#boutofbooks 6.0: goals and starting position

The time has come. The Bout of Books read-a-thon is now on its 6th iteration and I've signed up to participate again. This will be the fourth time I've participated in Bout of Books and you can tell that I enjoy it since I keep returning. I've labeled all my posts from previous events, and you can read about my past participation by checking my Bout of Books tag. In this first post, I'll lay out my goals and then I plan to post periodic updates throughout the week. In case you're interested, here's the official information:

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, January 7th and runs through Sunday, January 13th 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 6.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. -From the Bout of Books 6.0 team

One of the notable characteristics of Bout of Books is the use of Twitter to communicate with particpants. The organizers send periodic encouragement via tweets with the #boutofbooks hashtag. And, there are three “chats” scheduled to take place on Twitter.

My Bout of Books Goals

My Targets

My only real goal is to spend as much time reading as I can and to have fun!

Time Devoted to Reading

This time, Bout of Books is taking place during an ordinary work week, so my reading will be confined to meal times and the evenings before I go to sleep. I'm hoping that the weekend will give me plenty of time to devote to reading—but that will depend on whether I have any family activities that I need to participate in.

Books to Read

I'm lining up a couple of books that have a high likelihood to be read during the week. I reserve the right to change my mind at any time. These are a mixture of books which I owe to fellow readers over at BookObsessed.com and some high-interest books, many of which are in series that I have started and want to read further in. First up are books that I've already started reading and hope to finish this week:

• I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley—4th in the Flavia de Luce mystery series; checked out from the library; starting on page 74
• Blame it on the Mistletoe by Joyce Magnin—4th in the Bright's Pond series; a free eBook that I picked up from Amazon and which I have loaded onto my Blackberry; starting at location 821, which is about the middle of chapter 5
• The Book of Love by Kathleen McGowan—2nd in the Magdalene Line series; an audio book on 18 CDs; starting at disk 7, track 13; I probably won't finish this book since I only listen when I'm alone in the car

And then the books that I will probably start reading this week:

• The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers—a book which Candy won in a swap at BookObsessed; I need to mail this book by the end of the month
• Singer of Souls by Adam Stemple—a book which has been on my TBR stack for several years
• Vicious Circle by Linda Robertson—first in the Persephone Alcmedi paranormal series; I owe the first 3 books to Wendy from a virtual book box at BookObsessed; need to mail all 3 books by the end of March