Bout of Books 14 report

Two weeks ago, I announced I was signing up for the Bout of Books read-a-thon. For those who have forgotten, here’s the pitch:

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 17th and runs through Sunday, August 23rd 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 14 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

This was my first Bout of Books read-a-thon, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I decided it would be my goal to read as much as possible. This meant reading instead of watching anime over my lunch break and less time wasted on the internet. It didn’t seem like a very big change, but I got through a surprising amount. My total count by the end of the challenge was six books:

Risk by Fleur Ferris.
A Case of Spirits by KJ Charles.
Getting Wilde by Jenn Stark.
Uprooted by Naomi Novik.
The Shab-al-Hiri Roach by Jason Morningstar.
Facing the Mirror by Jaye McKenna.

I was already two-thirds of the way through Risk when the challenge started and most of the other books are pretty short. Still, it has gone a long way towards getting me back on track with my reading goal for the year (I’m aiming for 80 books). Mt TBR has also grown significantly this month and so the challenge also helped mitigate the damage. It would be nice to keep this up on a permanent basis but although the changes I made to squeeze in more reading weren’t onerous, they are not sustainable. I also flagged over the weekend, hardly reading anything.

This suggests to me that Bout of Books will make a good occasional boost to my reading practice and I’m glad it is run three times a year. The next one will run 4-10 January 2016, making it a good way to kick off my reading for the new year. I will definitely be signing up.

Did you participate in Bout of Books? How did you go? If you didn’t, how do you make time for reading?

Mirrored from Earl Grey Editing.