Bout Of Books 15.0 – Wrap It Up!

Bout Of Books 15.0 is now officially over, and it’s time to review the numbers. I haven’t read nearly the same amount of books and pages as last Bout Of Books, but overall I’m more than happy with the results. I managed to read six books from start to finish, and read the last 20% of Neverwhere and about 50% of Dark Places as well. I started all three books I had originally planned on my Bout Of Books TBR and threw in some mystery/thriller reads as well I’m happy about. All in all I think this read-a-thon was a great success! 😀

DAY 7: SUNDAY JANUARY 10th 2016

# Pages read today: 50 (Dark Places) + 112 (Never Always Sometimes)
# Total pages read: 1.818
# Books continued: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn // Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid
# Books finished: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman // Dead Wood by Dan Ames // Serafina And The Black Cloak by Robert Beatty // All The Truth That’s In Me by Julie Berry // Confessions Of A Murder Suspect by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro //Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl //  Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid

BOOKS I’VE READ:

1. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. (5/5) My new favorite Gaiman novel; a magical realism story mixed with urban fantasy and the right dose of humor. Simply brilliant!

2. Dead Wood by Dan Ames. (3,5/5) An entertaining enough read if you like a good crime story with some interesting music references.

3. Serafina And The Black Cloak by Robert Beatty. (4/5) Very good middle grade story that has a good mix of fantasy and scary elements and I really liked the prose.

4. All The Truth That’s In Me by Julie Berry. (4,5/5) I was more than pleasantly surprised by this historical fiction novel. Such an original, beautifully written and emotional story!

5. Confessions Of A Murder Suspect by James Patterson. (4/5) It’s the first time I read a Patterson YA novel, but I flew through the pages and it was a really entertaining read.

6. Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl. (3,5/5) He is one of my favorite childhood authors and I always love rereading his work. This is not my favorite, but still good.

7. Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid. (3/5) I can’t say I was impressed by this one. It wasn’t terrible but there were some parts that really bothered me.

 

I hope you all had a great time during this read-a-thon!  😀 ❤

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Bout Of Books 15.0 – Day 6 Update

Both books I already started on day 5 or before, Dark Places and Never Always Sometimes, don’t fully convince me. I don’t want to start another one, so for now I have decided to continue Never Always Sometimes first. I read about 65% of it during day 6 of Bout Of Books 15.0, so hopefully I will be able to finish it today. As for Dark Places: I don’t think I will finish that one before the end of today. It turns out to be quite a slow read and I really don’t like the characters. I’m only continuing to see what really happened with the Day family…

DAY 6: SATURDAY JANUARY 9th 2016

# Pages read today: 6 (Dark Places) + 203 (Never Always Sometimes)
# Total pages read: 1.656
# Books continued: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn // Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid
# Books finished: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman // Dead Wood by Dani Amore // Serafina And The Black Cloak by Robert Beatty // All The Truth That’s In Me by Julie Berry // Confessions Of A Murder Suspect by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro //Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl

Bout Of Books 15.0 – Day 5

Confessions Of A Murder Suspect was such a fast read that I managed to read a lot of pages on day 5 of Bout Of Books 15.0. I picked up a copy of on Fantastic Mr. Fox as well on a whim, written by one of my favorite childhood authors Roald Dahl. I still can’t believe I haven’t read that one before! I don’t really like the characters of Dark Places, so  I have been struggling with that one… And decided to pick up Never Always Sometimes and see today which of the two I want to finish first.

DAY 5: FRIDAY JANUARY 8th 2016

# Pages read today: 34 (Dark Places) + 267 (Confessions Of A Murder Suspect) + 81 (Fantastic Mr. Fox) + 5 (Never Always Sometimes)
# Total pages read: 1.447
# Books continued: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn // Confessions Of A Murder Suspect by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
# Book started: Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl // Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid
# Books finished: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman // Dead Wood by Dani Amore // Serafina And The Black Cloak by Robert Beatty // All The Truth That’s In Me by Julie Berry // Confessions Of A Murder Suspect by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro // Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl

Bout Of Books 15.0 – Day 4 Update

I didn’t have a lot of time to read on day 4 of Bout Of Books 15.0 but I already read way more than I inicially thought anyway so I don’t mind that much. I started Dark Places the other day, but somehow I find it hard to get into the story… So I decided to keep my promise and pick up another crime novel: Confessions Of A Murder Suspect. So far it’s a really fast read!

DAY 4: THURSDAY JANUARY 7th 2016

# Pages read today: 60 (Dark Places) + 105 (Confessions Of A Murder Suspect)
# Total pages read: 1.060
# Book continued: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
# Book started: Confessions Of A Murder Suspect by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
# Books finished: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman // Dead Wood by Dani Amore // Serafina And The Black Cloak by Robert Beatty // All The Truth That’s In Me by Julie Berry

Bout Of Books 15.0 – Day 3 Update

Wait, what?! Day 3 of Bout Of Books 15.0  is over and I’ve already finished three full books?! Looks like I have set my goals way too low… But I guess I did pick short and quick reads for this read-a-thon. So far I really enjoyed all of them as well! 😀

DAY 3: WEDNESDAY JANUARY 6th 2016

# Pages read today: 100 (Serafina And The Black Cloak) + 300 (All The Truth That’s In Me) + 10 (Dark Places)
# Total pages read: 895
# Books continued: Serafina And The Black Cloak by Robert Beatty // All The Truth That’s In Me by Julie Berry
# Book started: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
# Books finished: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman // Dead Wood by Dani Amore // Serafina And The Black Cloak by Robert Beatty // All The Truth That’s In Me by Julie Berry

 

Bout Of Books 15.0 – Day 2 Update + Day 3 Challenge

Day 2 of Bout Of Books 15.0 went more than well and I already have two finished titles on my list! Although of the first only the last 20% counts and the other one was a really quick read… Still, I’m not complaining. 😀

DAY 2: TUESDAY JANUARY 5th 2016

# Pages read today: 49 (Serafina And The Black Cloak) + 163 (Dead Wood) + 10 (All The Truth That’s In Me)
# Total pages read: 485
# Books continued: Serafina And The Black Cloak by Robert Beatty // Dead Wood by Dani Amore
# Book started: All The Truth That’s In Me by Julie Berry
# Books finished: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman // Dead Wood by Dani Amore

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DAY 3 Challenge: THE RAINBOW CHALLENGE

Ranty Runt Of A Reader is hosting today’s challenge: the rainbow challenge. I love colors so this one is perfect for me! There are two parts:

For the cover challenge, collect books from your bookshelf (physical or virtual) and make yourself a rainbow using the covers. A rainbow is ROYGBIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). Then take a photo or arrange images of those books into a rainbow, and either post to twitter (@bookybecksa & #boutofbooks), post to your own blog and leave me a link in the comments below or simply comment below with your response!

Sorry for the blurry photo! From left to right the titles I’ve used are:

• Red: A Feast For Crows by George R.R. Martin
• Orange: One Day by David Nicholls
• Yellow: A Matter Of Honour by Jeffrey Archer
• Green: Inheritance by Christopher Paolini
• Blue: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
• Indigo: Careless In Red by Elizabeth George
• Violet: The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan

For the author challenge, use authors surnames to complete an acrostic poem style rainbow of ROYGBIV – you can only use surnames and no prefixes (eg. Vincent van Gogh could be used for a G, not a V). Any ‘writer’ is acceptable, for example, playwrights, poets and comic book/graphic novel authors)

This one is easy peasy since I have a list of my reviews sorted by the author’s last name. 😀

• R: Rowell, Rainbow
• O: Orwell, George
• Y: Yancey, Rick
• G: Gaiman, Neil
• B: Bardugo, Leigh
• I: Irving, Washington
• V: Vizzini, Ned

Bout Of Books 15.0 – Day 1 Update + Day 2 Challenge

Bout Of Books 15.0 has officially started! I actually managed to read more than I thought yesterday because a rainy day is the perfect excuse to stay inside and read. 😉 I finished the last 20% of Neverwhere and started two new reads as well… Hopefully I will be able to finish those by the end of day 2!

DAY 1: MONDAY JANUARY 4th 2016

# Pages read today: 67 (Neverwhere) + 155 (Serafina And The Black Cloak) + 41 (Dead Wood)
# Total pages read: 263
# Book continued: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
# Books started: Serafina And The Black Cloak by Robert Beatty // Dead Wood by Dani Amore
# Books finished: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

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DAY 2 Challenge: WOULD YOU RATHER

Writing My Own Fairy Tale is hosting today’s challenge: answering the five ‘would you rather’ questions below.

Would you rather:
Lend books to someone who dog-ears pages or to someone who reads with cheesy Cheetos fingers?

Ahhh the horror!!! I think I would stick with dog-eared pages over food smudges that will make it impossible to read some of the words. Although I would rather not lend the book at all. 😉

Would you rather:
Be able to meet one character of your choice or meet one author of your choice?

Tough one! Because if you ask me, it would be impossible to pick just one character OR author… But I think I’ll stick with the character because it would be awesome to meet someone fictional.

Would you rather:
Never be allowed in a book store again or never be allowed in a library again?

Another toughy! Not being able to enter a book store again would break my heart, but I could never go without a library.

Would you rather:
Have to choose one of your favorite characters to die in their book or have to pick one of your favorite couples to break up in their book?

Mmm, I would rather have a couple breaking up than one of my favorite characters dying… Death is just so final.

Would you rather:
Be required to read Twilight once a year for the rest of your life or The Scarlet Letter once a year for the rest of your life?

Can’t say I’ve read The Scarlet Letter and I still regret having read Twilight, so I think I will go with The Scarlet Letter just so I can at least read something ‘new’ one year.