Monday, August 24, 2015

Bout of Books 14: Progress Reports

For seven days, hundreds of readers join together to share the books they are reading. To chat about reading; to brag about progress; to encourage each other. It's Bout of Books 14. Yes, the 14th Bout of Books read-a-thon began on Monday morning. I first participated in Bout of Books 3.0 in October 2011. I haven't managed to join in every time it's been held, but seeing that there are 60 posts to this blog tagged BoutOfBooks, I can see that I've been involved quite a bit in the nearly five years since I discovered Bout of Books. And, since I just happened to schedule vacation for this week, I'm planning on spending a lot of time relaxing and reading.


Daily Status

Monday, 17 August

I spent almost all of Monday in the car as we drove from Panama City, Florida, to Monroe, Louisiana. I tried to devote all this time to reading, but I found myself dozing off from time to time. I started out reading An Excellent Mystery by Ellis Peters, the 11th book in the Brother Cadfael Medieval mystery series written by Ellis Peters. Finishing this book in the early evening, I turned to the audiobook of The Novel Habits of Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith. I picked up the recording at chapter 14, but unfortunately fell asleep after listening about 15 minutes. I'll have to plan on listening when I'm not so cozy and warm in the car!

Number of books I've read today: 2
Number of pages I've read today: 158
Total number of pages read: 158
Number of books completed today: 1
Total number of books completed: 1


Tuesday, 18 August

Tuesday—second day of Bout of Books 14 and a second day in the car. This time, driving from Monroe to home in Texas. Again I was seduced by the warm sunshine and the hum of the tires on the pavement, so I dozed off and on through the day. That didn't prevent me from reading another book, though. First thing in the morning, I decided to read The Cantor Wore Crinolines, the twelfth and final (so far?) book in the Liturgical Mysteries series by Mark Schweizer. These are so funny. A story within a story, tongue-in-cheek throughout. And, when I finished it, I started reading Mutant Legacy, the fourth and final book in Karen Haber's Fire in Winter SF series.

Number of books I've read today: 2
Number of pages I've read today: 240
Total number of pages read: 398
Number of books completed today: 1
Total number of books completed: 2

Wednesday, 19 August

Wednesday was the first day back home after our short road trip. I slept in, reading in bed and dozing every couple of pages. I listened to about a half hour of The Novel Habits of Happiness on my trip to the library to pick up a reserve book that had come available. I'll probably start reading Mexican Whiteboy tomorrow. I'm currently reading Indulgence in Death by J. D. Robb, another library book. And, yes, I set aside Mutant Legacy for now. I'm very much one who reads by the mood she is in and right now I'm just not in the mood for that book.

Number of books I've read today: 3
Number of pages I've read today: 261
Total number of pages read: 659
Number of books completed today: 1
Total number of books completed: 2

Thursday, 20 August

As I said earlier, I am on vacation from work this week. I'm having no trouble finding things to do. And no trouble avoiding the things I don't want to do—like laundry. But most of all, I enjoyed reading. I finished reading Indulgence in Death and contemplated grabbing the next in the In Death series from the library, but decided that I really had too many other books on hand that I needed to read. Started reading Mexican Whiteboy and am enjoying it.

Number of books I've read today: 2
Number of pages I've read today: 173
Total number of pages read: 832
Number of books completed today: 1
Total number of books completed: 3

Friday, 21 August

There's such a luxury in being able to sleep in on a vacation day. I didn't climb out of the bed until noon, though I was awake and reading some of the morning. Yes, I was sleeping, too. Took my Kindle to bed with me on Thursday night and was reading Mutant Legacy each time I roused. After getting dressed, I switched to Mexican Whiteboy, the hardback book I checked out of the library. I didn't read as much as in previous days—probably because I was catching up with shows recorded on the DVR.

Number of books I've read today: 2
Number of pages I've read today: 132
Total number of pages read: 964
Number of books completed today: 0
Total number of books completed: 3

Saturday, 22 August

As I post this, I'm very much aware that there's only one more day left in Bout of Books 14. I carried Mexican WhiteBoy with me when we went out to dinner last night—reading in the car to and from the restaurant. When we pulled into the garage, I had 3-4 more pages to read, so I just sat in the car until I finished! It was a very good book and I highly recommend it, especially to teenagers. I know I'm in the middle of Mutant Legacy, but when I picked it up to resume reading, I just wasn't happy. So instead, I went to the library's Overdrive page and borrowed Treachery In Death by J. D. Robb.

Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 168
Total number of pages read: 1132
Number of books completed today: 1
Total number of books completed: 4

Sunday, 23 August

Sunday, the final day of Bout of Books 14. It was another lazy day around the ranch. I did a lot of blogging—scheduling some posts for later in the week. And yes, I was reading for part of the day. Not all of it, as there were things to take care of. I finally got around to running a couple of loads of laundry since I was heading out on a business trip early Monday morning. I didn't finish any more books, but I did make decent progress in Treachery In Death.

Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 142
Total number of pages read: 1274
Number of books completed today: 0
Total number of books completed: 4

Currently Reading

Book Cover: The Novel Habits of Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith Book Cover: Mutant Legacy by Karen Haber Book Cover: Treachery in Death by J D Robb


Books Completed

Book Cover: An Excellent Mystery by Ellis Peters Book Cover: The Cantor Wore Crinolines by Mark Schweizer Book Cover: Indulgence in Death by J D Robb Book Cover: Mexican Whiteboy by Matt de la Peña

13 comments:

  1. *waves* Hey there! Glad to see you joining in Bout of Books again!

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    1. Oh yeah! I'm a sucker for a Bout of Books.

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  2. Thank you for checking out my blog! You're reading so many books! You're reading a lot of pages, too! Congrats!

    Sydney @ Miss Movie of Canada

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    1. I "dabble" in books sometimes -- starting several to see if one of them will grab me and hold my attention. It helps to be on vacation from work, too.

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    1. Thanks for the encouragement. I am having fun this week. Congrats on finishing the Outlander book.

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  4. You are putting me to shame, that's for sure!!

    Happy readings!

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    1. Fortunately, Bout of Books isn't a contest. The books you've been reading look very interesting.

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  5. Wow you are did great on this thon. Glad you had a good time Elsi!

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    1. Bout of Books is my favorite read-a-thon. Would like to finish one more book before midnight!

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  6. Who it! You did good this round of the Read a Thon!

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    1. Whoot! Even *grumbles at auto correct*

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    2. Thanks. I enjoyed having my vacation concurrent with the read-a-thon. That way, I didn't feel frustrated trying to squeeze reading time into a work day. 180+ pages per day is a pretty good pace.

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