Self Challenge: Claire's Read-A-Thons 2013-14

[✿Claire✿]

I've taken part in a couple of read-a-thons but never really kept track of how many or what I've read for them. So I've decided to challenge myself to take part in as many R-A-Ts as possible, both in GR groups and from websites. Here, I'll keep track of what I'm doing and how I get on and see if I can increase the number of books/pages I read for each one as I go.

I'm going to aim to do at least 2 in the remainder of this year, maybe 3 and then (if I can carry it on), 4 in 2014 :)

[✿Claire✿]

The first one I'm going to try and complete is:

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, August 19th and runs through Sunday, August 25th 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 8.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

My goals are:

To read at least 1000 pages
To finish 11/22/63
To read at least 3 of my free kindle books
To read at least one 'real' book (a paper copy).

[✿Claire✿]

Lets go :)

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Good luck!

[Elle]

Yay! Good luck, Claire! We can lean on each other doing the Bout of Books, hehe!

[✿Claire✿]

Elle wrote: "Yay! Good luck, Claire! We can lean on each other doing the Bout of Books, hehe!"

I'm trying to finish the book I was already reading before I start counting the pages for the Bout of Books :)

[Elle]

I made sure to read a short book over the weekend so i was finished for today. So far I've not read much.

[Jud]

I've read a couple of agatha christie short stories, but I'm not doing the read-a-thon

[✿Claire✿]

I only heard about it when I read your post yesterday but I love the idea so thought I'd take part too :) I wanted to do the 24 hour R-a-T earlier in the year but it was in the middle of my dissertation and not good timing! This way I can build up to next years ;)

[Elle]

Ye this is the first one in ages ive been able to do. I did do 2-5 but 6&7 were in term times.

[✿Claire✿]

I've added in finishing 11/22/63 as I need to read the rest of that before I go back to uni at the weekend!!

[Elle]

Ye i might add finishing some library books to mine and starting some uni books

[✿Claire✿]

(Almost)End of Monday Update:
I finished Deception Point which I won't count
Read Never Buried which was 200 pages and a free kindle book.
Starting The Youngest One which is an ARR tonight.
Edit: as The Youngest One is apparently only 8 pages long, I'm planning on reading the entirety of that and starting The List (a free kindle book) tonight.

Pages read: 200

Anticipated pages read by end of today: 225 ish

[Elle]

Well done, Claire!

[✿Claire✿]

I didn't quite finish the List today so I'll update tomorrow morning when I'm finished, only got 10% our so to go :-)

[✿Claire✿]

End of Tuesday Update:

I finished The List today, a definite 4 star read. My next aim is to finish 11/22/63 .

Pages read: 519/1000
Free Kindle books read: 2/3
Hard copy books read: 0/1
11/22/63 not finished yet.

[Elle]

tally ho!

[✿Claire✿]

End of Wednesday Update:

Read 121 pages of 11/22/63 last night.

Pages read: 540/1000
Free Kindle books read: 2/3
Hard copy books read: 0/1
11/22/63 nearer to being finished!

[Jud]

Doing well Claire :o)

[Elle]

woop! going well claire! ill need to update mine later when i get on a pc!

[✿Claire✿]

Thanks Jud and Elle! I seem to have an awful lot left to read of 11/22/63 though, and I have to finish it by Saturday morning as the book has to go back to the library!!!

[Elle]

Ye after the book I am reading today (and will probably finish tomorrow) I need to get stuck into a few library books before they are due back next week!!

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Over half way through your page count, excellent. Good luck with 11/22/63, how many pages in total?

[✿Claire✿]

It's got about 800 and I'm nearly 400 into it so far!

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Nearly half way then.

[✿Claire✿]

End of Thursday Update:

Finished 11.22.63 at 12.40 this morning! - 515 pages read today!

So....
Pages read: 1055/1000 ✓
Free Kindle Books read: 2/3
Hard copy books read: 1/1 ✓
11/22/63 finished: ✓

[✿Claire✿]

I might not get much in the way of reading done today but I'll read another kindle book (a short one!) on the train tomorrow :)

[Elle]

yay claire! i didn't get anything finished yesterday and barely any pages read as i was busy during the day then had to work early. got home from work feeling terrible so went straight to bed!

you are doing great! congratulations on hitting your targets!

[Jud]

You'll need to set yourself more difficult targets next time.

[✿Claire✿]

I definitely will. The last R-a-T I did, I set myself a target of 1400 pages in about 10 days so I thought 1000 would be fine! I hadn't really realised how many pages I had left for 11/22/63!

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Fantastic!

[✿Claire✿]

End of Friday Update (Although it's Saturday afternoon now as I've been busy packing and catching a train this morning!!)

I read nothing yesterday! Too busy making the most of the last day of being at home :)

[✿Claire✿]

End of Saturday Update:

I read about 90 pages of Blood, Sweat and Tea , hopefully I'll finish it today. The review of this one will be very interesting!!

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

I really enjoyed that, but you will probably see a different side to me.

[✿Claire✿]

I've really enjoyed doing this Read-a-Thon, thank you to the organisers :)

Last night, I finished the book Blood, Sweat and Tea so I achieved the following:

Pages read: 1335/1000 ✓
Free Kindle Books Read: 3/3 ✓
Hard copy read: 1/1 ✓
11/22/63 finshed ✓

All goals completed and I can't wait for the next one :)

[Jud]

Yay! Congrats :o)

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Glad you completed all your goals. I didn't realise there was more than one read a thon, might be able to do one later in the year, how do you find out about them?

[Jud]

Through Elle

[✿Claire✿]

I found out about this one through Elle but the next Bout of Books is in January. I don't know about any others though.

[Elle]

i follow a lot of books blogs and find out about read-a-thons via them!

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Ooh, you'll have to let us know when you hear of some then Elle, would like to try and do one this year.

[✿Claire✿]

I'll second that Desley :) I really enjoyed doing it :)

[Elle]

I will indeed. I've also just suggested in the thread with the rules that we have our own. we could always agree on a date then start a group challenge thread with the details to see if anyone else wants to join :)

Claire - i'd also try other groups on GR. a lot of them do read-a-thons for members. most of the groups i see them in are specific genres - most specifically fantasy groups (they do love challenges and read-a-thons)

[✿Claire✿]

I'm part of a team challenge in one of the groups (NBRC) which has a different themed challenge or read-a-thon most months as part of the team challenge :) I loved doing the last RaT they held and the next one's in October I think :)

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Id be up for a group one

[✿Claire✿]

Ok... R-a-T two started yesterday for the NBRC Tower Team October Challenge.

My goal is to read 2500 pages before the 19th October. I might increase my goal if I find I have more time to read than I expect but I'm looking forward to challenging myself. I'm also aiming to fit some books into categories for the challenge, which I'll post here if they fit :)

[✿Claire✿]

So far, in the first five days of this r-a-t I've read 1117 pages. The r-a-t finishes on the 26th I believe but I start work again tomorrow so my reading time will be reduced a bit so I'm probably on track at the moment. I'll list what I've read for it tomorrow :-)

[✿Claire✿]

edit to last post (I'm on my mobile app) I'd already put the finish date, the 19th! Whoops!

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Wow, that's good

[✿Claire✿]

Well... I failed at getting 2500 pages read by 19th October as work took over but I'm going to try and get there by the 26th. I'm on about 1500 at the moment, possibly more!