout of Books: Day 5 Recap

Friday turned out to be a really busy day at work—and therefore there very few breaks in which to read. BUT, I was able to slip out to lunch at a nearby Asian restaurant and managed to read throughout lunch. And, by reading in bed at the end of the day, I made some decent progress into Blameless by Gail Carriger.

Today (Saturday) I'll be spending the day with my granddaughter. That means that I probably won't get much reading done other than listening to an audio book while I'm in transit. Currently I'm half-way through The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell. I don't think I'll finish this book today, but should complete it fairly soon. The “problem” with audio books is that I only listen to them when I'm driving.

Summary

5/18
Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 114
Number of books completed today: 0
Total number of books I've read: 3
Total number of pages I've read: 781
Total number of books completed: 2

Books:
Changeless by Gail Carriger (completed)
The Tale of Holly How by Susan Wittig Albert (completed)
Blameless by Gail Carriger

Changeless by Gail Carriger The Tale of Holly How by Susan Wittig Albert Blameless by Gail Carriger

Friday, May 18, 2012

Bout of Books: Day 4 Recap

I'm feeling much better about my progress in the Bout of Books read-a-thon. First of all, I started the day by reading in bed while hubby watched the morning news. That got me to within 40 pages of the end of Changeless by Gail Carriger. I was able to finish it in the car as hubby was driving us to lunch. It was excellent and ended on a cliff-hanger, so I'm quite eager to read the next book in the series.

Now when I left the house, I picked up two books to take with me so I'd have another book to read as soon as I finished Changeless. One of the books was supposed to be the next book in Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series, but I grabbed the wrong title. SO, instead, I started reading The Tale of Holly How, the second title in Susan Wittig Albert's Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter. This book is so calm and easy-going compared to Changeless, and for some reason it “reads faster”, such that I finished the last page just minutes before midnight. I enjoyed it very much, but am quite pleased to return to Victorian London in Blameless, the third Parasol Protectorate book.

In addition to reading, I spent some time in the early evening visiting the blog posts of other participants and leaving encouraging comments. Twitter also held my attention. How could it not with my cell phone dinging away to let me know that there were new tweets from those I am following?

Summary

5/17
Number of books I've read today: 3
Number of pages I've read today: 383
Number of books completed today: 2
Total number of books I've read: 3
Total number of pages I've read: 667
Total number of books completed: 2

Books:
Changeless by Gail Carriger (completed)
The Tale of Holly How by Susan Wittig Albert (completed)
Blameless by Gail Carriger

Changeless by Gail Carriger The Tale of Holly How by Susan Wittig Albert Blameless by Gail Carriger

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Bout of Books: Day 3 Recap

Wednesday is known as hump day from its position in the middle of the work week, and I'm hoping that this downhill slide toward the weekend will give me more time to read. Work has been time-consuming but oh so satisfying, so I really don't have much to complain about.

I found time to read during lunch and had hoped to read after supper, but I got sucked into the TweetChat last night. When that was over, I took my book to bed, but found myself drifting off to sleep. When the book fell out of my hand for the 3rd time, I gave up and turned the lights off.

Summary

5/16
Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 78
Number of books completed today: 0
Total number of books I've read: 1
Total number of pages I've read: 284
Total number of books completed: 0
Books: Changeless by Gail Carriger

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Bout of Books: Day 2 Recap

Day two wasn't a very successful day in terms of the Bout of Books read-a-thon. I was just overwhelmed with so much to do at work and very little break time in which to read. I did go out to lunch so that I could read while in transit as well as during the meal. But at supper time, I had to cook and then it was difficult to read while I was eating. After supper, I vegged out on the Internet and watching the season finales of NCIS and NCIS:LA. I hope I get more reading done today.

Summary

5/15
Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 66
Number of books completed today: 0
Total number of books I've read: 1
Total number of pages I've read: 206
Total number of books completed: 0
Books: Changeless by Gail Carriger

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Bout of Books: Challenges

Day 1's challenge was posted by Sarah at Sarah Says Read. She asked the read-a-thon participants to answer this question: “What do you like best about readathons? Do you have any readathon traditions or rituals? If this is your first readathon, what do you like so far? Discuss away!”.

I left my answer in the comments at her site saying: What do I love about read-a-thons? The focus on sharing what, where, and how we’re reading. In other words, the camaraderie of fellow readers. For several years, the only read-a-thons that I joined were the fast-paced, read-as-much-as-you-can-for-24-hours kind. But since Bout of Books v2, I’ve been enjoying the week-long variety as well.

My goals post is here –> Bout of Books 4.0.   But after finishing 2 of my planned books before the Bout of Books even began, I revised it here –> Bout of Books: Starting Position

Now Day 2's challenge is a bit more involved. Celine at Nyx Book Reviews asked participants to answer a series of “this” or “that” questions. Here are my responses:

  1. Physical book or eBook? Both. It's the story that counts
  2. Paperback or hardback? Paperback. The hardback is more likely to wake me up when it hits the floor when I fall asleep reading in bed.
  3. Reality or Make-believe? Fiction all the way!
  4. Adult or Young-Adult? Mostly Adult (but not “adult content”). But I also really enjoy YA fiction.
  5. Dog ears or Bookmarks? Bookmarks. And any spare piece of paper will suffice.
  6. Breaking the spine or Barely open the book? Yeah, I break the spine. I need a book to lie flat so I can read during meals.
  7. Tea or Coffee? Tea, iced. I drink nothing hot.
  8. Reading in bed or On the couch? In bed (see #2). Actually, it's more likely to be “in the car” than either of those other places.
  9. Series or Standalone? Love series. But a long (500+ pages) stand-alone is also welcome.
  10. Original or TV Adaptation? Original.
  11. Defy motion sickness or Audiobooks? Oh, I love to read in the car. I only listen to audiobooks when I'm driving.
  12. Author crushes or Who-was-that-guy-again? Nah. No crushes. Now if you want to talk about hero worship?
  13. Interview or Guest post? I only wish! Oh, did you mean to read? Interview.

So I'm linking my responses up at the Bout of Books read-a-thon main site. After I visit a couple of other blogs and leave some encouragement, I'm heading to bed with my current book, Changeless by Gail Carriger.

Bout of Books: Day 1 Recap

One day down, six more to go. With the Bout of Books read-a-thon beginning on a Monday morning, I'm immediately confronted with a problem: How am I going to find enough time to read when I have to work all day? I did decide to start off the read-a-thon by reading for an hour starting at 00:01 on Monday morning. Since much of the “community” aspect of Bout of Books is taking place on Twitter, I sent a tweet containing the read-a-thon's hashtag and then headed to bed.

Summary

5/14
Number of books I’ve read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 140
Number of books completed today: 0
Total number of books I’ve read: 1
Total number of pages I've read: 140
Total number of books completed: 0
Books: Changeless by Gail Carriger

Monday, May 14, 2012

Communities: BookObsessed and GoodReads

2012 Reading Challenge

2012 Reading Challenge
Elsi has read 63 books toward her goal of 150 books.
hide

The one hobby (passion) that I have been able to sustain for many years is reading and participating in an online community of readers. I joined BookCrossing almost 10 years ago on 29 May 2002. While I found it fun to register books and make “wild releases” by leaving books in public locations, I wasn't getting many “catches”—the books I had released weren't getting journaled, and I was afraid that they were winding up in the trash.

Then I discovered an online community called BookRelay and proceeded to join in a couple of swaps. But life got busy and I stopped swapping for a while and when I next visited the site, it had been shut down. Fortunately, I was able to find a forum post at BookCrossing mentioning that the BookRelay folks had moved to a new site called BookObsessed. I joined in mid-September 2007 and participated in my first swap in October. I still have the books I won in that swap!

At the beginning of this year, the folks at BookObsessed started talking about running their own reading challenge and eventually settled on a "2012 How Many" Challenge. Several of the BookObsessors mentioned that they were also participating the 2012 Reading Challenge at GoodReads. Now, I've been a member at GoodReads nearly as long as I've been at BookObsessed. I joined in January of 2008, but all that I've done there—for the most part—is post the books that I've finished reading to my Bookshelves. When I checked out the challenge at GoodReads, I discovered the widget which can be placed in blog templates. This widget is supposed to allow you to show the ongoing progress in the challenge and I thought that would be a good addition to my blog sidebar. So, as I previously posted, I signed up for the 2012 Reading Challenge at GoodReads. After all, I didn't have to do anything extra to keep a public record of the how I was making progress in the challenge: just adding the books to my “Read” bookshelf with a completion date in 2012—which I was already doing.

And now that the Bout of Books read-a-thon is going on, some of the participants are posting status at GoodReads, so I'm spending even more time on the site. It's becoming another place where I'm connecting with the community of readers.


Sunday, May 13, 2012

Bout of Books: Starting Position

In just one hour, the 4th Bout of Books read-a-thon will be starting. Well, at least it starts for me in about an hour. The official schedule is “from 12:01am on Monday, May 14th through 11:59pm Sunday, May 20st in whatever time zone you are in”.

I had planned to be reading two books which I owe to Lori, a fellow BookCrosser. But, I went and finished them this weekend! So instead, I'm leading off with Changeless by Gail Carriger, the second book in her steampunk paranormal series, The Parasol Protectorate. This is paperback book that I owe to a BookCrosser from a swap at BookObsessed. I'll be mailing it to Wendy along with the next two books in the series.

On my Kindle, I'll be reading Storm From the Shadows by David Weber. This is the fourteenth novel set in the Honorverse, the universe of Honor Harrington. I started reading this series in 2008, but after reading the first three books, I moved on to something else. Then, in 2011, I read eight more novels and seventeen short stories. I'm hoping to finish reading all the available books and short stories by the end of the year. Of course, in March Weber released yet-another novel featuring Dame Harrington, so it's likely that I'll be picking this series up again in a couple of years.

And just in case I'm caught out and about without a book or my Kindle, I'm reading Bright of the Sky by Kay Kenyon in the Kindle app on my Blackberry. I picked up this first book in Kenyon's Entire and the Rose quartet as a freebie at Amazon.com back in 2010. It's still free! So far, I've read the first 35 pages (of 453) and I'm enjoying it very much.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Bout of Books 4.0

Next week—14-20 May—is the Bout of Books 4.0 Read-a-Thon. I participated in the 2nd Bout of Books in October of last year, but missed the 3rd round in January. So, my pal Shaunesay has challenged me to join in this time and I have signed up.

To participate, one need only sign up and then post her goals. The sponsors organize the read-a-thon as a fun way to network with other readers: “low pressure, meaning participants are only asked to push themselves to read more than they normally would during any given week.” While I don't think I'll really be reading any more than usual, I do have the personal challenge to blog more than usual.

During the read-a-thon, I need to focus on some books which I have offered in swaps and virtual book boxes (VBBs) over at BookObsessed. Several of the books which I have offered are “slow” reads for me. By that, I mean that they aren't high-interest genre novels which I tend to read very quickly. Rather, they are mainstream or literary fiction which, for some reason, seems to take me longer to read even when they have fewer pages than the genre fiction.

So! (I've noticed I tend to start sentences and paragraphs with so quite a bit. I guess it's my written substitution for the ummm and errr which tend to creep into my speech.) So! Here are some books which will likely be read next week:

Grace by Shelley Shepard Gray. From the blurb on the back cover, I find that the Brenneman Bed & Breakfast featured in Gray's “Sisters of the Heart” trilogy becomes the setting for a charming Christmas story. Two unexpected visitors show up, hoping to stay through Christmas—a grieving widower who can't stand the idea of spending the holidays alone and a young pregnant woman with a secret. I owe this book to LoriPed who selected it from a Virtual Book Box (VBB) at BookObsessed.

Another book that I owe to LoriPed is Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley. I don't think I've read any books by Buckley, but I understand that they are very funny. In this election year, I think it will be fun to read about a president who is determined to lose his reelection campaign and who has nominated a judge from a reality TV show to the Supreme Court. Sounds rather zany and should be entertaining enough to keep me interested.

I opened Storm from the Shadows by David Weber back in March when I finished reading The Shadow of Saganami. But I just wasn't in the mood to read more than the first page and I set it aside in favor of other books that were more appealing at the time. This book is just for me, and I may not read any of it at all. I think I'm just feeling badly that this book has been displayed in the “currently reading” area on my home page for so long.

And, I've downloaded many (many) free books for my Kindle. A large number of these books are fairly short—around 100 pages or so—and may make nice fillers when I just need a change of pace. I'm going to try to post every day or two so you may see some of these freebies pop up.

I'm really looking forward to Bout of Books