Bout of Books 11 -- My goals

In just a few days, I'll be joining lots of other readers in Bout of Books 11. I was the 453rd person to sign up for the week-long event, and there are already a couple of people signing up behind me. As stated on the Bout of Books web site, the read-a-thon “is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week.” Yay! Low-pressure is the best part.

Bout of Books 11 occurs during a normal work week. I'm currently on a business trip to Raleigh, NC, which ends on Friday the 22nd. The airplane trip home will definitely be used for reading. After all, what else can you do on a plane except sleep?

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

Given my work schedule, I'll be limited to reading during meal times and the evenings before I go to sleep. In addition to my airplane trip home, I'm counting on using the weekend to make a big push at the end of the read-a-thon.

Books to Read

While I'm away from home, I'll be reading exclusively on my Kindle. I have the following books queued up to choose from:

Mission of Honor by David Weber is the 12th book in Weber's Honor Harrington series. I've gotten each of these directly from Baen eBooks and a purchase gives you the book in every possible format, DRM free. I set a goal this year to complete a couple of series and the Honorverse books (all 3 series) are among my targeted series.. After this book, I'll have two more to go. These are LONG books, so I don't want to wait too late in the year to get moving on this goal.

Lady Fortescue Steps Out is the first book in M. C. Beaton's cozy mystery series, The Poor Relations series. I've borrowed this one from Amazon through their Kindle Owner's Lending Library, available to subscribers to the Amazon Prime program. While I'm tickled pink that Amazon allows me to borrow books, it is unfortunate that they restrict you to only one book per calendar month. Particularly when the same Amazon Prime program gives you unlimited video streaming. This is a series that I'm quite eager to read, but the Kindle books are priced much too high, particularly given the rather thin book size. Borrowing—whether from Amazon or the library—is the right way to go.

A Lady of Resources by Shelley Adina is a novel in her Magnificent Devices steampunk series. I read through the first four books in a couple of weeks at the end of May. In addition to the usual steampunk stuff—dirigibles, steam-powered mechanical devices, Victorian era—it's got a crew of young adults who are the primary characters. It's a fun series and I look forward to the highjinks from The Lady of Devices and her company.

I'm listening to King and Maxwell, the sixth book in David Baldacci's mystery series. This is one series where I have listened to the unabridged audio for every book rather than reading the text. I love the way that this is recorded with two readers—Ron McLarty is the primary narrator and voices all the male characters and Orlagh Cassidy voices all the female characters. This makes for a much more enjoyable listening experience.

I reserve the right to change my mind at any time, but in addition to those books, I may choose from the following books near the top of my TBR stack:

Forbidden Fruit is the 5th book in Kerry Greenwood's Corrina Chapman mystery series. I've been reading straight through this series this year. The first book was a freebie from Amazon and I've been able to check the remainder out of the library through their Freading eBook service. Since Freading doesn't support the Kindle, this will have to wait until the weekend when I can download it to my BeBook reader.

I've fallen behind in Sue Grafton's mystery series starring Kinsey Millhone. I've got a copy of U is for Undertow to read and there are two more published. If I read these three books, I'll be caught up until X is published in Fall of 2015.