Miscellaneous is the tagline to store my random posts that don’t really belong elsewhere. It’s more for consistency sake so I can have an itty-bitty picture to follow suit with the post.
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, May 12th and runs through Sunday, May 18th 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 10 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.
Initial Thoughts:
What Is It?
Bout of Books is a low-pressure read-a-thon which runs from May 12th-18th in whatever time zone you live in.
The Sales Pitch
Usually read one novel a week? Challenge yourself to more.
Fancy the sports column in the newspaper? Try reading arts for a change.
Laughing at an xkcd or cyanide and happiness comic? Why not consider a lengthier graphic novel, comic book, or manga for a change?
Already participating in a read-a-thon? Kill two endeavours with one book.
If you’re involved in any form of reading, you’re pretty much indirectly participating anyways—but let’s shine some positive magical dust or [shrug goes here] whatever you call it—on all of this. While Bout of Books is focused on its namesake, one might even consider dabbling in alternative avenues of reading as well. I mean hey, you’ve already lived hundreds of lives through varying sets of eyes in the texts you read–what’s another flip through a newspaper column or a comic book for that matter? There are also daily challenges you can join in on to be around like-minded people, share some thoughts, and enjoy the community.
What’s more important to know is that the idea behind setting achievable goals, while stimulating when attained, is not the be-all and end-all of this challenge. I would say that one of the greatest achievements from any read-a-thon is the value in being more informed. So as a reader of any form of text, you’re already consuming the knowledge that would qualify you to be participating anyways…so why don’t you just head over to Bout of Books and sign up anyways!
Always experience, think, and learn.
Why Am I Participating?
Why not? – is my response to that.
What Are My Goals?
Reading goals: three novels and catching up on manga.
As an amazing procrastinator, my limited attention span has won me accolades for trumping daily reading goals so this goal-setting is likely a bad idea. Wait, I know what you’re thinking (or maybe I’m thinking this…who knows): “but Joey, you only read like–less than half a book a week—are you stupid?…that’s a 500% increase, aren’t you just setting yourself up for failure?”
How accurate of you to know my poor reading habits! You’re probably right, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
What Am I Reading?
I’ve already selected potential candidates for this read-a-thon but will finalise these picks closer to the actual date because—
*Cue Pokemon battle theme*
Nice Cover used Provocative-omgIneedtoreadthisnow Synopsis.
It’s super effective!
—my willpower to read a book changes so quickly when I find new reads.
Update May 9th, 2014:
See the follow-up post by clicking here to view the books selected and the on-going updates log.
Afterthoughts:
This would mark my first time joining in on a read-a-thon so cheers to not getting cold feet. Let me know if you aren’t convinced though—I’ll bring out the big logic bombs, ramp up the keyboard smash, and hurt both our minds in the process (actually, I don’t have much else to add).
Cheers,
Joey
thoughts and afterthoughts. 
I might actually join this as well! I haven’t participated in any reading events so this’ll be interesting.
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You should! It’s my first reading event as well and it took a little bit of convincing to decide on this but I’m sure it’ll be all fun and games by the end of it.
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Yay, you should totally do this. I really love Bout of Books – it’s a great way to meet people and get more reading done.
I decided to dedicate my reading that week to charity to help give me even more reason to read! I posted about it over at my blog if you’re interested in checking it out!
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I’m super curious (and excited) to see what some of these challenges have in store for us — yours included!
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I think I’ll do this as well. Is there an official sign up or do I just jump on in? I want to finish the Beautiful Creatures series and the Mortal Instruments before the new books come out and I’ve only read the first book of each so this will be a good motivator for me.
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Great to hear, Hayley!
The official rules (I think) involve either a post or a twitter declaration of your participation that you can then link in the post by clicking here.
But you could also just join in on the whole experience without signing up as well (the choice is yours). I know what you mean–there are some books that I’m considering starting before it’s sequel gets published so what better way than to binge read everything!
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This sounds fun! Maybe I’ll join in, too. It’ll help pull me out of my reading slump.
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Well… I’m not an advocate of forcing yourself to read but I guess you could consider the read-a-thon like one to get you back into the swing of things!
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I don’t like to force myself to read, either, because I like my reading time to be fun time (I haven’t really picked up a book in days…). A read-a-thon would probably help get me back into the swing of things 😀
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All it takes is that one book to get you back into the swing of things!
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I’m doing it too! Let’s support each other and help each other to reach our goals during that week! Although I haven’t decided what books I am doing yet…
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Sounds great! I have a few novels in mind that I have/need/should read but it’s certainly difficult to finalize the picks. Not sure if I want to announce a trilogy/series though in case I’m bogged down by a reading slump due to the actual story/writing.
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Hmmm that’s tough…. I don’t think I’m gunna post or even finalise my TBR until like the day or two days before so maybe if you do the same you’ll have a better idea as to whether you want to do a series/trilogy or not =]
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Haha, I already have my post scheduled and the books listed. I’d say my choices are pretty final give/or take one of them being easily swapped for another read-a-long book club novel that I’m still debating on.
…but then again I rewatched the maze runner trailer the other day and I’m all like “NEEEEDTOREADDDDD”. But I digress.
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The Maze Runner movie, thanks to the trailer, looks amazing!! I remember when that book first came out, many a time I’ve been tempted to buy it and read it but still haven’t. And then I heard the other two books aren’t so great in comparison but I will get around to at least the first book sometime!
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RIGHT? That’s why I’m so torn about what to read haha. A lot of books never live up to the first installment so I’m not that extremely irked (yet) about it (though I haven’t heard anything past the first novel…so that’s good).
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I think I might participate in this readathon as a way to read some books outside of my “comfort zone” and help me with my unofficial goals for 2014. I’ll have to raid my bookshelves later and see what might be some good choices for me to read 😀
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Sounds like a great idea! Some of my goals are also to (slowly) expand the genres I read so although I’ve been sticking to a 2:1 ratio of sci-fi:other…I might swap the ratio around this time to make it 1:2!
I just need to decide on what to read and be definitive about it. I’m pretty wishy-washy with books I think I will read but then do a last minute swap…and my TBR grows even more.
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