Hello everyone! I have made a decision: I’m am going to participate in #boutofbooks this year, hooray! This is a really relaxed read-a-thon running from the 4th January to the 10th January (so just the Monday to Sunday). It’s hosted over @ Bout of Books and occurs several times a year. So don’t stress if now isn’t a good time for you – keep an eye out for the next one in May! I haven’t actually ‘officially’ participated in a RAT yet so I’m quite excited.

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 4th and runs through Sunday, January 10th 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 15 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

I will be updating right here for the week so be sure to check back each day to see how I’m going! I’ll do a wrap up at the end of the week as well. So, onto goals!

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 Time Devoted to Reading:

I will try to read every day HOWEVER I am working Monday to Saturday (yay) so I don’t know how much time I’ll actually have to read. Maybe I’ll do a crazy reading stint on Sunday and read 50 in one go. Har har.

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 My Goals:

My goal is to read 3 books! Although I’m expecting I’ll read more like, two. The ultimate goal here is to have fun and to chomp through my Christmas books.

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 Books to Read:

These are the three books that I would like to annihilate this week, however, on the off chance that I actually finish all three early I shall read books that I pick at the time.

Legacy of the Clockwork Key by Kristin Bailey

**I’m currently 100 pages into this prior to the challenge**

According to Yes by Dawn French

Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin

In a magical world I will read another ten books. But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves here.

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Updates:

Monday:
Total number of books I’ve read: 0
Pages I’ve read today: 60
Total number of pages I’ve read: 60
Books:

• Legacy of the Clockwork Key

So today was a bit of slow reading day for me, I got really distracted from my reading (and I swear watching Disney movies had nothing to do with it . . .). I’m sure Tuesday will be better – hopefully I can finish the book!

Today’s challenge was to describe yourself in 6 words so see what I did for that HERE.

Tuesday:
Total number of books I’ve read: 0
Pages I’ve read today: 88
Total number of pages I’ve read: 148
Books:

• Legacy of the Clock Work Key
  

Today’s challenge was Would You Rather . . .  hosted over @ Writing My Own Fairy Tale — see below for my answers!

Okay so reading is going embarrassingly slow, I’ve had to work a lot, okay? The book is getting really good and I fully expect it to be finished tomorrow *hard stare at future self*. I’m very nearly at the end, and then it’ll be Dawn French time, *jumpy happy dance*!

Wednesday:
Total number of books I’ve read: 0
Pages I’ve read today: 102
Total number of pages I’ve read: 250
Books:

• Legacy of the Clockwork Key

Gah. I was so there, so nearly there. And then I fell asleep. I think I’m just about the worst book marathoner there is. And I wanted to read 4 books this week, welp. I’ve very, very nearly finished Legacy now and will be moving on to Dawn French tomorrow, I’m sure of it. However, let’s lower the bar now and expect only to finish that one haha. I’ve ended up having to work even more this week than I originally thought due to people being sick, so there’s an excuse if you need one.

Today’s challenge was the Rainbow challenge hosted over @ Ranty Runt of a Reader (ooh that alliteration, just gives me the good shivers). Definitely head over to that link and check out the magnificent rainbook (that’s my new slang for a rainbow + book, original, I know) that’s haunting that page! There are two parts to this challenge, one is to make a rainbow and the other is to list authors whose names make up the acronym ROYGBIV. Scroll below to see mine!

Thursday:
Total number of books I’ve read: 1
Pages I’ve read today: 67
Total number of pages I’ve read: 317
Books:

• Legacy of the Clockwork Key
• According to Yes

Geez, it’s like pulling teeth, man. BUT I DID IT. I finished a book (hallelujah). I rated Legacy of the Clockwork Key a 4/5 stars – it was so much fun to read and I love all the characters. I only read 20 pages of According to Yes (by Dawn French) but I can tell it’s going to be funny and I can’t wait to have a bit more time to really sink my teeth into it.

Today’s challenge is Villain Mashup hosted over @ Bingeing on Books. We have to pick two villains from different books who we’d like to see fight together and why. There are going to be some pretty amazing fights happening, I can tell. Scroll down below to see my pairing!

Friday:
Total number of books I’ve read: 1
Pages I’ve read today: 67
Total number of pages I’ve read: 384
Books:

• Legacy of the Clockwork Key {finished}
• According to Yes {on page 68}
• Nirvana {11% / on page 15}
• Gallipoli {12% / on page 118}

So today was another sort of slow day. But hey ho it was a Friday and I was tired thanks for my very long week of work. I came home from my shift and decided that first I needed to do some serious napping, and then let myself rampage through some of my e-books. Which resulted in me picking up Nirvana  by J. R. Stewart which is one I received via NetGalley – it’s super short so I thought why not? I also danced around Gallipoli by Les Carlyon and read 4 pages of that (which sounds pathetic but it is a history work so I learnt a whole bunch of things just on those pages) – I really need to get a wriggle on with that book. I’m still crawling through According to Yes, it’s curious but I think I’m going to enjoy it. Here’s to getting distracted on a very short TBR, true to Kirstie style.

Today’s challenge is Scavenger Hunt hosted over @ The Book Monsters. There are a few criteria that we had to follow as we snooped around our bookish photo albums to source some delightful snaps! Scroll below to see my finds.

Saturday:
Total number of books I’ve read: 1
Pages I’ve read today: 174
Total number of pages I’ve read: 558
Books:

• Legacy of the Clockwork Key {finished}
• According to Yes {on page 242}
• Nirvana {11% / on page 15}
• Gallipoli {12% / on page 118}

Hooray! Today was my last day of work for the week (thumbs up to a one day weekend). Saturday was slow at work so I managed to squeeze in some reading and check out that progress. According to Yes suddenly got extremely addictive and I was fighting with myself to put it down coming on 1am (which I’m still counting at “Saturday”, okay?). It was the only book that I read due to this crazy addiction and I will definitely be finishing it tomorrow. I might finish Nirvana as well and then stick my nose into Wolf by Wolf, we will see. It was a great day for reading.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to do the challenge for today which was The Comfy Reading Spot hosted over @ Once Upon a Chapter – you can check out other people’s challenges there. Between work and not being able to put the book down I just didn’t get around to it. In all honesty I don’t have a specific “spot” for reading, anyway. If it’s comfy, I sit.

Sunday:
Total number of books I’ve read: 2
Pages I’ve read today: 134
Total number of pages I’ve read: 692
Books:

• Legacy of the Clockwork Key {finished}
• According to Yes {finished}
• Nirvana {11% / on page 15}
• Gallipoli {12% / on page 118}

She did it! She met her realistic goal of two books. I guess working most of the week made my ultimate aim of three just a bit to far away to reach. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed both of the books I finished and I don’t think that’s bad going for 7 days at all. I even felt motivated to delve into a couple of other awaiting books!

There’s no challenge for today so don’t be too sad – I will be posting my wrap up for the read-a-thon very soon so be sure to check my rambling for that HERE (when it goes live). Adieu, mon amis, adieu!

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Tuesday’s Challenge: Would You Rather . . .

Would you rather:
Lend books to someone who dog-ears pages or to someone who reads with cheesy Cheetos fingers?
DOG-EARS. Look, I can deal with bent pages, I can *deep breathing*, but irremovable orange smudges? *violently shaking head* That’s a big no, no.

Would you rather:
Be able to meet one character of your choice or meet one author of your choice?
Pfft, easy. I’d meet the character. Anyone who passes up the chance to meet Celaena Sardothien or Hermione Granger is silly.

Would you rather:
Never be allowed in a book store again or never be allowed in a library again?
*shrivels back in chair*. Let’s go with the library option, I mean sure the books are free there but book stores are where it’s at, right? And if we’re talking electronically here then I think the Book Depository would go bankrupt without me, so.

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?
OH GOD WHY. I want to pick the latter but my favourite couple is totally who Ash ends up with in Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey series (sorry I won’t say to avoid spoilers – but YOU know what I mean). Ash is life. Um, um, um. Death is so . . . definite. Nope. I’m going to have to go with the break up, at least they’ll still be alive that way.

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?
I shall try to not be offended by the tone of this question – TWILIGHT! I’ve never read the Scarlet Letter so meh, but I don’t have any issues with Twilight. DON’T DENY IT – you sat there reading it obsessively all those years ago with everyone else. It’s the movies’ fault! If this question was watch Twilight then I’d be like THROW ALL THE SCARLET LETTERS AT ME. I actually just bought the 10th anniversary edition of Twilight, *happy dance*.

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 Wednesday’s Challenge: The Rainbow Challenge

According to my sister my green needed to be more green because Fire looks black, my blue more blue and my purple brighter. Sheesh, talk about fussy. Did I fix it? Pffft, no. That would’ve required extra effort, bleh. Besides, I think it looks pretty fabulous.

R: Rowling, J. K.
O: Oliver, Lauren
Y: Yanagihara, Hanya
G: Gleitzman, Morris
B: Bardugo, Leigh
I: Iggulden, Conn
V: Vaughan, Elizabeth

I learnt two things in the challenge: 1) I can’t remember the rainbow without singing the rhyme, and 2) I have no idea what colour ‘indigo’ is actually meant to be.

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Thursday’s Challenge: Villain Mashup

For my epic Villain Mashup I am choosing:

Voldemort from the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

and

The White Witch from the Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

Call me a little unoriginal here but I really think this would be a seriously fearsome battle to behold. I mean, Voldemort is just badass/10 and the White Witch is so angry all the time that she could probably thwart him just by throwing Turkish Delight in his face – who needs magic? Bah. For these two it would definitely have to be a dramatic physical fight with intermittent “come to the darkside”s because both of these characters are wonderful manipulators and wouldn’t go down without some flouncy soliloquy. But seriously, what would even happen if Voldemort cast a spell and she tries to freeze it with her wand? Would it work? WOULD IT?! GUYS. I think I’m on to something here.

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 Friday’s Challenge: The Scavenger Hunt

Hooray! A scavenger hunt! Here’s what we had to find:

Book Scavenger Hunt:

1. Book Shelves

This is a reasonably up to date snap of my bookshelf. It’s in an incredibly awkward place to photograph and I was just too lazy to attempt to get a better photo. So let’s all just go, wooow, and move on. However, I do quite like this little almost-shelfie that I took for an unboxing post:

Aww, isn’t that nice?

2. A book you’re planning to read/currently reading for Bout of Books

Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin is the next book that I will be reading!

3. A Book and a Beverage

Okay, so this isn’t even remotely artistic, but this is a snap I took whilst reading A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, why? Because that, my friends, was called unicorn blood tea. That’s right. Also take care to note the Jaffa Cake lazing on the side of my tea cup, one should never drink from fancy cups and not eat Jaffa Cakes.

4. Blue Books

Now, don’t be too impressed. I actually went to the effort to take a photo of a portion of my blue books (isn’t blue such a nice colour?). They’re so blue it makes my eyes sing with joy – and I couldn’t not put a TARDIS in there. I mean really, blue themed photos are incomplete without it.

5. Cozy Reading Spot

Unfortunately, I can’t claim this as my own little window seat. This is just a picture from Pinterest that I have always loved. One day I WILL have a window seat in my house and read books on it. It will happen, it will.

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And that’s all! I hope to see you joining in for a fun week of reading! My wrap up will go up on Monday 11th January.

Let me know below if you’re joining in!!

Don’t forget to check out the official website either!

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 Ci vediamo and happy reading!

~~ Kirstie ~~