Bout of Books Update!

This is the page where I will update my Bout of Books progress throughout the week.

Goals for the week:

read at least 5 books 

read for at least three hours every day (180 minutes) 

participate in at least one Twitter chat 

participate in at least two mini challenges 

Progress:

Monday

Books Read: 1

Pages Read: 320

Minutes Read: 225 (3 hours and 15 minutes)

Notes: Finished History is all you left me by Adam Silvera. Believe it or not,  I could have read more today, but I had a horrible migraine and it was one of those migraines that would not allow me to read very much. That doesn't happen very often. 

Tuesday

Books Read: 1.35

Total Books Read: 2

Pages Read: 444

Minutes Read: 250 (4 hours 10 minutes)

Notes: Read The Radius Of Us, which was an incredible book. Started reading For The Most Beautiful: A Novel of the Women of Troy. It's got me hooked so far.


Wednesday

Books Read: 1

Total Books Read: 3

Pages Read: 482

Minutes Read: 190 (3 hours 10 minutes)

Notes: Finished Beautiful: A Novel of the Women of Troy. That one was basically a retelling of Homer's Illiad and it was so incredibly good. Started The Girl From Everywhere. It was good, but the middle is dragging too much. Also did some reading of an unpublished manuscript I am getting paid to critique. The challenge today was to post about a book you would like to see made into a movie.

Thursday

Books Read: 2

Total Books Read: 5

Pages Read: 480

Minutes Read: 285 (4 hours 45 minutes)

Notes: Happy with all the reading I got done today. Finished The Girl From Everywhere. Sorry, but I was not in love with that book. I was bored the whole time. Also finished an unpublished manuscript for critique.

Friday

Books Read: 1

Total Books Read: 6

Pages Read: 375

Minutes Read: 185 (3 hours 5 minutes)

Notes:
 Read Don't Touch by Rachel Wilson. 

Saturday


Books Read:

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Minutes Read:

Notes:

Sunday

Books Read:

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Books I have read during Bout of Books:

History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera (4 stars)
The Radius of Us by Marie Marquardt (5 stars)
For The Most Beautiful: A Novel of the Women of Troy by Emily Hauser (5 stars)
The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig (2 stars)
Devil In Her Bed - unrated and unpublished manuscript
Don't Touch by Rachel Wilson (4 stars)

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End of the Year Survey

Jamie over at Perpetual Page Turner has created a phenomenal survey to look back over the year at some of my highest (and lowest) book related moments. 

2016 Reading Stats

Number Of Books You Read: 243

Number of Re-Reads: 3 (need to work on this for next year!)

Genre You Read The Most From: It was contemporary (again), but looking at last year's chart, it seems like I did read more of a variety of genres this year.

And most of what I read was young adult. I would like to read more adult fiction next year.

Ratings Statistics: Looks like I had more four star ratings than anything else. Very happy that the one and two star numbers are so low! I read a lot of great books this year.

Number of female authors read: 201

Number of male authors read: 39 (**there were also three books that were written by male and female author combo. I feel like I should read more male authors next year)

Best In Books

1. Best Book You Read In 2016?

This is a really hard question. If you want my entire best of the year list, you can go here. But really, the best books I read this year were the books in the Harry Potter series. I read it for the first time this year and I totally fell in love.

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

Midnight Star (Young Elites #3) by Marie Lu . . . I may be in the minority with this one. I just didn't love it as much as the first two.

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?  
The subject of Whisper to Me really surprised me. I didn't realize that it was a book about mental illness. It was also very well done. And science fiction is not usually my favorite, but Ready Player One was a phenomenal read that I just could not put down.

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read?

5. Best series you started in 2016? Best Sequel of 2016? Best Series Ender of 2016?

It should go without saying that the entire Harry Potter series could definitely fit the answer to this question. But since I have already used it as an answer to other questions on this survey, I decided to give some love to a few other series!

Best series started

Best sequel 

Best series ending 

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2016?

I discovered three incredibly talented women this year: Meg Ellison, Taylor Jenkins Reid and VE Schwab.

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

 9. Book You Read In 2016 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

I am really hoping to be better about rereads in 2017. This is a series that I could see myself rereading every year. 

10. Most memorable character of 2016?

The character of Jack from Room

11. Most beautifully written book read in 2016?

12. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2016?

I think every single book by Taylor Jenkins Reid is thought provoking. This one really made me think about my own marriage and how important it is to communicate. I absolutely adored this book.

13. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2016 to finally read? 

14. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2016?

15. Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2016?

Longest - Gone with the Wind (1057 pages)
Shortest - The Heir Apparent (Internment Chronicles #2.5) by Lauren DeStefano (16 pages)

16. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)

(OTP = one true pairing if you aren’t familiar)

Kady and Ezra from Illuminae

17. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year

Hannah and Gabby from Maybe in Another Life

I read this one at the beginning of the year and it is still one of my favorite friendships of the year . . . possibly one of my favorite literary friendships ever.

18. Favorite Book You Read in 2016 From An Author You’ve Read Previously

19. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2016?

Crosbie from Undecided

20. Best 2016 debut you read?

21. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

22. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?

23. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2016?

I had to edit this one a bit. I am a very easy crier. If I listed all the books that nearly made me cry, I would be listing most of the books I have read this year. These are books that caused me to have tears running down my face.

24. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

25. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

26. Most Unique Book You Read In 2016?

27. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?

Looking Ahead

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2016 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2017?

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2017 (non-debut)?

These are just a few of the books I am looking forward to in 2017.

3. 2017 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2017?

There are so many sequels coming out next year!

So that's it for my 2016 survey. Hope everyone has a wonderful new year! Tell me how your reading has gone in 2016. What books are you looking forward to most in 2017?

Bout of Books and Discussion Challenge Sign Up

It's that time of year again . . . time for another Bout of Books AND it's time for me to recommit myself to posting as many discussion posts as I can over the next year!

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, January 2nd and runs through Sunday, January 8th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.

Here are a few of the books that I plan on reading over the week.

I am also excited for another round of the Discussion Challenge.

Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction & Shannon at It Starts at Midnight are hosting the 2017 Book Blog Discussion Challenge. The aim is to write the number of discussion posts on your blog from your chosen level. I'm choosing Chatty Kathy: 21-30. 

I have some great discussion ideas so I hope I can keep up with this challenge. The challenge is a great incentive for me to post things other than reviews and top ten posts.

Are you participating in any challenges? Are you going to join in on this round of Bout of Books?