I'm finally on holidays, and this, of course, means that I'll have a large amount of time to devote to reading. This is a very good thing, because my currently reading pile is embarrassingly large. I was looking for a read-a-thon starting now and running throughout my holidays, but I couldn't find anything that quite fit. So I'll be doing the following, tailoring each to fit my available reading schedule:
From July 29th to August 3rd, I'll be doing my own personal read-a-thon.
From August 4th to 10th, I will participate in The Book Monsters,
Monster Read-a-thon.
The Monster Read and Review-a-thons are a great
chance for us all to get together, read some fabulous reads, and get to those
reviews that we know have been sitting there waiting to be done for a little
too long. You can read as much as you want. Review till you cannot review
anymore. Whatever works best for you! In addition to the Thons, we will be
hosting some fun related challenges, great prizes, and a Twitter party
From August 11th to 17th, I'll be participating in the
second annual Beat the Heat Read-a-thon
The Beat the Heat Readathon runs from
August 11th to September 1st. What does this readathon entail, you ask? Well,
read as much or as little as you want – the main point is to READ! You set your
own goal, and for three weeks you read as many books as you can/want to reach
your goal!
There will be mini-challenges throughout
the Readathon for participants, along with a grand prize giveaway at the end!
Sign up here at Novel Heartbeat or over at Phantasmic Reads.
You may join whenever you like, but to be eligible for our grand prize
giveaway, you must sign up by August 24th.
To join, all you have to do is make a
sign-up post – even if it’s just a “Let’s do this!” thing – and add your post
URL to the linky below! You can put your goals and progress (will be required
for the final giveaway) in your sign-up post, or you can make it separate.
Totally up to you! (You are welcome to use the template we provide as well.)
In order to enter for the grand prize, you
must have a post to keep track of your progress so we can see that you
participated.
then, from August 18th to 24th, I'll participate in the
11th Bout of Book Read-a-thon.
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 18th and runs through Sunday, August 24th 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 11 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From
the Bout of Books team
Previously, I've only participated in
one read-a-thon, and that was only for 24 hours, so I am a little perplexed as to how to tackle these longer read-a-thons. I am so terrible with lists and focussing on specific books, that I don't want to go that route. Should I aim for a set number of pages? I have no idea the average number of pages I read per day/per week. Yikes! So I think I'm going to set my goal at 50 pages a day (this should be easy) and raise the count when I see how I'm progressing.
As for books, as I said, I have a disconcerting number of books to complete, as well as some new ones that I want to read. Here are some books on my list:
Currently reading:
The Guns of
August – Barbara Tuchman
War and Peace –
Leo Tolstoy
Antigone –
Sophocles
The Book of
Margery Kempe
Surprised by
Joy – C.S. Lewis
Le Morte d’Arthur
– Thomas Mallory
The Decameron –
Giovanni Boccaccio
Barchester
Towers – Anthony Trollope
The History of
the Ancient World – Susan Wise Bauer
New Books:
Russian
Thinkers – Isaiah Berlin
The Man Who
Was Thursday – G.K. Chesterton
The Screwtape
Letters – C.S. Lewis
Metamorphoses
– Ovid
The Universe
Next Door – James W. Sire
Porterhouse
Blue – Tom Sharpe
I'll update when I'm able, but the plan is to read, read, read. So, happy summer reading to everyone!
** Edited to include the Monster Read-a-thon, kindly suggested by Masanobu at All the Pretty Books **
