BookTubeAThon 2014 [Progress]

Instead of doing seven individual updates, I have decided to combine my progress from the week into one, convenient post:



[ Day One ]

▫ Began and finished reading Cress by Marissa Meyer
▫ Completed the Read a Book with Red on the Cover and Read a Book from the Genre You've Read the Least challenges

# of hours read on Day One: about 9 (total = 9)
# of pages read on Day One: 550 (total = 550)
# of books read on Day One: 1 (total = 1)
# of challenges completed on Day One: 2 (total = 2)


[ Day Two ]

▫ Began and finished reading Carswell's Guide to Being Lucky by Marissa Meyer
▫ Began and finished reading Glitches by Marissa Meyer
▫ Began and finished reading The Little Android by Marissa Meyer

# of hours read on Day Two:about 2 (total = 11)
# of pages read on Day Two: 70 (total = 620)
# of books read on Day Two: 3 novellas (total = 4)
# of challenges completed on Day Two: 0 (total = 2)


[ Day Three ]

▫ Began and finished reading Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
▫ Completed the Read a Book with Pictures challenge

# of hours read on Day Three: about 2 (total = 13)
# of pages read on Day Three: 369 (total = 989)
# of books read on Day Three: 1 (total = 5)
# of challenges completed on Day Three: 1 (total = 3)


[Day Four ]

▫ Began reading Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

# of hours read on Day Four: about 3 (total = 16)
# of pages read on Day Four: 145 (total = 1,134)
# of books read on Day Four: 0 (total = 5)
# of challenges completed on Day Four: 0 (total = 3)


[ Day Five ]

▫ Finished reading Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

# of hours read on Day Five: about 3 (total = 19)
# of pages read on Day Five: 211 (total = 1,345)
# of books read on Day Five: 1 (total = 6)
# of challenges completed on Day Five: 0 (total = 3)


[ Day Six ]

▫ Began and finished reading Wake by Lisa McMann
▫ Completed the Read Seven Books/Stories challenge

# of hours read on Day Six: about 3 (total = 22)
# of pages read on Day Six: 216 (total = 1,561)
# of books read on Day Six: 1 (total = 7)
# of challenges completed on Day Six: 1 (total = 4)


[ Day Seven ]

▫ Began and finished reading Fade by Lisa McMann
▫ Began and finished reading Gone by Lisa McMann
▫ Completed the Begin and Finish a Series challenge

# of hours read on Day Seven: about 6 (total = 28)
# of pages read on Day Seven: 467 (total = 2,028)
# of books read on Day Seven: 2 (total = 9)
# of challenges completed on Day Seven: 1 (total = 5)

BookTubeAThon 2014 [TBR]

The thought of an actual, planned TBR pile gives me anxiety. LOTS of anxiety. But read-a-thons are about challenging yourself, eh?

Here are the week's reading goals set by the BookTubeAThon's creator, Ariel Bissett:

1. Read a book with pictures:

It is a book. And it is made up of pictures. Challenge #1: check!

2. Start and finish a series:

As seems to be the trend, I am choosing a duology; both books a relatively quick read. I'm not sure how well this particular challenge will go; if, at the end of the week, I feel up to reading these two books, then I will. If not, I wont be disappointed.

3. Read a book with red on the cover:

Might I draw your attention to the red ribbon braided into her hair?

I am not in the habit of reading an unfinished series all at once—sidenote, in case you were unaware: I have recently completed Cinder and will be done with Scarlet tonight—but OH. MY. I am in love with this story.

4. Read a book someone else has chosen for you:

I will not be doing this challenge. It is difficult enough for me to plan ahead and possibly read something I may not be in the mood for. The added stress of reading something someone else has chosen for me is unnecessary.

5. Read a book from the genre you have read the least from this year:

Once again we have Cress by Marissa Meyer, counting toward two challenges this week. This book falls under the genre of Science Fiction and Steampunk.

6. Read a book-to-movie adaptation:

It is not a movie, but will be. That counts, right?

7. Read 7 books stories:

The original goal was to read seven books, but with how well my reading has been going this month and how anxious I am to be creating a TBR, I am afraid that saying I will read seven actual books may be pushing my luck - not to mention setting myself up for major disappointment (my average is 2-3 books a week). So, I have tweaked the challenge a bit; allowing novellas to count toward the final number as well.

And here they are:

▫ Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3) by Marissa Meyer
▫ Carswell's Guide to Being Lucky (The Lunar Chronicles #3.1) by Marissa Meyer
▫ Glitches (The Lunar Chronicles #0.5) by Marissa Meyer
▫ The Little Android (The Lunar Chronicles #0.6) by Marissa Meyer
▫ Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
▫ If I Stay by Gayle Forman
▫ Where She Went (If I Stay #2) by Gayle Forman

. . . .

And there you have it: my first ever, official TBR! Anyone else participating in the BookTubeAThon this year?

Teaser Tuesday [July 1]

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. All you have to do is grab your current read, open to a random page, and share two teaser sentences (that don't give too much away).



This week's, extremely ominous teaser:

"Leave now, Dusty. Paul's message read. It's dangerous. Don't talk to her. Don't do anything except get out."

— The Nightmare Dilemma by Mindee Arnett (page 200)

June 2014 Wrap-up [spoiler free!]

June was fairly uneventful, reading-wise. After completing the Bout of Books read-a-thon in May, I entered the month in a reading slump of sorts and could not bring myself to sit still for very long. Thankfully, it ended after I indulged in a few of the more action-y books on my TBR shelf, but I still only managed to complete a handful of reads before the month's end.

☆☆☆☆☆

1. Monsters of Men (Chaos Walking #3) by Patrick Ness. This book was an emotional roller-coaster, and I loved every minute of it. After setting aside Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira, I needed something fast-paced and action-packed, and Monsers of Men was the perfect fit. I absolutely adore this series, and the ending—while heartbreaking—was very fitting and emotional. Completing this book allowed me to check off two of my personal 2014 reading goals: to finish a series (progress = 1/10) and read a book that had been on my physical TBR shelf for longer than six months.

☆☆☆





2. Snowscape (Chaos Walking #3.5) by Patrick Ness. The last line was what did me in. Oh, my heart.

☆☆☆☆

3. The New World (Chaos Walking #0.5) by Patrick Ness. As far as prequel novellas go, The New World—while not at all what I was expecting—turned out to be very interesting and insightful. I was originally hoping for glimpses of Todd's parents; their struggle upon arriving in New World and how their ending came about, but Viola's past proved to be equally vital and I quite enjoyed reading from her POV before Todd and the Mayor.

☆☆☆☆





4. To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han. First of all: there's going to be a second book? YES, PLEASE. In truth, I was expecting this to be another cutesy contemporary, filled with fluff and happy endings. However, there were some powerful themes present that I was not expecting; the importance of family, friendship, first loves and how to move on. I quite enjoyed the fake boyfriend/girlfriend scheme and was vaguely reminded of The Duff (but better, obviously). There were a few things that I did not like, such as Laura Jean's babyish attitude and a few of the more annoying characters, but the writing was beautiful and I continually found myself far more emotionally invested in the story than I should have been. The cliffhanger ending was a perfect set-up for the second book and I cannot wait to find out what happens next. Hopefully it will also be written from Laura Jean's POV.

☆☆☆☆

5. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith. The unnecessary/annoying family drama, cheesiness and lack of any real struggle or journey kept me from enjoying this book as much as I was hoping to. Oliver was definitely a favorite, but other than his character and the lovely writing—though, I am not really a fan of third-person POV—I found myself reading just to finish.

And the two books I began but did not finish this month were:

. . . . 

May Stats:

▫ Read 3 books (and 2 novellas)

▫ Read 1,591 pages

GR's 2014 Reading Challenge (Progress):

▫ Read 31 of 70 books

▫ Currently 3 books behind schedule

Upcoming Releases:

▫ Landline by Rainbow Rowell -- July 8, 2014

▫ Four by Veronica Roth -- July 8, 2014

▫ Lets Get Lost by Adi Alsaid -- July 29, 2014

Taking my awful, two+ week long reading slump, I think I did relatively well this month. Hopefully I can bring my Goodread's reading challenge number up during July.

The year is already half over! How are your goals coming along? Read anything good this month?