Bout of Books Readathon 23

Hello everyone, hope you are all happy and well. As a lover of readathons, I’ve always looked ahead in a few months to see whether there are exciting ones I can join. In the past I have joined the Tome Topple, 24 in 48, Dewey’s 24 hour, and TBR Takedown readathon and I’ve always highly enjoyed them. I signed up for the 15th Bout of Books Readathon, hosted in the Bout of Books website and I recorded my progress during that week in my older blog, Tea and Paperbacks.

The Bout of Books Readathon is held twice a year and runs one week long, in which the concept of the readathon is letting us read in a chill manner, setting our own goals and having no specific targets over the week. It’s mainly run in Twitter (which I do not own) and a lot of bloggers and Youtubers also join in. This 23rd readathon ran throughout last week, from August 20th to 27th. And in this post I will tell you my reading progress over the past week.

1. Read for a total of 50 hours during the week (focusing more in the weekdays because that’s where I have most of my free time to read).
2. Finish at least 2 books.
3. Log my progress day by day in my notebook.

My TBR:

Green tea + snuggly bed + my tiny cute yellow notebook = a great start for my readathon

I woke up late, and had a breakfast. Afterwards I continued to do the usual thing I do, working and applying for job vacancies, blogging and various stuff. I started reading after lunch, in which I picked up my library copy of English Animals by Laura Kaye. I already read 100 pages of it yesterday and I just continued reading from then. The book is lovely so far, with well-written characters and an interesting storyline.

After reading for around an hour I continued doing other errands, and I only picked up the book again after dinner where I curled up in my bed and managed to read for almost an hour again.

Total pages read: 194

 

Tuesday was horribly unproductive, reading-wise. I woke up early and went swimming and only arrived home in the afternoon. After showering, lunch, et cetera, I went back to browsing for vacancies instead of reading. In the evening I actually had time to read but instead I wasn’t really feeling inspired to read, so I went to bed earlier. But while I was lying around in bed I thought, why not listen to an audiobook?

So I read the audiobook of The Child Finder by Renee Denfeld for only 10 minutes before I realised I was dozing off. So I turned my phone off and went to bed.

Total pages read: 194 + 5 = 199*

*Note: Since I am reading from not only paperback versions of books but also e-books and audiobooks, I will be converting all the percentages and minutes into equivalent pages throughout this wrap up.

On Wednesday I was determined not to be as lazy as the day before. I woke up at 8:30 (which is later than usual), had breakfast as usual, then proceeded to read English Animals for around 2 hours in my bed. Afterwards I continued to work until lunch, and after lunch time I read again for around an hour, until I finally finished reading English Animals! The book itself was a great book, insightful on a lot of different themes, and I really enjoy reading from the main character’s perspective.

In the evening I brewed myself a cup of tea, lay down in bed, and read for around 2-3 hours until I got sleepy. I picked up a new book, an ARC I received from NetGalley with the title She Was The Quiet One by Michele Campbell. It’s a thriller and since I know it’s also ARC August, I wanted to casually participate by trying to lower down my ARCs that I haven’t read. The story is quite easy to follow and very interesting so far. It’s like a combination of Enid Blyton’s The Naughtiest Girl, Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, and a little bit of the TV show Big Little Lies.

Total pages read: 199 + 165 + 123 = 487

Thursday was just yet another day of staying at home, chilling with my book and a cup of tea, watching The Office and sitting around at the living room sofa. I read quite a lot during the day, reaching the 65% mark of She Was the Quiet One in between blogging and looking for vacancies. I also spent a lot of my time editing my new blog theme (notice the difference, anyone?) and making new header edits on Photoshop.

After dinner I read a little as well, but chose not to read and played Stardew Valley instead. I know, it’s supposed to be a readathon, and I did have a slight feeling that I’m not challenging myself enough, but I had a huge urge to play all of a sudden and I played till I got really sleepy.

Such an addicting game!

Before going to bed I did listen to around 10 minutes of The Child Finder again though, and so far it’s still boring (not really sure how I feel about the narrator), but I’m still early into the novel so I won’t stop for now.

Total pages read: 487 + 105 + 9 = 601

Excuse the same angle I always use on my pictures, it’s because I just literally live in my bed :”)

On Friday morning I woke up and immediately started reading, knowing that I won’t have much time to read in the weekends. By noon I finished She Was the Quiet One! The last hundred or so pages were very fast-paced and had a lot going on, and though I thought it was very enjoyable and that the original premise was interesting, I thought the characters were too one-dimensional, typical trope-y characters and the epilogue was a little unnecessary. Of course, I will do an overall wrap up of the books I read this August in the future.

Total pages read: 601 + 124 = 725

Saturday was a cold, windy and rainy day, perfect for staying indoors! It turned out I was able to get some reading done in the afternoon. I snuggled up under a blanket in the living room sofa while my housemates were playing on the TV, and started two different books. First I picked up Haruki Murakami’s Men Without Women, and got through two short stories in that collection.

Then I also picked up a book I bought over a year ago and have always wanted to read because I saw the author last year on a book event in Jakarta. The novel is called Kerumunan Terakhir, a novel written by Okky Madasari. It’s Indonesian and I only got to a few chapters but currently quite enjoying it. The writing style is very unique and lyrical, reminding me of Indonesian literature writing in the older days.

In the evening my boyfriend and I, along with three of our other friends went to the city to watch Crazy Rich Asians. It was fun and afterwards we had delicious dim sum, but I ended up not reading anything more after that.

Total pages read: 725 + 76 + 56 = 857 pgs

Unfortunately, Sunday was packed full of socializing, church, cleaning the house, and having general fun with my friends. I didn’t read a single book on my last day of the readathon! 😦

So finally, wrapping up the readathon, and looking back at my goals:

1. I did not actually track the amount of time I spent reading throughout the week. I started doing it on Monday but decided not to bother myself with the whole timer and watching the clock issue the next day.
2. I started a total of 5 books, and finished 2 of them!
3. I did log my daily progress of reading (pages read, etc) in my trusted old notebook diligently over the readathon.

The books I read were:

So overall I thoroughly enjoyed my Bout of Books readathon. It was uneventful and not as successful as I wanted it to be, but I was quite proud to read over 800 pages in one week. And I just cannot wait to continue reading the books I started in this readathon! Also don’t forget to expect another post from me at the end of the month about my thoughts on the books I did finish in August (both in this readathon and not).

How did your readathon go? Share your goals and whether you completed them or not in the comments below. See you next time in my blog!