Tuesday 12 May 2015

Bout of Books 13.0 | Reading Updates 11/5 - 15/5


So it has just hit the end of the first day of Bout of Books and I've completed one of my goals - finish my book club book.  Huzzah!!  Rather then having separate daily update posts I'm going to use this post for my each of my daily updates.  So lets get started:

Monday
Number of books I’ve read today: 1
Number of pages I’ve read today: 140
Total number of books I’ve finished: 1
Total pages read: 140
Books: The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid
Daily challenge: Bookish Survey hosted by Writing My Own Fairytale 



Tuesday Challenge: 


The Questions: 
1. How do you organize your shelves?
    ~ My main shelves are organised in Dewey order, I've also got them separated into Genres. I have a bookshelf with my 1001 books and another for uni texts. And don't get me started on all the boxes...
2. What is one of your favorite book that’s not in one of your favorite genres?
    ~ Strickly speaking it's not very sci-fi, but Foundling by Octavia Butler.  I don't read a lot of sci-fi, but I wanted to try reading more and I thought starting with vampires (which I do read a bit of), would be a good place to begin. I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to more of her work. 
3. What is the last 5 star book you read?
    ~ Tempest Tales by Walter Mosley. Absolutely brilliant. Read it!!
4. What book are you most excited to read during the read-a-thon?
    ~ There's two that I bought for my birthday last month - graphic novel, The Wicked + The Divine by Gillen, McKelvie, Wilson & Cowles and a poetry book by Langston Hughes.
5. What book do you recommend the most?
    ~ At work I often rec Year of Wonders & Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks or Secret River by Kate Grenville, YA I'd go for On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta. 

Until tomorrow, happy reading :)

Tuesday
Number of books I've read today: 0
Number of pages I've read today: 20 and 2 hrs of audio
Total number of books I've finished: 1
Total pages read: 160
Books: The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid
Daily challenge: Character Face Off hosted by LuLo FanGirl


I started listening to two books on Tuesday, the first T'was the Night After Christmas by Sabrina Jeffries.  This is a regency romance in her Hellions of Halstead Hall series (Book 6).  The prologue was an absolute scream, picture two 8 year old boys facing off like 60 year old men!  I've only heard a disc so far, but I'm enjoying it so far.  The next book I started was Nobody Deserves to be here more than you by Miranda July.  This was not at all what I expected it to be.  For some reason I thought it was written by the lady who stars in Miranda, (who I've since realised is Miranda Hart).  To be honest, if I wasn't listening to this, I don't think I would keep reading.  It is a collection of short stories, some of which I do enjoy, others are really not my cup of tea.  And lastly, Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, I'm only 20 pages in and loving it.  I like the format of novels in verse.  And how could I not enjoy a book that opens with one of my favourite Langston Hughes poems!

I didn't take part in the challenge today, by the time I got home I was ready to drop, so maybe I'll have more luck on Wednesday.

Until then, happy reading :)

Wednesday
Number of books I've read today: -
Number of pages I've read today: 3 hrs of audio
Total number of books I've finished: 1
Total pages read: 160 pgs and 5 hrs of audio
Books: The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid
Daily challenge: Book Haiku hosted by Kristina Horner


I'm continuing on with my audios, although I've requested the print version of T'was was the night after Christmas because while the narrator is making me laugh it's kind of for the wrong reason.  It's very distracting and I think it would be a more enjoyable experience to read the book.  As for No one belongs here more than you, I'm almost done, I've got maybe an hour left and I've got to say I kind of wish that I read this one as well or at least listened to a couple of stories at a time rather than all at once.  It all kinds of runs into one big stream of consciousness. I didn't even get a chance to pick up Brown Girl Dreaming, which is the one book that I really want to read, go figure!  And in something that is no surprise...no challenge today either.

Thursday
Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 2 hrs of audio (so far)
Total number of books I've finished: 2
Total pages read: 160 pgs and 5 hrs of audio
Books: The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid, No one belongs here more than you by Miranda July.
Daily challenge: Modern to Classic hosted by Ranty Runt of a Reader


Thursday Challenge:

The challenge for Thursday was to pick a book that you thought would become a classic and why.



My answer for this would be On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta.  This was published in 2006 in Australia and later as Jellicoe Road in the USA, where it won the 2009 Michael L. Printz award.  This tells the story of Taylor Markham, who was abandoned by her mother on Jellicoe Road when she was 11.

I can't really put my finger on what it is about this story, but it is one of my favourites.  The first time I read this, I knew nothing about it and I just sank myself in the story.  It was amazing.  But I could honestly reread this over and over.  It is beautifully written, made my heart hurt. It's great for discussion and I think it would work well for the classroom, (Looking for Alibrandi,  an earlier book of Marchetta's  is read for English in Australian high schools).  I also think it is easy to relate to, it's about journeys and coming of age.

Friday
Number of books I've read today: 0 :(
Number of pages I've read today: 3 hr of audio, not sure what that amounts to in pages.
Total number of books I've finished: 2
Total pages read: 365 pgs and 7 hours of audio.  I finished another disc of T'was and listened to the first 16 chapters of 'Not my father's son' by Alan Cumming.
Books: The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid, No one belongs here more than you by Miranda July.
Daily challenge: Cover Colour Challenge hosted by Wishful Endings


Friday Challenge

So I picked red as the colour that I wanted to use for the challenge today.  I am so tempted by the Penguin Drop Caps, the typography on them is beautiful...maybe if I had a spare $500.00!!  Until then I'll just covet them from afar.  Pride & Prejudice is the only book I've read of these, although I own Dracula & An Abundance of Katherines.  I've heard lots of good things about Ruby Red, but can't seem to find it locally.

How about you - have you read any of these?  Have any other red covered recommendations, better yet, leave me a link to your Colour Cover Challenge so I can have a look at what you've picked :)



Until next time, happy reading :)

C.

6 comments:

  1. Happy reading to you and good luck with your reading goals!

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    1. Thanks, I'm not doing too bad, plenty of audio throughout the week, but bring on the weekend, time to put my feet up and read :) Thanks for commenting, hope you're enjoying the readathon as well.

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  2. Loving that copy of Dracula" Great job :)

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    Replies
    1. It is beautiful isn't it. I love the end papers, they're marbled. Thanks for dropping by.

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  3. Looks like you're doing pretty good. Thanks for doing my challenge!

    Tressa @ Wishful Endings

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by, I had lots of fun :) I'm looking forward to the next one now.

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