2014 TBR Challenge with Roof Beam Reader

So this is a challenge that I really would like to do this year.  It is hosted by Roof Beam Reader. I need to hurry up and get myself committed to this before the deadline!!

The rules:

• 12 books that have been published from 2012 to earlier
• Tell you my progress each 15th day of the month

So I am super excited to do this challenge...but as I started looking at my books--I was like WOW I have a lot of books that I wanted to read forever! So I have tried to pick books that I really want to read--and understand that I can read more than this! So here are my books:

1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (2009)
2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (2006)
3. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (2010)
4. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (2007)
5. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (2012)
6. The Perks of Being a Wildflower by Stephen Chbosky (1999)
7. Matched by Ally Condie (2010)
8. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin (2011)
9. The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry (2007)
10. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (1817)
11. Lady Susan by Jane Austen (1791)
12. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (2004)

Wish me luck :) I hope to be super successful!

Bout of Books Wrap up

Today is the day in which I look back at my goals and start last Monday and see how far I come!!

Yesterday I finished Plague Legacy: Acquistions!! (Gain of 16%) Made it to page 194 in Allegiant (a gain of 92 pages)! Also made a gain of three pages in Book of Mormon.

So my goals and progress was:

1. Read everyday...not just listen to my audiobooks in the car or around the house...but actually read!

• I am pretty sure that I did that one....if I didn't I only missed a couple of days. I did my best to at least read a little bit. Looking back at my updates...it looks like I missed one day kind of--I only read Book of Mormon that day and probably not much because I like listening too

2. Participate in the Twitter chats for the first time

• I only was able to do Monday's chat...but that's progress!!! I slept through Saturday...and ate dinner through Wednesday's with the husband.

3. I really want to finish reading a book-which I haven't done on a Bout of Books

• I FINISHED A BOOK! You have no idea how excited I am that I finished a book :) And I read it in almost a week--I was only on 9% on Monday.

4. I will specifically focus on reading: Fablehaven 3 (audio), Allegiant (print), Plague Legacy: Acquisitions (Kindle), and Book of Mormon (audio and Kindle)

• I managed to read all of these throughout the week, and sometime all of them in one day :)

So how much did I accomplish?

Fablehaven: almost three complete discs (I was two tracks off...finished them this morning)

Allegiant: page 52-194 (Gain of 142)

Book of Mormon page 179-226 (Gain of 47)

Plague Legacy 9%-100% (Gain of 91%)

Overall a very very successful Bout of Books week!! My best EVER!

Join us next time in May!!
Go here for more info: http://boutofbooks.blogspot.com/

Day 7 Update for Bout of Books

So yesterday was a pretty productive day!!! It helped that we ended up driving to Provo and back for no real reason!! I ended up reading most of the drive...which allowed for great progress!

Book of Mormon: pages 211-223
Plague Legacy: 38% to 84%
Teachings of Joseph Fielding Smith: page 35-46

I am really joining this weekend and the ability to get some more reading done!

Bout of Books Day 6 Update

Yesterday I got some more of my reading done...but not a ton.  I'm very impressed with my progress today though and I'm feeling a lot better about my goals!

Book of Mormon--page 202-210
Fablehaven 3--Track 9 disc 3 to Track 13 disc 3
Plague Legacy-- 27% to 38%

Need to get to bed so this is just a quick post!

Bout of Books Day 5 Update

So it is Day 5..and it is finally Friday so I am hoping to get some more reading done since I don't have to go to work tomorrow :). 

Yesterday I was able to get some reading done:

Fablehaven 3--Track 4 to Track 9 on disc 3

Book of Mormon--pages 194 to 202

Allegiant--pages 70 to 102

Making some progress...but still worried about actually finishing a book in the next three days.  

Saw this challenge today from Mandi Kay who I met on Twitter briefly on Monday. The challenge was to take the last word of each line of the last page you read in a book.  I am working on The Plague Legacy right now so I went to the previous page and pulled the words.  I was really worried because I had a lot of little helping verbs...not a whole lot of nouns--and especially almost no subjects.  So I cheated slightly and gave myself one little subject and changed the tense of a word so that it could kind of become a verb...though don't ask me to define it because I think I created a new definition for braiding.

Cam had a knife, and

had cost five

answers-- to who was braid[ing]

knees against Salvation.

Depot had in [his] head and hated it.

Bout of Books Day 4

So...I wanted to do a quick update before I head back to reading and then bed.

I'm so glad it goes through the weekend :)

Yesterday I read:
Fablehaven--This one was the one I got through the most on because I drove far yesterday--finished disc 1 and all of disc 2...got to track 4 on disc 3
Book of Mormon--pgs 190-194

I was pretty proud of the Fablehaven progress :) Getting a little worried that I won't finish an actual book....but here's hoping! **crossing fingers**

There are two really fun challenges today so I thought I would hop on really quick!

The first is from Pen in Her Hand

Basically I choose words from my book to make into a poem 

Patrols farther ahead 

to keep some safe cushions 

There are rest points says I

Really random....I couldn't really make them a poem so I at least put them in a really random bizarre sentenceish thing. The book I used was Allegiant.

Then the second challenge from Writing My Own Fairy Tale so to team up two books to read together. I have been thinking how much Divergent reminds me of The Hunger Games...so those are the two that I would team up together!

Bout of Books Day 3 Update

So I wasn't able to read that much yesterday--but I feel pretty good about today--can't wait to tell you about it tomorrow.

Book of Mormon--pages 185-190 (5 pages)
Fablehaven 3--track 5 to 11 (6 tracks)
Allegiant--page 52-70 (18 pages)
Plague Legacy--22% to 27% (5%)

In other news....I had a doctor's appointment today.  For those that have been following for awhile you know that I have been in pain since April.  For those of you that haven't--bottom line no one can figure out why I suddenly have had abdominal pain with no real pattern or anything.  I decided to give up on traditional medicine and see a homeopathic guy....who is commonly called around here the "coo-coo doctor"--though he is unaware of this. In November when I saw him--we weren't sure then either, but had some theories: a parasite in my bowel and something wrong with kidneys/urinary tract. So I started taking these pills and drops and things.  They helped for a little while, but not recently.  So I went and saw him today.  Some things are better and other things are flaring up more so, which explains why I am still in pain. So I am going to keep going some of the things I have been, drop others, and then add some more. We will see how it goes!

Bout of Books Day 2

Hey--I want to get more time to read tonight--so I'm not going to make this a super long post.  Just wanted to give my update tonight--because I'm pretty proud that I've gotten as far as I have. I'm glad I actually read!

This is what I read on Day 1:
Book of Mormon read pages 179-186 total of 7 pgs.
Plague Legacy read 13-22% so total 9%
Fablehaven 3 listened to tracks 1 through 4

Bout of Books 9.0 Goals

I am so excited to be involved in the Bout of Books adventure again.  This is my third adventure--and I feel a lot more prepared for this one that I have for a long time.  I also had the great opportunity to join in with the Twitter chat today--I love how it worked out with lunch today.  I was really invigorating to feel that camaraderie through the computer screen!!

I need to make known what my goals are for this Bout of Books adventure:

1. Read everyday...not just listen to my audiobooks in the car or around the house...but actually read!

2. Participate in the Twitter chats for the first time

3. I really want to finish reading a book-which I haven't done on a Bout of Books

4. I will specifically focus on reading: Fablehaven 3 (audio), Allegiant (print), Plague Legacy: Acquisitions (Kindle), and Book of Mormon (audio and Kindle)

I will also be hopping in on the challenges each day--these are usually great fun.  And with the last read-a-thon I did with giveaway challenges I won two free books!! I felt pretty darn lucky and special :)

So the first challenge that I'm going to get to is the Mad Libs Challenge.  This was pretty fun last time. So here is the list:

character name – Tris from Divergent series by Veronica Roth
adjective1 – Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks
adjective2 – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
item – The Pelican Brief by John Grisham (wow...I haven't read this in awhile!)
occupation – The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger 
act of violence – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
adjective3 – Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (which is high up in the TBR pile)
noun1 –Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
noun2 – Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

This girl Tris ends up in the middle of a safe conspiracy. Turns out her ancestors were pirates, and she might be the key to finding the little brief. It’s a mythic artifact that disappeared centuries ago, and now a shadowy group of travelers are looking for it. No one knows what uncovering it might do, but these guys are willing to kill for it.

I won’t say anything else. But believe me, if you like thirteen stories with pride and prejudice, you have to read this one.

Ooh this didn't turn out too bad...a little funny and fitting at the same time!

The next challenge is a shopping list based on a $100 shopping spree--this is what I would buy!

This was actually kind of fun!!  Though I quickly figured out why I don't buy new books quickly :)

Thanks http://cheapthrillsbookblog.wordpress.com and http://www.bookishcomforts.com for the fun!

My First Post of 2014

So this post is probably going to end up being a rambling post...because I haven't blogged in four days.  Oh my goodness you have no idea how liberating and how difficult this has been.  On the liberating side, as my brain realizes the time and that I still haven't written a blog post it has been nice to say, "I don't have to!!!" On the difficult side, I have missed out on some things (Classics Club Read-a-thon) and I have really missed writing.  I have had a cold so it has been nice not to have to have coherent thoughts when I am too tired to really move.  The sad thing is though I have so many ideas of what I could have blogged about the last four days---I really could have kept going.  I haven't been able to get organized with my blogging yet because of the cold--and I am hoping to do that this week.

I guess I warned you this would be a rambling post....because I have had a lot of thoughts in the last couple of days.  One of the things that I really wanted to do on here was write down my resolutions for the year--but I haven't really formulated them completely yet.  I had wanted to do a kind of #365 project with my blog still this year--but not always writing...doing something with blogging everyday.  Like networking, scheduling, planning, layout messing etc.  I had even been thinking about how I want to do more of what I started this blog for: reading, knitting, and lesson sharing--so even making sure I do one of those everyday.  But I haven't really figured out how I will work that.  Though this weekend I sure did knitting and reading. Finished my first book of the year :)

Another thought I have been having is how much I love reading other people's blogs.  I have been especially touched this weekend by my awesome sister-in-law who decided that she wanted to do a #365 project like I did in 2013 in her 2014.  I wish her the best of luck!! It is quite the journey and I learned so much.  Go check out her blog, Decidedly Nikkie.

But the other reason that I really needed to blog today is that I really want to do Bout of Books 9.0.  This is the first time I actually feel like I might do well with the Bout of Books because I got in a good rhythm with my last two read-a-thons.  I am even trying to do more with the Twitter chats this time too. That's what happens I suppose when your week night responsibilities calm down...maybe one of these days I will explain that one. But anyway... I need to declare my participation and sign-up.  Tomorrow I will post my goals...and a more coherent post :)

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 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th 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 9.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team